Impact of exposure of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus to polyhexanide in vitro and in vivo.

Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) resistant to decolonization agents such as mupirocin and chlorhexidine increase the need to develop alternative decolonization molecules. The absence of reported adverse reactions and bacterial resistance to polyhexanide makes it an excellent choice as topical antiseptic. In the present study we evaluated the in vitro and in vivo capacity to generate strains with reduced polyhexanide susceptibility and cross-resistance with chlorhexidine and/or antibiotics currently used in clinic. Here we report the in vitro emergence of reduced-susceptibility to polyhexanide by prolonged-stepwise exposure to low concentrations in broth culture. Reduced susceptibility to polyhexanide was associated with genomic changes in the mprF and purR genes, and with concomitant decreased susceptibility to daptomycin and other cell-wall active antibiotics. However, the in vitro emergence of reduced-susceptibility to polyhexanide did not result in cross-resistance to chlorhexidine antiseptic. During in vivo polyhexanide clinical decolonization treatment, neither polyhexanide reduced-susceptibility nor chlorhexidine cross-resistance were observed. Together, these observations suggest that polyhexanide could be used safely for decolonisation of carriers of chlorhexidine-resistant S. aureus strains but highlight the need for careful use of polyhexanide at low antiseptic concentrations

WSES guidelines for management of Clostridium difficile infection in surgical patients

In the last two decades there have been dramatic changes in the epidemiology of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), with increases in incidence and severity of disease in many countries worldwide. The incidence of CDI has also increased in surgical patients. Optimization of management of C difficile, has therefore become increasingly urgent. An international multidisciplinary panel of experts prepared evidenced-based World Society of Emergency Surgery (WSES) guidelines for management of CDI in surgical patients.Peer reviewe

A New Synthesis and Process Development of Bis(fluoroalkyl)pyrazoles As Novel Agrophores

The synthesis of 3,5-bis(fluoroalkyl)-pyrazoles as novel agrophores is described. Commercially available fluoroacetoacetates are treated with BF3-activated TFEDMA affording in a straightforward one-pot sequence pyrazole carboxylates in good yields and with excellent regioselectivity. The carboxylate intermediates have been converted into the corresponding pyrazolic acids and submitted to decarboxylation, affording valuable building blocks for the design of novel bioactive ingredients. The found process is suitable for scale up and preparation of compounds in kilogram quantity

Fast Standard Cells Statistical Characterization for SSTA Based on Design of Experiment Approach in 45nm MOSFETs Technology

International audienceControlling the process parameters becomes more and more difficult with the advancement of technology into the nanometre regime. Traditional corner based Static Timing Analysis (STA) becomes inefficient to handle chip timing performance under process variations owing to the large number of corners.Statistical Static Timing Analysis (SSTA) enables us to perform timing yield estimation under process parameters variation. However, accurate full chip timing yield estimation is attainableonly if the statistical characterization is performed for each constituent cell. In other words, we need to be able to generate statistical standard cells libraries. Our study focuses mainly on 45nm MOSFET mismatch parameters variation (threshold voltage, mobility). An accurate and relatively easy method toachieve this goal consists of using Monte Carlo (MC) simulation for electrical characterization. Unfortunately, the MC simulation time increases drastically with the number of MOS transistors constituting a standard cell. As of today very few papers put the focus on statistical libraries generation aspects. Nevertheless,[13] proposed an approach resulting in as much as 12X runtime improvement with accuracy within 12% on delay distribution compared with MC simulations. In order to reduce runtime performances, we propose a new statistical methodology for linear delay model extraction based on Design of Experiment(DOE) methodology which permits fast standard cell statistical library generation. This new methodology permits to achieve 20X runtime improvement on complex cells and 56X on other commonstandard cells, within 10% accuracy of MC simulations on standard deviation. 35X simulation time improvement is observed to generate a full statistical clock library (79 cells). Consideringthe capability of the approach to generate fast accurate delay distributions, it can be deployed in industries to generate amount of libraries statically which was not possible as of today because of MC simulations time

Hospital washbasin water: risk of Legionella-contaminated aerosol inhalation

The contamination of aerosols by washbasin water colonized by Legionella in a hospital was evaluated. Aerosol samples were collected by two impingement technologies. Legionella was never detected by culture in all the (aerosol) samples. However, 45% (18/40) of aerosol samples were positive for Legionella spp. by polymerase chain reaction, with measurable concentrations in 10% of samples (4/40). Moreover, immunoassay detected Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 and L. anisa, and potentially viable bacteria were seen on viability testing. These data suggest that colonized hospital washbasins could represent risks of exposure to Legionella aerosol inhalation, especially by immunocompromised patients