3 research outputs found
Evaluation of the Potency of Commercial and Locally Prepared Antibiotic Discs on Clinical Bacterial Isolates in Calabar, Nigeria
Antibiotic susceptibility discs are used for vitro susceptibility testing of antimicrobial agents to fast growing bacteria and fastidious species by agar diffusion method. It is a semi quantitative method. This study was designed to assess the efficacy of commercial antibiotic discs over in-house prepared discs. Identified clinical isolates were obtained in house in the Department of Medical Microbiology/Parasitology, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Nigeria. Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 7553) and Escherichia Coli (ATCC 25922) were obtained and used as controls. The antibiotics tested includes; Ciprofloxacin, Erythromycin, Amoxicillin, Gentamicin, Zinacef. These were obtained commercially from Pharmacy shops. The local antibiotic dics were prepared with Whatman filter paper number 3. The antibiotic susceptibility testing was done using Kirby-Bauer method. Out of the 40 clinical isolates tested, 15(37.5%) were Staphylococcus aureus while 10(12.5%) each were Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa respectively. Only 5 isolates of Proteus vulgaris were used. The susceptibility profile of isolates to the commonly used local antibiotic discs ranged between 66.7% to 100%, while the range for commercial discs was 53.3% to 86.7%. Locally prepared discs were found to be more effective than commercial discs. The high resistance rates (0.0% to 33.3%) of clinical isolates to the commercial discs may be attributed to prolong exposure to environmental factors such as heat, moisture, sunlight as well as humidity when transported to retailers and the final users. There is need for constant monitoring and quality controls of susceptibility testing in our laboratories for the production of quality results and efficient patient care. Antibiotic susceptibility discs can be prepared locally for routine laboratory use; this may indirectly reduce importation of commercial discs and the burden on foreign exchange
Anti-inflammatory and Antipyretic Activities of Panicum Maximum
Anti-inflammatory and antipyretic activities of leaf extract of Panicum
maximum were evaluated to ascertain the folkloric claim of its use in
fevers and inflammatory conditions. The crude leaf extract (48 –
144 mg/kg) of Panicum maximum was investigated for anti-inflammatory
and antipyretic activities using various experimental models. The
extract caused a significant (p<0.05 – 0.001) dose-dependent
reduction in inflammation and fever induced by different agents used.
The anti-inflammatory and antipyretic effects of this plant may in part
be mediated through the secondary metabolites present in the plant
Impact of Weather Information Latency on General Aviation Pilot Situation Awareness
A critical element of situation awareness and sensemaking support for humans in complex environments is the ability to access, detect, and integrate environmental elements to recognize and project the state of the world. Some past research has suggested that new weather technology capabilities in general aviation (GA) flight settings could help improve pilot decision making and reduce accidents such as unintentional transitions from visual flight rules (VFR) to marginal VFR or even instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). This paper addresses an ongoing Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) funded research project investigating the effect of transmission delays and update latencies in presentations of weather information to pilots in the GA environment. Across a range of fixed-install, portable, and handheld (i.e. tablet, smartphone) weather information technologies, latencies of up to 15-20 minutes can be identified. These latencies may affect the use of information regarding dangerous weather conditions and timelines of pilot planning activities during VFR-to-IMC transitions