Impact of time to appropriate therapy on mortality in patients with vancomycin-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus infection

Despite the increasing incidence of vancomycin-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus (VISA) infections, few studies have examined the impact of delay in receipt of appropriate antimicrobial therapy on outcomes in VISA patients. We examined the effects of timing of appropriate antimicrobial therapy in a cohort of patients with sterile-site methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and VISA infections. In this single-center, retrospective cohort study, we identified all patients with MRSA or VISA sterile-site infections from June 2009 to February 2015. Clinical outcomes were compared according to MRSA/VISA classification, demographics, comorbidities, and antimicrobial treatment. Thirty-day all-cause mortality was modeled with Kaplan-Meier curves. Multivariate logistic regression analysis (MVLRA) was used to determine odds ratios for mortality. We identified 354 patients with MRSA (n = 267) or VISA (n = 87) sterile-site infection. Fifty-five patients (15.5%) were nonsurvivors. Factors associated with mortality in MVLRA included pneumonia, unknown source of infection, acute physiology and chronic health evaluation (APACHE) II score, solid-organ malignancy, and admission from skilled care facilities. Time to appropriate antimicrobial therapy was not significantly associated with outcome. Presence of a VISA infection compared to that of a non-VISA S. aureus infection did not result in excess mortality. Linezolid use was a risk for mortality in patients with APACHE II scores of ≥14. Our results suggest that empirical vancomycin use in patients with VISA infections does not result in excess mortality. Future studies should (i) include larger numbers of patients with VISA infections to confirm the findings presented here and (ii) determine the optimal antibiotic therapy for critically ill patients with MRSA and VISA infections

Effects of rf Current on Spin Transfer Torque Induced Dynamics

The impact of radiofrequency (rf) currents on the direct current (dc) driven switching dynamics in current-perpendicular-to-plane nanoscale spin valves is demonstrated. The rf currents dramatically alter the dc driven free layer magnetization reversal dynamics as well as the dc switching level. This occurs when the frequency of the rf current is tuned to a frequency range around the dc driven magnetization precession frequencies. For these frequencies, interactions between the dc driven precession and the injected rf induce frequency locking and frequency pulling effects that lead to a measurable dependence of the critical switching current on the frequency of the injected rf. Based on macrospin simulations, including dc as well as rf spin torque currents, we explain the origin of the observed effects.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Adjunctive quetiapine for serotonin reuptake inhibitor-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder: A meta-analysis of randomised controlled treatment trials

Small studies have shown positive effects from adding a variety of antipsychotic agents in patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder who are unresponsive to treatment with serotonin reuptake inhibitors. The evidence, however, is contradictory. This paper reports a meta-analysis of existing double-blind randomized placebo-controlled studies looking at the addition of the second-generation antipsychotic quetiapine in such cases. Three studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Altogether 102 individuals were subjected to analysis using Review Manager (4.2.7). The results showed evidence of efficacy for adjunctive quetiapine (< 400 mg/day) on the primary efficacy criterion, measured as changes from baseline in total Yale–Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale scores (P = 0.008), the clinical significance of which was limited by between-study heterogeneity. The mechanism underlying the effect may involve serotonin and/or dopamine neurotransmission

Anyons and the Bose-Fermi duality in the finite-temperature Thirring model

Solutions to the Thirring model are constructed in the framework of algebraic QFT. It is shown that for all positive temperatures there are fermionic solutions only if the coupling constant is $\lambda=\sqrt{2(2n+1)\pi}, n\in {\bf N}$. These fermions are inequivalent and only for $n=1$ they are canonical fields. In the general case solutions are anyons. Different anyons (which are uncountably many) live in orthogonal spaces and obey dynamical equations (of the type of Heisenberg's "Urgleichung") characterized by the corresponding values of the statistic parameter. Thus statistic parameter turns out to be related to the coupling constant $\lambda$ and the whole Hilbert space becomes non-separable with a different "Urgleichung" satisfied in each of its sectors. This feature certainly cannot be seen by any power expansion in $\lambda$. Moreover, since the latter is tied to the statistic parameter, it is clear that such an expansion is doomed to failure and will never reveal the true structure of the theory. The correlation functions in the temperature state for the canonical dressed fermions are shown by us to coincide with the ones for bare fields, that is in agreement with the uniqueness of the $\tau$-KMS state over the CAR algebra ($\tau$ being the shift automorphism). Also the $\alpha$-anyon two-point function is evaluated and for scalar field it reproduces the result that is known from the literature.Comment: 25 pages, LaTe

Sow Down The Highway

Good roads are a “must” to the Iowa farmer. Once they are built, how can we keep them from going to pieces because of washing—erosion? A big portion of the answer to that question appears to be sowing the right plants with the right methods on roadsides, cuts and fills to make the soil stay “put.” Still more of the answer lies with the Iowa farmer, for his lands adjoining the highways if not properly farmed may help destroy the good roads he wants so badly