Polymerase chain reaction amplifying mycobacterial DNA from aspirates obtained by endoscopic ultrasound allows accurate diagnosis of mycobacterial disease in HIV-positive patients with abdominal lymphadenopathy

Abdominal lymphadopathy in Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection remains a diagnostic challenge. We performed a prospective cohort study recruiting thirty-one symptomatic HIV+ patients with abdominal lymphadenopathy assessing diagnostic yield of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) fine needle aspiration (FNA). Mean age was 38 years, 52% were female, mean CD4 count and viral load were 124 cells/pl, and 4 log respectively. EUS confirmed additional mediastinal nodes in 26 %. Porta- hepatis was the most common abdominal site. EUS FNA was subjected to cytology, culture and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis. Mycobacterial infections were confirmed in 67.7% and 31% had reactive lymphadenopathy. Cytology and culture had low sensitivity whereas PCR identified 90% of mycobacterial infections. Combining appearance of EUS FNA and cytology a diagnostic algorithm was developed to indicate when analysis with PCR would be useful. PCR performed on an EUS guided aspirate was highly accurate in confirming mycobacterial disease and determining genotypic drug resistance.South African Gastroenterological Society (SAGES)/ Astra Zeneca Fellowship in Gastroenterology awarded to Schalk van der Merwehttp://www.journals.elsevier.com/ultrasound-in-medicine-and-biology/hb201

LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products

(Abridged) We describe here the most ambitious survey currently planned in the optical, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). A vast array of science will be enabled by a single wide-deep-fast sky survey, and LSST will have unique survey capability in the faint time domain. The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the Solar System, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. LSST will be a wide-field ground-based system sited at Cerro Pach\'{o}n in northern Chile. The telescope will have an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg$^2$ field of view, and a 3.2 Gigapixel camera. The standard observing sequence will consist of pairs of 15-second exposures in a given field, with two such visits in each pointing in a given night. With these repeats, the LSST system is capable of imaging about 10,000 square degrees of sky in a single filter in three nights. The typical 5$\sigma$ point-source depth in a single visit in $r$ will be $\sim 24.5$ (AB). The project is in the construction phase and will begin regular survey operations by 2022. The survey area will be contained within 30,000 deg$^2$ with $\delta<+34.5^\circ$, and will be imaged multiple times in six bands, $ugrizy$, covering the wavelength range 320--1050 nm. About 90\% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode which will uniformly observe a 18,000 deg$^2$ region about 800 times (summed over all six bands) during the anticipated 10 years of operations, and yield a coadded map to $r\sim27.5$. The remaining 10\% of the observing time will be allocated to projects such as a Very Deep and Fast time domain survey. The goal is to make LSST data products, including a relational database of about 32 trillion observations of 40 billion objects, available to the public and scientists around the world.Comment: 57 pages, 32 color figures, version with high-resolution figures available from https://www.lsst.org/overvie

Horizontal versus familial transmission of Helicobacter pylori.

Transmission of Helicobacter pylori is thought to occur mainly during childhood, and predominantly within families. However, due to the difficulty of obtaining H. pylori isolates from large population samples and to the extensive genetic diversity between isolates, the transmission and spread of H. pylori remain poorly understood. We studied the genetic relationships of H. pylori isolated from 52 individuals of two large families living in a rural community in South Africa and from 43 individuals of 11 families living in urban settings in the United Kingdom, the United States, Korea, and Colombia. A 3,406 bp multilocus sequence haplotype was determined for a total of 142 H. pylori isolates. Isolates were assigned to biogeographic populations, and recent transmission was measured as the occurrence of non-unique isolates, i.e., isolates whose sequences were identical to those of other isolates. Members of urban families were almost always infected with isolates from the biogeographic population that is common in their location. Non-unique isolates were frequent in urban families, consistent with familial transmission between parents and children or between siblings. In contrast, the diversity of H. pylori in the South African families was much more extensive, and four distinct biogeographic populations circulated in this area. Non-unique isolates were less frequent in South African families, and there was no significant correlation between kinship and similarity of H. pylori sequences. However, individuals who lived in the same household did have an increased probability of carrying the same non-unique isolates of H. pylori, independent of kinship. We conclude that patterns of spread of H. pylori under conditions of high prevalence, such as the rural South African families, differ from those in developed countries. Horizontal transmission occurs frequently between persons who do not belong to a core family, blurring the pattern of familial transmission that is typical of developed countries. Predominantly familial transmission in urban societies is likely a result of modern living conditions with good sanitation and where physical contact between persons outside the core family is limited and regulated by societal rules. The patterns observed in rural South African families may be representative of large parts of the developing world

Agreement on endoscopic ultrasonography-guided tissue specimens: Comparing a 20-G fine-needle biopsy to a 25-G fine-needle aspiration needle among academic and non-academic pathologists

Background and Aim: A recently carried out randomized controlled trial showed the benefit of a novel 20-G fine-needle biopsy (FNB) over a 25-G fine-needle aspiration (FNA) needle. The current study evaluated the reproducibility of these findings among expert academic and non-academic pathologists. Methods: This study was a side-study of the ASPRO (ASpiration versus PROcore) study. Five centers retrieved 74 (59%) consecutive FNB and 51 (41%) FNA samples from the ASPRO study according to randomization; 64 (51%) pancreatic and 61 (49%) lymph node specimens. Samples were re-reviewed by five expert academic and five non-academic pathologists and rated in terms of sample quality and diagnosis. Ratings were compared between needles, expert academic and

Sobre la sátira española del siglo XV

En el siglo xv era la sátira tan poco conocida en España como en el resto de países de lengua romance. Aún no se había redescubierto la forma al estilo de Horacio, en la que más tarde iba a continuar desarrollándose. Sin embargo, la palabra—escrita o hablada— con carácter crítico o satírico se había forjado ya en el Libro de buen amor, y en la obra del Canciller Ayala, ha ganado en precisión, riqueza y agilidad. Y cuando los poetas del siglo XV —aquella poesía de protestade la edad media castellana— cogieron la pluma para darvuelo a sus \ua0pensamientos, crearon una lengua flexible

Le rayonnement de l'Encyclopédie en Allemagne

Schalk Fritz. Le rayonnement de l'Encyclopédie en Allemagne. In: Cahiers de l'Association internationale des études francaises, 1951, n°1-2. pp. 85-91

L'Allemagne du XVIIe siècle devant la France

Schalk Fritz. L'Allemagne du XVIIe siècle devant la France. In: Cahiers de l'Association internationale des études francaises, 1956, n°8. pp. 81-88