Prostate-specific membrane antigen: evidence for the existence of a second related human gene.

Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSM) is a glycoprotein recognised by the prostate-specific monoclonal antibody 7E11-C5, which was raised against the human prostatic carcinoma cell line LNCaP. A cDNA clone for PSM has been described. PSM is of clinical importance for a number of reasons. Radiolabelled antibody is being evaluated both as an imaging agent and as an immunotherapeutic in prostate cancer. Use of the PSM promoter has been advocated for gene therapy applications to drive prostate-specific gene expression. Although PSM is expressed in normal prostate as well as in primary and secondary prostatic carcinoma, different splice variants in malignant tissue afford the prospect of developing reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)-based diagnostic screens for the presence of prostatic carcinoma cells in the circulation. We have undertaken characterisation of the gene for PSM in view of the protein's interesting characteristics. Unexpectedly, we have found that there are other sequences apparently related to PSM in the human genome and that PSM genomic clones map to two separate and distinct loci on human chromosome 11. Investigation of the function of putative PSM-related genes will be necessary to enable us to define fully the role of PSM itself in the development of prostatic carcinoma and in the clinical management of this malignancy

Infective endocarditis caused by Salmonella enteritidis in a dialysis patient: a case report and literature review

BackgroundInfective endocarditis is significantly more common in haemodialysis patients as compared with the general population, the causative pathogen is generally Staphylococcus aureus; there have been no previously reported cases of infective endocarditis caused by a Salmonella species in haemodialysis patients.Case presentationWe report the case of a 68 year-old woman on haemodialysis who developed infective endocarditis as a result of Salmonella enteritidis. Although we treated the patient with ceftriaxone combined with ciprofloxacin, infective endocarditis was not detected early enough and unfortunately developed into cerebral septic emboli, which ultimately resulted in death.ConclusionAlthough there are several reports that Salmonella endocarditis without cardiac failure can be successfully treated with antibiotics alone, early surgical intervention is essential for some cases to prevent life-threatening complications. Transesophageal echocardiography should be performed in any patient with high clinical suspicion of infective endocarditis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case-report of Salmonella endocarditis in a haemodialysis patient

Intramural haematoma of the thoracic aorta: who's to be alerted the cardiologist or the cardiac surgeon?

This review article is written so as to present the pathophysiology, the symptomatology and the ways of diagnosis and treatment of a rather rare aortic disease called Intra-Mural Haematoma (IMH). Intramural haematoma is a quite uncommon but potentially lethal aortic disease that can strike as a primary occurrence in hypertensive and atherosclerotic patients to whom there is spontaneous bleeding from vasa vasorum into the aortic wall (media) or less frequently, as the evolution of a penetrating atherosclerotic ulcer (PAU). IMH displays a typical of dissection progress, and could be considered as a precursor of classic aortic dissection. IMH enfeebles the aortic wall and may progress to either outward rupture of the aorta or inward disruption of the intima layer, which ultimately results in aortic dissection. Chest and back acute penetrating pain is the most commonly noticed symptom at patients with IMH. Apart from a transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), a tomographic imaging such as a chest computed tomography (CT), a magnetic resonance (MRI) and most lately a multy detector computed tomography (MDCT) can ensure a quick and accurate diagnosis of IMH. Similar to type A and B aortic dissection, surgery is indicated at patients with type-A IMH, as well as at patients with a persistent and/or recurrent pain. For any other patient (with type-B IMH without an incessant pain and/or without complications), medical treatment is suggested, as applied in the case of aortic dissection. The outcome of IMH in ascending aorta (type A) appears favourable after immediate (emergent or urgent) surgical intervention, but according to international bibliography patients with IMH of the descending aorta (type B) show similar mortality rates to those being subjected to conservative medical or surgical treatment. Endovascular surgery and stent-graft placement is currently indicated in type B IMH

Action Without Awareness: Reaching to an Object You Do Not Remember Seeing

BACKGROUND: Previous work by our group has shown that the scaling of reach trajectories to target size is independent of obligatory awareness of that target property and that "action without awareness" can persist for up to 2000 ms of visual delay. In the present investigation we sought to determine if the ability to scale reaching trajectories to target size following a delay is related to the pre-computing of movement parameters during initial stimulus presentation or the maintenance of a sensory (i.e., visual) representation for on-demand response parameterization. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Participants completed immediate or delayed (i.e., 2000 ms) perceptual reports and reaching responses to different sized targets under non-masked and masked target conditions. For the reaching task, the limb associated with a trial (i.e., left or right) was not specified until the time of response cuing: a manipulation that prevented participants from pre-computing the effector-related parameters of their response. In terms of the immediate and delayed perceptual tasks, target size was accurately reported during non-masked trials; however, for masked trials only a chance level of accuracy was observed. For the immediate and delayed reaching tasks, movement time as well as other temporal kinematic measures (e.g., times to peak acceleration, velocity and deceleration) increased in relation to decreasing target size across non-masked and masked trials. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results demonstrate that speed-accuracy relations were observed regardless of whether participants were aware (i.e., non-masked trials) or unaware (i.e., masked trials) of target size. Moreover, the equivalent scaling of immediate and delayed reaches during masked trials indicates that a persistent sensory-based representation supports the unconscious and metrical scaling of memory-guided reaching

Erratum to: 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1208-6.]

Assessing Performance Using Kinesic Behavior Cues In A Game-Based Training Environment

Warfighters are trained in Behavior Cue Analysis to detect anomalies in their environment amongst several domains. This research highlights the Kinesics domain for Behavior Cue Analysis training. As efforts to transition from live, classroom-based training to distributed virtual environment training continue, investigating instructional gaming strategies that elicit improved performance and user perception becomes progressively important. Applying gaming strategies (e.g., goals, competition, feedback, etc.) to Simulation-Based Training, offers a novel approach to delivering the core curriculum for Behavior Cue Analysis. This paper examines two game-based strategies (i.e., excessive positive feedback and competition) to determine the difference in performance scores (i.e., detection and classification accuracy). The results showed no significant difference in performance; however, insight was gained on the significance of excessive positive feedback. Consequently, the paper considers the application of game-based strategies for training behavior cues, as well as discusses the limitations and alternatives for future research

Microbial deterioration of stored water for users supplied by stand-pipes and ground-tanks in a peri-urban community

Two forms of water service delivery in peri-urban settlements in the eThekwini municipal region are communal stand-pipes and household ground-tanks. Water from these sources requires storage prior to use. Previous studies have shown that water quality tends to deteriorate during storage. This study was conducted during the winter season and tested water from stand-pipe and ground-tank households for deterioration of microbial quality relative to source. Thirty stand-pipe and 27 ground- tank households were sampled for a period of 10 d. Samples were tested for total organisms, total coliforms, Escherichia coli, conductivity, turbidity, pH and free and total chlorine. Households were divided into groups on the basis of the age distribution of members to assess the impact of household composition on stored water quality. Stand-pipe households were further divided according to the type of water containers used. Results indicated that both ground-tank and stand-pipe water deteriorated during storage although ground-tank water was of better quality than stand-pipe water. There was no significant difference in water quality between stand-pipe households that used open-top containers and those that used closed-top containers. Comparison of the water quality relative to age distribution of households showed that householders were at increased risk of consuming faecally contaminated water if children were present in the case of households supplied by ground- tanks, but not for those supplied by stand-pipes. Results from stand-pipe households with adults only indicated that such households maintained better personal hygiene but lower container hygiene than those households consisting of children, whereas the opposite effect was seen in those stand-pipe households with children present

Immersion, Presence, And Flow In Robot-Aided Isr Simulation-Based Training

The Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) domain offers a rich application environment for Soldier-Robot teaming and involves multiple tasks that can be effectively allocated across human and robot assets based upon their capabilities. The U.S.armed Forces envisions Robot-Aided ISR (RAISR) as a strategic advantage and decisive force multiplier. Given the rapid advancement of robotics, Human Systems Integration (HSI) represents a critical risk to the success of RAISR. Simulation-Based Training (SBT) will play a key role in mitigating HSI risks and migrating from traditional Soldier-Robot operation to mixed-initiative teaming. However, research is required to understand the SBT methods and tools most applicable to the RAISR task domain. This paper summarizes results from empirical experimentation aimed at comparing traditional SBT strategies (e.g., Massed Exposure, Highlighting), and understanding the impact of Immersion, Presence, and Flow on performance. Relationships between Immersion, Presence, and Flow are explored and recommendations for future research are included