Background. Social network analysis (SNA) is an innovative approach to the collection and analysis of infectious disease transmission data. We studied whether this approach can detect patterns of ...Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission and play a helpful role in the complex process of prioritizing tuberculosis (TB) contact investigations. Methods. We abstracted routine demographic and clinical variables from patient medical records and contact interview forms. We also administered a structured questionnaire about places of social aggregation to TB patients and their contacts. All case-contact, contact-contact, case-place, and contact-place dyads (pairs and links) were considered in order to analyze the structure of a social network of TB transmission. Molecular genotyping was used to confirm SNA-detected clusters of TB. Results. TB patients not linked through conventional contact-investigation data were connected through mutual contacts or places of social aggregation, using SNA methods. In some instances, SNA detected connected groups prior to the availability of genotyping results. A positive correlation between positive results of contacts' tuberculin skin test (TST) and location in denser portions of the person-place network was observed (P < .01). Conclusions. Correlation between TST-positive status and dense subgroup occurrence supports the value of collecting place data to help prioritize TB contact investigations. TB controllers should consider developing social network analysis capacity to facilitate the systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of contact-investigation data.
Hidradenitis suppurativa is a chronic relapsing infection of the apocrine sweat glands. Its association with penoscrotal lymphedema is not well recognized. A case of massive scrotal elephantiasis ...associated with chronic hidradenitis of the perineum and scrotum is described. A wide resection of the scrotal mass and perineum was performed, with reconstruction of the perineum and penis carried out using local skin flaps and split-thickness skin grafts. This one-stage treatment yielded an excellent cosmetic and functional outcome.
Click Triazoles Kosmrlj, Janez
2012, 20120208, 2012-05-30, Letnik:
28
eBook
B. R. Buckley and H. Heaney: Mechanistic Investigations of Copper(I)- Catalyzed Alkyne-Azide Cycloaddition Reactions.- J. D. Crowley and D. A. McMorran: "Click-Triazole" Coordination Chemistry: ...Exploiting 1,4-Disubstituted-1,2,3-Triazoles as Ligands.- S. Lee and A. H. Flood: Binding Anions in Rigid and Reconfigurable Triazole Receptors.- M. Watkinson: Click Triazoles as Chemosensors.- H.-F. Chow, C.-M. Lo and Y. Chen: Triazole-Based Polymer Gels.- T. Zheng, S. H. Rouhanifard, A. S. Jalloh, P. Wu: Click Triazoles for Bioconjugation.- S. Mignani, Y. Zhou, T. Lecourt and L. Micouin: Recent Developments in the Synthesis 1,4,5-Trisubstituted Triazoles.
This initiative began in 1996 as a single-crop, single-state program to pursue more effective ways to grow fresh potatoes in Wisconsin using a partnership of growers, environmental groups, and ...university research. In the first decade growers introduced a new label (Healthy Grown) and increased adoption of sustainable practices by 52% while reducing the toxicity of pesticide inputs by 30%, without sacrificing yield, quality or profitability. This success was tempered, however, by disappointing economic gains and in 2010 the initiative was expanded in cooperation with Del Monte Foods to include processed vegetables and increase market potential. This multi-crop, regional approach was achieved through development of a whole-farm standard which addressed sustainability issues that were applicable across the whole cropping system, in conjunction with individual crop modules for each specific crop grown in the farm rotation. In addition to the whole-farm standard, crop modules for fresh potatoes and processed green beans, carrots and potatoes entered pilot testing in 2011. Modules for sweet corn, peas, soybean and field corn will enter testing in 2012. This model is now being expanded to a national framework that seeks to develop sustainability protocols that are regionally and nationally appropriate and yet can drive change at the farm level. This will be accomplished through a series of coordinated regional and local work groups that can bring together networks of expertise from all sectors of the value chain to assess sustainability status and goals for specific crops or cropping systems. National standards will be derived by harmonization of regional differences and incorporation of existing national metrics and will retain the capacity of drive change at the farm level. All phases of this initiative have been underscored by the same basic principals, that programs be grower-driven, science-based, verifiable, and can demonstrate continuing improvement in environmental, economic and social tenets of sustainability.
The corn earworm (CEW), Helicoverpa zea (Boddie), is a highly mobile pest of numerous field and vegetable crops in much of North America. In the Midwestern United States, CEW is a voracious pest of ...several high-value vegetable crops, including sweet corn, tomatoes, and snap beans, and seed corn grown for the field corn industry. Historically, synthetic pyrethroid insecticides have been cost-effective and have provided excellent control of CEW, with control of larvae in sweet corn exceeding 90%. However, since 2000 pyrethroids have only provided 35 to 45% control in field tests conducted in the Midwest, as indicated by small-plot sweet corn efficacy trials. During 2005, the four most commonly used pyrethroids averaged only 19.3 to 37.3% control of CEW (mean of 5 trials in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana). In addition, the survival of moths exposed to the standard pyrethroid, cypermethrin, using the Adult Vial Test (AVT), indicated high survival rates (44 to 66% at 5 μg cypermethrin and up to 45% survival at 10 μg). These levels are similar to, or higher than recent AVT results from Louisiana and Texas. These states reflect two possible “source” regions of late-season CEW that likely migrate north to the Midwestern states each summer. These results, including the stability of resistance each year in the Midwest, are discussed within the context of developing and expanding a North American resistance monitoring and management network.
Accepted for publication 3 June 2007. Published 19 July 2007.
Selected trace minerals and vitamins were assayed in the liver and serum of 25 wild muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) from Victoria Island, (Nunavut, Canada) in November, 1995. Mean ± SE liver ...concentrations in μmol/kg wet weight were 260 ± 16 for copper; 1.04 ± 0.06 for selenium; 11.5 ± 0.7 for molybdenum and 62.8 ± 3.3 for vitamin E. Mean ± SE serum concentrations in μmol/L were 14.2 ± 0.3 for copper; 0.75 ± 0.04 for selenium, 1.53 ± 0.07 for vitamin A and 5.80 ± 0.55 for vitamin E. Comparison of liver and serum concentrations of copper, selenium and vitamin E showed that the concentration in one tissue was a relatively poor indicator of the concentration in the other. The copper-molybdenum interaction often seen in domestic species was not observed. In general, the concentrations of metals and vitamins found in musk-oxen were comparable to those in other ungulates although serum vitamin E concentrations were about one-fourth of those expected.
Heat stress in dairy cows causes large losses of milk production, but such declines can be lessened if the cows are cooled. Two two-year experiments were conducted during four summers to evaluate the ...effectiveness of various fan, sprinkler and mister systems on cow performance and their environment. Cow housing, if provided, was in an open-sided, well-vented free-stall facility. In experiment 1, cows were either outside much of the time, inside with fans only or inside with fans and intermittently sprinkled with water. The afternoon air temperature was lower in the sprinkled area and the cows on the sprinkled treatment had greater dry matter intake and milk production during one summer than for cows on the other treatments. Cows allowed outside produced as well or better than cows left inside with fans only. In experiment 2, cows were assigned to treatments in which control cows had limited time inside with fans while other cows were inside with fans only, fans plus intermittent sprinklers, or fans plus misters. Inside areas with sprinklers or misters were cooler than with fans only. Cows assigned to areas with sprinklers or misters had lower respiration rates and consumed more dry matter than cows inside with fans only or allowed access to the outside. Cows sprinkled gave more milk during the first summer than those on other treatments, but mist in the fan plus mister area was caught in up-drafts and did not reach the cows. Milk production did not differ during the second summer for cows on sprinkler or mister treatments when the misters were lowered to prevent mist up-drafts. About 10 times more water was used for the sprinkler than the mister treatments during each of the two years. Proper use of water to cool cows in hot weather reduced milk production loss
A novel Oncology-Acute Care for Elders (OACE) unit that uses an interdisciplinary team to enhance recognition and management of geriatric syndromes in hospitalized older adult cancer patients has ...been established at Barnes-Jewish Hospital (St. Louis, Missouri). The OACE team includes a clinical pharmacist whose primary role is to improve the appropriateness of prescribing.
Using polypharmacy as the prototypical geriatric syndrome addressed by the OACE team, the objective of this study was to document the processes of communication of an interdisciplinary team and the impact on polypharmacy when the treating physician did not participate in the daily interdisciplinary team rounds.
This was a prospective, observational study of older cancer patients admitted to the OACE unit. We tracked processes and outcomes of interdisciplinary communication regarding medications by prospectively recording OACE team recommendations and evaluating the frequency of implementation of these recommendations through a chart review. Treating physicians, who did not attend team rounds, received these recommendations on a communication form placed in the patient's chart.
Forty-seven patients were included in the study. The mean (SD) age was 73.5 (7.5) years. Twenty-one percent (10/47) of patients were prescribed > or =1 Beers medication as part of their home-care regimen before admission to the OACE unit. The OACE team made 51 medication recommendations, and 42 of those recommendations (82%) were implemented. Twenty-five patients (53%) had an alteration in their medication regimen; 13 (28%) had a potentially inappropriate medication discontinued. A medication error was corrected in ~1 of every 8 patients (6/47 13%).
We found that polypharmacy was common in older cancer patients and increased during hospitali-zation. We also found that most OACE team recommendations communicated to physicians were implemented even though the primary physicians were not members of the OACE team. Future randomized trials are needed to assess the impact of the OACE team model of care on adverse events, survival, and cost in hospitalized older adult cancer patients.
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