Study of coryza of the domestic fowl with special reference to its bacteriology

Judging by the results of his investigations, the writer concludes that: 1. Infectious Coryza of the fowl is a specific disease caused by a filterable agent which was successfully passed through the pores of the Berkefeld V and N candles, the Chamberland L3 and L5 candles and through the pores of the sterilising pad of the Seitz filter. About 72% of the subjects inoculated with the bacteria - free filtrate exhibited symptoms of Coryza. 2. In certain cases, a haemophilic organism can be isolated from the various lesions of infected fowls. This organism differs in virulence and growth requirements from B. haemoglobinophilus coryzae gallinarum (De Blieck) , H. gallinarum (the American group of workers) and H. coryzae (Kessen and Van Dorsen), which organisms were said to be the cause of fowl Coryza. Due to its dependence upon the V- factor only for its growth, its inability to produce haemolysin on blood medium, and on account of its failure to produce indole and its restricted range of fermentation of sugars, especially Saccharose, this organism may be considered to belong to the para- influenza group (Tapley and Wilson). 3. In rare cases, an avirulent bi-polar staining organism is met with in lesions of Coryza in the fowl. 4. Intra -nasal inoculation of suspension of the various bacteria isolated from the virulent exudate, does not produce any harmful effects in healthy chickens; thus indicating their insignificant importance in relation to the disease. 5. The causal agent of the disease is found to lose its virulence if left in the cage at room temperature for 18 hours, whereas it is observed to retain its pathogenicity for 17 days if kept at ice -box temperature. Incubation for 10 hours at 37°C. renders the virulent exudate harmless to susceptible birds. Heating at 60°C. for 5 minutes does not affect the virulence of the exudate. This material is found infective after its exposure to the action of 5% solution of carbolic acid, and to the action of 1/2000 solution of potassium permanganate for 2 hours. Inoculation of the virulent exudate after being preserved for 12 days in 50% Glycerin at ice -box temperature, requires a long period of incubation before it can set up the disease in the inoculated subjects. 6. The disease exists only in one form, the incubation period of which is influenced by the indivual susceptibility of the subjects and the route of infection. 7. Young chickens and turkeys are the only birds susceptible to the disease. Recovered subjects may retain their susceptibility for another infection of the disease in their early life. 8. Transmission of the disease is easily accomplished by direct contact with infected birds, by ingestion, and by intra-conjunctival, intra- auditory and intratracheal routes

Semiconductor Epitaxial Crystal Growth: Silicon Nanowires

The topic of nanowires is one of the subjects of technological rapid-progress research. This chapter reviews the experimental work and the advancement of nanowires technology since the past decade, with more focus on the recent work. Nanowires can be grown from several materials including semiconductors, such as silicon. Silicon is a semiconductor material with a very technological importance, reflected by the huge number of publications. Nanowires made of silicon are of particular technological importance, in addition to their nanomorphology-related applications. A detailed description of the first successfully reported Vapor–Liquid–Solid (VLS) 1-D growth of silicon crystals is presented. The bottom-up approach, the supersaturation in a three-phase system, and the nucleation at the Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) processes are discussed with more focus on silicon. Positional assembly of nanowires using the current available techniques, including Nanoscale Chemical Templating (NCT), can be considered as the key part of this chapter for advanced applications. Several applied and conceptional methods of developing the available technologies using nanowires are included, such as Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and photovoltaic (PV) cells, and more are explained. The final section of this chapter is devoted to the future trend in nanowires research, where it is anticipated that the effort behind nanowires research will proceed further to be implemented in daily electronic tools satisfying the demand of low-weight and small-size electronic devices

A study to investigate the implementation process and fidelity of a hospital to community pharmacy transfer of care intervention.

Hospital to community pharmacy transfer of care medicines-related interventions for inpatients discharged home aim to improve continuity of care and patient outcomes. One such intervention has been provided for seven years within a region in England. This study reports upon the implementation process and fidelity of this intervention. The process evaluation guidance issued by the Medical Research Council has informed this study. A logic model to describe the intervention and causal assumptions was developed from preliminary semi-structured interviews with project team members. Further semi-structured interviews were undertaken with intervention providers from hospital and community pharmacy, and with patient and public representatives. These aimed to investigate intervention implementation process and fidelity. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research and the Consolidated Framework for Intervention Fidelity informed interview topic guides and underpinned the thematic framework analysis using a combined inductive and deductive approach. Themes provided information about intervention fidelity and implementation that were mapped across the sub processes of implementation: planning, execution, reflection and evaluation, and engagement. Interviewees described factors such as lack of training, awareness, clarity on the service specification, governance and monitoring and information and feedback which caused significant issues with the process of intervention implementation and suboptimal intervention fidelity. This provides in-depth insight into the implementation process and fidelity of a ToC intervention, and the extant barriers and facilitators. The findings offer learning to inform the design and implementation of similar interventions, contribute to the evidence base about barriers and facilitators to such interventions and provides in-depth description of the implementation and mechanisms of impact which have the potential to influence clinical and economic outcome evaluation.(SK) This research was supported by Saudi Arabian Cultural Bureau in the UK and Umm Al-Qura University in Saudi Arabia, (Award/grant number: N/A). https://uksacb.org/ The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscrip

Design and development of smart parking system based on fog computing and internet of things

Current parking systems employ a single gateway‐centered solution (i.e., cloud) for data processing which leads to the possibility of a single point of failure, data loss, and high delays. Moreover, the parking‐spot selection process considers criteria that do not maximize parking utilization and revenue. The pricing strategy does not achieve high revenue because a fixed pricing rate is utilized. To address these issues, this paper proposes a smart parking system based on the Internet of Things (IoT) that provides useful information to drivers and parking administrators about available parking spots and related services such as parking navigation, reservation, and availability estimation. A multi‐layer architecture is developed that consists of multiple sensor nodes, and fog and cloud computing layers. The acquired parking data are processed through fog computing nodes to facilitate obtaining the required real‐time parking data. A novel algorithm to obtain the optimal parking spot with the minimum arrival time is also presented. Proof‐of‐concept implementation and simulation evaluations are conducted to validate the system performance. The findings show that the system reduces the parking arrival time by 16%–46% compared to current parking systems. In addition, the revenue is increased for the parking authority by 10%–15%

Stability study of thymoquinone, carvacrol and thymol using HPLC-UV and LC-ESI-MS

The aim of this study was to investigate the stability of three major antioxidants of Nigella sativa: thymoquinone (TQ), carvacrol (CR) and thymol (THY), under different stress conditions using HPLC and LC-MS/MS. Forced degradation for each compound was performed under different conditions, including oxidation, hydrolysis, photolysis and thermal decomposition. The results showed that both CR and THY were stable under the studied conditions, whereas TQ was not affected by acidic, basic and oxidative forced conditions but the effect of light and heat was significant. The degradation products of TQ were further investigated and characterized by LC-MS/MS. HPLC-UV method has been fully validated in terms of linearity and range, the limit of detection and quantitation, precision, selectivity, accuracy and robustness. The method was successfully applied to quantitative analysis of the principal antioxidants of Nigella sativa TQ, CR and THY in different phytopharmaceuticals

Sunset Yellow and Allura Red modulate Bcl2 and COX2 expression levels and confer oxidative stress-mediated renal and hepatic toxicity in male rats

Studies on the adverse health effects caused by azo dyes are insufficient and quite contradictory. This work aims to investigate the possible toxic effect of two types of widely used food additives, Sunset Yellow and Allura Red, by assessing the physiological, histopathological and ultrastructural changes in the liver and kidney. Also, we investigated the genotoxic effect of both dyes on white blood cells. Thirty adult male albino rats were divided into three groups of 10 animals each: control (received water), Sunset Yellow-treated (2.5 mg/kg body weight) and Allura Red-treated (seven mg/kg body weight). The doses were orally applied for 4 weeks. Our results indicated an increase in the biochemical markers of hepatic and renal function (Aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, urea, uric acid and creatinine) in animals administered with the azo dyes. We also observed a noticeable increase in MDA and a marked decrease in total antioxidant levels in azo dye-treated animals compared to controls. Conversely, both dyes adversely affected the liver and kidney of albino rats and altered their histological and fine structure, with downregulation of Bcl2 and upregulation of COX2 expression. Our comet assay results showed a significant elevation in the fold change of tail moment in response to application of Sunset Yellow but not Allura Red. Collectively, we show that Sunset Yellow and Allura Red cause histopathological and physiological aberrations in the liver and kidney of male Wistar albino rats. Moreover, Sunset Yellow but not Allura Red induces a potential genotoxic effect

Detection of multidrug-resistant bacteria in the occupied Palestinian territory: a cross-sectional study

Background Antimicrobial resistance is a worldwide threat to public health. WHO has created several resolutions and strategies on this subject at the World Health Assembly. In May, 2015, WHO published a global action plan to mitigate antimicrobial resistance, including tracking and global surveillance focusing on improving awareness and understanding of this issue. The aim of this study was to screen for carbapenem-resistant bacteria in the occupied Palestinian Territory, to investigate the mechanisms behind the resistance, and to assess the scope of this difficulty in the area. Methods During 6 weeks in 2012, we collected all available Gram-negative isolates taken from inpatients and outpatients in hospital laboratories at Al-Shifa Hospital and five additional hospitals in the West Bank to screen for carbapenem resistance. Resistant isolates were identified with MALDI-TOF, mapped for their resistance pattern, and

Development of Advanced 3D-Printed Solid Dosage Pediatric Formulations for HIV Treatment

The combination of lopinavir/ritonavir remains one of the first-line therapies for the initial antiretroviral regimen in pediatric HIV-infected children. However, the implementation of this recommendation has faced many challenges due to cold-chain requirements, high alcohol content, and unpalatability for ritonavir-boosted lopinavir syrup. In addition, the administration of crushed tablets has shown a detriment for the oral bioavailability of both drugs. Therefore, there is a clinical need to develop safer and better formulations adapted to children’s needs. This work has demonstrated, for the first time, the feasibility of using direct powder extrusion 3D printing to manufacture personalized pediatric HIV dosage forms based on 6 mm spherical tablets. H-bonding between drugs and excipients (hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and polyethylene glycol) resulted in the formation of amorphous solid dispersions with a zero-order sustained release profile, opposite to the commercially available formulation Kaletra, which exhibited marked drug precipitation at the intestinal pH

Predictors of Medication Adherence and Blood Pressure Control among Saudi Hypertensive Patients Attending Primary Care Clinics: A Cross-Sectional Study

Purpose To assess the level of medication adherence and to investigate predictors of medication adherence and blood pressure control among hypertensive patients attending primary healthcare clinics in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Patients and methods Hypertensive patients meeting the eligibility criteria were recruited from eight primary care clinics between January and May 2016 for this study. The patients completed Arabic version of Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS-8), an eight-item validated, self-reported measure to assess medication adherence. A structured data collection form was used to record patients’ sociodemographic, medical and medication data. Results Two hundred and four patients, of which 71.6% were females, participated in the study. Patients’ mean age was 59.1 (SD 12.2). The mean number of medication used by patients was 4.4 (SD 1.89). More than half (110; 54%) of the patients were non-adherent to their medications (MMAS score 65 years (OR 2.0 [95% CI: 1.0–4.2; P = 0.04]), and being diabetic (OR 0.25 [95% CI: 0.1–0.6; P = 0.04]) were found to be independent predictors of medication adherence. Conclusion Medication adherence is alarmingly low among hypertensive patients attending primary care clinics in Saudi Arabia which may partly explain observed poor blood pressure control. There is a clear need to educate patients about the importance of medication adherence and its impact on improving clinical outcomes. Future research should identify barriers to medication adherence among Saudi hypertensive patients

Measuring the health impact of human rights violations related to Australian asylum policies and practices: A mixed methods study

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund - Copyright @ 2009 Johnston et al.BACKGROUND: Human rights violations have adverse consequences for health. However, to date, there remains little empirical evidence documenting this association, beyond the obvious physical and psychological effects of torture. The primary aim of this study was to investigate whether Australian asylum policies and practices, which arguably violate human rights, are associated with adverse health outcomes. METHODS: We designed a mixed methods study to address the study aim. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 71 Iraqi Temporary Protection Visa (TPV) refugees and 60 Iraqi Permanent Humanitarian Visa (PHV) refugees, residing in Melbourne, Australia. Prior to a recent policy amendment, TPV refugees were only given temporary residency status and had restricted access to a range of government funded benefits and services that permanent refugees are automatically entitled to. The quantitative results were triangulated with semi-structured interviews with TPV refugees and service providers. The main outcome measures were self-reported physical and psychological health. Standardised self-report instruments, validated in an Arabic population, were used to measure health and wellbeing outcomes. RESULTS: Forty-six percent of TPV refugees compared with 25% of PHV refugees reported symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of clinical depression (p = 0.003). After controlling for the effects of age, gender and marital status, TPV status made a statistically significant contribution to psychological distress (B = 0.5, 95% CI 0.3 to 0.71, p </= 0.001) amongst Iraqi refugees. Qualitative data revealed that TPV refugees generally felt socially isolated and lacking in control over their life circumstances, because of their experiences in detention and on a temporary visa. This sense of powerlessness and, for some, an implicit awareness they were being denied basic human rights, culminated in a strong sense of injustice. CONCLUSION: Government asylum policies and practices violating human rights norms are associated with demonstrable psychological health impacts. This link between policy, rights violations and health outcomes offers a framework for addressing the impact of socio-political structures on health.This research was supported by an Australian National and Medical Research Council PhD Scholarship (N. 251782) and a Victorian Health Promotion Foundation research grant (No. 2002-0280)