Renal Sarcoidosis: a Rare Case

Sarcoidosis is a multisystemic granulomatous disease with rare renal involvement. We describe a case of a 45-year-old female patient admitted to the hospital with severe acute kidney injury and uveitis. After clinical investigation, sarcoidosis with renal, hepatic and ocular involvement was diagnosed. Renal biopsy revealed acute granulomatous interstitial nephritis and treatment with systemic corticosteroids was started with marked improvement in renal function.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Opportunistic Infections in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Exposed to Biologic Therapy: Results from the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register for Rheumatoid Arthritis

Objectives: This analysis set out to estimate the risk of opportunistic infection (OI) among patients with RA by biologic class. Methods: The British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register for Rheumatoid Arthritis is a prospective observational cohort study established to evaluate safety of biologic therapies. The population included adults commencing biologic therapy for RA. The primary outcome was any serious OI excluding tuberculosis (TB). Event rates were compared across biologic classes using Cox proportional hazards with adjustment for potential confounders identified a priori. Analysis of the incidence of TB was performed separately. Results: In total, 19 282 patients with 106 347 years of follow-up were studied; 142 non-TB OI were identified at a rate of 134 cases/100 000 patient years (pyrs). The overall incidence of OI was not significantly different between the different drug classes; however, the rate of Pneumocystis infection was significantly higher with rituximab than with anti-TNF therapy (adjusted hazard ratio = 3.2, 95% CI: 1.4, 7.5). The rate of TB fell dramatically over the study period (783 cases/100 000 pyrs in 2002 to 38 cases/100 000 pyrs in 2015). The incidence of TB was significantly lower among rituximab users than anti-TNF users, with 12 cases/100 000 pyrs compared with 65 cases/100 000 pyrs. Conclusions: The overall rate of OI was not significantly different between drug classes; however, a subtle difference in the pattern of OI was seen between the cohorts. Patient factors such as age, gender and comorbidity were the most important predictors of OI.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Advanced Photonics Congress

Abstract: We investigated the passivation of III-V semiconductor nanostructures using wet-chemical ammonium sulfide treatment and SiO x encapsulation. We achieved an ultra-low surface recombination velocity value of ~530 cm/s enabling the future development of high-performance room-temperature nanolasers

Ultra-low surface recombination for deeply etched III-V semiconductor nano-cavity lasers

We investigated the passivation of III-V nanostructures using ammonium sulfide and SiOx encapsulation. We achieved ultra-low surface recombination velocity of 530 cm/s enabling the future development of high-performance room-temperature nanolasers

Diversitè des ateliers traditionelles et fermiers des saucissons secs de l'Europe du Sud

Dans le cadre du programme européen TRADISAUSAGE, 5 pays du sud de I'Europe ont participé à une enquète sur les ateliers tradìtionnels. Il s'agissait de la Francè (Massit Ceniral), I'Espagne (Catalogne), I'Italie (Emilie Romagne, Lombardie et Abruzzes). le Potugal (Alentejo, Tras-os Montes, Alto Douro) et la Grèce (ensemble du terrltoire). 50 (minimum) ateliers traditionnels de charcuteries seches par pays ont été choisis dans des zones rurales. Ces ateliers choisis représentent les organisations et structures les plus caractéristiques de chaque pays. lls ont été enquetés sur des critères socioéconomiques, leur savoir faire et leur commercialisation. L'étude a porté plus précisément sur la transformation de saucissons secs fermentés traditionnels. Cette communication présentera la typologie de l'ensemble de ces ateliers

Microbial ecosystem of traditional dry fermented sausages in Mediterranean countries and Slovakia.

This study highlighted the wide diversity of the processes for the manufacturing of traditional dry sausages in the Mediterranean countries (Spain, Italy, France, Greece and Portugal) and East-Central Europe (Slovakia). In particular, the temperature range of the “fermentation” step was broad, from low temperature 2°C to high 26°C together with variable length (1-8 days). Also a wide range both in temperature (2-25°C) and length (5-90 days) was noticed for the ripening step. Statistical analyses revealed that Gram-positive catalase-positive cocci (GCC+), yeasts/moulds and Enterobacteriaceae discriminated the ripened sausages according to the geographical origins while Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) constituted the dominant bacteria of the ripened products in all the countries. LAB counts, which increased during the fermentation step and aw which decreases during ripening, discriminated the three manufacturing steps (batter, fermented, ripened). In general, traditional dry fermented sausages did not present health risks in general, although the presence of some pathogens and spoilage microbiota in some sausages highlighted the importance of maintaining sound hygienic procedures

Traditional dry fermented sausages produced in small-scale processing units in Mediterranean countries and Slovakia. 1. Microbial ecosystems of processing environments

Microbial ecosystems were surveyed in 314 environmental samples from 54 Southern and Eastern European small-scale processing units (PUs) manufacturing traditional dry fermented sausages. The residual microflora contaminating the surfaces and the equipment were analysed after cleaning and disinfection procedures. All the PU environments were colonised at various levels by spoilage and technological microflora with excessive contamination levels in some of the PUs. Sporadic contamination by pathogenic microflora was recorded. Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes were detected in 4.8% and 6.7% of the samples, respectively, and Staphylococcus aureus was enumerated in 6.1% of the samples. Several critical points were identified, such as the machines for S. aureus and the tables and the knives for L. monocytogenes; this knowledge is crucial for the improvement of hygiene control systems in small and traditional meat processing industries. The variability of the residual contamination emphasized the different cleaning, disinfecting and manufacturing practices routinely followed by these small-scale processing units

Ultra-low surface recombination for deeply etched III-V semiconductor nano-cavity lasers

We investigated the passivation of III-V nanostructures using ammonium sulfide and SiOx encapsulation. We achieved ultra-low surface recombination velocity of 530 cm/s enabling the future development of high-performance room-temperature nanolasers

Strong suppression of surface recombination in InGaAs nanopillars

Summary form only given. In this work, we report a remarkable suppression of the surface recombination rates in passivated III-V undoped InGaAs nanopillars on InP (inset of Fig. 1a). The surface passivation comprises ammonium sulfide, (NH4)2S, chemical treatment followed by encapsulation with a 50 nm layer of SiOx by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition performed at 300°C. Before passivation, fabricated nanopillars with -300 nm lateral width, d, show a very poor photoluminescence (PL) emission (blue curve in Fig. 1a). The corresponding carrier dynamics, measured by time-correlated single-photon counting, Fig 1b, reveal an extremely short lifetime of ~130 ps, related to the well-known strong surface recombination velocity at InGaAs surfaces [3]. After the sulfur treatment followed by SiOx, we observe a substantial increase by almost two orders of magnitude of the PL intensity (red curve in Fig. 1a), while the carrier lifetime increases by more than two orders of magnitude to a value ~23 ns, red curve in Fig 1b. The estimated surface recombination velocity, S, decreases from about 2×104 cm/s in the untreated nanopillars down to around 260 cm/s (inset of Fig. 1b). To our knowledge, this is a record low value in undoped InGaAs semiconductors. Most importantly, our passivation studies reveal that the SiOx capping layer not only protects the pillars' sidewalls against oxidation, as reported in [5], but actively takes part in the passivation process, a result never previously reported