Changes in dominant Escherichia coli and antimicrobial resistance after 24 hr in fecal matter.

Intestinal bacteria carry antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes in mobile genetic elements which have the potential to spread to bacteria in other animal hosts including humans. In fecal matter, Escherichia coli can continue to multiply for 48 hr after being excreted, and in certain environments, E. coli survive long periods of time. It is unclear the extent to which AMR in E. coli changes in the environment outside of its host. In this study, we analyzed changes in the population structure, plasmid content, and AMR patterns of 30 E. coli isolates isolated from 6 chickens (cloacal swabs), and 30 E. coli isolates from fecal samples (from the same 6 chickens) after 24 hr of incubation. Clonality of isolates was screened using the fumC gene sequence and confirmed in a subset of isolates (n = 14) by multi-locus sequence typing. Major shifts in the population structure (i.e., sequence types) and antibiotic resistance patterns were observed among the numerically dominant E. coli isolates after 24 hr. Four E. coli clones isolated from the cloaca swabs and the corresponding fecal samples (after 24 hr incubation) showed different antibiotic resistance patterns. Our study reveals that fecal matter in the environment is an intermediate habitat where rapid and striking changes occur in E. coli populations and antibiotic resistance patterns

Upper airways microbiota profiling in a case/control study between wheezing and healthy children from the tropics of Ecuador

Background: The relationship between living in rural areas and the acquisition of protective environmental factors against the development of asthma and atopy gave rise to the hygiene hypothesis. Between the environmental factors attributed to asthma, particular airways microbiota patterns have been encountered in adult asthmatics using molecular independent techniques (Hilty et al., 2010) and in children using conventional culture methods (Bisgaard et al., 2007). Here a retrospective time series study has been performed using samples from infants at different ages to study the microbiome variations in a population with very low antibiotic use history and no corticosteroid usage. Methods: Pyrosequencing of amplicons of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene was performed from oropharyngeal samples from 134 infants with episodic wheezing versus 200 healthy infants (total of 334 infants examined) sampled at different ages (7, 12 and 24 months). Bioinformatic analyses were conducted using QIIME 1.7 software and Phyloseq package on R. Additionally a new culture-independent pyrosequencing approach using the map gene was successfully developed to enable discrimination of streptococci at species level. Results: Significant abundance differences between infants with wheezing history and healthy controls were found for the Fusobacteria, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria phyla. At genera level a significant increase in potential pathogenic bacteria (Neisseriacea, Haemophilus, Staphylococcus) was found in wheezers whilst a higher prevalence of Veillonella spp. was seen in controls. In addition, using map gene pyrosequencing, Streptococcus salivarious was found to be statistically significantly related with wheezing syndrome whilst Streptococcus mitis was more prevalent in controls. When age was considered differences were found in the microbiota displayed as species numbers increased (alpha diversity). Conclusions: The respiratory microbiota is different at phyla, genera and Operational Taxonomic Unit levels when comparing between wheezing and healthy children. A progressive more complex respiratory microbial community develops with age.Open Acces

Transit deserts in urbanized areas : challenges and opportunities in Texas

This report focuses on urbanized areas that have limited or no transit service in the Austin metropolitan urbanized area. Commonly called urban gaps or more broadly, transit deserts, these areas are typically not serviced by the rural or urban transit provider. The jurisdictional entity such as a municipality or county must coordinate with the rural or urban transit provider to service the urbanized areas. This process can occur in a number of different ways, which this report focuses on. Urbanized areas are classified during each decennial census. As such, growing communities may become urbanized or become classified as part of a nearby urbanized region. This seemingly minor designation has a major impact in terms of transit funding. Communities that acquire an urban area designation can no longer be serviced by the rural transit provider using the Federal Transit Administration’s 5311 Rural Area Formula Grants. Other funding sources, such as FTA Section 5307 Urbanized Area Formula Funding can be used but require a matching contribution. This creates a dilemma for newly urbanized communities both in terms of funding and transit service levels. One example includes Georgetown, TX, which became part of the Austin metropolitan urbanized area in the 2010 census. Communities like Georgetown have three main avenues of obtaining public transit. If applicable, the community can join the nearest metropolitan transit agency, create a regional transit district or limited eligibility transit agency or contract with a transit provider for local service. Many important financial and social challenges exist for communities experiencing a lack of transit access. Vulnerable populations, such as the elderly and transit dependent residents are further affected by the sudden loss of transit service. This report will look at some of the ways communities are addressing these issues and what progress has been made in the five years (2010-2015) that newly urbanized communities have been affected. There are different solutions and strategies to address these changes, and with proper planning and coordination, these transitions can yield smooth and effective results into the next phase of urban transit service.Community and Regional Plannin

Integration of cost-risk assessment of denial of service within an intelligent maintenance system

As organisations become richer in data the function of asset management will have to increasingly use intelligent systems to control condition monitoring systems and organise maintenance. In the future the UK rail industry is anticipating having to optimize capacity by running trains closer to each other. In this situation maintenance becomes extremely problematic as within such a high-performance network a relatively minor fault will impact more trains and passengers; such denial of service causes reputational damage for the industry and causes fines to be levied against the infrastructure owner, Network Rail. Intelligent systems used to control condition monitoring systems will need to optimize for several factors; optimization for minimizing denial of service will be one such factor. With schedules anticipated to be increasingly complicated detailed estimation methods will be extremely difficult to implement. Cost prediction of maintenance activities tend to be expert driven and require extensive details, making automation of such an activity difficult. Therefore a stochastic process will be needed to approach the problem of predicting the denial of service arising from any required maintenance. Good uncertainty modelling will help to increase the confidence of estimates. This paper seeks to detail the challenges that the UK Railway industry face with regards to cost modelling of maintenance activities and outline an example of a suitable cost model for quantifying cost uncertainty. The proposed uncertainty quantification is based on historical cost data and interpretation of its statistical distributions. These estimates are then integrated in a cost model to obtain accurate uncertainty measurements of outputs through Monte-Carlo simulation methods. An additional criteria of the model was that it be suitable for integration into an existing prototype integrated intelligent maintenance system. It is anticipated that applying an integrated maintenance management system will apply significant downward pressure on maintenance budgets and reduce denial of service. Accurate cost estimation is therefore of great importance if anticipated cost efficiencies are to be achieved. While the rail industry has been the focus of this work, other industries have been considered and it is anticipated that the approach will be applicable to many other organisations across several asset management intensive industrie

“Biodegradación de hidrocarburos totales de petróleo por bioestimulación con Cachaza y Guano de Islas en suelos de la Refinería Conchan-Petroperú, Lima, 2017”

La presente tesis se desarrolló con la finalidad de aplicar técnicas de biorremediación con Cachaza y Guano de Islas para tratar suelos contaminados con alta presencia de hidrocarburos. Los suelos tratados fueron de la Refinería Conchan, los cuales tenían alta presencia de hidrocarburos de peso mediano. La muestra estuvo compuesto por 125 kilogramos de suelo contaminado donde se aplicó tres tratamientos de bioestimulación para incentivar la capacidad degradativa de las bacterias nativas en los suelos. Se utilizó nutrientes como la Cachaza y el Guano de Islas. Ambos fueron aplicados en distintos tratamientos. El primer tratamiento estaba compuesto por Guano de Islas, el segundo tratamiento compuesto con Cachaza y ambos nutrientes en un tercer tratamiento. El tratamiento que presento mayor reducción de hidrocarburos del suelo fue el primer tratamiento con Guano de Islas, al igual que el tercer tratamiento. Se concluye que las bacterias nativas del suelo de la Refinería Conchan tienen potencial para degradar hidrocarburos en poco tiempo, pudiendo ser replicado la investigación para la recuperación de los suelos contaminados de la planta o utilizado para investigaciones que demanden más exactitud en los tipos de bacterias, para trabajarlo a mayor escala en zonas críticas de derrames de petróleo

Factores de riesgo en la poblacion pediatrica con diagnostico de intento de suicidio

Los 2 factores de riesgo más importantes y verificados en toda la literatura acerca del suicidio son: la presencia de un trastorno mental y conducta suicida previa. Trastorno mental: el 95% de las personas que se suicidan tienen un trastorno psiquiátrico. Es el factor de riesgo suicida más importante. De las personas que cometen suicidio, más de la mitad tienen un trastorno afectivo (sobre todo depresión), el 25% son alcohólicos y el 10% tienen esquizofrenia. El 10-15% de los pacientes con trastornos afectivos mayores, con esquizofrenia y con alcoholismo crónico acaban suicidándose. En jóvenes, los trastornos depresivos y de ansiedad, los trastornos de conducta (sobre todo antisocial) y los trastornos por alcohol y drogas son los más asociados al suicidio. La esquizofrenia menos pues inicia más tarde. Los síntomas más frecuentemente encontrados en adolescentes con conducta suicida son: impulsividad y agresividad, baja autoestima, desesperanza, baja tolerancia a la frustración, labilidad emocional y sentimientos de soledad y rechazo. Conducta suicida previa: uno de los mejores indicadores de riesgo suicida es que el paciente tenga antecedentes de tentativas previas. Actualmente el 50-60% de pacientes que realizan una tentativa de suicidio ya ha realizado alguna con anterioridad. El 25-50% de pacientes que consuman el suicidio habían realizado un intento previo. El máximo riesgo de repetición es en los primeros tres meses tras la tentativa.Hospital Nacional Hipolito UnanueTesi

Estudio geomecánico para el minado de la Veta Keyla en la unidad minera Inmaculada

La presente tesis consiste en un estudio geomecánico de la veta Keyla, la cual es una veta angosta (1.7m de potencia) y se encuentra emplazada en rocas volcánicas andesíticas del grupo Tacaza, situadas en la Unidad Minera Inmaculada, que produce Oro y Plata. Para llevar a cabo este estudio se está planteando realizar una serie de estudios previos del macizo rocoso, mediante el logueo geomecánico de sondajes, mapeo geomecánico en laboreos de campo, mapeo estructural en laboreos de campo, ensayos de laboratorio de muestras de roca. Con toda esta información se podrá generar planos y secciones sectorizados por calidad de roca de toda la veta en estudio y de sus rocas encajonantes (caja piso y caja techo). Seguidamente con la información del mapeo estructural, se realizará un estudio para determinar la magnitud y dirección de las tensiones naturales in situ de la zona en estudio. Con toda esta información se aplicará el método empírico (método gráfico de estabilidad de Potvin) para hallar las dimensiones máximas que se pueden aperturar en la veta Keyla aplicando el método de minado sublevel stoping. Cabe resaltar que las aberturas deben cumplir el requisito de ser mayores a 12m de alto y 10m de largo, siendo este un requisito principal para que el método de minado sea rentable y viable. El otro requisito principal para que el mineral sea económicamente rentable es que la dilución sea menor a 43%, lo cual requiere que el mineral no se contamine en exceso, debido al desprendimiento de la roca estéril (desmonte y/o roca encajonante), para una dilución de 43% el ELOS (desprendimiento lineal equivalente) permitido será de 73cm como máximo. Una vez determinadas las dimensiones de las aberturas a minar, se procederá a simular la apertura y relleno de las cavidades a lo largo de toda la veta, esta simulación nos dará el comportamiento de las tensiones inducidas presentes en las paredes de las cavidades durante todo el proceso de minado, con estas tensiones se realizará un reajuste de las dimensiones de las cavidades y se conseguirá un diseño final de las excavaciones a minar. El diseño de cavidades final debe cumplir con los dos requisitos mencionados

Within-Day Repeatability of Cerebral Vasomotor Reactivity to Rebreathing-Induced Hypercapnia: Impact of a 15 Minute Recovery

Cerebral vasodilatory responsiveness to elevations in arterial carbon dioxide concentration, termed cerebral vasomotor reactivity (CVMR), is utilized to assess cerebral vascular function and health. An impairment in this response is associated with risk for various cerebral vascular diseases and neurocognitive conditions including stroke, cognitive dysfunction, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease. One commonly utilized methodological approach to assess CVMR is to induce transient hypercapnia by having the participant rebreathe their own expired air. We recently reported very good within-day repeatability when two trials were separated by 2 hr. However, in research protocols, repeat assessments are commonly separated by a shorter duration (i.e., 15 min) that is typically tied to the return of hemodynamic variables (heart rate, arterial blood pressure, etc.) to baseline values. PURPOSE: To determine the within-day repeatability of CVMR responses to rebreathing-induced hypercapnia when trials are separated by 15 min.METHODS: Eight young healthy males (age: 23 ± 3 years, BMI: 24.4 ± 2.3 kgm-2) were studied following a minimum 4 hour fast. All participants underwent two trials of rebreathing-induced hypercapnia separated by 15 min. Heart rate (ECG), respiration (Pneumotrace), beat-to-beat blood pressure (Finometer), middle cerebral artery mean blood velocity (MCAv; transcranial Doppler) and breath-by-breath end-tidal carbon dioxide concentration (PETCO2; capnograph) were continuously measured. Cerebral vascular conductance index (CVCi) was calculated as MCAv divided by mean arterial blood pressure. CVMR was assessed as the slope of the linear regression between the increase in %MCAv and %CVCi during hypercapnia. The increase in %MCAv and %CVCi was also assessed at a ΔPETCO2 of 15 mmHg. RESULTS: The slope of %MCAv vs ΔPETCO2 demonstrated poor to excellent repeatability between the 2 rebreathing-induced hypercapnia trials (Trial 1: 3.3 ± 1.1 %mmHg−1; Trial 2: 2.7 ± 1.5 %mmHg−1; ICC = 0.84 [0.26–0.97, p = 0.008). The slope of %CVCi vs. ΔPETCO2 showed good to excellent repeatability (Trial 1: 2.2 ± 1.0 %mmHg−1; Trial 2: 2.1 ± 1.1 %mmHg−1; ICC = 0.92 [0.65–0.99], p = 0.002). At a ΔPETCO2 of 15 mmHg from baseline, the % increase in MCAv exhibited poor to excellent repeatability (Trial 1: 45 ± 17%; Trial 2: 37 ± 18%; ICC: 0.87 [0.26–0.97], p = 0.003), while the % increase in CVCi also demonstrated poor to excellent repeatability (Trial 1: 33 ± 15%; Trial 2: 28 ± 12%; ICC: 0.70 [-0.38–0.94], p = 0.069). CONCLUSION: These preliminary results suggest that a 15 min recovery between hypercapnia perturbations may not be sufficient in all subjects. While we found good within day repeatability in 4 out of 8 subjects, highly variable responses were found among other individuals. These data are important when considering protocol designs for examining cerebral vasomotor reactivity

Challenges in cost analysis of innovative maintenance of distributed high-value assets

Condition monitoring is an increasingly important activity, but there is often little thought given to how a condition monitoring approach is going to impact the cost of operating a system. This paper seeks to detail the challenges facing such an analysis and outline the likely steps such an analysis will have to take to more completely understand the problem and provide suitable cost analysis. Adding sensors might be a relatively simple task, but those sensors come with associated cost; not only of the sensor, but of the utilities required to power them, the data gathering and processing and the eventual storage of that data for regulatory or other reasons. By adding condition monitoring sensors as a sub- system to the general system an organisation is required to perform maintenance to the new sensors sub-system. Despite these difficulties it is anticipated that for many high value assets applying condition monitoring will enable significant cost savings through elimination of maintenance activities on assets that do not need such cost and effort expended on them. Further savings should be possible through optimisation of maintenance schedules to have essential work completed at more cost efficient times