Antibiotic susceptibility and high prevalence of extended spectrum beta-lactamase producing Escherichia coli in iranian broilers

Extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) producing Escherichia coli have rapidly spread worldwide and cause serious threats for public health. The study was conducted to determine the antibiotic resistance and characterization of ESBL producing E. coli strains isolated from broilers in Northern Iran. Antibiotic susceptibility test was done for a total of 100 isolates of E. coli, recovered from 240 broiler fecal samples at the slaughterhouse stage. ESBL production was screened using double-disc synergy test (DDST) and presence of four ESBL genes including blaPER, blaVEB, blaTEM and blaCTX-M was tested using PCR. Among 100 strains isolated from broilers, 53 were identified as ESBL-producing E. coli. All (100) ESBL positive isolates were typed according to the presence of one or two ESBL-associated genes. The most prevalent gene among ESBLs was CTX-M (60.3) and the PER gene was not present among isolates. All isolates in this study were resistant to colistin and nalidixic acid but were 100 sensitive to cefalexin and furazolidone. The results demonstrated the high prevalence of antibiotic resistant and ESBL producing E. coli among broilers which representing the risk of increasing these strains in human infections associated with food animals

Role of histaminegic and calcium channels in the inhibitory effects of hydroalcoholic extract of matricaria recutita L. on isolated rabbit jejunum

Introduction: Considering the long traditional history of anti-inflammatory and anti-spasmodic effects of Matricria spices on the gastrointestinal system, the present study aimed to investigate the role of calcium channels and Histamine receptors in the inhibitory effects of hydroalcoholic dry extract of German chamomile (Matricaria recutita L.) on the isolated rabbit jejunum. Methods: All experiments were done on the isolated jejunum of New Zealand rabbits (1.8-2.5 kg). Dry extract of aerial parts of M. recutita was obtained by the maceration technique. The study was performed on two groups (n=6 in each group). In the first group, the effects of cumulative concentrations of M. recutita (3×10-3-1×10-2 mg/ml) on normal and K+-induced contractions (50 mM) of isolated jejunum were studied. In the second group, the inhibitory role of M. recutita (3 – 13×10-3 mg/ml) was evaluated in the presence and absence of histamine and cetrizine. In the presence and absence of 10 μM certizine, a histamine H1-antagonist, a concentration-dependent inhibitory effect of M. recutita extract in the range of 3-13×10-3 mg/ml was recorded the rabbit jejunum. Results: Results showed that EC50 of M. recutita in the absence and presence of K+ was 6.3×10-3 and 6.5×10- 3mg/ml, respectively. IC50 values for two concentrations of M. recutita (8×10-3 , 1×10-2 ) to abrogated contractive phase of Histamine was 9.55 × 10-6 and 1.57 × 10-6 μM. Cetrizine (10 μM) abolished inhibitory effects of M. recutita (IC50=3.6×10-3), (p< 0.001). Conclusion: Dry extract of matricaria recutita had inhibitory effects on the contractions of isolated rabbit jejunum. Calcium channels and histamine were involved in these antispasmodic effects

The effect of zinc and iron supplementation on the status of iron and zinc in the primary schoolchildren

چکیده: زمینه و هدف: کمبود ریزمغذی ها یکی از مهمترین مشکلات بهداشتی جهان است. در بین ریزمغذی ها کمبود آهن و روی شیوع بیشتری داشته و از اهمیت زیادی برخوردار است. هدف از این مطالعه مقایسه تأثیر مکمل یاری آهن و روی به تنهایی و همراه با هم بر وضعیت آهن و روی در کودکان ابتدایی بود. روش بررسی: در این مطالعه که بصورت کار آزمایی بالینی دو سوکور انجام گرفت 81 دانش آموز پایه پنجم ابتدائی شهر خرم آباد به سه گروه تقسیم شدند. گروه اول مکمل آهن (20 میلی گرم آهن در روز)، گروه دوم مکمل روی (20 میلی گرم روی در روز) و گروه سوم مکمل آهن+ روی (20 میلی گرم آهن+20 میلی گرم روی) را به مدت 4 ماه دریافت نمودند. در آغاز و پایان مداخله شاخص های هموگلوبین با دستگاه سل کانتر، فریتین سرم با روش رادیوایمینواسی و با استفاده از دستگاه گاماکانتر و روی سرم با روش جذب اتمی اندازه گیری شد. از آزمون های ANOVA، t زوجی، کروسکال والیس و ویلکاکسون جهت تجزیه و تحلیل داده ها استفاده شد. یافته ها: نتایج بدست آمده نشان داد در گروه دریافت کننده مکمل روی به تنهایی، آهن همراه با روی و آهن به تنهایی میزان روی سرم نسبت به قبل از مداخله به ترتیب 1/2±5، 7/2±5/4 و 2/2±6/3 میکرومول در لیتر افزایش یافت (05/0

Comparison of four RNA isolating methods for identification of spring viraemia of carp virus (SVCV)

Spring viraemia of carp virus (SVCV), a negative sense single stranded RNA virus of the family Rhabdoviridae, is the causative agent of a highly contagious SVC disease that primarily affects the common carp (Cyprinus carpio), an economically important fresh water fish species with world-wide distribution.SVCV has also been reported to cause disease in other fishes such as Poeciliidae, Esocida , Centrarchidae , Siluridae and salmonidae . There are several diagnostic tests for the detection of SVC virus,however, the tests have not been validated. The reverse transcriptase – polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) techniques have been developed and validated representing a powerful tool for detection of RNA. One of the most important aspects isolating RNA is to prevent degradation of the RNA during the isolation procedure. In this study, we explored the efficiency of protocols for RNA isolation from the SVCV strain 56/70. For RNA isolation, we compared four protocols, two guanidine isotiocyanate phenol – chloroform based protocols (RNX – Plus Iran, Iq2000 kit Taiwan) and two column based protocols (Cinnapure RNA Iran, high pure viral RNA kit, Roche Germany) that were commercially available. The results showed that the column based protocols, Roche method and Cinapure performed better than other methods with the yields of 31.76 ng/µl, 16/21 ng/µl, respectively. Each protocol yielded good quality of total RNA bands (480 bp) being observed in agarose gel electrophoreses but was not observed in IQ2000 kit. Amount of total RNA isolated was lower for IQ2000 kit Protocol. Further, the RNA being extracted from SVC by column based protocol method were resulted in successful amplified using RT-PCR method

A Fast and Efficient Incremental Approach toward Dynamic Community Detection

Community detection is a discovery tool used by network scientists to analyze the structure of real-world networks. It seeks to identify natural divisions that may exist in the input networks that partition the vertices into coherent modules (or communities). While this problem space is rich with efficient algorithms and software, most of this literature caters to the static use-case where the underlying network does not change. However, many emerging real-world use-cases give rise to a need to incorporate dynamic graphs as inputs. In this paper, we present a fast and efficient incremental approach toward dynamic community detection. The key contribution is a generic technique called $\Delta-screening$, which examines the most recent batch of changes made to an input graph and selects a subset of vertices to reevaluate for potential community (re)assignment. This technique can be incorporated into any of the community detection methods that use modularity as its objective function for clustering. For demonstration purposes, we incorporated the technique into two well-known community detection tools. Our experiments demonstrate that our new incremental approach is able to generate performance speedups without compromising on the output quality (despite its heuristic nature). For instance, on a real-world network with 63M temporal edges (over 12 time steps), our approach was able to complete in 1056 seconds, yielding a 3x speedup over a baseline implementation. In addition to demonstrating the performance benefits, we also show how to use our approach to delineate appropriate intervals of temporal resolutions at which to analyze an input network

The efficacy of ethanolic extract of lemon verbena on the skin infection due to Staphylococcus aureus in an animal model

Daily increasing of Staphylococcus aureus resistance to various antibiotics in particular penicillin and Methecilin has led the scientist to look fore new medicines in this area. In an in vitro laboratory studies, it has been demonstrated that ethanolic extract of Lemon verbena can prevent the growth of Staphylococcus aureus. In this study the efficacy of ethanolic extract of Lemon verbena against Staphylococcus aureus skin infection were assessed in an in vivo, in animal model. 200λ of Staphylococcus aureus suspension, were inoculated intradermally on the shoulder of 63 laboratory 20-30 g mice. the mice were divided in to 4 groups, 2 control groups: Negative (without treatment) and positive(treated with Mupirucin) and 2 test groups that treated for 7 days by ointment prepared from ethanolic extract of Lemon verbena (group3), or injection of Lemon verbena solution (group 4). The status of wounds, the rate of recovery was studied and the presence of local pus after dissection of mice on day 8 recorded and compared with each other. The wound appearance in the second day, on the injection site of S. aureus, in Group 1, 4, 3 and 2 were 84.2, 66.7, 46.2 and 23.1%, respectively. In the final day, the lesion still was remained in 78.9, 23.1, 92.3 and 77.7% in groups 1 -4, respectively. The necrotic and wide wounds were more observed in groups 1 and 3 vs two other groups. The results from this investigation indicate that the ointment prepared from ethanolic extract of Lemon verbena is a proper medication to prevent the skin infection by Staphylococcus aureus in early phase. © 2007 Asian Network for Scientific Information

Sequence analysis of ORF94 in different white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) isolates of Iran

White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) is a pathogen that causes high mortality in shrimp culture in the whole world. Sequence analysis of WSSV has shown similarity of WSSV isolates in different countries with exception of a few variable genomic loci. This study investigated the sequence variation of some Iranian WSSV isolates and previously identified isolates. Samples were collected during target surveillance and were feed, broodstock, post-larvae, artemia, crabs, and wild and cultured shrimp of northern Persian Gulf (Boushehr and Khuzestan provinces). The open reading frame (ORF) 94 sequence of different Iranian WSSV isolates were amplified using specific primers from positive samples. The ORFs 94 sequence of positive samples were sequenced and registered in the Gene Bank and then compared to other WSSV isolates. The number of repeat units in ORF94 showed that WSSV isolates were varied in number. There are SNPs (G and T) in position 48 of RUs that varies in different Boushehr and Khuzestan isolates. Also these sequences were compared to Gene Bank WSSV isolates and showed a high similarity (>90%) to Southeast Asian countries. To our knowledge this is the first report of sequence analysis in Iranian WSSV isolates applications

Phylogenetic relationships of Iranian Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis Virus (IPNV) based on deduced amino acid sequences of genome segment A and B cDNA

Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis Virus (IPNV) is the causal agent of a highly contagious disease that affects many species of fish and shellfish. This virus causes economically important diseases of farmed rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, in Iran which is often associated with the transmission of pathogens from European resources. In this study, moribund rainbow trout fry were collected during an outbreak of IPNV in three different fish farms in one northern province (Mazandaran), and two west provinces (Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad) of Iran. We investigated full genome sequence of Iranian IPNV and compared it with previously identified IPNV sequences. The sequences of different structural and non-structural protein genes were compared with other aquatic birnaviruses sequenced to date. Our results showed that the Iranian isolate fall within genogroup 5, serotype A2 strain SP, having 99 % identity with the strain 1146 from Spain. These results suggest that the Iranian isolate may have originated from Europe

Analysis of enriched rare variants in JPH2-encoded junctophilin-2 among Greater Middle Eastern individuals reveals a novel homozygous variant associated with neonatal dilated cardiomyopathy.

Junctophilin-2 (JPH2) is a part of the junctional membrane complex that facilitates calcium-handling in the cardiomyocyte. Previously, missense variants in JPH2 have been linked to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; however, pathogenic "loss of function" (LOF) variants have not been described. Family-based genetic analysis of GME individuals with cardiomyopathic disease identified an Iranian patient with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) as a carrier of a novel, homozygous single nucleotide insertion in JPH2 resulting in a stop codon (JPH2-p.E641*). A second Iranian family with consanguineous parents hosting an identical heterozygous variant had 2 children die in childhood from cardiac failure. To characterize ethnicity-dependent genetic variability in JPH2 and to identify homozygous JPH2 variants associated with cardiac disease, we identified variants in JPH2 in a worldwide control cohort (gnomAD) and 2 similar cohorts from the Greater Middle East (GME Variome, Iranome). These were compared against ethnicity-matched clinical whole exome sequencing (WES) referral tests and a case cohort of individuals with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) based on comprehensive review of the literature. Worldwide, 1.45% of healthy individuals hosted a rare JPH2 variant with a significantly higher proportion among GME individuals (4.45%); LOF variants were rare overall (0.04%) yet were most prevalent in GME (0.21%). The increased prevalence of LOF variants in GME individuals was corroborated among region-specific, clinical WES cohorts. In conclusion, we report ethnic-specific differences in JPH2 rare variants, with GME individuals being at higher risk of hosting homozygous LOF variants. This conclusion is supported by the identification of a novel JPH2 LOF variant confirmed by segregation analysis resulting in autosomal recessive pediatric DCM due to presumptive JPH2 truncation

Temporal networks of face-to-face human interactions

The ever increasing adoption of mobile technologies and ubiquitous services allows to sense human behavior at unprecedented levels of details and scale. Wearable sensors are opening up a new window on human mobility and proximity at the finest resolution of face-to-face proximity. As a consequence, empirical data describing social and behavioral networks are acquiring a longitudinal dimension that brings forth new challenges for analysis and modeling. Here we review recent work on the representation and analysis of temporal networks of face-to-face human proximity, based on large-scale datasets collected in the context of the SocioPatterns collaboration. We show that the raw behavioral data can be studied at various levels of coarse-graining, which turn out to be complementary to one another, with each level exposing different features of the underlying system. We briefly review a generative model of temporal contact networks that reproduces some statistical observables. Then, we shift our focus from surface statistical features to dynamical processes on empirical temporal networks. We discuss how simple dynamical processes can be used as probes to expose important features of the interaction patterns, such as burstiness and causal constraints. We show that simulating dynamical processes on empirical temporal networks can unveil differences between datasets that would otherwise look statistically similar. Moreover, we argue that, due to the temporal heterogeneity of human dynamics, in order to investigate the temporal properties of spreading processes it may be necessary to abandon the notion of wall-clock time in favour of an intrinsic notion of time for each individual node, defined in terms of its activity level. We conclude highlighting several open research questions raised by the nature of the data at hand.Comment: Chapter of the book "Temporal Networks", Springer, 2013. Series: Understanding Complex Systems. Holme, Petter; Saram\"aki, Jari (Eds.