Travelling Waves in a PDE-ODE Coupled Model of Cellulolytic Biofilms with Nonlinear Diffusion.

We analyze travelling wave (TW) solutions for nonlinear systems consisting of an ODE coupled to a degenerate PDE with a diffusion coefficient that vanishes as the solution tends to zero and blows up as it approaches its maximum value. Stable TW solutions for such systems have previously been observed numerically as well as in biological experiments on the growth of cellulolytic biofilms. In this work, we provide an analytical justification for these observations and prove existence and stability results for TW solutions of such models.

The development and early success of the South Carolina two-generation community of practice to support family-serving professionals.

Introduction: System-level initiatives are key to promoting health and well-being among young families, yet agencies and organizations who support those families often do not coordinate their delivery of supportive services and resources. We describe the South Carolina (SC) two-generation (2Gen) community of practice (CoP) and its early efforts to foster statewide adoption of "whole family" centered approaches.

Method: This mixed-methods study evaluated the impact of the CoP.

The process of implementing culture change across a city-operated long-term care home and the importance of stakeholder engagement.

This article describes the Quality Improvement (QI) initiative of a culture change model, CareTO. CareTO is a made-in-Toronto, resident-driven, person-centred approach to care that was implemented across all units of a City of Toronto-operated Long-Term Care (LTC) home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The City of Toronto's Seniors Services and Long-Term Care (SSLTC) Division partnered with an external QI team to support the implementation of CareTO at the pilot site.

State of Constant Readiness: Lessons Learned From the Military.

The purpose of this article is to compare and discuss the preparation of civilian and military nurses in meeting the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic. The military nursing system exemplifies a program of ongoing training and evaluations to prepare nurses to care for patients in austere environments. The lessons learned during the pandemic include adapting, collaborating, and expanding current practices in nursing to train and validate nursing skills continuously.

Reducing Setup and Turnover Times in the OR With an Innovative Sterilization Container: Implications for the COVID-19 Era Military Medicine.

Introduction: The global 2019 coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) is setting unprecedented demands on the nation and the military and surgical services. Surgical demands include a large backlog of surgical cases, strain on available resources, and the need for additional measures to prevent exposure. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the feasibility, duration, adverse events, and potential gains associated with using a Turbett Sterilization Pod (TSP) for total joint replacements.

Determining where physical therapists get information to support clinical practice decisions.

Objective: To determine the information sources utilised by physical therapists (PTs) to support clinical decisions.

Methods: Physical therapists in the United States were invited via professional listservs and electronic newsletters to participate in an online survey.

Results: Journal articles were the most frequently utilised source of information, followed by databases (PubMed was most frequent).

Learning basic laparoscopic skills: a randomized controlled study comparing box trainer, virtual reality simulator, and mental training.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were (1) to compare different methods of learning basic laparoscopic skills using box trainer (BT), virtual reality simulator (VRS) and mental training (MT); and (2) to determine the most effective method of learning laparoscopic skills.

Design: Randomized controlled trial.

Setting: King's College, London.

The chemostat with lateral gene transfer.

We investigate the standard chemostat model when lateral gene transfer is taken into account. We will show that when the different genotypes have growth rate functions that are sufficiently close to a common growth rate function, and when the yields of the genotypes are sufficiently close to a common value, then the population evolves to a globally stable steady state, at which all genotypes coexist. These results can explain why the antibiotic-resistant strains persist in the pathogen population.

Senescence and antibiotic resistance in an age-structured population model.

Different theories have been proposed to understand the growing problem of antibiotic resistance of microbial populations. Here we investigate a model that is based on the hypothesis that senescence is a possible explanation for the existence of so-called persister cells which are resistant to antibiotic treatment. We study a chemostat model with a microbial population which is age-structured and show that if the growth rates of cells in different age classes are sufficiently close to a scalar multiple of a common growth rate, then the population will globally stabilize at a coexistence steady state.

Senescence can explain microbial persistence.

It has been known for many years that small fractions of persister cells resist killing in many bacterial colony-antimicrobial confrontations. These persisters are not believed to be mutants. Rather it has been hypothesized that they are phenotypic variants.

Treatment of auricular pseudocyst with aspiration and local pressure.

An auricular pseudocyst is a fluid filled cavity unlined by epithelium in the intracartilaginous space of the ear. Clinically, it presents as a painless outpouching on the upper anterior surface of the auricle with sterile straw coloured fluid found upon aspiration. If left untreated, permanent deformity of the pinna may result.

Role of cohesion in the material description of biofilms.

Biofilm structure plays an important role in biofilm function and control. It is thus important to determine the extent to which mechanics may determine structure in biofilms. We consider a generic qualitative constitutive description of biofilm incorporating as assumptions a small number of fundamental physical properties of biofilm viscoelasticity and cohesion.

Adaptive responses to antimicrobial agents in biofilms.

Bacterial biofilms demonstrate adaptive resistance in response to antimicrobial stress more effectively than corresponding planktonic populations. We propose here that, in biofilms, reaction-diffusion limited penetration may result in only low levels of antimicrobial exposure to deeper regions of the biofilm. Sheltered cells are then able to enter an adapted resistant state if the local time scale for adaptation is faster than that for disinfection.

Traveling wave solutions of a reaction diffusion model for competing pioneer and climax species.

Presented is a reaction-diffusion model for the interaction of pioneer and climax species. For certain parameters the system exhibits bistability and traveling wave solutions. Specifically, we show that when the climax species diffuses at a slow rate there are traveling wave solutions which correspond to extinction waves of either the pioneer or climax species.

Modelling production of extracellular polymeric substances in a Pseudomonas aeruginosa chemostat culture.

Formation of extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs) by mucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa was investigated using literature data from chemostat cultures. The data were used to calibrate a product formation regime allowing substrate sufficient and endogenous EPS formation. Yield coefficients for both formation conditions were elucidated based on metabolic pathway analysis.

A mathematical model for quorum sensing in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

The bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa use the size and density of their colonies to regulate the production of a large variety of substances, including toxins. This phenomenon, called quorum sensing, apparently enables colonies to grow to sufficient size undetected by the immune system of the host organism. In this paper, we present a mathematical model of quorum sensing in P.

Hemodialysis access graft stenosis: US detection.

Purpose: To prospectively evaluate the sensitivity of ultrasonography (US) in diagnosing stenosis of hemodialysis access grafts and their drainage veins in patients clinically suspected of having graft dysfunction.

Materials And Methods: Thirty-eight patients in whom dysfunction of their hemodialysis access grafts was suspected underwent both Doppler US and angiography. Gray-scale and color US were combined with spectral analysis of the graft, anastomoses, and venous outflow.

Maternal serum creatine kinase does not predict tubal pregnancy.

Purpose: Our purpose was to validate prospectively the predictive value of maternal serum creatine kinase in the evaluation of ectopic pregnancy.

Methods: Fifty-one consecutive pregnant first-trimester patients who presented for suspected abnormal pregnancy were enrolled. Maternal serum samples were obtained and assayed for creatine kinase.

C3: information science in uniform.

This contribution explores an aspect of information science, which is little treated in the literature, but on which enormous sums of money are spent annually. This is the subject of information and the prosecution of war. What follows may be considered as a kind of tutorial on this huge, but poorly understood realm of information science applications.

Defining systems based on information exchange: structure from dynamics.

We take the occasion of the workshop to examine a proposition that systems may be better defined in terms of interactions based on information exchange rather than on atomic elements. Although speculative, the paper is in the spirit of exploration within a workshop atmosphere. It is enough for us that the interactions be perceived to exist.

Cervical ripening before medical induction of labor: a comparison of prostaglandin E2, estradiol, and oxytocin.

Objective: Our purpose was to evaluate the effectiveness of oxytocin, prostaglandin E2 intracervical gel, and estradiol cream for ripening the very unfavorable cervix in patients requiring induction of labor at term.

Study Design: This prospective, randomized study was conducted in a population of women with a very unfavorable cervix (Bishop score < 4) requiring induction of labor. The patients received prostaglandin E2 gel (0.

Acute tocolysis for fetal distress: terbutaline versus magnesium sulphate.

Forty-six women in active labour who developed fetal distress requiring abdominal delivery were randomized to receive 0.25 mg of terbutaline (subcutaneously) or magnesium sulphate as a 4-g bolus (intravenously) to decrease uterine activity. The terbutaline-treated group in contrast to the magnesium sulphate-treated group had reduced uterine activity as measured by Montevideo units (p < 0.

Diffusion and reaction within porous packing media: a phenomenological model.

A phenomenological model has been developed to describe biomass distribution and substrate depletion in porous diatomaceous earth (DE) pellets colonized by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The essential features of the model are diffusion, attachment and detachment to/from pore walls of the biomass, diffusion of substrate within the pellet, and external mass transfer of both substrate and biomass in the bulk fluid of a packed bed containing the pellets. A bench-scale reactor filled with DE pellets was inoculated with P.