5,759 research outputs found
Is Aquaculture a Path to Community Resilience in Maine?
Coastal towns across Maine face a number of challenges maintaining resilience, posing a threat in their response to disaster. Aquaculture has been presented as a potential solution for some coastal communities; however, the question of âfitâ is a source of debate within Maine. Decision-makers may seek further understanding of citizensâ perceptions of their communityâs resilience and marine aquaculture, including preferences for supporting growth of the sector across the state\u27s coastal region. To provide this information, we analyze data from a survey of Maine citizens. We assess residentsâ perceptions of community resilience and whether marine aquaculture supports resiliency goals along the coastline of Maine
Diversity of multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii population in a major hospital in Kuwait
Acinetobacter baumannii is one of the most important opportunistic pathogens that causes serious health care associated complications in critically ill patients. In the current study we report on the diversity of the clinical multi-drug resistant (MDR) A. baumannii in Kuwait by molecular characterization. One hundred A. baumannii were isolated from one of the largest governmental hospitals in Kuwait. Following the identification of the isolates by molecular methods, the amplified blaOXA-51-like gene product of one isolate (KO-12) recovered from blood showed the insertion of the ISAba19 at position 379 in blaOXA-78. Of the 33 MDR isolates, 28 (85%) contained blaOXA-23, 2 (6%) blaOXA-24 and 6 (18%) blaPER-1 gene. We did not detect blaOXA-58, blaV IM, blaIMP, blaGES, blaV EB, and blaNDM genes in any of the tested isolates. In three blaPER-1 positive isolates the genetic environment of blaPER-1 consisted of two copies of ISPa12 (tnpiA1) surrounding the blaPER-1 gene on a highly stable plasmid of ca. 140-kb. Multilocus-sequence typing (MLST) analysis of the 33 A. baumannii isolates identified 20 different STs, of which six (ST-607, ST-608, ST-609, ST-610, ST-611, and ST-612) were novel. Emerging STs such as ST15 (identified for the first time in the Middle East), ST78 and ST25 were also detected. The predominant clonal complex was CC2. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and MLST defined the MDR isolates as multi-clonal with diverse lineages. Our results lead us to believe that A. baumannii is diverse in clonal origins and/or is undergoing clonal expansion continuously while multiple lineages of MDR A. baumannii circulate in hospital ward simultaneously
Jamming transition in a homogeneous one-dimensional system: the Bus Route Model
We present a driven diffusive model which we call the Bus Route Model. The
model is defined on a one-dimensional lattice, with each lattice site having
two binary variables, one of which is conserved (``buses'') and one of which is
non-conserved (``passengers''). The buses are driven in a preferred direction
and are slowed down by the presence of passengers who arrive with rate lambda.
We study the model by simulation, heuristic argument and a mean-field theory.
All these approaches provide strong evidence of a transition between an
inhomogeneous ``jammed'' phase (where the buses bunch together) and a
homogeneous phase as the bus density is increased. However, we argue that a
strict phase transition is present only in the limit lambda -> 0. For small
lambda, we argue that the transition is replaced by an abrupt crossover which
is exponentially sharp in 1/lambda. We also study the coarsening of gaps
between buses in the jammed regime. An alternative interpretation of the model
is given in which the spaces between ``buses'' and the buses themselves are
interchanged. This describes a system of particles whose mobility decreases the
longer they have been stationary and could provide a model for, say, the flow
of a gelling or sticky material along a pipe.Comment: 17 pages Revtex, 20 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Generalized dynamical density functional theory for classical fluids and the significance of inertia and hydrodynamic interactions
We study the dynamics of a colloidal fluid including inertia and hydrodynamic
interactions, two effects which strongly influence the non-equilibrium
properties of the system. We derive a general dynamical density functional
theory (DDFT) which shows very good agreement with full Langevin dynamics. In
suitable limits, we recover existing DDFTs and a Navier-Stokes-like equation
with additional non-local terms.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 4 supplementary movie files, I supplementary pd
Degenerate dispersive equations arising in the study of magma dynamics
An outstanding problem in Earth science is understanding the method of
transport of magma in the Earth's mantle. Models for this process, transport in
a viscously deformable porous media, give rise to scalar degenerate,
dispersive, nonlinear wave equations. We establish a general local
well-posedness for a physical class of data (roughly ) via fixed point
methods. The strategy requires positive lower bounds on the solution. This is
extended to global existence for a subset of possible nonlinearities by making
use of certain conservation laws associated with the equations. Furthermore, we
construct a Lyapunov energy functional, which is locally convex about the
uniform state, and prove (global in time) nonlinear dynamic stability of the
uniform state for any choice of nonlinearity. We compare the dynamics to that
of other problems and discuss open questions concerning a larger range of
nonlinearities, for which we conjecture global existence.Comment: 27 Pages, 7 figures are not present in this version. See
http://www.columbia.edu/~grs2103/ for a PDF with figures. Submitted to
Nonlinearit
Treatment Guidelines for Rare, Early-Onset, Treatment-Resistant Epileptic Conditions:A Literature Review on Dravet Syndrome, Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome and CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder
Background: Dravet syndrome (DS), Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) and CDKL5 deficiency disorder (CDD) are rare epileptic conditions, characterised by drug-resistant seizures. Seizure management in these patients requires careful therapy selection. This targeted literature review (TLR) aimed to collate and synthesise information from country-specific and international treatment guidelines for DS, LGS and CDD.Methods: A TLR was performed between 25th January and 11th March 2021. Online rare diseases and guideline databases were manually searched in addition to websites of national health technology assessment bodies for the following countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, UK and US, as defined by pre-specified eligibility criteria. Search terms, developed for each condition, were translated into local languages where appropriate. Descriptive analyses were performed to examine the geographical distribution of included guidelines; methodologies used to develop guidelines; cross-referencing of treatment recommendations made within other guidelines; patterns of treatment recommendations. An author map was created using R version 3.5.1, to visualise the extent of collaboration between authors.Results: Forty total guidelines were included, of which 29, 34 and 0 contained recommendations for DS, LGS and CDD, respectively (some provided recommendations for â„1 condition). Most were country-specific, with guideline authors predominantly publishing in regional groups. Five guidelines were classified as âInternationalâ and displayed connections between author groups in the US, UK, France and Italy. Reported guideline development processes were lacking [43% (17 guidelines) had unclear/absent literature review methodologies] and those reported were variable, including both systematic and targeted literature reviews. Use of expert consultation was also variable. A high degree of heterogeneity was observed in the availability of treatment recommendations across disorders, with 271 and 190 recommendations for LGS and DS, respectively, and contradictory positive and negative treatment recommendations for several drugs in each indication [35% (11/31) and 22% (6/27) in LGS and DS, respectively].Conclusions: This review highlights the need for further high-quality international consensus-based treatment guidelines for LGS, DS, and particularly for CDD (for which no treatment guidelines were identified). Supra-national consensus guidance based on findings from a wider geographical range may improve resource allocation and establish an improved world-wide standard of care
Fluctuation Theorems for Entropy Production and Heat Dissipation in Periodically Driven Markov Chains
Asymptotic fluctuation theorems are statements of a Gallavotti-Cohen symmetry
in the rate function of either the time-averaged entropy production or heat
dissipation of a process. Such theorems have been proved for various general
classes of continuous-time deterministic and stochastic processes, but always
under the assumption that the forces driving the system are time independent,
and often relying on the existence of a limiting ergodic distribution. In this
paper we extend the asymptotic fluctuation theorem for the first time to
inhomogeneous continuous-time processes without a stationary distribution,
considering specifically a finite state Markov chain driven by periodic
transition rates. We find that for both entropy production and heat
dissipation, the usual Gallavotti-Cohen symmetry of the rate function is
generalized to an analogous relation between the rate functions of the original
process and its corresponding backward process, in which the trajectory and the
driving protocol have been time-reversed. The effect is that spontaneous
positive fluctuations in the long time average of each quantity in the forward
process are exponentially more likely than spontaneous negative fluctuations in
the backward process, and vice-versa, revealing that the distributions of
fluctuations in universes in which time moves forward and backward are related.
As an additional result, the asymptotic time-averaged entropy production is
obtained as the integral of a periodic entropy production rate that generalizes
the constant rate pertaining to homogeneous dynamics
Dissemination of multiple carbapenem-resistant clones of Acinetobacter baumannii in the Eastern District of Saudi Arabia
It has previously been shown that carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii are frequently detected in Saudi Arabia. The present study aimed to identify the epidemiology and distribution of antibiotic resistance determinants in these bacteria. A total of 83 A. baumannii isolates were typed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), and screened by PCR for carbapenemase genes and insertion sequences. Antibiotic sensitivity to imipenem, meropenem, tigecycline, and colistin were determined. Eight different PFGE groups were identified, and were spread across multiple hospitals. Many of the PFGE groups contained isolates belonging to World-wide clone 2. Carbapenem resistance or intermediate resistance was detected in 69% of isolates. The blaVIM gene was detected in 94% of isolates, while blaOXAâ23âlike genes were detected in 58%. The data demonstrate the co-existence and wide distribution of a number of clones of carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii carrying multiple carbapenem-resistance determinants within hospitals in the Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia
- âŠ