An outbreak of Acinetobacter spp infection in the neonatal unit at Lok Nayak Hospital, New Delhi, India, is described. During a 6-month period, 68 strains of Acinetobacter baumannii were isolated from the blood and CSF of 47 neonates admitted to the intensive care unit. Diagnosis of clinically significant bacteremia was made in 36 patients. On environmental/personnel sampling, Acinetobacter spp...

This article presents information about the development and evaluation of the SF-36 Health Survey, a 36-item generic measure of health status. It summarizes studies of reliability and validity and provides administrative and interpretation guidelines for the SF-36. A brief history of the International Quality of Life Assessment (IQOLA) Project is also included.

This paper reports on the findings of a study to derive a preference-based measure of health from the SF-36 for use in economic evaluation. The SF-36 was revised into a six-dimensional health state classification called the SF-6D. A sample of 249 states defined by the SF-6D have been valued by a representative sample of 611 members of the UK general population, using standard gamble. Models are...

Four hundred high vaginal swabs were taken from patients attending gynaecology and obstetrics department of Govt. medical college, Amritsar. The patients were divided into four groups i.e. women in pregnancy (Group I), in labour/post partum (Group II), with abnormal vaginal discharge or bacterial vaginosis (Group III) and asymptomatic women as control (Group IV). Anaerobic culture of vaginal sw...

The aim of this study was to assess the species composition of airborne Staphylococcus spp. in public premises, to determine the methicillin resistance of the isolates and the prevalence of mecA gene, determining resistance to β-lactams. In total 65 Staphylococcus strains were isolated from 54 sites. Four strains exhibited phenotypic methicillin resistance, while the presence of mecA gene was f...

Background: Bacterial endophytes lives in internal tissues of root, stem and leaves grain amaranth plants. Isolation screening efficient bacterial for plant growth promotion, biocontrol activities drought tolerance can develop as suitable bioinoculants alleviate stress promotion. Methods: were isolated from (Amaranthus spp) all isolates screened nitrogen fixation, phosphorous solubilisation, ho...

Invasion success by an alien species is dependent upon rate of reproduction, growth, mortality, physical characteristics of the environment, and successful competition for resources with native species. For sessile, epibenthic marine species, one critical resource is space. We examined competitive success in two invasive Indo-Pacific corals involved in competition for space in the northern Gulf...

ii Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge and thank my major professor Dr. Gerald LaHoste for his help in this project. I would also like to extend thanks to Dr. Laura Harrison and Dr. David Ruskin for all of their advice and help in the completion of this project. I would also like to say thank-you to everyone at UNO for making my years here very enjoyable and I wish everyone the best in...