Per Urethral Catheterisation: Microbial Growth Incidence and its Management

The urinary tract is the most common site of nosocomial infections accounting for more than 40% of the total number reported by acute care hospitals and affecting approximately 600,000 patients per year. Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infection (CAUTI) defines in terms of “bacteriuria” and “urinary tract infection” frequently. Bacteriuria or funguria levels >103 colony- forming units (CFU) have been shown to be highly predictive of CAUTI, given that these levels increase to 105 CFU within 24 to 48 hours. In Indian population, catheterassociated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality, affecting all age groups. Biofilm is the predominant mode of growth in aquatic ecosystems and, as such, plays a central role in the pathogenesis of Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI). The present review focuses to evaluate the incidence and pattern of microbes in catheter associated urinary tract infection and provides information about the etiology of CAUTI. Most of the studies concluded that gram negative pathogen E.coli showed the highest incidence rate and other pathogens like Klebsiella pneumonia, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and staphylococcus species also having the incidence rate in the patient having CAUTI. The antibiotic resistance pattern showed the variation in resistance and sensitivity of antibiotics against the pathogens. The present study focuses on the incidence of the microbial growth in patient having catheterization and also elucidates the antibiotic sensitivity pattern. It is necessary to determine the antibiotic resistance and sensitivity status during and after the catheterization

Indium diffusion in the chemical potential gradient at an In0.53Ga0.47As/In0.52Al0.48As interface

We have measured the distribution of group III metals at In0.53Ga0.47As/In0.52Al0.48As interfaces before and after annealing at 1085 K. We find little evidence for Al interdiffusion, but the Ga concentration profiles show some broadening on annealing. Also, the originally nearly constant In profiles develop strong modulations with near discontinuities at the original interfaces. This phenomenon is explained and modeled in terms of In diffusion in the chemical potential gradient established by the disparity of the Al and Ga mobilities and the requirement of III‐V stoichiometry in the alloys.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/70043/2/APPLAB-52-24-2055-1.pd

Multi-attribute utility models as cognitive search engines

In optimal stopping problems, decision makers are assumed to search randomly to learn the utility of alternatives; in contrast, in one-shot multi-attribute utility optimization, decision makers are assumed to have perfect knowledge of utilities. We point out that these two contexts represent the boundaries of a continuum, of which the middle remains uncharted: How should people search intelligently when they possess imperfect information about the alternatives? We assume that decision makers first estimate the utility of each available alternative and then search the alternatives in order of their estimated utility until expected benefits are outweighed by search costs. We considered three well-known models for estimating utility: (i) a linear multi-attribute model, (ii) equal weighting of attributes, and (iii) a single-attribute heuristic. We used 12 real-world decision problems, ranging from consumer choice to industrial experimentation, to measure the performance of the three models. The full model (i) performed best on average but its simplifications (ii and iii) also had regions of superior performance. We explain the results by analyzing the impact of the models’ utility order and estimation error

Impurity‐induced layer disordering of In0.53Ga0.47As/In0.52Al0.48As heterostructures

Impurity‐induced layer disordering of In0.53 Ga0.47 As/In0.52 Al0.48 As heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy has been observed by Auger electron spectroscopy depth profiling. We find that Si+ ion implantation to concentrations greater than 2×1019 atoms cm−3 enhances the intermixing of Ga and Al in these heterostructures at an annealing temperature of 1075 K. However, the relatively high temperature which is required to activate the interdiffusion of Ga and Al in the region of high Si concentration is sufficient to induce In diffusion in regions of lower Si concentration. Zinc diffusion is found to completely intermix the Ga and Al in the heterolayers at temperatures as low as 825 K, which is below the temperature at which significant In diffusion occurs in undoped regions.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/70858/2/APPLAB-53-23-2302-1.pd

A multi-omics longitudinal study of the murine retinal response to chronic low-dose irradiation and simulated microgravity

The space environment includes unique hazards like radiation and microgravity which can adversely affect biological systems. We assessed a multi-omics NASA GeneLab dataset where mice were hindlimb unloaded and/or gamma irradiated for 21 days followed by retinal analysis at 7 days, 1 month or 4 months post-exposure. We compared time-matched epigenomic and transcriptomic retinal profiles resulting in a total of 4178 differentially methylated loci or regions, and 457 differentially expressed genes. Highest correlation in methylation difference was seen across different conditions at the same time point. Nucleotide metabolism biological processes were enriched in all groups with activation at 1 month and suppression at 7 days and 4 months. Genes and processes related to Notch and Wnt signaling showed alterations 4 months post-exposure. A total of 23 genes showed significant changes in methylation and expression compared to unexposed controls, including genes involved in retinal function and inflammatory response. This multi-omics analysis interrogates the epigenomic and transcriptomic impacts of radiation and hindlimb unloading on the retina in isolation and in combination and highlights important molecular mechanisms at different post-exposure stages

Genotyping with a 198 Mutation Arrayed Primer Extension Array for Hereditary Hearing Loss: Assessment of Its Diagnostic Value for Medical Practice

Molecular diagnostic testing of individuals with congenital sensorineural hearing loss typically begins with DNA sequencing of the GJB2 gene. If the cause of the hearing loss is not identified in GJB2, additional testing can be ordered. However, the step-wise analysis of several genes often results in a protracted diagnostic process. The more comprehensive Hereditary Hearing Loss Arrayed Primer Extension microarray enables analysis of 198 mutations across eight genes (GJB2, GJB6, GJB3, GJA1, SLC26A4, SLC26A5, MTRNR1 and MTTS1) in a single test. To evaluate the added diagnostic value of this microarray for our ethnically diverse patient population, we tested 144 individuals with congenital sensorineural hearing loss who were negative for biallelic GJB2 or GJB6 mutations. The array successfully detected all GJB2 changes previously identified in the study group, confirming excellent assay performance. Additional mutations were identified in the SLC26A4, SLC26A5 and MTRNR1 genes of 12/144 individuals (8.3%), four of whom (2.8%) had genotypes consistent with pathogenicity. These results suggest that the current format of this microarray falls short of adding diagnostic value beyond the customary testing of GJB2, perhaps reflecting the array's limitations on the number of mutations included for each gene, but more likely resulting from unknown genetic contributors to this phenotype. We conclude that mutations in other hearing loss associated genes should be incorporated in the array as knowledge of the etiology of hearing loss evolves. Such future modification of the flexible configuration of the Hereditary Hearing Loss Arrayed Primer Extension microarray would improve its impact as a diagnostic tool

Mutation Screening of Multiple Genes in Spanish Patients with Autosomal Recessive Retinitis Pigmentosa by Targeted Resequencing

Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) is a heterogeneous group of inherited retinal dystrophies characterised ultimately by the loss of photoreceptor cells. RP is the leading cause of visual loss in individuals younger than 60 years, with a prevalence of about 1 in 4000. The molecular genetic diagnosis of autosomal recessive RP (arRP) is challenging due to the large genetic and clinical heterogeneity. Traditional methods for sequencing arRP genes are often laborious and not easily available and a screening technique that enables the rapid detection of the genetic cause would be very helpful in the clinical practice. The goal of this study was to develop and apply microarray-based resequencing technology capable of detecting both known and novel mutations on a single high-throughput platform. Hence, the coding regions and exon/intron boundaries of 16 arRP genes were resequenced using microarrays in 102 Spanish patients with clinical diagnosis of arRP. All the detected variations were confirmed by direct sequencing and potential pathogenicity was assessed by functional predictions and frequency in controls. For validation purposes 4 positive controls for variants consisting of previously identified changes were hybridized on the array. As a result of the screening, we detected 44 variants, of which 15 are very likely pathogenic detected in 14 arRP families (14%). Finally, the design of this array can easily be transformed in an equivalent diagnostic system based on targeted enrichment followed by next generation sequencing

How do risk attitudes affect measured confidence?

We examine the relationship between confidence in own absolute performance and risk attitudes using two confidence elicitation procedures: self-reported (non-incentivised) confidence and an incentivised procedure that elicits the certainty equivalent of a bet based on performance. The former procedure reproduces the “hard-easy effect” (underconfidence in easy tasks and overconfidence in hard tasks) found in a large number of studies using non-incentivised self-reports. The latter procedure produces general underconfidence, which is significantly reduced, but not eliminated when we filter out the effects of risk attitudes. Finally, we find that self-reported confidence correlates significantly with features of individual risk attitudes including parameters of individual probability weighting