Primary drug resistance to anti-tuberculous drugs in Karachi

Objective: To assess the frequency of primary drug resistance among newly diagnosed tuberculosis cases in Karachi. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Multicentric study involving various TB clinics and treatment centres of Karachi between April to December 2005.Methodology: The frequency of drug resistance among new TB patients was evaluated using a non-probability convenient sampling methodology. Sputum sample was obtained from 140 newly diagnosed sputum smear-positive patients of pulmonary tuberculosis from various centres of Karachi. Sensitivities were performed by proportion method. Results: Fifteen (11.5%) samples in 130 eligible patients showed primary resistance to one or more drugs. Ten (7.6%) of the isolates tested were resistant to a single drug, none were resistant to 2 drugs, 4 (3.0%) to 3 drugs and 1 (0.76%) to 4 drugs while 1 (0.76%) to all 5 first line agents. Resistance to streptomycin (10 ug/ml) was seen in 8 (6.1%), isoniazid (1ug/ml) in 12 (9.2%), Rifampicin (5 ug/ml) in 4 (3.0%), ethambutol (10 ug/ml) in 1 (0.76%) and pyrazinamide in 6 (4.6%) samples. Primary Multi-Drug Resistance (PMDR) was found in 2 (1.5%) patients. (Isoniazid 1 ug/ml, rifampicin 5 ug/ml with or without other drugs). Conclusion: In the studied patients, primary drug resistance to at least one anti-tuberculosis drug was 11.5%. It requires an efficiently working anti-tuberculosis programme to prevent escalation including resistance

Prediabetes management in the Middle East, Africa and Russia: Current status and call for action:

Most data on the burden of diabetes and prediabetes are from countries where local infrastructure can support reliable estimates of the burden of non-communicable diseases. Countries in the Middle ..

Burnout among surgeons before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: an international survey

Background: SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had many significant impacts within the surgical realm, and surgeons have been obligated to reconsider almost every aspect of daily clinical practice. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study reported in compliance with the CHERRIES guidelines and conducted through an online platform from June 14th to July 15th, 2020. The primary outcome was the burden of burnout during the pandemic indicated by the validated Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure. Results: Nine hundred fifty-four surgeons completed the survey. The median length of practice was 10 years; 78.2% included were male with a median age of 37 years old, 39.5% were consultants, 68.9% were general surgeons, and 55.7% were affiliated with an academic institution. Overall, there was a significant increase in the mean burnout score during the pandemic; longer years of practice and older age were significantly associated with less burnout. There were significant reductions in the median number of outpatient visits, operated cases, on-call hours, emergency visits, and research work, so, 48.2% of respondents felt that the training resources were insufficient. The majority (81.3%) of respondents reported that their hospitals were included in the management of COVID-19, 66.5% felt their roles had been minimized; 41% were asked to assist in non-surgical medical practices, and 37.6% of respondents were included in COVID-19 management. Conclusions: There was a significant burnout among trainees. Almost all aspects of clinical and research activities were affected with a significant reduction in the volume of research, outpatient clinic visits, surgical procedures, on-call hours, and emergency cases hindering the training. Trial registration: The study was registered on clicaltrials.gov "NCT04433286" on 16/06/2020

Transcriptional and metabolic analysis of flavour development during brewing fermentation

Esters and higher alcohols (fusel alcohols) are important group of metabolites that make a substantial contribution to the development of the flavour profile of the final product. The aim of this research was to develop tools that would permit analysis of flavour volatiles formed during fermentation and use them to determine the impact of initial dissolved oxygen (DO) levels on key fermentation performance indicators. Analysis of solvent extracts and headspace of fermented samples by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC MS) was optimised to permit the quantification of higher alcohols and esters and compared to the data generated by a novel direct mass spectroscopy technique known as atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation-mass spectrometry (APCI-MS). Using these analytical techniques the impact of key process conditions, particularly the effect of initial dissolved oxygen, on fermentation performance and formation of flavour compounds were investigated. It was observed that reductions in the initial DO, increases cell growth rates and utilisation of wort metabolites during the first few hours fermentation. However, as the fermentation continued the final yeast biomass yield was adversely affected. The flavour metabolite concentrations during fermentation were not found to be significantly affected, except in a limited number of scenarios where the changes observed would be unlikely to be perceived as they were well below the sensory threshold. Although reducing initial DO yielded lower peak values of VDK, this apparent benefit was mitigated by the observation that diacetyl uptake was slower in fermentation, where reduced oxygen had been made available to the yeast. The net impact of reducing initial DO was therefore limited in the scenarios examined, however it is anticipated that some negative impacts may be observed if cropped yeast from reduced DO fermentations were repeatedly recycled. Thus future work would involve a serial re-pitching experiment, preferably in a pilot scale, to ascertain the impact of reduced DO using serially re-pitched yeast cells. 2EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

PTC&B Construction of Genetic Map of Jute (Corchorus olitorius L.) Based on RAPD Markers

The first and preliminary genetic linkage map of the jute genome was constructed with RAPD markers using two parents (Variety O-9897 and Accession No. 1805) and their F2 populations. Linkage analysis at a LOD (Log of odds base 10) score of 3.0 and a maximum distance 50 cM revealed 18 linkage groups. Among the 18 linkage groups, 15 contained single locus and the remaining three groups 16, 17 and 18 contained 2, 11 and 12 loci, respectively. The three multi locus linkage groups varying in length from 15.9- 241.7 cM, snapped a total length of 463.7 cM with an average marker density of 19.6 cM between adjacent markers. The basic chromosome number of Corchorus spp. is seven (2n = 14), so in saturated map, seven linkage groups should have been obtained to represent the genome. But for linkage group analysis, the effort was very limited and the total number of loci (40) was also low