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A randomized controlled trial aimed at comparing the individual efficacy of cephalothin, cefoxitin, and metronidazole in the prevention of postoperative wound infection was performed among 74 colorectal surgical patients. Of 28 patients on cephalothin, seven (25 per cent) developed a postoperative infection, but among 23 patients in each of the other two groups, only one (4 per cent) in each group became infected. These results confirm the primary importance of anaerobes in the causation of postoperative sepsis after colorectal surgery.

A new technique is described for fermentation tests of anaerobes in which the fermentation reactions are carried out on cystine trypticase agar plates to which fermentable substances (Taxo discs) are added. This technique is simple, sensitive and reproducible.

Objective: To study epidemiology and possible risk factors associated with the development of cryptosporidiosis among European patients with AIDS. Methods: An inception cohort of 6548 patients with AIDS, consecutively diagnosed from 1979 to 1989, from 52 centres in 17 European countries was studied. Data on all AIDS defining events were collected retrospectively from patients' clinical records. Kaplan-Meier estimates, log rank tests and Cox proportional hazard models were used to examine for possible risk factors associated with cryptosporidiosis. Results: Cryptosporidiosis was diagnosed in 432 (6.6%) patients, 216 at time of the AIDS diagnosis and 216 during follow-up. The probability of being diagnosed with cryptosporidiosis at AIDS diagnosis was significantly lower for intravenous drug users (1.3%) than for homosexual men (4.1%) and for patients belonging to other transmission categories (4.0%) (p < 0.001). The probability was also higher for patients from Central Europe compared with patients from South Europe (4.1% versus 2.5%, p = 0.005). The rate of developing cryptosporidiosis after the diagnosis of AIDS was 3 per 100 patient years of follow-up. The rate was significantly lower for intravenous' drug users than for homosexual men (relative risk 0.34, 95% confidence limits 0.22-0.54) and for women compared with men (RR 0.43 (0.21-0.87)). The risk was higher in North Europe than in South and Central Europe. In a multivariate analysis only transmission category remained a significant predictor for the development of cryptosporidiosis. Conclusion: The development of cryptosporidiosis in AIDS patients may be associated with sexual risk behaviour.

Text mining (TM) techniques can extract high-quality information from big data through complex system architectures. However, these techniques are usually difficult to discover, install, and combine. Further, modern approaches to Science (e.g. Open Science) introduce new requirements to guarantee reproducibility, repeatability, and re-usability of methods and results as well as their longevity and sustainability. In this paper, we present a distributed system (NLPHub) that publishes and combines several state-of-the art text mining services for named entities, events, and keywords recognition. NLPHub makes the integrated methods compliant with Open Science requirements and manages heterogeneous access policies to the methods. In the paper, we assess the benefits and the performance of NLPHub on the I-CAB corpus.

Peripheral blood cells with the HNK-1 phenotype were studied in HIV infected patients of which 28 with Asymptomatic Infection (AI), 64 with Persistent Generalized Lymphoadenopathy (PGL), 9 with AIDS Related Complex (ARC), and 12 with AIDS. Eight normal subjects served as controls. Two-color immunofluorescence by flow cytometry analysis showed in all of them a significant increase of the mean percentage of HNK+T3- lymphocytes (greater than 20%) as compared to controls (6%). Only in AI the mean absolute count was significantly higher (776/cmm) than control's one (152/cmm). Percentages and absolute counts of HNK+T3- lymphocytes were similar to normal ones. In AI and PGL HNK+T3+ cells correlated directly with T8 lymphocytes and inversely with T4 cells and T4/T8 ratio. These results indirectly suggests that HNK+T3+ cells represent a subset of suppressor/cytotoxic lymphocytes. The results in ARC and AIDS were somewhat equivocal and deserve further study in larger samples. No correlation was found between HNK+T3+ and HNK+T3- cells. The expansion of HNK+T3+ cells was parallel to that one of T8 lymphocytes expressing CD8 antigen at high surface density which were previously reported as having cytotoxic activity. Follow-up studies of the HNK cell peripheral pattern will clarify if it can be regarded as an early predictor of clinical outcome.

The first epidemic of bluetongue (BT) to affect the three regions of Sardinia, Sicily and Calabria (Italy) in 2000 induced high economic losses caused by the disease itself and by the cessation of ruminant movements both within, and out of, the infected areas. In order to reduce virus circulation, and to create a resistant livestock population, the Italian Ministry of Health ruled, in May 2001, that all sheep, cattle, goats and water buffalo, in infected and in neighbouring regions, be vaccinated. The live-attenuated BTV-2 monovalent vaccine produced by Onderstepoort Biological Products in South Africa was to be used. Accordingly, in 2002, 98.6% of the sheep and goats, and 88.1% of the cattle, on Sardinia were vaccinated. Included was the vaccination of70% of the cattle in the province of Oristano where18,000 dairy cows in220 herds are concentrated in the municipality of Arborea (Oristano) and which account for 65-70% of the milk produced in Sardinia. Using data collected at the centralised dairy co-operative since 1999 the quantity and quality of milk produced before vaccination against bluetongue was compared to that produced after vaccination. The following variables were analysed: average milk production/cow/month, monthly average fat content (%), monthly average protein content (%), average monthly somatic cell count and average monthly platelet count. The findings indicate that vaccination against BTV-2 in Sardinian dairy cattle did not impact negatively upon milk quantity nor milk quality.

Intestinal microflora changes in ten adult and healthy subjects after storage of specimen with different modalities, temperatures and times were evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively. Aerobic components (Enterobacteriaceae, Enterococcus, Staphylococcus and Bacillus spp.) did not show considerable variations of concentration in all maintenance conditions. Anaerobic components showed different capacity of survival for every researched genus: Clostridia and Lactobacilli, even kept frozen for one month in glycerol broth at -70 degrees C, maintained a stable viable count; Bacteroides, Fusobacteria, Veillonellae and Peptostreptococci were found stable after one week, while after one month showed a loss of concentration superior to 4 Log; Eubacteria were found remarkably reduced after seven days and completely lost after one month.