Toxoplasma, Toxocara and Tuberculosis co-infection in a four year old child

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Tuberculosis. toxocariasis and toxoplasmosis are among the common infectious causes of lymphadenitis in children. Cases of <it>Toxoplasma gondii </it>and <it>Toxocara spp </it>co-infection have been reported.</p> <p>Case Presentation</p> <p>This case report describes a co-infection of <it>Toxoplasma gondii</it>, <it>Toxocara </it>spp and tuberculosis in a child with chronic lymphadenopathy and eosinophilia.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The case report highlights two important points. First is the diagnostic challenges that are encountered by clinicians in tropical countries such as Sri Lanka, where lymphadenopathy and eosinophilia with a positive serology commonly point towards a parasitic infection. Secondly the importance of proper history taking and performing the Mantoux test as a first line investigation in a country where the incidence of tuberculosis is low, even in the absence of a positive contact history.</p

Commentary – ordering lab tests for suspected rheumatic disease

One of the least-appreciated advances in pediatric rheumatology over the past 25 years has been the delineation of the many ways in which children with rheumatic disease differ from adults with the same illnesses. Furthermore, we are now learning that paradigms that are useful in evaluating adults with musculoskeletal complaints have limited utility in children. Nowhere is that more true than in the use of commonly used laboratory tests, particularly antinuclear antibody (ANA) and rheumatoid factor (RF) assays. This short review will provide the practitioner with the evidence base that supports a more limited use of ANA and RF testing in children

Yeast Based Small Molecule Screen for Inhibitors of SARS-CoV

Severe acute respiratory coronavirus (SARS-CoV) emerged in 2002, resulting in roughly 8000 cases worldwide and 10% mortality. The animal reservoirs for SARS-CoV precursors still exist and the likelihood of future outbreaks in the human population is high. The SARS-CoV papain-like protease (PLP) is an attractive target for pharmaceutical development because it is essential for virus replication and is conserved among human coronaviruses. A yeast-based assay was established for PLP activity that relies on the ability of PLP to induce a pronounced slow-growth phenotype when expressed in S. cerevisiae. Induction of the slow-growth phenotype was shown to take place over a 60-hour time course, providing the basis for conducting a screen for small molecules that restore growth by inhibiting the function of PLP. Five chemical suppressors of the slow-growth phenotype were identified from the 2000 member NIH Diversity Set library. One of these, NSC158362, potently inhibited SARS-CoV replication in cell culture without toxic effects on cells, and it specifically inhibited SARS-CoV replication but not influenza virus replication. The effect of NSC158362 on PLP protease, deubiquitinase and anti-interferon activities was investigated but the compound did not alter these activities. Another suppressor, NSC158011, demonstrated the ability to inhibit PLP protease activity in a cell-based assay. The identification of these inhibitors demonstrated a strong functional connection between the PLP-based yeast assay, the inhibitory compounds, and SARS-CoV biology. Furthermore the data with NSC158362 suggest a novel mechanism for inhibition of SARS-CoV replication that may involve an unknown activity of PLP, or alternatively a direct effect on a cellular target that modifies or bypasses PLP function in yeast and mammalian cells

Reaction rates and transport in neutron stars

Understanding signals from neutron stars requires knowledge about the transport inside the star. We review the transport properties and the underlying reaction rates of dense hadronic and quark matter in the crust and the core of neutron stars and point out open problems and future directions.Comment: 74 pages; commissioned for the book "Physics and Astrophysics of Neutron Stars", NewCompStar COST Action MP1304; version 3: minor changes, references updated, overview graphic added in the introduction, improvements in Sec IV.A.

Physics of Neutron Star Crusts

The physics of neutron star crusts is vast, involving many different research fields, from nuclear and condensed matter physics to general relativity. This review summarizes the progress, which has been achieved over the last few years, in modeling neutron star crusts, both at the microscopic and macroscopic levels. The confrontation of these theoretical models with observations is also briefly discussed.Comment: 182 pages, published version available at <http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2008-10

Predicting Peptide Binding Affinities to MHC Molecules Using a Modified Semi-Empirical Scoring Function

The Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) plays an important role in the human immune system. The MHC is involved in the antigen presentation system assisting T cells to identify foreign or pathogenic proteins. However, an MHC molecule binding a self-peptide may incorrectly trigger an immune response and cause an autoimmune disease, such as multiple sclerosis. Understanding the molecular mechanism of this process will greatly assist in determining the aetiology of various diseases and in the design of effective drugs. In the present study, we have used the Fresno semi-empirical scoring function and modify the approach to the prediction of peptide-MHC binding by using open-source and public domain software. We apply the method to HLA class II alleles DR15, DR1, and DR4, and the HLA class I allele HLA A2. Our analysis shows that using a large set of binding data and multiple crystal structures improves the predictive capability of the method. The performance of the method is also shown to be correlated to the structural similarity of the crystal structures used. We have exposed some of the obstacles faced by structure-based prediction methods and proposed possible solutions to those obstacles. It is envisaged that these obstacles need to be addressed before the performance of structure-based methods can be on par with the sequence-based methods

The dependence of dijet production on photon virtuality in ep collisions at HERA

The dependence of dijet production on the virtuality of the exchanged photon, Q^2, has been studied by measuring dijet cross sections in the range 0 < Q^2 < 2000 GeV^2 with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 38.6 pb^-1. Dijet cross sections were measured for jets with transverse energy E_T^jet > 7.5 and 6.5 GeV and pseudorapidities in the photon-proton centre-of-mass frame in the range -3 < eta^jet <0. The variable xg^obs, a measure of the photon momentum entering the hard process, was used to enhance the sensitivity of the measurement to the photon structure. The Q^2 dependence of the ratio of low- to high-xg^obs events was measured. Next-to-leading-order QCD predictions were found to generally underestimate the low-xg^obs contribution relative to that at high xg^obs. Monte Carlo models based on leading-logarithmic parton-showers, using a partonic structure for the photon which falls smoothly with increasing Q^2, provide a qualitative description of the data.Comment: 35 pages, 6 eps figures, submitted to Eur.Phys.J.

Beauty photoproduction measured using decays into muons in dijet events in ep collisions at s\sqrt{s}=318 GeV

The photoproduction of beauty quarks in events with two jets and a muon has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 110 pb$^{- 1}$. The fraction of jets containing b quarks was extracted from the transverse momentum distribution of the muon relative to the closest jet. Differential cross sections for beauty production as a function of the transverse momentum and pseudorapidity of the muon, of the associated jet and of $x_{\gamma}^{jets}$, the fraction of the photon's momentum participating in the hard process, are compared with MC models and QCD predictions made at next-to-leading order. The latter give a good description of the data.Comment: 32 pages, 6 tables, 7 figures Table 6 and Figure 7 revised September 200

Search for a narrow charmed baryonic state decaying to D^*+/- p^-/+ in ep collisions at HERA

A resonance search has been made in the D^*+/- p^-/+ invariant-mass spectrum with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 126 pb^-1. The decay channels D^*+ -> D^0 pi^+_s -> (K^- pi^+) pi^+_s and D^*+ -> D^0 pi^+_s -> (K^- pi^+ pi^+ pi^-) pi^+_s (and the corresponding antiparticle decays) were used to identify D^*+/- mesons. No resonance structure was observed in the D^*+/- p^-/+ mass spectrum from more than 60000 reconstructed D^*+/- mesons. The results are not compatible with a report of the H1 Collaboration of a charmed pentaquark, Theta^0_c.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, 1 table; minor text revisions; 2 references adde

Angular and Current-Target Correlations in Deep Inelastic Scattering at HERA

Correlations between charged particles in deep inelastic ep scattering have been studied in the Breit frame with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 6.4 pb-1. Short-range correlations are analysed in terms of the angular separation between current-region particles within a cone centred around the virtual photon axis. Long-range correlations between the current and target regions have also been measured. The data support predictions for the scaling behaviour of the angular correlations at high Q2 and for anti-correlations between the current and target regions over a large range in Q2 and in the Bjorken scaling variable x. Analytic QCD calculations and Monte Carlo models correctly describe the trends of the data at high Q2, but show quantitative discrepancies. The data show differences between the correlations in deep inelastic scattering and e+e- annihilation.Comment: 26 pages including 10 figures (submitted to Eur. J. Phys. C