Specialization of Physician Associates and Nurse Practitioners as Reflected in Workforce Projections.

Introduction The utilization of physician associates (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) within the United States healthcare system has increased substantially since their inception in the 1960s. While many PAs and NPs are educated and work within specialty areas in their clinical practice, the federal government does not identify PAs and NPs by specialty in its workforce projections. Methods We obtained data from publicly available sources as well as professional organizations.

Predicting urinary stone recurrence: a joint model analysis of repeated 24-hour urine collections from the MSTONE database.

To address the limitations in existing urinary stone recurrence (USR) models, including failure to account for changes in 24-hour urine (24U) parameters over time and ignoring multiplicity of stone recurrences, we presented a novel statistical method to jointly model temporal trends in 24U parameters and multiple recurrent stone events. The MSTONE database spanning May 2001 to April 2015 was analyzed. A joint recurrent model was employed, combining a linear mixed-effects model for longitudinal 24U parameters and a recurrent event model with a dynamic first-order Autoregressive (AR(1)) structure.

Best Practices in Treatment of Fungal Urinary Tract Infections.

Fungal pathogens within the urine, specifically Candida species, are a common finding amongst hospitalized patients. Risk factors for the development of candiduria involve patients with indwelling urinary drainage devices, surgical patients, patients undergoing urologic instrumentation, and diabetic patients. Candiduria often presents with an asymptomatic course but can also be a severe life-threatening process.

Isolation, characterization, and genetic manipulation of cold-tolerant, manganese-oxidizing sp. strains.

Manganese-oxidizing bacteria (MnOB) produce Mn oxide minerals that can be used by humans for bioremediation, but the purpose for the bacterium is less clear. This study describes the isolation and characterization of cold-tolerant MnOB strains isolated from a compost pile in Morris, Minnesota, USA: sp. MS-1 and DSV-1.