Rabies postexposure prophylaxis in routine practice in view of the new centers for disease control and prevention and world health organization recommendations.

Background. New recommendations for rabies postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) were published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization in 2010. In view of these new recommendations, we investigated the adequacy of rabies PEP among patients consulting our travel clinic. Methods. A retrospective analysis of the files of all patients who consulted for rabies PEP at the Travel Clinic of the University Hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland, between January 2005 and August 2011 was conducted. Results. A total of 110 patients who received rabies PEP were identified. The median age of the patients was 34 years (range, 2-79 years), and 53% were women. Ninety subjects were potentially exposed to rabies while travelling abroad. Shortcomings in the management of these patients were (1) late initiation of rabies PEP in travelers who waited to seek medical care until returning to Switzerland, (2) administration of human rabies immunoglobulin (HRIG) to only 7 of 50 travelers (14%) who sought care abroad and for whom HRIG was indicated, and (3) antibody levels <0.5 IU/mL in 6 of 90 patients (6.7%) after 4 doses of vaccine. Conclusions. Patients do not always receive optimal rabies PEP under real-life conditions. A significant proportion of patients did not develop adequate antibody levels after 4 doses of vaccine. These data indicate that the measurement of antibody levels on day 21 of the Essen PEP regimen is useful in order to verify an adequate immune response.

Field Data Acquisition Technologies for Iowa Transportation Agencies, HR-366 August 1994

This report describes the results of the research project investigating the use of advanced field data acquisition technologies for lowa transponation agencies. The objectives of the research project were to (1) research and evaluate current data acquisition technologies for field data collection, manipulation, and reporting; (2) identify the current field data collection approach and the interest level in applying current technologies within Iowa transportation agencies; and (3) summarize findings, prioritize technology needs, and provide recommendations regarding suitable applications for future development. A steering committee consisting oretate, city, and county transportation officials provided guidance during this project. Technologies considered in this study included (1) data storage (bar coding, radio frequency identification, touch buttons, magnetic stripes, and video logging); (2) data recognition (voice recognition and optical character recognition); (3) field referencing systems (global positioning systems [GPS] and geographic information systems [GIs]); (4) data transmission (radio frequency data communications and electronic data interchange); and (5) portable computers (pen-based computers). The literature review revealed that many of these technologies could have useful applications in the transponation industry. A survey was developed to explain current data collection methods and identify the interest in using advanced field data collection technologies. Surveys were sent out to county and city engineers and state representatives responsible for certain programs (e.g., maintenance management and construction management). Results showed that almost all field data are collected using manual approaches and are hand-carried to the office where they are either entered into a computer or manually stored. A lack of standardization was apparent for the type of software applications used by each agency--even the types of forms used to manually collect data differed by agency. Furthermore, interest in using advanced field data collection technologies depended upon the technology, program (e.g.. pavement or sign management), and agency type (e.g., state, city, or county). The state and larger cities and counties seemed to be interested in using several of the technologies, whereas smaller agencies appeared to have very little interest in using advanced techniques to capture data. A more thorough analysis of the survey results is provided in the report. Recommendations are made to enhance the use of advanced field data acquisition technologies in Iowa transportation agencies: (1) Appoint a statewide task group to coordinate the effort to automate field data collection and reporting within the Iowa transportation agencies. Subgroups representing the cities, counties, and state should be formed with oversight provided by the statewide task group. (2) Educate employees so that they become familiar with the various field data acquisition technologies.

Selectome update: quality control and computational improvements to a database of positive selection.

Selectome (http://selectome.unil.ch/) is a database of positive selection, based on a branch-site likelihood test. This model estimates the number of nonsynonymous substitutions (dN) and synonymous substitutions (dS) to evaluate the variation in selective pressure (dN/dS ratio) over branches and over sites. Since the original release of Selectome, we have benchmarked and implemented a thorough quality control procedure on multiple sequence alignments, aiming to provide minimum false-positive results. We have also improved the computational efficiency of the branch-site test implementation, allowing larger data sets and more frequent updates. Release 6 of Selectome includes all gene trees from Ensembl for Primates and Glires, as well as a large set of vertebrate gene trees. A total of 6810 gene trees have some evidence of positive selection. Finally, the web interface has been improved to be more responsive and to facilitate searches and browsing.

Development of LRFD Procedures for Bridge Pile Foundations in Iowa Volume III: Recommended Resistance Factors with Consideration of Construction Control and Setup, TR-584, 2012

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) mandated utilizing the Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) approach for all new bridges initiated in the United States after October 1, 2007. As a result, there has been a progressive move among state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) toward an increased use of the LRFD in geotechnical design practices. For the above reasons, the Iowa Highway Research Board (IHRB) sponsored three research projects: TR-573, TR-583 and TR-584. The research information is summarized in the project web site (http://srg.cce.iastate.edu/lrfd/). Two reports of total four volumes have been published. Report volume I by Roling et al. (2010) described the development of a user-friendly and electronic database (PILOT). Report volume II by Ng et al. (2011) summarized the 10 full-scale field tests conducted throughout Iowa and data analyses. This report presents the development of regionally calibrated LRFD resistance factors for bridge pile foundations in Iowa based on reliability theory, focusing on the strength limit states and incorporating the construction control aspects and soil setup into the design process. The calibration framework was selected to follow the guidelines provided by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), taking into consideration the current local practices. The resistance factors were developed for general and in-house static analysis methods used for the design of pile foundations as well as for dynamic analysis methods and dynamic formulas used for construction control. The following notable benefits to the bridge foundation design were attained in this project: 1) comprehensive design tables and charts were developed to facilitate the implementation of the LRFD approach, ensuring uniform reliability and consistency in the design and construction processes of bridge pile foundations; 2) the results showed a substantial gain in the factored capacity compared to the 2008 AASHTO-LRFD recommendations; and 3) contribution to the existing knowledge, thereby advancing the foundation design and construction practices in Iowa and the nation.

Investigation and data adaptive analysis of CARS spectra

In this diploma work advantages of coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering spectrometry (CARS) and various methods of the quantitative analysis of substance structure with its help are considered. The basic methods and concepts of the adaptive analysis are adduced. On the basis of these methods the algorithm of automatic measurement of a scattering strip size of a target component in CARS spectrum is developed. The algorithm uses known full spectrum of target substance and compares it with a CARS spectrum. The form of a differential spectrum is used as a feedback to control the accuracy of matching. To exclude the influence of a background in CARS spectra the differential spectrum is analysed by means of its second derivative. The algorithm is checked up on the simulated simple spectra and on the spectra of organic compounds received experimentally.

Trigger and data link system for CMS Resistive Plate Chambers at the LHC accelerator

The purpose of the work was to realize a high-speed digital data transfer system for RPC muon chambers in the CMS experiment on CERN’s new LHC accelerator. This large scale system took many years and many stages of prototyping to develop, and required the participation of tens of people. The system interfaces to Frontend Boards (FEB) at the 200,000-channel detector and to the trigger and readout electronics in the control room of the experiment. The distance between these two is about 80 metres and the speed required for the optic links was pushing the limits of available technology when the project was started. Here, as in many other aspects of the design, it was assumed that the features of readily available commercial components would develop in the course of the design work, just as they did. By choosing a high speed it was possible to multiplex the data from some the chambers into the same fibres to reduce the number of links needed. Further reduction was achieved by employing zero suppression and data compression, and a total of only 660 optical links were needed. Another requirement, which conflicted somewhat with choosing the components a late as possible was that the design needed to be radiation tolerant to an ionizing dose of 100 Gy and to a have a moderate tolerance to Single Event Effects (SEEs). This required some radiation test campaigns, and eventually led to ASICs being chosen for some of the critical parts. The system was made to be as reconfigurable as possible. The reconfiguration needs to be done from a distance as the electronics is not accessible except for some short and rare service breaks once the accelerator starts running. Therefore reconfigurable logic is extensively used, and the firmware development for the FPGAs constituted a sizable part of the work. Some special techniques needed to be used there too, to achieve the required radiation tolerance. The system has been demonstrated to work in several laboratory and beam tests, and now we are waiting to see it in action when the LHC will start running in the autumn 2008.

Control and femtosecond time-resolved imaging of torsion in a chiral molecule

We study how the combination of long and short laser pulses can be used to induce torsion in an axially chiral biphenyl derivative (3,5-difluoro-3 ,5 -dibromo-4 -cyanobiphenyl). A long, with respect to the molecular rotational periods, elliptically polarized laser pulse produces 3D alignment of the molecules, and a linearly polarized short pulse initiates torsion about the stereogenic axis. The torsional motion is monitored in real-time by measuring the dihedral angle using femtosecond time-resolved Coulomb explosion imaging. Within the first 4 picoseconds (ps), torsion occurs with a period of 1.25 ps and an amplitude of 3◦ in excellent agreement with theoretical calculations. At larger times, the quantum states of the molecules describing the torsional motion dephase and an almost isotropic distribution of the dihedral angle is measured.We demonstrate an original application of covariance analysis of two-dimensional ion images to reveal strong correlations between specific ejected ionic fragments from Coulomb explosion. This technique strengthens our interpretation of the experimental data

The Detector Control Systems for the CMS Resistive Plate Chamber at LHC

The RPC Detector Control System (RCS) is the main subject of this PhD work. The project, involving the Lappeenranta University of Technology, the Warsaw University and INFN of Naples, is aimed to integrate the different subsystems for the RPC detector and its trigger chain in order to develop a common framework to control and monitoring the different parts. In this project, I have been strongly involved during the last three years on the hardware and software development, construction and commissioning as main responsible and coordinator. The CMS Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) system consists of 912 double-gap chambers at its start-up in middle of 2008. A continuous control and monitoring of the detector, the trigger and all the ancillary sub-systems (high voltages, low voltages, environmental, gas, and cooling), is required to achieve the operational stability and reliability of a so large and complex detector and trigger system. Role of the RPC Detector Control System is to monitor the detector conditions and performance, control and monitor all subsystems related to RPC and their electronics and store all the information in a dedicated database, called Condition DB. Therefore the RPC DCS system has to assure the safe and correct operation of the sub-detectors during all CMS life time (more than 10 year), detect abnormal and harmful situations and take protective and automatic actions to minimize consequential damages. The analysis of the requirements and project challenges, the architecture design and its development as well as the calibration and commissioning phases represent themain tasks of the work developed for this PhD thesis. Different technologies, middleware and solutions has been studied and adopted in the design and development of the different components and a big challenging consisted in the integration of these different parts each other and in the general CMS control system and data acquisition framework. Therefore, the RCS installation and commissioning phase as well as its performance and the first results, obtained during the last three years CMS cosmic runs, will be

Green tea in transdermal formulation: HPLC method for quality control and in vitro drug release assays

RP-HPLC based analytical method for use in both quality control of green tea in a semisolid formulation and for in vitro drug release assays was developed and validated. The method was precise (CV < 5%), accurate (recovery between 98% and 102%), linear (R² > 0.99), robust, and specific for the determination of epigallocatechin 3-gallate (EGCG), caffeine (CAF), and gallic acid (GA). In a diffusion cell chamber, the release rate of EGCG was 8896.01 µg cm-2. This data showed that EGCG will be able to exert its systemic activity when delivered though the transdermal formulation, due to its good flux rates with the synthetic membrane.

Influence of data acquisition geometry on soybean spectral response simulated by the prosail model

View angle and directional effects significantly affect reflectance and vegetation indices, especially when daily images collected by large field-of-view (FOV) sensors like the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) are used. In this study, the PROSAIL radiative transfer model was chosen to evaluate the impact of the geometry of data acquisition on soybean reflectance and two vegetation indices (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index - NDVI and Enhanced Vegetation Index -EVI) by varying biochemical and biophysical parameters of the crop. Input values for PROSAIL simulation were based on the literature and were adjusted by the comparison between simulated and real satellite soybean spectra acquired by the MODIS/Terra and hyperspectral Hyperion/Earth Observing-One (EO-1). Results showed that the influence of the view angle and view direction on reflectance was stronger with decreasing leaf area index (LAI) and chlorophyll concentration. Because of the greater dependence on the near-infrared reflectance, the EVI was much more sensitive to viewing geometry than NDVI presenting larger values in the backscattering direction. The contrary was observed for NDVI in the forward scattering direction. In relation to the LAI, NDVI was much more isotropic for closed soybean canopies than for incomplete canopies and a contrary behavior was verified for EVI.

Vancomycin-resistant enterococcus outbreak in a pediatric intensive care unit: report of successful interventions for control and prevention

The objective of this study is to retrospectively report the results of interventions for controlling a vancomycin-resistant enterococcus (VRE) outbreak in a tertiary-care pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of a University Hospital. After identification of the outbreak, interventions were made at the following levels: patient care, microbiological surveillance, and medical and nursing staff training. Data were collected from computer-based databases and from the electronic prescription system. Vancomycin use progressively increased after March 2008, peaking in August 2009. Five cases of VRE infection were identified, with 3 deaths. After the interventions, we noted a significant reduction in vancomycin prescription and use (75% reduction), and the last case of VRE infection was identified 4 months later. The survivors remained colonized until hospital discharge. After interventions there was a transient increase in PICU length-of-stay and mortality. Since then, the use of vancomycin has remained relatively constant and strict, no other cases of VRE infection or colonization have been identified and length-of-stay and mortality returned to baseline. In conclusion, we showed that a bundle intervention aiming at a strict control of vancomycin use and full compliance with the Hospital Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee guidelines, along with contact precautions and hand-hygiene promotion, can be effective in reducing vancomycin use and the emergence and spread of vancomycin-resistant bacteria in a tertiary-care PICU.

The expression and production of piano timbre : gestural control and technique, perception and verbalisation in the context of piano performance and practice

La version intégrale de cette thèse est disponible uniquement pour consultation individuelle à la Bibliothèque de musique de l’Université de Montréal (http://www.bib.umontreal.ca/MU).

Saturated salt solutions for humidity control and the survival of dry powder and oil formulations of Beauveria bassiana conidia

Oil-based formulated conidia sprayed on steel plates and conidia powder (control) of Beauveria bassiana isolate IMI 386243 were stored at temperatures from 10 to 40 degrees C in desiccators over saturated salt solutions providing relative humidities from 32 to 88%, or in hermetic storage at 40 degrees C, and moisture contents in equilibrium with 33 or 77% relative humidity. The negative semi-logarithmic relation (P < 0.005) between conidia longevity (at 40 degrees C) and equilibrium relative humidity did not differ (P > 0.25) between formulated conidia and conidia powder. Despite this, certain saturated salts provided consistently greater longevity (NaCl) and others consistently shorter longevity (KCl) for formulated conidia compared to conidia powder. These results, analysis of previous data, and comparison with hermetic storage, indicate that storage of conidia over saturated salt solutions provides inconsistent responses to environment and so may be problematic for bio-pesticide research. In hermetic storage, oil formulation was not deleterious to longevity and in the more moist environment enhanced survival periods. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Programmable data acquisition system for research measurements from meteorological radiosondes

A programmable data acquisition system to allow novel use of meteorological radiosondes for atmospheric science measurements is described. In its basic form it supports four analogue inputs at 16 bit resolution, and up to two further inputs at lower resolution configurable instead for digital instruments. It also provides multiple instrument power supplies (+8V, +16V, +5V and -8V) from the 9V radiosonde battery. During a balloon flight encountering air temperatures from +17°C to -66°C, the worst case voltage drift in the 5V unipolar digitisation circuitry was 20mV. The system liberates a new range of low cost atmospheric research measurements, by utilising radiosondes routinely launched internationally for weather forecasting purposes. No additional receiving equipment is required. Comparisons between the specially instrumented and standard meteorological radiosondes show negligible effect of the additional instrumentation on the standard meteorological data.