Congenital pneumonia

Congenital pneumonia is one of the common causes of respiratory distress at birth, with significant morbidity and mortality in neonates, especially among preterm infants, and particularly in developing countries. The etiological agents are many and vary between the developed and underdeveloped parts of the world. Group B streptococci have been attributed as the most common organisms causing severe pneumonia, particularly in developed countries. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is now an increasing risk in underdeveloped countries such as Zimbabwe. Ureaplasma spp. have been highlighted as an important cause of congenital pneumonia in recent years. Clinical manifestations are often nonspecified, and majority of infections appear within the first 48 hours of life. Establishing the microbial diagnosis of congenital pneumonia is challenging. Molecular diagnosis using polymerase chain reaction has an extremely improved diagnostic yield as compared with other conventional detection methods. However, it is often associated with a high level of contamination and may not be available in most hospitals. Management of congenital pneumonia is multifaceted and the most vital is towards eliminating the possible incriminating agent. This review updates the current knowledge on congenital pneumonia and discusses its etiology, diagnosis, preventive strategies, and management

Ultrasound renal stone diagnosis based on convolutional neural network and VGG16 features

This paper deals with the classification of the kidneys for renal stones on ultrasound images. Convolutional neural network (CNN) and pre-trained CNN (VGG16) models are used to extract features from ultrasound images. Extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) classifiers and random forests are used for classification. The features extracted from CNN and VGG16 are used to compare the performance of XGBoost and random forest. An image with normal and renal stones was classified. This work uses 630 real ultrasound images from Al-Diwaniyah General Teaching Hospital (a lithotripsy center) in Iraq. Classifier performance is evaluated using its accuracy, recall, and F1 score. With an accuracy of 99.47%, CNN-XGBoost is the most accurate model

Dimensions of knowledge management maturity: top management support and leadership, people, and information technology / Noreen Natasha Azmee, Norliya Ahmad Kassim and Che Zainab Haji Abdullah.

Knowledge management (KM) has been applied in many organizations such as government agencies, construction companies, universities and libraries. Assessing the KM maturity in organization is important to identify the current status of KM and areas of KM could be improved. Very little evidence exists regarding KM maturity specifically in academic libraries. In view of this gap, the main purpose of this paper is to explore the dimensions of KM maturity in academic libraries namely top management support and leadership, people and information technology. Further research is required to establish the relationship between KM maturity and organizational performance in academic libraries

Characterization of Rheocast Al-Mg Alloy

The present work encompasses the development of a new method of cooling plate casting process by changing the inlet and outlet of water flow which is different from the conventional cooling plate casting process.This process consists in pouring the molten metal at temperature close to the liquid line in an inclined cooling plate. Pouring temperature and inclination angles have effect on microstructure.The following variables have been used in this work: pouring temperatures of(750,800. and 850ᵒC), tilt angles of (30ᵒ, 40ᵒ, 50ᵒ, and 60ᵒ), and Mg additive of(1%, 5%) with constant cooling length (380mm).After the melt flow down cooling plate,the melt becomes a semi-solid slurry at the end of the plate. Optical microstructure test shows that, the pouring temperature and tilt angle affect the size. Grains shape decreases with decreasing of tilt angles and with decrease pouring temperature as well as Mg addition also has the same effect on Al-Mg microstructure.X-Ray diffractography for Al-Mg alloys shows the appearance of peaks of intermetalic compound and different phases of (Al3Mg2, Al, δAl2O3)and for Al-1%Mg has a phases (Al Mg , ,MgO ),while SEM picture shows , Al3Mg2 phase as dark regionand α-Al as light region for Al-5%Mg, and Al Mg phase for Al-1%Mg

Patron-driven acquisition: perception on e-book selection practices at academic libraries in Malaysia / Norliya Ahmad Kassim and Che Zainab Hj Abdullah

Library is the core business of higher institution. The acquisition department in the library, act as catalyst in selecting and providing information resources for university in achieving its mission and vision. In most academic libraries in Malaysia, the selection of e-books is done by the collection development officer. These phenomena lead to a situation whereby the titles selected are not being borrowed by the customers. To avoid the uneconomical situation, the academic libraries must develop relevant e-book collection policies based on the users' needs. The purpose of this study is to find out the perception on the current practices of collection development policy of e-book at academic libraries in Malaysia. The specific objectives are: (1) to ascertain the practice of e-book selection practices among academic libraries in Malaysia, and (2) to determine the Return on Investment (ROI) regarding e-book selection practices among academic libraries in Malaysia. To achieve the objectives of this study, the researcher considered the appropriateness of using the quantitative method. A survey using questionnaire is used as the instrument to collect data. A semi-structured interview is conducted in the initial stage of the study to explore background information and to help with the development of the instrument. The population for the study comprises of all professional librarians in the acquisition department at the academic libraries in Malaysia as listed in the directory of Malaysian University libraries' website. Statistical Package & Service Solution (SPSS) Version 17.0 is used for data analysis. The findings of the study will produce a guideline in the selection of e-book libraries in Malaysia

Heavy metal and antibiotic resistance of Acinetobacter spp. isolated from diesel fuel polluted soil

Heavy metals pollution of soil and wastewater is a global problem that threatens the environment as they are not degraded or removed and the potential threat to human health comes from the multiple resistances to heavy metals and antibiotics among bacterial populations. The present study was aimed to isolate and identify multiple metal/antibiotic resistant Acinetobacter spp. from diesel fuel polluted soil of Al-Dora, Baghdad, Iraq. Initially, a total of 24 bacterial cultures (coded KNZ–1 to KNZ–24) were isolated and identified up to genus level as Acinetobacter by morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics. Screening of heavy metals resistant Acinetobacter were conducted by streaking the isolates on nutrient agar plates supplemented with different concentrations: 10, 25, 50 and 100mg/L of the three heavy metals; Hg2+, Cd2+ and Pb2+. Out of 24 isolates, 6 (25%) isolates (KNZ–3, KNZ–5, KNZ–8, KNZ–12, KNZ–16 and KNZ–21) were selected as a multiple heavy metal resistant (MHMR) Acinetobacter with maximum tolerable concentrations (MTCs); 100–200mg/L for Hg2+, 300-600mg/L for Cd2+ and 100–300mg/L for Pb2+. Antibiotic resistance pattern of the selected MHMR isolates was determined by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method against 12 different antibiotics belonging to 7 classes. Out of 6 isolates, 4 isolates were multidrug resistance (MDR) with varying degrees. Among them isolate, KNZ–16 showed a wide range of resistance to all tested antibiotics except Levofloxacin and Imipenem. It was concluded that dual resistant Acinetobacter is useful in the bioremediation of environments polluted with heavy metals especially the biodegradation of organic pollutants

Quality of life satisfaction among converted Kelantan Chinese Muslims

This article investigates the quality of life of the Kelantan Chinese Muslim community before and after conversion to Islam, focusing on their level of satisfaction in term of economic aspect. This research was carried out using the sequential explanatory mixed method design involving 75 respondents selected for quantitative and five respondents for qualitative. The sampling method adopted was convenience and snowball samplings. The research data was collected using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The results revealed that respondents were moderately satisfied before conversion and satisfied after conversion. Besides that, there is no significant difference of quality of life before and after conversion to Islam (F = 0.868, p = 0.355) and it was not influenced by the period of conversion to Islam (F = 0.832, p = 0.589). This analysis indicates numerous respondents are still moderately satisfied in their quality of life even though the average data shows they are satisfied after conversion

Effects of antibiotic resistance, drug target attainment, bacterial pathogenicity and virulence, and antibiotic access and affordability on outcomes in neonatal sepsis: an international microbiology and drug evaluation prospective substudy (BARNARDS)

Background Sepsis is a major contributor to neonatal mortality, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). WHO advocates ampicillin–gentamicin as first-line therapy for the management of neonatal sepsis. In the BARNARDS observational cohort study of neonatal sepsis and antimicrobial resistance in LMICs, common sepsis pathogens were characterised via whole genome sequencing (WGS) and antimicrobial resistance profiles. In this substudy of BARNARDS, we aimed to assess the use and efficacy of empirical antibiotic therapies commonly used in LMICs for neonatal sepsis. Methods In BARNARDS, consenting mother–neonates aged 0–60 days dyads were enrolled on delivery or neonatal presentation with suspected sepsis at 12 BARNARDS clinical sites in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Rwanda, and South Africa. Stillborn babies were excluded from the study. Blood samples were collected from neonates presenting with clinical signs of sepsis, and WGS and minimum inhibitory concentrations for antibiotic treatment were determined for bacterial isolates from culture-confirmed sepsis. Neonatal outcome data were collected following enrolment until 60 days of life. Antibiotic usage and neonatal outcome data were assessed. Survival analyses were adjusted to take into account potential clinical confounding variables related to the birth and pathogen. Additionally, resistance profiles, pharmacokinetic–pharmacodynamic probability of target attainment, and frequency of resistance (ie, resistance defined by in-vitro growth of isolates when challenged by antibiotics) were assessed. Questionnaires on health structures and antibiotic costs evaluated accessibility and affordability. Findings Between Nov 12, 2015, and Feb 1, 2018, 36 285 neonates were enrolled into the main BARNARDS study, of whom 9874 had clinically diagnosed sepsis and 5749 had available antibiotic data. The four most commonly prescribed antibiotic combinations given to 4451 neonates (77·42%) of 5749 were ampicillin–gentamicin, ceftazidime–amikacin, piperacillin–tazobactam–amikacin, and amoxicillin clavulanate–amikacin. This dataset assessed 476 prescriptions for 442 neonates treated with one of these antibiotic combinations with WGS data (all BARNARDS countries were represented in this subset except India). Multiple pathogens were isolated, totalling 457 isolates. Reported mortality was lower for neonates treated with ceftazidime–amikacin than for neonates treated with ampicillin–gentamicin (hazard ratio [adjusted for clinical variables considered potential confounders to outcomes] 0·32, 95% CI 0·14–0·72; p=0·0060). Of 390 Gram-negative isolates, 379 (97·2%) were resistant to ampicillin and 274 (70·3%) were resistant to gentamicin. Susceptibility of Gram-negative isolates to at least one antibiotic in a treatment combination was noted in 111 (28·5%) to ampicillin–gentamicin; 286 (73·3%) to amoxicillin clavulanate–amikacin; 301 (77·2%) to ceftazidime–amikacin; and 312 (80·0%) to piperacillin–tazobactam–amikacin. A probability of target attainment of 80% or more was noted in 26 neonates (33·7% [SD 0·59]) of 78 with ampicillin–gentamicin; 15 (68·0% [3·84]) of 27 with amoxicillin clavulanate–amikacin; 93 (92·7% [0·24]) of 109 with ceftazidime–amikacin; and 70 (85·3% [0·47]) of 76 with piperacillin–tazobactam–amikacin. However, antibiotic and country effects could not be distinguished. Frequency of resistance was recorded most frequently with fosfomycin (in 78 isolates [68·4%] of 114), followed by colistin (55 isolates [57·3%] of 96), and gentamicin (62 isolates [53·0%] of 117). Sites in six of the seven countries (excluding South Africa) stated that the cost of antibiotics would influence treatment of neonatal sepsis

Social obligations vs profit-making: a review of the policy of Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (the Language and Literary Agency), Malaysia

Social obligations vs profit-making: a review of the policy of Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (the Language and Literary Agency), Malaysi