Experiences of College Students in Addiction Recovery: A Critical Case Study

The purpose of this study is to investigate the lived experiences of college students in addiction recovery. Critical ethnographic case study was used to challenge existing paradigms and educational practices regarding students in recovery. The lived experiences of this population are described to share their stories and work towards better policy solutions to the U.S. college drug epidemic

Common skin infection due to Panton-Valentine leucocidin-producing Staphylococcus aureus strains in asylum seekers from Eritrea: a genome-based investigation of a suspected outbreak

Since late 2014, multiple cases of abscesses and boils due to methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) expressing the Panton-Valentine leucocidin (PVL) were observed in Eritrean asylum seekers in Lausanne, Switzerland. Strains isolated from infected Eritrean and non-Eritrean patients were compared by whole genome sequencing to determine whether these numerous cases result from an outbreak. The genome of S. aureus PVL-producing strains were sequenced and compared. Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of patients infected by PVL-producing strains were investigated. This work reports 15 cases of infections due to PVL-producing strains affecting mostly asylum seekers (n = 10), people working with refugees and/or exposed to Africans (n = 3). Most infections were due to closely related strains of CC152 (n = 8) and CC15 (n = 3), two distantly related (>34 000 core single nucleotide polymorphisms) clonal complexes. An epidemiological link between the 15 cases could be ruled out by whole genome sequencing (33 to 172 core single nucleotide polymorphisms between the different strains of a given complex). Altogether, these results reflect the probable high incidence of CC15 and CC152 PVL-producing strains in eastern Africa. Clinicians facing unusual skin infections in African refugees (or in any person returning from this region of high endemicity) should consider S. aureus PVL-producer before suspecting rare infections such as leishmaniasis or rickettsiosis. Clinicians should also remember that PVL are frequently expressed by MSSA in some regions of the world and that antibiotics that are efficient on toxin expression, such as clindamycin, represent the best therapeutic option

Relation between obesity, lipid profile, leptin and atopic disorders in children

Background: Obesity has become a disease of great importance affecting children and adolescents. Obesity can cause atopy or inflammation, where there are some common factors that predispose to both obesity and atopy. Objective: To study the factors contributing to allergic disorders in obese children, the role of leptin in obesity related atopic disorders and the relation of birth weight and breast feeding to both obesity and atopy. Methods: Forty seven obese children and adolescents and 45 healthy children (control group) were included in the study. The obese children were divided into 2 groups (based on the history of nasal allergy, bronchial asthma, skin, eye or food allergy), group I (n=21) atopic and group II (n=26) non atopic. All obese children were subjected to complete blood count, serum triglycerides and cholesterol, serum leptin (for control group also) and serum total immunoglobulin E (IgE) measurement. Results: Body mass index (BMI) was significantly higher in group I than group II (33.35±9.93 vs. 23.70±9.7IU/L, p=0.000), also serum total IgE was significantly higher in group I than in group II (510.476±366.407 IU/L vs. 114.577±120.940 IU/L, p=0.000). Group II showed higher serum leptin level than group I (185.115±105.912 vs. 133.048±100.718 ng/ml), a difference not statistically significant (p = 0.092), yet, both were higher than the control group (7.24±5.98 ng/ml). Significant positive correlation was found between serum leptin level and age (p=0.000, r = 0.60) and BMI (p=0.000, r = 0.720), while negative correlation was found between serum leptin and IgE (r= 0.289, P=0.049). Significant positive correlation was found between obesity (BMI) and family history of obesity (r = 4.672, p = 0.036). Conclusion: There is a strong positive association between obesity and atopy: Serum leptin was higher in obese children when compared to control group more in non atopic than atopic group yet not statistically significant. Family history of obesity is an important predisposing factor for obesity in children. The frequency of atopy was higher in artificial than in breast fed obese children. Therefore efforts should focus on weight reduction as a part of treatment of asthma in obese children, also serum leptin assay is important in all obese children and further studies are needed to know more details about leptin hormone and its relation to both atopy and obesity.Keywords: Obesity, Leptin hormone, Atopy, Total IgE, Allergic disordersEgypt J Pediatr Allergy Immunol 2008; 6(1): 27-34

A Quantum Photonic Interface for Tin-Vacancy Centers in Diamond

The realization of quantum networks critically depends on establishing efficient, coherent light-matter interfaces. Optically active spins in diamond have emerged as promising quantum nodes based on their spin-selective optical transitions, long-lived spin ground states, and potential for integration with nanophotonics. Tin-vacancy (SnV$^{\,\textrm{-}}$) centers in diamond are of particular interest because they exhibit narrow-linewidth emission in nanostructures and possess long spin coherence times at temperatures above 1 K. However, a nanophotonic interface for SnV$^{\,\textrm{-}}$ centers has not yet been realized. Here, we report cavity enhancement of the emission of SnV$^{\,\textrm{-}}$ centers in diamond. We integrate SnV$^{\,\textrm{-}}$ centers into one-dimensional photonic crystal resonators and observe a 40-fold increase in emission intensity. The Purcell factor of the coupled system is 25, resulting in channeling of the majority of photons ($90\%$) into the cavity mode. Our results pave the way for the creation of efficient, scalable spin-photon interfaces based on SnV$^{\,\textrm{-}}$ centers in diamond

Bacteremia in critical care units at Bugando Medical Centre, Mwanza, Tanzania: the role of colonization and contaminated cots and mothers’ hands in cross-transmission of multidrug resistant Gram-negative bacteria

Background: Multidrug resistance (MDR) is a major clinical problem in tertiary hospitals in Tanzania and jeopardizes the life of neonates in critical care units (CCUs). To better understand methods for prevention of MDR infections, this study aimed to determine, among other factors, the role of MDR-Gram-negative bacteria (GNB) contaminating neonatal cots and hands of mothers as possible role in transmission of bacteremia at Bugando Medical Centre (BMC), Mwanza, Tanzania. Methods: This cross-sectional, hospital-based study was conducted among neonates and their mothers in a neonatal intensive care unit and a neonatology unit at BMC from December 2018 to April 2019. Blood specimens (n = 200) were sub-cultured on 5% sheep blood agar (SBA) and MacConkey agar (MCA) plates. Other specimens (200 neonatal rectal swabs, 200 maternal hand swabs and 200 neonatal cot swabs) were directly inoculated on MCA plates supplemented with 2 μg/ml cefotaxime (MCA-C) for screening of GNB resistant to third generation cephalosporins, r-3GCs. Conventional biochemical tests, Kirby-Bauer technique and resistance to cefoxitin 30 μg were used for identification of bacteria, antibiotic susceptibility testing and detection of MDR-GNB and screening of potential Amp-C beta lactamase producing GNB, respectively. Results: The prevalence of culture confirmed bacteremia was 34.5% of which 85.5% were GNB. Fifty-five (93.2%) of GNB isolated from neonatal blood specimens were r-3GCs. On the other hand; 43% of neonates were colonized with GNB r-3GCs, 32% of cots were contaminated with GNB r-3GCs and 18.5% of hands of neonates’ mothers were contaminated with GNB r-3GCs. The prevalences of MDR-GNB isolated from blood culture and GNB r-3GCs isolated from neonatal colonization, cots and mothers’ hands were 96.6, 100, 100 and 94.6%, respectively. Significantly, cyanosis (OR[95%CI]: 3.13[1.51–6.51], p = 0.002), jaundice (OR[95%CI]: 2.10[1.07–4.14], p = 0.031), number of invasive devices (OR[95%CI]: 2.52[1.08–5.85], p = 0.031) and contaminated cot (OR[95%CI]: 2.39[1.26–4.55], p = 0.008) were associated with bacteremia due to GNB. Use of tap water only (OR[95%CI]: 2.12[0.88–5.09], p = 0.040) was protective for bacteremia due to GNB. Conclusion: High prevalence of MDR-GNB bacteremia and intestinal colonization, and MDR-GNB contaminating cots and mothers’ hands was observed. Improved cots decontamination strategies is crucial to limit the spread of MDR-GNB. Further, clinical presentations and water use should be considered in administration of empirical therapy whilst awaiting culture results

Ultrafast coherent manipulation of trions in site-controlled nanowire quantum dots

Physical implementations of large-scale quantum processors based on solid-state platforms benefit from realizations of quantum bits positioned in regular arrays. Self-assembled quantum dots are well established as promising candidates for quantum optics and quantum information processing, but they are randomly positioned. Site-controlled quantum dots, on the other hand, are grown in pre-defined locations but have not yet been sufficiently developed to be used as a platform for quantum information processing. In this paper, we demonstrate all-optical ultrafast complete coherent control of a qubit formed by the single-spin/trion states of a charged site-controlled nanowire quantum dot. Our results show that site-controlled quantum dots in nanowires are promising hosts of charged-exciton qubits and that these qubits can be cleanly manipulated in the same fashion as has been demonstrated in randomly positioned quantum dot samples. Our findings suggest that many of the related excitonic qubit experiments that have been performed over the past 15 years may work well in the more scalable, site-controlled systems, making them very promising for the realization of quantum hardware

The hospital environment versus carriage: transmission pathways for third-generation cephalosporin-resistant bacteria in blood in neonates in a low-resource country healthcare setting

Neonatal bloodstream infections (BSI) can lead to sepsis, with high morbidity and mortality, particularly in low-income settings. The high prevalence of third-generation cephalosporin-resistant organisms (3GC-RO) complicates the management of BSI. Whether BSI is linked to carriage of 3GC-RO, or to acquisition from the hospital environment is important for infection prevention and control, but the relationship remains unclear, especially in low-income settings. At a tertiary hospital in Mwanza, Tanzania, we screened neonatal blood and rectal samples from 200 neonates, and 400 (hospital) environmental samples. We used logistic regression to identify risk factors, and Kolmogorov–Smirnov tests and randomisation analyses to compare distributions of species and resistance patterns to assess potential routes of transmission. We found that BSIs caused by 3GC-RO were frequent (of 59 cases of BSI, 55 were caused by 3GC-RO), as was carriage of 3GC-RO, particularly Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Acinetobacter species. In the 28 infants with both a carriage and blood isolate, there were more (4 of 28) isolate pairs of the same species and susceptibility profile than expected by chance (p < 0.05), but most pairs were discordant (24 of 28). Logistic regression models found no association between BSI and carriage with either 3GC-RO or only 3GC-R K. pneumoniae. These analyses suggest that carriage of 3GC-RO is not a major driver of BSI caused by 3GC-RO in this setting. Comparison with environmental isolates showed very similar distributions of species and resistance patterns in the carriage, BSI, and the environment. These similar distributions, a high frequency of Acinetobacter spp. isolations, the lack of strong association between carriage and BSI, together with the high proportion of 3GC-RO in BSI all suggest that these neonates acquire multidrug-resistant carriage and blood isolates directly from the hospital environment