Role of Amoxicillin Serum Levels for Successful Prophylaxis of Experimental Endocarditis Due to Tolerant Streptococci

The importance of amoxicillin serum profiles for successful prophylaxis of experimental endocarditis in rats was assessed. Animals with catheter-induced vegetations were challenged intravenously with large inocula of Streptococcus sanguis and received one of the following amoxicillin dosages: single or multiple bolus injection of 40 mg/kg; 40 mg/kg administered as a continuous infusion over 12 h; or either 9 or 18 mg/kg administered over 12 or 24 h, respectively. The regimen producing a single transient high peak serum level failed to prevent experimental endocarditis; in contrast, a second injection 6 h after the first resulted in successful prophylaxis. Likewise, the three regimens of continuous, relatively low-dose regimens prevented infections. Thus, the most important parameter for successful prophylaxis was the duration of inhibitory concentration of the drug in the serum. The total dose of antibiotic, the peak serum levels, or the area-under-the-curve values were not predictive of successful prophylaxi

Manufacture of micro-electro-mechanical-system using sacrificial layer made of silicon, useful for micro-electro-mechanical-system device architecture, e.g. radio-frequency capacitive switch and current switch

NOVELTY - A micro-electro-mechanical-system (MEMS) is manufactured by the use of a sacrificial layer that is made of silicon. USE - The invention is used in surface micromachining for the manufacture of a MEMS containing a suspended metal layer or MEMS device architecture. MEMS device is a suspended gate metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (SG-MOSFET). It is used as radio-frequency capacitive switch, current switch, radio-frequency tuneable capacitor, magnetic field sensor, accelerometer, and pressure sensor. (all claimed

Appropriateness of antibiotic treatment in intravenous drug users, a retrospective analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Infectious disease is often the reason for intravenous drug users being seen in a clinical setting. The objective of this study was to evaluate the appropriateness of treatment and outcomes for this patient population in a hospital setting.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Retrospective study of all intravenous drug users hospitalized for treatment of infectious diseases and seen by infectious diseases specialists 1/2001–12/2006 at a university hospital. Treatment was administered according to guidelines when possible or to alternative treatment program in case of patients for whom adherence to standard protocols was not possible. Outcomes were defined with respect to appropriateness of treatment, hospital readmission, relapse and mortality rates. For statistical analysis adjustment for multiple hospitalizations of individual patients was made by using a generalized estimating equation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The total number of hospitalizations for infectious diseases was 344 among 216 intravenous drug users. Skin and soft tissue infections (n = 129, 37.5% of hospitalizations), pneumonia (n = 75, 21.8%) and endocarditis (n = 54, 15.7%) were most prevalent. Multiple infections were present in 25%. Treatment was according to standard guidelines for 78.5%, according to an alternative recommended program for 11.3%, and not according to guidelines or by the infectious diseases specialist advice for 10.2% of hospitalizations. Psychiatric disorders had a significant negative impact on compliance (compliance problems in 19.8% of hospitalizations) in multiple logistic regression analysis (OR = 2.4, CI 1.1–5.1, p = 0.03). The overall readmission rate and relapse rate within 30 days was 13.7% and 3.8%, respectively. Both non-compliant patient behavior (OR = 3.7, CI 1.3–10.8, p = 0.02) and non-adherence to treatment guidelines (OR = 3.3, CI 1.1–9.7, p = 0.03) were associated with a significant increase in the relapse rate in univariate analysis. In 590 person-years of follow-up, 24.6% of the patients died: 6.4% died during hospitalization (1.2% infection-related) and 13.6% of patients died after discharge.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Appropriate antibiotic therapy according to standard guidelines in hospitalized intravenous drug users is generally practicable and successful. In a minority alternative treatments may be indicated, although associated with a higher risk of relapse.</p

Evolutionarily Conserved Transcriptional Co-Expression Guiding Embryonic Stem Cell Differentiation

Understanding the molecular mechanisms controlling pluripotency in embryonic stem cells (ESCs) is of central importance towards realizing their potentials in medicine and science. Cross-species examination of transcriptional co-expression allows elucidation of fundamental and species-specific mechanisms regulating ESC self-renewal or differentiation.We examined transcriptional co-expression of ESCs from pathways to global networks under the framework of human-mouse comparisons. Using generalized singular value decomposition and comparative partition around medoids algorithms, evolutionarily conserved and divergent transcriptional co-expression regulating pluripotency were identified from ESC-critical pathways including ACTIVIN/NODAL, ATK/PTEN, BMP, CELL CYCLE, JAK/STAT, PI3K, TGFbeta and WNT. A set of transcription factors, including FOX, GATA, MYB, NANOG, OCT, PAX, SOX and STAT, and the FGF response element were identified that represent key regulators underlying the transcriptional co-expression. By transcriptional intervention conducted in silico, dynamic behavior of pathways was examined, which demonstrate how much and in which specific ways each gene or gene combination effects the behavior transition of a pathway in response to ESC differentiation or pluripotency induction. The global co-expression networks of ESCs were dominated by highly connected hub genes such as IGF2, JARID2, LCK, MYCN, NASP, OCT4, ORC1L, PHC1 and RUVBL1, which are possibly critical in determining the fate of ESCs.Through these studies, evolutionary conservation at genomic, transcriptomic, and network levels is shown to be an effective predictor of molecular factors and mechanisms controlling ESC development. Various hypotheses regarding mechanisms controlling ESC development were generated, which could be further validated by in vitro experiments. Our findings shed light on the systems-level understanding of how ESC differentiation or pluripotency arises from the connectivity or networks of genes, and provide a "road-map" for further experimental investigation

DEEP ANISOTROPIC ETCHING OF SILICON USING LOW PRESSURE HIGH DENSITY PLASMA. PRESENTATION OF COMPLEMENTARY TECHNIQUES AND THEIR APPLICATIONS IN MICROTECHNOLOGY.

The flexibility of the new available Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) reactors provides a lot of possibilities for process development in dry etching field. Deep anisotropic etching of silicon is now possible under control (etch rate, profiles, uniformity) that offers a lot of possibilities for microsystems development. The purpose of this presentation is to give an overview of bulk silicon processing techniques using new ICP etching equipment in the field of microsystems development

Thermally activated vortex motion in YBa2Cu3O7 wire networks

With a mutual inductance method we have measured the temperature dependence of the complex AC impedance Z = R + iωL of high quality YBa2Cu3O7 wire networks. In a perpendicular magnetic field the real and the imaginary part of Z exhibit oscillations resulting from flux quantization in the loops of the network. The relative amplitude of the oscillations of the inverse effective sheet inductance 1/L is consistent with a model where 1/L is renormalized by thermally activated vortex motion

A novel CMOS SOI unbalanced Mach-Zehnder interferometer: from design and simulations to fabrication and characterization

This paper reports on a novel, simple yet reliable, unbalanced SOI Mach-Zehnder (M-Z) interferometer architecture based on 1.2 μm CMOS process and adapted post-processing for the waveguide sidewalls. The fabricated electro-optical device is based on multiple PIN diode bars integrated on top of a SOI silicon waveguide and can be operated either at: (I) high-frequency (few MHz) based on the plasma dispersion effect and (II) low frequency (<1 MHz) based on the thermo-optic effect. The device main characteristics and figures of merit are presented and discussed

RF MEMS Tunable Capacitors for Above-IC Integration Fabricated with Dry Etching of Sacrificial Amorphous Silicon

National audienc