Re-construction of a HPGe detector precise modeling for efficiency calibration.

High purity germanium (HPGe) detector is a preferred choice for determining the activity of the radioactive samples for nuclear diagnostics of Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) experiments. Although the amounts of the radiochemical sample are limited, activity measurement at a close distance between the detector window and the radioactive source is a feasible method. Efficiency calibration of gamma rays at a close distance from the surface of a HPGe detector is crucial. Considering the problem of the coincidence at a close distance, the alternative way is to construct a precise model of the HPGe detector and then to calculate efficiency accurately at an arbitrary distance from the surface of the HPGe detector using Monte Carlo method. In this paper, internal geometry and structure except for dead layers of the HPGe detector is obtained by X-ray radiography and 3D reconstruction. The optimal dead layers of the germanium crystal are determined by tracing the minimal sum squared residual (SSR) of gamma-ray efficiencies between calculations and measurements for standard planar sources. Nonhomogeneous distribution of the dead layer is supposed according to the inner structure on the Ge crystal. The final results show that the corrected model improves the accuracy of the calculated efficiencies.

Genomic Analysis Of A KPC-2-Producing Klebsiella Pneumoniae ST11 Outbreak From A Teaching Hospital In Shandong Province, China.

PURPOSE: Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC)-producing K. pneumoniae bacteria causes nosocomial infections worldwide. However, KPC-producing K. pneumoniae outbreak has never been reported in Shandong Province, China. The purpose of our study was to elucidate the epidemiological and drug resistance mechanisms of KPC-producing K. pneumoniae strains collected from a large teaching hospital in Shandong during the outbreak. Moreover, we attempted to characterize the genetic environment and phylogenetic analysis of bla KPC-2 in outbreak isolates. METHODS: We monitored a 64-day outbreak of infection in a general hospital in Shandong Province, and the bacteria causing the infection were all ST11-type K. pneumoniae. The genotype correlation of KPC-producing K. pneumoniae isolates was assessed by whole-genome sequencing (WGS) phylogenetic analysis. Subsequent studies included antibiotic susceptibility testing, multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and S1-pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (S1-PFGE), Southern blot hybridization. RESULTS: From February 1, 2018 to April 5, 2018, 14 KPC-producing K. pneumoniae isolates from different wards were collected. All 14 isolates were resistant to carbapenems and carried the extended-spectrum ß-lactamase (ESBL) gene as well as fosA, and sul genes. Whole-genome analysis showed that all 14 the outbreak isolates were all ST11 type. The bla KPC-2 carrying plasmids were all belong to IncFIIK2 type, and the size ranged from 94 kb to 368 kb. CONCLUSION: As far as we know, this report first describes the genomics characterization of KPC-2-producing K. pneumoniae outbreak isolates from Shandong Province, China. In our study, these isolates appeared to be cloned, and ST11 K. pneumoniae was the major clone caused the outbreak. Therefore, routine surveillance of such strains in this region is urgently warranted.

Contamination of Cronobacter spp. in Chinese Retail Spices.

Crononbacter spp. is an opportunistic foodborne pathogen that causes infections in neonates, infants, and immunocompromised adults. Although the contamination of spices with Cronobacter has been previously reported in some countries, there have been no studies on Cronobacter contamination in China. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the prevalence of Cronobacter spp. in Chinese retail spices. Fifty-six packaged Chinese spices were collected from different markets, and 32 of these were found to be contaminated with Cronobacter. Five species were identified from the 54 isolates of the 32 positive samples: Cronobacter sakazakii (n = 35), Cronobacter muytjensii (n = 8), Cronobacter malonaticus (n = 6), Cronobacter turicensis (n = 3), and Cronobacter dublinensis (n = 2). Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis demonstrated high genetic diversity, as 53 PFGE profiles were revealed for the 54 isolates. Multilocus sequence typing analysis revealed 46 sequence types, and of these, 26 were newly identified. Most of the isolates were sensitive to antibiotics (n = 15), with the exception of cefazolin. This study revealed that the contamination of Chinese retail spices by Cronobacter spp. poses a potential risk to the consumer.

Application of multiple-locus variable number tandem repeat analysis to identify outbreak-associated Neisseria meningitides serogroup C sequence type 4821 in China.

Neisseria meningitidis (N. meningitidis) serogroup C sequence type (ST)-4821 caused an outbreak in 2010 in Shandong province of China. Twenty-one non-outbreak-associated strains were isolated, along with twenty-eight N. meningitides serogroup C ST-4821 isolates. Therefore, it's essential to identify and clarify characterization of the real outbreak-associated strains with a rapid method during an outbreak investigation. In this study, multiple-locus variable number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) was applied to analyze 84 N. meningitidis strains, among which 58 were recovered from two outbreaks and 26 were sporadic isolates. Three MLVA schemes with different combination of VNTR loci were tested, and two of them were suitable for isolates from China: scheme 2 with six loci was found to separate ST into finer resolution, and scheme 3 with five loci can be used to identify outbreak-associated isolates from the same outbreak that caused by N. meningitidis serogroup C ST-4821.

The genotypic characterization of Cronobacter spp. isolated in China.

Cronobacter spp. (Enterobacter sakazakii) is an important pathogen contaminating powdered infant formula (PIF). To describe the genotypic diversity of Cronobacter isolated in China, we identified the isolates using fusA allele sequencing, and subtyped all of the isolates using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), multi-locus sequence typing (MLST), and multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA). A total of 105 isolates were identified, which included C. sakazakii (58 isolates), C. malonaticus (30 isolates), C. dublinensis (11 isolates), C. turicensis (5 isolates), and C. muytjensii (1 isolate). These isolates were showed to have 85 PFGE-patterns, 71 sequence types (STs), and 55 MLVA-patterns. Comparisons among the three molecular subtyping methods revealed that the PFGE method was the most distinguishable tool in identifying clusters of Cronobacter spp. through DNA fingerprinting, and MLST method came second. However, ESTR-1, ESTR-2, ESTR-3, and ESTR-4 were not effective loci for subtyping Cronobacter spp. such that the MLVA method requires further improvement.

The identification, typing, and antimicrobial susceptibility of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from mink with hemorrhagic pneumonia.

The biological characteristics and molecular epidemiology of Pseudomonas aeruginosa associated with mink hemorrhagic pneumonia from Shandong province of eastern China were determined in this study. From 2010 to 2011, 30 mink P. aeruginosa isolates were identified from lung, fecal and feed samples of clinical cases and subjected to serotyping, antimicrobial susceptibility testing and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) using SpeI. The P. aeruginosa isolates belonged to four serotypes-21 of type G, four of type I, three of type M, one of type B, and one non-typable strain. The strains were divided into four large groups as determined by PFGE. Isolates from the group 2 were highly homologous and were obtained from the same region as an epidemic. All of the isolates were sensitive to piperacillin, piperacillin/tazobactam, ceftazidime, cefepime, imipenem, amikacin, gentamicin and tobramycin and resistant to ampicillin, cefuroxime and cefuroxime axetil. A high frequency of resistance was found to ampicillin/sulbactam, cefazolin, cefotetan, ceftriaxone, nitrofurantoin, and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (96.7%). Resistance to ticarcillin/clavulanic acid, ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin was less common (13.3%). There was no relationship between antibiotic resistance and serotype distribution of the isolates. The epidemic serotype of P. aeruginosa from the mink hemorrhagic pneumonia in Shandong province was type G, which was a clone of commonly found in this province. These findings reveal the genetic similarities and antimicrobial susceptibility profiles of P. aeruginosa from clinical cases of mink hemorrhagic pneumonia and will facilitate the prevention and control of the disease in Shandong province of China.

[Contaminant levels and drug resistance analysis of Salmonella isolated from broiler production and processing course in Shandong Province in 2012].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the Salmonella contamination and its antibiotic resistance spectrum in the whole process of broiler hatching, cultivation, slaughtering, processing, distribution and retail in Shandong Province. METHODS: 2496 samples were collected from the chicken farms, hatching factory, breeding farm, slaughterhouse, large supermarkets and farmers' market in Jinan and Zibo City. All samples were tested according to GB 4789.4-2010 and the antimicrobial susceptibilities by the broth microdilution method. RESULTS: The positive rate of the hatching process was 2.39%, the breeding process was 12.67%, the slaughter process was 27.00%, the distribution and retail process was 22.72%. There were 32 serotypes, the Indiara and Enteritidis Salmorella accounted for 42.25% and 34.21% respectively. 95.91% of the Salmorella strains were resistant to at least one antibiotic, 71.37% of the strains were resistant to at least three antibiotics, 28.21% of the strains were resistant to at least ten antibiotics, 7 strains were resistant to fourteen antibiotics, all of them are Indiana Salmonella. CONCLUSION: In Jinan and Zibo City, it is seriously contaminated by various aspects of Salmonella in broiler production and processing. The contamination rate of slaughter and Salmonella distribution is higher than the links of hatching process and breeding. The situation of broiler Salmonella is becoming severe.

Evaluation and implementation of a membrane filter method for Cronobacter detection in drinking water.

A membrane filter (MF) method was evaluated for its suitability for qualitative and quantitative analyses of Cronobacter spp. in drinking water by pure strains of Cronobacter and non-Cronobacter, and samples spiked with chlorinated Cronobacter sakazakii ATCC 29544. The applicability was verified by the tests: for pure strains, the sensitivity and the specificity were both 100%; for spiked samples, the MF method recovered 82.8 ± 10.4% chlorinated ATCC 29544 cells. The MF method was also applied to screen Cronobacter spp. in drinking water samples from municipal water supplies on premises (MWSP) and small community water supplies on premises (SCWSP). The isolation rate of Cronobacter spp. from SCWSP samples was 31/114, which was significantly higher than that from MWSP samples which was 1/131. Besides, the study confirmed the possibility of using total coliform as an indicator of contamination level of Cronobacter spp. in drinking water, and the acquired correct positive rate was 96%.

Application of EMA-qPCR as a complementary tool for the detection and monitoring of Legionella in different water systems.

Legionella are prevalent in human-made water systems and cause legionellosis in humans. Conventional culturing and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques are not sufficiently accurate for the quantitative analysis of live Legionella bacteria in water samples because of the presence of viable but nonculturable cells and dead cells. Here, we report a rapid detection method for viable Legionella that combines ethidium monoazide (EMA) with quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) and apply this method to detect Legionella in a large number of water samples from different sources. Results yielded that samples treated with 5 µg/ml EMA for 10 min and subsequently exposed to light irradiation for 5 min were optimal for detecting Legionella. EMA treatment before qPCR could block the signal from approximately 4 log(10) of dead cells. When investigating environmental water samples, the percent-positive rate obtained by EMA-qPCR was significantly higher than conventional PCR and culture methods, and slightly lower than qPCR. The bacterial count of Legionella determined by EMA-qPCR were mostly greater than those determined by culture assays and lower than those determined by qPCR. Acceptable correlations were found between the EMA-qPCR and qPCR results for cooling towers, piped water and hot spring water samples (r = 0.849, P < 0.001) and also found between the EMA-qPCR and culture results for hot spring water samples (r = 0.698, P < 0.001). The results indicate that EMA-qPCR could be used as a complementary tool for the detection and monitoring of Legionella in water systems, especially in hot spring water samples.

[Simulation of the depth profile of tritium based on X-ray spectrum measurement].

Tritium is very important fusion materials,it has been broad applied both in military area and in civil area. It is very important to study the depth profile and composition of tritium in materials. This thesis establishes the whole simulation method for tritium b-ray induced X-ray spectrometry technique and researches the algorithm of X-ray spectra simulation, and the X-ray spectrum and the depth and composition of tritium based on simulation has been investigated to expose their relationships. The results show that there is a corresponding relationship between depth profile and X-ray spectra, and the results lay a foundation for further research on inverse problem.