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This study investigated the virulence potential and antibiotic susceptibility analysis of non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) serogroups, which are significant cause of food borne diseases. A study collected 800 samples of dairy bovine raw milk through various sources, 500 from milk shops, 200 from dairy farms, 26 from milk collection centers, and 74 from street vendors. Using a standard method, E. coli was detected in 321 out of the 800 samples collected. Out of the 321 E. coli-positive samples isolated, 148 were identified as STEC using selective media, specifically Cefixime Tellurite Sorbitol MacConkey's Agar (CT-SMA). Out of the 148 positive samples, 40 were confirmed as STEC non-O157 strains using multiplex PCR, indicating a prevalence of 5% (40 out of 800 samples). STEC isolates were subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility testing, and all isolates were resistant to at least one or more antimicrobials tested through the disk diffusion method, revealed high resistance to Amoxicillin 100%, Ceftriaxone 50%, and Penicillin 44.5%, and notably 44% of the strains exhibited Streptomycin resistance, while Enrofloxacin 55%, Florfenicol 50% and Norfloxacin 44%, demonstrated the highest susceptibility. Out of 40 STEC non-O157, twelve were subjected to Multi Locus Sequence Typing (MLST) sequencing through Illumina Inc. MiSeq platform's next-generation sequencing technology, United States. The genome investigation evidenced the persistence of twelve serotypes H4:O82, H30:O9a, H4:O82, H16:O187, H9:O9, H16:O113, H30:O9, H32:O, H32:O, H32, H32, and H38:O187, linked to the potential infections in humans. Conclusion: STEC isolates showed resistance to multiple antimicrobials, raising concerns for both animal and public health due to widespread use of these drugs in treatment and prevention. The study contributes new insights into monitoring STEC in raw milk, emphasizing the critical role of whole genome sequencing (WGS) for genotyping and sequencing diverse isolates. Still a deficiency in understanding STEC pathogenesis mechanisms, ongoing surveillance is crucial for safeguarding human health and enhancing understanding of STEC genetic characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the virulence potential and antibiotic susceptibility analysis of non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) serogroups, which are significant cause of food borne diseases. A study collected 800 samples of dairy bovine raw milk through various sources, 500 from milk shops, 200 from dairy farms, 26 from milk collection centers, and 74 from street vendors. Using a standard method, E. coli was detected in 321 out of the 800 samples collected. Out of the 321 E. coli-positive samples isolated, 148 were identified as STEC using selective media, specifically Cefixime Tellurite Sorbitol MacConkey's Agar (CT-SMA). Out of the 148 positive samples, 40 were confirmed as STEC non-O157 strains using multiplex PCR, indicating a prevalence of 5% (40 out of 800 samples). STEC isolates were subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility testing, and all isolates were resistant to at least one or more antimicrobials tested through the disk diffusion method, revealed high resistance to Amoxicillin 100%, Ceftriaxone 50%, and Penicillin 44.5%, and notably 44% of the strains exhibited Streptomycin resistance, while Enrofloxacin 55%, Florfenicol 50% and Norfloxacin 44%, demonstrated the highest susceptibility. Out of 40 STEC non-O157, twelve were subjected to Multi Locus Sequence Typing (MLST) sequencing through Illumina Inc. MiSeq platform's next-generation sequencing technology, United States. The genome investigation evidenced the persistence of twelve serotypes H4:O82, H30:O9a, H4:O82, H16:O187, H9:O9, H16:O113, H30:O9, H32:O, H32:O, H32, H32, and H38:O187, linked to the potential infections in humans. Conclusion: STEC isolates showed resistance to multiple antimicrobials, raising concerns for both animal and public health due to widespread use of these drugs in treatment and prevention. The study contributes new insights into monitoring STEC in raw milk, emphasizing the critical role of whole genome sequencing (WGS) for genotyping and sequencing diverse isolates. Still a deficiency in understanding STEC pathogenesis mechanisms, ongoing surveillance is crucial for safeguarding human health and enhancing understanding of STEC genetic characteristics.

Microalgal biomass provides a renewable source of biofuels and other green products. However, in order to realize economically viable microalgal biorefinery, strategic identification and utilization of suitable microalgal feedstock is fundamental. Here, a multi-step suboptimal screening strategy was used to target promising microalgae strains from selected freshwaters of the study area. The resulting strains were found to be affiliated to seven closely-related genera of the family Scenedesmaceae, as revealed by both morphologic and molecular characterization. Following initial screening under upper psychrophilic to optimum mesophilic (irregular temperature of 14.1 to 35.9°C) cultivation conditions, superior strains were chosen for further studies. Further cultivation of the selected strains under moderate to extreme mesophilic cultivation conditions (irregular temperature of 25.7 to 42.2°C), yielded up to 74.12 mgL-1day-1, 19.96 mgL-1day-1, 48.56%, 3.34 μg/mL and 1.20 μg/mL, for biomass productivity, lipid productivity, carbohydrate content, pigments content and carotenoids content respectively. These performances were deemed promising compared with some previous, optimum conditions-based reports. Interestingly, the fatty acids profile and the high carotenoids content of the studied strains revealed possible tolerance to the stress caused by the changing suboptimal cultivation conditions. Overall, strains AY1, CM6, LY2 and KL10 were exceptional and may present sustainable, promising feedstock for utilization in large-scale generation of green products, including biodiesel, bioethanol, pigments and dietary supplements. The findings of this study, which exposed promising, eurythermal strains, would expand the current knowledge on the search for promising microalgae strains capable of performing under the largely uncontrolled large-scale cultivation settings.

PurposeThe aim of this study was to gather data from female students studying in both health and non-health colleges at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University and report the prevalence, reasons, and determinants of dietary supplements use.MethodsA month-long cross-sectional study was conducted in health and non-health colleges affiliated to Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Convenient sampling was employed, and the data was gathered through an online survey using the English and Arabic versions of the Dietary Supplement Questionnaire (DSQ). The data was analyzed using SPSS version 23 and Medcalc. The study was approved by an ethics committee.ResultsData from 545 participants was collected. The overall prevalence of dietary supplement use was 32.7% (95% CI: 29.06%- 36.51%). The prevalence was 29.77% (95% CI: 25.29%- 34.56%) among students at all health colleges combined and, it was 37.50% (95% CI: 31.36%- 43.96%) among students at all non-health colleges. Most students used a brand product, spent a monthly cost of SAR 286 (USD 76.3) on supplements and agreed that supplements were good for health (N = 392, 71.9%). Students from non-health- colleges agreed that dietary supplements are good for health in greater numbers as compared to non-health college students (p < 0.001). Students aged ≥ 20 years, studying in a non-health college and up to 3rd year of study, were more 2 times more likely to agree that dietary supplements are good for health.ConclusionSupplements were commonly used among female students at this university however, it was quite low as compared to students from other local and regional universities. Prevalence was higher in non-health colleges as compared to health colleges and the most commonly used supplements were brand products and, multivitamins, used for general health and well-being. This highlights the inclination of students towards supplement use.

In this technologically developed scenario, many organizations in developing countries including Pakistan have expanded the enthusiasm for understanding and creating an encouraging administrative and managerial environment. Numerous organizations are struggling for structural changes by deserting the old-fashioned organizational management style and implementing an empowering leadership where leaders give more authority to subordinates in decision making and responsibilities with the aim to increase organizational productivity. Therefore, the study examined the leadership empowering behaviour as a predictor of employees' psychological well-being of the educational institutions at secondary level in Kohat Division, Pakistan. A total sample of 564 secondary school teachers (male n = 379; female n = 185) was carefully chosen through a stratified random sampling technique. In this study, a non-experimental predictive correlational design was adopted. In order to collect data from the participants, two different standardized research tools i.e., the Leader Empowering Behaviour Questionnaire and Ryff's Psychological Well-being Scale were used. After the collection of data, it was analyzed on the basis of mean, standard deviation, Pearson's product-moment correlation, and multiple linear regression model. In conclusion, the study confirmed a significant positive correlation between leadership empowering behaviour and employees' psychological well-being. Leadership empowering behaviours predict employees' psychological well-being positively. Therefore, it was recommended that empowering behaviour might be adopted by the school leaders to improve the employees' psychological well-being for better organizational productivity.

Theileria annulata is a tick-borne hemoprotozoan parasite responsible for tropical theileriosis in the bovine population, which causes substantial economic losses to the livestock sector. The present study has investigated, characterized, and shaped epidemiologic and phylogenetic profiles of T. annulata infection in the cattle population of central Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. A total of 600 blood samples were collected from cattle. Microscopy and PCR (18S rRNA taxonomic marker) assays were performed to detect T. annulata infection in cattle from the study area. The overall relative prevalence rates of T. annulata in the examined cattle population were 12.8% (microscopy) and 23.7% (PCR). District-wise analysis (microscopy/PCR) showed that cattle from district Mardan were found more infected (16.0%/28.0%), as compared to cattle from district Charsadda (13.5%/25.5%) and district Peshawar (9.0%/17.5%). Based on host demographic and ecological parameters analysis, theileriosis was found to be higher in young, female, crossbred, freely grazing, tick-infested, and irregular/no acaricides treated cattle. The univariate logistic analysis showed that host age, tick infestation, acaricides use, and feeding method were significant risk factors (P

Antibiotics discovery was a significant breakthrough in the field of therapeutic medicines, but the over (mis)use of such antibiotics (in parallel) caused the increasing number of resistant bacterial species at an ever-higher rate. This study was thus devised to assess the multi-drug resistant bacteria present in sanitation-related facilities in human workplaces. In this regard, samples were collected from different gender, location, and source-based facilities, and subsequent antibiotic sensitivity testing was performed on isolated bacterial strains. Four classes of the most commonly used antibiotics i.e., β-lactam, Aminoglycosides, Macrolides, and Sulphonamides, were evaluated against the isolated bacteria. The antibiotic resistance profile of different (70) bacterial strains showed that the antibiotic resistance-based clusters also followed the grouping based on their isolation sources, mainly the gender. Twenty-three bacterial strains were further selected for their 16s rRNA gene based molecular identification and for phylogenetic analysis to evaluate the taxonomic evolution of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB). Moreover, the bacterial resistance to Sulphonamides and beta lactam was observed to be the most and to Aminoglycosides and macrolides as the least. Plasmid curing was also performed for multidrug resistant (MDR) bacterial strains, which significantly abolished the resistance potential of bacterial strains for different antibiotics. These curing results suggested that the antibiotic resistance determinants in these purified bacterial strains are present on respective plasmids. Altogether, the data suggested that the human workplaces are the hotspot for the prevalence of MDR bacteria and thus may serve as the source of horizontal gene transfer and further transmission to other environments.

In this work, we consider giving up smoking dynamic on adolescent nicotine dependence. First, we use the Caputo derivative to develop the model in fractional order. Then we apply two different numerical methods to compute accurate approximate solutions of this new model in fractional order and compare their results. In order to do this, we consider the generalized Euler method (GEM) and multi-step generalized differential transform method (MSGDTM). We also show the unique positive solution for this model and present numerical results graphically.

Congenital heart defect (CHD) is the most common cause of death from congenital anomaly. Among several candidate epigenetic mechanisms, DNA methylation may play an important role in the etiology of CHDs. We conducted a genome-wide DNA methylation analysis using an Illumina Infinium 450k human methylation assay in a cohort of 24 newborns who had aortic valve stenosis (AVS), with gestational-age matched controls. The study identified significantly-altered CpG methylation at 59 sites in 52 genes in AVS subjects as compared to controls (either hypermethylated or demethylated). Gene Ontology analysis identified biological processes and functions for these genes including positive regulation of receptor-mediated endocytosis. Consistent with prior clinical data, the molecular function categories as determined using DAVID identified low-density lipoprotein receptor binding, lipoprotein receptor binding and identical protein binding to be over-represented in the AVS group. A significant epigenetic change in the APOA5 and PCSK9 genes known to be involved in AVS was also observed. A large number CpG methylation sites individually demonstrated good to excellent diagnostic accuracy for the prediction of AVS status, thus raising possibility of molecular screening markers for this disorder. Using epigenetic analysis we were able to identify genes significantly involved in the pathogenesis of AVS.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0103617.].

BACKGROUND: It is well established that low levels of 25(OH) Vitamin D (