Oceanography using remote sensors Status report, 1 Sep. 1967 - 1 Jan. 1968

Aircraft and spacecraft remote sensing of oceanographic features and interpretation of photography taken during Apollo 501 missio

Valor medio de la distribución de espín a través de relaciones isoméricas

Fil:Capurro, Oscar A.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina

Diversity of multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii population in a major hospital in Kuwait

Acinetobacter baumannii is one of the most important opportunistic pathogens that causes serious health care associated complications in critically ill patients. In the current study we report on the diversity of the clinical multi-drug resistant (MDR) A. baumannii in Kuwait by molecular characterization. One hundred A. baumannii were isolated from one of the largest governmental hospitals in Kuwait. Following the identification of the isolates by molecular methods, the amplified blaOXA-51-like gene product of one isolate (KO-12) recovered from blood showed the insertion of the ISAba19 at position 379 in blaOXA-78. Of the 33 MDR isolates, 28 (85%) contained blaOXA-23, 2 (6%) blaOXA-24 and 6 (18%) blaPER-1 gene. We did not detect blaOXA-58, blaV IM, blaIMP, blaGES, blaV EB, and blaNDM genes in any of the tested isolates. In three blaPER-1 positive isolates the genetic environment of blaPER-1 consisted of two copies of ISPa12 (tnpiA1) surrounding the blaPER-1 gene on a highly stable plasmid of ca. 140-kb. Multilocus-sequence typing (MLST) analysis of the 33 A. baumannii isolates identified 20 different STs, of which six (ST-607, ST-608, ST-609, ST-610, ST-611, and ST-612) were novel. Emerging STs such as ST15 (identified for the first time in the Middle East), ST78 and ST25 were also detected. The predominant clonal complex was CC2. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and MLST defined the MDR isolates as multi-clonal with diverse lineages. Our results lead us to believe that A. baumannii is diverse in clonal origins and/or is undergoing clonal expansion continuously while multiple lineages of MDR A. baumannii circulate in hospital ward simultaneously

Suppression of a Field Population of Aedes aegypti in Brazil by Sustained Release of Transgenic Male Mosquitoes

The increasing burden of dengue, and the relative failure of traditional vector control programs highlight the need to develop new control methods. SIT using self-limiting genetic technology is one such promising method. A self-limiting strain of Aedes aegypti, OX513A, has already reached the stage of field evaluation. Sustained releases of OX513A Ae. aegypti males led to 80% suppression of a target wild Ae. aegypti population in the Cayman Islands in 2010. Here we describe sustained series of field releases of OX513A Ae. aegypti males in a suburb of Juazeiro, Bahia, Brazil. This study spanned over a year and reduced the local Ae. aegypti population by 95% (95% CI: 92.2%-97.5%) based on adult trap data and 81% (95% CI: 74.9-85.2%) based on ovitrap indices compared to the adjacent no-release control area. The mating competitiveness of the released males (0.031; 95% CI: 0.025-0.036) was similar to that estimated in the Cayman trials (0.059; 95% CI: 0.011-0.210), indicating that environmental and target-strain differences had little impact on the mating success of the OX513A males. We conclude that sustained release of OX513A males may be an effective and widely useful method for suppression of the key dengue vector Ae. aegypti. The observed level of suppression would likely be sufficient to prevent dengue epidemics in the locality tested and other areas with similar or lower transmission

Expansion of anti-AFP Th1 and Tc1 responses in hepatocellular carcinoma occur in different stages of disease

Copyright @ 2010 Cancer Research UK. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/.Background: α-Fetoprotein (AFP) is a tumour-associated antigen in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and is a target for immunotherapy. However, there is little information on the pattern of CD4 (Th1) and CD8 (Tc1) T-cell response to AFP in patients with HCC and their association with the clinical characteristics of patients. Methods: We therefore analysed CD4 and CD8 T-cell responses to a panel of AFP-derived peptides in a total of 31 HCC patients and 14 controls, using an intracellular cytokine assay for IFN-γ. Results: Anti-AFP Tc1 responses were detected in 28.5% of controls, as well as in 25% of HCC patients with Okuda I (early tumour stage) and in 31.6% of HCC patients with stage II or III (late tumour stages). An anti-AFP Th1 response was detected only in HCC patients (58.3% with Okuda stage I tumours and 15.8% with Okuda stage II or III tumours). Anti-AFP Th1 response was mainly detected in HCC patients who had normal or mildly elevated serum AFP concentrations (P=0.00188), whereas there was no significant difference between serum AFP concentrations in these patients and the presence of an anti-AFP Tc1 response. A Th1 response was detected in 44% of HCC patients with a Child–Pugh A score (early stage of cirrhosis), whereas this was detected in only 15% with a B or C score (late-stage cirrhosis). In contrast, a Tc1 response was detected in 17% of HCC patients with a Child–Pugh A score and in 46% with a B or C score. Conclusion: These results suggest that anti-AFP Th1 responses are more likely to be present in patients who are in an early stage of disease (for both tumour stage and liver cirrhosis), whereas anti-AFP Tc1 responses are more likely to be present in patients with late-stage liver cirrhosis. Therefore, these data provide valuable information for the design of vaccination strategies against HCC.Association for International Cancer Research and Polkemmet Fund, London Clinic

Lewis X antigen mediates adhesion of human breast carcinoma cells to activated endothelium. Possible involvement of the endothelial scavenger receptor C-Type lectin

Lewis x (Lex, CD15), also known as SSEA-1 (stage specific embryonic antigen-1), is a trisaccharide with the structure Galβ(1–4)Fucα(1–3)GlcNAc, which is expressed on glycoconjugates in human polymorphonuclear granulocytes and various tumors such as colon and breast carcinoma. We have investigated the role of Lex in the adhesion of MCF-7 human breast cancer cells and PMN to human umbilical endothelial cells (HUVEC) and the effects of two different anti-Lex mAbs (FC-2.15 and MCS-1) on this adhesion. We also analyzed the cytolysis of Lex+-cells induced by anti-Lex mAbs and complement when cells were adhered to the endothelium, and the effect of these antibodies on HUVEC. The results indicate that MCF-7 cells can bind to HUVEC, and that MCS-1 but not FC-2.15 mAb inhibit this interaction. Both mAbs can efficiently lyse MCF-7 cells bound to HUVEC in the presence of complement without damaging endothelial cells. We also found a Lex-dependent PMN interaction with HUVEC. Although both anti-Lex mAbs lysed PMN in suspension and adhered to HUVEC, PMN aggregation was only induced by mAb FC-2.15. Blotting studies revealed that the endothelial scavenger receptor C-type lectin (SRCL), which binds Lex-trisaccharide, interacts with specific glycoproteins of Mr␣∼␣28 kD and 10 kD from MCF-7 cells. The interaction between Lex+-cancer cells and vascular endothelium is a potential target for cancer treatment.Fil: Elola, Maria Teresa. Fundación Instituto Leloir; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Capurro, Mariana Isabel. University of Toronto; CanadáFil: Barrio, Maria Marcela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Fundación para la Investigación, Docencia y Prevención del Cáncer; ArgentinaFil: Coombs, Peter J.. Imperial College London; Reino UnidoFil: Taylor, Maureen E.. Imperial College London; Reino UnidoFil: Drickamer, Kurt. Imperial College London; Reino UnidoFil: Mordoh, Jose. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Fundación para la Investigación, Docencia y Prevención del Cáncer; Argentin

Development of an Affimer-antibody combined immunological diagnosis kit for glypican-3

Glypican-3 (GPC3) is a promising new marker for hepatocellular carcinoma, but the reported values for serum GPC3 differ markedly between currently available kits. Here we isolated Affimer non-antibody binding proteins against GPC3 by phage display and developed a new sandwich chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) combining an Affimer with a monoclonal antibody (Affimer-MAb CLIA). The proposed CLIA assay demonstrated a wide linear range  0.03–600 ng/mL) with a good linear correlation coefficient (0.9999), a high detection limitation (0.03 ng/mL) and specificity (0–0.002%) for detection of GPC3. The accuracy, hook effect and stability were demonstrated to be satisfactory. The mean level of GPC3 in serum was higher (>8.5 fold, P < 0.001) in hepatocellular carcinoma patients compared to healthy and other liver disease individuals. A poor correlation (correlation coefficients ranged from −0.286 to 0.478) was observed through pairwise comparison within different kits. However, only this newly developed CLIA test showed high specificity and correlated with the “gold standard” GPC3-immunohistochemistry. This study indicates that Affimer-MAb CLIA can be used to generate a sensitive immunodiagnostic kit, which offers the potential for a highly specific clinically-relevant detection system

Secado de forraje con el horno microondas: efecto sobre el an\ue1lisis de calidad

The objectives were to utilize a microwave oven (HM) to determine dry matter (MS) and evaluate its effect on dry matter (MS), organic matter content (MO), in vitro organic matter digestibility (DIVMO), brute protein (PB), acid detergent fiber (FDA), and acid-detergent insoluble nitrogen (NIDA). We utilized the forage species: Medicago sativa L., Trifolium repens L., Trifolium pratense L. and Thinopyrum ponticum Barkw. &amp; D.R. Dewey, and mixtures of: M. sativa-Dactylis glomerata L., Festuca arundinacea Schreb.-T.repens-D. glomerata, and Lolium perenne L.-T. repens. The experimental design was a factorial complete randomized block. We compared drying time (Ts) and quality parameters on stove method (T1), HM at 900 W (T2), and HM at 900 and 400 W (T3), by ANDEVA and Duncan Test (p 64 0,05). In T2 and T3, Ts ranged from 6 to 8 min (T. pratense and Th. ponticum, respectively), compared to 48 h for T1. The MS value did not show differences between treatments for M. sativa, T. pratense, M. sativa-D. glomerata, and L. perenne-T. repens, but there were differences for the other forages between T2 or T3 with T1, which could be explained by the forages phenological stage. Differences between treatments were found for FDA (T. repens), DIVMO and PB (Th. ponticum), and PB and MO (L. perenne-T. repens). The use of the microwave oven allows a quick and consistent MS determination, along with a reliable forage quality standard evaluation.Los objetivos de este experimento fueron utilizar el horno microondas (HM) para determinar materia seca (MS) y evaluar su efecto sobre el valor de materia org\ue1nica (MO), digestibilidad in vitro de la MO (DIVMO), prote\uedna bruta (PB), fibra detergente \ue1cido (FDA) y nitr\uf3geno insoluble en detergente \ue1cido (NIDA). Se utilizaron forrajes puros: Medicago sativa L., Trifolium repens L., Trifolium pratense L. y Thinopyrum ponticum Barkw. &amp; Dewey, y en mezclas: M. sativa-Dactylis glomerata L., Festuca arundinacea Schreb.-T. repens-D. glomerata, y Lolium perenne L.-T. repens. El dise\ue3o experimental usado fue bloques completamente aleatorizados con arreglo factorial de tratamientos. Se compar\uf3 el tiempo de secado (Ts) y los par\ue1metros de calidad entre: Estufa (T1), HM a 900 W (T2), y HM a 900 y 400 W (T3), mediante ANDEVA y Test de Duncan (p 64 0,05). Para T2 y T3, Ts vari\uf3 entre 6 a 8 min (T. pratense y Th. ponticum respectivamente), siendo en T1, 48 h. La MS no difiri\uf3 entre tratamientos para M. sativa, T. pratense, M. sativa-D. glomerata y L. perenne-T. repens, pero si en el resto de los forrajes entre T2 \uf3 T3 con T1; esto se podr\ueda asociar al estado fenol\uf3gico del material forrajero al momento del corte. Respecto a los par\ue1metros de calidad evaluados se observaron diferencias en FDA en T. repens, DIVMO y PB en Th. ponticum, y PB y MO en L. perenne-T. repens. El uso del HM permite obtener r\ue1pida y confiablemente la MS del forraje sin modificar sustancialmente sus par\ue1metros de calidad