651 research outputs found
Mycoplasma Genitalium Among Women With Nongonococcal, Nonchlamydial Pelvic Inflammatory Disease
Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) is a frequent condition of young women, often resulting in reproductive morbidity. Although Neisseria gonorrhoeae and/or Chlamydia trachomatis are/is recovered from approximately a third to a half of women with PID, the etiologic agent is often unidentified. We need PCR to test for M genitalium among a pilot sample of 50 women with nongonococcal, nonchlamydial endometritis enrolled in the PID evaluation and clinical health (PEACH) study. All participants had pelvic pain, pelvic organ tenderness, and leukorrhea, mucopurulent cervicitis, or untreated cervicitis. Endometritis was defined as ≥5 surface epithelium neutrophils per ×400 field absent of menstrual endometrium and/or ≥2 stromal plasma cells per ×120 field. We detected M genitalium in 7 (14%) of the women tested: 6 (12%) in cervical specimens and 4 (8%) in endometrial specimens. We conclude that M genitalium is prevalent in the endometrium of women with nongonococcal, nonchlamydial PID
An optimal condition based maintenance scheduling for metal structures based on a multidisciplinary research approach
Latest research findings show that the deterioration of metal coatings results due to complex combination of material and meteorological parameters. The classical maintenance scheduling do not consider complex interface of materials and meteorological parameters to determine optimal maintenance framework. The cost of recoating can be optimised through appropriate selection of coating specifications and maintenance strategy. This research provides a multidisciplinary algorithmic approach to determine cost-effective solutions for recoating. The specifications of red oxide primer coating and structural steel substrate system are considered for simulation analysis. The results show that the appropriate selection of 10% increase in coating thickness based on coating-substrate system specifications resulted in 20-25% reduction in annual patch failures which reduces 5-6 % cost of recoating. Furthermore, the proposed model also simulated to compare Patch recoating and Part recoating strategy and algorithm show that the Part recoating is cost-effective as compared to Patch recoating if number of annual patch failure is greater than ‘2’ and area of the part is ‘2x’times larger than the area of the patch. Contrary, the Patch recoating results in low cost if the part area is ‘10x’ times larger than patch area and number of annual patch failures are less than ‘7’
Maternal fucosyltransferase 2 status affects the gut bifidobacterial communities of breastfed infants.
BackgroundIndividuals with inactive alleles of the fucosyltransferase 2 gene (FUT2; termed the 'secretor' gene) are common in many populations. Some members of the genus Bifidobacterium, common infant gut commensals, are known to consume 2'-fucosylated glycans found in the breast milk of secretor mothers. We investigated the effects of maternal secretor status on the developing infant microbiota with a special emphasis on bifidobacterial species abundance.ResultsOn average, bifidobacteria were established earlier and more often in infants fed by secretor mothers than in infants fed by non-secretor mothers. In secretor-fed infants, the relative abundance of the Bifidobacterium longum group was most strongly correlated with high percentages of the order Bifidobacteriales. Conversely, in non-secretor-fed infants, Bifidobacterium breve was positively correlated with Bifidobacteriales, while the B. longum group was negatively correlated. A higher percentage of bifidobacteria isolated from secretor-fed infants consumed 2'-fucosyllactose. Infant feces with high levels of bifidobacteria had lower milk oligosaccharide levels in the feces and higher amounts of lactate. Furthermore, feces containing different bifidobacterial species possessed differing amounts of oligosaccharides, suggesting differential consumption in situ.ConclusionsInfants fed by non-secretor mothers are delayed in the establishment of a bifidobacteria-laden microbiota. This delay may be due to difficulties in the infant acquiring a species of bifidobacteria able to consume the specific milk oligosaccharides delivered by the mother. This work provides mechanistic insight into how milk glycans enrich specific beneficial bacterial populations in infants and reveals clues for enhancing enrichment of bifidobacterial populations in at risk populations - such as premature infants
Dynamic Sealing Using Magneto-Rheological Fluids
Micropumps are microfluidic components which are widely used in applications
such as chemical analysis, biological sensing and micro-robots. However, one
obstacle in developing micropumps is the extremely low efficiency relative to
their macro-scale counterparts. This paper presents a dynamic sealing method
for external gear pumps to reduce the volumetric losses through the clearance
between the tips of gears and the housing by using magneto-rheological (MR)
fluids. By mitigating these losses, we are able to achieve high efficiency and
high volumetric accuracy with current mechanical architectures and
manufacturing tolerances. Static and dynamic sealing using MR fluids are
investigated theoretically and experimentally. Two Mason numbers
and which are defined in terms of
pressure gradient of the flow and velocity of the moving boundary respectively
are used to characterize and evaluate the sealing performance. A range of
magnetic field intensities is explored to determine optimal sealing
effectiveness, where effectiveness is evaluated using the ratio of volumetric
loss and friction factor. Finally, we quantify the effectiveness of this
dynamic sealing method under different working conditions for gear pumps.Comment: 9 pages; 10 figures
Submillimeter Observations of the Ultraluminous BAL Quasar APM 08279+5255
With an inferred bolometric luminosity of 5\times10^{15}{\rm \lsun}, the
recently identified z=3.87, broad absorption line quasar APM 08279+5255 is
apparently the most luminous object currently known. As half of its prodigious
emission occurs in the infrared, APM 08279+5255 also represents the most
extreme example of an Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxy. Here, we present new
submillimeter observations of this phenomenal object; while indicating that a
vast quantity of dust is present, these data prove to be incompatible with
current models of emission mechanisms and reprocessing in ultraluminous
systems. The influence of gravitational lensing upon these models is considered
and we find that while the emission from the central continuum emitting region
may be significantly enhanced, lensing induced magnification cannot easily
reconcile the models with observations. We conclude that further modeling,
including the effects of any differential magnification is required to explain
the observed emission from APM 08279+5255.Comment: 12 Pages with Two figures. Accepted for publication in the
Astrophysical Journal Letter
Adaptive optics imaging and integral field spectroscopy of APM 08279+5255: Evidence for gravitational lensing
We report observations of the z = 3.87 broad absorption line quasar APM 08279+5255 (Irwin et al. 1998) with the Adaptive Optics Bonnette (AOB) of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. The object is found to be a double source. The separation of the two images is 0.35" +/- 0.02" and the intensity ratio I_{north}/I_{south} = 1.21 +/- 0.25 in the H-band. No other image is detected down to H(5sigma) = 21.3 within 10" from the double image. Strong support for the lensing hypothesis comes from the uniformity of the quasar spectrum as a function of spatial position in the image obtained with the integral field spectrograph OASIS at CFHT. From the 2D-spectroscopy, narrow-band images are reconstructed over the wavelength range 5600-6200A to search for emission-line objects in a field of 15"x12" around the quasar. We find no such object to a limit of 6x10^{-17} erg cm^{-2} s^{-1}. We use the images centered on the deepest absorption lines of the Ly-alpha forest to dim the quasar and to increase the sensitivity closer to the line of sight. One of the images, centered at 5766.4A, exhibits a 3sigma excess 1.5" from the quasar to the north-east
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