Characteristics of Escherichia coli Isolated from bovine mastitis exposed to subminimum inhibitory concentrations of cefalotin or ceftazidime

Escherichia coli is a major udder pathogen causing clinical mastitis in dairy cattle and its heat stable endotoxin in powdered infant formula milk is a potential risk factor in neonatal infections. Cephalosporins are frequently used for treatment of mastitis caused by mastitis; however, use of these antimicrobials may induce antimicrobial resistance in E. colt. The objective of this study was to explore the in vitro effect of subminimum inhibitory concentrations (sub-MIC) of cefalotin (CF) and ceftazidime (CAZ) on the morphology, antimicrobial resistance, and endotoxin releasing characteristics of 3 E. colt isolates recovered from bovine clinical mastitis. The parent E. colt isolates, which were susceptible to CF and CAZ, were exposed to CF or CAZ separately at sub-MIC levels to produce 9 generations of induced isolates. Colonies of the CAZ-induced isolates from all 3 parent E. coli were smaller on blood agar and the bacteria became filamentous, whereas the CF-induced isolates did not demonstrate prominent morphological changes. After induction by CF or CAZ, many induced isolates showed resistance to cefoxitin, CAZ, CF, kanamycin, ampicillin, and amoxicillin/clavulanic acid while their parent isolates were susceptible to these antimicrobials. Notably, 5 CAZ-induced isolates from the same parent isolate were found to produce extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) though none of the tested ESBL related genes could be detected. All CAZ-induced isolates released more endotoxin with a higher release rate, whereas endotoxin release of CF-induced E. colt isolates was not different from parent isolates. The exposure of cephalosporins at sub-MIC levels induced resistant Escherichia colt. We inferred that cephalosporins, especially CAZ, should be used prudently for treatment of clinical E. colt mastitis

Microbial community drivers of PK/NRP gene diversity in selected global soils

Background The emergence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens has created an urgent need for novel antimicrobial treatments. Advances in next-generation sequencing have opened new frontiers for discovery programmes for natural products allowing the exploitation of a larger fraction of the microbial community. Polyketide (PK) and non-ribosomal pepetide (NRP) natural products have been reported to be related to compounds with antimicrobial and anticancer activities. We report here a new culture-independent approach to explore bacterial biosynthetic diversity and determine bacterial phyla in the microbial community associated with PK and NRP diversity in selected soils. Results Through amplicon sequencing, we explored the microbial diversity (16S rRNA gene) of 13 soils from Antarctica, Africa, Europe and a Caribbean island and correlated this with the amplicon diversity of the adenylation (A) and ketosynthase (KS) domains within functional genes coding for non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) and polyketide synthases (PKSs), which are involved in the production of NRP and PK, respectively. Mantel and Procrustes correlation analyses with microbial taxonomic data identified not only the well-studied phyla Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria, but also, interestingly, the less biotechnologically exploited phyla Verrucomicrobia and Bacteroidetes, as potential sources harbouring diverse A and KS domains. Some soils, notably that from Antarctica, provided evidence of endemic diversity, whilst others, such as those from Europe, clustered together. In particular, the majority of the domain reads from Antarctica remained unmatched to known sequences suggesting they could encode enzymes for potentially novel PK and NRP. Conclusions The approach presented here highlights potential sources of metabolic novelty in the environment which will be a useful precursor to metagenomic biosynthetic gene cluster mining for PKs and NRPs which could provide leads for new antimicrobial metabolites

LES DEUX GRANDES PUISSANCES ET L'AFRIQUE (1960-1977) TOME I & II

Eh cherchant a definir une problematique generale des rapports entre les Deux Grandes Puissances et l'Afrique nous sommes partis d'une interrogation assez simple : Derriere l'apparence d'un interet cyclique pour ce continent les Etats Unis et l'Union Sovietique sont-ils parvenus A construire depuis 1960 une politi-que d'engagement graduel ?A partir de la nous avons essaye de comprendre comment ces deux pays pou-vaient s'inserer dans le jeu diplomatique africain tout en ajustant l'ampleur de leur engagement A leurs contraintes de puissances globales. Si l'on entend par jeu diplomatique l'ensemble du reseau des relations in-ternationales etablies par des Etats souverains, on constate qu'A la difference des autres regions du Tiers Monde le jeu diplomatique africain ne commenga serieu-sement a interesser les Deux Grands qu'au moment de la decolonisation c'est-a-dire a partir de 1960. Or a cette date l'equilibre global sovieto-americain ne de la II Guerre Mondiale etait tres largement stabilise. La question pour les Deux Grands etait alors de savoir de quelle fagon l'emer-gence de l'Afrique en tant qu'entite politique autonome pourrait affecter cet equi-libre. Pour comprendre le double processus par lequel les Deux Grands ont cherchea repondre aux attentes africaines tout en s'efforgant d'integrer l'Afrique au ca-dre global des rapports sovieto-americains, nous nous sommes efforces de repondretrois series d'interrogations : Deux Grands ?Quels ont ete les parametres retenus dans la formulation et l'expression des reponses diplomatico-strategiques.?Par rapport a quelles contraintes l'engagement sovieto.-americain a-t-il pu se trouver stimule ou au contraire entrave ? La definition.prealable des enjeux par les Deux Grands apparait essentielle car elle pose des le depart la question de savoir comment deux grandes puissances peuvent s'inserer dans un cadre regional domine jusque-lA par les puissances euro-peennes et sur lequel elles n'avaient que peu d'influence avant 1960. L'insertion des Deux Grands obeit-elle essentiellement A la logique de la releve de l'influence europeenne ou bien repond-elle a des attentes specifiques d'ordre economique ou diplomatique ? Eh d'autres termes ii s'agira de s'interroger sur la notion "d'intergts propres" des Deux Grands en Afrique. Mais la reponse a cette question suppose que soit prealablement clarifiee la relation triangulaire URSS - Etats-Unis - Europe. Dans le cas de l'URSS l'interrogation portera sursa perception du rapport Etats-Unis - Europe. S'agit-il a ses yeux d'une relation conflictuelle et donc potentiellement propice a son propre engagement ou bien au contraire d'une relation fondamentalement congruente ? Dans le cas des Etats-Unis on se demandera jusqu'a quel point les enjeux africains ont ete identifies comme des intergts propres

Modeliranje sadržaja vlage i brzine sušenja određenih plodova solarnim sušenjem primjenom ANN-a

The aim of this work was to model the moisture content (MC) and drying rate (DR) using artificial neural network (ANN) methodology. Many architectures have been tested and the best topology was selected based on a trial and error method. The dataset was randomly divided into 60, 20, and 20 % for training, test, and validation stage of the ANN model, respectively. The best topology was 10-{29-13}-2 obtained with high correlation coefficient R (%) of {99.98, 98.41} and low root mean square error RMSE (%) (0.36, 6.29) for MC and DR, respectively. The obtained ANN can be used to interpolate the MC and DR with high accuracy. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.Cilj ovog rada bio je modelirati sadržaj vlage (MC) i brzinu sušenja (DR) primjenom metodologije umjetne neuronske mreže (ANN). Testirane su mnoge arhitekture, a najbolja topologija odabrana je na temelju metode pokušaja i pogrešaka. Skup podataka podijeljen je nasumično na 60, 20 i 20 % za fazu treninga, testa i validacije ANN modela. Najbolja topologija bila je 10-{29-13}-2 dobivena visokim koeficijentom korelacije R (%) od {99,98, 98,41} i niskom srednjom kvadratnom pogreškom RMSE (%) (0,36, 6,29) za MC, odnosno DR. Dobiveni ANN model može se s velikom točnošću primijeniti za interpolaciju MC-a i DR-a. Ovo djelo je dano na korištenje pod licencom Creative Commons Imenovanje 4.0 međunarodna

Failure analysis of compressed earth block using numerical plastic damage model

In the last decade, several studies have been introduced to the development and use of compressed earth blocks in green building construction. Studying the evaluation of existing cracks in construction builders by these blocks is an important industrial and safety subject in recent research. This objective opens a new field in building construction where we describe the mechanical behavior of compressed earth solid blocks. In addition, we offer a solution to rupture damages presented by the propagation of masonry cracks. This paper aims to explore a numerical study in ABAQUS where we analyze the mechanical properties of this block. We started by investigating the elastic phase for this material and it has been generalized to a study in the plastic regime and rupture for the studied block. The different results of numerical simulation of the studied shape are presented, compared, and criticized

Modeliranje vremena sušenja praha Candesartan Cilexetil primjenom tehnike računalne inteligencije

The aim of this work was to use two computational intelligence techniques, namely, artificial neural network (ANN) and support vector regression (SVR), to model the drying time of a pharmaceutical powder Candesartan Cilexetil, which is used for arterial hypertension treatment and heart failure. The experimental data set used in this work has been collected from previously published paper of the drying kinetics of Candesartan Cilexetil using vacuum dryer and under different operating conditions. The comparison between the two models has been conducted using different statistical parameters namely root mean squared error (RMSE) and determination coefficient (R2). Results show that SVR model shows high accuracy in comparison with ANN model to predict the non-linear behaviour of the drying time using pertinent variables with {R2 = 0.9991, RMSE = 0.262} against {R2 = 0.998, RMSE = 0.339} for SVR and ANN, respectively. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.Cilj ovog rada bio je primjena dvije tehnike računalne inteligencije (umjetne neuronske mreže (ANN) i regresije potpornih vektora (SVR)) za modeliranje vremena sušenja farmaceutskog praha Candesartan Cilexetil, koji se primjenjuje za liječenje arterijske hipertenzije i zatajenje srca. Eksperimentalni skup podataka korišten u ovom radu prikupljen je iz prethodno objavljenog rada o kinetici sušenja Candesartan Cilexetila pomoću vakuumskog sušionika i pod različitim radnim uvjetima. Usporedba između dva modela provedena je pomoću različitih statističkih parametara, odnosno korijenom srednje kvadratne pogreške (RMSE) i koeficijenta određivanja (R2). Rezultati su pokazali da u usporedbi s modelom ANN model SVR pokazuje visoku točnost za predviđanje nelinearnog ponašanja vremena sušenja koristeći odgovarajuće varijable {R2 = 0,9991, RMSE = 0,262} u odnosu na {R2 = 0,998, RMSE = 0,339} za SVR i ANN. Ovo djelo je dano na korištenje pod licencom Creative Commons Imenovanje 4.0 međunarodna

Pengaruh Tanggungjawab Aparat Dan Kualitas Pelayanan Terhadap Tingkat Kepercayaan Masyarakat Kepada Pemerintah Pada Kecamatan Tugumulyo Musirawas

Abstract This study aims to determine the effect of the responsibility of the apparatus and the quality of service to the level of public confidence to the Government in Tugumulyo District Musirawas. The design of this study using questionnaires filled by 108 respondents. There is a positive influence of responsibilities (X1) and Quality of Service (X2) collectively to the Government's Trustworthiness to the Government (Y). through significance test by using the F distribution, obtained the value of Fhitung equal to 47,8598 while the critical value of Ftable value with degrees of free of denominator 2 denominator 105 on α (0,01) obtained value Ftable equal to 4,79 so it proved that Fhitung (47,8598) > Ftable (4.79). Thus, the variables of responsibility and quality of services together can increase the Community's Trustworthiness Against the Government. There is a positive influence of Responsibility (X1) on Community Trustworthiness to Government (Y). Through the test of significance with t test statistic, obtained tcount value for b1 of 3.453 while ttable with degrees of free 105 at α (0.025) is equal to 1.960. Thus thitung (3.453)> ttable (1,960). This shows that the Responsibility of the Apparatus can increase the Community Trustworthiness to the Government. Meanwhile, based on multiple regression equation is Y = 17,880 + 0,251X1 + 0,475X2, where every increase of 1 (one) score of Responsibility Officer variable can increase 0,251 score of variable of level of Trust of Society to Government assuming service variable can increase 0,475 score variable to the Government assuming the variable of Responsibility of Constituent Apparatus.Keywords: Personal Responsibility, Quality of Customer Service, Trust of the Government Society Abstrak Penelitian ini bertujuan  untuk mengetahui pengaruh  tanggungjawab aparat dan kualitas pelayanan terhadap tingkat kepercayaan  masyarakat kepada Pemerintah di Kecamatan Tugumulyo Musirawas. Desain penelitian ini  menggunakan kuesioner yang diisi oleh 108 responden.  Terdapat pengaruh yang positif tanggung jawab (X1) dan Kualitas Pelayanan (X2) secara bersama-sama terhadap Tingkat Kepercayaan Masyarakat Kepada Pemerintah (Y). melalui uji signifikansi dengan menggunakan distribusi   F, diperoleh nilai Fhitung sebesar 47,8598 sementara harga kritis nilai Ftabel dengan derajat bebas pembilang 2 penyebut 105 pada α (0,01) diperoleh nilai Ftabel sebesar 4,79 sehingga terbukti bahwa Fhitung (47,8598) > Ftabel (4,79). Dengan demikian bahwa variabel tanggung jawab dan kualitas pelayanan secara bersama-sama dapat meningkatkan Tingkat Kepercayaan Masyarakat Terhadap Pemerintah. Terdapat pengaruh yang positif Tanggung  Jawab (X1) terhadap Tingkat Kepercayaan Masyarakat Kepada Pemerintah (Y). Melalui uji signifikansi dengan statistik uji t, diperoleh nilai thitung untuk b1 sebesar 3,453 sedangkan ttabel dengan derajat bebas 105 pada α (0,025) adalah sebesar 1,960. Dengan demikian thitung (3,453) > ttabel (1,960). Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa Tanggung Jawab Aparat dapat meningkatkan Tingkat Kepercayaan Masyarakat Kepada Pemerintah. Sedangkan berdasarkan persamaan regresi berganda adalah Y = 17,880 + 0,251X1 + 0,475X2, dimana setiap kenaikan 1 (satu) skor variabel Tanggung Jawab Aparat dapat meningkatkan 0,251 skor variabel tingkat Kepercayaan Masyarakat kepada Pemerintah dengan asumsi variabel Pelayanan dapat meningkatkan 0,475 skor variabel Tingkat Kepercayaan Masyarakat kepada Pemerintah dengan asumsi variabel Tanggung Jawab Aparat Konstan. Kata Kunci: Tanggung Jawab Pribadi, Kualitas Layanan Pelanggan, Kepercayaan Masyarakat Pemerinta