Biogenic Silver Nanoparticles Produced by Soil Rare Actinomycetes and Their Significant Effect on Aspergillus-derived mycotoxins.

The current investigation addressed the green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using newly isolated silver-resistant rare actinomycetes, Glutamicibacter nicotianae SNPRA1 and Leucobacter aridicollis SNPRA2, and investigated their impact on the mycotoxigenic fungi Aspergillus flavus ATCC 11498 and Aspergillus ochraceus ATCC 60532. The formation of AgNPs was evidenced by the reaction's color change to brownish and the appearance of the characteristic surface plasmon resonance. The transmission electron microscopy of biogenic AgNPs produced by G. nicotianae SNPRA1 and L. aridicollis SNPRA2 (designated Gn-AgNPs and La-AgNPs, respectively) revealed the generation of monodispersed spherical nanoparticles with average sizes of 8.48 ± 1.72 nm and 9.67 ± 2.64 nm, respectively. Furthermore, the XRD patterns reflected their crystallinity and the FTIR spectra demonstrated the presence of proteins as capping agents. Both bioinspired AgNPs exhibited a remarkable inhibitory effect on the conidial germination of the investigated mycotoxigenic fungi. The bioinspired AgNPs caused an increase in DNA and protein leakage, suggesting the disruption of membrane permeability and integrity. Interestingly, the biogenic AgNPs completely inhibited the production of total aflatoxins and ochratoxin A at concentrations less than 8 µg/mL. At the same time, cytotoxicity investigations revealed the low toxicity of the biogenic AgNPs against the human skin fibroblast (HSF) cell line. Both biogenic AgNPs exhibited feasible biocompatibility with HSF cells at concentrations up to 10 µg/mL and their IC50 values were 31.78 and 25.83 µg/mL for Gn-AgNPs and La-AgNPs, respectively. The present work sheds light on the antifungal prospect of the biogenic AgNPs produced by rare actinomycetes against mycotoxigenic fungi as promising candidates to combat mycotoxin formation in food chains at nontoxic doses.

A Single-Shot Harmonic Imaging Approach Utilizing Deep Learning for Medical Ultrasound.

Tissue Harmonic Imaging (THI) is an invaluable tool in clinical ultrasound owing to its enhanced contrast resolution and reduced reverberation clutter in comparison to fundamental mode imaging. However, harmonic content separation based on high pass filtering suffers from potential contrast degradation or lower axial resolution due to spectral leakage. Whereas nonlinear multi-pulse harmonic imaging schemes, such as amplitude modulation and pulse inversion, suffer from a reduced framerate and comparatively higher motion artifacts due to the necessity of at least two pulse echo acquisitions. To address this problem, we propose a deep-learning-based single-shot harmonic imaging technique capable of generating comparable image quality to pulse amplitude modulation methods, yet at a higher framerate and with fewer motion artifacts. Specifically, an asymmetric convolutional encoder-decoder structure is designed to estimate the combination of the echoes resulting from the half-amplitude transmissions using the echo produced from the full amplitude transmission as input. The echoes were acquired with the checkerboard amplitude modulation technique for training. The model was evaluated across various targets and samples to illustrate generalizability as well as the possibility and impact of transfer learning. Furthermore, for possible interpretability of the network, we investigate if the latent space of the encoder holds information on the nonlinearity parameter of the medium. We demonstrate the ability of the proposed approach to generate harmonic images with a single firing that are comparable to those from a multi-pulse acquisition.

Biosynthesis of Novel Tellurium Nanorods by Gayadomonas sp. TNPM15 Isolated from Mangrove Sediments and Assessment of Their Impact on Spore Germination and Ultrastructure of Phytopathogenic Fungi.

The biosynthesis of nanoparticles using green technology is emerging as a cost-efficient, eco-friendly and risk-free strategy in nanotechnology. Recently, tellurium nanoparticles (TeNPs) have attracted growing attention due to their unique properties in biomedicine, electronics, and other industrial applications. The current investigation addresses the green synthesis of TeNPs using a newly isolated mangrove-associated bacterium, Gayadomonas sp. TNPM15, and their impact on the phytopathogenic fungi Fusarium oxysporum and Alternaria alternata. The biogenic TeNPs were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR). The results of TEM revealed the intracellular biosynthesis of rod-shaped nanostructures with a diameter range from 15 to 23 nm and different lengths reaching up to 243 nm. Furthermore, the successful formation of tellurium nanorods was verified by SEM-EDX, and the XRD pattern revealed their crystallinity. In addition, the FTIR spectrum provided evidence for the presence of proteinaceous capping agents. The bioinspired TeNPs exhibited obvious inhibitory effect on the spores of both investigated phytopathogens accomplished with prominent ultrastructure alternations, as evidenced by TEM observations. The biogenic TeNPs impeded spore germination of F. oxysporum and A. alternata completely at 48.1 and 27.6 µg/mL, respectively. Furthermore, an increase in DNA and protein leakage was observed upon exposure of fungal spores to the biogenic TeNPs, indicating the disruption of membrane permeability and integrity. Besides their potent influence on fungal spores, the biogenic TeNPs demonstrated remarkable inhibitory effects on the production of various plant cell wall-degrading enzymes. Moreover, the cytotoxicity investigations revealed the biocompatibility of the as-prepared biogenic TeNPs and their low toxicity against the human skin fibroblast (HSF) cell line. The biogenic TeNPs showed no significant cytotoxic effect towards HSF cells at concentrations up to 80 µg/mL, with a half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) value of 125 µg/mL. The present work spotlights the antifungal potential of the biogenic TeNPs produced by marine bacterium against phytopathogenic fungi as a promising candidate to combat fungal infections.

Biological Extraction, HPLC Quantification and Medical Applications of Astaxanthin Extracted from Crawfish "Procambarus clarkii" Exoskeleton By-Product.

The main challenge of astaxanthin extraction is to provide an eco-friendly method of extraction instead of chemical methods that harm human health. This study provided an eco-friendly method for astaxanthin extraction using two bacterial and fungal probiotics (Bifidobacterium lactis, Lactobacillus lactis, Candida utilis, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, respectively) and determined the astaxanthin concentration by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis. The results showed that the highest concentration was obtained by S. cerevisiae (45.69 µg/g). Several biological tests were done on the exoskeleton containing astaxanthin of crawfish. Antifungal activity was effective against C. utilis (inhibition zone is 12.3 ± 0.5 mm). The scavenging percentage of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH scavenging percentage) was 72.1% at 1000 µg/mL concentration of exoskeleton containing astaxanthin. The Hemolysis inhibition percentage was 65% at the same concentration used previously. Furthermore, the IC50 value of human liver cancer cell line (HepG2), human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCT), and breast cancer cell line MCF-7 were 24 µg/mL, 11 µg/mL, and 9.5 µg/mL, respectively. The least cell viability percentage was 19% (using breast cancer cell line (MCF-7)) at 100 µg/mL of exoskeleton containing astaxanthin. Thus, using microorganisms can be an alternative and promising way of astaxanthin extraction. Furthermore, purification of extracted astaxanthin is essential for medical applications.

Horizontal Review on Video Surveillance for Smart Cities: Edge Devices, Applications, Datasets, and Future Trends.

The automation strategy of today's smart cities relies on large IoT (internet of Things) systems that collect big data analytics to gain insights. Although there have been recent reviews in this field, there is a remarkable gap that addresses four sides of the problem. Namely, the application of video surveillance in smart cities, algorithms, datasets, and embedded systems. In this paper, we discuss the latest datasets used, the algorithms used, and the recent advances in embedded systems to form edge vision computing are introduced. Moreover, future trends and challenges are addressed.

Fungal infections in primary immunodeficiency diseases.

Primary immunodeficiency diseases (PID), encompass a heterogeneous group of diseases, with increased susceptibility to recurrent, severe infections. Invasive fungal infections raise a serious concern related to their morbidity and mortality. Herein, we describe various fungal infections among different PID patients. Twenty-eight PID patients diagnosed with fungal infections were included; fourteen patients with chronic granulomatous disease, two with Hyper Immunoglobulin E syndrome, one with LRBA deficiency and one with MHC class II defect, one with unclassified immune dysregulation, one with CD4 lymphopenia and one patient with Immune dysregulation Polyendocrinopathy Enteropathy X-linked syndrome. Aspergillus species were the most common isolated causative organisms in 78% of patients, Candida species were the causative organisms in 32%, Pneumocystis jirovecii caused infections in 7% followed by Malassezia furfur, Fusarium spp., Mucormycosis, and Penicillium chrysogenium 3.5% for each. The mortality rate among our patients was 10/28 (35.7%). PID patients are at high risk of developing fungal infections.

Higher clinical pregnancy rate with in-vitro fertilization versus intracytoplasmic sperm injection in treatment of non-male factor infertility: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the evidence about in-vitro fertilization (IVF) versus intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) for the treatment of non-male factor infertility. DATA SOURCES: Electronic databases searched using the following MeSH terms (Sperm Injection, Intracytoplasmic) AND (in Vitro Fertilisation) AND (Infertility). METHODS OF STUDY SELECTION: All RCTs included infertile patients due to non-male factors underwent IVF or ICSI were considered for this meta-analysis. One-thousand twenty-two studies were identified of which 20 studies deemed eligible for this review. DATA EXTRACTION: Three independent authors extracted the relevant data from included studies. The study outcomes were pooled in the form of relative risk (RR) and 95 % confidence interval (CI) using Mantel-Hansel method. The main outcome measures are the fertilization rate, the implantation rate, the clinical pregnancy rate (CPR), the total fertilization failure and the live birth rate. RESULTS: Regarding the fertilization rate, the pooled estimate did not favour either IVF or ICSI group (RR = 0.94; 95 %CI [0.82, 1.07]; p = 0.34). However, IVF significantly increased the CPR than ICSI (RR = 1.28, 95 %CI [1.11, 1.49]; p = 0.001). The overall effect estimate did not favor either of two groups regarding the implantation rate (RR = 1.25, 95 % CI [0.92, 1.68], p = 0.15). Similarly, no difference between both groups regarding the live birth rate (RR = 1.08, 95 % CI [0.79, 1.49]; p = 0.62). CONCLUSIONS: No difference between ICSI and IVF regarding fertilization rate per oocytes, implantation rate and live birth rate in the treatment of non-male factor infertility, while IVF has significantly higher clinical pregnancy rate and higher risk of total fertilization failure.

Low-Power Hardware Implementation of a Support Vector Machine Training and Classification for Neural Seizure Detection.

In this paper, a low power support vector machine (SVM) training, feature extraction, and classification algorithm are hardware implemented in a neural seizure detection application. The training algorithm used is the sequential minimal optimization (SMO) algorithm. The system is implemented on different platforms: such as field programmable gate array (FPGA), Xilinx Virtex-7 and application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) using hardware-calibrated UMC 65 nm CMOS technology. The implemented training hardware is introduced as an accelerator intellectual property (IP), especially in the case of large number of training sets, such as neural seizure detection. Feature extraction and classification blocks are implemented to achieve the best trade-off between sensitivity and power consumption. The proposed seizure detection system achieves a sensitivity around 96.77% when tested with the implemented linear kernel classifier. A power consumption evaluation is performed on both the ASIC and FPGA platforms showing that the ASIC power consumption is improved by a factor of 2X when compared with the FPGA counterpart.

Antifungal and anti-mycotoxin efficacy of biogenic silver nanoparticles produced by Fusarium chlamydosporum and Penicillium chrysogenum at non-cytotoxic doses.

The cell-free culture filtrate (CFF) of the fungi Fusarium chlamydosporum NG30 and Penicillium chrysogenum NG85 was tested to synthesize silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). The synthesized AgNPs were further characterized by means of transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) spectroscopy. TEM revealed their spherical shape, homogeneity and a size range between 6 and 26 nm for F. chlamydosporum AgNPs (FAgNPs) and from 9 to 17.5 nm for P. chrysogenum AgNPs (PAgNPs). DLS showed that the diameter of FAgNPs was narrower than that of PAgNPs. FTIR spectroscopy indicated that the functional groups present in the CFF might be responsible for the reduction of silver ions to form stabilized protein-capped AgNPs. In addition, the AgNPs showed notable antifungal activity and potency in thwarting mycotoxin production. Thus, using Aspergillus flavus as a test microorganism the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was 48, 45 and 50 µg/mL for FAgNPs, PAgNPs and the antifungal compound itraconazole, respectively. Also, when testing Aspergillus ochraceus FAgNPs, PAgNPs and itraconazole led to MIC values of 51, 47 and 49 µg/mL, respectively. The statistical MIC values to inhibit completely the total aflatoxin production by A. flavus were 5.9 and 5.6 µg/mL for FAgNPs and PAgNPs, respectively, and to inhibit the ochratoxin A production by A. ochraceus 6.3 and 6.1 µg/mL for FAgNPs and PAgNPs, respectively. The cytotoxicity assay of the AgNPs on human normal melanocytes (HFB 4) revealed a cell survival of 80% and 75% at a concentration of 6 µg/mL for FAgNPs and PAgNPs, respectively.