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OAK, a phase III advanced non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) trial, compared the investigational drug atezolizumab with the standard chemotherapy agent docetaxel. The patient-reported outcomes data revealed that atezolizumab prolonged the time to the worsening of disease-related symptoms, such as chest pain, and maintained patients’ health-related quality of life. These data further support the use of atezolizumab in the treatment of advanced NSCLC. Background: The randomized phase III OAK (a study of atezolizumab compared with docetaxel in participants with locally advanced or metastatic non–small-cell lung cancer [NSCLC] who have failed platinum-containing therapy) trial investigated the anti–programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) antibody atezolizumab for advanced or metastatic, previously treated, NSCLC. Atezolizumab significantly improved overall survival (OS) compared with docetaxel (hazard ratio [HR], 0.73; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.62-0.87; P =.0003; median OS, 13.8 vs. 9.6 months, respectively). Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) were collected to evaluate disease-related symptoms and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) to support the finding of a survival benefit. Patients and Methods: The first 850 patients were randomized to receive atezolizumab (1200 mg every 3 weeks) or docetaxel (75 mg/m 2 every 3 weeks). PROs were collected on day 1 of cycle 1, day 1 of every subsequent cycle, and at the end-of-treatment visit for patients who completed ≥ 1 baseline and 1 postbaseline PRO assessment. The European Organisation for the Research and Treatment of Cancer QoL questionnaire and lung cancer module were used to assess PROs. Results: Atezolizumab delayed the time to deterioration (TTD) in physical function (HR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.58-0.98) and role function (HR, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.62-1.00) and numerically improved patients’ HRQoL from baseline compared with docetaxel. Atezolizumab also prolonged the TTD in chest pain (HR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.49-1.05; P =.0823), al

© 2020 Bernard J. Hudson et al. We describe three cases of osteoarticular infection (OAI) in young thoroughbred horses in which the causative organism was identified by MALDI-TOF as Kingella species. The pattern of OAI resembled that reported with Kingella infection in humans. Analysis by 16S rRNA PCR enabled construction of a phylogenetic tree that placed the isolates closer to Simonsiella and Alysiella species, rather than Kingella species. Average nucleotide identity (ANI) comparison between the new isolate and Kingella kingae and Alysiella crassa however revealed low probability that the new isolate belonged to either of these species. This preliminary analysis suggests the organism isolated is a previously unrecognised species.

© 2016 The Authors. Pseudomonas aeruginosa are noscomially acquired, opportunistic pathogens that pose a major threat to the health of burns patients and the immunocompromised. We sequenced the genomes of P. aeruginosa isolates RNS-PA1, RNS-PA46 and RNS-PAE05, which displayed resistance to almost all frontline antibiotics, including gentamicin, piperacillin, timentin, meropenem, ceftazidime and Colistin. We provide evidence that the isolates are representatives of P. aeruginosa sequence type (ST) 235 and carry Tn6162 and Tn6163 in genomic islands 1 (GI1) and 2 (GI2), respectively. Gil disrupts the endA gene at precisely the same chromosomal location as in P. aeruginosa strain VR-143/97, of unknown ST, creating an identical CA direct repeat. The class 1 integron associated with Tn6163 in GI2 carries a blaGES-5-aacA4-gcuE15-aphA15 cassette array conferring resistance to carbapenems and aminoglycosides. GI2 is flanked by a 12 nt direct repeat motif, abuts a tRNA-gly gene, and encodes proteins with putative roles in integration, conjugative transfer as well as integrative conjugative element-specific proteins. This suggests that GI2 may have evolved from a novel integrative conjugative element. Our data provide further support to the hypothesis that genomic islands play an important role in de novo evolution of multiple antibiotic resistance phenotypes in P. aeruginosa.

We consider the problem of delivering information streams to interested mobile users, leveraging both access to the infrastructure and device-to-device data transfers. The goal is to design practical relaying algorithms that aim at optimizing a global system objective that accounts for two important aspects: first, the user interest in content with respect to its type and delivery time; and, second, resource constraints such as storage and transmission costs. We first examine a set of real-world datasets reporting contacts between users moving in relatively restricted geographic areas (e.g. a city). These datasets provide evidence that significant performance gains can be achieved by extending the information dissemination from one to two hops, and that using longer paths only brings marginal benefits. We also show that correlation of delays through different paths is typically significant, thus asking for system design that would allow for general user mobility. We then propose a class of relaying strategies (referred to as SCOOP) that aim at optimizing a global system objective, are fully decentralized, require only locally observable states by individual devices, and allow for general user mobility. These properties characterize a practical scheme whose efficiency is evaluated using real-world mobility traces., QC 20140910

As more technologies enter the home, householders are burdened with the task of digital housekeeping-managing and sharing digital resources like bandwidth. In response to this, we created and evaluated a domestic tool for bandwidth management called Home Watcher. Our field trial showed that when resource contention amongst different household members is made visible, people's understanding of bandwidth changes and household politics are revealed. In this paper, we describe the consequences of showing real time resource usage in a home, and how this varies depending on the social make up of the household. © 2010 ACM.

Medical virology