Evaluation of a metagenomic detection technique for human enteric bacteria in retail chicken

enteric bacteria in artificially contaminated chicken sample. Tests were performed in inoculated chicken samples using Salmonella enterica and Aeromonas hydrophila, with dilutions of 106,105,104 CFU/ml. We have developed a direct metagenomic (chicken DNA, inoculated bacterial DNA and endogenous microbial DNA if any) PCR technique for detection of bacteria from this food metagenome. Amplification of respective bacterial 16S rRNA region was performed. PCR conditions were optimized and amplification of Salmonella enterica specific DNA was achieved in all samples inoculated with different concentration of bacterial suspension. Aeromonas hydrophila infected tissues failed to reveal a specific amplification even after several modifications in gradient PCR.  Interestingly, the control (uninoculated) chicken tissues also exhibited a less intense amplification of similar size DNA to target, indicating the possible endogenous contamination of the chicken meat obtained from the retail shop for our analysis

Turbomachinery incipient failure dynamic detection indicators and analysis

Tape recorded signals from case-mounted accelerometers are examined to determine the feasibility of detecting spalls on bearing balls in the liquid oxygen (LOX) pump in the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME). The nonperiodic nature of the spall impact on inner and outer bearing races caused traditional techniques to be unsuccessful. A technique involving statistical techniques and spectra ratios was used to review available pump test tapes

The DEPURANAT project : sustainable management of wastewater in rural areas

The DEPURANATt project received co-financing from the European Union through its interregional cooperation programme, Interreg IIIB Atlantic Arc Programme. This project, coordinated by the Canary Islands Institute of Technology, allowed French, Portuguese and Spanish institutions to work together on sustainable management of wastewater in rural and protected areas. Within the framework of this project, twelve natural wastewater treatment systems have been built or adapted from pre-existing systems in Portugal, Andalusia and the Canary islands. In these systems, a shared ambitious protocol of physical-chemical and microbiological analyses was established, and several studies carried out with respect to the agronomical quality of the effluents and the physiology of the plants. These analytical campaigns also attempted to promote a positive image of these systems to, and in, the rural areas. Moreover, it is important for the target publics to value correctly the possibilities created by regenerated wastewater and vegetal biomass, and thus accept the same as integral methods which contribute to sustainable local development. Several studies relating to social integration were focused, to this end, on measuring people’s acceptance of these systems in their areas, whereas the environmental impact of the systems was determined using an adapted life cycle assessment methodology. The economic analysis of the systems focused on analysing the financial indicators, empirical cost functions, and the potential market for these technologies. Furthermore, maps of potential areas where natural wastewater treatment systems may be implemented have been created. Finally, a support tool for deciding upon the installation of conventional or natural wastewater treatment systems has been designed with the aim of informing at technicians about the most suitable technology to be applied in each situation

Average stresses and force fluctuations in non-cohesive granular materials

A lattice model is presented for investigating the fluctuations in static granular materials under gravitationally induced stress. The model is similar in spirit to the scalar q-model of Coppersmith et al., but ensures balance of all components of forces and torques at each site. The geometric randomness in real granular materials is modeled by choosing random variables at each site, consistent with the assumption of cohesionless grains. Configurations of the model can be generated rapidly, allowing the statistical study of relatively large systems. For a 2D system with rough walls, the model generates configurations consistent with continuum theories for the average stresses (unlike the q-model) without requiring the assumption of a constitutive relation. For a 2D system with periodic boundary conditions, the model generates single-grain force distributions similar to those obtained from the q-model with a singular distribution of q's.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures. Uses aps,epsfig,graphicx,floats,revte

Screening of Group B Streptococcal and Candida Infections in Antenatal Women Visiting a Tertiary Care Hospital and the Neonatal Outcome

Reproductive tract infections in antenatal women are frequently occurring public health concern affecting the quality of life in the infected women and further affects the neonatal outcome negatively. Vaginal infections are predominantly caused due to the disturbance in the normal vaginal microflora. Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is a major peritoneal pathogen leading to morbidity and mortality in both mother and neonates leading to complications like preterm labour, chorioamnionitis and Preterm rupture of membrane (PROM). Further, Vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) is a frequently encountered gynaecological disease causing morbidity in 3/4th of women at least once in their life span. It leads to infertility in non-pregnant women. It results in adverse pregnancy outcomes such as chorioamnionitis and congenital abnormalities in the neonates. The aim of this study is to screen for potential bacterial and yeast infections with focus on GBS and Candida infections and its neonatal outcome. Candida species and GBS were identified by routine culture-based tests. HiChrome agar was used for speciation of Candida species. CAMP test was performed for GBS; further identification was done using Streptococcal grouping kit. GBS was found in 15% of the antenatal women and Candida Species was found to be most common with an infection rate of 50%. Lower segment Cesarean section (LSCS) rate in GBS positive women was 60% and in Candida Non albicans positive women was found to be 65.38%. 33% of the neonates born to GBS positive mothers had respiratory distress. Infection in antenatal women negatively influenced the mode of delivery and the mean body weight of the neonates born to infected mothers were comparatively less

Differential patterns of PMN-elastase and type III procollagen peptide in knee joint effusions due to acute and chronic sports injuries

In 38 traumatic knee joint effusions the proteolytic enzyme PMN-elastase (PMN-E) and the repair marker procollagen III aminoterminal peptide (PIIINP) were determined. According to the period between trauma and first aspiration of the effusion, the patients were divided into 3 groups. Group I (17 patients; period between trauma and first aspiration not longer than 72 hours) showed high concentrations of PMN-E (up to 5400 ng/ml) and low concentrations of PIIINP (<13 U/ml). Group II (11 patients; aspiration within 4 to 14 days) had mean PMN-E and PIIINP concentrations of 125.6 ng/ml and 52.1 U/ ml, respectively. In group III (10 patients, aspiration after 14 days) mean PMN-E concentration was 123.8 ng/ml and mean PIIINP concentration was 63.4 U/ml. Graphic depiction of PMN-E and PIIINP levels in each individual sample as a function of time between trauma and fluid collection revealed highly increasing PMN-E levels during the first 24 posttraumatic hours, followed by rapidly decreasing levels within 72 hours post trauma, and no change after the 4th posttraumatic day. In contrast, PIIINP increased continuously up to the first posttraumatic week and stayed at high levels up to 90 days (end of the observation period). The differential patterns of PMN-E and PIIINP concentration in knee joint effusions may be useful in estimating the period between trauma and first treatment (aspiration of effusion) and should, therefore, be helpful in detecting degenerative lesions, which seem to be characterized by low PMN-E concomitantly with high PIIINP levels

System/subsystem specifications for the Worldwide Port System (WPS) Regional Integrated Cargo Database (ICDB)

A system is being developed by the Military Traffic Management Command (MTMC) to provide data integration and worldwide management and tracking of surface cargo movements. The Integrated Cargo Database (ICDB) will be a data repository for the WPS terminal-level system, will be a primary source of queries and cargo traffic reports, will receive data from and provide data to other MTMC and non-MTMC systems, will provide capabilities for processing Advance Transportation Control and Movement Documents (ATCMDs), and will process and distribute manifests. This System/Subsystem Specifications for the Worldwide Port System Regional ICDB documents the system/subsystem functions, provides details of the system/subsystem analysis in order to provide a communication link between developers and operational personnel, and identifies interfaces with other systems and subsystems. It must be noted that this report is being produced near the end of the initial development phase of ICDB, while formal software testing is being done. Following the initial implementation of the ICDB system, maintenance contractors will be in charge of making changes and enhancing software modules. Formal testing and user reviews may indicate the need for additional software units or changes to existing ones. This report describes the software units that are components of this ICDB system as of August 1995

Standards and conventions for the Worldwide Port System (WPS) regional Integrated Cargo Database (ICDB)

This document, prepared for the Worldwide Port System (WPS) Regional Integrated Cargo Database (ICDB), provides standards and conventions for the screens developed using ORACLE`s SQL*Menu, SQL*Forms, and SQL*Reportwriter; for the ORACLE keys; and for commenting ORACLE code. It also covers standards for database system transfers. The results of adherence to these standards and conventions by all developers at both geographically separated development sites, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and The Military Traffic Management Command`s Eastern Area (EA), will be a consistent appearance of ICDB to users, code that is easily maintained, and a system that will be quicker to develop and integrate. This final report of the Standards and Conventions contains general guidelines to be followed for the development of the ICDB user interface screens. Though additional ICDB user interface screens are being developed both at ORNL and EA, and existing screens may have fields added to or deleted from them, the standards and conventions presented in this document should remain unchanged

Depuranat project: sustainable management of wastewater in rural areas

The Urban Wastewater Directive is aiming to implement adequate treatments of collected wastewater before 31 December 2005 in small communities with a population until 2000 equivalentinhabitant. Within the framework of the DEPURANAT project, co-financed by the European Interregional Cooperation Programme (Interreg IIIB Atlantic Arc), several Natural Reclamation Systems (NRS) based upon no-conventional technologies of wastewater treatment, have been studied from different points of view in rural areas: their effectiveness for producing regenerated wastewater of acceptable quality for several reuse options and vegetal biomass for different purposes, their environmental integration or their potential of implementation. Most of these treatment plants achieved high mean removal efficiencies: TSS (73–96%); BOD5 (74–94%); COD (53–90%); E. coli (2–3 log units); Enterococci (1.5–4 log units). The environmental impact of the systems was determined using an adapted life cycle assessment methodology and the economic analysis of the systems was focused on analysing the financial indicators, empirical cost functions, and the potential market for these technologies. Furthermore, maps of potential implementation of these systems and a support tool for deciding upon the installation of conventional or NRS were designed with the aim of promoting them.Communitary Interreg III-B Atlantic Area of EuropeDEPURANAT consortiu

Structured Digital Self-Assessment of Patient Anamnesis Prior to Computed Tomography: Performance Evaluation and Added Value

The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of a tablet-based, digitized structured self-assessment (DSSA) of patient anamnesis (PA) prior to computed tomography (CT). Of the 317 patients consecutively referred for CT, the majority (n = 294) was able to complete the tablet-based questionnaire, which consisted of 67 items covering social anamnesis, lifestyle factors (e.g., tobacco abuse), medical history (e.g., kidney diseases), current symptoms, and the usability of the system. Patients were able to mark unclear questions for a subsequent discussion with the radiologist. Critical issues for the CT examination were structured and automatically highlighted as “red flags” (RFs) in order to improve patient interaction. RFs and marked questions were highly prevalent (69.5% and 26%). Missing creatinine values (33.3%), kidney diseases (14.4%), thyroid diseases (10.6%), metformin (5.5%), claustrophobia (4.1%), allergic reactions to contrast agents (2.4%), and pathological TSH values (2.0%) were highlighted most frequently as RFs. Patient feedback regarding the comprehensibility of the questionnaire and the tablet usability was mainly positive (90.9%; 86.2%). With advanced age, however, patients provided more negative feedback for both (p = 0.007; p = 0.039). The time effort was less than 20 min for 85.1% of patients, and faster patients were significantly younger (p = 0.046). Overall, the DSSA of PA prior to CT shows a high success rate and is well accepted by most patients. RFs and marked questions were common and helped to focus patients’ interactions and reporting towards decisive aspects