Neurodevelopmental implications of DLX2 homeobox gene expression in human gangliogliomas

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Bythocaris cosmetops (Decapoda: Caridea: Hippolytidae) in the western Mediterranean Sea

The capture of the species Bythocaris cosmetops in the Alboran Sea (southern Spain, western Mediterranean Sea), previously known from only two specimens from the Atlantic, Sierra Leone (south-west Africa) and the northern Bay of Biscay (north-west Europe), represents the first record of the genus and species in the Mediterranean Sea and Iberian Peninsula (south-west Europe). New data on morphology, biology and habitat are provided and discussed.Postprint0,000

Bayesian geostatistical modelling for mapping schistosomiasis transmission

Progress has been made in mapping and predicting the risk of schistosomiasis using Bayesian geostatistical inference. Applications primarily focused on risk profiling of prevalence rather than infection intensity, although the latter is particularly important for morbidity control. In this review, the underlying assumptions used in a study mapping Schistosoma mansoni infection intensity in East Africa are examined. We argue that the assumption of stationarity needs to be relaxed, and that the negative binomial assumption might result in misleading inference because of a high number of excess zeros (individuals without an infection). We developed a Bayesian geostatistical zero-inflated (ZI) regression model that assumes a non-stationary spatial process. Our model is validated with a high-quality georeferenced database from western Côte d'Ivoire, consisting of demographic, environmental, parasitological and socio-economic data. Nearly 40% of the 3818 participating schoolchildren were infected with S. mansoni, and the mean egg count among infected children was 162 eggs per gram of stool (EPG), ranging between 24 and 6768 EPG. Compared to a negative binomial and ZI Poisson and negative binomial models, the Bayesian non-stationary ZI negative binomial model showed a better fit to the data. We conclude that geostatistical ZI models produce more accurate maps of helminth infection intensity than the spatial negative binomial one

Massive pulmonary embolism as a rare complication of a stab in the inguinal region in a HIV-positive patient: a case report

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a severe preventable disease; HIV-infection represents a prothrombotic condition, because of specific factors due to the virus itself, the host response and the antiretroviral therapy. Our aim is to raise awareness of thromboembolic risk when dealing with HIV-positive patients presenting to the Emergency Department for treatment of injuries, even though small

High-resolution Extinction Map in the Direction of the Bulge Globular Cluster NGC 6440

We used optical images acquired with the UVIS channel of the Wide Field Camera 3 on board the Hubble Space Telescope to construct the first high-resolution extinction map in the direction of NGC 6440, a globular cluster located in the bulge of our Galaxy. The map has a spatial resolution of 0.\u20335 over a rectangular region of about 160\u2033 7 240\u2033 around the cluster center, with the long side in the northwest/southeast direction. We found that the absorption clouds show patchy and filamentary substructures with extinction variations as large as \u3b4E(B-V) 3c0.5 mag. We also performed a first-order proper motion analysis to distinguish cluster members from field interlopers. After the field decontamination and the differential reddening correction, the cluster sequences in the color-magnitude diagram appear much better defined, providing the best optical color-magnitude diagram so far available for this cluster

Saccular Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm and Kidney Cancer: Simultaneous Surgical Repair

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A Computer Aided Detection system for mammographic images implemented on a GRID infrastructure

The use of an automatic system for the analysis of mammographic images has proven to be very useful to radiologists in the investigation of breast cancer, especially in the framework of mammographic-screening programs. A breast neoplasia is often marked by the presence of microcalcification clusters and massive lesions in the mammogram: hence the need for tools able to recognize such lesions at an early stage. In the framework of the GPCALMA (GRID Platform for Computer Assisted Library for MAmmography) project, the co-working of italian physicists and radiologists built a large distributed database of digitized mammographic images (about 5500 images corresponding to 1650 patients) and developed a CAD (Computer Aided Detection) system, able to make an automatic search of massive lesions and microcalcification clusters. The CAD is implemented in the GPCALMA integrated station, which can be used also for digitization, as archive and to perform statistical analyses. Some GPCALMA integrated stations have already been implemented and are currently on clinical trial in some italian hospitals. The emerging GRID technology can been used to connect the GPCALMA integrated stations operating in different medical centers. The GRID approach will support an effective tele- and co-working between radiologists, cancer specialists and epidemiology experts by allowing remote image analysis and interactive online diagnosis.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the 13th IEEE-NPSS Real Time Conference 2003, Montreal, Canada, May 18-23 200