Study of vancomycin susceptibility pattern among Staphylococcus aureus isolated from superficial incisional surgical site infections

Background: Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), a well-known superbug, is the leading cause of surgical site infections (SSIs). High proportions of methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) increased the use of vancomycin and this led to emergence of strains with reduced susceptibility to vancomycin. The present study aimed to study the pattern of vancomycin susceptibility among S. aureus isolates from cases of superficial incisional SSIs. Methods: Wound swabs, from 205 patients with superficial SSIs, were collected. S. aureus isolates were identified to the species level using conventional microbiological methods. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed using modified Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion technique. Staphylococcus aureus susceptibility to vancomycin was assessed using E-test. Results: Out of 205 SSI cases, 73 (35.6%) were found to be caused by S. aureus representing the major causative organism followed by Klebsiella (23.9%), and E. coli (14.6%). Antimicrobial profile of S. aureus isolates revealed maximum sensitivity to tigecycline and linezolid.  Methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) represented 68.5% of isolates. E-test showed that all S. aureus isolates were sensitive to vancomycin. Conclusions:  Staphylococcus aureus was the most common cause of SSIs and vancomycin still an effective treatment for MRSA. However, a higher degree of resistance to the commonly used antibiotics was observed, amplifying the need of strict adherence to rational antibiotic policy

ROLE OF FDCs AND FDC ACTIVATION IN PROMOTING HUMORAL IMMUNITY INCLUDING RESPONSES TO T-DEPENDENT ANTIGENS IN THE ABSENCE OF T CELLS

Follicular dendritic cells (FDCs) reside in primary B-cell follicles and in the light zones of germinal centers (GCs) in secondary follicles, where their dendrites interdigitate forming extensive networks intimately interacting with B-cells. In GCs, FDCs can be found at the edges attached to the supporting reticular fibers. They trap and arrange immune complexes (ICs) in vivo and in vitro in a periodic manner with 200–500Å spacing and provide both antigen-specific and non-specific accessory signals to B-cells. FDCs exist in resting and activated states, with two characteristically different phenotypes. In their activated state, FDCs upregulate the expression of accessory molecules and cytokines important in the FDC-B cell interaction in GCs. We sought to determine the mechanisms influencing the transition of FDCs from a resting to an activated state in GCs and their impact on T-cell dependent (TD) and independent (TI)-GC reactions (GCRs). We found that IC-FDC interactions via FDC-FcgammaRIIB induce the upregulation of FDC-FcgammaRIIB, -ICAM-1, and -VCAM-1, at both the protein and mRNA levels. We also reported for the first time the expression of TLR-4 on FDCs. Moreover, engagement of FDC-TLR4 with LPS activated NF-kappaB, up-regulated expression of important FDC-accessory molecules, including FcgammaRIIB, ICAM-1, and VCAM-1, and enhanced FDC accessory activity in promoting recall IgG responses. Moreover, IC-activated FDCs produced IL-6 and FDC-IL-6 promoted GCRs, somatic hypermutation (SHM) and IgG production. Further, we reported that binding of FDCs to collagen coated surfaces induced restoration of their dendritic processes and networks in vitro. In addition, we designed an FDC-supported in vitro model capable of induction and assessment of primary human antibody responses to protein antigens characterized by class-switching and affinity maturation. Uniquely, we generated TI immune responses to TD protein Ags in the complete absence of T cell help in vivo and in vitro. In the presence of FDC-associated second signals such as BAFF and C4BP, FDC- FcgammaRIIB-periodically trapped-ICs induced the production of Ag-specific IgM, GC-development and plasmablast-differentiation in anti-Thy-1-pretreated nude mice. Purified murine and human B cells cultured in vitro with IC-bearing FDCs also showed the production of antigen–specific IgM within just 48 h

Development of Simple Green Spectrophotometric and Conductometric Methods for Determination of Cephalosporins in Pure, Pharmaceutical Dosage forms and Human Urine

Five Simple, accurate and rapid spectrophotometric and conductometric methods were developed for the determination of four third generation cephalosporins, namely, cefotaxime sodium (I) , cefoperazone sodium (II), ceftazidime pentahydrate (III) and cefdinir (IV) in pure active ingredient, pharmaceutical dosage forms and human urine. Method A: is based on the reaction of the sulphide ions produced from the alkaline hydrolysis of the cited four drugs with P- aminophenol (PAP). This reaction results in a thionine dye (phenothiazine derivative) formation which exhibits maximum absorbance at 545 nm. Method B: is based on oxidation of drug (I and III) with a known excess of n-bromosuccinimide (NBS) in acidic medium followed by the determination of unreacted amount of n-bromosuccinimide  with metol and sulphanilic acid. The purple-red reaction product exhibits maximum absorbance at 520 nm. Method C: is based on the formation of yellow chelate between drug (IV) and palladium (II) chloride in buffered medium (pH  3.5) with an absorption maximum at 314 nm.  Method D: is based on the reaction of drug (IV) with aqueous ninhydrin to give yellow colored product in the presence of bicarbonate with an absorption maximum at 433 nm . Method E: A conductometric method is based on the reaction of the four cited drugs with phosphotungstic acid (PTA) forming an ion associate in aqueous medium. Validation of the proposed methods was carried out. All proposed methods were successfully applied for the commercial dosage forms of the cited drugs. Method C was successfully applied for the determination of cefdinir in human urine

Local Entropy and Standard Deviation for Facial Expressions Recognition in Thermal Imaging

Emotional reactions are the best way to express human attitude and thermal imaging mainly used to utilize detection of temperature variations as in detecting spatial and temporal variation in the water status of grapevine. By merging the two facts this paper presents the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) with Local Entropy (LE) and Local Standard Deviation (LSD) features as an efficient filters for investigating human emotional state in thermal images. Two well known classifiers, K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) were combined with the earlier features and applied over a database with variant illumination, as well as occlusion by glasses and poses to generate a recognition model of facial expressions in thermal images. KNN based on DCT and LE gives the best accuracy compared with other classifier and features results

Value of serum tenascin-C in patients with acute myocardial infarction

Background: Myocardial infarction (MI) is defined as myocardial cell necrosis due to significant and sustained ischemia. TN-C is an extracellular matrix glycoprotein  that is expressed in several important steps during the very early stage of cardiogenesis. TN-C is not normally expressed in the adult heart, but transiently appears during pathological conditions and plays important roles in tissue remodeling.Aim: To study the role of TN-C in myocardial infarction patients and to evaluate its role as a predictor of HF in these patients.Methods: This study was conducted on 45 cases uniformly divided into 3 closely  matched (in age and sex) groups as follows: Group (I) includes 15 patients who were suffering from AMI; Group (II) includes 15 patients who were suffering from HF on top of MI; and Group (III) includes 15 healthy volunteers coming for regular annual checkup. 3–6 ml venous blood was collected on the day of admission under complete aseptic conditions and stored at 70 C until assayed by ELISA.Results: TN-C levels in the sera of patients with AMI Group (I) were significantly higher than those of healthy volunteers. Moreover, in Group I ofAMI, a positive  correlation between TN-C level on one side and CK, CK-MB and troponin T level on the other side was found. TN-C levels in the sera of patients with congestive heart failure on top of acute MI Group (II) were significantly higher than those of healthy volunteers. Pro-BNP levels in patients with heart failure Group (II) were significantlyhigher than those with AMI not complicated with heart failure Group (I). Levels of pro-BNP were also positively correlated with those of TN-C in patients with heart failure on top of AMI Group (II).Conclusions: Serum TN-C might be a novel marker reflecting active structural  remodeling in the myocardium following infarction, with high TN-C levels at acute stages possibly predicting progression of LV remodeling. Also, the incorporation of a combination of serum TN-C and plasma BNP levels may improve risk stratification for congestive heart failure after AMI. Further studies on large scale are needed for more evaluation of TN-C role in HF

Building RDF Content for Data-to-Text Generation

International audienceIn Natural Language Generation (NLG), one important limitation is the lack of common benchmarks on which to train, evaluate and compare data-to-text generators. In this paper, we make one step in that direction and introduce a method for automatically creating an arbitrary large repertoire of data units that could serve as input for generation. Using both automated metrics and a human evaluation, we show that the data units produced by our method are both diverse and coherent

The effect of Bombyx mori larvae extract in reducing the toxicity of methotrexate in pregnant female albino rats

Methotrexate (MTX) is an anticancer agent which is used alone or in combination with other anticancer agents in the treatment of breast cancer, epidermoid cancers of the head and neck, cutaneous T cell lymphoma, and lung cancer. Bombyx mori larvae have a huge value as health food especially for cardiac and diabetic patients, bronchial asthma, primary trigeminal neuralgia, vocal nodules and polyps and in the treatment of facial palsy and pain. In the present study meeting occurred under the normal conditions and about 40 pregnant female rats were used. Herein the pregnant females will be divided into five groups;  group 1 will be used as negative control received distilled water, group 2 will used as positive control and recived buffer of Bombyx mori larvae extract,  group 3 was treated with MTX at the 12th day of gestation (at organogenesis phase), group 4 was treated with Bombyx mori larvae  extract at 7th , 9th , 11th ,13th  and 15th days of gestation (during the oraganogensis  period), & group 5 was injected by MTX the 12th day of  gestation as well as bombyx mori larvae extract at 7th ,9th ,11th ,13th  &15th days of gestation. Animals of all groups will be sacrificed at 20th day, the end of gestation periods. Then livers of all pregnant rats were removed for examination. The obtained results showed decrease in maternal body weight gain plus increase in the abortion rate and uterine weight in the MTX-treated group. In addition, MTX induced an elevation in the examined liver oxidative stress biomarkers plus myeloperoxidase activity and decrease in reduced glutathione content and catalase activity; in mothers. Histopathological studies of liver tissues showed congestion of central vein of mothers in MTX group showing ballooning degeneration of hepatocytes, perivascular inflammatory cells infiltration and strong deposition of collagen fibers. Noteworthy, Bombyx mori larvae induced marked improvement in injuries associated with MTX administration. Keywords: Methotrexate, Bombyx mori larvae, Pregnant female rats, Hepatotoxicity

Intravenous versus perineural dexamethasone in interscalene nerve block with levobupivacaine for shoulder and upper arm surgeries

Background: Interscalene brachial plexus block (IBPB) has gained importance for surgical purposes and pain management. It provides effective postoperative pain relief essential for patient comfort and early ambulation.Objective: To evaluate the effect of dexamethasone as adjuvant to levobupivacaine in ultrasound-guided IBPB in shoulder and upper arm surgeries, and which route, the perineural or the intravenous was more effective.Patients and methods: Ninety patients randomly allocated into 3 equal groups: Group L: received IBPB with 20 ml of 0.5% levobupivacaine plus 2 ml normal saline (NS) with intravenous (iv) 10 ml NS. Group LDP: received IBPB with 20 ml of 0.5% levobupivacaine plus dexamethasone 4 mg diluted in 2 ml NS with iv 10 ml NS. Group LDIV: received IBPB with 20 ml of 0.5% levobupivacaine plus 2 ml NS with iv dexamethasone 4 mg diluted in 10 ml NS.Results: Patients in group LDP took prolonged time to ask for the first request for analgesia compared with patients in group L and group LDIV (15.57±3.89 vs 13.23±2.65 and 13.57±3.22, respectively) (p=0.007 and p=0.02, respectively), but no significant difference between group L and group LDIV (p=0.696). Pethidine consumption was significantly increased in patients of group L compared with patients in group LDP and group LDIV (p<0.001 and p<0.001, respectively), but no significant difference in pethidine dose between group LDP and group LDIV (p=0.283).Conclusion: This study concluded that the addition of dexamethasone as an adjuvant to perineural levobupivacaine for IBPB prolonged the duration of analgesia, decreased the postoperative pain score, decreased pethidine consumption and improved patient satisfaction

Comparing the efficacy of mesotherapy to topical minoxidil in the treatment of female pattern hair loss using ultrasound biomicroscopy: A randomized controlled trial

The efficacy of mesotherapy in the treatment of female pattern hair loss (FPHL) has not yet been evaluated. Aim of the study was to compare the initial efficacy and safety of mesotherapy containing nutritional supplements to topical minoxidil 5% solution in FPHL. 30 patients with FPHL were randomly classified into two equal groups: Group A applied minoxidil 5% lotion twice daily; Group B was injected with mesotherapy once weekly. For both groups ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) was performed before and at the end of the 12th week of treatment. After treatment, no significant difference was found between both groups with regard to either improvement of hair density and hair loss (P=0.27 and 0.056, respectively), nor the degree of improvement of Ludwig’s classification as assessed by the investigator (P=0.210). A significant difference was observed between both groups (P=0.001) with the highest degree of satisfaction in the mesotherapy group. In group A, no significant difference was found in the number of hair follicles or the diameter of the largest hair follicle (P=0.244 and 0.925, respectively). In group B, a significant difference was found in the number of hair follicles (P=0.001), with no significant difference in the diameter of the largest hair follicle (P=0.105). The mesotherapy group showed more improvement with regard to the increase in the number of the hair follicles after treatment (P=0.007). Limitation of the study is small sample size, and relatively short duration of treatment. Mesotherapy, containing nutritional supplements only, is an effective, more acceptable to patients, and more tolerable modality compared with topical minoxidil in the treatment of FPHL. </p

Perceived and real barriers to workplace empowerment among women at Saudi universities: A cross-sectional study

Academic women in the Arab world, especially Saudi women, have numerous barriers inhibiting their leadership power at the workplace. The current study explores the perceived and real barriers to workplace empowerment among women at Saudi universities. A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out at 15 Saudi governmental universities. A multistage cluster sampling technique was followed to select (5587 participants) The data collection started from the beginning of April to the beginning of September 2020. SPSS 23.0 was used to analyze data using descriptive statistics. Multiple linear regression was used to identify the real barriers to women empowerment at the workplace. The study showed that 52.1% of the study participants had moderate workplace empowerment, and only 10.2% have a low level. Regarding perceived barriers to workplace empowerment, 42.6% of the participants agree that male dominance was a barrier. Moreover, 36.2% of the participants agreed and strongly agree that the customs and traditions are a barrier to women empowerment at the workplace. Multiple linear regression showed that age, followed by years of experience (p&lt;0.000), were the most significant demographic predictors of women empowerment at the workplace. Moreover, positive attitude, high self-esteem, and good knowledge (p&lt;0.000) were considered other variables that positively predict women's empowerment at the workplace. The experience of gender-based violence (p&lt;0.000) was a negative predictor of women empowerment at the workplace. The study&nbsp; concluded that around 62.3% of Saudi female academics and administrative staff have moderate or low workplace empowerment at Saudi Universities. Male dominance is perceived as the highest barrier. Keywords: Barriers, workplace empowerment, Saudi wome