Monitoring the quality of laboraties and the prevalence of resistance to antituberculosis drugs: Italy, 1998-2000

In 1998 a network of 20 regional tuberculosis (TB) laboratories (the Italian Multicentre Study on Resistance to Antituberculosis drugs (SMIRA) network) was established in Italy to implement proficiency testing and to monitor the prevalence of drug resistance nationwide. The network managed 30% of all TB cases reported in Italy each year. The aim of the present report is to describe: 1) the accuracy of drug-susceptibility testing in the network; 2) the prevalence of drug resistance for the period 1998-2000. Data were collected from the network laboratories. Sensitivity to streptomycin and ethambutol increased from the first survey (1998-1999) to the second survey (2000) from 87.7 to 91.9%. Specificity, predictive values for resistance and susceptibility, efficiency and reproducibility were consistent in both surveys. In previously untreated cases, the prevalence of multidrug-resistance was the same in both surveys (1.2%), while a slight decrease from the first to the second survey was observed for monoresistance to rifampicin (from 0.8 to 0.4%) and isoniazid (from 2.9 to 2%,). The significant association found between isoniazid resistance and immigration is a useful indicator for both clinicians managing individual tuberculosis cases and public health services planning control strategies

Multifunctional La0.7Sr0.3MnO3−YBa2Cu3O7La_{0.7}Sr_{0.3}MnO_3-YBa_2Cu_3O_7 Heterostructures

Complex perovskite oxides exhibit a rich spectrum of functional responses such as: superconductivity, magnetism etc. Combination of different oxides in multilayered structures increases the number of physical responses. Heterogeneous oxide structures represent a new class of nanostructures. They consist of ferromagnetic $La_{0.67}Sr_{0.33}MnO_3$ (F-LSMO) manganite and superconducting $YBa_2Cu_3O_7$ (Sc-YBCO) cuprate. The interaction between the two order parameters gives rise to new physical effects. In this review we will discuss various physical effects obtained in the bilayer and trilayer heterostructures. For example, the LSMO/YBCO bilayer structures are used to study the mechanism of magnetic pinning. The other possibility is the fabrication of spin valve-like structures LSMO/YBCO/LSMO. The spin dependent transport in trilayer structure was studied taking into account crossed Andreev reflection and electron co-tunneling processes