ABSTRACT
Ocular burns can have three origins: chemical (by acid or alkaline agents), luminous (by ultraviolet radiation) or thermal. We report the cases of eight patients with ocular burns (3 thermal and 5 chemical). Of these, one patient had a grade 2 burn according to the Dua classification, two had grade 3 damage and one had grade 4. One patient had grade 3 damage in the right eye and grade 4 in the left eye. Anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT) was performed in two patients, showing corneal de-epithelialization, corneal thickening and a hyper-reflective line in the posterior stroma. All patients received medical treatment with topical antibiotics, topical corticosteroids, cycloplegics and wetting agents. Five patients had outpatient treatment with clinical improvement. Three patients were hospitalized, one of whom received an amniotic membrane graft (AMG), one had an AMG followed by a transfixing keratoplasty (TK), and the other is scheduled for a TK. Ocular burns are associated with significant functional risk, warranting prompt and effective management.
ABSTRACT
A Streptomyces sp. strain TN71 was isolated from Tunisian Saharan soil and selected for its antimicrobial activity against phytopathogenic fungi. In an attempt to increase its anti-Fusarium oxysporum activity, GYM+S (glucose, yeast extract, malt extract and starch) culture medium was selected out of five different production media. Plackett-Burman design (PBD) was used to select yeast extract, malt extract and calcium carbonate (CaCO3) as parameters having significant effects on antifungal activity, and a Box-Behnken design was applied for further optimization. The analysis revealed that the optimum concentrations for the anti-F. oxysporum activity of the tested variables were yeast extract 5.03g/L, malt extract 8.05g/L and CaCO3 4.51g/L. Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs): the Multilayer perceptron (MLP) and the Radial basis function (RBF) were created to predict the anti-F. oxysporum activity. The comparison between experimental and predicted outputs from ANN and Response Surface Methodology (RSM) were studied. The ANN model presents an improvement of 14.73%. To our knowledge, this is the first work reporting the statistical versus artificial intelligence -based modeling for the optimization of bioactive molecules against mycotoxigenic and phytopathogenic fungi.
Subject(s)
Antifungal Agents/pharmacology , Computer Simulation , Fusarium/drug effects , Models, Statistical , Streptomyces/drug effects , Artificial Intelligence , Calibration , Data Interpretation, Statistical , Fusarium/physiology , Humans , Microbial Sensitivity Tests/methods , Microbial Sensitivity Tests/statistics & numerical data , Neural Networks, Computer , Streptomyces/physiologyABSTRACT
Bacteriocin BacTN635, produced by Lactobacillus plantarum sp. TN635, was purified and characterised in previous work. In this study we report the biotechnological application of this bacteriocin as a biopreservative during storage at 4°C of raw minced meat beef and chicken breast. Overall, the results obtained showed that the addition of the semi-purified BacTN635 at 500 or 1000 AU g(-1) in raw minced meat beef and chicken breast can delay the proliferation of spoilage microorganisms, suppress the growth of the pathogenic microorganism Listeria monocytogenes, improve sensory quality, texture attributes, and extend the shelf-life of these two meat products during refrigerated storage. BacTN635 at 1000 AU g(-1) could extend the shelf-life, and the meat showed good sensory characteristics. Therefore, treatment with semi-purified BacTN635 can be used as a safe method for preservation of raw minced meat beef and chicken breast.