Antimicrobial resistance and Neisseria gonorrhoeae multiantigen sequence typing (NG-MAST) genotypes in N. gonorrhoeae during 2012-2014 in Karachi, Pakistan

Background: Globally, increasing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Neisseria gonorrhoea has led to decreased treatment options for gonorrhoea. Continuous monitoring of resistance is crucial to determine evolving resistance trends in Neisseria gonorrhoea and to suggest treatment recommendations. Quality assured gonococcal AMR data from Pakistan are mainly lacking. This study was performed to determine prevalence and trends of gonococcal AMR and molecular epidemiology of local strains during 2012-2014 in Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: Gonococcal isolates (n = 100) were obtained from urogenital specimens submitted to the Aga Khan University Laboratory, Karachi, Pakistan. Antimicrobial susceptibility was determined using Etest and molecular epidemiology was assessed by N. gonorrhoeae multiantigen sequence typing (NG-MAST). Quality control was performed using N. gonorrhoeae WHO reference strains C, F, G, K, L, M, N, O, and P, and ATCC 49226. Results: Susceptibility to spectinomycin, ceftriaxone and cefixime was 100 % and to azithromycin was 99 %. All isolates had low ceftriaxone MICs, i.e., ≤0.032 mg/L. Resistance to ciprofloxacin, tetracycline and penicillin G were 86 %, 51 % and 43 %, respectively. NG-MAST analysis identified 74 different sequence types (STs). Conclusions: A highly diversified gonococcal population, 74 NG-MAST STs (62 novel STs) with an increased resistance to penicillin G, ciprofloxacin and tetracycline circulated in Karachi, Pakistan. Fortunately, no resistance to ceftriaxone was detected. Accordingly, ceftriaxone can continuously be recommended as the treatment of choice. However it is recommended to increase the dose of ceftriaxone from 125 mg intramuscularly to 250 mg intramuscularly due to ceftriaxone MIC creep and emerging resistance reported in the region. Furthermore, due to the high level of resistance to ciprofloxacin (86 %) it is essential to exclude ciprofloxacin from the recommended first-line therapy. It is imperative to significantly broaden the gonococcal AMR monitoring with participation from other laboratories and cities in Pakistan

The future of data privacy and security concerns in Internet of things

A global, immersive, invisible, ambient network computing environment built through the continued proliferation of smart sensors, cameras, software, databases,and massive data centers in a world-spanning information fabric known as the Internet of Things. The idea is to live in connected world. Altogether varieties of connected objects from smart home appliances like televisions, laundry machines,thermostats, refrigerators to Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) are going to conserve the potential of IoT connectivity in all paces of future smart world. However, it has high importance to preserve adherence of enormous benefits of IoT connectivity, which might lead to unseen security and privacy issues and vulnerabilities that will cause various malicious attacks including waterhole, ransomware, eavesdropping, and others to exploit the potential of smart objects. This paper will present and forecast advanced concepts for end-to end security and privacy issues in a highly distributed, heterogeneous and dynamic network of IoT devices, which may reveal a holistic approach of device identification, authentication, and management, security, and privacy concerns

Influence of Austenite Phase Transformation on Existing Microstructure of Low C-Mn Steel

Cold heading quality CHQ steel is widely used for making small components due to its excellent cold heading response. Austenite nucleation and growth morphology of a commercial CHQ steel has been studied by continuous heating experiments using lead-bath up-quenching at different heating temperatures. Modern optical microscope Olympus GX51, scanning electron microscopy techniques have been deployed to reveal and interpret the microstructure. It was found that at 740°C the microstructure shows lack of homogeneity, hence the cold-head-ability of CHQ steel is anisotropic. At high temperatures, in austenite domain, at 60sec, the resultant austenite is highly homogenous. Then the cold-head-ability properties of CHQ steel turned to be isotropic

Stability Analysis of Boundary Layer Flow and Heat Transfer of Fe2O3 and Fe-Water Base Nanofluid οver a Stretching/Shrinking Sheet with Radiation Effect

In this paper, the radiation and slip effects are investigated on the boundary layer flow and heat transfer of Fe2O3 and Fe-water base nanofluids over a porous stretching/shrinking sheet. A similarity transformation is used to convert the system of governing partial differential equations into ordinary differential equations, which are then numerically solved in Maple software with the help of the shooting technique. At different ranges of the applied parameters, dual solutions are found. The effects of the different physical factors such as radiation, nanoparticle volumetric fractions, suction, and slip parameters are determined and discussed. The skin-friction coefficient and local Nusselt number are influenced significantly by the applied parameters. In the boundary layer regime, the increase in nanoparticle volume fractions and radiation parameters enhance the temperature and boundary-layer thicknesses, while increasing Prandtl number, suction, and thermal slip parameters decrease the temperature and reduce thermal boundary-layer thicknesses. The suspension of iron nanoparticles shows more enhancement in skin friction and Nusselt number than the iron oxide nanoparticles in base fluid water

Wide dynamic range tranimpedance amplifier using peaking capacitance technique for high speed optical wireless communication system

In the high speed optical communication, the requirement of designing the new optical transceivers is quite challenging due to the bandwidth, noise and environmental conditions for designing the optical transceivers. The optical transceivers design is also challenging because of weak optical signal at the frond-end amplifier. In this paper, the optical transceivers via an optical preamplifier for optical wireless communication is designed. The designed system offers the improved performance in terms of bandwidth and gain compared to existing optical transceivers. It is defined that using the designed system, a high bandwidth of 2.114GHz at 29.72dB gain is achieved. The designed optical transceiver provides the bandwidth enhancement utilizing the peaking inductor and capacitor

Synthesis, Characterization, and Biological Properties of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Synthesized from Apis mellifera Honey

Green approaches for nanoparticle synthesis have emerged as biocompatible, economical, and environment-friendly alternatives to counteract the menace of microbial drug resistance. Recently, the utilization of honey as a green source to synthesize Fe2O3-NPs has been introduced, but its antibacterial activity against one of the opportunistic MDR pathogens, Klebsiella pneumoniae, has not been explored. Therefore, this study employed Apis mellifera honey as a reducing and capping agent for the synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles (Fe2O3-NPs). Subsequent to the characterization of nanoparticles, their antibacterial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties were appraised. In UV-Vis spectroscopic analysis, the absorption band ascribed to the SPR peak was observed at 350 nm. XRD analysis confirmed the crystalline nature of Fe2O3-NPs, and the crystal size was deduced to be 36.2 nm. Elemental analysis by EDX validated the presence of iron coupled with oxygen in the nanoparticle composition. In ICP-MS, the highest concentration was of iron (87.15 ppm), followed by sodium (1.49 ppm) and other trace elements (<1 ppm). VSM analysis revealed weak magnetic properties of Fe2O3-NPs. Morphological properties of Fe2O3-NPs revealed by SEM demonstrated that their average size range was 100–150 nm with a non-uniform spherical shape. The antibacterial activity of Fe2O3-NPs was ascertained against 30 clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae, with the largest inhibition zone recorded being 10 mm. The MIC value for Fe2O3-NPs was 30 µg/mL. However, when mingled with three selected antibiotics, Fe2O3-NPs did not affect any antibacterial activity. Momentous antioxidant (IC50 = 22 µg/mL) and anti-inflammatory (IC50 = 70 µg/mL) activities of Fe2O3-NPs were discerned in comparison with the standard at various concentrations. Consequently, honey-mediated Fe2O3-NP synthesis may serve as a substitute for orthodox antimicrobial drugs and may be explored for prospective biomedical applications. © 2023 by the authors.Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, PNU: PNURSP2023R108This research project was supported by the Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Researchers Supporting Project number (PNURSP2023R108), Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia