Background: The study was conducted to determine the bacterial composition and antibiotic susceptibility profiles of a research institute at the University of Ghana where workers and students spend about 70-85% of their lives in indoor and immediate-outdoor environments. This is imperative as one-third of the recognized infectious diseases are transmitted through airborne-route. Furthermore, the increasing rate of bacterial antimicrobial resistance associated with such environments poses serious public health challenges. Methods: A total of 42 airborne samples were collected from eight major sites at the Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology (BCMB), using passive bacterial sampling techniques. Standard phenotypic microbiological procedures were used to characterize the isolates. Antibiotic susceptibility profiles were determined using standard disk diffusion method and guidelines of Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). Results: Four groups of bacterial isolates were identified from the total samples collected with Gram positive bacilli as the most common. All the isolates showed resistance to beta lactam and sulfonamide classes of antibiotics with full resistance (100%) to ampicillin and penicillin. In total, seven different anti-biotypes were observed with the highest susceptibility displayed towards tetracycline and gentamycin. Significantly, the various air sampling sites of the institute indicated the presence of bacteria with the majority showing multiple antibiotics resistance. Conclusions: Although the recovery of bacteria from supposed sterile environments calls for attention, the observed low contamination rate as compared to the WHO standard suggests a minimum risk of exposure of students and workers to airborne microbial contamination.

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The goal of this work was to evaluate the effect of adding extract of Pomegranate peels (PPE) on the mechanical, reservation and antioxidant properties of edible chitosan films. The findings showed that the chitosan film, supported by pomegranate peels, possessed distinctive properties, as the thickness, tensile strength, elongation, oxygen permeability, and permeability of water vapor and solubility were 60 µm, 27.6 (Mpa),18.3%,30.13(ml / m2* day), 2.91(g.mm/day.m2KPa), 23.12% respectively, whereas in the control film they were 30 µm, 19.2 (Mpa),10.6%, 60.47(ml / m2* day), 2.30(g.mm/day.m2KPa), 26.50% respectively. Edible films incorporated with Pomegranate peels extract showed an antioxidant activity of 66.42% compared to the standard antioxidant BHA (Butylated hydroxyl anisole) and Ascorbic acid which were 27.44% and 80.54%, respectively.In respect to the optical proprieties the ?E value of control film samples was 8.7%,and (L, a, b) (26.46,40.01, 2.02) respectively, while for the supported Sample ?E was 26.37% (L, a, b) (72.24,1.09,5.30) respectively.

The study was conducted to determine the bacterial composition Background: and antibiotic susceptibility profiles of a research institute at the University of Ghana where workers and students spend about 70-85% of their lives in indoor and immediate-outdoor environments. This is imperative as one-third of the recognized infectious diseases are transmitted through airborne-route. Furthermore, the increasing rate of bacterial antimicrobial resistance associated with such environments poses serious public health challenges.A total of 42 airborne samples were collected from eight major sites Methods: at the Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology (BCMB), using passive bacterial sampling techniques. Standard phenotypic microbiological procedures were used to characterize the isolates. Antibiotic susceptibility profiles were determined using standard disk diffusion method and guidelines of Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI).Four groups of bacterial isolates were identified from the total Results: samples collected with Gram positive bacilli as the most common. All the isolates showed resistance to beta lactam and sulfonamide classes of antibiotics with full resistance (100%) to ampicillin and penicillin. In total, seven different anti-biotypes were observed with the highest susceptibility displayed towards tetracycline and gentamycin. Significantly, the various air sampling sites of the institute indicated the presence of bacteria with the majority showing multiple antibiotics resistance.Although the recovery of bacteria from supposed sterile Conclusions: environments calls for attention, the observed low contamination rate as compared to the WHO standard suggests a minimum risk of exposure of students and workers to airborne microbial contamination.