Impact of expired stock on antimicrobial surveillance in rural hospitals: Implications and challenges for stewardship.

Background: Quantitative surveillance of antimicrobial use is a valuable tool used to support antimicrobial stewardship, identify overprescribing, monitor unexpected changes in usage, and assess the impact of interventions to improve prescribing. Smaller, more remote hospitals face many challenges in conducting effective antimicrobial surveillance.

Aim: To investigate the impact of expired stock on reported antimicrobial usage rates in smaller, more remote hospitals.

Antimicrobial use in Australian hospitals: how much and how appropriate?

Antimicrobial agents play a central role in modern health care, especially in the hospital setting. This article describes the currently available information on the volumes of antimicrobial use in Australian hospitals, the appropriateness of that use, and the levels of compliance with nationally or locally endorsed prescribing guidelines. The data presented here come from the 2014 National Antimicrobial Utilisation Surveillance Program report and the 2013 and 2014 National Antimicrobial Prescribing Survey reports and are based on voluntary participation in the two programs.

Carbon isotope discrimination in leaves of the broad-leaved paperbark tree, Melaleuca quinquenervia, as a tool for quantifying past tropical and subtropical rainfall.

Quantitative reconstructions of terrestrial climate are highly sought after but rare, particularly in Australia. Carbon isotope discrimination in plant leaves (Δleaf ) is an established indicator of past hydroclimate because the fractionation of carbon isotopes during photosynthesis is strongly influenced by water stress. Leaves of the evergreen tree Melaleuca quinquenervia have been recovered from the sediments of some perched lakes on North Stradbroke and Fraser Islands, south-east Queensland, eastern Australia.

Estimates of sediment and nutrient loads in 10 major catchments draining to the Great Barrier Reef during 2006-2009.

The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) catchment area has been monitored simultaneously for sediment and nutrient exports from 10 priority catchments discharging into the GBR lagoon between 2006 and 2009. This allows GBR catchment-wide exports to be estimated and spatially compared within a discrete time-frame. Elevated levels of sediment and nutrient exports were recorded in all monitored catchments as compared to pre-European estimates, but vary around previous estimates of mean annual loads.

Safer use of antimicrobials in hospitals: the value of antimicrobial usage data.

The National Antimicrobial Utilisation Surveillance Program (NAUSP) collects aggregate data from hospitals in all Australian states and provides reports of monthly hospital inpatient antimicrobial usage to contributing hospitals. These data provide an Australian peer-group benchmark; hospitals can compare their usage with similar hospitals and identify areas of antimicrobial use that require more in-depth analysis. Overall high usage has been used by hospitals and area health services as a stimulus for initiation or expansion of antimicrobial stewardship programs.

Factors influencing the biocompatibility of insertable silicon microshafts in cerebral cortex.

Insertable microelectrode arrays can be used to activate neurons or to sense neural signals for use in prosthetics. The relationship of the microelectrodes to the neurons is determined by random alignment and by biocompatibility. Issues that determine the biocompatibility of insertable microelectrode arrays were investigated.

Staff members' compliance with their facility's antineoplastic drug handling policy.

This study examined use of protective garments and equipment by staff when handling antineoplastic drugs. Nurses, pharmacists, and physicians were compared on protection used, reasons for nonuse, compliance with policy, correspondence of staff beliefs about policy with actual policy, and the relationship between what protection staff believes is required and what protection is used. Pharmacists were the best protected group.

Comparison of antineoplastic drug handling policies of hospitals with OSHA guidelines: a pilot study.

Hospital antineoplastic drug handling policies of 24 hospitals in eight Southwestern Ohio counties were compared with recommendations of the 1986 Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guidelines. Although most study facilities where antineoplastics are handled have policies, content varies and is generally less complete than OSHA guidelines, particularly regarding storing, transporting, and disposing of drugs; managing equipment; informing personnel of risk; and surveillance. Recommendations for personal protection concur more closely with OSHA guidelines than do other content areas.

Competitive binding kinetics in ligand-receptor-competitor systems. Rate parameters for unlabeled ligands for the formyl peptide receptor.

We describe the real-time kinetics of the competition of different ligands for the same receptor and use the computer routine SAAM to simulate this competition. Based on the simulation, we have developed two experimental approaches whereby the parameters of the interaction of nonlabeled ligands with their receptor can be detected; briefly, the analysis of the nonlabeled ligands depends on the perturbation of the kinetics of interaction of labeled ligands with the receptor with which they are in competition. The approach relies primarily upon an analysis of the kinetics of the competition between fluorescent and nonfluorescent ligands using a real-time, homogeneous binding assay in the fluorescence flow cytometer.

A continuous, spectroscopic analysis of the kinetics of elastase secretion by neutrophils. The dependence of secretion upon receptor occupancy.

We have developed a continuous spectroscopic method to analyze the kinetics of elastase secretion by human neutrophils. We have used the elastase-specific substrate methylsuccinylalanylalanylprolylvalylmethylcoumarin amide (Castillo, M. J.