Multicenter Clinical Evaluation Of For Susceptibility Testing Of Enterobacterales

Plazomicin (PLZ), brand name ZEMDRI (Cipla Therapeutics), is a novel aminoglycoside antibiotic approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treatment of complicated urinary tract infections including pyelonephritis. ETEST® is a gradient diffusion method that represents an alternative to the more laborious broth micro-dilution (BMD) method for performing antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST). A multi-center evaluation of the performance of the new ETEST® PLZ (bioMérieux) was conducted in comparison with BMD following FDA and International Standards Organization (ISO) recommendations using FDA-defined breakpoints. Clinical isolates of Enterobacterales (n=598) were included. Fifty-three isolates were resistant to PLZ according to BMD. Overall, the ETEST® PLZ demonstrated 99.0% Essential Agreement (EA), 92.8% Category Agreement (CA), 1.9% Very Major Errors (VME), 0% Major Errors (ME) and 7.0% minor Errors (mE) with both clinical and challenge isolates of Enterobacterales. The VME was found for a single Serratia marcescens strain. Individual species demonstrated EA rates ≥ 90%. In conclusion, we report that ETEST® PLZ represents an accurate tool for performing PLZ AST of Enterobacterales.

The Noise Level Measurements of Children’s Sound Books

Purpose: It was intended to measure the sound intensity of children's sound books and to compare them with the standards of Korea and the International Standards Organization (ISO).Methods: The loudness of 15 children’s sound books was measured at a distance of 25 cm (child’s arm length), and 2.5 cm length of external auditory canal. Measurements taken three times with each book were performed, and the overall sound intensity of the sound books and the sound intensity of each button were measured and compared.Results: Compared with the Korean standard, all the buttons of all books exceeded the standard for the sound volume of the children’s book measured at a distance of 2.5 cm. When comparing the maximum sound intensity measured at a distance of 25 cm with 85 LAmax, a total of 168 buttons of these, 25 (14.88%) were recorded as exceeding the maximum loudness. According to the standards of the ISO, all buttons in all books were below the standard 85 LAeq.Conclusion: Several children’s books are loud enough to cause noise-induced hearing loss, especially when they are placed close to the ear. Strict standards for sound children’s books are required, and it is important to put a warning on the cover of the book. It is expected that the sound intensity of the children’s sound book presented in this study can be referenced when referring to the loudness during hearing rehabilitation in children.

PROJECT REPORT ON OSI MODEL

The OSI model has been virtually for 30 years and still plays a viable part in understanding how networks communicate. In fact, it is now part of the networking vernacular. The Organization International de Normalization (International Standards Organization, or ISO), which has been developing international standards since 1946.Adopted in 1984, the OSI Basic Reference Model defines a network tracery consisting of seven layers in the communications process. Each layer is having its own responsibilities.

Antimicrobial Efficacy of Contact Lens Solutions Assessed by ISO Standards

Microbial keratitis (MK) is an eye infection caused by opportunistic bacteria or fungi, which may lead to sight-threatening corneal ulcers. These microorganisms can be introduced to the eye via improper contact lens usage or hygiene, or ineffective multipurpose solutions (MPSs) to disinfect daily wear contact lenses. Thus, the patient’s choice and use of these MPSs is a known risk factor for the development of MK. It is then critical to determine the efficacy of popular MPSs against ubiquitous ocular microorganisms. Therefore, we compare the efficacy of nine major MPSs on the global market against four different microorganism species, and with four different common contact lenses. In accordance with International Standards Organization protocol 14729 and 18259, the microorganisms were inoculated into each MPS with and without contact lenses, and held for the manufacturer’s disinfection time, 24 h, and 7 days after challenge with Serratia marcescens or Fusarium spp. Plates were incubated for 2–7 days and plate counts were conducted to determine the number of surviving microorganisms. The majority of MPSs demonstrated significantly higher disinfection efficacies without contact lenses. Broadly, among the microorganisms tested, the OPTI-FREE products (Puremoist, Express, and Replenish) maintained the highest disinfection efficacies at the manufacturer’s stated disinfection time when paired with any contact lens, compared with other MPSs. These were followed closely by RevitaLens and renu Advanced. MPSs containing dual biocides polyquaternium-1 and myristamidopropyl dimethylamine possessed the highest disinfection efficacy against multiple ocular pathogens.

222Rn Exhalation Rates from Some Granite and Marble Used in Korea: Preliminary Study

The objective of this study was to establish a test method for assessing radon exhalation rates from building materials considering radon related environmental policy and research in Korea. This method was established in consideration of cost-effectiveness based on the International Standards Organization (ISO) method and the closed chamber method, which is an evaluation method for the emission of hazardous chemical substances from building materials in Korea. The assessment of radon exhalation rates from five types each of granite and marble used in the construction industry in Korea gave mean radon exhalation rates of 0.497 ± 0.467 Bq/m2∙h from granite and 0.193 ± 0.113 Bq/m2∙h from marble, indicating higher radon exhalation rates from granite. These results are consistent with those of a previous study, indicating that granites are more likely to show higher radon exhalation rates than marbles.

Welfare Performance of Three Foothold Traps for Capturing North American River Otters Lontra canadensis

Foothold traps are effective tools for the live capture and restraint of wildlife for management and research. Successful river otter Lontra canadensis restoration programs throughout North America used them extensively. Restoration programs used a variety of methods and models of foothold traps, but comprehensive efforts to describe and quantify injuries associated with river otter captures have been limited. We evaluated injuries of river otters caught in three commercially available models of foothold traps including the number 11 double long-spring with standard jaws, the number 11 double long-spring with double jaws, and the number 2 coil-spring trap. Based on examinations of 70 captured river otters, we classified 78% of the total inj uries detected as “mild” (n = 174 injuries) and 17% were classified as “moderate” (n = 37 injuries). We classified less than 3% of the injuries observed as “moderately severe” or “severe.” We focused only on the animal welfare performance of traps; the three trap types we tested met the animal welfare criteria required for inclusion in the best management practices for trapping river otter. The criteria based on International Standards Organization guidelines used in this assessment of trap performance provides a scientific basis for future evaluations of river otter welfare when foothold traps are used for restoration, research, and population management.

The Development of i-TACwim for Academic Calender Management in Polytechnic

The need for automated and intelligent technology is a need nowadays. Even in the academic system, these technologies such as mobile apps and intelligent web system is essential for effective communication. However, the method of dissemination of information regarding academic calendar in Polytechnic is conducted conventionally thru hardcopy or downloaded document from institutional portal. The conventional method was found less practical in use which the lecturers often faced problems in their daily academic activities. Thus, namely as i-TACwim aims to design and develop an intelligent academic calendar that able to distribute real-time information regarding academic activities. The application also serves to send notifications to users according to important dates related to the International Standards Organization (ISO) procedures. This project applies repetitive development process adapted from agile Model consists of six phases. The development of this project is using YII2 Framework PHP of the system and interface, MySQL Server for the database and Firebase as the technology used for push notification. As a result, the i-TACwim application is a need and consider as an alternative to manual academic calendar to be used as the polytechnic intelligent academic calendar among the polytechnic community. User acceptance pilot testing will be conducted via questionnaire to form in order to show the capability and deliverables of this project.

Improvement of Exit Light Pictogram

In the event of danger (e.g., a building fire), the effectiveness of the Exit light pictogram that serves as an evacuation guide was studied and an improvement suggested. The types and installation cases of Exit light pictograms used in Korea were examined, and the types and cases of International Standards Organization (ISO) 16069 (Safety way guidance system (SWGS)) pictograms were compared and analyzed. Based on the analysis results, various pictograms were selected for further study. An understanding of firefighters and college students was surveyed, and a pictogram selection survey was conducted to identify a clear evacuation meaning. Looking at the results of the survey, 96% of the respondents understood the meaning of the “Running Man” on the Exit light installed at the top of the evacuation exit, and 4% answered “I don’t know.” When the “Running Man” and an “Arrow” were marked together, 18% gave an accurate response indicating the direction of evacuation, and the response “Do not know” decreased to 3 %p. In addition, regarding the pictogram selection survey with the clearest meaning of evacuation, both groups selected Type (text+pictogram) most frequently, and gave the lowest ranking to the “Running Man” pictogram currently used. the Exit light pictogram “Running Man” currently used at evacuation exits received a lower understanding than that of the pictogram including “Arrows.” and a meaningful result was derived that it was necessary to improve it.

Development, validation, and pilot MRI safety study of a high-resolution, open source, whole body pediatric numerical simulation model

Numerical body models of children are used for designing medical devices, including but not limited to optical imaging, ultrasound, CT, EEG/MEG, and MRI. These models are used in many clinical and neuroscience research applications, such as radiation safety dosimetric studies and source localization. Although several such adult models have been reported, there are few reports of full-body pediatric models, and those described have several limitations. Some, for example, are either morphed from older children or do not have detailed segmentations. Here, we introduce a 29-month-old male whole-body native numerical model, “MARTIN”, that includes 28 head and 86 body tissue compartments, segmented directly from the high spatial resolution MRI and CT images. An advanced auto-segmentation tool was used for the deep-brain structures, whereas 3D Slicer was used to segment the non-brain structures and to refine the segmentation for all of the tissue compartments. Our MARTIN model was developed and validated using three separate approaches, through an iterative process, as follows. First, the calculated volumes, weights, and dimensions of selected structures were adjusted and confirmed to be within 6% of the literature values for the 2-3-year-old age-range. Second, all structural segmentations were adjusted and confirmed by two experienced, sub-specialty certified neuro-radiologists, also through an interactive process. Third, an additional validation was performed with a Bloch simulator to create synthetic MR image from our MARTIN model and compare the image contrast of the resulting synthetic image with that of the original MRI data; this resulted in a “structural resemblance” index of 0.97. Finally, we used our model to perform pilot MRI safety simulations of an Active Implantable Medical Device (AIMD) using a commercially available software platform (Sim4Life), incorporating the latest International Standards Organization guidelines. This model will be made available on the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging website.