Candiduria in hospitalized patients: an investigation with the Sysmex UF-1000i urine analyzer

Background Candiduria is common in hospitalized patients. Its management is limited because of inadequate understanding. Previous epidemiological studies based on culture assay have been limited to small study populations. Therefore, data collected by automated systems from a large target population are necessary for more comprehensive understanding of candiduria in hospitalized patients. Methods To determine the performance of the Sysmex UF-1000i in detecting candiduria, a cross-sectional study was designed and conducted. A total of 203 yeast-like cell (YLC)-positive and 127 negative samples were randomly chosen and subjected to microbiologic analysis. The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was used to evaluate the ability of YLC counts as measured by the Sysmex UF1000i to predict candiduria. Urinalysis data from 31,648 hospitalized patients were retrospectively investigated, and statistical analysis was applied to the data collected. Results Using a cutoff value of 84.6 YLCs/µL, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of the yeast like cell (YLC) counts to predict candiduria were 61.7%, 84.1%, 88.6% and 66.3%, respectively. C. glabrata (33.6%) and C. tropicalis (31.4%) were more prevalent than C. albicans (24.3%) in the present study. Of the investigated hospitalized patients, 509 (1.61%) were considered candiduria-positive. Age, gender and basic condition were associated with candiduria in hospitalized patients. In the ICU setting, urinary catheterization appeared to be the only independent risk factor contributing to candiduria according to our investigation. Although antibiotic therapy has been reported to be a very important risk factor, we could not confirm its significance in ICU candiduria patients because of excessive antibiotic usage in our hospital. Conclusions The YLC measured by Sysmex UF-1000i is a practical and convenient tool for clinical candiduria screening prior to microbiologic culture. Candiduria is common in hospitalized patients, and its incidence varies according to age, gender and the wards where it is isolated. Candiduria had no direct connection with mortality but might be considered a marker of seriously ill patients who need particular attention in the clinic

Analyzing Candida albicans enolase with MAbs

Here we investigate these features in extract peptone dextrose (YPD) medium using a pair of monoclonal antibodies which were validated by Western blot, and LC MS/MS. CaEno abundantly presented in the cytosol distributing in a ring-shaped pattern along the cell wall;Surface display of CaEno was confirmed by whole cell ELISA and flow cytometry. Further laser confocal microscopy analysis revealed that the presence of the surface-located CaEno maintained stable during the culture.DAS-ELISA indicated that CaEno in the supernatant was gradually increased during culture and reached a maximum at 48 h and then the concentration remained stable until 120 h. </div

Performance of yeast-like cell counting (YLCC) using the Sysmex UF-1000ifor clinical candiduria screening

AbstractCandiduria is common in clinical practice. However, an effective and convenient assay to screen for candiduria is still needed.This study aimed to evaluate the performance of the Sysmex UF-1000i urine analyzer for yeast-like cell counting (YLCC) toscreen for candiduria prior to urine culture. We retrospectively analyzed data from 5233 urine samples from 1813 patients,including 837 males and 976 females.Urine culture and urinalysis-obtained YLCC data were used to estimate the performance ofYLCC in diagnosing candiduria. Different cutoff values were used to calculate sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value(PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV). The YLCC-positive rates differed according to the Candida colony-forming units(CFU) counts in the urine samples. A sharp drop in YLCC-positive rate (from 64.3 to 22.0%) was observed between the urinegroups with 104 CFUs and 103 CFUs. A cutoff value of 0 YLCs/?L results in the highest Youden index (0.71) with 77.04%sensitivity and 93.68% specificity. In a group of 34 hospitalized candiduria patients with serial urinalysis data, 25 were YLCCpositivebefore urine culture. In conclusion, YLCC with the Sysmax UF-1000i could serve as an auxiliary technique to excludeculture-negative specimens prior to urine culture. Positive YLCC results could imply candiduria, especially when persistentYLCC-positive results were observed.Keywords Candiduria . Yeast-like cell . Sysmex UF-1000i . Urinalysis . Cutoff value . Fungal urinary tract infectio

Running Time Analysis of MOEA/D with Crossover on Discrete Optimization Problem

Decomposition-based multiobjective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) are a class of popular methods for solving multiobjective optimization problems (MOPs), and have been widely studied in numerical experiments and successfully applied in practice. However, we know little about these algorithms from the theoretical aspect. In this paper, we present a running time analysis of a simple MOEA with crossover based on the MOEA/D framework (MOEA/D-C) on four discrete optimization problems. Our rigorous theoretical analysis shows that the MOEA/D-C can obtain a set of Pareto optimal solutions to cover the Pareto front of these problems in expected running time apparently lower than the one without crossover. Moreover, the MOEA/D-C only needs to decompose an MOP into a few scalar optimization subproblems according to several simple weight vectors. This result suggests that the use of crossover in decomposition-based MOEA can simplify the setting of weight vector for different problems and make the algorithm more efficient. This study theoretically explains why some decomposition-based MOEAs work well in computational experiments and provides insights in design of MOEAs for MOPs in future research

Sampled-data-based tracking for heterogeneous nonlinear second-order multiagent systems

In this paper, the distributed tracking problem for heterogeneous second-order multiagent systems with nonlinear dynamics is studied. Both the dynamics among the followers and the dynamics between the leader and each follower are heterogeneous. A sampled-data-based consensus protocol is proposed. In addition, the communication delays are considered. Based on Lyapunov stability theory and linear matrix inequality (LMI) method, sufficient conditions for quasi-consensus in heterogeneous leader-following multiagent systems are established. The results show that all the followers can track the leader within a bounded range even if in the presence of heterogeneity of dynamics and sampled-data information. The effectiveness of the theoretical results is verified by numerical simulations

Distributed Tracking in Heterogeneous Networks with Asynchronous Sampled-Data Control

This article investigates distributed coordinated tracking problems of networked heterogeneous systems. Based on asynchronous sampling information, distributed sampled-data protocols are employed to realize leader-following synchronization and containment tracking in networked heterogeneous systems. In asynchronous sampled-data protocols, each node has different sampling instants with other nodes and only samples itself information at its own sampling instants. By utilizing the input-delay approach and Lyapunove-Krasovskii functional approach, some sufficient conditions for guaranteeing the coordinated tracking are presented. First, quasi-synchronization criteria are obtained for networked heterogeneous oscillator systems with a dynamic leader over the directed graph. Second, in the presence of multiple heterogeneous leaders for networked heterogeneous systems, sufficient conditions of quasi-containment tracking are derived. In a word, all followers can converge into a bounded level of convex hull spanned by the leader(s). The upper bounds of tracking errors are estimated for both quasi-synchronization and quasi-containment tracking. Finally, two numerical examples are given to verify the theoretical results

Impact of Disruption on Ship Emissions in Port: Case of Pandemic in Long Beach

To achieve environmental sustainability on ships, stakeholders should make efforts to reduce emissions. Port authorities are crucial to attain this goal by introducing new policies. This study takes the Port of Long Beach as an example to assess port-wide ship emissions and explain the significance of shore power policy. Additionally, the study considers the impact of disruptions, such as the COVID pandemic, on ship emissions. The analysis compares data from three years before and after the pandemic to examine the relationship between ship waiting times, quantities, and emissions. The findings indicate that the majority of port-wide ship emissions are generated by berthing or anchoring vessels, from ship auxiliary engines and boilers. Furthermore, ship congestion due to reduced port productivity during the pandemic significantly increased emissions from berthing and anchoring vessels, with the emission proportion increasing from 68% to 86%. Adopting the shore power policy has effectively reduced ship emissions in port areas, and increasing the number of ships utilising shore power will be instrumental in tackling excessive ship emissions

Quasi-Synchronization in Heterogeneous Harmonic Oscillators with Continuous and Sampled Coupling

This paper studies quasi-synchronization in networked heterogeneous harmonic oscillators. By introducing a leader, two distributed synchronization protocols are first proposed for heterogeneous networks by utilizing continuous real-time information and aperiodic sampled-data information. Then, the sufficient conditions on quasi-synchronization are established for heterogeneous networks coupled with nonidentical harmonic oscillators. It is found that each follower oscillator can converge to a bounded region of the leader by adopting either a continuous-time protocol or sampled-data protocol. The upper bound of the region is solved for networked heterogeneous harmonic oscillators. Finally, an electrical network is provided to illustrate the applicability of the theoretical results, and two examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the sufficient criteria