Severe community-acquired pneumonia compared to severe community-acquired Acinetobacter baumannii pneumonia in Reunion Island: A retrospective study.

Acinetobacter baumannii (Ab) has emerged in the last decades as a cause of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in tropical and subtropical regions. We previously conducted the first investigation on this topic in France with a case series of severe CAP-Ab in Reunion Island over an eight-year period. In the present work, we aim to highlight the specific aspects of CAP-Ab by comparing our case series with an historical cohort (PAC_RUN), obtained by retrospective chart review (2016-2021) of severe community-acquired pneumonia cases on Reunion Island, in which CAP-Ab was ruled out.

Implementing Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute Stakeholder Engagement Principles in Models of Palliative Care Delivery and Advance Care Planning Research.

Background: Given the many challenges of conducting research that addresses the palliative and end-of-life care needs of patients with serious illnesses, stakeholder engagement starting from the moment of study conceptualization and design is critical to ensure successful participant recruitment, data collection, intervention delivery, data analysis, and dissemination.

Methods: Guided by a conceptual model published by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) entitled, "Measuring What Matters for Advancing the Science and Practice of Engagement"14 and with the support of a PCORI Engagement Officer, representatives from 9 PCORI-funded study teams formed a working group to survey team members and review, outline, and describe key lessons learned and best practices for promoting stakeholder engagement in palliative care research.

Results: Almost all study teams engaged with patients/caregivers, clinicians, researchers, and health care system experts as stakeholder partners.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on severe non-SARS-CoV-2 community-acquired pneumonia in Reunion Island: a multicenter retrospective observational study, 2016-2021.

The Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a considerable impact on the incidence of severe community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) worldwide. The aim of this study was to assess the early impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Reunion Island. This multicenter retrospective observational study was conducted from 2016 to 2021 in the hospitals of Reunion Island.

Severe community-acquired pneumonia in Reunion Island: Epidemiological, clinical, and microbiological characteristics, 2016-2018.

Purpose: No data are available on severe community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in the French overseas department of Reunion Island. This is unfortunate as the microorganisms responsible for the disease are likely to differ from those in temperate regions due to a tropical climate and proximity to other islands of the Indian Ocean region. The aim of this study was to assess the epidemiological, clinical, prognosis, and microbiological characteristics of patients with severe CAP in Reunion Island.

Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Trial Comparing Team-Based to Clinician-Focused Implementation of Advance Care Planning in Primary Care.

For many patients, primary care is an appropriate setting for advance care planning (ACP). ACP focuses on what matters most to patients and ensuring health care supports patient-defined goals. ACP may involve interactions between a clinician and a patient, but for seriously ill patients ACP could be managed by a team.

Participant and Household Characteristics Associated With Graduation From the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program.

Objective: To examine empirically participant and household characteristics associated with Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) graduation and to determine whether they differ across 2 counties.

Design: Survey of EFNEP participants from 2011 to 2012.

Setting: Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program sites serving limited-resource families in 1 rural and 1 urban/suburban county in Washington State.

Positive and negative impacts of specialty malts on beer foam: a comparison of various cereal products for their foaming properties.

Background: The foam stability of beer is dependent on the presence of foam-stabilizing polypeptides derived from the cereals from which it is made. It has long been argued that there is a tendency to boost the foam-stabilizing capabilities of these polypeptides at the heating stages involved in the production of the grist materials. The present study started with the intent to confirm whether these changes occurred and to assess the extent to which different cereal products differed in their foam-stabilizing tendencies.

A novel approach to sexing bovine blastocysts using male-specific gene expression.

When examining gene expression profiles for the purposes of assessing embryo quality, it is imperative that sex be considered, because many embryonic transcripts have sex-related expression patterns. The objective of this study was to systematically examine eight Y chromosome linked genes (DDX3Y, EIF1AY, HSFY, SRY, TSPY, USP9Y, ZFY, and ZRSR2Y) to characterize their expression in bovine blastocysts and to examine the usefulness of this expression for the purpose of RNA-based embryo sexing. In order to examine the expression of these genes, pools of blastocysts (groups of 10 and 20) as well as single embryos (N = 50) were analyzed with reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and reverse transcriptase quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR).

Independent roles of apical membrane antigen 1 and rhoptry neck proteins during host cell invasion by apicomplexa.

During invasion, apicomplexan parasites form an intimate circumferential contact with the host cell, the tight junction (TJ), through which they actively glide. The TJ, which links the parasite motor to the host cell cytoskeleton, is thought to be composed of interacting apical membrane antigen 1 (AMA1) and rhoptry neck (RON) proteins. Here we find that, in Plasmodium berghei, while both AMA1 and RON4 are important for merozoite invasion of erythrocytes, only RON4 is required for sporozoite invasion of hepatocytes, indicating that RON4 acts independently of AMA1 in the sporozoite.

Dependent patients discharged home from PRM departments: relevant indicators.

Objective: To evaluate simple, measurable indicators of optimal organizational procedures for the hospital-to-home discharge of dependent patients.

Material And Method: All the general practitioners (GPs) in the Maine-et-Loire county of France were sent a questionnaire asking them to rank the three main criteria (from the most important to the least significant) from a list of 14. We analyzed the median ranking for each item and identified the most important items in terms of their relative frequency.

FLP/FRT-mediated conditional mutagenesis in pre-erythrocytic stages of Plasmodium berghei.

We describe here a highly efficient procedure for conditional mutagenesis in Plasmodium. The procedure uses the site-specific recombination FLP-FRT system of yeast and targets the pre-erythrocytic stages of the rodent Plasmodium parasite P. berghei, including the sporozoite stage and the subsequent liver stage.

[Exploring the prospects for general practitioners over 55 years old from three counties of western France].

Objective: Medical demography and the practice of medicine will be influenced by the personal plans of GPs and their decisions to stop practicing in the coming years. This study aims to understand the events that could potentially worsen the medical demography in terms of shortages of GPs for primary care in the short term.

Method: 455 GPs (all aged over 55 years) practicing in three districts of western France were selected to participate in this prospective study.

Role of Plasmodium berghei cGMP-dependent protein kinase in late liver stage development.

The liver is the first organ infected by Plasmodium sporozoites during malaria infection. In the infected hepatocytes, sporozoites undergo a complex developmental program to eventually generate hepatic merozoites that are released into the bloodstream in membrane-bound vesicles termed merosomes. Parasites blocked at an early developmental stage inside hepatocytes elicit a protective host immune response, making them attractive targets in the effort to develop a pre-erythrocytic stage vaccine.

Clonal conditional mutagenesis in malaria parasites.

We describe here an efficient method for conditional gene inactivation in malaria parasites that uses the Flp/FRT site-specific recombination system of yeast. The method, developed in Plasmodium berghei, consists of inserting FRT sites in the chromosomal locus of interest in a parasite clone expressing the Flp recombinase via a developmental stage-specific promoter. Using promoters active in mosquito midgut sporozoites or salivary gland sporozoites to drive expression of Flp or its thermolabile variant, FlpL, we show that excision of the DNA flanked by FRT sites occurs efficiently at the stage of interest and at undetectable levels in prior stages.

Host cell entry by apicomplexa parasites requires actin polymerization in the host cell.

Apicomplexa are obligate intracellular parasites that actively invade host cells using their membrane-associated, actin-myosin motor. The current view is that host cell invasion by Apicomplexa requires the formation of a parasite-host cell junction, which has been termed the moving junction, but does not require the active participation of host actin. Using Toxoplasma gondii tachyzoites and Plasmodium berghei sporozoites, we show that host actin participates in parasite entry.

TREP, a novel protein necessary for gliding motility of the malaria sporozoite.

The invasive stages of parasites of the protozoan phylum Apicomplexa have the capacity to traverse host tissues and invade host cells using a unique type of locomotion called gliding motility. Gliding motility is powered by a sub-membranous actin-myosin motor, and the force generated by the motor is transduced to the parasite surface by transmembrane proteins of the apicomplexan-specific thrombospondin-related anonymous protein (TRAP) family. These proteins possess short cytoplasmic tails that interact with the actin-myosin motor via the glycolytic enzyme aldolase.

[Influence of visible interferences on biochemical assays realised on Au 5231, AU 5223 (Olympus) and CL 7200 (Shimadzu)].

The impact of the major interferents (hemolysis, bilirubin, turbidity), on the quality of biochemical tests, was evaluated on multiparametric analysers (CL 7200 Shimadzu, Japan/Ciba-Corning, France; AU 5231 and AU 5223 Olympus, Japan/bioMérieux, France), according to the SFBC instructions. Interferences were detected in 33 cases upon 165 tests realized, that is to say 20% of the performed analysis. Turbidity was the most frequent cause of interference (7.

[In vivo sensitivity of Plasmodium falciparum to amodiaquine in the town of Edea (Cameroon)].

In the town of Edea, where falciparum malaria is hyperendemic, an in vivo study of amodiaquine sensitivity of the local strain of the parasite is performed in school children 6 to 12 years of age: 184 children with parasites in their blood and no chloroquine in their urine are given amodiaquine orally. In 96 children having taken 35 mg per kg body weight of amodiaquine base, none is any longer harboring parasites in his blood as soon as the second day following the end of the 3 days treatment (15 mg/kg body weight the first day, 12 mg/kg the second day and 8 mg/kg the third day). The 73 children having taken 27 mg/kg body weight of amodiaquine base are cleared of their parasites at the rate of 93% on the seventh day of the experiment.

[Comparative study of the malaria indices in Nanga-Eboko, Yaounde and Edea (Cameroon)].

The authors report the results of sample surveys carried out in september 1986 in Yaounde and Nanga-Eboko and in january 1987 in Edea (Cameroon) to evaluate the main malarial indexes among 0-15 years old children. These investigations suggest that malaria is hypoendemic in Yaounde and mesoendemic in Nanga-Eboko during the rainy months. In Edea malaria is hyperendemic.

Detection with a monoclonal antibody of an antigen, characteristic of the genus Schistosoma, excreted in the urine.

In the host, the antigen excreted by schistosomes in the circulating blood is concentrated in the urine. A mouse monoclonal antibody of the IgM class type lambda, directed against an epitope of the intestinal epithelium of the adult worm, is obtained. The antigen found in the urine of the host as well as the monoclonal antibody has been previously characterized.

[Epidemiological aspects of malaria in 2 villages of the Manyemen forest region (Cameroon, southwest province)].

In terms of parasitaemia in blood, the prevalence was 18.7% for Plasmodium falciparum, 10.5% for P.

[Evaluation of the clinical, parasitological and immunological indices of malaria in the Bonny's Bay area of Central Africa].

The authors report the results of 4 sample surveys carried out in Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon in the Bonny's Bay area, to evaluate the main malarial indexes. In rural and semi-rural areas one notice a high rate of fever attacks and splenomegaly. Parasitaemia is more important in rural areas than in urban areas and is decreasing where the therapeutic pressure is strong and long-lasting.