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Inpatients with culture-positive diabetic foot infections are at elevated risk for subsequent invasive infection with the same causative organism. In outpatients with index diabetic foot ulcers, we found that wound culture positivity was independently associated with increased odds of 1-year admission for systemic infection when compared with culture-negative wounds.

New sustainable neighborhood developments are multiplying worldwide. Embedded in these model neighborhoods are not only particular ideas about better urban form, but also particular ideas about better organization of urban governance and development responsibilities, and how these guide social development and, ultimately, urban life. Numerous frameworks, certifications, and labels have emerged from a range of organizations and actors, intending to offer a level of predictability and certainty in what is included in a sustainable neighborhood, but the majority of these frameworks have yet to be implemented in more than a handful of cases. In this article, we consider two “second generation” ecourban neighborhood frameworks, the Living Community Challenge and EcoDistricts Protocol. We examine these frameworks in terms of seven principles of ecourbanism, and consider the potential of each to guide practice toward an extreme in any particular dimension, or toward an integrated approach. Next, building upon a conceptualization of the demand for intermediary organizations in managing transitions toward urban sustainability, we examine the emergence of these frameworks as they are playing or could play an intermediary or ‘backbone’ role, in building towards collective impact in the realm of ecourbanism. Intermediaries are necessary to advance the practice of transition because none of the key actor groups, while they are necessary and instrumental to bringing particular ecourban neighborhoods into being, are invested with any particular role, responsibility or power to spread the practice of ecourbanism more broadly.

In his essay, Daniel Sturgeon argues that while Barack Obama was a special candidate, he was no messiah. He was well organized, consistently on message, made few mistakes, and otherwise ran a solid campaign that will be studied for years to come., Dans son essai, Daniel Sturgeon démontre que si Barack Obama était bien un candidat spécial, il n'était pas un messie. Il était excellemment bien organisé, répétant un message invariable, a fait peu d'erreurs, et a également mené une campagne qui sera étudiée sur les années à venir.

Although often considered a strict human pathogen, Streptococcus pneumoniae has been reported to infect and cause pneumonia in horses, although the pathology appears restricted compared to that of human infections. Here we report on the molecular characterization of a group of S. pneumoniae isolates obtained from horses in England and Ireland. Despite being obtained from geographically distinct locations, the isolates were found to represent a tight clonal group, virtually identical to each other but genetically distinguishable from more than 120 divergent isolates of human S. pneumoniae . A comprehensive analysis of known pneumococcal virulence determinants was undertaken in an attempt to understand the pathogenicity of equine pneumococci. Surprisingly, equine isolates appear to lack activities associated with both the hemolytic cytotoxin pneumolysin, often considered a major virulence factor of pneumococci, and the major autolysin gene lytA , also considered an important virulence factor. In support of phenotypic data, molecular studies demonstrated a deletion of parts of the coding sequences of both lytA and ply genes in equine pneumococci. The implications of these findings for the evolution and pathogenicity of equine S. pneumoniae are discussed.