The composition and metabolic functions of oral microbiota are affected by many factors including smoking leading to several health problems. Cigarette smoking is associated with changes in oral microbiota composition and function. However, it is not known if the depletion of certain bacterial genera and species is due to specific toxins in cigarette smoke, or indirectly due to competition for colonization with smoking-enriched bacteria. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effect of cigarette smoking on the microbial prevalence and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) biodegradation of selected enriched and depleted oral bacteria from oral microbiota of smokers compared to that in non-smokers. Samples of oral rinse from smokers and non-smokers were collected ( = 23, 12 smokers and 11 non-smokers) and screened for oral bacterial strains of spp., and spp. Comparing counts, , , and showed higher counts in smokers compared to non-smokers while the spp. were higher in non-smokers. was prevalent in smokers, representing 91.67% of the total Lactobacillus spp. isolates. The biodegradation potential of anthracene; a representative of PAHs of collected isolates, in single and mixed cultures, was assayed with anthracene as the sole source of carbon using 2,6-dichlorophenol indophenol (2,6-DCPIP) as indicator. isolates recovered from smokers showed higher degradation of anthracene compared to those recovered from non-smokers. The anaerobic anthracene biodegradation activity of isolates from non-smokers was the highest among all isolates of the three recovered genera from the same subject. The anthracene biodegradation potential of spp. was variable. Combinations of isolated bacteria in co-cultures showed that spp. interfered with anthracene biodegradation ability along with the viable counts of and spp. In conclusion, oral dysbiosis due to cigarette smoking was observed not only due to changes in oral bacterial relative abundance but also extended to bacterial functions such as anthracene biodegradation tested in this study. Microbe-microbe interactions changed the anthracene biodegradation potential and growth of the microbial mixture compared to their corresponding single isolates, and these changes differ according to the constituting bacteria.

Floods are causing massive losses of crops and agricultural infrastructures in many regions across the globe. During the 2018/2019 agricultural year, heavy rains from Cyclone Idai caused flooding in Central Mozambique and had the greatest impact on Sofala Province. The main objectives of this study are to map the flooding durations, evaluate how long crops survived the floods, and analyse the dynamics of the affected crops and their recovery following various flooding durations using multi-source satellite data. Our results indicate that Otsu method-based flooding mapping provides reliable flood extents and durations with an overall accuracy higher than 90%, which facilitates the assessment of how long crops can survive floods and their recovery progress. Croplands in both Buzi and Tica administrative units were the most severely impacted among all the regions in Sofala Province, with the largest flooded cropland extent at 23,101.1 ha in Buzi on 20 March 2019 and the most prolonged flooding duration of more than 42 days in Tica and Mafambisse. Major summer crops, including maize and rice, could survive when the fields were inundated for up to 12 days, while all crops died when the flooding duration was longer than 24 days. The recovery of surviving crops to pre-flooding status took a much longer time, from approximately 20 days to as long as one month after flooding. The findings presented herein can assist decision making in developing countries or remote regions for flood monitoring, mitigation and damage assessment.

Global deployment of an effective and safe vaccine is necessary to curtail the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Here, we evaluated a Newcastle disease virus (NDV)-based vectored-vaccine in mice and hamsters for its immunogenicity, safety, and protective efficacy against SARS-CoV-2. Intranasal administration of recombinant (r)NDV-S vaccine expressing spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2 to mice induced high levels of SARS-CoV-2-specific neutralizing immunoglobulin A (IgA) and IgG2a antibodies and T-cell-mediated immunity. Hamsters immunized with two doses of vaccine showed complete protection from lung infection, inflammation, and pathological lesions following SARS-CoV-2 challenge. Importantly, administration of two doses of intranasal rNDV-S vaccine significantly reduced the SARS-CoV-2 shedding in nasal turbinate and lungs in hamsters. Collectively, intranasal vaccination has the potential to control infection at the site of inoculation, which should prevent both clinical disease and virus transmission to halt the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) not only affected health and economics, but also its effect extended to include other aspects, such as the environment. Using Egypt as a case study, this paper presents the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on air pollution levels by studying nitrogen dioxide (NO), ozone (O), particulate matter represented in absorbing aerosol index (AAI), carbon monoxide (CO), and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The paper also highlights the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on other environmental indicators including environmental noise, medical and municipal solid wastes. The paper presents the Egyptian COVID-19 story from its different angles including the development of confirmed COVID-19 cases, containment measures from the government, the impact on the country's economy and the national energy consumption so as to effectively evaluate the effect on both the air pollution levels and the other studied environmental indicators. For the other environmental indicators, a strong link was observed between COVID-19 lockdown and the reduction in environmental noise, beaches, surface and groundwater pollution. For environmental noise, this has been confirmed by officially governmental announcements which reported that the level of environmental noise in Egypt was reduced by about 75% during the lockdown period. On the other hand, there are some negative effects, including an increase in medical solid waste (from 70 to 300 ton/day), municipal solid waste, as well as a less efficient solid waste recycling process. For air pollution levels, the data were obtained from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and European Space Agency satellite data sets. The data for the lockdown period in 2020 have been extracted and compared to the corresponding months in the selected baseline period (2015-2019) to identify the effect that the lockdown period had on the air pollution levels in Egypt with focus on Cairo and Alexandria governorates. It was found that the AAI decreased by about 30%, the NO decreased by 15 and 33% over Cairo and Alexandria governorates, respectively, and that the CO decreased by about 5% over both governorates. In addition, the GHG emissions in Egypt were reduced by at least 4% during the pandemic. In contrast, ozone levels increased by about 2% over Cairo and Alexandria governorates. It can be concluded that the implemented containment measures during COVID-19 pandemic had resulted in both positive and negative environmental impacts. The positive environmental impacts are not sustainable and deterioration on them is expected to occur after the lockdown as it was before the pandemic. Therefore, stricter laws must be enacted to protect the environment in Egypt.

Introduction Childhood cancers are a leading cause of non-communicable disease deaths for children around the world. The COVID-19 pandemic may have impacted on global children’s cancer services, which can have consequences for childhood cancer outcomes. The Global Health Research Group on Children’s Non-Communicable Diseases is currently undertaking the first international cohort study to determine the variation in paediatric cancer management during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the short-term to medium-term impacts on childhood cancer outcomes.Methods and analysis This is a multicentre, international cohort study that will use routinely collected hospital data in a deidentified and anonymised form. Patients will be recruited consecutively into the study, with a 12-month follow-up period. Patients will be included if they are below the age of 18 years and undergoing anticancer treatment for the following cancers: acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, Burkitt lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, Wilms tumour, sarcoma, retinoblastoma, gliomas, medulloblastomas and neuroblastomas. Patients must be newly presented or must be undergoing active anticancer treatment from 12 March 2020 to 12 December 2020. The primary objective of the study was to determine all-cause mortality rates of 30 days, 90 days and 12 months. This study will examine the factors that influenced these outcomes. χ2 analysis will be used to compare mortality between low-income and middle-income countries and high-income countries. Multilevel, multivariable logistic regression analysis will be undertaken to identify patient-level and hospital-level factors affecting outcomes with adjustment for confounding factors.Ethics and dissemination At the host centre, this study was deemed to be exempt from ethical committee approval due to the use of anonymised registry data. At other centres, participating collaborators have gained local approvals in accordance with their institutional ethical regulations. Collaborators will be encouraged to present the results locally, nationally and internationally. The results will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

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Coatings that reduce the fat content of fried food are an alternate option to reach both health concerns and consumer demand. Mucilage of garden cress () seed extract (MSE) was modified into an edible coating with or without ascorbic acid (AA) to coat fresh-cut potato strips during cold storage (5 °C and 95% RH for 12 days) and subsequent frying. Physical attributes such as color, weight loss, and texture of potato strips coated with MSE solutions with or without AA showed that coatings efficiently delayed browning, reduced weight loss, and maintained the texture during cold storage. Moreover, MSE with AA provided the most favorable results in terms of reduction in oil uptake. In addition, the total microbial count was lower for MSE-coated samples when compared to the control during the cold storage. MSE coating also performed well on sensory attributes, showing no off flavors or color changes. As a result, the edible coating of garden cress mucilage could be a promising application for extending shelf-life and reducing the oil uptake of fresh-cut potato strips.

Antimicrobial drug (AMD) use for bovine respiratory disease (BRD) continues to be concerning for development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in respiratory and enteric bacteria of cattle. This study aimed to provide data regarding AMR in respiratory isolates, and identify relationships between respiratory and enteric AMD susceptibility, in weaned dairy heifers. A cross-sectional study was performed between June of 2019 and February 2020, on 6 calf rearing facilities in California. Deep nasopharyngeal and rectal swabs were collected from 341 weaned heifers and submitted for selective bacterial culture and AMR testing. Mannheimia haemolytica, Pasteurella multocida, and Histophilus somni were selectively isolated from respiratory samples; Escherichia coli and Enterococcus spp. were selectively isolated from rectal swabs. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) were determined for selected isolates against 19 AMD. The proportion of resistant isolates was calculated using Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (respiratory) or USDA NARMS (enteric) breakpoints; when no applicable breakpoint was available, the distribution of MIC was described and compared. Association between AMR in a calf's respiratory isolate and a higher or lower MIC of the matched enteric isolates was determined. More than 50% of P. multocida isolates were resistant to each of 7 AMD commonly used to treat BRD (florfenicol, gamithromycin, tildipirosin, tilmicosin, danofloxacin, enrofloxacin and tetracycline). Resistance in respiratory isolates was only associated with higher matched enteric MIC for gamithromycin and tulathromycin. Multidrug resistance was reported in >70% of P. multocida and M. haemolytica isolates. Antimicrobial resistance, including multidrug resistance, in respiratory isolates appears to be widespread in weaned dairy heifers; this finding has not previously been reported and raises concern for the future efficacy of AMD used to treat respiratory diseases in weaned dairy heifers. Enteric bacterial MIC appear to have limited direct association with respiratory isolate AMR classification.

is a frequent cause of catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs). Several virulence factors contribute to its pathogenesis, but swarming motility, biofilm formation, and urease activity are considered the hallmarks. The increased prevalence in antibiotic resistance among uropathogens is alarming and requires searching for new treatment alternatives. With this in mind, our study aims to investigate antivirulence activity of indole derivatives against multidrug resistant isolates. Ethyl acetate (EtOAc) extracts from sp. (rhizobacterium), isolated from Egyptian soil samples were tested for their ability to antagonize the virulence capacity and biofilm activity of uropathogens. Extracts of two sp. isolates (coded Zch127 and Cbg70) showed the highest antivirulence activities against . The two promising rhizobacteria Zch127 and Cbg70 were isolated from soil surrounding: (Zucchini) and (Cabbage), respectively. Sub-minimum inhibitory concentrations (Sub-MICs) of the two extracts showed potent antibiofilm activity with significant biofilm reduction of ten clinical isolates (-value < 0.05) in a dose-dependent manner. Interestingly, the Zch127 extract showed anti-urease, anti-swarming and anti-swimming activity against the tested strains. Indole derivatives identified represented key components of indole pyruvate, indole acetamide pathways; involved in the synthesis of indole acetic acid. Additional compounds for indole acetonitrile pathway were detected in the Zch127 extract which showed higher antivirulence activity. Accordingly, the findings of the current study model the feasibility of using these extracts as promising antivirulence agent against the uropathogens and as potential therapy for treatment of urinary tract infections (UTIs).

is a frequent cause of catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs). Several virulence factors contribute to its pathogenesis, but swarming motility, biofilm formation, and urease activity are considered the hallmarks. The increased prevalence in antibiotic resistance among uropathogens is alarming and requires searching for new treatment alternatives. With this in mind, our study aims to investigate antivirulence activity of indole derivatives against multidrug resistant isolates. Ethyl acetate (EtOAc) extracts from sp. (rhizobacterium), isolated from Egyptian soil samples were tested for their ability to antagonize the virulence capacity and biofilm activity of uropathogens. Extracts of two sp. isolates (coded Zch127 and Cbg70) showed the highest antivirulence activities against . The two promising rhizobacteria Zch127 and Cbg70 were isolated from soil surrounding: (Zucchini) and (Cabbage), respectively. Sub-minimum inhibitory concentrations (Sub-MICs) of the two extracts showed potent antibiofilm activity with significant biofilm reduction of ten clinical isolates (-value < 0.05) in a dose-dependent manner. Interestingly, the Zch127 extract showed anti-urease, anti-swarming and anti-swimming activity against the tested strains. Indole derivatives identified represented key components of indole pyruvate, indole acetamide pathways; involved in the synthesis of indole acetic acid. Additional compounds for indole acetonitrile pathway were detected in the Zch127 extract which showed higher antivirulence activity. Accordingly, the findings of the current study model the feasibility of using these extracts as promising antivirulence agent against the uropathogens and as potential therapy for treatment of urinary tract infections (UTIs).