Knowledge and attitudes of men to prostate cancer

Objective: To ascertain the current level of understanding about prostate cancer (PCa), including treatment options and potential side effects of treatment, among older men. Design and Setting: Questionnaires administered by general practitioners (GPs) in 5 general practices in the Perth metropolitan and regional areas of Western Australia. Participants: Convenience sample of men aged 40-80 years (n=503) with or without prostate cancer presenting for routine consultations. Main outcome measures: Knowledge and attitudes of men to prostate cancer Results: Eighty percent of men did not know the function of the prostate and 48% failed to identify PCa as the most common internal cancer in men. Thirty-five percent had no knowledge of the treatments for PCa and 53% had no knowledge of the side effects of treatments. Asked how they would arrive at a decision about treatment, 70% stated they would ask the GP/specialist for all their options and then decide themselves. Conclusion: This study confirms a deficit in knowledge of the disease among men in the at risk age group. Lack of knowledge encompassed areas which could delay diagnosis and hence treatment. Overall the population preferred some GP/specialist involvement in treatment decision making

A high-content imaging assay for the quantification of the Burkholderia pseudomallei induced multinucleated giant cell (MNGC) phenotype in murine macrophages

BACKGROUND: Burkholderia pseudomallei (Bp), a Gram-negative, motile, facultative intracellular bacterium is the causative agent of melioidosis in humans and animals. The Bp genome encodes a repertoire of virulence factors, including the cluster 3 type III secretion system (T3SS-3), the cluster 1 type VI secretion system (T6SS-1), and the intracellular motility protein BimA, that enable the pathogen to invade both phagocytic and non-phagocytic cells. A unique hallmark of Bp infection both in vitro and in vivo is its ability to induce cell-to-cell fusion of macrophages to form multinucleated giant cells (MNGCs), which to date are semi-quantitatively reported following visual inspection. RESULTS: In this study we report the development of an automated high-content image acquisition and analysis assay to quantitate the Bp induced MNGC phenotype. Validation of the assay was performed using T6SS-1 (∆hcp1) and T3SS-3 (∆bsaZ) mutants of Bp that have been previously reported to exhibit defects in their ability to induce MNGCs. Finally, screening of a focused small molecule library identified several Histone Deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors that inhibited Bp-induced MNGC formation of macrophages. CONCLUSIONS: We have successfully developed an automated HCI assay to quantitate MNGCs induced by Bp in macrophages. This assay was then used to characterize the phenotype of the Bp mutants for their ability to induce MNGC formation and identify small molecules that interfere with this process. Successful application of chemical genetics and functional reverse genetics siRNA approaches in the MNGC assay will help gain a better understanding of the molecular targets and cellular mechanisms responsible for the MNGC phenotype induced by Bp, by other bacteria such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, or by exogenously added cytokines

Commercialisation of impression creep testing

Impression creep testing is a technique in which the deformation resulting from load applied via a rectangular indenter can be converted relatively straightforwardly into a proxy for creep minimum strain rate. This offers a valuable route to assess the creep performance ranking of in-service high temperature plant materials for a number of reasons: the small specimen size makes extraction feasible without significantly affecting the structural integrity of plant; the possibility to test a single specimen at several stresses or temperatures enables multiple assessments; and, increasingly, the maturity of underlying technical understanding and quality of results increases confidence in the technique. However, the method is not without challenges, in particular the capital and running costs associated with servo-electric test rigs. Development of a bespoke deadweight loaded testing system at Wood (formerly Amec Foster Wheeler) has enabled commercially sustainable impression creep testing, which has been successfully applied to ex-plant Grade 91 steel

Impression creep test of a P91 steel: a round robin programme

The process of standardisation of small specimen creep testing techniques, specifically the impression creep test requires the repeatability of the test method. In this study it is accomplished through a round robin programme involving four different labs which have slightly different test set-ups adhering to predefined recommendations stated in previous work. The labs all conducted the same stepped stress test on a reference heat of grade 91 power plant steel and the displacement traces of the tests are analysed to outline the effects of different test set-ups and their efficacies. Main differences are in temperature control and loading application and control

Coming Together: Phyllis Hill and the AHS Merge

Our foremost objective was to discover a connection with the University's Applied Health Science (AHS) department merge in 1972 and the involvement of Phyllis Hill. After searching through University archives, past Daily Illini and AHS Newsletter publications we were able to determine Phyllis Hill's contribution in the organization of the new curriculum. We also investigated other department histories within the Big 10 conference and confirmed the University of Illinois was among the first to merge both women and men's AHS programs with possible influence from Title IX

A Limited Structural Modification Results in a Significantly More Efficacious Diazachrysene-Based Filovirus Inhibitor

Ebola (EBOV) and Marburg (MARV) filoviruses are highly infectious pathogens causing deadly hemorrhagic fever in humans and non-human primates. Promising vaccine candidates providing immunity against filoviruses have been reported. However, the sporadic nature and swift progression of filovirus disease underlines the need for the development of small molecule therapeutics providing immediate antiviral effects. Herein we describe a brief structural exploration of two previously reported diazachrysene (DAAC)-based EBOV inhibitors. Specifically, three analogs were prepared to examine how slight substituent modifications would affect inhibitory efficacy and inhibitor-mediated toxicity during not only EBOV, but also MARV cellular infection. Of the three analogs, one was highly efficacious, providing IC50 values of 0.696 mu M +/- 0.13 mu M and 2.76 mu M +/- 0.21 mu M against EBOV and MARV infection, respectively, with little or no associated cellular toxicity. Overall, the structure-activity and structure-toxicity results from this study provide a framework for the future development of DAAC-based filovirus inhibitors that will be both active and non-toxic in vivo

PyCogent: a toolkit for making sense from sequence

The COmparative GENomic Toolkit, a framework for probabilistic analyses of biological sequences, devising workflows and generating publication quality graphics, has been implemented in Python