Fungal enrichment of cassava peels proteins

About 60% of the cassava produced all over the world is used for human consumption. These peels waste were found to contain 42.6% carbohydrate, 1.6% protein, 12.1% ether extract, 5.0% total ash and 22.5% crude fibre. With the advent of biotechnology approaches, there are opportunities for economic utilization of agro industrial residues such as cassava peels waste. The Microorganisms isolated from the fermenting cassava waste were Aspergillus niger, A. flavus, and A. fumigatus. These and Trichoderma sp. from soil were studied for their ability to increase the protein content of cassava peels waste.Keywords: Cassava peels, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus fumigatu

Early treatment of acute biliary pancreatitis by endoscopic papillotomy

Background. Most patients with acute biliary pancreatitis have stones in the biliary tract or ampulla of Vater. Because these stones may be passed spontaneously soon after a patient is admitted to the hospital, the importance of early operative removal is not known. We tested the hypothesis that endoscopic papillotomy within 24 hours of admission decreased the incidence of complications in patients with acute biliary pancreatitis. Methods. We studied 195 patients with acute pancreatitis who were randomly assigned to one of two groups: 97 patients underwent within 24 hours after admission emergency endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) followed by endoscopic papillotomy for ampullary and common-bile-duct stones, and 98 patients received initial conservative treatment and selective ERCP with or without endoscopic papillotomy only if their condition deteriorated. Results. One hundred twenty-seven patients ultimately proved to have biliary stones. Emergency ERCP with or without endoscopic papillotomy resulted in a reduction in biliary sepsis as compared with conservative treatment (0 of 97 patients vs. 12 of 98 patients, P = 0.001). The decrease in biliary sepsis occurred both in patients predicted to have mild pancreatitis (0 of 56 patients in the group that received emergency ERCP vs. 4 of 58 patients in the conservative-treatment group, P = 0.14) and in patients predicted to have severe pancreatitis (0 of 41 patients vs. 8 of 40 patients, P = 0.008). In all patients who had unrelenting biliary sepsis, persistent ampullary or common-bile-duct stones were identified. There were no major differences in the incidence of local complications (10 patients in the group that received emergency ERCP vs. 12 patients in the conservative-treatment group) or systemic complications (10 patients vs. 14 patients) of acute pancreatitis between the two groups, but the hospital mortality rate was slightly lower in the group undergoing emergency ERCP with or without endoscopic papillotomy (5 patients vs. 9 patients, P = 0.4). Conclusions. Emergency ERCP with or without endoscopic papillotomy is indicated in the treatment of patients with acute pancreatitis.published_or_final_versio

Dental caries status and its associated factors among 5-year-old Hong Kong children: A cross-sectional study

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Three Courses of Tianjiu Therapy in Sanfu Days for Chronic Asthma: A Clinic Efficacy Observation Trail

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Universal antenatal human immunodeficiency virus testing in Hong Kong: consensus statement.

Following the recommendations of the Advisory Council on AIDS, Hong Kong, the Hospital Authority announced plans to introduce universal antenatal screening for human immunodeficiency virus infection and hence, a consensus conference was held to discuss strategies for implementing such screening in Hong Kong. This paper reports the discussions of the consensus conference. The consensus meeting group consisted of 15 clinicians and scientists from Hong Kong, Macau, and Thailand. Seven commonly asked questions concerning mother-to-child transmission of human immunodeficiency virus were selected for discussion by the participating panellists. Information on the laboratory diagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus infection and the efficacy of preventive measures in reducing mother-to-child transmission of human immunodeficiency virus were reviewed. Data from local studies was also presented and discussed. The timing, potential problems, and cost issues involved in testing all pregnant women in Hong Kong for human immunodeficiency virus were then considered.published_or_final_versio

Disentangling the contribution of multiple land covers to fire-mediated carbon emissions in Amazonia during the 2010 drought

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.In less than 15 years, the Amazon region experienced three major droughts. Links between droughts and fires have been demonstrated for the 1997/1998, 2005, and 2010 droughts. In 2010, emissions of 510 ± 120 Tg C were associated to fire alone in Amazonia. Existing approaches have, however, not yet disentangled the proportional contribution of multiple land cover sources to this total. We develop a novel integration of multisensor and multitemporal satellite-derived data on land cover, active fires, and burned area and an empirical model of fire-induced biomass loss to quantify the extent of burned areas and resulting biomass loss for multiple land covers in Mato Grosso (MT) state, southern Amazonia - the 2010 drought most impacted region. We show that 10.77% (96,855 km2) of MT burned. We estimated a gross carbon emission of 56.21 ± 22.5 Tg C from direct combustion of biomass, with an additional 29.4 ± 10 Tg C committed to be emitted in the following years due to dead wood decay. It is estimated that old-growth forest fires in the whole Brazilian Legal Amazon (BLA) have contributed to 14.81 Tg of C (11.75 Tg C to 17.87 Tg C) emissions to the atmosphere during the 2010 fire season, with an affected area of 27,555 km2. Total C loss from the 2010 fires in MT state and old-growth forest fires in the BLA represent, respectively, 77% (47% to 107%) and 86% (68.2% to 103%) of Brazil's National Plan on Climate Change annual target for Amazonia C emission reductions from deforestation.This work was supported by UK NERC Amazonica grant NE/F005482/1, Brazil MCTI-PCI (302541/ 2014-4), CNPq grants 458022/2013-6 and 400640/2012-0, and NASA-IDS grant NNX14AD31G

Predictors of Hospitals with Endemic Community-Associated Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

OBJECTIVE: We sought to identify hospital characteristics associated with community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) carriage among inpatients. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Orange County, California. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty hospitals in a single county. METHODS: We collected clinical MRSA isolates from inpatients in 30 of 31 hospitals in Orange County, California, from October 2008 through April 2010. We characterized isolates by spa typing to identify CA-MRSA strains. Using California’s mandatory hospitalization data set, we identified hospital-level predictors of CA-MRSA isolation. RESULTS: CA-MRSA strains represented 1,033 (46%) of 2,246 of MRSA isolates. By hospital, the median percentage of CA-MRSA isolates was 46% (range, 14%–81%). In multivariate models, CA-MRSA isolation was associated with smaller hospitals (odds ratio [OR], 0.97, or 3% decreased odds of CA-MRSA isolation per 1,000 annual admissions; P < .001), hospitals with more Medicaid-insured patients (OR, 1.2; P = .002), and hospitals with more patients with low comorbidity scores (OR, 1.3; P < .001). Results were similar when restricted to isolates from patients with hospital-onset infection. CONCLUSIONS: Among 30 hospitals, CA-MRSA comprised nearly half of MRSA isolates. There was substantial variability in CA-MRSA penetration across hospitals, with more CA-MRSA in smaller hospitals with healthier but socially disadvantaged patient populations. Additional research is needed to determine whether infection control strategies can be successful in targeting CA-MRSA influx

Dissemination of pHK01-like incompatibility group IncFII plasmids encoding CTX-M-14 in Escherichia coli from human and animal sources

Few studies have compared CTX-M encoding plasmids identified in different ecological sources. This study aimed to analyze and compare the molecular epidemiology of plasmids encoding CTX-M-14 among strains from humans and animals. The CTX-M-14 encoding plasmids in 160 Escherichia coli isolates from animal faecal (14 pigs, 16 chickens, 12 cats, 8 cattle, 5 dogs and 3 rodents), human faecal (45 adults and 20 children) and human urine (37 adults) sources in 2002-2010 were characterized by molecular methods. The replicon types of the CTX-M-14 encoding plasmids were IncFII (n=61), I1-Iγ (n=24), other F types (n=23), B/O (n=10), K (n=6), N (n=3), A/C (n=1), HI1 (n=1), HI2 (n=1) and nontypeable (n=30). The genetic environment, ISEcp1 - bla CTX-M-14 - IS903 was found in 89.7% (52/58), 87.7% (57/65) and 86.5% (32/37) of the animal faecal, human faecal and human urine isolates, respectively. Subtyping of the 61 IncFII incompatibility group plasmids by replicon sequence typing, plasmid PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism and marker genes (yac, malB, eitA/eitC and parB/A) profiles showed that 31% (18/58), 30.6% (20/65) and 37.8% (14/37) of the plasmids originating from animal faecal, human faecal and human urine isolates, respectively, were pHK01-like. These 52 pHK01-like plasmids originated from diverse human (20 faecal isolates from 2002, 2007 to 2008, 14 urinary isolates from 2004) and animal (all faecal, 1 cattle, 1 chicken, 5 pigs, 9 cats, 1 dog, 1 rodent from 2008 to 2010) sources. In conclusion, this study highlights the importance of the IncFII group, pHK01-like plasmids in the dissemination of CTX-M-14 among isolates from diverse sources. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.postprin

Human papillomavirus status in southern Chinese women

1. The overall and type-specific human papillomavirus (HPV) prevalence differed between Hong Kong and Guangzhou healthy women. The prevalence of HPV was significantly higher in Guangzhou than Hong Kong women. Younger women had significantly higher risk of HPV infection. 2. HPV16 remained the most common type detected in both regions; the frequency increased with increasing disease severity. The prevalence of HPV58 and HPV52 was relatively high in women with normal cervix and precancerous lesions.published_or_final_versio