ABSTRACT
Microbial water quality is determined by comparing observed Escherichia coli concentrations with regulatory thresholds. Measured concentrations can be expected to change throughout the course of a day in response to diurnal variation in environmental conditions, such as solar radiation and temperature. Therefore, the time of day at which samples are taken is an important factor within microbial water quality measurements. However, little is known about the diurnal variations of E. coli concentrations in surface sources of irrigation water. The objectives of this work were to evaluate the intra-daily dynamics of E. coli in three irrigation ponds in Maryland over several years and to determine the water quality parameters to which E. coli populations are most sensitive. Water sampling was conducted across the ponds at 0900, 1200, and 1500 h on a total of 17 dates in the summers of 2019-2021. One-way ANOVA revealed significant diurnal variability in E. coli concentrations in Pond (P)1 and P2, whereas no significant effects were observed in P3. Escherichia coli die-off rates calculated between sampling time points in the same day were significantly higher in P2 than in P1 and P3, and these rates ranged from 0.005 to 0.799 h-1 across ponds. Concentrations of dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, and turbidity exerted the most control over E. coli populations. Results of this work demonstrate that sampling in the early-morning hours provides the most conservative assessment of the microbial quality of irrigation waters.
Subject(s)
Agricultural Irrigation , Escherichia coli , Ponds , Water Microbiology , Water QualityABSTRACT
Breast cancer is the most common invasive cancer in women, with most deaths attributed to metastases. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) may be prescribed prior to surgical removal of the tumor for subsets of breast cancer patients but can have diverse undesired and off-target effects, including the increased appearance of the 'tumor microenvironment of metastasis', image-based multicellular signatures that are prognostic of breast tumor metastasis. To assess whether NACT can induce changes in two other image-based prognostic/predictive signatures derived from tumor collagen, we quantified second-harmonic generation (SHG) directionality and fiber alignment in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded sections of core needle biopsies and primary tumor excisions from 22 human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-overexpressing (HER2+) and 22 triple-negative breast cancers. In both subtypes, we found that SHG directionality (i.e., the forward-to-backward scattering ratio, or F/B) is increased by NACT in the bulk of the tumor, but not the adjacent tumor-stroma interface. Overall collagen fiber alignment is increased by NACT in triple-negative but not HER2+ breast tumors. These results suggest that NACT impacts the collagenous extracellular matrix in a complex and subtype-specific manner, with some prognostic features being unchanged while others are altered in a manner suggestive of a more metastatic phenotype.
ABSTRACT
Bicyclists are vulnerable road users who risk incurring severe injuries from traffic incidents involving motorists. However, the prevalence of severe bicycle injuries varies across countries and is not well-documented in Latin American countries. Studies from developed countries outside of Latin America have shown that individual and contextual factors are associated with severe injuries incurred by bicyclists in road traffic incidents with motorists, but it is not clear whether these factors are the same as those incurred by Latin American bicyclists. Moreover, most studies on bicyclist-motorist traffic incidents have treated injury severity as a binary variable for analysis although injuries range widely in severity. The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of bicycle injuries from incidents between motorists and bicyclists in Chile and examine the associations between individual and contextual factors and bicyclist injury severity, treated as an ordinal outcome variable, in these incidents. Data on road traffic incidents between bicyclists and motorists from the 2016 Traffic Accident of Bicycle Riders and Consequences database of the Chilean Transport Ministry were analysed. Multilevel mixed-effects ordinal regression models were used to examine associations. In total, 81.2 % of 4093 traffic incidents between bicyclists and motorists resulted in nonfatal injuries to bicyclists and another 2.3 % resulted in fatalities. Most incidents involved collisions (84.3 %), and most were due to a motorist being distracted while driving (50.4 %). Severe bicyclist injuries were more likely when the incident involved a stationary cyclist who was struck, a collision between a moving bicycle and a moving motor vehicle, or an overturning motor vehicle striking a bicyclist (p < 0.001). Other factors included the motorist driving under the influence of alcohol (p = 0.05), the incident taking place in a mid-size community (p = 0.04), the incident occurring between 7:00 pm and 4:59 am (p < 0.01), and the injured bicyclist being under 18 years or 45+ years of age (p < 0.05). These findings suggest the need for educational programs that promote safe driving behaviour in the presence of bicyclists, better enforcement of laws and higher penalties for distracted or drunk driving, and provision of high-quality exclusive bicyclist infrastructure to address the vulnerability of the youngest and oldest bicyclists on shared roads, particularly in mid-size communities, and to provide better lighting on bikeways for evening bicycling, to reduce the high incidence of severe bicyclist injuries in motorist-bicyclist incidents.
Subject(s)
Accidents, Traffic , Automobile Driving , Adolescent , Bicycling , Chile/epidemiology , Humans , Motor VehiclesABSTRACT
The microbial quality of irrigation water is an important issue as the use of contaminated waters has been linked to several foodborne outbreaks. To expedite microbial water quality determinations, many researchers estimate concentrations of the microbial contamination indicator Escherichia coli (E. coli) from the concentrations of physiochemical water quality parameters. However, these relationships are often non-linear and exhibit changes above or below certain threshold values. Machine learning (ML) algorithms have been shown to make accurate predictions in datasets with complex relationships. The purpose of this work was to evaluate several ML models for the prediction of E. coli in agricultural pond waters. Two ponds in Maryland were monitored from 2016 to 2018 during the irrigation season. E. coli concentrations along with 12 other water quality parameters were measured in water samples. The resulting datasets were used to predict E. coli using stochastic gradient boosting (SGB) machines, random forest (RF), support vector machines (SVM), and k-nearest neighbor (kNN) algorithms. The RF model provided the lowest RMSE value for predicted E. coli concentrations in both ponds in individual years and over consecutive years in almost all cases. For individual years, the RMSE of the predicted E. coli concentrations (log10 CFU 100 ml-1) ranged from 0.244 to 0.346 and 0.304 to 0.418 for Pond 1 and 2, respectively. For the 3-year datasets, these values were 0.334 and 0.381 for Pond 1 and 2, respectively. In most cases there was no significant difference (P > 0.05) between the RMSE of RF and other ML models when these RMSE were treated as statistics derived from 10-fold cross-validation performed with five repeats. Important E. coli predictors were turbidity, dissolved organic matter content, specific conductance, chlorophyll concentration, and temperature. Model predictive performance did not significantly differ when 5 predictors were used vs. 8 or 12, indicating that more tedious and costly measurements provide no substantial improvement in the predictive accuracy of the evaluated algorithms.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Metastases are the leading cause of breast cancer-related deaths. The tumor microenvironment impacts cancer progression and metastatic ability. Fibrillar collagen, a major extracellular matrix component, can be studied using the light scattering phenomenon known as second-harmonic generation (SHG). The ratio of forward- to backward-scattered SHG photons (F/B) is sensitive to collagen fiber internal structure and has been shown to be an independent prognostic indicator of metastasis-free survival time (MFS). Here we assess the effects of heterogeneity in the tumor matrix on the possible use of F/B as a prognostic tool. METHODS: SHG imaging was performed on sectioned primary tumor excisions from 95 untreated, estrogen receptor-positive, lymph node negative invasive ductal carcinoma patients. We identified two distinct regions whose collagen displayed different average F/B values, indicative of spatial heterogeneity: the cellular tumor bulk and surrounding tumor-stroma interface. To evaluate the impact of heterogeneity on F/B's prognostic ability, we performed SHG imaging in the tumor bulk and tumor-stroma interface, calculated a 21-gene recurrence score (surrogate for OncotypeDX®, or S-ODX) for each patient and evaluated their combined prognostic ability. RESULTS: We found that F/B measured in tumor-stroma interface, but not tumor bulk, is prognostic of MFS using three methods to select pixels for analysis: an intensity threshold selected by a blinded observer, a histogram-based thresholding method, and an adaptive thresholding method. Using both regression trees and Random Survival Forests for MFS outcome, we obtained data-driven prediction rules that show F/B from tumor-stroma interface, but not tumor bulk, and S-ODX both contribute to predicting MFS in this patient cohort. We also separated patients into low-intermediate (S-ODX < 26) and high risk (S-ODX ≥26) groups. In the low-intermediate risk group, comprised of patients not typically recommended for adjuvant chemotherapy, we find that F/B from the tumor-stroma interface is prognostic of MFS and can identify a patient cohort with poor outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrate that intratumoral heterogeneity in F/B values can play an important role in its possible use as a prognostic marker, and that F/B from tumor-stroma interface of primary tumor excisions may provide useful information to stratify patients by metastatic risk.
Subject(s)
Breast Neoplasms/ultrastructure , Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast/ultrastructure , Estrogens , Fibrillar Collagens/ultrastructure , Neoplasm Metastasis , Neoplasm Proteins/ultrastructure , Neoplasms, Hormone-Dependent/ultrastructure , Second Harmonic Generation Microscopy , Breast Neoplasms/chemistry , Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast/chemistry , Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast/secondary , Female , Humans , Image Processing, Computer-Assisted , Neoplasms, Hormone-Dependent/chemistry , Prognosis , Risk , Single-Blind Method , Stromal Cells/chemistry , Stromal Cells/ultrastructure , Tumor MicroenvironmentABSTRACT
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) is routinely administered to subsets of breast cancer patients, including triple negative (TN) or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2+) cancers. After NACT and subsequent surgical resection, 5% to 30% of patients have no residual invasive carcinoma, termed pathological complete response. Unfortunately, many patients experience little-to-no response after NACT and unnecessarily suffer its side effects. Methods are needed to predict an individual patient's response to NACT. Core needle biopsies, taken before NACT, consist of tumor cells and the surrounding extracellular matrix. We performed second-harmonic generation (SHG) imaging of fibrillar collagen in core needle biopsy sections as a possible predictor of response to NACT. The ratio of forward-to-backward scattering (F/B) SHG was assessed in the "tumor bulk" and "tumorhost interface" in HER2+ and TN core needle biopsy sections. Patient response was classified post-treatment using the Residual Cancer Burden (RCB) score. In HER2+ biopsies, RCB class was associated with F/B derived from the tumorstromal interface, but not tumor bulk. F/B was not associated with RCB class in TN biopsies. These findings suggest that F/B from needle biopsy sections may be a useful predictor of which patients will respond favorably to NACT, with the potential to help reduce overtreatment.
Subject(s)
Antineoplastic Agents/therapeutic use , Breast Neoplasms/drug therapy , Breast Neoplasms/pathology , Triple Negative Breast Neoplasms/drug therapy , Triple Negative Breast Neoplasms/pathology , Biopsy, Large-Core Needle , Biopsy, Needle , Chemotherapy, Adjuvant , Collagen/chemistry , Extracellular Matrix/chemistry , Female , Humans , Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/methods , Neoadjuvant Therapy , Prognosis , Receptor, ErbB-2 , Scattering, Radiation , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
Many husbandry routines in zoo herpetology are based on tradition, authoritarianism, anecdote, or speculation. However, relatively few empirical studies underlie many very common practices. We compared growth rates among littermates of Boa constrictor raised under two feeding regimes that were identical in terms of the mass of food ingested, but differed in weekly versus bi-weekly schedules. The growth rate of the group fed weekly was greater than the rate for the biweekly group. Snakes fed 10% of their body mass on a weekly regimen grew to a larger size, and at a faster rate, than did snakes fed 20% of their body mass on a biweekly regimen.
Subject(s)
Animal Husbandry , Boidae/growth & development , Feeding Behavior , Animals , Animals, ZooABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The expression of enzymes of the OXA-48 carbapenemase group is difficult to detect by phenotypic methods owing to frequent low levels of carbapenem resistance and negative results with some screening methods. Temocillin has been shown to be a good option for phenotypic screening as it is hydrolysed by the OXA-48-group enzymes, whereas ESBLs, AmpC and some other carbapenemases have a lower hydrolytic effect on this antimicrobial. However, no epidemiological cut-off for temocillin is available. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate temocillin MICs in relation to the presence or absence of genes encoding ESBLs and carbapenemases in Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica. METHODS: In this study, 111 E. coli and 102 S. enterica isolates, including WT and well-characterized ESBL-, AmpC- or carbapenemase-producing isolates, were tested by three independent laboratories. MICs were determined according to the CLSI guidelines by agar dilution with the test range from 0.5 to 512 mg/L temocillin and WGS was performed and analysed with ResFinder. RESULTS: Some overlap was detected between temocillin MICs for WT and ESBL- or AmpC-producing isolates. However, isolates carrying genes encoding carbapenemases showed a broader range of MICs for both E. coli and S. enterica. Higher MICs were observed for the OXA-48 group, VIM and some NDM-producing isolates, whereas isolates harbouring KPC enzymes showed low MICs. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that temocillin MICs enable phenotypic distinction between strains producing OXA-48-group enzymes and both WT susceptible and ESBL/AmpC-carrying isolates, whereas the distinction from other carbapenemases likely requires genotypic testing.
Subject(s)
Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology , Bacterial Proteins/analysis , Bacteriological Techniques/methods , Escherichia coli/enzymology , Mass Screening/methods , Penicillins/pharmacology , Salmonella enterica/enzymology , beta-Lactamases/analysis , Bacterial Proteins/genetics , Culture Media , Escherichia coli/drug effects , Escherichia coli/genetics , Escherichia coli/isolation & purification , Escherichia coli Infections/microbiology , Genotype , Salmonella Infections/microbiology , Salmonella enterica/drug effects , Salmonella enterica/genetics , Salmonella enterica/isolation & purification , beta-Lactamases/geneticsABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The evidence showing the ill health effects of prolonged sedentary behaviour (SB) is growing. Most studies of SB in older adults have relied on self-report measures of SB. However, SB is difficult for older adults to recall and objective measures that combine accelerometry with inclinometry are now available for more accurately assessing SB. The aim of this systematic review was to assess the validity and reliability of these accelerometers for the assessment of SB in older adults. METHODS: EMBASE, PubMed and EBSCOhost databases were searched for articles published up to December 13, 2017. Articles were eligible if they: a) described reliability, calibration or validation studies of SB measurement in healthy, community-dwelling individuals, b) were published in English, Portuguese or Spanish, and c) were published or in press as journal articles in peer-reviewed journals. RESULTS: The review identified 15 studies in 17 papers. Of the included studies, 11 assessed the ActiGraph accelerometer. Of these, three examined reliability only, seven (in eight papers) examined validity only and one (in two papers) examined both. The strongest evidence from the studies reviewed is from studies that assessed the validity of the ActiGraph. These studies indicate that analysis of the data using 60-s epochs and a vertical magnitude cut-point < 200 cpm or using 30- or 60-s epochs with a machine learning algorithm provides the most valid estimates of SB. Non-wear algorithms of 90+ consecutive zeros is also suggested for the ActiGraph. CONCLUSIONS: Few studies have examined the reliability and validity of accelerometers for measuring SB in older adults. Studies to date suggest that the criteria researchers use for classifying an epoch as sedentary instead of as non-wear time (e.g., the non-wear algorithm used) may need to be different for older adults than for younger adults. The required number of hours and days of wear for valid estimates of SB in older adults was not clear from studies to date. More older-adult-specific validation studies of accelerometers are needed, to inform future guidelines on the appropriate criteria to use for analysis of data from different accelerometer brands. TRIAL REGISTRATION: PROSPERO ID# CRD42017080754 registered December 12, 2017.
Subject(s)
Accelerometry/methods , Algorithms , Exercise , Sedentary Behavior , Actigraphy/methods , Aged , Female , Humans , Male , Mental Recall , Reproducibility of Results , Self Report , Wearable Electronic DevicesABSTRACT
We reviewed the taxonomic status of populations of frogs in the genus Hemiphractus in Panama, which have all been referred to Hemiphractus fasciatus Peters, 1862 for over 40 years. Although relatively few specimens have been collected, mostly juveniles, it is clear that these frogs inhabit three separate upland regions of the country: The Cordillera de Talamanca in western Panama, the Chagres Highlands and Cordillera de San Blas in central Panama, and the Serranía de Pirre in the far eastern portion of the country. In accordance with previously published molecular data, we identified distinctive features of the skulls of frogs representing these three allopatric populations and herein revalidate H. panamensis (Stejneger, 1917), describe the new species Hemiphractus elioti sp. nov. from the Cordillera de Talamanca, and the new species Hemiphractus kaylockae sp. nov. from the Serranía de Pirre. We also propose that the taxon H. fasciatus is a South American species not occurring in Panama.
Subject(s)
Anura , Phylogeny , Animals , PanamaABSTRACT
After rainfall or irrigation begins, surface-applied chemicals and manure-borne microorganisms typically enter the soil with infiltration until the soil saturates, after which time the chemicals and microbes are exported from the field in the overland flow. This process is viewed as a reason for the dependence of chemical export on the time between rainfall start and runoff initiation that has been documented for agricultural chemicals. The objective of this work was to observe and quantify such dependence for released from solid farmyard dairy manure in field conditions. Experiments were performed for 6 yr and consisted of manure application followed by an immediate simulated rainfall event and a second event 1 wk later. The nonlinearity of the release seen in laboratory and plot studies did not manifest itself in the field. The number of exported cells in runoff was proportional to rainfall depth after runoff initiation in each trial. The proportionality coefficient, termed export rate, demonstrated a strong dependence on the runoff delay time that could be approximated with the exponential decrease. The export rate decreased by one order of magnitude when the rainfall depth at runoff initiation increased from 18 to 42 mm. The same dependence could approximate data from the simulated rainfall event 1 wk after the manure application, assuming that the initial content in manure after 1 wk of weathering was 10% of the initial content. Overall, accounting for the dependence of manure-borne export on the runoff delay time should improve the accuracy of export predictions related to the assessment of agricultural practices on microbial water quality.
Subject(s)
Environmental Monitoring , Escherichia coli/growth & development , Soil Microbiology , Water Microbiology , Agriculture , Fertilizers , Manure , Rain , Water MovementsABSTRACT
Cysteamine is an endogenous aminothiol produced in mammalian cells as a consequence of coenzyme A metabolism through the activity of the vanin family of pantetheinase ectoenzymes. It is known to have a biological role in oxidative stress, inflammation, and cell migration. There have been several reports demonstrating anti-infective properties targeting viruses, bacteria, and even the malarial parasite. We and others have previously described broad-spectrum antimicrobial and antibiofilm activities of cysteamine. Here, we go further to demonstrate redox-dependent mechanisms of action for the compound and how its antimicrobial effects are, at least in part, due to undermining bacterial defenses against oxidative and nitrosative challenges. We demonstrate the therapeutic potentiation of antibiotic therapy against Pseudomonas aeruginosa in mouse models of infection. We also demonstrate potentiation of many different classes of antibiotics against a selection of priority antibiotic-resistant pathogens, including colistin (often considered an antibiotic of last resort), and we discuss how this endogenous antimicrobial component of innate immunity has a role in infectious disease that is beginning to be explored and is not yet fully understood.
Subject(s)
Cystamine/pharmacology , Cysteamine/pharmacology , Pseudomonas Infections/drug therapy , Pseudomonas aeruginosa/drug effects , Animals , Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology , Drug Resistance, Bacterial , Male , Mice , Microbial Sensitivity Tests , Pseudomonas Infections/microbiology , Reactive Nitrogen Species , Reactive Oxygen SpeciesABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE), including KPC-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae (KPC-Kpn), are an increasing threat to patient safety. OBJECTIVES: To use WGS to investigate the extent and complexity of carbapenemase gene dissemination in a controlled KPC outbreak. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Enterobacteriaceae with reduced ertapenem susceptibility recovered from rectal screening swabs/clinical samples, during a 3 month KPC outbreak (2013-14), were investigated for carbapenemase production, antimicrobial susceptibility, variable-number-tandem-repeat profile and WGS [short-read (Illumina), long-read (MinION)]. Short-read sequences were used for MLST and plasmid/Tn4401 fingerprinting, and long-read sequence assemblies for plasmid identification. Phylogenetic analysis used IQTree followed by ClonalFrameML, and outbreak transmission dynamics were inferred using SCOTTI. RESULTS: Twenty patients harboured KPC-positive isolates (6 infected, 14 colonized), and 23 distinct KPC-producing Enterobacteriaceae were identified. Four distinct KPC plasmids were characterized but of 20 KPC-Kpn (from six STs), 17 isolates shared a single pKpQIL-D2 KPC plasmid. All isolates had an identical transposon (Tn4401a), except one KPC-Kpn (ST661) with a single nucleotide variant. A sporadic case of KPC-Kpn (ST491) with Tn4401a-carrying pKpQIL-D2 plasmid was identified 10 months before the outbreak. This plasmid was later seen in two other species and other KPC-Kpn (ST14,ST661) including clonal spread of KPC-Kpn (ST661) from a symptomatic case to nine ward contacts. CONCLUSIONS: WGS of outbreak KPC isolates demonstrated blaKPC dissemination via horizontal transposition (Tn4401a), plasmid spread (pKpQIL-D2) and clonal spread (K. pneumoniae ST661). Despite rapid outbreak control, considerable dissemination of blaKPC still occurred among K. pneumoniae and other Enterobacteriaceae, emphasizing its high transmission potential and the need for enhanced control efforts.
Subject(s)
Bacterial Proteins/biosynthesis , Disease Outbreaks , Genome, Bacterial , Klebsiella Infections/epidemiology , Klebsiella Infections/microbiology , Klebsiella pneumoniae/enzymology , Klebsiella pneumoniae/genetics , beta-Lactamases/biosynthesis , Adult , Aged , Bacterial Proteins/genetics , Cross Infection/epidemiology , DNA, Bacterial/genetics , Disease Outbreaks/prevention & control , Enterobacteriaceae/genetics , Enterobacteriaceae/isolation & purification , Female , Gene Transfer, Horizontal , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Multilocus Sequence Typing , Phylogeny , Plasmids , Sequence Analysis, DNA , United Kingdom/epidemiology , Whole Genome Sequencing/methods , beta-Lactamases/geneticsABSTRACT
Parenteral routes of drug administration are often selected to optimize actual dose of drug delivered, assure high bioavailability, bypass first-pass metabolism or harsh gastrointestinal environments, as well as maximize the speed of onset. Intramuscular (IM) delivery can be preferred to intravenous delivery when initiating intravenous access is difficult or impossible. Drugs can be injected intramuscularly using a syringe or an automated delivery device (autoinjector). Investigation into the IM delivery dynamics of these methods may guide further improvements in the performance of injection technologies. Two porcine model studies were conducted to compare differences in dispersion of injectate volume for different methods of IM drug administration. The first study compared the differences in the degree of dispersion and uptake of injectate following the use of a manual syringe and an autoinjector. The second study compared the spatial spread of the injected formulation, or dispersion volume, and uptake of injectate following the use of five different autoinjectors (EpiPen(®) [0.3 mL], EpiPen(®) Jr [0.3 mL], Twinject(®) [0.15 mL, 0.3 mL], and Anapen(®) 300 [0.3 mL]) with varying needle length, needle gauge, and force applied to the plunger. In the first study, the autoinjector provided higher peak volumes of injectate, indicating a greater degree of dispersion, compared with manual syringe delivery. In the second study, EpiPen autoinjectors resulted in larger dispersion volumes and higher initial dispersion ratios, which decreased rapidly over time, suggesting a greater rate of uptake of injectate than the other autoinjectors. The differences in dispersion and uptake of injectate are likely the result of different functional characteristics of the delivery systems. Both studies demonstrate that the functional characteristics of the method for delivering IM injections impact the dispersion and uptake of the material injected, which could significantly affect the pharmacokinetics and, ultimately, the effectiveness of the drug.
Subject(s)
Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology , Bacterial Proteins/analysis , Chromatography, Affinity/methods , beta-Lactamases/analysis , Bacterial Proteins/biosynthesis , Bacterial Proteins/genetics , Bacterial Proteins/immunology , Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial , Escherichia coli Proteins , Gram-Negative Bacteria/classification , Gram-Negative Bacteria/drug effects , Gram-Negative Bacteria/enzymology , Gram-Negative Bacteria/genetics , Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections/diagnosis , Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections/microbiology , Microbial Sensitivity Tests , Sensitivity and Specificity , United Kingdom , beta-Lactamases/biosynthesis , beta-Lactamases/genetics , beta-Lactamases/immunologySubject(s)
Anti-Bacterial Agents/pharmacology , Bacterial Proteins/genetics , Cephalosporins/pharmacology , Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus/drug effects , Penicillin-Binding Proteins/genetics , beta-Lactam Resistance , Amino Acid Substitution , Animals , Humans , Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus/genetics , Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus/isolation & purification , Microbial Sensitivity Tests , Staphylococcal Infections/microbiology , United Kingdom , CeftarolineABSTRACT
The rainfall-induced release of pathogens and microbial indicators from land-applied manure and their subsequent removal with runoff and infiltration precedes the impairment of surface and groundwater resources. It has been assumed that rainfall intensity and changes in intensity during rainfall do not affect microbial removal when expressed as a function of rainfall depth. The objective of this work was to test this assumption by measuring the removal of Escherichia coli, enterococci, total coliforms, and chloride ion from dairy manure applied in soil boxes containing fescue, under 3, 6, and 9cmh(-1) of rainfall. Runoff and leachate were collected at increasing time intervals during rainfall, and post-rainfall soil samples were taken at 0, 2, 5, and 10cm depths. Three kinetic-based models were fitted to the data on manure-constituent removal with runoff. Rainfall intensity appeared to have positive effects on rainwater partitioning to runoff, and removal with this effluent type occurred in two stages. While rainfall intensity generally did not impact the parameters of runoff-removal models, it had significant, inverse effects on the numbers of bacteria remaining in soil after rainfall. As rainfall intensity and soil profile depth increased, the numbers of indicator bacteria tended to decrease. The cumulative removal of E. coli from manure exceeded that of enterococci, especially in the form of removal with infiltration. This work may be used to improve the parameterization of models for bacteria removal with runoff and to advance estimations of depths of bacteria removal with infiltration, both of which are critical to risk assessment of microbial fate and transport in the environment.
Subject(s)
Manure/microbiology , Poaceae/microbiology , Rain , Soil Microbiology , Bacteria , Enterococcus , Environmental Monitoring , Escherichia coli , Feces , Groundwater , Models, Theoretical , Water MovementsABSTRACT
On 12 June 2015, Corynebacterium diphtheriae was identified in a skin swab from a burns patient in Scotland. The isolate was confirmed to be genotypically and phenotypically toxigenic. Multilocus sequence typing of three patient isolates yielded sequence type ST 125. The patient was clinically well. We summarise findings of this case, and results of close contact identification and screening: 12 family and close contacts and 32 hospital staff have been found negative for C. diphtheriae.
Subject(s)
Burns/microbiology , Contact Tracing/methods , Corynebacterium Infections/diagnosis , Corynebacterium diphtheriae/isolation & purification , Diphtheria Toxin/metabolism , Burns/complications , Corynebacterium Infections/transmission , Corynebacterium diphtheriae/genetics , Diphtheria/diagnosis , Diphtheria/microbiology , Diphtheria/transmission , Female , Humans , Multilocus Sequence Typing , Scotland , Skin Diseases, Bacterial/diagnosis , Treatment Outcome , Young AdultABSTRACT
Microbial pathogens present a leading cause of impairment to rivers, bays, and estuaries in the United States, and agriculture is often viewed as the major contributor to such contamination. Microbial indicators and pathogens are released from land-applied animal manure during precipitation and irrigation events and are carried in overland and subsurface flow that can reach and contaminate surface waters and ground water used for human recreation and food production. Simulating the release and removal of manure-borne pathogens and indicator microorganisms is an essential component of microbial fate and transport modeling regarding food safety and water quality. Although microbial release controls the quantities of available pathogens and indicators that move toward human exposure, a literature review on this topic is lacking. This critical review on microbial release and subsequent removal from manure and animal waste application areas includes sections on microbial release processes and release-affecting factors, such as differences in the release of microbial species or groups; bacterial attachment in turbid suspensions; animal source; animal waste composition; waste aging; manure application method; manure treatment effect; rainfall intensity, duration, and energy; rainfall recurrence; dissolved salts and temperature; vegetation and soil; and spatial and temporal scale. Differences in microbial release from liquid and solid manures are illustrated, and the influential processes are discussed. Models used for simulating release and removal and current knowledge gaps are presented, and avenues for future research are suggested.