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BackgroundCandidemia is increasing in frequency and is associated with high mortality. We sought to determine the burden of illness, the population it affects and its resistance profile in our region.MethodsThe Calgary Zone (CZ) provides all care for residents of Calgary and surrounding communities (~ 1.69 million) via five tertiary hospitals each served by a common single laboratory for acute care microbiology. All adult patients in the CZ with at least one Candida spp.-positive blood culture between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2018, were identified using microbiological data from Calgary Lab Services, the laboratory that processes > 95% of all blood culture samples in the CZ, were reviewed for the study.ResultsThe overall annual incidence of candidemia among individuals living in the CZ was 3.8 per 100,000 persons (Median age 61 years (IQR 48-72) and 221/455 (47.4%) were female). C. albicans was the most common species (50.6%), followed by C. glabrata, (24.0%). No other species accounted for more than 7% of cases. Overall mortality at 30, 90, and 365 days was 32.2, 40.1, and 48.1% respectively. Mortality rate did not differ by Candida species. Of individuals who developed candidemia, more than 50% died within the next year. No new resistance pattern has emerged in the most common Candida species in Calgary, Alberta.ConclusionsIn Calgary, Alberta, the incidence of candidemia has not increased in the last decade. C. albicans was the most common species and it remains susceptible to fluconazole.

Prostatitis is a common clinical syndrome classified into four categories: acute bacterial, chronic bacterial, chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome, and asymptomatic. Bacterial prostatitis (acute and chronic) is primarily diagnosed with history and microbiologic studies, although physical examination can be helpful to localize infection within the genitourinary system. Bacterial prostatitis is treated with antibiotics; the span of treatment is guided by the duration of symptoms and presence of complications. Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome is the most common form of prostatitis and is a diagnosis of exclusion with no standardized treatments. Asymptomatic prostatitis does not require treatment and is usually diagnosed incidentally during the workup for other urologic presentations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a case of a 69-year-old female who developed progressive facial symptoms following dental work, initially treated with corticosteroids and antibiotics. Topics include the diagnosis and management of post-dental procedure complications, particularly distinguishing between potential causes like giant cell arteritis and local anesthetic reactions, and the importance of timely, accurate diagnosis to prevent serious outcomes such as cranial nerve palsies and vision loss.

Although compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) have been in the market for a long time, many of them do not achieve the same power factor as the incandescent lamps do, which appears to be a significant problem for the utility with the current widespread use of CFLs for household lightings. A single-stage single-switch electronic ballast with active power factor correction is presented in this study for CFL applications. Unlike other single-switch ballast circuits, the presented integrated dual-boost converter circuit can produce a symmetric bipolar square-wave voltage, thus generating a near-pure high-frequency sinusoidal voltage on the lamp, which is beneficial to the CFL lifetime. Moreover, its soft-switching variant can achieve the ZVZC turn-on and ZV turn-off for the MOSFET to improve the conversion efficiency. Detailed operating principles and circuit analysis of the proposed circuit have been provided in this study. Simulation and experimental results on a prototype of a 15 W CFL validate the theoretical analysis and highlight the merits of the presented work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: Epidemic Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) plays an important role in cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease. A novel strain, the 'Prairie Epidemic Strain' (PES), has been identified in up to 30% of patients in Prairie-based Canadian CF centres.Objective: To determine the incidence, prevalence and long-term clinical impact of PES infection.Methods: A cohort of adults with CF was followed from 1980 to 2014 where bacteria isolated from clinical encounters were prospectively collected. Strain typing was performed using pulse-field gel electrophoresis and multilocus sequence typing. Patients were divided into one of four cohorts: no PA, transient PA, chronic PA with unique strains and chronic PES. Proportional Cox hazard and linear mixed models were used to assess for CF-associated respiratory death or transplantation, and rates of %FEV1 and body mass index (BMI) decline.Results: 274 patients (51.7% male) were analysed: 44--no PA, 29--transient PA, 137--unique PA, 64--PES. A total of 92 patients (33.6%) died or underwent lung transplantation (2423.0 patient-years). PES infection was associated with greater risk of respiratory death or lung transplant compared with the no PA group (aHR, 3.94 (95% CI 1.18 to 13.1); p=0.03) and unique PA group (aHR, 1.75 (95% CI 1.05 to 2.92) p=0.03). Rate of lung function decline (%FEV1 predicted) was greatest in the PES group (1.73%/year (95% CI 1.63% to 1.82%); p<0.001). BMI improved over time but at an attenuated rate in the PES group (p=0.001).Conclusions: Infection with PES was associated with increased patient morbidity through three decades and manifested in an increased risk of respiratory death and/or lung transplantation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study that examined the zero-field muon-spin relaxation in (yttrium[sub1-x] praseodymium[subx]) barium[sub2 copper[sub3] oxygen[suby]. Methods; Discussion of muon-spin relaxation; Conclusion.