1,217 research outputs found
Fatal case due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus small colony variants in an AIDS patient.
We describe the first known case of a fatal infection with small colony variants of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in a patient with AIDS. Recovered from three blood cultures as well as from a deep hip abscess, these variants may have resulted from long-term antimicrobial therapy with trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole for prophylaxis of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia
Staphylococcus lugdunensis Pacemaker-related Infection
We report the first known case of a device-related bloodstream infection involving Staphylococcus lugdunensis small-colony variants. Recurrent pacemaker-related bloodstream infection within a period of 10 months illustrates the poor clinical and microbiologic response even to prolonged antimicrobial drug therapy in a patient infected with this staphylococcal subpopulation
The power of low-resolution spectroscopy: On the spectral classification of planet candidates in the ground-based CoRoT follow-up
Planetary transits detected by the CoRoT mission can be mimicked by a
low-mass star in orbit around a giant star. Spectral classification helps to
identify the giant stars and also early-type stars which are often excluded
from further follow-up.
We study the potential and the limitations of low-resolution spectroscopy to
improve the photometric spectral types of CoRoT candidates. In particular, we
want to study the influence of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the target
spectrum in a quantitative way. We built an own template library and
investigate whether a template library from the literature is able to reproduce
the classifications. Including previous photometric estimates, we show how the
additional spectroscopic information improves the constraints on spectral type.
Low-resolution spectroscopy (1000) of 42 CoRoT targets covering a
wide range in SNR (1-437) and of 149 templates was obtained in 2012-2013 with
the Nasmyth spectrograph at the Tautenburg 2m telescope. Spectral types have
been derived automatically by comparing with the observed template spectra. The
classification has been repeated with the external CFLIB library.
The spectral class obtained with the external library agrees within a few
sub-classes when the target spectrum has a SNR of about 100 at least. While the
photometric spectral type can deviate by an entire spectral class, the
photometric luminosity classification is as close as a spectroscopic
classification with the external library. A low SNR of the target spectrum
limits the attainable accuracy of classification more strongly than the use of
external templates or photometry. Furthermore we found that low-resolution
reconnaissance spectroscopy ensures that good planet candidates are kept that
would otherwise be discarded based on photometric spectral type alone.Comment: accepted for publication in Astronomische Nachrichten; 12 pages, 4
figures, 7 table
Enhancing socio-emotional communication and quality of life in young cochlear implant recipients: Perspectives from parameter-specific morphing and caricaturing
The use of digitally modified stimuli with enhanced diagnostic information to improve verbal communication in children with sensory or central handicaps was pioneered by Tallal and colleagues in 1996, who targeted speech comprehension in language-learning impaired children. Today, researchers are aware that successful communication cannot be reduced to linguistic informationâit depends strongly on the quality of communication, including non-verbal socio-emotional communication. In children with cochlear implants (CIs), quality of life (QoL) is affected, but this can be related to the ability to recognize emotions in a voice rather than speech comprehension alone. In this manuscript, we describe a family of new methods, termed parameter-specific facial and vocal morphing . We propose that these provide novel perspectives for assessing sensory determinants of human communication, but also for enhancing socio-emotional communication and QoL in the context of sensory handicaps, via training with digitally enhanced, caricatured stimuli. Based on promising initial results with various target groups including people with age-related macular degeneration, people with low abilities to recognize faces, older people, and adult CI users, we discuss chances and challenges for perceptual training interventions for young CI users based on enhanced auditory stimuli, as well as perspectives for CI sound processing technology
Relativistic Mean Field Calculations of and Hypernuclei
Single--particle spectra of and hypernuclei are
calculated within a relativistic mean--field theory. The hyperon couplings used
are compatible with the binding in saturated nuclear matter,
neutron-star masses and experimental data on levels in hypernuclei.
Special attention is devoted to the spin-orbit potential for the hyperons and
the influence of the -meson field (isospin dependent interaction).Comment: 18 pages, including 2 figs., figs. 1 and 4-6 available as
postscript-datasets on request; written in Latex, report# LBL-3303
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