Epidemiology of antibiotic resistance in culture-positive hospitalized patients in selected hospitals in Khartoum, Sudan

Objective: To study the prevelence of antibiotic resistance and the prevalent bacterial isolates in hospitalized patients in Khartoum hospitals. Materials & Methods: A cross-sectional prevalence study was carried out during the period of April–November 2015 in Khartoum; 226 bacterial cultures were included. Identification of isolates using standard biochemical tests and antibiotic susceptibilities were determined using disc diffusion method. Results were interpreted according to the standards of the British society of antimicrobial chemotherapy. Results: Eight bacterial species were isolated: Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, Streptococcus spp., Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas spp., Escherichia coli, Proteus spp., and Acinetobacter spp. S. aureus was the most prevalent, the majority of which were resistant to methicillin/oxacillin (MRSA). Cultures in our study were mainly from urine (36.7%), blood samples (37.2%), and wound cultures (19%). More than 90% of the tested isolates were resistant to cefuroxime; 54% and 73.8% of Gram-positive and Gram-negative isolates, respectively, were resistant to ceftazidime. Furthermore, there was a high meropenem resistance among Gram-negative isolates tested. Multi-resistant Acinetobacter spp. as well as vancomycin-resistant S. aureus was isolated. Gram-negative isolates showed good susceptibilities to aminoglycosides as well as ciprofloxacin. However, the high resistance rate to these antibiotics was observed in Gram-positive isolates in these hospitals. Conclusion: Methicillin-resistant S. aureus was the most prevalent organism. Gramnegative isolates showed good susceptibilities to aminoglycosides and ciprofloxacin. There were high resistance rates to cefuroxime, ceftazidime, and meropenem. Five vancomycin-resistant S. aureus were identified

Evaluation of Resistance to Malathion and Pirimiphos Methyl in Strains of Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) collected in Indonesia.

Fifty-six strains of Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) collected from BULOG and commercial godowns of village co-operative units and farmers' padi storage units from many parts of Indonesia were tested for resistance to malathion and pirimiphos methyl. Forty-nine of these strains showed various degrees of resistance while seven showed a susceptible response to malathion. All the strains of T. castaneum were susceptible to pirimiphos methyl. The dominant species of Tribolium spp. in Indonesia was found to be T. castaneum (Herbst)

Effects of different levels of preharvest shading on the storage quality of strawberry (Fragariax ananassaDuchesne) cv. Ostara II. chemical characteristics

To study the effects of different levels of preharvest shading (74, 58, 48, 38 and 5% of light penetration which were denoted by So' SI' S2' 53 and S4 respectively) on developing strawberry (Fragaria X ananassa Duchesne) cv. Ostara fruits, some chemical tests (pH, total soluble solids and titratable acidity) associated with fruit quality were carried out. Results showed that although the different levels of preharvest shading were found to demonstrate a significant effect on the chemical parameters studied, this could only be detected in fruits shaded by S4 and S3. However, for total soluble solids, significant interactions were observed between location of fruit and fruit type and also between storage day and fruit type

Insecticide Resistance in Sitophilus zeamais Mots. and Rhizopertha dominicav (F.) in Indonesia

Fourteen strains of Sitophilus zaemais and fifteen strains of Rhizopertha dominica, collected from rice warehouses andfarmers' storage facilities throughout Indonesia were tested for resistance to malathion and pirimzphos methyl. Two strains of S. zeamais showed a slightly resistant response to malathion, while all strains of this species were susceptible to pirimzphos methyl. Resistance of R. dorninica to malathion was detected in three out of the fifteen strains tested. The predominant species of Sitophilus was S. zeamais

Effects of sifferent levels of preharvest shading on the storage quality of strawberry (Fragariax ananassa Duchesne) cv. Ostara I. physical characteristics

The effects of shading developing fruits up to harvest on strawberry (Fragaria X ananassa Duchesne) cv. 'Ostara ' fruit quality were studied. Plants were shaded with netting of different levels of light penetration (74,58, 48,38 and 5% which are denoted by S(J SJ' S2' S3 and S4 respectively). Results showed that effects could only be detected when plants were subjected to a very low level of light intensity, S4 . Location of fruits on the plant affected the fresh fruit weight, surface glossiness and fruit firmness significantly. Fruits shaded by leaves were heavier and able to retain surface glossiness longer than exposed fruits

Multi-Spacecraft Measurement of Turbulence within a Magnetic Reconnection Jet

The relationship between magnetic reconnection and plasma turbulence is investigated using multipoint in-situ measurements from the Cluster spacecraft within a high-speed reconnection jet in the terrestrial magnetotail. We show explicitly that work done by electromagnetic fields on the particles, $\mathbf{J}\cdot\mathbf{E}$, has a non-Gaussian distribution and is concentrated in regions of high electric current density. Hence, magnetic energy is converted to kinetic energy in an intermittent manner. Furthermore, we find the higher-order statistics of magnetic field fluctuations generated by reconnection are characterized by multifractal scaling on magnetofluid scales and non-Gaussian global scale invariance on kinetic scales. These observations suggest $\mathbf{J}\cdot\mathbf{E}$ within the reconnection jet has an analogue in fluid-like turbulence theory in that it proceeds via coherent structures generated by an intermittent cascade. This supports the hypothesis that turbulent dissipation is highly nonuniform, and thus these results could have far reaching implications for space and astrophysical plasmas.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Analysis of complex contagions in random multiplex networks

We study the diffusion of influence in random multiplex networks where links can be of $r$ different types, and for a given content (e.g., rumor, product, political view), each link type is associated with a content dependent parameter $c_i$ in $[0,\infty]$ that measures the relative bias type-$i$ links have in spreading this content. In this setting, we propose a linear threshold model of contagion where nodes switch state if their "perceived" proportion of active neighbors exceeds a threshold \tau. Namely, a node connected to $m_i$ active neighbors and $k_i-m_i$ inactive neighbors via type-$i$ links will turn active if $\sum{c_i m_i}/\sum{c_i k_i}$ exceeds its threshold \tau. Under this model, we obtain the condition, probability and expected size of global spreading events. Our results extend the existing work on complex contagions in several directions by i) providing solutions for coupled random networks whose vertices are neither identical nor disjoint, (ii) highlighting the effect of content on the dynamics of complex contagions, and (iii) showing that content-dependent propagation over a multiplex network leads to a subtle relation between the giant vulnerable component of the graph and the global cascade condition that is not seen in the existing models in the literature.Comment: Revised 06/08/12. 11 Pages, 3 figure

The elicitation of key performance indicators of e-government providers: A bottom-up approach

Copyright @ 2013 EMCIS.Delivering an adequate e-Government service (e-service) is becoming more of a necessity in today's digital world. In order to improve e-services and increase the engagement of both users' and providers' side, studies on the performance evaluation of such provided e-services are taking places. However a clear identification of the key performance indicators from the e-Government providers’ side is not well explored. This shortcoming hampers the conduct of a holistic evaluation of an e-service provision from the perspective of its stakeholders in order to improve e-services as well as to increase e-services take-ups. In this paper, a systematic process to identify indicators is implemented based on a bottom-up approach. The process used three focus-group meetings with providers, users, and academics in Qatar, Lebanon and UK to collect, identify and validate key indicators from the perspective of e-services’ providers. The approach resulted in the identification of five factors levels (service, technology, employees, policy and management and social responsibilities) with fifteen sub-categories of SMART variables. Hence, leading to the development of a new model, STEPS, that can fully explain and predict e-government success from the providers’ point of view. It will work as a strategic management tool to align various stakeholders on common goal and values based on evidence based evaluation of e-services using smart measurable indicators for the improvement of an e-service at the engagement level in the field of e-government. In addition, other fields can benefit from the outcome of this work, such as logistics service providers, who make their services available across new and existing relationships between the Internet commerce firms, their customers, and their vendors