103 research outputs found
Endoscopic versus percutaneous drainage of symptomatic pancreatic fluid collections: a 14-year experience from a tertiary hepatobiliary centre
INTRODUCTION: Endoscopic transmural drainage (ED) or percutaneous drainage (PD) has mostly replaced surgery for the initial management of patients with symptomatic pancreatic fluid collections (PFCs). This study aimed to compare outcomes for patients undergoing ED or PD of symptomatic PFCs. METHODS: Between January 2000 and December 2013, all patients who required PD or ED of a PFC were included. Rates of treatment success, length of hospital stay, adverse events, re-interventions and length of follow-up were recorded retrospectively in all cases. RESULTS: In total, 164 patients were included in the study; 109 patients underwent ED; and 55 had PD alone. During the 14-year study period, the incidence of ED increased and PD fell. In the 109 patients who were managed by ED, treatment success was considerably higher than in those managed by PD (70 vs. 31 %). Rates of procedural adverse events were higher in the ED cohort compared to the PD group (10 vs. 1 %), but patients managed by ED required fewer interventions (median of 1.8 vs. 3.3) had lower rates of residual collections (21 vs. 67 %) and need for surgical intervention (4 vs. 11 %). In the ED group, treatment success was similar for walled-off pancreatic necrosis (WOPN) and pseudocysts (67 vs. 72 %, P = 0.77). There were no procedure-related deaths. CONCLUSION: Compared with PD, ED of symptomatic PFCs was associated with higher rates of treatment success, lower rates of re-intervention, including surgery and shorter lengths of hospital stay. Outcomes in WOPN were comparable to those in patients with pseudocysts
A Domain Decomposition Strategy for Alignment of Multiple Biological Sequences on Multiprocessor Platforms
Multiple Sequences Alignment (MSA) of biological sequences is a fundamental
problem in computational biology due to its critical significance in wide
ranging applications including haplotype reconstruction, sequence homology,
phylogenetic analysis, and prediction of evolutionary origins. The MSA problem
is considered NP-hard and known heuristics for the problem do not scale well
with increasing number of sequences. On the other hand, with the advent of new
breed of fast sequencing techniques it is now possible to generate thousands of
sequences very quickly. For rapid sequence analysis, it is therefore desirable
to develop fast MSA algorithms that scale well with the increase in the dataset
size. In this paper, we present a novel domain decomposition based technique to
solve the MSA problem on multiprocessing platforms. The domain decomposition
based technique, in addition to yielding better quality, gives enormous
advantage in terms of execution time and memory requirements. The proposed
strategy allows to decrease the time complexity of any known heuristic of
O(N)^x complexity by a factor of O(1/p)^x, where N is the number of sequences,
x depends on the underlying heuristic approach, and p is the number of
processing nodes. In particular, we propose a highly scalable algorithm,
Sample-Align-D, for aligning biological sequences using Muscle system as the
underlying heuristic. The proposed algorithm has been implemented on a cluster
of workstations using MPI library. Experimental results for different problem
sizes are analyzed in terms of quality of alignment, execution time and
speed-up.Comment: 36 pages, 17 figures, Accepted manuscript in Journal of Parallel and
Distributed Computing(JPDC
Molecular evidence of Rickettsia felis infection in dogs from northern territory, Australia
The prevalence of spotted fever group rickettsial infection in dogs from a remote indigenous community in the Northern Territory (NT) was determined using molecular tools. Blood samples collected from 130 dogs in the community of Maningrida were subjected to a spotted fever group (SFG)-specific PCR targeting the ompB gene followed by a Rickettsia felis-specific PCR targeting the gltA gene of R. felis. Rickettsia felis ompB and gltA genes were amplified from the blood of 3 dogs. This study is the first report of R. felis infection in indigenous community dogs in NT
Sustained CD28 Expression Delays Multiple Features of Replicative Senescence in Human CD8 T Lymphocytes
CD28 costimulatory signal transduction in T lymphocytes is essential for optimal telomerase activity, stabilization of cytokine mRNAs, and glucose metabolism. During aging and chronic infection with HIV-1, there are increased proportions of CD8 T lymphocytes that lack CD28 expression and show additional features of replicative senescence. Moreover, the abundance of these cells correlates with decreased vaccine responsiveness, early mortality in the very old, and accelerated HIV disease progression. Here, we show that sustained expression of CD28, via gene transduction, retards the process of replicative senescence, as evidenced by enhanced telomerase activity, increased overall proliferative potential, and reduced secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Nevertheless, the transduced cultures eventually do reach senescence, which is associated with increased CTLA-4 gene expression and a loss of CD28 cell surface expression. These findings further elucidate the central role of CD28 in the replicative senescence program, and may ultimately lead to novel therapies for diseases associated with replicative senescence
MEKK1-MKK4-JNK-AP1 Pathway Negatively Regulates Rgs4 Expression in Colonic Smooth Muscle Cells
Background: Regulator of G-protein Signaling 4 (RGS4) plays an important role in regulating smooth muscle contraction, cardiac development, neural plasticity and psychiatric disorder. However, the underlying regulatory mechanisms remain elusive. Our recent studies have shown that upregulation of Rgs4 by interleukin (IL)-1b is mediated by the activation of NFkB signaling and modulated by extracellular signal-regulated kinases, p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase, and phosphoinositide-3 kinase. Here we investigate the effect of the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) pathway on Rgs4 expression in rabbit colonic smooth muscle cells. Methodology/Principal Findings: Cultured cells at first passage were treated with or without IL-1b (10 ng/ml) in the presence or absence of the selective JNK inhibitor (SP600125) or JNK small hairpin RNA (shRNA). The expression levels of Rgs4 mRNA and protein were determined by real-time RT-PCR and Western blot respectively. SP600125 or JNK shRNA increased Rgs4 expression in the absence or presence of IL-1b stimulation. Overexpression of MEKK1, the key upstream kinase of JNK, inhibited Rgs4 expression, which was reversed by co-expression of JNK shRNA or dominant-negative mutants for MKK4 or JNK. Both constitutive and inducible upregulation of Rgs4 expression by SP600125 was significantly inhibited by pretreatment with the transcription inhibitor, actinomycin D. Dual reporter assay showed that pretreatment with SP600125 sensitized the promoter activity of Rgs4 in response to IL-1b. Mutation of the AP1-binding site within Rgs
Organic pollutants in sea-surface microlayer and aerosol in thecoastal environment of Leghorn—(Tyrrhenian Sea)
The levels of dissolved and particle-associated n-alkanes, alkylbenzenes, phthalates, PAHs, anionic surfactants and
surfactant fluorescent organic matter ŽSFOM. were measured in sea-surface microlayer ŽSML. and sub-surface water ŽSSL.
samples collected in the Leghorn marine environment in September and October 1999.
Nine stations, located in the Leghorn harbour and at increasing distances from the Port, were sampled three times on the
same day. At all the stations, SML concentrations of the selected organic compounds were significantly higher than SSL
values and the enrichment factors ŽEFsSML concentrationrSSL concentration. were greater in the particulate phase than
in the dissolved phase.
SML concentrations varied greatly among the sampling sites, the highest levels Žn-alkanes 3674 mgrl, phthalates 177
mgrl, total PAHs 226 mgrl. being found in the particulate phase in the Leghorn harbour.
To improve the knowledge on pollutant exchanges between sea-surface waters and atmosphere, the validity of spray drop
adsorption model ŽSDAM. was verified for SFOM, surface-active agents, such as phthalates, and compounds which can
interact with SFOM, such as n-alkanes and PAHs. q2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved
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