Actinomyces israelii May Produce Vulvar Lesions Suspicious for Malignancy

Background. We present a case of Actinomyces israelii causing vulvar mass suspicious for malignancy in a postmenopausal woman. Case. A 60 year-old woman presented due to a firm, nonmobile, 10 cm vulvar mass, which had been rapidly enlarging for 5 months. The mass was painful, with localized pruritus and sinus tracts oozing of serosanguinous fluid. Biopsy and cultures revealed a ruptured epidermal inclusion cyst containing granulation tissue and Actinomyces israelii. Conclusion. Actinomyces israelii may produce vulvar lesions that are suspicious for malignancy. Thus, biopsies and cultures are both mandatory while evaluating vulvar masses suspicious for malignancy

Spectroscopic scanning tunneling microscopy insights into Fe-based superconductors

In the first three years since the discovery of Fe-based high Tc superconductors, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy have shed light on three important questions. First, STM has demonstrated the complexity of the pairing symmetry in Fe-based materials. Phase-sensitive quasiparticle interference (QPI) imaging and low temperature spectroscopy have shown that the pairing order parameter varies from nodal to nodeless s\pm within a single family, FeTe1-xSex. Second, STM has imaged C4 -> C2 symmetry breaking in the electronic states of both parent and superconducting materials. As a local probe, STM is in a strong position to understand the interactions between these broken symmetry states and superconductivity. Finally, STM has been used to image the vortex state, giving insights into the technical problem of vortex pinning, and the fundamental problem of the competing states introduced when superconductivity is locally quenched by a magnetic field. Here we give a pedagogical introduction to STM and QPI imaging, discuss the specific challenges associated with extracting bulk properties from the study of surfaces, and report on progress made in understanding Fe-based superconductors using STM techniques.Comment: 36 pages, 23 figures, 229 reference

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) polyubiquitin gene (PvUbi1 and PvUbi2) promoters for use in plant transformation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The ubiquitin protein is present in all eukaryotic cells and promoters from ubiquitin genes are good candidates to regulate the constitutive expression of transgenes in plants. Therefore, two switchgrass (<it>Panicum virgatum </it>L.) ubiquitin genes (<it>PvUbi1 </it>and <it>PvUbi2</it>) were cloned and characterized. Reporter constructs were produced containing the isolated 5' upstream regulatory regions of the coding sequences (i.e. <it>PvUbi1 </it>and <it>PvUbi2 </it>promoters) fused to the <it>uidA </it>coding region (<it>GUS</it>) and tested for transient and stable expression in a variety of plant species and tissues.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>PvUbi1 </it>consists of 607 bp containing <it>cis</it>-acting regulatory elements, a 5' untranslated region (UTR) containing a 93 bp non-coding exon and a 1291 bp intron, and a 918 bp open reading frame (ORF) that encodes four tandem, head -to-tail ubiquitin monomer repeats followed by a 191 bp 3' UTR. <it>PvUbi2 </it>consists of 692 bp containing <it>cis</it>-acting regulatory elements, a 5' UTR containing a 97 bp non-coding exon and a 1072 bp intron, a 1146 bp ORF that encodes five tandem ubiquitin monomer repeats and a 183 bp 3' UTR. <it>PvUbi1 </it>and <it>PvUbi2 </it>were expressed in all examined switchgrass tissues as measured by qRT-PCR. Using biolistic bombardment, <it>PvUbi1 </it>and <it>PvUbi2 </it>promoters showed strong expression in switchgrass and rice callus, equaling or surpassing the expression levels of the CaMV <it>35S, 2x35S, ZmUbi1</it>, and <it>OsAct1 </it>promoters. GUS staining following stable transformation in rice demonstrated that the <it>PvUbi1 </it>and <it>PvUbi2 </it>promoters drove expression in all examined tissues. When stably transformed into tobacco (<it>Nicotiana tabacum</it>), the <it>PvUbi2+3 </it>and <it>PvUbi2+9 </it>promoter fusion variants showed expression in vascular and reproductive tissues.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The <it>PvUbi1 </it>and <it>PvUbi2 </it>promoters drive expression in switchgrass, rice and tobacco and are strong constitutive promoter candidates that will be useful in genetic transformation of monocots and dicots.</p

Multi-Platform Next-Generation Sequencing of the Domestic Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo): Genome Assembly and Analysis

The combined application of next-generation sequencing platforms has provided an economical approach to unlocking the potential of the turkey genome

Novel \u3cem\u3eEhrlichia\u3c/em\u3e sp. Pathogenic for Humans in the Midwestern United States: Human Cases 2009 - 2011 and Results of Tick, Rodent, and Deer Studies

We recently reported a novel Ehrlichia sp. closely related to E. muris detected in blood of 4 from patients in Minnesota (MN) and Wisconsin (WI) in 2009 (NEJM 2011). We now present data from the 2009-2011 patient cases, and results of tick, rodent, and deer studies. Blood from patients with suspected ehrlichiosis or anaplasmosis was tested using PCR targeting the Ehrlichia/Anaplasma Heat Shock Operon gene. PCR was also performed on rodent and deer blood, ticks from MN and WI, and ticks found on military personnel at 132 U.S. military bases nationwide (2007-2010). Select specimens were characterized using culture and DNA sequencing. Human sera were tested for antibodies to specific Ehrlichia spp. and A. phagocytophilum. During 6/2009-8/2011, blood from 32 of 8,110 MN and WI patients tested PCR positive for an Ehrlichia sp. other than E. chaffeensis and E. ewingii. This result was also detected from 1 North Dakota patient who recently travelled to MN. The result was not noted among 7,827 other patient specimens from other states. An Ehrlichia sp. was also cultured from the blood of one WI patient. The 16S rRNA gene (rrs) sequence of clinical and culture isolates was most similar to E. muris (98%). Patients comprised 22 men and 11 women, aged 23 - 87 years. Among patients with available data, infection manifested with fever (31/33), headache (26/33) lymphopenia (7/12) and thrombocytopenia (14/19); 4 of 33 were hospitalized (≤3 days) and 32 of 33 recovered following doxycycline treatment. One patient recovered without treatment. Three of 3 patients had a higher antibody titer to the novel Ehrlichia sp. than E. chaffeensis. No antibodies to A. phagocytophilum antigens were detected. Thirty-four of 1,384 I. scapularis ticks from MN and WI were PCR positive for the novel Ehrlichia, whereas it was not detected in I. scapularis from other states (n=2931) or other tick species (n=6563). Two of 147 rodents and 0 of 180 deer tested were PCR positive. Based on these data, the novel Ehrlichia sp. appears to circulate in a region where Ehrlichiae have not historically been considered endemic and causes a disease which is clinically and epidemiologically similar to human monocytic ehrlichiosis due to E. chaffeensis. These findings should be taken into consideration for diagnosis and surveillance

Reproducibility Project: Psychology

Reproducibility is a defining feature of science, but the extent to which it characterizes current research is unknown. We conducted replications of 100 experimental and correlational studies published in three psychology journals using high-powered designs and original materials when available