To analyse OXA-48 (OXA-48/181)-type carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae reported in Poland from 2013 until January 2017.
Bacterial isolates were typed by PFGE and MLST. Genes coding for ...OXA-48/181 types and other β-lactamases were amplified and sequenced. Mobile elements with blaOXA-48/181-like genes were PCR mapped. blaOXA-48/181-carrying plasmids were characterized by nuclease S1-hybridization profiling, transfer assays and PCR-based replicon typing, while the chromosomal location of the genes was confirmed by the I-CeuI analysis.
Fifty-four isolates from 52 patients in 20 hospitals (14 cities) were included, in 14 cases having probable foreign origins indicated. The organisms were genetically diverse and represented numerous pandemic clones, including Klebsiella pneumoniae ST395 (n = 23), ST11, ST15 and ST101, Escherichia coli ST38, ST410 and ST648, and Enterobacter cloacae complex ST78. These produced OXA-48 (n = 49), OXA-181 (n = 4) or OXA-232 (n = 1). One of five K. pneumoniae ST395 pulsotypes caused a multicentre outbreak with 18 cases, which significantly contributed to the total number of patients. Depending on the variant, the blaOXA-48/181-like genes were parts of the Tn1999-, Tn2013- or Tn2016-like transposons, with blaOXA-48 found in an ISEcp1-associated module (Tn2016-like) for the first time. Three genotypes, including E. coli ST38, had chromosomal blaOXA-48 genes, while others carried transmissible IncL (∼60 kb; blaOXA-48; n = 30), IncM (∼80-95 kb; blaOXA-48; n = 4), IncX3 (∼50 kb; blaOXA-181; n = 4) or non-typeable (∼90-160 kb; blaOXA-48 or blaOXA-232) plasmids.
Even though OXA-48/181 producers seem to occur infrequently in Poland, their epidemiology has been marked by various phenomena, namely multiple imports, several limited transmissions plus one larger clonal outbreak, and possible plasmid transfers.
Speleothems provide one of the most continuous terrestrial archives. However, due to changing conditions in temperature/humidity or the chemistry of percolating water, sedimentation breaks (hiatuses) ...and erosional events are possible and are commonly recorded in speleothems. Sedimentation breaks with durations longer than the resolution of the studied record should be considered in potential speleothem age-depth models. The most classic and reliable solution to the problem is the independent construction of age-depth models for the parts of speleothems separated by the hiatuses. However, in some cases, it is not possible to obtain a sufficient number of dating results for reliable age-depth model estimation. In such cases, the problem can be solved by the application of other sources of chronological information. Here, based on a few speleothem examples, an alternative approach – oxygen isotopic stratigraphy – is used to estimate the chronology for the parts of speleothems where there is not enough chronological information for classic age-depth models. As a result, the deposition break duration can be estimated.
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is one of the most frequent dementia types in patients under 65 years of age. Currently, no therapy can effectively improve the cognitive deficits associated with FTD. ...Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a noninvasive method of inducing brain plasticity with therapeutic potential in neurodegenerative diseases. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of rTMS on cognitive, behavioral, and emotional function in FTD.
Nine patients (seven women, four men, mean age 61.7±10.1 years) with the behavioral variant of FTD, one with nonfluent/agrammatic variant primary progressive aphasia, and one with progressive nonfluent aphasia (subtypes of FTD) underwent 10 daily sessions of 10 Hz rTMS over the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Cognitive and behavioral assessments were administered before and after therapy.
After rTMS, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and letter and digit cancellation test scores, as well as reading time and error number in the Stroop test improved. The caregivers' impression of the daily functioning of patients improved in the Frontal Behavioral Inventory scores. These changes were not paralleled by an improvement of mood.
The results indicate that rTMS may improve the cognitive performance of patients with FTD and warrant sham-controlled trials.
We measure the lifetime of the $D_s^+$ meson using a data sample of 207 fb$^{-1}$ collected by the Belle II experiment running at the SuperKEKB asymmetric-energy $e^+ e^-$ collider. The lifetime is ...determined by fitting the decay-time distribution of a sample of $116\times 10^3$ $D_s^+\rightarrow\phi\pi^+$ decays. Our result is $\tau^{}_{D^+_s} = (498.7\pm 1.7\,^{+1.1}_{-0.8})$ fs, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. This result is significantly more precise than previous measurements.
The use of the human iris as a biometric has recently attracted significant interest in the area of security applications. The need to capture an iris without active user cooperation places demands ...on the optical system. Unlike a traditional optical design, in which a large imaging volume is traded off for diminished imaging resolution and capacity for collecting light, Wavefront Coded imaging is a computational imaging technology capable of expanding the imaging volume while maintaining an accurate and robust iris identification capability. We apply Wavefront Coded imaging to extend the imaging volume of the iris recognition application.
Clearance experiments in calcium-stone patients (n = 60) and controls (n = 60) demonstrated significantly higher urinary uric acid (UA) in younger (less 40 years) stone patients than controls ...(median: 480 vs. 351 mug/min) but not in older (greater than 40 years) patients. Serum UA and urinary oxypurines were comparable in health and stone disease. Conversely urinary phosphate was significantly lower in younger patients than matched controls (males: 224 vs. 304 mug) and presumably is responsible for the more alkaline pH. It is suggested that calcium-stone formation in humans is represented by two different populations.
A search for the flavor-changing neutral-current decay B$^+$→K$^+$$ν\overline{ν}$ is performed at the Belle II experiment at the SuperKEKB asymmetric energy electron-positron collider. The data ...sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 63 fb$^{-1}$ collected at the $ϒ$(4S) resonance and a sample of 9 fb$^{-1}$ collected at an energy 60 MeV below the resonance. Because the measurable decay signature involves only a single charged kaon, a novel measurement approach is used that exploits not only the properties of the B$^+$→K$^+$$ν\overline{ν}$ decay, but also the inclusive properties of the other $B$ meson in the $ϒ$(4S)→$B\overline{B}$ event, to suppress the background from other $B$ meson decays and light-quark pair production. This inclusive tagging approach offers a higher signal efficiency compared to previous searches. No significant signal is observed. An upper limit on the branching fraction of B$^+$→K$^+$$ν\overline{ν}$ of 4.1×10$^{-5}$ is set at the 90% confidence level.
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