Sub-inhibitory concentrations of vancomycin prevent quinolone-resistance in a penicillin-resistant isolate of Streptococcus pneumoniae.

BACKGROUND: The continuous spread of penicillin-resistant pneumococci represents a permanent threat in the treatment of pneumococcal infections, especially when strains show additional resistance to quinolones. The main objective of this study was to determine a treatment modality impeding the emergence of quinolone resistance. RESULTS: Exposure of a penicillin-resistant pneumococcus to increasing concentrations of trovafloxacin or ciprofloxacin selected for mutants resistant to these drugs. In the presence of sub-inhibitory concentrations of vancomycin, development of trovafloxacin-resistance and high-level ciprofloxacin-resistance were prevented. CONCLUSIONS: Considering the risk of quinolone-resistance in pneumococci, the observation might be of clinical importance.

In vivo activation of melanoma-specific CD8(+) T cells by endogenous tumor antigen and peptide vaccines. A comparison to virus-specific T cells.

Many new types of vaccines against infectious or malignant diseases are currently being proposed. Careful characterization of the induced immune response is required in assessing their efficiency. While in most studies human tumor antigen-specific T cells are analyzed after in vitro re-stimulation, we investigated these T cells directly ex vivo using fluorescent tetramers. In peripheral blood lymphocytes from untreated melanoma patients with advanced disease, a fraction of tumor antigen (Melan-A/MART-1)-specific T cells were non-naive, thus revealing tumor-driven immune activation. After immunotherapy with synthetic peptides plus adjuvant, we detected tumor antigen-specific T cells that proliferated and differentiated to memory cells in vivo in some melanoma patients. However, these cells did not present the features of effector cells as found in cytomegalovirus specific T cells analyzed in parallel. Thus, peptide plus adjuvant vaccines can lead to activation and expansion of antigen specific CD8(+) T cells in PBL. Differentiation to protective CD8(+) effector cells may, however, require additional vaccine components that stimulate T cells more efficiently, a major challenge for the development of future immunotherapy.

Audit report of the State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, and its discretely presented component unit as of and for the years ended June 30, 2012 and 2011

Audit report of the State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, and its discretely presented component unit as of and for the years ended June 30, 2012 and 2011

Audit report on the Iowa Department of Human Services – Targeted Case Management Unit for the year ended June 30, 2012

Audit report on the Iowa Department of Human Services – Targeted Case Management Unit for the year ended June 30, 2012

leges Wisigothorum : conjectae inter lineas et ad marginem glossae ; initio et sub finem nonnulla desiderantur

Colbertinus

decisiones Rotae ab anno 1376. ad annum 1381. sub certis capitulis digestae : authore Guillelmo Herboch, sacri palatii causarum Auditore

Philiberti de la Mare

Axial sub-nanometer accuracy in digital holographic microscopy

We present state-of-the-art dual-wavelength digital holographic microscopy (DHM) measurement on a calibrated 8.9 nm high chromium thin step sample and demonstrate sub-nanometer axial accuracy. By using a modified DHM reference calibrated hologram (RCH) reconstruction method, a temporal averaging procedure and a specific dual-wavelength DHM arrangement, it is shown that specimen topography can be measured with an accuracy, defined as the axial standard deviation, reduced to at least 0.9 nm. Indeed for the first time to the best of our knowledge, it is reported that averaging each of the two wavefronts recorded with real-time dual-wavelength DHM can provide up to 30% spatial noise reduction for the given configuration. Moreover, the presented experimental configuration achieves a temporal stability below 0.8 nm, thus paving the way to Angström range for dual-wavelength DHM.

A Monte Carlo-based procedure for independent monitor unit calculation in IMRT treatment plans.

Intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) treatment plan verification by comparison with measured data requires having access to the linear accelerator and is time consuming. In this paper, we propose a method for monitor unit (MU) calculation and plan comparison for step and shoot IMRT based on the Monte Carlo code EGSnrc/BEAMnrc. The beamlets of an IMRT treatment plan are individually simulated using Monte Carlo and converted into absorbed dose to water per MU. The dose of the whole treatment can be expressed through a linear matrix equation of the MU and dose per MU of every beamlet. Due to the positivity of the absorbed dose and MU values, this equation is solved for the MU values using a non-negative least-squares fit optimization algorithm (NNLS). The Monte Carlo plan is formed by multiplying the Monte Carlo absorbed dose to water per MU with the Monte Carlo/NNLS MU. Several treatment plan localizations calculated with a commercial treatment planning system (TPS) are compared with the proposed method for validation. The Monte Carlo/NNLS MUs are close to the ones calculated by the TPS and lead to a treatment dose distribution which is clinically equivalent to the one calculated by the TPS. This procedure can be used as an IMRT QA and further development could allow this technique to be used for other radiotherapy techniques like tomotherapy or volumetric modulated arc therapy.

Pédiatrie. 1. Comment favoriser le développement de l'oralité en néonatologie [Pediatrics. How can we improve oral feeding in the neonatal intensive care unit?].

Preterm or sick neonates are frequently hampered in establishing a safe and efficient oral feeding. This can delay hospital discharge and impact on parent-child bonding, growth or neurodevelopment. Recent researches identified a pattern of interventions that could allow to reduce these troubles and to shorten hospital stays.

Gériatrie aiguë: un modèle d'unité intégree de soins aux seniors [How to prevent functional decline: an acute care unit model for the elderly].

Hospitalization in older patients is frequently associated with functional decline. Hospital factors and inadapted process of care are factors leading to this decline. Acute care units specifically developed for older patients can prevent functional decline. These units usually include a comprehensive geriatric evaluation, an interdisciplinary meeting, protocols for the treatment of geriatric syndromes and specific teaching for the care team. Globally, patients' cares are organized to preserve and improve functional performances. This article presents a pilot unit inspired by this model.

Photosynthesis and Rubisco kinetics in spring wheat and meadow fescue under conditions of simulated climate change with elevated CO[sub 2] and increased temperatures

Selostus: Kevätvehnän ja nurminadan fotosynteesi ja Rubisco-kinetiikka simuloidun ilmastonmuutoksen eli kohotetun hiilidioksidipitoisuuden ja kohotetun lämpötilan oloissa

Aerosol immunization with NYVAC and MVA vectored vaccines is safe, simple, and immunogenic.

Each year, approximately five million people die worldwide from putatively vaccine-preventable mucosally transmitted diseases. With respect to mass vaccination campaigns, one strategy to cope with this formidable challenge is aerosol vaccine delivery, which offers potential safety, logistical, and cost-saving advantages over traditional vaccination routes. Additionally, aerosol vaccination may elicit pivotal mucosal immune responses that could contain or eliminate mucosally transmitted pathogens in a preventative or therapeutic vaccine context. In this current preclinical non-human primate investigation, we demonstrate the feasibility of aerosol vaccination with the recombinant poxvirus-based vaccine vectors NYVAC and MVA. Real-time in vivo scintigraphy experiments with radiolabeled, aerosol-administered NYVAC-C (Clade C, HIV-1 vaccine) and MVA-HPV vaccines revealed consistent mucosal delivery to the respiratory tract. Furthermore, aerosol delivery of the vaccines was safe, inducing no vaccine-associated pathology, in particular in the brain and lungs, and was immunogenic. Administration of a DNA-C/NYVAC-C prime/boost regime resulted in both systemic and anal-genital HIV-specific immune responses that were still detectable 5 months after immunization. Thus, aerosol vaccination with NYVAC and MVA vectored vaccines constitutes a tool for large-scale vaccine efforts against mucosally transmitted pathogens.

Audit report of Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Ames, Iowa, and its discretely presented component unit as of and for the years ended June 30, 2013 and 2012

Audit report of Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Ames, Iowa, and its discretely presented component unit as of and for the years ended June 30, 2013 and 2012