Category Archives: Cf

A deeper understanding of how bacteria likePseudomonas aeruginosaacts and survives in people despite antibiotic treatment was the focus of adoctoral thesis, along with a recommendation for antibiotic combinations that mightwork better those whats currently in use.

Thethesis, Host-pathogen interactions in Pseudomonas aeruginosa invasive and respiratory tract infection, is by Magnus Paulsson, who recently earned a doctor medical science fromLund University, Sweden. The work, at present, is not published.

Chronic lung infections caused by P. aeruginosa are major concerns for patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and for people using urinary catheters. In some cases, these infections are caused by forms of the bacteria that are highly resistant to antibiotic therapy, making them a challenge to treat.

We live longer, which also means that there are more people who live with various diseases, Paulsson saidin a press release. Therefore, infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and other bacteria that affect people with impaired immune systems have become more common.

According to the researcher, P. aeruginosaresists antibiotics due to the existence of bacterial vesicles small particles produced by these organisms that carry and spread several bacterial molecules. One such molecule is called beta-lactamase, which breaks down antibiotics.

Moreover, these spreading vesicles immune response to their presence. In fact, the vesicles protect their cargo and block the immune systems ability to destroy beta-lactamase. This way, P. aeruginosa protects itself and survives in the human body.

Paulsson also showedthat atreatment using two different types of antibiotics can reduce mortality up to five times, but the combination was not evident in the thesis available online. However, the choice of treatment was critical, [and] particularly choosing a combination-treatment including ciprofloxacin was beneficial, the researcherwrote.

Paulsson also studies the mechanisms by which P. aeruginosa settles in the lungs. He found that the bacterial vesicles promote the production of a protein called vitronectin, whose activity controls the immune system response. By exhibiting vitronectin at their surface, bacteria protect themselves against suchresponses.

The process was previously known, but our study is the first to show that this can happen in our lungs, Paulsson said.

Heis now focused on studying possible ways to stop bacterial infection using vaccines or other mechanisms to promote the activity of the immune system.

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How Certain Bacteria Resist Antibiotics to Become Virulent in CF and Other Diseases Focus of Thesis - Cystic Fibrosis News Today

2 Stocks to keep an eye on Today: Sprint Corporation (S), CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (CF) StockNewsJournal Sprint Corporation (NYSE:S) market capitalization at present is $33.24B at the rate of $8.13 a share. The firm's price-to-sales ratio was noted 0.97 in contrast with an overall industry average of 1.67. Most of the active traders and investors are keen ... and more »

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2 Stocks to keep an eye on Today: Sprint Corporation (S), CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (CF) - StockNewsJournal

Brian Stull , KSDK 11:55 AM. CDT July 08, 2017

Jun 20, 2017; Philadelphia, PA, USA; St. Louis Cardinals right fielder Stephen Piscotty (55) and center fielder Dexter Fowler (25) and left fielder Tommy Pham (28) celebrate a victory Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. (Photo: Bill Streicher, Bill Streicher)

ST. LOUIS - Showing he had not lost his timing at the plate, Dexter Fowler returned to the starting lineup for the St. Louis Cardinals and hit his 14th home run of the season in their 6-5 loss to the New York Mets tonight.

It felt better, said Fowler, who is not yet pain-free of the bone spur in his right heel. Not completely, but something I can withstand.

Defensively, Fowler was tested on a couple of line drives into the gap but Fowler also showed the ability to charge in and cover a good deal of ground.

At the plate, he hit third for the first time this season.

It doesnt matter, I take the same at-bats no matter where Im at, said Fowler of the third spot.

However, the same cannot be said about centerfield, as Fowler was direct when asked about a possible move to a corner spot.

Yeah, Im playing centerfield, he said. Thats where I came here to play.

Earlier in the day, Mike Matheny had shared Fowler would play centerfield at least through the All-Star break and the Cardinals would then re-group going into the second half regarding how they handle the position.

2017 KSDK-TV

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Fowlers plan to stay in CF - KSDK

CAF Confederation Cup

Teams: SuperSport United v CF Mounana

Date: 08 July 2017

Venue: Lucas Moripe Stadium

SuperSport United will be hoping to secure a spot in the CAF Confederation Cup knockout round when they host CF Mounana.

The match is scheduled to get underway at 15h30.

SuperSport suffered a set back in their pursuit of progression, after they played out a 0-0 draw with Horoya last weekend.

Matsatsantsa currently occupy third spot in Group D, while Horoya sit two points above the South Africans in second spot.

Victory for SuperSport will guarantee them a spot in the knockout round, as leaders TP Mazembe, who also have nine points, face Horoya.

Mounana, meanwhile, have had a campaign to forget as they lost all five of their group matches so far.

When these sides met in May, SuperSport claimed an emphatic 5-3 win in Gabon.

Here's how they line up:

Starting XI:Williams, Kekana, Daniels, Mashamaite, Modiba, Letsholonyane, Furman Phala, Mnyamane, Brockie, Grobler.

Subs: Pieterse, Bhasera, Alexander, Morton, Mokeona, Nkhatha .

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CAF Confederation Cup Starting XI: SuperSport United v CF ... - Soccer Laduma

Acomputer program created by physicians in Cincinnati may help cystic fibrosis (CF) patients to keep using those at-hometreatments they feel are most effective, by providing them an easy way of sharing their preferences and a giventherapys effectiveness with their doctors.

CF patients rely ona variety of home therapies, from medications such as dornase alfa, antibiotics, and hypertonic saline, to regularactivitieslikeexercise. Theyspend an average of 1 to 2 hours every day doing these therapies at home. Still, patients often find it difficult to do all of the therapies their doctors advise, and dont consider themall equallybeneficial to their health.

When therapies come up we discuss risks and benefits and I have a lot of patients say Yeah, but I am not doing that. They say, I dont like the drug, it makes me wheezy or Exercise, it takes too much time and doesnt really help me very much, Patricia Joseph, MD, director of the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Program at University of Cincinnati Medical Center, said in a press release.

Involving patients in decision-making regardingtherapiesis knownto increase treatment adherence. Therefore, the team developed a computerized, shared decision-making program to help patients prioritize thosetreatments they find to be both effective and preferable.

Researchers conducted a field study of theprogram in21 CF patients, ages 20 to 66, to determine its acceptability, understandability, and ease of use.

Participantswere questioned as to their treatmentgoals, and then asked to rate the importance of each goal. These goals ranged from avoidinglung infections, to breathing more easily, decreasing the amount of time that need be spent on treatment and lowering the cost of treatments, toimproving everyday life (functionality) and well-being. They also noted those treatments they considered most important.

Data regarding thesegoals and treatment preferences were thenput into a computational framework called Analytic Hierarchy Process, which assigns weight to both of these parameters and a score for each goal/treatment.

What this tool does that is different is that it takes their preferences and their personal experiences with the therapies along with their personal goals for care and integrates them to help prioritize their own home care plan, Joseph said. The tool gets their preferences and values and helps them prioritize their best home treatment plan.

Results showed that CF patients found the program easy to understand and enjoyed being a part of their own therapeutic regimen.

Priority scores for each parameter were calculated from 0 to 1. The most important treatment goal for patients was improving breathing function (0.27), followed by improving functionality (0.24), preventing lung infection (0.21), decreasing time spent with treatment (0.16), and lowering treatment costs (0.11).

Patients found the tool easy to understand and felt engaged as active participants in their care, said Mark Eckman, MD, the studys lead author, and the Posey Professor of Clinical Medicine at UC. The tool was responsive to variations in patient preferences.

The team hopes to beginclinical trials to determine the impact this shared-decision program can haveon doctors visits.

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Computer Program Helps CF Patients Tell Doctors Which At-home Therapies Work Best - Cystic Fibrosis News Today

WASHINGTON -- Nationals center fielder Michael A. Taylor left Washington's game against the Atlanta Braves in the top of the fourth inning Thursday night due to an undisclosed reason.

Taylor reached on a fielder's choice in the first inning and then grounded out to third in the third, but there was no apparent sign of an injury. The Nationals are one of the few major league teams that do not announce in-game injuries.

Taylor became the regular center fielder in late April when Adam Eaton strained his left knee when he hit the first base bag at Nationals Park in a weird way.

A Florida native, Taylor is hitting .278 with 12 homers, 35 RBIs and 10 steals. Brian Goodwin moved from left to center, and Ryan Raburn took over in left for the Nationals in the top of the fourth.

The start of the game was delayed 3 hours, 5 minutes by the threat of heavy rain that never materialized. A light rain fell before the start of the game, and Nationals Park took on a lot of water during a rainout Wednesday against the New York Mets.

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Nationals CF Taylor leaves game - Channel3000.com - WISC-TV3

WAVERLY Sometimes the smallest part of a baseball game becomes the biggest play to decide the winner.

Thursday night, the Waverly-Shell Rock coaching staff detected a small crack in the armor of Cedar Falls offense, and took advantage of an opportunity that helped knock off the Tigers in an exciting 5-4 non-conference victory.

The Go-Hawks had just rallied to take the lead, 5-4, in the bottom of the sixth, but the Tigers began a rally of their own in the seventh.

Senior Austin Marchesani reached base via a walk with one out, then surrendered his base to a pinch runner. One out later, a rundown began on a play at first, and the Tigers were suddenly done.

I have to give all the credit to coach (Jared) Pirkl on that call, Go-Hawks skipper Casey Klunder said. He noticed the kid leaning on the pitch before and call out for the pick-off. The play was perfect but we had to really work hard for that 21st out, because the ball exchange hands multiple times during the run down.

Six times to be exact with the final ball handler being Ryan Willis who applied the tag on the worn down runner.

Hats off to Ryan for taking charge there and calling for the ball, Klunder said. That play took like 15 minutes and it lasted way too long.

With the tag being the final out the Go-Hawks had plenty to celebrate. Not only did the victory give them a 22-8 mark, it also gave them the confidence they need going into the final two games of the regular season.

We have the utmost respect for Cedar Falls and their program, Klunder said. We always get up for this game because we are going against such a great program and coaching staff. It is always a fun game to play in, and tonight my hat goes off to Brady Leonard. He pitch a great game and had the game winning hit. I believe he is 3-1 right now, but we are 8-1 with him as a starter.

The hit came in the sixth inning with the Go-Hawks trailing 4-3.

Ryan Willis began the frame reaching base by an error, and Luke Willis advanced him with a walk.

Hunter Destival delivered a shot out to left field that scored Ryan Willis, putting Luke at third.

Leonard came to the plate and drove the ball deep enough to center field to plate Luke Willis with the eventual winning run.

I thought I could get one deep enough to score him (Luke), Leonard said. When I saw it go that deep I had no doubt he was going to score. I did not think that it would be the winning run, because CF was coming up to bat and they already had eight hits in the game. It wasnt over yet and anything can happen.

The Tigers (16-14-1) came up short with their rally, as the Go-Hawks (22-8) executed their pick-off chance to perfection.

I felt pretty confident in my abilities to throw and knew that Cedar Falls can hit the ball, added Leonard. I just went out with the mentality that I would throw my game and let my defense come up with the plays, and they came up with some big ones.

The Tigers missed their chances to add to their 4-3 lead in the fifth inning as Connor Schultz stroked a triple with two outs, but the bats failed to bring him across. Cedar Falls also stranded another runner in scoring position in the third.

This was kind of like a tune up game for us to get ready for next week, Tigers coach Nick Klein said. We did not do some things well, and we are not playing very good baseball right now.

The Tigers have hit a slump of sorts as they have dropped eight of their last 10 games.

Waverly is a good team and we just did not finish the game well, Klein said. We have to learn to finish these games to win.

Waverly-SR 5, Cedar Falls 4

Cedar Falls 001 300 04 8 1

Waverly-Shell Rock 003 002 x5 9 1

Bauer, Paxson (5) and Sole. Leonard and Destival. 3BSchultz (CF). 2BLittle (WSR).

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Prep baseball: WSR runs down CF - Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier

WASHINGTON -- Nationals center fielder Michael A. Taylor left Washington's game against the Atlanta Braves in the top of the fourth inning Thursday night due to an undisclosed reason.

Taylor reached on a fielder's choice in the first inning and then grounded out to third in the third, but there was no apparent sign of an injury. The Nationals are one of the few major league teams that do not announce in-game injuries.

Taylor became the regular center fielder in late April when Adam Eaton strained his left knee when he hit the first base bag at Nationals Park in a weird way.

A Florida native, Taylor is hitting .278 with 12 homers, 35 RBIs and 10 steals. Brian Goodwin moved from left to center, and Ryan Raburn took over in left for the Nationals in the top of the fourth.

The start of the game was delayed 3 hours, 5 minutes by the threat of heavy rain that never materialized. A light rain fell before the start of the game, and Nationals Park took on a lot of water during a rainout Wednesday against the New York Mets.

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Nationals CF Taylor leaves game - KXLY Spokane

CEDAR FALLS The Cedar Falls Municipal Band, directed by Dennis A. Downs, will present the seventh concert of its Marching Along! free summer concert series at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Overman Park.

Percussionists Matt Andreini, Barry Dvorak and Ryan Frost will be featured on a snare trio, Haskells Rascals.

The one-hour program will also include Poet and Peasant Overture by Suppe, Mancini Magic and Oliver medleys, and works by Sousa, Anderson and more.

A resident German Band led by Mark Welty will provide pre-show entertainment.

The Cedar Falls Rotary Club operates a concession, and there is free convenient parking, handicapped accessibility and restrooms. Concert-goers are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets for comfort.

Tax-deductible donations to support the band may be made to Friends of CF Band, P.O. Box 144, Cedar Falls 50613. For more information, go to http://www.cedarnet.org /cfband.

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Haskell's Rascals part of CF concert - Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier

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Pharmalittle: Three Merck trials are suspended; Vertex hikes CF drug price; Pfizer sells a unit for 30 cents - STAT