MS

thesisThe purpose of this study was to determine how often a false electrocardiogram (ECG) alarm occurred in an intensive care unit (ICU) or coronary care unit (CCU). Nine patients were monitored for 12-1/2 hours. The false alarms that occurred were documented and the cause was noted. Five patients were male with a mean age of 64 years, and four were female with a mean age of 57. Two patients were studied in the Respiratory (RICU), two in the Thoracic (TICU), and five in the CCU. The investigator studied whether a monitor could be developed that would be able to decrease the false alarm frequency by using a multiple ECG signal system, or a multiple physiologic signal system with the addition of an arterial pressure waveform. Fourteen false alarms occurred during the monitoring period with one true alarm. The frequency of false alarms was 4.2 in the RICU, 12.6 in the TICU, and 10.5 in the CCU; showing a much higher rate of false alarms per patient in the RICU. The frequency of false alarms could have been reduced by 60% with the addition of a multiple ECG signal system. Use of a multiple physiologic signal system however, would eliminate all of the false alarms and, therefore, would be a better system. No monitor that utilizes such a system has been developed, but it would be a great benefit to reduce the stress and noise level in the ICU/CCU

A survey of the sources of funding of noncommercial radio stations

There are more than 1400 noncommercial radio stations in the United States. Many of these stations rely on on-air fund raising to support all or part of their budgets. A questionnaire was sent to 460 of these stations to ascertain which stations conducted regular on-air fund raising campaigns. Responses were received from 232 stations for a 51.6% response rate. The information gathered by the survey showed: 1) most stations conducted on-air fund raisers twice each year; 2) more than half of the stations reported listener contributions averaging $41 or more; 3) the stations conducting on-air fund raisers received support from less than 9$50,000 to over $2 million. Some of the conclusions that can be drawn from the survey are that: 1) stations with larger annual budgets conduct on-air fund raisers more frequently than smaller stations; 2) the stations conducting on-air fund raisers usually met their fund goals; 3) most of the stations received money from three to six different funding sources, with a few receiving funds from as many as ten; 4) stations need to work at attracting funds from foundations and corporations; 5) stations need to have better research information about their listeners; 6) more research needs to be done to determine if the availability of premium gifts affects listener contributions. Individual stations are receiving less support from the federal government. By cultivating a variety of sources of income, stations will be better able to withstand the loss of funds from any one source

Differences in Genotype and Antimicrobial Resistance between Campylobacter spp. Isolated from Organic and Conventionally Produced Chickens in Sweden

Antibiotic resistance is a major challenge worldwide and increased resistance to quinolones in Campylobacter is being reported. Analysis of antibiotic resistance was performed on 157 Campylobacter strains (123 C. jejuni and 34 C. coli) from conventional and organic chickens produced in Sweden. Susceptibility for tetracycline, ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, nalidixic acid, streptomycin, and gentamycin was determined by microdilution. All 77 isolates from organic chickens were sensitive to all antibiotics, except two C. jejuni that were resistant to tetracycline. Of the 80 isolates from conventional chickens, 22.5% of C. jejuni and 11.1% of C. coli were resistant to quinolones and 5.6% of C. jejuni were resistant to tetracycline. Whole-genome sequencing resulted in 50 different sequence types of C. jejuni and six of C. coli. Nine sequence types were found in both organic and conventional chickens. Two of these (ST-19 and ST-257) included isolates from conventional broilers with different resistance phenotypes to the remaining isolates from conventional and organic broilers. There are management differences between the production systems, such as feed, breed, use of coccidiostats, and access to outdoor area. It is unlikely that quinolone resistance has arisen due to use of antimicrobials, since fluoroquinolones are not permitted in Swedish broiler production

Susceptibility to Campylobacter Infection Is Associated with the Species Composition of the Human Fecal Microbiota

Peer reviewe

Lipooligosaccharide locus classes and putative virulence genes among chicken and human Campylobacter jejuni isolates

Background: Campylobacter cause morbidity and considerable economic loss due to hospitalization and post infectious sequelae such as reactive arthritis, Guillain Barr-and Miller Fischer syndromes. Such sequelae have been linked to C. jejuni harboring sialic acid structures in their lipooligosaccharide (LOS) layer of the cell wall. Poultry is an important source of human Campylobacter infections but little is known about the prevalence of sialylated C. jejuni isolates and the extent of transmission of such isolates to humans. Results: Genotypes of C. jejuni isolates from enteritis patients were compared with those of broiler chicken with pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), to study the patterns of LOS biosynthesis genes and other virulence associated genes and to what extent these occur among Campylobacter genotypes found both in humans and chickens. Chicken and human isolates generally had similar distributions of the putative virulence genes and LOS locus classes studied. However, there were significant differences regarding LOS locus class of PFGE types that were overlapping between chicken and human isolates and those that were distinct to each source. Conclusions: The study highlights the prevalence of virulence associated genes among Campylobacter isolates from humans and chickens and suggests possible patterns of transmission between the two species.Peer reviewe

Molecular Aspects of Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Diabetes, Pearson and Kearns-Sayre Syndromes, and Neurodegenerative Disorders

Amirmohammad Shafiee,1,2 Amir Ali Akhlaghi,3 Abigail Ellstrom,1,2 Seyed Omid Mohammadi,2 Alimohammad Shafiee,4 Mohanakrishnan Sathyamoorthy1,2 1Sathyamoorthy Laboratory in Department of Internal Medicine, Burnett School of Medicine at Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX, USA; 2Burnett School of Medicine at Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX, USA; 3School of Biomedical Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada; 4Department of Family Medicine, Kelvington Hospital, Kelvington, SK, CanadaCorrespondence: Mohanakrishnan Sathyamoorthy, Email [email protected]: Mitochondrial dysfunction results in complex pathophysiological alterations associated with clinical disease states including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, and anxiety disorders. As a key organelle within mammalian cells, the mitochondrion serves as the energetic source of cellular function which are crucial to cellular homeostasis, and cell death. In this report, we review key molecular causes of mitochondrial dysfunction and discuss how it influences insulin resistance, Pearson Syndrome and Kearns-Sayre syndrome, the latter of which occur due to pathogenic variants in mitochondrial DNA that lead to direct cellular pathology. We discuss the molecular and cellular pathophysiological mechanisms, disease interplays, and clinical considerations related to these diseases influenced by mitochondrial dysfunction.Keywords: mitochondrial dysfunction, insulin resistance, Kearns-Sayre syndrome, Pearson syndrom