Salmonella choleraesuis subsp. indica serovar bornheim causing urinary tract infection

An unusual Salmonella species, S. choleraesuis subsp. indica serovar bornheim, was isolated from the urine of a patient with aplastic anemia, diabetes mellitus, and a healed urethral injury. An immune response to this isolate was demonstrated by whole-bacterial-cell agglutination

Pre-transplant reduction of isohaemagglutinin titres by donor group plasma infusion does not reduce the incidence of pure red cell aplasia in major ABO-mismatched transplants

Major ABO incompatibility in stem cell transplant recipients has been associated with pure red cell aplasia (PRCA). Reduction of incompatible isohaemagglutinin titres pre-transplant by various methods has been thought to reduce the incidence of PRCA. Our data suggest that pre-transplant reduction of incompatible isohaemagglutinin titres by donor group plasma infusion does not reduce the incidence of PRCA. We also failed to find any relationship between pre-transplant ABO isohaemagglutinin titre and the risk of developing PRCA

Dense Building Instrumentation Application for City-Wide Structural Health Monitoring

The Community Seismic Network (CSN) has partnered with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to initiate a campus-wide structural monitoring program of all buildings on the premises. The JPL campus serves as a proxy for a densely instrumented urban city with localized vibration measurements collected throughout the free-field and built environment. Instrumenting the entire campus provides dense measurements in a horizontal geospatial sense for soil response; in addition five buildings have been instrumented on every floor of the structure. Each building has a unique structural system as well as varied amounts of structural information via structural drawings, making several levels of assessment and evaluation possible. Computational studies with focus on damage detection applied to the campus structural network are demonstrated for a collection of buildings. For campus-wide real-time and post-event evaluation, ground and building response products using CSN data are illustrating the usefulness of higher spatial resolution compared to what was previously typical with sparser instrumentation

Roughening of the (1+1) interfaces in two-component surface growth with an admixture of random deposition

We simulate competitive two-component growth on a one dimensional substrate of $L$ sites. One component is a Poisson-type deposition that generates Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) correlations. The other is random deposition (RD). We derive the universal scaling function of the interface width for this model and show that the RD admixture acts as a dilatation mechanism to the fundamental time and height scales, but leaves the KPZ correlations intact. This observation is generalized to other growth models. It is shown that the flat-substrate initial condition is responsible for the existence of an early non-scaling phase in the interface evolution. The length of this initial phase is a non-universal parameter, but its presence is universal. In application to parallel and distributed computations, the important consequence of the derived scaling is the existence of the upper bound for the desynchronization in a conservative update algorithm for parallel discrete-event simulations. It is shown that such algorithms are generally scalable in a ring communication topology.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figures, 77 reference

Alunos surdos no Ensino Superior: uma discussão necessária

O interesse deste trabalho é discutir as condições que são oferecidas para alunos surdos que freqüentam o ensino superior e contribuir para que sua experiência acadêmica tenha maior qualidade na realidade atual, visto que as mudanças propostas pela política oficial para a educação de surdos em todos os níveis não estão ainda efetivamente implantadas nem as instituições educacionais preparadas para responder às necessidades desses alunos. Essa preocupação conduziu à realização da presente pesquisa, que teve o objetivo de analisar, por meio de entrevistas individuais, os dizeres de alunos surdos e seus professores universitários a respeito dos obstáculos e das possibilidades que o surdo encontra no seu cotidiano de estudo. Os sujeitos foram quatro alunos e seis professores de duas universidades. Com os alunos foram realizadas entrevistas presenciais de caráter semi-estruturado, em LIBRAS, que foram videogravadas e posteriormente traduzidas para o Português. Com os professores as entrevistas aconteceram por meio da internet, utilizando e-mail e Messenger com vídeo conferência. Na fase de análises, os depoimentos dos dois grupos foram organizados em quatro unidades temáticas: 1) atitudes diante da surdez e das demandas de comunicação com o aluno; 2) as aulas e os recursos didáticos; 3) dificuldades relativas à língua portuguesa e aos conteúdos a dominar e 4) condições que favorecem os estudos do aluno surdo no ensino superior. Os achados mostram que, além das barreiras de comunicação e da insatisfação com questões didáticas, o grande obstáculo enfrentado pelos alunos surdos referese às dificuldades na leitura e na escrita, em razão da baixa qualidade de sua escolarização anterior, o que prejudica as possibilidades de expansão dos conhecimentos esperados na sua área de estudos. Os professores destacam essas dificuldades com a língua como um sério entrave para o domínio de conteúdos e o pensamento lógico, e parecem desconhecer as peculiaridades da condição bilíngue do aluno. A maior parte deles mostra-se disposta a receber apoio para adaptações e alternativas didáticas. Quanto às possibilidades de solução dos problemas, os dois grupos de entrevistados referem-se ao âmbito de atuação do intérprete e do coordenador, sem, no entanto, cobrar compromissos institucionais de projetos maior alcance. Embora tais projetos sejam urgentes, sugere-se, como iniciativa de cunho transitório, o oferecimento regular de uma disciplina de língua portuguesa desenvolvida especificamente para surdos e outras ações semelhantes a serem assumidas pelas universidades

On the Use of Iterative Approximations in Queueing Networks; with Simple Applications

Networks of queues which have a productform solution can be analyzed easily by the convolution method or with mean value analysis. Regrettably, however, many practical queueing network models do not possess a productform solution. In this paper the following approach is advocated for models with alight deviations from the productform conditions: approximate the model interatively by a sequence of models which satisfy conditions for simple analysis. Quite often aggregation and mean value analysis provide the natural approach for de signing an iteration step. Applications which are mentioned are: two-phase servers where the first phase is a preparatory one; a type of priorities; blocking; many-chains networks; FCFS-servers with different workloads for different types of customers

Community seismic network and localized earthquake situational awareness

Community-hosted seismic networks are a solution to the need for large numbers of sensors to operate over a seismically active region in order to accurately measure the size and location of an earthquake, assess resulting damage, and provide alerts. The Community Seismic Network is one such strong-motion network, currently comprising hundreds of elements located in California. It consists of low-cost, three-component, MEMS accelerometers capable of recording accelerations up to twice the level of gravity. The primary product of the network is to produce measurements of shaking of the ground and multiple locations of every upper floor in buildings, in the seconds during and following a major earthquake. Each sensor uses a small, dedicated ARM processor computer running Linux, and analyzes time series data in real time at hundreds of samples per second. The network reports on shaking parameters that indicate intensity of the structural response levels such as maximum floor acceleration and velocity, displacement of a floor in a building, as well as data products that depend on the response time histories. To do this, Cloud computing has been expanded through the use of statically defined subsets of sensors called cloudlets. These are smaller subsets of similar sensors that carry out customized calculations for those locations. The measurements are reported as rapidly as possible following an earthquake so that they may be incorporated into structural diagnosis and prognosis applications that can be used by first responders to prioritize their initial disaster management efforts. The cloudlet displays are customized for specific buildings and they show in real time: instantaneous displacement, inter-story drift, and resonant frequency and mode shapes using system identification software tools. The real-time display products are useful for decision-making about whether the potential for damage exists, what level of damage may have occurred and where, and whether total business disruption is necessary. City-wide dense monitoring makes it possible for emergency response managers to prioritize the target locations requiring first response on a block-by-block scale based on reports of shaking intensity

Pharmacokinetics of oral busulphan in children with beta thalassaemia major undergoing allogeneic bone marrow transplantation

The pharmacokinetics of busulphan were studied in 23 thalassaemic children undergoing BMT. Patients received busulphan at a dose of either 16 mg/kg with cyclophosphamide and ATG (Group A) or 600 mg/m2 (with cyclophosphamide alone) (Group B) in 16 divided doses every 6 h over 4 days. Busulphan levels were analyzed by a modified GC-MS method. The dose of busulphan/kg for patients in group B was 64% (range 56-71%) higher than that for patients in group A. The mean AUC, Css, Cmax and MRV were significantly higher in group B as compared with group A for both doses 1 and 13. There was no significant difference in Vd/F, T1/2 and Kel between the two groups. A significant decrease in AUC and Css was found between 1st and 13th doses in group B, but not in group A. The Cl/F values in group A were significantly higher than those in group B after dose 1, but not after dose 13. No increase in toxicity due to the higher dose of busulphan was noted. We conclude that busulphan at 600 mg/m2 results in much higher systemic exposure to the drug as compared to 16 mg/kg, without increase in toxicity in children with beta thalassaemia major

Longevity of Genotype-Specific Immune Responses to Plasmodium falciparum Merozoite Surface Protein 1 in Kenyan Children from Regions of Different Malaria Transmission Intensity

Naturally acquired immunity to Plasmodium falciparum presents a changing landscape as malaria control programs and vaccine initiatives are implemented. Determining which immunologic indicators remain surrogates of past infection, as opposed to mediators of protection, led us to compare stability of immune responses across regions with divergent malaria transmission intensities. A repeat cross-sectional study of Kenyan children from a malaria-holoendemic area and an epidemic-prone area was used to examine longitudinal antibody and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) responses to the 3D7 and FVO variants of merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP1). Antibodies to MSP1 were common in both study populations and did not significantly wane over a 21-month time period. IFN-gamma responses were less frequent and rapidly disappeared in children after a prolonged period of no malaria transmission. Antibody and IFN-gamma responses rarely correlated with each other; however, MSP1-specific IFN-gamma response correlated with lack of concurrent P. falciparum parasitemia of the same genotype, though only statistically significantly in the malaria-holoendemic region (odds ratio = 0.31, 95% confidence interval = 0.12-0.84). This study affirms that antimalarial antibodies are informative for evaluation of history of malaria exposure within individuals, whereas cell-mediated immunity, though short lived under natural exposure conditions, might provide an assessment of recent infection and protection from parasitemia

When Bulldozers Loom: Informal Property Rights and Marketing Practice Innovation Among Emerging Market Micro-Entrepreneurs

Micro-entrepreneurs represent the most common type of business in the world, and marketing is a primary means by which they earn their livelihoods. They are especially numerous in emerging markets, and many live precarious lives characterized by poverty and potentially devastating exogenous shocks. This paper examines the marketing practices of microentrepreneurs by studying grocery retailers in a large slum in Cairo, Egypt. Employing detailed data on the marketing practices of these retailers, the paper examines why some micro-entrepreneurs engage in innovation in their marketing practices (and perform better), while others fail to do so. We highlight the causal effect of an important but rarely studied factor – informal property rights – on innovation in marketing practices among microentrepreneurs. Because few micro-entrepreneurs in the context we study have access to formal property rights, the threat of expropriation looms large in their lives. We show that those micro-entrepreneurs who possess their stores (without actually owning them) are substantially less likely to innovate in their marketing practices than those who lease their stores. We make use of an exogenous shock to property rights laws to assess the causal impact of informal property rights on innovation in marketing practices