The deformations of neutrophils as they pass through the pulmonary microcirculation affect their transit time, their tendency to contact and interact with the endothelial surface, and potentially their degree of activation. Here we model the cell as a viscoelastic Maxwell material bounded by constant surface tension and simulate indentation experiments to quantify the effects of (N-formyl-L-methionyl-L-leucyl-L-phenylalanine (fMLP)-stimulation on its mechanical properties (elastic shear modulus and viscosity). We then simulate neutrophil transit through individual pulmonary capillary segments to determine the relative effects of capillary geometry and fMLP-stimulation on transit time. Indentation results indicate that neutrophil viscosity and shear modulus increase by factors of 3.4, for 10(-9) M fMLP, and 7.3, for 10(-6) M fMLP, over nonstimulated cell values, determined to be 30.8 Pa.s and 185 Pa, respectively. Capillary flow results indicate that capillary entrance radius of curvature has a significant effect on cell transit time, in addition to minimum capillary radius and neutrophil stimulation level. The relative effects of capillary geometry and fMLP on neutrophil transit time are presented as a simple dimensionless expression and their physiological significance is discussed.

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Serratia marcescens is an important opportunistic pathogen in hospitals, where quaternary ammonium compounds are often used for disinfection. The aim of this study is to elucidate the effect of a biocide on the emergence of biocide-and antibiotic-resistant mutants and to characterize the molecular mechanism of biocide resistance in Serratia marcescens. A quaternary ammonium compound-resistant strain, CRes01, was selected by exposing a wild-type strain of S. marcescens to cetylpyridinium chloride. The CRes01 cells exhibited 2-to 16-fold more resistance than the wild-type cells to biocides and antibiotics, including cetylpyridinium chloride, benzalkonium chloride, chlorhexidine gluconate, fluoroquinolones, tetracycline, and chloramphenicol, and showed increased susceptibilities to ␤-lactam antibiotics and N-dodecylpyridinium iodide. Mutant cells accumulated lower levels of norfloxacin than the parent cells in an energized state but not in a de-energized state, suggesting that the strain produced a multidrug efflux pump(s). To verify this assumption, we knocked out a putative efflux pump gene, sdeAB, in CRes01 and found that the knockout restored susceptibility to most quaternary ammonium compounds and antibiotics, to which the CRes01 strain showed resistance. On the basis of these and other results, we concluded that S. marcescens gains resistance to both biocides and antibiotics by expressing the SdeAB efflux pump upon exposure to cetylpyridinium chloride.

Abstract-Acquisition of detailed information on the velocity and pressure fields of the blood flow is essential to achieve accurate diagnosis or treatment for serious circulatory diseases such as aortic aneurysms. A possible way to obtain such information is integration of numerical simulation and color Doppler ultrasonography in the framework of a flow observer. This methodology, namely, Ultrasonic-Measurement-Integrated (UMI) Simulation, consists of the following processes. At each time step of numerical simulation, the difference between the measurable output signal and the signal indicated by numerical simulation is evaluated. Feedback signals are generated from the difference, and numerical simulation is updated applying the feedback signal to compensate for the difference. This paper deals with a numerical study on the fundamental characteristics of UMI simulation using a simple two-dimensional model problem for the blood flow in an aorta with an aneurysm. The effect of the number of feedback points and the feedback formula are investigated systematically. It is revealed that the result of UMI simulation in the feedback domain rapidly converges to the standard solution, even with usually inevitable incorrect upstream boundary conditions. Finally, an example of UMI simulation with feedback from real color Doppler measurement also shows a good agreement with measurement.

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