Knockvicar Organic Garden

On less than an acre we grow vegetables, herbs and soft fruit, in tunnels and outdoors, organically. We run school gardens and have a community garden group. The Co-op also hosts a weekly community market. Knockvicar Garden offers trainings on site and off, a number of free programmes and (usually free) advisory service. Initiative Type Community Food Growing Projects Location Roscommon Partner Agencies Pobal CSP Website http://www.knockvicargardener.com/

Clinical characteristics and outcome of infective endocarditis involving implantable cardiac devices.

CONTEXT: Infection of implantable cardiac devices is an emerging disease with significant morbidity, mortality, and health care costs. OBJECTIVES: To describe the clinical characteristics and outcome of cardiac device infective endocarditis (CDIE) with attention to its health care association and to evaluate the association between device removal during index hospitalization and outcome. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS: Prospective cohort study using data from the International Collaboration on Endocarditis-Prospective Cohort Study (ICE-PCS), conducted June 2000 through August 2006 in 61 centers in 28 countries. Patients were hospitalized adults with definite endocarditis as defined by modified Duke endocarditis criteria. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: In-hospital and 1-year mortality. RESULTS: CDIE was diagnosed in 177 (6.4% [95% CI, 5.5%-7.4%]) of a total cohort of 2760 patients with definite infective endocarditis. The clinical profile of CDIE included advanced patient age (median, 71.2 years [interquartile range, 59.8-77.6]); causation by staphylococci (62 [35.0% {95% CI, 28.0%-42.5%}] Staphylococcus aureus and 56 [31.6% {95% CI, 24.9%-39.0%}] coagulase-negative staphylococci); and a high prevalence of health care-associated infection (81 [45.8% {95% CI, 38.3%-53.4%}]). There was coexisting valve involvement in 66 (37.3% [95% CI, 30.2%-44.9%]) patients, predominantly tricuspid valve infection (43/177 [24.3%]), with associated higher mortality. In-hospital and 1-year mortality rates were 14.7% (26/177 [95% CI, 9.8%-20.8%]) and 23.2% (41/177 [95% CI, 17.2%-30.1%]), respectively. Proportional hazards regression analysis showed a survival benefit at 1 year for device removal during the initial hospitalization (28/141 patients [19.9%] who underwent device removal during the index hospitalization had died at 1 year, vs 13/34 [38.2%] who did not undergo device removal; hazard ratio, 0.42 [95% CI, 0.22-0.82]). CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with CDIE, the rate of concomitant valve infection is high, as is mortality, particularly if there is valve involvement. Early device removal is associated with improved survival at 1 year.

Modelling and Prospects for Audience Measurement of Outdoor Advertising using GPS Devices

The paper describes how to integrate audience measurement and site visibility as the main research approaches in outdoor advertising research in a single concept. Details are portrayed on how GPS is used on a large scale in Switzerland for mobility analysis and audience measurement. Furthermore, the development of a software solution is introduced that allows the integration of all mobility data and poster location information. Finally a model and its results is presented for the calculation of coverage of individual poster campaigns and for the calculation of the number of contacts generated by each billboard.

Uso de tecnologías abiertas (Processing) en el desarrollo de interfaces avanzadas de visualización y acceso de datos : Estudio del caso Organic.Edunet

El artículo muestra, a través del estudio del caso del buscador semántico del portal Organic.Edunet, cómo el uso de tecnologías cerradas en la creación de interfaces avanzadas de visualización de datos impide su desarrollo y evolución. En el artículo se mostrará también cómo, combinado con técnicas para la medición y valoración de la usabilidad de las aplicaciones, el uso de tecnologías abiertas permite detectar los problemas del interface, proponer soluciones o alternativas, e implementarlas rápidamente.

Assistances ventriculaires gauches dans le choc cardiogène et l'insuffisance cardiaque terminate [Left ventricular assist devices in cardiogenic shock and chronic refractory heart failure].

Decompensated heart failure, either acute (cardiogenic shock) or chronic (terminal heart failure) may become refractory to conventional therapy, then requiring mechanical assistance of the failing heart to improve hemodynamics. In the acute setting, aortic balloon counterpulsation is used as first line therapy. In case of failure, other techniques include the extracorporal membrane oxygenator or a percutaneous left ventricular assist device, such as the TandemHeart or the Impella. In chronic heart failure, long-term left ventricular assist devices can be surgically implanted. The continuous flow devices give here the best results. The aim of the present review article is to present with some details the various methods of mechanical left ventricle assistance to which the intensivist may be confronted in his daily practice.

The profiling of MDMA tablets: a study of the combination of physical characteristics and organic impurities as sources of information

The profiling of MDMA tablets can be carried out using different sets of characteristics. The first type of measurements performed on MDMA tablets are physical characteristics (i.e. post-tabletting characteristics). They yield preliminary profiling data that may be valuable in a first stage for investigation purposes. However organic impurities (i.e. pre-tabletting characteristics) are generally considered to bring more reliable information, particularly for presentation of evidence in court. This work aimed therefore at evaluating the added value of combining pre-tabletting characteristics and post-tabletting characteristics of seized MDMA tablets. In approximately half of the investigated cases, the post-tabletting links were confirmed with organic impurities analyses. In the remaining cases, post-tabletting batches (post-TBs) were divided in several pre-tabletting batches (pre-TBs), thus supporting the hypothesis that several production batches of MDMA powder (pre-TBs) were used to produce one single post-TB (i.e. tablets having the same shape, diameter, thickness, weight and score; but different organic impurities composition). In view of the obtained results, the hypotheses were discussed through illustrating examples. In conclusion, both sets of characteristics were found relevant alone and combined together. They actually provide distinct information about MDMA illicit production and trafficking.

Parental occupational exposure to organic solvents and anencephaly in Mexico

Objective: To assess the relationship between parental occupational exposure to organic solvents, and the risk of anencephaly in Mexico. Methods: A case-control study was conducted based on the registers of the Epidemiological Surveillance System for Neural Tube Defects in Mexico; 151 cases of anencephaly of ≥20 weeks’ gestation were included. A control, born alive and without any apparent congenital malformations at birth, was selected for each case in the same maternity service in which the case was born. Information on occupational exposures, lifestyle habits, reproductive history, use of medicines, supplementation with multivitamins and folic acid, was obtained by a general questionnaire; a food frequency questionnaire was also applied to obtain information of daily intake of folate and other B vitamins. Occupational exposure to organic solvents was based on job title as a proxy for exposure and analysed considering two critical periods around conception. Results: In logistic regression analysis, the odds of having a child with anencephaly was higher if the mother or the father was occupationally exposed to organic solvents during the periconceptional period, or when both parents or at least one of them were occupationally exposed during this period with an adjusted odds ratio of 2.97 (95% CI 1.36 to 6.52). Conclusions: The results support the hypothesis that both maternal and paternal occupational exposure to organic solvents can increase the probability of having a child with anencephaly.

Postmortem circulation: a new model for testing endovascular devices and training clinicians in their use.

The development of new medical devices, such as aortic valves, requires numerous preliminary studies on animals and training of personnel on cadavers before the devices can be used in patients. Postmortem circulation, a technique used for postmortem angiography, allows the vascular system to be reperfused in a way similar to that in living persons. This technique is used for postmortem investigations to visualize the human vascular system and to make vascular diagnoses. Specific material for reperfusing a human body was developed recently. Our aim was to investigate whether postmortem circulation that imitates in vivo conditions allows for the testing of medical materials on cadavers. We did this by delivering an aortic valve using minimally invasive methods. Postmortem circulation was established in eight corpses to recreate an environment as close as possible to in vivo conditions. Mobile fluoroscopy and a percutaneous catheterization technique were used to deliver the material to the correct place. Once the valve was implanted, the heart and primary vessels were extracted to confirm its position. Postmortem circulation proved to be essential in several of the cadavers because it helped the clinicians to deliver the material and improve their implantation techniques. Due to the intravascular circulation, sites with substantial arteriosclerotic stenosis could be bypassed, which would have been impossible without perfusion. Although originally developed for postmortem investigations, this reperfusion technique could be useful for testing new medical devices intended for living patients.

Positive contrast visualization of nitinol devices using susceptibility gradient mapping.

MRI visualization of devices is traditionally based on signal loss due to T(2)* effects originating from local susceptibility differences. To visualize nitinol devices with positive contrast, a recently introduced postprocessing method is adapted to map the induced susceptibility gradients. This method operates on regular gradient-echo MR images and maps the shift in k-space in a (small) neighborhood of every voxel by Fourier analysis followed by a center-of-mass calculation. The quantitative map of the local shifts generates the positive contrast image of the devices, while areas without susceptibility gradients render a background with noise only. The positive signal response of this method depends only on the choice of the voxel neighborhood size. The properties of the method are explained and the visualizations of a nitinol wire and two stents are shown for illustration.

Binding of ²³⁹Pu and ⁹⁰Sr to organic colloids in soil solutions: evidence from a field experiment.

Colloidal transport has been shown to enhance the migration of plutonium in groundwater downstream from contaminated sites, but little is known about the adsorption of ⁹⁰Sr and plutonium onto colloids in the soil solution of natural soils. We sampled soil solutions using suction cups, and separated colloids using ultrafiltration to determine the distribution of ²³⁹Pu and ⁹⁰Sr between the truly dissolved fraction and the colloidal fraction of the solutions of three Alpine soils contaminated only by global fallout from the nuclear weapon tests. Plutonium was essentially found in the colloidal fraction (>80%) and probably associated with organic matter. A significant amount of colloidal ⁹⁰Sr was detected in organic-rich soil solutions. Our results suggest that binding to organic colloids in the soil solutions plays a key role with respect to the mobility of plutonium in natural alpine soils and, to a lesser extent, to the mobility of ⁹⁰Sr.

Characterization of a protein of the plastid inner envelope having homology to animal inorganic phosphate, chloride and organic-anion transporters.

A protein from Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. showing homology to animal proteins of the NaPi-1 family, involved in the transport of inorganic phosphate, chloride, glutamate and sialic acid, has been characterized. This protein, named ANTR2 (for anion transporters) was shown by chloroplast subfractionation to be localized to the plastid inner envelope in both A. thaliana and Spinacia oleracea (L.). Immunolocalization revealed that ANTR2 was expressed in the leaf mesophyll cells as well as in the developing embryo at the upturned-U stage. Five additional homologues of ANTR2 are found in the Arabidopsis genome, of which one was shown by green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusion to be also located in the chloroplast. All ANTR proteins share homology to the animal NaPi-1 family, as well as to other organic-anion transporters that are members of the Anion:Cation Symporter (ACS) family, and share the main features of transporters from this family, including the presence of 12 putative transmembrane domains and of a 7-amino acid motif in the fourth putative transmembrane domain. ANTR2 thus represent a novel protein of the plastid inner envelope that is likely to be involved in anion transport.

Evaluation of work-related volatile organic compounds (VOCs) exposition in automotive painting cabins industrial cleanings

Automotive painting cabins are cleaned with several solvents, being great part of them mixtures of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), where the three xylene isomers are the most important constituents. To evaluate the work-related exposition of the cleaners that use these mixtures of solvents, xylenes have been determined in the working ambient air as well as its metabolite, o-m-p-methyl hippuric acid, has been analysed in urine to establish the dermal and respiratory exposition. This evaluation has been done in order to assess the occupational exposure to VOCs and to know the working conditions of the cleaners, but also to evaluate the effectiveness of personal protective equipment (PPE), the engineering control and the work practices.The xylenes have been chosen as indicators of exposition because they are the main components in the cleaning solvents used, with a level of concentration between 50% and 85%.The Xylenes have an occupational exposure limit (8 h TWA) of 50 ppm (221 mg/m3) and a short-term exposure limit (STEL) of 100 ppm (442 mg/m3). On the other hand, the biological exposure index (BEI) for xylenes is the sum of the total methyl hippuric acids in urine at the end of the work-shift, being the value 1500 mg/g creatinine.

Route optimization and customization using real geographical data in Android mobile devices

Nowadays, there are several services and applications that allow users to locate and move to different tourist areas using a mobile device. These systems can be used either by internet or downloading an application in concrete places like a visitors centre. Although such applications are able to facilitate the location and the search for points of interest, in most cases, these services and applications do not meet the needs of each user. This paper aims to provide a solution by studying the main projects, services and applications, their routing algorithms and their treatment of the real geographical data in Android mobile devices, focusing on the data acquisition and treatment to improve the routing searches in off-line environments.