Silica is well known for its role as inducible defence mechanism countering herbivore attack, mainly through precipitation of opaline, biogenic silica (BSi) bodies (phytoliths) in plant epidermal tissues. Even though grazing strongly interacts with other element cycles, its impact on terrestrial silica cycling has never been thoroughly considered. Here, BSi content of ingested grass, hay and fa...

BACKGROUND The independent influence of blood culture testing and bloodstream infection (BSI) on hospital mortality is unclear. METHODS We included all adults treated in non-psychiatric services at our hospital between 2004 and 2011. We identified all blood cultures and their results to determine the independent association of blood culture testing and BSI on death in hospital using proportio...

Opportunistic infections, which affect acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (Aids) patients, are frequently disseminated and may cause bloodstream infections (BSI). The aim of this study was to evaluate the main causes of BSI in Aids patients with advanced stage of the disease, with special emphasis on the identification of fungemia. During a 21 months period, all patients with Aids (CD4 < 200) a...

Background and Methods: Previous studies identifying risk factors for catheter related blood stream infections (BSI) have relied on labor-intensive paper chart review. The electronic medical record (EMR) can provide real-time data for profiling patients at risk for BSI. Our study’s aim was to use our hospital EMR to identify risk factors and develop a clinical predictive model for catheter rela...

BACKGROUND To allow direct comparison of bloodstream infection (BSI) rates between hospitals for performance measurement, observed rates need to be risk adjusted according to the types of patients cared for by the hospital. However, attribute data on all individual patients are often unavailable and hospital-level risk adjustment needs to be done using indirect indicator variables of patient ca...

The biogenic silica (BSi) content of sediments has been used to infer past primary productivity in marine and lacustrine systems (Johnson et al., 2002; Verschuren et al., 2002). Biogenic silica is derived from the fossil remains of diatoms, sponge spicules, and plant phytoliths; however, diatoms make up the overwhelming source of BSi in most aquatic systems. Diatoms are important primary produc...

The influence of infection-control practices on bloodstream infection (BSI) risk was examined in a home health care setting in which three needleless devices were used consecutively. A case-control study and a retrospective cohort study were conducted. Risk factors for BSI included lower education level, younger age, having a central venous catheter (CVC) with multiple ports, or having a tunnel...

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) blood stream infection (BSI) is a major healthcare burden in some but not all healthcare settings, and it is associated with 10%-20% mortality. The introduction of mandatory reporting in England of MRSA BSI in 2001 was followed in 2004 by the setting of target reductions for all National Health Service hospitals. The original national target of...

Central Venous Catheters (CVC), widely used in Intensive Care Units (ICU) are important sources of bloodstream infections (BSI). This prospective cohort epidemiological analytical study, aimed to infer the incidence of BSI, the risk factors associated and evaluate the care actions related to the use of these catheters in seven ICU in the Federal District--Brasília, Brazil. From the 630 patients...

The femtosecond-pulsed laser processed black silicon (fs-bSi) features high absorptance in a wide spectral range but suffers from amount of induced damage as compared with bSi fabricated by other methods. Here, the aim is to minimize charge carrier recombination fs-bSi caused indicated sub-bandgap absorption and quantified lifetime, while maintaining above bandgap. effect parameters, including ...