Prevalence and subtypes of Influenza A Viruses in Wild Waterfowl in Norway 2006-2007

The prevalence of influenza A virus infection, and the distribution of different subtypes of the virus, were studied in 1529 ducks and 1213 gulls shot during ordinary hunting from August to December in two consecutive years, 2006 and 2007, in Norway. The study was based on molecular screening of cloacal and tracheal swabs, using a pan-influenza A RT-PCR. Samples found to be positive for influenza A virus were screened for the H5 subtype, using a H5 specific RT-PCR, and, if negative, further subtyped by a RT-PCR for the 3'-part of the hemagglutinin (HA) gene, encompassing almost the entire HA2, and the full-length of the neuraminidase (NA) gene, followed by sequencing and characterization. The highest prevalence (12.8%) of infection was found in dabbling ducks (Eurasian Wigeon, Common Teal and Mallard). Diving ducks (Common Goldeneye, Common Merganser, Red-breasted Merganser, Common Scoter, Common Eider and Tufted Duck) showed a lower prevalence (4.1%). In gulls (Common Gull, Herring Gull, Black-headed Gull, Lesser Black-headed Gull, Great Black-backed Gull and Kittiwake) the prevalence of influenza A virus was 6.1%. The infection prevalence peaked during October for ducks, and October/November for gulls. From the 16 hemagglutinin subtypes known to infect wild birds, 13 were detected in this study. Low pathogenic H5 was found in 17 dabbling ducks and one gull

Sensitivity as outcome measure of androgen replacement: the AMS scale

BACKGROUND: The capacity of the AMS scale as clinical utility and as outcome measure still needs validation. METHODS: An open post-marketing study was performed by office-based physicians in Germany in 2004. We analysed data of 1670 androgen-deficient males who were treated with testosterone gel. The AMS scale was applied prior to and after 3 months treatment. RESULTS: The improvement of complaints under treatment relative to the baseline score was 30.7% (total score), 27.3% (psychological domain), 30.5% (somatic domain), and 30.7% (sexual domain), respectively. Patients with little or no symptoms before therapy improved by 9%, those with mild complaints at entry by 24%, with moderate by 32%, and with severe symptoms by 39% – compared with the baseline score. We showed that the distribution of complaints of testosterone deficient men before therapy almost returned to norm values after 12 weeks of testosterone treatment. Age, BMI, and total testosterone level at baseline did not modify the positive effect of androgen therapy. We also demonstrated that the AMS results can predict the independent (physician's) opinion about the individual treatment effect. Both, sensitivity (correct prediction of a positive assessment by the physician) and specificity (correct prediction of a negative assessment by the physician) were over 70%, if about 22% improvement of the AMS total score was used as cut-off point. CONCLUSION: The AMS scale showed a convincing ability to measure treatment effects on quality of life across the full range of severity of complaints. Effect modification by other variables at baseline was not observed. In addition, results of the scale can predict the subjective clinical expert opinion on the treatment efficiency

The Use of PRV-Bartha to Define Premotor Inputs to Lumbar Motoneurons in the Neonatal Spinal Cord of the Mouse

The neonatal mouse has become a model system for studying the locomotor function of the lumbar spinal cord. However, information about the synaptic connectivity within the governing neural network remains scarce. A neurotropic pseudorabies virus (PRV) Bartha has been used to map neuronal connectivity in other parts of the nervous system, due to its ability to travel trans-neuronally. Its use in spinal circuits regulating locomotion has been limited and no study has defined the time course of labelling for neurons known to project monosynaptically to motoneurons.Here we investigated the ability of PRV Bartha, expressing green and/or red fluorescence, to label spinal neurons projecting monosynaptically to motoneurons of two principal hindlimb muscles, the tibialis anterior (TA) and gastrocnemius (GC). As revealed by combined immunocytochemistry and confocal microscopy, 24-32 h after the viral muscle injection the label was restricted to the motoneuron pool while at 32-40 h the fluorescence was seen in interneurons throughout the medial and lateral ventral grey matter. Two classes of ipsilateral interneurons known to project monosynaptically to motoneurons (Renshaw cells and cells of origin of C-terminals) were consistently labeled at 40 h post-injection but also a group in the ventral grey matter contralaterally. Our results suggest that the labeling of last order interneurons occurred 8-12 h after motoneuron labeling and we presume this is the time taken by the virus to cross one synapse, to travel retrogradely and to replicate in the labeled cells.The study establishes the time window for virally-labelling monosynaptic projections to lumbar motoneurons following viral injection into hindlimb muscles. Moreover, it provides a good foundation for intracellular targeting of the labeled neurons in future physiological studies and better understanding the functional organization of the lumbar neural networks

Risk factors for bone mineral density at the calcaneus in 40–59 year-old male workers: A cross-sectional study in Korea

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Few epidemiologic studies have attempted to investigate the prevalence and risk factors for osteopenia and osteoporosis in middle-aged Asian men. We performed this study to determine the prevalence and risk factors of osteopenia and osteoporosis in this population.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This cross-sectional study was conducted from March to July, 2004. The subjects were 2,073 males aged from 40 to 59 years in the KHNP (Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power) workplace-based cohort. Bone mineral density (BMD) was measured by peripheral, dual-energy, X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) at the calcaneus. Anthropometric and lifestyle factors were investigated using a standard, self-reported questionnaire.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>BMD was 0.60 ± 0.09 g/cm²(mean ± standard deviation) and was negatively correlated with age (r = -0.18, <it>P </it>< 0.001), but positively correlated with waist-to-hip ratio (WHR; r = 0.15, <it>P </it>< 0.001), body fat (r = 0.10, <it>P </it>< 0.001), BMI (r = 0.35, <it>P </it>< 0.001), height (r = 0.26, <it>P </it>< 0.001), and weight (r = 0.43, <it>P </it>< 0.001).</p> <p>In multiple linear regression analysis, the independent determinants associated with BMD were increasing age (coefficient = -0.002, <it>P </it>< 0.001), physical activity (≤ 2/week vs. ≥ 3/week; coefficient = 0.017, <it>P </it>< 0.001), WHR (coefficient = -0.796, <it>P </it>< 0.001), body mass index (BMI; coefficient = 0.023, <it>P </it>< 0.001) and smoking status (never vs. ever; coefficient = -0.018, <it>P </it>< 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We suggest that BMD of the calcaneus is correlated negatively with exposure to smoke and increased WHR, but positively with regular exercise and increased BMI.</p

Association between Acquired Uniparental Disomy and Homozygous Mutations and HER2/ER/PR Status in Breast Cancer

Background: Genetic alterations in cellular signaling networks are a hallmark of cancer, however, effective methods to discover them are lacking. A novel form of abnormality called acquired uniparental disomy (aUPD) was recently found to pinpoint the region of mutated genes in various cancers, thereby identifying the region for next-generation sequencing. Methods/Principal Findings: We retrieved large genomic data sets from the Gene Expression Omnibus database to perform genome-wide analysis of aUPD in breast tumor samples and cell lines using approaches that can reliably detect aUPD. Aupd was identified in 52.29% of the tumor samples. The most frequent aUPD regions were located at chromosomes 2q, 3p, 5q, 9p, 9q, 10q, 11q, 13q, 14q and 17q. We evaluated the data for any correlation between the most frequent aUPD regions and HER2/neu, ER, and PR status, and found a statistically significant correlation between the recurrent regions of aUPD and triple negative (TN) breast cancers. aUPD at chromosome 17q (VEZF1, WNT3), 3p (SUMF1, GRM7), 9p (MTAP, NFIB) and 11q (CASP1, CASP4, CASP5) are predictors for TN. The frequency of aUPD was found to be significantly higher in TN breast cancer cases compared to HER2/neu-positive and/or ER or PR-positive cases. Furthermore, using previously published mutation data, we found TP53 homozygously mutated in cell lines having aUPD in that locus. Conclusions/Significance: We conclude that aUPD is a common and non-random molecular feature of breast cancer that is most prominent in triple negative cases. As aUPD regions are different among the main pathological subtypes, specific aUPD regions may aid the sub-classification of breast cancer. In addition, we provide statistical support using TP53 as an example that identifying aUPD regions can be an effective approach in finding aberrant genes. We thus conclu

Novel mutations and their functional and clinical relevance in myeloproliferative neoplasms: JAK2, MPL, TET2, ASXL1, CBL, IDH and IKZF1

Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) originate from genetically transformed hematopoietic stem cells that retain the capacity for multilineage differentiation and effective myelopoiesis. Beginning in early 2005, a number of novel mutations involving Janus kinase 2 (JAK2), Myeloproliferative Leukemia Virus (MPL), TET oncogene family member 2 (TET2), Additional Sex Combs-Like 1 (ASXL1), Casitas B-lineage lymphoma proto-oncogene (CBL), Isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) and IKAROS family zinc finger 1 (IKZF1) have been described in BCR-ABL1-negative MPNs. However, none of these mutations were MPN specific, displayed mutual exclusivity or could be traced back to a common ancestral clone. JAK2 and MPL mutations appear to exert a phenotype-modifying effect and are distinctly associated with polycythemia vera, essential thrombocythemia and primary myelofibrosis; the corresponding mutational frequencies are ∼99, 55 and 65% for JAK2 and 0, 3 and 10% for MPL mutations. The incidence of TET2, ASXL1, CBL, IDH or IKZF1 mutations in these disorders ranges from 0 to 17% these latter mutations are more common in chronic (TET2, ASXL1, CBL) or juvenile (CBL) myelomonocytic leukemias, mastocytosis (TET2), myelodysplastic syndromes (TET2, ASXL1) and secondary acute myeloid leukemia, including blast-phase MPN (IDH, ASXL1, IKZF1). The functional consequences of MPN-associated mutations include unregulated JAK-STAT (Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription) signaling, epigenetic modulation of transcription and abnormal accumulation of oncoproteins. However, it is not clear as to whether and how these abnormalities contribute to disease initiation, clonal evolution or blastic transformation

Kansa-RBF algorithms for elliptic problems in regular polygonal domains

We propose matrix decomposition algorithms for the efficient solution of the linear systems arising from Kansa radial basis function discretizations of elliptic boundary value problems in regular polygonal domains. These algorithms exploit the symmetry of the domains of the problems under consideration which lead to coefficient matrices possessing block circulant structures. In particular, we consider the Poisson equation, the inhomogeneous biharmonic equation, and the inhomogeneous Cauchy-Navier equations of elasticity. Numerical examples demonstrating the applicability of the proposed algorithms are presented