The Dutch Working Party on Antibiotic Policy (SWAB) Recommendations for the Diagnosis and Management of Febrile Neutropenia in Patients with Cancer

Introduction This guideline was written by a multidisciplinary committee with mandated members of the Dutch Society for Infectious Diseases, Dutch Society for Hematology, Dutch Society for Medical Oncology, Dutch Association of Hospital Pharmacists, Dutch Society for Medical Microbiology, and Dutch Society for Pediatrics. The guideline is written for adults and pediatric patients. Method The recommendations are based on the answers to nine questions formulated by the guideline committee. To provide evidence-based recommendations we used all relevant clinical guidelines published since 2010 as a source, supplemented with systematic searches and evaluation of the recent literature (2010-2020) and, where necessary, supplemented by expert-based advice. Results For adults the guideline distinguishes between high- and standard-risk neutropenia based on expected duration of neutropenia (> 7 days versus 7 days) and in children with neutropenia, ceftazidime, cefepime, and piperacillin-tazobactam are all first-choice options for empirical antibiotic therapy in case of fever. In adults with standard-risk neutropenia (duration of neutropenia <= 7 days) the MASCC score can be used to assess the individual risk of infectious complications. For patients with a low risk of infectious complications (high MASCC score) oral antibiotic therapy in an outpatient setting is recommended. For patients with a high risk of infectious complications (low MASCC score) antibiotic therapy per protocol sepsis of unknown origin is recommended.Immunogenetics and cellular immunology of bacterial infectious disease

Definition of a near real time microbiological monitor for space vehicles

Efforts to identify the ideal candidate to serve as the biological monitor on the space station Freedom are discussed. The literature review, the evaluation scheme, descriptions of candidate monitors, experimental studies, test beds, and culture techniques are discussed. Particular attention is given to descriptions of five candidate monitors or monitoring techniques: laser light scattering, primary fluorescence, secondary fluorescence, the volatile product detector, and the surface acoustic wave detector

IODP Expedition 323—Pliocene and Pleistocene Paleoceanographic Changes in the Bering Sea

High-resolution paleoceanography of the Plio-Pleistocene is important in understanding climate forcing mechanisms and the associated environmental changes. This is particularly true in high-latitude marginal seas such as the Bering Sea, which has been very sensitive to changes in global climate during interglacial and glacial or Milankovitch time scales. This is due to significant changes in water circulation, land-ocean interaction, and sea-ice formation. With theaim to reveal the climate and oceanographic history of the Bering Sea over the past 5 Ma, Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 323 cored a total of 5741 meters of sediment (97.4% recovery) at seven sites covering three different areas: Umnak Plateau, Bowers Ridge, and the Bering slope region. Four deep holes range from 600 m to 745 m spanning in age from 1.9 Ma to 5 Ma. The water depths (819 m to 3173 m) allow characterization of past verticalwater mass distribution such as the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ). The results highlight three key points. (1) The first is an understanding of long-term evolution of surface-water mass distribution during the past 5 Ma including past sea-ice distribution and warm and less eutrophic subarctic Pacific water mass entry into the Bering Sea. (2) We characterized relatively stagnant intermediate water mass distribution imprinted as laminated sediment intervals that have beenubiquitously encountered. Today, the OMZ impinges upon the sediments at ~700–1600 m water depths. In the past, the OMZ appears to have occurred mainly during interglacial periods. Changes in low oxygen-tolerant benthic foraminiferal faunas clearly concur with this observation. (3) We also characterized significant changes between glacial episode of terrigenous sedimentary supply and interglacialepisode of diatom flux

Project Tektite 1 - A multiagency 60 day saturated dive conducted by the United States Navy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Department of the Interior, and the General Electric Company Summary report

Underwater research in ocean floor habitat for 60 day evaluation of supporting facilities at Virgin Islands for Tektite 1 projec

Assessment of physico-chemical parameters of River Kaduna and College of Agriculture and Animal Science Dam, (CAAS) Kaduna, Nigeria

River Kaduna is one of the major sources of water to the inhabitants of the communities around the river and also to fish farmers while College of Agriculture and Animal Science Dam (CAAS) is used for fish farming and also for domestic purpose. The study was carried out to assess Physicochemical Parameters of River Kaduna and College of Agriculture and Animal Science Dam, Kaduna. The result of seasonal variation of physicochemical parameters between River Kaduna and College of Agriculture and Animal Science Dam, revealed that the atmospheric temperature (AT) ranged from 32.8 to 33.60C, pH at 7.1, conductivity ranged from 83.7 to 139.7µs/cm, dissolved oxygen ranged from 9.2 to 9.4 mg/l, biological oxygen demand ranged from 5.2 to 5.9 mg/l, water temperature (WT) at 29.20C, total hardness ranged from 37.4 to 58.0 mg/l, alkalinity ranged from 18.8 ton29.7 mg/l, chloride ranged from 14.8 to 15.9 mg/l, nitrate and phosphorus ranged from 0.1 to 0.2 mg/l while transparency ranged from 21.4 to 22.3 cm respectively. The seasonal variation result revealed that both at the Dam and river, AT, pH, DO, WT, Chloride, Nitrate, Phosphorus and Transparency values were not significantly different while conductivity, BOD, TH, Alkalinity and Ammonia were significantly different. However, they were significantly difference from one month to another (wet and dry season months respectively).Keywords: Physico-chemical parameters, River Kaduna, CAAS Da

Fermentation of Carcinus Maenas as a Method of Waste Stream Valorization

The European green crab, Carcinus maenas, is an aggressive invasive species of green crab that has had severe ecological and economic effects to the North American East Coast since the early 1800s. The green crab has disrupted entire ecosystems, particularly in the Gulf of Maine, due to its eating and uprooting of eel grass. The disruption of this plant reduces coastal habitats for bivalves and other coastal marine life. The green crabs have also been found to prey on juvenile lobsters and bivalve mollusks, disrupting both the ecosystem in the Gulf of Maine and the seafood economy dependent on lobsters and soft-shell clams. With the changing climate and consistent increases in the ocean temperature, the number of crabs killed by the cold, winter temperatures has been steadily decreasing. The establishment of a green crab fishery for the sale of soft-shell crabs has been identified as a method to control the growing population since the crabs are too small for hard-shell culinary use. However, most crabs fished cannot be sold as soft-shell, creating a large amount of biomass. The biomass can currently only be sold to lowvalorization waste streams such as compost, bait, or animal feed. In order to sustain green crab fisheries, a high-value waste stream valorization needs to be established. Fish sauce is a clear, brown, fish-flavored condiment that is traditionally spontaneously fermented from under-utilized fish species and salt. Fish sauce originated in Asia, but has been fermented in many places throughout the world including Rome, South America, and Africa with slight variations to the formulation depending on location and starting material. Since this fermentation is spontaneous it relies on the proteolytic activity of endogenous enzymes and proteolytic bacteria to break down proteins into amino acids. One of the most common fish species used for the fermentation of fish sauce is the anchovy, which has a protein content of about 20%. Green crabs have a protein content of about 17%, indicating that green crabs could be used instead of anchovies to produce a similar condiment. The data from this work showed that when fermented at a temperature of 24°C at a salt content of 20-30%, a green crab fermented condiment can be produced that is chemically comparable to commercially available fish sauce products. Fermentation temperatures of 30°C, 37°C, and 50°C were investigated to provide guidance for temperature control. A temperature of 30-37°C with a salt content of 20% and a 90 day fermentation time was suggested based on this data, but a temperature of 24°C or 50°C will still produce a viable product. The most abundant families of bacteria throughout the course of the fermentation, regardless of fermentation temperature or time, were Rhodobacteracea, Saprospiraceae, and Hyphomonadaceae, all of which contain salt-tolerant proteolytic genera isolated from marine sources. The creation of a viable fermented crab sauce product creates a high-value waste stream for green crab fishers, thus opening the doors to start economical large-scale fishing of green crabs on the North American East Coast