Epidemiology of bloodstream infections in a multicenter retrospective cohort of liver transplant recipients

Although some studies have examined the epidemiology of bloodstream infections after liver transplantation, they were based in single centers and did not identify bloodstream infections treated in other hospitals. METHODS: We retrospectively examined a cohort of 7912 adult liver transplant recipients from 24 transplant centers using 2004 to 2012 International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification billing data from 3 State Inpatient Databases, and identified bloodstream infections, inpatient death, and cumulative 1-year hospital costs. Multilevel Cox regression analyses were used to determine factors associated with bloodstream infections and death. RESULTS: Bloodstream infections were identified in 29% (n = 2326) of liver transplant recipients, with a range of 19% to 40% across transplant centers. Only 63% of bloodstream infections occurring more than 100 days posttransplant were identified at the original transplant center. Bloodstream infections were associated with posttransplant laparotomy (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.52), prior liver transplant (aHR, 1.42), increasing age (aHR, 1.07/decade), and some comorbidities. Death was associated with bloodstream infections with and without septic shock (aHR, 10.96 and 3.71, respectively), transplant failure or rejection (aHR, 1.41), posttransplant laparotomy (aHR, 1.40), prior solid-organ transplant (aHR, 1.48), increasing age (aHR, 1.15/decade), and hepatitis C cirrhosis (aHR, 1.20). The risk of bloodstream infections and death varied across transplant centers. Median 1-year cumulative hospital costs were higher for patients who developed bloodstream infections within 1 year of transplant compared with patients who were bloodstream infection-free (US $229 806 vs US$111 313; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Bloodstream infections are common and costly complications after liver transplantation that are associated with a markedly increased risk of death. The incidence and risk of developing bloodstream infections may vary across transplant centers

Effect of shackling, electrical stunning and halal slaughtering method on stress-linked hormones in broilers

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of shackling and halal slaughter with head-only electrical stunning (ES) using water bath or no stunning (NS) on plasma levels of adrenaline (AD), noradrenaline (NAD) and corticosterone (CORT) levels of broiler chickens. Male and female broiler chickens (Cobb 500) 38 days old from a commercial farm in Johore, Malaysia, were placed in plastic crates (0.80 × 0.60 × 0.31 m) at 10 birds per crate, and transported for 2.5 hours in an open truck. The ambient temperature during transportation was 25 to 27 °C. Upon arrival at a commercial processing plant, a total of 50 male broiler chickens (2.2 - 2.5 kg) were randomly selected from the flocks that were delivered, transferred to different five crates (10 birds per crate) and held in a lairage for 2 to 3 h. Blood samples were collected at various points, namely after lairaging (P1) (first sampling point for both ES and NS chickens, regarded as basal values), shackling (P2) (second sampling point for both ES and NS chickens), stunning (P3) (third sampling point for ES chickens), and ventral neck incision in stunned (P4) (fourth sampling point for ES chickens) and no stun (P5) (third sampling point for NS chickens). Ten birds were sampled at each sampling point (50 birds in total). Both stunned and no stun birds were shackled. Results show that shackling (P2) did not significantly affect the AD, NAD and CORT levels. However, electrical stunning elevated both the AD and CORT levels significantly, but not NAD. Neck cut had negligible effect on the AD and NAD in NS and ES broilers, but significantly increased CORT compared with the basal CORT value. In conclusion, the study demonstrated that head-only electrical stunning using a water bath might elevate AD and CORT. The study concluded that, as measured by AD and NAD, slaughter with or without stunning may not induce a physiological stress response in broilers.Keywords: corticosterone, adrenaline, noradrenaline, primary processing, poultr

Effect of Chromatographic Conditions on Supercoiled Plasmid DNA Stability and Bioactivity

Funding: This work was supported by FEDER funds through the POCI—COMPETE 2020 Operational Programme Competitiveness and Internationalization in Axis I—Strengthening research, technological development, and innovation (Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007491), and National Funds by FCT Foundation for Science and Technology (Project UID/Multi /00709/2013). This work was also developed within the scope of the project CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials, FCT Ref. UID/CTM/50011/2019, financed by national funds through the FCT/MCTES. G.M. Azevedo acknowledges the support and fellowship of Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq/203482/2014-0). J.F.A. Valente acknowledges the PhD fellowship (Ref SFRH/BD/96809/2013) from FCT.Acknowledgments: The authors would like to thank Thomas Roberts for providing the pcDNA3–FLAG–p53 construct through Addgene, ref: 10838.The dysfunction of the tumor suppressor gene TP53 has been associated with the pathogenesis of the majority of the cases of cancer reported to date, leading the cell to acquire different features known as the cancer hallmarks. In normal situations, the protein p53 protects the cells against tumorigenesis. By detecting metabolic stress or DNA damage in response to stress, p53 can lead the cell to senescence, autophagy, cell cycle arrest, DNA repair, and apoptosis. Thus, in the case of p53 mutations, it is reasonable to assume that the reestablishment of its function, may restrain the proliferation of cancer cells. The concept of cancer gene therapy can be based on this assumption, and suitable biotechnological approaches must be explored to assure the preparation of gene-based biopharmaceuticals. Although numerous procedures have already been established to purify supercoiled plasmid DNA (sc pDNA), the therapeutic application is highly dependent on the biopharmaceutical’s activity, which can be affected by the chromatographic conditions used. Thus, the present work aims at comparing quality and in vitro activity of the supercoiled (sc) isoform of the p53 encoding plasmid purified by three different amino acids-based chromatographic strategies, involving histidine–agarose, arginine–macroporous, and histidine–monolith supports. The B-DNA topology was maintained in all purified pDNA samples, but their bioactivity, related to the induction of protein p53 expression and apoptosis in cancer cells, was higher with arginine–macroporous support, followed by histidine–monolith and histidine–agarose. Despite the purity degree of 92% and recovery yield of 43% obtained with arginine–macroporous, the sc pDNA sample led to a higher expression level of the therapeutic p53 protein (58%) and, consequently, induced a slightly higher apoptotic effect (27%) compared with sc pDNA samples obtained with histidine–monolithic support (26%) and histidine–agarose support (24%). This behavior can be related to the mild chromatographic conditions used with arginine–macroporous support, which includes the use of low salt concentrations, at neutral pH and lower temperatures, when compared to the high ionic strength of ammonium sulfate and acidic pH used with histidine-based supports. These results can contribute to field of biopharmaceutical preparation, emphasizing the need to control several experimental conditions while adapting and selecting the methodologies that enable the use of milder conditions as this can have a significant impact on pDNA stability and biological activity.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Street-level bureaucracy en verwijzingen naar gedragsinterventies in Nederlandse Penitentiaire Inrichtingen: Discrepanties tussen beleid en praktijk

Criminal Justice: Legitimacy, accountability, and effectivit

Biopesticides: Ecofriendly and biorational alternatives to vegetable production and environmental sustainability

Insect pests, nematodes and plant diseases of vegetables are generally controlled by frequent applications of chemical pesticides with an objective to increase crop productivity and obtain greater profit in conventional farming. With consumers' awareness and perception, vegetables without residue of chemicals are being preferred in local and export markets. For this purpose, plant-derived crude products or formulated pesticides can be eco-friendly, effective and economical for an average producer. Several pressures have accelerated the search for more environmentally and toxicologically safe and more selective and efficacious pesticides. Biopesticides, including microbial pesticides, entomopathogenic nematodes, baculoviruses, plant derived pesticides, and insect pheromones are receiving increased exposure in scientific annals as alternatives to chemical pesticides and also as key components of integrated pest management (IPM) systems. The reality, however, is that biopesticides currently represent only a small fraction (1.3%) of the world pesticide market. However, the growth rate for biopesticides over the next 10 years has been forecast at 10–l5% per annum in contrast to 2% for chemical pesticides. It is imperative to make aware the farming community regarding the use of biopesticides to reduce the environmental pollution

Building sustainability in the construction industry through firm capabilities, technology and business innovativeness: empirical evidence from Malaysia

While the identification of the drivers of social sustainability in construction firms has remained one of the popular topics in the literature, many questions about these drivers remain unanswered, especially in the context of the developing countries. This study empirically determines some organizational internal drivers influencing the social sustainability performance in construction firms. To achieve this, we developed a conceptual model and tested on a sample of registered and active large construction firms from the Malaysian Construction Industry Development Board, using partial least-squares structural equation modelling for analysis. The study reveals that organizational internal drivers could trigger social sustainability performance. However, our analysis shows that organizational capabilities – complex tangible and intangible resources that are controlled by a firm through certain organizational practices and which enable it to implement value-creating strategies-partially mediates the relationship between these drivers and social sustainability. While few limitations of this study include the fact that the data used are the subjective opinions of the top officials who responded to the survey, our findings reveal that construction firms with efficient resource capabilities tend to adopt more sustainability in project delivery. This study contributes to the ongoing discussion on the important factors for social sustainability in construction