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This investigation was conducted for two successive season (2013 & 2014) in a private vineyard located at EL-Nubariya, Alexandria - Cairo desert road to find out the effect of Abscisic acid (ABA) and ethrel. application to improve coloring and fruit quality of tow seedless cultivars Flame Seedless, & Crimson Seedless and one seedy Red Globe. The three cultivars were grafted on Freedom. rootstock. The chosen vines were five-years-old, grown in sandy soil, spaced at 1.5 X 3 meters apart and irritated by the drip irrigation system. Flame Seedless and Red Globe grapevines were spur pruned while Crimson Seedless grapevine was cane pruned. All grape cultivars were trellised by . Gable system. The cultivars were sprayed at stage (20% berry color) with ethril and ABA as follows:- spray with tap water (control), foliar spray with ethrel at 600 ppm, cluster spray with ABA at 300 ppm, cluster spraying with ABA at 400 ppm, foliar spray with ethrel + cluster spray with ABA at 300 ppm and foliar spraying with ethrel + cluster spraying with ABA at 400 ppm . The results showed that spraying ethrel or ABA alon or in combination gave better results in comparison with control. The combined application of ethrel (600ppm) + ABA (at 300 or 400) ppm improved berry physical and chemical characteristics i.e increasing average berry weight size and enhancing berry maturity represented by raise increasing total soluble solids, total soluble solids/acid ratio, anthocyanin and total sugars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence of antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli isolates from faecal samples from 117 poultry industry workers, 100 patients and119 healthy chicken were compared. Resistance of E. coli chicken isolates to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, gentamicin, spectinomycin, tetracycline and trimethoprim + sulphamethoxazole (TMP + SMX) (range 57% - 99.1%) were significantly higher than those isolated from patients (range 21.9% - 71.4%) and workers (range 35% - 71.8%). However, for drugs not used in poultry, such as amoxicillin + cluvalanate (AMX + CLV), ceftazidime and nitrofurantoin, resistance rates of chicken isolates (range 0% - 2.6%) were significantly lower than those of patient isolates (range 8.7% - 30%). Resistance to spectinomycin reached 96% in E. coli chicken isolates and 71% in organisms isolated from humans. Use of this drug in Saudi Arabia is mostly limited to veterinary purposes. Multidrug resistance is alarmingly high in all groups but was highest in chicken isolates (77.4%). Serotyping of E. coli isolates showed that 27% of the organisms isolated from patients were overlapping with 10.9% of the chicken isolates, indicating the possibility of chicken being a source of the resistance pool for humans. We therefore call for the banning of antibiotics in the poultry industry as growth promoters and recommend that their use be restricted to treating infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Aim: A sharp worldwide rise in bacterial resistance to antimicrobial agents in both nosocomial and community acquired pathogens has recently been observed. This may complicate treatment of infectious disease or increase the cost of its management. It is, therefore, important to regularly investigate the patterns of resistance to antimicrobial agents at both local and national levels., Methods: The antibiograms of organisms isolated over a one-year period in King Fahd Hospital of the University were analyzed., Results: Of the 3679 microbial isolates of 35 types of organisms identified, the most common were Streptococcous spp (25.5%), S. aureus (16.1%), E. Coli (12.7%), Psueudomonas spp (9.3%) and Klebsiella spp (7%) High resistance rates (>50%) to ampicillin and to amoxycillin + clavulanate (AMX+CLV) were encountered in Enterobacter spp., and H. influenzae while in E. coli, the resistance was higher to ampicillin (60.0%) than to AMX+CLV (38.1%). With regard to S. aureus, 98.3%, 91.1% and 25.5% of isolates were resistant to penicillin, AMX+CLV and methicillin respectively but all were sensitive to vancomycin. High resistance (53% of 2830 isolates) to tetracycline was also observed especially in H. influenzae (80.5%), Streptococcous spp (72.9%) and E. Coli (54.5%). The same organisms were also highly resistant to trimethoprim/sulphamethoxazole with rates of 75.5%, 80.4% and 48.1% respectively. Moderate resistance (26% of 1567 isolates) to gentamicin was noted but the drug remained very effective against most tested gram-negative organisms. In addition, multiple resistance to gentamicin and AMX+CLV was also detected in 24.3% of 839 isolates., Conclusions and Recommendations: It is concluded that the alarmingly high pattern of bacterial resistance to antibiotics may reflect the extent of use of each antibiotic in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. It is recommended that hospital antibiotic policies (purchasing, prescribing and dispensing) be based on, and regularly reviewed in accordance with hospital antibiogram results. A center for infectious disease control should also be established in each region of the Kingdom to disseminate information and coordinate antibiotic policies among hospitals.

Forty infertile patients with a preliminary diagnosis of genitourinary tuberculosis were selected for our study when they presented with one or more of the following: (1) personal or family history of tuberculosis, (2) sterile pyuria, (3) voiding urinary symptoms, (4) abnormality in the epididymis, (5) hemospermia, and (6) clinically unexplained obligoathenospermia. Direct smear examination by Ziehl-Neelsen stain for 24-hour urine and freshly ejaculated semen for 3 days as well as culture of midstream urine and semen were done on egg media. Urine smear was positive (+)ive in 20 patients (50%), culture was (+)ive in 23 (57.5%), whereas for semen smear was (+)ive in 3 (7.3%) and culture was (+)ive in 5 (20%). Tuberculous mycobacteria were detected in 5 of 23 cases (21.7%). Nontuberculous mycobacteria were detected in 18 of 23 cases (78.3%). Mycobacterium smegmatis was the most common mycobacterium isolated. There was improvement of the seminal picture, though not significant, after therapy.