Urology Residents' Perspectives on the In-House On-Call Systems: A Study in an Accredited Academic Center.

INTRODUCTION: Medical education and training are crucial in maintaining patients' safety and improving patient care quality. Multiple studies have evaluated the effects of restrictive policies on the resident's quality of life and education. Due to the compiling data and the fact that these trials evaluated programs with a substantial number of residents, it remains uncertain whether these conclusions can be extended to urology programs with a small number of residents. Multiple on-call systems have been adopted in residency programs across the world. This study evaluated the residents' quality of life, clinical experience, and education upon transitioning from 24-hour to 12-hour in-house on-call systems. METHODS AND MATERIALS: In this observational and questionnaire-based study, the effect of the transition from 24-hour to 12-hour in-house on-call systems was compared in terms of the resident's quality of life and education, surgical case volume, and working hours' rules compliance. Quality of life and education: We adopted a validated survey based on a 5-point Likert scale to assess the residents' perception of the transition to a 12-hour on-call system on their quality of life and education. Surgical case volume: We extracted the number of cases the residents operated on from the operating theater database at our institution. Working hours: compliance and violations: The weekly working hours, compliance, and violations per ACGME-I rules were collected from the MedHub platform. RESULTS: Quality of life and education: Residents rated the 12-hour on-call system superior in terms of quality of life, education, and surgical case volume. Surgical case volume: There was a 45% increment in the surgical case volume (p = 0.04) with the 12-hour on-call system. Working hours: compliance and violations There was no significant difference in the mean weekly working hours (p = 0.1). However, the total number of duty hours violations decreased in the 12-hour on-call system. CONCLUSION: The 12-hour system is a better alternative to the 24-hour system in terms of the resident's quality of life, education, surgical case volume, and compliance with duty hour rules.

Kinetic study on biodegradation of glyphosate with unacclimated activated sludge.

This article is concerned with the study of biodegradation of an organophosphorus herbicide (glyphosate) using unacclimated activated sludge. Glyphosate at different concentrations (0.1, 0.5, 1, 2 and 5 g/L) was tested for cellular growth. On the other hand, the effect of glyphosate on its own biodegradation was studied by evaluating the fittings of different kinetic models (Andrews, Aiba et al., Han and Levenspiel, Luong, Tessier, Webb, Tseng and Wayman, Yano and Koga). According to the obtained results, the activated sludge was able to use glyphosate as the sole carbon source; however, 2 and 5 g/L glyphosate seemed to inhibit cellular growth. Moreover, glyphosate at initial concentrations of 0.1, 0.5 and 1 g/L was completely degraded within 4, 13 and 18 h of incubation, respectively. Yano and Koga model was the best-fit model (R2 = 0.999, F = 173,106 and P = 0.000006).

Enzymatic degradation and bioactivity evaluation of C-6 oxidized chitosan.

C-6 oxidized chitosan was produced from chitosan by performing selective oxidation with NaOCl and NaBr using 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxy radical (TEMPO) as catalyst. Endocellulase, Celluclast 1.5 L, Glucanex(®), Macerozyme R-10, hyaluronidase, hyaluronate lyase, red scorpionfish chitinase, glucuronan lyase and a protein mix from Trichoderma reesei were used to degrade the C-6 oxidized chitosan. Glucanex(®), the crude extract from T. reesei IHEM 4122 and Macerozyme R-10 validated the enzymatic degradation through final hydrolysis yields of the derivative respectively close to 36.4, 20.3 and 12.9% (w/w). The best initial reaction velocity (2.41 U/mL) was observed for Glucanex(®). The antileishmanial activity of the derivative was evaluated against Leishmania infantum LIPA 137. The antibacterial activities against Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853 were also tested. Results showed an antileishmanial activity (IC50: 125 µg/mL) of the obtained derivatives against L. infantum LIPA 137.