Characterization and antifungal drug susceptibility of clinical isolates of Candida species

Candida species are responsible for a wide spectrum of infections in man. They can be isolated from most sites of a human body. These mycoses are most common in immunocompromised patients as opportunistic infections. Azoles have been used in treatment, prophylaxis and currently as maintenance therapy for candidiasis in these patients. The aim of the study was to characterize Candida species from clinical sources and determine their susceptibilities to azoles in Kenya. The study was conducted in 2009 in a mycology laboratory at Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI). A total of 50 isolates of Candida were characterized and correctly identified to species level by germ tube test, Pal’s agar, Chromogenic agar Candida, corn meal agar and Analytical Profile Index (API 20C AUX). 45 isolates were identified as Candida albicans, 1 as Candida glabrata, 1 as Candida famata and 3 as Candida parapsilosis. Susceptibilities of Candida = species to fluconazole, posaconazole, itraconazole and clotrimazole were determined using Epsilometer-test and disc diffusion method. Their Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations (MIC’s) were correlated. In Epsilometer test, 78% of Candida species were susceptible to clotrimazole and posaconazole, 60% to fluconazole and 50% to itraconazole. In disc diffusion method, 92% Candida species were susceptible to clotrimazole, 74% to itraconazole, 78% to posaconazole and 46% to fluconazole. There were no significant differences in susceptibility between E-test and disc diffusion methods for clotrimazole, itraconazole and posaconazole which had low significance levels (p<0.002). Fluconazole had the greatest difference between the two methods (p=0.002) and a kappa value of 0.329. There is emerging fungal resistance to fluconazole and itraconazole therefore further investigations on fungal resistance and rational use of antifungal drugs is necessary

日本海中部由良川河口におけるイサザアミ Neomysis awatschensis (Brandt, 1851) の生産ダイナミクス

京都大学0048新制・課程博士博士(地球環境学)甲第21236号地環博第172号新制||地環||35(附属図書館)京都大学大学院地球環境学舎地球環境学専攻(主査)教授 山下 洋, 教授 柴田 昌三, 教授 宮下 英明学位規則第4条第1項該当Doctor of Global Environmental StudiesKyoto UniversityDFA

Multiple-object Grasping Using a Multiple-suction-cup Vacuum Gripper in Cluttered Scenes

Multiple-suction-cup grasping can improve the efficiency of bin picking in cluttered scenes. In this paper, we propose a grasp planner for a vacuum gripper to use multiple suction cups to simultaneously grasp multiple objects or an object with a large surface. To take on the challenge of determining where to grasp and which cups to activate when grasping, we used 3D convolution to convolve the affordable areas inferred by neural network with the gripper kernel in order to find graspable positions of sampled gripper orientations. The kernel used for 3D convolution in this work was encoded including cup ID information, which helps to directly determine which cups to activate by decoding the convolution results. Furthermore, a sorting algorithm is proposed to find the optimal grasp among the candidates. Our planner exhibited good generality and successfully found multiple-cup grasps in previous affordance map datasets. Our planner also exhibited improved picking efficiency using multiple suction cups in physical robot picking experiments. Compared with single-object (single-cup) grasping, multiple-cup grasping contributed to 1.45x, 1.65x, and 1.16x increases in efficiency for picking boxes, fruits, and daily necessities, respectively

Tolerance of the freeze-dried mouse sperm nucleus to temperatures ranging from −196 °C to 150 °C

It has long been believed that tolerance against extreme environments is possible only for ‘lower’ groups, such as archaea, bacteria or tardigrades, and not for more ‘advanced’ species. Here, we demonstrated that the mammalian sperm nucleus also exhibited strong tolerance to cold and hot temperatures. When mouse spermatozoa were freeze-dried (FD), similar to the anhydrobiosis of Tardigrades, all spermatozoa were ostensibly dead after rehydration. However, offspring were obtained from recovered FD sperm nuclei, even after repeated treatment with conditions from liquid nitrogen to room temperature. Conversely, when FD spermatozoa were heated at 95 °C, although the birth rate was decreased with increasing duration of the treatment, offspring were obtained even for FD spermatozoa that had been heat-treated for 2 h. This period was improved up to 6 h when glucose was replaced with trehalose in the freeze-drying medium, and the resistance temperature was extended up to 150 °C for short periods of treatment. Randomly selected offspring grew into healthy adults. Our results suggest that, when considering the sperm nucleus/DNA as the material that is used as a blueprint of life, rather than cell viability, a significant tolerance to extreme temperatures is present even in ‘higher’ species, such as mammals

幕末維新期における日向諸藩の「隣交」関係について : 慶応三年の幕領預りをめぐって

慶応三年二月、九州の幕領は周辺大名が預かることになり、日向国幕領は譜代延岡藩が預ることになった。しかし延岡藩はともに細島警備を担った高鍋藩へ半方分配するよう歎願し、飫肥藩も念願の幕領預りを独自に歎願して、結局三藩で預ることになる。ところが日向四藩のうち佐土原藩だけが分配されないことになると、日向四藩の「隣交」関係に支障をきたすことになるため、高鍋藩が首倡して四藩で分配することの周旋に乗り出す。各藩ではそれぞれの思惑もあり、飫肥藩の反対も根強かったが、漸く四藩で預ることを確認し合う。しかし、同年十月十五日には大政奉還がなされ、歎願書提出の猶予も検討されたが、同月二十八日付でとりあえず三藩預りとされた。こうした経緯から、日向四藩の「隣交」関係は、驚異の的であった薩摩藩を仮想敵として結ばれ、これがやがては明治三年の四藩会議・合同操練へと繋がっていく。日向国という領域意識は、幕末の海防とともに、幕領預りを契機に漸時形成されていくのである

Index Finger of a Human-Like Robotic Hand Using Thin Soft Muscles

The application of solar drying (SD) and heat pump-assisted solar drying (HPSD) on the retention of flavonoid components, total color changes, and water activity of Clinacanthus nutans Lindau leaves were investigated. Analysis of data shows significantly higher extractable yield and flavonoid (orientin and vitexin) percentage during the drying with HPSD. The same drying technique also revealed optimum color values and low water activity. Thin-layer models fitted to the experimental data show that Hii and Law model is suitable for SD, while logarithmic model is able to give a good fit to HPSD

Learning suction graspability considering grasp quality and robot reachability for bin-picking

Deep learning has been widely used for inferring robust grasps. Although human-labeled RGB-D datasets were initially used to learn grasp configurations, preparation of this kind of large dataset is expensive. To address this problem, images were generated by a physical simulator, and a physically inspired model (e.g., a contact model between a suction vacuum cup and object) was used as a grasp quality evaluation metric to annotate the synthesized images. However, this kind of contact model is complicated and requires parameter identification by experiments to ensure real world performance. In addition, previous studies have not considered manipulator reachability such as when a grasp configuration with high grasp quality is unable to reach the target due to collisions or the physical limitations of the robot. In this study, we propose an intuitive geometric analytic-based grasp quality evaluation metric. We further incorporate a reachability evaluation metric. We annotate the pixel-wise grasp quality and reachability by the proposed evaluation metric on synthesized images in a simulator to train an auto-encoder--decoder called suction graspability U-Net++ (SG-U-Net++). Experiment results show that our intuitive grasp quality evaluation metric is competitive with a physically-inspired metric. Learning the reachability helps to reduce motion planning computation time by removing obviously unreachable candidates. The system achieves an overall picking speed of 560 PPH (pieces per hour).Comment: 18 pages, 2 tables, 7 figure

Development of novel composite data quality scores to evaluate facility-level data quality in electronic data in Kenya: A nationwide retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: In this evaluation, we aim to strengthen Routine Health Information Systems (RHIS) through the digitization of data quality assessment (DQA) processes. We leverage electronic data from the Kenya Health Information System (KHIS) which is based on the District Health Information System version 2 (DHIS2) to perform DQAs at scale. We provide a systematic guide to developing composite data quality scores and use these scores to assess data quality in Kenya. METHODS: We evaluated 187 HIV care facilities with electronic medical records across Kenya. Using quarterly, longitudinal KHIS data from January 2011 to June 2018 (total N = 30 quarters), we extracted indicators encompassing general HIV services including services to prevent mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT). We assessed the accuracy (the extent to which data were correct and free of error) of these data using three data-driven composite scores: 1) completeness score; 2) consistency score; and 3) discrepancy score. Completeness refers to the presence of the appropriate amount of data. Consistency refers to uniformity of data across multiple indicators. Discrepancy (measured on a Z-scale) refers to the degree of alignment (or lack thereof) of data with rules that defined the possible valid values for the data. RESULTS: A total of 5,610 unique facility-quarters were extracted from KHIS. The mean completeness score was 61.1% [standard deviation (SD) = 27%]. The mean consistency score was 80% (SD = 16.4%). The mean discrepancy score was 0.07 (SD = 0.22). A strong and positive correlation was identified between the consistency score and discrepancy score (correlation coefficient = 0.77), whereas the correlation of either score with the completeness score was low with a correlation coefficient of -0.12 (with consistency score) and -0.36 (with discrepancy score). General HIV indicators were more complete, but less consistent, and less plausible than PMTCT indicators. CONCLUSION: We observed a lack of correlation between the completeness score and the other two scores. As such, for a holistic DQA, completeness assessment should be paired with the measurement of either consistency or discrepancy to reflect distinct dimensions of data quality. Given the complexity of the discrepancy score, we recommend the simpler consistency score, since they were highly correlated. Routine use of composite scores on KHIS data could enhance efficiencies in DQA at scale as digitization of health information expands and could be applied to other health sectors beyondHIV clinics

Correlation between salivary secretion and salivary AQP5 levels in health and disease

Saliva samples are useful for noninvasive diagnosis of oral and systemic diseases. The water channel protein aquaporin-5 (AQP5) is released into human saliva. Salivary AQP5 levels show a diurnal variation with the secretion of high levels during the waking hours. An age-related decrease in salivary AQP5 levels parallels a decrease in the volume of saliva. Cevimeline, a muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (mAChR) agonist, induces the release of AQP5. Changes in salivary AQP5 levels after cevimeline administration occur simultaneously with changes in saliva flow rate. AQP5 and lipid rafts are released separately from human salivary glands upon M3 mAChR stimulation. In patients with diabetes mellitus or Sjögren’s syndrome, a decrease in salivary secretion occurs concomitantly with low salivary AQP5 levels. Salivary AQP5 levels correlate with salivary secretion in both healthy and disease states, suggesting that changes in salivary AQP5 levels can be used as an indicator of salivary flow rate and the effect of M3 mAChR agonists on human salivary glands