Graphical abstract

Endoglucanase (EG) from A. terreus DSM 826 grown on sugar cane bagasse as a carbon source was purified using acetone fractionation, then a Sepharose-4B chromatographic column, with purification of about 27-fold and 10.5% recovery. The optimum temperature and pH for activity of the purified EG were found to be 50 degrees C and pH 4.8, respectively. The purified enzyme can stand heating up to 50 degrees C for 1 h without apparent loss of activity. However, the enzyme, incubated at 80 degrees C for 5 min, showed about 56% loss of activity. Optimum EG activity was recorded with a citrate buffer system (pH 4.8; 0.05 M). Co2+ (2.5 x 10(-2) M) and Zn2+ (5 x 10(-2) M) were found to activate the purified EG of A. terreus DSM 826 by about 83 and 25%, respectively. On the other hand, Hg2+ inhibited the activity of the purified EG by about 50 and 71% at a concentration of 2.5 x 10(-2) and 5 x 10(-2) M, respectively. Carboxymethyl cellulose was found to be the best substrate for the purified EG, with V(max) values of 4.35 micrpmol min(-1) mg(-1) protein.

In this study, a new array pattern synthesis approach using a genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed. The proposed approach has a unique set of objectives to be achieved by exploiting the GA optimisation capabilities. These objectives are: (i) steering the pattern main lobe in the direction of the signal of interest, (ii) minimising the side lobes level, (iii) steering pattern nulls in the directions of jammers and interferers, (iv) forcing the pattern nulls to have prespecified values in order to insure sufficient elimination of jammers and interferers and (v) the whole pattern synthesis will be done by changing the amplitudes and phases of the array elements' complex weights without any physical changes in the array; thus the method will be suitable for adaptive processing applications in which the array pattern will be dynamically adapted to the environments. Numerical examples will be used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed array pattern synthesis approach using a uniform linear array of isotropic elements. Finally, the effect of changing the array number of elements and the weighting factor will be investigated using numerical examples.

Nigella sutiva L. is an annual of the Ranztnculaceae herbaceous plant growing in countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. Its seeds are reputated and used by the common people for many medicinal purposes.

-Knowledge management is recognized as an important weapon for sustaining competitive advantage and improving performance. The evaluation of knowledge management (KM) performance has become increasingly important since it provides the reference for directing the organizations to enhance their performance and competitiveness. This paper provides an understanding of factors that involved in implementing knowledge management concept to enhance organizational performance. Also, it provides an assessment tool that helps organizations to assess their knowledge management capabilities and identify the possible existing gaps in their knowledge management systems and suggest the possible ways to enhance organizational performance. The results show that all elements of knowledge management capabilities have a positive significant relationship with all measures of the performance at 1% level of significant; it means that there is a great correlation between knowledge management capabilities and organizational performance

The purpose of this study was molecular characterization of the antibiotic resistance profiles of some Enterococcus isolates obtained from different hospitals in Taif governorate in KSA. Out of the 89 bacterial isolates obtained, 12 isolates of Enterococcus spp. were subjected to fingerprinting based on repetitive sequence-based polymerase chain reaction (Rep-PCR), and tested their resistance/susceptibility against some antibiotics which are commonly used in KSA. They were identified using the specific primers for different antibiotic resistance genes of Enterococcus spp. as Tuf, VanC-1, VanC-2-VanC-3 genes and sequencing fragments of 16S rDNA gene. The obtained results indicated that about 58.3% of Enterococcus isolates were Enterococcus faecium, 16.6% were Enterococcus durans and 25.1% were other Enterococcus species. Sixty-seven per cent of the isolates had multi-drug resistance patterns against gentamicin, vancomycin, erythromycin, amoxicillin, cefazolin and tetracycline. Data on the prevalence and types of antibiotic resistance in Enterococcus species may be used to describe baseline antibiotic susceptibility profiles associated with Enterococcus spp. that were isolated from the hospitals' environment. Some discrepancies were detected among the identification methods used, and the most reliable were the Tuf, VanC-1, VanC-2-VanC-3 genes, and 16S rDNA nucleotide sequencing of 12 Enterococcus isolates were deposited in Gene Bank under the accession numbers from KT366721 to KT366732, respectively. Selected isolates exhibited susceptibility to almost all studied antibiotics, and some virulence factors were detected by PCR. Finally, these Enterococcus isolates were molecularly characterized by Rep-PCR into a diverse genetic background. The data collected may also help to elucidate the role of hospitals in the transmission of antibiotic-resistant strains to human populations.

Background. Depression and cognitive impairment are two common mental and public health problems especially among elderly. In this study, we determined the prevalence of these problems and their associations with sociodemographic factors among hospitalized elderly in Egypt. To achieve this, 200 elderly medical inpatients were included in this cross-sectional study. Methods. Comprehensive geriatric assessment was done for every participant. Sociodemographic variables were assessed by interviews with patients and their family members. Depressive symptoms were screened for by the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), and the presence of depressive symptoms was defined as a GDS score of ≥6. Cognitive impairment was assessed by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) Scale, and cognitive impairment was defined as a MMSE score of ≤23 out of a total score of 30. Results. The prevalence of both depressive symptoms and cognitive impairment was 72% and 30%, respectively. Significant associations were noticed between each of depressive symptoms and cognitive impairment, and low income and advancing age (P < 0.01), respectively. Other associations were insignificant. Conclusions. The findings of this study may be an alarm for health authorities and staffs involved in elderly care to increase their awareness of social and mental health problems among the elderly.

Whole genome sequencing of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strain isolated from Sudan has led to a great deal of information, which allows the identification and characterization of some pivotal proteins. The objective of this study was to investigate the penicillin-binding proteins, PBP and PBP2a, of SO-1977 strain to have insights about their physicochemical properties and to assess and describe the interaction of some phytochemicals against them in silico. PBP and PBP2a from MRSA’s Sudan strain were found to be of great resemblance with some other strains. G246E single-nucleotide polymorphism was reported and identified in the allosteric binding site positioned in the non-penicillin-binding domain. The docked compounds demonstrated good binding energies and hydrogen bond interactions with residue Ser404 which plays crucial roles in β-lactam activity. This finding would contribute significantly to designing effective β-lactam drugs, to combat and treat β-lactam–resistant bacteria in the future.