Impact of Rejection of Low-Quality Wound Swabs on Antimicrobial Prescribing: A Controlled Before-After Study.

In this controlled before-after study, wound swabs were only processed for culture, identification, and susceptibility testing if a quality metric, determined by the Q score, was met. Rejection of low-quality wound swabs resulted in a modest decrease in reflexive antibiotic initiation while reducing laboratory workload and generating few clinician requests.

Metabolome remodeling during the acidogenic-solventogenic transition in Clostridium acetobutylicum.

The fermentation carried out by the biofuel producer Clostridium acetobutylicum is characterized by two distinct phases. Acidogenesis occurs during exponential growth and involves the rapid production of acids (acetate and butyrate). Solventogenesis initiates as cell growth slows down and involves the production of solvents (butanol, acetone, and ethanol).

Boosting autofermentation rates and product yields with sodium stress cycling: application to production of renewable fuels by cyanobacteria.

Sodium concentration cycling was examined as a new strategy for redistributing carbon storage products and increasing autofermentative product yields following photosynthetic carbon fixation in the cyanobacterium Arthrospira (Spirulina) maxima. The salt-tolerant hypercarbonate strain CS-328 was grown in a medium containing 0.24 to 1.