Clinical implications of reduced susceptibility to fluoroquinolones in paediatric Shigella sonnei and Shigella flexneri infections.

Objectives: We aimed to quantify the impact of fluoroquinolone resistance on the clinical outcome of paediatric shigellosis patients treated with fluoroquinolones in southern Vietnam. Such information is important to inform therapeutic management for infections caused by this increasingly drug-resistant pathogen, responsible for high morbidity and mortality in young children globally.

Methods: Clinical information and bacterial isolates were derived from a randomized controlled trial comparing gatifloxacin with ciprofloxacin for the treatment of paediatric shigellosis.

Food-specific attribution of selected gastrointestinal illnesses: estimates from a Canadian expert elicitation survey.

The study used a structured expert elicitation survey to derive estimates of food-specific attribution for nine illnesses caused by enteric pathogens in Canada. It was based on a similar survey conducted in the United States and focused on Campylobacter spp., Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, nontyphoidal Salmonella enterica, Shigella spp.

An empirical model of perceived mortality risks for selected U.S. Arsenic hot spots.

Researchers have long recognized that subjective perceptions of risk are better predictors of choices over risky outcomes than science-based or experts' assessments of risk. More recent work suggests that uncertainty about risks also plays a role in predicting choices and behavior. In this article, we develop and estimate a formal model for an individual's perceived health risks associated with arsenic contamination of his or her drinking water.

Preparation of supported gold nanoparticles by a modified incipient wetness impregnation method.

In this work, we show that if the mere procedure of impregnation of oxide supports with chloroauric acid, which is well-known to lead to large gold particles, is followed by a step of washing with ammonia, small gold particles (3-4 nm) can be obtained after a treatment of calcination at 300 degrees C on any type of oxide supports (alumina, titania, silica). Moreover, gold leaching is very limited during the washing step, and a large range of gold loadings (0.7-3.