Adult onset Krabbe''s leukodystrophy

Benign mesenchymal tumours of the bladder are rare, accounting for only 1-5% of bladder neoplasms. We describe what appears to be the first reported case of massive bleeding from a leiomyoma of the urinary bladder causing tamponade requiring emergency surgery.     

Display of functional alphabeta single-chain T-cell receptor molecules on the surface of bacteriophage

The ability to display functional T-cell receptors (TCR) on the surface of bacteriophage could have numerous applications. For instance, TCR phage-display could be used to develop new strategies for isolating TCRs with unique specificity or it could be used to carry out mutagenesis studies on TCR molecules for analyzing their structure-function. We initially selected a TCR from the murine T-cell hybridoma, DO11.10, as our model system, and genetically engineered a three domain single-chain TCR (scTCR) linked to the gene p8 protein of the Escherichia coli bacteriophage fd. Immunoblotting studies revealed that (1) E. coli produced a soluble scTCR/p8 fusion protein and (2) the fusion protein was packaged by the phage. Cellular competition assays were performed to evaluate the functionality of the TCR and showed the DO11.10 TCR-bearing phage could significantly inhibit stimulation of DO11.10 T hybridoma cells by competing for binding to immobilized MHC/peptide IA(d)/OVA(323-339). Flow cytometric analysis was carried out to evaluate direct binding of DO11.10 TCR-bearing phage onto the surface of cells displaying either IAd containing irrelevant peptide or OVA peptide. The results revealed binding of DO11.10 TCR-bearing phage only on cells expressing IA(d) loaded with OVA peptide showing TCR fine specificity for peptide. To illustrate the generality of TCR phage-display, we also cloned and displayed on phage a second TCR which recognizes a peptide fragment from human tumor suppressor protein p53 restricted by HLA-A2. These findings demonstrate functional TCR can be displayed on bacteriophage potentially leading to the development of novel applications involving TCR phage-display.     

Allelotype analysis of uterine leiomyoma: localization of a potential tumor suppressor gene to a 4-cM region of chromosome 7q

The degree and nature of patient involvement in consultations with health professionals influences problem and needs recognition and management, and public accountability. This paper suggests a framework for understanding the scope for patient involvement in such consultations. Patients are defined as co-producers of formal health services, whose potential for involvement in consultations depends on their personal rights, responsibilities and preferences. Patients' rights in consultations are poorly defined and, in the National Health Service (NHS), not legally enforceable. The responsibilities of patients are also undefined. I suggest that these are not to deny, of their own volition, the rights of others, which in consultations necessitate mutuality of involvement through information-exchange and shared decision-making. Preferences should be met insofar as they do not militate against responsibilities and rights.     

Effect of mild acid treatment on the survival, enteropathogenicity, and protein production in vibrio parahaemolyticus

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is an important food-borne enteropathogen that encounters various adverse conditions in its native environment or during infection. Effects of mild acid treatment on survival under stress conditions, enteropathogenicity, and protein production in this pathogen were investigated. Logarithmically grown cells, at pH 7.5 shifted to pH 5.0 for 30 min, were more resistant to subsequent acid challenge at pH 4.4. A two-phase adaptive procedure (pH 5.8 for 30 min; pH 5.0 for 30 min) was better than a single-phase procedure for enhancing the acid tolerance of this pathogen. The acid-adapted cells were cross-protected against the challenges of low salinity and thermal inactivation. One-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed that proteins with molecular masses of 6.4, 9.0, 13.6, 16.3, 18.9, 22.9, 24.4, 28.3, 33. 9, 36.9, 41.2, 47.6, 58.1, 65.6, 80.5, 88.2, and 96.9 kDa were induced or significantly enhanced, while proteins of 25.3, 30.1, 30. 7, and 91.7 kDa were significantly inhibited. Two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed that 20 species of proteins were induced or significantly enhanced, while 26 species were inhibited. In assays conducted using the suckling mouse model, enteropathogenicity of the acid-adapted cells was significantly enhanced in terms of intestine/body weight ratio and in vivo recovery of infected cells.     

Predicting length of stay in an acute psychiatric hospital

OBJECTIVE: Multivariate statistical methods were used to identify patient-related variables that predicted length of stay in a single psychiatric facility. The study investigated whether these variables remained stable over time and could be used to provide individual physicians with data on length of stay adjusted for differences in clinical caseloads and to detect trends in the physicians' practice patterns. METHODS: Data on all patients discharged over two six-month periods were collected at an acute psychiatric inpatient facility. Stepwise multiple regression analyses were conducted on the two datasets. RESULTS: The results from both analyses revealed that five variables significantly predicted length of stay and were stable over time. They were a primary diagnosis of schizophrenia, the number of previous admissions, a primary diagnosis of a mood disorder, age, and a secondary diagnosis of an alcohol- or other drug-related disorder. For some physicians, the mean length of stay of their patients differed significantly from the length predicted by the regression model--generally, it was shorter. CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrate that patient-related predictors of length of stay in a single psychiatric hospital can be identified using relatively simple statistical procedures and can be consistent across a large dataset and over time.     

The EMG development of the longissimus and multifidus muscles after plugging the horizontal semicircular canals

The intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) expressed by endothelial cells is crucial in promoting adhesion and transmigration of circulating leukocytes across the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Migrated immunocompetent cells, in turn, release mediators that stimulate glial and endothelial cells to express ICAM-1 and release cytokines, possibly sustaining cerebral damage. Following activation, proteolytic cleavage of membrane-anchored ICAM-1 results in measurable levels of a soluble form, sICAM-1. The aims of this study were to investigate the changes of sICAM-1 levels in ventricular CSF and serum and to elucidate the influence of structural brain damage as estimated by computerized tomography (CT) as well as the extent of BBB dysfunction as calculated by the CSF/serum albumin ratio (QA) in patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). All investigated parameters revealed two subgroups. Patients belonging to group A had sICAM-1 levels in CSF above normal range, presented marked cerebral damage and a disturbance of the BBB (range 0.6-24.7 ng/ml, n = 8). In contrast, patients belonging to group B had no elevation of sICAM-1 values in CSF (range 0.3-3.9 ng/ml, n = 5; p < 0.017) and showed minor cerebral damage with an intact BBB in most cases. In addition, overall analysis showed that sICAM-1 in CSF correlated with the extent of BBB damage as indicated by the QA (r = 0.76; p < 0.001). These results suggest that increased sICAM-1 levels in CSF might depict ongoing immunologic activation and that sICAM-1 correlates with the extent of tissue and BBB damage. The origin of soluble ICAM-1 in CSF and its pathophysiologic role after TBI remains to be clarified.     

Synthesis and comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) of antitumor 3-arylisoquinoline derivatives

In this study a series of 3-arylisoquinoline derivatives were synthesized and cytotoxicity against human melanoma tumor cell evaluated, and a three dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship was investigated using the comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA). The results suggested that the electrostatic, steric and hydrophobic factors of 3-arylisoquinolines were strongly correlated with the antitumor activity. Considerable predictive ability (cross-validated r2 as high as 0.721) was obtained through CoMFA.     

An adaptive genetic algorithm for the time dependent inventory routing problem

In this paper we propose an adaptive genetic algorithm that produces good quality solutions to the time dependent inventory routing problem (TDIRP) in which inventory control and time dependent vehicle routing decisions for a set of retailers are made simultaneously over a specific planning horizon. This work is motivated by the effect of dynamic traffic conditions in an urban context and the resulting inventory and transportation costs. We provide a mixed integer programming formulation for TDIRP. Since finding the optimal solutions for TDIRP is a NP-hard problem, an adaptive genetic algorithm is applied. We develop new genetic representation and design suitable crossover and mutation operators for the improvement phase. We use adaptive genetic operator proposed by Yun and Gen (Fuzzy Optim Decis Mak 2(2):161–175, 2003) for the automatic setting of the genetic parameter values. The comparison of results shows the significance of the designed AGA and demonstrates the capability of reaching solutions within 0.5 % of the optimum on sets of test problems.