scholarly journals A double-reprocessing high-level disinfection protocol does not eliminate positive cultures from the elevators of duodenoscopes

Endoscopy ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (06) ◽  
pp. 588-596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Rex ◽  
Marnie Sieber ◽  
Glen Lehman ◽  
Douglas Webb ◽  
Bryan Schmitt ◽  
...  

Abstract Background and study aim Duodenoscopes have been the source of serious infection, despite correct performance of high-level disinfection (HLD). This study aimed to observe the impact of performing HLD twice on the rate of positive cultures from duodenoscope elevators. Methods We performed double HLD (DHLD; i. e. complete manual cleaning followed by automated reprocessing, with the entire process repeated) and then randomly cultured the elevators of our duodenoscopes on about 30 % of occasions. Results DHLD was associated with positive elevator cultures for any microorganism in 9.4 % of cases, with a 0.8 % rate of known pathogens (627 cultures) between May 2015 and February 2016. After February 2016, and in association with changing the precleaning fluid, as well as use of a new FDA-recommended cleaning brush, the rate of positive cultures for any microorganism after DHLD was 4.8 % and 0.2 % for known pathogens (420 cultures). In a third phase, characterized by a change in personnel performing DHLD and retirement of a duodenoscope with a high rate of positive cultures, the rate of positive cultures for any microorganism was 4.9 % (783 cultures) and the rate of positive culture for known pathogens was 0.3 %. To our knowledge, no duodenoscope transmission of infection occurred during the study interval. Conclusions DHLD resulted in a low rate of positive cultures for known pathogens and for organisms of low pathogenic potential, but did not eliminate these, from duodenoscope elevators. Additional improvements in HLD protocols and/or duodenoscope design are needed.

2021 ◽  
Vol 273 ◽  
pp. 10017
Author(s):  
Vlad Dmitriev ◽  
Galina Zvezdina

The study of the psychological characteristics of gamers is an actual task for scientists associated with the rapid spread of gadgets, an increase in the number of gamers and the number of people with problems with addictive behavior from video games. The aim of this work is to study personality traits in people with different levels of computer gaming activity. The study involved 162 people aged 18 to 30, of whom 36 were women. The respondents were offered an electronic questionnaire, which included the Leonhard-Smishek Characterological Questionnaire, the adapted Chen Internet addiction scale, the Big Five questionnaire, Osgood's semantic differential, and the Behavioral self-regulation questionnaire. Data analysis was carried out using the Pearson linear correlation coefficient and the Mann-Whitney test. Calculations were performed in IBM SPSS Statistics. The results of people with a high level of dependent behavior are characterized by ambivalence: a low level of self-control and responsibility is combined with the presence of pedantry; a subjective assessment of oneself as a kinder, unselfish and honest person is adjacent to the characterization of oneself as more hostile and callous. The results obtained allowed us to make an assumption about the possibility of dividing the group of addicts into two subgroups: open, extroverted, hyperthymic, talkative people with a high rate of withdrawal syndrome and tolerance; people are introverted, closed, silent, with intrapersonal problems and health problems.


2002 ◽  
Vol 87 (4) ◽  
pp. 1824-1835 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin A. Davis

Type O units in the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus (ICC) of decerebrate cats are excited by best frequency (BF) tones near threshold, but are inhibited by high-level tones at all frequencies. Dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN) principal cells display similar response map features and project directly to the ICC, and are thus supposed to be the dominant source of excitatory input for type O units. To test this hypothesis, the responses of type O units were compared before and after two pharmacological manipulations. When DCN to ICC axons were blocked by pressure injections of lidocaine, most type O units (∼80%) were silenced or showed substantially reduced activity, but some units showed increased activity. All of the former units had low maximal rates to BF tones, whereas the latter units had high rates. When local circuit inhibitory mechanisms in the ICC were blocked by iontophoretic application of bicuculline or strychnine, type O unit responses also fell into two classes: low-rate units that showed increased spontaneous and driven activities and high-rate units that showed, in addition, altered response map features. Taken together, these results demonstrate that low-rate type O units are part of a functionally segregated pathway initiated by the DCN, whereas high-rate type O units are created at the level of the ICC.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph B John ◽  
Saliya Wijeyaratne ◽  
Mark Speakman

Objectives: To assess the impact of the 2015 National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance for referral of non-visible haematuria (NVH) and to compare diagnostic findings in patients referred using 2005 and 2015 guidance. Patients and method: Review of the referral details and diagnostic findings for urgent NVH referrals was assessed over a 27-month period. Referrals continued to be received under 2005 and 2015 NICE guidance during this period, and the diagnostic findings from each pathway were compared. Results: The number of urgent haematuria referrals reduced by 34% over the 27-month period. NVH referrals fell from 144 in the first quarter to 30 in the last quarter. The transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) diagnosis rate was low in patients referred using 2005 and 2015 criteria (1.7 and 1.9% respectively). No muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) was diagnosed. There was a high rate of benign urological findings. Non-adherence to referral criteria was high in the 2015 pathway (56%). Conclusion: The reduction in NVH referrals following introduction of 2015 NICE guidance could allow resource re-allocation. Low adherence to referral criteria should be investigated. The absence of MIBC and low rate of TCC diagnosis is reassuring and consideration should be given to investigating NVH patients semi-urgently. Level of evidence: 2C


2012 ◽  
Vol 02 (02) ◽  
pp. 10-19
Author(s):  
E.O. George ◽  
J.E. Oseni

The high level of unemployment and poor power supply to the industrial sector are the major problems facing the Nigerian economy. For the past two decades, successive governments in Nigeria have made futile attempts to address the issues of unemployment. Several scholarly studies have been conducted to establish relationships between unemployment and microeconomic variables without any serious attention on the relationship between unemployment and electricity power supply. The study addresses the question of the impact of electricity power on unemployment rates in Nigeria. This study using an ordinary least square regression model examined the influence of electricity power outputs, supply and consumption in addressing the high rate of unemployment in Nigeria. The study which covers the period of 1970 to 2005 discovers that power supply to the industrial sector was lower than the supply for residential consumption. The study also establishes that the major cause of unemployment in Nigeria can be traced to inadequate and unstable power supply to the industrial sector. The study advises the government and the policy makers to invest more in electricity power generation and ensures that the industrial sector is given a higher priority in the supply of electricity if the high unemployment rate is to be abated.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-37
Author(s):  
Symphorien Monsia ◽  
Sami Faiz

Information technologies such as the internet, and social networks, produce vast amounts of data exponentially (known as Big Data) and use conventional information systems. Big Data is characterized by volume, a high rate of generation, and variety. Systems integration and data querying systems must be adapted to cope with the emergence of Big Data. The authors' interest is with the impact Big Data has on the decision-making environment, most particularly, the data querying phase. Their contribution is the development of a parallel and distributed platform, named high level query language for big data analytics (HLQL-BDA), created to query vast amounts of data in a computer cluster based on the MapReduce paradigm. The query language in HLQL-BDA is implemented by means of interactive query language based on a functional model. The researchers' experiment shows the scalability of HLQL-BDA when they increase the number of nodes and the size of data.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Westoby ◽  
Pavel Artemov ◽  
Martin Hemberg ◽  
Anne Ferguson-Smith

AbstractBackgroundEarly single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) studies suggested that it was unusual to see more than one isoform being produced from a gene in a single cell, even when multiple isoforms were detected in matched bulk RNA-seq samples. However, these studies generally did not consider the impact of dropouts or isoform quantification errors, potentially confounding the results of these analyses.ResultsIn this study, we take a simulation based approach in which we explicitly account for dropouts and isoform quantification errors. We use our simulations to ask to what extent it is possible to study alternative splicing using scRNA-seq. Additionally, we ask what limitations must be overcome to make splicing analysis feasible. We find that the high rate of dropouts associated with scRNA-seq is a major obstacle to studying alternative splicing. In mice and other well established model organisms, the relatively low rate of isoform quantification errors poses a lesser obstacle to splicing analysis. We find that different models of isoform choice meaningfully change our simulation results.ConclusionsTo accurately study alternative splicing with single-cell RNA-seq, a better understanding of isoform choice and the errors associated with scRNA-seq is required. An increase in the capture efficiency of scRNA-seq would also be beneficial. Until some or all of the above are achieved, we do not recommend attempting to resolve isoforms in individual cells using scRNA-seq.


Author(s):  
V. Kovpak ◽  
N. Trotsenko

<div><p><em>The article analyzes the peculiarities of the format of native advertising in the media space, its pragmatic potential (in particular, on the example of native content in the social network Facebook by the brand of the journalism department of ZNU), highlights the types and trends of native advertising. The following research methods were used to achieve the purpose of intelligence: descriptive (content content, including various examples), comparative (content presentation options) and typological (types, trends of native advertising, in particular, cross-media as an opportunity to submit content in different formats (video, audio, photos, text, infographics, etc.)), content analysis method using Internet services (using Popsters service). And the native code for analytics was the page of the journalism department of Zaporizhzhya National University on the social network Facebook. After all, the brand of the journalism department of Zaporozhye National University in 2019 celebrates its 15th anniversary. The brand vector is its value component and professional training with balanced distribution of theoretical and practical blocks (seven practices), student-centered (democratic interaction and high-level teacher-student dialogue) and integration into Ukrainian and world educational process (participation in grant programs).</em></p></div><p><em>And advertising on social networks is also a kind of native content, which does not appear in special blocks, and is organically inscribed on one page or another and unobtrusively offers, just remembering the product as if «to the word». Popsters service functionality, which evaluates an account (or linked accounts of one person) for 35 parameters, but the main three areas: reach or influence, or how many users evaluate, comment on the recording; true reach – the number of people affected; network score – an assessment of the audience’s response to the impact, or how far the network information diverges (how many share information on this page).</em></p><p><strong><em>Key words:</em></strong><em> nativeness, native advertising, branded content, special project, communication strategy.</em></p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (10) ◽  
pp. 19-33
Author(s):  
Nadiia NOVYTSKA ◽  
◽  
Inna KHLIEBNIKOVA ◽  

The market of tobacco products in Ukraine is one of the most dynamic and competitive. It develops under the influence of certain factors that cause structural changes, therefore, the aim of the article is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of transformation processes in the market of tobacco and their alternatives in Ukraine and identify the factors that cause them. The high level of tax burden and the proliferation of alternative products with a potentially lower risk to human health, including heating tobacco products and e-cigarettes, are key factors in the market’s transformation process. Their presence leads to an increase in illicit turnover of tobacco products, which accounts for 6.37% of the market, and the gradual replacement of cigarettes with alternative products, which account for 12.95%. The presence on the market of products that are not taxed or taxed at lower rates is one of the reasons for the reduction of excise duty revenues. According to the results of 2019, the planned indicators of revenues were not met by 23.5%. Other reasons for non-fulfillment of excise duty revenues include: declining dynamics of the tobacco products market; reduction in the number of smokers; reorientation of «cheap whites» cigarette flows from Ukraine to neighboring countries; tax avoidance. Prospects for further research are identified, namely the need to develop measures for state regulation and optimization of excise duty taxation of tobacco products and their alternatives, taking into account the risks to public health and increasing demand of illegal products.


1980 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-12
Author(s):  
F. C. Brenner

Abstract Tread wear rates during first wear measured by groove depth and weight changes do not always agree. Sometimes, the groove depth method shows a high rate and the weight loss method a low rate. Reported here are experiments designed to determine if grooves show depth changes without wear. Four tires were measured before mounting on a wheel, after mounting and inflation, and after inflation and storage. The mounted and inflated tires showed shallower shoulder grooves and deeper center grooves than the unmounted tires. In a second experiment, tires were measured immediately after a tread wear test and then stored mounted for two weeks before remeasuring. Each groove became deeper, and there was no change in the crown radius of any tire.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shoaib Ali ◽  
Imran Yousaf ◽  
Muhammad Naveed

This paper aims to examine the impact of external credit ratings on the financial decisions of the firms in Pakistan.  This study uses the annual data of 70 non-financial firms for the period 2012-2018. It uses ordinary least square (OLS) to estimate the impact of credit rating on capital structure. The results show that rated firm has a high level of leverage. Moreover, Profitability and tanagability are also found to be a significantly negative determinant of the capital structure, whereas, size of the firm has a significant positive relationship with the capital structure of the firm.  Besides, there exists a non-linear relationship between the credit rating and the capital structure. The rated firms have higher leverage as compared to the non-rated firms. The high and low rated firms have a low level of leverage, while mid rated firms have a higher leverage ratio. The finding of the study have practical implications for the manager; they can have easier access to the financial market by just having a credit rating no matter high or low. Policymakers must stress upon the rating agencies to keep improving themselves as their rating severs as the measure to judge the creditworthiness of the firm by both the investors and management as well.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document