2,390 research outputs found
Growth in fossil and extant deer and implications for body size and life history evolution
© Kolb et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The attached file is the published version of the article
Genetic characterization of wild-type measles viruses circulating in suburban Khartoum, 1997-2000
Genetic characterization of wild-type measles viruses circulating in suburban Khartoum, 1997-2000
Prevention of severe infectious complications after colorectal surgery using preoperative orally administered antibiotic prophylaxis (PreCaution): Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial
Congenital hepatic fibrosis leading to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma: a case report
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Congenital hepatic fibrosis is an uncommon cause of portal hypertension. Despite the presence of portal hypertension, hepatocellular and renal function are usually well preserved. Congenital hepatic fibrosis is included in the group of congenital diseases of fibropolycystic disorders. These include a broad spectrum of clinical diseases which are usually accompanied by hepatic involvement.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report the case of a 27-year-old Iranian woman with congenital hepatic fibrosis leading to cirrhosis and subsequently hepatocellular carcinoma.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Advanced cirrhosis was diagnosed and our patient was scheduled for liver transplantation. During preparation for transplant, a hepatic mass was discovered which was found to be hepatocellular carcinoma. Radiofrequency ablation was performed and our patient was referred for transplantation.</p
E-cadherin and loss of heterozygosity at chromosome 16 in breast carcinogenesis: different genetic pathways in ductal and lobular breast cancer?
Loss of heterozygosity at the long arm of chromosome 16 is one of the most frequent genetic events in breast cancer. In the search for tumour suppressor genes that are the target of loss of heterozygosity at 16q, the E-cadherin gene CDH1 was unveiled by the identification of truncating mutations in the retained copy. However, only lobular tumours showed E-cadherin mutations. Whereas investigations are still devoted to finding the target genes in the more frequent ductal breast cancers, other studies suspect the E-cadherin gene to also be the target in this tumour type. The present article discusses the plausibility of those two lines of thought
Crystal structure of the HGF β-chain in complex with the Sema domain of the Met receptor
Aortic root dimension changes during systole and diastole: evaluation with ECG-gated multidetector row computed tomography
Cardiac pulsatility and aortic compliance may result in aortic area and diameter changes throughout the cardiac cycle in the entire aorta. Until this moment these dynamic changes could never be established in the aortic root (aortic annulus, sinuses of Valsalva and sinotubular junction). The aim of this study was to visualize and characterize the changes in aortic root dimensions during systole and diastole with ECG-gated multidetector row computed tomography (MDCT). MDCT scans of subjects without aortic root disease were analyzed. Retrospectively, ECG-gated reconstructions at each 10% of the cardiac cycle were made and analyzed during systole (30–40%) and diastole (70–75%). Axial planes were reconstructed at three different levels of the aortic root. At each level the maximal and its perpendicular luminal dimension were measured. The mean dimensions of the total study group (n = 108, mean age 56 ± 13 years) do not show any significant difference between systole and diastole. The individual dimensions vary up to 5 mm. However, the differences range between minus 5 mm (diastolic dimension is greater than systolic dimensions) and 5 mm (vice versa). This variability is independent of gender, age, height and weight. This study demonstrated a significant individual dynamic change in the dimensions of the aortic root. These results are highly unpredictable. Most of the healthy subjects have larger systolic dimensions, however, some do have larger diastolic dimensions
Vaccination against Bm86 Homologues in Rabbits Does Not Impair Ixodes ricinus Feeding or Oviposition
Human tick-borne diseases that are transmitted by Ixodes ricinus, such as Lyme
borreliosis and tick borne encephalitis, are on the rise in Europe.
Diminishing I. ricinus populations in nature can reduce tick exposure to
humans, and one way to do so is by developing an anti-vector vaccine against
tick antigens. Currently, there is only one anti-vector vaccine available
against ticks, which is a veterinary vaccine based on the tick antigen Bm86 in
the gut of Rhipicephalus microplus. Bm86 vaccine formulations cause a
reduction in the number of Rhipicephalus microplus ticks that successfully
feed, i.e. lower engorgement weights and a decrease in the number of
oviposited eggs. Furthermore, Bm86 vaccines reduce transmission of bovine
Babesia spp. Previously two conserved Bm86 homologues in I. ricinus ticks,
designated as Ir86-1 and Ir86-2, were described. Here we investigated the
effect of a vaccine against recombinant Ir86-1, Ir86-2 or a combination of
both on Ixodes ricinus feeding. Recombinant Ixodes ricinus Bm86 homologues
were expressed in a Drosophila expression system and rabbits were immunized
with rIr86-1, rIr86-2, a combination of both or ovalbumin as a control. Each
animal was infested with 50 female adults and 50 male adults Ixodes ricinus
and tick mortality, engorgement weights and egg mass were analyzed. Although
serum IgG titers against rIr86 proteins were elicited, no effect was found on
tick feeding between the rIr86 vaccinated animals and ovalbumin vaccinated
animals. We conclude that vaccination against Bm86 homologues in Ixodes
ricinus is not an effective approach to control Ixodes ricinus populations,
despite the clear effects of Bm86 vaccination against Rhipicephalus microplus
A frequentist framework of inductive reasoning
Reacting against the limitation of statistics to decision procedures, R. A.
Fisher proposed for inductive reasoning the use of the fiducial distribution, a
parameter-space distribution of epistemological probability transferred
directly from limiting relative frequencies rather than computed according to
the Bayes update rule. The proposal is developed as follows using the
confidence measure of a scalar parameter of interest. (With the restriction to
one-dimensional parameter space, a confidence measure is essentially a fiducial
probability distribution free of complications involving ancillary statistics.)
A betting game establishes a sense in which confidence measures are the only
reliable inferential probability distributions. The equality between the
probabilities encoded in a confidence measure and the coverage rates of the
corresponding confidence intervals ensures that the measure's rule for
assigning confidence levels to hypotheses is uniquely minimax in the game.
Although a confidence measure can be computed without any prior distribution,
previous knowledge can be incorporated into confidence-based reasoning. To
adjust a p-value or confidence interval for prior information, the confidence
measure from the observed data can be combined with one or more independent
confidence measures representing previous agent opinion. (The former confidence
measure may correspond to a posterior distribution with frequentist matching of
coverage probabilities.) The representation of subjective knowledge in terms of
confidence measures rather than prior probability distributions preserves
approximate frequentist validity.Comment: major revisio
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