Growth of Natural Flora during the Fermentation of Inoculated Musts from "Pedro Ximenez" Grapes

The growth of naturally occurring micro-organisms in musts from grapes collected at three degrees ofripeness (unripe, half· ripe and ripe) in the Montilla-Moriles (Southern Spain) region during 1985and1986 was studied. The musts were inoculated with four physiological races of Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolated in the region. Although the inoculated races of S. cerevisiaeprevailed throughout the fermentations, there was also a significant growth of indigenous races of S. cerevisiae and a less marked growth of other micro-organisms such as bacteria, filamentous fungi and yeasts other than S. cerevisiae

Determinants of Job Satisfaction across the EU-15: A Comparison of Self-Employed and Paid Employees

Job satisfaction of self-employed and paid-employed workers is analyzed using the European Community Household Panel for the EU-15 covering the years 1994-2001. We distinguish between two types of job satisfaction, i.e. job satisfaction in terms of type of work and job satisfaction in terms of job security. Findings from our generalized ordered logit regressions indicate that self-employed individuals as compared to paid employees are more likely to be satisfied with their present jobs in terms of type of work and less likely to be satisfied in terms of job security. The findings also provide many insights into the determinants of the two types of job satisfaction for both the self-employed and paid employee

Visual acuity of pseudophakic patients predicted from in-vitro measurements of intraocular lenses with different design

The optical quality of a set of IOLs (modeling set: one monofocal and two bifocals) was assessed through focus by the area under the modulation transfer function (MTFa) metric and related to the visual acuity (VA) defocus curves of pseudophakic patients implanted with said IOLs. A non-linear relationship between the MTFa and clinical VA was obtained with an asymptotic limit found to be the best VA achievable by the patients. Two mathematical fitting functions between clinical VA and MTFa were derived with high correlation coefficients (R-2 >= 0.85). They were applied to the MTFa obtained from a different set of IOLs with advanced designs (trial set: one extended range of vision -ERV-, one trifocal ERV and one trifocal apodized) to predict VA versus defocus of patients implanted with these IOLs. Differences between the calculated VA and the clinical VA for both fitting models were within the standard deviation of the clinical measurements in the range of -3.00 D to 0.00 D defocus. thus proving the suitability of the MTFa metric to predict clinical VA performance of new IOL designs. (C) 2018 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreemen

Validation and Search of the Ideal Cut-Off of the Sysmex UF-1000i (R) Flow Cytometer for the Diagnosis of Urinary Tract Infection in a Tertiary Hospital in Spain

Urinary tract infections (UTI) are one of the most prevalent infections. A rapid and reliable screening method is useful to screen out negative samples. The objective of this study was to validate the Sysmex flow cytometer UF-1000i by evaluating its accuracy, linearity and carry-over; and define an optimal cut-off value to be used in routine practice in our hospital. For the validation of the UF-1000i cytometer, precision, linearity and carry-over were studied in samples with different counts of bacteria, leukocytes and erythrocytes. Between March and June 2016, urine samples were tested in the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory at University Miguel Servet Hospital, in Spain. Samples were analyzed with the Sysmex UF-1000i cytometer, and cultured. Growth of >= 10(5) CFUs/mL was considered positive. The validation study reveals that the precision in all the variables is acceptable; that there is a good linearity in the dilutions performed, obtaining values almost identical to those theoretically expected; and for the carry-over has practically null values. A total of 1, 220 urine specimens were included, of which 213 (17.4%) were culture positive. The optimal cut-off point of the bacteria-leukocyte combination was 138.8 bacteria or 119.8 leukocytes with an S and E of 95.3 and 70.4%, respectively. The UF-1000i cytometer is a valuable method to screen urine samples to effectively rule out UTI and, may contribute to the reduction of unnecessary urine cultures

Comparing Two Automated Techniques for the Primary Screening-Out of Urine Culture

Urinary tract infection is the most common human infection with a high morbidity. In primary care and hospital services, conventional urine culture is a key part of infection diagnosis but results take at least 24 h. Therefore, a rapid and reliable screening method is still needed to discard negative samples as quickly as possible and to reduce the laboratory workload. In this aspect, this study aims to compare the diagnostic performance between Sysmex OF-1000i and FUS200 systems in comparison to urine culture as the gold standard. From March to June 2016, 1, 220 urine samples collected at the clinical microbiology laboratory of the "Miguel Servet" hospital were studied in parallel with both analysers, and some technical features were evaluated to select the ideal equipment. The most balanced cut-off values taking into account bacteria or leukocyte counts were 138 bacteria/mu L or 119.8 leukocyte/pl for the OF-1000i (95.3% SE and 70.4% SP), and 5.7 bacteria/mu L or 4.3 leukocyte/mu L for the FUS200 (95.8% SE and 44.4% SP). The reduction of cultured plates was 37.4% with the FUS200 and 58.3% with the UF-1000i. This study shows that both techniques improve the workflow in the laboratory, but the OF-1000i has the highest specificity at any sensitivity and the FUS200 needs a shorter processing time

Nanotechnology-Based Targeted Drug Delivery: An Emerging Tool to Overcome Tuberculosis

The appearance and rapid spread of drug resistant strains of tuberculosis (TB), one of the deadliest infectious diseases, pose a serious threat to public health and increase the need for shorter, less toxic, and more effective therapies. Developing new drugs is difficult and often associated with side effects, so nanotechnology has emerged as a tool to improve current treatments and to rescue drugs having elevated toxicity or poor solubility. Due to their size and surface chemistry, antimicrobial-loaded nanocarriers are avidly taken up by macrophages, the main cells hostingMycobacterium tuberculosis. Macrophages are continuously recruited to infected areas, they can transport drugs with them, making passive targeting a good strategy for TB treatment. Active targeting (decorating surface of nanocarriers with ligands specific to receptors displayed by macrophages) further increases local drug concentration, and thus treatment efficacy. Although in in vivo studies, nanocarriers are often administered intravenously in order to avoid inaccurate dosage in animals, translation to humans requires more convenient routes like pulmonary or oral administration. This report highlights the importance and progress of pulmonary administration, passive and active targeting strategies toward bacteria reservoirs to overcome the challenges in TB treatment

Comparison of visual and optical quality of monofocal versus multifocal intraocular lenses

Objective: To compare visual quality in patients implanted with Tecnis ® monofocal (ZCB00) and multifocal (ZMB00) intraocular lenses taking into account their optical quality measured in vitro with an eye model. Methods: In total, 122 patients participated in this study: 44 implanted with monofocal and 78 with multifocal intraocular lenses. Measurements of visual acuity and contrast sensitivity were performed. The optical quality of the intraocular lenses was evaluated in three image planes (distance, intermediate and near) using an eye model on a test bench. The metric considered was the area under the curve of the modulation transfer function. Results: Optical quality at the far focus of the monofocal intraocular lens (area under the curve of the modulation transfer function = 66.97) was considerably better than that with the multifocal lens (area under the curve of the modulation transfer function = 32.54). However, no significant differences were observed between groups at the distance-corrected visual acuity. Distance-corrected near vision was better in the multifocal (0.15 ± 0.20 logMAR) than that in the monofocal group (0.43 ± 0.21 logMAR, p < 0.001), which correlated with the better optical quality at near reached by the multifocal intraocular lens (area under the curve of the modulation transfer function = 29.11) in comparison with the monofocal intraocular lens (area under the curve of the modulation transfer function = 5.0). In intermediate vision, visual acuity was 0.28 ± 0.16 logMAR (multifocal) and 0.36 ± 0.14 logMAR (monofocal) with p = 0.014, also in good agreement with the values measured in the optical quality (area under the curve of the modulation transfer function = 10.69 (multifocal) and 8.86 (monofocal)). The contrast sensitivity was similar in almost all frequencies. Pelli–Robson was slightly better in the monofocal (1.73) than in the multifocal group (1.64; p = 0.023). Conclusion: Patients implanted with multifocal ZMB00 achieved a distance visual acuity similar to those implanted with monofocal ZCB00, but showed significantly better intermediate and near visual acuity. A correlation was found between intraocular lenses’ optical quality and patients’ visual acuity. Contrast sensitivity was very similar between the multifocal and monofocal groups

Energía gastada en el primer ciclo de histéresis como parámetro de selección de un biomaterial

Veinticuatro muestras de pericardio de ternera estabilizado, material similar al utilizado en la fabricación de velos de bioprótesis cardiacas, fueron sometidas a una prueba de esfuerzo a fatiga. Tras seis bloques de 100 ciclos a 1 MPa de presión máxima se rompieron 12 muestras, el 50%. La energía media gastada en este primer ciclo, en las muestras que sobrevivieron, fue de 0.16J, un valor inferior a la energía gastada en las muestra que terminaron rompiendo, 0.28J (p=0.005). Utilizando el cociente entre la energía disipada en el primer ciclo y el espesor medio de la muestra, con un valor de corte de 0.48J/mm para la selección de las mejores muestras, se obtiene un índice de validez del 87.5%, y un área bajo la curva ROC de 0.917. Este método no destructivo debe ayudar a los métodos ópticos en el reconocimiento y selección de las muestras más resistentes y en la obtención del material biológico más homogéne