Study design: A one-year epidemiological survey. Objective: To compare bacterial strains and antimicrobial susceptibilities of urinary isolates from hospital and community spinal cord injury (SCI) patients. Setting: A specialized SCI unit in a freestanding rehabilitation hospital. Methods: From June 2012 through May 2013, urine cultures were obtained from all of the newly admitted patients. Bacterial strains and antimicrobial susceptibilities were compared between patients from community and hospital settings. Results: The proportion of Enterobacteriaceae in the total urinary isolates from hospital-dwelling patients was smaller than that from community-dwelling patients (66.0 vs 85.5%, Po0.001), while the proportions of Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter and Enterococcus species were relatively larger (8.7%, 6.0% and 12.0% vs 2.8%, 0.7% and 2.8%, respectively, Po0.05). The isolates from hospitaldwelling patients showed lower susceptibility to ampicillin, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and all generations of cephalosporin (Po0.05), and a higher prevalence of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producers (41.7 vs 5.4%, Po0.001), compared with those from community-dwelling patients. The susceptibility rates to levofloxacin were lower than 50% in both community and hospital-dwelling patients. Conclusion: Broader-spectrum antibiotics should be considered in treating nosocomial urinary tract infection (UTI) of SCI patients because of the relatively wide variety of organisms and higher frequency of antibiotic-resistant strains, including ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae in hospital-derived specimens. Furthermore, in areas with high prevalence of fluoroquinolone resistance, fluoroquinolones should be used with caution during empirical treatment for UTI in SCI patients.

The high fraction of runaway current conversion following disruptions has an important effect on the first wall for next-generation tokamaks. Because of the potentially severe consequences of a large full current runaway beam on the first wall in an unmitigated disruption, runaway suppression is given a high priority. The behavior of runaway currents both in spontaneous disruptions and in D 2 massive gas injection (MGI) shutdown experiments is investigated in the KSTAR tokamak. The experiments in KSTAR show that the toroidal magnetic field threshold, B T > 2 T, for runaway generation is not absolute. A high fraction of runaway current conversion following spontaneous disruptions is observed at a much lower toroidal magnetic field of B T = 1.3 T. A dedicated fast valve for high-pressure gas injection with 39.7 bar is developed for the study of disruptions. A study of runaway current parameters shows that the conversion efficiency of pre-disruptive plasma currents into runaway current can reach over 80% both in spontaneous disruptions and in D 2 MGI shutdown experiments in KSTAR.