Candida spp. are among the most common nosocomial fungal pathogens and are notorious for their propensity toward biofilm formation. When growing on a medical device or mucosal surface, these organisms reside as communities embedded in a protective matrix, resisting host defenses. The host responds to Candida biofilm by depositing a variety of proteins that become incorporated into the biofilm m...

This paper discusses both risks and mitigation strategies for risks and threats associated with physical device interfaces. To this end, a brief discussion of the I/O architecture found in the Microsoft Windows operating system is followed by a review of several classes of attacks possible using only external devices attached to standard device interfaces of host computers. Based on this analys...

The international scientific literature reports no data on the prevalence and effectiveness of back protector devices (BPD). In Italy, no data have been collected on BPD because their use is not mandatory. To fill this gap, the National Institute of Health implemented a cross-sectional study in collaboration with the National Traffic Police.Accident cases were collected from 1 December 2011 to ...

A convenience survey of 702 certified pesticide applicators was conducted in three states to assess the use of 16 types of engineering controls and 13 types of personal protective equipment (PPE). Results showed that 8 out of 16 engineering devices were adopted by more than 50% of the respondents. The type of crop, size of agricultural operation, and the type of pesticide application equipment ...

Staphylococcus aureus is a leading cause of ventricular assist device-related infections. This study evaluated the protective effect against S. aureus infection of active and passive immunization that targeted 3 proteins involved in bacterial attachment to a murine intra-aortic polyurethane patch. Active immunization of mice with a combination of the A domains of clumping factor A (ClfA), fibro...

INTRODUCTION Mortality of severe acute respiratory distress syndrome in adults is still unacceptably high. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) could represent an important treatment option, if complications were reduced by new technical developments. METHODS Efficiency, side effects and outcome of treatment with a new miniaturized device for veno-venous extracorporeal gas transfer were...

In this paper, simultaneous placement of distributed generation, capacitor bank and protective devices are utilized to improve the efficiency of the distribution network. The objectives of the problem are reduction of active and reactive power losses, improvement of voltage profile and reliability indices and increasing distribution companies’ profit. The combination of firefly algorithm, parti...

Core temperature (Tc) output comparisons were analyzed from thermal models applicable to persons wearing protective clothing. The two models evaluated were the United States (US) Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine (USARIEM) heat strain experimental model and the United Kingdom (UK) Loughborough (LUT25) model. Data were derived from collaborative heat-acclimation studies conducted...

This study examined developmentally salient risk and protective factors of adolescent substance use assessed during early childhood and early adolescence using a sample of 310 low-income boys. Child problem behavior and proximal family risk and protective factors (i.e., parenting and maternal depression) during early childhood, as well as child and family factors and peer deviant behavior durin...