Search results for: non negative integer sampling

Authors: Marcelo Lopes Dias Kolling, Felipe Ferreira Laranjeira, Guilherme Augusto Hettwer, Pedro Salomão Piccinini, Marwan Masri, Carlos Oscar Uebel

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Introduction: Injectable fillers are among the most common nonsurgical cosmetic procedures, with significant growth yearly. Knowledge of rheological and mechanical characteristics of fillers, facial anatomy, and injection technique is essential for safety. Concepts such as the use of cannula versus needle, aspiration before injection, and facial danger zones have been well discussed. In case of an accidental intravascular puncture, the pressure inside the vessel may not be sufficient to push blood into the syringe due to the characteristics of the filler product; this is especially true for calcium hydroxyapatite (CaHA) or hyaluronic acid (HA) fillers with high G’. Since viscoelastic properties of normal saline are much lower than those of fillers, aspiration with saline prior to filler injection may decrease the risk of a false negative aspiration and subsequent catastrophic effects. We discuss a technique to add an additional safety step to the procedure with saline aspiration prior to injection, a ‘’reverse Seldinger’’ technique for intravascular access, which we term SANIT: Saline Aspiration Negative Intravascular Test. Objectives: To demonstrate the author’s (PSP) technique which adds an additional safety step to the process of filler injection, with both CaHA and HA, in order to decrease the risk of intravascular injection. Materials and Methods: Normal skin cleansing and topical anesthesia with prilocaine/lidocaine cream are performed; the facial subunits to be treated are marked. A 3mL Luer lock syringe is filled with 2mL of 0.9% normal saline and a 27G needle, which is turned one half rotation. When a cannula is to be used, the Luer lock syringe is attached to a 27G 4cm single hole disposable cannula. After skin puncture, the 3mL syringe is advanced with the plunger pulled back (negative pressure). Progress is made to the desired depth, all the while aspirating. Once the desired location of filler injection is reached, the syringe is exchanged for the syringe containing a filler, securely grabbing the hub of the needle and taking care to not dislodge the needle tip. Prior to this, we remove 0.1mL of filler to allow for space inside the syringe for aspiration. We again aspirate and inject retrograde. SANIT is especially useful for CaHA, since the G’ is much higher than HA, and thus reflux of blood into the syringe is less likely to occur. Results: The technique has been used safely for the past two years with no adverse events; the increase in cost is negligible (only the cost of 2mL of normal saline). Over 100 patients (over 300 syringes) have been treated with this technique. The risk of accidental intravascular puncture has been calculated to be between 1:6410 to 1:40882 syringes among expert injectors; however, the consequences of intravascular injection can be catastrophic even with board-certified physicians. Conclusions: While the risk of intravascular filler injection is low, the consequences can be disastrous. We believe that adding the SANIT technique can help further mitigate risk with no significant untoward effects and could be considered by all performing injectable fillers. Further follow-up is ongoing.

Keywords: injectable fillers, safety, saline aspiration, injectable filler complications, hyaluronic acid, calcium hydroxyapatite

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Authors: Usman Bawa

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Macro-invertebrates have been used to monitor organic pollution in rivers and streams. Several biotic indices based on macro-invertebrates have been developed over the years including the Biological Monitoring Working Party (BMWP). A new biotic index, the Gammarus:Asellus ratio has been recently proposed as an index of organic pollution. This study tested the validity of the Gammarus:Asellus ratio as an index of organic pollution, by examining the relationship between the Gammarus:Asellus ratio and physical-chemical parameters, and other biotic indices such as BMWP and, Average Score Per Taxon (ASPT) from lakes and streams at Markeaton Park, Allestree Park, and Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire. Macro invertebrates were sampled using the standard five-minute kick sampling techniques physical and chemical environmental variables were obtained based on standard sampling techniques. Eighteen sites were sampled, six sites from Markeaton Park (three sites across the stream and three sites across the lake). Six sites each were also sampled from Allestree Park and Kedleston Hall lakes. The Gammarus:Asellus ratio showed an opposite significant positive correlations with parameters indicative of organic pollution such as the level of nitrates, phosphates, and calcium and also revealed a negatively significant correlations with other biotic indices (BMWP/ASPT). The BMWP score correlated positively significantly with some water quality parameters such as dissolved oxygen and flow rate, but revealed no correlations with other chemical environmental variables. The BMWP score was significantly higher in the stream than the lake in Markeaton Park, also The ASPT scores appear to be significantly higher in the upper Lakes than the middle and lower lakes. This study has further strengthened the use of BMWP/ASPT score as an index of organic pollution. But, additional application is required to validate the use of Gammarus:Asellus as a rapid bio monitoring tool.

Keywords: Asellus, biotic index, Gammarus, macro invertebrates, organic pollution

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Authors: Mavis Ofosuah Asante, Abena Abokoma Asemanyi, Belinda Osei-mensah, Stephen Osei Akyiaw

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The study examined mobile money service fraud experiences and perspectives on control practices at University of Education, Winneba. The objectives of the study included to examine the forms of MoMo fraud strategies experienced by customers of MoMo on UEW Campus, to examine and classify the main perpetrators of the MoMo fraud among UEW students as well as the framework for fraud detection put together by the Telco’s and consumers on UEW Campus. The study adopted the case study research design. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the UEW Campus. Using the convenience sampling technique, five respondents were sampled for the study. The outcome of the in-depth interviews conducted revealed Mobile money fraud was committed in various forms, such as anonymous calls and text messages from scammers, fraudsters calling to deceive subscribers that they are to deliver goods from abroad or from a close relative under false pretexts. Finally, fraudsters sending false cash-out messages to merchants for authorization of which the physical cash is issued by the merchant to the fraudster without the equivalent e-cash. Mobile money fraud has been perpetuated in diverse forms such as mobile money network systems fraud, false promotion fraud, and reversal of erroneous transactions, fortuitous scams, and mobile money agents' fraud. Finally, the frameworks that have been used to detect mobile money fraud include the display of national identifies cards for the transaction, digital identification systems, the use of firewall to protect mobile money accounts, effective information technology architecture for mobile money services, reporting of mobile money fraud to telecoms and the sanctioning of mobile money fraudsters. The study suggested there should be public education and awareness creation on the activities of mobile money fraudsters in Ghana by telecommunication companies in conjunction with the National Communications Authority and the Bank of Ghana. The study, therefore, concluded that the menace of mobile money fraud threatens the integrity of the mobile money financial services.

Keywords: mobile money, fraud, telecommunication, merchant

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Authors: Sudaporn Arundee

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The purposes of this research were to study in three areas: (1) to study political understanding and participating of the constitutional monarchy, (2) to study the level of participation. This paper drew upon data collected from 395 Dusit residents by using questionnaire. In addition, a simple random sampling was utilized to collect data. The findings revealed that 94 percent of respondents had a very good understanding of constitution monarchy with a mean of 4.8. However, the respondents overall had a very low level of participation with the mean score of 1.69 and standard deviation of .719.

Keywords: political participation, constitutional monarchy, management and social sciences

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Authors: Ni'mal Baroya, Andrei Ramani, Irma Prasetyowati

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The access to reproduction health services, including with safe and effective contraception were human rights regardless of social stratum and residence. In addition to individual factors, family and contextual factors were also believed to be the cause in the use of contraceptive methods. This study aimed to assess the determinants of long-term contraceptive methods (LTCM) by considering all the factors at either the individual level or contextual level. Thereby, this study could provide basic information for program development of prevalence enhancement of MKJP in East Java. The research, which used cross-sectional design, utilized Riskesdas 2013 data, particularly in East Java Province for further analysis about multilevel modeling of MKJP application. The sample of this study consisted of 20.601 married women who were not in pregnant that were drawn by using probability sampling following the sampling technique of Riskesdas 2013. Variables in this study were including the independent variables at the individual level that consisted of education, age, occupation, access to family planning services (KB), economic status and residence. As independent variables in district level were the Human Development Index (HDI, henceforth as IPM) in each districts of East Java Province, the ratio of field officers, the ratio of midwives, the ratio of community health centers and the ratio of doctors. As for the dependent variable was the use of Long-Term Contraceptive Method (LTCM or MKJP). The data were analyzed by using chi-square test and Pearson product moment correlation. The multivariable analysis was using multilevel logistic regression with 95% of Confidence Interval (CI) at the significance level of p < 0.05 and 80% of strength test. The results showed a low CPR LTCM was concentrated in districts in Madura Island and the north coast. The women which were 25 to 35 or more than 35 years old, at least high school education, working, and middle-class social status were more likely to use LTCM or MKJP. The IPM and low PLKB ratio had implications for poor CPR LTCM / MKJP.

Keywords: multilevel, long-term contraceptive methods, east java, contextual factor

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Authors: Rabie Fadil, Parshuram Aarotale, Shubha Majumder, Bijay Guargain

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Hemorrhage is the loss of blood from the circulatory system and leading cause of battlefield and postpartum related deaths. Early detection of hemorrhage remains the most effective strategy to reduce mortality rate caused by traumatic injuries. In this study, we investigated the physiological changes via non-invasive cardiac signals at rest and under different hemorrhage conditions simulated through graded lower-body negative pressure (LBNP). Simultaneous electrocardiogram (ECG), photoplethysmogram (PPG), blood pressure (BP), impedance cardiogram (ICG), and phonocardiogram (PCG) were acquired from 10 participants (age:28 ± 6 year, weight:73 ± 11 kg, height:172 ± 8 cm). The LBNP protocol consisted of applying -20, -30, -40, -50, and -60 mmHg pressure to the lower half of the body. Beat-to-beat heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and mean aerial pressure (MAP) were extracted from ECG and blood pressure. Systolic amplitude (SA), systolic time (ST), diastolic time (DT), and left ventricle Ejection time (LVET) were extracted from PPG during each stage. Preliminary results showed that the application of -40 mmHg i.e. moderate stage simulated hemorrhage resulted significant changes in HR (85±4 bpm vs 68 ± 5bpm, p < 0.01), ST (191 ± 10 ms vs 253 ± 31 ms, p < 0.05), LVET (350 ± 14 ms vs 479 ± 47 ms, p < 0.05) and DT (551 ± 22 ms vs 683 ± 59 ms, p < 0.05) compared to rest, while no change was observed in SA (p > 0.05) as a consequence of LBNP application. These findings demonstrated the potential of cardiac signals in detecting moderate hemorrhage. In future, we will analyze all the LBNP stages and investigate the feasibility of other physiological signals to develop a predictive machine learning model for early detection of hemorrhage.

Keywords: blood pressure, hemorrhage, lower-body negative pressure, LBNP, machine learning

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Authors: Michele Romanello

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COVID-19 has spread rapidly in Brazil since March 2020, making the country one of the most affected in the world by the pandemic. From an economic point of view, Brazil came from a pre-pandemic period characterized by low or negative growth, with a resulting increase in the number of unemployed and informal workers. This paper considers lockdown implementation in the situation of the large presence of informality in the economy. The objective of the paper is to analyze how the country has tried to help workers affected by economic crisis after the implementation of measures against COVID-19 and whether the emergency assistance from the government has been adequate to contain the increase of informal workers and unemployed. The methodology used in this paper is survival analysis. Through this methodology, the formality – informality, and informality – unemployment transitions are analyzed. This analysis draws data from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Continuous PNAD) and from the National Household Sample Survey COVID-19 (PNAD COVID-19) covering the period of January 2020 – July 2020. The results indicate that emergency aid has been not sufficient to reduce the transitions of workers from formal to informal jobs and from informal jobs to unemployment. Emergency aid has been not sufficient considering the previous situation of the country, with levels of poverty and inequality very high. In the next months, another fundamental determinant of the income trajectory in the context of the COVID-19 crisis will be the continuity of the emergency aid, especially considering the fiscal adjustment policy pursued by the government. Therefore, the current negative portrait may be even worse in the coming months.

Keywords: Brazil, COVID-19, informality, survival analysis

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Authors: Takuma Yamamoto

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Present study investigated the relationship between elementary school children’s prosocial behavior in classroom and satisfaction with school life (approval and victimization from other children) with considering from the perspective of classroom social goal structures (prosocial and compliance goal structures). Participants were 755 elementary school children (393 boys, 362 girls, mean range= 10-12, 5th grader and 6th grader) who were living in Chugoku District, Japan. They filled up questionnaire which was consisted of Murakami, Nishimura and Sakurai’s (2016) prosocial behavior toward friend scale, Kawamura and Tagami’s (1997) satisfaction in classroom scale and Ohtani, Okada, Nakaya and Ito’s (2016) classroom social goal structures scale. Regression lines that satisfaction in classroom is dependent variable and prosocial behavior is independent variable for each class were drawn. There were two types of classroom which children’s prosocial behavior correlated with satisfaction positively and did not. Then one-way MANOVA was conducted to further describe two types of classroom which prosocial behavior increased satisfaction in classroom (type 1) and prosocial behavior decreased satisfaction (type 2). MANOVA for Prosocial goal structure was significant, type 1 > type 2. There were two key findings from this study. First, MANOVA for prosocial goal structure was significant. Second, high score of prosocial goal structure was not necessary condition for the classroom type which children’s prosocial behavior correlated with satisfaction. The implications from these key findings were: (1) in the low prosocial goal structure classroom, children will not behave prosocially because of their negative expectation for the effect of prosocial behavior, (2) this study can be a contribution for classroom management that teachers need to consider about the negative possibilities of prosocial behavior when they try to increase the amount of children’s positive behavior.

Keywords: elementary school children, classroom social goal structure, satisfaction with school life, prosocial behavior

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Authors: Rui Xing, Xiaowen Zhao, Hao Huang, Chang Liu

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Creativity is regarded as vital for new ventures' development since the whole process of entrepreneurship is rooted in the creation and exploration of new ideas. The entrepreneurial leader is central to the entrepreneurial team, who plays an especially important role in this process. However, few scholars have studied the impact entrepreneurs' leadership styles on the creativity of entrepreneurial teams. In this study, we integrate the historically disjointed literatures of leadership style and team creativity under entrepreneurship circumstance to understand why and when entrepreneurs' different leadership style relates to team creativity. Focus on answering the following questions: Is humility leadership necessarily better than narcissism leadership at increasing the creativity of entrepreneurial teams? Moreover, in which situations humility leadership or narcissism leadership is more conducive to the entrepreneurial team's creativity? Based on the componential theory of creativity and entrepreneurial cognition theory, we explore the relationship between entrepreneurs' leadership style and team creativity, treating team cognitive diversity and environmental uncertainty as moderators and psychological empowerment as mediators. We tested our hypotheses using data gathered from 64 teams and 256 individual members from 53 new firms in China's first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. We found that there was a significant positive relation between entrepreneurs' humble leadership and psychological empowerment, and the more significant the positive correlation was when the environmental uncertainty was high. In addition, there was a significant negative relation between entrepreneurs' narcissistic leadership and psychological empowerment, and the negative relation was weaker in teams with a high team cognitive diversity value. Furthermore, both entrepreneurs' humble leadership and team psychological empowerment were significantly positively related to team creativity. While entrepreneurs' narcissistic leadership was negatively related to team creativity, and the negative relationship was weaker in teams with a high team cognitive diversity or a high environmental uncertainty value. This study has some implications for both scholars and entrepreneurs. Firstly, our study enriches the understanding of the role of leadership in entrepreneurial team creativity. Different from previous team creativity literatures, focusing on TMT and R&D team, this study is a significant attempt to demonstrate that entrepreneurial leadership style is particularly relevant to the core requirements of team creativity. Secondly, this study introduces two moderating variables, cognitive diversity and environmental uncertainty, to explore the different boundary conditions under which the two leadership styles play their roles, which is helpful for entrepreneurs to understand how to leverage leadership to improve entrepreneurial team creativity, how to recruit cognitively diverse employees to moderate the effects of inappropriate leadership to the team. Finally, our findings showed that entrepreneurs' humble leadership makes a unique contribution to explaining team creativity through team psychological empowerment.

Keywords: entrepreneurs’ leadership style, entrepreneurial team creativity, team psychological empowerment, team cognitive diversity, environmental uncertainty

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Authors: C. Sancho Salvatierra, J. M. Martinez Nieto, R. García Gonzalez-Gordon, M. I. Martinez Bellido

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Introduction: Nature could act as an asset for human health protecting against possible diseases and promoting the state of both physical and mental health. Goals: This paper aims to determine which natural elements present evidence that show positive influence on human health, on which particular aspects and how. It also aims to determine the best biomarkers to measure such influence. Method: A systematic literature review was carried out. First, a general free text search was performed in databases, such as Scopus, PubMed or PsychInfo. Secondly, a specific search was performed combining keywords in order of increasing complexity. Also the Snowballing technique was used and it was consulted in the CSIC’s (The Spanish National Research Council). Databases: Of the 130 articles obtained and reviewed, 80 referred to natural elements that influenced health. These 80 articles were classified and tabulated according to the nature elements found, the health aspects studied, the health measurement parameters used and the measurement techniques used. In this classification the results of the studies were codified according to whether they were positive, negative or neutral both for the elements of nature and for the aspects of health studied. Finally, the results of the 80 selected studies were summarized and categorized according to the elements of nature that showed the greatest positive influence on health and the biomarkers that had shown greater reliability to measure said influence. Results: Of the 80 articles studied, 24 (30.0%) were reviews and 56 (70.0%) were original research articles. Among the 24 reviews, 18 (75%) found positive results of natural elements on health, and 6 (25%) both positive and negative effects. Of the 56 original articles, 47 (83.9%) showed positive results, 3 (5.4%) both positive and negative, 4 (7.1%) negative effects, and 2 (3.6%) found no effects. The results reflect positive effects of different elements of nature on the following pathologies: diabetes, high blood pressure, stress, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, psychotic, anxiety and affective disorders. They also show positive effects on the following areas: immune system, social interaction, recovery after illness, mood, decreased aggressiveness, concentrated attention, cognitive performance, restful sleep, vitality and sense of well-being. Among the elements of nature studied, those that show the greatest positive influence on health are forest immersion, natural views, daylight, outdoor physical activity, active transport, vegetation biodiversity, natural sounds and the green residences. As for the biomarkers used that show greater reliability to measure the effects of natural elements are the levels of cortisol (both in blood and saliva), vitamin D levels, serotonin and melatonin, blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension and skin conductance. Conclusions: Nature is an asset for health, well-being and quality of life. Awareness programs, education and health promotion are needed based on the elements that nature brings us, which in turn generate proactive attitudes in the population towards the protection and conservation of nature. The studies related to this subject in Spain are very scarce. Aknowledgements. This study has been promoted and partially financed by the Environmental Foundation Jaime González-Gordon.

Keywords: health, green areas, nature, well-being

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Authors: Erhong Sun, Xuchun Ye

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Technophobia, namely the fear or dislike of modern advanced technologies, plays a central role in age-related digital divides and is considered a new risk factor for older adults, which can affect the daily lives of people through low adherence to digital living. Indeed, there is considerable heterogeneity in the group of older adults who feel technophobia. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify different technophobia typologies of older people and to examine their associations with the subjective age factor. A sample of 704 retired elderly over the age of 55 was recruited in China. Technophobia and subjective age were assessed with a questionnaire, respectively. Latent profile analysis was used to identify technophobia subgroups, using three dimensions including techno-anxiety, techno-paranoia, and privacy concerns as indicators. The association between the identified technophobia subgroups and subjective age was explored. In summary, four different technophobia typologies were identified among older adults in China. Combined with an investigation of personal background characteristics and subjective age, it draws a more nuanced image of the technophobia phenome among older adults in China. First, not all older adults suffer from technophobia, with about half of the elderly subjects belonging to the profiles of “Low-technophobia” and “Medium-technophobia.” Second, privacy concern plays an important role in the classification of technophobia among older adults. Third, subjective age might be a protective factor for technophobia in older adults. Although the causal direction between identified technophobia typologies and subjective age remains uncertain, our suggests that future interventions should better focus on subjective age by breaking the age stereotype of technology to reduce the negative effect of technophobia on older. Future development of this research will involve extensive investigation of the detailed impact of technophobia in senior populations, measurement of the negative outcomes, as well as formulation of innovative educational and clinical pathways.

Keywords: technophobia, older adults, latent profile analysis, subjective age

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Authors: Jinhoa Lee

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The relationships between environmental quality, energy use and economic output have created growing attention over the past decades among researchers and policy makers. Focusing on the empirical aspects of the role of CO2 emissions and energy use in affecting the economic output, this paper is an effort to fulfil the gap in a comprehensive case study at a country level using modern econometric techniques. To achieve the goal, this country-specific study examines the short-run and long-run relationships among energy consumption, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and gross domestic product (GDP) for Oman using time series analysis from the year 1980-2010. To investigate the relationships between the variables, this paper employs the Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test for stationary, Johansen maximum likelihood method for co-integration and a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) for both short- and long-run causality among the research variables for the sample. All the variables in this study show very strong significant effects on GDP in the country for the long term. The long-run equilibrium in the VECM suggests positive long-run causalities from CO2 emissions to GDP. Conversely, negative impacts of energy consumption on GDP are found to be significant in Oman during the period. In the short run, there exist negative unidirectional causalities among GDP, CO2 emissions and energy consumption running from GDP to CO2 emissions and from energy consumption to CO2 emissions. Overall, the results support arguments that there are relationships among environmental quality, energy use and economic output in Oman over of period 1980-2010.

Keywords: CO2 emissions, energy consumption, GDP, Oman, time series analysis

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Authors: Kaushal Jha

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India is one of the major producers of pineapple contributing a significant part in terms of total world production of pineapple. It has spread throughout tropical and subtropical regions as a commercial fruit crop. In India, the cultivation of pineapple is confined to high rainfall and humid coastal region in the peninsular India and hilly areas of Northeastern region of India. Nagaland, one of the potential states of North-East India is basically an agrarian state having been endowed with favourable agro climatic conditions and a rich bio-diversity of flora and fauna. Agriculture contributes significantly to the state’s economy. Pineapple is an important fruit crop grown in Nagaland and has a very high potential for doubling the income of farmers in comparison to the traditional practices of rice cultivation. This requires improved farm management practices as well as a genre of entrepreneurial intentions and capabilities. The present study aimed at analysing the dimensions of entrepreneurial skill development among the pineapple growers of Nagaland. Medziphema block under Dimapur district is considered as the pineapple valley of Nagaland. Pineapple grown in this area is considered as one of the best in Nagaland in terms of its sweetness as well as quality. A multistage sampling was undertaken for conducting the present study. Medziphema rural development block was selected purposively for this purpose. The sample was drawn from three leading pineapple producing villages under Medziphema block. The respondents were selected based on random sampling procedure. Data were collected from the respondents using a pre-tested structured schedule. Major findings revealed that entrepreneurial skill development was one of the important factors to augment the increase in the sustained flow of income among the target farmers. Development of farm leadership, improving self esteem, innovativeness, economic motivation, orientation towards management of farm resources and value addition were identified as important dimensions for promoting entrepreneurial skill development and bringing prosperity to the farmers.

Keywords: skill development, entrepreneurial attributes, pineapple growers, Nagaland

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Authors: Tsige Reda

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Essential oil of Thymus vulgaris was extracted by means of hydro-distillation. This study was done to investigate the chemical composition, antibacterial and antioxidant activities. The chemical composition of the essential oils was determined using gas chromatography coupled to mass spectroscopy (GC-MS). Using disc diffusion assay the antibacterial activity was assessed on one Gram-positive bacteria and one Gram-negative bacteria. The percentage oil yield of the essential oil was found to be 0.97 ± 0.08% (w/w) with yellow color. The physicochemical constants of the oil were also noted. The phytochemical screening of the plant extract revealed the presence of tannins, saponins, phenol, flavonoids, terpenoids, steroids and alkaloids. A total of 18 chemical constituents were identified by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy analysis representing 100% of the total essential oil of Thymus vulgaris, with thymol (31.977%), o-cymene (29.992%), and carvacrol (14.541%). Previous studies have revealed that the thymol, o-cymen and carvacrol components of Thymus vulgaris are responsible for their biological activities. Thymus vulgaris have been used traditionally to treat a wide variety of infections. Based on the extensive use and lack of scientific evidence, a study was embarked upon to determine its bioactivity. The essential oil of Thymus vulgaris leaves exhibited higher activity towards the Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aurous) than the Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli) and also has good antioxidant activity, and can be used medicinal and therapeutic applications. This activity may be due to the high amount of thymol, o-cymen and carvacrol.

Keywords: hydro-distillation, Thymus vulgaris, essential oil composition, phytochemical screening, physicochemical constants, antioxidant activity, antibacterial activity

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Authors: Sidika McNeil

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Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a personality disorder that has been found to have strong origins in childhood trauma. One of the key symptoms of BPD is an association with irregular moods swings, as well as suicidal ideation (SI). Owing to the typically severe trauma patients experience during childhood, it is hard for them to control their emotions and thus makes it hard to emotionally regulate. It is then very common for those suffering from BPD to turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as substance use, unhealthy relationships, and more, often unsuccessfully creating experiences that facilitate safety which leads to further negative experiences. With the high suicide rating among children, adolescents, and teens, and an ever-increasing number of children being diagnosed with BPD, it is very important that more research is done to find further treatments for patients who are currently suffering. Methods: Utilizing data found in prior studies, this paper will analyze the literature to focus on a comprehensive treatment plan for those with DBT. It is currently suggested that with the use of dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), a therapy that focuses on changing negative thinking patterns and pushes for more positive ones is helpful for treatment for those with BPD. Though this therapy is not a cure to BPD, it does help mitigate the risk; this essay will explore other options that can further the treatment process, such as cognitive analytical therapy (CAT), which focuses on delving into the past to find the root causes of an issue to create coping strategies and harm reduction, a type of therapy used to aid patients in lowering the use of substances without complete cessation. Results: The research provides enough evidence to link between the treatment of BPD with the utilization of CAT.

Keywords: borderline personality disorder, cognitive analytical therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, harm reduction, suicidal ideation

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Authors: Khanyisile Mnguni, Muthukrishnavellaisamy Kumarasamy, Jeff C. Smithers

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Umgeni Water is a water board that supplies most parts of KwaZulu Natal with bulk portable water. Currently, Umgeni Water is running its distribution system based on required reservoir levels and demands and does not consider the energy cost at different times of the day, number of pump switches, and background leakages. Including these constraints can reduce operational cost, energy usage, leakages, and increase performance. Optimising pump schedules can reduce energy usage and costs while adhering to hydraulic and operational constraints. Umgeni Water has installed an online hydraulic software, WaterNet Advisor, that allows running different operational scenarios prior to implementation in order to optimise the distribution system. This study will investigate operation scenarios using optimisation techniques and WaterNet Advisor for a local water distribution system. Based on studies reported in the literature, introducing pump scheduling optimisation can reduce energy usage by approximately 30% without any change in infrastructure. Including tariff structures in an optimisation problem can reduce pumping costs by 15%, while including leakages decreases cost by 10%, and pressure drop in the system can be up to 12 m. Genetical optimisation algorithms are widely used due to their ability to solve nonlinear, non-convex, and mixed-integer problems. Other methods such as branch and bound linear programming have also been successfully used. A suitable optimisation method will be chosen based on its efficiency. The objective of the study is to reduce energy usage, operational cost, and leakages, and the feasibility of optimal solution will be checked using the Waternet Advisor. This study will provide an overview of the optimisation of hydraulic networks and progress made to date in multi-objective optimisation for a selected sub-system operated by Umgeni Water.

Keywords: energy usage, pump scheduling, WaterNet Advisor, leakages

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Authors: Andrey Davydov, Konstantin Sveshnikov, Yulia Voronina

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There is now a lot of interest to the non-perturbative QED-effects, caused by diving of discrete levels into the negative continuum in the supercritical static or adiabatically slowly varying Coulomb fields, that are created by the localized extended sources with Z > Z_cr. Such effects have attracted a considerable amount of theoretical and experimental activity, since in 3+1 QED for Z > Z_cr,1 ≈ 170 a non-perturbative reconstruction of the vacuum state is predicted, which should be accompanied by a number of nontrivial effects, including the vacuum positron emission. Similar in essence effects should be expected also in both 2+1 D (planar graphene-based hetero-structures) and 1+1 D (one-dimensional ‘hydrogen ion’). This report is devoted to the study of such essentially non-perturbative vacuum effects for the supercritical Dirac-Coulomb systems in 1+1D and 2+1D, with the main attention drawn to the vacuum polarization energy. Although the most of works considers the vacuum charge density as the main polarization observable, vacuum energy turns out to be not less informative and in many respects complementary to the vacuum density. Moreover, the main non-perturbative effects, which appear in vacuum polarization for supercritical fields due to the levels diving into the lower continuum, show up in the behavior of vacuum energy even more clear, demonstrating explicitly their possible role in the supercritical region. Both in 1+1D and 2+1D, we explore firstly the renormalized vacuum density in the supercritical region using the Wichmann-Kroll method. Thereafter, taking into account the results for the vacuum density, we formulate the renormalization procedure for the vacuum energy. To evaluate the latter explicitly, an original technique, based on a special combination of analytical methods, computer algebra tools and numerical calculations, is applied. It is shown that, for a wide range of the external source parameters (the charge Z and size R), in the supercritical region the renormalized vacuum energy could significantly deviate from the perturbative quadratic growth up to pronouncedly decreasing behavior with jumps by (-2 x mc^2), which occur each time, when the next discrete level dives into the negative continuum. In the considered range of variation of Z and R, the vacuum energy behaves like ~ -Z^2/R in 1+1D and ~ -Z^3/R in 2+1D, exceeding deeply negative values. Such behavior confirms the assumption of the neutral vacuum transmutation into the charged one, and thereby of the spontaneous positron emission, accompanying the emergence of the next vacuum shell due to the total charge conservation. To the end, we also note that the methods, developed for the vacuum energy evaluation in 2+1 D, with minimal complements could be carried over to the three-dimensional case, where the vacuum energy is expected to be ~ -Z^4/R and so could be competitive with the classical electrostatic energy of the Coulomb source.

Keywords: non-perturbative QED-effects, one- and two-dimensional Dirac-Coulomb systems, supercritical fields, vacuum polarization

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Authors: Saima Batool, Saima Rafique

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Background and Objective: Pandemics like COVID-19 adversely affect children’s behavior and psychological development by disrupting routine life activities. Children of healthcare workers are exposed additionally due to the fear of parental exposure to the virus. The objective of this study was to assess the perception of frontline healthcare workers (HCWs) regarding the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their children. We also sought to identify the difference in the psychological impact on children of male and female healthcare workers. Methods: A survey questionnaire was developed comprising 10 questions about the perception of HCWs regarding the psychological impact of COVID-19 on their children. It was distributed both online and face-to-face among 150 healthcare professionals working in training and non-training posts in 4 public and 5 nongovernment hospitals in Pakistan. The mean and standard deviation were calculated for each survey item using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 26.0. Results: The response rate was 71.3%, and the majority (64.2%) of the healthcare professionals were ≥30 years of age. Ninety-two HCWs (85.98%) either agreed or strongly agreed that parental separation from their kids for long hours during the pandemic had a negative psychological impact on their children. There was a significant difference in the perceived psychological impact of COVID-19 on the children of male and female HCWs, with a mean survey score of 2.29 ± 1.82 and 1.69 ± 0.79, respectively (t = 2.29, p-value = 0.024). Conclusion: Children of healthcare workers experience more stress and anxiety because of long duty hours and working in high-risk settings. Continuous psychological support and counseling services may be adopted formally to prevent unforeseen adverse events or any long-term negative impact on their physical and mental health.

Keywords: healthcare workers, pandemic, COVID-19, anxiety, psychological

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Authors: Hadi Mousavi, Majid Davoudi Nasr

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Executives can maximize profits by recognizing the factors that affect investment and using them to obtain the optimal level of investment. Inefficient markets have shortcomings that can impact the optimal level of investment, leading to the process of over-investment or under-investment. In the present study, the relationship between the overconfidence of senior managers and abnormal cash fluctuations with respect to financial flexibility in companies listed in the Tehran stock exchange from 2009 to 2013 were evaluated. In this study, the sample consists of 84 companies selected by a systematic elimination method and 420 year-companies in total. In this research, EVIEWS software was used to test the research hypotheses by linear regression and correlation coefficient and after designing and testing the research hypothesis. After designing and testing research hypotheses that have been used to each hypothesis, it was concluded that there was a significant relationship between the overconfidence of senior managers and abnormal cash fluctuations, and this relationship was not significant at any level of financial flexibility. Moreover, the findings of the research showed that there was a significant relationship between senior manager’s overconfidence and positive abnormal cash flow fluctuations in firms, and this relationship is significant only at the level of companies with high financial flexibility. Finally, the results indicate that there is no significant relationship between senior managers 'overconfidence and negative cash flow abnormalities, and the relationship between senior managers' overconfidence and negative cash flow fluctuations at the level of companies with high financial flexibility was confirmed.

Keywords: abnormal cash fluctuations, overconfidence of senior managers, financial flexibility, accounting

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Authors: Razia Anjum, Zaqia Bano, Chan Wai

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Temperament has been described as a multifaceted and potentially value-laden construct in literature but there is scarcity of research work in area of forensic psychology predominantly in south Asian countries. Present exposition explored the mediated effect of temperament towards the childhood maltreatment and delinquency. Further the moderated effect of prisoner’s age and education will be examined. Variable System for Windows 1.3 version was used to analyze the data provided by 517 prisoners (407 males, 110 females) from four districts prisons situated at Pakistan. Cross sectional research design was used in this study and representative sample was approached through purposive sampling technique. Only those prisoners were the part of study who maltreated in their childhood in form of physical abuse, psychological abuse, sexual abuse or experienced the emotional neglect. After exploration the childhood adversities through ‘Child Abuse Self-Report Scale’, then the prisoner’s temperament styles were explored through ‘Adult Temperament Scale’. Later on, the investigation with particular to the delinquent behaviors was carried out. The findings suggested that the presence of four temperamental styles (choleric, melancholic, phlegmatic, and sanguine) mediated the childhood maltreatment-delinquency relationship in late adulthood but not in early adulthood. Marked exploration was the significant moderated effect of Prisoner’s age and their level of education that effect the relationship of temperament towards the childhood maltreatment and the delinquency, in this way results are consistent with views on cumulative pathways to delinquency that undergone through the effect of childhood maltreatment. Results indicated that Choleric, Melancholic temperament was the positive predictor of delinquency, whereas. The Phlegmatic and Sanguine temperament were the negative predictor of delinquency, in this way, different types of temperament left an indelible trace on delinquency that can work out by modifying the individual temperament. On the basis of results, it could be concluded that inclination towards the delinquent behaviors including theft, drug abuse, lying, noncompliance behavior, police encounter, violence, cheating, gambling, harassment, homosexuality and heterosexuality could be minimized if properly screen out the temperament. Moreover, study determined the two other significant moderated effect of age towards the involvement in delinquent behaviors and moderated effect of education towards childhood maltreatment and the temperament. Findings suggested that with marked increase in number of years in age the probability to get involve in delinquent behaviors will decrease and the result was consistent with the assumption that education can work as buffered to maximize or minimize the effect of trauma and can shape the temperament accordingly. Results are consistent with views on cumulative disadvantage with the socio-psychological faultiness of community.

Keywords: delinquent behaviors, temperament, prisoners, moderated mediation analysis

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Authors: Mbanzulu Kennedy, Zanga Josue, Wumba Roger

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Malaria and schistosomiasis remain life-threatening public health problems in sub-Saharan Africa. The infection pattern related to age indicates that preschool and school-age children are at the highest risk of malaria and schistosomiasis. Both parasitic infections, separately or combined, may have negative impacts on the haemoglobin concentration levels. The existing data revealed that artemisinin derivatives commonly used to cure malaria present also in antischistosomal activities. The current study investigated the impact of Artesunate-Amodiaquine (AS-AQ) on schistosomiasis when administered to treat malaria in rural area of Lemfu, DRC. A prospective longitudinal study including 171 coinfected children screened for anaemia, Schistosoma mansoni, and Plasmodium falciparum infections. The egg reduction rate and haemoglobin concentration were assessed four weeks after the treatment with AS-AQ, of all coinfected children of this series. One hundred and twenty-five (74.4%) out of 168 coinfected children treated and present during the assessment were found stool negative for S. mansoni eggs. Out of 43 (25.6%) children who remained positives, 37 (22%) showed a partial reduction of eggs amount, and no reduction was noted in 3.6% of coinfected. The mean of haemoglobin concentration and the prevalence of anaemia were, respectively, 10.74±1.5g/dl , 11.2±1.3g/dl, and 64.8%, 51.8%, respectively, before and after treatment, p<0.001. The AS-AQ commonly used against Plasmodium allowed curing S. mansoni in coinfected children and increasing the Hb level. For the future, the randomized and multicentric clinical trials are needed for a better understanding of the effectiveness of AS-AQ against Schistosoma spp. The trial registration number was 3487183.

Keywords: paludisme, schistosomiase, as-aq, enfants lemfu

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Authors: Monika Skura

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People with physical disabilities, as with other people with differences in appearance or style of functioning come under negative social mechanisms. Therefore, it is worth asking what the relationship of the group is, who experience psychosocial effects because of their physical disability, towards people with intellectual disabilities, hearing impairments, visual impairments, mental illnesses, and their own physically disabled group. To analyse the perception of people with a physical disability, the study explores three areas: the acceptance or rejection of society’s stigmatization towards persons with disabilities; the importance of their own experience regarding their disability, in relation to another kind of disability; their level of acceptance to social interactions, in relation to various types of disabilities. The research sample consisted of 90 people with physical disabilities, who suffer from damage to the locomotor system. The data was collected using a questionnaire and the Adjective Check List by H. B. Gough and A. B. Heilbrun. This study utilized focus interviews to develop survey items for the questionnaire. The findings highlight that the response from those who were physically disabled agreed with the opinions of general society, not only with the issue of promoting integrated solutions and offering assistance but also having the same preferences and opinions about specific types of disability. However, their perception regarding their own group was noticeably different from that of general society. In the light of the study, for people with physical disabilities, just as for able-bodied people, it can be challenging to develop a meaningful relationship with people who have disabilities. All forms of disability suffer from negative attitudes and opinions that exist in society. The majority of those who were researched were focused primarily on their own problems, this inevitably hinders the integrity of the entire group, making it more difficult for it to find a cohesive voice, in which to promote their place within society.

Keywords: general society’s opinions about disability, people with different kinds of disability, perception, physical disability

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Authors: Omar Alhamd, Peter A. Thomas, Trevor J. Greenhough, Annette K. Shrive

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The Pseudomonas syringae species complex includes many plant pathogenic strains with highly specific interactions with varied host species and cultivars. The rapid spread of these bacteria over the last ten years has become a cause for concern. Nanoparticles have previously shown promise in microbiological action. We have therefore investigated in vitro and in vivo the effects of different types and sizes of nanoparticles in order to provide quantitative information about their effect on the bacteria. The effects of several different nanoparticles against several bacteria strains were investigated. The effect of NP on bacterial growth was studied by measuring the optical density, biochemical and nutritional tests, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to determine the shape and size of NP. Our results indicate that their effects varied, with either a negative or a positive impact on both bacterial and plant growth. Additionally, the methods of exposure to nanoparticles have a crucial role in accumulation, translocation, growth response and bacterial growth. The results of our studies on the behaviour and effects of nanoparticles in model plants showed. Cerium oxide (CeO₂) and silver (Ag) NP showed significant antibacterial activity against several pathogenic bacteria. It was found that titanium nanoparticles (TiO₂) can have either a negative or a positive impact, according to concentration and size. It is also thought that environmental conditions can have a major influence on bacterial growth. Studies were therefore also carried out under some environmental stress conditions to test bacterial survival and to assess bacterial virulence. All results will be presented including information about the effects of different nanoparticles on Pseudomonas syringae bacteria.

Keywords: plant microbiome, nanoparticles, 16S rRNA gene sequencing, bacterial survival

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Authors: Krithika Lakshmi Sathiya Moorthy

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Introduction: Young people’s attitude towards Intimate partner violence (IPV) is likely to influence their indulgence in or abstinence from IPV in future. We aimed to assess the knowledge and attitudes of college students in a south Indian city regarding IPV, its associated factors and redressal mechanisms. Methods: A convenient sample of 247 students, pursuing medicine and engineering, participated in this analytical cross sectional study. They responded to a self-administered questionnaire developed and pretested for this study. The questionnaire comprises statements from a third person’s perspective and vignettes to reduce social desirability bias. Clearance was obtained from the Institute Ethical Committee of Velammal Medical College Hospital and Research Institute, Madurai, India. Data were entered in Epidata Entry v3.1, Odense, Denmark and analysed using SPSS v20.0. Results: Among 247 students, 116 (47%) were males and 59 (24.9%) hailed from rural areas. About 18% (43) of students believed that IPV was a problem only among females. Almost half of the students had witnessed IPV; at home between their parents (9.7%), other family members (13.4%), in their neighbourhood (13%) or public places (15%). Only 118 (47.8%) were aware that a law was in place in India to address IPV. The perceived risk factors for IPV were alcoholic spouse (78.9%), low income families (53.8%), personality traits (52.2%) and dowry system (51%). A sizeable number of students (38.4%) believed that some amount of physical violence was allowable in a marital relationship while 57.6% even considered IPV as an expression of love. Males as compared to females were more in agreement with negative gender stereotypes such as husband can– ‘threaten wife to ensure welfare of family’ (55% vs. 34%, p < 0.001), ‘spy on wife to check fidelity’ (41% vs. 27%, p < 0.001), ‘financially deprive housewife to punish’ (13% vs. 3.8%, p=0.001) and agreed with the statement that it is ‘duty of wife to comply with demands for sex from the husband’ (9.5% vs 4.6%, p=0.3). About 32% males and 25.6% females foresaw themselves as perpetrators of IPV in future. Conclusion: Knowledge about IPV and the associated risk factors among the study population was satisfactory. However, there was widespread acceptance of negative societal gender stereotypes, more so among males and some degrees of IPV were acceptable between married couples. The study advocates the need to halt the propagation of negative gender stereotypes in the impressionable young minds and the necessity to spread the awareness that no degree of IPV is acceptable. This knowledge is also required to plan the content and choose the appropriate media to effectively communicate the awareness about IPV among young persons.

Keywords: attitude, India, intimate partner violence, knowledge, students

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Authors: Godwin Chigozie Okpara, Eugine Iheanacho

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The paper set out to assess the sustainability of debt in the Nigerian economy. Precisely, it sought to determine the level of debt sustainability and its impact on the growth of the economy; whether internationalization of capital market has positively influenced debt sustainability’s impact on economic growth; and to ascertain the direction of causality between external debt sustainability and the growth of GDP. In the light of these objectives, ratio analysis was employed for the determination of debt sustainability. Our findings revealed that the periods 1986 – 1994 and 1999 – 2004 were periods of severe unsustainable borrowing. The unit root test showed that the variables of the growth model were integrated of order one, I(1) and the cointegration test provided evidence for long run stability. Considering the dawn of internationalization of capital market, the researcher employed the structural break approach using Chow Breakpoint test on the vector error correction model (VECM). The result of VECM showed that debt sustainability, measured by debt to GDP ratio exerts negative and significant impact on the growth of the economy while debt burden measured by debt-export ratio and debt service export ratio are negative though insignificant on the growth of GDP. The Cho test result indicated that internationalization of capital market has no significant effect on the debt overhang impact on the growth of the Economy. The granger causality test indicates a feedback effect from economic growth to debt sustainability growth indicators. On the bases of these findings, the researchers made some necessary recommendations which if followed religiously will go a long way to ameliorating debt burdens and engendering economic growth.

Keywords: debt sustainability, internalization, capital market, cointegration, chow test

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Authors: Leila Maleki, Ezatollah Ahmadi

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The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of memory training exercise on cognitive flexibility. The method of this study was experimental. The statistical population selected 40 students 14 years old, samples were chosen by available sampling method and then they were replaced in experimental (training program) group and control group randomly and answered to Wisconsin Card Sorting Test; covariance test results indicated that there were a significant in post-test scores of experimental group (p<0.005).

Keywords: cognitive flexibility, working memory exercises, problem solving, reaction time

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Authors: E. Stylianopoulou, A. K. Fanti

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Object: Children scoring high on Callous-Unemotional traits (CU traits) exhibit lack of empathy. More specifically, children scoring high on CU traits appear to exhibit deficits on affective empathy or deficits in other constructs. However, little is known about cognitive empathy, and it's relation with CU traits in preschoolers. Despite the fact that empathy is measurable at a very young age, relatively less study has focused on empathy in preschoolers than older children with CU traits. The present study examines the cognitive and affective empathy in preschoolers with CU traits. The aim was to examine the differences between cognitive and affective empathy in those individuals. Based on previous research in children with CU traits, it was hypothesized that preschoolers scoring high in CU traits will show deficits in both cognitive and affective empathy; however, more deficits will be detected in affective empathy rather than cognitive empathy. Method: The sample size was 209 children, of which 109 were male, and 100 were female between the ages of 3 and 7 (M=4.73, SD=0.71). From those participants, only 175 completed all the items. The Inventory of Callous-Unemotional traits was used to measure CU traits. Moreover, the Griffith Empathy Measure (GEM) Affective Scale and the Griffith Empathy Measure (GEM) Cognitive Scale was used to measure Affective and Cognitive empathy, respectively. Results: Linear Regression was applied to examine the preceding hypotheses. The results showed that generally, there was a moderate negative association between CU traits and empathy, which was significant. More specifically, it has been found that there was a significant and negative moderate relation between CU traits and cognitive empathy. Surprisingly, results indicated that there was no significant relation between CU traits and affective empathy. Conclusion: The current findings support that preschoolers show deficits in understanding others emotions, indicating a significant association between CU traits and cognitive empathy. However, such a relation was not found between CU traits and affective empathy. The current results raised the importance that there is a need for focusing more on cognitive empathy in preschoolers with CU traits, a component that seems to be underestimated till now.

Keywords: affective empathy, callous-unemotional traits, cognitive empathy, preschoolers

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Authors: Mequanent Wale Mekonen, Edoardo Otranto, Angela Alibrandi

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Diabetic kidney disease is one of the main microvascular complications caused by diabetes. Several clinical and biochemical variables are reported to be associated with diabetic kidney disease in people with type 2 diabetes. However, their interrelations could distort the effect estimation of these variables for the disease's progression. The objective of the study is to determine how the biochemical and clinical variables in people with type 2 diabetes are interrelated with each other and their effects on kidney disease progression through advanced statistical methods. First, principal component analysis was used to explore how the biochemical and clinical variables intercorrelate with each other, which helped us reduce a set of correlated biochemical variables to a smaller number of uncorrelated variables. Then, ordered logit regression models (cumulative, stage, and adjacent) were employed to assess the effect of biochemical and clinical variables on the order-level response variable (progression of kidney function) by considering the proportionality assumption for more robust effect estimation. This retrospective cross-sectional study retrieved data from a type 2 diabetic cohort in a polyclinic hospital at the University of Messina, Italy. The principal component analysis yielded three uncorrelated components. These are principal component 1, with negative loading of glycosylated haemoglobin, glycemia, and creatinine; principal component 2, with negative loading of total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein; and principal component 3, with negative loading of high-density lipoprotein and a positive load of triglycerides. The ordered logit models (cumulative, stage, and adjacent) showed that the first component (glycosylated haemoglobin, glycemia, and creatinine) had a significant effect on the progression of kidney disease. For instance, the cumulative odds model indicated that the first principal component (linear combination of glycosylated haemoglobin, glycemia, and creatinine) had a strong and significant effect on the progression of kidney disease, with an effect or odds ratio of 0.423 (P value = 0.000). However, this effect was inconsistent across levels of kidney disease because the first principal component did not meet the proportionality assumption. To address the proportionality problem and provide robust effect estimates, alternative ordered logit models, such as the partial cumulative odds model, the partial adjacent category model, and the partial continuation ratio model, were used. These models suggested that clinical variables such as age, sex, body mass index, medication (metformin), and biochemical variables such as glycosylated haemoglobin, glycemia, and creatinine have a significant effect on the progression of kidney disease.

Keywords: diabetic kidney disease, ordered logit model, principal component analysis, type 2 diabetes

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Authors: W. Shin, Y. Kim

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This study focuses on disconfirming that wide-area networks can be made mobile, highly-available, and wireless. This methodological test shows that IPv7 and context-free grammar are mismatched. In the cases of robots, a similar tendency is also revealed. Further, we also prove that public-private key pairs could be built embedded, adaptive, and wireless. Finally, we disconfirm that although hash tables can be made distributed, interposable, and autonomous, XML and DNS can interfere to realize this purpose. Our experiments soon proved that exokernelizing our replicated Knesis keyboards was more significant than interrupting them. Our experiments exhibited degraded average sampling rate.

Keywords: collaborative communication, DNS, local-area networks, XML

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Authors: Omneya M. Helmy, Mona T. Kashef

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Aminoglycosides are used in treating a wide range of infections caused by both Gram-negative and Gram positive bacteria. The presence of 16S rRNA methyl transferases (16S-RMTase) is among the newly discovered resistance mechanisms that confer high resistance to clinically useful aminoglycosides. Cephalosporins are the most commonly used antimicrobials in Egypt; therefore, this study was conducted to determine the isolation frequency of 16S rRNA methyl transferases among third generation cephalosporin-resistant clinical isolates in Egypt. One hundred and twenty three cephalosporin resistant Gram-negative clinical isolates were screened for aminoglycoside resistance by the Kirby Bauer disk diffusion method and tested for possible production of 16S-RMTase. PCR testing and sequencing were used to confirm the presence of 16S-RMTase and the associated antimicrobial resistance determinants, as well as the genetic region surrounding the armA gene. Out of 123 isolates, 66 (53.66%) were resistant to at least one aminoglycoside antibiotic. Only one Escherichia coli isolate (E9ECMO) which was totally resistant to all tested aminoglycosides, was confirmed to have the armA gene in association with blaTEM-1, blaCTX-M-15, blaCTX-M-14 and aac(6)-Ib genes. The armA gene was found to be carried on a large A/C plasmid. Genetic mapping of the armA surrounding region revealed, for the first time, the association of armA with aac(6)-Ib on the same transposon. In Conclusion, the isolation frequency of 16S-RMTase was low among the tested cephalosporin-resistant clinical samples. However, a novel composite transposon has been detected conferring high-level aminoglycosides resistance.

Keywords: aminoglcosides, armA gene, β lactmases, 16S rRNA methyl transferases

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