Calcofluor white stain for the detection of Pneumocystis carinii in transbronchial lung biopsy specimens: a study of 68 cases

Calcofluor white (CFW), a chemofluorescent agent, has proven effective in the recognition of Pneumocystis carinii cysts in respiratory fluids and secretions. However, its usefulness in the recognition of P. carinii cysts in tissue preparations has not been established. We studied 68 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded, transbronchial tissue biopsy specimens from individuals seropositive for the human immunodeficiency virus and stained them with the CFW stain and the conventional Gomori methenamine silver (GMS) stain to determine the concordance rate of the two stains. CFW-positive specimens showed light peripheral staining and a unique double parenthesis-like structure near the center of the cysts. Thirty-six (52.9%) of the 68 specimens were CFW and GMS positive, whereas 27 (39.7%) of the specimens were negative by both techniques, yielding a concordance rate of 92.6%. Five (7.4%) of the 68 specimens showed disparate results, and, of these, four (5.9%) were CFW positive and GMS negative, whereas one (1.5%) was CFW negative and GMS positive. We conclude that the CFW stain is suitable and useful for the demonstration of P. carinii cysts in tissue preparations.     

Haemorrhages in the posterior cricoarytenoid muscles--an unspecific autopsy finding

Genomic mismatch scanning (GMS) is a technique that enriches for regions of identity by descent (IBD) between two individuals without the need for genotyping or sequencing. Regions of IBD selected by GMS are mapped by hybridization to a microarray containing ordered clones of genomic DNA from chromosomes of interest. Here we demonstrate the feasibility and efficacy of this form of linkage-mapping, using congenital hyperinsulinism (HI), an autosomal recessive disease, whose relatively high frequency in Ashkenazi Jews suggests a founder effect. The gene responsible (SUR1) encodes the sulfonylurea receptor, which maps to chromosome 11p15.1. We show that the combination of GMS and hybridization of IBD products to a chromosome-11 microarray correctly maps the HI gene to a 2-Mb region, thereby demonstrating linkage-disequilibrium mapping without genotyping.     

Underrepresented students in STEM: The transition from undergraduate to graduate programs.

We used longitudinal tracking data from Cohorts I and II of the Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) Program to test whether this intervention program and being a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) undergraduate major helped underrepresented students transition into STEM graduate degree programs in 2006–2007. We found that being a GMS Scholar increased the odds of being currently enrolled in a graduate program and in a STEM graduate field, regardless of whether the student was a STEM undergraduate major. We also found that STEM undergraduate majors were more likely to transition into these graduate degree programs, and that being an undergraduate STEM major was especially beneficial to GMS Scholars. These findings varied considerably across underrepresented groups. We found that undergraduate intervention programs can both retain and insert underrepresented students at the STEM graduate level, thus potentially adding needed diversity at these educational levels. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Secondary Coincidence Site Lattice Model for Truncated Triangular β-Mg2Sn Precipitates in a Mg-Sn-Based Alloy

This article presents a model of a secondary coincidence site lattice (CSL^ΙΙ). It is applied to interpret a truncated triangular morphology of β-Mg₂Sn precipitates in an Mg-Sn-based alloy. With a slight long-range strain being accommodated elastically, the distribution of good matching sites (GMS) on interfaces between the β-Mg₂Sn precipitates and α-Mg matrix exhibits double periodicity. One is within GMS clusters, and the other is carried by the constrained-CSL^ΙΙ (CCSL^ΙΙ) points at the centers of the GMS clusters. The calculated results fully agree with the experimental results, including the irrational orientation relationship, the habit plane, and the irrational side facets. The preferred state of the interfaces, the preferred ledge height, and the preferred Burgers vectors of secondary dislocations have been discussed.     

Prevalence of dementia in a rural setting: A report from India

A study to estimate the prevalence of dementia in a rural population was conducted in a community located on the outskirts of Madras city in South India. Seven hundred and fifty elderly 60 years of age and older, selected using the cluster sampling technique, were interviewed using the Geriatric Mental State schedule (GMS). The prevalence of dementia was 3.5%, the percentage increasing with age. These rural prevalence estimates were higher than in urban settings (WHO multicentre study on cognitive impairment and dementia in developed and developing countries, unpublished) and male/female differences were negligible. The difficulties associated with the use of the GMS in a non-literature rural population are discussed. The implications of these findings for India's growing elderly population are highlighted.     

Bohai Sea Ice Monitoring Using Satellite Images

Sea ice monitoring and forecasting in the Bohai Sea is an operational task of the National Research Center for Marine Forecasts (NRCMEF), China. An overview of current satellite image receiving and processing systems at NRCMEF in relation to the Bohai Sea ice monitoring, including the use of NOAA-AVHRR, GMS, SAR of ERS-1, Radarsat, and SeaWiFS data, is presented.     

Impact of a collaborative immunisation programme in an inner city practice

OBJECTIVES: To describe the impact of a collaborative immunisation programme, between an inner city practice and the Eastern Health Board (EHB). DESIGN: An observational study using a computer database formed from practice and EHB records. SETTING: One Dublin inner city practice with three partners located in an area with a deprived socio-economic profile. SUBJECTS: All patients in the practice aged more than six months and less than five years identified both from practice registers and opportunistically during study period. RESULTS: 342 children, older than six months and less than five years were identified at start and 464 (a 36% increase) by end of the programme. Uptake changed for DPT from 30% before, to 57% after the programme (p < 0.0005), for DT from 15% to 13%, for Hib from 7% to 50% (p < 0.0005) and for MMR (over 15 months) from 53% to 75% (p < 0.0005). Uptake of the DPT, Hib and MMR was 35% among GMS eligible, 51% among GMS ineligible (p < 0.005). CONCLUSION: A collaborative immunisation programme significantly improved practice uptake rates. These improved rates still do not attain declared national targets. To achieve these targets, radical overhaul of the immunisation service is required.     

A new technology for coprocessing man-made wastes

The possibility of the selective separation of components of starting materials with concentrations of Fe, P, and Ga in cast iron and Al₂O₃, TiO₂, and Sc₂O₃ in slag suitable for cement production is established based on the results of reduction smeltings of cakes after leaching the mixtures of greasy mill scale (GMS) with 75 and 100% red mud (RM) and fired pellets made of these cakes. It is shown that, depending on how long the melts were held (20–60 min at 1620°C), the components are transferred into cast iron: 98 Fe, 22–66 Si, 1 S, 99 P, 11–20 Ti, and 98–99% Ga. Components that are concentrated in slag are 95–99 Al₂O₃, 55–65 SiO₂, 88–90 TiO₂, and 98–99% Sc₂O₃. A flowchart of the joint utilization of GMS and RM is developed.     

A semi-structured clinical interview for the assessment of diagnosis and mental state in the elderly: the Geriatric Mental State Schedule. I. Development and reliability

A standardized, semi-structured interview for examining and recording the mental state in elderly subjects is described. It allows the classification of patients by symptom profile and can demonstrate changes in that profile over time. It is believed that good reliability is demonstrated between psychiatric raters both for psychiatric diagnosis made on the basis of the schedule findings and for individual items. The Geriatric Mental State Schedule (GMS) consists mainly of items from the eighth edition of the PSE (Wing et al. 1967), together with additional items from the PSS (Spitzer et al. 1964), and extra sections dealing with disorientation and other cognitive abnormalities. Modifications have been introduced to facilitate interviewing elderly subjects.     

基于FEMWATER矿冶污水在岩土介质扩散的三维数值模拟

GMS（Groundwater Modeling System）中集成的三维有限元FEMWATER（Finite Element Groundwater Flow Modeling Software）模块依赖诸多优点和优良的三维可视化效果。在矿冶污水扩散的三维数值模拟应用中正逐渐引起人们的关注。本文在介绍矿冶污水扩散机理和FEMWATER基础上。利用三维有限元软件FEMWATER建立矿冶污染物质对地下水环境影响的三维模型。从定量化角度。模拟了矿冶污水在岩土介质中动力学弥散的动态变化过程，得到良好的效果.     

Child rearing attitudes of mothers and fathers as reported by schizophrenic and normal patients.

To determine the significant aspects of family background as perceived by schizophrenics, Ss were asked to think back to the time when they were 13 or 14 and answer a questionnaire on child rearing practices as they were conceived to be reflected in the attitudes of their parents at that time. The responses of schizophrenics with good and poor premorbid backgrounds were compared with each other and to GMS patients. The results indicate that there was a significant and direct relationship between level of adjustment and degree of deviance in postulated parental attitudes. Parents, in general, are perceived to be dominating rather than overprotective or rejecting. Normals and schizophrenics differ significantly in describing familial attitudes, although all seem to perceive father as dominant, mother as over-protective. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4JQ76G. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The diagnosis of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia by cytologic evaluation of Papanicolaou and Leishman-stained bronchoalveolar specimens in patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome

The presence of foamy alveolar casts or flocculent material in Papanicolaou and Leishman-stained smears of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid is said to be indicative of infection with Pneumocystis carinii. We have investigated the sensitivity and specificity of this method of diagnosing pneumocystis pneumonia in patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Patients (n = 114) with diffuse lung infiltrates were submitted to fibreoptic bronchoscopy and BAL. Seventy of them were patients with AIDS. The other 44 individuals were not infected by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Pneumocystis carinii organisms were identified on Grocott's methenamine silver (GMS)-stained BAL smears in 30 patients with AIDS. Flocculent material was present in the Papanicolaou and Leishman-stained smears from all of these cases. Conversely, P. carinii were not seen on GMS-stained smears in the remaining 84 individuals with or without AIDS. No flocculent material was observed in Papanicolaou or Leishman-stained smears in these 84 patients. We concluded that the presence of flocculent material in Papanicolaou or Leishman-stained smears of BAL fluid is indicative of P. carinii pneumonia in patients with AIDS.     

How much of a general practitioner's prescribing is outside his/her control?

OBJECTIVE: To analyse and quantify that portion of one General Practioner's prescribing that is outside his/her control. DESIGN: Detailed analysis of one General Practioner's General Medical Services prescribing over a three month period during 1996. SETTING: A Group Practice in Sligo, Ireland. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The number and cost of items outside the General Practitioner's control expressed as a percentage of his total General Medical Services prescribing. The source of these items, and whether they are newly prescribed items or not. RESULTS: 12.8% numerically and 23.8%, costwise, of items prescribed by one GMS General Practitioner were found to be outside his control. Of these items, psychiatric outpatient consultations and medical in-patient discharges account for 22.8% and 18.4% numerically, respectively, and 25.7% and 22.6% costwise, respectively of the total numbers of items and costs outside his control. CONCLUSIONS: A relatively small proportion of items of a General Practitioners prescribing accounting for a disproportionately large amount of the costs are outside his control.     

Neutrophil elastase cleavage of human factor IX generates an activated factor IX-like product devoid of coagulant function

In preliminary studies, the generation of thrombin in vivo was found to induce a 92% loss of functional activity of factor IX (F.IX) despite the detection by Western blotting of a product resembling activated F.IX (F.IXa) and a 25% increase in F.IX antigen levels (Hoogendoorn et al, Thromb Haemost 69:1127, 1993 [abstr]). These changes were associated with evidence of increased elastase availability. To study the possibility that these two observations were related, a detailed physical and functional characterization of the hydrolysis of purified human F.IX by human neutrophil elastase (HNE) was performed in vitro. An activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) clotting assay demonstrated that, although HNE eliminated the potential of F.IX to be activated, it only marginally reduced the F.IXa activity. Reducing sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) indicated that HNE treatment of F.IX generated cleavage products of 30 and 20 kD that could not be distinguished from the respective heavy and light chain peptides that were identified in parallel studies when F.IX was activated by activated bovine F.XI (F.XIa), one of its physiological activators. In addition, nonreducing SDS-PAGE demonstrated that HNE-treated F.IX formed no complexes with antithrombin III (ATIII) in the presence of heparin. Furthermore, HNE-treated F.IX was unable to (1) bind the active site probe p-aminobenzamidine; (2) hydrolyze the synthetic peptide substrate CH3SO2-Leu-Gly-Arg-p-nitroanilide; and (3) activate human factor X (F.X). In contrast to dansyl-Glu-Gly-Arg-chloromethyl ketone (dEGR)-inactivated F.IXa, HNE-treated F.IX (0.01 to 10,000 pmol/L) failed to inhibit the clotting activity of F.IXa (10 pmol/L) in the aPTT. NH2-terminal sequencing indicated that HNE cleaved human F.IX at Thr140, Thr144, Ile164, Thr172, and Val181. The cleavages at Thr140/Thr144 and at Thr172/Val181 are both very close to the normal F.XIa alpha-(Arg145) and beta-(Arg180) cleavage sites, respectively. In summary, the results suggest that the activatability of F.IX is eliminated after cleavage by HNE and that the inability of HNE-treated F.IX to support F.IXa-like coagulant function is a consequence of improper active site formation. These in vitro observations support the possibility that increased HNE cleavage of F.IX in vivo may contribute to the disregulation of hemostasis that occurs in conditions such as disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC).     

Biliary excretion of furosemide glucuronide in rabbits

Furosemide (F) was administered to rabbits intravenously and intraduodenaly and the biliary excretion was studied. The major metabolite excreted in bile was furosemide glucuronide (FG). F and acyl migration isomers of FG (FG-iso) were also excreted in bile. The biliary excretion rates of total F (F+FG+FG-iso) following intraduodenal administration of F were much smaller than those following intravenous administration. The fraction of (F+FG-iso) in bile following intraduodenal administration of F were larger than those following intravenous administration. Stability of FG or FG-iso in bile and supernatant solution of the duodenum homogenate of rabbits was studied. FG was unstable in both media and its degradation followed apparent first-order kinetics in both media. In bile, FG degraded to produce several FG-iso and F, while in the supernatant solution of the duodenum homogenate, it hydrolyzed immediately to F. FG-iso were hardly detected in the supernatant solution. These results indicated that FG excreted in bile degraded easily to FG-iso and F. FG might easily hydrolyze to F enzymatically in the duodenum, and the resultant F might be reabsorbed from the intestinal tract. Unabsorbed FG-iso and F might be excreted in the feces.     

Receptor-dependent immune responses in pigs after oral immunization with F4 fimbriae

F4 receptor-positive (F4R+) and F4 receptor-negative (F4R-) pigs were orally vaccinated with purified F4 fimbriae of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC). Serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgA responses were readily detected in F4R+ animals, whereas immune responses were not detected in F4R- animals. Even after a subsequent oral infection with virulent F4(+) ETEC and a booster immunization with F4, the F4R- animals remained F4 seronegative whereas the unvaccinated F4R+ pigs exhibited clear IgA and IgG responses. These results clearly demonstrate that F4Rs are a prerequisite for an immune response following oral immunization. Furthermore, indications that oral F4 vaccination can induce mucosal protection were obtained, since the experimental ETEC infection did not induce a systemic booster response or fecal ETEC excretion in orally vaccinated F4R+ pigs, in contrast to the clear immune response and ETEC excretion of unvaccinated F4R+ animals. F4-specific IgA antibodies could be found in the feces of the vaccinated F4R+ pigs. They are secreted at the intestinal mucosal surface and appear to prevent ETEC infection. The F4R-dependent induction of a mucosal immune response can be used as a model to better understand mucosal immunization and mucosal immune responses and can contribute to the development of oral vaccines in veterinary as well as in human medicine.     

Beauvericin production by Fusarium species

Beauvericin is a cyclohexadepsipeptide mycotoxin which has insecticidal properties and which can induce apoptosis in mammalian cells. Beauvericin is produced by some entomo- and phytopathogenic Fusarium species (Fusarium proliferatum, F. semitectum, and F. subglutinans) and occurs naturally on corn and corn-based foods and feeds infected by Fusarium spp. We tested 94 Fusarium isolates belonging to 25 taxa, 21 in 6 of the 12 sections of the Fusarium genus and 4 that have been described recently, for the ability to produce beauvericin. Beauvericin was produced by the following species (with the number of toxigenic strains compared with the number of tested strains given in parentheses): Fusarium acuminatum var. acuminatum (1 of 4), Fusarium acuminatum var. armeniacum (1 of 3), F. anthophilum (1 of 2), F. avenaceum (1 of 6), F. beomiforme (1 of 1), F. dlamini (2 of 2), F. equiseti (2 of 3), F. longipes (1 of 2), F. nygamai (2 of 2), F. oxysporum (4 of 7), F. poae (4 of 4), F. sambucinum (12 of 14), and F. subglutinans (3 of 3). These results indicate that beauvericin is produced by many species in the genus Fusarium and that it may be a contaminant of cereals other than maize.     

Topological and functional relationship of subunits F1-gamma and F0I-PVP(b) in the mitochondrial H+-ATP synthase

Diamide treatment of the F0F1-ATP synthase in "inside out" submitochondrial particles (ESMP) in the absence of a respiratory Delta mu H+ as well as of isolated Fo reconstituted with F1 or F1-gamma subunit results in direct disulfide cross-linking between cysteine 197 in the carboxy-terminal region of the F0I-PVP(b) subunit and cysteine 91 at the carboxyl end of a small alpha-helix of subunit F1-gamma, both located in the stalk. The F0I-PVP(b) and F1-gamma cross-linking cause dramatic enhancement of oligomycin-sensitive decay of Delta mu H+. In ESMP and MgATP particles the cross-linking is accompanied by decoupling of respiratory ATP synthesis. These effects are consistent with the view that F0I-PVP(b) and F1-gamma are components of the stator and rotor of the proposed rotary motor, respectively. The fact that the carboxy-terminal region of F0I-PVP(b) and the short alpha-helix of F1-gamma can form a direct disulfide bridge shows that these two protein domains are, at least in the resting state of the enzyme, in direct contact. In isolated F0, diamide also induces cross-linking of OSCP with another subunit of F0, but this has no significant effect on proton conduction. When ESMP are treated with diamide in the presence of Delta mu H+ generated by respiration, neither cross-linking between F0I-PVP(b) and F1-gamma subunits nor the associated effects on proton conduction and ATP synthesis is observed. Cross-linking is restored in respiring ESMP by Delta mu H+ collapsing agents as well as by DCCD or oligomycin. These observations indicate that the torque generated by Delta mu H+ decay through Fo induces a relative motion and/or a separation of the F0I-PVP(b) subunit and F1-gamma which places the single cysteine residues, present in each of the two subunits, at a distance at which they cannot be engaged in disulfide bridging.