Review - Understanding β-lactamase Producing Klebsiella pneumoniae

Klebsiella pneumoniae is a nosocomial pathogen commonly implicated in hospital outbreaks with a propensity for antimicrobial resistance towards mainstay β-lactam antibiotics and multiple other antibiotic classes. The successful proliferation, transmission and infection of the Gram-negative bacterium can be attributed to a myriad of factors including host factors, environmental factors, virulence factors and a large repertoire of antibiotic resistance mechanisms. The poor treatment outcomes and limited treatment options are consequences of the successful pathogenesis and spread of antibiotic resistance in the increasingly common β-lactamase producing K. pneumoniae bacterium. The review briefly explores the biology, successful pathogenesis and antibiotic resistance of K. pneumoniae as well as the detection and characterisation techniques of important strains

In vitro comparison of the anti-proliferative effects of galenia africana on human skin cell lines

Malignant melanoma is the major cause of skin cancer-related deaths. Surgery in combina-tion with radiotherapy, immunotherapy or chemotherapy is used to eradicate cancer cells, however, this treatment option is limited by the tolerance of the surrounding healthy tissue. The extracts from Galenia africana have been shown to possess anti-cancer flavonoid compounds and can be a safer and cost-effective alternative treatment. The study aimed to compare the anti-proliferative effects of G. africana on human skin cells (HaCaT) and human malignant melanoma cells (A375). The cells were exposed to various concentrations of the G. africana extract at different times. In vitro assays were employed to determine cell viability and cytotoxicity. Hoechst 33342 staining was performed to observe the nuclear changes, including apoptosis. G. africana significantly reduced the cell viability of the A375 cells in a dose and time-dependent manner, while having no effect on the HaCaT cells. The A375 cells displayed nuclear condensation, brightly stained nuclei and nuclear fragmentation indicative of apoptosis

The impact of neuron morphology on cortical network architecture

The neurons in the cerebral cortex are not randomly interconnected. This specificity in wiring can result from synapse formation mechanisms that connect neurons, depending on their electrical activity and genetically defined identity. Here, we report that the morphological properties of the neurons provide an additional prominent source by which wiring specificity emerges in cortical networks. This morphologically determined wiring specificity reflects similarities between the neurons’ axo-dendritic projections patterns, the packing density, and the cellular diversity of the neuropil. The higher these three factors are, the more recurrent is the topology of the network. Conversely, the lower these factors are, the more feedforward is the network’s topology. These principles predict the empirically observed occurrences of clusters of synapses, cell type-specific connectivity patterns, and nonrandom network motifs. Thus, we demonstrate that wiring specificity emerges in the cerebral cortex at subcellular, cellular, and network scales from the specific morphological properties of its neuronal constituents

former title: A theory for the emergence of neocortical network architecture

Developmental programs that guide neurons and their neurites into specific subvolumes of the mammalian neocortex give rise to lifelong constraints for the formation of synaptic connections. To what degree do these constraints affect cortical wiring diagrams? Here we introduce an inverse modeling approach to show how cortical networks would appear if they were solely due to the spatial distributions of neurons and neurites. We find that neurite packing density and morphological diversity will inevitably translate into non-random pairwise and higher-order connectivity statistics. More importantly, we show that these non-random wiring properties are not arbitrary, but instead reflect the specific structural organization of the underlying neuropil. Our predictions are consistent with the empirically observed wiring specificity from subcellular to network scales. Thus, independent from learning and genetically encoded wiring rules, many of the properties that define the neocortex’ characteristic network architecture may emerge as a result of neuron and neurite development

Will the COVID-19 crisis trigger a One Health coming-of-age?

International audienc

Applied Engineering and Environmental Geology

Exam paper for second semeste

Ideal versus corrected body weight for dosage of sugammadex in morbidly obese patients

Summary To date, the dosing of sugammadex is based on real body weight without taking fat content into account. We compared the reversal of profound rocuronium-induced neuromuscular blockade in morbidly obese patients using doses of sugammadex based on four different weight corrections. One hundred morbidly obese patients, scheduled for laparoscopic bariatric surgery under propofolsufentanil anaesthesia, were randomly assigned four groups: ideal body weight; ideal body weight + 20%; ideal body weight + 40%; and real body weight. Patients received sugammadex 2 mg.k

Nuclear medium modifications of the NN interaction via quasielastic (p⃗,p⃗′\vec p,\vec p ') and (p⃗,n⃗\vec{p},\vec{n}) scattering

Within the relativistic PWIA, spin observables have been recalculated for quasielastic ($\vec p,\vec p '$) and ($\vec p,\vec n$) reactions on a $^{40}$Ca target. The incident proton energy ranges from 135 to 300 MeV while the transferred momentum is kept fixed at 1.97 fm^{-1}. In the present calculations, new Horowitz-Love--Franey relativistic NN amplitudes have been generated in order to yield improved and more quantitative spin observable values than before. The sensitivities of the various spin observables to the NN interaction parameters, such as (1) the presence of the surrounding nuclear medium, (2) a pseudoscalar versus a pseudovector interaction term, and (3) exchange effects, point to spin observables which should preferably be measured at certain laboratory proton energies, in order to test current nuclear models. This study also shows that nuclear medium effects become more important at lower proton energies ($\leq$ 200 MeV). A comparison to the limited available data indicates that the relativistic parametrization of the NN scattering amplitudes in terms of only the five Fermi invariants (the SVPAT form) is questionable.Comment: 10 pages, 6 Postscript figures, uses psfig.sty and article.sty, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Patient-Reported Outcome Measures may optimize shared decision-making for cancer risk management in BRCA mutation carriers

Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare patient-reported outcomes (PROs) of BRCA1/2 mutation carriers, either after bilateral prophylactic mastectomy (BPM) or during breast surveillance, to improve shared decision-making in their cancer risk management. Methods: Unaffected BRCA1/2 mutation carriers at least one year after BPM followed by immediate breast reconstruction (BPM-IBR) or one year under surveillance were eligible. After informed consent, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and BREAST-Q were administered and compared between the different strategies. PROs were also compared to available normative data. Results: Ninety-six participants were analyzed in this study and showed significant differences between strategies in age, age at genetic testing, and time since BPM or starting breast surveillance. All HADS scores were below 8 suggesting no signs of anxiety or depression in both groups. Higher mean ‘Q-physical well-being’ scores were reported by the surveillance group (81.78 [CI 76.99–86.57]) than the BPM group (76.96 [CI 73.16 – 80.75]; p = 0.011). Overall, for both questionnaires better scores were seen when compared to age-matched normative data. Conclusions: No signs of anxiety or depression were seen in the surveillance or BPM-IBR group. Slightly better mean BREAST-Q scores were seen for the surveillance group in comparison to BPM-IBR, except for ‘Q-psychological well-being’. The difference in ‘Q-physical well-being’ was significantly worse for BPM-IBR. Approaches to obtain longitudinal PROs and reference values should be explored in the future, which could add value to shared decision-making in regards to breast cancer risk management in this specific patient population