Search

Abstract Malaysia's government's decision to reopen schools during the COVID-19 outbreak, especially for students taking important exams, has alarmed the public. However, the Ministry of Education has implemented a COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for educational institutions. The school management’s ability to protect children from COVID-19 rests on their understanding, attitudes, and practices regarding COVID-19 SOP compliance. This study investigated Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, and Putrajaya school management’s COVID-19 SOP compliance determinants. Multistage sampling was used to sample 740 school management from Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, and Selangor. A self-administered questionnaire collected sociodemographic, occupational, and lifestyle data, knowledge, attitude, and practice of COVID-19 SOP compliance. The school management had good knowledge, attitude, and practice toward COVID-19 SOP. Monthly income, school location, smoking status, and physical activity differed significantly from KAP (p

In recent times, homotypic and heterotypic 3D tumor spheroid (HTS) models have been receiving increasing attention and come to be widely employed in preclinical studies. The present study is focused on the generation of homotypic (A549 and MDA-MB-231, separately) and heterotypic (A549 + NIH/3T3; MDA-MB-231 + NIH/3T3) 3D tumor spheroids by using GrowDex® nanofibrillar cellulosic (NFC) hydrogel as the scaffold. Light microscopic observations and F-actin staining confirmed the formation of spheroids. The proliferation efficiency indicated an expansion of cell population and an increase in spheroid size over time. The distribution, interaction pattern and influence of fibroblasts on the epithelial cell types were observed in terms of the size and shape of the HTS against homo-spheroids. An interesting observation was that, with an increase in the size of HTSs, many more fibroblast cells were found to occupy the core region, which, perhaps, was due to the faster growth of tumor cells over normal cells. Thus, normal and tumor cells, especially with origins from two different species, can be cultured together in 3D format, and this can potentially enhance our knowledge of tumor microenvironments and cell-cell interaction. These spheroids could be used to improve microphysiological systems for drug discovery and to better understand the tumor microenvironment.

This article exposes a system of Neutrosophic Soft Linear Equations (NSLE) of the form A ⊗ x = b and is said to be solvable if A ⊗ x(A; b) = b holds, otherwise unsolvable. We derive conditions under which the above system is solvable and further using Chebychev Approximation we find a prinicipal solution if the given systen is not solvable.

Background & Aims: We used patient-derived organoids (PDOs) to study the epithelial-specific transcriptional and secretome signatures of the ileum during Crohn’s disease (CD) with varying phenotypes to screen for disease profiles and potential druggable targets. Methods: RNA sequencing was performed on isolated intestinal crypts and 3-week-old PDOs derived from ileal biopsies of CD patients (n = 8 B1, inflammatory; n = 8 B2, stricturing disease) and non-inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) controls (n = 13). Differentially expressed (DE) genes were identified by comparing CD vs control, B1 vs B2, and inflamed vs non-inflamed. DE genes were used for computational screening to find candidate small molecules that could potentially reverse B1and B2 gene signatures. The secretome of a second cohort (n = 6 non-IBD controls, n = 7 CD, 5 non-inflamed, 2 inflamed) was tested by Luminex using cultured organoid conditioned medium. Results: We found 90% similarity in both the identity and abundance of protein coding genes between PDOs and intestinal crypts (15,554 transcripts of 19,900 genes). DE analysis identified 814 genes among disease group (CD vs non-IBD control), 470 genes different between the CD phenotypes, and 5 false discovery rate correction significant genes between inflamed and non-inflamed CD. The PDOs showed both similarity and diversity in the levels and types of soluble cytokines and growth factors they released. Perturbagen analysis revealed potential candidate compounds to reverse B2 disease phenotype to B1 in PDOs. Conclusions: PDOs are similar at the transcriptome level with the in vivo epithelium and retain disease-specific gene expression for which we have identified secretome products, druggable targets, and corresponding pharmacologic agents. Targeting the epithelium could reverse a stricturing phenotype and improve outcomes.

Shrimp aquaculture, especially during the hatchery phase, is prone to economic losses due to infections caused by luminescent vibrios. In the wake of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria and the food safety requirements of farmed shrimp, aqua culturists are seeking alternatives to antibiotics for shrimp health management, and bacteriophages are fast emerging as natural and bacteria-specific antimicrobial agents. This study analyzed the whole genome of vibriophage-ϕLV6 that showed lytic activity against six luminescent vibrios isolated from the larval tanks of P. vannamei shrimp hatcheries. The Vibriophage-ϕLV6 genome was 79,862 bp long with 48% G+C content and 107 ORFs that coded for 31 predicted protein functions, 75 hypothetical proteins, and a tRNA. Pertinently, the vibriophage-ϕLV6 genome harbored neither AMR determinants nor virulence genes, indicating its suitability for phage therapy. There is a paucity of whole genome-based information on vibriophages that lyse luminescent vibrios, and this study adds pertinent data to the database of V. harveyi infecting phage genomes and, to our knowledge, is the first vibriophage genome report from India. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of vibriophage-ϕLV6 revealed an icosahedral head (~73 nm) and a long, flexible tail (~191 nm) suggesting siphovirus morphology. The vibriophage-ϕLV6 phage at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 80 inhibited the growth of luminescent V. harveyi at 0.25%, 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2%, 2.5%, and 3% salt gradients. In vivo experiments conducted with post-larvae of shrimp showed that vibriophage-ϕLV6 reduced luminescent vibrio counts and post-larval mortalities in the phage-treated tank compared to the bacteria-challenged tank, suggesting the potentiality of vibriophage-ϕLV6 as a promising candidate in treating luminescent vibriosis in shrimp aquaculture. The vibriophage-ϕLV6 survived for 30 days in salt (NaCl) concentrations ranging from 5 ppt to 50 ppt and was stable at 4 °C for 12 months.

Background: Increased use of antibiotics in poultry leads to the development of antimicrobial resistance among the commensal bacterium of broiler chickens. Objective: In this study, we aimed at studying the effect of periodic administration of therapeutic antibiotics against the bacterial diversity in poultry litters collected from broiler chickens. Methods: Poultry litters were collected randomly at regular intervals after administration of antibiotics (1st, 12th and 22nd day) to the chicken. Bedding material without litters served as control. Phenotypic observations showed that there is a difference in the bacterial richness isolated at regular intervals. A total of 32 bacteria were isolated from poultry letters and are grouped into ten different genus. Isolated bacterial species were further confirmed by16S rRNA sequencing. Results: Antibiotic susceptibility profile of isolated bacterial species exhibited strong resistance towards 13 selected antibiotics. These results substantiate that administration of antibiotics leads to the alterations in bacterial diversity and development of antimicrobial resistance among the commensal bacteria of poultry litter. Conclusion: This high selection pressure of therapeutic antibiotics may lead to species selection and development of antibiotic resistance among bacterial population. Development of such species selection may access the human and other organisms via food chain and can cause severe health defects. Keywords: Antibiotics, Antimicrobial, Resistance, Bacterial diversity

This article presents a definition of the pseudosimilar picture fuzzy matrix (PicFM) along with its associated properties. Detailed exploration is undertaken concerning both pseudo-similar and semi-similar picture fuzzy matrices. Furthermore, we analyze relationships pertaining to pseudosimilarity, the preservation of idempotency, and regularity within picture fuzzy matrices. The paper delves deeper into the characterizations of symmetric PicFMs and the group inverse of PicFMs. Finally, we introduce 2x2 Centrosymmetric and K-Centrosymmetric PicFMs, illustrating their attributes with pertinent examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Convergences of powers of controllable intuitionistic fuzzy matrices have been stud¬ied. It is shown that they oscillate with period equal to 2, in general. Some equalities and sequences of inequalities about powers of controllable intuitionistic fuzzy matrices have been obtained.

Three parakeets were brought for postmortem examination with a history of sudden death. The gross examination of birds revealed multiple light whitish nodules around the left eye, on the skin at the level of hock joint, on the anterior part of tracheal mucosa, congested lung and pallor liver. Impression smears from nodules revealed numerous heterophils, red blood cells, necrotic epithelial cells and bacterial colonies. Histopathological examination of nodules revealed eosinophilic intracytoplasmic inclusion bodies in the spinosal cells, epidermal hyperplasia, ballooning degeneration of spinosal cells and bacterial colonies. The virus was isolated and infection was produced on both chorioallantoic membrane and chicken embryo fibroblasts. Polymerase chain reaction was carried out and primer set designed from the 4b core protein gene of fowl pox virus revealed amplification at 578 bp. Suitable remedial measures were recommended against avipox virus infection and secondary bacterial infection.

Increased use of antibiotics in poultry leads to the development of antimicrobial resistance among the commensal bacterium of broiler chickens. In this study, we aimed at studying the effect of periodic administration of therapeutic antibiotics against the bacterial diversity in poultry litters collected from broiler chickens. Poultry litters were collected randomly at regular intervals after administration of antibiotics (1st, 12th and 22nd day) to the chicken. Bedding material without litters served as control. Phenotypic observations showed that there is a difference in the bacterial richness isolated at regular intervals. A total of 32 bacteria were isolated from poultry letters and are grouped into ten different genus. Isolated bacterial species were further confirmed by16S rRNA sequencing. Antibiotic susceptibility profile of isolated bacterial species exhibited strong resistance towards 13 selected antibiotics. These results substantiate that administration of antibiotics leads to the alterations in bacterial diversity and development of antimicrobial resistance among the commensal bacteria of poultry litter. This high selection pressure of therapeutic antibiotics may lead to species selection and development of antibiotic resistance among bacterial population. Development of such species selection may access the human and other organisms via food chain and can cause severe health defects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mechanisms underlying cobalt toxicity in aquatic species in general and cnidarians in particular remain poorly understood. Herein we investigated cobalt toxicity in a Hydra model from morphological, histological, developmental, and molecular biological perspectives. Hydra, exposed to cobalt (0-60 mg/L), were altered in morphology, histology, and regeneration. Exposure to standardized sublethal doses of cobalt impaired feeding by affecting nematocytes, which in turn affected reproduction. At the cellular level, excessive ROS generation, as the principal mechanism of action, primarily occurred in the lysosomes, which was accompanied by the upregulation of expression of the antioxidant genes SOD, GST, GPx, and G6PD. The number of Hsp70 and FoxO transcripts also increased. Interestingly, the upregulations were higher in the 24-h than in the 48-h time-point group, indicating that ROS overwhelmed the cellular defense mechanisms at the latter time-point. Comet assay revealed DNA damage. Cell cycle analysis indicated the induction of apoptosis accompanied or not by cell cycle arrest. Immunoblot analyses revealed that cobalt treatment triggered mitochondria-mediated apoptosis as inferred from the modulation of the key proteins Bax, Bcl-2, and caspase-3. From this data, we suggest the use of Hydra as a model organism for the risk assessment of heavy metal pollution in aquatic ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A problem of reducing intuitionistic fuzzy matrices is examined and some useful properties are obtained with respect to nilpotent intutionistic fuzzy matrices. First, reduction of irreflexive and transitive intuitionistic fuzzy matrices are considered, and then the properties are applied to nilpotent intutionistic fuzzy matrices. Nilpotent intuitionistic fuzzy matrices are intuitionistic fuzzy matrices which signify acyclic graphs, and the graphs are used to characterize consistent systems. The properties are handy for generalization of various systems with intuitionistic fuzzy transitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Convergences of powers of controllable intuitionistic fuzzy matrices have been studied. It is shown that they oscillate with period equal to 2, in general. Some equalities and sequences of inequalities about powers of controllable intuitionistic fuzzy matrices have been obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]