Weingarten Realty Investors

About: Weingarten Realty Investors is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Mobile robot & Piston. The organization has 892 authors who have published 1284 publications receiving 12726 citations.

Performance of the New VITEK 2 GP Card for Identification of Medically Relevant Gram-Positive Cocci in a Routine Clinical Laboratory

Abstract: The VITEK 2 gram-positive (GP) identification card (bioMerieux, Marcy l'Etoile, France) has been redesigned to achieve greater accuracy in the identification of gram-positive cocci. A total of 43 biochemical tests, including 17 enzymatic tests, are present in the card and interpreted in a kinetic mode, for up to 8 h. The VITEK 2 database, used in conjunction with the GP identification card, allows the identification of 115 different taxa. A total of 364 strains of GP cocci (217 Streptococcaceae strains and 147 Micrococcaceae strains) belonging to 31 taxa were tested with the new VITEK 2 GP identification card. Of the 364 strains, 105 were taken from routine primary plating media. A total of 344 strains (94.5%) were correctly identified to the species level and 17 strains (4.7%) were identified with low discrimination, requiring additional tests, whereas 1 strain (0.3%) was incorrectly identified and 2 strains (0.5%) remained unidentified. Within 7 h of the start of incubation, more than 90% of all strains were identified. Of the 105 primary cultures, 97% were correctly identified to the species level, 2% were identified with low discrimination, and 1% remained unidentified. Identification performance data were independent of each of the three plating media used. It is concluded that the new VITEK 2 GP identification card provides reliable results for the identification of GP cocci under routine laboratory conditions.

Improving Tourist Arrival Prediction: A Big Data and Artificial Neural Network Approach

Abstract: Because of high fluctuations of tourism demand, accurate predictions of tourist arrivals are of high importance for tourism organizations. The study at hand presents an approach to enhance autoregr ...

Hydroponics system and method

Abstract: A hydroponics system for growing plants in an aqueous nutrient solution and including troughs for conducting a predetermined level of nutrient solution, is disclosed The solution is supplied to each trough by a branch pipe extending the length of the trough and including a plurality of outlets spaced at uniform intervals The nutrients are thereby dispersed relatively evenly along the length of the trough Each outlet has an associated aspirator or eductor whereby air is entrained by the solution issuing from the outlet thereby providing substantially uniform aeration of the nutrient solution Each plant is supported by a receptacle having an open bottom through which the plant stem extends The plant is held by resilient foam plastic inserts disposed between the plant stem and the receptacle wall