A Study of Bacterial Cultures and their Antibiotic Sensitivities in a Paediatric Ward Population

This study reflects the bacterial infection prevalent in a general paediatric ward and assesses bacterial sensitivity to a number of antibiotics. Staphylococci were the commonest bacteria cultured and were almost entirely insensitive to penicillin. While 2% of all Gram-negative bacteria were insensitive to gentamicin, bacterial resistance to other commonly used antibiotics varied between 28% and 62%. Malnutrition or its associated ills enhanced the chances of infection with Gram-negative bacteria. It is recommended that gentamicin, penicillin and a penicillinase-resistant antibiotic be given to all seriously ill, malnourished children in whom infection is either overt or suspected on the grounds of pyrexia, shock or deteriorating clinical condition.S. Afr. Med. J., 48, 1251 (1974)

An epidemic of adenovirus type-7 bronchopneumonia in Bantu children

No Abstract

Rule-Based Ventral Cavity Multi-organ Automatic Segmentation in CT Scans

We describe a newmethod for the automatic segmentation of multiple organs of the ventral cavity in CT scans. The methodisbasedonasetofrulesthatdeterminetheorderin which theorgansare isolatedand segmented, from the sim- plestonetothemostdifficultone. First,thebodyisisolated from the background. Second, the trachea and the left and right lungsare segmentedbasedon theirair content.Third, thespleenandthekidneys–theorganswithhighbloodcon- tent–aresegmented. Finally,thekidneyissegmentedbased onthesurroundingorganssegmentation. Eachorganisindi- vidually segmentedwitha four-stepprocedure that consists of: 1) definition of an inclusive region of interest; 2) identi- fication of the largest axial cross-section slice; 3) Semoval of background structuresbymorphologicaloperations,and; 4) 3D region growing segmentation. Ourmethod is unique in that ituses the same generic segmentation approach for all organsand in that it relieson the segmentationdifficultyof organs toguide the segmentationprocess. Experimental re- sultson15CTscansoftheVISCERALAnatomy2Challenge trainingdatasetsyieldaDicevolumeoverlapsimilarityscore of 79.1 for the trachea, 97.4 and 97.6 for the left and right lungs, 89.2 for the spleen, and 92.8 for the left kidney. For the5CT scans testdatasets, theDice scoresare97.9,97.0, 85.6, 93.4 and 90.2, respectively. Our method achieved an overallDICE score of 92.8 andwas ranked first among the fivemethodsthatparticipated inthechallenge. Copyright c © by the paper’s authors. Copying permitted only for private and academic purposes

Small doubling in groups

Let A be a subset of a group G = (G,.). We will survey the theory of sets A with the property that |A.A| <= K|A|, where A.A = {a_1 a_2 : a_1, a_2 in A}. The case G = (Z,+) is the famous Freiman--Ruzsa theorem.Comment: 23 pages, survey article submitted to Proceedings of the Erdos Centenary conferenc

Linear forms and quadratic uniformity for functions on ZN\mathbb{Z}_N

A very useful fact in additive combinatorics is that analytic expressions that can be used to count the number of structures of various kinds in subsets of Abelian groups are robust under quasirandom perturbations, and moreover that quasirandomness can often be measured by means of certain easily described norms, known as uniformity norms. However, determining which uniformity norms work for which structures turns out to be a surprisingly hard question. In [GW09a] and [GW09b, GW09c] we gave a complete answer to this question for groups of the form $G=\mathbb{F}_p^n$, provided $p$ is not too small. In $\mathbb{Z}_N$, substantial extra difficulties arise, of which the most important is that an "inverse theorem" even for the uniformity norm $\|.\|_{U^3}$ requires a more sophisticated (local) formulation. When $N$ is prime, $\mathbb{Z}_N$ is not rich in subgroups, so one must use regular Bohr neighbourhoods instead. In this paper, we prove the first non-trivial case of the main conjecture from [GW09a].Comment: 66 page

Effects of early neonatal proinflammatory stress on the expression of BDNF transcripts in the brain regions of prepubertal male rats

Early postnatal proinflammatory stress provokes behavioral impairments in adulthood; however, underlying mechanisms are still elusive. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays a crucial role in neuroplastic changes in health as well as at pathology. The BDNF gene is transcribed to exon-specific mRNAs and the pattern of their expression depends on stimulus. We suggest that disturbances of exonspecific BDNF mRNA expression in the brain regions after stress induced by proinflammatory stimuli in early postnatal period could be one of the underlying mechanisms of consequent behavioral impairments. Thus, the aim of the study was to investigate the effects of proinflammatory stress in early postnatal ontogeny on the expression of BDNF and the patterns of expression of the BDNF gene in the neocortex and hippocampus of prepubertal male rats. The proinflammatory stress was induced by subcutaneous administration of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to rat pups on postnatal days 3 and 5, while BDNF expression was analyzed in 36-day-old rats. BDNF polypeptide concentration was estimated by means of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, while quantitative polymerase chain reaction followed by reverse transcription was used to detect exon-specific BDNF mRNA expression. The levels of BDNF and transcripts, containing common exon IX were similar in the control and LPS-treated rats. In the rats treated with LPS, the level of BDNF mRNA, containing exon IV, was lower in the neocortex, but not in the hippocampus. No changes in the expression of the transcripts containing exons I and VI were observed in any brain structure studied. We suggest that specific alterations in BDNF expression may be involved in the susceptibility to the development of behavioral impairments of animals subjected to early proinflammatory stress

The Tryptophan Hydroxylase Inhibitor LX1031 Shows Clinical Benefit in Patients With Nonconstipating Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine [5-HT]) has an important role in gastrointestinal function. LX1031 is an oral, locally acting, small molecule inhibitor of tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH). Local inhibition of TPH in the gastrointestinal tract might reduce mucosal production of serotonin (5-HT) and be used to treat patients with nonconstipating irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)

Predictors of length of stay in psychiatry: analyses of electronic medical records

The article processing charge was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg in the funding programme Open Access Publishing