Isolation of leptin-binding peptides from a random peptide phage library

Leptin plays a role in regulating the body weight in mice. Injection of recombinant mouse leptin expressed in Escherichia coli reduced the food intake and body weight in normal, ob/ob and diet-induced obesity mice. Hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia and hypothermia can also be corrected in ob/ob mice after leptin injection. Leptin is a 16-kDa secretory protein comprising 167 amino acids produced in adipose tissue and is secreted to blood stream. In this study, a recombinant mouse leptin was generated and purified from a baculovirus expression system. This protein was used to identify putative ligands using a phage library of random peptides. Three leptin-binding phage clones were found, which were characterized by DNA sequencing and ELISA methods. The amino acid sequences of the reactive peptides are: LAYCSDPVRCLVWWY, MFWlSAVSFVDHALV and LVLVLSAFLCCGVG. All three clones bound to recombinant human and mouse leptins. These peptides may be useful tools to study leptin-receptor interaction, food intake and body weight regulation.postprin

Longitudinal diffusion tensor MR imaging study of radiation induced white matter damage in a rat model

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Visualizing Natural Image Statistics

Natural image statistics is an important area of research in cognitive sciences and computer vision. Visualization of statistical results can help identify clusters and anomalies as well as analyze deviation, distribution and correlation. Furthermore, they can provide visual abstractions and symbolism for categorized data. In this paper, we begin our study of visualization of image statistics by considering visual representations of power spectra, which are commonly used to visualize different categories of images. We show that they convey a limited amount of statistical information about image categories and their support for analytical tasks is ineffective. We then introduce several new visual representations, which convey different or more information about image statistics. We apply ANOVA to the image statistics to help select statistically more meaningful measurements in our design process. A task-based user evaluation was carried out to compare the new visual representations with the conventional power spectra plots. Based on the results of the evaluation, we made further improvement of visualizations by introducing composite visual representations of image statistics

Performance of the new automated Abbott RealTime MTB assay for rapid detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in respiratory specimens

The automated high-throughput Abbott RealTime MTB real-time PCR assay has been recently launched for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) clinical diagnosis. This study would like to evaluate its performance. We first compared its diagnostic performance with the Roche Cobas TaqMan MTB assay on 214 clinical respiratory specimens. Prospective analysis of a total 520 specimens was then performed to further evaluate the Abbott assay. The Abbott assay showed a lower limit of detection at 22.5 AFB/ml, which was more sensitive than the Cobas assay (167.5 AFB/ml). The two assays demonstrated a significant difference in diagnostic performance (McNemar’s test; P = 0.0034), in which the Abbott assay presented significantly higher area under curve (AUC) than the Cobas assay (1.000 vs 0.880; P = 0.0002). The Abbott assay demonstrated extremely low PCR inhibition on clinical respiratory specimens. The automated Abbott assay required only very short manual handling time (0.5 h), which could help to improve the laboratory management. In the prospective analysis, the overall estimates for sensitivity and specificity of the Abbott assay were both 100 % among smear-positive specimens, whereas the smear-negative specimens were 96.7 and 96.1 %, respectively. No cross-reactivity with non-tuberculosis mycobacterial species was observed. The superiority in sensitivity of the Abbott assay for detecting MTBC in smear-negative specimens could further minimize the risk in MTBC false-negative detection. The new Abbott RealTime MTB assay has good diagnostic performance which can be a useful diagnostic tool for rapid MTBC detection in clinical laboratories. © 2015, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.postprin

Results of the randomized phase IIB ADMIRE trial of FCR with or without mitoxantrone in previously untreated CLL

ADMIRE was a multi-center, randomized-controlled, open, phase IIB superiority trial in previously untreated Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL). Conventional frontline therapy in fit patients is fludarabine, cyclophosphamide and rituximab (FCR). Initial evidence from non-randomized Phase II trials suggested that the addition of mitoxantrone to FCR (FCM-R) improved remission rates. 215 patients were recruited to assess the primary endpoint of complete remission (CR) rates according to IWCLL criteria. Secondary endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), overall response rate, minimal residual disease (MRD) negativity and safety. At final analysis, CR rates were 69.8% FCR vs 69.3% FCM-R [adjusted odds ratio (OR): 0.97; 95%CI: (0.53-1.79), P=0.932]. MRD-negativity rates were 59.3% FCR vs 50.5% FCM-R [adjusted OR: 0.70; 95% CI: (0.39-1.26), P=0.231]. During treatment, 60.0% (n=129) of participants received G-CSF as secondary prophylaxis for neutropenia, a lower proportion on FCR compared with FCM-R (56.1 vs 63.9%). The toxicity of both regimens was acceptable. There are no significant differences between the treatment groups for PFS and OS. The trial demonstrated that the addition of mitoxantrone to FCR did not increase the depth of response. Oral FCR was well tolerated and resulted in impressive responses in terms of CR rates and MRD negativity compared to historical series with intravenous chemotherapy

Community incidence of pathogen-specific gastroenteritis: reconstructing the surveillance pyramid for seven pathogens in seven European Union member states.

By building reconstruction models for a case of gastroenteritis in the general population moving through different steps of the surveillance pyramid we estimated that millions of illnesses occur annually in the European population, leading to thousands of hospitalizations. We used data on the healthcare system in seven European Union member states in relation to pathogen characteristics that influence healthcare seeking. Data on healthcare usage were obtained by harmonized cross-sectional surveys. The degree of under-diagnosis and underreporting varied by pathogen and country. Overall, underreporting and under-diagnosis were estimated to be lowest for Germany and Sweden, followed by Denmark, The Netherlands, UK, Italy and Poland. Across all countries, the incidence rate was highest for Campylobacter spp. and Salmonella spp. Incidence estimates resulting from the pyramid reconstruction approach are adjusted for biases due to different surveillance systems and are therefore a better basis for international comparisons than reported data

Effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit of a single annual professional intervention for the prevention of childhood dental caries in a remote rural Indigenous community

Background The aim of the study is to reduce the high prevalence of tooth decay in children in a remote, rural Indigenous community in Australia, by application of a single annual dental preventive intervention. The study seeks to (1) assess the effectiveness of an annual oral health preventive intervention in slowing the incidence of dental caries in children in this community, (2) identify the mediating role of known risk factors for dental caries and (3) assess the cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit of the intervention. Methods/design The intervention is novel in that most dental preventive interventions require regular re-application, which is not possible in resource constrained communities. While tooth decay is preventable, self-care and healthy habits are lacking in these communities, placing more emphasis on health services to deliver an effective dental preventive intervention. Importantly, the study will assess cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness for broader implementation across similar communities in Australia and internationally. Discussion There is an urgent need to reduce the burden of dental decay in these communities, by implementing effective, cost-effective, feasible and sustainable dental prevention programs. Expected outcomes of this study include improved oral and general health of children within the community; an understanding of the costs associated with the intervention provided, and its comparison with the costs of allowing new lesions to develop, with associated treatment costs. Findings should be generalisable to similar communities around the world. The research is registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR), registration number ACTRN12615000693527; date of registration: 3rd July 2015

Search for direct pair production of the top squark in all-hadronic final states in proton-proton collisions at s√=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The results of a search for direct pair production of the scalar partner to the top quark using an integrated luminosity of 20.1fb−1 of proton–proton collision data at √s = 8 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC are reported. The top squark is assumed to decay via t˜→tχ˜01 or t˜→ bχ˜±1 →bW(∗)χ˜01 , where χ˜01 (χ˜±1 ) denotes the lightest neutralino (chargino) in supersymmetric models. The search targets a fully-hadronic final state in events with four or more jets and large missing transverse momentum. No significant excess over the Standard Model background prediction is observed, and exclusion limits are reported in terms of the top squark and neutralino masses and as a function of the branching fraction of t˜ → tχ˜01 . For a branching fraction of 100%, top squark masses in the range 270–645 GeV are excluded for χ˜01 masses below 30 GeV. For a branching fraction of 50% to either t˜ → tχ˜01 or t˜ → bχ˜±1 , and assuming the χ˜±1 mass to be twice the χ˜01 mass, top squark masses in the range 250–550 GeV are excluded for χ˜01 masses below 60 GeV

Observation of associated near-side and away-side long-range correlations in √sNN=5.02 TeV proton-lead collisions with the ATLAS detector

Two-particle correlations in relative azimuthal angle (Δϕ) and pseudorapidity (Δη) are measured in √sNN=5.02  TeV p+Pb collisions using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements are performed using approximately 1  μb-1 of data as a function of transverse momentum (pT) and the transverse energy (ΣETPb) summed over 3.1<η<4.9 in the direction of the Pb beam. The correlation function, constructed from charged particles, exhibits a long-range (2<|Δη|<5) “near-side” (Δϕ∼0) correlation that grows rapidly with increasing ΣETPb. A long-range “away-side” (Δϕ∼π) correlation, obtained by subtracting the expected contributions from recoiling dijets and other sources estimated using events with small ΣETPb, is found to match the near-side correlation in magnitude, shape (in Δη and Δϕ) and ΣETPb dependence. The resultant Δϕ correlation is approximately symmetric about π/2, and is consistent with a dominant cos⁡2Δϕ modulation for all ΣETPb ranges and particle pT