Innovation brick cutting machine 創新切磚機械

...The ‘innovative brick cutting machine’ operates automatically, provides bricks that are accurately cut to specified sizes, and gives with additional protection for machine operators. The machine reduces the manual labour involved and yields a more accurate product in terms of brick size. 「創新切磚機械」屬全自動運作，能把磚塊準確切割成指定大小，並為操作人員提供額外保護。這部機械能夠減少作業所需人力，並製成大小規格更統一、更準確的磚塊。 Award: Silver奬項: 銀

Complete Sequencing of pNDM-HK Encoding NDM-1 Carbapenemase from a Multidrug-Resistant Escherichia coli Strain Isolated in Hong Kong

BACKGROUND: The emergence of plasmid-mediated carbapenemases, such as NDM-1 in Enterobacteriaceae is a major public health issue. Since they mediate resistance to virtually all β-lactam antibiotics and there is often co-resistance to other antibiotic classes, the therapeutic options for infections caused by these organisms are very limited. METHODOLOGY: We characterized the first NDM-1 producing E. coli isolate recovered in Hong Kong. The plasmid encoding the metallo-β-lactamase gene was sequenced. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The plasmid, pNDM-HK readily transferred to E. coli J53 at high frequencies. It belongs to the broad host range IncL/M incompatibility group and is 88803 bp in size. Sequence alignment showed that pNDM-HK has a 55 kb backbone which shared 97% homology with pEL60 originating from the plant pathogen, Erwina amylovora in Lebanon and a 28.9 kb variable region. The plasmid backbone includes the mucAB genes mediating ultraviolet light resistance. The 28.9 kb region has a composite transposon-like structure which includes intact or truncated genes associated with resistance to β-lactams (bla(TEM-1), bla(NDM-1), Δbla(DHA-1)), aminoglycosides (aacC2, armA), sulphonamides (sul1) and macrolides (mel, mph2). It also harbors the following mobile elements: IS26, ISCR1, tnpU, tnpAcp2, tnpD, ΔtnpATn1 and insL. Certain blocks within the 28.9 kb variable region had homology with the corresponding sequences in the widely disseminated plasmids, pCTX-M3, pMUR050 and pKP048 originating from bacteria in Poland in 1996, in Spain in 2002 and in China in 2006, respectively. SIGNIFICANCE: The genetic support of NDM-1 gene suggests that it has evolved through complex pathways. The association with broad host range plasmid and multiple mobile genetic elements explain its observed horizontal mobility in multiple bacterial taxa

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Epidemiology of CTX-M type extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing escherichia coli among blood culture isolates in Hong Kong

Dissemination of CTX-M type extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a serious health issue in Hong Kong. However, research knowledge concerning its dissemination mechanism and plasmid characteristics over time in health care setting is still limited. This study was conducted to characterize ESBL-producing E. coli from blood culture isolates and the epidemiology of the plasmids harboring CTX-M-14 collected from a healthcare region in Hong Kong from two periods of time. A total of 167 ESBL-producing E. coli in blood culture specimens were retrieved from period 1 (1996 - 1999, n = 50) and period 2 (2007 - 2008, n = 117). Antimicrobial susceptibilities were defined by disk diffusion method according to CLSI. Phylogenetic groups and CTX-M enzymes were detected among all the ESBL-producers. Clonal relatedness of the hosts was analyzed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and multi-locus sequence typing. A subset of 65 CTX-M-14-producing isolates was undergone for further plasmid characterization. Conjugation, PCR-based replicon typing, S1-PFGE, southern-blot hybridization, and genetic environment PCRs were performed. Plasmid PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (pRFLP), F-allele replicon sequence typing and variable region PCRs were studied in 54 F-plasmids obtained. Results showed that over half of the ESBL-positive isolates were non-susceptible to ciprofloxacin, cotrimoxazole and gentamicin. A surprisingly high number of CTX-M-type ESBL was carried by 98.2% (164/167) of the isolates. CTX-M-9 group (89.8%, 150/167) and CTX-M-14 (103/109) were predominantly found among both periods. Overall, nearly half (41.3%, 69/167) of the isolates belonged to 5 major clones. Clonal types undetermined-ST68 (n = 18) and O102-ST405 (n = 15) were dominant in period 1 while clonal types O25b-ST131 (n = 30), O15-ST69 (n = 5) and O12-ST12 (n = 3) emerged in period 2. Among a subset of 65 CTX-M-14 plasmids, most of them were transferable (84.6%, 55/65) with high frequency, similar plasmid sizes and genetic environment ISEcp1-blaCTX-M-14-IS903 (90.8%, 59/65). Replicon types of the CTX-M-14 encoding plasmids were FII (n = 48) or FII ± FIA/FIB types (n = 6), I1-I (n = 3), B/O (n = 2), K (n = 1) and undetermined (n = 4). Subtyping of 54 IncF plasmids by replicon sequence typing, pRFLP and PCR for marker genes (yac, malB, eitA, eitC and parAB) showed that 79.6% (43/54) of the plasmid subset exhibited identical or highly similar results with the completely sequenced plasmid, pHK01 (E. coli isolated from urine sample of a patient in Hong Kong, 2004). These 43 plasmids were originated from both period 1 (n = 11) and period 2 (n = 32). These pHK01-like plasmids were found to have spread to the major clones (ST68, ST405 and ST131) and multiple singleton isolates of all four phylogenetic groups. In conclusion, this study demonstrated the widespread dissemination of pHK01-like CTX-M-14 encoding plasmids among isolates of diverse genetic lineages over a decade. The dissemination was probably due to both clonal expansion and horizontal gene transfer of pHK01-like IncF plasmid.published_or_final_versionMicrobiologyMasterMaster of Philosoph

女鞋 = The right shoes

‘The Right Shoes’ is a story about a girl and her red high heels. One day, Abbie has a crush on a boy at school. When she was ready to talk to him, a disappointed scene made her to give up. Then, her friend helped her to dress up. And Abbie finally bought a pair of red high heels. When Abbie put the shoes on, she found it so attractive. However, since she had never worn high heels, she felt very uncomfortable and painful and considered to throw it away. Will she wear the red high heels and pursue what she desired? And will she finally achieve her ultimate goal? 《女鞋》講述一個女孩與紅色高跟鞋的故事。某天，女主角Abbie在學校裡遇到其心儀的男生，正當她打算鼓起勇氣跟他說話的時候，卻看到了一幕令她洩氣的畫面。她的好朋友阿悅見狀，便帶她買了一雙紅色高跟鞋，教她裝扮自己。她穿上後發現這雙鞋眞的很漂亮，但對於從不穿高跟鞋的她，同時感到很不舒服、很痛。這令她一度想要把這雙鞋丟掉。究竟她會不會穿起這雙紅色高跟鞋去追求她所想得到的？而最終又會否得償所願呢？https://commons.ln.edu.hk/vis3298_201819/1000/thumbnail.jp