BACTEC MGIT 960 TM system for screening of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex among cattle

Bovine tuberculosis remains a disease of economic and public health importance in developing countries. The largest number of new cases of tuberculosis usually occurs in South-East Asia region and Africa. This study was aimed to evaluate the recent technique (BACTEC MGIT 960 TM system) for screening of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex among cattle in Egypt. From the 1180 cattle examined in three different Governorates (El-Sharkia, El-Gharbia and El-Monefeia) by single intradermal tuberculin test, 29 animals (2.46%) were positive reactors. The post mortem examination of the positive reactors showed that 22 animals (75.9%) had visible lesions [respiratory form (31.0%), digestive form (13.8%), mixed form (20.7%) and generalized form (10.3%)], while seven (24.1%) did not show visible lesions. The results of isolation and identification using conventional culture method (Lowenstein- Jensen medium) were 22 mycobacterial isolates (75.9%), 20 (68.97%) Mycobacterium bovis and 2 (6.9%) unidentified slow growth. The BACTEC MGIT 960 TM system was used for recovery of Mycobacteria and compared with conventional culture method (Lowenstein-Jensen medium). The recovery rate of BACTEC MGIT 960 TM system was 82.8%, while that of Lowenstein-Jensen medium was 75.9%. The mean time for detection of Mycobacteria was 17.8 ± 0.9 days and 46.5 ± 0.4 days for BACTEC MGIT 960 TM system and Lowenstein-Jensen medium, respectively while the contamination rate with BACTEC MGIT 960 TM system was 6.9% and 10.3% in Lowenstein-Jensen medium.Key words: Bovine tuberculosis, tuberculin test, Lowenstein-Jensen medium, BACTEC system

Lack of correlation of stem cell markers in breast cancer stem cells

BACKGROUND: Various markers are used to identify the unique sub-population of breast cancer cells with stem cell properties. Whether these markers are expressed in all breast cancers, identify the same population of cells, or equate to therapeutic response is controversial. METHODS: We investigated the expression of multiple cancer stem cell markers in human breast cancer samples and cell lines in vitro and in vivo, comparing across and within samples and relating expression with growth and therapeutic response to doxorubicin, docetaxol and radiotherapy. RESULTS: CD24, CD44, ALDH and SOX2 expression, the ability to form mammospheres and side-population cells are variably present in human cancers and cell lines. Each marker identifies a unique rather than common population of cancer cells. In vivo, cells expressing these markers are not specifically localized to the presumptive stem cell niche at the tumour/stroma interface. Repeated therapy does not consistently enrich cells expressing these markers, although ER-negative cells accumulate. CONCLUSIONS: Commonly employed methods identify different cancer cell sub-populations with no consistent therapeutic implications, rather than a single population of cells. The relationships of breast cancer stem cells to clinical parameters will require identification of specific markers or panels for the individual cancer

Exploring Emotion Representation to Support Dialogue in Police Training on Child Interviewing

Police officers when dealing with interviewing children have to cope with a complex set of emotions from a vulnerable witness. Triggers for recognising those emotions and how to build rapport are often the basis of learning exercises. However, current training pulls together the full complexity of emotions during role-playing which can be over-whelming and reduce appropriate learning focus. Interestingly a serious game’s interface can provide valuable training not because it represents full complex, multimedia interactions but because it can restrict emotional complexity and increase focus during the interactions on key factors for emotional recognition. The focus of this paper is to report on a specific aspect that was explored during the development of a serious game that aims to address the current police-training needs of child interviewing techniques, where the recognition of emotions plays an important role in understanding how to build rapport with children. The review of literature reveals that emotion recognition, through facial expressions, can contribute significantly to the perceived quality of communication. For this study an ‘emotions map’ was created and tested by 41 participants to be used in the development of a targeted interface design to support the different levels of emotion recognition. The emotions identified were validated with a 70 % agreement across experts and non-experts highlighting the innate role of emotion recognition. A discussion is made around the role of emotions and game-based systems to support their identification for work-based training. As part of the graphical development of the Child Interview Stimulator (CIS) we examined different levels of emotional recognition that can be used to support the in-game graphical representation of a child’s response during a police interview

Epidemiological Interactions between Urogenital and Intestinal Human Schistosomiasis in the Context of Praziquantel Treatment across Three West African Countries

© 2015 Knowles et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The attached file is the published version of the article

Estimation of changes in the force of infection for intestinal and urogenital schistosomiasis in countries with Schistosomiasis Control Initiative-assisted programmes

The last decade has seen an expansion of national schistosomiasis control programmes in Africa based on large-scale preventative chemotherapy. In many areas this has resulted in considerable reductions in infection and morbidity levels in treated individuals. In this paper, we quantify changes in the force of infection (FOI), defined here as the per (human) host parasite establishment rate, to ascertain the impact on transmission of some of these programmes under the umbrella of the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI)

Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set

We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2, -1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012

Comparison of Patient and Surgeon Expectations of Total Hip Arthroplasty

OBJECTIVES: Analysis of discrepancies between patient and surgeon expectations before total hip arthroplasty (THA) should enable a better understanding of motives of dissatisfaction about surgery, but this question has been seldom studied. Our objectives were to compare surgeons' and patients' expectations before THA, and to study factors which affected surgeon-patient agreement. METHODS: 132 adults (mean age 62.8+/-13.7 years, 52% men) on waiting list for THA in three tertiary care centres and their 16 surgeons were interviewed to assess their expectations using the Hospital for Special Surgery Total Hip Replacement Expectations Survey (range 0-100). Patients' and surgeons' answers were compared, for the total score and for the score of each item. Univariate analyses tested the effect of patients' characteristics on surgeons' and patients' expectations separately, and on surgeon-patient differences. RESULTS: Surgeon and patient expectations' mean scores were high (respectively 90.9+/-11.1 and 90.0+/-11.6 over 100). Surgeons' and patients' expectations showed no systematic difference, but there was little agreement on Bland and Altman graph and correlation coefficient was low. Patients had higher expectations than surgeons for sports. Patients rated their expectations according to trust in physician and mental quality of life, surgeons considered disability. More disabled patients and patients from a low-income professional category were often "more optimistic" than their surgeons. CONCLUSION: Surgeons and patients often do not agree on what to expect from THA. More disabled patients expect better outcomes than their surgeons

Obesity and immune function relationships.

The immunological processes involved in the collaborative defence of organisms are affected by nutritional status. Thus, a positive chronic imbalance between energy intake and expenditure leads to situations of obesity, which may influence unspecific and specific immune responses mediated by humoral and cell mediated mechanisms. Furthermore, several lines of evidence have supported a link between adipose tissue and immunocompetent cells. This interaction is illustrated in obesity, where excess adiposity and impaired immune function have been described in both humans and genetically obese rodents. However, limited and often controversial information exist comparing immunity in obese and non-obese subjects as well as about the cellular and molecular mechanisms implicated. In general terms, clinical and epidemiological data support the evidence that the incidence and severity of specific types of infectious illnesses are higher in obese persons as compared to lean individuals together with the occurrence of poor antibody responses to antigens in overweight subjects. Leptin might play a key role in linking nutritional status with T-cell function. The complexities and heterogeneity of the host defences concerning the immune response in different nutritional circumstances affecting the energy balance require an integral study of the immunocompetent cells, their subsets and products as well as specific and unspecific inducer/regulator systems. In this context, more research is needed to clarify the clinical implications of the alterations induced by obesity on the immune function

Revascularization for coronary artery disease in diabetes mellitus: Angioplasty, stents and coronary artery bypass grafting

Author Manuscript: 2011 April 14Patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) are prone to a diffuse and rapidly progressive form of atherosclerosis, which increases their likelihood of requiring revascularization. However, the unique pathophysiology of atherosclerosis in patients with DM modifies the response to arterial injury, with profound clinical consequences for patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Multiple studies have shown that DM is a strong risk factor for restenosis following successful balloon angioplasty or coronary stenting, with greater need for repeat revascularization and inferior clinical outcomes. Early data suggest that drug eluting stents reduce restenosis rates and the need for repeat revascularization irrespective of the diabetic state and with no significant reduction in hard clinical endpoints such as myocardial infarction and mortality. For many patients with 1- or 2-vessel coronary artery disease, there is little prognostic benefit from any intervention over optimal medical therapy. PCI with drug-eluting or bare metal stents is appropriate for patients who remain symptomatic with medical therapy. However, selection of the optimal myocardial revascularization strategy for patients with DM and multivessel coronary artery disease is crucial. Randomized trials comparing multivessel PCI with balloon angioplasty or bare metal stents to coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) consistently demonstrated the superiority of CABG in patients with treated DM. In the setting of diabetes CABG had greater survival, fewer recurrent infarctions or need for re-intervention. Limited data suggests that CABG is superior to multivessel PCI even when drug-eluting stents are used. Several ongoing randomized trials are evaluating the long-term comparative efficacy of PCI with drug-eluting stents and CABG in patients with DM. Only further study will continue to unravel the mechanisms at play and optimal therapy in the face of the profoundly virulent atherosclerotic potential that accompanies diabetes mellitus.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (GM 49039