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a culture of service...
March, 2012
© 2012, Hardy Diagnostics,
all rights reserved
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Now in a card format!
PYR made easy
H
ardy's new PYR is available on a simple-to-use test card. Simply moisten the area in the circle with water, inoculate the bacteria, add the developer. Total test time is only three minutes. Group A Strep and
Enterococcus
spp. will turn red. This test can also be used for other bacteria that are PYR positive, such as some species of coagulase-negative staph and some members of the
Enterobacteriaceae
group.
Find out more...
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Micro Tips...
Problem:
It's difficult to maintain the viability of a
Clostridium novyi
QC organism.
Solution:
We incubate our stock
Clostridium novyi
(the QC organism we use for our anaerobic bags) in an
anaerobic bag
. After there is good growth, we put the bag and stock plate in a drawer at room temperature. The
anaerobic indicator
is still white after a month and as long as six weeks. But, most important to us, we can still subculture and get reliable growth from
Clostridium novyi.
Submitted by:
Laura Smith
Marion General Hospital, Ohio
# # #
Do you have a tip that you would like to share with your fellow MicroBytes readers?
Click here
.
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Brainteasers
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HardyCHROM Carbapenemase
Hardy Diagnostics HardyCHROM Carbapenemase can be used to differentiate carbapenemase-producing strains of
Klebsiella, E. coli, Citrobacter, Enterobacter, Serratia, Salmonella, Pseudomonas,
and
Acinetobacter
based on colony color and morphology.
Request a sample pack...
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Phraseology
"
Stumped
"
Have you ever been
stumped before?
To be stumped is to have no clue and be at a total loss.
The origin of this phrase dates back to the American pioneer days, when land that had not been cleared properly would sometimes have a number of tree stumps in the middle of the field.
Anyone plowing the field would soon find their activities 'stumped' by the number of tenacious tree stumps getting in the way of the plow.
Most of us have never operated a plow before, but we have undoubtedly been stumped on numerous occasions.
~ ~ ~
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Think about it...
* If a penny costs 2.3 cents to make, why is it still only worth a penny?
* If fire fighters fight fire what do freedom fighters fight?
* If the Polish are called poles why aren't people from Holland called holes
?
* Life is sexually transmitted.
* Healthy is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
* * *
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Foot in
Mouth Disease...
"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."
~ Western Union
Internal memo, 1876.
* * *
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Wisdom to ponder...
Oscar Wilde
Irish writer and poet
Famous for his epigrams, he also wrote the play "The Importance of Being Earnest"
1854 ~ 1900
"True friends stab you in the front."
"A man who does not think for himself does not think at all."
"Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much."
"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between."
"An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all."
"As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter, she is perfectly satisfied."
"As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular."
"Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them."
"Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance."
"Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people, by the people, for the people."
"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught."
"Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching."
"Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes."
"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months."
"I can resist everything except temptation."
"I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying."
* * * * *
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A comment on congress...
"The less people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they'll sleep at night."
~
Otto von Bismarck
First chancellor of the German Empire (Prussia) from 1862 to 1890.
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QUICK LINKS...
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Want to receive the MicroBytes
Newsletter
at home?
CLICK HERE
Want to review past issues
of MicroBytes?
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Did you know?
Hardy Diagnostics...
-
Is celebrating its 32nd year of serving microbiologists.
-
Maintains eight distribution centers in the U.S. for faster turn around time to your lab.
-
Is
ISO 13485
certified for the manufacture of medical devices to give you confidence in our products.
-
Offers you its technical manual,
HUGO
, which contains over 4,500 pages of information regarding microbiology.
-
Maintains a worldwide network of over 40
distributors.
Send a
message to the president
.
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Micro Musings..
"Even more dangerous than crossing the road
is being undercooked."
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Anaerobic culturing made easy...
anaeroGRO
Grow anaerobes with confidence. Hardy's pre-reduced anaeroGRO plates are packaged in mylar pouches that are flushed with oxygen-free gas. As an added measure to keep the plates reduced, each pouch contains an oxygen scavenger. Our most popular product contains the three plates that are needed to set up a clinical specimen: Cat no. AG303 contains a Brucella with H&K plate, a PEA plate, and a BBE/LKV biplate.
Read more...
Try out a sample....
See all of Hardy's anaerobic supplies...
* * *
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STEC - Shiga Toxin-Producing E. coli
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Ribbon diagram of Shiga toxin type 2 (Stx-2)
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Facts about Shiga Toxin
An estimated 265,000 STEC (Shiga toxin-producing
E. coli
) infections occur each year in the United States.
The mode of transmission is usually food-borne or person-to-person. Transmission by water sources and animal contact is less common.
Food sources of
E. coli
O157 most commonly consist of beef, leafy vegetables, dairy, fruits and nuts. There is no predictable season.
The incidence of non-O157 strains is rising. Currently O157 STEC accounts for about 36% of cases, while non-O157 STEC is responsible for the remainder.
The most common non-O157 strains in America are O26, O103, O111, O145, O121, and O45. The USDA has banned the sale of ground beef and tenderized steaks containing any of the above organisms.
Last year's outbreak of
E. coli
O104:H4, which began in Germany, was linked to sprouts grown from contaminated fenugreek seeds. There were at least 50 fatalities among the 4,000 sickened. The incidence of HUS (Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome) was 22 percent.
About half of all positive stools will come from children less than 12 years old.
About 8% of those with an O157 infection will develop HUS, a life threatening condition marked by hemolytic anemia and renal failure.
Children from one to five years old are the most likely age group to develop HUS from a shiga toxin infection.
More than 25% of stool specimens positive for shiga toxin will not be bloody.
Onset of diarrhea usually takes place 3 to 4 days after exposure.
Infectious doses of O157 are thought to be from less than 100 organisms.
Antibiotic treatment is discouraged, since more severe symptoms can develop due to release of toxin. Therapy consists of volume expansion from IV fluids, which decreases the chance of HUS occurrence.
Antidiarrheals (like Immodium) can also increase the chance of HUS.
Hardy offers a rapid
latex agglutination kit
for
E. coli
O157 and a
chromogenic plate
.
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Rendition of
E. coli
showing numerous hair-like pili covering the cell wall and several whip-like flagella used for locomotion.
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# # #
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Seeing is Bel
ieving?
Which of the small outer circles best matches the small inner circle in the middle?
Caution: Schizophrenics will answer this question correctly more often than "normal" people.
See the answer.
~ ~ ~
"Believe half of what you see
and none of what you hear."
~ Marvin Gaye
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Take our MicroBytes survey...
Should the Government fund High-speed Rail?
The proposed bullet train from Southern California to Las Vegas.
On March 14th, the US Senate passed a bill that will provide $109 billion to improve rail transit infrastructure, which includes funding for high-speed rail. California is embarking on a $68 billion project to provide high-speed (220 mph) rail service from Anaheim to San Francisco. In addition, a $6.5 billion project is planned to take gamblers from Southern California to Las Vegas on a 150 mph train. Congress is being heavily lobbied to help fund these projects. Is this a good use of taxpayer dollars?
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View the survey results from last month...
Should the goal be made larger to increase soccer game scores
?
Obviously soccer is less popular in the United States than other countries of the world. The sport is sometimes accused of being boring due to its often low scoring games. The current size of the goal is 24 feet wide by 8 feet high. Would increasing the size of the goal make the game more exciting for American spectators?
Boy, did we ever hit a nerve here!
See
the very indignant comments...
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"
Real knowledge
is to know the extent
of one's ignorance."
."
Confucius
Chinese Philosopher
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"First you forget names, then you forget faces. Next you forget to pull your zipper up and finally, you forget to pull it down."
George Burns
American comedian that lived to be 100 years old.
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We're giving away one
free kindle
every month to those who "like us"!
Answer to giraffe illusion:
Look on the neck of the giraffe for the word "giraffe."
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