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ABSTRACTWe report the first case of cerebral abscess due to a novel species of Nocardiain a heart transplant patient and describe the antimicrobial susceptibility of this isolate. As our patient was intolerant to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, we also discuss alternative therapeutic options in brain abscess due to Nocardiasp.

ABSTRACTMatrix-associated laser desorption ionization–time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is a rapid and simple microbial identification method. Previous reports using the Biotyper system suggested that this technique requires a preliminary extraction step to identify Gram-positive rods (GPRs), a technical issue that may limit the routine use of this technique to identify pathogenic GPRs in the clinical setting. We tested the accuracy of the MALDI-TOF MS Andromas strategy to identify a set of 659 GPR isolates representing 16 bacterial genera and 72 species by the direct colony method. This bacterial collection included 40 C. diphtheriae, 13 C. pseudotuberculosis, 19 C. ulcerans, and 270 other Corynebacteriumisolates, 32 L. monocytogenesand 24 other Listeriaisolates, 46 Nocardia, 75 Actinomyces, 18 Actinobaculum, 11 Propionibacterium acnes, 18 Propionibacterium avidum, 30 Lactobacillus, 21 Bacillus, 2 Rhodococcus equi, 2 Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, and 38 other GPR isolates, all identified by reference techniques. Totals of 98.5% and 1.2% of non-ListeriaGPR isolates were identified to the species or genus level, respectively. Except for L. grayiisolates that were identified to the species level, all other Listeriaisolates were identified to the genus level because of highly similar spectra. These data demonstrate that rapid identification of pathogenic GPRs can be obtained without an extraction step by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry.

The 1T polytype of TaS2has been studied extensively as a strongly correlated system. As 1T-TaS2is thinned toward the 2D limit, its phase diagram shows significant deviations from that of the bulk material. Optoelectronic maps of ultrathin 1T-TaS2have indicated the presence of nonequilibrium charge density wave phases within the hysteresis region of the nearly commensurate (NC) to commensurate (C) transition. We perform scanning tunneling microscopy on exfoliated ultrathin flakes of 1T-TaS2within the NC-C hysteresis window, finding evidence that the observed nonequilibrium phases consist of intertwined, irregularly shaped NC-like and C-like domains. After applying lateral electrical signals to the sample, we image changes in the geometric arrangement of the different regions. We use a phase separation model to explore the relationship between electronic inhomogeneity present in ultrathin 1T-TaS2and its bulk resistivity. These results demonstrate the role of phase competition morphologies in determining the properties of 2D materials.

Livestock diversity contributes in many ways to human survival and well-being, while its loss reduces options for attaining sustainable agriculture and universal food security. The current rapid rate of loss of this diversity is the result of a number of underlying factors. While in some cases changes in production systems and consumer preferences reflect the natural evolution of developing economies and markets, in other cases production systems, breed choice and consumer preferences have been distorted by local, national and international policy. In the context of a widespread threat to local pig breeds in Vietnam, this paper identifies and quantifies the level of agricultural subsidies that are currently contributing to this process of breed substitution. Producer subsidies—which tend to improve the competitiveness of imported breeds and their crosses over local breeds—are shown to be considerable, and mitigating measures are now urgently needed to avoid an irreversible loss of livestock diversity.Livestock diversity contributes in many ways to human survival and well-being, while its loss reduces options for attaining sustainable agriculture and universal food security. The current rapid rate of loss of this diversity is the result of a number of underlying factors. While in some cases changes in production systems and consumer preferences reflect the natural evolution of developing economies and markets, in other cases production systems, breed choice and consumer preferences have been distorted by local, national and international policy. In the context of a widespread threat to local pig breeds in Vietnam, this paper identifies and quantifies the level of agricultural subsidies that are currently contributing to this process of breed substitution. Producer subsidies—which tend to improve the competitiveness of imported breeds and their crosses over local breeds—are shown to be considerable, and mitigating measures are now urgently needed to avoid an irreversible loss of livestock diversity.

Une culture d’échantillon clinique positive à une bactérie du genre Streptomyces,bacilles Gram-positif ramifiés de l’environnement, est difficile à interpréter. L’objectif de l’étude était de décrire l’épidémiologie microbiologique des souches de Streptomycesidentifiées dans des prélèvements cliniques en France et de décrire les caractéristiques cliniques des patients, en comparant infections invasives et contaminations/colonisations.

La solution orale de méthadone à 10mg/mL est le gold standarddans le traitement agoniste de la dépendance aux opioïdes (TAO). Avec la mise sur le marché suisse de la solution de lévométhadone à 5mg/mL, les risques d’erreurs et de confusion lors de la prescription, la préparation et l’administration semblent significatifs et son coût est élevé. Pour cela, une analyse économique ainsi qu’une analyse de risque des modes de défaillance (MD), de leurs effets et de leur criticité ont été réalisées au centre ambulatoire d’addictologie du CHUV et en psychiatrie générale.

Fock states are a fundamental resource for many quantum technologies such as quantum metrology. While much progress has been made in single-photon source technologies, preparing Fock states with a large photon number remains challenging. We present and analyze a bootstrapped approach for nondeterministically preparing large photon-number Fock states by iteratively fusing smaller Fock states on a beamsplitter. We show that by employing state recycling we are able to exponentially improve the preparation rate over conventional schemes, allowing the efficient preparation of large Fock states. The scheme requires single-photon sources, beamsplitters, number-resolved photodetectors, fast-feedforward, and an optical quantum memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]