Cultures
The contents are organized by cultures and indexed at the paragraph level by HRAF anthropologists with unique subject identifier codes from the Outline of Cultural Materials (OCM), making it ideal for both exploratory, in-depth cultural research, and cross-cultural comparisons.
Cultures
The historic town of Samarkand is a crossroad and melting pot of the world's cultures. Founded in the 7th century B.C. as ancient Afrasiab, Samarkand had its most significant development in the Timurid period from the 14th to the 15th centuries. The major monuments include the Registan Mosque and madrasas, Bibi-Khanum Mosque, the Shakhi-Zinda compound and the Gur-Emir ensemble, as well as Ulugh-Beg's Observatory.
The historic town of Samarkand, located in a large oasis in the valley of the Zerafshan River, in the north-eastern region of Uzbekistan, is considered the crossroads of world cultures with a history of over two and a half millennia. Evidence of settlements in the region goes back to 1500 BC, with Samarkand having its most significant development in the Temurid period, from the 14th to the 15th centuries, when it was capital of the powerful Temurid realm.
"I have been making yogurt since the 70's, and this is one of the best cultures I have used. But, more importantly, when you have a question not answered on the company's comprehensive web site, their support is quick and helpful."
Little is known about how the genotypic and molecular abnormalities associated with epithelial cancers actually contribute to the histological phenotypes observed in tumours in vivo. 3D epithelial culture systems are a valuable tool for modelling cancer genes and pathways in a structurally appropriate context. Here, we review the important features of epithelial structures grown in 3D basement membrane cultures, and how such models have been used to investigate the mechanisms associated with tumour initiation and progression.
We aimed to study the effects of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on alloreactivity and effects of T-cell activation on human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) in vitro. MSCs were expanded from the bone marrow of healthy subjects. MSCs isolated from second to third passage were positive for CD166, CD105, CD44, CD29, SH-3 and SH-4, but negative for CD34 and CD45. MSCs cultured in osteogenic, adipogenic or chondrogenic media differentiated, respectively, into osteocytes, adipocytes or chondrocytes. MSC added to PBL cultures had various effects, ranging from slight inhibition to stimulation of DNA synthesis. The stimulation index (SI = (PBL + MSC)/PBL) varied between 0.2 and 7.3. The SI was not affected by the MSC dose or by the addition of allogeneic or autologous MSCs to the lymphocytes. Suppression of proliferative activity was observed in all experiments after the addition of 10,000-40,000 MSCs to mixed lymphocyte cultures (MLCs). Lymphocyte proliferation was 10-90%, compared with a control MLC run in parallel without MSCs. In contrast, the addition of fewer MSCs (10-1000 cells) led to a less consistent suppression or a marked lymphocyte proliferation in several experiments, ranging from 40 to 190% of the maximal lymphocyte proliferation in control MLCs. The ability to inhibit or stimulate T-cell alloresponses appeared to be independent of the major histocompatibility complex, as results were similar using 'third party' MSCs or MSCs that were autologous to the responder or stimulating PBLs. The strongest inhibitory effect was seen if MSCs were added at the beginning of the 6 day culture, and the effect declined if MSCs were added on day 3 or 5. Marked inhibitory effects of allogeneic and autologous MSCs (15,000) were also noted after mitogenic lymphocyte stimulation by phytohaemagglutinin (median lymphocyte proliferation of 30% of controls), Concanavalin A (56%) and protein A (65%). Little, if any, inhibition occurred after stimulation with pokeweed mitogen. Low numbers of MSCs (150 cells) were unable to inhibit mitogen-induced T-cell responses. MSCs have significant immune modulatory effects on MLCs and after mitogenic stimulation of PBL. High numbers of MSCs suppress alloreactive T cells, whereas very low numbers clearly stimulated lymphocyte proliferation in some experiments. The effect of a larger number of MSCs on MLCs seems more dependent on cell dose than histocompatibility and could result from an 'overload' of a stimulatory mechanism.
The Center for Early Cultures was formed in the spring of 2006 to highlight the strength of faculty teaching and research at UCI in the earlier centuries in many different cultures, as well as to provide an intellectual and social space for both faculty and graduate student scholars to interact and exchange ideas.The representation of earlier periods contributes in programmatically indispensable and intellectually rigorous ways to concerns with the present, and calls attention to the fundamental challenges that the past can pose to ways of thinking that often risk becoming all too familiar and congealed.Our mission is to help develop a complex narrative about cultures that crosses temporal and geographical as well as disciplinary boundaries by offering opportunities to develop collaborative projects both on- and off-campus, disseminating information about events, research and funding opportunities that are both local and connect us to colleagues at other institutions around the world working on similar issues.
Welcome to the Center for World Languages and Cultures (CWLC). We offer support to all language students at the University of Denver as well as services for the wider DU and Denver community. Our Center is dedicated to promoting intercultural learning, teaching and practice of the world's languages and cultures.
The white blood cell count is notoriously known to mislead clinicians and hence the clinical context and associated patient factors need to be considered. The presence of leukocytosis does not necessarily imply infection and nor does the absence of leukocytosis exclude it.10 Hence clinical scores such as the SIRS (Systemic inflammatory response syndrome) criteria are often used to help in assessing the need for blood cultures. Another set of clinical criteria that was coined by Shapiro et al knows as the Clinical Decision Rule, looks at variables that are categorized as major and minor and can be utilized when making the decision of whether or not to obtain a blood culture.11 As per the criteria, blood cultures should be obtained if there is one major or two minor criteria that are being met.11 See Figure 1.
Hence, the clinical scenario needs to be considered along with the recognizing the pretest probability when ordering blood cultures for patients.12 This will help to limit the number of blood cultures that are obtained and thereby lowering the associated cost of additional evaluation of the positive blood culture. The criteria developed by Shapiro et al. does not take into account leukopenia or hypothermia which the SIRS criteria does factor in. The presence of either of these in a patient with concern for an underlying infection or immunocompromised state should prompt the collection of blood cultures as well. The rule created by Shapiro et al is found to be highly sensitive but like the SIRS criteria has a low specificity.12 As no clinical criteria is infallible, a clinician has to use their own judgement when using such scoring systems to execute a decision.
At times blood cultures should be repeated after the initiation of antimicrobial therapy to ensure that the bacteremia is cleared of infection and subsequent blood cultures are negative. The table below summarizes some of the common indications for obtaining follow-up blood cultures. See Table 2.
If blood cultures become positive > 72 hours after collection, depending on the organism, then contamination should be considered.9 However, giving antibiotics before obtaining blood cultures can delay or prevent the growth of the bacteria and the growth of fastidious micro-organisms themselves should also be considered.9 Common fastidious organisms include Kingella, Eikenella, Cardiobacterium, species of Haemophilus.9
Recent decades have seen an increase in rate of contamination that has been attributed to drawing cultures through indwelling catheters, improved lab techniques to detect minuscule quantities of microorganisms, changing specimen collection techniques aimed at minimizing needlestick injuries.19 Additional cost incurred due to hospitalization, repeat blood cultures, therapy with IV antibiotics, imaging to evaluate the source not to mention emotional burden, waste of time and resources, add a significant financial burden to both the patient and the institution.
Factors that impact the possibility of a microorganism detected in blood being a contaminant include the cultured species, number of positive blood cultures obtained from different sources in a set, positive cultures in different sets, time to positivity, quantity to growth per culture sample. Positive blood cultures in a patient with clinical features of infection increases the likelihood of the blood culture being significant. Conversely, the rate of false positive blood culture increases in a patient with very low likelihood of bacteremia. Chang et al. found that in emergency departments with high volume of patients, those with critical illness, end-stage renal disease and the elderly were more likely to have blood culture contamination.20 They attributed these findings to the time restriction and urgency of obtaining blood cultures in critically ill, and potential for antimicrobial resistance in the skin commensal of ESRD and elderly patients.
Blood cultures are obtained from a peripheral vein and from the catheter/port simultaneously. If an identical organism grows from both sites, with the blood culture from the catheter/port turning positive > 2 hours prior to the peripheral blood culture then this usually indicates a catheter associated infection.21 041b061a72