Prevalence of colonizing bacteria and their association with primary bacteremias in hemodialysis of a university hospital

to be from 2.5 to 5.5 cases per 1,000 catheter-day. the clinical impact is relevant and increases the cost of the HD Unit. Methods: The present study is the irst of 2 phases. It was conducted from January to December of 2012, and included all patients and nurses who were in the HD Unit. The prevalence of Gramnegative bacilli (GNB) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MrSA) colonizing the nasal passages and the skin is described. Also, phenotypic association was sought by genus, species and sensitivities between colonizing bacterial strains and blood cultures with GNB and MRSA. Results: the study included 70 patients and 10 nurses. the prevalence of nasal colonization in patients by GNB was 9% and 6% in the pericatheter, and no nursing GNB colonization was discovered. The prevalence of MRSA nasal colonization was 19% and 6% in the pericatheter for patients and in the nurses the nasal colonization was 50% and 10% in the hands. We identiied 29 cases of primary bacteremia. The primary bacteremia rate is 1.5 per 1,000 catheter-day or 0.4 episodes per patient per year. Conclusion: We demonstrated a high prevalence of MrSA colonization in patients and nurses in the HD Unit. No relationship was found between primary bacteremia by GNB and patients and nurses’ bacteria colonization by the phenotypic comparison

Stimulated Raman Scattering for All Optical Switches

We theoretically and experimentally investigate an all optical switch based on stimulated Raman scattering in optical fibers. The experimental setup consists of a Raman circuit of two stages connected in series through a bandpass filter. In the first stage, we have a saturated amplifier, in this stage the pump pulses are saturated when pump and signal are launched to the input or the pump pulses remain without saturation when pump only is launched at the input. The second stage works as the Raman amplifier; for this stage amplification is directly dependent on the pump power entering from the first stage. For the case when pump pulse only is launched at the input pass to the second stage without saturation and amplifies the signal entering in the second stage, very intense signal pulses appear at the output of this stage. For the case when both pump and signal pulses are launched to the input, the pump pulse is saturated in the first stage and the filter rejected the amplified signal, so that only low power pump enters the second stage and consequently no signal pulses appear at the output. We show that the contrast can be improved when using fibers with normal and anomalous dispersion connected in series in the first stage. The best contrast (the ratio of energies) obtained was 15 dB at 6 W pump peak power

Gene discovery for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy by machine learning techniques

Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is a neuromuscular disorder that shows a preference for the facial, shoulder and upper arm muscles. FSHD affects about one in 20-400,000 people, and no effective therapeutic strategies are known to halt disease progression or reverse muscle weakness or atrophy. Many genes may be incorrectly regulated in affected muscle tissue, but the mechanisms responsible for the progressive muscle weakness remain largely unknown. Although machine learning (ML) has made significant inroads in biomedical disciplines such as cancer research, no reports have yet addressed FSHD analysis using ML techniques. This study explores a specific FSHD data set from a ML perspective. We report results showing a very promising small group of genes that clearly separates FSHD samples from healthy samples. In addition to numerical prediction figures, we show data visualizations and biological evidence illustrating the potential usefulness of these results.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

DETERMINACIÓN DE LA RENTABILIDAD DE LA PRODUCCIÓN DE OVINOS RAZA PELIBUEY EN EL NORTE DE SONORA

The feeding and the shelter are considered basic needs of the man and one of the options to satisfy them is through the lambs which contribute to cover them with their meat, wool and skin. For the analysis of the yield a flock took itself from twenty females and a stallion one of Pelibuey race and was developed in conditions of semiestabulado and artificial prairie with oats and rye grass in the north of the State of Sonora.Several indicators were taken to carry out the determination of the yield taking in first instance the capital of work, point of balance, sensitivity analysis as well as the relation benefit-cost. In the case of first the amount of 109.650,44 like so was determined whereas the balance point obtains as of the second period of 270 days showing little sensitivity the changes of the sale price of the young since the ninety percent of them is realised like registry cattle and the rest to commercial prices and; the relation benefit-cost was of 1.98. These indicators show that the growing and operation of lambs under these conditions reveals an acceptable yield for the producers.Lambs, yield, capital of work, analysis, benefit-cost., Agribusiness,

Dispensability of Escherichia coli's latent pathways

Gene-knockout experiments on single-cell organisms have established that expression of a substantial fraction of genes is not needed for optimal growth. This problem acquired a new dimension with the recent discovery that environmental and genetic perturbations of the bacterium Escherichia coli are followed by the temporary activation of a large number of latent metabolic pathways, which suggests the hypothesis that temporarily activated reactions impact growth and hence facilitate adaptation in the presence of perturbations. Here we test this hypothesis computationally and find, surprisingly, that the availability of latent pathways consistently offers no growth advantage, and tends in fact to inhibit growth after genetic perturbations. This is shown to be true even for latent pathways with a known function in alternate conditions, thus extending the significance of this adverse effect beyond apparently nonessential genes. These findings raise the possibility that latent pathway activation is in fact derivative of another, potentially suboptimal, adaptive response

Wavelength-tunable picosecond pulses from a passively mode-locked figure-eight Erbium-doped fiber laser with a Sagnac fiber filter

We experimentally demonstrated a wavelength-tunable passively mode-locked Erbium-doped figure-eight fiber laser. Wide tunability is achieved using a high-birefringence (hi-bi) fiber Sagnac loop. The filter transmission function is controlled by selecting the hi-bi fiber loop length. The output pulses are wavelength tunable over a range from 1525 nm to 1555 nm. The FWHM of the autocorrelation trace is about 3.1 ps and the pulse spectrum has a FWHM of 1.5 nm. The pulse temporal and spectral widths remain constant over the tunable range

LOS PRECIOS INTERNACIONALES DE MAÃZ Y PETRÓLEO Y SU EFECTO SOBRE EL PRECIO DE VENTA DE LOS BECERROS PARA EXPORTACIÓN EN SONORA, MÉXICO

An analysis of the available information of years 2006 and 2007 at diverse sources in dependences, institutions and commercialization systems of cattle in Sonora was made. We analyzed international price fluctuation data of corn with base in information of stock-market of Chicago. From the previous information, data that allowed analyzing the present price behavior, weight and seasons were generated at which the yearling calves leave to the market through the year in the state of Sonora. Results show that this type of cattle is sold throughout the year, showing two picks at which the affluence is greater: in March and November. Depending on the condition of the animals, these classify like yearling calves number one (European type), one and a half (crossed) and two (Creole or zebu), with average monthly weights that fluctuate between 165 and 187 kilograms; average monthly price by kilogram of 22 to 28 pesos. Through these two years, animal weight as well as the sale price has had marked fluctuations, displaying declining tendencies in both cases. In this study, it was observed a noticeable and proportional inversely effect between these tendencies and the international prices of cereals and the bioenergetics.Sonora, yearling calves, export, prices, corn, petroleum., Agribusiness,

Valproic acid restricts mast cell activation by Listeria monocytogenes.

Mast cells (MC) play a central role in the early containment of bacterial infections, such as that caused by Listeria monocytogenes (L.m). The mechanisms of MC activation induced by L.m infection are well known, so it is possible to evaluate whether they are susceptible to targeting and modulation by different drugs. Recent evidence indicates that valproic acid (VPA) inhibits the immune response which favors L.m pathogenesis in vivo. Herein, we examined the immunomodulatory effect of VPA on L.m-mediated MC activation. To this end, bone marrow-derived mast cells (BMMC) were pre-incubated with VPA and then stimulated with L.m. We found that VPA reduced MC degranulation and cytokine release induced by L.m. MC activation during L.m infection relies on Toll-Like Receptor 2 (TLR2) engagement, however VPA treatment did not affect MC TLR2 cell surface expression. Moreover, VPA was able to decrease MC activation by the classic TLR2 ligands, peptidoglycan and lipopeptide Pam3CSK4. VPA also reduced cytokine production in response to Listeriolysin O (LLO), which activates MC by a TLR2-independent mechanism. In addition, VPA decreased the activation of critical events on MC signaling cascades, such as the increase on intracellular Ca2+ and phosphorylation of p38, ERK1/2 and -p65 subunit of NF-κB. Altogether, our data demonstrate that VPA affects key cell signaling events that regulate MC activation following L.m infection. These results indicate that VPA can modulate the functional activity of different immune cells that participate in the control of L.m infection