Digital Image Analysis of Actinomycetes Colonies as a Potential Aid for Rapid Taxonomic Identification

High frequency isolation of actinomycetes poses a challenge for the taxonomists hence simple and rapid identification methods are required. Our work to catalogue biodiversity of actinomycetes of Goa yielded several distinct morphotypes. After their tentative identification, the feasibility to distinguish these using digital image analyses (DIA) was explored. Digital images of wild colony morphotypes were processed using public domain SCION image analysis software. DIA revealed some intricate digital characters. A combination of these with standard morphological and microscopic characters could be potentially useful for preparing a digital identification key of the actinomycetes strains with potential application in rapid taxonomic identification

Exploring hidden dimensions of soil fungal biodiversity: A simple technique to detect soil fungi resistant to antifungal compounds

Soils are known to be ultimate and complex reservoirs of microbial diversity. The complex dimensions of bacterial and fungal diversity in tropical soils and microbial community dynamics are underexplored. Isolation techniques aimed at Actinomycetes generally employ highly selective media, powerful antibiotics and antifungal compounds to suppress undesirable bacteria and fungi. However some soil fungi may show their resistance towards these antifungal compounds. During our work to explore soil actinomycetes diversity, slides coated with Arginine Vitamin agar (AVA) incorporating a cocktail of antibiotics and antifungal compounds such as Nystatin, Cycloheximide, Terbinafin, Griseofulvin, and Fluconazole were exposed to soil environment and were retrieved at intervals of 4, 7, 15 and 28 days for detail microscopic studies of surface colonies. Along with actinomycetes the presence of unidentified aseptate and septate fungi was revealed indicating their resistance to combination and concentration of antifungals. Heat treatment of the soil was found to cause considerable decrease in fungal contamination probably due to elimination of heat labile fungi. Our results have led us to develop a simple procedure to sample the interesting and industrially useful strains of soil fungi resistant to common antifungal compounds. Some fungal strains are reported resistant to certain antifungals with resulting therapeutic failures as use of these antifungals inevitably selects resistant fungi, thereby pressing the urge for continuing and cyclical need of new antifungals (Augustin et al., 2004). This technique could prove useful to detect novel antifungal resistant strains with potential to emerge as novel human pathogens. It has not escaped our notice that the probability of such finding could also help to verify whether these fungi could utilize such antifungal compounds through use of hitherto undiscovered metabolic pathways and novel enzymes leading to identification of genes responsible for antifungal resistance

Dual two-state mean-field games

In this paper, we consider two-state mean-field games and its dual formulation. We then discuss numerical methods for these problems. Finally, we present various numerical experiments, exhibiting different behaviours, including shock formation, lack of invertibility, and monotonicity loss

Dermatology inpatient consultation in a Portuguese university hospital

BACKGROUND: Cutaneous findings are frequent in hospitalized patients. There are few reports regarding this subject. OBJECTIVES: To identify the frequency and the impact on clinical courses of dermatologic conditions in patients in the inpatient setting and compare the data with other similar studies. METHODS: Retrospective review of 274 hospitalized patients in non-dermatology inpatient departments who were observed by a dermatology consultant in a Portuguese central university hospital during a year. RESULTS: A total of 282 consultations were performed. The services requesting consultation most frequently were internal medicine (33.7%), surgery (10.3%), and pediatrics (8.9%). Skin infections (33.2%), eczemas (9.5%), and drug eruptions (7.3%) were the most common diagnoses. Admission diagnosis was modified in 9 cases (3.3%) by the dermatology consultant. CONCLUSION: Dermatoses are frequently misdiagnosed by non-dermatologists. Common skin diseases were responsible for most of dermatology inpatient consultations. However, in some cases the dermatology consultation changed the primary main diagnosis and had an important impact on the clinical course

Rituximab in the treatment of refractory pemphigus vulgaris

O pênfigo vulgar é uma doença bolhosa auto-imune rara, que atinge a pele e as mucosas. Geralmente tem um curso clínico severo, sendo necessário o recurso a terapêutica prolongada com corticóides sistémicos e outros fármacos imunossupressores, que podem conduzir a efeitos adversos graves. O rituximab é um anticorpo monoclo- nal quimérico dirigido ao antigénio CD20, expresso pelos linfócitos B. Recentemente, têm surgido alguns estudos que documentam o seu sucesso terapêutico no tratamento de pênfigo refractário. Os autores descrevem dois casos clínicos de pênfigo vulgar refractários às terapêuticas convencionais, que foram tratados com rituximab, tendo atin- gido a remissão completa da doença. A experiência bem sucedida em relação a estes dois casos clínicos reforça que o rituximab constitui uma opção valiosa e segura na abordagem terapêutica do pênfigo vulgar severo e refractário

A perspective of the Portuguese consumer awareness, beliefs and preferences towards piglet castration methods and its implications on the meat quality

Received: January 31st, 2021 ; Accepted: May 8th, 2021 ; Published: May 13th, 2021 ; Correspondence: [email protected] male piglets by surgical procedures without anaesthesia, with analgesia and/or anaesthesia and, recently, immunological-chemical castration are practices to avoid unwanted or aggressive sexual behaviour, and to prevent the development of meat boar taint. This exploratory study aims to investigate Portuguese consumer’s awareness, beliefs and attitudes in issues like boar taint, piglet’s castration and pork meat quality, observing possible demographic trends. It is also intended to identify clusters of consumers with similar attitudes, crossing them with demographic data to verify the existence of patterns in Portugal related to these issues. To attain this objective, a consumer’s survey was performed through an online questionnaire open for 30 days. A total of 158 respondents completed the survey. Almost a half (46%) of respondents stated their unknowledge about boar taint. Surgical castration and its effects are topics with which older consumers with a rural background are more familiar with, while immunological-chemical castration is still unknown to most consumers: 65% of consumers said they were not aware of this method, and 75% did not know whether it is an effective method for eliminating boar taint. Hierarchical clustering followed by K-means analysis segmented consumers into three clusters characterized according to their opinions, mainly divided by ethical and chemical-free orientations and by a more conservative meat quality and flavour-oriented attitudes, generally independent of prevailing demographics. In general, there were no defined opinions about the subjects under study, due mainly to the lack of information or knowledge. Nevertheless, cluster classification revealed differences in consumer’s opinions, especially regarding the reasons for castration and the pain inflicted, about meat quality and the willingness to buy pork from entire males or to pay more for this type of product

Erupção a fármaco com eosinofilia e sintomas sistémicos (síndrome dress)

Adverse cutaneous reactions to drugs are frequent, affecting from 2% to 3% of all hospitalized patients. But only about 2% of these cutaneous reactions are severe and seldom are fatal. The term drug hypersensitivity syndrome refers to a specific severe drug reaction, including skin rash, fever, lymph node enlargement, and single or multiple organ involvement. The cutaneous rash is usually morbilliform. The drugs associated with the syndrome are: anticonvulsants, ACE inhibitors, Beta-blockers, allopurinol and sulphonamides. The differencial diagnosis includes maculopapular rash, exfoliative dermatitis, acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis and Sézary syndrome. The interval between the starting of drug therapy and the onset of cutaneous reactions may be at least one month, and therefore the implication of the drug in the aetiology may be subdiagnosed. As reacções cutâneas a fármacos são frequentes, afectando 2 a 3% dos pacientes hospitalizados, mas só aproximadamente 2% destas são severas. O termo síndrome de hipersensibilidade a fármacos refere-se a uma reacção a fármacos caracterizada por erupção cutânea, febre, linfadenopatia e envolvimento de um ou mais órgãos sistémicos. As lesões cutâneas são normalmente morbiliformes. Os fármacos mais implicados neste tipo de reacções são os anticonvulsivantes, -bloqueadores, inibidores da enzima de conversão da angiotensina, alopurinol e as sulfamidas. O diagnóstico diferencial deverá ser feito com o exantema maculopapular, dermatite esfoliativa, pustulose exantemática aguda generalizada e com a síndrome de Sézary. As manifestações clínicas podem surgir até pelo menos um mês depois do início do fármaco, o que faz com que a implicação etiológica do mesmo possa ser subestimada. A morbilidade é alta e a mortalidade pode atingir os 10%, tornando importante o conhecimento desta patologia