Expectation-Complete Graph Representations with Homomorphisms

We investigate novel random graph embeddings that can be computed in expected polynomial time and that are able to distinguish all non-isomorphic graphs in expectation. Previous graph embeddings have limited expressiveness and either cannot distinguish all graphs or cannot be computed efficiently for every graph. To be able to approximate arbitrary functions on graphs, we are interested in efficient alternatives that become arbitrarily expressive with increasing resources. Our approach is based on Lov\'asz' characterisation of graph isomorphism through an infinite dimensional vector of homomorphism counts. Our empirical evaluation shows competitive results on several benchmark graph learning tasks.Comment: accepted for publication at ICML 202

Innovation Management in Manufacturing - A Study on Industrial Application, Deficits, and Opportunities

Manufacturing companies are constantly pressured to innovate in an increasingly complex and discontinuous environment. In addition to developing new products and product features, innovation management in manufacturing has become necessary to ensure the competitiveness of technologies and processes in the context of digitalization, human centricity, sustainability and resilience (Industry 5.0). In the study, presented in this paper, companies from various industries participated in an online survey on their approach to incremental and radical innovation in manufacturing and the associated innovation management. In the study, more than 50 participants provide insight into the innovation management of their manufacturing unit and identify concrete fields of action as well as challenges in the areas of technology, organization and people. The study results are intended to provide manufacturing innovation managers with an overview of the challenges, deficits and potentials of innovation management in manufacturing and to help them identify and describe challenges in their organization

Molecular epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance of Clostridioides difficile detected in chicken, soil and human samples from Zimbabwe

Background: Clostridioides difficile is the major cause of infectious nosocomial diarrhoea in industrialized nations. Data on the occurrence of C. difficile in Africa, ribotype (RT) distribution, antimicrobial susceptibility patterns and potential zoonotic transmission are scarce. Methods: 80 Zimbabwean C. difficile isolates from different sources (chicken [n = 30], soil [n = 21] and humans [n = 29]) were investigated using ribotyping, toxin gene detection, resistance testing, multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA), and whole genome sequencing (WGS). Results: Among chicken isolates, the most common RTs were RT103 (6/30), RT025 (5/30) and RT070 (4/30). Within soil samples, RT025 and RT056 were most common (3/21 each). In contrast, the non-toxigenic RT084 was most frequently found in human isolates (4/29). Toxin genes were detected in only 19/29 human isolates. Susceptibility testing showed no resistance against metronidazole and vancomycin, and resistance against macrolides and rifampicin was scarce (3/80 and 2/80, respectively); however, 26/80 isolates showed moxifloxacin resistance. MLVA and WGS of strains with identical RTs stemming from different sources revealed clustering of RT025 and RT084 isolates from human und non-human samples. Conclusion: No "hypervirulent” strains were found. The detected clusters between human, chicken and soil isolates indicate ongoing transmission between humans and environmental sources and might point towards a zoonotic potential

Aktuelle molekulare Epidemiologie und Antibiotikaresistenzen von Clostridioides difficile in Deutschland im Jahr 2022

Clostridioides (C.) difficile ist der bedeutendste bakte¬rielle Erreger infektiöser nosokomialer Diarrhöen. Wichtigster Risikofaktor für eine Erkrankung ist die Gabe von Antibiotika, die die Darmflora schädigen – insbesondere die „4C“-Antibiotika Clindamycin, Fluorchinolone, Cephalosporine und Aminopenicilline mit Betalaktamase-Inhibitoren. Das Epidemiologische Bulletin 15/2023 gibt einen Überblick über die aktuellen Entwicklungen der C. difficile-Epidemiologie und Resistenzentwicklung in Deutschland. Veränderungen der Erregerepidemiologie und das Erkennen von neuen Erreger- und Resistenzvarianten erfordern eine kontinuierliche Surveillance, die seit 2019 standardisiert in Deutschland am Nationalen Referenzzentrum für C. difficile durchgeführt wird.Peer Reviewe

Outbreak of Burkholderia cepacia complex infections associated with contaminated octenidine mouthwash solution, Germany, August to September 2018

Three German patients developed nosocomial pneumonia after cardiac surgery and had Burkholderia cepacia complex detected in respiratory specimens. Two patients died of septic multi-organ failure. Wholegenome sequencing detected genetically identical B. cepacia complex strains in patient samples, from a batch of octenidine mouthwash solution, which had been used for nursing care, as well as in samples obtained from the manufacturer during production. Contamination of medical products during manufacturing may lead to international outbreaks

Discrimination between hypervirulent and non-hypervirulent ribotypes of Clostridioides difficile by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry and machine learning

Hypervirulent ribotypes (HVRTs) of Clostridioides difcile such as ribotype (RT) 027 are epidemiologically important. This study evaluated whether MALDI-TOF can distinguish between strains of HVRTs and non-HVRTs commonly found in Europe. Obtained spectra of clinical C. difcile isolates (training set, 157 isolates) covering epidemiologically relevant HVRTs and non-HVRTs found in Europe were used as an input for diferent machine learning (ML) models. Another 83 isolates were used as a validation set. Direct comparison of MALDI-TOF spectra obtained from HVRTs and non-HVRTs did not allow to discriminate between these two groups, while using these spectra with certain ML models could diferentiate HVRTs from non-HVRTs with an accuracy >95% and allowed for a sub-clustering of three HVRT subgroups (RT027/ RT176, RT023, RT045/078/126/127). MALDI-TOF combined with ML represents a reliable tool for rapid identifcation of major European HVRTs

Molecular epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance of Clostridioides difficile in Germany, 2014-2019

Clostridioides difficile is a Gram positive spore-forming rod and mainly responsible for nosocomial diarrhea in developed nations. Molecular and antimicrobial surveillance is important for monitoring the strain composition including genotypes of high epidemiological importance such as ribotype 027 (RT027) and corresponding resistance patterns. 1535 isolates obtained from samples sent between 2014 and 2019 to the German National Reference Center (NRC) for diagnostic reasons (NRC strain set), and 1143 isolates from a Tertiary Care University Center in Saarland, Germany (non-NRC strain set), were evaluated using antibiotic susceptibility testing and ribotyping. In the NRC strain set, RT027 overtook RT001, the main RT found in the preceding studies, and dominated with 36.2%, followed by RT001 (13.3%), and RT014 (8.5%). Of note, since 2016 a constant decrease of RT027 could be noticed. In the non-NRC strain set a large strain diversity was present with RT014 (18%) and RT001 (8.9%) being most prevalent. In NRC samples, resistance towards metronidazole, vancomycin, moxifloxacin, clarithromycin and rifampicin was 2.7%, 0%, 57.1%, 53.2% and 19.2%, respectively. Metronidazole resistance was almost exclusively found in RT027 isolates. Rifampicin resistance was also observed predominantly in isolates of RT027, constituting an almost four-fold increase, when compared to preceeding studies in this region. In conclusion these data demonstrate that RT027 is a driver for rifampicin and metronidazole resistance, underlining the importance of continuous surveillance efforts