Virulence Factors of Staphylococcus aureus Isolates in an Iranian Referral Children’s Hospital

Farah Sabouni,Shima Mahmoudi,Abbas Bahador,Babak Pourakbari,Reihaneh Hosseinpour Sadeghi,Mohammad Taghi Haghi Ashtiani,Bahram Nikmanesh,Setareh Mamishi 질병관리본부 2014 Osong Public Health and Research Persptectives Vol.5 No.2

Objectives: The clinical importance of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is attributed to notable virulence factors, surface proteins, toxins, and enzymes as well as the rapid development of drug resistance. The aim of this study was to compare the occurrence of virulence factors produced by S. aureus strains isolated from children in an Iranian referral children’s hospital. Methods: The presence of genes encoding for the enterotoxins A (sea), B (seb), C (sec), D (sed ), TSST-1 (tsst), exfoliative toxin A (eta), and exfoliative toxin B (etb) were detected by Multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using specific primers. In addition, the standardized Kirby-Bauer disc-diffusion method was performed on Mueller-Hinton agar. Results: In total, 133 S. aureus isolates were obtained from different patients. Of these S. aureus isolates, 64 (48%) were methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), and all of these tested positive for the mecA gene. Regarding the classical enterotoxin genes, sea gene (40.6%) was the most prevalent followed by seb (19.6%), tsst (12.8%), eta (11.3%), etb (9%), sed (4.5%), and sec (3%). Among methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) isolates, seb and tsst were the more prevalent toxins in comparison with MRSA isolates (p < 0.05), while the frequency of sea, sed, eta, and etb genes were higher among MRSA isolates (p > 0.05). Conclusion: In our study enterotoxin A was produced by 40.6% of the isolates (48% from MRSA and 33% from MSSA isolates) which was higher than in previous reports. According to our results, strict hygiene and preventative measures during food processing are highly recommended.

Iterative Learning Control for Strictly Unknown Nonlinear Systems Subject to External Disturbances

Farah Bouakrif 제어·로봇·시스템학회 2011 International Journal of Control, Automation, and Vol.9 No.4

This paper deals with Iterative Learning Control ILC schemes to solve the trajectory tracking problem of strictly unknown nonlinear systems subject to external disturbances, and performing repetitive tasks. Two ILC laws are presented, the first law is the high order, i.e., the information (error) of several iterations are used in the control law. The second law is the ILC with forgetting factor, i.e., the control of the preceding iteration is multiplied by a matrix of the gains. Indeed, the advantage of these algorithms, it is not only applicable for nonlinear systems with model uncertainty, but also for nonlinear systems with no data exists, neither in the structure model nor in the system parameters. In addition, the control design is very simple in the sense that there is no requirement on the choice of the learning gains. Furthermore, the convergence of our algorithms is independent of initial conditions. The asymptotic stability of the closed loop system is guaranteed. This proof is based upon the use of a Lyapunov-like positive definite sequence, which is shown to be monotonically decreasing under the proposed control schemes. Finally, simulation results on nonlinear system are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed controllers.

Risk factors for early postoperative complications after bariatric surgery

Farah Husain,In Ho Jeong,Donn Spight,Bruce Wolfe,Samer G Mattar 대한외과학회 2018 Annals of Surgical Treatment and Research(ASRT) Vol.95 No.2

Purpose: Vertical sleeve gastrectomy (SG) and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) are currently the most common bariatric procedures. Although the safety of these operations has markedly improved, there continues to be a certain rate of complications. Such adverse events can have a significant deleterious effect on the outcome of these procedures and represent a costly burden on patients and society at large. A better understanding of these complications and their predictive factors may help ameliorate and optimize outcomes. Methods: Seven hundred seventy-two consecutive patients who underwent SG or RYGB for morbid obesity between January 2011 and October 2015, in the Division of Bariatric Surgery at a tertiary institution, were included through retrospective review of the medical database. The complications were categorized and evaluated according to severity using the Clavien-Dindo classification system. Significant risk factors were evaluated by binary logistic regression to identify independent predictors and analyzed to identify their relationship with the type of complication. Results: Independent predictors of severe complication after these procedures included male gender, open and revisional surgery, hypertension, and hypoalbuminemia. Hypoalbuminemia had significant associations with occurrence of deep surgical site infection and leak. Open surgery had significant associations with occurrence of superficial and deep surgical site infection and respiratory complications. Independent predictors of severe complication after laparoscopic primary RYGB included previous abdominal surgery. Previous abdominal surgery had significant associations with deep surgical site infection and leak. Conclusion: Recognition and optimization of these risk factors would be valuable in operative risk prediction before bariatric surgery.

Layer-Recurrent Network in Identifying a Nonlinear System

Farah Hani Nordin,Farrukh Hafiz Nagi 제어로봇시스템학회 2008 제어로봇시스템학회 국제학술대회 논문집 Vol.2008 No.10

Layer-Recurrent Network (LRN) is a dynamic neural network and is seen as a promising black box model in identifying a nonlinear system injected with nonlinear input signal. In this paper, LRN will be used to identify a nonlinear, state space 3-axis satellite model. Open loop identification is applied and methodology on nonlinear system identification is presented where the best pair of input and output data is first measured. Using the simulated data, six LRN models are used to identify the satellite dynamics. It is shown that only 200 epochs are needed to train a network to converge to a reasonable mean squared value (mse). LRN output is then compared with the state space model where it shows that LRN model is capable to produce similar results as the state space satellite model without knowing the system’ state and prior knowledge of the system

An Artificial Intelligence Approach for Word Semantic Similarity Measure of Hindi Language

( Farah Younas ),( Jumana Nadir ),( Muhammad Usman ),( Muhammad Attique Khan ),( Sajid Ali Khan ),( Seifedine Kadry ),( Yunyoung Nam ) 한국인터넷정보학회 2021 KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Syst Vol.15 No.6

AI combined with NLP techniques has promoted the use of Virtual Assistants and have made people rely on them for many diverse uses. Conversational Agents are the most promising technique that assists computer users through their operation. An important challenge in developing Conversational Agents globally is transferring the groundbreaking expertise obtained in English to other languages. AI is making it possible to transfer this learning. There is a dire need to develop systems that understand secular languages. One such difficult language is Hindi, which is the fourth most spoken language in the world. Semantic similarity is an important part of Natural Language Processing, which involves applications such as ontology learning and information extraction, for developing conversational agents. Most of the research is concentrated on English and other European languages. This paper presents a Corpus-based word semantic similarity measure for Hindi. An experiment involving the translation of the English benchmark dataset to Hindi is performed, investigating the incorporation of the corpus, with human and machine similarity ratings. A significant correlation to the human intuition and the algorithm ratings has been calculated for analyzing the accuracy of the proposed similarity measures. The method can be adapted in various applications of word semantic similarity or module for any other language.

New antimicrobial flavonoids and chalcone from Colutea armata

Farah Inamullah,Itrat Fatima,Sadia Khan,Mehdi Hassan Kazmi,Abdul Malik,Rasool Bakhsh Tareen,Tanveer Abbas 대한약학회 2017 Archives of Pharmacal Research Vol.40 No.8

Colucins A (1) and B (2), new flavonoids andcolucone (3), the new chalcone derivative, have been isolatedfrom the CHCl3-soluble fraction of the whole plant ofColutea armata along with luteolin (4), luteolin 7-O-b-Dglucoside(5), isoliquiritigenin (6), trans-caffeic acid (7)and stigmasterol (8) reported for the first time from thisspecies. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopictechniques including MS and 2D-NMR spectroscopy. Compounds 1 and 2 showed significant antimicrobialactivity against two Gram positive and three Gram negativebacterial strains while 3 was moderately active.

Pancreatic angiosarcoma: A case report

Farah Najla SUPANDI,Balraj SINGH,Haritharan THAMUTARAM,Kin Foong LIM,Ahmad Ramzi YUSOFF 한국간담췌외과학회 2021 Annals of hepato-biliary-pancreatic surgery Vol.25 No.-

Impact of Economic Determinants on the Scale Effect of Cross Border Merger and Acquisition: A Comparison between Developed and Emerging Economies

Farah NAZ,Abdul Qayyum KHAN,Muhammad Yar KHAN 한국유통과학회 2022 The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Busine Vol.9 No.5

The main reason for the increase in cross-border mergers and acquisitions in developed and emerging countries is globalization and growing economic interdependence across countries. The state of the economy has a significant impact on whether cross-border mergers and acquisitions are encouraged or discouraged by international strategic capital market changes. This study empirically evaluates the influence of determinants of economic development on the scale effect of Cross Border M&As separately on emerging and developed nations as a research gap. We first separated the small and large scale firms based on companies’ worth and used panel regression to analyze the impact of GDP, employment rate, and market capitalization on cross-border merger & acquisition deals over the period of 2008-2018. Results indicate that GDP and market capitalization have a positive effect on CBM&A, whereas employment rate has a negative effect on CBM&A deals in large-scale firms of both emerging and developed countries. This study results offer the implication for the potential investors and policymakers to strategically analyze the implementation of cross-border mergers & acquisitions.

Caudate lobe abscess: Challenging site with less invasive option of treatment: A case series

Farah Najla SUPANDI,Balraj SINGH,Rizal ROSLAN,Izazul HUSIN,Tiong See LEE 한국간담췌외과학회 2021 Annals of hepato-biliary-pancreatic surgery Vol.25 No.-

The Role of Titanium Particles and Ions in the Pathogenesis of Peri-Implantitis

Farah Asa'ad,Peter Thomsen,Marcel F. Kunrath 대한골대사학회 2022 대한골대사학회지 Vol.29 No.3

Titanium (Ti) particles and ions have been investigated in recent years as important fac- tors in the pathogenesis of peri-implantitis. However, their role in the pathogenesis is yet to be fully understood. A review of pertinent literature was performed in various da- tabases to determine the current position of Ti particles and ions role in the pathogene- sis of peri-implantitis. There are several in vitro, preclinical and clinical published studies that have addressed the role of Ti particles and ions in the pathogenesis of peri-implan- titis. These studies explored the effect of Ti particles and ions in the pathogenesis of peri- implantitis with respect to foreign body reaction, cellular response, epigenetic mecha- nisms, namely DNA methylation, and the oral microbiome. Studies have shown that the release of Ti particles/ions during implant insertion, early healing stages, late healing stages, and treatments during peri-implantitis might contribute to peri-implantitis through different mechanisms, such as foreign body reaction, cellular response, DNA methyla- tion, and shaping the oral microbiome by increasing dysbiosis. However, further studies are needed to elucidate the complex interactions between all these mechanisms and Ti particles/ions in the pathogenesis and progression of peri-implantitis.