Gram-negative and -positive bacteria differentiation in blood culture samples by headspace volatile compound analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Dolch, Michael E; Janitza, Silke; Boulesteix, Anne-Laure; Graßmann-Lichtenauer, Carola; Praun, Siegfried; Denzer, Wolfgang; Schelling, Gustav; Schubert, Sören

2016-12-01

Identification of microorganisms in positive blood cultures still relies on standard techniques such as Gram staining followed by culturing with definite microorganism identification. Alternatively, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry or the analysis of headspace volatile compound (VC) composition produced by cultures can help to differentiate between microorganisms under experimental conditions. This study assessed the efficacy of volatile compound based microorganism differentiation into Gram-negatives and -positives in unselected positive blood culture samples from patients. Headspace gas samples of positive blood culture samples were transferred to sterilized, sealed, and evacuated 20 ml glass vials and stored at -30 °C until batch analysis. Headspace gas VC content analysis was carried out via an auto sampler connected to an ion-molecule reaction mass spectrometer (IMR-MS). Measurements covered a mass range from 16 to 135 u including CO2, H2, N2, and O2. Prediction rules for microorganism identification based on VC composition were derived using a training data set and evaluated using a validation data set within a random split validation procedure. One-hundred-fifty-two aerobic samples growing 27 Gram-negatives, 106 Gram-positives, and 19 fungi and 130 anaerobic samples growing 37 Gram-negatives, 91 Gram-positives, and two fungi were analysed. In anaerobic samples, ten discriminators were identified by the random forest method allowing for bacteria differentiation into Gram-negative and -positive (error rate: 16.7 % in validation data set). For aerobic samples the error rate was not better than random. In anaerobic blood culture samples of patients IMR-MS based headspace VC composition analysis facilitates bacteria differentiation into Gram-negative and -positive.

Acid-fast bacilli culture positivity and drug resistance in abdominal tuberculosis in Mumbai, India.

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Samant, Hrishikesh; Desai, Devendra; Abraham, Philip; Joshi, Anand; Gupta, Tarun; Rodrigues, Camilla; George, Siji

2014-09-01

Culture positivity for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTB) in abdominal tuberculosis (TB) using Lowenstein Jensen medium and Bactec system varies from 25 % to 36 %. Data on the prevalence of drug resistance in primary abdominal TB is scant. Our aim was to study the acid-fast bacilli (AFB) culture positivity rate in primary abdominal TB using Bactec Mycobacterial Growth Indicator Tubes (MGIT) system and the prevalence of drug resistance in these patients. Records of patients with abdominal TB (diagnosed on clinical features, endoscopy, histology, microbiology) seen during the period 2008 to 2013 were retrieved from the Gastroenterology and Microbiology departments. Patients with extra-abdominal TB (five pulmonary, two nodal), adnexal (one), and HIV (one) were excluded from analysis. Of 61 patients, 31 (50.8 %) had a positive AFB culture. In the 30 culture-negative patients, histology showed non-caseating granulomas in 25 patients. Drug sensitivity pattern was analyzed in 18 patients; resistance was detected in eight (14.3 % of all patients and 44.4 % of patients in whom drug sensitivity was done) including three (5.4 % of all subjects and 16.6 % in whom drug sensitivity was available) who were multidrug-resistant. The rate of AFB culture positivity in primary abdominal TB was 50.8 % using Bactec MGIT. Likelihood of drug resistance was seen in 14.3 %, of whom 5.4 % were multidrug-resistant.

Economic and cultural correlates of road-traffic accident fatality rates in OECD countries.

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Gaygisiz, Esma

2009-10-01

The relationships between economic conditions, cultural characteristics, personality dimensions, intelligence scores, and road-traffic accident mortality rates were investigated in 30 member and five accession countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Economic indicators included the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, the unemployment rate, and the Gini index. Cultural variables included five Hofstede's cultural dimensions, seven Schwartz cultural value dimensions, NEO-PI-R scales, and the intelligence quotient (IQ). The results showed positive associations between favorable economic conditions (high income per capita, high employment rate, and low income inequality) and high traffic safety. Countries with higher road-traffic accident fatality rates were characterized by higher power distance and uncertainty avoidance as well as embeddedness and emphasis on social hierarchy. Countries with lower road-traffic accident fatality rates were more individualistic, egalitarian, and emphasized autonomy of individuals. Conscientiousness (from NEO-PI-R) and IQ correlated negatively with road-traffic accident fatalities.

Classification of positive blood cultures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gradel, Kim Oren; Knudsen, Jenny Dahl; Arpi, Magnus

2012-01-01

. For each classification, we tabulated episodes derived by the physicians assessment and the computer algorithm and compared 30-day mortality between concordant and discrepant groups with adjustment for age, gender, and comorbidity. RESULTS: Physicians derived 9,482 reference episodes from 21,705 positive......- vs. hospitalonset, whereas there were no material differences within the other comparison groups. CONCLUSIONS: Using data from health administrative registries, we found high agreement between the computer algorithms and the physicians assessments as regards contamination vs. bloodstream infection......ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Information from blood cultures is utilized for infection control, public health surveillance, and clinical outcome research. This information can be enriched by physicians assessments of positive blood cultures, which are, however, often available from selected patient groups...

Particulate matter is associated with sputum culture conversion in patients with culture-positive tuberculosis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chen KY

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Kuan-Yuan Chen,1,* Kai-Jen Chuang,2,3,* Hui-Chiao Liu,4,5 Kang-Yun Lee,1,6 Po-Hao Feng,1,6 Chien-Ling Su,1,4 Chii-Lan Lin,1,4 Chun-Nin Lee,1,4 Hsiao-Chi Chuang1,4 1Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Shuang Ho Hospital, 2Department of Public Health, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, 3School of Public Health, College of Public Health and Nutrition, 4School of Respiratory Therapy, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, 5Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Sijhih Cathay General Hospital, 6Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan *These authors contributed equally to the study Abstract: Emerging risk factors for tuberculosis (TB infection, such as air pollution, play a significant role at both the individual and population levels. However, the association between air pollution and TB remains unclear. The objective of this study was to examine the association between outdoor air pollution and sputum culture conversion in TB patients. In the present study, 389 subjects were recruited from a hospital in Taiwan from 2010 to 2012: 144 controls with non-TB-related pulmonary diseases with negative sputum cultures and 245 culture-positive TB subjects. We observed that a 1 µg/m3 increase in particulate matter of ≤10 µm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10 resulted in 4% higher odds of TB (odds ratio =1.04, 95% confidence interval =1.01–1.08, P<0.05. The chest X-ray grading of TB subjects was correlated to 1 year levels of PM10 (R2=0.94, P<0.05. However, there were no associations of pulmonary cavitation or treatment success rate with PM10. In subjects with TB-positive cultures, annual exposure to ≥50 µg/m3 PM10 was associated with an increase in the time required for sputum culture conversion (hazard ratio =1.28, 95% confidence interval: 1.07–1.84, P<0.05. In conclusion, chronic exposure to ≥50 µg/m3 PM

The Role of Cultural Values in Motivating the Competencies of Hindu Balinese Human Resources in Tourism to Gain Manager Level Positions in Rated Hotels in Bali

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Sulistyawati .

2016-10-01

Full Text Available In response to the new era of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC since year 2015 – Bali, as the primary gateway of Indonesian tourism, must improve the quality of Hindu Balinese human resources in tourism (HB HRT. Winata (2014: 6 explained that adat istiadat (customs and traditions is one of the cause for their low commitment in their job, as HB HRT often take leave due to adat obligations. Therefore, one of the impact, as in the case of a hotel in Kuta, is that hotels often  avoid recruiting HB HRT. Hence, issue to be discussed in this study is to understand the role of Balinese Cultural Values as a potential and as an obstacle in HBHRT’s competency to achieve managerial positions in star-rated hotels in Bali. The research will use a concurrent triangulation method on data collected through interviews and questionaires.While sampling will be done with Purposive Sampling method on star-rated hotels located in Sanur, Kuta and Nusa Dua. Finally, the data analysis will be carried out by referring to Motivation Theory (McClelland, 1976, Competency Theory (Spencer and Spencer, 1993, Value Orientations Theory (Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck, 1961, through a descriptive interpretative qualitative approach as well as a quantitative approach based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA statistics. The research results will show that based on the data, HB HRT have good set of competencies, and these good competencies are inseparable from their background of Balinese Cultural Values (BCV, mainly derived from Hindu culture and religion. As part of upholding their culture, a HB HRT is a person with pawongan concept of harmonious relationship between human beings indicated by 79.1% people with tresna (love, the parhyangan concept of harmonious relationship between human beings and God indicated by 75% people engaging in dharma yatra pilgrimages and study, and the palemahan concept of harmonious relationship between human beings and nature indicated by 69

Positive Youth Psychology: Lessons from Positive Peer Culture

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Steinebach, Christoph; Steinebach, Ursula; Brendtro, Larry K.

2013-01-01

Positive Peer Culture (PPC) is a strength-oriented approach developed by Vorrath and Brendtro (1985) to prevent or reverse negative peer influence by building a climate of peer concern and respect. PPC operates in a range of settings including residential treatment, alternative schools, juvenile justice, and youth leadership groups. It is an…

Positive Peer Culture with German Youth

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Steinebach, Christoph; Steinebach, Ursula

2009-01-01

Children and youth develop the ability to surmount difficult life challenges through a combination of external supports and internal strengths. Positive peers can contribute substantially to growth in resilient coping and problem-solving skills. Positive Peer Culture (PPC) programs are designed to strengthen supportive social bonds, competence,…

Cultural bases for self-evaluation: seeing oneself positively in different cultural contexts.

Science.gov (United States)

Becker, Maja; Vignoles, Vivian L; Owe, Ellinor; Easterbrook, Matthew J; Brown, Rupert; Smith, Peter B; Bond, Michael Harris; Regalia, Camillo; Manzi, Claudia; Brambilla, Maria; Aldhafri, Said; González, Roberto; Carrasco, Diego; Paz Cadena, Maria; Lay, Siugmin; Schweiger Gallo, Inge; Torres, Ana; Camino, Leoncio; Özgen, Emre; Güner, Ülkü E; Yamakoğlu, Nil; Silveira Lemos, Flávia Cristina; Trujillo, Elvia Vargas; Balanta, Paola; Macapagal, Ma Elizabeth J; Cristina Ferreira, M; Herman, Ginette; de Sauvage, Isabelle; Bourguignon, David; Wang, Qian; Fülöp, Márta; Harb, Charles; Chybicka, Aneta; Mekonnen, Kassahun Habtamu; Martin, Mariana; Nizharadze, George; Gavreliuc, Alin; Buitendach, Johanna; Valk, Aune; Koller, Silvia H

2014-05-01

Several theories propose that self-esteem, or positive self-regard, results from fulfilling the value priorities of one's surrounding culture. Yet, surprisingly little evidence exists for this assertion, and theories differ about whether individuals must personally endorse the value priorities involved. We compared the influence of four bases for self-evaluation (controlling one's life, doing one's duty, benefitting others, achieving social status) among 4,852 adolescents across 20 cultural samples, using an implicit, within-person measurement technique to avoid cultural response biases. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses showed that participants generally derived feelings of self-esteem from all four bases, but especially from those that were most consistent with the value priorities of others in their cultural context. Multilevel analyses confirmed that the bases of positive self-regard are sustained collectively: They are predictably moderated by culturally normative values but show little systematic variation with personally endorsed values.

Neural evidence for cultural differences in the valuation of positive facial expressions

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Park, BoKyung; Chim, Louise; Blevins, Elizabeth; Knutson, Brian

2016-01-01

European Americans value excitement more and calm less than Chinese. Within cultures, European Americans value excited and calm states similarly, whereas Chinese value calm more than excited states. To examine how these cultural differences influence people’s immediate responses to excited vs calm facial expressions, we combined a facial rating task with functional magnetic resonance imaging. During scanning, European American (n = 19) and Chinese (n = 19) females viewed and rated faces that varied by expression (excited, calm), ethnicity (White, Asian) and gender (male, female). As predicted, European Americans showed greater activity in circuits associated with affect and reward (bilateral ventral striatum, left caudate) while viewing excited vs calm expressions than did Chinese. Within cultures, European Americans responded to excited vs calm expressions similarly, whereas Chinese showed greater activity in these circuits in response to calm vs excited expressions regardless of targets’ ethnicity or gender. Across cultural groups, greater ventral striatal activity while viewing excited vs. calm expressions predicted greater preference for excited vs calm expressions months later. These findings provide neural evidence that people find viewing the specific positive facial expressions valued by their cultures to be rewarding and relevant. PMID:26342220

Rating leniency and halo in multisource feedback ratings: testing cultural assumptions of power distance and individualism-collectivism.

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Ng, Kok-Yee; Koh, Christine; Ang, Soon; Kennedy, Jeffrey C; Chan, Kim-Yin

2011-09-01

This study extends multisource feedback research by assessing the effects of rater source and raters' cultural value orientations on rating bias (leniency and halo). Using a motivational perspective of performance appraisal, the authors posit that subordinate raters followed by peers will exhibit more rating bias than superiors. More important, given that multisource feedback systems were premised on low power distance and individualistic cultural assumptions, the authors expect raters' power distance and individualism-collectivism orientations to moderate the effects of rater source on rating bias. Hierarchical linear modeling on data collected from 1,447 superiors, peers, and subordinates who provided developmental feedback to 172 military officers show that (a) subordinates exhibit the most rating leniency, followed by peers and superiors; (b) subordinates demonstrate more halo than superiors and peers, whereas superiors and peers do not differ; (c) the effects of power distance on leniency and halo are strongest for subordinates than for peers and superiors; (d) the effects of collectivism on leniency were stronger for subordinates and peers than for superiors; effects on halo were stronger for subordinates than superiors, but these effects did not differ for subordinates and peers. The present findings highlight the role of raters' cultural values in multisource feedback ratings. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved

Positive Predictive Value of True Bacteremia according to the Number of Positive Culture Sets in Adult Patients.

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Kitaura, Tsuyoshi; Chikumi, Hiroki; Fujiwara, Hiromitsu; Okada, Kensaku; Hayabuchi, Tatsuya; Nakamoto, Masaki; Takata, Miyako; Yamasaki, Akira; Igishi, Tadashi; Burioka, Naoto; Shimizu, Eiji

2014-12-01

Performing multiple blood culture sets simultaneously is a standard blood culture methodology, although it is often difficult to distinguish true bacteremia from contamination when only one of several blood culture sets is positive. This study clarified the relationship between the number of positive blood culture sets and clinical significance in patients with positive blood culture. Patients aged 18 years and over with at least 1 positive blood culture were enrolled. Positive blood culture episodes were categorized from clinical records as true bacteremia, contamination, or unknown clinical significance. The associations among episodes of true bacteremia, isolated bacteria, the number of positive blood culture sets from among the performed sets, and the clinical background of patients were analyzed. Among a total of 407 episodes, 262, 67 and 78 were true bacteremia, contamination and unknown clinical significance, respectively. The positive predictive values (PPVs) of 1 out of 1, 1 out of 2 and 2 out of 2 positive sets in cases of Staphylococcus aureus, were 81.3%, 50% and 100% respectively; those in cases of coagulase-negative Staphylococci were 20.5%, 10.8% and 63.5%, respectively. Almost all cases of Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella species and Candida species were true bacteremia. The probability of true bacteremia was strongly associated with recent surgery in multivariate analysis (P sets from among the performed sets varies by microorganism. Therefore, PPVs calculated using this method may help physicians distinguish true bacteremia from contamination.

Discrepancies in Leader and Follower Ratings of Transformational Leadership: Relationship with Organizational Culture in Mental Health.

Science.gov (United States)

Aarons, Gregory A; Ehrhart, Mark G; Farahnak, Lauren R; Sklar, Marisa; Horowitz, Jonathan

2017-07-01

The role of leadership in the management and delivery of health and allied health services is often discussed but lacks empirical research. Discrepancies are often found between leaders' self-ratings and followers' ratings of the leader. To our knowledge no research has examined leader-follower discrepancies and their association with organizational culture in mental health clinics. The current study examines congruence, discrepancy, and directionality of discrepancy in relation to organizational culture in 38 mental health teams (N = 276). Supervisors and providers completed surveys including ratings of the supervisor transformational leadership and organizational culture. Polynomial regression and response surface analysis models were computed examining the associations of leadership discrepancy and defensive organizational culture and its subscales. Discrepancies between supervisor and provider reports of transformational leadership were associated with a more negative organizational culture. Culture suffered more where supervisors rated themselves more positively than providers, in contrast to supervisors rating themselves lower than the provider ratings of the supervisor. Leadership and leader discrepancy should be a consideration in improving organizational culture and for strategic initiatives such as quality of care and the implementation and sustainment of evidence-based practice.

Neural evidence for cultural differences in the valuation of positive facial expressions.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, BoKyung; Tsai, Jeanne L; Chim, Louise; Blevins, Elizabeth; Knutson, Brian

2016-02-01

European Americans value excitement more and calm less than Chinese. Within cultures, European Americans value excited and calm states similarly, whereas Chinese value calm more than excited states. To examine how these cultural differences influence people's immediate responses to excited vs calm facial expressions, we combined a facial rating task with functional magnetic resonance imaging. During scanning, European American (n = 19) and Chinese (n = 19) females viewed and rated faces that varied by expression (excited, calm), ethnicity (White, Asian) and gender (male, female). As predicted, European Americans showed greater activity in circuits associated with affect and reward (bilateral ventral striatum, left caudate) while viewing excited vs calm expressions than did Chinese. Within cultures, European Americans responded to excited vs calm expressions similarly, whereas Chinese showed greater activity in these circuits in response to calm vs excited expressions regardless of targets' ethnicity or gender. Across cultural groups, greater ventral striatal activity while viewing excited vs. calm expressions predicted greater preference for excited vs calm expressions months later. These findings provide neural evidence that people find viewing the specific positive facial expressions valued by their cultures to be rewarding and relevant. © The Author (2015). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Clinical condition and comorbidity as determinants for blood culture positivity in patients with skin and soft-tissue infections

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Daalen, F. V.; Kallen, M. C.; van den Bosch, C. M. A.; Hulscher, M. E. J. L.; Geerlings, S. E.; Prins, J. M.

2017-01-01

The utility of performing blood cultures in patients with a suspected skin infection is debated. We investigated the association between blood culture positivity rates and patients' clinical condition, including acute disease severity and comorbidity. We performed a retrospective study, including

A socio-cultural instrumental approach to emotion regulation: Culture and the regulation of positive emotions.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Xiaoming; Tamir, Maya; Miyamoto, Yuri

2018-02-01

We propose a sociocultural instrumental approach to emotion regulation. According to this approach, cultural differences in the tendency to savor rather than dampen positive emotions should be more pronounced when people are actively pursuing goals (i.e., contexts requiring higher cognitive effort) than when they are not (i.e., contexts requiring lower cognitive efforts), because cultural beliefs about the utility of positive emotions should become most relevant when people are engaging in active goal pursuit. Four studies provided support for our theory. First, European Americans perceived more utility and less harm of positive emotions than Japanese did (Study 1). Second, European Americans reported a stronger relative preference for positive emotions than Asians, but this cultural difference was larger in high cognitive effort contexts than in moderate or low cognitive effort contexts (Study 2). Third, European Americans reported trying to savor rather than dampen positive emotions more than Asians did when preparing to take an exam, a typical high cognitive effort context (Studies 3-4), but these cultural differences were attenuated when an exam was not expected (Study 3) and disappeared when participants expected to interact with a stranger (Study 4). These findings suggest that cultural backgrounds and situational demands interact to shape how people regulate positive emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

International Professional Positions - Adjusting to the Japanese Culture

Science.gov (United States)

Friend, Megan

2015-04-01

Starting a new professional position in a foreign country offers some exciting and wonderful new prospects, as well as many challenging ones. Unique experiences, the opportunity to learn about and become intimately familiar with a new culture, the chance to learn a new language, and, of course, the opportunity to pursue research opportunities not available in the US, are all positive aspects of deciding to join a foreign research institute. Adjusting to a new culture, and particularly a new workplace culture, can be very difficult, however. I will relay my experiences as a postdoc, and then an assistant professor, at one of the leading research institutes in Japan. Having lived and worked there for over two and a half years, I have discovered both the positive (ramen and ``onsen'' - outdoor public bath) and negative (``karoushi'' - death from overwork) sides of this major life decision. I hope to answer questions prospective foreign researchers may have about the difficult and very rewarding prospect of joining a foreign research institute.

Clinical impact of culture-positive preservation fluid on solid organ transplantation: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Oriol, Isabel; Sabé, N; Tebé, C; Veroux, M; Boin, I F S F; Carratalà, J

2018-04-01

Contamination of the preservation fluid (PF) used for donated organs is a potential source of post-transplant infection. However, the information on this issue is scarce. We therefore conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the incidence of culture-positive PF and its impact on solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients. Seventeen studies were identified and included. The overall incidence of culture-positive PF was 37% (95% CI: 27% to 49%), and the incidence of PF-related infections among SOT recipients with PF cultures that grew pathogenic microorganisms was 10% (95% CI: 7% to 15%). There were differences in the rates of infections due to pathogenic microorganisms between SOT recipients who received pre-emptive treatment and those who did not, but without statistical significance. The mortality rate among SOT recipients with PF-related infection was 35% (95% CI: 21% to 53%). In conclusion, although contamination of the PF of donated organs is frequent, the incidence of PF-related infection is relatively low. A closely clinical and microbiologic monitoring of the SOT recipient in case of culture-positive PF, regardless of the type of microorganism isolated might be do in order to establish a prompt diagnosis of PF-related infection. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Culture Positivity of CVCs Used for TPN: Investigation of an Association with Catheter-Related Infection and Comparison of Causative Organisms between ICU and Non-ICU CVCs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Criona Walshe

2012-01-01

Full Text Available A relationship between central venous catheter (CVC tip colonisation and catheter-related blood-stream infection (CRBSI has been suggested. We examined culture positivity of CVC tips (colonised and infected CVCs in a total parenteral nutrition (TPN population. Our aims were to define the relationship between culture positivity and CRBSI, and to compare causative organisms between culture positive and CRBSI CVCS, and between ward and ICU CVCs. All patients receiving TPN via non-tunnelled CVCs during the study (1997–2009 were included. All CVC tips were analysed. Data were collated contemporaneously. A TPN audit committee determined whether CVC tip culture positivity reflected colonisation/CRBSI using CDC criteria. 1,392 patients received TPN via 2,565 CVCs over 15,397 CVC days. 25.4% of CVCs tips were culture positive, of these 32% developed CRBSI. There was a nonsignificant trend of higher Gram negative Bacilli isolation in ICU CVCs (=0.1, ward CVCs were associated with higher rates of staphylococcal isolation (=0.01. A similar pattern of organisms were cultured from CRBSI and culture positive CVCs. The consistent relationship between CRBSI and culture positive CVCs, and similar pattern of causative organisms further supports an aetiological relationship between culture positive CVC tips and CRBSI, supporting the contention that CVC culture-positivity may be a useful surrogate marker for CRBSI rates.

Effect of a training programme on blood culture contamination rate in critical care.

Science.gov (United States)

Sánchez-Sánchez, M M; Arias-Rivera, S; Fraile-Gamo, P; Jareño-Collado, R; López-Román, S; Vadillo-Obesso, P; García-González, S; Pulido-Martos, M T; Sánchez-Muñoz, E I; Cacho-Calvo, J; Martín-Pellicer, A; Panadero-Del Olmo, L; Frutos-Vivar, F

2018-03-30

Blood culture contamination can occur from extraction to processing; its rate should not exceed 3%. To evaluate the impact of a training programme on the rate of contaminated blood cultures after the implementation of sample extraction recommendations based on the best evidence. Prospective before-after study in a polyvalent intensive care unit with 18 beds. Two phases were established (January-June 2012, October 2012-October 2015) with a training period between them. Main recommendations: sterile technique, surgical mask, double skin disinfection (70° alcohol and 2% alcoholic chlorhexidine), 70° alcohol disinfection of culture flasks and injection of samples without changing needles. Including all blood cultures of patients with extraction request. demographic, severity, pathology, reason for admission, stay and results of blood cultures (negative, positive and contaminated). Basic descriptive statistics: mean (standard deviation), median (interquartile range) and percentage (95% confidence interval). Calculated contamination rates per 100 blood cultures extracted. Bivariate analysis between periods. Four hundred and eight patients were included. Eight hundred and forty-one blood cultures were taken, 33 of which were contaminated. In the demographic variables, severity, diagnosis and stay of patients with contaminated samples, no differences were observed from those with uncontaminated samples. Pre-training vs post-training contamination rates: 14 vs 5.6 per 100 blood cultures extracted (P=.00003). An evidence-based training programme reduced the contamination of samples. It is necessary to continue working on the planning of activities and care to improve the detection of pollutants and prevent contamination of samples. Copyright © 2018 Sociedad Española de Enfermería Intensiva y Unidades Coronarias (SEEIUC). Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Cultural Capital and Teaching Ability Rating

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jæger, Mads Meier

do not possess cultural capital. This paper uses extremely rich longitudinal data that provides a better basis than previous studies for holding ‘everything else’ constant. In addition to children and parents’ cultural capital, I control for children’s actual academic ability, physical appearance......, health impairments, social behaviour, antenatal influences, and many family background characteristics. My analysis shows, first, that both children and parents’ cultural capital have independent effects on teacher ability ratings. Second, for oral ability I find that parents’ cultural capital ‘protects...

Culture-positive sepsis in neonatal camelids: 21 cases.

Science.gov (United States)

Dolente, Brett A; Lindborg, Susan; Palmer, Jonathan E; Wilkins, Pamela A

2007-01-01

There is limited literature on neonatal bacterial sepsis in New World (NW) camelids. Bacterial culture-positive crias have clinical differences based on the specific bacterial genera isolated. Bacterial culture-positive NW camelid crias blood gas abnormalities, potentially complicating diagnosis. Affected crias may not have localizing signs at presentation and are not usually febrile, although hypothermia, tachypnea, and tachycardia are relatively common. Total protein concentration was not a substitute for immunoglobulin G measurement in septic crias in this study. Familiarity with the clinical presentation and common pathogens isolated should improve early recognition and treatment and ultimately outcome of crias with sepsis.

Cultural influences on positive father involvement in two-parent Mexican-origin families.

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Cruz, Rick A; King, Kevin M; Widaman, Keith F; Leu, Janxin; Cauce, Ana Mari; Conger, Rand D

2011-10-01

A growing body of research documents the importance of positive father involvement in children's development. However, research on fathers in Latino families is sparse, and research contextualizing the father-child relationship within a cultural framework is needed. The present study examined how fathers' cultural practices and values predicted their fifth-grade children's report of positive father involvement in a sample of 450 two-parent Mexican-origin families. Predictors included Spanish- and English-language use, Mexican and American cultural values, and positive machismo (i.e., culturally related attitudes about the father's role within the family). Positive father involvement was measured by the child's report of his or her father's monitoring, educational involvement, and warmth. Latent variable regression analyses showed that fathers' machismo attitudes were positively related to children's report of positive father involvement and that this association was similar across boys and girls. The results of this study suggest an important association between fathers' cultural values about men's roles and responsibilities within a family and their children's perception of positive fathering.

[Are positive illusions adaptive?: self- and other-rating].

Science.gov (United States)

Toyama, Miki

2008-08-01

The present study investigated the relationship between children's overly positive self-perceptions of their own social competence and mental health. Elementary school students (grades fourth to sixth, n=331) and their homeroom teachers (n=9) participated in the study. The positive illusion was measured by the difference between the self-rating and the other (homeroom teachers) -rating. And, the index of mental health was administered in both self-rating and other (homeroom teachers and same-sex classmates) -rating forms. Positive illusions about children's social competence were positively related to self-ratings of mental health. However, the present study also found detrimental effects of such positive illusions. Children with excessively positive views of their social competence were viewed by teachers and same-sex classmates as significantly more aggressive than those children who showed more evidence of self-devaluation. In addition, children with overly positive self-perceptions were not as accepted by same-sex classmates.

The unsuspected prosthetic joint infection : incidence and consequences of positive intra-operative cultures in presumed aseptic knee and hip revisions.

Science.gov (United States)

Jacobs, A M E; Bénard, M; Meis, J F; van Hellemondt, G; Goosen, J H M

2017-11-01

Positive cultures are not uncommon in cases of revision total knee and hip arthroplasty (TKA and THA) for presumed aseptic causes. The purpose of this study was to assess the incidence of positive intra-operative cultures in presumed aseptic revision of TKA and THA, and to determine whether the presence of intra-operative positive cultures results in inferior survival in such cases. A retrospective cohort study was assembled with 679 patients undergoing revision knee (340 cases) or hip arthroplasty (339 cases) for presumed aseptic causes. For all patients three or more separate intra-operative cultures were obtained. Patients were diagnosed with a previously unsuspected prosthetic joint infection (PJI) if two or more cultures were positive with the same organism. Records were reviewed for demographic details, pre-operative laboratory results and culture results. The primary outcome measure was infection-free implant survival at two years. The incidence of unsuspected PJI was 27 out of 340 (7.9%) in TKA and 41 out of 339 (12.1%) in THA. Following revision TKA, the rate of infection-free implant survival in patients with an unsuspected PJI was 88% (95% confidence intervals (CI) 60 to 97) at two years compared with 98% (95% CI 94 to 99) in patients without PJI (p = 0.001). After THA, the rate of survival was similar in those with unsuspected PJI (92% (95% CI 73 to 98) at two years) and those without (94% (95% CI 89 to 97), p = 0.31). Following revision of TKA and THA for aseptic diagnoses, around 10% of cases were found to have positive cultures. In the knee, such cases had inferior infection-free survival at two years compared with those with negative cultures; there was no difference between the groups following THA. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2017;99-B:1482-9. ©2017 The British Editorial Society of Bone & Joint Surgery.

Relationship between staff-reported culture change and occupancy rate and organizational commitment among nursing homes in South Korea.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Minhong; Choi, Jae-Sung; Lim, Jinseop; Kim, Young Sun

2013-04-01

This study aims to examine culture change in nursing homes in South Korea and to identify the outcomes of culture change implementation. Data were taken from survey responses from 223 top- or mid-level staff among nursing homes in South Korea that were selected through a proportionate random-stratified sampling method from four regions nationwide. Culture change in nursing homes was operationalized by five person-directed care (PDC) constructs and three organizational environment constructs, and outcome quality was indicated by changes to occupancy rate and organizational commitment. After controlling for facility characteristics, the effect of staff-reported culture change on occupancy rate and organizational commitment was analyzed through the multiple-regression method. Consistent with previous research, this study revealed positive effects of culture change for nursing homes in South Korea. The study found that staff-reported culture change correlated with occupancy rate and organizational commitment. Given that culture change variables were significantly related to occupancy rate and organizational commitment, the findings of the study provide a persuasive argument that policies and/or programs to support culture change in nursing homes should be enhanced. Management-level workers in these facilities should have the skills and knowledge to foster more PDC and a more person-directed environment.

Clinical and Laboratory Potential Predictors of Blood Culture Positivity in Under Five Children with Clinically Severe Pneumonia - Khartoum -Sudan.

Science.gov (United States)

Salih, Karimeldin Mohamed Ali; El-Samani, El-Fatih; Bilal, Jalal Ali; Eldouch, Widad; Ibrahim, Salah Ahmed

2015-08-01

Blood culture is necessary for appropriate management of clinically severe pneumonia in children under five years of age. However, in limited resource countries it might be unduly costly and waste of valuable time because of the high negative culture rate. This study aims to identify clinical and laboratory parameters that potentially predict a positive blood culture in cases of severe pneumonia. A hospital based study, enrolled 189 cases satisfying the WHO definition of severe pneumonia. Age, gender, clinical history, physical examination, temperature, complete blood count, C-reactive protein, blood culture and Chest X Ray for all the patients were recorded. Forty one patients had positive blood culture giving a prevalence of 21.7%. All variables were used in a dichotomous manner. White Blood Count (WBC) more than 20 000, very high C-reactive protein (C-RP ≥8mg/L) and Temperature more than 40(o)C, had a positive predictive value of 46.1%, 44.3% and 40.0% respectively for a positive culture as well as a Negative Predictive Value of 91.1%, 91.6% and 91.7% respectively. The WBC more than 20 000 and temperature above 40(o)C had a significant association with a positive blood culture. Their adjusted Odds Ratios were 3.9 (95% CI: 1.4-10.90) and 3.1 (95% CI: 1.2-8.4) respectively. This was not the case for C-RP (Odds Ratio=2.2, 95% CI: 0.7-2.2) or positive Chest X Ray (Odds Ratio=1.5, 95% CI: 0.6-3.6). Temperature of more than 40(o)C, Very high C-RP and WBC of more than 20 000 are good indicators of a potential positive blood culture. It is therefore recommended that further research be undertaken to refine these predictors as screening tools before resorting to blood culture. It is also recommended that antibiotic treatment may be initiated on the basis of the high temperature and WBC, while waiting for the culture results.

Direct identification of microorganisms from positive blood cultures by MALDI-TOF MS using an in-house saponin method.

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Yonetani, Shota; Ohnishi, Hiroaki; Ohkusu, Kiyofumi; Matsumoto, Tetsuya; Watanabe, Takashi

2016-11-01

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is a fast and reliable method for the identification of bacteria. A MALDI Sepsityper kit is generally used to prepare samples obtained directly from culture bottles. However, the relatively high cost of this kit is a major obstacle to introducing this method into routine clinical use. In this study, the accuracies of three different preparation methods for rapid direct identification of bacteria from positive blood culture bottles by MALDI-TOF MS analysis were compared. In total, 195 positive bottles were included in this study. Overall, 78.5%, 68.7%, and 76.4% of bacteria were correctly identified to the genus level (score ≥1.7) directly from positive blood cultures using the Sepsityper, centrifugation, and saponin methods, respectively. The identification rates using the Sepsityper and saponin methods were significantly higher than that using the centrifugation method (Sepsityper vs. centrifugation, pdirectly from blood culture bottles, and could be a less expensive alternative to the Sepsityper method. Copyright © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Time-to-positivity, type of culture media and oxidase test performed on positive blood culture vials to predict Pseudomonas aeruginosa in patients with Gram-negative bacilli bacteraemia.

Science.gov (United States)

Cobos-Triguero, N; Zboromyrska, Y; Morata, L; Alejo, I; De La Calle, C; Vergara, A; Cardozo, C; Arcas, M P; Soriano, A; Marco, F; Mensa, J; Almela, M; Martínez, J A

2017-02-01

The aim of this study was to determine the usefulness of oxidase test and time-to-positivity (TTP) in aerobic and anaerobic blood culture vials to detect the presence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in patients with Gram-negative bacilli (GNB) bacteraemia. TTP was recorded for each aerobic and anaerobic blood culture vial of monomicrobial bacteraemia due to GNB. Oxidase test was performed in a pellet of the centrifuged content of the positive blood culture. An algorithm was developed in order to perform the oxidase test efficiently taking into account TTP and type of vial. A total of 341 episodes of GNB bacteraemia were analysed. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of the oxidase test performed on positive vials with GNB to predict P. aeruginosa were 95%, 99%, 91%, and 99%, respectively. When growth was first or exclusively detected in anaerobic vials, P. aeruginosa was never identified hence the performance of the oxidase test could be avoided. When growth was only or first detected in aerobic vials, a TTP≥8h predicted P. aeruginosa in 37% or cases (63 of 169), therefore oxidase test is highly recommended. Oxidase test performed onto positive blood culture vials previously selected by TTP and type of vials is an easy and inexpensive way to predict P. aeruginosa. In most cases, this can lead to optimization of treatment in less than 24 hours.

Determining the prevalence of inv-positive and ail-positive Yersinia enterocolitica in pig tonsils using PCR and culture methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Stachelska, Milena Alicja

2017-01-01

Yersiniosis is believed to be the third most common intestinal zoonosis in the European Union, after campylobacteriosis and salmonellosis. Yersinia enterocolitica is the most common species responsible for human infections. Pigs are regarded as the biggest reservoir of pathogenic Y. enterocolitica strains, which are mainly isolated from pig tonsils. The aim of this paper is to examine the prevalence of inv-positive and ail-positive Y. enterocolitica in pigs which were slaughtered in a Polish abattoir. Real-time PCR and culture methods were used to assess the prevalence of patho- genic Y. enterocolitica strains in pig tonsils. Real-time PCR was applied to detect inv-positive and ail-positive Y. enterocolitica. Y. enterocolitica was also isolated by applying direct plating, unselective (tryptic soy broth) and selective (irgasan-ticarcillin-potassium chlorate bouillon) enrichment. A total of 180 pigs were studied, of which 85% and 32% respectively were found to be infected with inv-positive and ail-positive Y. enterocolitica. The 92 inv-positive and ail-positive isolates, from 57 culture- positive tonsils, underwent bio- and serotyping. The most common was bioserotype 4/O:3, which was found in 53 (93%) out of 57 culture-positive tonsils. Strains of bioserotypes 2/O:5, 2/O:9 and 2/O:5.27 occurred in significantly lower numbers. The prevalence of inv-positive and ail-positive Y. enterocolitica was found to be high in the ton- sils of slaughtered pigs, using real-time PCR. The real-time PCR method for the detection and identification of pathogenic Y. enterocolitica is sensitive and specific, which has been verified by specificity and sensitivity tests using the pure cultures. Serotypes were distinguished from each other using PCR serotyping. The PCR method was essential in forming our conclusions.

Imaging-guided percutaneous needle biopsy for infectious spondylitis: Factors affecting culture positivity

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Sung, Si Yoon; Kwon, Jong Won [Dept. of Radiology and Center for Imaging Science, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2015-11-15

To evaluate the variable factors affecting the results of percutaneous needle biopsies for infectious spondylitis. In all, 249 patients who underwent both MRI and percutaneous needle biopsies due to a suspicion of infectious spondylitis were evaluated with respect to the following factors: the usage of antibiotics before the procedure, the location of the biopsy, the guiding equipment used, the experience level of the operators, and the number of biopsies performed. The positivity of culture in cases of treated with antibiotics (16.3%) before the biopsy was lower than in the untreated cases (30.5%) (p = 0.004). Biopsies performed at the abscess (43.5%) and with fluoroscopic guidance (27.8%) showed higher culture positivity as well. The experience level of the operators and the number of biopsies had no effect on culture positivity. The usage of antibiotics before the biopsy, the biopsy's location, and the guiding equipment used affect the culture positivity, while the experience levels of the operators and the number of biopsies do not have an effect.

Imaging-guided percutaneous needle biopsy for infectious spondylitis: Factors affecting culture positivity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sung, Si Yoon; Kwon, Jong Won

2015-01-01

To evaluate the variable factors affecting the results of percutaneous needle biopsies for infectious spondylitis. In all, 249 patients who underwent both MRI and percutaneous needle biopsies due to a suspicion of infectious spondylitis were evaluated with respect to the following factors: the usage of antibiotics before the procedure, the location of the biopsy, the guiding equipment used, the experience level of the operators, and the number of biopsies performed. The positivity of culture in cases of treated with antibiotics (16.3%) before the biopsy was lower than in the untreated cases (30.5%) (p = 0.004). Biopsies performed at the abscess (43.5%) and with fluoroscopic guidance (27.8%) showed higher culture positivity as well. The experience level of the operators and the number of biopsies had no effect on culture positivity. The usage of antibiotics before the biopsy, the biopsy's location, and the guiding equipment used affect the culture positivity, while the experience levels of the operators and the number of biopsies do not have an effect

Universal happiness? Cross-cultural measurement invariance of scales assessing positive mental health.

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Bieda, Angela; Hirschfeld, Gerrit; Schönfeld, Pia; Brailovskaia, Julia; Zhang, Xiao Chi; Margraf, Jürgen

2017-04-01

Research into positive aspects of the psyche is growing as psychologists learn more about the protective role of positive processes in the development and course of mental disorders, and about their substantial role in promoting mental health. With increasing globalization, there is strong interest in studies examining positive constructs across cultures. To obtain valid cross-cultural comparisons, measurement invariance for the scales assessing positive constructs has to be established. The current study aims to assess the cross-cultural measurement invariance of questionnaires for 6 positive constructs: Social Support (Fydrich, Sommer, Tydecks, & Brähler, 2009), Happiness (Subjective Happiness Scale; Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999), Life Satisfaction (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985), Positive Mental Health Scale (Lukat, Margraf, Lutz, van der Veld, & Becker, 2016), Optimism (revised Life Orientation Test [LOT-R]; Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 1994) and Resilience (Schumacher, Leppert, Gunzelmann, Strauss, & Brähler, 2004). Participants included German (n = 4,453), Russian (n = 3,806), and Chinese (n = 12,524) university students. Confirmatory factor analyses and measurement invariance testing demonstrated at least partial strong measurement invariance for all scales except the LOT-R and Subjective Happiness Scale. The latent mean comparisons of the constructs indicated differences between national groups. Potential methodological and cultural explanations for the intergroup differences are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Outcomes in culture positive and culture negative ascitic fluid infection in patients with viral cirrhosis: cohort study

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Ali Ailia W

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Ascitic fluid infection (AFI in cirrhotic patients has a high morbidity and mortality. It has two variants namely, spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP and culture negative neutrocytic ascites (CNNA. The aim of this study was to determine the outcome in cirrhotic patients with culture positive (SBP and culture negative neutrocytic ascites. Methods We analyzed 675 consecutive hepatitis B and/or C related cirrhosis patients with ascites admitted in our hospital from November 2005 to December 2007. Of these, 187 patients had AFI; clinical and laboratory parameters of these patients including causes of cirrhosis, Child Turcotte Pugh (CTP score were recorded. Results Out of 187 patients with AFI, 44 (23.5% had SBP while 143 (76.4% had CNNA. Hepatitis C virus (HCV infection was the most common cause of cirrhosis in 139 (74.3% patients. Patients with SBP had high CTP score as compared to CNNA (12.52 ± 1.45 vs. 11.44 ± 1.66; p 9/L as compared to CNNA (132 ± 91 × 109/L, p = 0.005. We found a high creatinine (mg/dl (1.95 ± 1.0 vs. 1.44 ± 0.85, (p = 0.003 and high prothrombin time (PT in seconds (24.8 ± 6.6 vs. 22.4 ± 7.2 (p = 0.04 in SBP as compared to CNNA. More patients with SBP (14/44; 31.8% had blood culture positivity as compare to CNNA (14/143; 9.8%, p = 0.002. Escherichia. Coli was the commonest organism in blood culture in 15/28 (53.5% patients. SBP group had a higher mortality (11/44; 25% as compared to CNNA (12/143; 8.4%, p = 0.003. On multiple logistic regression analysis, creatinine >1.1 mg/dl and positive blood culture were the independent predictors of mortality in patients with SBP. Conclusion Patients with SBP have a higher mortality than CNNA. Independent predictors of mortality in SBP are raised serum creatinine and a positive blood culture.

Positive blood culture with Plasmodium falciparum : Case report

NARCIS (Netherlands)

De Vries, Jutte J. C.; Van Assen, Sander; Mulder, André B.; Kampinga, Greetje A.

2007-01-01

An adult traveler presented with fever and malaise after returning from Sierra Leone. Young trophozoites of Plasmodium falciparum were seen in a blood smear, with parasitemia being 10%. Moreover, blood cultures drawn on admission signaled as "positive" after 1 day of incubation, but no bacteria were

Together, Not Alone: Positive Peer Culture in a German School

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Opp, Gunther; Unger, Nicola; Teichmann, Jana

2007-01-01

The many sea-changes in German culture have given rise to a growing population of children and youth at risk. This article describes the creation of a Positive Peer Culture in a special school for students with emotional and behavioural problems. The authors review challenges facing youth in modern Germany, the implementation of the PPC program,…

Assessment of real-time PCR cycle threshold values in Microsporum canis culture-positive and culture-negative cats in an animal shelter: a field study.

Science.gov (United States)

Jacobson, Linda S; McIntyre, Lauren; Mykusz, Jenny

2018-02-01

Objectives Real-time PCR provides quantitative information, recorded as the cycle threshold (Ct) value, about the number of organisms detected in a diagnostic sample. The Ct value correlates with the number of copies of the target organism in an inversely proportional and exponential relationship. The aim of the study was to determine whether Ct values could be used to distinguish between culture-positive and culture-negative samples. Methods This was a retrospective analysis of Ct values from dermatophyte PCR results in cats with suspicious skin lesions or suspected exposure to dermatophytosis. Results One hundred and thirty-two samples were included. Using culture as the gold standard, 28 were true positives, 12 were false positives and 92 were true negatives. The area under the curve for the pretreatment time point was 96.8% (95% confidence interval [CI] 94.2-99.5) compared with 74.3% (95% CI 52.6-96.0) for pooled data during treatment. Before treatment, a Ct cut-off of value between culture-positive and culture-negative samples during treatment. Ct values prior to treatment differed significantly between the true-positive and false-positive groups ( P = 0.0056). There was a significant difference between the pretreatment and first and second negative culture time points ( P = 0.0002 and P values for true positives and true negatives, and for pre- and intra-treatment time points. Conclusions and relevance Ct values had limited usefulness for distinguishing between culture-positive and culture-negative cases when field study samples were analyzed. In addition, Ct values were less reliable than fungal culture for determining mycological cure.

Creating a Positive Classroom Culture: Minute by Minute

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Wright, Ali

2014-01-01

This article offers a peek into high school math teacher Ali Wright's typical school day, which includes time-tested strategies that she uses to build a positive culture in her classroom. Scheduled timeframes and activities include before school starts, five minutes before class, during announcements, during class, last five minutes of class,…

Impact of changing from staining to culture techniques on detection rates of Campylobacter spp. in routine stool samples in Chile.

Science.gov (United States)

Porte, Lorena; Varela, Carmen; Haecker, Thomas; Morales, Sara; Weitzel, Thomas

2016-05-13

Campylobacter is a leading cause of bacterial gastroenteritis, but sensitive diagnostic methods such as culture are expensive and often not available in resource limited settings. Therefore, direct staining techniques have been developed as a practical and economical alternative. We analyzed the impact of replacing Campylobacter staining with culture for routine stool examinations in a private hospital in Chile. From January to April 2014, a total of 750 consecutive stool samples were examined in parallel by Hucker stain and Campylobacter culture. Isolation rates of Campylobacter were determined and the performance of staining was evaluated against culture as the gold standard. Besides, isolation rates of Campylobacter and other enteric pathogens were compared to those of past years. Campylobacter was isolated by culture in 46 of 750 (6.1 %) stool samples. Direct staining only identified three samples as Campylobacter positive and reached sensitivity and specificity values of 6.5 and 100 %, respectively. In comparison to staining-based detection rates of previous years, we observed a significant increase of Campylobacter cases in our patients. Direct staining technique for Campylobacter had a very low sensitivity compared to culture. Staining methods might lead to a high rate of false negative results and an underestimation of the importance of campylobacteriosis. With the inclusion of Campylobacter culture, this pathogen became a leading cause of intestinal infection in our patient population.

Is the Hegemonic Position of American Culture Able to Subjugate Local Cultures of Importing Countries? A Constructive Analysis on the Phenomenon of Cultural Localization

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Chiang, Tien-Hui

2014-01-01

It has been argued that globalization assists the USA to gain a hegemonic position, allowing it to export its culture. Because this exportation leads to the domination by American culture of the local cultures of importing countries, which are the key element in sustaining their citizens' national identity, citizens of these countries are…

Dampening or savoring positive emotions: a dialectical cultural script guides emotion regulation.

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Miyamoto, Yuri; Ma, Xiaoming

2011-12-01

Four studies examined the hypothesis that, although people may generally want to savor, rather than to dampen, their positive emotions (i.e., hedonic emotion regulation), such a hedonic emotion regulation tendency should be less pronounced for Easterners than for Westerners. Using retrospective memory procedures, Study 1 found that Easterners recalled engaging in hedonic emotion regulation less than Westerners did, even after controlling for their initial emotional reactions. Studies 2-3 showed that cultural differences in emotion regulation were mediated by dialectical beliefs about positive emotions. Study 4 replicated the findings by examining online reports of emotion regulation strategies on the day students received a good grade. Furthermore, there were cultural differences in actual emotion change over time, which was partly explained by dialectical beliefs about positive emotions. These findings highlight the active role cultural scripts play in shaping emotion regulation and emotional experiences. (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved.

Proposing an Empirically Justified Reference Threshold for Blood Culture Sampling Rates in Intensive Care Units

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Castell, Stefanie; Schwab, Frank; Geffers, Christine; Bongartz, Hannah; Brunkhorst, Frank M.; Gastmeier, Petra; Mikolajczyk, Rafael T.

2014-01-01

Early and appropriate blood culture sampling is recommended as a standard of care for patients with suspected bloodstream infections (BSI) but is rarely taken into account when quality indicators for BSI are evaluated. To date, sampling of about 100 to 200 blood culture sets per 1,000 patient-days is recommended as the target range for blood culture rates. However, the empirical basis of this recommendation is not clear. The aim of the current study was to analyze the association between blood culture rates and observed BSI rates and to derive a reference threshold for blood culture rates in intensive care units (ICUs). This study is based on data from 223 ICUs taking part in the German hospital infection surveillance system. We applied locally weighted regression and segmented Poisson regression to assess the association between blood culture rates and BSI rates. Below 80 to 90 blood culture sets per 1,000 patient-days, observed BSI rates increased with increasing blood culture rates, while there was no further increase above this threshold. Segmented Poisson regression located the threshold at 87 (95% confidence interval, 54 to 120) blood culture sets per 1,000 patient-days. Only one-third of the investigated ICUs displayed blood culture rates above this threshold. We provided empirical justification for a blood culture target threshold in ICUs. In the majority of the studied ICUs, blood culture sampling rates were below this threshold. This suggests that a substantial fraction of BSI cases might remain undetected; reporting observed BSI rates as a quality indicator without sufficiently high blood culture rates might be misleading. PMID:25520442

Enrichment methodology to increase the positivity of cultures from body fluids

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Alessandra Valle Daur

Full Text Available Isolation and identification of etiological agents found in body fluids can be of critical importance for the recovery of patients suffering from potentially-severe infections, which are often followed by serious sequels. Eighty-two samples of different body fluids were analyzed using two different methods: (1 the conventional culture method (agar plating and (2 the enrichment culture technique, using the Bact/Alert® blood culture bottle. The number of positive cultures increased on average from 9.7% to 23.1% with the enrichment culture technique. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were the most frequently isolated bacteria. The enrichment method could provide a more accurate means the identifying etiological agents.

Oxygen consumption rate and mitochondrial density in human melanoma monolayer cultures and multicellular spheroids.

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Hystad, M E; Rofstad, E K

1994-05-15

Rate of oxygen consumption per cell has been shown in previous studies to decrease with increasing depth in the viable rim of multicellular spheroids initiated from rodent cells, human colon-carcinoma cells, and human glioma cells, due to progressive accumulation of quiescent cells during spheroid growth. The purpose of our work was to determine oxygen-consumption profiles in human melanoma spheroids. Monolayer cultures of 4 lines (BEX-c, COX-c, SAX-c, and WIX-c) and spheroid cultures of 2 lines (BEX-c and WIX-c) were subjected to investigation. Spheroids were initiated from monolayer cell cultures and grown in spinner flasks. Rate of oxygen consumption was measured with a Clarke-type electrode. Mitochondrial density was determined by stereological analysis of transmission electron micrographs. Thickness of viable rim and cell packing density were assessed by light microscopy of central spheroid sections. Cell-cycle distribution was determined by analysis of DNA histograms measured by flow cytometry. Cell volume was measured by an electronic particle counter. Rate of oxygen consumption per cell differed by a factor of approximately 1.8 between the 4 cell lines and was positively correlated to total volume of mitochondria per cell. Rate of oxygen consumption per cell and total volume of mitochondria per cell were equal for monolayer cell cultures, 600-microns spheroids and 1,200-microns spheroids of the same line. Mitochondrial density and location in the cell did not differ between cells at the spheroid surface, in the middle of the viable rim and adjacent to the central necrosis. Cell-cycle distribution, cell volume, and cell-packing density in the outer and inner halves of the viable rim were not significantly different. Consequently, the rate of oxygen consumption per cell in inner regions of the viable rim was probably equal to that at the spheroid surface, suggesting that oxygen diffusion distances may be shorter in some melanomas than in many other tumor

Effects of transfer of embryos independently cultured in essential and sequential culture media on pregnancy rates in assisted reproduction cycles.

Science.gov (United States)

Geber, Selmo; Bossi, Renata; Guimarães, Fernando; Valle, Marcello; Sampaio, Marcos

2012-10-01

Several culture media are available to be used in ART. However it is uncertain whether embryos would preferably benefit from one type of medium or the association of different media. We performed this study to evaluate the impact of simultaneous transfer of embryos independently cultured in two distinct culture media, on pregnancy outcome. A total of 722 couples who underwent infertility treatment were sequentially allocated into three groups: those who had half of the embryos individually cultured in MEM and the other half cultured in sequential media (MEM + Seq Group) (n = 243); those who had all embryos cultured only in sequential medium (Seq Group) (n = 239); and those who had all embryos cultured only in MEM (MEM Group) (n = 240). The pregnancy rate was higher in the MEM + Seq group (51.8 %) than the Seq group (36.7 %) (p < 0.001). However the pregnancy rate observed in the MEM group was similar to the others (44.2 %). When a logistic regression test was applied it demonstrated that the number of transferred embryos did not interfere in the pregnancy rates. Our results suggests that offering different culture conditions for sibling embryos with subsequent transfer of embryos that were kept in distinct culture media, might increase pregnancy rates in assisted reproduction cycles.

Direct bacterial identification from positive blood cultures using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

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Ruiz-Aragón, Jesús; Ballestero-Téllez, Mónica; Gutiérrez-Gutiérrez, Belén; de Cueto, Marina; Rodríguez-Baño, Jesús; Pascual, Álvaro

2017-10-27

The rapid identification of bacteraemia-causing pathogens could assist clinicians in the timely prescription of targeted therapy, thereby reducing the morbidity and mortality of this infection. In recent years, numerous techniques that rapidly and directly identify positive blood cultures have been marketed, with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) being one of the most commonly used. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the accuracy of MALDI-TOF (Bruker ® ) for the direct identification of positive blood culture bottles. A meta-analysis was performed to summarize the results of the 32 studies evaluated. The overall quality of the studies was moderate. For Gram-positive bacteria, overall rates of correct identification of the species ranged from 0.17 to 0.98, with a cumulative rate (random-effects model) of 0.72 (95% CI: 0.64-0.80). For Gram-negative bacteria, correct identification rates ranged from 0.66 to 1.00, with a cumulative effect of 0.92 (95% CI: 0.88-0.95). For Enterobacteriaceae, the rate was 0.96 (95% CI: 0.94-0.97). MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry shows high accuracy for the correct identification of Gram-negative bacteria, particularly Enterobacteriaceae, directly from positive blood culture bottles, and moderate accuracy for the identification of Gram-positive bacteria (low for some species). Copyright © 2017 Elsevier España, S.L.U. and Sociedad Española de Enfermedades Infecciosas y Microbiología Clínica. All rights reserved.

Association between cultural distance and migrant self-rated health

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Detollenaere, Jens; Baert, Stijn; Willems, Sara

2018-01-01

Abstract: We study whether migrant health in Europe is associated with the cultural distance between their host country and country of origin. To this end, we run multilevel regression models on data merging self-rated health and social background of ae3800 migrants from the European Social Survey with an index of cultural distance based on country differences in values, norms and attitudes measured in the World Values Survey. We find that higher levels of cultural distance are associated wit...

Factors influencing the contamination rate of human organ-cultured corneas.

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Röck, Daniel; Wude, Johanna; Bartz-Schmidt, Karl U; Yoeruek, Efdal; Thaler, Sebastian; Röck, Tobias

2017-12-01

To assess the influence of donor, environment and storage factors on the contamination rate of organ-cultured corneas, to consider the microbiological species causing corneal contamination and to investigate the corresponding sensitivities. Data from 1340 consecutive donor corneas were analysed retrospectively. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the influence of different factors on the contamination rate of organ-cultured corneas for transplantation. The mean annual contamination rate was 1.8 ± 0.4% (range: 1.3-2.1%); 50% contaminations were of fungal origin with exclusively Candida species, and 50% contaminations were of bacterial origin with Staphylococcus species being predominant. The cause of donor death including infection and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome increased the risk of bacterial or fungal contamination during organ culture (p = 0.007 and p = 0.014, respectively). Differentiating between septic and aseptic donors showed an increased risk of contamination for septic donors (p = 0.0020). Mean monthly temperature including warmer months increased the risk of contamination significantly (p = 0.0031). Sex, donor age, death to enucleation, death to corneoscleral disc excision and storage time did not increase the risk of contamination significantly. The genesis of microbial contamination in organ-cultured donor corneas seems to be multifactorial. The main source of fungal or bacterial contamination could be resident species from the skin flora. The rate of microbial contamination in organ-cultured donor corneas seems to be dependent on the cause of donor death and mean monthly temperature. © 2017 Acta Ophthalmologica Scandinavica Foundation. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Positioning of sponsorships on the cultural events market

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Lukić-Krstanović Miroslava

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The paper deals with the relationship between cultural events and financial possession through which a complex web of communication can be discerned, in positions of social responsibility and consumerism. In the first part of the paper, sponsorship is described in its historical context in order to point out its key features and transformations over time, especially in the socialist and post-socialist period. By contextualizing sponsorship strategies and messages, one can accurately track the representations and values attached to the positioning of cultural products in the zone of national and global policies. Musical spectacles (concerts, festivals, assemblies etc. are attractive and useful products in the sponsorship market. The EXIT festival, Jelen beer, Guča, Telenor, Alpha Bank, Bogoljub Karić, Zepter, Beer Fest, Tuborg, Kustendorf are just some examples - patents of sponsorship of cultural manifestations in the transitional period. This paper constructs three forms of sponsorship strategies in the domain of cultural festival scenes: ownership, leadership and partnership. In the domain of partnership between collective and private property, sponsorship strategies are based on an ethical mimicry of old/new rules and their enforcers within a gift economy, thus creating arbitrary spaces for action adjusted for crises (the grey economy, money laundering, unstable economic policies etc.. Leadership is a sponsorship strategy which entails complete domination in the sphere of decision making, utilization and spending, without the possibility of outside control. In leadership there is no opposition between owners and sponsors, and everything is subject to the authority of the individual as the one and only, inviolable self-sponsor. Partnership is based on the power of choice in the domain of competition and opposition as bipolar ownership. The tandems of spectacle - sponsor and enjoyment - monopoly, are viable projectors of various strategies

Reduced Osteogenesis of Human Osteogenic Precursors' Cells Cultured in the Random Positioning Machine

Science.gov (United States)

Gershovich, J. G.; Buravkova, L. B.

2008-06-01

Recent studies have shown that simulated microgravity (SMG) results in altered proliferation and differentiation not only osteoblasts but also affects on osteogenic capacity of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from various sources. For present study we used system that simulates effects of microgravity produced by the Random Positioning Machine (RPM). Cultured MCSs from human bone marrow and human osteoblasts (OBs) were exposed to SMG at RPM for 10-40 days. Induced osteogenesis of these progenitor cells was compared with the appropriate static (1g) and dynamic (horizontal shaker) controls. Clinorotated OBs and MSCs showed proliferation rate lower than static and dynamic control groups of cells in the early terms of SMG. Significant reduction of ALP activity was detected after 10 days of clinorotation of MSCs. There was no such dramatic difference in ALP activity of MSCs derived cells between SMG and control groups after 20 days of clinorotation but the expression of ALP was still reduced. However, virtually no matrix mineralization was found in OBs cultured under SMG conditions in the presence of differentiation stimuli. The similar effect was observed when we assayed matrix calcification of MSCs derived cultures. Thus, our results confirm low gravity mediated reduction of osteogenesis of different osteogenic precursors' cells and can clarify the mechanisms of bone loss during spaceflight.

Measuring patient safety culture in Taiwan using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC).

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Chen, I-Chi; Li, Hung-Hui

2010-06-07

Patient safety is a critical component to the quality of health care. As health care organizations endeavour to improve their quality of care, there is a growing recognition of the importance of establishing a culture of patient safety. In this research, the authors use the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) questionnaire to assess the culture of patient safety in Taiwan and attempt to provide an explanation for some of the phenomena that are unique in Taiwan. The authors used HSOPSC to measure the 12 dimensions of the patient safety culture from 42 hospitals in Taiwan. The survey received 788 respondents including physicians, nurses, and non-clinical staff. This study used SPSS 15.0 for Windows and Amos 7 software tools to perform the statistical analysis on the survey data, including descriptive statistics and confirmatory factor analysis of the structural equation model. The overall average positive response rate for the 12 patient safety culture dimensions of the HSOPSC survey was 64%, slightly higher than the average positive response rate for the AHRQ data (61%). The results showed that hospital staff in Taiwan feel positively toward patient safety culture in their organization. The dimension that received the highest positive response rate was "Teamwork within units", similar to the results reported in the US. The dimension with the lowest percentage of positive responses was "Staffing". Statistical analysis showed discrepancies between Taiwan and the US in three dimensions, including "Feedback and communication about error", "Communication openness", and "Frequency of event reporting". The HSOPSC measurement provides evidence for assessing patient safety culture in Taiwan. The results show that in general, hospital staffs in Taiwan feel positively toward patient safety culture within their organization. The existence of discrepancies between the US data and the Taiwanese data suggest that cultural uniqueness should be taken into

Rapid detection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from positive blood cultures by quantitative PCR

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Cattoir Vincent

2010-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Pseudomonas aeruginosa is responsible for numerous bloodstream infections associated with severe adverse outcomes in case of inappropriate initial antimicrobial therapy. The present study was aimed to develop a novel quantitative PCR (qPCR assay, using ecfX as the specific target gene, for the rapid and accurate identification of P. aeruginosa from positive blood cultures (BCs. Methods Over the period August 2008 to June 2009, 100 BC bottles positive for gram-negative bacilli were tested in order to evaluate performances of the qPCR technique with conventional methods as gold standard (i.e. culture and phenotypic identification. Results Thirty-three strains of P. aeruginosa, 53 strains of Enterobactericaeae, nine strains of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and two other gram-negative species were isolated while 3 BCs were polymicrobial including one mixture containing P. aeruginosa. All P. aeruginosa clinical isolates were detected by qPCR except a single strain in mixed culture. Performances of the qPCR technique were: specificity, 100%; positive predictive value, 100%; negative predictive value, 98.5%; and sensitivity, 97%. Conclusions This reliable technique may offer a rapid (

Advancing Positive Psychology in South East Asia: the Importance of Culture

OpenAIRE

Mohd Hashim, Intan Hashimah

2013-01-01

Interest in the field of positive psychology has been overwhelming. This can be observed from the number of academic conferences and journals attributed to this field. Similar patterns can be observed in Asia where more and more research are concentrating on investigating constructs deemed as important within the field of positive psychology. However, comparable to other fields within psychology, positive psychology cannot ignore the importance of culture. This is especially true in South Eas...

Comparison between MALDI-TOF MS and FilmArray Blood Culture Identification panel for rapid identification of yeast from positive blood culture.

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Paolucci, M; Foschi, C; Tamburini, M V; Ambretti, S; Lazzarotto, T; Landini, M P

2014-09-01

In this study we evaluated MALDI-TOF MS and FilmArray methods for the rapid identification of yeast from positive blood cultures. FilmArray correctly identified 20/22 of yeast species, while MALDI-TOF MS identified 9/22. FilmArray is a reliable and rapid identification system for the direct identification of yeasts from positive blood cultures. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

How guiding coalitions promote positive culture change in hospitals: a longitudinal mixed methods interventional study.

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Bradley, Elizabeth H; Brewster, Amanda L; McNatt, Zahirah; Linnander, Erika L; Cherlin, Emily; Fosburgh, Heather; Ting, Henry H; Curry, Leslie A

2018-03-01

Quality collaboratives are widely endorsed as a potentially effective method for translating and spreading best practices for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) care. Nevertheless, hospital success in improving performance through participation in collaboratives varies markedly. We sought to understand what distinguished hospitals that succeeded in shifting culture and reducing 30-day risk-standardised mortality rate (RSMR) after AMI through their participation in the Leadership Saves Lives (LSL) collaborative. We conducted a longitudinal, mixed methods intervention study of 10 hospitals over a 2-year period; data included surveys of 223 individuals (response rates 83%-94% depending on wave) and 393 in-depth interviews with clinical and management staff most engaged with the LSL intervention in the 10 hospitals. We measured change in culture and RSMR, and key aspects of working related to team membership, turnover, level of participation and approaches to conflict management. The six hospitals that experienced substantial culture change and greater reductions in RSMR demonstrated distinctions in: (1) effective inclusion of staff from different disciplines and levels in the organisational hierarchy in the team guiding improvement efforts (referred to as the 'guiding coalition' in each hospital); (2) authentic participation in the work of the guiding coalition; and (3) distinct patterns of managing conflict. Guiding coalition size and turnover were not associated with success (p values>0.05). In the six hospitals that experienced substantial positive culture change, staff indicated that the LSL learnings were already being applied to other improvement efforts. Hospitals that were most successful in a national quality collaborative to shift hospital culture and reduce RSMR showed distinct patterns in membership diversity, authentic participation and capacity for conflict management. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the

[EXPRESS IDENTIFICATION OF POSITIVE BLOOD CULTURES USING DIRECT MALDI-TOF MASS SPECTROMETRY].

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Popov, D A; Ovseenko, S T; Vostrikova, T Yu

2015-01-01

To evaluate the effectiveness of direct identification of pathogens of bacteremia by direct matrix assisted laser desorption ionization time-flight mass spectrometry (mALDI-TOF) compared to routine method. A prospective study included 211 positive blood cultures obtained from 116 patients (106 adults and 10 children, aged from 2 weeks to 77 years old in the ICU after open heart surgery. Incubation was carried out under aerobic vials with a sorbent for antibiotics Analyzer BacT/ALERT 3D 120 (bioMerieux, France) in parallel with the primary sieving blood cultures on solid nutrient media with subsequent identification of pure cultures using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry analyzer Vitek MS, bioMerieux, France routine method), after appropriate sample preparation we carried out a direct (without screening) MALDI-TOF mass spectrometric study of monocomponental blood cultures (n = 201). using a routine method in 211 positive blood cultures we identified 23 types of microorganisms (Staphylococcus (n = 87), Enterobacteria- ceae (n = 71), Enterococci (n = 20), non-fermentative Gram-negative bacteria (n = 18), others (n = 5). The average time of incubation of samples to obtain a signal of a blood culture growth was 16.2 ± 7.4 h (from 3.75 to 51 hours.) During the first 12 hours of incubation, growth was obtained in 32.4% of the samples, and on the first day in 92.2%. In the direct mass spectrometric analysis mnonocomponental blood cultures (n = 201) is well defined up to 153 species of the sample (76.1%), while the share of successful identification of Gram-negative bacteria was higher than that of Gram-positive (85.4 and 69, 1%, respectively p = 0.01). The high degree of consistency in the results of standard and direct method of identifying blood cultures using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry (κ = 0.96, p direct mass spectrometric analysis, including sample preparation, was no longer than 1 hour: The method of direct MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry allows to significantly speed up

Association of different types of milk feeding with blood culture positive neonatal sepsis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anwar, M.; Waheed, K.A.I.; Rehman, A.

2014-01-01

To ascertain and compare microbial growth pattern in blood culture of septic neonates who were either totally breast or formula fed. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: The Children's Hospital Lahore, Pakistan from Feb 2012 to Dec 2012. Methodology: All clinically septic neonates, who were either exclusively breast fed or formula fed, were enrolled in the study. They were divided into two groups and studied for the type of organisms grown on blood culture. Group-A were breast fed and group-B were formula fed. Neonates who were blood culture negative or had growth of multiple organisms or had incomplete data or who died / left against medical advice before completing the required data or babies receiving milk feeding from multiple sources or no feeding at all were excluded. BACTEC technique was used for obtaining bacterial growth. SPSS version 19 was used for statistical analysis. Results: A total of 380 clinically septic neonates were enrolled. Each group consisted of 190 subjects. Incidence of culture positive sepsis in breast fed and in formula fed was 6.7% and 15.7% respectively (p-value = 0.0001). Overall, gram-negative organisms constituted the majority (16.1%). Thirty seven percent cultures grew coagulase negative Staphylococcus (CoNS) followed by Klebsiella spp (23.4%). In group A, gram-negative and gram-positive organisms were equally distributed whilst in group-B, gram-negative organisms were three times more frequent than gram-positive organisms. Predominant pattern of organisms was also different in the two groups. In group-A, CoNS was predominant while in group-B, Klebsiella spp. was most frequent. Conclusion: Culture positive sepsis is more than two times greater in formula fed babies and is caused predominantly by gram-negative organisms whilst in breast fed babies, CoNS is the commonest organism. (author)

Positive cross-cultural psychology: Exploring similarity\\ud and difference in constructions and experiences of wellbeing

OpenAIRE

Lomas, Tim

2015-01-01

Critical theorists have accused positive psychology of paying insufficient attention to cultural variation in the way wellbeing is constructed and experienced. While there may be some\\ud merit to this claim, the field has developed a more nuanced appreciation of culture than its critics suggest. However, it could also be argued that positive psychology has not sufficiently appreciated or absorbed the wealth of literature within cross-cultural psychology pertaining to\\ud wellbeing. This paper ...

Promoting success or preventing failure: cultural differences in motivation by positive and negative role models.

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Lockwood, Penelope; Marshall, Tara C; Sadler, Pamela

2005-03-01

In two studies, cross-cultural differences in reactions to positive and negative role models were examined. The authors predicted that individuals from collectivistic cultures, who have a stronger prevention orientation, would be most motivated by negative role models, who highlight a strategy of avoiding failure; individuals from individualistic cultures, who have a stronger promotion focus, would be most motivated by positive role models, who highlight a strategy of pursuing success. In Study 1, the authors examined participants' reported preferences for positive and negative role models. Asian Canadian participants reported finding negative models more motivating than did European Canadians; self-construals and regulatory focus mediated cultural differences in reactions to role models. In Study 2, the authors examined the impact of role models on the academic motivation of Asian Canadian and European Canadian participants. Asian Canadians were motivated only by a negative model, and European Canadians were motivated only by a positive model.

Direct identification of bacteria from positive BacT/ALERT blood culture bottles using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

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Mestas, Javier; Felsenstein, Susanna; Bard, Jennifer Dien

2014-11-01

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry is a fast and robust method for the identification of bacteria. In this study, we evaluate the performance of a laboratory-developed lysis method (LDT) for the rapid identification of bacteria from positive BacT/ALERT blood culture bottles. Of the 168 positive bottles tested, 159 were monomicrobial, the majority of which were Gram-positive organisms (61.0% versus 39.0%). Using a cut-off score of ≥1.7, 80.4% of the organisms were correctly identified to the species level, and the identification rate of Gram-negative organisms (90.3%) was found to be significantly greater than that of Gram-positive organisms (78.4%). The simplicity and cost-effectiveness of the LDT enable it to be fully integrated into the routine workflow of the clinical microbiology laboratory, allowing for rapid identification of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria within an hour of blood culture positivity. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Depressive symptoms and positive affect in Chinese and United States breast cancer survivors: a cross-cultural comparison.

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Milbury, Kathrin; Kavanagh, April; Meng, Zhiqiang; Chen, Zhen; Chandwani, Kavita D; Garcia, Kay; Perkins, George H; McQuade, Jennifer; Raghuram, Nelamangala V; Nagarathna, Raghuram; Liao, Zhongxing; Nagendra, Hongasandra Ramarao; Chen, Jiayi; Guo, Xiaoma; Liu, Luming; Arun, Banu; Cohen, Lorenzo

2017-07-01

Research in the area of cultural response pattern on questionnaires in the oncological setting and direct cross-cultural comparisons are lacking. This study examined response pattern in the reporting of depressive symptoms in Chinese and US women with breast cancer. We hypothesized that Chinese women are less likely to endorse positive affect items compared to their US counterparts. Additionally, we explored cultural differences in the association between positive affect and QOL. Secondary analyses of baseline assessments of two mind-body intervention studies for women with breast cancer undergoing radiotherapy in the USA (N = 62) and China (N = 97) are presented. All participants completed measures of depressive symptoms (CES-D) and cancer-specific QOL (FACT-B). We examined cultural differences on positive and negative affect items on the CES-D. Controlling for demographic factors, ANCOVA revealed a significant cultural difference in positive (F = 7.99, p = 0.005) but not negative affect (p = 0.82) with Chinese women reporting lower positive affect compared to US women (Chinese = 6.97 vs. US = 8.31). There was also a significant cultural difference (F = 3.94, p = 0.03) in the association between positive affect and QOL so that lower positive affect was more strongly associated with worse emotional well-being in Chinese (beta = 0.57, p different cultures to ascertain effective delivery of clinical services to those in need.

Water filtration rate and infiltration/accumulation of low density lipoproteins in 3 different modes of endothelial/smooth muscle cell co-cultures.

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Ding, ZuFeng; Fan, YuBo; Deng, XiaoYan

2009-11-01

Using different endothelial/smooth muscle cell co-culture modes to simulate the intimal structure of blood vessels, the water filtration rate and the infiltration/accumulation of LDL of the cultured cell layers were studied. The three cell culture modes of the study were: (i) The endothelial cell monolayer (EC/Phi); (ii) endothelial cells directly co-cultured on the smooth muscle cell monolayer (EC-SMC); (iii) endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells cultured on different sides of a Millicell-CM membrane (EC/SMC). It was found that under the same condition, the water filtration rate was the lowest for the EC/SMC mode and the highest for the EC/Phi mode, while the infiltration/accumulation of DiI-LDLs was the lowest in the EC/Phi mode and the highest in the EC-SMC mode. It was also found that DiI-LDL infiltration/accumulation in the cultured cell layers increased with the increasing water filtration rate. The results from the in vitro model study therefore suggest that the infiltration/accumulation of the lipids within the arterial wall is positively correlated with concentration polarization of atherogenic lipids, and the integrity of the endothelium plays an important role in the penetration and accumulation of atherogenic lipids in blood vessel walls.

Use of Selective Fungal Culture Media Increases Rates of Detection of Fungi in the Respiratory Tract of Cystic Fibrosis Patients.

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Hong, Gina; Miller, Heather B; Allgood, Sarah; Lee, Richard; Lechtzin, Noah; Zhang, Sean X

2017-04-01

The prevalence of fungi in the respiratory tracts of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients has risen. However, fungal surveillance is not routinely performed in most clinical centers in the United States, which may lead to an underestimation of the true prevalence of the problem. We conducted a prospective study comparing the rates of detection for clinically important fungi (CIF), defined as Aspergillus , Scedosporium , and Trichosporon species and Exophiala dermatitidis , in CF sputa using standard bacterial and selective fungal culture media, including Sabouraud dextrose agar with gentamicin (SDA), inhibitory mold agar (IMA), and brain heart infusion (BHI) agar with chloramphenicol and gentamicin. We described the prevalence of these fungi in an adult CF population. A total of 487 CF respiratory samples were collected from 211 unique participants. CIF were detected in 184 (37.8%) samples. Only 26.1% of CIF-positive samples were detected in bacterial culture medium, whereas greater rates of detection for fungi were found in IMA (65.8%; P culture media and longer incubation periods yielded higher rates of detection for CIF in CF sputum samples compared with that detected in bacterial culture medium, resulting in an underdetection of fungi by bacterial culture alone. The prevalence of fungi in CF may be better estimated by using selective fungal culture media, and this may translate to important clinical decisions. Copyright © 2017 American Society for Microbiology.

Time course of radiometric detection of positive blood cultures in childhood

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meadow, W.L.; Schwartz, I.K.

1986-01-01

We have determined the time course of radiometric detection of microbial growth in 2348 positive blood culture specimens obtained at Wyler Children's Hospital during a 5-year interval. Overall 72 and 88% of isolates were detected within 48 and 72 hours after sampling, respectively. For pathogenic organisms aerobic detection was generally more rapid and more inclusive than anaerobic detection. At 48 hours of incubation the detection of six potential pathogens (Salmonella sp., Haemophilus influenzae, Group D streptococci, Neisseria meningitidis, coagulase-negative staphylococci, Candida sp.) was significantly delayed compared with detection of other pathogenic organisms recovered from blood. At 72 hours of incubation the detection rates remained less than 95% for H. influenzae, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella sp., coagulase-negative staphylococci, Group D streptococci and Candida sp. These data should assist clinical decisions regarding duration of antibiotic therapy for the presumptive diagnosis of bacteremia in children

Time course of radiometric detection of positive blood cultures in childhood

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Meadow, W.L.; Schwartz, I.K.

1986-05-01

We have determined the time course of radiometric detection of microbial growth in 2348 positive blood culture specimens obtained at Wyler Children's Hospital during a 5-year interval. Overall 72 and 88% of isolates were detected within 48 and 72 hours after sampling, respectively. For pathogenic organisms aerobic detection was generally more rapid and more inclusive than anaerobic detection. At 48 hours of incubation the detection of six potential pathogens (Salmonella sp., Haemophilus influenzae, Group D streptococci, Neisseria meningitidis, coagulase-negative staphylococci, Candida sp.) was significantly delayed compared with detection of other pathogenic organisms recovered from blood. At 72 hours of incubation the detection rates remained less than 95% for H. influenzae, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella sp., coagulase-negative staphylococci, Group D streptococci and Candida sp. These data should assist clinical decisions regarding duration of antibiotic therapy for the presumptive diagnosis of bacteremia in children.

Concordance Between Administrator and Clinician Ratings of Organizational Culture and Climate.

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Beidas, Rinad S; Williams, Nathaniel J; Green, Philip D; Aarons, Gregory A; Becker-Haimes, Emily M; Evans, Arthur C; Rubin, Ronnie; Adams, Danielle R; Marcus, Steven C

2018-01-01

Organizational culture and climate are important determinants of behavioral health service delivery for youth. The Organizational Social Context measure is a well validated assessment of organizational culture and climate that has been developed and extensively used in public sector behavioral health service settings. The degree of concordance between administrators and clinicians in their reports of organizational culture and climate may have implications for research design, inferences, and organizational intervention. However, the extent to which administrators' and clinicians' reports demonstrate concordance is just beginning to garner attention in public behavioral health settings in the United States. We investigated the concordance between 73 administrators (i.e., supervisors, clinical directors, and executive directors) and 247 clinicians in 28 child-serving programs in a public behavioral health system. Findings suggest that administrators, compared to clinicians, reported more positive cultures and climates. Organizational size moderated this relationship such that administrators in small programs (climate in contrast to administrators in large programs (≥466 youth clients served annually) who reported more positive cultures and climates than clinicians. We propose a research agenda that examines the effect of concordance between administrators and clinicians on organizational outcomes in public behavioral health service settings.

Cultural humility: measuring openness to culturally diverse clients.

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Hook, Joshua N; Davis, Don E; Owen, Jesse; Worthington, Everett L; Utsey, Shawn O

2013-07-01

Building on recent theory stressing multicultural orientation, as well as the development of virtues and dispositions associated with multicultural values, we introduce the construct of cultural humility, defined as having an interpersonal stance that is other-oriented rather than self-focused, characterized by respect and lack of superiority toward an individual's cultural background and experience. In 4 studies, we provide evidence for the estimated reliability and construct validity of a client-rated measure of a therapist's cultural humility, and we demonstrate that client perceptions of their therapist's cultural humility are positively associated with developing a strong working alliance. Furthermore, client perceptions of their therapist's cultural humility were positively associated with improvement in therapy, and this relationship was mediated by a strong working alliance. We consider implications for research, practice, and training. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Cross-cultural validation of the positivity-scale in five European countries

OpenAIRE

Heikamp, Tobias; Alessandri, Guido; Laguna, Mariola; Petrovic, Vesna; Caprara, Maria Giovanna; Trommsdorff, Gisela

2014-01-01

The aim of the present paper was to test the cross-cultural validity of the Positivity-Scale (P-Scale), a new nquestionnaire designed for the measurement of positivity (i.e., general tendency to evaluate self, life, and future in a positive way). Participants (N = 3544) from Italy, Germany, Spain, Poland, and Serbia answered eight items of the P-Scale and responded to items from other well-validated measures. Confirmatory Factor Analysis supported the assumed one-factor structure of the P-Sca...

A simple method for rapid microbial identification from positive monomicrobial blood culture bottles through matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

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Lin, Jung-Fu; Ge, Mao-Cheng; Liu, Tsui-Ping; Chang, Shih-Cheng; Lu, Jang-Jih

2017-06-30

Rapid identification of microbes in the bloodstream is crucial in managing septicemia because of its high disease severity, and direct identification from positive blood culture bottles through matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) can shorten the turnaround time. Therefore, we developed a simple method for rapid microbiological identification from positive blood cultures by using MALDI-TOF MS. We modified previously developed methods to propose a faster, simpler and more economical method, which includes centrifugation and hemolysis. Specifically, our method comprises two-stage centrifugation with gravitational acceleration (g) at 600g and 3000g, followed by the addition of a lysis buffer and another 3000g centrifugation. In total, 324 monomicrobial bacterial cultures were identified. The success rate of species identification was 81.8%, which is comparable with other complex methods. The identification success rate was the highest for Gram-negative aerobes (85%), followed by Gram-positive aerobes (78.2%) and anaerobes (67%). The proposed method requires less than 10 min, costs less than US$0.2 per usage, and facilitates batch processing. We conclude that this method is feasible for clinical use in microbiology laboratories, and can serve as a reference for treatments or further complementary diagnostic testing. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Central line-associated bloodstream infections in adult hematology patients with febrile neutropenia: an evaluation of surveillance definitions using differential time to blood culture positivity.

Science.gov (United States)

Freeman, Joshua T; Elinder-Camburn, Anna; McClymont, Catherine; Anderson, Deverick J; Bilkey, Mary; Williamson, Deborah A; Berkahn, Leanne; Roberts, Sally A

2013-01-01

We used differential time to positivity between central and peripheral blood cultures to evaluate the positive predictive value (PPV) of the National Healthcare Safety Network central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) surveillance definition among hematology patients with febrile neutropenia. The PPV was 27.7%, which suggests that, when the definition is applied to this population, CLABSI rates will be substantially overestimated.

Laboratory Workflow Analysis of Culture of Periprosthetic Tissues in Blood Culture Bottles.

Science.gov (United States)

Peel, Trisha N; Sedarski, John A; Dylla, Brenda L; Shannon, Samantha K; Amirahmadi, Fazlollaah; Hughes, John G; Cheng, Allen C; Patel, Robin

2017-09-01

Culture of periprosthetic tissue specimens in blood culture bottles is more sensitive than conventional techniques, but the impact on laboratory workflow has yet to be addressed. Herein, we examined the impact of culture of periprosthetic tissues in blood culture bottles on laboratory workflow and cost. The workflow was process mapped, decision tree models were constructed using probabilities of positive and negative cultures drawn from our published study (T. N. Peel, B. L. Dylla, J. G. Hughes, D. T. Lynch, K. E. Greenwood-Quaintance, A. C. Cheng, J. N. Mandrekar, and R. Patel, mBio 7:e01776-15, 2016, https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.01776-15), and the processing times and resource costs from the laboratory staff time viewpoint were used to compare periprosthetic tissues culture processes using conventional techniques with culture in blood culture bottles. Sensitivity analysis was performed using various rates of positive cultures. Annualized labor savings were estimated based on salary costs from the U.S. Labor Bureau for Laboratory staff. The model demonstrated a 60.1% reduction in mean total staff time with the adoption of tissue inoculation into blood culture bottles compared to conventional techniques (mean ± standard deviation, 30.7 ± 27.6 versus 77.0 ± 35.3 h per month, respectively; P < 0.001). The estimated annualized labor cost savings of culture using blood culture bottles was $10,876.83 (±$337.16). Sensitivity analysis was performed using various rates of culture positivity (5 to 50%). Culture in blood culture bottles was cost-effective, based on the estimated labor cost savings of $2,132.71 for each percent increase in test accuracy. In conclusion, culture of periprosthetic tissue in blood culture bottles is not only more accurate than but is also cost-saving compared to conventional culture methods. Copyright © 2017 American Society for Microbiology.

Cultural Humility and Hospital Safety Culture.

Science.gov (United States)

Hook, Joshua N; Boan, David; Davis, Don E; Aten, Jamie D; Ruiz, John M; Maryon, Thomas

2016-12-01

Hospital safety culture is an integral part of providing high quality care for patients, as well as promoting a safe and healthy environment for healthcare workers. In this article, we explore the extent to which cultural humility, which involves openness to cultural diverse individuals and groups, is related to hospital safety culture. A sample of 2011 hospital employees from four hospitals completed measures of organizational cultural humility and hospital safety culture. Higher perceptions of organizational cultural humility were associated with higher levels of general perceptions of hospital safety, as well as more positive ratings on non-punitive response to error (i.e., mistakes of staff are not held against them), handoffs and transitions, and organizational learning. The cultural humility of one's organization may be an important factor to help improve hospital safety culture. We conclude by discussing potential directions for future research.

Positive mental health: is there a cross-cultural definition?

Science.gov (United States)

Vaillant, George E

2012-06-01

SEVEN MODELS FOR CONCEPTUALIZING POSITIVE MENTAL HEALTH ARE REVIEWED: mental health as above normal, epitomized by a DSM-IV's Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) score of over 80; mental health as the presence of multiple human strengths rather than the absence of weaknesses; mental health conceptualized as maturity; mental health as the dominance of positive emotions; mental health as high socio-emotional intelligence; mental health as subjective well-being; mental health as resilience. Safeguards for the study of mental health are suggested, including the need to define mental health in terms that are culturally sensitive and inclusive, and the need to empirically and longitudinally validate criteria for mental health.

Patient safety culture assessment in oman.

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Mandhari, Ahmed; Al-Zakwani, Ibrahim; Al-Kindi, Moosa; Tawilah, Jihane; Dorvlo, Atsu S S; Al-Adawi, Samir

2014-07-01

To illustrate the patient safety culture in Oman as gleaned via 12 indices of patient safety culture derived from the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSPSC) and to compare the average positive response rates in patient safety culture between Oman and the USA, Taiwan, and Lebanon. This was a cross-sectional research study employed to gauge the performance of HSPSC safety indices among health workers representing five secondary and tertiary care hospitals in the northern region of Oman. The participants (n=398) represented different professional designations of hospital staff. Analyses were performed using univariate statistics. The overall average positive response rate for the 12 patient safety culture dimensions of the HSPSC survey in Oman was 58%. The indices from HSPSC that were endorsed the highest included 'organizational learning and continuous improvement' while conversely, 'non-punitive response to errors' was ranked the least. There were no significant differences in average positive response rates between Oman and the United States (58% vs. 61%; p=0.666), Taiwan (58% vs. 64%; p=0.386), and Lebanon (58% vs. 61%; p=0.666). This study provides the first empirical study on patient safety culture in Oman which is similar to those rates reported elsewhere. It highlights the specific strengths and weaknesses which may stem from the specific milieu prevailing in Oman.

Patient Safety Culture Assessment in Oman

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Mandhari, Ahmed; Al-Zakwani, Ibrahim; Al-Kindi, Moosa; Tawilah, Jihane; Dorvlo, Atsu S.S.; Al-Adawi, Samir

2014-01-01

Objective To illustrate the patient safety culture in Oman as gleaned via 12 indices of patient safety culture derived from the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSPSC) and to compare the average positive response rates in patient safety culture between Oman and the USA, Taiwan, and Lebanon. Methods This was a cross-sectional research study employed to gauge the performance of HSPSC safety indices among health workers representing five secondary and tertiary care hospitals in the northern region of Oman. The participants (n=398) represented different professional designations of hospital staff. Analyses were performed using univariate statistics. Results The overall average positive response rate for the 12 patient safety culture dimensions of the HSPSC survey in Oman was 58%. The indices from HSPSC that were endorsed the highest included ‘organizational learning and continuous improvement’ while conversely, ‘non-punitive response to errors’ was ranked the least. There were no significant differences in average positive response rates between Oman and the United States (58% vs. 61%; p=0.666), Taiwan (58% vs. 64%; p=0.386), and Lebanon (58% vs. 61%; p=0.666). Conclusion This study provides the first empirical study on patient safety culture in Oman which is similar to those rates reported elsewhere. It highlights the specific strengths and weaknesses which may stem from the specific milieu prevailing in Oman. PMID:25170407

Evolution of cultural traits occurs at similar relative rates in different world regions.

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Currie, Thomas E; Mace, Ruth

2014-11-22

A fundamental issue in understanding human diversity is whether or not there are regular patterns and processes involved in cultural change. Theoretical and mathematical models of cultural evolution have been developed and are increasingly being used and assessed in empirical analyses. Here, we test the hypothesis that the rates of change of features of human socio-cultural organization are governed by general rules. One prediction of this hypothesis is that different cultural traits will tend to evolve at similar relative rates in different world regions, despite the unique historical backgrounds of groups inhabiting these regions. We used phylogenetic comparative methods and systematic cross-cultural data to assess how different socio-cultural traits changed in (i) island southeast Asia and the Pacific, and (ii) sub-Saharan Africa. The relative rates of change in these two regions are significantly correlated. Furthermore, cultural traits that are more directly related to external environmental conditions evolve more slowly than traits related to social structures. This is consistent with the idea that a form of purifying selection is acting with greater strength on these more environmentally linked traits. These results suggest that despite contingent historical events and the role of humans as active agents in the historical process, culture does indeed evolve in ways that can be predicted from general principles.

Reducing time to identification of positive blood cultures with MALDI-TOF MS analysis after a 5-h subculture.

Science.gov (United States)

Verroken, A; Defourny, L; Lechgar, L; Magnette, A; Delmée, M; Glupczynski, Y

2015-02-01

Speeding up the turn-around time of positive blood culture identifications is essential in order to optimize the treatment of septic patients. Several sample preparation techniques have been developed allowing direct matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) identification of positive blood cultures. Yet, the hands-on time restrains their routine workflow. In this study, we evaluated an approach whereby MALDI-TOF MS identification without any additional steps was carried out on short subcultured colonies from positive blood bottles with the objective of allowing results reporting on the day of positivity detection. Over a 7-month period in 2012, positive blood cultures detected by 9 am with an automated system were inoculated onto a Columbia blood agar and processed after a 5-h incubation on a MALDI-TOF MicroFlex platform (Bruker Daltonik GmbH). Single-spotted colonies were covered with 1 μl formic acid and 1 μl matrix solution. The results were compared to the validated identification techniques. A total of 925 positive blood culture bottles (representing 470 bacteremic episodes) were included. Concordant identification was obtained in 727 (81.1 %) of the 896 monomicrobial blood cultures, with failure being mostly observed with anaerobes and yeasts. In 17 episodes of polymicrobic bacteremia, the identification of one of the two isolates was achieved in 24/29 (82.7 %) positive cultures. Routine implementation of MALDI-TOF MS identification on young positive blood subcultures provides correct results to the clinician in more than 80 % of the bacteremic episodes and allows access to identification results on the day of blood culture positivity detection, potentially accelerating the implementation of targeted clinical treatments.

The ligase chain reaction as a primary screening tool for the detection of culture positive tuberculosis.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

O'Connor, T M

2012-02-03

BACKGROUND: The ligase chain reaction Mycobacterium tuberculosis assay uses ligase chain reaction technology to detect tuberculous DNA sequences in clinical specimens. A study was undertaken to determine its sensitivity and specificity as a primary screening tool for the detection of culture positive tuberculosis. METHODS: The study was conducted on 2420 clinical specimens (sputum, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, pleural fluid, urine) submitted for primary screening for Mycobacterium tuberculosis to a regional medical microbiology laboratory. Specimens were tested in parallel with smear, ligase chain reaction, and culture. RESULTS: Thirty nine patients had specimens testing positive by the ligase chain reaction assay. Thirty two patients had newly diagnosed tuberculosis, one had a tuberculosis relapse, three had tuberculosis (on antituberculous therapy when tested), and three had healed tuberculosis. In the newly diagnosed group specimens were smear positive in 21 cases (66%), ligase chain reaction positive in 30 cases (94%), and culture positive in 32 cases (100%). Using a positive culture to diagnose active tuberculosis, the ligase chain reaction assay had a sensitivity of 93.9%, a specificity of 99.8%, a positive predictive value of 83.8%, and a negative predictive value of 99.9%. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the largest clinical trial to date to report the efficacy of the ligase chain reaction as a primary screening tool to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. The authors conclude that ligase chain reaction is a useful primary screening test for tuberculosis, offering speed and discrimination in the early stages of diagnosis and complementing traditional smear and culture techniques.

Rapid identification of bacteria from positive blood culture bottles by use of matrix-assisted laser desorption-ionization time of flight mass spectrometry fingerprinting.

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Christner, Martin; Rohde, Holger; Wolters, Manuel; Sobottka, Ingo; Wegscheider, Karl; Aepfelbacher, Martin

2010-05-01

Early and adequate antimicrobial therapy has been shown to improve the clinical outcome in bloodstream infections (BSI). To provide rapid pathogen identification for targeted treatment, we applied matrix-assisted laser desorption-ionization time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry fingerprinting to bacteria directly recovered from blood culture bottles. A total of 304 aerobic and anaerobic blood cultures, reported positive by a Bactec 9240 system, were subjected in parallel to differential centrifugation with subsequent mass spectrometry fingerprinting and reference identification using established microbiological methods. A representative spectrum of bloodstream pathogens was recovered from 277 samples that grew a single bacterial isolate. Species identification by direct mass spectrometry fingerprinting matched reference identification in 95% of these samples and worked equally well for aerobic and anaerobic culture bottles. Application of commonly used score cutoffs to classify the fingerprinting results led to an identification rate of 87%. Mismatching mostly resulted from insufficient bacterial numbers and preferentially occurred with Gram-positive samples. The respective spectra showed low concordance to database references and were effectively rejected by score thresholds. Spiking experiments and examination of the respective study samples even suggested applicability of the method to mixed cultures. With turnaround times around 100 min, the approach allowed for reliable pathogen identification at the day of blood culture positivity, providing treatment-relevant information within the critical phase of septic illness.

Utility of gastric aspirates for diagnosing tuberculosis in children in a low prevalence area: predictors of positive cultures and significance of non-tuberculous mycobacteria.

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Kordy, Faisal; Richardson, Susan E; Stephens, Derek; Lam, Ray; Jamieson, Frances; Kitai, Ian

2015-01-01

In countries with low rates of tuberculosis (TB), yields of gastric aspirates (GAs) for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) culture are low. The significance of non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) isolated from GA is uncertain. We reviewed clinical, microbiologic and radiologic data for children who underwent GA between 1999 and 2011 at Sick Kids, Toronto. Radiologic features of cases were compared with those of age matched controls. 785 GAs were obtained from 285 patients of whom 20 (7%) had positive MTB cultures: in 15 patients the GA was the only positive culture for MTB. Of 15 culture-positive patients who underwent exactly 3 GAs, MTB was isolated from the first lavage in 10 (67%), only from the second in 3 (20%) and only from the third in 2 (13%). On univariate analysis, miliary disease and intrathoracic lymphadenopathy were associated with a positive GA MTB culture. On multiple conditional logistic regression analysis, adenopathy remained significant (OR 10.2 [95% CI 2.0-51.4] p =0.005). Twelve patients had NTM isolated, most commonly M. avium complex: none had evidence of invasive NTM disease during a median duration of 12 months of follow-up. Causal pathogens different from the GA NTM culture were isolated from biopsies or bronchoalveolar lavage in 3. GAs continue to be important for TB diagnosis in children. Three GAs have a yield better than 1. Those with miliary or disseminated TB and intrathoracic lymphadenopathy have highest yields. NTM isolates from GA are likely unimportant and can be clinically misleading.

Cultural values and performance appraisal: assessing the effects of rater self-construal on performance ratings.

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Mishra, Vipanchi; Roch, Sylvia G

2013-01-01

Much of the prior research investigating the influence of cultural values on performance ratings has focused either on conducting cross-national comparisons among raters or using cultural level individualism/collectivism scales to measure the effects of cultural values on performance ratings. Recent research has shown that there is considerable within country variation in cultural values, i.e. people in one country can be more individualistic or collectivistic in nature. Taking the latter perspective, the present study used Markus and Kitayama's (1991) conceptualization of independent and interdependent self-construals as measures of individual variations in cultural values to investigate within culture variations in performance ratings. Results suggest that rater self-construal has a significant influence on overall performance evaluations; specifically, raters with a highly interdependent self-construal tend to show a preference for interdependent ratees, whereas raters high on independent self-construal do not show a preference for specific type of ratees when making overall performance evaluations. Although rater self-construal significantly influenced overall performance evaluations, no such effects were observed for specific dimension ratings. Implications of these results for performance appraisal research and practice are discussed.

Commentary on Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Positive Youth Development With Implications for Intervention Research.

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Koller, Silvia H; Verma, Suman

2017-07-01

There is a growing focus on youth positive development issues among researchers and practitioners around the world. In this special issue of Child Development, each of the international authors provides new perspectives and understanding about youth developmental assets in different cultural settings. The present commentary (a) examines some of the cross-cultural themes that emerge from the four articles by international authors in this issue with implications for positive youth development (PYD) and (b) how intervention science can benefit by incorporating a PYD approach. As evident, youth involved in contexts that provide positive resources from significant others not only were less likely to exhibit negative outcomes, but also were more likely to show evidence of positive development. © 2017 The Authors. Child Development © 2017 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

The sensitivity of direct identification from positive BacT/ALERT™ (bioMérieux) blood culture bottles by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry is low.

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Szabados, F; Michels, M; Kaase, M; Gatermann, S

2011-02-01

Recently, matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) has been presented as a novel method for the direct identification of bacteria from positive blood culture bottles. The rate of the MALDI TOF MS-based identification in the present study from positive BacT/ALERT (bioMérieux, Marcy l'Etoile, France) blood culture bottles was 30%, which is far below the previously reported sensitivities using the BACTEC (Becton Dickinson, Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA) system. We also found evidence that the Biotyper algorithm did not identify a second pathogen in cases of positive BacT/ALERT blood culture bottles containing two different species. © 2010 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2010 European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

Association between cultural distance and migrant self-rated health.

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Detollenaere, Jens; Baert, Stijn; Willems, Sara

2018-03-01

We study whether migrant health in Europe is associated with the cultural distance between their host country and country of origin. To this end, we run multilevel regression models on data merging self-rated health and social background of ≥3800 migrants from the European Social Survey with an index of cultural distance based on country differences in values, norms and attitudes measured in the World Values Survey. We find that higher levels of cultural distance are associated with worse migrant health. This association is comparable in size with the negative association between health and female (compared with male) gender but less important than the association between health and education level. In addition, this association is less significant among second-generation than first-generation migrants.

Utility of Acridine Orange staining for detection of bacteria from positive blood cultures.

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Neeraja, M; Lakshmi, V; Padmasri, C; Padmaja, K

2017-08-01

The diagnostic performance of AO stain was evaluated for the detection of bacteria and or fungi from positive blood cultures. The sensitivity of Gram stain (GS) was 98.26% while Acridine Orange (AO) stain proved to be more sensitive (100%) with a Positive and Negative Predictive Value of 100% each. The specificity of both the stains was 100%. Overall agreement between the two stains was 98.23% (688/700). The organisms that were missed by GS and positive by AO were Candida species (Sutton, 2006) and Gram negative bacilli (GNB) (Sutton, 2006). Sensitivity of GS was 82.35% and AO was 100% among mixed cultures. Immediate reporting of the results of AO stain would have a significant impact on clinical management of patients with serious blood stream infections. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Negotiating cultures: disclosure of HIV-positive status among people from minority ethnic communities in Sydney.

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Körner, Henrike

2007-01-01

Because of the multiple stigma attached to HIV/AIDS, disclosure of HIV-positive serostatus is a considerable social risk for those who disclose. While HIV/AIDS-related stigma affects all HIV-positive people, for people from minority cultures additional cultural factors may play a significant role in self-disclosure. This paper draws on data from semi-structured, in-depth interviews with HIV-positive people from minority cultures in Sydney. Disclosure decisions were influenced by gender, sexual orientation, as well as cultural background. Gay men drew on both collectivist and individualist notions of interdependence and self-reliance in different socio-cultural contexts. This enabled them to accommodate the imperative to maintain harmony with the family and meet their individual needs for support. Heterosexual men who had disclosed voluntarily or involuntarily experienced discrimination and avoidance, and interdependence with family and ethnic community was disrupted. Heterosexual women disclosed to no one outside the health care system and were anxious to avoid any disclosure in the future. For all participants, voluntary and involuntary disclosure caused potential and actual disruption of relationships with their families and ethnic communities. The paper concludes by arguing for an ecological perspective of health in which decisions are not located in rational decision making alone but in the broader context of family and community.

Position and Development of Digital Film under the Perspective of Social Culture

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

罗淞译

2015-01-01

Digital iflm starts late in our country,and there is a big gap between the existing digital iflm mode and that of developed countries. To blend social culture into the development of digital iflm can promote a new mode of iflm industry to develop and stimulate the transformation of modern science and technology of TV. Combining social culture elements,this paper analyses the position of digital iflm,summarizes its principles of market development and put forward feasible strategies.

Demographics of cattle positive for Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis by faecal culture, from submissions to the Cork Regional Veterinary Laboratory

Science.gov (United States)

2009-01-01

The demography of bovine infections caused by Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) in Ireland is poorly defined. The objective of this study was to describe the demographics of cattle positive to MAP on faecal culture, based on submissions to the Cork Regional Veterinary Laboratory (Cork RVL) from 1994 to 2006. The study focused on all available faecal samples from adult cattle with non-responsive chronic diarrhoea that were submitted by private veterinary practitioners to Cork RVL for MAP culture. For each MAP-positive by faecal culture animal, data were collated from Cork RVL and Cattle Movement Monitoring Scheme (CMMS) records. Johne's disease (JD) was confirmed in 110 animals from 86 herds by the Cork RVL between 1994 and 2006, with a rate of positive cases between 15% and 18% over last four years of the study. Two breeds (Holstein/Friesian or Limousin) made up 78% of submissions. Movements were assessed for the 57 study animals with available movement information, 90% died within one year of the test and 26% tested positive in the herd they were born into. The study provides preliminary information about movement trends and demographics of animals with MAP positive submissions. Although the study area is restricted, it includes the most intensive (and economically-important) dairy region in Ireland. The demographics of JD infection from the study area are in agreement with international reports. Further work is required to determine demographic trends, incidence and prevalence of JD throughout Ireland. It is hoped this work may contribute to the development of a surveillance strategy for MAP by regional veterinary laboratories. PMID:21851736

Yoruba culture and the resilience of HIV-positive adolescent girls in Nigeria.

Science.gov (United States)

Adegoke, Catherine O; Steyn, Miemsie G

2018-02-01

Although there is a growing body of research exploring the influence of culture on the resilience of African youth, few studies have examined how culture constrains or enables resilience among HIV-positive adolescent girls from the perspective of the young women themselves. This paper reports on the findings from a qualitative study of five purposively selected girls living with HIV in Ibadan, Nigeria. By analysing data drawn mainly from interviews and observations, we explored how cultural influences promote or limit resilience in participants. Social-ecological resilience theory was used to document and interpret the findings. While some cultural values and perceptions enable resilience, others constrain participants' resilience trajectories. However, the girls were able to navigate through these constraints using their cultural identities and coping strategies, such as future dreams, emotional and physical resources linked to spirituality and networks of friends and families. Findings have implications for policymakers, researchers and programmers in strengthening the health and resilience of young people in the face of HIV.

Egg positive rate of Enterobius vermicularis of primary school children in Geoje island

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Bong Jin; Lee, Bo Young; Chung, Hyun Kee; Lee, Young Sun; Lee, Kun Hee; Chung, Hae Jin

2003-01-01

The status of pinworm (Enterobius vermicularis) egg positive rate of primary school children in Geoje island was investigated by using adhesive cellotape anal swap method, in September, 2002. Total egg positive rates of E. vermicularis were 9.8% (74/754) and those of male and female were 10.8% and 8.7%, respectively. Among three schools examined, Myeongsa primary school showed the highest egg positive rate (12.6%) followed by Yeoncho [9.8% (26/266)] and Geoje [9.1% (35/385)]. As for the age groups, the 2nd grade had the highest egg positive rate (15.3%), whereas the 5th grade showed the lowest egg positive rate (2.6%). The above result led us to confirm that the egg positive rates of E. vermicularis in primary school children in Geoje island were not significantly different from the those in the whole country including urban and rural areas, showing more than 10%. PMID:12666734

Incidence of gastroesophageal reflux disease and positive maxillary antral cultures in children with symptoms of chronic rhinosinusitis.

Science.gov (United States)

Nation, Javan; Kaufman, Michael; Allen, Meredith; Sheyn, Anthony; Coticchia, James

2014-02-01

Studies have shown that gastroesophageal reflux disease occurs more frequently than expected in children with chronic rhinosinusitis. The objective of this study is to further understand the relationship of pediatric chronic rhinosinusitis and gastroesophageal reflux disease in children with symptoms of rhinorrhea, nasal congestion, and chronic cough. A retrospective chart review of 63 children, ages 6 months to 10 years old with rhinorrhea, nasal congestion, and chronic cough. The patients underwent maxillary cultures, adenoidectomy, and distal third esophageal biopsies. Children with esophageal biopsies showing esophagitis were classified as positive for gastroesophageal reflux disease, and maxillary antral swabs growing a high density of bacteria were classified as positive for chronic rhinosinusitis. Six months to 5 years old children (n=43), 6 (14%) had simultaneous positive maxillary antral cultures and positive esophageal biopsies, 11 (26%) had positive esophageal biopsies alone, 23 (53%) had positive maxillary antral cultures alone, and 3 (7%) had neither. Six to 10 years old children (n=20), 9 (45%) had simultaneous positive maxillary antral cultures and positive esophageal biopsies, 1 (5%) patient had positive esophageal biopsies alone, 3 (15%) patients had positive maxillary antral cultures alone, and 7 (35%) patients had neither. Twenty-seven (42%) of the patients from the whole study had gastroesophageal reflux positive biopsies. The younger children were statistically likely to have chronic rhinosinusitis and gastroesophageal reflux disease independently of each other (p=0.0002). A direct group comparison found the younger group to have independent chronic rhinosinusitis and gastroesophageal reflux disease and the older group to have simultaneous chronic rhinosinusitis and gastroesophageal reflux disease (p=0.0006). In children with the presenting symptoms of rhinorrhea, nasal congestion, and chronic cough, younger children tend to have either chronic

Reduced ratings of physical and relational aggression for youths with a strong cultural identity: evidence from the Naskapi people.

Science.gov (United States)

Flanagan, Tara; Iarocci, Grace; D'Arrisso, Alexandra; Mandour, Tarek; Tootoosis, Curtis; Robinson, Sandy; Burack, Jacob A

2011-08-01

Minority youth in general, and Aboriginal youth in particular, are at increased statistical risk for being perpetrators or victims of aggression. We examined the potential protective aspect of cultural identity in relation to peer ratings of physical and relational aggression and factors typically associated with each among almost the entire cohort of Naskapi youths from Kawawachikamach, Québec. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that a strong identity with their own Native culture predicted less perceived physical and social aggression by their peers. These findings are discussed in the context of the role of a positive affiliation with ancestral culture for the diminishment of adolescent aggression and for general adaptive development and well-being. Copyright © 2011 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Comparison of the clinical and microbiological characteristics of Campylobacter and Helicobacter bacteremia: the importance of time to blood culture positivity using the BACTEC blood culture systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Yamamoto, Kei; Hayakawa, Kayoko; Nagashima, Maki; Shimada, Kayo; Kutsuna, Satoshi; Takeshita, Nozomi; Kato, Yasuyuki; Kanagawa, Shuzo; Yamada, Koji; Mezaki, Kazuhisa; Kirikae, Teruo; Ohmagari, Norio

2017-11-28

Campylobacter spp. and Helicobacter spp. are rare but important causes of bacteremia in humans. Distinguishing these bacteria is complicated because of their similar phenotypic profiles. We conducted clinical and microbiological investigations of Campylobacter spp. or Helicobacter spp. bacteremia. Patients diagnosed with bacteremia from 2008 to 2014 were included. The clinical and microbiological characteristics of Campylobacter spp. and Helicobacter spp. bacteremia were compared. The BACTEC system was used in blood cultures. A receiver operating characteristic curve was plotted based on the time to blood culture positivity. Sixteen cases of Helicobacter spp. bacteremia (patient age: 61 ± 18 years) and 14 cases of Campylobacter spp. bacteremia (patient age: 49 ± 21 years) were identified. Median time to blood culture positivity was longer for the Helicobacter spp. cases than the Campylobacter spp. cases (91.4 h vs 55.3 h, p culture positivity > 75 h predicted Helicobacter spp. bacteremia with a sensitivity of 0.88 and a specificity of 0.93 (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.90). In conclusion, a time to blood culture positivity was useful in distinguishing Helicobacter spp. bacteremia from Campylobacter spp. bacteremia.

False-Positive Rate of AKI Using Consensus Creatinine–Based Criteria

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Jennie; Fernandez, Hilda; Shashaty, Michael G.S.; Negoianu, Dan; Testani, Jeffrey M.; Berns, Jeffrey S.; Parikh, Chirag R.

2015-01-01

Background and objectives Use of small changes in serum creatinine to diagnose AKI allows for earlier detection but may increase diagnostic false–positive rates because of inherent laboratory and biologic variabilities of creatinine. Design, setting, participants, & measurements We examined serum creatinine measurement characteristics in a prospective observational clinical reference cohort of 2267 adult patients with AKI by Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes creatinine criteria and used these data to create a simulation cohort to model AKI false–positive rates. We simulated up to seven successive blood draws on an equal population of hypothetical patients with unchanging true serum creatinine values. Error terms generated from laboratory and biologic variabilities were added to each simulated patient’s true serum creatinine value to obtain the simulated measured serum creatinine for each blood draw. We determined the proportion of patients who would be erroneously diagnosed with AKI by Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes creatinine criteria. Results Within the clinical cohort, 75.0% of patients received four serum creatinine draws within at least one 48-hour period during hospitalization. After four simulated creatinine measurements that accounted for laboratory variability calculated from assay characteristics and 4.4% of biologic variability determined from the clinical cohort and publicly available data, the overall false–positive rate for AKI diagnosis was 8.0% (interquartile range =7.9%–8.1%), whereas patients with true serum creatinine ≥1.5 mg/dl (representing 21% of the clinical cohort) had a false–positive AKI diagnosis rate of 30.5% (interquartile range =30.1%–30.9%) versus 2.0% (interquartile range =1.9%–2.1%) in patients with true serum creatinine values false–positive rates caused by inherent variability of serum creatinine at higher baseline values, potentially misclassifying patients with CKD in AKI studies. PMID

False-Positive Rate of AKI Using Consensus Creatinine-Based Criteria.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Jennie; Fernandez, Hilda; Shashaty, Michael G S; Negoianu, Dan; Testani, Jeffrey M; Berns, Jeffrey S; Parikh, Chirag R; Wilson, F Perry

2015-10-07

Use of small changes in serum creatinine to diagnose AKI allows for earlier detection but may increase diagnostic false-positive rates because of inherent laboratory and biologic variabilities of creatinine. We examined serum creatinine measurement characteristics in a prospective observational clinical reference cohort of 2267 adult patients with AKI by Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes creatinine criteria and used these data to create a simulation cohort to model AKI false-positive rates. We simulated up to seven successive blood draws on an equal population of hypothetical patients with unchanging true serum creatinine values. Error terms generated from laboratory and biologic variabilities were added to each simulated patient's true serum creatinine value to obtain the simulated measured serum creatinine for each blood draw. We determined the proportion of patients who would be erroneously diagnosed with AKI by Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes creatinine criteria. Within the clinical cohort, 75.0% of patients received four serum creatinine draws within at least one 48-hour period during hospitalization. After four simulated creatinine measurements that accounted for laboratory variability calculated from assay characteristics and 4.4% of biologic variability determined from the clinical cohort and publicly available data, the overall false-positive rate for AKI diagnosis was 8.0% (interquartile range =7.9%-8.1%), whereas patients with true serum creatinine ≥1.5 mg/dl (representing 21% of the clinical cohort) had a false-positive AKI diagnosis rate of 30.5% (interquartile range =30.1%-30.9%) versus 2.0% (interquartile range =1.9%-2.1%) in patients with true serum creatinine values false-positive rates caused by inherent variability of serum creatinine at higher baseline values, potentially misclassifying patients with CKD in AKI studies. Copyright © 2015 by the American Society of Nephrology.

Endoplasmic Reticulum-Associated rht-PA Processing in CHO Cells: Influence of Mild Hypothermia and Specific Growth Rates in Batch and Chemostat Cultures.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mauricio Vergara

Full Text Available Chinese hamster ovary (CHO cells are the main host for producing recombinant proteins with human therapeutic applications mainly because of their capability to perform proper folding and glycosylation processes. In addition, mild hypothermia is one of the main strategies for maximising the productivity of these systems. However, little information is available on the effect of culture temperature on the folding and degradation processes of recombinant proteins that takes place in the endoplasmic reticulum.In order to evaluate the effect of the mild hypothermia on processing/endoplasmatic reticulum-associated degradation (ERAD processes, batch cultures of CHO cells producing recombinant human tissue plasminogen activator (rht-PA were carried out at two temperatures (37°C and 33°C and treated with specific inhibitors of glycosylation and ERAD I (Ubiquitin/Proteasome system or ERAD II (Autophagosoma/Lisosomal system pathways. The effect of mild hypothermia was analysed separately from its indirect effect on specific cell growth rate. To do this, chemostat cultures were carried out at the same incubation conditions as the batch cultures, controlling cell growth at high (0.017 h-1 and low (0.012 h-1 dilution rates. For a better understanding of the investigated phenomenon, cell behaviour was also analysed using principal component analysis (PCA.Results suggest that rht-PA is susceptible to degradation by both ERAD pathways studied, revealing that processing and/or ERAD processes are sensitive to temperature cultivation in batch culture. Moreover, by isolating the effect of culture temperature from the effect of cell growth rate verifyed by using chemostat cultures, we have found that processing and/or ERAD processes are more sensitive to reduction in specific growth rate than low temperature, and that temperature reduction may have a positive effect on protein processing. Interestingly, PCA indicated that the integrated performance displayed by CHO

The effect of air bubble position after blastocyst transfer on pregnancy rates in IVF cycles.

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Friedman, Brooke E; Lathi, Ruth B; Henne, Melinda B; Fisher, Stephanie L; Milki, Amin A

2011-03-01

To investigate the relationship between air bubble position after blastocyst transfer (BT) and pregnancy rates (PRs). Retrospective cohort study. University-based infertility center. Three hundred fifteen consecutive nondonor BTs by a single provider. Catheters were loaded with 25 μL of culture media, 20 μL of air, 25 μL of media containing the blastocysts, 20 μL of air, and a small amount of additional media. The distance from the air bubble to the fundus, as seen on abdominal ultrasound examination, was measured at the time of transfer. Air bubble location was categorized as 20 mm from the fundus. Clinical pregnancy rate. After controlling for age, parity, FSH and frozen transfers, and accounting for repeated cycles per patient, the PRs for both the >20-mm (38.3%) and the 10-20-mm (42.0%) from the fundus group were significantly reduced compared with the group in which the bubble was Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Clonal variation in proliferation rate of cultures of GPK cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Riley, P A; Hola, M

1981-09-01

Pedigrees of twenty-six clones of a line of keratocytes derived from guinea-pig ear epidermis (GPK cells) were analysed from time-lapse film. The mean interdivision time (IDT) for the culture was 1143 +/- 215 (SD) min. The mean generation rates (mean reciprocal interdivision times) of clones varied over a range of 3.93--10.2 x 10(-4)/min and the standard deviation of the clonal mean generation rates was 16.8% of the average value. Transient intraclonal variations in IDT due to mitoses in a plane perpendicular to the substratum were observed. The data were also analysed on the basis of cell location in sixteen equal zones (quadrats) of the filmed area. The mean generation rate of quadrats was 8.73 x 10(-4)/min (SD = 4.9%). The spatial distribution showed some clustering of cells. The mean local density of the clones (2.25 +/- 0.62 cells/10(-4) cm2) was significantly higher than the quadrat density (1.76 +/- 0.8 cells/10(-4) cm2). There was no significant correlation between clonal density and mean generation rates, whereas for quadrats a significant negative correlation was found (P = 2.7%). The results support the proposition that cell lineage is the major determinant of the proliferation rate of subconfluent cultures.

Assessment of sputum smear-positive but culture-negative results among newly diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis patients in Tanzania

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mnyambwa NP

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Nicholaus Peter Mnyambwa,1,2 Esther S Ngadaya,2 Godfather Kimaro,2 Dong-Jin Kim,1 Rudovick Kazwala,3 Pammla Petrucka,1,4 Sayoki G Mfinanga2 1School of Life Sciences and Bioengineering, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, Arusha, Tanzania; 2National Institute for Medical Research, Muhimbili Medical Research Center, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; 3Department of Veterinary Medicine, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania; 4College of Nursing, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada Abstract: Diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB in technology-limited countries is widely achieved by smear microscopy, which has limited sensitivity and specificity. The frequency and clinical implication of smear-positive but culture-negative among presumptive TB patients remains unclear. A cross-sectional substudy was conducted which aimed to identify the proportion of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM infections among 94 “smear-positive culture-negative” patients diagnosed between January 2013 and June 2016 in selected health facilities in Tanzania. Out of 94 sputa, 25 (26.60% were GeneXpert® mycobacteria TB positive and 11/94 (11.70% repeat-culture positive; 5 were Capilia TB-Neo positive and confirmed by GenoType MTBC to be Mycobacterium tuberculosis/Mycobacterium canettii. The remaining 6 Capilia TB-Neo negative samples were genotyped by GenoType® CM/AS, identifying 3 (3.19% NTM, 2 Gram positive bacteria, and 1 isolate testing negative, together, making a total of 6/94 (6.38% confirmed false smear-positives. Twenty-eight (29.79% were confirmed TB cases, while 60 (63.83% remained unconfirmed cases. Out of 6 (6.38% patients who were HIV positive, 2 patients were possibly coinfected with mycobacteria. The isolation of NTM and other bacteria among smear-positive culture-negative samples and the presence of over two third of unconfirmed TB cases emphasize the need of both advanced differential TB diagnostic techniques and

Can slide positivity rates predict malaria transmission?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bi Yan

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Malaria is a significant threat to population health in the border areas of Yunnan Province, China. How to accurately measure malaria transmission is an important issue. This study aimed to examine the role of slide positivity rates (SPR in malaria transmission in Mengla County, Yunnan Province, China. Methods Data on annual malaria cases, SPR and socio-economic factors for the period of 1993 to 2008 were obtained from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC and the Bureau of Statistics, Mengla, China. Multiple linear regression models were conducted to evaluate the relationship between socio-ecologic factors and malaria incidence. Results The results show that SPR was significantly positively associated with the malaria incidence rates. The SPR (β = 1.244, p = 0.000 alone and combination (SPR, β = 1.326, p  Conclusion SPR is a strong predictor of malaria transmission, and can be used to improve the planning and implementation of malaria elimination programmes in Mengla and other similar locations. SPR might also be a useful indicator of malaria early warning systems in China.

Cultural Branding as a Key in Positioning Schools: A Conceptual Model

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Hidayatun

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The increase of people’s prosperity and education creates a change in their view about education and the need towards it. Consequently, their choice of educational institutions becomes more selective. On the other hand, the competition in this field becomes more viable due to the growth of the educational institutions. The management strategy should be evaluated. This paper discusses the interfaces between culture and school, especially those that refer to the branding. The study was carried out on a premise that creating a bond between the school and community is possible by adopting the culture in a formal education environment. This effort is expected to help schools to get a certain position in the community. Therefore, this study attempts to promote a conceptual model of cultural branding in schools and to reveal the reasons why the model becomes an effective marketing strategy in this era.

Impact of antibiotic administration on blood culture positivity at the beginning of sepsis: a prospective clinical cohort study.

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Scheer, Christian S; Fuchs, Christian; Gründling, Matthias; Vollmer, Marcus; Bast, Juliane; Bohnert, Jürgen A; Zimmermann, Kathrin; Hahnenkamp, Klaus; Rehberg, Sebastian; Kuhn, Sven-Olaf

2018-06-04

Sepsis guidelines recommend obtaining blood cultures before starting anti-infective therapy in patients with sepsis. However, little is known how antibiotic treatment prior to sampling affects bacterial growth. The aim of this study was to compare the results of blood cultures drawn prior to and under antibiotic therapy. Prospective clinical cohort study of septic patients. Adult ICU patients with 2 or 3 blood culture (BC) sets at the beginning of sepsis between 2010 and 2017 were included. Patients with blood culture samplings obtained prior to antibiotic therapy were compared to patients with samplings under antibiotic therapy. Blood culture positivity, defined as microbiological pathogen finding, was compared between the groups. Logistic regression was performed to adjust the impact of different factors with respect to blood culture positivity. In total, 559 patients with 1364 blood culture sets at the beginning of sepsis were analyzed. BC positivity was 50.6% (78/154) among septic patients who did not receive antibiotics and only 27.7% (112/405) in those who were already under antibiotics (Pcultures under antibiotic therapy is associated with a significant loss of pathogen detection. This strongly emphasizes the current recommendation to obtain blood cultures prior to antibiotic administration in patients with sepsis. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Exploring the Legionella pneumophila positivity rate in hotel water samples from Antalya, Turkey.

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Sepin Özen, Nevgün; Tuğlu Ataman, Şenay; Emek, Mestan

2017-05-01

The genus Legionella is a fastidious Gram-negative bacteria widely distributed in natural waters and man made water supply systems. Legionella pneumophila is the aetiological agent of approximately 90% of reported Legionellosis cases, and serogroup 1 is the most frequent cause of infections. Legionnaires' disease is often associated with travel and continues to be a public health concern at present. The correct water management quality practices and rapid methods for analyzing Legionella species in environmental water is a key point for the prevention of Legionnaires' disease outbreaks. This study aimed to evaluate the positivity rates and serotyping of Legionella species from water samples in the region of Antalya, Turkey, which is an important tourism center. During January-December 2010, a total of 1403 samples of water that were collected from various hotels (n = 56) located in Antalya were investigated for Legionella pneumophila. All samples were screened for L. pneumophila by culture method according to "ISO 11731-2" criteria. The culture positive Legionella strains were serologically identified by latex agglutination test. A total of 142 Legionella pneumophila isolates were recovered from 21 (37.5%) of 56 hotels. The total frequency of L. pneumophila isolation from water samples was found as 10.1%. Serological typing of 142 Legionella isolates by latex agglutination test revealed that strains belonging to L. pneumophila serogroups 2-14 predominated in the examined samples (85%), while strains of L. pneumophila serogroup 1 were less numerous (15%). According to our knowledge, our study with the greatest number of water samples from Turkey demonstrates that L. pneumophila serogroups 2-14 is the most common isolate. Rapid isolation of L. pneumophila from environmental water samples is essential for the investigation of travel related outbreaks and the possible resources. Further studies are needed to have epidemiological data and to determine the types of L

The validity and structure of culture-level personality scores: data from ratings of young adolescents.

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McCrae, Robert R; Terracciano, Antonio; De Fruyt, Filip; De Bolle, Marleen; Gelfand, Michele J; Costa, Paul T

2010-06-01

We examined properties of culture-level personality traits in ratings of targets (N=5,109) ages 12 to 17 in 24 cultures. Aggregate scores were generalizable across gender, age, and relationship groups and showed convergence with culture-level scores from previous studies of self-reports and observer ratings of adults, but they were unrelated to national character stereotypes. Trait profiles also showed cross-study agreement within most cultures, 8 of which had not previously been studied. Multidimensional scaling showed that Western and non-Western cultures clustered along a dimension related to Extraversion. A culture-level factor analysis replicated earlier findings of a broad Extraversion factor but generally resembled the factor structure found in individuals. Continued analysis of aggregate personality scores is warranted.

HIV, HCV, HBV and syphilis rate of positive donations among blood donations in Mali: lower rates among volunteer blood donors.

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Diarra, A; Kouriba, B; Baby, M; Murphy, E; Lefrere, J-J

2009-01-01

Good data on background seroprevalence of major transfusion transmitted infections is lacking in Mali. We gathered data on the rate of positive donations of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), hepatitis B virus (HBV) and syphilis among blood donations in Mali for calendar year 2007. Donations with repeatedly reactive results on screening enzyme immunoassay (EIA) were considered to be seropositive. Rate of positive donations per blood unit collected was 2.6% for HIV, 3.3% for HCV, 13.9% for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and 0.3% for syphilis. For HIV, HBsAg and syphilis, rate of positive donations was significantly (pdonations from replacement donors than those from volunteer donors, while HCV rate of positive donations was similar in the two groups. Rate of positive donations was also significantly (p<0.0001) lower in blood units from regular than from first-time donors. These data reinforce WHO recommendations for increasing the number of regular, volunteer blood donors in Africa.

  Antibiotica Impregnated Shunts effectively reduces positive cultures from External Ventricular Drainage

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Preben; Gulisano, Helga Angela; Ejlertsen, Tove

-samples were collected every day. Samples was obtained from the line away from the patient and cultered on agar plates for six days in both aerobic and aerobic environment. VAI was defined as positive cultures in CSF.   Results A total of 485 patients were included. No significant differences in gender, age....... The frequency of VAI differs in the literature between x and 21.1 % depending mainly on methods of diagnosis.     Methods A prospective study with historical controls. From 1.1.2001 to 31.9.2007 patients was treated with standard EVD, and from 1.10.2007 -to 31.9.2008 AIS (Bactiseal, Codman ) was used. CSF...... or diagnosis.   Standard drain: 417 patients. 97 patients had positive CFS-cultures (23.3 %). 10 patients had more than one infection. Most frequent findings was Propionibacterium Acnes, Coagulasenegative Staffyllococci and Staffylococcus Epidermidis accounting for 70,1 % of species.   AIS-drain: 68 patients...

The Clinical Impact of Rapid, Direct MALDI-ToF Identification of Bacteria from Positive Blood Cultures.

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French, Kathryn; Evans, Jason; Tanner, Hannah; Gossain, Savita; Hussain, Abid

2016-01-01

Faster identification of bacterial isolates from blood cultures can enable earlier clinical intervention for patients with sepsis. We evaluated the clinical impact of direct identification of micro-organisms from positive blood cultures using MALDI-ToF. Positive blood cultures with organisms seen on Gram stain were included over a four week period. For each patient case, comparison was made between the clinical advice given on day one with only a Gram stain result, and the follow up advice given on day two with the benefit of organism identification. Culture results were then compared with direct MALDI-ToF identification. For 73 of 115 cases (63.5%), direct organism identification was obtained by MALDI-ToF. Of those 73, 70 (95.5%) had a result concordant with that of the plate culture. In 28 of the 115 cases (24.3%) direct MALDI-ToF identification on day one would have had a clear clinical benefit. In 11 cases it would have helped to identify the potential source of bacteraemia. In 11 cases it would have indicated a different antibiotic regimen on day one, with five patients receiving appropriate antibiotics 24 hours earlier. For 14 cases the blood culture isolate could have been designated as unlikely to be clinically significant. We have demonstrated that organism identification on day one of blood culture positivity can have a direct clinical impact. Faster identification using MALDI-ToF assists the clinician in assessing the significance of a blood culture isolate on day one. It can allow earlier appropriate choice of antimicrobial agent, even in the absence of susceptibility testing, and help narrow down the potential source of infection providing a focus for further investigation in a more timely way than conventional techniques alone.

The Clinical Impact of Rapid, Direct MALDI-ToF Identification of Bacteria from Positive Blood Cultures.

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Kathryn French

Full Text Available Faster identification of bacterial isolates from blood cultures can enable earlier clinical intervention for patients with sepsis. We evaluated the clinical impact of direct identification of micro-organisms from positive blood cultures using MALDI-ToF.Positive blood cultures with organisms seen on Gram stain were included over a four week period. For each patient case, comparison was made between the clinical advice given on day one with only a Gram stain result, and the follow up advice given on day two with the benefit of organism identification. Culture results were then compared with direct MALDI-ToF identification.For 73 of 115 cases (63.5%, direct organism identification was obtained by MALDI-ToF. Of those 73, 70 (95.5% had a result concordant with that of the plate culture. In 28 of the 115 cases (24.3% direct MALDI-ToF identification on day one would have had a clear clinical benefit. In 11 cases it would have helped to identify the potential source of bacteraemia. In 11 cases it would have indicated a different antibiotic regimen on day one, with five patients receiving appropriate antibiotics 24 hours earlier. For 14 cases the blood culture isolate could have been designated as unlikely to be clinically significant.We have demonstrated that organism identification on day one of blood culture positivity can have a direct clinical impact. Faster identification using MALDI-ToF assists the clinician in assessing the significance of a blood culture isolate on day one. It can allow earlier appropriate choice of antimicrobial agent, even in the absence of susceptibility testing, and help narrow down the potential source of infection providing a focus for further investigation in a more timely way than conventional techniques alone.

L-Carnosine reduces telomere damage and shortening rate in cultured normal fibroblasts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shao Lan; Li Qinghuan; Tan Zheng

2004-01-01

Telomere is the repetitive DNA sequence at the end of chromosomes, which shortens progressively with cell division and limits the replicative potential of normal human somatic cells. L-Carnosine, a naturally occurring dipeptide, has been reported to delay the replicative senescence, and extend the lifespan of cultured human diploid fibroblasts. In this work, we studied the effect of carnosine on the telomeric DNA of cultured human fetal lung fibroblast cells. Cells continuously grown in 20 mM carnosine exhibited a slower telomere shortening rate and extended lifespan in population doublings. When kept in a long-term nonproliferating state, they accumulated much less damages in the telomeric DNA when cultured in the presence of carnosine. We suggest that the reduction in telomere shortening rate and damages in telomeric DNA made an important contribution to the life-extension effect of carnosine

A indústria cultural lida pela cultura erudita: tomadas de posição e ideologia * Culture industry read by high culture: positions and ideology

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MARIA LUÍSA CARNEIRO FUMANERI

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Resumo: Muitos intelectuais têm discutido o problema da compreensão da cultura de massa como uma forma de alienação. Desde a "Dialética do esclarecimento" de Adorno e Horkheimer, tende-se a entender cultura de massa em oposição à alta cultura. Este artigo tenta mostrar como uma compreensão menos estanque do fenômeno poderia ajudar a ver o problema como ele aparece hoje. Se “cultura de massa” e “alta cultura” parecem, em muitos aspectos, inextricavelmente confundidas atualmente, este trabalho baseia-se na teoria sociológica, a fim de esclarecer as posições dos agentes no campo de produção erudita.Palavras-chave: Cultura de massa – Alta cultura – Indústria cultural. Abstract: Many intellectuals have been discussing the problem of understanding mass culture as a way to alienation. Since Adorno and Horkheimer´s "Dialectic of Enlightenment", we tend to understand mass culture in opposition to high culture. This article tries to show how a less tight understanding of the phenomena could help us to look at the problem as it appears today. If mass culture and high culture seem, in many ways, inextricably mixed these days, this work relies on some sociological works, in order to enlighten the agents’ positions within the cultural field.Keywords: Mass culture – High culture – Culture industry.

Transfer of human frozen-thawed embryos with further cleavage during culture increases pregnancy rates

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Bharat V Joshi

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Aim: To compare the pregnancy rate following transfer of frozen-thawed embryos with or without overnight culture after thawing. Settings and Design: This is a retrospective analysis of frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET cycles performed between January 2006 and December 2008. Materials and Methods: Out of 518 thaw cycles, 504 resulted in embryo transfers (ETs. Of the total FET cycles, 415 were performed after an overnight culture of embryos (group A; and in 89 cycles, ET was performed within 2 hours of embryo thawing (group B. Statistical Analysis: The data were statistically analyzed using chi-square test. Results: We observed that with FET, women ≤30 years of age had a significantly higher (P=0.003 pregnancy rate (PR=28.9% as compared to women >30 years of age (17.5%. A significantly higher (P<0.001FNx08 pregnancy rate was also observed in women receiving 3 frozen-thawed embryos (29% as compared to those who received less than 3 embryos (10.7%. The difference in PR between group A (PR=24.3% and group B (PR=20.3% was not statistically significant. However, within group A, ET with cleaved embryos showed significantly ( P≤0.01 higher pregnancy rate compared to the uncleaved embryos, depending on the number of cleaved embryos transferred. Conclusion: No significant difference was noticed between FETs made with transfer of embryos with overnight culture and those without culture. However, within the cultured group, transfer of embryos cleaved during overnight culture gave significantly higher PR than transfers without any cleavage.

Evaluation of three sample preparation methods for the direct identification of bacteria in positive blood cultures by MALDI-TOF.

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Tanner, Hannah; Evans, Jason T; Gossain, Savita; Hussain, Abid

2017-01-18

Patient mortality is significantly reduced by rapid identification of bacteria from sterile sites. MALDI-TOF can identify bacteria directly from positive blood cultures and multiple sample preparation methods are available. We evaluated three sample preparation methods and two MALDI-TOF score cut-off values. Positive blood culture bottles with organisms present in Gram stains were prospectively analysed by MALDI-TOF. Three lysis reagents (Saponin, SDS, and SepsiTyper lysis bufer) were applied to each positive culture followed by centrifugation, washing and protein extraction steps. Methods were compared using the McNemar test and 16S rDNA sequencing was used to assess discordant results. In 144 monomicrobial cultures, using ≥2.000 as the cut-off value, species level identifications were obtained from 69/144 (48%) samples using Saponin, 86/144 (60%) using SDS, and 91/144 (63%) using SepsiTyper. The difference between SDS and SepsiTyper was not statistically significant (P = 0.228). Differences between Saponin and the other two reagents were significant (P direct MALDI-TOF identification were observed in monomicrobial cultures. In 32 polymicrobial cultures, MALDI-TOF identified one organism in 34-75% of samples depending on the method. This study demonstrates two inexpensive in-house detergent lysis methods are non-inferior to a commercial kit for analysis of positive blood cultures by direct MALDI-TOF in a clinical diagnostic microbiology laboratory.

Increasing the bit rate in OCDMA systems using pulse position modulation techniques.

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Arbab, Vahid R; Saghari, Poorya; Haghi, Mahta; Ebrahimi, Paniz; Willner, Alan E

2007-09-17

We have experimentally demonstrated two novel pulse position modulation techniques, namely Double Pulse Position Modulation (2-PPM) and Differential Pulse Position Modulation (DPPM) in Time-Wavelength OCDMA systems that will operate at a higher bit rate compared to traditional OOK-OCDMA systems with the same bandwidth. With 2-PPM technique, the number of active users will be more than DPPM while their bit rate is almost the same. Both techniques provide variable quality of service in OCDMA networks.

A new rapid method for direct antimicrobial susceptibility testing of bacteria from positive blood cultures.

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Barnini, Simona; Brucculeri, Veronica; Morici, Paola; Ghelardi, Emilia; Florio, Walter; Lupetti, Antonella

2016-08-12

Rapid identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) of the causative agent(s) of bloodstream infections can lead to prompt appropriate antimicrobial therapy. To shorten species identification, in this study bacteria were recovered from monomicrobial blood cultures by serum separator tubes and spotted onto the target plate for direct MALDI-TOF MS identification. Proper antibiotics were selected for direct AST based on species identification. In order to obtain rapid AST results, bacteria were recovered from positive blood cultures by two different protocols: by serum separator tubes (further referred to as PR1), or after a short-term subculture in liquid medium (further referred to as PR2). The results were compared with those obtained by the method currently used in our laboratory consisting in identification by MALDI-TOF and AST by Vitek 2 or Sensititre on isolated colonies. The direct MALDI-TOF method concordantly identified with the current method 97.5 % of the Gram-negative bacteria and 96.1 % of the Gram-positive cocci contained in monomicrobial blood cultures. The direct AST by PR1 and PR2 for all isolate/antimicrobial agent combinations was concordant/correct with the current method for 87.8 and 90.5 % of Gram-negative bacteria and for 93.1 and 93.8 % of Gram-positive cocci, respectively. In particular, 100 % categorical agreement was found with levofloxacin for Enterobacteriaceae by both PR1 and PR2, and 99.0 and 100 % categorical agreement was observed with linezolid for Gram-positive cocci by PR1 and PR2, respectively. There was no significant difference in accuracy between PR1 and PR2 for Gram-negative bacteria and Gram-positive cocci. This newly described method seems promising for providing accurate AST results. Most importantly, these results would be available in a few hours from blood culture positivity, which would help clinicians to promptly confirm or streamline an effective antibiotic therapy in patients with bloodstream

Types of cultural capital and self-rated health among disadvantaged women in outer Beirut, Lebanon.

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Khawaja, Marwan; Mowafi, Mona

2007-01-01

This study extends research on the social determinants of health by exploring the association between a new, potentially very significant dimension, cultural capital by type, and self-rated health among low-income women living in outer Beirut, Lebanon. Self-rated general health was assessed using household data from a cross-sectional survey of 1869 women, conducted in 2003. Three types of cultural capital were included: watching cultural TV programs, producing art (e.g. drawing, theatre performance), and consuming art or literature (e.g. attending exhibitions, reading literary books). Associations between self-rated health status and types of cultural capital were assessed using odds ratios from binary logistic regression models. With the exception of art production, lack of cultural capital increased the odds of self-perceived poor health status adjusting for sociodemographics and other risk factors. The adjusted odds ratios were 1.86 (95% CI 1.07-3.22) for not watching cultural TV programs and 1.52 (95% CI 1.12-2.06) for not consuming art. As expected, health-risk factors, age, social support, and community of residence were also associated with health status. Two types of cultural capital were strong predictors of self-perceived health status among women living in poor urban communities, regardless of social capital, income, and other relevant risk factors.

Assessment of patient safety culture in primary care setting, Al-Mukala, Yemen.

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Webair, Hana H; Al-Assani, Salwa S; Al-Haddad, Reema H; Al-Shaeeb, Wafa H; Bin Selm, Manal A; Alyamani, Abdulla S

2015-10-13

Patient safety culture in primary care is the first step to achieve high quality health care. This study aims to provide a baseline assessment of patient safety culture in primary care settings in Al-Mukala, Yemen as a first published study from a least developed country. A survey was conducted in primary healthcare centres and units in Al-Mukala District, Yemen. A comprehensive sample from the available 16 centres was included. An Arabic version of the Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture was distributed to all health workers (110). Participants were physicians, nurses and administrative staff. The response rate from the participating centres was 71 %. (N = 78). The percent positive responses of the items is equal to the percentage of participants who answered positively. Composite scores were calculated by averaging the percent positive response on the items within a dimension. Positive safety culture was defined as 60 % or more positive responses on items or dimensions. Patient safety culture was perceived to be generally positive with the exception of the dimensions of 'Communication openness', 'Work pressure and pace' and 'Patient care tracking/follow-up', as the percent positive response of these dimensions were 58, 57, and 52 % respectively. Overall, positive rating on quality and patient safety were low (49 and 46 % respectively). Although patient safety culture in Al-Mukala primary care setting is generally positive, patient safety and quality rating were fairly low. Implementation of a safety and quality management system in Al-Mukala primary care setting are paramount. Further research is needed to confirm the applicability of the Medical Office Survey on Patient Safety Culture (MOSPSC) for Al-Mukala primary care.

Dose-rate effects in plateau-phase cultures of S3 HeLa and V79 cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mitchell, J.B.; Bedford, J.S.; Bailey, S.M.

1979-01-01

Dose-rate effects on cell survival were studied for log-, fed plateau-, and unfed plateau-phase cultures of V79 and S3 HeLa cells. For log-phase cultures, repair, cell-cycle redistribution, and cell division during exposure can contribute to the overall dose-rate effect, but their relative contributions are difficult to determine. With plateau-phase cultures, the cell-cycle times are greatly lengthened, for those cells that are in cycle. Hence, the contribution to the overall dose-rate effect of cell-cycle redistribution and cell division during the exposure could be minimized using plateau-phase cultures. With respect to the acute dose-survival curves, there was a clear loss in effectiveness when the dose rate was lowered to 154 rad/hr for both fed and unfed plateau-phase HeLa and V79 cells. There was no further reduction in effectiveness per unit dose, however, when the dose rate was reduced to 55 rad/hr. Since there was virtually no cell division or cell-cycle redistribution, it may be that a limit to the repair-dependent dose-rate effect at 37 0 C has been reached at a dose rate of 154 rad/hr

Culture confirmation of tuberculosis cases in Birmingham, UK.

Science.gov (United States)

Hayer, Kalbir S; Sitch, Alice J; Dedicoat, Martin; Wood, Annette L

2013-10-01

The proportion of culture-confirmed tuberculosis (TB) cases in Birmingham had gradually decreased to less than 65% in 2008. Reasons for this were unclear, therefore this study assessed diagnostic methods used for confirming TB and reviewed factors involved in positive culture. A cross-sectional study was carried out. A list of notified TB cases for Birmingham in those aged 16 y and over in 2009 was collated. Where no positive culture was recorded, further data were collected from hospital databases and case notes. Of 449 TB cases, 419 (93%) had samples taken for culture testing. Of all cases, 309 (69%) were confirmed by culture testing; of those receiving culture testing, 73% were confirmed. Pulmonary TB was identified as a predictor of positive culture in both the unadjusted and adjusted analyses: odds ratio (OR) 2.05, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.32-3.19, and OR 2.32, 95% CI 1.29-4.17, respectively. Gender, age, ethnicity, UK born, and treatment delay were not significantly associated with positive culture. Of 140 cases not confirmed by culture, 129 (92%) had their diagnosis supported by at least one other test. The vast majority of TB cases had microbiological specimens taken to help confirm the disease. Furthermore, culture confirmation rates in Birmingham were meeting national targets in 2009. However culture confirmation rates were significantly lower in extrapulmonary TB, therefore further work is suggested in this group. The role of other investigations (e.g. interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA), Mantoux) is unclear. Further collaboration between clinicians, histopathologists, and microbiologists is advised to ensure samples are sent appropriately and culture confirmation is optimized.

A novel embryo culture media supplement that improves pregnancy rates in mice.

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Highet, A R; Bianco-Miotto, T; Pringle, K G; Peura, A; Bent, S; Zhang, J; Nottle, M B; Thompson, J G; Roberts, C T

2017-03-01

The preimplantation embryo in vivo is exposed to numerous growth factors in the female reproductive tract, which are not recapitulated in embryo culture media in vitro The IGF2 and plasminogen activator systems facilitate blastocyst development. We hypothesized that the addition of IGF2 in combination with urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) and plasminogen could improve rates of blastocyst hatching and implantation in mice. B6BcF1 and CBAB6F2 mouse embryos were divided into one of four supplemented culture media treatment groups: (1) control (media only); (2) 12.5 nM IGF2; (3) 10 µg/mL uPA and 5 µg/mL plasminogen; or (4) a combination of IGF2, uPA and plasminogen treatments. Embryo development to blastocyst stage and hatching were assessed before transfer to pseudopregnant recipient females and implantation, pregnancy rates and postnatal growth were assessed. After 90.5 h of culture, IGF2 + U + P treatment increased the percentage of B6BcF1 embryos that were hatching/hatched and percentage developing to blastocyst stage compared with controls (P culture, IGF2, uPA and plasminogen supplementation of culture media can improve pregnancy success, but the effect of treatment is dependent on the mouse strain. © 2017 Society for Reproduction and Fertility.

Negative ratings play a positive role in information filtering

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Zeng, Wei; Zhu, Yu-Xiao; Lü, Linyuan; Zhou, Tao

2011-11-01

The explosive growth of information asks for advanced information filtering techniques to solve the so-called information overload problem. A promising way is the recommender system which analyzes the historical records of users’ activities and accordingly provides personalized recommendations. Most recommender systems can be represented by user-object bipartite networks where users can evaluate and vote for objects, and ratings such as “dislike” and “I hate it” are treated straightforwardly as negative factors or are completely ignored in traditional approaches. Applying a local diffusion algorithm on three benchmark data sets, MovieLens, Netflix and Amazon, our study arrives at a very surprising result, namely the negative ratings may play a positive role especially for very sparse data sets. In-depth analysis at the microscopic level indicates that the negative ratings from less active users to less popular objects could probably have positive impacts on the recommendations, while the ones connecting active users and popular objects mostly should be treated negatively. We finally outline the significant relevance of our results to the two long-term challenges in information filtering: the sparsity problem and the cold-start problem.

Rating Emotion Communication: Display and Concealment as Effects of Culture, Gender, Emotion Type, and Relationship

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arne Vikan

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Students from a collectivistic (Brazilian, n= 401 and an individualistic (Norwegian, n= 418culture rated their ability to display and conceal anger, sadness, and anxiety in relation to immediate family, partner, friends, and "other persons." Norwegians showed higher display ratings for anger and sadness, and higher concealment ratings for anger and anxiety. Display ratings were much higher, and concealment ratings much lower in relation to close persons than in relation to "other persons." A culture x relationship interaction was that Brazilian' ratings suggested more emotional openness to friends than to family and partner, whereas Norwegians showed the inverse patterns. Gender differences supported previous research by showing higher display and lower concealment ratings, and less differentiation between relationships by females.

[The effectiveness of error reporting promoting strategy on nurse's attitude, patient safety culture, intention to report and reporting rate].

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Myoungsoo

2010-04-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of strategies to promote reporting of errors on nurses' attitude to reporting errors, organizational culture related to patient safety, intention to report and reporting rate in hospital nurses. A nonequivalent control group non-synchronized design was used for this study. The program was developed and then administered to the experimental group for 12 weeks. Data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, X(2)-test, t-test, and ANCOVA with the SPSS 12.0 program. After the intervention, the experimental group showed significantly higher scores for nurses' attitude to reporting errors (experimental: 20.73 vs control: 20.52, F=5.483, p=.021) and reporting rate (experimental: 3.40 vs control: 1.33, F=1998.083, porganizational culture and intention to report. The study findings indicate that strategies that promote reporting of errors play an important role in producing positive attitudes to reporting errors and improving behavior of reporting. Further advanced strategies for reporting errors that can lead to improved patient safety should be developed and applied in a broad range of hospitals.

Cultural differences in affect intensity perception in the context of advertising

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Marianna ePogosyan

2011-11-01

Full Text Available Cultural differences in the perception of positive affect intensity within an advertising context were investigated among American, Japanese and Russian participants. Participants were asked to rate the intensity of facial expressions of positive emotions, which displayed either subtle, low intensity or salient, high intensity expressions of positive affect. In agreement with previous findings from cross-cultural psychological research, current results demonstrate both cross-cultural agreement and differences in the perception of positive affect intensity across the three cultures. Specifically, American participants perceived high arousal images as significantly less calm than participants from the other two cultures, while the Japanese participants perceived low arousal images as significantly more excited than participants from the other cultures. The underlying mechanisms of these cultural differences were further investigated through difference scores that probed for cultural differences in perception and categorization of positive emotions. Findings indicate that rating differences are due to (1 perceptual differences in the extent to which high arousal images were discriminated from low arousal images, and (2 categorization differences in the extent to which facial expressions were grouped into affect intensity categories. Specifically, American participants revealed significantly higher perceptual differentiation between arousal levels of facial expressions in high and intermediate intensity categories. Japanese participants, on the other hand, did not discriminate between high and low arousal affect categories to the same extent as did the American and Russian participants. These findings indicate the presence of cultural differences in underlying decoding mechanisms of facial expressions of positive affect intensity. Implications of these results for cross-cultural communication and global advertising are discussed.

Characteristics of culture-positive invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in patients with hematologic diseases: Comparison between Aspergillus fumigatus and non-fumigatus Aspergillus species.

Science.gov (United States)

Cho, Sung-Yeon; Lee, Dong-Gun; Choi, Jae-Ki; Lee, Hyo-Jin; Kim, Si-Hyun; Park, Sun Hee; Choi, Su-Mi; Choi, Jung-Hyun; Yoo, Jin-Hong; Park, Yeon-Joon; Lee, Jong-Wook

2017-12-01

While the epidemiology and clinical differences of various Candida spp. has been relatively well-identified, data regarding invasive aspergillosis (IA) caused by different Aspergillus spp. are insufficient.We aimed to determine the epidemiology of culture-positive invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) and to compare the characteristics and outcomes of Aspergillus fumigatus IPA with those of non-fumigatus IPA in patients with hematologic diseases. All consecutive cases of IPA from 2011 to 2015 were reviewed retrospectively.There were 430 proven/probable IPA and 76 culture-positive proven/probable IPA. Excluding cases of multiple species of fungi or cases having difficulties in species-level identification, 41 A fumigatus and 22 non-fumigatus IPA (Aspergillus flavus [n = 11], Aspergillus niger [n = 6], and Aspergillus terreus [n = 5]) were compared. There were no significant differences in baseline characteristics between the 2 groups. However, disseminated IA was more common in non-fumigatus IPA (2.4% vs 18.2%; P = .046). Paranasal sinus (PNS) involvement was more common in non-fumigatus IPA. There was a trend towards higher peak serum galactomannan values in non-fumigatus IPA than in A fumigatus IPA group (median 1.33 [interquartile 0.98-3.29] vs 0.97 [0.66-1.97]; P = .084). Clinical response and mortality did not differ between groups.The culture-positive rate of proven/probable IPA was 17.7%, of which non-fumigatus Aspergillus accounted for about one-third. Disseminated IA, especially involving the PNS, was more frequent in non-fumigatus IPA than in A fumigatus IPA.

Position specific variation in the rate of evolution intranscription factor binding sites

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Moses, Alan M.; Chiang, Derek Y.; Kellis, Manolis; Lander, EricS.; Eisen, Michael B.

2003-08-28

The binding sites of sequence specific transcription factors are an important and relatively well-understood class of functional non-coding DNAs. Although a wide variety of experimental and computational methods have been developed to characterize transcription factor binding sites, they remain difficult to identify. Comparison of non-coding DNA from related species has shown considerable promise in identifying these functional non-coding sequences, even though relatively little is known about their evolution. Here we analyze the genome sequences of the budding yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae, S. bayanus, S. paradoxus and S. mikataeto study the evolution of transcription factor binding sites. As expected, we find that both experimentally characterized and computationally predicted binding sites evolve slower than surrounding sequence, consistent with the hypothesis that they are under purifying selection. We also observe position-specific variation in the rate of evolution within binding sites. We find that the position-specific rate of evolution is positively correlated with degeneracy among binding sites within S. cerevisiae. We test theoretical predictions for the rate of evolution at positions where the base frequencies deviate from background due to purifying selection and find reasonable agreement with the observed rates of evolution. Finally, we show how the evolutionary characteristics of real binding motifs can be used to distinguish them from artifacts of computational motif finding algorithms. As has been observed for protein sequences, the rate of evolution in transcription factor binding sites varies with position, suggesting that some regions are under stronger functional constraint than others. This variation likely reflects the varying importance of different positions in the formation of the protein-DNA complex. The characterization of the pattern of evolution in known binding sites will likely contribute to the effective use of comparative

Discourses of Anti-corruption in Mexico. Culture of Corruption or Corruption of Culture?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabriela Coronado

2008-02-01

Full Text Available In the context of global capitalism the so-called developing countries are considered ‘commodities’ in offer in the global economy as emerging markets or for foreign investment. Countries need to show they are potentially highly competitive with low risk. The value of country characteristics is set by globalised managerial discourses, based on postcolonial ideologies that rate cultures and societies in terms of linear notions of progress and civilisation. Cultures and behaviours are judged positively or negatively according to the position countries supposedly have in the evolution of world society. In this framework one element that countries need to eradicate or reduce in order to be seen as ‘attractive’ is corruption. Towards this aim international and national government and non-government organisations have put in place anti-corruption campaigns. In communications with the general public, these schemes represent actors and acts of corruption through discursive strategies that characterize world cultures and their links with corruption in terms of postcolonial ideologies. In this paper I focus on the implications of the metaphor ‘culture of corruption’ for rating countries, questioning its effectiveness in anti-corruption campaigns. I argue that anti-corruption instruments based on postcolonial ideologies corrupt representations of national cultures and peoples behaviours, instead of targeting local and global sectors that gain from institutionalised corruption. Through the analysis of anti-corruption cultural texts publicly available in Mexico I illustrate how the ideological misrepresentation of corruption fails its stated aim, to transform a ‘culture of corruption’ into a ‘culture of legality’.

Brand Positioning Through Advertising in Asia, North America, and Europe : The Role of Global Consumer Culture

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Alden, D.L.; Steenkamp, J.E.B.M.; Batra, R.

1999-01-01

In this study, the authors examine the emergence of brand positioning strategies in advertising that parallel the growth of the global marketplace. A new construct, global consumer culture positioning (GCCP), is proposed, operationalized, and tested. This construct associates the brand with a widely

Re-Forming the Boundaries: A Trans-Cultural Comparison of Positive Experiences among Adolescent Males and Females.

Science.gov (United States)

Magen, Zipora

1983-01-01

Presents a cross-cultural study of positive experiences among males and females from Israeli-Arab, Israeli-Jewish, and American samples (N=1094), which revealed that differences between the sexes were in the same direction across the three cultures. The one exception is the life aspiration of Israeli boys, markedly more self-transcending than…

Safety Culture and Senior Leadership Behavior: Using Negative Safety Ratings to Align Clinical Staff and Senior Leadership.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Connor, Shawn; Carlson, Elizabeth

2016-04-01

This report describes how staff-designed behavior changes among senior leaders can have a positive impact on clinical nursing staff and enhance the culture of safety in a community hospital. A positive culture of safety in a hospital improves outcomes for patients and staff. Senior leaders are accountable for developing an environment that supports a culture of safety. At 1 community hospital, surveys demonstrated that staff members did not view senior leaders as supportive of or competent in creating a culture of safety. After approval from the hospital's institutional review board was obtained, clinical nurses generated and selected ideas for senior leader behavior change. The new behaviors were assessed by a convenience sample survey of clinical nurses. In addition, culture of safety survey results were compared. Risk reports and harm events were also measured before and after behavior changes. The volume of risk and near-miss reports increased, showing that clinical staff were more inclined to report events after senior leader communication, access, and visibility increased. Harm events went down. The culture of safety survey demonstrated an improvement in the senior leadership domain in 4 of 6 units. The anonymous convenience survey demonstrated that staff members recognized changes that senior leaders had made and felt that these changes positively impacted the culture of safety. By developing skills in communication, advocacy, visibility, and access, senior leaders can enhance a hospital's culture of safety and create stronger ties with clinical staff.

Positive urine cultures: A major cause of inappropriate antimicrobial use in hospitals?

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Silver, Samuel A; Baillie, Laura; Simor, Andrew E

2009-01-01

Urine specimens are among the most common samples submitted for culture to microbiology laboratories. The objectives of the present study were to describe the indications for obtaining urine cultures in a cohort of hospitalized patients, and to determine the appropriateness of antimicrobial therapy in response to urine culture results. The study was performed at a teaching hospital with an adjoining long-term care facility from June 1 to July 31, 2006. The medical records of nonpregnant adult patients with and without bacteriuria were reviewed. A symptomatic urinary tract infection was defined as the presence of bacteriuria in a patient with fever or urinary symptoms; asymptomatic bacteriuria was defined as bacteriuria without urinary symptoms and no infection evident at another site. Medical records of 335 eligible patients (64% male; mean age 68 years) were reviewed, including all 137 with bacteriuria, and 198 with negative urine cultures. In total, 51% of the urine specimens were obtained from an indwelling urinary catheter, and 28% were voided urine samples. Confusion (57%) and fever (36%) were the most common indications noted for obtaining the urine cultures. Only 34 patients (25% of those with positive urine cultures) met the criteria for a symptomatic urinary tract infection; 67 (49%) had asymptomatic bacteriuria and 36 (26%) had infection at a nonurinary site. Of those with asymptomatic bacteriuria, 64% received antimicrobial therapy for a total of 347 days. Confused patients with asymptomatic bacteriuria were more likely to be treated than were bacteriuric patients without altered mental status (OR 1.8, 95% CI 1.2 to 4.1; P=0.03). Urine cultures are frequently obtained from hospitalizedpatients,evenintheabsenceofurinarysymptoms.Asymptomatic bacteriuria is often treated in these patients, and accounts for a substantial burden of inappropriate antimicrobial use in hospitals. Effective strategies to improve urine culture ordering and antimicrobial

When to perform urine cultures in respiratory syncytial virus-positive febrile older infants?

Science.gov (United States)

Kaluarachchi, Dinushan; Kaldas, Virginia; Erickson, Evelyn; Nunez, Randolph; Mendez, Magda

2014-09-01

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections are associated with clinically significant rate of urinary tract infections (UTIs) in young infants. Previous research investigating RSV infections and UTIs has been performed mainly in infants younger than 2 to 3 months and has not focused on the risk of UTI in infants 3 to 12 months. This study aimed to assess the rate of UTIs in febrile RSV-positive older infants admitted as inpatients and identify predictors of UTI in febrile RSV-positive older infants. This is a retrospective comparative study of febrile RSV-positive infants 0 to 12 months of age admitted to the inpatient pediatric unit of Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center, Bronx, from September through April 2006 to 2012. Infants 3 to 12 months were considered the cases, and infants 0 to 3 months were the comparative group. The rate of UTIs between the 2 groups was compared. Univariate tests and multiple logistic regression were used to identify demographic/clinical factors associated with UTI in febrile RSV-positive older infants. A total of 414 RSV-positive febrile infants were enrolled including 297 infants 3 to 12 months of age. The rate of UTI in older infants was 6.1% compared with 6.8% in infants younger than 3 months. Positive urinalysis finding was an independent predictor of UTI (P = 0.003) in older infants. All 11 boys with UTI were uncircumcised, and none of the 51 circumcised boys had UTI. Demographic (race, sex, and age) and clinical factors (temperature, white blood cell count, and absolute neutrophil count) were not associated with UTI. Febrile older infants who are RSV positive have a clinically significant rate of UTIs. It seems prudent to examine the urine of these older infants. Positive urinalysis finding was a predictive factor of UTI. Circumcised boys are at a decreased risk of UTI, compared with uncircumcised boys.

Cultural differences in affect intensity perception in the context of advertising.

Science.gov (United States)

Pogosyan, Marianna; Engelmann, Jan B

2011-01-01

Cultural differences in the perception of positive affect intensity within an advertising context were investigated among American, Japanese, and Russian participants. Participants were asked to rate the intensity of facial expressions of positive emotions, which displayed either subtle, low intensity, or salient, high intensity expressions of positive affect. In agreement with previous findings from cross-cultural psychological research, current results demonstrate both cross-cultural agreement and differences in the perception of positive affect intensity across the three cultures. Specifically, American participants perceived high arousal (HA) images as significantly less calm than participants from the other two cultures, while the Japanese participants perceived low arousal (LA) images as significantly more excited than participants from the other cultures. The underlying mechanisms of these cultural differences were further investigated through difference scores that probed for cultural differences in perception and categorization of positive emotions. Findings indicate that rating differences are due to (1) perceptual differences in the extent to which HA images were discriminated from LA images, and (2) categorization differences in the extent to which facial expressions were grouped into affect intensity categories. Specifically, American participants revealed significantly higher perceptual differentiation between arousal levels of facial expressions in high and intermediate intensity categories. Japanese participants, on the other hand, did not discriminate between high and low arousal affect categories to the same extent as did the American and Russian participants. These findings indicate the presence of cultural differences in underlying decoding mechanisms of facial expressions of positive affect intensity. Implications of these results for global advertising are discussed.

Arab and Japanese Universities : The "Culture-bound" vs. the "Culture-free" Position

OpenAIRE

Dedoussis, Vagelis; Czerkawski, Chris J.; Vagelis, Dedoussis; Chris J., Czerkawski

2004-01-01

Aspects of the organizational culture of four universities, two in Japan and one each in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, are discussed and compared. The paper argues that organizations established in countries sharing similarities in national cultures are likely to be characterized by similar values, beliefs, and assumptions, in short, that similarities in national cultures are likely to nurture similarities in organizational cultures. Japan and Arab countries are similar with respect to several cu...

Complication of radiation therapy among patients with positive S. aureus culture from genital tract

Science.gov (United States)

Cybulski, Zefiryn; Urbaniak, Iwona; Roszak, Andrzej; Grabiec, Alicja; Talaga, Zofia; Klimczak, Piotr

2012-01-01

Aim The main goal of this investigation was to evaluate the influence of positive Staphylococcus aureus culture from the genital tract on patients receiving radiation therapy, suffering from carcinoma of the uterus. The other aim was to observe radiation therapy complications. Background Radiation therapy of patients suffering from cervical cancer can be connected with inflammation of the genitourinary tract. Materials and methods In years 2006–2010 vaginal swabs from 452 patients were examined. 39 women with positive S. aureus cultures were analysed. Results Complications and interruptions during radiation therapy were observed in 7 (18.9%) of 37 patients with positive vaginal S. aureus culture. One of them, a 46-year-old woman developed pelvic inflammatory disease. None of the six patients who received palliative radiotherapy showed interruption in this treatment. Isolated S. aureus strains were classified into 13 sensitivity patterns, of which 8 were represented by 1 strain, two by 2 strains and three by 13, 8 and 6 strains. One strain was diagnosed as methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA). Conclusions The results of the present study show that S. aureus may generally be isolated from the genital tract of female patients with neoplastic disease of uterus but is not often observed as inflammation factor of this tract. Comparison of species’ resistance patterns may be used in epidemiological studies in order to discover the source of infections and therefore be of profound significance in the prevention of nosocomial infections. PMID:24377025

Evaluation of the Verigene Gram-positive blood culture nucleic acid test for rapid detection of bacteria and resistance determinants.

Science.gov (United States)

Wojewoda, Christina M; Sercia, Linda; Navas, Maria; Tuohy, Marion; Wilson, Deborah; Hall, Geraldine S; Procop, Gary W; Richter, Sandra S

2013-07-01

Rapid identification of pathogens from blood cultures can decrease lengths of stay and improve patient outcomes. We evaluated the accuracy of the Verigene Gram-positive blood culture (BC-GP) nucleic acid test for investigational use only (Nanosphere, Inc., Northbrook, IL) for the identification of Gram-positive bacteria from blood cultures. The detection of resistance genes (mecA in Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis and vanA or vanB in Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis) by the BC-GP assay also was assessed. A total of 186 positive blood cultures (in BacT/Alert FA bottles) with Gram-positive cocci observed with Gram staining were analyzed using the BC-GP assay. The BC-GP results were compared with the identification and susceptibility profiles obtained with routine methods in the clinical laboratory. Discordant results were arbitrated with additional biochemical, cefoxitin disk, and repeat BC-GP testing. The initial BC-GP organism identification was concordant with routine method results for 94.6% of the blood cultures. Only 40% of the Streptococcus pneumoniae identifications were correct. The detection of the mecA gene for 69 blood cultures with only S. aureus or S. epidermidis was concordant with susceptibility testing results. For 3 of 6 cultures with multiple Staphylococcus spp., mecA detection was reported but was correlated with oxacillin resistance in a species other than S. aureus or S. epidermidis. The detection of vanA agreed with susceptibility testing results for 45 of 46 cultures with E. faecalis or E. faecium. Comparison of the mean times to results for each organism group showed that BC-GP results were available 31 to 42 h earlier than phenotypic identifications and 41 to 50 h earlier than susceptibility results.

Rapid identification of bacteria in positive blood culture broths by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry.

Science.gov (United States)

Stevenson, Lindsay G; Drake, Steven K; Murray, Patrick R

2010-02-01

Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry is a rapid, accurate method for identifying bacteria and fungi recovered on agar culture media. We report herein a method for the direct identification of bacteria in positive blood culture broths by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. A total of 212 positive cultures were examined, representing 32 genera and 60 species or groups. The identification of bacterial isolates by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry was compared with biochemical testing, and discrepancies were resolved by gene sequencing. No identification (spectral score of blood culture broth. Of the bacteria with a spectral score of > or = 1.7, 162 (95.3%) of 170 isolates were correctly identified. All 8 isolates of Streptococcus mitis were misidentified as being Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates. This method provides a rapid, accurate, definitive identification of bacteria within 1 h of detection in positive blood cultures with the caveat that the identification of S. pneumoniae would have to be confirmed by an alternative test.

Rapid identification of pneumococci, enterococci, beta-haemolytic streptococci and S. aureus from positive blood cultures enabling early reports

OpenAIRE

Larsson, Marie C.; Karlsson, Ewa; Woksepp, Hanna; Frolander, Kerstin; Mårtensson, Agneta; Rashed, Foad; Annika, Wistedt; Schön, Thomas; Serrander, Lena

2014-01-01

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate diagnostic tests in order to introduce a diagnostic strategy to identify the most common gram-positive bacteria (pneumococci, enterococci, β-haemolytic streptococci and S. aureus) found in blood cultures within 6 hours after signalling growth. METHODS: The tube coagulase test was optimized and several latex agglutination tests were compared and evaluated before a validation period of 11 months was performed on consecutive positive blood cultur...

Evaluation of the LightCycler Staphylococcus M GRADE kits on positive blood cultures that contained gram-positive cocci in clusters.

Science.gov (United States)

Shrestha, Nabin K; Tuohy, Marion J; Padmanabhan, Ravindran A; Hall, Gerri S; Procop, Gary W

2005-12-01

We evaluated the Roche LightCycler Staphylococcus M(GRADE) kits to differentiate between Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase-negative staphylococci in blood cultures growing clusters of gram-positive cocci. Testing 100 bottles (36 containing S. aureus), the assay was 100% sensitive and 98.44% specific for S. aureus and 100% sensitive and specific for coagulase-negative staphylococci.

Influence of culture on contraceptive utilization among HIV-positive women in Brazil, Kenya, and South Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Todd, Catherine S; Stibich, Mark A; Laher, Fatima; Malta, Monica S; Bastos, Francisco I; Imbuki, Kennedy; Shaffer, Douglas N; Sinei, Samuel K; Gray, Glenda E

2011-02-01

Contraceptive choice and discontinuation are poorly understood among HIV-positive women, and HIV disease and culture may influence decisions. We assessed factors influencing contraceptive decision-making among HIV-positive women in three countries. This qualitative assessment of 108 HIV-positive women (36/site, selected by age and parity strata) was conducted in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Kericho, Kenya; and Soweto, South Africa. Freelist interviews assessed knowledge and attitudes towards contraception and were analyzed enumerating frequency and saliency of mentions. There was intersite consensus around list items but priority and themes varied. Site-specific factors influencing contraceptive choice were male partner wishes and fertility desire (Brazil), side-effects (South Africa), and impact on health and HIV progression (Kenya). Age, parity, and taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) impacted some themes. Contraceptive use among HIV-positive women is substantially influenced by culture and other factors. Counseling efforts should consider individual factors in method selection and offer method variety to accommodate changing needs.

Culture and mixed emotions: co-occurrence of positive and negative emotions in Japan and the United States.

Science.gov (United States)

Miyamoto, Yuri; Uchida, Yukiko; Ellsworth, Phoebe C

2010-06-01

Previous cross-cultural comparisons of correlations between positive and negative emotions found that East Asians are more likely than Americans to feel dialectical emotions. However, not much is known about the co-occurrence of positive and negative emotions in a given situation. When asked to describe situations in which they felt mixed emotions, Japanese and American respondents listed mostly similar situations. By presenting these situations to another group of respondents, we found that Japanese reported more mixed emotions than Americans in the predominantly pleasant situations, whereas there were no cultural differences in mixed emotions in the predominantly unpleasant situations or the mixed situations. The appraisal of self-agency mediated cultural differences in mixed emotions in the predominantly pleasant situations. Study 2 replicated the findings by asking participants to recall how they felt in their past pleasant, unpleasant, and mixed situations. The findings suggest that both Americans and Japanese feel mixed emotions, but the kinds of situation in which they typically do so depends on culture.

slide positivity rate of malaria among patients attending two ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

DR. AMINU

Key words: malaria, slide positivity rate, Kano metropolis. INTRODUCTION. Malaria has a worldwide distribution, affecting people of all ages, with an enormous burden amounting to. 300-500 million clinical cases per year, 80% of which occur in Africa (Lucas & Gills, 2003). Globally ten (10) new cases of malaria occur every ...

The relationship of C-reactive protein levels and positive culture with quality of life in acute rhinosinusitis

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Schalek P

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Petr Schalek, Zuzana Hornáčková, Aleš Hahn Ear, Nose and Throat department, 3rd Medical Faculty of Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Background: Acute rhinosinusitis (ARS has been shown to significantly reduce patient quality of life (QoL. While the QoL in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis has been the subject of intensive research over the last decade, studies measuring the impact of ARS on patient QoL have remained relatively scarce. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the QoL and parameters suggestive of acute bacterial rhinosinusitis (C-reactive protein [CRP] levels and positive culture and to see if measurement of the QoL could be used as an indicator for antibiotic treatment in ARS.Methods: Eighty patients with ARS were enrolled in the study. A novel QoL instrument for patients with ARS, called Measurement of Acute Rhinosinusitis (MARS questionnaire, was given to patients at the time of diagnosis. We assessed patient QoL, obtained endoscopically guided cultures from the middle meatus, and measured levels of CRP. The relationship between QoL MARS scores (QoL-Mscores and CRP was determined using a correlation coefficient. To compare QoL-Mscores, relative to culture-positive and culture-negative patients, the Student’s t-test was used.Results: No correlation between the QoL, assessed using the MARS questionnaire, and positive middle meatus culture was demonstrated (P=0.332. A weak correlation was found between QoL-Mscores and CRP values, with a correlation coefficient of 0.221 and P=0.0498.Conclusion: No correlation between the QoL in ARS patients and positive culture was found in this study. The clinical significance of the correlation between QoL-Mscores and CRP values in the antibiotic decision making process needs further research. Keywords: endoscopy, quality of life, questionnaires, anti-bacterial agents

Predictors of positive blood culture and deaths among neonates with suspected neonatal sepsis in a tertiary hospital, Mwanza- Tanzania

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Jeremiah Seni

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Neonatal sepsis is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in neonates. Appropriate clinical diagnosis and empirical treatment in a given setting is crucial as pathogens of bacterial sepsis and antibiotic sensitivity pattern can considerably vary in different settings. This study was conducted at Bugando Medical Centre (BMC, Tanzania to determine the prevalence of neonatal sepsis, predictors of positive blood culture, deaths and antimicrobial susceptibility, thus providing essential information to formulate a policy for management of neonatal sepsis. Methods This was a prospective cross sectional study involving 300 neonates admitted at BMC neonatal unit between March and November 2009. Standard data collection form was used to collect all demographic data and clinical characteristics of neonates. Blood culture was done on Brain Heart Infusion broth followed by identification of isolates using conventional methods and testing for their susceptibility to antimicrobial agents using the disc diffusion method. Results Among 770 neonates admitted during the study period; 300 (38.9% neonates were diagnosed to have neonatal sepsis by WHO criteria. Of 300 neonates with clinical neonatal sepsis 121(40% and 179(60% had early and late onset sepsis respectively. Positive blood culture was found in 57 (47.1% and 92 (51.4% among neonates with early and late onset neonatal sepsis respectively (p = 0.466. Predictors of positive blood culture in both early and late onset neonatal sepsis were inability to feed, lethargy, cyanosis, meconium stained liquor, premature rupture of the membrane and convulsion. About 49% of gram negatives isolates were resistant to third generation cephalosporins and 28% of Staphylococcus aureus were found to be Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA. Deaths occurred in 57 (19% of neonates. Factors that predicted deaths were positive blood culture (p = 0.0001, gram negative sepsis (p = 0.0001 and

In vitro development rate of preimplantation rabbit embryos cultured with different levels of melatonin.

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Mehaisen, Gamal Mohamed Kamel; Saeed, Ayman Moustafa

2015-02-01

This study aimed to investigate the effect of melatonin supplementation at different levels in culture medium on embryo development in rabbits. Embryos of 2-4 cells, 8-16 cells and morula stages were recovered from nulliparous Red Baladi rabbit does by laparotomy technique 24, 48 and 72 h post-insemination, respectively. Normal embryos from each stage were cultured to hatched blastocyst stages in either control culture medium (TCM-199 + 20% fetal bovine serum) or control supplemented with melatonin at 10(-3) M, 10(-6) M or 10(-9) M. No effect of melatonin was found on development of embryos recovered at 24 h post-insemination. The high level of melatonin at 10(-3) M adversely affected the in vitro development rates of embryos recovered at 48 h post-insemination (52 versus 86, 87 and 80% blastocyst rate; 28 versus 66, 78 and 59% hatchability rate for 10(-3) M versus 10(-9) M, 10(-6) M and control, respectively, P< 0.05). At the morula stage, melatonin at 10-3 M significantly increased the in vitro development of embryos (92% for 10(-3) M versus 76% for control, P < 0.05), while the hatchability rate of these embryos was not improved by melatonin (16-30% versus 52% for melatonin groups versus control, P < 0.05). Results show that a moderate level of melatonin (10(-6) M) may improve the development and hatchability rates of preimplantation rabbit embryos. The addition of melatonin at a 10-3 M concentration enhances the development of rabbit morulae but may negatively affect the development of earlier embryos. More studies are needed to optimize the use of melatonin in in vitro embryo culture in rabbits.

Direct identification of bacteria in positive blood culture bottles by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

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Bernard La Scola

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: With long delays observed between sampling and availability of results, the usefulness of blood cultures in the context of emergency infectious diseases has recently been questioned. Among methods that allow quicker bacterial identification from growing colonies, matrix-assisted laser desorption ionisation time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry was demonstrated to accurately identify bacteria routinely isolated in a clinical biology laboratory. In order to speed up the identification process, in the present work we attempted bacterial identification directly from blood culture bottles detected positive by the automate. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We prospectively analysed routine MALDI-TOF identification of bacteria detected in blood culture by two different protocols involving successive centrifugations and then lysis by trifluoroacetic acid or formic acid. Of the 562 blood culture broths detected as positive by the automate and containing one bacterial species, 370 (66% were correctly identified. Changing the protocol from trifluoroacetic acid to formic acid improved identification of Staphylococci, and overall correct identification increased from 59% to 76%. Lack of identification was observed mostly with viridans streptococci, and only one false positive was observed. In the 22 positive blood culture broths that contained two or more different species, only one of the species was identified in 18 samples, no species were identified in two samples and false species identifications were obtained in two cases. The positive predictive value of bacterial identification using this procedure was 99.2%. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: MALDI-TOF MS is an efficient method for direct routine identification of bacterial isolates in blood culture, with the exception of polymicrobial samples and viridans streptococci. It may replace routine identification performed on colonies, provided improvement for the specificity of blood culture

Direct identification of bacteria in positive blood culture bottles by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

Science.gov (United States)

La Scola, Bernard; Raoult, Didier

2009-11-25

With long delays observed between sampling and availability of results, the usefulness of blood cultures in the context of emergency infectious diseases has recently been questioned. Among methods that allow quicker bacterial identification from growing colonies, matrix-assisted laser desorption ionisation time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry was demonstrated to accurately identify bacteria routinely isolated in a clinical biology laboratory. In order to speed up the identification process, in the present work we attempted bacterial identification directly from blood culture bottles detected positive by the automate. We prospectively analysed routine MALDI-TOF identification of bacteria detected in blood culture by two different protocols involving successive centrifugations and then lysis by trifluoroacetic acid or formic acid. Of the 562 blood culture broths detected as positive by the automate and containing one bacterial species, 370 (66%) were correctly identified. Changing the protocol from trifluoroacetic acid to formic acid improved identification of Staphylococci, and overall correct identification increased from 59% to 76%. Lack of identification was observed mostly with viridans streptococci, and only one false positive was observed. In the 22 positive blood culture broths that contained two or more different species, only one of the species was identified in 18 samples, no species were identified in two samples and false species identifications were obtained in two cases. The positive predictive value of bacterial identification using this procedure was 99.2%. MALDI-TOF MS is an efficient method for direct routine identification of bacterial isolates in blood culture, with the exception of polymicrobial samples and viridans streptococci. It may replace routine identification performed on colonies, provided improvement for the specificity of blood culture broths growing viridans streptococci is obtained in the near future.

Mortality impact of positive blood cultures in patients with suspected community-acquired bacteraemia. A Danish population-based cohort study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Søgaard, Mette; Nørgaard, Mette; Sørensen, Henrik Toft

2009-01-01

for age, gender, coexisting chronic diseases, marital status, use of immunosuppressives, and calendar period. Further, we conducted analyses restricted to patients a discharge diagnose of infectious diseases (ICD-10 codes A00-B99). Results: In total, 1,665 (8.2%) patients had positive blood culture...... System. We computed Kaplan-Meier curves and product limit estimates for the main study variables. Next, time-dependent Cox regression analyses was used to compare the risk of death in patients with positive blood cultures and patients with negative cultures at days 0-7, 8-30, and 31-180, controlling...

An Automated Sample Preparation Instrument to Accelerate Positive Blood Cultures Microbial Identification by MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry (Vitek®MS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patrick Broyer

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Sepsis is the leading cause of death among patients in intensive care units (ICUs requiring an early diagnosis to introduce efficient therapeutic intervention. Rapid identification (ID of a causative pathogen is key to guide directed antimicrobial selection and was recently shown to reduce hospitalization length in ICUs. Direct processing of positive blood cultures by MALDI-TOF MS technology is one of the several currently available tools used to generate rapid microbial ID. However, all recently published protocols are still manual and time consuming, requiring dedicated technician availability and specific strategies for batch processing. We present here a new prototype instrument for automated preparation of Vitek®MS slides directly from positive blood culture broth based on an “all-in-one” extraction strip. This bench top instrument was evaluated on 111 and 22 organisms processed using artificially inoculated blood culture bottles in the BacT/ALERT® 3D (SA/SN blood culture bottles or the BacT/ALERT VirtuoTM system (FA/FN Plus bottles, respectively. Overall, this new preparation station provided reliable and accurate Vitek MS species-level identification of 87% (Gram-negative bacteria = 85%, Gram-positive bacteria = 88%, and yeast = 100% when used with BacT/ALERT® 3D and of 84% (Gram-negative bacteria = 86%, Gram-positive bacteria = 86%, and yeast = 75% with Virtuo® instruments, respectively. The prototype was then evaluated in a clinical microbiology laboratory on 102 clinical blood culture bottles and compared to routine laboratory ID procedures. Overall, the correlation of ID on monomicrobial bottles was 83% (Gram-negative bacteria = 89%, Gram-positive bacteria = 79%, and yeast = 78%, demonstrating roughly equivalent performance between manual and automatized extraction methods. This prototype instrument exhibited a high level of performance regardless of bottle type or BacT/ALERT system. Furthermore, blood culture workflow could

Positive peritoneal fluid fungal cultures in postoperative peritonitis after bariatric surgery.

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Zappella, N; Desmard, M; Chochillon, C; Ribeiro-Parenti, L; Houze, S; Marmuse, J-P; Montravers, P

2015-09-01

Postoperative peritonitis (POP) is a common surgical complication after bariatric surgery (BS). We assessed the importance of positive fungal cultures in these cases of POP admitted to the intensive care unit. Clinical features and outcome were compared in 25 (41%) Candida-positive patients (6 (22%) fluconazole-resistant Candida glabrata) and 36 patients without Candida infection. Candida infections were more commonly isolated in late-onset peritonitis and were often associated with multidrug-resistant bacteria. Risk factors for intensive care unit mortality (19.6%) were diabetes and superobesity. Candida infections, including fluconazole-resistant strains, are common in POP after BS. These data encourage the empirical use of a broad-spectrum antifungal agent. Copyright © 2015 European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Positive Psychology in Cross-Cultural Narratives: Mexican Students Discover Themselves While Learning Chinese

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Oxford, Rebecca L.; Cuéllar, Lourdes

2014-01-01

Using the principles of positive psychology and the tools of narrative research, this article focuses on the psychology of five language learners who crossed cultural and linguistic borders. All five were university students learning Chinese in Mexico, and two of them also studied Chinese in China. The grounded theory approach was used to analyze…

Measurement of spatial dose-rate distribution using a position sensitive detector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Emoto, T.; Torii, T.; Nozaki, T.; Ando, H.

1994-01-01

Recently, the radiation detectors using plastic scintillation fibers (PSF) have been developed to measure the positions exposed to radiation such as neutrons and high energy charged particles. In particular, the time of flight (TOF) method for measuring the difference of time that two directional signals of scintillation light reach both ends of a PSF is a rather simple method for the measurement of the spatial distribution of fast neutron fluence rate. It is possible to use the PSF in nuclear facility working areas because of its flexibility, small diameter and long length. In order to apply TOF method to measure spatial gamma dose rate distribution, the characteristic tests of a detector using PSFs were carried out. First, the resolution of irradiated positions and the counting efficiency were measured with collimated gamma ray. The sensitivity to unit dose rate was also obtained. The measurement of spatial dose rate distribution was also carried out. The sensor is made of ten bundled PSFs, and the experimental setup is described. The experiment and the results are reported. It was found that the PSF detector has the good performance to measure spatial gamma dose rate distribution. (K.I.)

Formation of positive motivation as the basis of students will qualities’ perfection in physical culture practicing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I.O. Dudnyk

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Purpose: to theoretically substantiate and test experimentally pedagogic conditions of positive motivation’s formation as the basis for students will and physical qualities’ perfection in physical culture practicing. Material: 244 first year students participated in experiment. At the beginning and at the end of experiment levels of manifestation of students’ will and physical qualities were assessed. Results: we have proved successfulness of will training if this process is naturally coincides with formation of positive motivation and perfection of motor fitness. It was found that motivation for physical culture practicing result from different demands: demand in motion, demand in fulfillment of student’s duties and demand in competition functioning. Conclusions: we have offered the following pedagogic conditions: application of game and competition methods: setting of appropriate for students tasks of training; usage of sufficient sport equipment and apparatuses; forcing of students for independent physical culture practicing through system of encouragement.

Effects of agitation rate on aggregation during beads-to-beads subcultivation of microcarrier culture of human mesenchymal stem cells.

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Takahashi, Iori; Sato, Keigo; Mera, Hisashi; Wakitani, Shigeyuki; Takagi, Mutsumi

2017-06-01

With the aim to utilize human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) grown in large scale for regenerative medicine, effects of agitation rate on aggregation during beads-to-beads subcultivation of microcarrier culture of hMSCs were studied. hMSCs could attach and grew on surface-type microcarriers of Cytodex 1, whereas almost no cell elongation and growth were observed on porous type microcarriers of Cytopores. The percentages of aggregated Cytodex 1 microcarriers at an agitation rate of 60 and 90 rpm were lower than that at 30 rpm, which was the lowest agitation rate necessary for the suspension of Cytodex 1 microcarriers, and the cells grew fastest at 60 rpm. hMSC could be subcultivated on Cytodex 1 by the beads-to-beads method at both 30 and 60 rpm without trypsinization. However, agitation at 60 rpm resulted in a markedly lower percentage of aggregated microcarriers not only before but also after subcultivation. The percentages of CD90- and CD166-positive cells among cells grown on Cytodex 1 at 60 rpm (91.5 and 87.6 %) were comparable to those of cells grown in the pre-culture on dishes. In conclusion, hMSCs could be subcultivated on Cytodex 1 by beads-to-beads method maintaining the expressions of the cell surface antigens CD90 and CD166, while adjusting agitation rate could decrease the microcarrier aggregation.

Antimicrobial Resistance Patterns in Women with Positive Urine Culture: Does Menopausal Status Make a Significant Difference?

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Pawel Miotla

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Aim. Urinary tract infection (UTI is considered one of the most common bacterial infections in women. The aim of this study was to investigate the types of uropathogens present, as well as the degree of antimicrobial drug resistance seen among premenopausal (n=2748 and postmenopausal (n=1705 women with uncomplicated UTI. Methods. Urinary samples (n=4453 collected from women with UTI were analyzed in terms of uropathogens present. These were considered as positive if bacterial growth was ≥105 colony forming units (CFUs/mL. Susceptibility and resistance testing for commonly used antibiotics was subsequently assessed. Results. The most common uropathogens cultured from urine samples were Escherichia coli (65.5%, followed by Enterococcus faecalis (12.2%, Klebsiella pneumoniae (4.7%, and Proteus mirabilis (4.2%. The resistance to ampicillin exceeded 40%, independently of menopausal status. Of note, resistance to ciprofloxacin exceeded 25% among postmenopausal patients. Moreover, resistance of all uropathogens to commonly used antimicrobials was significantly higher in postmenopausal women. Conclusion. Due to the high resistance rate, ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, and the trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole combination should be avoided in treating postmenopausal women affected by UTI without being indicated by initial urine culture report. Finally, cephalexin and cefuroxime are promising alternatives as initial treatment in postmenopausal women.

Suicide rates among Turkish and American youth: a cross-cultural comparison.

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Coskun, Murat; Zoroglu, Salih; Ghaziuddin, Neera

2012-01-01

This study compares youth (suicide rates in Turkey and the United States; a demographic and cross-cultural comparison and exploration of possible causative factors. Publicly available data were compared for children, adolescents, and young adults for years 1992-2004. The mean general population suicide rate in Turkey (per 100,000) was, male = 3.53 and female = 2.31 (for the US, males = 18.37, females = 4.31); for ages below 15 years the rate was, males = 0.28 and females = 0.39 (for the US, males = 1.09 and females = 0.38); while for aged 15-24 years the rate was, males = 4.58 and females = 5.22 (for the US, males = 18.84 and females = 3.36). The patterns for Turkey are: (a) Female youth had a higher suicide rate than male youth; this was the reverse of the U.S. pattern, (b) Youth suicide increased during the time period in Turkey, whereas it was relatively stable in the US, (c) However, suicide rates in Turkey were generally lower than the US, (d) Fifty percent of all female suicide victims in Turkey were under the age of 24 years (versus 11% in the US). Possible psychosocial causative factors may include (a) negative social status of females (forced marriage, young marriage age, low literacy, honor killings); (b) substantial rural to urban migration which disrupts ties and exposes migrants to a less traditional cultural system; (c) shortage of mental health services; (d) and possibly, reduced religious education enrollment may be an additional factor.

Assessing positive emotional states in dogs using heart rate and heart rate variability.

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Zupan, Manja; Buskas, Julia; Altimiras, Jordi; Keeling, Linda J

2016-03-01

Since most animal species have been recognized as sentient beings, emotional state may be a good indicator of welfare in animals. The goal of this study was to manipulate the environment of nine beagle research dogs to highlight physiological responses indicative of different emotional experiences. Stimuli were selected to be a more or a less positive food (meatball or food pellet) or social reward (familiar person or less familiar person). That all the stimuli were positive and of different reward value was confirmed in a runway motivation test. Dogs were tested individually while standing facing a display theatre where the different stimuli could be shown by lifting a shutter. The dogs approached and remained voluntarily in the test system. They were tested in four sessions (of 20s each) for each of the four stimuli. A test session consisted of four presentation phases (1st exposure to stimulus, post exposure, 2nd exposure, and access to reward). Heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) responses were recorded during testing in the experimental room and also when lying resting in a quiet familiar room. A new method of 'stitching' short periods of HRV data together was used in the analysis. When testing different stimuli, no significant differences were observed in HR and LF:HF ratio (relative power in low frequency (LF) and the high-frequency (HF) range), implying that the sympathetic tone was activated similarly for all the stimuli and may suggest that dogs were in a state of positive arousal. A decrease of HF was associated with the meatball stimulus compared to the food pellet and the reward phase (interacting with the person or eating the food) was associated with a decrease in HF and RMSSD (root mean square of successive differences of inter-beat intervals) compared to the preceding phase (looking at the person or food). This suggests that parasympathetic deactivation is associated with a more positive emotional state in the dog. A similar reduction

Real-time polymerase chain reaction with melting analysis of positive blood culture specimens in bloodstream infections: diagnostic value and turnaround time.

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Angeletti, Silvia; Gherardi, Giovanni; De Florio, Lucia; Avola, Alessandra; Crea, Francesca; Riva, Elisabetta; Vitali, Massimiliano Andrea; Galluzzo, Sara; Dicuonzo, Giordano

2013-01-01

A Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with melting analysis was devised to target bacterial and fungal genes together with the most prevalent antimicrobial resistance genes in 250 positive blood culture broths. This method allowed the blood culture cultivated pathogens to be classified into clinically relevant groups such as Enterobacteriaceae, oxidase-positive bacilli, oxidase-positive coccobacilli, S. aureus and yeast. Enterococci and streptococci could be distinguished from CoNS only by the Gram stain. Gram-positive bacilli were discriminated from Gram-positive cocci by Gram stain. Furthermore, the most important antimicrobial resistant genes such as mecA, vanA, bla TEM , bla SHV and bla CTX-M could be identified. All results were obtained with a turnaround time of three hours from the moment of blood culture positivity compared to 24-72 hours for phenotypic methods. In conclusion, the proposed approach can allow the clinician to implement proper early management of sepsis patients.

Theory and Practice of Positive Feminist Therapy: A Culturally Responsive Approach to Divorce Therapy with Chinese Women

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Tzou, Jean Yuh-Jin; Kim, Eunha; Waldheim, Kim

2012-01-01

Positive Feminist Therapy (PFT) is a strength-based culturally responsive therapy model specifically designed for helping Chinese women facing marital conflicts and divorce, integrating Empowerment Feminist Therapy, systems theory, and positive psychology. To help clients become change agents, PFT uses clients' existing strengths to develop…

Outcome correlation of smear-positivity but culture-negativity during standard anti-tuberculosis treatment in Taiwan.

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Chao, Wen-Cheng; Huang, Yi-Wen; Yu, Ming-Chih; Yang, Wen-Ta; Lin, Chou-Jui; Lee, Jen-Jyh; Huang, Ruay-Ming; Shieh, Chi-Chang; Chien, Shun-Tien; Chien, Jung-Yien

2015-02-18

The appearance of smear-positivity but culture-negativity (SPCN) for acid-fast bacilli among sputum specimen is frequently found in pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) patients during treatment. This study aimed to investigate clinical risk factors, impacts on treatment course, and relapse pattern associated with sputum SPCN. We retrospectively enrolled 800 patients with culture-proven pulmonary TB who were receiving standard treatment and follow-up at six TB-referral hospitals in Taiwan between January 2006 and December 2007. Relevant patient characteristics and chemotherapy data were analyzed for associations with incidence of SPCN. Data from patients who relapsed within 3 years after completing treatment were analyzed for associations with SPCN during treatment. Of the 800 subjects, 111 (13.8%) had sputum SPCN during treatment. Three factors were found to predict the development of SPCN; namely, high initial acid-fast staining grading (OR, 3.407; 95% CI, 2.090-5.553), cavitation on chest-X ray films (OR, 2.217; 95% CI, 1.359-3.615), and smoking (OR, 1.609; 95% CI, 1.006-2.841). Patients with SPCN had longer treatment duration (rifampicin: 284 ± 91 vs. 235 ± 69 days, P <0.001; isoniazid: 289 ± 90 vs. 234 ± 69 days, P < 0.001) than those without SPCN. Finally, the rate of relapse within 3 years of completing treatment was similar for groups with/without SPCN (2.7%, 3/111 vs. 1.0%, 7/689, respectively; P = 0.15). In conclusion, severity of infection was a major risk factor for SPCN during treatment; however, the relapse rate within 3 years of completing treatment was not affected by the appearance of SPCN.

Blood culture contamination in hospitalized pediatric patients: a single institution experience

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Min, Hyewon; Park, Cheong Soo; Kim, Dong Soo

2014-01-01

Purpose Blood culture is the most important tool for detecting bacteremia in children with fever. However, blood culture contamination rates range from 0.6% to 6.0% in adults; rates for young children have been considered higher than these, although data are limited, especially in Korea. This study determined the contamination rate and risk factors in pediatric patients visiting the emergency room (ER) or being admitted to the ward. Methods We conducted a retrospective chart review of blood cultures obtained from children who visited Yonsei Severance Hospital, Korea between 2006 and 2010. Positive blood cultures were labeled as true bacteremia or contamination according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Healthcare Safety Network definitions for laboratory-confirmed bloodstream infection, after exclusion of cultures drawn from preexisting central lines only. Results Among 40,542 blood cultures, 610 were positive, of which 479 were contaminations and 131 were true bacteremia (overall contamination rate, 1.18%). The contamination rate in the ER was significantly higher than in the ward (1.32% vs. 0.66%, P6 years, respectively). Conclusion Overall, contamination rates were higher in younger children than in older children, given the difficulty of performing blood sampling in younger children. The contamination rates from the ER were higher than those from the ward, not accounted for only by overcrowding and lack of experience among personnel collecting samples. Further study to investigate other factors affecting contamination should be required. PMID:24868215

Cultural influences on social feedback processing of character traits.

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Korn, Christoph W; Fan, Yan; Zhang, Kai; Wang, Chenbo; Han, Shihui; Heekeren, Hauke R

2014-01-01

Cultural differences are generally explained by how people see themselves in relation to social interaction partners. While Western culture emphasizes independence, East Asian culture emphasizes interdependence. Despite this focus on social interactions, it remains elusive how people from different cultures process feedback on their own (and on others') character traits. Here, participants of either German or Chinese origin engaged in a face-to-face interaction. Consequently, they updated their self- and other-ratings of 80 character traits (e.g., polite, pedantic) after receiving feedback from their interaction partners. To exclude potential confounds, we obtained data from German and Chinese participants in Berlin [functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)] and in Beijing (behavior). We tested cultural influences on social conformity, positivity biases, and self-related neural activity. First, Chinese conformed more to social feedback than Germans (i.e., Chinese updated their trait ratings more). Second, regardless of culture, participants processed self- and other-related feedback in a positively biased way (i.e., they updated more toward desirable than toward undesirable feedback). Third, changes in self-related medial prefrontal cortex activity were greater in Germans than in Chinese during feedback processing. By investigating conformity, positivity biases, and self-related activity in relation to feedback obtained in a real-life interaction, we provide an essential step toward a unifying framework for understanding the diversity of human culture.

Evaluation of three sample preparation methods for the direct identification of bacteria in positive blood cultures by MALDI-TOF

OpenAIRE

Tanner, Hannah; Evans, Jason T.; Gossain, Savita; Hussain, Abid

2017-01-01

Background Patient mortality is significantly reduced by rapid identification of bacteria from sterile sites. MALDI-TOF can identify bacteria directly from positive blood cultures and multiple sample preparation methods are available. We evaluated three sample preparation methods and two MALDI-TOF score cut-off values. Positive blood culture bottles with organisms present in Gram stains were prospectively analysed by MALDI-TOF. Three lysis reagents (Saponin, SDS, and SepsiTyper lysis bufer) w...

Variations in hospital worker perceptions of safety culture.

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Listyowardojo, Tita Alissa; Nap, Raoul E; Johnson, Addie

2012-02-01

To compare the attitudes toward and perceptions of institutional practices that can influence patient safety between all professional groups at a university medical center. A questionnaire measuring nine dimensions of organizational and safety culture was distributed to all hospital workers. Each item was rated on a 1 ('strongly disagree') to 5 ('strongly agree') scale. Professionals (2995), grouped as 'physicians' (16.6%), 'nurses' (40.3%), 'clinical workers' (e.g. psychologists; 21.7%), 'laboratory workers' (e.g. technicians; 11%) and 'non-medical workers' (e.g. managers; 10.4%). One-way analysis of variances (ANOVAs) carried out separately on each dimension with professional group as the independent variable of interest. Differences in ratings of organizational and safety culture were found across professional groups. Physicians and non-medical workers tended to rate the dimensions of organizational and safety culture more positively than did nurses, clinical workers and laboratory workers. For example, physicians gave more positive ratings of 'institutional commitment to safety' than did nurses, clinical workers and laboratory workers (mean = 3.71 vs. 3.62, 3.61 and 3.58, respectively, P vs. 3.39, 3.36, 3.49 and 3.47, respectively, P culture should be tailored to the target group as attitudes and perceptions may differ among groups.

Evolutionary rate of a gene affected by chromosomal position.

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Perry, J; Ashworth, A

1999-09-09

Genes evolve at different rates depending on the strength of selective pressure to maintain their function. Chromosomal position can also have an influence [1] [2]. The pseudoautosomal region (PAR) of mammalian sex chromosomes is a small region of sequence identity that is the site of an obligatory pairing and recombination event between the X and Y chromosomes during male meiosis [3] [4] [5] [6]. During female meiosis, X chromosomes can pair and recombine along their entire length. Recombination in the PAR is therefore approximately 10 times greater in male meiosis compared with female meiosis [4] [5] [6]. The gene Fxy (also known as MID1 [7]) spans the pseudoautosomal boundary (PAB) in the laboratory mouse (Mus musculus domesticus, C57BL/6) such that the 5' three exons of the gene are located on the X chromosome but the seven exons encoding the carboxy-terminal two-thirds of the protein are located within the PAR and are therefore present on both the X and Y chromosomes [8]. In humans [7] [9], the rat, and the wild mouse species Mus spretus, the gene is entirely X-unique. Here, we report that the rate of sequence divergence of the 3' end of the Fxy gene is much higher (estimated at 170-fold higher for synonymous sites) when pseudoautosomal (present on both the X and Y chromosomes) than when X-unique. Thus, chromosomal position can directly affect the rate of evolution of a gene. This finding also provides support for the suggestion that regions of the genome with a high recombination frequency, such as the PAR, may have an intrinsically elevated rate of sequence divergence.

Infectious disease, behavioural flexibility and the evolution of culture in primates.

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McCabe, Collin M; Reader, Simon M; Nunn, Charles L

2015-01-22

Culturally transmitted traits are observed in a wide array of animal species, yet we understand little about the costs of the behavioural patterns that underlie culture, such as innovation and social learning. We propose that infectious diseases are a significant cost associated with cultural transmission. We investigated two hypotheses that may explain such a connection: that social learning and exploratory behaviours (specifically, innovation and extractive foraging) either compensate for existing infection or increase exposure to infectious agents. We used Bayesian comparative methods, controlling for sampling effort, body mass, group size, geographical range size, terrestriality, latitude and phylogenetic uncertainty. Across 127 primate species, we found a positive association between pathogen richness and rates of innovation, extractive foraging and social learning. This relationship was driven by two independent phenomena: socially contagious diseases were positively associated with rates of social learning, and environmentally transmitted diseases were positively associated with rates of exploration. Because higher pathogen burdens can contribute to morbidity and mortality, we propose that parasitism is a significant cost associated with the behavioural patterns that underpin culture, and that increased pathogen exposure is likely to have played an important role in the evolution of culture in both non-human primates and humans. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

A positive bacterial culture during re-implantation is associated with a poor outcome in two-stage exchange arthroplasty for deep infection.

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Akgün, D; Müller, M; Perka, C; Winkler, T

2017-11-01

The aim of this study was to identify the incidence of positive cultures during the second stage of a two-stage revision arthroplasty and to analyse the association between positive cultures and an infection-free outcome. This single-centre retrospective review of prospectively collected data included patients with a periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) of either the hip or the knee between 2013 and 2015, who were treated using a standardised diagnostic and therapeutic algorithm with two-stage exchange. Failure of treatment was assessed according to a definition determined by a Delphi-based consensus. Logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the predictors of positive culture and risk factors for failure. The mean follow-up was 33 months (24 to 48). A total of 163 two-stage revision arthroplasties involving 84 total hip arthroplasties (THAs) and 79 total knee arthroplasties (TKAs) were reviewed. In 27 patients (16.6%), ≥ 1 positive culture was identified at re-implantation and eight (29.6%) of these subsequently failed compared with 20 (14.7%) patients who were culture-negative. The same initially infecting organism was isolated at re-implantation in nine of 27 patients (33.3%). The organism causing re-infection in none of the patients was the same as that isolated at re-implantation. The risk of the failure of treatment was significantly higher in patients with a positive culture (odds ratio (OR) 1.7; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.0 to 3.0; p = 0.049) and in patients with a higher Charlson Comorbidity Index (OR 1.5; 95% CI 1.6 to 1.8; p = 0.001). Positive culture at re-implantation was independently associated with subsequent failure. Surgeons need to be aware of this association and should consider the medical optimisation of patients with severe comorbidities both before and during treatment. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2017;99-B:1490-5. ©2017 The British Editorial Society of Bone & Joint Surgery.

Brief Report: Assessing Attitudes toward Culturally and Contextually Relevant Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support Strategies

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Fallon, Lindsay M.; O'Keeffe, Breda V.; Gage, Nicholas A.; Sugai, George

2015-01-01

Given the increased interest and implementation of Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) systems in schools in the United States, practitioners and researchers have become interested in how to improve implementation with students and staff from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. Fallon, O'Keeffe, and Sugai (2012) reviewed the literature…

Culturally Responsive Positive Behavior Supports: Considerations for Practice

Science.gov (United States)

Banks, Tachelle; Obiakor, Festus E.

2015-01-01

Classrooms are not culturally neutral terrains, but rather are constructed around sets of norms, values, and expected behaviors that are culturally bound. Low tolerance levels and expectations are an indication of the incongruence between the education strategies utilized by teachers and the cultural and linguistic differences of students that are…

The effect of culture density and proliferation rate on the expression of ouabain-sensitive Na/K ATPase pumps in cultured human retinal pigment epithelium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burke, J.M.; Jaffe, G.J.; Brzeski, C.M.

1991-01-01

The number and activity of ouabain-sensitive Na/K ATPase pumps expressed by many cell types in vitro, including human retinal pigment epithelial cells (RPE), have been shown to decline with increasing culture density. Cell proliferation also declined as cultures became dense so it was unclear if pump number was modulated by cell proliferation or culture confluency. By exposing RPE cultures to various feeding regimens, using culture medium containing or lacking serum, it was possible to produce RPE cultures with a range of culture densities and growth rates. These were analyzed for proliferative activity by quantifying [ 3 H]thymidine incorporation and for Na/K ATPase pump number by measuring specific [ 3 H]ouabain binding. The results suggest that pump number is modulated by culture density and, further, that the density-dependent regulation of pump number requires serum. Although density-dependent modulation of culture growth is also serum requiring, cell proliferation and pump number did not appear to be related; cultures of similar density which differed significantly in growth rate had similar numbers of pumps. The view that elevated numbers of pumps were not necessarily found in proliferating cells was further supported by qualitative examination of radioautographs of cells dually labeled with [ 3 H]thymidine and [ 3 H]ouabain. Cycling cells which had [ 3 H]thymidine-labeled nuclei did not have notably higher labeling with [ 3 H]ouabain. However, [ 3 H]ouabain labeling, as an indicator of pump site number and distribution, did vary among cells in an RPE population and also within individual cells. This latter observation suggests that unpolarized RPE cells in sparse cultures may have regionally different requirements for ionic regulation

Rapid identification of moulds and arthroconidial yeasts from positive blood cultures by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry.

Science.gov (United States)

de Almeida, João N; Sztajnbok, Jaques; da Silva, Afonso Rafael; Vieira, Vinicius Adriano; Galastri, Anne Layze; Bissoli, Leandro; Litvinov, Nadia; Del Negro, Gilda Maria Barbaro; Motta, Adriana Lopes; Rossi, Flávia; Benard, Gil

2016-11-01

Moulds and arthroconidial yeasts are potential life-threatening agents of fungemia in immunocompromised patients. Fast and accurate identification (ID) of these pathogens hastens initiation of targeted antifungal therapy, thereby improving the patients' prognosis. We describe a new strategy that enabled the identification of moulds and arthroconidial yeasts directly from positive blood cultures by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry (MS). Positive blood cultures (BCs) with Gram staining showing hyphae and/or arthroconidia were prospectively selected and submitted to an in-house protein extraction protocol. Mass spectra were obtained by Vitek MS™ system, and identifications were carried out with in the research use only (RUO) mode with an extended database (SARAMIS™ [v.4.12] plus in-house database). Fusarium solani, Fusarium verticillioides, Exophiala dermatitidis, Saprochaete clavata, and Trichosporon asahii had correct species ID by MALDI-TOF MS analysis of positive BCs. All cases were related to critically ill patients with high mortality fungemia and direct ID from positive BCs was helpful for rapid administration of targeted antifungal therapy. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The International Society for Human and Animal Mycology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Case-positive versus case-negative designs for low-rate lithium thionyl chloride cells

Science.gov (United States)

Mahy, T. X.

1982-03-01

Case polarity design choices are discussed. Two examples of case-negative designs are presented. One battery is thionyl chloride limited and the other is lithium limited. The case-positive design is thionyl chloride limited. It is found that the case-positive/case-negative design consideration does not seem to have much bearing on storage. However, during low rate discharge, the case-negative cells show a steadily decreasing capacity as you go to lower and lower rates.

Safety culture in a pharmacy setting using a pharmacy survey on patient safety culture: a cross-sectional study in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Jia, P L; Zhang, L H; Zhang, M M; Zhang, L L; Zhang, C; Qin, S F; Li, X L; Liu, K X

2014-06-30

To explore the attitudes and perceptions of patient safety culture for pharmacy workers in China by using a Pharmacy Survey on Patient Safety Culture (PSOPSC), and to assess the psychometric properties of the translated Chinese language version of the PSOPSC. Cross-sectional study. Data were obtained from 20 hospital pharmacies in the southwest part of China. We performed χ(2) test to explore the differences on pharmacy staff in different hospital and qualification levels and countries towards patient safety culture. We also computed descriptive statistics, internal consistency coefficients and intersubscale correlation analysis, and then conducted an exploratory factor analysis. A test-retest was performed to assess reproducibility of the items. A total of 630 questionnaires were distributed of which 527 were responded to validly (response rate 84%). The positive response rate for each item ranged from 37% to 90%. The positive response rate on three dimensions ('Teamwork', 'Staff Training and Skills' and 'Staffing, Work Pressure and Pace') was higher than that of Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) data (pculture at different hospital and qualification levels. The internal consistency of the total survey was comparatively satisfied (Cronbach's α=0.89). The results demonstrated that among the pharmacy staffs surveyed in China, there was a positive attitude towards patient safety culture in their organisations. Identifying perspectives of patient safety culture from pharmacists in different hospital and qualification levels are important, since this can help support decisions about action to improve safety culture in pharmacy settings. The Chinese translation of the PSOPSC questionnaire (V.2012) applied in our study is acceptable. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

[The method and result analyses of pathogenic bacteria culture on chronic periprosthetic joint infection after total knee arthroplasty and total hip arthroplasty].

Science.gov (United States)

Ji, Baochao; Xu, Enjie; Cao, Li; Yang, Desheng; Xu, Boyong; Guo, Wentao; Aili, Rehei

2015-02-01

To analyze the results of pathogenic bacteria culture on chronic periprosthetic joint infection after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and total hip arthroplasty (THA). The medical data of 23 patients with chronic periprosthetic joint infection after TKA or THA from September 2010 to March 2014 were reviewed. Fifteen cases of TKA and 8 cases of THA were included in this study. There were 12 male and 11 female patients with the mean age of 62 years (range from 32 to 79 years), and among them 9 patients with sinus. All patients discontinued antibiotic therapy for a minimum of 2 weeks before arthrocentesis, taking pathogenic bacteria culture and antimicrobial susceptibility test by using synovial fluid taken preoperatively and intraoperatively of revision. Common pathogenic bacteria culture and pathological biopsy were taken on tissues intraoperatively of revision. Culture-negative specimens were prolonged the period of incubation for 2 weeks. The overall culture-positive rate of all 23 patients for 1 week before revision was 30.4% (7/23), and the positive rate of culture-negative samples which prolonged for 2 weeks was 39.1% (9/23). The overall culture-positive rate of patients for 1 week intraoperatively of revision was 60.9% (14/23), and the positive rate of culture-negative samples which prolonged for 2 weeks was 82.6% (19/23). The incubation results of 7 cases (30.4%) preoperatively conformed to that of intraoperation. The culture-positive rate of pathogenic bacteria culture can be increased evidently by discontinuing antimicrobial therapy for a minimum of 2 weeks prior to the definite diagnosis.

The Impact of a Positive Environment and Shared Leadership to Empower Collegial School Culture

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Pretz, Benjamin

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study is to develop an empowered collegial school culture to systemically improve the function of the academic institution through the impact of a positive environment and shared leadership. When compared to the other middle schools in the district, Eagle Middle School had the lowest math achievement growth index during the…

Blood culture bottles are superior to conventional media for vitreous culture.

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Thariya, Patsuda; Yospaiboon, Yosanan; Sinawat, Suthasinee; Sanguansak, Thuss; Bhoomibunchoo, Chavakij; Laovirojjanakul, Wipada

2016-08-01

To compare blood culture bottles and conventional media for the vitreous culture in patients with clinically suspected infectious endophthalmitis. Retrospective comparative study at KKU Eye Center, Khon Kaen University. There were 342 patients with clinically suspected infectious endophthalmitis participated in the study. The vitreous specimens were inoculated in both blood culture bottles and on conventional culture media (blood agar, MacConkey agar, chocolate agar, Sabouraud dextrose agar and thioglycolate broth). The number of positive culture yields in both blood culture bottles and conventional media. Positive culture yields in both methods were found in 151 eyes (49.5%). There were 136 of 151 eyes (90.1%) with positive culture in blood culture bottles, whereas 99 of 151 eyes (65.6%) yielded positive cultures in conventional media. These findings were different with a statistical significance (P culture bottles and conventional media improved the yield. Blood culture bottles are superior to conventional media for vitreous culture in clinically suspected infectious endophthalmitis. Vitreous culture using blood culture bottles should be recommended as the primary method for microbiological diagnosis. A combination of both methods further improves the positive culture yield. © 2016 Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists.

The effect of culture density and proliferation rate on the expression of ouabain-sensitive Na/K ATPase pumps in cultured human retinal pigment epithelium

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Burke, J.M.; Jaffe, G.J.; Brzeski, C.M. (Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (USA))

1991-06-01

The number and activity of ouabain-sensitive Na/K ATPase pumps expressed by many cell types in vitro, including human retinal pigment epithelial cells (RPE), have been shown to decline with increasing culture density. Cell proliferation also declined as cultures became dense so it was unclear if pump number was modulated by cell proliferation or culture confluency. By exposing RPE cultures to various feeding regimens, using culture medium containing or lacking serum, it was possible to produce RPE cultures with a range of culture densities and growth rates. These were analyzed for proliferative activity by quantifying ({sup 3}H)thymidine incorporation and for Na/K ATPase pump number by measuring specific ({sup 3}H)ouabain binding. The results suggest that pump number is modulated by culture density and, further, that the density-dependent regulation of pump number requires serum. Although density-dependent modulation of culture growth is also serum requiring, cell proliferation and pump number did not appear to be related; cultures of similar density which differed significantly in growth rate had similar numbers of pumps. The view that elevated numbers of pumps were not necessarily found in proliferating cells was further supported by qualitative examination of radioautographs of cells dually labeled with ({sup 3}H)thymidine and ({sup 3}H)ouabain. Cycling cells which had ({sup 3}H)thymidine-labeled nuclei did not have notably higher labeling with ({sup 3}H)ouabain. However, ({sup 3}H)ouabain labeling, as an indicator of pump site number and distribution, did vary among cells in an RPE population and also within individual cells. This latter observation suggests that unpolarized RPE cells in sparse cultures may have regionally different requirements for ionic regulation.

Evaluation of the BioFire® FilmArray® Blood Culture Identification Panel on positive blood cultures in a regional hospital laboratory in KwaZulu-Natal

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Mokshanand Fhooblall

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Background: There are presently many non-culture-based methods commercially available to identify organisms and antimicrobial susceptibility from blood culture bottles. Each platform has its benefits and limitations. However, there is a need for an improved system with minimal hands-on requirements and short run times. Objectives: In this study, the performance characteristics of the FilmArray® BCID Panel kit were evaluated to assess the efficiency of the kit against an existing system used for identification and antimicrobial susceptibility of organisms from blood cultures. Methods: Positive blood cultures that had initially been received from hospitalised patients of a large quaternary referral hospital in Durban, South Africa were processed as per routine protocol at its Medical Microbiology Laboratory. Positive blood cultures were processed on the FilmArray BCID Panel kit in parallel with the routine sample processing. Inferences were then drawn from results obtained. Results: Organism detection by the FilmArray BCID panel was accurate at 92.6% when organisms that were on the repertoire of the kit were considered, compared to the combination methods (reference method used in the study laboratory. Detection of the antimicrobial resistance markers provided by the panel and reference method demonstrated 100% consistency. Blood cultures with a single organism were accurately identified at 93.8% by FilmArray, while blood cultures with more than one organism were identified at 85.7%. Conclusion: The FilmArray BCID Panel kit is valuable for detection of organisms and markers of antibiotic resistance for an extensive range of organisms.

Positive ageing perceptions among migrant Turkish and native Dutch older people: a matter of culture or resources?

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Cramm, Jane M; Nieboer, Anna P

2017-07-21

This study examined ethnic differences in ageing perceptions of migrant Turkish and native Dutch elders residing in Rotterdam, and explored whether such differences could be attributed to culture or resources (personal, physical, economic and/or social). This study was based on combined data from two research projects focusing on the health and well-being of community-dwelling elderly people in Rotterdam. The first dataset contained data from 994 native Dutch elders aged 70-99 years. The Rotterdam municipal register was used to randomly sample respondents, stratified by age group (70-74, 75-79, 80-84, and ≥85 years) and neighbourhood. Of the 2593 eligible respondents, 1075 returned filled-in questionnaires (41% response rate). Of these 1075 respondents a total of 994 were natives which is the sample we selected for the current study. The second dataset contained data from 680 Turkish migrants aged 65-90 years. All Turkish people aged ≥65 years were identified using the Rotterdam municipal register and invited to participate. In total, 680 Turkish respondents returned filled-in questionnaires (32% response rate; out of 2350). Ageing perceptions were measured using the 21-item Ageing Perceptions Questionnaire-Short (APQ-S). Respondents were additionally asked about their current general health, income, education, marital status, age and gender. The results of this study clearly reveal the importance of culture for all ageing perceptions among Turkish and Dutch elders. We found that age, health, and education were also important factors. For Turkish elders, health and education were the most important resources; for Dutch elders, age and health were most important in relation to ageing perceptions. Ageing perceptions were generally more negative among Turkish than among Dutch elders. Turkish elders reported more negative awareness of ageing, felt less in control of their ageing processes, and had more negative emotional reactions to ageing. They also believed

Reproducibility of CSF quantitative culture methods for estimating rate of clearance in cryptococcal meningitis.

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Dyal, Jonathan; Akampurira, Andrew; Rhein, Joshua; Morawski, Bozena M; Kiggundu, Reuben; Nabeta, Henry W; Musubire, Abdu K; Bahr, Nathan C; Williams, Darlisha A; Bicanic, Tihana; Larsen, Robert A; Meya, David B; Boulware, David R

2016-05-01

Quantitative cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cultures provide a measure of disease severity in cryptococcal meningitis. The fungal clearance rate by quantitative cultures has become a primary endpoint for phase II clinical trials. This study determined the inter-assay accuracy of three different quantitative culture methodologies. Among 91 participants with meningitis symptoms in Kampala, Uganda, during August-November 2013, 305 CSF samples were prospectively collected from patients at multiple time points during treatment. Samples were simultaneously cultured by three methods: (1) St. George's 100 mcl input volume of CSF with five 1:10 serial dilutions, (2) AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) method using 1000, 100, 10 mcl input volumes, and two 1:100 dilutions with 100 and 10 mcl input volume per dilution on seven agar plates; and (3) 10 mcl calibrated loop of undiluted and 1:100 diluted CSF (loop). Quantitative culture values did not statistically differ between St. George-ACTG methods (P= .09) but did for St. George-10 mcl loop (Pmethods was high (r≥0.88). For detecting sterility, the ACTG-method had the highest negative predictive value of 97% (91% St. George, 60% loop), but the ACTG-method had occasional (∼10%) difficulties in quantification due to colony clumping. For CSF clearance rate, St. George-ACTG methods did not differ overall (mean -0.05 ± 0.07 log10CFU/ml/day;P= .14) on a group level; however, individual-level clearance varied. The St. George and ACTG quantitative CSF culture methods produced comparable but not identical results. Quantitative cultures can inform treatment management strategies. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The International Society for Human and Animal Mycology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Cross-Cultural Differences in the Processing of Nonverbal Affective Vocalizations by Japanese and Canadian Listeners

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Michihiko eKoeda

2013-03-01

Full Text Available The Montreal Affective Voices (MAVs consist of a database of nonverbal affect bursts portrayed by Canadian actors, and high recognitions accuracies were observed in Canadian listeners. Whether listeners from other cultures would be as accurate is unclear. We tested for cross-cultural differences in perception of the MAVs: Japanese listeners were asked to rate the MAVs on several affective dimensions and ratings were compared to those obtained by Canadian listeners. Significant Group x Emotion interactions were observed for ratings of Intensity, Valence, and Arousal.　Whereas Intensity and Valence ratings did not differ across cultural groups for sad and happy vocalizations, they were significantly less intense and less negative in Japanese listeners for angry, disgusted, and fearful vocalizations. Similarly, pleased vocalizations were rated as less intense and less positive by Japanese listeners. These results demonstrate important cross-cultural differences in affective perception not just of nonverbal vocalizations expressing positive affect (Sauter et al, 2010, but also of vocalizations expressing basic negative emotions.

Association of high mortality with extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) positive cultures in community acquired infections.

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Ray, Sumit; Anand, Dimple; Purwar, Sankalp; Samanta, Arijit; Upadhye, Kaustubh V; Gupta, Prasoon; Dhar, Debashis

2018-04-01

Infections due to multidrug resistant organisms have become a serious health concern worldwide. The present study was conducted to investigate the spectrum of microbial resistance pattern in the community and their effects on mortality. A retrospective review and analysis of prospectively collected data was done of all patients admitted with diagnosis of sepsis in two tertiary care ICU's for a period of two years. Demographics, culture positivity, microbial spectrum, resistance pattern and outcome data were collected. Out of 5309 patients enrolled; 3822 had suspected clinical infection on admission with 1452 patients growing positive microbial cultures. Among these, 201 bacterial strains were isolated from patients who had community acquired infections. 73% were Gram negative bacilli, commonest being E. coli (63%). 63.4% E. coli and 60.7% Klebsiella isolates were ESBL producers. The mortality in ESBL positive infections was significantly higher as compared to ESBL negative infections (Odds ratio 2.756). Moreover, ESBL positive patients empirically treated with Beta Lactams+Beta Lactamase inhibitors (BL+BLI) had significantly higher mortality as compared to patients treated with carbapenems. More data from multiple centres need to be gathered to formulate appropriate antibiotic policy for critically ill patients admitted from the community. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Tumor containing fragment number influences immunohistochemistry positive rate of HER2 in biopsy specimens of gastric cancer.

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Xu, Chen; Liu, Yalan; Ge, Xiaowen; Jiang, Dongxian; Zhang, Ying; Ji, Yuan; Hou, Jun; Huang, Jie; Su, Jieakesu; Zeng, Haiying; Qin, Jing; Hou, Yingyong

2017-05-26

HER2 assessment in biopsy specimens of gastric cancer (GC) is challenging because of the intratumoral heterogeneity. False negative results may be get because of limited biopsy material. The aim of this study is to explore how tumor-containing fragment number and biopsy specimen number affect HER2 immunohistochemistry (IHC) positive rate. Eight hundred and ninety biopsy specimens and 459 paired resected specimens were collected. IHC staining of HER2 was performed. HER2 IHC positive (scored 3+) rate was compared based on tumor-containing fragment number, biopsy specimen number, average size and tumor tissue proportion of tumor-containing fragments. The positive predictability of biopsy specimens to resected specimens was analyzed based on tumor fragment number. HER2 IHC positive rates were 2.0, 3.5, 7.0, 13.2, 17.1, and 15.9% when tumor fragment numbers were 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 respectively. The rate rose with the increase of tumor fragment number (P = 0.004). ROC curve analysis showed that biopsy specimens exhibited positive predictability when tumor fragment number reached 3, but showed better performance when the number was ≥4 (P fragment number reached 4, no statistic differences were reached in either HER2 IHC positive rate or positive predictability with further increase of the number (P > 0.05). HER2 IHC positive rate was not associated with biopsy number (P = 0.127), average size of tumor fragments (P = 0.397), and tumor tissue proportion of tumor fragments (P = 0.825) directly. The number of tumor-containing fragments influences HER2 IHC positive (scored 3+) rate. Greater than or equal to 4 (≥4) tumor fragments give better results in the positive rate as well as positive predictability. We recommend the number of tumor containing fragments be described in the HER2 IHC pathology reports for clinical reference in endoscopic biopsy specimens of GC.

A Cultural Perspective on Sexual Health: HIV Positive and Negative Monolingual Hispanic Women in South Florida.

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Villar-Loubet, Olga M; Vamos, Szonja; Jones, Deborah L; Lopez, Eliot; Weiss, Stephen M

2011-06-01

This study explored feelings and attitudes with regard to HIV and sexual health among 82 monolingual Spanish-speaking, HIV-positive ( n = 30) and at-risk women ( n = 52), participating in the NOW en Español Project-a cognitive behavioral sexual risk-reduction intervention in Miami, Florida. Hispanic cultural values and beliefs, such as machismo, marianismo, and sexual silence, emerged throughout the intervention as important determinants of sexual behavior. Recommendations for integrating these culture-specific issues in sexual health interventions for Hispanic women are provided.

Socialization and Political Culture of Women in Positions of Popular Election. Municipality Presidents in Tlaxcala, Mexico

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María Eugenia Chávez Arellano; Verónica Vázquez García

2016-01-01

In this paper we address the forms of socialization and political culture of some women who had positions of representatives of municipalities in rural communities in Tlaxcala, México. We presume that the ways of assuming and exercising power are closely linked to a  political culture that begins in the family and secured in various social spaces such as school, political parties or unions. The analysis in this paper is based on testimonies obtained from 14 women who were municipal presidents...

Cultural capital and self-rated health in low income women: evidence from the Urban Health Study, Beirut, Lebanon.

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Khawaja, Marwan; Mowafi, Mona

2006-05-01

This paper examines the association between cultural capital and self-rated psychosocial health among poor, ever-married Lebanese women living in an urban context. Both self-rated general and mental health status were assessed using data from a cross-sectional survey of 1,869 women conducted in 2003. Associations between self-rated general and mental health status and cultural capital were obtained using chi (2) tests and odds ratios from binary logistic regression models. Cultural capital had significant associations with self-perceived general and mental health status net of the effects of social capital, SES, demographics, community and health risk factors. For example, the odds ratios for poor general and mental health associated with low cultural capital were 4.5 (CI: 2.95-6.95) and 2.9 (CI: 2.09-4.05), respectively, as compared to participants with high cultural capital. As expected, health risk factors were significantly associated with both measures of health status. However, demographic and community variables were associated with general health but not with mental health status. The findings pertaining to social capital and measures of SES were mixed. Cultural capital was a powerful and significant predictor of self-perceived general and mental health among women living in poor urban communities.

Comparative evaluation of paired blood culture (aerobic/aerobic) and single blood culture, along with clinical importance in catheter versus peripheral line at a tertiary care hospital.

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Tarai, B; Das, P; Kumar, D; Budhiraja, S

2012-01-01

Paired blood culture (PBC) is uncommon practice in hospitals in India, leading to delayed and inadequate diagnosis. Also contamination remains a critical determinant in hampering the definitive diagnosis. To establish the need of PBC over single blood culture (SBC) along with the degree of contamination, this comparative retrospective study was initiated. We processed 2553 PBC and 4350 SBC in BacT/ALERT 3D (bioMerieux) between October 2010 and June 2011. The positive cultures were identified in VITEK 2 Compact (bioMerieux). True positivity and contaminants were also analyzed in 486 samples received from catheter and peripheral line. Out of 2553 PBC samples, positivity was seen in 350 (13.70%). In 4350 SBC samples, positivity was seen in 200 samples (4.59%). In PBC true pathogens were 267 (10.45%) and contaminants were 83 (3.25%), whereas in SBC 153 (3.51%) were true positives and contaminants were 47 (1.08%). Most of the blood cultures (99.27 %) grew within 72 h and 95.8% were isolated within 48 h. In 486 PBCs received from catheter/periphery (one each), catheter positivity was found in 85 (true positives were 48, false positives 37). In peripheral samples true positives were 50 and false positives were 8. Significantly higher positive rates were seen in PBCs compared with SBCs. Automated blood culture and identification methods significantly reduced the time required for processing of samples and also facilitated yield of diverse/rare organisms. Blood culture from catheter line had higher false positives than peripheral blood culture. Thus every positive result from a catheter must be correlated with clinical findings and requires further confirmation.

How does context affect assessments of facial emotion? The role of culture and age.

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Ko, Seon-Gyu; Lee, Tae-Ho; Yoon, Hyea-Young; Kwon, Jung-Hye; Mather, Mara

2011-03-01

People from Asian cultures are more influenced by context in their visual processing than people from Western cultures. In this study, we examined how these cultural differences in context processing affect how people interpret facial emotions. We found that younger Koreans were more influenced than younger Americans by emotional background pictures when rating the emotion of a central face, especially those younger Koreans with low self-rated stress. In contrast, among older adults, neither Koreans nor Americans showed significant influences of context in their face emotion ratings. These findings suggest that cultural differences in reliance on context to interpret others' emotions depend on perceptual integration processes that decline with age, leading to fewer cultural differences in perception among older adults than among younger adults. Furthermore, when asked to recall the background pictures, younger participants recalled more negative pictures than positive pictures, whereas older participants recalled similar numbers of positive and negative pictures. These age differences in the valence of memory were consistent across culture. (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved.

Egg positive rate of Enterobius vermicularis among preschool children in Cheongju, Chungcheongbuk-do, Korea

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Kang, Seokha; Jeon, Hyeong Kyu; Eom, Keeseon S.

2006-01-01

In an attempt to determine the prevalence of pinworm infection, the egg positive rate of Enterobius vermicularis was examined using the adhesive cello-tape anal swab method in 1,512 preschool children sampled from a total of 20 kindergartens in Cheongju city, in November to December of 2004 (951 children from 13 kindergartens) and September to October of 2005 (561 from 7 kindergartens). The overall egg positive rate was found to be 7.9% (119/1,512); 9.3% (73/784) for boys and 6.3% (46/728) for girls, respectively. The 5-year age group evidenced the highest egg positive rate (10.9%, 47/430) among the examined age groups. As compared to those reported from previous works (ranged from 9.2 to 26.1%), the prevalence of E. vermicularis in the Cheongju city area is relatively low. PMID:16969064

Human rights values or cultural values? Pursuing values to maintain positive discipline in multicultural schools

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Petro du Preez

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Discussions on discipline in education often accentuate corporal punishment or measures to infuse moral fibre. In addition, many authors argue that inculcating a particular value system can promote discipline in schools. This could however be profoundly problematic in the light of the Constitution. We argue that positive discipline in multicultural school environments needs to be based in part on human rights values that are neither solely universally interpreted nor particularistically interpreted. We report on the data generated at a research workshop held as the final dissemination process of a four-year international research project entitled "Understanding human rights through different belief systems: intercultural and interreligious dialogue". Dialogue was chosen as a form of data gathering since it is more spontaneous than conventional questioning techniques and can thus generate more naturally occurring data to strengthen the outcomes of the project. It appears that some teachers believe discipline can only be maintained through the elevation of cultural values (particularism. We argue that schools should start negotiating, at the most basic level, the values, including emancipatory, human rights values, and cultural values, which could underpin positive discipline in multicultural schools. Drawing solely on cultural values is not only unlikely to solve the problem of discipline, but could also undermine the efforts to transform our diverse, democratic society.

Organizational culture in cardiovascular care in Chinese hospitals: a descriptive cross-sectional study.

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Yin, Emily S; Downing, Nicholas S; Li, Xi; Singer, Sara J; Curry, Leslie A; Li, Jing; Krumholz, Harlan M; Jiang, Lixin

2015-12-21

Organizational learning, the process by which a group changes its behavior in response to newly acquired knowledge, is critical to outstanding organizational performance. In hospitals, strong organizational learning culture is linked with improved health outcomes for patients. This study characterizes the organizational learning culture of hospitals in China from the perspective of a cardiology service. Using a modified Abbreviated Learning Organization Survey (27 questions), we characterized organizational learning culture in a nationally representative sample of 162 Chinese hospitals, selecting 2 individuals involved with cardiovascular care at each hospital. Responses were analyzed at the hospital level by calculating the average of the two responses to each question. Responses were categorized as positive if they were 5+ on a 7-point scale or 4+ on a 5-point scale. Univariate and multiple regression analyses were used to assess the relationship between selected hospital characteristics and perceptions of organizational learning culture. Of the 324 participants invited to take the survey, 316 responded (98 % response rate). Perceptions of organizational learning culture varied among items, among domains, and both among and within hospitals. Overall, the median proportion of positive responses was 82 % (interquartile range = 59 % to 93 %). "Training," "Performance Monitoring," and "Leadership that Reinforces Learning" were characterized as the most favorable domains, while "Time for Reflection" was the least favorable. Multiple regression analyses showed that region was the only factor significantly correlated with overall positive response rate. This nationally representative survey demonstrated variation in hospital organizational learning culture among hospitals in China. The variation was not substantially explained by hospital characteristics. Organizational learning culture domains with lower positive response rates reveal important areas for

Cross-cultural differences in the processing of non-verbal affective vocalizations by Japanese and canadian listeners.

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Koeda, Michihiko; Belin, Pascal; Hama, Tomoko; Masuda, Tadashi; Matsuura, Masato; Okubo, Yoshiro

2013-01-01

The Montreal Affective Voices (MAVs) consist of a database of non-verbal affect bursts portrayed by Canadian actors, and high recognitions accuracies were observed in Canadian listeners. Whether listeners from other cultures would be as accurate is unclear. We tested for cross-cultural differences in perception of the MAVs: Japanese listeners were asked to rate the MAVs on several affective dimensions and ratings were compared to those obtained by Canadian listeners. Significant Group × Emotion interactions were observed for ratings of Intensity, Valence, and Arousal. Whereas Intensity and Valence ratings did not differ across cultural groups for sad and happy vocalizations, they were significantly less intense and less negative in Japanese listeners for angry, disgusted, and fearful vocalizations. Similarly, pleased vocalizations were rated as less intense and less positive by Japanese listeners. These results demonstrate important cross-cultural differences in affective perception not just of non-verbal vocalizations expressing positive affect (Sauter et al., 2010), but also of vocalizations expressing basic negative emotions.

Cross-Cultural Differences in the Processing of Non-Verbal Affective Vocalizations by Japanese and Canadian Listeners

Science.gov (United States)

Koeda, Michihiko; Belin, Pascal; Hama, Tomoko; Masuda, Tadashi; Matsuura, Masato; Okubo, Yoshiro

2013-01-01

The Montreal Affective Voices (MAVs) consist of a database of non-verbal affect bursts portrayed by Canadian actors, and high recognitions accuracies were observed in Canadian listeners. Whether listeners from other cultures would be as accurate is unclear. We tested for cross-cultural differences in perception of the MAVs: Japanese listeners were asked to rate the MAVs on several affective dimensions and ratings were compared to those obtained by Canadian listeners. Significant Group × Emotion interactions were observed for ratings of Intensity, Valence, and Arousal. Whereas Intensity and Valence ratings did not differ across cultural groups for sad and happy vocalizations, they were significantly less intense and less negative in Japanese listeners for angry, disgusted, and fearful vocalizations. Similarly, pleased vocalizations were rated as less intense and less positive by Japanese listeners. These results demonstrate important cross-cultural differences in affective perception not just of non-verbal vocalizations expressing positive affect (Sauter et al., 2010), but also of vocalizations expressing basic negative emotions. PMID:23516137

A Comparison of Holistic versus Decomposed Rating of Position Analysis Questionnaire Work Dimensions.

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Butler, Stephanie K.; Harvey, Robert J.

1988-01-01

Examined technique for improving cost-effectiveness of Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) in job analysis. Professional job analysts, industrial psychology graduate students familiar with PAQ, and PAQ-unfamiliar undergraduates made direct holistic ratings of PAQ dimensions for four familiar jobs. Comparison of holistic ratings with decomposed…

Effect of postmortem sampling technique on the clinical significance of autopsy blood cultures.

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Hove, M; Pencil, S D

1998-02-01

Our objective was to investigate the value of postmortem autopsy blood cultures performed with an iodine-subclavian technique relative to the classical method of atrial heat searing and antemortem blood cultures. The study consisted of a prospective autopsy series with each case serving as its own control relative to subsequent testing, and a retrospective survey of patients coming to autopsy who had both autopsy blood cultures and premortem blood cultures. A busy academic autopsy service (600 cases per year) at University of Texas Medical Branch Hospitals, Galveston, Texas, served as the setting for this work. The incidence of non-clinically relevant (false-positive) culture results were compared using different methods for collecting blood samples in a prospective series of 38 adult autopsy specimens. One hundred eleven adult autopsy specimens in which both postmortem and antemortem blood cultures were obtained were studied retrospectively. For both studies, positive culture results were scored as either clinically relevant or false positives based on analysis of the autopsy findings and the clinical summary. The rate of false-positive culture results obtained by an iodine-subclavian technique from blood drawn soon after death were statistically significantly lower (13%) than using the classical method of obtaining blood through the atrium after heat searing at the time of the autopsy (34%) in the same set of autopsy subjects. When autopsy results were compared with subjects' antemortem blood culture results, there was no significant difference in the rate of non-clinically relevant culture results in a paired retrospective series of antemortem blood cultures and postmortem blood cultures using the iodine-subclavian postmortem method (11.7% v 13.5%). The results indicate that autopsy blood cultures obtained using the iodine-subclavian technique have reliability equivalent to that of antemortem blood cultures.

Knowledge discovery based on experiential learning corporate culture management

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Tu, Kai-Jan

2014-10-01

A good corporate culture based on humanistic theory can make the enterprise's management very effective, all enterprise's members have strong cohesion and centripetal force. With experiential learning model, the enterprise can establish an enthusiastic learning spirit corporate culture, have innovation ability to gain the positive knowledge growth effect, and to meet the fierce global marketing competition. A case study on Trend's corporate culture can offer the proof of industry knowledge growth rate equation as the contribution to experiential learning corporate culture management.

Major amputation of lower extremity: prognostic value of positive bone biopsy cultures.

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Vaznaisiene, D; Beltrand, E; Laiskonis, A P; Yazdanpanah, Y; Migaud, H; Senneville, E

2013-02-01

To assess the correlation between culture results of section's osseous slice biopsy (SOB) and the distal infected site responsible for the amputation performed concomitantly during major amputation of lower extremity. The influence of a positive culture of SOB on the patients' outcome was also evaluated. We conducted a retrospective study of medical charts of patients who underwent SOB during major amputation of lower extremity at our institution from 2000 to 2009. Fifty-seven patients (42 males/15 females, mean age 52.16years) who undergone major limb amputation (47 below knee and ten above knee) were included. The initial medical conditions of the investigated patients were: trauma (n=32), infection (n=13), trophic disorders (n=10) and tumor (n=2). The major cause of amputation was an uncontrolled infection, accouting for 64.9% of the cases (37/57) (foot=5, ankle=8, leg=24), the remaining 20 patients had trophic disorders of lower limb. Twenty-one (36.8%) from 57 biopsies were sterile, 12 (21.1%) doubtful and 24 (42.1%) positive. Thirty-one (54.4%) patients had an antibiotic-free interval before limb amputation. Independently of the bacterial species, 69.6% of the microorganisms identified from SOB were found in the distal infected site. Patients with positive SOB had a significantly longer interval between the decision to amputate the patient and the surgical procedure (200.2 vs. 70.1days; P<0.03) and a shorter total duration of antibiotic therapy before amputation than patients with negative SOB (3.68 vs. 6.08months; P<0.03). The delay for complete healing was significantly higher in patients with a positive SOB compared with those with a negative SOB (3.57 vs. 2.48months; P<0.03). Our results suggest that the infection may extend from the distal site to the level of amputation in a large proportion of cases and that the delay with which the amputation is performed after the decision has been taken may play a role in this event. Study level IV

Rapid identification of bacteria in positive blood culture by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

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Schmidt, V; Jarosch, A; März, P; Sander, C; Vacata, V; Kalka-Moll, W

2012-03-01

Blood culture is probably the most significant specimen used for the diagnosis of bacterial infections, especially for bloodstream infections. In the present study, we compared the resin-containing BD BACTEC™ Plus-Aerobic (Becton Dickinson), non-charcoal-containing BacT/Alert(®) SA (bioMérieux), and charcoal-containing BacT/Alert(®) FA (bioMérieux) blood culture bottles with direct identification by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). A total of 103 bacterial isolates, from clinical blood cultures, representing the most frequent 13 genera and 24 species were examined. Bacteria were extracted from positive blood culture broth by density centrifugation and then subjected to identification by MALDI-TOF MS using two different volumes and chemical treatments. Overall, correct identification by MALDI-TOF MS was obtained for the BD BACTEC™ Plus-Aerobic, BacT/Alert(®) SA, and BacT/Alert(®) FA blood culture bottles in 72%, 45.6%, and 23%, respectively, for gram-negative bacteria in 86.6%, 69.2%, and 47.1%, respectively, and for gram-positive bacteria in 60.0%, 28.8%, and 5.4%, respectively. The lack of identification was observed mainly with viridans streptococci. Depending on the blood culture bottles used in routine diagnostic procedures and the protocol for bacterial preparation, the applied MALDI-TOF MS represents an efficient and rapid method for direct bacterial identification.

Position paper -- Tank ventilation system design air flow rates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goolsby, G.K.

1995-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to document a project position on required ventilation system design air flow rates for the waste storage tanks currently being designed by project W-236A, the Multi-Function Waste Tank Facility (MWTF). The Title 1 design primary tank heat removal system consists of two systems: a primary tank vapor space ventilation system; and an annulus ventilation system. At the conclusion of Title 1 design, air flow rates for the primary and annulus ventilation systems were 960 scfm and 4,400 scfm, respectively, per tank. These design flow rates were capable of removing 1,250,000 Btu/hr from each tank. However, recently completed and ongoing studies have resulted in a design change to reduce the extreme case heat load to 700,000 Btu/hr. This revision of the extreme case heat load, coupled with results of scale model evaporative testing performed by WHC Thermal Hydraulics, allow for a reduction of the design air flow rates for both primary and annulus ventilation systems. Based on the preceding discussion, ICF Kaiser Hanford Co. concludes that the design should incorporate the following design air flow rates: Primary ventilation system--500 scfm maximum and Annulus ventilation system--1,100 scfm maximum. In addition, the minimum air flow rates in the primary and annulus ventilation systems will be investigated during Title 2 design. The results of the Title 2 investigation will determine the range of available temperature control using variable air flows to both ventilation systems

MALDI-TOF MS Andromas strategy for the routine identification of bacteria, mycobacteria, yeasts, Aspergillus spp. and positive blood cultures.

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Bille, E; Dauphin, B; Leto, J; Bougnoux, M-E; Beretti, J-L; Lotz, A; Suarez, S; Meyer, J; Join-Lambert, O; Descamps, P; Grall, N; Mory, F; Dubreuil, L; Berche, P; Nassif, X; Ferroni, A

2012-11-01

All organisms usually isolated in our laboratory are now routinely identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) using the Andromas software. The aim of this study was to describe the use of this strategy in a routine clinical microbiology laboratory. The microorganisms identified included bacteria, mycobacteria, yeasts and Aspergillus spp. isolated on solid media or extracted directly from blood cultures. MALDI-TOF MS was performed on 2665 bacteria isolated on solid media, corresponding to all bacteria isolated during this period except Escherichia coli grown on chromogenic media. All acquisitions were performed without extraction. After a single acquisition, 93.1% of bacteria grown on solid media were correctly identified. When the first acquisition was not contributory, a second acquisition was performed either the same day or the next day. After two acquisitions, the rate of bacteria identified increased to 99.2%. The failures reported on 21 strains were due to an unknown profile attributed to new species (9) or an insufficient quality of the spectrum (12). MALDI-TOF MS has been applied to 162 positive blood cultures. The identification rate was 91.4%. All mycobacteria isolated during this period (22) were correctly identified by MALDI-TOF MS without any extraction. For 96.3% and 92.2% of yeasts and Aspergillus spp., respectively, the identification was obtained with a single acquisition. After a second acquisition, the overall identification rate was 98.8% for yeasts (160/162) and 98.4% (63/64) for Aspergillus spp. In conclusion, the MALDI-TOF MS strategy used in this work allows a rapid and efficient identification of all microorganisms isolated routinely. © 2011 The Authors. Clinical Microbiology and Infection © 2011 European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

Embryo quality and implantation rate in two different culture media: ISM1 versus Universal IVF Medium.

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Xella, Susanna; Marsella, Tiziana; Tagliasacchi, Daniela; Giulini, Simone; La Marca, Antonio; Tirelli, Alessandra; Volpe, Annibale

2010-04-01

To compare the outcome of two different culture media marketed by the MediCult AS Company (Jyllinge, Denmark)-Universal IVF Medium and ISM1 Medium culture-which, in addition to glucose, pyruvate, and energy-providing components, also contain amino acids, nucleotides, vitamins, and cholesterol. Laboratory and retrospective clinical study. University teaching hospital. A total of 726 patients, undergoing IVF-intracytoplasmic sperm injection procedure, comparable in mean age range, oocyte retrieval, and infertility indication, were included in the study. Laboratory quality and standard procedures were maintained unaffected. Oocyte retrieval, different embryo culture media. Embryo quality, ongoing pregnancy, and implantation rate. The frequency of good-quality embryos (79% vs. 74%) and the percentages of ongoing pregnancy (27.5% vs. 18%) and implantation rate (15% vs. 10%) were significantly higher in the group treated with ISM1 Medium rather than Universal IVF Medium. ISM1 Medium culture seems to improve the performance of embryonic growth and development, as well as increasing the percentage of pregnancy. Copyright 2010 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Effect of Prolonged Culture of Chromosomally Abnormal Human Embryos on The Rate of Diploid Cells

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Masood Bazrgar

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Background: A decrease in aneuploidy rate following a prolonged co-culture of human blastocysts has been reported. As co-culture is not routinely used in assisted reproductive technology, the present study aimed to evaluate the effect of the prolonged single culture on the rate of diploid cells in human embryos with aneuploidies. Materials and Methods: In this cohort study, we used fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH to reanalyze surplus blastocysts undergoing preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD on day 3 postfertilization. They were randomly studied on days 6 or 7 following fertilization. Results: Of the 30 analyzed blastocysts, mosaicism was observed in 26(86.6%, while 2(6.7% were diploid, and 2(6.7% were triploid. Of those with mosaicism, 23(88.5% were determined to be diploid-aneuploid and 3(11.5% were aneuploid mosaic. The total frequency of embryos with more than 50% diploid cells was 33.3% that was lower on day 7 in comparison with the related value on day 6 (P<0.05; however, there were no differences when the embryos were classified according to maternal age, blastocyst developmental stage, total cell number on day 3, and embryo quality. Conclusion: Although mosaicism is frequently observed in blastocysts, the prolonged single culture of blastocysts does not seem to increase the rate of normal cells.

Rapid Identification of Microorganisms from Positive Blood Culture by MALDI-TOF MS After Short-Term Incubation on Solid Medium.

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Curtoni, Antonio; Cipriani, Raffaella; Marra, Elisa Simona; Barbui, Anna Maria; Cavallo, Rossana; Costa, Cristina

2017-01-01

Matrix-assisted laser-desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry (MS) is a useful tool for rapid identification of microorganisms. Unfortunately, its direct application to positive blood culture is still lacking standardized procedures. In this study, we evaluated an easy- and rapid-to-perform protocol for MALDI-TOF MS direct identification of microorganisms from positive blood culture after a short-term incubation on solid medium. This protocol was used to evaluate direct identification of microorganisms from 162 positive monomicrobial blood cultures; at different incubation times (3, 5, 24 h), MALDI-TOF MS assay was performed from the growing microorganism patina. Overall, MALDI-TOF MS concordance with conventional methods at species level was 60.5, 80.2, and 93.8% at 3, 5, and 24 h, respectively. Considering only bacteria, the identification performances at species level were 64.1, 85.0, and 94.1% at 3, 5, and 24 h, respectively. This protocol applied to a commercially available MS typing system may represent, a fast and powerful diagnostic tool for pathogen direct identification and for a promptly and pathogen-driven antimicrobial therapy in selected cases.

Comparison of clinico-radiological features of patients with positive cultures of nontuberculous mycobacteria and patients with tuberculosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ba-Hammam, Ahmed; Sharif, Yasir; Masood, Mohammad; Isnani, Arthur; Youssef, Ismael; Kambal, Abdelmageed; Shaikh, Shaffi

2005-01-01

To identify the clinico-radiological features of patients with positive cultures for nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) and compare those to a sample of patients with tuberculosis (MTB). A laboratory database was used to retrieve all specimens submitted to King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, mycobacteriology laboratory for mycobacterial smears and cultures during the period from October 1999-April 2002. Using this database, the original records of the mycobacteriology laboratory and a review of the patient's health records, a standard proforma was completed that included demographic, clinical, radiological and laboratory information on patients included in this study. The patients were divided into 2 groups; the NTM group, which included patients with positive cultures for NTM and the MTB group, which included a sample of patients with documented tuberculosis. During the study period, 286 patients had positive mycobacterial cultures. Seventy patients (24.5%) grew NTM and 216 (75.5%) grew MTB. For patients with MTB, 54 patients were included as per the selection protocol of the study. There was no difference between the 2 groups in all measured demographic variables. The presence of weight loss and fever was significantly more in the MTB group. Radiologically, the presence of hilar adenopathy was more significant among patients with MTB than those with NTM (17% versus 4%, p=0.02). However, bronchiectatic changes were seen significantly more among NTM patients compared to patients with MTB (26% versus 11%, p=0.03). The isolation of NTM in the mycobacteriology laboratory is high. The clinico-radiological features were not sufficiently specific to differentiate patients with NTM from patients with MTB. Local studies are needed to explore NTM disease in various developing countries and identify the NTM species causing infections in non-immunosuppressed patients in each locality. (author)

Interpreting personality profiles across cultures: bilingual, acculturation, and peer rating studies of Chinese undergraduates.

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McCrae, R R; Yik, M S; Trapnell, P D; Bond, M H; Paulhus, D L

1998-04-01

Prior research (R.R. McCrae, P.T. Costa, & M.S. Yik, 1996) using a Chinese translation of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory suggested substantial differences between Hong Kong and North American undergraduates. Study 1, with a sample of bilingual Hong Kong students (N = 162), showed that prior findings were not due simply to the translation. Study 2, with undergraduates of European and Chinese ancestry living in Canada (N = 633), suggested that more of the differences were cultural in origin. Study 3, which used peer ratings of Chinese students (N = 99), replicated most Study 2 results, suggesting that exposure to Canadian culture increased openness, cheerfulness, and prosocial behavior and attitudes. Differences in sense of competence and vulnerability to stress appeared to be due to different cultural standards for judging these traits. Together, the 3 studies illustrate an integrated approach to interpreting personality differences across cultures.

Microbial identification and automated antibiotic susceptibility testing directly from positive blood cultures using MALDI-TOF MS and VITEK 2.

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Wattal, C; Oberoi, J K

2016-01-01

The study addresses the utility of Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionisation Time-Of-Flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) using VITEK MS and the VITEK 2 antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) system for direct identification (ID) and timely AST from positive blood culture bottles using a lysis-filtration method (LFM). Between July and December 2014, a total of 140 non-duplicate mono-microbial blood cultures were processed. An aliquot of positive blood culture broth was incubated with lysis buffer before the bacteria were filtered and washed. Micro-organisms recovered from the filter were first identified using VITEK MS and its suspension was used for direct AST by VITEK 2 once the ID was known. Direct ID and AST results were compared with classical methods using solid growth. Out of the 140 bottles tested, VITEK MS resulted in 70.7 % correct identification to the genus and/ or species level. For the 103 bottles where identification was possible, there was agreement in 97 samples (94.17 %) with classical culture. Compared to the routine method, the direct AST resulted in category agreement in 860 (96.5 %) of 891 bacteria-antimicrobial agent combinations tested. The results of direct ID and AST were available 16.1 hours before those of the standard approach on average. The combined use of VITEK MS and VITEK 2 directly on samples from positive blood culture bottles using a LFM technique can result in rapid and reliable ID and AST results in blood stream infections to result in early institution of targeted treatment. The combination of LFM and AST using VITEK 2 was found to expedite AST more reliably.

Maintenance of mesenchymal stem cells culture due to the cells with reduced attachment rate

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Shuvalova N. S.

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Aim. The classic detachment techniques lead to changes in cells properties. We offer a simple method of cultivating the population of cells that avoided an influence on the surface structures. Methods. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC from human umbilical cord matrix were obtained and cultivated in standard conditions. While substituting the culture media by a fresh portion, the conditioned culture medium, where the cells were maintained for three days, was transferred to other culture flacks with addition of serum and growth factors. Results. In the flacks, one day after medium transfer, we observed attached cells with typical MSC morphology. The cultures originated from these cells had the same rate of surface markers expression and clonogenic potential as those replated by standard methods. Conclusions. MSC culture, derived by preserving the cells with reduced attachment ability, actually has the properties of «parent» passage. Using this method with accepted techniques of cells reseeding would allow maintaining the cells that avoided an impact on the cell surface proteins.

Facility for gamma irradiations of cultured cells at low dose rates: design, physical characteristics and functioning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Esposito, Giuseppe; Anello, Pasquale; Pecchia, Ilaria; Tabocchini, Maria Antonella; Campa, Alessandro

2016-01-01

We describe a low dose/dose rate gamma irradiation facility (called LIBIS) for in vitro biological systems, for the exposure, inside a CO_2 cell culture incubator, of cells at a dose rate ranging from few μGy/h to some tens of mGy/h. Three different "1"3"7Cs sources are used, depending on the desired dose rate. The sample is irradiated with a gamma ray beam with a dose rate uniformity of at least 92% and a percentage of primary 662 keV photons greater than 80%. LIBIS complies with high safety standards. - Highlights: • A gamma irradiation facility for chronic exposures of cells was set up at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità. • The dose rate uniformity and the percentage of primary 662 keV photons on the sample are greater than 92% and 80%, respectively. • The GEANT4 code was used to design the facility. • Good agreement between simulation and experimental dose rate measurements has been obtained. • The facility will allow to safely investigate different issues about low dose rate effects on cultured cells.

Socialization and Political Culture of Women in Positions of Popular Election. Municipality Presidents in Tlaxcala, Mexico

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María Eugenia Chávez Arellano

2016-07-01

Full Text Available In this paper we address the forms of socialization and political culture of some women who had positions of representatives of municipalities in rural communities in Tlaxcala, México. We presume that the ways of assuming and exercising power are closely linked to a  political culture that begins in the family and secured in various social spaces such as school, political parties or unions. The analysis in this paper is based on testimonies obtained from 14 women who were municipal presidents between 1992 and 2010, a period that frames the beginning of political alternation in Mexico.

Identification of blood culture isolates directly from positive blood cultures by use of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry and a commercial extraction system: analysis of performance, cost, and turnaround time.

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Lagacé-Wiens, Philippe R S; Adam, Heather J; Karlowsky, James A; Nichol, Kimberly A; Pang, Paulette F; Guenther, Jodi; Webb, Amanda A; Miller, Crystal; Alfa, Michelle J

2012-10-01

Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry represents a revolution in the rapid identification of bacterial and fungal pathogens in the clinical microbiology laboratory. Recently, MALDI-TOF has been applied directly to positive blood culture bottles for the rapid identification of pathogens, leading to reductions in turnaround time and potentially beneficial patient impacts. The development of a commercially available extraction kit (Bruker Sepsityper) for use with the Bruker MALDI BioTyper has facilitated the processing required for identification of pathogens directly from positive from blood cultures. We report the results of an evaluation of the accuracy, cost, and turnaround time of this method for 61 positive monomicrobial and 2 polymicrobial cultures representing 26 species. The Bruker MALDI BioTyper with the Sepsityper gave a valid (score, >1.7) identification for 85.2% of positive blood cultures with no misidentifications. The mean reduction in turnaround time to identification was 34.3 h (P MALDI-TOF was used for all blood cultures and 26.5 h in a more practical setting where conventional identification or identification from subcultures was required for isolates that could not be directly identified by MALDI-TOF. Implementation of a MALDI-TOF-based identification system for direct identification of pathogens from blood cultures is expected to be associated with a marginal increase in operating costs for most laboratories. However, the use of MALDI-TOF for direct identification is accurate and should result in reduced turnaround time to identification.

Direct identification and susceptibility testing of positive blood cultures using high speed cold centrifugation and Vitek II system.

Science.gov (United States)

Bazzi, Ali M; Rabaan, Ali A; Fawarah, Mahmoud M; Al-Tawfiq, Jaffar A

Compared to routine isolated colony-based methods, direct testing of bacterial pellets from positive blood cultures reduces turnaround time for reporting of antibiotic susceptibility. The aim of this study was to compare the accuracy, and precision, of a rapid method for direct identification and susceptibility testing of blood cultures with the routine method used in our laboratory, using Vitek 2. A total of 60 isolates were evaluated using the candidate and the routine method. The candidate method had 100% accuracy for the identification of Gram negative bacteria, Staphylococcus and Enterococcus, 50% for Streptococcus and 33.3% for Corynebacterium species. Susceptibility testing of Gram negative isolates yielded 98-100% essential agreement. For Staphylococcus and Enterococcus isolates, essential agreement was 100% for 17 antibiotics except for moxifloxacin. Direct testing of blood culture samples with Vitek 2 produced reliable identification and susceptibility results 18-24h sooner for aerobic/anaerobic facultative Gram-negative bacteria and Gram-positive Staphylococcus and Enterococcus strains. Copyright © 2016 King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Identification and susceptibility testing of microorganism by direct inoculation from positive blood culture bottles by combining MALDI-TOF and Vitek-2 Compact is rapid and effective.

Science.gov (United States)

Romero-Gómez, María-Pilar; Gómez-Gil, Rosa; Paño-Pardo, Jose Ramón; Mingorance, Jesús

2012-12-01

The objective of this study was to evaluate the reliability and accuracy of the combined use of MALDI-TOF MS bacterial identification and the Vitek-2 Compact antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) directly from positive blood cultures. Direct identification by MALDI-TOF MS and AST were performed in parallel to the standard methods in all positively flagged blood cultures bottles during the study period. Three hundred and twenty four monomicrobial positive blood cultures were included in the present study, with 257 Gram-negative and 67 Gram-positive isolates. MALDI-TOF MS identification directly from blood bottles reported the correct identification for Enterobacteriaceae in 97.7%, non-fermentative Gram-negative bacilli 75.0%, Staphylococcus aureus 75.8%, coagulase negative staphylococci 63.3% and enterococci 63.3%. A total 6156 isolate/antimicrobial agent combinations were tested. Enterobacteriaceae group and non-fermentative Gram-negative Bacilli showed an agreement of 96.67% and 92.30%, respectively, for the Gram-positive cocci the overall agreement found was 97.84%. We conclude that direct identification by MALDI-TOF and inoculation of Vitek-2 Compact AST with positive blood culture bottles yielded very good results and decreased time between initial inoculation of blood culture media and determination of the antibiotic susceptibility for Gram-negative rods and Gram-positive cocci causing bacteremia. Copyright © 2012 The British Infection Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Red Roses and Gift Chocolates Are Judged More Positively in the U.S. Near Valentine's Day: Evidence of Naturally Occurring Cultural Priming.

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Zayas, Vivian; Pandey, Gayathri; Tabak, Joshua

2017-01-01

Attitudes are not static, but constructed at the moment of the evaluation, incorporating temporary contextual influences. How do meaningful events that naturally occur within a culture, such as a national holiday, shape evaluative judgments of objects related to the holiday? We focused on evaluations of red roses and gift chocolates, which are everyday objects, but also iconic of Valentine's Day in the U.S. We reasoned that if cultural events shape evaluations, then roses and chocolates would be evaluated differently near Valentine's Day. Using a large and diverse U.S. sample, we found that as Valentine's Day neared, evaluations of roses and chocolates (but not a comparison object) were evaluated more positively. Increases in positivity of roses and chocolates covaried with their increased cultural relevance, as quantified by the volume of web search queries involving these terms. These findings provide a demonstration of naturally occurring cultural priming by which the salience of cultural events shape evaluations.

Cultural humility: The cornerstone of positive contact with culturally different individuals and groups?

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Hook, Joshua N; Watkins, C Edward

2015-10-01

Comments on the original article by Christopher et al. (see record 2014-20055-001) regarding cultural and folk psychologies. As noted by Christopher, Wendt, Marecek, and Goodman (2014), "U.S. psychology remains not only overwhelmingly U.S.- centric but also largely unaware of how its cultural roots shape theory and research. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Reductions in Children's Vicariously Learnt Avoidance and Heart Rate Responses Using Positive Modeling.

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Reynolds, Gemma; Field, Andy P; Askew, Chris

2016-03-23

Recent research has indicated that vicarious learning can lead to increases in children's fear beliefs and avoidance preferences for stimuli and that these fear responses can subsequently be reversed using positive modeling (counterconditioning). The current study investigated children's vicariously acquired avoidance behavior, physiological responses (heart rate), and attentional bias for stimuli and whether these could also be reduced via counterconditioning. Ninety-six (49 boys, 47 girls) 7- to 11-year-olds received vicarious fear learning for novel stimuli and were then randomly assigned to a counterconditioning, extinction, or control group. Fear beliefs and avoidance preferences were measured pre- and post-learning, whereas avoidance behavior, heart rate, and attentional bias were all measured post-learning. Control group children showed increases in fear beliefs and avoidance preferences for animals seen in vicarious fear learning trials. In addition, significantly greater avoidance behavior, heart rate responding, and attentional bias were observed for these animals compared to a control animal. In contrast, vicariously acquired avoidance preferences of children in the counterconditioning group were significantly reduced post-positive modeling, and these children also did not show the heightened heart rate responding to fear-paired animals. Children in the extinction group demonstrated comparable responses to the control group; thus the extinction procedure showed no effect on any fear measures. The findings suggest that counterconditioning with positive modelling can be used as an effective early intervention to reduce the behavioral and physiological effects of vicarious fear learning in childhood.

Cesarean delivery rates and obstetric culture - an Italian register-based study.

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Plevani, Cristina; Incerti, Maddalena; Del Sorbo, Davide; Pintucci, Armando; Vergani, Patrizia; Merlino, Luca; Locatelli, Anna

2017-03-01

Cesarean delivery rates are rising due to multiple factors, including less use of operative vaginal delivery and vaginal birth after cesarean delivery, which often reflect local obstetric practices. Objectives of the study were to analyze the relations between cesarean delivery, these practices, and perinatal outcomes. We included all deliveries in the 72 hospitals of Lombardia, a region in northern Italy, during the year 2013. The delivery certificate was used as data source. Pearson's correlation coefficient and logistic regression were used for statistical analysis. We included 87 896 deliveries. The number of deliveries per hospital ranged from 140 to 6123. The rate of cesarean delivery was 28.3% (range 9.9-86.4%), operative vaginal delivery 4.7% (range 0.2-10.0%), and vaginal birth after cesarean 17.3% (range 0-79.2%). We found a significant inverse correlation between rates of overall cesarean delivery and operative vaginal delivery (r = -0.25, p = 0.04). The correlation between rate of overall cesarean delivery and vaginal birth after cesarean was also inverse and significant (r = -0.57, p cesarean delivery rate and the rates of Apgar score at 5 min cesarean delivery, could reduce the rising cesarean delivery rate. This will require a change in obstetric culture, continuing education of healthcare providers, and leadership. © 2016 Nordic Federation of Societies of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Blastocyst utilization rates after continuous culture in two commercial single-step media: a prospective randomized study with sibling oocytes.

Science.gov (United States)

Sfontouris, Ioannis A; Kolibianakis, Efstratios M; Lainas, George T; Venetis, Christos A; Petsas, George K; Tarlatzis, Basil C; Lainas, Tryfon G

2017-10-01

The aim of this study is to determine whether blastocyst utilization rates are different after continuous culture in two different commercial single-step media. This is a paired randomized controlled trial with sibling oocytes conducted in infertility patients, aged ≤40 years with ≥10 oocytes retrieved assigned to blastocyst culture and transfer. Retrieved oocytes were randomly allocated to continuous culture in either Sage one-step medium (Origio) or Continuous Single Culture (CSC) medium (Irvine Scientific) without medium renewal up to day 5 post oocyte retrieval. Main outcome measure was the proportion of embryos suitable for clinical use (utilization rate). A total of 502 oocytes from 33 women were randomly allocated to continuous culture in either Sage one-step medium (n = 250) or CSC medium (n = 252). Fertilization was performed by either in vitro fertilization or intracytoplasmic sperm injection, and embryo transfers were performed on day 5. Two patients had all blastocysts frozen due to the occurrence of severe ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. Fertilization and cleavage rates, as well as embryo quality on day 3, were similar in the two media. Blastocyst utilization rates (%, 95% CI) [55.4% (46.4-64.1) vs 54.7% (44.9-64.6), p = 0.717], blastocyst formation rates [53.6% (44.6-62.5) vs 51.9 (42.2-61.6), p = 0.755], and proportion of good quality blastocysts [36.8% (28.1-45.4) vs 36.1% (27.2-45.0), p = 0.850] were similar in Sage one-step and CSC media, respectively. Continuous culture of embryos in Sage one-step and CSC media is associated with similar blastocyst development and utilization rates. Both single-step media appear to provide adequate support during in vitro preimplantation embryo development. Whether these observations are also valid for other continuous single medium protocols remains to be determined. NCT02302638.

Building a Math-Positive Culture: How to Support Great Math Teaching in Your School (ASCD Arias)

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Seeley, Cathy L.

2016-01-01

Cathy L. Seeley, former president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, turns the spotlight on administrative leaders who are seeking to improve their math programs, offering an overview of what an effective program looks like and examples of actions to take to achieve that goal. "Building a Math-Positive Culture" addresses…

A Comparative Study of Blood Culture Sampling from Umbilical Catheter Line versus Peripheral Site

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Abdolkarim Hamedi

2010-08-01

Full Text Available Neonatal sepsis is an important cause of death and morbidity in newborns and is diagnosed by isolation of organism in blood culture. In several reports,reliablity of blood cultures were done from umbi lical catheters,have been demonstrated. The objective of the present study was to determine,wether an inde welling umbilical catheter, could be an alternative site for blood culture. In a prospective study over 6 months during 2006,141 paired blood cultures from 134 infant,were done simultaneously from peripheral site and umbilical catheter (mostly U. V. C,during the first four days of life. Majority of these infants were preterm and admitted to NICU for special care. these infants had indwelling umbilical line and had indication of sepsis workup. A total of 141 pairs of blood cultures were obtained from 134 infants. In 16 infants blood culture pairs were positive for one organism in both peripheral vein and umbilical site. 71. 6% of total cultures (n=11pairs were negative in boths site. A total of 22 pairs were positive in one site only,with 5 positive from peripheral vein only and the other 17 from umblical site. Two pairs were positve in boths site with two different organism. In over all 16 infant (11%of blood were considered to be contaminated. Contamination rate were 2. 4% and 9. 2% for peripheral and umbilical catheter site. Contamination rate increased after 48 hours of age in umbilical catheter. The result showed that after 2 days contamination rate for blood culture taken from catheter line increased and specifity decreased. We recommended that blood culture via umblical catheter in first 2 days in sick neonates with indwelling catheter can be a alternate site of blood culture sampelling.

Effects of Cultural Tightness-Looseness and Social Network Density on Expression of Positive and Negative Emotions: A Large-Scale Study of Impression Management by Facebook Users.

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Liu, Pan; Chan, David; Qiu, Lin; Tov, William; Tong, Victor Joo Chuan

2018-05-01

Using data from 13,789 Facebook users across U.S. states, this study examined the main effects of societal-level cultural tightness-looseness and its interaction effects with individuals' social network density on impression management (IM) in terms of online emotional expression. Results showed that individuals from culturally tight (vs. loose) states were more likely to express positive emotions and less likely to express negative emotions. Meanwhile, for positive emotional expression, there was a tightness-looseness by social network density interaction effect. In culturally tight states, individuals with dense (vs. sparse) networks were more likely to express positive emotions, while in culturally loose states this pattern was reversed. For negative emotional expression, however, no such interaction was observed. Our findings highlight the influence of cultural norms and social network structure on emotional expressions as IM strategies.

Establishment of primary cultures of craniopharyngioma cells★

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Liu, Hao; Liu, Liang; Liu, Zhiyong; Li, Qiang; You, Chao; Xu, Jianguo

2012-01-01

Craniopharynigoma samples were collected from 36 patients. Out of the 36 samples, 29 achieved successful sub-culturing, with a success rate of 80.6%. Immunohistochemistry staining showed that cytokeratin-7 was positively expressed in the cytomembrane and cytoplasm of craniopharyngioma cells at 6-8 passages, confirming that all cultured cells were squamous epithelial cells. The doubling time of craniopharyngioma cells was 3 days, as confirmed by the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. In this study, craniopharyngioma cells cultured in vitro were established; however, establishment of immortalized craniopharyngioma cell lines requires further research. PMID:25745451

Heart rate variability in the standing position reflects training adaptation in professional soccer players.

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Ravé, Guillaume; Fortrat, Jacques-Olivier

2016-08-01

To show that heart rate variability (HRV) in the standing position better reflects the way in which athletes adapt to training in so-called intermittent sports than the indicator of resting parasympathetic tone usually employed in endurance sports. Twenty professional soccer players (intermittent sport) took part in a 5-week training session divided into three successive periods: "Warm-up", "Intensive training" and "Tapering". At the beginning and end of each of the three periods, a stand test was carried out and the heart rate was recorded, beat by beat (Polar Team 2). We analysed HRV to determine the indicator mostly used to demonstrate training adaptation in endurance sports (lnRMSSD supine, natural logarithm of root mean square of the successive differences) as well as indicators obtained by means of spectral analysis in both supine and standing position. A decrease in heart rate was observed in the supine position at rest during training (-5.2 ± 1.3 bpm) while lnRMSSD and spectral analysis indicators remained unchanged. The "Warm-up" caused an increase in spectral analysis total power in standing position which was further highlighted by "Tapering" (3.39 ± 0.09, 3.61 ± 0.08 and 3.65 ± 0.09 log ms(2), respectively). However, the autonomic changes are probably more complex than a change in autonomic activity or balance since spectral analysis autonomic indicators remained unchanged. HRV in the standing position could monitor training adaptation in intermittent sports contrary to the indicator usually employed in endurance sports. However, the significance of the HRV change in the standing position during training remains unclear.

Resourcefulness, positive cognitions, relocation controllability and relocation adjustment among older people: a cross-sectional study of cultural differences.

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Bekhet, Abir K; Zauszniewski, Jaclene A

2013-09-01

The population of older people in both the United States and Egypt is expected to double by the year 2030. With ageing, chronic illnesses increase and many older people need to relocate to retirement communities. Research has shown that positive cognitions and resourcefulness are positively correlated with adaptive functioning and better adjustment. The purpose of this study was to examine and compare relocation controllability, positive cognitions, resourcefulness and relocation adjustment between American and Egyptian older people living in retirement communities. The purpose of this cultural comparison is to gain insight into influencing factors in each culture that might lead to interventions to help relocated older adults in both cultures adjust to their new surroundings. A cross-sectional, descriptive design was used to compare relocation controllability, positive cognitions, resourcefulness and relocation adjustment of a convenience sample of American older people (n = 104) and a convenience sample of Egyptian older people (n = 94). The study was a secondary analysis of two studies of older people residing in six retirement communities in Northeast Ohio and in five retirement communities in Alexandria, Egypt. Examination of mean scores and standard deviations on the measure of positive cognitions using independent sample t-tests indicated that on average, the American older people reported more positive cognitions (t (131.16) = 11.29, P difference between Egyptians and Americans in resourcefulness (t (174.16) = -0.97, P > 0.05). The results provide direction for the development of positive cognition interventions and engaging older people in the decision-making process to help them to adjust to relocation. Implications for practice.  Positive thinking and resourcefulness training interventions can be used by nurses to help relocated older people to adjust to the stress of relocation to retirement communities. These interventions can be used on primary

Importance of Urine Dipstick in Evaluation of Young Febrile Infants With Positive Urine Culture: A Spanish Pediatric Emergency Research Group Study.

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Velasco, Roberto; Benito, Helvia; Mozun, Rebeca; Trujillo, Juan E; Merino, Pedro A; de la Torre, Mercedes; Gomez, Borja; Mintegi, Santiago

2016-12-01

Guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics define urinary tract infection (UTI) as the growth of greater than 50,000 ufc/mL of a single bacterium in a urine culture with a positive urine dipstick or with a urinalysis associated. Our objective was to evaluate the adequacy of this cutoff point for the diagnosis of UTI in young febrile infants. Subanalysis of a prospective multicenter study developed in RISeuP-SPERG Network between October 11 and September 13. To carry out the study, it was performed a comparison of analytical and microbiological characteristics of patients younger than 90 days with fever without focus, taking into account the results of urine dipstick and urine culture. Of a total of 3333 infants younger than 90 days with fever without focus which were included in the study, 538 were classified as UTI in accordance with American Academy of Pediatrics' guidelines. These patients were similar to those who had a positive urine dipstick and a urine culture yielding of 10,000 to 50,000 ufc/mL, and they were different from those who had a normal urine dipstick and a urine culture >50,000 ufc/mL, being focused on the isolated bacteria and blood biomarkers values. Forty-five invasive bacterial infections were diagnosed (5.9% of the 756 with a urine culture >10,000 ufc/mL). Half of the infants with a normal urine dipstick diagnosed with invasive bacterial infections were younger than 15 days. It might be inadequate to use a threshold of 50,000 cfu/mL to consider a urine culture as positive in young febrile infants given the fact that it would misdiagnose several UTIs.

Does screening for vaginal infection have an impact on pregnancy rates in intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycles?

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Özlem Eldivan

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Objective: Assisted reproduction techniques have become widespread worldwide. Considering their costs, physicians endeavor to improve pregnancy rates. Infections are one of the disrupting problems in this arena. We aimed to investigate the effects of screening for vaginal infection on pregnancy rates in intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycles. Materials and Methods: One hundred twenty patients randomized into two groups for this study. Patients were screened for vaginal infections in group 1, and no screening was performed in group 2. The assisted reproduction outcomes were investigated and compared between the two groups. Results: There was no significant difference between ages, or durations and causes of infertility of patients who conceived and of those who did conceive. Forty-five patients in group 1, and 40 patients in group 2 reached the embryo transfer stage. The rates of conception were 23.5% (n=4 in culture-positive patients (n=17, and 42.9% (n=12 in culture-negative patients (n=28 in group 1. There was no significant difference among patients who were not screened, screen-positive, and screen-negative, in terms of pregnancy rates. None of the patients had Neisseria gonorrhoeae or Trichomonas vaginalis. Bacterial vaginosis was detected in 13 patients, and both bacterial vaginosis and Chlamydia trachomatis were detected in 4 patients. Three of 4 patients who conceived screen-positive and 8 of 12 patients who conceived screen-negative delivered healthily at term. Conclusion: No significant difference was found between patients who were sampled for culture and patients who were not sampled in terms of pregnancy rates. Also, no difference was found between the patients who were culture-negative and patients who were treated with antimicrobials after a culture positive result. Further larger studies are warranted to clarify this issue. PRECIS: No significant difference was found between patients who were sampled for culture and those who

Cholesterol metabolism: use of D2O for determination of synthesis rate in cell culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Esterman, A.L.; Cohen, B.I.; Javitt, N.B.

1985-01-01

Cholesterol synthesis in cell culture in the presence of D 2 O yields a spectrum of enriched molecules having a relative abundance that indicates random substitution of deuterium for hydrogen. Quantitation of the absolute rate of cholesterol synthesis is obtained by isotope ratio mass spectrometry. Mevinolin and 26-hydroxycholesterol both decrease cholesterol synthesis rate but have a discordant effect on HMG-CoA reductase activity

The response rate in postal epidemiological studies in the context of national cultural behaviour

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Angelova, Radostina A.; Naydenov, Kiril; Hägerhed-Engman, Linda

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to analyse the effect of national cultural differences on the response rate, obtained in questionnaire based epidemiological studies on allergy and asthma, performed in Sweden (DBH) and Bulgaria (ALLHOME). The two studies used one and the same methodology, but the ob...

Can Raters with Reduced Job Descriptive Information Provide Accurate Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) Ratings?

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Friedman, Lee; Harvey, Robert J.

1986-01-01

Job-naive raters provided with job descriptive information made Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) ratings which were validated against ratings of job analysts who were also job content experts. None of the reduced job descriptive information conditions enabled job-naive raters to obtain either acceptable levels of convergent validity with…

Rapid identification of microorganisms from positive blood cultures by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry subsequent to very short-term incubation on solid medium.

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Idelevich, E A; Schüle, I; Grünastel, B; Wüllenweber, J; Peters, G; Becker, K

2014-10-01

Rapid identification of the causative microorganism is important for appropriate antimicrobial therapy of bloodstream infections. Bacteria from positive blood culture (BC) bottles are not readily available for identification by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). Lysis and centrifugation procedures suggested for direct MALDI-TOF MS from positive BCs without previous culture are associated with additional hands-on processing time and costs. Here, we describe an alternative approach applying MALDI-TOF MS from bacterial cultures incubated very briefly on solid medium. After plating of positive BC broth on Columbia blood agar (n = 165), MALDI-TOF MS was performed after 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12 and (for control) 24 h of incubation until reliable identification to the species level was achieved (score ≥2.0). Mean incubation time needed to achieve species-level identification was 5.9 and 2.0 h for Gram-positive aerobic cocci (GPC, n = 86) and Gram-negative aerobic rods (GNR, n = 42), respectively. Short agar cultures with incubation times ≤2, ≤4, ≤6, ≤8 and ≤12 h yielded species identification in 1.2%, 18.6%, 64.0%, 96.5%, 98.8% of GPC, and in 76.2%, 95.2%, 97.6%, 97.6%, 97.6% of GNR, respectively. Control species identification at 24 h was achieved in 100% of GPC and 97.6% of GNR. Ethanol/formic acid protein extraction performed for an additional 34 GPC isolates cultivated from positive BCs showed further reduction in time to species identification (3.1 h). MALDI-TOF MS using biomass subsequent to very short-term incubation on solid medium allows very early and reliable bacterial identification from positive BCs without additional time and cost expenditure. © 2014 The Authors Clinical Microbiology and Infection © 2014 European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

Whole-gene positive selection, elevated synonymous substitution rates, duplication, and indel evolution of the chloroplast clpP1 gene.

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Per Erixon

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Synonymous DNA substitution rates in the plant chloroplast genome are generally relatively slow and lineage dependent. Non-synonymous rates are usually even slower due to purifying selection acting on the genes. Positive selection is expected to speed up non-synonymous substitution rates, whereas synonymous rates are expected to be unaffected. Until recently, positive selection has seldom been observed in chloroplast genes, and large-scale structural rearrangements leading to gene duplications are hitherto supposed to be rare. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPLE FINDINGS: We found high substitution rates in the exons of the plastid clpP1 gene in Oenothera (the Evening Primrose family and three separate lineages in the tribe Sileneae (Caryophyllaceae, the Carnation family. Introns have been lost in some of the lineages, but where present, the intron sequences have substitution rates similar to those found in other introns of their genomes. The elevated substitution rates of clpP1 are associated with statistically significant whole-gene positive selection in three branches of the phylogeny. In two of the lineages we found multiple copies of the gene. Neighboring genes present in the duplicated fragments do not show signs of elevated substitution rates or positive selection. Although non-synonymous substitutions account for most of the increase in substitution rates, synonymous rates are also markedly elevated in some lineages. Whereas plant clpP1 genes experiencing negative (purifying selection are characterized by having very conserved lengths, genes under positive selection often have large insertions of more or less repetitive amino acid sequence motifs. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We found positive selection of the clpP1 gene in various plant lineages to correlated with repeated duplication of the clpP1 gene and surrounding regions, repetitive amino acid sequences, and increase in synonymous substitution rates. The present study sheds light on the

Not saying I am happy does not mean I am not: cultural influences on responses to positive affect items in the CES-D.

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Jang, Yuri; Kwag, Kyung Hwa; Chiriboga, David A

2010-11-01

Given the emphasis on modesty and self-effacement in Asian societies, the present study explored differential item responses for 2 positive affect items (5 = Hopeful and 8 = Happy) on a short form of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale. The samples consisted of elderly non-Hispanic Whites (n = 450), Korean Americans (n = 519), and Koreans (n = 2,030). Multiple Indicator Multiple Cause models were estimated to identify the impact of group membership on responses to the positive affect items while controlling for the latent trait of depressive symptoms. The data revealed that Koreans and Korean Americans were less likely than non-Hispanic Whites to endorse the positive affect items. Compared with Korean Americans who were more acculturated to mainstream American culture, those who were less acculturated were less likely to endorse the positive affect items. Our findings support the notion that the way in which people endorse depressive symptoms is substantially influenced by cultural orientation. These findings call into question the common use of simple mean comparisons and a universal cutoff point across diverse cultural groups.

Female song rates in response to simulated intruder are positively related to reproductive success.

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Kristal E Cain

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Bird song is well studied in males as a sexually selected behavior. However, although song is also common among females, it is infrequently examined and poorly understood. Research suggests that song is often used as a resource defense behavior and is important in female-female competition for limited resources, e.g. mates and territories. If so, song should be positively related to fitness and related to other resource defense behaviors, but this possibility has rarely been explored. Here we examine fitness estimates in relation to spontaneous song rates and song rates in response to a simulated intruder (playback, in the superb fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus, a cooperatively breeding songbird. We also determine how song rates relate to other territorial defense behaviors. Song rate in response to playback, but not spontaneous song rate, was positively related to nest success and the number of fledglings produced by successful females. Further, response song rate was also correlated with other territorial defense behaviors (latency to respond and flights. This evidence supports the hypothesis that female song may be used in the context of female-female competition to improve access to limited reproductive resources, and suggests that song may provide direct fitness benefits.

Metacogonitive and Motivational Cultural Intelligence: Superpowers for Creativity an a Culturally Diverse Environment

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Sabina Bogilović

2016-01-01

Full Text Available We propose that employees who are highly motivated for cultural interactions (motivational cultural intelligence and can modify their thinking about cultural differences (metacognitive cultural intelligence are more likely to be creative in culturally diverse environments. Based on the social categorization theory, we propose that metacognitive and motivational cultural intelligence will be positively related to individual creativity. Moreover, we predict that metacognitive and motivational cultural intelligence can decrease the negative aspects of the social categorization process and, in turn, be positively related to creativity. A quantitative analysis of 787 employees in 20 SME multicultural companies in the Adriatic region shows that metacognitive and motivational cultural intelligence are in fact positively related to individual creativity. We discuss the implications for practice and future research.

Utility of PCR, Culture, and Antigen Detection Methods for Diagnosis of Legionellosis.

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Chen, Derrick J; Procop, Gary W; Vogel, Sherilynn; Yen-Lieberman, Belinda; Richter, Sandra S

2015-11-01

The goal of this retrospective study was to evaluate the performance of different diagnostic tests for Legionnaires' disease in a clinical setting where Legionella pneumophila PCR had been introduced. Electronic medical records at the Cleveland Clinic were searched for Legionella urinary antigen (UAG), culture, and PCR tests ordered from March 2010 through December 2013. For cases where two or more test methods were performed and at least one was positive, the medical record was reviewed for relevant clinical and epidemiologic factors. Excluding repeat testing on a given patient, 19,912 tests were ordered (12,569 UAG, 3,747 cultures, and 3,596 PCR) with 378 positive results. The positivity rate for each method was 0.4% for culture, 0.8% for PCR, and 2.7% for UAG. For 37 patients, at least two test methods were performed with at least one positive result: 10 (27%) cases were positive by all three methods, 16 (43%) were positive by two methods, and 11 (30%) were positive by one method only. For the 32 patients with medical records available, clinical presentation was consistent with proven or probable Legionella infection in 84% of the cases. For those cases, the sensitivities of culture, PCR, and UAG were 50%, 92%, and 96%, respectively. The specificities were 100% for culture and 99.9% for PCR and UAG. Copyright © 2015, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Building a Student-Centered Culture in Times of Natural Disaster: A Case Study

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Hlinka, Karen Ramey

2013-01-01

Increased rates of student success and persistence have been positively linked to community colleges with student-centered cultures. A student-centered culture is one in which policies and practices promote a consistent message of concern and respect while expecting high standards of academic accomplishment. Developing a student-centered culture…

Nurses' perceptions of workplace culture in primary health care in Finland.

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Hahtela, N; Paavilainen, E; McCormack, B; Helminen, M; Slater, P; Suominen, T

2015-12-01

This study aimed to describe nurses' perceptions of workplace culture, especially in regard to stress levels, job satisfaction and the practice environment in primary health care. Health care is facing many challenges related to its attractiveness as a place of employment and the maintenance of a sufficient workforce supply. Previous studies report increasing rates of nurse job dissatisfaction and intentions to leave their current positions both in Finland and also globally. Improving workplace culture is thus vital in meeting the challenges related to recruitment and retention. A cross-sectional descriptive design was used to describe nurses' perceptions of workplace culture. Data were collected by questionnaire from 22 units in nine primary healthcare organizations in Finland, and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Most of the respondents indicated that they were not certain whether their workplace culture was either positive or negative. Profession, age and work shift characteristics had an effect on the respondents' perceptions of workplace culture. Younger licensed practical and registered nurses assessed their workplace culture more positively, whereas older registered nurses and those working rotating rosters viewed workplace culture more negatively. The findings suggest that both unit and demographic characteristics affect workplace culture. This survey highlights that a positive workplace culture is one of the key factors in retaining and recruiting nurses, and provides an essential evidence that may be considered by other healthcare organizations. Nurse managers and healthcare leaders need to address workload management and take into account the related variables that affect a unit's workplace culture. © 2015 International Council of Nurses.

Cultural differences in rated typicality and perceived causes of memory changes in adulthood.

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Bottiroli, Sara; Cavallini, Elena; Fastame, Maria Chiara; Hertzog, Christopher

2013-01-01

This study examined cultural differences in stereotypes and attributions regarding aging and memory. Two subcultures belonging to the same country, Italy, were compared on general beliefs about memory. Sardinians live longer than other areas of Italy, which is a publically shared fact that informs stereotypes about that subculture. An innovative instrument evaluating simultaneously aging stereotypes and attributions about memory and memory change in adulthood was administered to 52 Sardinian participants and 52 Milanese individuals divided into three age groups: young (20-30), young-old (60-70), and old-old (71-85) adults. Both Milanese and Sardinians reported that memory decline across the life span is more typical than a pattern of stability or improvement. However, Sardinians viewed stability and improvement in memory as more typical than did the Milanese. Interestingly, cultural differences emerged in attributions about memory improvement. Although all Sardinian age groups rated nutrition and heredity as relevant causes in determining the memory decline, Sardinians' rated typicality of life-span memory improvement correlated strongly with causal attributions to a wide number of factors, including nutrition and heredity. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Stakeholder Positioning and Cultural Diversity in the Creative Sector: A Case Study of the London Modern Architecture Scene

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Aalbers, H.L.; Kamp, A.; Erbe, N.; Normore, A.H.

2015-01-01

This chapter explores the antecedents of stakeholder positioning in the creative sector, a sector well known for its diversity in organizational cultures. Drawing from empirical data collected at the heart of London's modern architecture scene we analyze the interactive process of commissioned

Diagnosis of blood culture-negative endocarditis and clinical comparison between blood culture-negative and blood culture-positive cases.

Science.gov (United States)

Lamas, Cristiane C; Fournier, Pierre-Edouard; Zappa, Monica; Brandão, Tatiana J D; Januário-da-Silva, Carolina A; Correia, Marcelo G; Barbosa, Giovanna Ianini F; Golebiovski, Wilma F; Weksler, Clara; Lepidi, Hubert; Raoult, Didier

2016-08-01

To analyze the clinical characteristics of blood culture-negative endocarditis (BCNE) and how it compares to those of blood culture-positive endocarditis (BCPE) cases and show how molecular tools helped establish the etiology in BCNE. Adult patients with definite infective endocarditis (IE) and having valve surgery were included. Valves were studied by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Statistical analysis compared BCNE and BCPE. One hundred and thirty-one patients were included; 53 (40 %) had BCNE. The mean age was 45 ± 16 years; 33 (62 %) were male. BCNE was community-acquired in 41 (79 %). Most patients were referred from other hospitals (38, 73 %). Presentation was subacute in 34 (65 %), with fever in 47/53 (90 %) and a new regurgitant murmur in 34/42 (81 %). Native valves were affected in 74 %, mostly left-sided. All echocardiograms showed major criteria for IE. Antibiotics were used prior to BC collection in 31/42 (74 %). Definite histological diagnosis was established for 35/50 (70 %) valves. PCR showed oralis group streptococci in 21 (54 %), S. aureus in 3 (7.7 %), gallolyticus group streptococci in 2 (5.1 %), Coxiella burnetii in 1 (2.5 %) and Rhizobium sp. in 1 (2.5 %). In-hospital mortality was 9/53 (17 %). Fever (p = 0.06, OR 4.7, CI 0.91-24.38) and embolic complications (p = 0.003, OR 3.3, CI 1.55-6.82) were more frequent in BCPE cases, while new acute regurgitation (p = 0.05, OR 0.3, CI 0.098-0.996) and heart failure (p = 0.02, OR 0.3, CI 0.13-0.79) were less so. BCNE resulted mostly from prior antibiotics and was associated with severe hemodynamic compromise. Valve histopathology and PCR were useful in confirming the diagnosis and pointing to the etiology of BCNE.

Prospective assessment of the false positive rate of the Australian snake venom detection kit in healthy human samples.

Science.gov (United States)

Nimorakiotakis, Vasilios Bill; Winkel, Kenneth D

2016-03-01

The Snake Venom Detection Kit (SVDK; bioCSL Pty Ltd, Australia) distinguishes venom from the five most medically significant snake immunotypes found in Australia. This study assesses the rate of false positives that, by definition, refers to a positive assay finding in a sample from someone who has not been bitten by a venomous snake. Control unbroken skin swabs, simulated bite swabs and urine specimens were collected from 61 healthy adult volunteers [33 males and 28 females] for assessment. In all controls, simulated bite site and urine samples [a total of 183 tests], the positive control well reacted strongly within one minute and no test wells reacted during the ten minute incubation period. However, in two urine tests, the negative control well gave a positive reaction (indicating an uninterpretable test). A 95% confidence interval for the false positive rate, on a per-patient rate, derived from the findings of this study, would extend from 0% to 6% and, on a per-test basis, it would be 0-2%. It appears to be a very low incidence (0-6%) of intrinsic true false positives for the SVDK. The clinical impresssion of a high SVDK false positive rate may be mostly related to operator error. Crown Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The preanalytical optimization of blood cultures: a review and the clinical importance of benchmarking in 5 Belgian hospitals.

Science.gov (United States)

Willems, Elise; Smismans, Annick; Cartuyvels, Reinoud; Coppens, Guy; Van Vaerenbergh, Kristien; Van den Abeele, Anne-Marie; Frans, Johan

2012-05-01

Bloodstream infections remain a major challenge in medicine. Optimal detection of pathogens is only possible if the quality of preanalytical factors is thoroughly controlled. Since the laboratory is responsible for this preanalytical phase, the quality control of critical factors should be integrated in its quality control program. The numerous recommendations regarding blood culture collection contain controversies. Only an unambiguous guideline permits standardization and interlaboratory quality control. We present an evidence-based concise guideline of critical preanalytical determinants for blood culture collection and summarize key performance indicators with their concomitant target values. In an attempt to benchmark, we compared the true-positive rate, contamination rate, and collected blood volume of blood culture bottles in 5 Belgian hospital laboratories. The true-positive blood culture rate fell within previously defined acceptation criteria by Baron et al. (2005) in all 5 hospitals, whereas the contamination rate exceeded the target value in 4 locations. Most unexpected, in each of the 5 laboratories, more than one third of the blood culture bottles were incorrectly filled, irrespective of the manufacturer of the blood culture vials. As a consequence of this shortcoming, one manufacturer recently developed an automatic blood volume monitoring system. In conclusion, clear recommendations for standardized blood culture collection combined with quality control of critical factors of the preanalytical phase are essential for diagnostic blood culture improvement. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Attribute Ratings and Profiles of the Job Elements of the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ).

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Marquardt, Lloyd D.; McCormick, Ernest J.

The primary purpose of this study was to obtain estimates of the human attribute requirements of the job elements of the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ). A secondary purpose was to explore the reliability of job-related ratings as a function of the number of raters. A taxonomy of 76 human attributes was used and ratings of the relevance of…

Connection between Proliferation Rate and Temozolomide Sensitivity of Primary Glioblastoma Cell Culture and Expression of YB-1 and LRP/MVP.

Science.gov (United States)

Moiseeva, N I; Susova, O Yu; Mitrofanov, A A; Panteleev, D Yu; Pavlova, G V; Pustogarov, N A; Stavrovskaya, A A; Rybalkina, E Yu

2016-06-01

Glioblastomas (GBL) are the most common and aggressive brain tumors. They are distinguished by high resistance to radiation and chemotherapy. To find novel approaches for GBL classification, we obtained 16 primary GBL cell cultures and tested them with real-time PCR for mRNA expression of several genes (YB-1, MGMT, MELK, MVP, MDR1, BCRP) involved in controlling cell proliferation and drug resistance. The primary GBL cultures differed in terms of proliferation rate, wherein a group of GBL cell cultures with low proliferation rate demonstrated higher resistance to temozolomide. We found that GBL primary cell cultures characterized by high proliferation rate and lower resistance to temozolomide expressed higher mRNA level of the YB-1 and MDR1 genes, whereas upregulated expression of MVP/LRP mRNA was a marker in the group of GBL with low proliferation rate and high resistance. A moderate correlation between expression of YB-1 and MELK as well as YB-1 and MDR1 was found. In the case of YB-1 and MGMT expression, no correlation was found. A significant negative correlation was revealed between mRNA expression of MVP/LRP and MELK, MDR1, and BCRP. No correlation in expression of YB-1 and MVP/LRP genes was observed. It seems that mRNA expression of YB-1 and MVP/LRP may serve as a marker for GBL cell cultures belonging to distinct groups, each of which is characterized by a unique pattern of gene activity.

Cultural Centre, Destination Cultural Offer and Visitor Satisfaction

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Benxiang Zeng

2017-10-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to establish the link between tourists’ perceptions on cultural offers and their overall satisfaction, and explore the implication of this link for sustainable tourist destination management. Assessing online customers’ reviews, this study identifies a positive correlation between visitors’ perspectives and experiences at the on-site cultural centre and visitors’ destination satisfaction. It suggests that the on-site cultural centre plays a critical role in building up visitors’ perception on cultural attributes of the destination, and its impact on visitor satisfaction is a double-edged sword. Visitors’ positive perspectives on the cultural centre enhance visitors’ experiences and contribute to their destination satisfaction; however, not only does a negative perspective on their cultural and spiritual experience compromise visitors’ satisfaction, but also subsequent negative online reviews damage the destination image and discourage visitor return/visit. The findings help destination management organisations to better understand visitors’ preference for cultural centres and therefore to improve visitors’ cultural experience. This paper appeals for further study of on-site cultural centres’ role in forming destination cultural attributes, and of social media’s potential in enriching cultural experience.

MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry following short incubation on a solid medium is a valuable tool for rapid pathogen identification from positive blood cultures.

Science.gov (United States)

Kohlmann, Rebekka; Hoffmann, Alexander; Geis, Gabriele; Gatermann, Sören

2015-01-01

Rapid identification of the causative microorganism is a key element in appropriate antimicrobial therapy of bloodstream infections. Whereas traditional analysis of positive blood cultures requires subculture over at least 16-24h prior to pathogen identification by, e.g. matrix-assisted laser-desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS), sample preparation procedures enabling direct MALDI-TOF MS, i.e. without preceding subculture, are associated with additional effort and costs. Hence, we integrated an alternative MALDI-TOF MS approach in diagnostic routine using a short incubation on a solid medium. Positive blood cultures were routinely plated on chocolate agar plates and incubated for 4h (37 °C, 5% CO2). Subsequently, MALDI-TOF MS using a Microflex LT instrument (Bruker Daltonics) and direct smear method was performed once per sample. For successful identification of bacteria at species level, score cut-off values were used as proposed by the manufacturer (≥ 2.0) and in a modified form (≥ 1.5 for MALDI-TOF MS results referring to Gram-positive cocci and ≥ 1.7 for MALDI-TOF MS results referring to bacteria other than Gram-positive cocci). Further data analysis also included an assessment of the clinical impact of the MALDI-TOF MS result. Applying the modified score cut-off values, our approach led to an overall correct species identification in 69.5% with misidentification in 3.4% (original cut-offs: 49.2% and 1.8%, respectively); for Gram-positive cocci, correct identification in 68.4% (100% for Staphylococcus aureus and enterococci, 80% for beta-hemolytic streptococci), for Gram-negative bacteria, correct identification in 97.6%. In polymicrobial blood cultures, in 72.7% one of the pathogens was correctly identified. Results were not reliable for Gram-positive rods and yeasts. The approach was easy to implement in diagnostic routine. In cases with available clinical data and successful pathogen identification, in 51.1% our

Class Position and Musical Tastes: A Sing-Off between the Cultural Omnivorism and Bourdieusian Homology Frameworks.

Science.gov (United States)

Veenstra, Gerry

2015-05-01

The longstanding debate between the homology and omnivorism approaches to the class bases of cultural tastes and practices rages on in cultural sociology. The homology thesis claims that class positions throughout the class hierarchy are accompanied by specified cultural tastes and specialized modes of appreciating them while the cultural omnivorism thesis contends that elites are (increasingly) characterized by a breadth of cultural tastes of any and all kinds. This study tests the applicability of these theses to musical tastes in Canada through the application of multiple correspondence analysis, latent class analysis, and logistic regression modeling to original telephone survey data (n = 1,595) from Toronto and Vancouver. I find that musical omnivorism, an appreciation for diverse musical styles, is not dispersed along class lines. Instead I find a homology between class position and musical tastes that designates blues, choral, classical, jazz, musical theater, opera, pop, reggae, rock, and world/international as relatively highbrow and country, disco, easy listening, golden oldies, heavy metal, and rap as relatively lowbrow. Of the highbrow tastes, all but jazz are disliked by lower class people, and of the lowbrow tastes, country, easy listening, and golden oldies are concurrently disliked by higher class people. Consistent with the homology thesis, it appears that class position is aligned with specific musical likes and dislikes. Le vieux débat entre les approches de l'homologie et de l'omnivorisme aux bases des classes des goûts et des pratiques culturels fait rage dans la sociologie culturelle. La thèse de l'homologie prétend que les positions des classes à travers la hiérarchie des classes sont accompagnées par des goûts culturels spécifiés et des modes spécialisés permettant leur appréciation. La thèse de l'omnivorisme culturel, en revanche, soutient que les élites sont (de plus en plus) caractérisées par un éventail de go

The analysis of bacterial culture in radiation mucositis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wen Zunbei; Su Deqing; Liang Yuxue

2006-01-01

Objective: To investigate pathogen dose existing or not in patients with radiation mucositis. Methods: From Juanary 2004 to August 2005, from 46 patients with radiation mucositis some pharynx secretion were taken for culture. Then they were treated with antibiotics selected by the cultured results and gargle. Results: 5 patients with grade 0 of radiation mucositis were with no cultured pathogen, and the results of some other patients with radiation mucositis include 8 cases of epiphyte, 1 cases of p. vulgaris and 3 cases of Staphylococcus. the positive rate is 29.2% (12/41); Conclusion: Some patients with radiation mucositis do exist pathogen, and we must slect antibiotics by the bacterial cultured results. (authors)

The Position of a Teacher as a Factor of Forming Students' Socio-Cultural Identities (On the Example of the Russian Civil Identity)

Science.gov (United States)

Shakurova, Marina V.

2015-01-01

The article presents experience of structuring and description of teachers' position in the process of forming socio-cultural identity of the person, detailed in regard to the process of formation of one of the subtypes of socio-cultural identity--Russian civil identity. We identified and described real subjective, nominally subjective and…

Considering the role of time budgets on copy-error rates in material culture traditions: an experimental assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Schillinger, Kerstin; Mesoudi, Alex; Lycett, Stephen J

2014-01-01

Ethnographic research highlights that there are constraints placed on the time available to produce cultural artefacts in differing circumstances. Given that copying error, or cultural 'mutation', can have important implications for the evolutionary processes involved in material culture change, it is essential to explore empirically how such 'time constraints' affect patterns of artefactual variation. Here, we report an experiment that systematically tests whether, and how, varying time constraints affect shape copying error rates. A total of 90 participants copied the shape of a 3D 'target handaxe form' using a standardized foam block and a plastic knife. Three distinct 'time conditions' were examined, whereupon participants had either 20, 15, or 10 minutes to complete the task. One aim of this study was to determine whether reducing production time produced a proportional increase in copy error rates across all conditions, or whether the concept of a task specific 'threshold' might be a more appropriate manner to model the effect of time budgets on copy-error rates. We found that mean levels of shape copying error increased when production time was reduced. However, there were no statistically significant differences between the 20 minute and 15 minute conditions. Significant differences were only obtained between conditions when production time was reduced to 10 minutes. Hence, our results more strongly support the hypothesis that the effects of time constraints on copying error are best modelled according to a 'threshold' effect, below which mutation rates increase more markedly. Our results also suggest that 'time budgets' available in the past will have generated varying patterns of shape variation, potentially affecting spatial and temporal trends seen in the archaeological record. Hence, 'time-budgeting' factors need to be given greater consideration in evolutionary models of material culture change.

Heart rate reactivity associated to positive and negative food and non-food visual stimuli.

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Kuoppa, Pekka; Tarvainen, Mika P; Karhunen, Leila; Narvainen, Johanna

2016-08-01

Using food as a stimuli is known to cause multiple psychophysiological reactions. Heart rate variability (HRV) is common tool for assessing physiological reactions in autonomic nervous system. However, the findings in HRV related to food stimuli have not been consistent. In this paper the quick changes in HRV related to positive and negative food and non-food visual stimuli are investigated. Electrocardiogram (ECG) was measured from 18 healthy females while being stimulated with the pictures. Subjects also filled Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire to determine their eating behavior. The inter-beat-interval time series and the HRV parameters were extracted from the ECG. The quick change in HRV parameters were studied by calculating the change from baseline value (10 s window before stimulus) to value after the onset of the stimulus (10 s window during stimulus). The paired t-test showed significant difference between positive and negative food pictures but not between positive and negative non-food pictures. All the HRV parameters decreased for positive food pictures while they stayed the same or increased a little for negative food pictures. The eating behavior characteristic cognitive restraint was negatively correlated with HRV parameters that describe decreasing of heart rate.

Rapid differentiation of Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis and other coagulase-negative staphylococci and meticillin susceptibility testing directly from growth-positive blood cultures by multiplex real-time PCR.

Science.gov (United States)

Jukes, Leanne; Mikhail, Jane; Bome-Mannathoko, Naledi; Hadfield, Stephen J; Harris, Llinos G; El-Bouri, Khalid; Davies, Angharad P; Mack, Dietrich

2010-12-01

This study evaluated a multiplex real-time PCR method specific for the mecA, femA-SA and femA-SE genes for rapid identification of Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis and non-S. epidermidis coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS), and meticillin susceptibility testing directly in positive blood cultures that grew Gram-positive cocci in clusters. A total of 100 positive blood cultures produced: 39 S. aureus [12 meticillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), 31% of all the S. aureus]; 30 S. epidermidis (56.6% of the CoNS), 8 Staphylococcus capitis (15.1%), 3 Staphylococcus saprophyticus (5.7%), 4 Staphylococcus hominis (7.5%), 3 Staphylococcus haemolyticus (5.7%), 2 Staphylococcus warneri (3.8%), 1 Staphylococcus cohnii (1.9%) and 2 unidentified Staphylococcus spp. (3.8%); and 1 Micrococcus luteus in pure culture. Two blood cultures had no growth on subculture and five blood cultures grew mixed CoNS. For the 95 blood cultures with pure growth or no growth on subculture, there was very good agreement between real-time PCR and the BD Phoenix identification system for staphylococcal species categorization in S. aureus, S. epidermidis and non-S. epidermidis CoNS and meticillin-resistance determination (Cohen's unweighted kappa coefficient κ=0.882). All MRSA and meticillin-susceptible S. aureus were correctly identified by mecA amplification. PCR amplification of mecA was more sensitive for direct detection of meticillin-resistant CoNS in positive blood cultures than testing with the BD Phoenix system. There were no major errors when identifying staphylococcal isolates and their meticillin susceptibility within 2.5 h. Further studies are needed to evaluate the clinical benefit of using such a rapid test on the consumption of glycopeptide antibiotics and the alteration of empiric therapy in the situation of positive blood cultures growing staphylococci, and the respective clinical outcomes.

Multi-Functional Sensor System for Heart Rate, Body Position and Movement Intensity Analysis

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Michael MAO

2008-12-01

Full Text Available A novel multi-functional wearable sensor has been developed with multi-axis accelerometer, disposable hydro-gel electrodes, and analog filtering components. This novel sensor implementation can be used for detecting common body positions, movement intensity, and measures bio-potential signals for ECG and heart rate analysis. Based on the novel sensor principle, a prototype combines position detection, heart rate detection, and motion intensity level detection together in a handheld device that records the physiological information and wirelessly transmits the signals through Bluetooth to a mobile phone. Static body positions such as standing/sitting, lying supine, prone, and on the sides have been detected with high accuracy (97.7 % during the subject tests. Further, an algorithm that detects body movement intensity that can potentially be applied in real-time monitoring physical activity level is proposed based on average variance values. Motion intensity results show variance values increase and exercise intensity increases for almost all of the cases. A clear relation between movement intensity level shown by an increase in frequency and/or speed of exercise increases the variance values detected in all three spatial axes.

Impact of Implementation of an Automated Liquid Culture System on Diagnosis of Tuberculous Pleurisy.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Byung Hee; Yoon, Seong Hoon; Yeo, Hye Ju; Kim, Dong Wan; Lee, Seung Eun; Cho, Woo Hyun; Lee, Su Jin; Kim, Yun Seong; Jeon, Doosoo

2015-07-01

This study was conducted to evaluate the impact of implementation of an automated liquid culture system on the diagnosis of tuberculous pleurisy in an HIV-uninfected patient population. We retrospectively compared the culture yield, time to positivity, and contamination rate of pleural effusion samples in the BACTEC Mycobacteria Growth Indicator Tube 960 (MGIT) and Ogawa media among patients with tuberculous pleurisy. Out of 104 effusion samples, 43 (41.3%) were culture positive on either the MGIT or the Ogawa media. The culture yield of MGIT was higher (40.4%, 42/104) than that of Ogawa media (18.3%, 19/104) (Pliquid culture system could provide approximately twice as high yields and fast results in effusion culture, compared to solid media. Supplemental solid media may have a limited impact on maximizing sensitivity in effusion culture; however, further studies are required.

Organizational safety culture and medical error reporting by Israeli nurses.

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Kagan, Ilya; Barnoy, Sivia

2013-09-01

To investigate the association between patient safety culture (PSC) and the incidence and reporting rate of medical errors by Israeli nurses. Self-administered structured questionnaires were distributed to a convenience sample of 247 registered nurses enrolled in training programs at Tel Aviv University (response rate = 91%). The questionnaire's three sections examined the incidence of medication mistakes in clinical practice, the reporting rate for these errors, and the participants' views and perceptions of the safety culture in their workplace at three levels (organizational, departmental, and individual performance). Pearson correlation coefficients, t tests, and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Most nurses encountered medical errors from a daily to a weekly basis. Six percent of the sample never reported their own errors, while half reported their own errors "rarely or sometimes." The level of PSC was positively and significantly correlated with the error reporting rate. PSC, place of birth, error incidence, and not having an academic nursing degree were significant predictors of error reporting, together explaining 28% of variance. This study confirms the influence of an organizational safety climate on readiness to report errors. Senior healthcare executives and managers can make a major impact on safety culture development by creating and promoting a vision and strategy for quality and safety and fostering their employees' motivation to implement improvement programs at the departmental and individual level. A positive, carefully designed organizational safety culture can encourage error reporting by staff and so improve patient safety. © 2013 Sigma Theta Tau International.

RATING SCALE COMPETENCIES IN THE DISCIPLINE OF «CULTURAL STUDIES» FOR STUDENTS OF OIL AND GAS PROFILE

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Il’dus Islamovich Zailalov

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The authors examine the competence-based approach as the most promising to date in education, requiring the introduction of new technologies, methods, systems assessment competencies.The article presents the scale of formation of competences of students of the technical University in cultural studies based on a point rating system. A point rating system made in accordance with the curriculum of the discipline «cultural Studies». Demonstrates the use of active learning methods, allowing to fully assess readiness competencies. The most effective method of practice-oriented education is situational tasks (case-methods, which aims not only to consolidate the theoretical material, but also on the development of skills of analysis, critical thinking, skills of joint discussion of problems and decision making. Presents three levels of complexity of the case objectives, to evaluate the readiness competencies in the discipline. The authors point rating scale with the modules and activities, giving a total idea of the level of mastering the discipline. In accordance with the goals of the discipline «cultural Studies» GEF lists generated by the students of oil and gas profile of General cultural and professional competences. Defined criteria of formation of competences: formed partially formed not formed. These criteria are translated into traditional assessment scale in the discipline. The conclusion about the importance of this assessment, as it allows you to identify how obtained competence differ from the expected, to represent the dynamics of the development of each student and to identify what competencies should work in the future.

Group B Streptococcus Positive Culture’s Results in Pregnants with Preterm Premature Rupture of Membranes

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Farzaneh Broomand

2008-09-01

Full Text Available Objective: Preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM occurs in 2% of all pregnancies. The aim of this study was to compare positive cultures of GBS in two groups of pregnant women.Materials and methods: This case control research was conducted on 242 pregnant women: first group was consisted of 117 pregnant with PPROM and gestational ages between 26-37 weeks; second group was consisted of 125 term pregnant women with intact membranes and before onset of labor. Rectovaginal and urine samples were studied using specific culture medium of GBS, "Todd Hewitt Broth". The percentage of positive results was calculated using odds ratio and chi-square test.Results: GBS cultures were positive in 20 cases (17% in PPROM group and 5 cases in group of term pregnant (4% (Odds ratio=4.95 CI= 1.79-13.67, p=0.001. Past history of preterm labor and neonate hospitalization were more common in PPROM group but without any significant relationship to positive cultures.Conclusion: Our study showed significant difference of GBS colonization rate between two groups (p=0.001. According to CDC and ACOG guidelines routine screening and treatment of positive cases are indicated.

Biomarkers’ Responses to Reductive Dechlorination Rates and Oxygen Stress in Bioaugmentation Culture KB-1TM

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Gretchen L. W. Heavner

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Using mRNA transcript levels for key functional enzymes as proxies for the organohalide respiration (OHR rate, is a promising approach for monitoring bioremediation populations in situ at chlorinated solvent-contaminated field sites. However, to date, no correlations have been empirically derived for chlorinated solvent respiring, Dehalococcoides mccartyi (DMC containing, bioaugmentation cultures. In the current study, genome-wide transcriptome and proteome data were first used to confirm the most highly expressed OHR-related enzymes in the bioaugmentation culture, KB-1TM, including several reductive dehalogenases (RDases and a Ni-Fe hydrogenase, Hup. Different KB-1™ DMC strains could be resolved at the RNA and protein level through differences in the sequence of a common RDase (DET1545-like homologs and differences in expression of their vinyl chloride-respiring RDases. The dominant strain expresses VcrA, whereas the minor strain utilizes BvcA. We then used quantitative reverse-transcriptase PCR (qRT-PCR as a targeted approach for quantifying transcript copies in the KB-1TM consortium operated under a range of TCE respiration rates in continuously-fed, pseudo-steady-state reactors. These candidate biomarkers from KB-1TM demonstrated a variety of trends in terms of transcript abundance as a function of respiration rate over the range: 7.7 × 10−12 to 5.9 × 10−10 microelectron equivalents per cell per hour (μeeq/cell∙h. Power law trends were observed between the respiration rate and transcript abundance for the main DMC RDase (VcrA and the hydrogenase HupL (R2 = 0.83 and 0.88, respectively, but not transcripts for 16S rRNA or three other RDases examined: TceA, BvcA or the RDase DET1545 homologs in KB1TM. Overall, HupL transcripts appear to be the most robust activity biomarker across multiple DMC strains and in mixed communities including DMC co-cultures such as KB1TM. The addition of oxygen induced cell stress that caused respiration

Biomarkers' Responses to Reductive Dechlorination Rates and Oxygen Stress in Bioaugmentation Culture KB-1TM.

Science.gov (United States)

Heavner, Gretchen L W; Mansfeldt, Cresten B; Debs, Garrett E; Hellerstedt, Sage T; Rowe, Annette R; Richardson, Ruth E

2018-02-08

Using mRNA transcript levels for key functional enzymes as proxies for the organohalide respiration (OHR) rate, is a promising approach for monitoring bioremediation populations in situ at chlorinated solvent-contaminated field sites. However, to date, no correlations have been empirically derived for chlorinated solvent respiring, Dehalococcoides mccartyi (DMC) containing, bioaugmentation cultures. In the current study, genome-wide transcriptome and proteome data were first used to confirm the most highly expressed OHR-related enzymes in the bioaugmentation culture, KB-1 TM , including several reductive dehalogenases (RDases) and a Ni-Fe hydrogenase, Hup. Different KB-1™ DMC strains could be resolved at the RNA and protein level through differences in the sequence of a common RDase (DET1545-like homologs) and differences in expression of their vinyl chloride-respiring RDases. The dominant strain expresses VcrA, whereas the minor strain utilizes BvcA. We then used quantitative reverse-transcriptase PCR (qRT-PCR) as a targeted approach for quantifying transcript copies in the KB-1 TM consortium operated under a range of TCE respiration rates in continuously-fed, pseudo-steady-state reactors. These candidate biomarkers from KB-1 TM demonstrated a variety of trends in terms of transcript abundance as a function of respiration rate over the range: 7.7 × 10 -12 to 5.9 × 10 -10 microelectron equivalents per cell per hour (μeeq/cell∙h). Power law trends were observed between the respiration rate and transcript abundance for the main DMC RDase (VcrA) and the hydrogenase HupL (R² = 0.83 and 0.88, respectively), but not transcripts for 16S rRNA or three other RDases examined: TceA, BvcA or the RDase DET1545 homologs in KB1 TM . Overall, HupL transcripts appear to be the most robust activity biomarker across multiple DMC strains and in mixed communities including DMC co-cultures such as KB1 TM . The addition of oxygen induced cell stress that caused respiration rates

Comparison of net photosynthetic rate and 14C distribution between different cultural conditions on double cropping rice

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang Jianliang; Li Hesong; Zou Yingbin; Tu Naimei; Li Jianhui

2002-01-01

By applying the cultural method 'Vigorous Root-Strong Stem-Heavy Panicle Cultural Method' (VSHM), the yield of double cropping rice reached 18000 kg/hm 2 in large area at Liling county, Hunan province. The net photosynthetic rate and 14 C distribution of rice leaves between VSHM and traditional cultural methods (CK) were compared. The photosynthetic rate of the flag leaves at ripening stages under VSHM was higher than that of controls with both earlier rice or later rice. Regarding the net amount of 14 C-assimilate by a single flag leaf and the second top leaf, there were differences at the significant level of 0.01 and 0.05, respectively between VSHM and controls, and VSHM were 7.72%-35.05% higher. The percentage of distribution at panicles of 14 C-assimilate were 51.93%-61.40% when flag leaf was labelled, and 45.34%-54.25% when the second top leaf was labelled, that of earlier rice was higher than later rice respectively, but the differences were not significant between VSHM and CK. The actual yield of double cropping rice under the cultural condition of VSHM was 17710 kg/hm 2 , and increased by 18.33% when compared with controls

An observation on positive rate of HBsAg in the urine of patients suffering from positive serum HBsAg

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Peixun, Lin; Mingzheng, Zeng; Xiaoling, Chai [Wuhan Eighth Municipal Hospital, HB (China). Dept. of Laboratory

1989-08-01

In 1983, the Virus Research Office of the Shanxi Research Insitute of Preventive Medicine found out the granules of hepatitis B virus from the urine of patients and proved that this kind of virus can be spread through the urine. With the help of self-developed method of radio immunoelectrophoresis, our research office has purified and concentrated the urine of the patients suffering from positive serum HBsAg (hepatitis B surface antigen). Among them 25 are male, and another 25 are female. The result shows that the positive rate of HBsAg accounts for 80%. This is of important significance to the care of urine specimens, the protection of experimentalists and the development of clinical medicine.

Cultural Mega-Events as an International, Cultural, and Political Tool

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Julia Nikolaeva

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This article is an attempt to offer a conceptual understanding of various kinds of mega-events and to determine their significance as an instrument of the official international cultural policy. The article examines scientific approaches to understanding and classification of mega-events. The case studies focus on such mega-events as international cross-cultural years and cultural forums. The fact that the official foreign policy of¬ten defines and shapes the goals of mega-events proves their value in establishing and promoting a positive international image of the country. Recent Russian experience in organizing cross-cultural years is examined to discuss positive and negative socio-cultural impact.

Cultural similarities and differences in the perception of emotional valence and intensity: a comparison of Americans and Hong Kong Chinese.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Zhuoying; Ho, Samuel M Y; Bonanno, George A

2013-01-01

Despite being challenged for their ecological validity, studies of emotion perception have often relied on static, posed expressions. One of the key reasons is that dynamic, spontaneous expressions are difficult to control because of the existence of display rules and frequent co-occurrence of non-emotion related facial movements. The present study investigated cross-cultural patterns in the perception of emotion using an expressive regulation paradigm for generating facial expressions. The paradigm largely balances out the competing concerns for ecological and internal validity. Americans and Hong Kong Chinese (expressors) were presented with positively and negatively valenced pictures and were asked to enhance, suppress, or naturally display their facial expressions according to their subjective emotions. Videos of naturalistic and dynamic expressions of emotions were rated by Americans and Hong Kong Chinese (judges) for valence and intensity. The 2 cultures agreed on the valence and relative intensity of emotion expressions, but cultural differences were observed in absolute intensity ratings. The differences varied between positive and negative expressions. With positive expressions, ratings were higher when there was a cultural match between the expressor and the judge and when the expression was enhanced by the expressor. With negative expressions, Chinese judges gave higher ratings than their American counterparts for Chinese expressions under all 3 expressive conditions, and the discrepancy increased with expression intensity; no cultural differences were observed when American expressions were judged. The results were discussed with respect to the "decoding rules" and "same-culture advantage" approaches of emotion perception and a negativity bias in the Chinese collective culture.

Direct identification from positive blood broth culture by matrix-assisted laser desorption-ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS

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Maria Goreth Barberino

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Bloodstream infections (BSIs are among the most concerning bacterial infections. They are one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality, and occur in 30–70% of critical care patients. The prompt identification of the causative microorganism can help choosing the appropriate antimicrobial therapy that will lead to better clinical outcomes. Blood culture is one of the most relevant tests for microbiological diagnosis of bacterial infections. The introduction of the MALDI-TOF microbiological diagnosis significantly decreased the time of identifying microorganisms. However, it depends on the growth on solid culture medium. In this study, 538 bottles of positive blood cultures were evaluated to test the accuracy of an in house modified protocol. The study sample consisted of 198 Gram-negative and 350 Gram-positive bacteria. In all, 460 (83.94% species were identified based on the direct plate findings. The protocol allowed the identification of 185/198 (93.43% of the Gram-negative bacteria, including aerobes, anaerobes, and non-fermenters, and 275/350 (78.85% of the Gram-positive bacteria. The proposed method has the potential to provide accurate results in comparison to the traditional method with the potential to reduce the turnaround time for the results and optimize antimicrobial therapy in BSI.

Cross-Cultural Communication in Oncology: Challenges and Training Interests.

Science.gov (United States)

Weber, Orest; Sulstarova, Brikela; Singy, Pascal

2016-01-01

To survey oncology nurses and oncologists about difficulties in taking care of culturally and linguistically diverse patients and about interests in cross-cultural training.
. Descriptive, cross-sectional.
. Web-based survey.
. 108 oncology nurses and 44 oncologists. 
. 31-item questionnaire derived from preexisting surveys in the United States and Switzerland.
. Self-rated difficulties in taking care of culturally and linguistically diverse patients and self-rated interests in cross-cultural training.
. All respondents reported communication difficulties in encounters with culturally and linguistically diverse patients. Respondents considered the absence of written materials in other languages, absence of a shared common language with patients, and sensitive subjects (e.g., end of life, sexuality) to be particularly problematic. Respondents also expressed a high level of interest in all aspects of cross-cultural training (task-oriented skills, background knowledge, reflexivity, and attitudes). Nurses perceived several difficulties related to care of migrants as more problematic than physicians did and were more interested in all aspects of cross-cultural training. 
. The need for cross-cultural training is high among oncology clinicians, particularly among nurses.
. The results reported in the current study may help nurses in decision-making positions and educators in introducing elements of cross-cultural education into oncology curricula for nurses. Cross-cultural training should be offered to oncology nurses.

Effect of extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields on growth rate and morphology of bacteria.

Science.gov (United States)

Inhan-Garip, Ayse; Aksu, Burak; Akan, Zafer; Akakin, Dilek; Ozaydin, A Nilufer; San, Tangul

2011-12-01

To determine the effect of extremely low frequency (bacteria and to determine any morphological changes that might have been caused by ELF-EMF. Six bacterial strains, three Gram-negative and three Gram-positive were subjected to 50 Hz, 0.5 mT ELF-EMF for 6 h. To determine growth rate after ELF-EMF application, bacteria exposed to ELF-EMF for 3 h were collected, transferred to fresh medium and cultured without field application for another 4 h. Growth-rate was determined by optical density (OD) measurements made every hour. Morphological changes were determined with Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for two gram-negative and two gram-positive strains collected after 3 h of field application. A decrease in growth rate with respect to control samples was observed for all strains during ELF-EMF application. The decrease in growth-rate continued when exposed bacteria were cultured without field application. Significant ultrastructural changes were observed in all bacterial strains, which were seen to resemble the alterations caused by cationic peptides. This study shows that ELF-EMF induces a decrease in growth rate and morphological changes for both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria.

Culture, attention, and emotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Grossmann, Igor; Ellsworth, Phoebe C; Hong, Ying-yi

2012-02-01

This research provides experimental evidence for cultural influence on one of the most basic elements of emotional processing: attention to positive versus negative stimuli. To this end, we focused on Russian culture, which is characterized by brooding and melancholy. In Study 1, Russians spent significantly more time looking at negative than positive pictures, whereas Americans did not show this tendency. In Study 2, Russian Latvians were randomly primed with symbols of each culture, after which we measured the speed of recognition for positive versus negative trait words. Biculturals were significantly faster in recognizing negative words (as compared with baseline) when primed with Russian versus Latvian cultural symbols. Greater identification with Russian culture facilitated this effect. We provide a theoretical discussion of mental processes underlying cultural differences in emotion research.

[Refusal of care by a HIV-positive adolescent: role of the cross-cultural approach].

Science.gov (United States)

Bouaziz, Nora; Titia Rizzi, Alice

The refusal of treatment is frequent in human immunodeficiency virus-positive adolescents. The clinical history of a teenage girl presenting severe immunodepression secondary to the virus, a depressive disorder and a refusal of treatment, illustrates the benefit of combined paediatric, child psychiatric and cross-cultural care as proposed by the Cochin-Paris Adolescent Centre. Working on the meaning of the refusal was a prerequisite for the construction of a care project forming part of a life project, as the psychopathological work could only begin once somatic care ensuring the patient's protection was in place. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

A hyaluronic acid membrane delivery system for cultured keratinocytes: clinical "take" rates in the porcine kerato-dermal model.

Science.gov (United States)

Myers, S R; Grady, J; Soranzo, C; Sanders, R; Green, C; Leigh, I M; Navsaria, H A

1997-01-01

The clinical take rates of cultured keratinocyte autografts are poor on a full-thickness wound unless a dermal bed is provided. Even under these circumstances two important problems are the time delay in growing autografts and the fragility of the grafts. A laser-perforated hyaluronic acid membrane delivery system allows grafting at early confluence without requiring dispase digestion to release grafts from their culture dishes. We designed this study to investigate the influence of this membrane on clinical take rates in an established porcine kerato-dermal grafting model. The study demonstrated a significant reduction in take as a result of halving the keratinocyte seeding density onto the membrane. The take rates, however, of grafts grown on the membrane at half or full conventional seeding density and transplanted to a dermal wound bed were comparable, if not better, than those of keratinocyte sheet grafts.

Reliability of Heart Rate Variability in Children: Influence of Sex and Body Position During Data Collection.

Science.gov (United States)

Silva, Carla Cristiane; Bertollo, Maurizio; Reichert, Felipe Fossati; Boullosa, Daniel Alexandre; Nakamura, Fábio Yuzo

2017-05-01

To examine which body position and indices present better reliability of heart rate variability (HRV) measures in children and to compare the HRV analyzed in different body positions between sexes. Twenty eutrophic prepubertal children of each sex participated in the study. The RR intervals were recorded using a portable heart rate monitor twice a day for 7 min in the supine, sitting, and standing positions. The reproducibility was analyzed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC; two way mixed) and within-subject coefficient of variation (CV).Two-way ANOVA with repeated measures was used to compare the sexes. High levels of reproducibility were indicated by higher ICC in the root-mean-square difference of successive normal RR intervals (RMSSD: 0.93 and 0.94) and Poincaré plot of the short-term RR interval variability (SD1: 0.92 and 0.94) parameters for boys and girls, respectively, in the supine position. The ICCs were lower in the sitting and standing positions for all HRV indices. In addition, the girls presented significantly higher values than the boys for SDNN and absolute high frequency (HF; p position. The supine position is the most reproducible for the HRV indices in both sexes, especially the vagal related indices.

Culture confirmation of gonococcal infection by recall of subjects found to be positive by nucleic acid amplification tests in general practice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Møller, Jens Kjølseth

2010-01-01

To evaluate a routine notification of general practitioners to recall nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT)-positive subjects for culture of Neisseria gonorrhoeae to confirm gonococcal infection in the community....

Cultural mismatch and the education of Aboriginal youths: the interplay of cultural identities and teacher ratings.

Science.gov (United States)

Fryberg, Stephanie A; Troop-Gordon, Wendy; D'Arrisso, Alexandra; Flores, Heidi; Ponizovskiy, Vladimir; Ranney, John D; Mandour, Tarek; Tootoosis, Curtis; Robinson, Sandy; Russo, Natalie; Burack, Jacob A

2013-01-01

In response to the enduring "deficit" approach to the educational attainment of Aboriginal students in North America, we hypothesized that academic underperformance is related to a cultural mismatch between Aboriginal students' cultural background, which emphasizes connectedness and interdependence, and the mainstream White model of education, which focuses on independence and assertiveness. The participants included virtually all the secondary students (N = 115) in the Naskapi community of Kawawachikamach, Quebec, Canada. We obtained self-reports of identification with Aboriginal and White culture, teacher reports of assertiveness, and official grades. We found that high identification with either Aboriginal or White culture was related to higher grades, regardless of whether the students were perceived as assertive by their teacher. Conversely, at low levels of cultural identification toward Aboriginal or White culture, being perceived as low in assertiveness by one's teacher predicted lower grades. This suggests that both high cultural identification and assertiveness can contribute to enhancing the educational outcomes of Aboriginal students, but that Aboriginal students with low levels of both cultural identification and assertiveness are at particular risk as they are mismatched with the culture of mainstream schools and do not benefit from the protective effects of identity. The relationships among identity, cultural values, and academic performance point to the need to reject the notion of an inherent deficit in education among Aboriginal youths in favor of a different framework in which success can be attained when alternative ways of being are fostered and nurtured in schools.

Direct Identification and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing of Bacteria From Positive Blood Culture Bottles by Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry and the Vitek 2 System.

Science.gov (United States)

Jo, Sung Jin; Park, Kang Gyun; Han, Kyungja; Park, Dong Jin; Park, Yeon-Joon

2016-03-01

We evaluated the reliability and accuracy of the combined use of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) bacterial identification and Vitek 2 antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) for bacteria from positive blood culture bottles. Direct identification and AST were performed in parallel to the standard methods in monomicrobial positive blood culture bottles. In total, 254 isolates grown on aerobic and/or anaerobic bottles were identified with MALDI-TOF Vitek MS (bioMérieux, France), and 1,978 microorganism/antimicrobial agent combinations were assessed. For isolates from anaerobic bottles, an aliquot of the culture broth was centrifuged, washed, and filtered through a nylon mesh. For isolates from aerobic/pediatric bottles, a lysis step using 9.26% ammonium chloride solution and 2% saponin solution was included. The overall correct identification rate was 81.8% (208/254) and that for gram-positive/gram-negative isolates was 73.9%/92.6%, respectively, and it was 81.8%, 87.6%, and 57.9% for isolates from aerobic, anaerobic, and pediatric bottles, respectively. Identification was not possible in 45 cases, and most of these isolates were streptococci (N=14) and coagulase-negative staphylococci (N=11). Misidentification occurred only in one case. Compared with standard methods, direct AST showed 97.9% (1,936/1,978) agreement with very major error of 0.25%, major error of 0.05%, and minor error of 1.8%. This simple and cost-effective sample preparation method gives reliable results for the direct identification and AST of bacteria. For the identification of streptococci and coagulase-negative staphylococci, the method should be further improved.

Selective versus non-selective culture medium for group B streptococcus detection in pregnancies complicated by preterm labor or preterm-premature rupture of membranes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcelo Luís Nomura

Full Text Available The objective of this study was to identify group B streptococcus (GBS colonization rates and compare detection efficiency of selective versus non-selective culture media and anorectal versus vaginal cultures in women with preterm labor and preterm-premature rupture of membranes (PROM. A prospective cohort study of 203 women was performed. Two vaginal and two anorectal samples from each woman were collected using sterile swabs. Two swabs (one anorectal and one vaginal were placed separately in Stuart transport media and cultured in blood-agar plates for 48 hours; the other two swabs were inoculated separately in Todd-Hewitt selective media for 24 hours and then subcultured in blood-agar plates. Final GBS identification was made by the CAMP test. A hundred thrity-two cultures out of 812 were positive. The maternal colonization rate was 27.6%. Colonization rates were 30% for preterm PROM and 25.2% for preterm labor. Todd-Hewitt selective medium detected 87.5% and non-selective medium 60.7% GBS-positive women. Vaginal samples and anorectal samples had the same detection rate of 80.3%. Anorectal selective cultures detected 75% of carriers; 39% of GBS-positive women were detected only in selective medium. A combined vaginal-anorectal selective culture is appropriate for GBS screening in this population, minimizing laboratory costs.

Decisions to shoot in a weapon identification task: The influence of cultural stereotypes and perceived threat on false positive errors.

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Fleming, Kevin K; Bandy, Carole L; Kimble, Matthew O

2010-01-01

The decision to shoot a gun engages executive control processes that can be biased by cultural stereotypes and perceived threat. The neural locus of the decision to shoot is likely to be found in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), where cognition and affect converge. Male military cadets at Norwich University (N=37) performed a weapon identification task in which they made rapid decisions to shoot when images of guns appeared briefly on a computer screen. Reaction times, error rates, and electroencephalogram (EEG) activity were recorded. Cadets reacted more quickly and accurately when guns were primed by images of Middle-Eastern males wearing traditional clothing. However, cadets also made more false positive errors when tools were primed by these images. Error-related negativity (ERN) was measured for each response. Deeper ERNs were found in the medial-frontal cortex following false positive responses. Cadets who made fewer errors also produced deeper ERNs, indicating stronger executive control. Pupil size was used to measure autonomic arousal related to perceived threat. Images of Middle-Eastern males in traditional clothing produced larger pupil sizes. An image of Osama bin Laden induced the largest pupil size, as would be predicted for the exemplar of Middle East terrorism. Cadets who showed greater increases in pupil size also made more false positive errors. Regression analyses were performed to evaluate predictions based on current models of perceived threat, stereotype activation, and cognitive control. Measures of pupil size (perceived threat) and ERN (cognitive control) explained significant proportions of the variance in false positive errors to Middle-Eastern males in traditional clothing, while measures of reaction time, signal detection response bias, and stimulus discriminability explained most of the remaining variance.

The Utility of Repeat Culture in Fungal Corneal Ulcer Management: A Secondary Analysis of the MUTT-I Randomized Clinical Trial.

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Ray, Kathryn J; Lalitha, Prajna; Prajna, N Venkatesh; Rajaraman, Revathi; Krishnan, Tiruvengada; Srinivasan, Muthiah; Ryg, Peter; McLeod, Stephen; Acharya, Nisha R; Lietman, Thomas M; Rose-Nussbaumer, Jennifer

2017-06-01

To determine whether patients who had a positive repeated culture was predictive of worse clinical outcome than those who achieved microbiological cure at 6 days in the Mycotic Ulcer Treatment Trial I (MUTT-I). Secondary analysis from a multicenter, double-masked, randomized clinical trial. setting: Multiple hospital sites of the Aravind Eye Care System, India. Patients with culture-positive filamentous fungal ulcers and visual acuity of 20/40 to 20/400 reexamined 6 days after initiation of treatment. Corneal scraping and cultures were obtained from study participants at day 6 after enrollment. We assessed 3-month best spectacle-corrected visual acuity (BSCVA), 3-month infiltrate/scar size, corneal perforation, and re-epithelialization rates stratified by culture positivity at day 6. Of the 323 patients with smear-positive ulcers enrolled in MUTT-I, 299 (92.6%) were scraped and cultured 6 days after enrollment. Repeat culture positivity was 31% (92/299). Among patients who tested positive at enrollment, those with positive 6-day cultures had significantly worse 3-month BSCVA (0.39 logMAR; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.24-0.44; P cure on culture is a predictor of clinical response to treatment. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Strong One Lasting One: An Elementary School Principal's Ability to Establish a Positive School Culture by Building Trust

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Brown, Goldy, III.

2015-01-01

Trust is a key element in improving learning and teaching. Reviewing research on the topic of establishing trust by school leaders illuminates actions needed to make a positive difference in the culture of a school. Using the concept of mindfulness, the instructional leader was able to regain the trust of the community, parents, faculty, and…

Clinicians' interpretations of point of care urine culture versus laboratory culture results: analysis from the four-country POETIC trial of diagnosis of uncomplicated urinary tract infection in primary care.

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Hullegie, Saskia; Wootton, Mandy; Verheij, Theo J M; Thomas-Jones, Emma; Bates, Janine; Hood, Kerenza; Gal, Micaela; Francis, Nick A; Little, Paul; Moore, Michael; Llor, Carl; Pickles, Timothy; Gillespie, David; Kirby, Nigel; Brugman, Curt; Butler, Christopher C

2017-08-01

Urine culture at the point of care minimises delay between obtaining the sample and agar inoculation in a microbiology laboratory, and quantification and sensitivity results can be available more rapidly in primary care. To identify the degree to which clinicians' interpretations of a point-of-care-test (POCT) urine culture (Flexicult™ SSI-Urinary Kit) agrees with laboratory culture in women presenting to primary care with symptoms of uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTI). Primary care clinicians used the Flexicult™-POCT, recorded their findings and took a photograph of the result, which was interpreted by microbiology laboratory technicians. Urine samples were additionally processed in routine care laboratories. Cross tabulations were used to identify important differences in organism identification, quantification and antibiotic susceptibility between these three sources of data. The influence of various laboratory definitions for UTI on culture were assessed. Primary care clinicians identified 202/289 urine samples (69.9%) as positive for UTI using the Flexicult™-POCT, whereas laboratory culture identified 94-190 (32.5-65.7%) as positive, depending on definition thresholds. 82.9% of samples identified positive for E. coli on laboratory culture were also considered positive for E. coli using the Flexicult™ -POCT, and susceptibilities were reasonably concordant. There were major discrepancies between laboratory staff interpretation of Flexicult™ photographs, clinicians' interpretation of the Flexicult™ test, and laboratory culture results. Flexicult™-POCT overestimated the positivity rate of urine samples for UTI when laboratory culture was used as the reference standard. However, it is unclear whether point-of-care or laboratory based urine culture provides the most valid diagnostic information. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Oxygen Partial Pressure Is a Rate-Limiting Parameter for Cell Proliferation in 3D Spheroids Grown in Physioxic Culture Condition.

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Gomes, Aurélie; Guillaume, Ludivine; Grimes, David Robert; Fehrenbach, Jérôme; Lobjois, Valérie; Ducommun, Bernard

2016-01-01

The in situ oxygen partial pressure in normal and tumor tissues is in the range of a few percent. Therefore, when studying cell growth in 3D culture systems, it is essential to consider how the physiological oxygen concentration, rather than the one in the ambient air, influences the proliferation parameters. Here, we investigated the effect of reducing oxygen partial pressure from 21% to 5% on cell proliferation rate and regionalization in a 3D tumor spheroid model. We found that 5% oxygen concentration strongly inhibited spheroid growth, changed the proliferation gradient and reduced the 50% In Depth Proliferation index (IDP50), compared with culture at 21% oxygen. We then modeled the oxygen partial pressure profiles using the experimental data generated by culturing spheroids in physioxic and normoxic conditions. Although hypoxia occurred at similar depth in spheroids grown in the two conditions, oxygen partial pressure was a major rate-limiting factor with a critical effect on cell proliferation rate and regionalization only in spheroids grown in physioxic condition and not in spheroids grown at atmospheric normoxia. Our findings strengthen the need to consider conducting experiment in physioxic conditions (i.e., tissue normoxia) for proper understanding of cancer cell biology and the evaluation of anticancer drugs in 3D culture systems.

Beyond cultural values? Cultural leadership ideals and entrepreneurship

OpenAIRE

Stephan, Ute; Pathak, Saurav

2016-01-01

This paper offers a fresh perspective on national culture and entrepreneurship research. It explores the role of Culturally-endorsed implicit Leadership Theories (CLTs) – i.e., the cultural expectations about outstanding, ideal leadership – on individual entrepreneurship. Developing arguments based on culture-entrepreneurship fit, we predict that charismatic and self-protective CLTs positively affect entrepreneurship. They provide a context that enables entrepreneurs to be co-operative in ord...

Direct identification from positive blood broth culture by matrix-assisted laser desorption-ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS).

Science.gov (United States)

Barberino, Maria Goreth; Silva, Marcio de Oliveira; Arraes, Ana Carolina Palmeiras; Correia, Luís Cláudio; Mendes, Ana Verena

Bloodstream infections (BSIs) are among the most concerning bacterial infections. They are one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality, and occur in 30-70% of critical care patients. The prompt identification of the causative microorganism can help choosing the appropriate antimicrobial therapy that will lead to better clinical outcomes. Blood culture is one of the most relevant tests for microbiological diagnosis of bacterial infections. The introduction of the MALDI-TOF microbiological diagnosis significantly decreased the time of identifying microorganisms. However, it depends on the growth on solid culture medium. In this study, 538 bottles of positive blood cultures were evaluated to test the accuracy of an in house modified protocol. The study sample consisted of 198 Gram-negative and 350 Gram-positive bacteria. In all, 460 (83.94%) species were identified based on the direct plate findings. The protocol allowed the identification of 185/198 (93.43%) of the Gram-negative bacteria, including aerobes, anaerobes, and non-fermenters, and 275/350 (78.85%) of the Gram-positive bacteria. The proposed method has the potential to provide accurate results in comparison to the traditional method with the potential to reduce the turnaround time for the results and optimize antimicrobial therapy in BSI. Copyright © 2017 Sociedade Brasileira de Infectologia. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.

A comparative study of the typhidot (Dot-EIA) and Widal tests in blood culture positive cases of typhoid fever.

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Khoharo, Haji Khan

2011-07-01

Seventy-six blood culture positive typhoid cases and forty-eight controls were studied. The typhidot test was positive in 74 (97.36%) cases, with a sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value of 96%, 89.5%, and 95%, respectively, compared to the Widal test which was positive in 56 (73.68%) cases with a sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value of 72%, 87%, and 87%, respectively (P = 0.001). In the control group, seven (14.5%) cases tested positive for the Widal test and two (4.16%) for the typhidot (P = 0.001), yielding the sensitivity and specificity for the Widal test and the typhidot test of 63% and 83%, and 85% and 97%, respectively. We conclude that the Dot-EIA (enzyme immunoassay; typhidot) is a more sensitive and specific test which is easy to perform and more reliable compared to the Widal test and that it is useful in early therapy.

Grazing rates of Calanus finmarchicus on Thalassiosira weissflogii cultured under different levels of ultraviolet radiation.

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David M Fields

Full Text Available UVB alters photosynthetic rate, fatty acid profiles and morphological characteristics of phytoplankton. Copepods, important grazers of primary production, select algal cells based upon their size, morphological traits, nutritional status, and motility. We investigated the grazing rates of the copepod Calanus finmarchicus on the diatom Thalassiosira weissflogii cultured under 3 levels of ultraviolet radiation (UVR: photosynthetically active radiation (PAR only (4 kJ-m(-2/day, and PAR supplemented with UVR radiation at two intensities (24 kJ-m(-2/day and 48 kJ-m(-2/day. There was no significant difference in grazing rates between the PAR only treatment and the lower UVR treatment. However, grazing rates were significantly (∼66% higher for copepods feeding on cells treated with the higher level of UVR. These results suggest that a short-term increase in UVR exposure results in a significant increase in the grazing rate of copepods and, thereby, potentially alters the flow rate of organic matter through this component of the ecosystem.

Association of Safety Culture with Surgical Site Infection Outcomes.

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Fan, Caleb J; Pawlik, Timothy M; Daniels, Tania; Vernon, Nora; Banks, Katie; Westby, Peggy; Wick, Elizabeth C; Sexton, J Bryan; Makary, Martin A

2016-02-01

Hospital workplace culture may have an impact on surgical outcomes; however, this association has not been established. We designed a study to evaluate the association between safety culture and surgical site infection (SSI). Using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture and National Healthcare Safety Network definitions, we measured 12 dimensions of safety culture and colon SSI rates, respectively, in the surgical units of Minnesota community hospitals. A Pearson's r correlation was calculated for each of 12 dimensions of surgical unit safety culture and SSI rate and then adjusted for surgical volume and American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) classification. Seven hospitals participated in the study, with a mean survey response rate of 43%. The SSI rates ranged from 0% to 30%, and surgical unit safety culture scores ranged from 16 to 92 on a scale of 0 to 100. Ten dimensions of surgical unit safety culture were associated with colon SSI rates: teamwork across units (r = -0.96; 95% CI [-0.76, -0.99]), organizational learning (r = -0.95; 95% CI [-0.71, -0.99]), feedback and communication about error (r = -0.92; 95% CI [-0.56, -0.99]), overall perceptions of safety (r = -0.90; 95% CI [-0.45, -0.99]), management support for patient safety (r = -0.90; 95% CI [-0.44, -0.98]), teamwork within units (r = -0.88; 95% CI [-0.38, -0.98]), communication openness (r = -0.85; 95% CI [-0.26, -0.98]), supervisor/manager expectations and actions promoting safety (r = -0.85; 95% CI [-0.25, -0.98]), non-punitive response to error (r = -0.78; 95% CI [-0.07, -0.97]), and frequency of events reported (r = -0.76; 95% CI [-0.01, -0.96]). After adjusting for surgical volume and ASA classification, 9 of 12 dimensions of surgical unit safety culture were significantly associated with lower colon SSI rates. These data suggest an important role for positive safety and teamwork culture and engaged hospital management in producing high-quality surgical

Comparison of human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) growth rate in culture media supplemented with or without basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF).

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Abdian, Narges; Ghasemi-Dehkordi, Payam; Hashemzadeh-Chaleshtori, Morteza; Ganji-Arjenaki, Mahbobe; Doosti, Abbas; Amiri, Beheshteh

2015-12-01

Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF or FGF-2) is a member of the FGF family secreted by different kinds of cells like HDFs and it is an important nutritional factor for cell growth and differentiation. The HDFs release bFGF in culture media at very low. The present study aims to investigate the HDFs growth rate in culture media supplemented either with or without bFGF. In brief, HDFs were isolated from human foreskin sample and were cultured in vitro in media containing bFGF and lack of this factor. The cells growth rate was calculated by trypan blue. The karyotyping was performed using G-banding to investigate the chromosomal abnormality of HDFs in both groups. Total RNA of each groups were extracted and cDNA samples were synthesized then, real-time Q-PCR was used to measure the expression level of p27kip1 and cyclin D1 genes normalized to internal control gene (GAPDH). The karyotype analysis showed that HDFs cultured in media or without bFGF had normal karyotype (46 chromosomes, XY) and chromosomal abnormalities were not observed. The cell growth rates in both groups were normal with proliferated exponentially but the slope of growth curve in HDFs cultured in media containing bFGF was increased. Karyotyp test showed that bFGF does not affect on cytogenetic stability of cells. The survey of p27kip1 and cyclin D1 genes by real-time Q-PCR showed that the expression level of these genes were up-regulated when adding bFGF in culture media (p culture media with growth factor like bFGF could enhance the proliferation and differentiation capacity of cells and improve cells growth rate. Similarly, fibroblast growth factors did not induce any chromosomal abnormality in cells. Furthermore, in HDFs cultured in bFGF supplemented media, the p27kip1 and cyclin D1 genes were up-regulated and suggesting an important role for bFGF in cell-cycle regulation and progression and fibroblast division stimulation. It also suggests that the effects of bFGF on different cell types with

Emotional reactions to crime across cultures.

Science.gov (United States)

Matsumoto, David; Hwang, Hyisung C

2015-10-01

Information about the emotions experienced by observers when they witness crimes would have important theoretical and practical implications, but to date no study has broadly assessed such emotional reactions. This study addressed this gap in the literature. Observers in seven countries viewed seven videos portraying actual crimes and rated their emotional reactions to each using 14 emotion scales. Observers reported significantly high levels of negative emotions including anger, contempt, disgust, fear and sadness-related emotions, and anger, contempt and disgust were the most salient emotions experienced by viewers across all countries. Witnesses also reported significantly high levels of positive emotions as well (compared to not feeling the emotion at all), which was unexpected. Country moderated the emotion ratings; post-hoc analyses indicated that masculine-oriented cultures reported less nervousness, surprise, excitement, fear and embarrassment than feminine cultures. © 2014 International Union of Psychological Science.

High dose-rate brachytherapy source position quality assurance using radiochromic film

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Evans, M.D.C.; Devic, S.; Podgorsak, E.B.

2007-01-01

Traditionally, radiographic film has been used to verify high-dose-rate brachytherapy source position accuracy by co-registering autoradiographic and diagnostic images of the associated applicator. Filmless PACS-based clinics that do not have access to radiographic film and wet developers may have trouble performing this quality assurance test in a simple and practical manner. We describe an alternative method for quality assurance using radiochromic-type film. In addition to being easy and practical to use, radiochromic film has some advantages in comparison with traditional radiographic film when used for HDR brachytherapy quality assurance

Positive Stereotyping: The Cultural Relativist in the Classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Kleinfeld, Judith

1976-01-01

While cultural relativism has been an important corrective to the ethnocentrism of the past, teachers have often vulgarized this viewpoint to mean that no standards they hold can be applied to American Indian students. (Author/JC)

Cultural Norms for Adult Corporal Punishment of Children and Societal Rates of Endorsement and Use of Violence.

Science.gov (United States)

Lansford, Jennifer E; Dodge, Kenneth A

2008-07-01

OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that societal rates of corporal punishment of children predict societal levels of violence, using "culture" as the unit of analysis. DESIGN: Data were retrieved from the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample of anthropological records, which includes 186 cultural groups, to represent the world's 200 provinces based on diversity of language, economy, political organization, descent, and historical time. Independent coders rated the frequency and harshness of corporal punishment of children, inculcation of aggression in children, warfare, interpersonal violence among adults, and demographic, socioeconomic, and parenting covariates. RESULTS: More frequent use of corporal punishment was related to higher rates of inculcation of aggression in children, warfare, and interpersonal violence. These relations held for inculcation of aggression in children and warfare after controlling for demographic, socioeconomic, and parenting confounds. CONCLUSION: More frequent use of corporal punishment is related to higher prevalence of violence and endorsement of violence at a societal level. The findings are consistent with theories that adult violence becomes more prevalent in contexts in which corporal punishment is frequent, that the use of corporal punishment increases the probability that children will engage in violent behaviors during adulthood, and that violence in one social domain tends to influence behavior in other domains. If corporal punishment leads to higher levels of societal violence, then reducing parents' use of corporal punishment should lead to reductions in societal violence manifested in other ways.

Cultural differences in self- and other-evaluations and well-being: a study of European and Asian Canadians.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Hyunji; Schimmack, Ulrich; Oishi, Shigehiro

2012-04-01

Anusic, Schimmack, Pinkus, and Lockwood (2009) developed the halo-alpha-beta (HAB) model to separate halo variance from variance due to valid personality traits and other sources of measurement error in self-ratings of personality. The authors used a twin-HAB model of self-ratings and ratings of a partner (friend or dating partner) to test several hypotheses about culture, evaluative biases in self- and other-perceptions, and well-being. Participants were friends or dating partners who reported on their own and their partner's personality and well-being (N = 906 students). European Canadians had higher general evaluative biases (GEB) than Asian Canadians. There were no cultural differences in self-enhancement or other-enhancement. GEB significantly predicted self-ratings of life satisfaction, but not informant ratings of well-being. GEB fully mediated the effect of culture on self-ratings of life satisfaction. The results suggest that North American culture encourages positive biases in self- and other-perceptions. These biases also influence self-ratings of life satisfaction but have a much weaker effect on informant ratings of life satisfaction. The implications of these findings for cultural differences in well-being are discussed. (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved.

Early identification of microorganisms in blood culture prior to the detection of a positive signal in the BACTEC FX system using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Ming-Cheng; Lin, Wei-Hung; Yan, Jing-Jou; Fang, Hsin-Yi; Kuo, Te-Hui; Tseng, Chin-Chung; Wu, Jiunn-Jong

2015-08-01

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is a valuable method for rapid identification of blood stream infection (BSI) pathogens. Integration of MALDI-TOF MS and blood culture system can speed the identification of causative BSI microorganisms. We investigated the minimal microorganism concentrations of common BSI pathogens required for positive blood culture using BACTEC FX and for positive identification using MALDI-TOF MS. The time to detection with positive BACTEC FX and minimal incubation time with positive MALDI-TOF MS identification were determined for earlier identification of common BSI pathogens. The minimal microorganism concentrations required for positive blood culture using BACTEC FX were >10(7)-10(8) colony forming units/mL for most of the BSI pathogens. The minimal microorganism concentrations required for identification using MALDI-TOF MS were > 10(7) colony forming units/mL. Using simulated BSI models, one can obtain enough bacterial concentration from blood culture bottles for successful identification of five common Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria using MALDI-TOF MS 1.7-2.3 hours earlier than the usual time to detection in blood culture systems. This study provides an approach to earlier identification of BSI pathogens prior to the detection of a positive signal in the blood culture system using MALDI-TOF MS, compared to current methods. It can speed the time for identification of BSI pathogens and may have benefits of earlier therapy choice and on patient outcome. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier B.V.

[Attitudes towards patient safety culture in a hospital setting and related variables].

Science.gov (United States)

Mir-Abellán, Ramon; Falcó-Pegueroles, Anna; de la Puente-Martorell, María Luisa

To describe attitudes towards patient safety culture among workers in a hospital setting and determine the influence of socio-demographic and professional variables. The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture was distributed among a sample of professionals and nursing assistants. A dimension was considered a strength if positive responses exceeded 75% and an opportunity for improvement if more than 50% of responses were negative. 59% (n=123) of respondents rated safety between 7 and 8. 53% (n=103) stated that they had not used the notification system to report any incidents in the previous twelve months. The strength identified was "teamwork in the unit/service" and the opportunity for improvement was "staffing". A more positive attitude was observed in outpatient services and among nursing professionals and part-time staff. This study has allowed us to determine the rating of the hospital in patient safety culture. This is vital for developing improvement strategies. Copyright © 2016 SESPAS. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Impact of positive chest X-ray findings and blood cultures on adverse outcomes following hospitalized pneumococcal lower respiratory tract infection

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skovgaard, Marlene; Schønheyder, Henrik Carl; Benfield, Thomas

2013-01-01

Little is known about the clinical presentation and outcome of pneumococcal lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) without positive chest X-ray findings and blood cultures. We investigated the prognostic impact of a pulmonary infiltrate and bacteraemia on the clinical course of hospitalized...

The physical culture and environment ii

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vratislav Moudr

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This text extends the article Physical culture and environment which was recently published in this journal. That article gave reasons for physical culture and exercises (as well as all human cultural activities which are not integrated functionally into the development and stability of nature, but they are integrated functionally into the growth of culture that is anti-natural. The aim of this text is to show a different rate as well as a different mode of anti-natural impact of physical culture. Another goal is to sketch a positive natural potential. The author's concern is with the connection between physical exercises and culture by general philosophical methods (analysis, synthesis, generalization, specification, abstraction, comparison, explication, etc.. Physical exercises differ in degree of destructivity against nature and also by their different mode of impact - direct or mediated. Mediated impact is given by the intensity of connection with an economical subsystem of the culture which is strongly focused on a general consumption today. The author also is concerned with the possibility of a "biophile" orientation of culture. This possibility is hidden in the "reversion" to a natural function of the movement that is emotional, cognitive and behavioural intergrowth living systems into a natural environment. Thus the author concludes that physical culture could join the intentional "biophile" reconstruction of the culture by its nature oriented enlightenment ("naturalization".

Growth and Survival Rate of Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus Larvae Fed by Daphnia magna Cultured With Organic Fertilizer Resulted From Probiotic Bacteria Fermentation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vivi Endar Herawati

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Daphnia magna is a potential feed for fish. The aim of this research was to find the best treatment and effect of D. magna culture addition from fermented organic fertilizer, to growth and survival rate of Oreochromis niloticus larvae. There were five treatments, each with three repetitions used in the study. All treatments used chicken dung, and different combinations of rice bran, coconut oilcake waste and tilapia larvae. Feeding on tilapia was given by ad libitum method for five times a day until 14 days. Water quality during the research was maintained at temperature 28–29°C, DO 0.3 ppm and pH 8.1–8.2. Observed variables include relative growth rate, survival rate, food consumption rate and water quality. Our results showed that D. magna cultured by fermented organic fertilizer for tilapia larvae (O. niloticus had high significant effect (p < 0.01 on the relative growth rate and survival rate. Treatment of D. magna cultured by 1.2 g/L chicken manure, 0.9 g/L rice bran and 0.3 g/L coconut oilcake showed the highest value on the relative growth rate (10.86%; survival rate (98.46% and food consumption at first week (106.43% and second week (152.76%.

False-Positive Rate Determination of Protein Target Discovery using a Covalent Modification- and Mass Spectrometry-Based Proteomics Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Strickland, Erin C.; Geer, M. Ariel; Hong, Jiyong; Fitzgerald, Michael C.

2014-01-01

Detection and quantitation of protein-ligand binding interactions is important in many areas of biological research. Stability of proteins from rates of oxidation (SPROX) is an energetics-based technique for identifying the proteins targets of ligands in complex biological mixtures. Knowing the false-positive rate of protein target discovery in proteome-wide SPROX experiments is important for the correct interpretation of results. Reported here are the results of a control SPROX experiment in which chemical denaturation data is obtained on the proteins in two samples that originated from the same yeast lysate, as would be done in a typical SPROX experiment except that one sample would be spiked with the test ligand. False-positive rates of 1.2-2.2 % and analysis of the isobaric mass tag (e.g., iTRAQ®) reporter ions used for peptide quantitation. Our results also suggest that technical replicates can be used to effectively eliminate such false positives that result from this random error, as is demonstrated in a SPROX experiment to identify yeast protein targets of the drug, manassantin A. The impact of ion purity in the tandem mass spectral analyses and of background oxidation on the false-positive rate of protein target discovery using SPROX is also discussed.

Active Sputum Monitoring Detects Substantial Rate of Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in an HIV-Infected Population in South Africa

Science.gov (United States)

Hassim, Shaheen; Shaw, Pamela A.; Sangweni, Phumelele; Malan, Lizette; Ntshani, Ella; Mathibedi, Monkwe Jethro; Stubbs, Nomso; Metcalf, Julia A; Eckes, Risa; Masur, Henry; Komati, Stephanus

2010-01-01

Background Tuberculosis (TB) co-infection with HIV is a substantial problem in South Africa. There has been a presumption that drug resistant strains of TB are common in South Africa, but few studies have documented this impression. Methods In Phidisa, a joint observational and randomized HIV treatment study for South African National Defence Force members and dependents, an initiative obtained microbiologic TB testing in subjects who appeared to be at high risk. We report results for HIV-infected subjects. Results TB was identified by culture in 116/584 (19.9%) of patients selected for sputum examination on the basis of suggestive symptoms. Smear was an insensitive technique for confirming the diagnosis: only 33% of culture-positive patients were identified by smear, with a 0.2% false positive rate. Of the 107 culture-positive individuals with susceptibility testing, 22 (20.6%) were identified to be MDR and 4 (3.7%) became extremely drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR) while under observation. Culture-positive cases with a history of TB treatment had more than twice the rate of MDR than those without, 27.1% vs. 11.9% (p=0.05). Conclusions TB is common in this cohort of HIV-infected patients. Smear was not a sensitive technique for identifying culture-positive cases in this health system. Drug susceptibility testing is essential to proper patient management because MDR was present in 20.6% of culture-positive patients. Better management strategies are needed to reduce the development of MDR-TB since so many such patients had received prior antituberculous therapy that was presumably not curative. PMID:20196651

What constitutes a good life? Cultural differences in the role of positive and negative affect in subjective well-being.

Science.gov (United States)

Wirtz, Derrick; Chiu, Chi-yue; Diener, Ed; Oishi, Shigehiro

2009-08-01

East Asians and Asian Americans report lower levels of subjective well-being than Europeans and European Americans. Three studies found support for the hypothesis that such differences may be due to the psychological meanings Eastern and Western cultures attach to positive and negative affect. Study 1 demonstrated that the desire to repeat a recent vacation was significantly predicted by recalled positive affect-but not recalled negative affect-for European Americans, whereas Asian Americans considered both positive and negative affect. Study 2 replicated this effect in judging satisfaction with a personal friendship. Study 3 linked changes in European Americans' life satisfaction to everyday positive events caused by the self (vs. others) and changes in Japanese life satisfaction to everyday negative events caused by others (vs. the self). Positive affect appears particularly meaningful for European Americans and negative affect for Asian Americans and Japanese when judging a satisfying vacation, friendship, or life.

Effect of chest tube position on the success rate of pleurodesis: A retrospective cohort study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tomoyasu Takemura

2017-10-01

Conclusions: In malignant pleural effusion, the success rates of pleurodesis may be similar regardless of the position of the tube. However, this is a retrospective study with insufficient participants. Hence, further investigation is required.

Social and Cultural Factors That Effect University Women Managers

Science.gov (United States)

Arslan, Hasan; Sabo, Helena Maria; Siyli, Nese Aysin

2012-01-01

In this study, social and cultural effects of the low rate of woman managers at universities are tried to be identified. Women have been increasingly appearing in every field of business; on the other hand, although women compared to men constitute majority in educational organisations, they appear in the positions other than management. We will…

HIV positivity but not HPV/p16 status is associated with higher recurrence rate in anal cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, Joshua E; Panico, Vinicius J A; Marconato, Heloisa M F; Sherr, David L; Christos, Paul; Pirog, Edyta C

2013-12-01

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a pathogenic factor of squamous cell carcinoma in various mucosal locations, including anal carcinoma (ACA). It is also known that patients positive for HIV are at high risk of ACA. The goal of this study was to examine clinical outcome in ACA in relation to HPV/p16 positivity, histologic tumor differentiation, and HIV status. Patients with oropharyngeal cancers that are positive for HPV and show overexpression of p16 as well as having non-keratinizing/basaloid histology have been reported to have better outcomes following chemoradiation (CRT). However, such relationships in ACA remain unknown. Forty-two patients with SCC of the anus treated with CRT between 1997 and 2009 were identified. The tumors were subclassified as either non-keratinizing (including basaloid) or keratinizing categories. HPV testing was performed using SPF10-PCR, and all cases were immunostained for p16. There were 23 men and 19 women; 43% of men and 11% of women were HIV-positive (p = 0.04). Fifty-five percent of patients had local disease (stages I and II) and 41% were stages III and IV, with 4% stage unknown. All tumors were positive for high-oncogenic risk HPVs, and all were positive with p16 immunostain. Sixty-four percent of tumors were non-keratinizing/basaloid and 36 % were keratinizing. The keratinizing tumors were more common in HIV-positive patients (67%), whereas non-keratinizing/basaloid tumors were more common in HIV-negative patients (77%) (p = 0.008). Thirty-one percent of patients had recurrence of disease, including 50% HIV-positive patients and 23% HIV-negative patients (p = 0.09). There was no difference in the recurrence rate between non-keratinizing and keratinizing tumor subtypes (p = 0.80). The 24-month recurrence-free survival for the cohort was 66% (95% CI = 46%, 81%), with HIV-positive patients having worse recurrence-free survival compared to HIV-negative patients (HR = 2.85, 95% CI = 0.95, 8.53; p = 0

High dose-rate brachytherapy source localization: positional resolution using a diamond detector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakano, T; Suchowerska, N; Bilek, M M; McKenzie, D R; Ng, N; Kron, T

2003-01-01

A potential real-time source position verification process for high dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy treatment is described. This process is intended to provide immediate confirmation that a treatment is proceeding according to plan, so that corrective action can be taken if necessary. We show that three dosimeters are in principle sufficient and demonstrate the feasibility of the process using a diamond detector and an Ir-192 source. An error analysis including all identified sources of error shows that this detector is capable of locating the distance to the source to within 2 mm for distances up to 12 cm. This positional accuracy is less than the diameter of typical HDR catheters indicating that a diamond detector can be used to accurately determine the distance to the source. The uncertainty in the distance is found to increase with distance

[Evaluation of mycobacterial microscopy and culture results of Sureyyapasa Chest Diseases and Chest Surgery Training and Research Hospital: A 3-year analysis].

Science.gov (United States)

Akduman Alaşehir, Elçin; Balıkçı, Ahmet; Partal, Mualla; Çatmabacak, Gülay; Yaman, Görkem

2016-09-01

Effective diagnosis of tuberculosis is of great importance for transmission control and treatment success. The purpose of this study is to evaluate microscopic examination results of Ehrlich-Ziehl Neelsen (EZN) and Auramine-Rhodamine staining methods and automated BACTEC MGIT 960™ system and Löwenstein-Jensen (L-J) culture results of various clinical samples in the light of recent data from the world and Turkey. Specimens that were sent from various clinics to Sureyyapasa Chest Diseases and Chest Surgery Training and Research Hospital Microbiology Laboratory from January 2012 to December 2015 were evaluated retrospectively. From a total of 62456 samples; 60923 (97.5%) were pulmonary and 1533 (2.5%) were non-pulmonary samples, especially pleura. 2853 (4.6%) Acid-resistant bacilli (ARB) positivity was detected and mycobacterial culture positivity was in total 12.2%. 7076 (93%) and 535 (7%) mycobacteria other than tuberculosis (MOTT) strains were isolated. In 356 specimens the cultures were negative in despite the positive ARB results. Considering mycobacterial culture as the gold standard; the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of ARB microscopy were 32.8%, 99.4%, 87.5% and 91.4%, respectively. The contamination rates in total were within acceptable limits being 2.7% for L-J and 3.8% for MGIT. Analysis of our data indicated that the sensitivity of microscopy is low and it should be evaluated together with the mycobacterial culture to rule out tuberculosis infection. With the use of fluorescent staining and also L-J and MGIT broth together for routine culture since 2013; ARB false negativity rate was observed to fall to 51.7% from 74.1% compared to the years. The follow-up of data such as the sensitivity of microscopy, culture positivity, false-positivity and false-negativity rates and contamination values is of great importance in terms of assessing compliance with laboratory quality standards and contributing to the surveillance

A rotation-symmetric, position-sensitive annular detector for maximum counting rates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Igel, S.

1993-12-01

The Germanium Wall is a semiconductor detector system containing up to four annular position sensitive ΔE-detectors from high purity germanium (HPGe) planned to complement the BIG KARL spectrometer in COSY experiments. The first diode of the system, the Quirl-detector, has a two dimensional position sensitive structure defined by 200 Archimedes' spirals on each side with opposite orientation. In this way about 40000 pixels are defined. Since each spiral element detects almost the same number of events in an experiment the whole system can be optimized for maximal counting rates. This paper describes a test setup for a first prototype of the Quirl-detector and the results of test measurements with an α-source. The detector current and the electrical separation of the spiral elements were measured. The splitting of signals due to the spread of charge carriers produced by an incident ionizing particle on several adjacent elements was investigated in detail and found to be twice as high as expected from calculations. Its influence on energy and position resolution is discussed. Electronic crosstalk via signal wires and the influence of noise from the magnetic spectrometer has been tested under experimental conditions. Additionally, vacuum feedthroughs based on printed Kapton foils pressed between Viton seals were fabricated and tested successfully concerning their vacuum and thermal properties. (orig.)

A study on relationship between cultural intelligence and cross-cultural adjustment in tour management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mahdi Karroubi

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of cultural intelligence (CQ and emotional intelligence (EI on a tour leader’s adjustment in a different cultural environment. Data were collected from 330 outgoing tour leaders in Tehran, Iran. The construct validity was confirmed by using confirmatory factor analysis. The data were analyzed using correlation analysis and path analysis to test the effect of CQ on cross-cultural adjustment, and the moderating effect of EI on the relationship between CQ and cross-cultural adjustment. The results showed that CQ had a positive effect on cross-cultural adjustment. In addition, we found that CQ had a positive effect on EI. The findings of the research showed that emotional intelligence in not significantly the mediator variable. Emotional intelligence has a positive and significant effect on cross-cultural adjustment. The findings of this study contribute to the body of knowledge in the field of CQ and cross-cultural research, and it provides practical implications for individuals seeking to improve their cross-cultural effectiveness, enhancing their cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence, specifically in tourism industry.

Rapid identification and susceptibility testing of Candida spp. from positive blood cultures by combination of direct MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry and direct inoculation of Vitek 2.

Science.gov (United States)

Idelevich, Evgeny A; Grunewald, Camilla M; Wüllenweber, Jörg; Becker, Karsten

2014-01-01

Fungaemia is associated with high mortality rates and early appropriate antifungal therapy is essential for patient management. However, classical diagnostic workflow takes up to several days due to the slow growth of yeasts. Therefore, an approach for direct species identification and direct antifungal susceptibility testing (AFST) without prior time-consuming sub-culturing of yeasts from positive blood cultures (BCs) is urgently needed. Yeast cell pellets prepared using Sepsityper kit were used for direct identification by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry (MS) and for direct inoculation of Vitek 2 AST-YS07 card for AFST. For comparison, MALDI-TOF MS and Vitek 2 testing were performed from yeast subculture. A total of twenty four positive BCs including twelve C. glabrata, nine C. albicans, two C. dubliniensis and one C. krusei isolate were processed. Applying modified thresholds for species identification (score ≥ 1.5 with two identical consecutive propositions), 62.5% of BCs were identified by direct MALDI-TOF MS. AFST results were generated for 72.7% of BCs directly tested by Vitek 2 and for 100% of standardized suspensions from 24 h cultures. Thus, AFST comparison was possible for 70 isolate-antifungal combinations. Essential agreement (minimum inhibitory concentration difference ≤ 1 double dilution step) was 88.6%. Very major errors (VMEs) (false-susceptibility), major errors (false-resistance) and minor errors (false categorization involving intermediate result) amounted to 33.3% (of resistant isolates), 1.9% (of susceptible isolates) and 1.4% providing 90.0% categorical agreement. All VMEs were due to fluconazole or voriconazole. This direct method saved on average 23.5 h for identification and 15.1 h for AFST, compared to routine procedures. However, performance for azole susceptibility testing was suboptimal and testing from subculture remains indispensable to validate the direct finding.

Rapid identification and susceptibility testing of Candida spp. from positive blood cultures by combination of direct MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry and direct inoculation of Vitek 2.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Evgeny A Idelevich

Full Text Available Fungaemia is associated with high mortality rates and early appropriate antifungal therapy is essential for patient management. However, classical diagnostic workflow takes up to several days due to the slow growth of yeasts. Therefore, an approach for direct species identification and direct antifungal susceptibility testing (AFST without prior time-consuming sub-culturing of yeasts from positive blood cultures (BCs is urgently needed. Yeast cell pellets prepared using Sepsityper kit were used for direct identification by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry (MS and for direct inoculation of Vitek 2 AST-YS07 card for AFST. For comparison, MALDI-TOF MS and Vitek 2 testing were performed from yeast subculture. A total of twenty four positive BCs including twelve C. glabrata, nine C. albicans, two C. dubliniensis and one C. krusei isolate were processed. Applying modified thresholds for species identification (score ≥ 1.5 with two identical consecutive propositions, 62.5% of BCs were identified by direct MALDI-TOF MS. AFST results were generated for 72.7% of BCs directly tested by Vitek 2 and for 100% of standardized suspensions from 24 h cultures. Thus, AFST comparison was possible for 70 isolate-antifungal combinations. Essential agreement (minimum inhibitory concentration difference ≤ 1 double dilution step was 88.6%. Very major errors (VMEs (false-susceptibility, major errors (false-resistance and minor errors (false categorization involving intermediate result amounted to 33.3% (of resistant isolates, 1.9% (of susceptible isolates and 1.4% providing 90.0% categorical agreement. All VMEs were due to fluconazole or voriconazole. This direct method saved on average 23.5 h for identification and 15.1 h for AFST, compared to routine procedures. However, performance for azole susceptibility testing was suboptimal and testing from subculture remains indispensable to validate the direct finding.

Explaining Dutch fertility Rates in a Comparative European perspective: The role of economy, social policy and culture

OpenAIRE

Rijken, Arieke J.; Knijn, Trudie

2008-01-01

This article contributes to the search for explanations of the cross-national variation in fertility rates by studying the influence of social policy, economic and cultural factors on fertility in the former EU15, while giving special attention to one case: The Netherlands. This country lacks good social policy for supporting parents to combine work and care and nevertheless has a relatively high fertility rate. This article addresses the backgrounds of that phenomenon, using comparative macr...

The Influence of culture on goal perception: Qatar versus Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ottsen, Christina L.; Koppel, Jonathan; Johannessen, Kim Berg

2016-01-01

Expectations of control put forth by societal norms impose a constant influence on goal perception. To examine the influence of culture on perception of personal goals, 124 Middle Easterners and 128 Scandinavians rated their perceived locus of control, generated goals and evaluated goal...... characteristics. Findings show several cultural and gender differences, most notably in perceived locus of control, unhappiness despite goal achievement and adherence to cultural life script. Many differences were qualified by interactions, suggesting that Middle Eastern men deviate from Middle Eastern women...... and Scandinavians of both sexes. The Middle Eastern men demonstrated greater ambivalence regarding goal achievement, and contrary to previous findings from other cultural samples, they also showed a significant positive association between internal and external control. Furthermore , goals generated by Middle...

Direct identification by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) from positive blood culture bottles: An opportunity to customize growth conditions for fastidious organisms causing bloodstream infections.

Science.gov (United States)

Sharma, Megha; Gautam, Vikas; Mahajan, Monika; Rana, Sudesh; Majumdar, Manasi; Ray, Pallab

2017-10-01

Culture-negative bacteraemia has been an enigmatic entity with respect to its aetiological agents. In an attempt to actively identify those positive blood cultures that escape isolation and detection on routine workflow, an additional step of MALDI-TOF MS (matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry) based detection was carried out directly from the flagged blood culture bottles. Blood samples from 200 blood culture bottles that beeped positive with automated (BACTEC) system and showed no growth of organism on routine culture media, were subjected to analysis by MALDI-TOF MS. Forty seven of the 200 (23.5%) bacterial aetiology could be established by bottle-based method. Based on these results, growth on culture medium could be achieved for the isolates by providing special growth conditions to the fastidious organisms. Direct identification by MALDI-TOF MS from BACTEC-positive bottles provided an opportunity to isolate those fastidious organisms that failed to grow on routine culture medium by providing them with necessary alterations in growth environment.

What Constitutes a Good Life? Cultural Differences in the Role of Positive and Negative Affect in Subjective Well-Being

Science.gov (United States)

Wirtz, Derrick; Chiu, Chi-yue; Diener, Ed; Oishi, Shigehiro

2009-01-01

East Asians and Asian Americans report lower levels of subjective well-being than Europeans and European Americans. Three studies found support for the hypothesis that such differences may be due to the psychological meanings Eastern and Western cultures attach to positive and negative affect. Study 1 demonstrated that the desire to repeat a recent vacation was significantly predicted by recalled positive affect—but not recalled negative affect—for European Americans, whereas Asian Americans considered both positive and negative affect. Study 2 replicated this effect in judging satisfaction with a personal friendship. Study 3 linked changes in European Americans’ life satisfaction to everyday positive events caused by the self (vs. others) and changes in Japanese life satisfaction to everyday negative events caused by others (vs. the self). Positive affect appears particularly meaningful for European Americans and negative affect for Asian Americans and Japanese when judging a satisfying vacation, friendship, or life. PMID:19558439

Positive psychology and ideas of cultural-historical school of L.S. Vygotsky

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vasilev V.K.,

2017-08-01

Full Text Available In the article was carried out a comparative analysis between two distinctive psychology schools: the cultural-historical psychology of L.V. Vygotsky and the positive psychological school. Distinct are a number of significant similarities between their basic ideas that are valuable both for the development of human knowledge and for public practice. The authors have outlined and systematized the leading personal and intellectual qualities of the famous psychologists who have created the most promising theories in the psychological science. The category is highlighted as well as a small group of visionary psychologists who have identified the most important problems of man and psychology and have offered the best quality solutions to these problems. These are W. James, S. Freud, L. Vygotsky, E. Eriksson and A. Maslow; We’ve noticed that Vygotsky alone meets all the criteria, as if the concept of insightful psychologists was modeled over his creative work and his personality.

Substrate utilisation by plant-cell cultures

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fowler, M W

1982-01-01

Plant cell cultures have been grown on a wide range of carbon sources in addition to the traditional ones of sucrose and glucose. Biomass yields and growth rates vary greatly between the different carbon sources and there is a variation in response between different cell cultures to individual carbon sources. Some attempts have been made to grow cell cultures on 'waste' and related carbon sources, such as lactose, maltose, starch, molasses and milk whey. Only maltose was found to support growth to anything near the levels observed with glucose and sucrose. In the case of molasses carbon source cell growth was either non-existent or only just measurable. All the data point to glucose as being the most suitable carbon source, principally on the grounds of biomass yield and growth rate. It should be noted, however, that other carbon sources do appear to have a major (positive) influence on natural product synthesis. Uptake into the cell is an important aspect of carbohydrate utilisation. There is strong evidence that from disaccharides upwards, major degradation to smaller units occurs before uptake. In some cases the necessary enzymes appear to be excreted into the culture broth, in others they may be located within the cell wall; invertase that hydrolyses sucrose is a good example. Once the products of carbohydrate degradation and mobilisation enter the cell they may suffer one of two fates, oxidation or utilisation for biosynthesis. The precise split between these two varies depending on such factors as cell growth rate, cell size, nutrient broth composition and carbohydrate status of the cells. In general rapidly growing cells have a high rate of oxidation, whereas cells growing more slowly tend to be more directed towards biosynthesis. Carbohydrate utilisation is a key area of study, underpinning as it does both biomass yield and natural product synthesis. (Refs. 13).

Comparison of Nested-PCR technique and culture method in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

USER

2010-04-05

Apr 5, 2010 ... Full Length Research Paper. Comparison of ... The aim of the present study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of nested PCR in genitourinary ... method. Based on obtained results, the positivity rate of urine samples in this study was 5.0% by using culture and PCR methods and 2.5% for acid fast staining.

[Association of human chorionic gonadotropin level in embryo culture media with early embryo development].

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Haiying; Zhang, Renli; Han, Dong; Liu, Caixia; Cai, Jiajie; Bi, Yanling; Wen, Anmin; Quan, Song

2014-06-01

To investigate the association of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) level on day 3 of embryo culture with embryo development. Spent culture media were collected from individually cultured embryos on day 3 of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET) cycles. HCG concentration in the culture media was measured using an ELISA kit and its association with embryo development was assessed. In the 163 samples of embryo culture media from 60 patients, HCG was positive in 153 sample (93.8%) with a mean level of 0.85 ± 0.43 mIU/ml. The concentration of hCG in the culture media increased gradually as the number of blastomeres increased (F=2.273, P=0.03), and decreased as the morphological grade of the embryo was lowered (F=3.900, P=0.02). ELISA is capable of detecting HCG levels in spent culture media of embryos on day 3 of in vitro culture. The concentration of HCG in spent culture media is positively correlated with the status of early embryo development and implantation rate and thus serves as a useful marker for embryo selection in IVF-ET procedure.

Enhanced detection rate of typhoid fever among clinically suspected patients in a tertiary referral hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh using nested polymerase chain reaction technology.

Science.gov (United States)

Khan, S; Miah, M R; Khatun, S

2015-12-01

A nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) specific for Salmonella enterica subspecies enteric serovar Typhi was used for the detection of the pathogen, in blood. This study was done during the period of March 2013 to February 2014. A total of 80 clinically suspected cases of typhoid fever were included in the study. Blood was collected from all participating individuals. Nested PCR targeting the flagellin gene (fliC) of Salmonella Typhi & blood culture were done for each of the cases. The positivity rate of PCR & blood culture was 70%& 20% respectively. The positivity rate of PCR was significantly higher than blood culture (Ptyphoid fever cases on the basis of clinical features but with negative cultures. We conclude that the PCR technique could be used as a novel diagnostic method of typhoid fever, particularly in culture-negative cases in an endemic country like Bangladesh.

A remote handling rate-position controller for telemanipulating in a large workspace

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barrio, Jorge; Ferre, Manuel; Suárez-Ruiz, Francisco; Aracil, Rafael

2014-01-01

This paper presents a new haptic rate-position controller, which allows manipulating a slave robot in a large workspace using a small haptic device. This control algorithm is very effective when the master device is much smaller than the slave device. Haptic information is displayed to the user so as to be informed when a change in the operation mode occurs. This controller allows performing tasks in a large remote workspace by using a haptic device with a reduced workspace such as Phantom. Experimental results have been carried out using a slave robot from Kraft Telerobotics and a commercial haptic interface as a master device. A curvature path following task has been simulated using the proposed controller which was compared with the force-position control algorithm. Results obtained show that higher accuracy is obtained when the proposed method is used, spending a similar amount of time to perform the task

A remote handling rate-position controller for telemanipulating in a large workspace

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Barrio, Jorge, E-mail: jordi.barrio@upm.es; Ferre, Manuel, E-mail: m.ferre@upm.es; Suárez-Ruiz, Francisco, E-mail: fa.suarez@upm.es; Aracil, Rafael, E-mail: rafael.aracil@upm.es

2014-01-15

This paper presents a new haptic rate-position controller, which allows manipulating a slave robot in a large workspace using a small haptic device. This control algorithm is very effective when the master device is much smaller than the slave device. Haptic information is displayed to the user so as to be informed when a change in the operation mode occurs. This controller allows performing tasks in a large remote workspace by using a haptic device with a reduced workspace such as Phantom. Experimental results have been carried out using a slave robot from Kraft Telerobotics and a commercial haptic interface as a master device. A curvature path following task has been simulated using the proposed controller which was compared with the force-position control algorithm. Results obtained show that higher accuracy is obtained when the proposed method is used, spending a similar amount of time to perform the task.

Automation of the positioning of a laser anemometer flow rate measurement bench

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gobillot, G.

1998-01-01

The laser anemometry technique is commonly used by the Core Hydraulics Laboratory of the CEA for the determination of the field of flow rates inside fuel rod bundles. The adjustment of measurement point coordinates represents an important part of the velocimetry campaign. In order to increase the number of measurements and the preciseness of the positioning operation, the automation of these preliminary tasks was decided. This work describes first the principle of Doppler laser velocimetry, the components of the measurement system and their functioning conditions. Then, the existing software for tuning and measurement is presented. A new software, called PAMELA, for the automatic positioning of the laser anemometer using a moving table with 5 degrees of freedom, has been developed and tested. This software, written with the LabView language, advises the operator, drives the bench and executes the tunings with a greater precision than manually. (J.S.)

Cutoff values for bacteria and leukocytes for urine sediment analyzer FUS200 in culture-positive urinary-tract infections.

Science.gov (United States)

Kocer, Derya; Sarıguzel, Fatma M; Karakukcu, Cıgdem

2014-08-01

The microscopic analysis of urine is essential for the diagnosis of patients with urinary tract infections. Quantitative urine culture is the 'gold standard' method for definitive diagnosis of urinary-tract infections, but it is labor-intensive, time consuming, and does not provide the same-day results. The aim of this study was to evaluate the analytical and diagnostic performance of the FUS200 (Changchun Dirui Industry, China), a new urine sedimentation analyzer in comparison to urine culture as the reference method. We evaluated 1000 urine samples, submitted for culture and urine analysis with a preliminary diagnosis of urinary-tract infection. Cut-off values for the FUS200 were determined by comparing the results with urine cultures. The cut-off values by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve technique, sensitivity, and specificity were calculated for bacteria and white blood cells (WBCs). Among the 1000 urine specimens submitted for culture, 637 cultures (63.7%) were negative, and 363 were (36.3%) positive. The best cut-off values obtained from ROC analysis were 16/μL for bacteriuria (sensitivity: 82.3%, specificity: 58%), and 34/μL for WBCs (sensitivity: 72.3%, specificity: 65.2%). The area under the curve (AUC) for the bacteria and WBCs count were 0.71 (95% CI: 0.67-0.74) and, 0.72 (95% CI: 0.69-0.76) respectively. The most important requirement of a rapid diagnostic screening test is sensitivity, and, in this perspective, an unsatisfactory sensitivity by using bacteria recognition and quantification performed by the FUS200 analyzer has been observed. After further technical improvements in particle recognition and laboratory personnel training, the FUS200 might show better results.

Assessment of Patient Safety Culture in an Adult Oncology Department in Saudi Arabia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Waleed Alharbi

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Objectives: We sought to evaluate patient safety culture across different healthcare professionals from different countries of origin working in an adult oncology department in a medical facility in Saudi Arabia. Methods: This cross-sectional survey of 130 healthcare staff (doctors, pharmacists, nurses was conducted in February 2017. We used the Hospital Survey of Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC to examine healthcare staff perceptions of safety culture. Results: A total of 127 questionnaires were returned, yielding a response rate of 97.7%. Eight out of 12 HSOPSC composites were considered areas for improvement (percent positivity < 50.0%. Significantly different mean scores were observed across the three professional groups in all 12 HSOPSC composites. Doctors tended to rate patient safety culture significantly more positively than nurses or pharmacists. Nurses scored significantly lower than pharmacists in the majority of HSOPSC composites. No significant differences in patient safety culture composite scores were observed between Saudi/Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC and non-Saudi/GCC groups. Regression analysis showed that the frequency of reported events is predicted by feedback and communication about errors, and teamwork across units. Perception of patient safety is associated with respondents’ profession and teamwork across units. Conclusions: This study brings to the fore the assumption that all healthcare professionals have a shared understanding of patient safety. We urge healthcare leaders and policy makers to look at patient safety culture at this granular level in their contexts and use this information to develop strategies and training to improve patient safety culture.

How Positive Practices Can Accelerate Transformation To a Lean Improvement Culture

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Rasmus; Hansen, David; Lilja, Johan

2016-01-01

With increasing pressure on creating more value with fewer resources, many organizations pursue continuous improvement culture and practices in daily operations.In operations management Lean and the Toyota Way have been continuous improvement role models for describing tools and culture. However...

Successful operation of continuous reactors at short retention times results in high-density, fast-rate Dehalococcoides dechlorinating cultures.

Science.gov (United States)

Delgado, Anca G; Fajardo-Williams, Devyn; Popat, Sudeep C; Torres, César I; Krajmalnik-Brown, Rosa

2014-03-01

The discovery of Dehalococcoides mccartyi reducing perchloroethene and trichloroethene (TCE) to ethene was a key landmark for bioremediation applications at contaminated sites. D. mccartyi-containing cultures are typically grown in batch-fed reactors. On the other hand, continuous cultivation of these microorganisms has been described only at long hydraulic retention times (HRTs). We report the cultivation of a representative D. mccartyi-containing culture in continuous stirred-tank reactors (CSTRs) at a short, 3-d HRT, using TCE as the electron acceptor. We successfully operated 3-d HRT CSTRs for up to 120 days and observed sustained dechlorination of TCE at influent concentrations of 1 and 2 mM TCE to ≥ 97 % ethene, coupled to the production of 10(12) D. mccartyi cells Lculture (-1). These outcomes were possible in part by using a medium with low bicarbonate concentrations (5 mM) to minimize the excessive proliferation of microorganisms that use bicarbonate as an electron acceptor and compete with D. mccartyi for H2. The maximum conversion rates for the CSTR-produced culture were 0.13 ± 0.016, 0.06 ± 0.018, and 0.02 ± 0.007 mmol Cl(-) Lculture (-1) h(-1), respectively, for TCE, cis-dichloroethene, and vinyl chloride. The CSTR operation described here provides the fastest laboratory cultivation rate of high-cell density Dehalococcoides cultures reported in the literature to date. This cultivation method provides a fundamental scientific platform for potential future operations of such a system at larger scales.

Assessment of the factors with significant influence on safety culture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Farcasiu, M.; Nitoi, M.

2013-01-01

In this paper, a qualitative and a quantitative evaluation of the factors with significant impact on safety culture were performed. These techniques were established and applied in accordance with IAEA standards. In order to show the applicability and opportunity of the methodology a specific case study was prepared: safety culture evaluation for INR Pitesti. The qualitative evaluation was performed using specific developed questionnaires. Through analysis of the completed questionnaires was established the development stage of safety culture at INR. The quantitative evaluation was performed using a guide to rate the influence factors. For each factor was identified the influence (negative or positive) and ranking score was estimated using scoring criteria. The results have emphasized safety culture stages. The paper demonstrates the fact that using both quantitative and qualitative assessment techniques, a practical value of the safety culture concept is given. (authors)

Positive Urine Cultures: A Major Cause of Inappropriate Antimicrobial Use in Hospitals?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Samuel A Silver

2009-01-01

Full Text Available INTRODUCTION: Urine specimens are among the most common samples submitted for culture to microbiology laboratories. The objectives of the present study were to describe the indications for obtaining urine cultures in a cohort of hospitalized patients, and to determine the appropriateness of antimicrobial therapy in response to urine culture results.

Migration, cultural bereavement and cultural identity

OpenAIRE

BHUGRA, DINESH; BECKER, MATTHEW A

2005-01-01

Migration has contributed to the richness in diversity of cultures, ethnicities and races in developed countries. Individuals who migrate experience multiple stresses that can impact their mental well being, including the loss of cultural norms, religious customs, and social support systems, adjustment to a new culture and changes in identity and concept of self. Indeed, the rates of mental illness are increased in some migrant groups. Mental health practitioners need to be ...

Comparative analysis of Gram's stain, PNA-FISH and Sepsityper with MALDI-TOF MS for the identification of yeast direct from positive blood cultures.

Science.gov (United States)

Gorton, Rebecca L; Ramnarain, P; Barker, K; Stone, N; Rattenbury, S; McHugh, T D; Kibbler, C C

2014-10-01

Fungaemia diagnosis could be improved by reducing the time to identification of yeast from blood cultures. This study aimed to evaluate three rapid methods for the identification of yeast direct from blood cultures; Gram's stain analysis, the AdvanDX Peptide Nucleic Acid in Situ Hybridisation Yeast Traffic Light system (PNA-FISH YTL) and Bruker Sepsityper alongside matrix-assisted laser desorption ionisation time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). Fifty blood cultures spiked with a known single yeast strain were analysed by blinded operators experienced in each method. Identifications were compared with MALDI-TOF MS CHROMagar Candida culture and ITS rRNA sequence-based identifications. On first attempt, success rates of 96% (48/50) and 76% (36/50) were achieved using PNA-FISH YTL and Gram's stain respectively. MALDI-TOF MS demonstrated a success rate of 56% (28/50) when applying manufacturer's species log score thresholds and 76% (38/50) using in-house parameters, including lowering the species log score threshold to >1.5. In conclusion, PNA-FISH YTL demonstrated a high success rate successfully identifying yeast commonly encountered in fungaemia. Sepsityper(™) with MALDI-TOF MS was accurate but increased sensitivity is required. Due to the misidentification of commonly encountered yeast Gram's stain analysis demonstrated limited utility in this setting. © 2014 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.

New England observed and predicted August stream/river temperature maximum positive daily rate of change points

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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The shapefile contains points with associated observed and predicted August stream/river temperature maximum positive daily rate of change in New England based on a...

New England observed and predicted July stream/river temperature maximum positive daily rate of change points

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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The shapefile contains points with associated observed and predicted July stream/river temperature maximum positive daily rate of change in New England based on a...

A Contextual Consideration of Culture and School-Wide Positive Behavior Support

Science.gov (United States)

Sugai, George; O'Keeffe, Breda V.; Fallon, Lindsay M.

2012-01-01

Students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds have historically experienced poor outcomes related to academic achievement, special education, school discipline and climate, and juvenile justice. Differences between home and school cultures likely contribute to these outcomes. Evidence-based practices in schools are promoted to…

Coagulase-negative staphylococcal bacteraemia in cancer patients. Time to positive culture can distinguish bacteraemia from contamination.

Science.gov (United States)

Morioka, Shinichiro; Ichikawa, Mika; Mori, Keita; Kurai, Hanako

2018-03-16

Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) are the most common contaminants of blood cultures, however, we sometimes have difficulties in determining their clinical significance. It is still controversial that there is a significant difference between the contamination group and the true bacteraemia group in the time to positivity (TTP) of blood cultures. We validated the relationship between a TTP and the presence of CoNS bacteraemia in cancer patients by using an objective, non-judgmental definition for CoNS contamination. We retrospectively reviewed 175 sets of blood cultures drawn from 95 patients that yielded CoNS from October 2011 to March 2013. We considered as contamination if an isolate of CoNS was identified in one out of multiple sets of blood cultures. We investigated the TTP, the threshold values and corresponding likelihood ratios to distinguish CoNS bacteraemia from contamination. The median TTP in CoNS bacteraemia group was significantly shorter than that in contamination group (14 h 45 min and 20 h 31 min, respectively, p = .0157). A TTP of ≤16 h had a specificity of 83% for predicting CoNS bacteraemia, and that of >20 h had a sensitivity of 86% for predicting CoNS contamination. We validated that the median TTP in CoNS bacteraemia group was significantly shorter than that in their contamination group, and that a TTP of ≤16 h was associated with CoNS bacteraemia, while that of >20 h was associated with CoNS contamination, if evaluated with an objective, non-judgmental definition for CoNS contamination.

Perceptions of safety culture vary across the intensive care units of a single institution.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, David T; Clermont, Gilles; Sexton, J Bryan; Karlo, Crystal A; Miller, Rachel G; Weissfeld, Lisa A; Rowan, Kathy M; Angus, Derek C

2007-01-01

To determine whether safety culture factors varied across the intensive care units (ICUs) of a single hospital, between nurses and physicians, and to explore ICU nursing directors' perceptions of their personnel's attitudes. Cross-sectional surveys using the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire-ICU version, a validated, aviation industry-based safety culture survey instrument. It assesses culture across six factors: teamwork climate, perceptions of management, safety climate, stress recognition, job satisfaction, and work environment. Four ICUs in one tertiary care hospital. All ICU personnel. We conducted the survey from January 1 to April 1, 2003, and achieved a 70.2% response rate (318 of 453). We calculated safety culture factor mean and percent-positive scores (percentage of respondents with a mean score of > or =75 on a 0-100 scale for which 100 is best) for each ICU. We compared mean ICU scores by ANOVA and percent-positive scores by chi-square. Mean and percent-positive scores by job category were modeled using a generalized estimating equations approach and compared using Wald statistics. We asked ICU nursing directors to estimate their personnel's mean scores and generated ratios of their estimates to the actual scores.Overall, factor scores were low to moderate across all factors (range across ICUs: 43.4-74.9 mean scores, 8.6-69.4 percent positive). Mean and percent-positive scores differed significantly (p safety culture variation exists across ICUs of a single hospital. ICU nursing directors tend to overestimate their personnel's attitudes, particularly for teamwork. Culture assessments based on institutional level analysis or director opinion may be flawed.

Impact of definition and procedures used for absent blood culture data on the rate of intravascular catheter infection during parenteral nutrition.

Science.gov (United States)

Austin, P D; Hand, K S; Elia, M

2016-06-01

Diagnosis of intravascular catheter infection may be affected by the definition and procedures applied in the absence of blood culture data. To examine the extent to which different definitions of catheter infection and procedures for handling absent blood culture data can affect reported catheter infection rates. Catheter infection rates were established in a cohort of hospitalized patients administered parenteral nutrition according to three clinical and four published definitions. Paired and unpaired comparisons were made using available case analyses, sensitivity analyses and intention-to-categorize analyses. Complete data were available for each clinical definition (N = 193), and there were missing data (4.1-26.9%) for the published definitions. In an available case analysis, the catheter infection rate was 13.0-36.8% for the clinical definitions and 2.1-12.4% for the published definitions. For the published definitions, the rate was 1.6-32.1% in a sensitivity analysis and 11.4-16.9% in an intention-to-categorize analysis, with suggestion of bias towards a higher catheter infection rate in those with missing data, in keeping with the analyses of the clinical definitions. For paired comparisons, the strength of agreement between definitions varied from 'poor' (Cohen's kappa definitions of catheter infection and procedures applied in the absence of blood culture data produced widely different catheter infection rates, which could compromise measurements or comparisons of service quality or study outcome. As such, there is a need to establish and use a valid, consistent and practical definition. Copyright © 2016 The Healthcare Infection Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Non-infected penile prosthesis cultures during revision surgery; comparison between antibiotic coated and non - coated devices

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Seyfettin Ciftci

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Introduction: Aim of this study is to investigate bacterial growth on non-infected devices and compare antibiotic-coated and non-coated implants. Materials and methods: The charts of 71 patients who underwent revision surgeries for penile prosthesis between 1995 and 2013 were reviewed. Of those, 31 devices were antibiotic-coated prostheses, while 40 of the implants were non-coated. Swab cultures were routinely obtained from corporal, pump or reservoir site during the operation. If a bacterial biofilm was determined on the prosthesis, it was also cultured. Results: A total of 5 different organisms were cultured from 18 patients. Of them, 4 devices were antibiotic-coated and the other 14 were non-coated devices. Staphylococcus epidermidis was the most common organism, while Staphylococcus hominis, beta hemolitic streptococcus, Escherichia coli and Proteus mirabilis were also cultured. All patients who had positive cultures were treated with appropriate antibiotics for four weeks postoperatively. Median follow-up time was 41 months, ranging between 8 and 82 months. One prosthesis (non-coated became clinically infected in the follow-up period with a totally different organism. Culture positivity rates of antibiotic-coated and non-coated devices were 13% and 35% respectively and the result was significant (p=0.00254. Conclusions: Positive bacterial cultures are present on non-infected penile prostheses at revision surgeries in some of the patients. Antibiotic coated prostheses have much less positive cultures than non-coated devices.

Mammography Clinical Image Quality and the False Positive Rate in a Canadian Breast Cancer Screening Program.

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Guertin, Marie-Hélène; Théberge, Isabelle; Zomahoun, Hervé Tchala Vignon; Dufresne, Michel-Pierre; Pelletier, Éric; Brisson, Jacques

2018-05-01

The study sought to determine if mammography quality is associated with the false positive (FP) rate in the Quebec breast cancer screening program in 2004 and 2005. Mammography quality of a random sample of screen-film mammograms was evaluated by an expert radiologist following the criteria of the Canadian Association of Radiologists. For each screening examination, scores ranging from 1 (poor quality) to 5 (excellent quality) were attributed for positioning, compression, contrast, exposure level, sharpness, and artifacts. A final overall quality score (lower or higher) was also given. Poisson regression models with robust estimation of variance and adjusted for potential confounding factors were used to assess associations of mammography quality with the FP rate. Among 1,209 women without cancer, there were 104 (8.6%) FPs. Lower overall mammography quality is associated with an increase in the FP rate (risk ratio [RR], 1.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.0-2.1; P = .07) but this increase was not statistically significant. Artifacts were associated with an increase in the FP rate (RR, 2.1; 95% CI, 1.3-3.3; P = .01) whereas lower quality of exposure level was related to a reduction of the FP rate (RR, 0.4; 95% CI, 0.1-1.0; P = .01). Lower quality scores for all other quality attributes were related to a nonstatistically significant increase in the FP rate of 10%-30%. Artifacts can have a substantial effect on the FP rate. The effect of overall mammography quality on the FP rate may also be substantial and needs to be clarified. Copyright © 2017 Canadian Association of Radiologists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Direct identification by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS from positive blood culture bottles: An opportunity to customize growth conditions for fastidious organisms causing bloodstream infections

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Megha Sharma

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Culture-negative bacteraemia has been an enigmatic entity with respect to its aetiological agents. In an attempt to actively identify those positive blood cultures that escape isolation and detection on routine workflow, an additional step of MALDI-TOF MS (matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry based detection was carried out directly from the flagged blood culture bottles. Blood samples from 200 blood culture bottles that beeped positive with automated (BACTEC system and showed no growth of organism on routine culture media, were subjected to analysis by MALDI-TOF MS. Forty seven of the 200 (23.5% bacterial aetiology could be established by bottle-based method. Based on these results, growth on culture medium could be achieved for the isolates by providing special growth conditions to the fastidious organisms. Direct identification by MALDI-TOF MS from BACTEC-positive bottles provided an opportunity to isolate those fastidious organisms that failed to grow on routine culture medium by providing them with necessary alterations in growth environment.

Basal metabolic rate is positively correlated with parental investment in laboratory mice

Science.gov (United States)

Sadowska, Julita; Gębczyński, Andrzej K.; Konarzewski, Marek

2013-01-01

The assimilation capacity (AC) hypothesis for the evolution of endothermy predicts that the maternal basal metabolic rate (BMR) should be positively correlated with the capacity for parental investment. In this study, we provide a unique test of the AC model based on mice from a long-term selection experiment designed to produce divergent levels of BMR. By constructing experimental families with cross-fostered litters, we were able to control for the effect of the mother as well as the type of pup based on the selected lines. We found that mothers with genetically determined high levels of BMR were characterized by higher parental investment capacity, measured as the offspring growth rate. We also found higher food consumption and heavier visceral organs in the females with high BMR. These findings suggested that the high-BMR females have higher energy acquisition abilities. When the effect of the line type of a foster mother was controlled, the pup line type significantly affected the growth rate only in the first week of life, with young from the high-BMR line type growing more rapidly. Our results support the predictions of the AC model. PMID:23282996

ISSP Position Stand

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ryba, Tatiana; Stambulova, Natalia; Si, Gangyan

2013-01-01

The multicultural landscape of contemporary sport sets a challenge to rethink sport and exercise psychology research and practice through a culturally re␣exive lens. This ISSP Position Stand provides a rigorous synthesis and engagement with existing scholarship to outline a roadmap for future work...... in the ␣eld. The shift to culturally competent sport and exercise psychology implies: (a) recognizing hidden ethnocentric philosophical assumptions permeating much of the current theory, research, and practice; (b) transitioning to professional ethics in which difference is seen as not inherent and ␣xed...... but as relational and ␣uid; and (c) focusing on meaning (instead of cause) in cross-cultural and cultural research projects, and cultural praxis work. In the paper, we ␣rst provide an overview of the concepts of cultural competence and ethics of difference. Second, we present a step-by-step approach for developing...

Patient safety culture and leadership within Canada's Academic Health Science Centres: towards the development of a collaborative position paper.

Science.gov (United States)

Nicklin, Wendy; Mass, Heather; Affonso, Dyanne D; O'Connor, Patricia; Ferguson-Paré, Mary; Jeffs, Lianne; Tregunno, Deborah; White, Peggy

2004-03-01

Currently, the Academy of Canadian Executive Nurses (ACEN) is working with the Association of Canadian Academic Healthcare Organizations (ACAHO) to develop a joint position paper on patient safety cultures and leadership within Academic Health Science Centres (AHSCs). Pressures to improve patient safety within our healthcare system are gaining momentum daily. Because AHSCs in Canada are the key organizations that are positioned regionally and nationally, where service delivery is the platform for the education of future healthcare providers, and where the development of new knowledge and innovation through research occurs, leadership for patient safety logically must emanate from them. As a primer, ACEN provides an overview of current patient safety initiatives in AHSCs to date. In addition, the following six key areas for action are identified to ensure that AHSCs continue to be leaders in delivering quality, safe healthcare in Canada. These include: (1) strategic orientation to safety culture and quality improvement, (2) open and transparent disclosure policies, (3) health human resources integral to ensuring patient safety practices, (4) effective linkages between AHSCs and academic institutions, (5) national patient safety accountability initiatives and (6) collaborative team practice.

The effects of corporate social responsibility on employees' affective commitment: a cross-cultural investigation.

Science.gov (United States)

Mueller, Karsten; Hattrup, Kate; Spiess, Sven-Oliver; Lin-Hi, Nick

2012-11-01

This study investigated the moderating effects of several Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) cultural value dimensions on the relationship between employees' perceptions of their organization's social responsibility and their affective organizational commitment. Based on data from a sample of 1,084 employees from 17 countries, results showed that perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) was positively related to employees' affective commitment (AC), after controlling for individual job satisfaction and gender as well as for nation-level differences in unemployment rates. In addition, several GLOBE value dimensions moderated the effects of CSR on AC. In particular, perceptions of CSR were more positively related to AC in cultures higher in humane orientation, institutional collectivism, ingroup collectivism, and future orientation and in cultures lower in power distance. Implications for future CSR research and cross-cultural human resources management are discussed. (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved.

Self- and other-estimates of multiple abilities in Britain and Turkey: a cross-cultural comparison of subjective ratings of intelligence.

Science.gov (United States)

Furnham, Adrian; Arteche, Adriane; Chamorro-Premuzic, Tomas; Keser, Askin; Swami, Viren

2009-12-01

This study is part of a programmatic research effort into the determinants of self-assessed abilities. It examined cross-cultural differences in beliefs about intelligence and self- and other-estimated intelligence in two countries at extreme ends of the European continent. In all, 172 British and 272 Turkish students completed a three-part questionnaire where they estimated their parents', partners' and own multiple intelligences (Gardner (10) and Sternberg (3)). They also completed a measure of the 'big five' personality scales and rated six questions about intelligence. The British sample had more experience with IQ tests than the Turks. The majority of participants in both groups did not believe in sex differences in intelligence but did think there were race differences. They also believed that intelligence was primarily inherited. Participants rated their social and emotional intelligence highly (around one standard deviation above the norm). Results suggested that there were more cultural than sex differences in all the ratings, with various interactions mainly due to the British sample differentiating more between the sexes than the Turks. Males rated their overall, verbal, logical, spatial, creative and practical intelligence higher than females. Turks rated their musical, body-kinesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence as well as existential, naturalistic, emotional, creative, and practical intelligence higher than the British. There was evidence of participants rating their fathers' intelligence on most factors higher than their mothers'. Factor analysis of the ten Gardner intelligences yield two clear factors: cognitive and social intelligence. The first factor was impacted by sex but not culture; it was the other way round for the second factor. Regressions showed that five factors predicted overall estimates: sex (male), age (older), test experience (has done tests), extraversion (strong) and openness (strong). Results are discussed in

Water relations in culture media influence maturation of avocado somatic embryos.

Science.gov (United States)

Márquez-Martín, Belén; Sesmero, Rafael; Quesada, Miguel A; Pliego-Alfaro, Fernando; Sánchez-Romero, Carolina

2011-11-15

Application of transformation and other biotechnological tools in avocado (Persea americana Mill.) is hampered by difficulties in obtaining mature somatic embryos capable of germination at an acceptable rate. In this work, we evaluated the effect of different compounds affecting medium water relations on maturation of avocado somatic embryos. Culture media were characterized with respect to gel strength, water potential and osmotic potential. Improved production of mature somatic embryos was achieved with gelling agent concentrations higher than those considered standard. The osmotic agents such as sorbitol and PEG did not have positive effects on embryo maturation. The number of w-o mature somatic embryos per culture was positively correlated with medium gel strength. Gel strength was significantly affected by gelling agent type as well as by gelling agent and PEG concentration. Medium water potential was influenced by sorbitol concentration; incorporation of PEG to a culture medium did not affect medium water potential. The highest maturation results were achieved on a medium gelled with 10 gl(-1) agar. Moreover, these somatic embryos had improved germination rates. These results corroborate the role of water restriction as a key factor controlling maturation of somatic embryos. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry for direct bacterial identification from positive blood culture pellets.

Science.gov (United States)

Prod'hom, Guy; Bizzini, Alain; Durussel, Christian; Bille, Jacques; Greub, Gilbert

2010-04-01

An ammonium chloride erythrocyte-lysing procedure was used to prepare a bacterial pellet from positive blood cultures for direct matrix-assisted laser desorption-ionization time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry analysis. Identification was obtained for 78.7% of the pellets tested. Moreover, 99% of the MALDI-TOF identifications were congruent at the species level when considering valid scores. This fast and accurate method is promising.

Bifurcations of a periodically forced microbial continuous culture model with restrained growth rate

Science.gov (United States)

Ren, Jingli; Yuan, Qigang

2017-08-01

A three dimensional microbial continuous culture model with a restrained microbial growth rate is studied in this paper. Two types of dilution rates are considered to investigate the dynamic behaviors of the model. For the unforced system, fold bifurcation and Hopf bifurcation are detected, and numerical simulations reveal that the system undergoes degenerate Hopf bifurcation. When the system is periodically forced, bifurcation diagrams for periodic solutions of period-one and period-two are given by researching the Poincaré map, corresponding to different bifurcation cases in the unforced system. Stable and unstable quasiperiodic solutions are obtained by Neimark-Sacker bifurcation with different parameter values. Periodic solutions of various periods can occur or disappear and even change their stability, when the Poincaré map of the forced system undergoes Neimark-Sacker bifurcation, flip bifurcation, and fold bifurcation. Chaotic attractors generated by a cascade of period doublings and some phase portraits are given at last.

Alterations in the Rate of Limb Movement Using a Lower Body Positive Pressure Treadmill Do Not Influence Respiratory Rate or Phase III Ventilation

OpenAIRE

Michael J. Buono; Marissa Burnsed-Torres; Bethany Hess; Kristine Lopez; Catherine Ortiz; Ariel Girodo; Karen Lolli; Brett Bloom; David Bailey; Fred W. Kolkhorst

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of alterations in rate of limb movement on Phase III ventilation during exercise, independent of metabolic rate, gait style, and treadmill incline. Subjects completed five submaximal exercise bouts on a lower body positive pressure treadmill (AlterG P 200). The percent body weight for the five exercise bouts was 100, 87, 75, 63, and 50% and each was matched for carbon dioxide production (V CO2 ). Naturally, to match the V CO2 while reducin...

Direct identification of microorganisms from positive blood cultures using the lysis-filtration technique and matrix assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS): a multicentre study.

Science.gov (United States)

Farina, Claudio; Arena, Fabio; Casprini, Patrizia; Cichero, Paola; Clementi, Massimo; Cosentino, Marina; Degl'Innocenti, Roberto; Giani, Tommaso; Luzzaro, Francesco; Mattei, Romano; Mauri, Carola; Nardone, Maria; Rossolini, Gian Maria; Serna Ortega, Paula Andrea; Vailati, Francesca

2015-04-01

Microbial identification from blood cultures is essential to institute optimal antibiotic therapy and improve survival possibilities. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) has been successfully applied to identify bacteria and yeasts from positive blood cultures broths. The aim of this multicentre study was to evaluate the reliability of the lysis-filtration technique associated with MALDI-TOF MS to directly identify microorganisms from 765 positive blood cultures collected in six Italian hospitals. Overall, 675/765 (78.1%) blood isolates were correctly identified at the species level, with significant differences between Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria (92.6%, and 69.8%, respectively). Some difficulties arise in identifying Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, yeasts and anaerobes. The lysis-filtration protocol is a suitable procedure in terms of performance in identifying microorganisms, but it is quite expensive and technically time-consuming since the time of filtration is not regular for all the samples. The application of the MALDI-TOF MS technique to the direct microbial identification from positive blood cultures is a very promising approach, even if more experience must be gained to minimize errors and costs.

Detachably assembled microfluidic device for perfusion culture and post-culture analysis of a spheroid array.

Science.gov (United States)

Sakai, Yusuke; Hattori, Koji; Yanagawa, Fumiki; Sugiura, Shinji; Kanamori, Toshiyuki; Nakazawa, Kohji

2014-07-01

Microfluidic devices permit perfusion culture of three-dimensional (3D) tissue, mimicking the flow of blood in vascularized 3D tissue in our body. Here, we report a microfluidic device composed of a two-part microfluidic chamber chip and multi-microwell array chip able to be disassembled at the culture endpoint. Within the microfluidic chamber, an array of 3D tissue aggregates (spheroids) can be formed and cultured under perfusion. Subsequently, detailed post-culture analysis of the spheroids collected from the disassembled device can be performed. This device facilitates uniform spheroid formation, growth analysis in a high-throughput format, controlled proliferation via perfusion flow rate, and post-culture analysis of spheroids. We used the device to culture spheroids of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells under two controlled perfusion flow rates. HepG2 spheroids exhibited greater cell growth at higher perfusion flow rates than at lower perfusion flow rates, and exhibited different metabolic activity and mRNA and protein expression under the different flow rate conditions. These results show the potential of perfusion culture to precisely control the culture environment in microfluidic devices. The construction of spheroid array chambers allows multiple culture conditions to be tested simultaneously, with potential applications in toxicity and drug screening. Copyright © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Social structure, infectious diseases, disasters, secularism, and cultural change in America.

Science.gov (United States)

Grossmann, Igor; Varnum, Michael E W

2015-03-01

Why do cultures change? The present work examined cultural change in eight cultural-level markers, or correlates, of individualism in the United States, all of which increased over the course of the 20th century: frequency of individualist themes in books, preference for uniqueness in baby naming, frequency of single-child relative to multichild families, frequency of single-generation relative to multigeneration households, percentage of adults and percentage of older adults living alone, small family size, and divorce rates (relative to marriage rates). We tested five key hypotheses regarding cultural change in individualism-collectivism. As predicted by previous theories, changes in socioeconomic structure, pathogen prevalence, and secularism accompanied changes in individualism averaged across all measures. The relationship with changes in individualism was less robust for urbanization. Contrary to previous theories, changes in individualism were positively (as opposed to negatively) related to the frequency of disasters. Time-lagged analyses suggested that only socioeconomic structure had a robust effect on individualism; changes in socioeconomic structure preceded changes in individualism. Implications for anthropology, psychology, and sociology are discussed. © The Author(s) 2015.

Geographic differences in time to culture conversion in liquid media: Tuberculosis Trials Consortium study 28. Culture conversion is delayed in Africa.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

William R Mac Kenzie

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Tuberculosis Trials Consortium Study 28, was a double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, phase 2 clinical trial examining smear positive pulmonary Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Over the course of intensive phase therapy, patients from African sites had substantially delayed and lower rates of culture conversion to negative in liquid media compared to non-African patients. We explored potential explanations of this finding.In TBTC Study 28, protocol-correct patients (n = 328 provided spot sputum specimens for M. tuberculosis culture in liquid media, at baseline and weeks 2, 4, 6 and 8 of study therapy. We compared sputum culture conversion for African and non-African patients stratified by four baseline measures of disease severity: AFB smear quantification, extent of disease on chest radiograph, cavity size and the number of days to detection of M. tuberculosis in liquid media using the Kaplan-Meier product-limit method. We evaluated specimen processing and culture procedures used at 29 study laboratories serving 27 sites.African TB patients had more extensive disease at enrollment than non-African patients. However, African patients with the least disease by the 4 measures of disease severity had conversion rates on liquid media that were substantially lower than conversion rates in non-African patients with the greatest extent of disease. HIV infection, smoking and diabetes did not explain delayed conversion in Africa. Some inter-site variation in laboratory processing and culture procedures within accepted practice for clinical diagnostic laboratories was found.Compared with patients from non-African sites, African patients being treated for TB had delayed sputum culture conversion and lower sputum conversion rates in liquid media that were not explained by baseline severity of disease, HIV status, age, smoking, diabetes or race. Further investigation is warranted into whether modest variation in laboratory processes substantially

Breast-Conservative Surgery With Close or Positive Margins: Can the Breast Be Preserved With High-Dose-Rate Brachytherapy Boost?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guinot, Jose Luis; Roldan, Susana; Maronas, Maria; Tortajada, Isabel; Carrascosa, Maria; Chust, Maria Luisa; Estornell, Marian; Mengual, Jose Luis; Arribas, Leoncio

2007-01-01

Purpose: To evaluate the likelihood of preserving the breast in women who show close or positive margins after conservative surgery for early breast carcinoma. Methods and Materials: Since 1996, 125 women with less than 5 mm or positive margins and positive separate cavity margin sampling were entered in a prospective trial with high-dose radiotherapy. A standard dose of 50 Gy to the whole breast was followed by a high-dose-rate brachytherapy application delivering 3 fractions of 4.4 Gy in 24 hours. The median follow-up was 84 months. Results: There were only seven local recurrences, with an actuarial local control rate of 95.8% at 5 years and 91.1% at 9 years. Actuarial overall and cause-specific survival rates were 92.6% and 95% at 5 years and 86.7% and 90.4% at 9 years, respectively. Late fibrosis was the most common complication, in 30% of patients, with good or excellent cosmetic results in 77%. The final result was that 95.2% of breasts were preserved. Conclusions: Close or positive-margin breast cancer can be well managed with a high-dose boost in a wide tumor bed by means of high-dose-rate brachytherapy. This technique can avoid mastectomy or poor cosmetic resection, with minimal risk of local or general failure

Assessing the culture of safety in cardiovascular perfusion: attitudes and perceptions.

Science.gov (United States)

Lawson, Chad; Predella, Megan; Rowden, Allison; Goldstein, Jamie; Sistino, Joseph J; Fitzgerald, David C

2017-10-01

The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture was developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to assess the culture of safety in hospitals. The purpose of this study was to identify specific domains of perfusion that are indicators of a high quality culture of safety. Perfusionists were recruited to participate in the survey through email invitation through Perflist, Perfmail and LinkedIn. The survey consisted of 37 questions across six safety domains. Questions were developed using the AHRQ Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. 'Positive scores' were defined as a response that either agreed or strongly agreed with a safety standard. Survey responses that resulted in a 75 percent or higher positive response rate were identified as vital components of a high culture of safety. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine importance components of perceived safety. Four responses were found to have a significant predictive level of a positive safety environment in the work unit: (1) in this unit, we discuss ways to prevent errors from happening again; OR=3.09, (2) in this unit, we treat others with respect; OR=1.09 (3) my supervisor/manager seriously considers staff suggestions for improving patient safety; OR=1.89 and (4) there is good cooperation among hospital units that need to work together; OR=1.77. There were two predictors of a negative work unit safety environment: (1) staff are afraid to ask questions when something does not seem right; OR=0.62 and (2) it is just by chance that more serious mistakes don't happen around here; OR=0.55. The results from this survey indicate that effective communication secondary to both incident and near-miss reporting is associated with a higher perceived culture of safety. A positive safety environment is associated with being able to speak up regarding safety issues without fear of negative repercussions.

Probing background ionization: positive streamers with varying pulse repetition rate and with a radioactive admixture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nijdam, S; Van Veldhuizen, E M; Ebert, U; Wormeester, G

2011-01-01

Positive streamers need a source of free electrons ahead of them to propagate. A streamer can supply these electrons by itself through photo-ionization, or the electrons can be present due to external background ionization. Here we investigate the effects of background ionization on streamer propagation and morphology by changing the gas composition and the repetition rate of the voltage pulses, and by adding a small amount of radioactive 85 Kr. We find that the general morphology of a positive streamer discharge in high-purity nitrogen depends on background ionization: at lower background ionization levels the streamers branch more and have a more feather-like appearance. This is observed both when varying the repetition rate and when adding 85 Kr, though side branches are longer with the radioactive admixture. But velocities and minimal diameters of streamers are virtually independent of the background ionization level. In air, the inception cloud breaks up into streamers at a smaller radius when the repetition rate and therefore the background ionization level is higher. When measuring the effects of the pulse repetition rate and of the radioactive admixture on the discharge morphology, we found that our estimates of background ionization levels are consistent with these observations; this gives confidence in the estimates. Streamer channels generally do not follow the paths of previous discharge channels for repetition rates of up to 10 Hz. We estimate the effect of recombination and diffusion of ions and free electrons from the previous discharge and conclude that the old trail has largely disappeared at the moment of the next voltage pulse; therefore the next streamers indeed cannot follow the old trail.

Reconceptualizing Cultural Globalization: Connecting the “Cultural Global” and the “Cultural Local”

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephen Magu

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Scholars generally are in agreement that the pace of globalization is rapidly accelerating. Globalization’s impact, beyond the socio-economic and political discourses, is affecting conceptions of culture and cultural studies, and changing and restructuring spaces, global, national and personal interactions and relationships. The “texts” and artifacts borne of culture—activities, events and our conception thereof are a mechanism for the propagation of culture. Simultaneously Westernization/Americanization impacts local cultures through consumerism, which obfuscates local traditions, knowledge and experiences. This research argues that culture is a dynamic, adaptive concept and practice, “borrowing” liberally from ideological and technological innovations of other cultures and integrating these borrowed aspects into the construction and modification of culture across spatial and geographical divides to ensure particular cultures’ survival. The research shows that the local affects the global, and vice versa. It selects local communication “texts” to show that cultures are not “victims” of globalization or the proliferation of mass media. Cultures actively adopt and integrate globalization’s technological artifacts. Globalization’s positive effects are dynamic and span cultural interactions and permeate structures of authority at personal, national and global levels.

Prevalence of periodontopathogenic bacteria in patients suffering from periodontitis using culture and PCR methods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amir Aliramezani

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Background and Aims: Periodontitis is one of the most common oral diseases with the various incidence rates in different populations. A number of bacteria are considered as the major etiologic agents of periodontitis. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of periodontopathogen bacteria in patients using both PCR and culture techniques.Materials and Methods: In this study, one-hundred patients (including 62 females and 38 males with an average age of 49±11.5 years with adult periodontitis referred to periodontics department of School of Dentistry/Tehran University of Medical Sciences were investigated. The samples were taken and sent immediately to the laboratory for culture and molecular evaluation. The PCR was performed using specific primers and the statistical analysis of data was performed using SPSS statistic software and McNemar test.Results: The results demonstrated that the total detection rate in culture method was 64%. The rate of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (Aa was 28% which was significantly higher than that of Porphyromonas gingivalis (Pg (6% and Prevotella intermedia (Pi (3%. 27% of cases showed mixed bacterial growth. 65% of patients were positive using molecular method. The rate of Aa (30% was significantly higher than that of Pg (7% and Pi (5%. The mixed PCR positive rate containing of Aa, Pg and Pi was (23%.Conclusion: In this study, it was found that most of the bacteria isolated using culture and molecular methods were Aa, Pg and Pi, respectively. Although the detection frequencies of both techniques were similar, the specificity, sensitivity and bacterial detection speed of the PCR technique is obviously higher. Therefore, the use of molecular techniques is strongly recommended. However, both techniques seem to be suitable for microbiological diagnostics.

Cultural Relativism: As Strategy for Teaching the "Culturally-Different."

Science.gov (United States)

Palmer, Cecelia Nails

"Cultural relativism" exists when individuals can choose the values and responsible life styles that afford the natural and best vehicles of productive and positive expression. This paper suggests a strategy for accomplishing this kind of cultural acceptance in the present educational system. It calls for the transmission of basic, unbiased data…

Listeria spp. in broiler flocks: recovery rates and species distribution investigated by conventional culture and the EiaFoss method

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Line Hedegård; Madsen, Mogens

2000-01-01

The occurrence of Listeria monocytogenes in samples from broiler houses and cloacal swabs taken at the abattoir was investigated. An automated immunobased method (EiaFoss) was used, and 42 samples were also analysed by conventional culture; both methods were based on a two-step selective enrichment....... monocytogenes in enrichment broths may lead to an underestimation of the prevalence of L. monocytogenes. Furthermore, as L. inocua was also detected by the EiaFoss method, a significant amount of bacterial confirmation work had to be done. Of 42 samples analysed by conventional culture, four yielded L. inocua......, of which two were not positive by EiaFoss....

Men as cultural ideals: Cultural values moderate gender stereotype content.

Science.gov (United States)

Cuddy, Amy J C; Wolf, Elizabeth Baily; Glick, Peter; Crotty, Susan; Chong, Jihye; Norton, Michael I

2015-10-01

Four studies tested whether cultural values moderate the content of gender stereotypes, such that male stereotypes more closely align with core cultural values (specifically, individualism vs. collectivism) than do female stereotypes. In Studies 1 and 2, using different measures, Americans rated men as less collectivistic than women, whereas Koreans rated men as more collectivistic than women. In Study 3, bicultural Korean Americans who completed a survey in English about American targets rated men as less collectivistic than women, whereas those who completed the survey in Korean about Korean targets did not, demonstrating how cultural frames influence gender stereotype content. Study 4 established generalizability by reanalyzing Williams and Best's (1990) cross-national gender stereotype data across 26 nations. National individualism-collectivism scores predicted viewing collectivistic traits as more-and individualistic traits as less-stereotypically masculine. Taken together, these data offer support for the cultural moderation of gender stereotypes hypothesis, qualifying past conclusions about the universality of gender stereotype content. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Effects of larval population density on rates of development and interactions between two species of Chrysomya (Diptera: Calliphoridae) in laboratory culture.