INTRODUCTION Imaging of heel enthesopathy in spondyloarthritis (SpA) could potentially be useful for diagnosis and monitoring. The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic capacities of MRI and power Doppler ultrasonography (PDUS) of the heel to distinguish patients with SpA from controls and to distinguish between patients with SpA with and without enthesopathy. METHODS A cross-section...

BACKGROUND Our aim was to determine and characterize S. aureus (SA) isolated from infections in newborns for antibiotic resistance, virulence factors, genotypes, epidemiology and antibiotic consumption. METHODS Prospective surveillance of infections was conducted. Data about antibiotic treatment were analyzed. Antimicrobial susceptibility was assessed. PCR amplification was used to detect res...

Background: The emergence of community-acquired Staphylococcus aureus infections is increasingly recognized as life threating problem worldwide. In Manhiça district, southern Mozambique, S. aureus is the leading cause of community-acquired bacteremia in neonates. Methods: Eighty-four S. aureus isolates from children less than 5 years admitted to Manhiça District Hospital from 2001 to 2009 were ...

Spa-typing and microarray techniques were used to study epidemiological changes in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in South-East Austria. The population structure of 327 MRSA isolated between 2002 and 2012 was investigated. MRSA was assigned to 58 different spa types and 14 different MLST CC (multilocus sequence type clonal complexes); in particular, between 2007 and 2012, an...

Our purpose was to determine whether smooth muscle cell membrane properties are altered in small pulmonary arteries (SPA) of piglets at an early stage of pulmonary hypertension. Piglets were raised in either room air (control) or hypoxia for 3 days. A microelectrode technique was used to measure smooth muscle cell membrane potential (E(m)) in cannulated, pressurized SPA (100- to 300-microm diam...

Spastic (spa), spasmodic (spd), and oscillator (ot) mice have naturally occurring glycine receptor (GlyR) mutations, which manifest as motor deficits and an exaggerated "startle response." Using whole-cell recording in hypoglossal motoneurons, we compared the physiological mechanisms by which each mutation alters GlyR function. Mean glycinergic miniature IPSC (mIPSC) amplitude and frequency wer...

Software Process Assessment (SPA) is an effective method used to understand organizations’ software processquality. Assessment methods are tools used to identify the possible software process improvement opportunities. This paper studies the design process of the SPA methods from an engineering viewpoint and uses Vincenti’s classifications of engineering design knowledge as an analytical tool. ...

The mixture of Synthetic Petroleum Acids (SPA) and oxyacids (OSPA) have been synthesized on the basis of naphthenic-paraffinic hydrocarbons separated from 217-349°C fractions of Azerbaijan oils in the presence of the salts of Natural Petroleum Acids (NPA). The acid number of the obtained (SPA+OSPA) was 165 mgKOH/g, the yield was 40%. Imidazoline derivatives have been synthesized based on the mi...

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of addition of sodium polyacrylate (SPA) to a phytasesupplemented diet on the performance and phosphorus (P) retention of chicks. In experiment 1, chicks were randomly allocated to four dietary treatments which were fed from 7 to 21 days of age: i) basal diet (low nonphytate phosphorus (0.23% NPP)); ii) basal with 250 U/kg diet of phytase; ...

Protein A of Staphylococcus aureus is a pathogenic factor whose encoding gene, spa, shows a variation in length in different strains. In this study the spa gene variation in S. aureus isolated from healthy carriers and patients was studied, We also compared this variation among MRSA with MSSA strains. 208 strains of Staphylococcus aureus which we were isolated from Gorgan, north of Iran were st...