Methylobacterium and Its Role in Health Care-Associated Infection

Methylobacterium species are a cause of health care-associated infection, including infections in immunocompromised hosts. The ability of Methylobacterium species to form biofilms and to develop resistance to high temperatures, drying, and disinfecting agents may explain the colonization of Methylobacterium in the hospital environment in, e. g., endoscopes. Due to its slow growth, it can be easily missed during microbiological surveillance of endoscope reprocessing. The purpose of this minireview is to present an overview of documented infections and cross-contaminations with Methylobacterium related to endoscopic procedures and to illustrate the health care-associated relevance of this slow-growing bacterium

Spin density matrix of the ω in the reaction p¯p→ωπ0

The spin density matrix of the ω has been determined for the reaction p¯p→ωπ0 with unpolarized in-flight data measured by the Crystal Barrel LEAR experiment at CERN. The two main decay modes of the ω into π0γ and π+π-π0 have been separately analyzed for various p¯ momenta between 600 and 1940 MeV/c. The results obtained with the usual method by extracting the matrix elements via the ω decay angular distributions and with the more sophisticated method via a full partial wave analysis are in good agreement. A strong spin alignment of the ω is clearly visible in this energy regime and all individual spin density matrix elements exhibit an oscillatory dependence on the production angle. In addition, the largest contributing orbital angular momentum of the p¯p system has been identified for the different beam momenta. It increases from Lp¯pmax = 2 at 600 MeV/c to Lp¯pmax = 5 at 1940 MeV/c

Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus: bad news and good news from the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network (EARS-Net), formerly EARSS), 2002 to 2009

Based on data collected by the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network (EARS-Net) and the former EARSS, the present study describes the trends in antimicrobial susceptibility patterns and occurrence of invasive infections caused by Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus in the period from 2002 to 2009. Antimicrobial susceptibility results from 198 laboratories in 22 European countries reporting continuously on these two microorganisms during the entire study period were included in the analysis. The number of bloodstream infections caused by E. coli increased remarkably by 71% during the study period, while bloodstream infections caused by S. aureus increased by 34%. At the same time, an alarming increase of antimicrobial resistance in E. coli was observed, whereas for S. aureus the proportion of meticillin resistant isolates decreased. The observed trend suggests an increasing burden of disease caused by E. coli. The reduction in the proportion of meticillin-resistant S. aureus and the lesser increase in S. aureus infections, compared with E. coli, may reflect the success of infection control measures at hospital level in several European countries.</p

Disability quotas: past or future policy?

This article considers the issues associated with the use of quota systems for the employment of workers with a disability. It examines the use and experiences of such quotas in Italy, Russia and the United Kingdom. Italy has a long established quota for the employment of such workers, whilst the modern Russian system it is a more recent innovation. In contrast the UK abandoned its quotas in the 1990s. We draw on the experiences of the three countries to consider generally whether the use of quotas is either an acceptable means of encouraging employers to take on disabled workers, or is necessary to achieve this objective

Photoexcitation of low-lying dipole transitions in 236U

Nuclear resonance fluorescence experiments have been performed on the deformed actinide nucleus 236U. Bremsstrahlung of 3.9 MeV endpoint energy has been used as the photon source. The scattered photons were detected by three high resolution Ge- gamma -spectrometers installed at scattering angles of 92°, 128°, and 150°, respectively. Precise excitation energies, decay branching ratios, and ground state decay widths of numerous previously unknown spin 1 states in the excitation energy range 1.8-3.2 MeV have been extracted. The dipole strength has been found to be concentrated in the energy range 2.1-2.5 MeV. The systematics of the so-called scissors mode observed as a result of the previous ( gamma , gamma ') and (e,e') experiments on 232Th and 238U and, in particular, their combined analysis suggests likewise to attribute these new dipole excitations in 236U to the orbital M1 scissors mode

Human Papillomaviruses and genital co-infections in gynaecological outpatients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>High grade HPV infections and persistence are the strongest risk factors for cervical cancer. Nevertheless other genital microorganisms may be involved in the progression of HPV associated lesions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Cervical samples were collected to search for human Papillomavirus (HPV), bacteria and yeast infections in gynaecologic outpatients. HPV typing was carried out by PCR and sequencing on cervical brush specimens. <it>Chlamydia trachomatis </it>was identified by strand displacement amplification (SDA) and the other microorganisms were detected by conventional methods.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this cross-sectional study on 857 enrolled outpatients, statistical analyses revealed a significant association of HPV with <it>C. trachomatis </it>and <it>Ureaplasma urealyticum (</it>at high density) detection, whereas no correlation was found between HPV infection and bacterial vaginosis, <it>Streptococcus agalactiae</it>, yeasts, <it>Trichomonas vaginalis </it>and <it>U. urealyticum</it>. <it>Mycoplasma hominis </it>was isolated only in a few cases both in HPV positive and negative women and no patient was infected with <it>Neisseria gonorrhoeae</it>.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Although bacterial vaginosis was not significantly associated with HPV, it was more common among the HPV positive women. A significant association between HPV and <it>C. trachomatis </it>was found and interestingly also with <it>U. urealyticum </it>but only at a high colonization rate. These data suggest that it may be important to screen for the simultaneous presence of different microorganisms which may have synergistic pathological effects.</p

Comparison of three rapid and easy bacterial DNA extraction methods for use with quantitative real-time PCR

The development of fast and easy on-site molecular detection and quantification methods for hazardous microbes on solid surfaces is desirable for several applications where specialised laboratory facilities are absent. The quantification of bacterial contamination necessitates the assessment of the efficiency of the used methodology as a whole, including the preceding steps of sampling and sample processing. We used quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qrtPCR) for Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus to measure the recovery of DNA from defined numbers of bacterial cells that were subjected to three different DNA extraction methods: the QIAamp® DNA Mini Kit, Reischl et al.’s method and FTA® Elute. FTA® Elute significantly showed the highest median DNA extraction efficiency of 76.9% for E. coli and 108.9% for S. aureus. The Reischl et al. method and QIAamp® DNA Mini Kit inhibited the E. coli qrtPCR assay with a 10-fold decrease of detectable DNA. None of the methods inhibited the S. aureus qrtPCR assay. The FTA® Elute applicability was demonstrated with swab samples taken from the International Space Station (ISS) interior. Overall, the FTA® Elute method was found to be the most suitable to selected criteria in terms of rapidity, easiness of use, DNA extraction efficiency, toxicity, and transport and storage conditions