Enterotoxigenic methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus contamination in salted fish from Gwadar Balochistan

Staphylococcus aureus is an important foodborne pathogen associated to food intoxication and other multiple infections in human being. Its presence in salted food is a serious issue due to its salt tolerance potential. A study was conducted to analyze the presence of enterotoxins producing drug resistance S. aureus in salted sea fish from Gwadar. Freshly persevered samples (n=50) of salted fish were subjected to analyze the presence of S. aureus using 16S rRNA and Nuc genes primers. The isolates were then evaluated for drug resistance and enterotoxins producing potential using specific primers for MecA (methicillin resistance gene), (SEA) staphylococcal enterotoxin A and (SEB) staphylococcal enterotoxin B genes. Total 13/50 (26%) of the samples were found positive for the presence of S. aureus, preliminary confirmed with biochemical profiling and finally with the help of target genes presence. The isolates were found showing 100% resistant to methicillin, which were molecularly confirmed by the presence of MecA gene present in genome. The isolates 5/13 (38%) were positive for SEA and 3/13 (23%) for SEB genes, whereas 2/13 (15%) were confirmed having both SEA and SEB genes in its genome. It was also confirmed that all the isolates were capable to form biofilm over the glass surfaces. It was concluded that the study confirmed the presence of enterotoxigenic methicillin resistance Staphylococcus aurous (MRSA) in salted fish product, that poses gross food safety concern. Preventive and control measures are necessary to handle this serious food safety concern.

Tofacitinib and risk of cardiovascular outcomes: results from the Safety of TofAcitinib in Routine care patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (STAR-RA) study

ObjectivesRecent results from ‘ORAL Surveillance’ trial have raised concerns regarding the cardiovascular safety of tofacitinib in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We further examined this safety concern in the real-world setting.MethodsWe created two cohorts of patients with RA initiating treatment with tofacitinib or tumour necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFI) using deidentified data from Optum Clinformatics (2012–2020), IBM MarketScan (2012–2018) and Medicare (parts A, B and D, 2012–2017) claims databases: (1) A ‘real-world evidence (RWE) cohort’ consisting of routine care patients and (2) A ‘randomised controlled trial (RCT)-duplicate cohort’ mimicking inclusion and exclusion criteria of the ORAL surveillance trial to calibrate results against the trial findings. Cox proportional hazards models with propensity score fine stratification weighting were used to estimate HR and 95% CIs for composite outcome of myocardial infarction and stroke and accounting for 76 potential confounders. Database-specific effect estimates were pooled using fixed effects models with inverse-variance weighting.ResultsIn the RWE cohort, 102 263 patients were identified of whom 12 852 (12.6%) initiated tofacitinib. The pooled weighted HR (95% CI) comparing tofacitinib with TNFI was 1.01 (0.83 to 1.23) in RWE cohort and 1.24 (0.90 to 1.69) in RCT-duplicate cohort which aligned closely with ORAL-surveillance results (HR: 1.33, 95% CI 0.91 to 1.94).ConclusionsWe did not find evidence for an increased risk of cardiovascular outcomes with tofacitinib in patients with RA treated in the real-world setting; however, tofacitinib was associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular outcomes, although statistically non-significant, in patients with RA with cardiovascular risk factors.Trial registration numberNCT04772248.

Stents With Torsional Strength for Superficial Femoral Artery Disease: The Prospective Q3-Registry

Purpose: This postmarketing surveillance study aimed to assess effectiveness and safety of a peripheral self-expanding stent with high torsional strength (POLARIS stent) for the treatment of de novo superficial femoral artery (SFA) lesions in the routine clinical practice. Materials and Methods: Consecutive patients with symptomatic de novo SFA occlusive disease who underwent POLARIS stent implantation were enrolled into the prospective, multicenter, observational postmarket surveillance study. Primary outcome measure was freedom from clinically driven target lesion revascularization (cdTLR) at 12 months. Main secondary outcomes were procedural success, primary clinical improvement, and freedom from major adverse cardiovascular and limb events (MACLE) throughout 24 months. Results: A total of 199 participants (70±11 years, 70.4% men) were included in the study at 9 German sites from December 2014 to August 2018. Half of them (52.6%) were current smokers, 37.6% had diabetes, and 25.0% were obese. Most participants suffered from intermittent claudication (88.4%). Mean lesion length was 98±83 mm, 43.5% of lesions were occluded, and 27.3% were severely calcified. Freedom from 12 months cdTLR was 94.4% (95% confidence interval [CI], 90.6–98.2). At 24 months, freedom from cdTLR was 88.7% (95% CI, 83.0–94.4). Procedural success was achieved in 96.2% of participants. Primary clinical improvement occurred in 87.5% and 85.4% of participants at 12 and 24 months, respectively. Freedom from MACLE was 94.8% (95% CI, 91.4–98.1) and 93.8% (95% CI, 89.9–97.6) at 12 and 24 months, respectively. Conclusions: Treatment of SFA occlusive disease in a real-world setting using the POLARIS stent with high bidirectional torsional strength is efficacious and does not raise any safety concern in the medium term. The study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (Identifier: NCT02307292).

Non-Antibiotics Strategies to Control Salmonella Infection in Poultry

Salmonella spp. is a facultative intracellular pathogen causing localized or systemic infections, involving economic and public health significance, and remains the leading pathogen of food safety concern worldwide, with poultry being the primary transmission vector. Antibiotics have been the main strategy for Salmonella control for many years, which has allowed producers to improve the growth and health of food-producing animals. However, the utilization of antibiotics has been reconsidered since bacterial pathogens have established and shared a variety of antibiotic resistance mechanisms that can quickly increase within microbial communities. The use of alternatives to antibiotics has been recommended and successfully applied in many countries, leading to the core aim of this review, focused on (1) describing the importance of Salmonella infection in poultry and the effects associated with the use of antibiotics for disease control; (2) discussing the use of feeding-based (prebiotics, probiotics, bacterial subproducts, phytobiotics) and non-feeding-based (bacteriophages, in ovo injection, vaccines) strategies in poultry production for Salmonella control; and (3) exploring the use of complementary strategies, highlighting those based on -omics tools, to assess the effects of using the available antibiotic-free alternatives and their role in lowering dependency on the existing antimicrobial substances to manage bacterial infections in poultry effectively.

Preface

The International Conference on Materials Chemistry and Environmental Engineering (CONF-MCEE 2021) The International Conference on Materials Chemistry and Environmental Engineering (CONF-MCEE 2021) is a leading conference, hosted by Eliwise Academy annually. It encourages communication and collaboration, hoping to provide an international platform for its participants to present, share, and learn the latest advance and development of materials, chemistry, and environmental engineering. Academics, researchers, and students from across the world are all welcomed to exchange findings and ideas to draw further inspirations in these research fields. It’s a great opportunity to deepen your understanding in the related topics. This volume contains the papers presented at the International Conference on Materials Chemistry and Environmental Engineering (CONF-MCEE 2021), held during November 11-16, 2021. Under the influence of COVID-19, the on-site conference was regretfully cancelled and CONF-MCEE was held online. For the safety concern of all participants, we decided to hold a virtual conference which is also effective and convenient for academic exchange and communication. Everyone interested in this field were welcomed to join the online conference on our YouTube channel and to give comments and raise questions to the speeches and presentations. We are hoping the pandemic to soon come to an end and we could see each other next year. CONF-MCEE 2021 received 179 submissions in the area of materials science and engineering, chemical science and technology, and environmental engineering. Each of the 179 submissions was reviewed by at least two Program Committee members. The committee decided to accept 64 papers that are included in these proceedings. We would like to thank the Program Committee members and external reviewers for their hard work in reviewing and selecting papers. Hopefully, all participants and other interested readers can benefit scientifically from the proceedings and find it rewarding in the process. Prof. Shuai Chen Chairman of Conference Committee List of Committee, Chairman, Technical Program Committee, Organizing Committee, Publicity Committee are available in this pdf.

Nurses’ View towards the Use of Robotic during Pandemic COVID-19 in Indonesia: A Qualitative Study

Background: Rapid advances in artificial intelligence and robotics have alleviated difficulties for patients, hospitals, and the industry as a whole. However, the health care system is identically human-centered at its core, and many healthcare professions may not be ready to work with robots. Understanding nurses' views toward robotics can help integrate robotic technologies into future patient care. Objectives: This study aimed to explore how nurses view using robotics during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This study used a qualitative descriptive technique to registered nurses who provide direct care to the patients with COVID-19 recruited from two hospitals in Indonesia. Purposive sampling was used to select respondents with criteria of those who had worked for at least one year and were willing to participate—the analysis used qualitative content analysis. Results: A total of 20 female nurses with an average age of 32.8 ± 4.0 years participated in this study. The qualitative findings revealed three themes with nine sub-themes, namely the use of robotic in nursing care (sub-theme: reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission, monitoring patients remotely, and helping in providing care), the burden of using robotic in nursing care (sub-theme: digital literacy in nursing care, culture difference in providing care, changing care practice habits, and safety concern, and attitude toward robotic in nursing care (sub-theme: negative response). Conclusions: This study explored nurses' views on the usage of robotics during the pandemic COVID-10. It implies that a strategic plan would have many benefits and limitations, such as nursing care burden, negative attitude, and cultural awareness.

Nurses as Agents of Safety: Identifying unique contributors to falls in hospitalized Adult Hematology Patients: A Retrospective Study

Falls continue to be a major safety concern in acute care settings and are the second cause of unintentional injury deaths globally [1].The World Health Organization defines a fall as an event that results in a person coming to a rest inadvertently on the ground or floor or other lower level. Prevention of a fall is a safety measure, which is significantly affected by nursing care according to the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) [2].This retrospective review of one hundred medical records was conducted to assess if there are unique contributors to falls in hospitalized adult hematology patients. The study sample was drawn from the parent study that examined the impact of video-based educational intervention on the occurrence of falls among hematology patients hospitalized for the management of cancer treatment and complications. Patients with cancer are at an increased risk of sustaining a fall related injury due to impaired functional status, low blood counts, treatment related fatigue, frailty, and poor nutritional status [3,4]. Simple logistic regression between continuous variables and dependent variable, and cross-tabulation between categorical variables and the dependent variable was used to analyze study results.The study revealed that there was a significant relationship between fall incident and fall risk assessment scores on admission; X2 (1) = 6.153, p = .013, Cramer’s V = .256.

Circumstances and outcomes of falls in hospital for adults with communication disability secondary to stroke: A qualitative synthesis

BACKGROUND: Falls are a significant patient safety concern in hospital. Adult patients with stroke, and those with communication disability, are at an increased risk of falls during their hospital admission compared to patients without stroke or communication disability. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this review is to determine the circumstances and outcomes of falls in hospitalised patients with communication disability following stroke. METHOD: A qualitative synthesis of 16 papers according to the Generic Reference Model of patient safety. This is a secondary analysis of studies in a systematic review of the association between communication disability after stroke and falls in hospitalised patients. RESULTS: In studies including participants with communication disability, falls commonly occurred at the patient bedside, during the day, and in transfers. However, no studies provided individual or group specifically detailing the circumstances and outcomes of falls of the included participants with communication disability. CONCLUSION: Research to date provides scant evidence on the circumstances and outcomes of falls in hospital patients with communication disability after stroke. This review performs a useful function in highlighting a glaring gap in the literature and the urgent need to enrich hospital falls prevention research that includes patients with communication disability following stroke. Findings of this review are discussed in relation to providing a framework for analysis of for future research.

Experimental and Numerical Results of LIFUS5/Mod3 Series E Test on In-Box LOCA Transient for WCLL-BB

The in-box LOCA (Loss of Coolant Accident) represents a major safety concern to be addressed in the design of the WCLL-BB (water-cooled lead-lithium breeding blanket). Research activities are ongoing to master the phenomena and processes that occur during the postulated accident, to enhance the predictive capability and reliability of numerical tools, and to validate computer models, codes, and procedures for their applications. Following these objectives, ENEA designed and built the new separate effects test facility LIFUS5/Mod3. Two experimental campaigns (Series D and Series E) were executed by injecting water at high pressure into a pool of PbLi in WCLL-BB-relevant parameter ranges. The obtained experimental data were used to check the capabilities of the RELAP5 system code to reproduce the pressure transient of a water system, to validate the chemical model of PbLi/water reactions implemented in the modified version of SIMMER codes for fusion application, to investigate the dynamic effects of energy release on the structures, and to provide relevant feedback for the follow-up experimental campaigns. This work presents the experimental data and the numerical simulations of Test E4.1. The results of the test are presented and critically discussed. The code simulations highlight that SIMMER code is able to reproduce the phenomena connected to PbLi/water interaction, and the relevant test parameters are in agreement with the acquired experimental signals. Moreover, the results obtained by the first approach to SIMMER-RELAP5 code-coupling demonstrate its capability of and strength for predicting the transient scenario in complex geometries, considering multiple physical phenomena and minimizing the computational cost.

FUSARIUM-ID v.3.0: An updated, downloadable resource for Fusarium species identification

Species within Fusarium are of global agricultural, medical, and food/feed safety concern and have been extensively characterized. However, accurate identification of species is challenging and usually requires DNA sequence data. FUSARIUM-ID (http://isolate.fusariumdb.org/) is a publicly available database designed to support the identification of Fusarium species using sequences of multiple phylogenetically informative loci, especially the highly informative ~680 bp 5' portion of the translation elongation factor 1-alpha (TEF1) gene that has been adopted as the primary barcoding locus in the genus. However, FUSARIUM-ID v.1.0 and 2.0 had several limitations, including inconsistent metadata annotation for the archived sequences and poor representation of some species complexes and marker loci. Here, we present FUSARIUM-ID v.3.0, which provides the following improvements: (i) additional and updated annotation of metadata for isolates associated with each sequence, (ii) expanded taxon representation in the TEF1 sequence database, (iii) availability of the sequence database as a downloadable file to enable local BLAST queries, and (iv) a tutorial file for users to perform local BLAST searches using either freely-available software, such as SequenceServer, BLAST+ executable in the command line, and Galaxy, or the proprietary Geneious software. FUSARIUM-ID will be updated on a regular basis by archiving sequences of TEF1 and other loci from newly identified species and greater in-depth sampling of currently recognized species.