Dose of colistin. a work in progress?

We thank Rashid and colleagues [1] and Honoré and colleagues [2] for their comments regarding our article on risk factors for acute kidney injury in pa- tients receiving colistin or other nephrotoxic antimi- crobials [3]. It is correct that we did not specifically report urine output in the text, but it was obviously included in the RIFLE (Risk, Injury, Failure, Loss of kidney function, and End-stage kidney disease) criteria reported in Table two [3]

Comparison of stroke volume measurement between non-invasive bioreactance and esophageal Doppler in patients undergoing major abdominal-pelvic surgery

PURPOSE: Bioreactance is a non-invasive technology for measuring stroke volume (SV) in the operating room and critical care setting. We evaluated how the NICOM® bioreactance device performed against the CardioQ® esophageal Doppler monitor in patients undergoing major abdominal–pelvic surgery, focusing on the effect of different hemodynamic interventions. METHODS: SVNICOM and SVODM were simultaneously measured intraoperatively, including before and after interventions including fluid challenge, vasopressor boluses, peritoneal gas insufflation/removal, and Trendelenburg/reverse Trendelenburg patient positioning. RESULTS: A total of 768 values were collected from 21 patients. Pre- and post-intervention measures were recorded on 155 occasions. Bland–Altman analysis revealed a bias of 8.6 ml and poor precision with wide limits of agreement (54 and −37 ml) and a percentage error of 50.6%. No improvement in precision was detected after taking into account repeated measurements for each patient (bias: 8 ml; limits of agreement: 74 and −59 ml). Concordance between changes in SVNICOM and SVODM before and after interventions was also poor: 78.7% (all measures), 82.4% (after vasopressor administration), and 74.3% (after fluid challenge). Using Doppler SV as the reference technique, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve assessing the ability of the NICOM device to predict fluid responsiveness was 0.81 (0.7–0.9). CONCLUSIONS: In patients undergoing major abdomino-pelvic surgery, SV values obtained by NICOM showed neither clinically or statistically acceptable agreement with those obtained by esophageal Doppler. Although, in the setting of this study, bioreactance technology cannot reliably replace esophageal Doppler monitoring, its accuracy for predicting fluid responsiveness was higher, up to approximately 80%

Dissociating limit in Density Functional Theory with Coulomb optimal transport cost

In the framework of Density Functional Theory with Strongly Correlated Electrons we consider the so called bond dissociating limit for the energy of an aggregate of atoms. We show that the multi-marginals optimal transport cost with Coulombian electron-electron repulsion describes a dissociation effect. The variational limit is completely calculated in the case of $N=2$ electrons. The theme of fractional number of electrons appears naturally and brings into play the question of optimal partial transport cost. A plan is outlined to complete the analysis which involves the study of the relaxation of optimal transport cost with respect to the weak* convergence of measures

Latent relationships between environmental impacts of cultivation practices and land market: Evidences from a spatial quantile regression analysis in Italy

Several economic approaches can be carried out for managing the environmental impacts in agriculture, i.e. property and bargaining rights, economic incentives, ecological fees, etc. These approaches can be mainly applied to the cultivation phase or to the markets of the agricultural commodities. However, a further ambit in which the regulatory systems could be useful to trigger sustainable cultivation practices is the farmland market. Hence, this study contributes to the setting of market mechanisms based on incentives or fees related to the environmental impacts of farming practices for reducing the pressures of the production processes on the environmental components. The study, through a hedonic pricing method based on a spatial quantile regression and integrated by an environmental analysis, highlights different trends of land value determinants along the quantiles of the selling prices as the intensity of the cultivation system varies. The results show that the most important value determinants of the vineyards cultivated through the semi-extensive production system are related to the quality of grapes. Conversely, in presence of the intensive production system, the most important value determinants are related to the high yields, which also generate high greenhouse gas emissions, in contrast with the “polluter pays” principle. The results allow the assessment of the implicit marginal prices concerning the impact of the environmental indicator on land value per cultivation system, so as to favour the setting of regulatory monetary strategies able to foster farmers towards cleaner agricultural practices

Relaxed multi-marginal costs and quantization effects

We propose a duality theory for multi-marginal repulsive cost that appear in optimal transport problems arising in Density Functional Theory. The related optimization problems involve probabilities on the entire space and, as minimizing sequences may lose mass at infinity, it is natural to expect relaxed solutions which are sub-probabilities. We first characterize the $N$-marginals relaxed cost in terms of a stratification formula which takes into account all $k$ interactions with $kle N$. We then develop a duality framework involving continuous functions vanishing at infinity and deduce primal-dual necessary and sufficient optimality conditions. Next we prove the existence and the regularity of an optimal dual potential under very mild assumptions. In the last part of the paper, we apply our results to a minimization problem involving a given continuous potential and we give evidence of a mass quantization effect for optimal solutions

Mars Regolith Simulant Ameliorated by Compost as In Situ Cultivation Substrate Improves Lettuce Growth and Nutritional Aspects

Heavy payloads in future shuttle journeys to Mars present limiting factors, making self-sustenance essential for future colonies. Therefore, in situ resources utilization (ISRU) is the path to successful and feasible space voyages. This research frames the concept of planting leafy vegetables on Mars regolith simulant, ameliorating this substrate’s fertility by the addition of organic residues produced in situ. For this purpose, two butterhead lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. var. capitata) cultivars (green and red Salanova®) were chosen to be cultivated in four dierent mixtures of MMS-1 Mojave Mars simulant:compost (0:100, 30:70, 70:30 and 100:0; v:v) in a phytotron open gas exchange growth chamber. The impact of compost rate on both crop performance and the nutritive value of green- and red-pigmented cultivars was assessed. The 30:70 mixture proved to be optimal in terms of crop performance, photosynthetic activity, intrinsic water use eciency and quality traits of lettuce. In particular, red Salanova® showed the best performance in terms of these quality traits, registering 32% more phenolic content in comparison to 100% simulant. Nonetheless, the 70:30 mixture represents a more realistic scenario when taking into consideration the sustainable use of compost as a limited resource in space farming, while still accepting a slight significant decline in yield and quality in comparison to the 30:70 mixture

Insights for the future of health system partnerships in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic literature review

BACKGROUND: Despite growing support for the private sector involvement in the provision of public health services in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), a lack of clear information on the future of the provision of such services restricts the ability of managers and policy-makers to assess how feasible integration between public and private actors may be in these countries. This paper presents a systematic literature review which traces the dynamics and boundaries of public-private partnerships for the healthcare sector in LMICs. METHODS: A total of 723 articles indexed in Scopus were initially submitted to bibliometric analysis. Finally, 148 articles published in several academic journals were selected for independent full-text review by two researchers. Content analysis was made in order to minimise mistakes in interpreting the findings of studies in the sample. RESULTS: Public-private partnerships identified through the content analysis were categorised into four research areas: 1) Transfer of resources; 2) Co-production of health goods and services; 3) Governance networks; 4) Criteria for successful partnership development. CONCLUSIONS: The four main research areas supply suggestions for a future research agenda, and managerial and policy implications for partnerships in LMICs

Depth profile investigations of surface modifications of limestone artifacts by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-11-01T23:23:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 PROCI17Depthprofileinvestigations....pdf: 1977315 bytes, checksum: f46ba065d28554ead651738267cea5a4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-10-30bitstream/item/165807/1/PROCI-17-Depth-profile-investigations....pd