Association between low back pain perception and occupational in hospital nursing professionals.

Introduction: Low back pain can be defined as pain and/or discomfort between the coastal margins of the lowest rib and the gluteal fold, and it can cause motor dysfunction, loss of productivity, and changes in job function. There is a greater number of nursing professionals in hospital environments, and, regardless of their numerical contingent, they have the highest percentage of absenteeism due to this condition.

Objectives: To evaluate the association between perception of low back pain and occupational stress in hospital nursing professionals.

Longitudinal Study Detects the Co-Carriage of ESBL and - and - Genes in Strains in a Portuguese Farrow-to-Finish Swine Herd.

Cephalosporins and polymyxins are employed in antimicrobial protocols to control and treat neonatal infections and post-weaning diarrhoea in swine operations. We conducted a longitudinal study to evaluate the colonization and transmission of antibiotic-resistant in sows and their piglets in a farrow-to-finish operation, focusing on characterization of Extended Spectrum Beta-Lactamase (ESBL) and genes, virulence traits and genetic relatedness. A total of 293 isolates were obtained from faecal samples collected in five time points.

Forest phenoclusters for Argentina based on vegetation phenology and climate.

Forest biodiversity conservation and species distribution modeling greatly benefit from broad-scale forest maps depicting tree species or forest types rather than just presence and absence of forest, or coarse classifications. Ideally, such maps would stem from satellite image classification based on abundant field data for both model training and accuracy assessments, but such field data do not exist in many parts of the globe. However, different forest types and tree species differ in their vegetation phenology, offering an opportunity to map and characterize forests based on the seasonal dynamic of vegetation indices and auxiliary data.

Diversity of metal and antibiotic resistance genes in Enterococcus spp. from the last century reflects multiple pollution and genetic exchange among phyla from overlapping ecosystems.

Arsenic (As), mercury (Hg), and copper (Cu) are among the major historical and contemporary metal pollutants linked to global anthropogenic activities. Enterococcus have been considered indicators of fecal pollution and antibiotic resistance for years, but its largely underexplored metallome precludes understanding their role as metal pollution bioindicators as well. Our goal was to determine the occurrence, diversity, and phenotypes associated with known acquired genes/operons conferring tolerance to As, Hg or Cu among Enterococcus and to identify their genetic context (381 field isolates from diverse epidemiological and genetic backgrounds; 3547 enterococcal genomes available in databases representing a time span during 1900-2019).

Spatial distribution of wood volume in Brazilian savannas.

Here we model and describe the wood volume of Cerrado Sensu Stricto, a highly heterogeneous vegetation type in the Savanna biome, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, integrating forest inventory data with spatial-environmental variables, multivariate regression, and regression kriging. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the factors that affect the spatial distribution of the wood volume of this vegetation type as well as allowing better representation of the spatial heterogeneity of this biome. Wood volume estimates were obtained through regression models using different environmental variables as independent variables.

Water supply and feed as sources of antimicrobial-resistant Enterococcus spp. in aquacultures of rainbow trout (Oncorhyncus mykiss), Portugal.

The role of European fish farms in the spread of antimicrobial-resistance in the environment and food chain, as well as possible sources of their contamination by clinically relevant antimicrobial-resistance bacteria is scarcely known. This study aimed to assess the contribution of Portuguese rural trout farms on dispersion of Enterococcus with antimicrobial-resistance and putative virulence genes in the environment and food chain, as well as to identify farms contamination sources. We also assessed the presence of Enterococcus with low-levels of antimicrobial-resistance using epidemiological cut-offs (ECOFFs).

Molecular characterization of carbapenemases of clinical - complex isolates from a University Hospital in Tunisia.

The aim of this study was to identify the carbapenemases from clinical carbapenem-resistant complex (CRABC) isolates and to assess their potential dissemination by conjugation and natural transformation. CRABC ( = 101) were collected consecutively from inpatients of the University Hospital of Monastir, Tunisia, from 2013 to 2016. Antimicrobial susceptibility was determined by the disk diffusion method and E-test.

Co-diversification of Core Genomes and PBP5: Evidences of Horizontal Transfer.

Ampicillin resistance has greatly contributed to the recent dramatic increase of a cluster of human adapted lineages (ST17, ST18, and ST78) in hospital-based infections. Changes in the chromosomal gene have been associated with different levels of ampicillin susceptibility, leading to protein variants (designated as PBP5 C-types to keep the nomenclature used in previous works) with diverse degrees of reduction in penicillin affinity. Our goal was to use a comparative genomics approach to evaluate the relationship between the diversity of PBP5 among isolates of different phylogenomic groups as well as to assess the transferability among isolates of disparate clonal lineages.

Co-transfer of resistance to high concentrations of copper and first-line antibiotics among Enterococcus from different origins (humans, animals, the environment and foods) and clonal lineages.

Objectives: We studied the occurrence of diverse copper (Cu) tolerance genes from Gram-positive bacteria and their co-transfer with antibiotic resistance genes among Enterococcus from diverse sources.

Methods: Enterococcus (n = 922) of several species and from human, animal, environment and food samples were included. Antimicrobial and CuSO4 susceptibility and conjugation assays were performed by standard procedures, bacterial screening of Cu and antibiotic resistance genes by PCR, and clonality by PFGE/multilocus sequence typing.

Spread of multidrug-resistant Enterococcus to animals and humans: an underestimated role for the pig farm environment.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to discover the potential role of the pig farm environment in the spread of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Enterococcus strains, including high-risk clones, to animals and humans.

Methods: Enterococcus isolates were recovered from a variety of samples (n = 82; swine, feed/medicines/antiseptics and pig farm facilities) from six Portuguese farms, most using antibiotics. Antimicrobial susceptibility/conjugation assays were performed by standard procedures, bacterial identification/screening of antibiotic resistance genes were performed by PCR and clonality was determined using PFGE/multilocus sequence typing.

Different genetic supports for the tet(S) gene in Enterococci.

The diversity of tet(S) genetic contexts of 13 enterococci from human, animal, and environmental samples from different geographical areas is reported. The tet(S) gene was linked to either CTn6000 variants of chromosomal location or composite platforms flanked by IS1216 located on plasmids (∼40 to 115 kb). The comparative analysis of all tet(S) genetic elements available in the GenBank databases suggests that CTn6000 might be the origin of a variety of tet(S)-carrying platforms that were mobilized to different plasmids.