Monitoring and bioremediation of organochlorine pesticides in surface water with Enterobacter asburiae

Aim of study: One of the safest techniques regarding the remediation of contaminated water is biological remediation. This study aimed to: (i) monitoring of a collection of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in three agricultural drainages (Nashart, no. 9, and El-shoka), located in Kafr El-Sheikh governorate, Egypt; and ii) investigate the biodegradation potential of different bacterial isolates regarding organochlorine pesticides.Material and methods: Analysis of OCPs was carried out by gas chromatography, Enrichment cultures were used for isolation of the bacterial strains capable of OCPs biodegradation and the most efficient isolate was identified based on morphological, biochemical ad molecular characteristics.Main results: The determination of OCPs in water samples by gas chromatography showed varying values of OCPs ranging from 0.0 mg/L (below detection limit) to 0.0385 mg/L. A total of four morphologically different bacterial isolates were obtained, which showed a remarkable capability of OCPs biodegradation detected in mineral salt medium containing 17 OCPs active ingredients by two approaches including the analysis of the OCP residues at the end of the incubation period and measuring the bacterial growth in terms of total viable count and optical density. The bacterial isolate N2 showed the highest degradation capability when the screening process was carried out to select the most efficient isolates, which was identified according to the morphological, biochemical and molecular characterization as Enterobacter asburiae.Research highlights: The biodegradation of OCPs using E. asburiae was proved to be a promising approach for the detoxification and removal of OCPs residues in aqueous systems

The use of single dose of oral misoprostol (600µg) at home in management of first trimester miscarriages in El-Mukala, Yemen

Background: In the management of first trimester miscarriage, the use of oral misoprostol is beneficial for patients as it offers a more discrete and less invasive route for those women who find vaginal administration unacceptable. In spite of high incidence of side-effects from use of oral misoprostol women still found oral route satisfactory.Methods: This study was a prospective cohort study done at El-Mukala maternal and child hospital and Hadhramout maternal and child university hospital in the period between 1st October 2014 and 30th September 2015. All pregnant women (less than 14 weeks) who were diagnosed as an embryonic pregnancy or missed miscarriage were included in the study. Every patient received single dose of oral misoprostol 600 µg in half full stomach at home. The primary outcome measure was complete miscarriage rate.Results: One-hundred women were included in the study. The mean age of study participants was 26.25±4.08 years, the mean BMI was 27.35±3.6 while the mean parity was 2.6±1.5.Ten cases needed emergency surgical evacuation within the period of first 48 hours. Complete miscarriage had occurred in 75 cases, 65 of them in the first 48 hours. Fifteen cases presented by incomplete miscarriage after waiting for one week. They needed surgical evacuation at the end of 7 days due to still considerable intrauterine contents.Conclusions: In our closed community in El-Mukala, Yemen, the use of oral misoprostol in single dose of 600 µg at home as a method for termination of first-trimester miscarriage was effective (75%, success rate), tolerable regarding side effects, has the advantage of high confidentiality and privacy resulting in good satisfaction

Assessment of Soil Fertility Status under Soil Degradation Rate Using Geomatics in West Nile Delta

The presence of a noticeable rate of degradation in the land of the Nile Delta reduces the efficiency of crop production and hinders supply of the increasing demand of its growing population. For this purpose, knowledge of soil resources and their agricultural potential is important for determining their proper use and appropriate management. Thus, we investigated the state of soil fertility by understanding the effect of the physical and chemical properties of the soil and their impact on the state of land degradation for the years 1985, 2002 (ancillary data), and 2021 (our investigation). The study showed that there are clear changes in the degree of soil salinity as a result of agricultural management, water conditions, and climatic changes. The soil fertility is obtained in four classes: Class one (I) represents soils of a good fertility level with an area of about 39%. Class two (II) includes soils of an average fertility level, on an area of about 7%. Class three (III) includes soils with a poor level of fertility, with an area of about 17%. Class four (IV) includes soils of a very poor level of fertility with an area of about 37% of the total area. Principal component analysis (PCA) has revealed that the parameters that control fertility in the studied soils are: C/N, pH, Ca, CEC, OM, P, and Mg. Agro-pedo-ecological units are important units for making appropriate agricultural decisions in the long term, which contribute to improving soil quality and thus increasing the efficiency of soil fertility processes

Using negative velocity feedback controller to reduce the vibration of a suspended cable

The system of suspended cable with mixed excitation forces is controlled in this paper by using negative linear velocity feedback controller. The equations of motion of this system contain quadratic and cubic nonlinearities. The multiple scale perturbation technique is applied to determine the response of the nonlinear system near the simultaneous sub-harmonic and combined resonance case of this system. The stability of the obtained numerical solution is investigated using frequency response equations. The effect of different parameters on the vibrating system are investigated and reported

Effects of two plant oil-based products on the mortality of red palm weevil and morpho-physiological characteristics of palm

The red palm weevil (RPW), Rhynchophorous ferrugineus Oliver (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), is an economically important, tissue-boring pest of date palm in many parts of the world. The aim of the work was to investigate the effects of two plant oil-based products (BRK6 and BRK9) on the mortality of RPW (Exp. 1) and morpho-physiological characteristics of palm (Exp. 2). Laboratory experiments showed that the two mixture of oils BRK6 and BRK9 showed larvicide and adulticide properties. These properties were more pronounced on BRK9 than BRK6. The lethal concentration for 50% of individuals (LC50) calculated by probit, of BRK6 was 0.22% (for the 90% of individuals LC90 = 0.34) while for BRK9 the calculated LC50 was 0.10% (LC90 = 0.66). These data show that a smaller amount of BRK9 oil was required to induce the 50% of mortality of RPW larvae. As regards to the adults, BRK9 and BRK6 were effective only at the highest concentration (2 and 5%, respectively). Finally, injection of BRK9 into the palm trunk showed to promote chlorophyll content and photosynthesis of leaves thanks to a good translocation of zinc

Relationship Between the Bee Venom Therapy and Tumor Necrosis Factor-308 Variation in the Management of Rheumatoid Arthritis, a Prospective Study

Bee venom (BV) was traditionally used to treat various inflammatory disorders including rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The current study aims to assess the anti-arthritic effect of BV and the relation between tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-308 polymorphism and BV treatment response in RA. Methods: 50 RA patients received BV injection for 6 months, with an evaluation of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), visual analog scale (VAS), disease activity score (DAS28-ESR), TNF-α, at baseline and after 6ms. Genotyping assay for TNF-α G308A rs1800629 gene polymorphism. Results: The mean age was 36.0 (29.0 -40.0) years; 90% were females and 10% were males with a mean disease duration 8 (5-10 years). Most of the studied patients (64%) had high disease activity and 37% had moderate disease activity with a mean 5.5 (4.7 -6.8) at baseline. Treatment with BV was associated with a significant improvement in ESR, CRP, VAS, and significant decline in the DAS28-ESR score with p-value \u3c0.005. Most of cases achieved moderate and good EULAR response and a significant reduction of (TNFα) Level. TNF-α-308 genetic variant showed that the GG genotype (32 patients, 64 %) was more prevalent followed by AA genotypes (14 patients, 28 %). There was no difference between TNF-α G308 genotypes regarding the post-treatment response. Conclusion: Treatment with Bee venom can improve joint pain, disease activity, reduce ESR, CRP, and TNFα levels in RA patients. No difference between TNF-α G308 genotypes regarding treatment response

Relevance of Serum Levels of Interleukin-6 and Syndecan-1 in Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Syndecan-1 is a trans-membrane heparan sulfate proteoglycan that localizes in epithelial cells and has been shown to be present in normal hepatocytes. It is thought to be involved in processes such as cell growth, differentiation and adhesion. However, the clinical data regarding syndecan-1 in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are scarce and controversial. Therefore, we need to evaluate the effects of HCC on the serum levels of syndecan-1. Thus, 40 patients with HCC and 31 patients with liver cirrhosis were physically examined. Blood samples were taken for measurements of routine markers (sGPT, sGOT, bilirubin, albumin, and α-fetoprotein), as well as serum levels of interleukin (IL)-6 and syndecan-1. Patients with liver cirrhosis showed significant increase in serum IL-6 as compared with HCC patients and the control subjects. Serum level of syndecan-1 was significantly increased in HCC patients as compared with the cirrhotic and control groups. In addition, significant positive correlations between syndecan-1 and serum levels of ALT, AST in HCC patients were found. Moreover, syndecan-1 increased significantly with increasing stage of Barcelona-Clinic Liver Cancer Group diagnostic and treatment strategy. In conclusion, the development of HCC is accompanied by a significant elevation in serum syndecan-1 levels. The increase in serum syndecan-1 may be linked with progression of HCC

Antibodies to Mutated Citrullinated Vimentin in Rheumatoid Arthritis: Diagnostic Value, Association with Radiological Damage and Axial Skeleton Affection

Abstract Background: Early definitive diagnosis and effective treatment are mandatory in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) as it can halt the disease progression and subsequent joints destruction. Objective: To investigate the diagnostic and prognostic value of anti-mutated citrullinated vimentin (anti-MCV) and its correlation with disease activity, peripheral and axial skeleton affection in RA patients. Patients and methods: A total of 123 patients with different rheumatic diseases were enrolled in a prospective-two year study at Ain Shams University hospital: 64 patients with RA and 59 patients with other rheumatic diseases as controls. RA patients were fulfilling the traditional and the new ACR/EULAR diagnostic criteria for RA. They have been followed up for two years. At baseline, all RA patients were subjected to: Clinical assessment of disease activity by taking full histories, general and local examination, measurement of 28 joint count of tender and swollen joints with calculation of disease activity score (DAS-28) for each patient. Complete blood count, erythrocytes sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein and rheumatoid factor titers were performed. Anti-MCV IgG immunoglobulins’ assay was performed at the study endpoint by ELISA. RA patients were then classified into; anti-MCV positive and anti-MCV negative groups for statistical comparison. Plain X-ray was performed on the peripheral joints and scored by the Simple Erosion Narrowing score (SEN-score). Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans were carried out to 22 RA patients on cervical and lumbosacral regions. Results: Anti-MCV antibodies were found to be of high sensitivity (79.6%) and specificity (96.6%) in diagnosing RA. The area under the curve was 0.893 at 95% confidence interval (CI), confers an odds ratio of 23.5. Anti-MCV positive RA patients had significantly higher DAS-28 and SEN-scores than anti-MCV negative patients; who were found to have more benign disease with lower incidence of erosions (P , 0.05). MRI scans revealed that; 17/22 (77%) had cervical joints involvement while, 8 (36%) had lumbo-sacral joint lesions (P , 0.05), both were correlated significantly with aggressive peripheral joint disease. Conclusion: Anti-MCV antibodies are promising diagnostic and prognostic marker in RA, with high sensitivity and specificity. They may identify a subset of RA patients with aggressive early erosive disease. The axial skeleton—especially the cervical spine—could be affected in RA and this was correlated with aggressive peripheral joints’ disease. MRI scanning is a sensitive method for detecting axial skeleton involvement in RA, in attempt for better disease control and outcomes

Low platelet to lymphocyte ratio and high platelet distribution width have an inferior outcome in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia patients

Introduction.  Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) is an incurable disease of the elderly, characterised by gradual accu­mulation of small mature B lymphocytes which escape apoptosis through inflammatory signals from the microenviron­ment. Elevated inflammatory markers are associated with very poor prognosis in different types of cancer. Therefore, we examined retrospectively the impact of platelet lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and platelet distribution width (PDW) on 180 CLL patients’ outcome. Materials and methods.  This retrospective study included 180 patients with CLL who were diagnosed and selected among cases referred to the Oncology Center Mansoura University between January 1st, 2008 and June 30th, 2016. All the relevant information was collected from the electronic medical records of the selected patients. Results.  Our results revealed that low PLR (<2.5) was more frequently observed in patients with stage C (p < 0.001), with 17p deletion (p = 0.017), and CD38 expression (p = 0.08), but not with seropositive HCV patients (p = 0.2). High PDW (≥18.5 fl) was more frequently associated with intention to treat population (p = 0.038), and CD38 expression (p = 0.068), but not with 17p deletion (p = 0.25) and seropositive HCV patients (p = 0.4). Multivariate analysis for overall survival showed that stage A and low PDW were independent factors for overall survival (p = 0.014 and 0.04 respectively), while high PLR (p = 0.05), and seronegative HCV patients (p = 0.1) lost their significance. Conclusion.  Our data showed that low PLR and high PDW were associated with poor prognostic markers. Stage C-CLL and high PDW were independent predictors of survival