Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Activities and Phytochemical Analysis of Rosmarinus officinalis L. Pod and Thymus vulgaris L. Leaf Ethanolic Extracts on Escherichia coli Urinary Isolates.

The indiscriminate use of antibacterial agents has resulted in one of the largest recent global health problems, which is the emergence of bacterial resistance. This study aimed to examine the antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of ethanolic extracts of the two medicinal plants; Rosmarinus officinalis pods and Thymus vulgaris leaves on Escherichia coli urinary isolates. Both plants were extracted by absolute ethanol, and various concentrations (100, 50, 25, and 12.5 mg/ml) of the ethanolic extracts were prepared and tested against 53 urinary isolates of E. coli. An antibiotic susceptibility test was performed using chloramphenicol, gentamycin, amoxicillin, ceftriaxone, and ciprofloxacin against isolated bacteria. The antioxidant activity was measured using the DPPH method. The chemical analysis of both extracts was determined using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) technique. The results showed that 88.7% of the isolated bacteria were sensitive to chloramphenicol and 87% were sensitive to gentamycin, while all isolates were resistant to amoxicillin, 13% of E. coli isolates were found to be multidrug-resistant (MDR). The inhibitory zone of R. officinalis extract against E. coli ranged between 8 and 23 mm and for T. vulgaris extract ranged between 8 and 20 mm at concentrations between 25, 50, and 100 mg/ml. The MIC of both extracts against isolates is between 12.5 and 50 mg/ml, while the MBC is between 50 and 100 mg/ml. The DPPH radical scavenging potential of T. vulgaris was 83.09%, followed by R. officinalis (81.26%). The chemical analysis by GC-MS of R. officinalis showed that the most active compounds were: eucalyptol (18.57%), bicycloheptan (10.01%), and octahydrodibenz anthracene (7.44%) and for T. vulgaris the most active compounds were: thymol (5.7%), phytol (7.92%), and hexadecanoic acid (18.51%). R. officinalis and T. vulgaris ethanolic extracts possessed antimicrobial and antioxidant activities and were found to be rich natural sources of active constituents used as traditional medicine.

Dental needle foreign body in the neck: a case report

Foreign body (FB) ingestion is commonly seen in the ear nose and throat (ENT) field, with different presentationsand sequelae. FBs can arrest in the upper aerodigestive tract or continue further down into either the airwaytract to the bronchus or the digestive tract to the intestines. The pathway of an FB depends on the size andshape of the FB and how sharp its edges are. Since the 20th century, the use of disposable stainless-steelneedles in the oral cavity has proven to be an effective and safe method for performing various intraoral procedureslike dental infiltration or a root canal wash. Complications from their use are rare. Generally, dental needlebreakages are caused by patients biting the needle, incorrect injection techniques, or inadequate preventativemeasures. The sudden movement of a patient during a procedure is one of the most common causes of breakage.Occasionally, needles are swallowed during dental procedures such as a root canal. Here, we report a caseof a patient that swallowed a broken needle during a dental procedure. A few days later, the patient presentedwith neck pain, swelling, and a FB sensation. When the patient presented, she claimed that her symptomshad onset after consuming a meal containing duck meat. Initially, the patient was diagnosed as having ingesteda duck bone. However, intraoperatively, the FB was discovered to be an injection needle that had migratedfrom the throat to the neck.

E-cadherin gene polymorphisms and susceptibility to urolithiasis in Iraqi children.

AIM: This case/control study aimed to assess the impact of two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the promoter region of CDH1 gene (-160C>A and -347G>GA) on urinary stone formation in a sample of Iraqi children. METHODS: Forty-seven children with urolithiasis and 50 age- and gender-matched healthy controls were included in the study. DNA was isolated from peripheral blood and direct sequencing was used for genotyping. RESULTS: The homozygous genotype of the SNP CHD1 -160C>A was more frequent in control than cases (18% vs. 6.38%) with significant difference (OR = 0.229, 95%CI = 0.056-0.943, P = 0.041). Furthermore, cases showed significantly less frequency of the mutant allele (allele A) of this SNP (OR = 0.403, 95%C = 0.210-0.776, P = 0.007). CONCLUSION: These results strongly indicate a protective role of allele A of the SNP CHD1 -160C>A against urinary calculi formation in children.

Analysis of the IL-31 pathway in Mycosis fungoides and Sézary syndrome.

IL-31, predominantly produced by CD45RO + CLA + Th2 cells, plays an important pathogenetic role in pruritic skin diseases like atopic dermatitis. As tumor cells in Sézary syndrome (SS) and Mycosis fungoides (MF) possess similar immunophenotypes and the conditions mentioned are often associated with pruritus, the analysis of the IL-31 pathway in MF/SS patients is of interest. Serum samples from the peripheral blood of 23 patients and 17 controls were analyzed for IL-31 abundance and correlated with disease stage and pruritus. Furthermore IL-31-, IL-31 receptor alpha (IL-31Rα)- and Oncostatin M receptor beta (OSMRß)-mRNA expression was measured in blood tumor cells from SS patients, memory T-cells from controls and lymphoma cell lines. Serum IL-31 levels were low but differed between groups with no or strong pruritus. Expression of IL-31 was detectable at low levels in cell lines, but not in the tumor cells of SS patients. Stimulation with PMA/ionomycin led to indiscriminate expression in peripheral blood tumor cells and control T-cells. IL-2-stimulation resulted in expression only in 9/11 patient samples. IL-31Rα-expression was detectable in 10/10 cell lines, 8/15 peripheral blood samples from SS patients, and 4/10 controls; whereas, OSMRß mRNA was detectable in 4/10 cell lines, but only one patient and control sample. The results of our analyses regarding serum levels and receptor expression do not suggest a central role of IL-31 in MF/SS pathogenesis. However, the results of IL-2 stimulation as well as the increased IL-31 levels in patients with strong pruritus offer a rationale for therapeutic approach in this subset of patients.

An intelligent load shedding scheme using neural networks and neuro-fuzzy.

Load shedding is some of the essential requirement for maintaining security of modern power systems, particularly in competitive energy markets. This paper proposes an intelligent scheme for fast and accurate load shedding using neural networks for predicting the possible loss of load at the early stage and neuro-fuzzy for determining the amount of load shed in order to avoid a cascading outage. A large scale electrical power system has been considered to validate the performance of the proposed technique in determining the amount of load shed. The proposed techniques can provide tools for improving the reliability and continuity of power supply. This was confirmed by the results obtained in this research of which sample results are given in this paper.