Antimicrobial Activity of Metabolites Secreted by the Endophytic Bacterium Frateuria defendens

Candidatus Phytoplasma, the causative agent of yellows disease, inflicts substantial damage on several hundred plant species including perennials and annual plants. The endophytic bacterium Frateuria defendens reduces the symptoms of yellows disease in a number of agricultural crops. One possible mode of action is that the bacterium secretes antimicrobial metabolites. To test this hypothesis, the substances secreted by the endophyte during 10 days of growth in an artificial medium were identified by GC-MS (gas chromatography–mass spectrometry). Synthetic analogues to these substances were then used on periwinkle, a nurse culture plant infected by phytoplasma. Phytoplasma quantities were evaluated by quantitative PCR, and disease symptoms were monitored and recorded. It was found that specific compounds identified by the biochemical analysis caused a significant reduction in both the titer of phytoplasma and the disease symptoms in periwinkle when compared to untreated infected plants. Further research is required to examine the potential of these compounds as an effective treatment against yellows disease.

The Cultural Competency Scale for Clinical Pediatric Nurse (Ccs-Cpn) in Indonesia: Scale Development and Psychometric Evaluation

<p>ABSTRACT</p><p>Background: Nurses play an important role to apply practice in cultural competence in hospitals. To perform this role nurses need to provide information on the conceptual aspects of cultural competence by using instruments and assessing cultural competence in a clinical setting. Objectives of the study: 1) to develop the cultural competency for clinical pediatric nurse (CCS-CPN), and 2) to psychometric evaluate the validity and reliability of CCS-CPN. Methods: An inductive method was used to develop an instrument to measure nurse perceptions of CCS-CPN. The scale validation was conducted with a purposive sampling of 450 general hospital nurses recruited from twenty general hospitals in Indonesia. DeVellis’ eight-step plan was used to establish guidelines for development the CCS-CPN. The data was examined using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is a method to identify the internal dimensions of the CCS-CPN. Results: Using an EFA, 30-items with a six-factor structure were retained to form the CCS-CPN. These factors describe: culture awareness of pediatric nurse; culture knowledge of pediatric nurse; culture skill of pediatric nurse; culture encounter<em> </em>of pediatric nurse; culture desire of pediatric nurse; and culture sensitivity of pediatric nurse. The 30-item CCS-CPN yielded an overall Cronbach’s alpha-coefficients .85. The Cronbach’s alpha-coefficients for the CCS-CPN subscales were .81, .73, .81, .75, .78 and .87, respectively. Conclusion: The 30-item CCS-CPN version of Indonesia consists of six-factors were acceptable and significant. Unfortunelly, factor 4 obtained an item that does not represent the dimensions of the culture encounter of pediatric nurses. Therefore, further research is needed by using different method of Delphi method. </p><p> </p><p> </p>