Antimicrobials: a global alliance for optimizing their rational use in intra-abdominal infections (AGORA)

Intra-abdominal infections (IAI) are an important cause of morbidity and are frequently associated with poor prognosis, particularly in high-risk patients. The cornerstones in the management of complicated IAIs are timely effective source control with appropriate antimicrobial therapy. Empiric antimicrobial therapy is important in the management of intra-abdominal infections and must be broad enough to cover all likely organisms because inappropriate initial antimicrobial therapy is associated with poor patient outcomes and the development of bacterial resistance. The overuse of antimicrobials is widely accepted as a major driver of some emerging infections (such as C. difficile), the selection of resistant pathogens in individual patients, and for the continued development of antimicrobial resistance globally. The growing emergence of multi-drug resistant organisms and the limited development of new agents available to counteract them have caused an impending crisis with alarming implications, especially with regards to Gram-negative bacteria. An international task force from 79 different countries has joined this project by sharing a document on the rational use of antimicrobials for patients with IAIs. The project has been termed AGORA (Antimicrobials: A Global Alliance for Optimizing their Rational Use in Intra-Abdominal Infections). The authors hope that AGORA, involving many of the world's leading experts, can actively raise awareness in health workers and can improve prescribing behavior in treating IAIs

Sensitivity of double resonance alignment magnetometers

We present an experimental study of the intrinsic magnetometric sensitivity of an optical/rf-frequency double resonance magnetometer in which linearly polarized laser light is used in the optical pumping and detection processes. We show that a semi-empirical model of the magnetometer can be used to describe the magnetic resonance spectra. Then, we present an efficient method to predict the optimum operating point of the magnetometer, i.e., the light power and rf Rabi frequency providing maximum magnetometric sensitivity. Finally, we apply the method to investigate the evolution of the optimum operating point with temperature. The method is very efficient to determine relaxation rates and thus allowed us to determine the three collisional disalignment cross sections for the components of the alignment tensor. Both first and second harmonic signals from the magnetometer are considered and compared

Acute effect of prednisolone on renal handling of sodium.

The effect of prednisolone on renal handling of sodium (Na) was studied in rats under three experimental conditions: 1) hydropenia, 2) water diuresis, and 3) distal tubular blockade (DTB). Prednisolone, 0.25 mg/100 g per hr, was infused directly into left renal artery and urine was collected separately from each kidney. Predominantly unilateral increases in urine flow (V) and Na excretion were noticed in all experiments during prednisolone infusion. In the hydropenic rats the maximal increments on the infused side were, for V (mean ± SD), from 9.3 ± 1.5 to 21.4 ± 0.8 μl/min (P < 0.001); for C(Na)/C(In), from 0.28 ± 0.11 to 2.97 ± 0.71 % (P < 0.005); and for [Formula: see text] , from 2.93 ± 2.26 to 5.32 ± 1.92% (P < 0.05). In the rats with water diuresis, the maximal increases were, for V/C(In), from 5.87 ± 1.97 to 10.1 ± 6.0% (P < 0.005); for C(H(2)O)/C(In), from 4.09 ± 0.68 to 6.00 ± 0.44% (P < 0.0005); and for C(Na)/C(In), from 0.22 ± 0.07 to 0.70 ± 0.38% (P < 0.01). In DTB-rats the maximal increases were for V from 48.6 ± 9.0 to 72.7 ± 14.1 μl/min (P < 0.0005) and for C(Na)/C(In) from 9.42 ± 2.97 to 20.23 ± 7.34% (P < 0.005). In the contralateral kidney these changes were less pronounced. These observations suggest that prednisolone depresses directly Na reabsorption. The association of natriuresis with augmented [Formula: see text] and C(H(2)O)/C(In) during hydropenia and water diuresis, respectively, and the increases in V and C(Na)/C(In) during DTB, all are consistent with inhibition of Na reabsorption in the proximal tubule

Coordinated mm/sub-mm observations of Sagittarius A* in May 2007

At the center of the Milky Way, with a distance of ~8 kpc, the compact source Sagittarius A* (SgrA*) can be associated with a super massive black hole of ~4x10^6 solar masses. SgrA* shows strong variability from the radio to the X-ray wavelength domains. Here we report on simultaneous NIR/sub-millimeter/X-ray observations from May 2007 that involved the NACO adaptive optics (AO) instrument at the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, the Australian Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), the US mm-array CARMA, the IRAM 30m mm-telescope, and other telescopes. We concentrate on the time series of mm/sub-mm data from CARMA, ATCA, and the MAMBO bolometer at the IRAM 30m telescope.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, contribution for the conference "The Universe under the Microscope" (AHAR 2008), to be published in Journal of Physics: Conference Series by Institute of Physics Publishin