88 research outputs found
Does road salt affect groundwater in Denmark?
Chloride (Cl) from dissolved salt is a major threat to groundwater quality in many regions of the world. In arid regions near present-day coastlines, where old seawater occurs in deeper sediments and where road salt is frequently used, Cl can be a significant pollutant (European Environmental Agency 2009). European Union member states have recently reported that next to nitrogen, Cl is the most commonly found pollutant and is often responsible for groundwater bodies being at risk or having a poor ecological status (European Commission 2010)
Incidence of HACEK bacteraemia in Denmark:A 6-year population-based study
Objectives: Bacteria with common microbiological and clinical characteristics are often recognized as a particular group. The acronym HACEK stands for five fastidious genera associated with infective endocarditis (Haemophilus, Aggregatibacter, Cardiobacterium, Eikenella, and Kingella). Data on the epidemiology of HACEK are sparse. This article reports a 6-year nationwide study of HACEK bacteraemia in Denmark. Methods: Cases of HACEK bacteraemia occurring during the years 2010–2015 were retrieved from the national Danish microbiology database, covering an average surveillance population of 5.6 million per year. Results: A total of 147 cases of HACEK bacteraemia were identified, corresponding to an annual incidence of 0.44 per 100 000 population. The annual incidence for males was 0.56 per 100 000 and for females was 0.31 per 100 000. The median age was 56 years (range 0–97 years), with variation among the genera. One hundred and forty-three isolates were identified to the species level and six to the genus level: Haemophilus spp, n = 55; Aggregatibacter spp, n = 37; Cardiobacterium spp, n = 9; Eikenella corrodens n = 21; and Kingella spp, n = 27. Conclusions: This is the first study on the incidence of HACEK bacteraemia in a large surveillance population and may inspire further studies on the HACEK group. Haemophilus spp other than Haemophilus influenzae accounted for most cases of HACEK bacteraemia in Denmark, with Aggregatibacter spp in second place. Keywords: Epidemiology, Incidence, Age, Sex, Haemophilus, Aggregatibacte
How a Diverse Research Ecosystem Has Generated New Rehabilitation Technologies: Review of NIDILRR’s Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers
Over 50 million United States citizens (1 in 6 people in the US) have a developmental, acquired, or degenerative disability. The average US citizen can expect to live 20% of his or her life with a disability. Rehabilitation technologies play a major role in improving the quality of life for people with a disability, yet widespread and highly challenging needs remain. Within the US, a major effort aimed at the creation and evaluation of rehabilitation technology has been the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs) sponsored by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. As envisioned at their conception by a panel of the National Academy of Science in 1970, these centers were intended to take a “total approach to rehabilitation”, combining medicine, engineering, and related science, to improve the quality of life of individuals with a disability. Here, we review the scope, achievements, and ongoing projects of an unbiased sample of 19 currently active or recently terminated RERCs. Specifically, for each center, we briefly explain the needs it targets, summarize key historical advances, identify emerging innovations, and consider future directions. Our assessment from this review is that the RERC program indeed involves a multidisciplinary approach, with 36 professional fields involved, although 70% of research and development staff are in engineering fields, 23% in clinical fields, and only 7% in basic science fields; significantly, 11% of the professional staff have a disability related to their research. We observe that the RERC program has substantially diversified the scope of its work since the 1970’s, addressing more types of disabilities using more technologies, and, in particular, often now focusing on information technologies. RERC work also now often views users as integrated into an interdependent society through technologies that both people with and without disabilities co-use (such as the internet, wireless communication, and architecture). In addition, RERC research has evolved to view users as able at improving outcomes through learning, exercise, and plasticity (rather than being static), which can be optimally timed. We provide examples of rehabilitation technology innovation produced by the RERCs that illustrate this increasingly diversifying scope and evolving perspective. We conclude by discussing growth opportunities and possible future directions of the RERC program
Impact of a continuing medical education meeting on the use and timing of urgent cancer referrals among general practitioners - a before-after study
Fructooligosacharides Reduce Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 Pathogenicity through Distinct Mechanisms
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
is ubiquitously present in the environment and acts as an opportunistic pathogen on humans,
animals and plants. We report here the effects of the prebiotic polysaccharide inulin and its hydrolysed form FOS on this
bacterium. FOS was found to inhibit bacterial growth of strain PAO1, while inulin did not affect growth rate or yield in a
significant manner. Inulin stimulated biofilm formation, whereas a dramatic reduction of the biofilm formation was
observed in the presence of FOS. Similar opposing effects were observed for bacterial motility, where FOS inhibited the
swarming and twitching behaviour whereas inulin caused its stimulation. In co-cultures with eukaryotic cells (macrophages)
FOS and, to a lesser extent, inulin reduced the secretion of the inflammatory cytokines IL-6, IL-10 and TNF-
a
. Western blot
experiments indicated that the effects mediated by FOS in macrophages are associated with a decreased activation of the
NF-
k
B pathway. Since FOS and inulin stimulate pathway activation in the absence of bacteria, the FOS mediated effect is
likely to be of indirect nature, such as via a reduction of bacterial virulence. Further, this modulatory effect is observed also
with the highly virulent ptxS mutated strain. Co-culture experiments of P. aeruginosa with IEC18 eukaryotic cells showed
that FOS reduces the concentration of the major virulence factor, exotoxin A, suggesting that this is a possible mechanism
for the reduction of pathogenicity. The potential of these compounds as components of antibacterial and anti-inflammatory
cocktails is discussed.The authors acknowledge financial support from FEDER funds and Fondo Social Europeo through grants from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (grants SAF2011-22922, SAF2011-22812) the Andalusian regional government Junta de Andalucía (grant CVI-7335) and the Centre of Networked
Biomedical Research on Hepatic and Digestive Diseases (CIBERehd) which is funded by the Carlos III Health Institute and the Ramón Areces Foundation, Spain
Neutrinos
229 pages229 pages229 pagesThe Proceedings of the 2011 workshop on Fundamental Physics at the Intensity Frontier. Science opportunities at the intensity frontier are identified and described in the areas of heavy quarks, charged leptons, neutrinos, proton decay, new light weakly-coupled particles, and nucleons, nuclei, and atoms
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