Comparison of the histological and immunohistochemical features of the thymus in young- and elderly-onset myasthenia gravis without thymoma

ArticleJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCE. 14(2): 110-115 (2007)journal articl

Association between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and biomarkers of oxidative stress among patients hospitalised with acute myocardial infarction

Objective To determine whether exposure to environmental tobacco smoke was associated with oxidative stress among patients hospitalised for acute myocardial infarction.<p></p> Design An existing cohort study of 1,261 patients hospitalised for acute myocardial infarction.<p></p> Setting Nine acute hospitals in Scotland.<p></p> Participants Sixty never smokers who had been exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (admission serum cotinine ≥3.0 ng/mL) were compared with 60 never smokers who had not (admission serum cotinine ≤0.1 ng/mL).<p></p> Intervention None.<p></p> Main outcome measures Three biomarkers of oxidative stress (protein carbonyl, malondialdehyde (MDA) and oxidised low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL)) were measured on admission blood samples and adjusted for potential confounders.<p></p> Results After adjusting for baseline differences in age, sex and socioeconomic status, exposure to environmental tobacco smoke was associated with serum concentrations of both protein carbonyl (beta coefficient 7.96, 95% CI 0.76, 15.17, p = 0.031) and MDA (beta coefficient 10.57, 95% CI 4.32, 16.81, p = 0.001) but not ox-LDL (beta coefficient 2.14, 95% CI −8.94, 13.21, p = 0.703).<p></p> Conclusions Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke was associated with increased oxidative stress. Further studies are requires to explore the role of oxidative stress in the association between environmental tobacco smoke and myocardial infarction.<p></p&gt

The Mechanisms of Codon Reassignments in Mitochondrial Genetic Codes

Many cases of non-standard genetic codes are known in mitochondrial genomes. We carry out analysis of phylogeny and codon usage of organisms for which the complete mitochondrial genome is available, and we determine the most likely mechanism for codon reassignment in each case. Reassignment events can be classified according to the gain-loss framework. The gain represents the appearance of a new tRNA for the reassigned codon or the change of an existing tRNA such that it gains the ability to pair with the codon. The loss represents the deletion of a tRNA or the change in a tRNA so that it no longer translates the codon. One possible mechanism is Codon Disappearance, where the codon disappears from the genome prior to the gain and loss events. In the alternative mechanisms the codon does not disappear. In the Unassigned Codon mechanism, the loss occurs first, whereas in the Ambiguous Intermediate mechanism, the gain occurs first. Codon usage analysis gives clear evidence of cases where the codon disappeared at the point of the reassignment and also cases where it did not disappear. Codon disappearance is the probable explanation for stop to sense reassignments and a small number of reassignments of sense codons. However, the majority of sense to sense reassignments cannot be explained by codon disappearance. In the latter cases, by analysis of the presence or absence of tRNAs in the genome and of the changes in tRNA sequences, it is sometimes possible to distinguish between the Unassigned Codon and Ambiguous Intermediate mechanisms. We emphasize that not all reassignments follow the same scenario and that it is necessary to consider the details of each case carefully.Comment: 53 pages (45 pages, including 4 figures + 8 pages of supplementary information). To appear in J.Mol.Evo

Frequentist Coverage Properties of Uncertainty Intervals for Weak Poisson Signals in the Presence of Background

We construct uncertainty intervals for weak Poisson signals in the presence of background. We consider the case where a primary experiment yields a realization of the signal plus background, and a second experiment yields a realization of the background. The data acquisitions times for the background-only experiment,T_bg, and the primary experiment,T, are selected so that their ratio varies from 1 to 25. The expected number of background counts in the primary experiment varies from 0.2 to 2. We construct 90 and 95 percent confidence intervals based on a propagation-of-errors method as well as two implementations of a Neyman procedure where acceptance regions are constructed based on a likelihood-ratio criterion that automatically determines whether the resulting confidence interval is one-sided or two-sided. The first Neyman procedure (due to Feldman and Cousins) neglects uncertainty in the background. In the other Neyman procedure, we account for uncertainty in the background with a parametric bootstrap method. We also construct minimum length Bayesian credibility intervals. For each method, we test for the presence of a signal based on the value of the lower endpoint of the uncertainty interval. When T_bg/T is 5 or more and the expected background is 2 or less, the Feldman Cousins method outperforms the other methods considered.Comment: 12 pages,12 tables, 10 figures. This is the final version of a manuscript that has been accepted for publication by Measurement Science and Technolog