Background: In line with the trend towards minimally invasive, patient-tailored treatment, a selected group of patients with an in-breast tumour recurrence (IBTR) is treated by repeat breast-conserving treatment (BCT). To select eligible patients for repeat BCT, a reliable pre-operative work-up is essential. This study reports on the role of F-FDG PET/CT in detecting synchronous regional and distant metastases in patients with IBTR.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Antimicrobial resistance is a global public health emergency. Patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT) are at increased risk for severe infections with multidrug-resistant (MDR) organisms, although more data are needed on the relative burden of MDR Enterobacterales (MDR-E) in immunocompromised populations. In this study, we compare the prevalence of Enterobacterales resistance in cultures from patients undergoing HCT with that of non-HCT patients seeking care at a large healthcare system in North Carolina, USA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImmune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) treatment has proven successful for advanced melanoma, but is associated with potentially severe toxicity and high costs. Accurate biomarkers for response are lacking. The present work is the first to investigate the value of deep learning on CT imaging of metastatic lesions for predicting ICI treatment outcomes in advanced melanoma.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Ceftolozane-tazobactam and ceftazidime-avibactam are preferred treatment options for multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections; however, real-world comparative effectiveness studies are scarce. Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic differences between the agents might affect clinical response rates. We aimed to compare the effectiveness of ceftolozane-tazobactam and ceftazidime-avibactam for treatment of invasive multidrug-resistant P aeruginosa infections.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Despite the global public health threat posed by carbapenem-resistant Enterobacter spp., clinical and molecular epidemiological studies on international isolates remain scarce. Historically, the taxonomy of Enterobacter has been challenging, limiting our understanding of the clinical characteristics and outcomes of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacter spp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNontuberculous mycobacterium (NTM) infections are challenging to manage and are frequently non-responsive to aggressive but poorly-tolerated antibiotic therapies. Immunosuppressed lung transplant patients are susceptible to NTM infections and poor patient outcomes are common. Bacteriophages present an alternative treatment option and are associated with favorable clinical outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this study, ReaxFF molecular dynamics simulations were benchmarked and used to study the relative kinetics of the retro Diels-Alder reaction between furan and -methylmaleimide. This reaction is very important for the creation of polymer networks with self-healing and recyclable properties, since they can be used as reversible linkers in the network. So far, the reversible Diels-Alder reaction has not yet been studied by using reactive molecular dynamics simulations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCarbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) are an important threat to the health of solid organ transplant recipients (SOTr); data comparing outcomes of SOTr with CRE to non-SOTr with CRE are lacking. A matched cohort study was performed within 2 prospective, multicenter, cohort studies (Consortium on Resistance Against Carbapenems in Klebsiella and other Enterobacterales and Consortium on Resistance Against Carbapenems in Klebsiella and other Enterobacterales 2). The epidemiology, desirability of outcome rankings outcomes, and mortality of SOTr and non-SOTr hospitalized in the United States (December 2011-August 2017) with clinical isolates with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-defined CRE were compared.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLedaborbactam (formerly VNRX-5236), a bicyclic boronate β-lactamase inhibitor with activity against class A, C, and D β-lactamases, is under development as an orally bioavailable etzadroxil prodrug (VNRX-7145) in combination with ceftibuten for the treatment of urinary tract infections. At ceftibuten breakpoints of ≤1 mg/L (EUCAST) and ≤8 mg/L (CLSI), 92.5% and 99.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To evaluate causes of fever, including resistance patterns, in patients undergoing cancer treatment in Malawi.
Methods: In this prospective cohort study, enrolled patients undergoing chemotherapy at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi were given a thermometer. If a temperature of ≥38°C was recorded, they were instructed to return for hospitalization, standardized fever workup, and antibiotics.
Background: The Amsterdam Sexual Abuse Case (ASAC) presented parents with a dilemma about disclosing preverbal sexual abuse to their child. Advising parents was challenging due to limited knowledge about the consequences of preverbal child sexual abuse (CSA) and the rarity of children having no conscious awareness of their experience. To enhance recommendations and knowledge, we explored parents' experiences over the years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClimate change poses significant challenges to urban environments affecting both flood risks and stormwater pollutant loadings. However, studies on variations in stormwater runoff quantity and quality in cold regions, which are highly sensitive to climate change, are notably limited. Integrating climatic, hydrologic, and hydraulic modelling, the study assesses the potential impacts of climate change on stormwater runoff volume and pollutant dynamics in a Canadian urban watershed (Calgary).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe simulation of chemical reactions and mechanical properties including failure from atoms to the micrometer scale remains a longstanding challenge in chemistry and materials science. Bottlenecks include computational feasibility, reliability, and cost. We introduce a method for reactive molecular dynamics simulations using a clean replacement of non-reactive classical harmonic bond potentials with reactive, energy-conserving Morse potentials, called the Reactive INTERFACE Force Field (IFF-R).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this study, we present the development of a ReaxFF Pt/Cl/H reactive force field designed to elucidate the etching process by Cl for Pt surfaces. The ReaxFF force field parameters were optimized based on a quantum mechanical training set, which included adsorption energies of Cl and dissociation of HCl on Pt(100) and Pt(111) surfaces, energy/volume relations of PtCl crystals, and Cl diffusion on Pt(100) and Pt(111) surfaces. The predictive capability of the force field was further established through molecular dynamics simulations, which investigated the interactions of Cl and HCl molecules with the (100) and (111) surfaces of c-Pt crystalline solid slabs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The CDC reported a 35% increase in hospital-onset (HO) carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) infections during the COVID-19 pandemic. We evaluated patient outcomes following HO and community-onset (CO) CRE bloodstream infections (BSI).
Methods: Patients prospectively enrolled in CRACKLE-2 from 56 hospitals in 10 countries between 30 April 2016 and 30 November 2019 with a CRE BSI were eligible.
This study aims to fine-tune the plasma composition with a particular emphasis on reactive nitrogen species (RNS) including nitrogen dioxide (NO), dinitrogen pentoxide (NO), and nitrous oxide (NO), produced by a self-constructed cylindrical dielectric barrier discharge (CDBD). We demonstrated the effective manipulation of the plasma chemical profile by optimizing electrical properties, including the applied voltage and frequency, and by adjusting the nitrogen and oxygen ratios in the gas mixture. Additionally, quantification of these active species was achieved using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUndergraduate research transforms student's conceptions of themselves as scientists and encourages participation and retention in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Many barriers exist to carrying out scientifically impactful undergraduate research in nanomaterials at primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs). Here, we share several practices and design principles that demonstrate pathways to overcome these barriers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAntimicrob Agents Chemother
October 2024
We characterized the molecular determinants of meropenem-vaborbactam (MV) non-susceptibility among non-metallo-β-lactamase-producing KPC- (KPC-). Whole-genome sequencing was performed to identify mutations associated with MV non-susceptibility. Isolates with elevated MV MICs were found to have mutations encoding truncated or altered OmpK36 porins and increased copy numbers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAntimicrob Agents Chemother
September 2024
Taniborbactam, a bicyclic boronate β-lactamase inhibitor with activity against carbapenemase (KPC), Verona integron-encoded metallo-β-lactamase (VIM), New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase (NDM), extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs), OXA-48, and AmpC β-lactamases, is under clinical development in combination with cefepime. Susceptibility of 200 previously characterized carbapenem-resistant and 197 multidrug-resistant (MDR) to cefepime-taniborbactam and comparators was determined by broth microdilution. For (192 KPC; 7 OXA-48-related), MIC values of β-lactam components for cefepime-taniborbactam, ceftazidime-avibactam, and meropenem-vaborbactam were 2, 2, and 1 mg/L, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWater scarcity and increasing urbanization are forcing municipalities to consider alternative water sources, such as stormwater, to fill in water supply gaps or address hydromodification of receiving urban streams. Mounting evidence suggests that stormwater is often contaminated with human feces, even in stormwater drainage systems separate from sanitary sewers. Pinpointing sources of human contamination in drainage networks is challenging given the diverse sources of fecal pollution that can impact these systems and the non-specificity of traditional fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) for identifying these host sources.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe joint effect of mixed land uses and rainfall event types was studied using a two-year field monitoring program in four urban catchments in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Event mean concentration (EMC) and event pollutant load (EPL) were employed to evaluate the total suspended sediment (TSS), nitrogen and phosphorus. The correlation analysis showed that most nitrogen and phosphorus components (except for NO/NO and TDP) predominantly exist in particulate form in the study areas.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImmunooncol Technol
December 2024
Background: The predictive value of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in immune-related adverse event (irAE) development remains unknown, although an association between tumor immunogenicity and irAEs has been suggested. We investigated the association between TIL abundance in pretreatment primary and metastasis specimens and the subsequent development of severe irAEs.
Patients And Methods: We retrospectively identified patients with advanced cutaneous melanoma who received first-line anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) with or without anti-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte associated protein 4 (anti-CTLA-4) from 10 hospitals in the Netherlands.
furan nanothreads have all oxygen atoms arranged on one side of the thread backbone; these polar threads present intriguing opportunities in electromechanical response owing to their rigid ladder-like backbone. We retrained a C/H/O reactive force field to simulate their response to external electric field for both end-anchored individual threads and bulk nanothread crystals, contrasting the results to those for poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) polymer. Whereas the field induces a length-independent torque in PVDF through backbone rotation about σ bonds, furan-derived nanothreads generate a length-dependent torque by progressively twisting their rigid backbone.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The presence of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in melanoma has been linked to survival. Their predictive capability for immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) response remains uncertain. Therefore, we investigated the association between treatment response and TILs in the largest cohort to date and analyzed if this association was independent of known clinical predictors.
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