Vulvovaginal Trichosporonosis

Objective: Isolation of Trichosporon species from vaginal secretions is a rare event, and no data are available on its pathogenic role. A case series is presented to determine the pathogenic role of Trichosporon species in vulvovaginal infections. Methods: We performed a retrospective chart review of patients seen in the W.S.U. Vaginitis Clinic in order to identify patients from whom Trichosporon species were isolated. Results: Between 1986 and 2001, a total of 13 patients had a total of 18 positive vaginal cultures for Trichosporon species. All 18 vaginal isolates were T. inkin. In general, positive vaginal cultures were accompanied by low yeast colony counts. Four out of 18 positive T. inkin cultures were obtained from visits by asymptomatic patients. Of the remaining 14 positive T. inkin cultures from patients with symptoms, nine out of 14 cultures had other diagnoses (Candida albicans, six cases; bacterial vaginosis, two cases; Trichomonas, one case). Five positive T. inkin cultures were obtained from visits at which patients had symptoms and no associated diagnosis. In only one of the five episodes could we establish a clear pathogenic role for Trichosporon. In this case the patient was treated with boric acid and had resolution of symptoms and a negative culture at follow-up. In-vitro susceptibility tests revealed that T. inkin was resistant to flucytosine and susceptible to all topical and oral azoles. Conclusions: T. inkin is occasionally found in vulvovaginal cultures and is usually a non-pathogen. Transient colonization tended to occur in women, usually of African—American origin, with major perturbations in vaginal flora (bacterial vaginosis and trichomoniasis) and increased pH. Pathogenic consequences of Trichosporon colonization appear to be rare

Optimality of the Fastest Available Server Policy

We give sufficient conditions under which a policy that assigns customers to the Fastest Available Server, labelled FAS, is optimal in queueing models with multiple independent Poisson arrival processes and heterogeneous parallel exponential servers. The criterion is to minimize the long-run average cost per unit time. We obtain results for loss models and for queueing systems with a finite-capacity or infinite-capacity buffer under a head-of-the-line priority scheme. The results depend on cost assumptions, so we analyze the robustness of the cost structure and present counter-examples to illustrate when FAS is not optimal

Induction of Paralysis and Visual System Injury in Mice by T Cells Specific for Neuromyelitis Optica Autoantigen Aquaporin-4.

While it is recognized that aquaporin-4 (AQP4)-specific T cells and antibodies participate in the pathogenesis of neuromyelitis optica (NMO), a human central nervous system (CNS) autoimmune demyelinating disease, creation of an AQP4-targeted model with both clinical and histologic manifestations of CNS autoimmunity has proven challenging. Immunization of wild-type (WT) mice with AQP4 peptides elicited T cell proliferation, although those T cells could not transfer disease to naïve recipient mice. Recently, two novel AQP4 T cell epitopes, peptide (p) 135-153 and p201-220, were identified when studying immune responses to AQP4 in AQP4-deficient (AQP4-/-) mice, suggesting T cell reactivity to these epitopes is normally controlled by thymic negative selection. AQP4-/- Th17 polarized T cells primed to either p135-153 or p201-220 induced paralysis in recipient WT mice, that was associated with predominantly leptomeningeal inflammation of the spinal cord and optic nerves. Inflammation surrounding optic nerves and involvement of the inner retinal layers (IRL) were manifested by changes in serial optical coherence tomography (OCT). Here, we illustrate the approaches used to create this new in vivo model of AQP4-targeted CNS autoimmunity (ATCA), which can now be employed to study mechanisms that permit development of pathogenic AQP4-specific T cells and how they may cooperate with B cells in NMO pathogenesis

Majorana Neutrinos and Gravitational Oscillation

We analyze the possibility of encountering resonant transitions of high energy Majorana neutrinos produced in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). We consider gravitational, electromagnetic and matter effects and show that the latter are ignorable. Resonant oscillations due to the gravitational interactions are shown to occur at energies in the PeV range for magnetic moments in the $10^{-17} \mu_B$ range. Coherent precession will dominate for larger magnetic moments. The alllowed regions for gravitational resonant transitions are obtained.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, Latex; requires revtex and epsf.tex submitted to Physical Review

Thermally-driven morphing with high temperature composites

The thermal expansion mismatch between heat-resisting metals and high-temperature composite materials is explored as a method of achieving thermally-driven morphing in elevated-temperature environments, with an eye towards applications in variable-geometry hot structures in gas turbine engines. Three concepts are presented and demonstrated. The first thermal morphing system is a bimorph laminate which exploits the CTE mismatch between a titanium metal matrix composite and its parent titanium matrix material. The second concept is similar to the first, but uses a diffusion-bonded austenitic stainless steel alloy as the high expansion layer. The third concept utilizes a carbon fiber, silicon carbide matrix ceramic matrix composite joined to a stainless steel skin in a trailing-edge flap arrangement. Furnace-based experiments of cantilever-mounted specimens are performed to evaluate the displacement response of the metal-matrix and ceramic-matrix concepts at temperatures up to 606°C and 1035°C, respectively.</p

Coronary Artery Reperfusion

The effects of coronary artery reperfusion 3 hr after coronary occlusion on contractile function and the development of myocardial damage at 24 hr was studied experimentally. In 14 control and 6 reperfused dogs, relationships between epicardial ST segment elevation 15 min after coronary occlusion and myocardial creatine phosphokinase activity (CPK) and histologic appearance 24 hr later were examined. The electrocardiograms were recorded from 10 to 15 sites on the left ventricular epicardium and transmural samples for CPK and histology were obtained from the same sites where epicardial electrocardiograms had been recorded. An inverse relation existed between ST segment elevation (mv) 15 min after occlusion and log CPK activity (IU/ mg of protein) 24 hr later, log CPK = - 0.06ST + 1.26. In dogs subjected to coronary artery reperfusion, there was significantly less CPK depression (log CPK = - 0.01ST + 1.31, [P < 0.01]) than that expected from the control group. In the control group 97% of specimens showing ST segment elevations over 2 mv at 15 min showed abnormal histology 24 hr later. In contrast, in the reperfused group 43% of sites exhibiting elevated ST segment at 15 min showed abnormal histology 24 hr later. In six additional dogs it was shown that the paradoxical movement of the left ventricular wall could be reversed within 1 hr of perfusion. Therefore, by enzymatic and histologic criteria, as well as by functional assessment, coronary artery reperfusion 3 hr after occlusion resulted in salvage of myocardial tissue

Smoke gets in your eyes:what is sociological about cigarettes?

Contemporary public health approaches increasingly draw attention to the unequal social distribution of cigarette smoking. In contrast, critical accounts emphasize the importance of smokers’ situated agency, the relevance of embodiment and how public health measures against smoking potentially play upon and exacerbate social divisions and inequality. Nevertheless, if the social context of cigarettes is worthy of such attention, and sociology lays a distinct claim to understanding the social, we need to articulate a distinct, positive and systematic claim for smoking as an object of sociological enquiry. This article attempts to address this by situating smoking across three main dimensions of sociological thinking: history and social change; individual agency and experience; and social structures and power. It locates the emergence and development of cigarettes in everyday life within the project of modernity of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It goes on to assess the habituated, temporal and experiential aspects of individual smoking practices in everyday lifeworlds. Finally, it argues that smoking, while distributed in important ways by social class, also works relationally to render and inscribe it

Inference with interference between units in an fMRI experiment of motor inhibition

An experimental unit is an opportunity to randomly apply or withhold a treatment. There is interference between units if the application of the treatment to one unit may also affect other units. In cognitive neuroscience, a common form of experiment presents a sequence of stimuli or requests for cognitive activity at random to each experimental subject and measures biological aspects of brain activity that follow these requests. Each subject is then many experimental units, and interference between units within an experimental subject is likely, in part because the stimuli follow one another quickly and in part because human subjects learn or become experienced or primed or bored as the experiment proceeds. We use a recent fMRI experiment concerned with the inhibition of motor activity to illustrate and further develop recently proposed methodology for inference in the presence of interference. A simulation evaluates the power of competing procedures.Comment: Published by Journal of the American Statistical Association at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01621459.2012.655954 . R package cin (Causal Inference for Neuroscience) implementing the proposed method is freely available on CRAN at https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=ci