A Single-Laboratory Performance Evaluation of MALDI-TOF MS in Rapid Identification of Staphylococcus aureus, Cronobacter sakazakii, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, and Some Closely Related Bacterial Species of Public Health Importance.

Background: Staphylococcus is a genus of Gram-positive bacteria, known to cause food poisoning and gastrointestinal illness in humans. Additionally, the emergence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains has caused a major health care burden worldwide.

Accurate and Reliable Gait Cycle Detection in Parkinson's Disease.

There is a growing interest in the use of Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU)-based systems that employ gyroscopes for gait analysis. We describe an improved IMU-based gait analysis processing method that uses gyroscope angular rate reversal to identify the start of each gait cycle during walking. In validation tests with six subjects with Parkinson disease (PD), including those with severe shuffling gait patterns, and seven controls, the probability of True-Positive event detection and False-Positive event detection was 100% and 0%, respectively.

Adrenomedullin is a cross-talk molecule that regulates tumor and mast cell function during human carcinogenesis.

We have previously demonstrated that adrenomedullin (AM) plays a critical role as an autocrine/paracrine tumor cell survival factor. We now present evidence that AM is an important regulator of mast cell (MC) function and that this modulation is potentially involved in tumor promotion. AM induced histamine or beta-hexosaminidase release from rat and human MCs through a receptor-independent pathway.

The MODEL project: a scoring system to manage demand for cataract and joint replacement surgery.

Cataract surgery and joint replacement are highly cost-effective procedures; however, their availability is inequitable and doctors lack guidance on whom to refer and treat. We investigated the feasibility of using a scoring system to assess patients' suitability for operation. Wefound acceptable correlations between the scores ofgeneral practitioners and surgeons for both procedures.

Trochanteric osteotomy in total hip arthroplasty: comparison of 2 techniques.

A study of 100 cemented total hip arthroplasties was performed in 2 different hospitals. Group 1 hips (50 hips in 42 patients; mean follow-up period, 5.4 years) had been operated on with the modified Liverpool technique involving an anterior osteotomy of the greater trochanter.