Long-term oritavancin therapy for shoulder prosthetic joint infection: A case guided by therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM).

Oritavancin is a novel long-acting lipoglycopeptide with in vitro activity against methicillin-resistant (MR) Gram-positive pathogens and a good bactericidal activity even in presence of biofilm forming bacteria. It has been approved for acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI), but recent reports have demonstrated possible off-label uses, as for prosthetic joint infections (PJI), which, in more than half of cases, are caused by MR Gram positive organisms. W reported a case of a man in his eighties with a late shoulder PJI caused by methicillin resistant (MRSE) with contraindications for surgical replacement and few oral therapeutic options for a long term suppressive antibiotic therapy.

How students' writing motivation, teachers' personal and professional attributes, and writing instruction impact student writing achievement: a two-level hierarchical linear modeling study.

Student motivation to write is a pivotal factor influencing their writing achievement. However, individual motivation to write is not independent of the learning environment. It also is crucial for teachers to develop their own efficacy, knowledge, and ability in writing and writing instruction to help them utilize effective instructional methods that stimulate students' motivation to write and further promote their writing achievement.

Expanding assessment to instructionally relevant writing components in middle school.

Although educators frequently use assessment to identify who needs supplemental instruction and if that instruction is working, there is a lack of research investigating assessment that informs what instruction students need. The purpose of the current study was to determine if a brief (approximately 20 min) task that reflects a common middle school expectation (writing in response to text) provides educators with information about students' strengths and weaknesses in four research-based components of writing. Results indicated that, at the end of elementary school (Grade 5), students' word- and sentence-level errors, text-level plan, and typing fluency predicted 43% of their performance in written composition quality and all these factors play a role in writing achievement.

The Access to Literacy Assessment System for Phonological Awareness: An Adaptive Measure of Phonological Awareness Appropriate for Children With Speech and/or Language Impairment.

Purpose The Access to Literacy Assessment System-Phonological Awareness (ATLAS-PA) was developed for use with children with speech and/or language impairment. The subtests (Rhyming, Blending, and Segmenting) are appropriate for children who are 3-7 years of age. ATLAS-PA is composed entirely of receptive items, incorporates individualized levels of instruction, and is adaptive in nature.

Justified concern or exaggerated fear: the risk of anaphylaxis in percutaneous treatment of cystic echinococcosis-a systematic literature review.

Percutaneous treatment (PT) emerged in the mid-1980s as an alternative to surgery for selected cases of abdominal cystic echinococcosis (CE). Despite its efficacy and widespread use, the puncture of echinococcal cysts is still far from being universally accepted. One of the main reasons for this reluctance is the perceived risk of anaphylaxis linked to PTs.

A simple sonographic scoring system combined with routine serology is useful in differentiating parasitic from non-parasitic cysts of the liver().

In the absence of a detached endocyst, unilocular echinococcal cysts of the liver may be difficult to distinguish from non-parasitic cysts. In an attempt to identify sonographic features that could help distinguish these two types of cysts, we retrospectively analyzed 64 cases of fluid-filled hepatic cysts whose parasitic nature was ultimately excluded. This experience allowed us to develop a simple scoring system that quantifies the likelihood that hepatic cysts are non-parasitic.

Applications of responsiveness to intervention and the speech-language pathologist in elementary school settings.

This article addresses ways in which speech-language pathologists can play a proactive and substantive part in school-wide language and reading disability prevention and intervention efforts within the responsiveness to intervention framework. Within a collaborative working paradigm, specific student-focused instructional targets are presented in the areas of oral language, metacognition, and reading comprehension. A discussion of professional development focuses on enhancing teacher-student communication interaction, a critical yet often undervalued component of teacher training.

Twenty years of percutaneous treatments for cystic echinococcosis: a preliminary assessment of their use and safety.

Image-guided percutaneous treatments for echinococcal cysts were introduced in the mid-eighties. Today they represent a third therapeutic option, after surgery and benzimidazole derivatives. Two types of percutaneous treatments are available, based on the destruction of the germinal layer or the evacuation of the endocyst.

[Human hydatidosis: advances and report of four paediatric cases with unusual presentation].

Human hydatid disease due to Echinococcus granulosus is frequently observed in Italy, especially in the central and southern areas and on the islands. In the last twenty years some major advances in the field of epidemiology as well as diagnostic and therapeutical approaches have changed our knowledge of this disease. In Italy, localization in the liver, kidney or peritoneum accounts for about 95% of cases.

The effectiveness of a highly explicit, teacher-directed strategy instruction routine: changing the writing performance of students with learning disabilities.

This study examined the effectiveness of a highly explicit, teacher-directed instructional routine used to teach three planning strategies for writing to fourth and fifth graders with learning disabilities. In comparison to peers who received process writing instruction, children who were taught the three planning strategies-goal setting, brainstorming, and organizing-spent more time planning stories in advance of writing and produced stories that were qualitatively better. One month after the end of instruction, students who had been taught the strategies not only maintained their advantage in story quality but also produced longer stories than those produced by their peers who were taught process writing.

[Epidemiological features of intestinal parasitosis in western Sicily in the period 1993-2000].

To determine the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections in western Sicily from 1993 to 2000, fecal samples from 3024 patients (subdivided into native Sicilian children, migrants from developing countries and HIV+ patients,) were collected and observed on direct examination or by the formalin-ether sedimentation technique of Ritchie. Lugol, Kinyoun and Gomori's trichromic stain techniques were employed. Trophozoites or mainly protozoan cysts and helminthic eggs were detected in 195 patients (6.

A Measurement of Omega from the North American Test Flight of Boomerang.

We use the angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background, measured during the North American test flight of the Boomerang experiment, to constrain the geometry of the universe. Within the class of cold dark matter models, we find that the overall fractional energy density of the universe Omega is constrained to be 0.85 View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Measurement of a Peak in the Cosmic Microwave Background Power Spectrum from the North American Test Flight of Boomerang.

We describe a measurement of the angular power spectrum of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at scales of 0&fdg;3 to 5 degrees from the North American test flight of the Boomerang experiment. Boomerang is a balloon-borne telescope with a bolometric receiver designed to map CMB anisotropies on a long-duration balloon flight. During a 6 hr test flight of a prototype system in 1997, we mapped more than 200 deg(2) at high Galactic latitudes in two bands centered at 90 and 150 GHz with a resolution of 26&arcmin; and 16&farcm;5 FWHM, respectively.

Word frequency and age effects in normally developing children's phonological processing.

Eleven kindergarten-age students and 11 second-grade students were asked to perform each of four phonological processing tasks: (a) confrontation naming of object drawings, (b) rapid sequential naming of object drawings and letters, (c) segmentation of words into sounds, and (d) blending sounds to produce words. Response accuracy and, for the picture naming tasks, response latency were measured. In addition, single-word reading ability and silent reading comprehension were evaluated.