Role of Yeast and Yeast-Derived Products as Feed Additives in Broiler Nutrition.

Antibiotic resistance is looming problem in broiler production globally and there has been an increasing interest to look for sustainable alternatives to antibiotics. Yeast and its derived products are recognized as potential feed additives because of their beneficial impacts on poultry. Particularly, yeast exhibited positive effects on the humoral immunity by increasing serum immunoglobulin (Ig) A levels. Moreover, yeast and its products showed immune adjuvant-like properties that helped the broilers chicken to develop faster and stronger innate immune response under pathogenic challenges. Use of yeast and its products as prebiotic/probiotic improves the gut architecture mainly by improving the gut development and gut microbiome, reduction in colonization of pathogens through competitive exclusion, binding of toxins and enhancing digestion and absorption of nutrients. These unique properties of yeast and yeast products enhance animal welfare and productivity; warrant them to be used as a promising feed additive. This article, therefore, provides insights into the functional role of yeast and its products in the broiler diets and highlights its importance as a commercially viable alternative of synthetic antibiotic growth promoters in the broiler feed industry.

Robust Synchronization of Ambient Vibration Time Histories Based on Phase Angle Compensations and Kernel Density Function.

The output-only modal analysis is ubiquitously used for structural health monitoring of civil engineering systems. The measurements for such applications require the use of multiple data acquisition systems (DAS) to avoid complicated meshes of cables in high-rise buildings, avoid traffic constriction on a bridge during measurements, or to avoid having limited channels in a single DAS. Nevertheless, such requirements introduce time synchronization problems which potentially lead to erroneous structural dynamic characterization and hence misleading or inconclusive structural health monitoring results. This research aims at proposing a system-identification-based time synchronization algorithm for output-only modal analysis using multiple DAS. A new procedure based on the compensation of the phase angle shifts is proposed to identify and address the time synchronization issue in ambient vibration data measured through multiple DAS. To increase the robustness of the proposed algorithm to the inherent inconsistencies in these datasets, the kernel density function is applied to rank multiple time-shift estimates that are sometimes detected by the algorithm when inaccuracies exist in the data arising from low signal-to-noise ratio and/or presence of colored noise in the ambient excitations. First, the synchronized ambient vibration dataset of a full-scale bridge is artificially de-synchronized and used to present a proof of concept for the proposed algorithm. Next, the algorithm is applied to ambient vibration data of a 30-story, reinforced concrete building, where the synchronization of the data could not be achieved using two DAS despite best efforts. The application of the proposed time synchronization algorithm is shown to both detect and correct the time synchronization discrepancies in the output-only modal analysis.

Are Sink Drainage Systems a Reservoir for Hospital-Acquired Gammaproteobacteria Colonization and Infection? A Systematic Review.

Increasing rates of antimicrobial-resistant organisms have focused attention on sink drainage systems as reservoirs for hospital-acquired Gammaproteobacteria colonization and infection. We aimed to assess the quality of evidence for transmission from this reservoir. We searched 8 databases and identified 52 studies implicating sink drainage systems in acute care hospitals as a reservoir for Gammaproteobacterial colonization/infection. We used a causality tool to summarize the quality of evidence. Included studies provided evidence of co-occurrence of contaminated sink drainage systems and colonization/infection, temporal sequencing compatible with sink drainage reservoirs, some steps in potential causal pathways, and relatedness between bacteria from sink drainage systems and patients. Some studies provided convincing evidence of reduced risk of organism acquisition following interventions. No single study provided convincing evidence across all causality domains, and the attributable fraction of infections related to sink drainage systems remains unknown. These results may help to guide conduct and reporting in future studies.

The relationship between IgG and IgM levels and severity of symptoms in COVID-19 patients confirmed by rapid antigen test.

This study aims to measure immunoglobulin G (IgG) and immunoglobulin M (IgM) response after detection of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (SARS CoV-2) antigens in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients concerning the severity of symptoms. SARS CoV-2 antigen was confirmed by rapid antigen test, and IgG and IgM were confirmed by VIDAS® SARS-COV-2 IgM and VIDAS® SARS-CoV-2 IgG automated qualitative assays used to rapidly detect antibodies 20-30 days after detection. The serological assay for detecting SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG antibodies shows a positive correlation for all patients detected with SARS-CoV-2 antigen with sensitivity 100% with differences in antibodies levels between patients regarding age and significantly related clinical symptoms with p-value 0.013 <0.05. The appearance of clinical symptoms was not significantly related to IgG levels at a p-value of 0.4 >0.05. However, the appearance of clinical symptoms was significantly related to IgM levels at a p-value of 0.002 <0.05. Antigen-dependent rapid tests can be used to detect SARS-CoV-2 in an early stage of infection with high sensitivity and specificity. Moreover, this study shows the age groups 21-30 and 31-40 have a better response to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Screening of human health risk to infants associated with the polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) levels in human milk from Punjab Province, Pakistan.

This study assessed the polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) levels in human milk and its associated health risk to infants from rural and urban settings of five districts of Punjab Province, Pakistan. The ∑34PCB concentrations ranged from 30.9 to 68.3 ng g-1 on lipid weight (l.w.) basis. The ∑8DL-PCB concentrations were ranged from 0.29 to 1.35 ng g-1 l.w., (mean 6.2 ± 8.7 ng g-1 l.w.), with toxicity equivalent to polychlorinated dibenzodioxins (PCDDs) ranging from 8.58 × 10-6 to 0.05 ng TEQ g-1 l.w. The spatial trend of PCB levels in human milk revealed higher bioaccumulative levels for urban mothers as compared with rural counterparts. The estimated daily intake (EDI) values of DL-PCBs to infants through trans-mammary transfer were considerably higher than tolerable daily intake limits established by WHO (i.e., 1-4 pg TEQ kg-1 bw) and other globally recognized organizations. Similarly, the hazard quotient values for TEQ ∑8DL-PCBs (range 1.21 to 79.87) were far above the benchmark value of 1 at all the sampling sites, indicating the high levels of adverse health risks to infants in the region through breast milk consumption. The ∑34PCB levels were found to be negatively correlated with mother' age (r = -0.31; p = 0.02), parity (r = - 0.85; p = 0.001), and infant' birth weight (r = - 0.73; p = 0.01). The present study suggests undertaking comprehensive public health risk assessment studies and firm regulatory measures to safeguard human health risks.

Staphylococcus aureus carrying lukS/F Panton-Valentine Leukocidin (PVL) toxin genes in hospitals of Lahore city.

INTRODUCTION: Panton Valentine-Leukocidin (PVL) toxin is secreted by Staphylococcus aureus and is mostly associated with skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI). This study aims to find out the prevalence of lukS/F-PV gene, which encode PVL toxin from strains of SSTI, burn wounds and nasal colonizers of out-patients and to measure the antimicrobial susceptibility of S. aureus isolates. METHODOLOGY: This is an analytical observational cross-section study and was conducted from July 2014 to June 2015 at four tertiary care hospitals and PCSIR Laboratories Complex, Lahore, Pakistan. A total of 376 random clinical swabs were collected from SSTI (n = 179), nasal nares (n = 134) and burn wounds (n = 63) from out-patients' departments (OPD). The specimens were cultured on nutrient and mannitol salt agar (MSA) and the organism was identified by catalase, coagulase, and DNase tests. Antimicrobial susceptibility, methicillin, inducible clindamycin, and high-level mupirocin (HLMR) resistance were determined as per CLSI guidelines. Molecular identification of mecA and lukS/F-PV genes was performed by PCR. RESULTS: We isolated 127 S. aureus, where 41 (32.3%) were MRSA and 86 (67.7%) were MSSA. All MRSA carried mecA gene whereas lukS/F-PV gene was found in 21 MRSA and 31 MSSA strains. Overall, a high antimicrobial resistance was found against MRSA and lukS/F-PV positive MSSA. Inducible clindamycin and high-level mupirocin resistance (HLMR) was 23.6% and 19.5% respectively. CONCLUSIONS: A high rate of PVL toxin gene was detected among S. aureus strains and a high prevalence of antimicrobial resistant strains was observed.

Multispectrum, spatially addressable polarization interference filter.

We review current synthesis techniques for generating and improving birefringent filters. The relationship between wave-plate orientation and the resulting spectral output is shown to be that of a simple Fourier transform. By using this relationship and starting from the fan Solc configuration, we easily generated plate orientations providing lower sidelobe levels and improved finesse. We outline a method by which filters can be constructed to provide from 0 to 100% of the desired passband in a continuous fashion. Such a filter can be stacked to allow rapid control of any number of passbands and is shown, as an example in a novel design employing super-twisted nematic liquid crystal elements, to control a maximum of three color bands.