Vibrio parahaemolyticus, enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli, enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli and Vibrio cholerae

This review highlighted the following: (i) pathogenic mechanism of the thermostable direct hemolysin produced by Vibrio parahaemolyticus, especially on its cardiotoxicity, (ii) heat-labile and heat-stable enterotoxins produced by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli, especially structure–activity relationship of heat-stable enterotoxin, (iii) RNA N-glycosidase activity of Vero toxins (VT1 and VT2) produced by enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7, (iv) discovery of Vibrio cholerae O139, (v) isolation of new variant of Vibrio cholerae O1 El Tor that carries classical ctxB, and production of high concentration of cholera toxin by these strains, and (vi) conversion of viable but nonculturable (VBNC) Vibrio cholerae to culturable state by co-culture with eukaryotic cells

HMBE-1 immunostaining in thyroid fine-needle aspirations: A useful marker in the diagnosis of carcinoma

The monoclonal antibody, HBME-1, generated against the microvillous surface of mesothelial cells, has been shown to have significant reactivity in histologic sections of follicular-derived thyroid malignancies. We examined the diagnostic utility of HBME-1 in thyroid fine-needle aspiration (FNA) specimens. Twenty-four aspirates from 23 patients were evaluated. Only cases with adequate cell blocks and tissue follow-up were studied. Immunocytochemical analysis was performed on air-dried, direct smears and on sections from Bouin's-fixed, paraffin-embedded cell blocks with a standard avidin-biotin peroxidase complex method with epitope retrieval. The same immunostaining technique was applied to the corresponding formalin-fixed tissue sections. Eight (57%) of the 14 malignant aspirates showed strong cytoplasmic and/or membrane immunoreactivity for HBME-1. The cell-block and direct-smear preparations were positive in five of seven papillary carcinomas (one follicular variant), one of one minimally invasive follicular carcinoma, and one of four hybrid tumors with mixed papillary and follicular features. An additional hybrid tumor case was locally positive only in the smear slide. The eighth positive case was an adenosquamous carcinoma of the larynx that invaded into the thyroid (smear preparation was negative for this case) The 10 benign lesions were negative. All of the malignant-tumor tissue sections were positive for HBME-1, and focal positivity was seen in 5 of 10 benign resection specimens. We conclude that a positive immunostain for HBME-1 on a thyroid FNA is supportive evidence that the lesion is a carcinoma, that a negative result for HBME-1 does not preclude the diagnosis of thyroid carcinoma, and that HBME-1 can be effectively applied to thyroid FNA specimens and can be a valuable adjunct in the cytologic diagnosis of thyroid malignancies

HMBE-1 immunostaining in thyroid fine-needle aspirations: A useful marker in the diagnosis of carcinoma

The monoclonal antibody, HBME-1, generated against the microvillous surface of mesothelial cells, has been shown to have significant reactivity in histologic sections of follicular-derived thyroid malignancies. We examined the diagnostic utility of HBME-1 in thyroid fine-needle aspiration (FNA) specimens. Twenty-four aspirates from 23 patients were evaluated. Only cases with adequate cell blocks and tissue follow-up were studied. Immunocytochemical analysis was performed on air-dried, direct smears and on sections from Bouin's-fixed, paraffin-embedded cell blocks with a standard avidin-biotin peroxidase complex method with epitope retrieval. The same immunostaining technique was applied to the corresponding formalin-fixed tissue sections. Eight (57%) of the 14 malignant aspirates showed strong cytoplasmic and/or membrane immunoreactivity for HBME-1. The cell-block and direct-smear preparations were positive in five of seven papillary carcinomas (one follicular variant), one of one minimally invasive follicular carcinoma, and one of four hybrid tumors with mixed papillary and follicular features. An additional hybrid tumor case was locally positive only in the smear slide. The eighth positive case was an adenosquamous carcinoma of the larynx that invaded into the thyroid (smear preparation was negative for this case) The 10 benign lesions were negative. All of the malignant-tumor tissue sections were positive for HBME-1, and focal positivity was seen in 5 of 10 benign resection specimens. We conclude that a positive immunostain for HBME-1 on a thyroid FNA is supportive evidence that the lesion is a carcinoma, that a negative result for HBME-1 does not preclude the diagnosis of thyroid carcinoma, and that HBME-1 can be effectively applied to thyroid FNA specimens and can be a valuable adjunct in the cytologic diagnosis of thyroid malignancies

Cognitive predictors of reactive and proactive aggression in a forensic sample: A comparison with a non-clinical sample

This study aimed at examining cognitive predictors of reactive and proactive aggression in a forensic-psychiatric (n = 80) and a non-clinical sample (n = 98; Brugman et al., 2015). Three different cognitive predictors were incorporated: (1) attentional bias towards aggressive stimuli (measured with Emotional Stroop task) and towards angry faces (measured with a visual search task); (2) interpretation biases (measured with Aggressive Interpretative Bias Task (AIBT) and a vignette task), and (3) implicit self-aggression association (measured with a Single-Target Implicit Association Task). To measure aggression, the Reactive-Proactive Aggression Questionnaire (RPQ) and the Taylor Aggression Paradigm (TAP) were used. An automatic self-aggression association positively predicted proactive aggressive behavior on the TAP in both samples. Furthermore, this self-aggression association predicted, increased self-reported proactive aggression (RPQ) in the forensic sample only. Pain, injury, and danger interpretations reported on the vignettes, negatively predicted self-reported proactive aggression in both samples. A stronger aggressive interpretation bias on the AIBT predicted more reactive aggressive behavior (TAP) in the non-clinical sample only. Taken together, findings show both common and distinct mechanisms in reactively vs. proactively driven aggressive behavior

Edges and switches, tunnels and bridges

Edge casing is a well-known method to improve the readability of drawings of non-planar graphs. A cased drawing orders the edges of each edge crossing and interrupts the lower edge in an appropriate neighborhood of the crossing. Certain orders will lead to a more readable drawing than others. We formulate several optimization criteria that try to capture the concept of a "good" cased drawing. Further, we address the algorithmic question of how to turn a given drawing into an optimal cased drawing. For many of the resulting optimization problems, we either find polynomial time algorithms or NP-hardness results

Trajectory grouping structure

The collective motion of a set of moving entities like people, birds, or other animals, is characterized by groups arising, merging, splitting, and ending. Given the trajectories of these entities, we define and model a structure that captures all of such changes using the Reeb graph, a concept from topology. The trajectory grouping structure has three natural parameters, namely group size, group duration, and entity inter-distance. These parameters allow us to obtain detailed or global views of the data. We prove complexity bounds on the maximum number of maximal groups that can be present, and give algorithms to compute the grouping structure efficiently. Furthermore, we showcase the results of experiments using data generated by the NetLogo flocking model and from the Starkey project. Although there is no ground truth for the groups in this data, the experiments show that the trajectory grouping structure is plausible and has the desired effects when changing the essential parameters. Our research provides the first complete study of trajectory group evolvement, including combinatorial, algorithmic, and experimental results