Cephalosporin-resistant Pneumococci and Sickle Cell Disease

Increasingly resistant bacteria in sickle cell disease patients indicate need to evaluate extendedspectrum cephalosporin therapy

Epidemiologic Determinants for Modeling Pneumonic Plague Outbreaks

Pneumonic plague poses a potentially increasing risk to humans in plague nonendemic regions either as a consequence of an aerosolized release or through importation of the disease. Pneumonic plague is person-to-person transmissible. We provide a quantitative assessment of transmissibility based on past outbreaks that shows that the average number of secondary cases per primary case (R0) was 1.3 (variance = 3.1), assuming a geometric probability distribution, prior to outbreak control measures. We also show that the latent and infectious periods can be approximated by using lognormal distributions with means (SD) of 4.3 (1.8) and 2.5 (1.2) days. Based on this parameter estimation, we construct a Markov-chain epidemic model to demonstrate the potential impact of delays in implementing outbreak control measures and increasing numbers of index cases on the incidence of cases in simulated outbreaks

Informe anual 2010. Documentos Institucionales

Se identifican los hechos más relevantes del 2010, con respecto al programa, de identifica la ejecución y planificación de las diferentes actividades crecimiento, entre estos se reconocen; convenios de cooperación, ejecución de reuniones colectivas que confirman el interés del desarrollo del programa orientado a líneas estratégicas de Plan de Mediano Plazo, selección de la comisión directiva, aprobación de proyectos que abordan el cambio climático y ganadería.1. Lineamientos generales. 2. Avance estratégico. 3. Actividades realizadas en el año y principales logros. 4. Cartera complementaria: proyecto BABETHANOL. 5. Vinculación internacional. 6. Coordinación general dirección de PROCISUR. 7. Participación países en las actividades. 8. Difusión y comunicación. 9. Situación económica y financiera

DIRECT AND INDIRECT EFFECTS OF POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EVALUATIVE COMMENTS IN LEARNING

This study examined the effects of reinforcement, punishment, and their combination in a learning task (i.e., a word association task). The reinforcement and punishment took the form of positive evaluative and negative evaluative statements respectively, which were judged by the participants prior to and after the experiment to be of moderate intensity. In addition to measuring the amount of learning, the experiment examined the side effects of these different treatment conditions by measuring the subjects\u27 attitude ratings, estimates of their learning, and self-statements about the experiment, the experimenter, and the subjects themselves. Fifty-one undergraduate student participants were divided into three groups: reinforcement, punishment, and combination. The experimental task was to choose which of the two associates to a word would be chosen the most frequently by the general population. Feedback for this and each subsequent judgment was made following a predetermined arrangement related to the three experimental conditions. In the reinforcement or positive verbal feedback group, 20 of the 40 choices were judged correct, which were indicated by a positive comment by the experimenter. The remaining 20 choices were incorrect, which were followed simply by the comment Let\u27s proceed. For the negative verbal feedback group, correct choices were confirmed by a let\u27s proceed comment; incorrect choices to the other 20 items were acknowledged by negative comments. The third group received both positive and negative feedback: correct choices generated positive comments, and incorrect choices received negative comments. Following the initial 40 choices (Task I), the participants were asked to remake each choice and give the correct answer in a second encounter with each item (Task II). After Task II, participants were asked to complete a mood rating and a self-statement questionnaire. As part of the debriefing for the experiment, the participants were asked their perception of the experiment and the experimenter; they were asked to indicate any verbal self-statements made, what aspects of the experiment were successful for them; and finally they were asked to estimate the number of correct choices they made. Following this debriefing the participants were asked to give their first two associates to the original stimulus words (Task III) to ascertain the effects of treatment upon established learning. The results disconfirmed the findings of earlier feedback studies done with children on discrimination tasks. Post hoc tests showed the combination condition to be superior to both the punishment and reinforcement conditions in learning on incorrect trials and the reinforcement condition to be superior to the punishment condition in learning on correct trials. Comparisons within the groups demonstrated that the correct choices for both reinforcement and punishment conditions were significantly better learned than were the alternative responses when incorrect choices were made. The association data indicated that punishment significantly lowered the probability of subjects using experimental words as associates. Mood scores significantly declined between pre- and post-testing for the punishment group. The self-statements which measured the feelings of the participants about themselves, the experimenter, and the experimental conditions were significantly lower for the punishment group than for the reinforcement group. The debriefing provided a rich amount of impressionistic data for further speculation. This study demonstrates that punishment in the form of negative evaluative comments is clearly deleterious from a variety of standpoints. In spite of recent judgments that punishment may be useful in learning, the present results at the very least suggest caution in its application

Immunocytochemical localization of pleurocidin to the cytoplasmic granules of eosinophilic granular cells from the winter flounder gill

The teleost gill is considered to be of significant immunological importance, as it is one of the first tissues exposed to environmental or pathogenic challenge and thus should be well equipped to mount an effective immune response. This study characterizes ultrastructurally and immunocytochemically a tissue granulocyte (eosinophilic granular cell) from the winter flounder gill that was previously determined to be involved in the gene expression and synthesis of a known antimicrobial peptide (pleurocidin). The cell is irregular in shape with a cytoplasm characterized by numerous large, electron-dense, membrane-bounded granules. The nucleus is euchromatic and closely associated with a prominent rough endoplasmic reticulum. The cytoplasm typically contains two to three mitochondria and a centralized Golgi apparatus surrounded by numerous electron-lucent vesicles. Immunogold staining of the cells with an antipleurocidin antibody shows large number of gold particles in direct association with the electron-dense granules. These data provide the first evidence definitively showing storage of an antimicrobial peptide in the cytoplasmic granules of an eosinophilic granule cell resident in gill tissue.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Immunocytochemical localization of pleurocidin to the cytoplasmic granules of eosinophilic granular cells from the winter flounder gill

The teleost gill is considered to be of significant immunological importance, as it is one of the first tissues exposed to environmental or pathogenic challenge and thus should be well equipped to mount an effective immune response. This study characterizes ultrastructurally and immunocytochemically a tissue granulocyte (eosinophilic granular cell) from the winter flounder gill that was previously determined to be involved in the gene expression and synthesis of a known antimicrobial peptide (pleurocidin). The cell is irregular in shape with a cytoplasm characterized by numerous large, electron-dense, membrane-bounded granules. The nucleus is euchromatic and closely associated with a prominent rough endoplasmic reticulum. The cytoplasm typically contains two to three mitochondria and a centralized Golgi apparatus surrounded by numerous electron-lucent vesicles. Immunogold staining of the cells with an antipleurocidin antibody shows large number of gold particles in direct association with the electron-dense granules. These data provide the first evidence definitively showing storage of an antimicrobial peptide in the cytoplasmic granules of an eosinophilic granule cell resident in gill tissue.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Fungal endocarditis in a premature infant complicated by a right atrial mycetoma and inferior vena cava thrombosis

The incidence of fungal endocarditis in premature infants is on the rise, reported in the last decade secondary to use of central venous lines, the frequent use of broad spectrum antibiotics and neonatal surgical interventions. Central line related thrombosis is a significant risk factor for persistent fungemia and end organ complications including endocarditis. We present a fatal case of progressive thrombosis of the inferior vena cava and right atrial mycetoma in a premature infant with candidemia who underwent ileostomy for bowel perforation. Renal failure occurred secondary to inferior vena cava thrombosis and right atrial mycetoma, both of which had a potential for hemodynamic compromise and embolism

Shewanella halifaxensis sp. nov, a novel obligately respiratory and denitrifying psychrophile

Indigenous bacteria found in the sediment of the Emerald Basin (depth of 215\u2005m, Atlantic Ocean) located offshore of Halifax Harbour (Nova Scotia, Canada) were previously found to be able to degrade the explosive compound hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX). In the present study, a novel obligately respiratory, denitrifying and RDX-mineralizing bacterium, designated strain HAW-EB4T, was isolated from the marine sediment. This bacterium utilized peptone, yeast extract, Casamino acids, esters (Tweens 20, 40 and 80), sugars (N-acetyl-d-glucosamine, ribose), several C2 and C3 acids (acetate, pyruvate, lactate, propionate) and amino acids (serine, proline) as sole carbon and energy sources. Aerobically grown cells (in marine broth 2216 at 10\u200a\ub0C) contained C14\u200a:\u200a0 (6\u200a%), iso-C15\u200a:\u200a0 (12\u200a%), C16\u200a:\u200a0 (20\u200a%), C16\u200a:\u200a1\u3c97 (37\u200a%), C18\u200a:\u200a1\u3c97 (7\u200a%) and C20\u200a:\u200a5\u3c93 (7\u200a%) as major membrane fatty acids, and Q7 (28\ub71\u200a%) and MK-7 (60\ub79\u200a%) as dominant respiratory quinones, consistent with deep-sea species of Shewanella. The novel bacterium had a DNA G+C content of 45\u2005mol% and showed similarity to Shewanella species in terms of 16S rRNA and gyrB gene sequences (93\u201399 and 67\ub73\u201388\ub74\u200a% similarity, respectively), with Shewanella pealeana being the most closely related species. Genomic DNA\u2013DNA hybridization between strain HAW-EB4T and S. pealeana revealed a level of relatedness of 17\ub79\u200a%, lower than the 70\u200a% species cut-off value, indicating that strain HAW-EB4T (=NCIMB 14093T=DSM 17350T) is the type strain of a novel species of Shewanella, for which the name Shewanella halifaxensis sp. nov. is proposed.NRC publication: Ye