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EST analysis of mRNAs expressed during embryogenesis in Gallus gallus.

Chicken Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) were analyzed to identify genes associated with myogenesis during embryonic development. A total of 6,184 ESTs were generated from three cDNA libraries constructed from whole embryos (Stage 26), somites associated with neural tube (Stage 15), and limb buds (Stages 21, 24 and 26). Clustering and assembly of 4,998 valid ESTs resulted in 2,329 unique sequences with 902 clusters (38.7%) and 1,427 singletons (61.3%). There are more than 400,000 chicken ESTs available at GenBank and we were able to identify 143 novel sequences. From these, 45 sequences found either a human EST homolog or a match with conserved regions among proteins. Most of these sequences were found to be expressed in somites, an important tissue for muscle development and not characterized before. This study revealed the value of micro dissected embryonic libraries for describing gene expression profiles associated with myogenesis and gene discovery.

Animals↗

Cybercartography of popular internet sites used by New York City men who have sex with men interested in bareback sex.

A systematic method was used to elicit the names of the six most popular free Internet sites used by gay men and other men who have sex with men in New York City, to meet partners for "bareback" sex. An analysis of the sites characteristics shows that men can use mainstream Internet sites, gay-specific sites, and sex-focused sites free of charge to search for bareback sex partners, selecting by location, physical attributes, sexual mode, HIV-serostatus, and other characteristics. Many individuals use these sites, producing the impression that bareback sex is not an oddity confined to just a few. The official language of the bareback sites associates bareback sex with masculinity and courage, prioritizing pleasure, freedom, choice, and intimacy over HIV-transmission prevention. The sites facilitate sexual experimentation and the expansion of bareback networks. Although some consider bareback sex to represent a failure of HIV prevention, this study suggests that harm reduction strategies may be viable within bareback networks.

Adult↗

Integration of visuospatial and effector information during symbolically cued limb movements in monkey lateral intraparietal area.

Natural behavior requires close but flexible coordination between attention, defined as selection for perception, and action. In recent years a distributed network including the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) has been implicated in visuospatial selection for attention and rapid eye movements (saccades), but the relation between the attentional and motor functions of this area remains unclear. Here we tested LIP neurons in a task that involved not an ocular but a manual operant response. Monkeys viewed a display containing one cue and several distractors and reported the orientation of the cue (right- or left-facing) by releasing one of two bars grasped, respectively, with the right or left hand. The movement in this task thus was associated with (cued by), but not directed toward, the visual stimulus. A large majority of neurons responded more when the cue rather than when a distractor was in their receptive field, suggesting that they contribute to the attentional selection of the cue. A fraction of these neurons also was modulated by limb release, thus simultaneously encoding cue location and the active limb. The results suggest that the LIP links behaviorally relevant visual information with motor variables relevant for solving a task in a wide range of circumstances involving goal-directed or symbolically cued movements and eye as well as limb movements. A central function of the LIP may be to coordinate visual and motor selection during a wide variety of behaviors.

Action Potentials↗

Integration of exogenous input into a dynamic salience map revealed by perturbing attention.

Although it is widely accepted that exogenous and voluntary factors jointly determine the locus of attention, the rules governing the integration of these factors are poorly understood. We investigated neural responses in the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) to transient, distracting visual perturbations presented during task performance. Monkeys performed a covert search task in which they discriminated the orientation of a target embedded among distractors, and brief visual perturbations were presented at various moments and locations during task performance. LIP neurons responded to perturbations consisting of the appearance of new objects, as well as to abrupt changes in the color, luminance, or position of existing objects. The LIP response correlated with the bottom-up behavioral effects of different perturbation types. In addition, neurons showed two types of top-down modulations. One modulation was a context-specific multiplicative gain that affected perturbation, target, and distractor activity in a spatially nonspecific manner. Gain was higher in blocks of trials in which perturbations directly marked target location than in blocks in which they invariably appeared opposite the target, thus encoding a behavioral context defined by the statistical contingency between target and perturbation location. A second modulation reflected local competitive interactions with search-related activity, resulting in the converse effect: weaker perturbation-evoked responses if perturbations appeared at the location of the target than if they appeared opposite the target. Thus, LIP encodes an abstract dimension of salience, which is shaped by local and global top-down mechanisms. These interacting mechanisms regulate responsiveness to external input as a function of behavioral context and momentary task demands.

Animals↗

Cost-effective treatment of phimosis.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the most cost-effective treatment for phimosis. DESIGN: The costs of three treatment strategies for treating phimosis were evaluated using a decision-tree analysis. Three therapeutic approaches were considered: circumcision, preputial plasty (the use of plastic surgical techniques to enlarge the preputial opening without removing tissue), and topical therapy with steroids and nonsteroidal antiinflammatories. Published failure and complication rates were used to calculate the cost per case. Outcome Measures. Cost in dollars to treat each case of phimosis. RESULTS: Topical steroid therapy was the most cost-effective strategy, costing between $758 and $800 per case. Preputial plasty cost between $2515 and $2580 per case. Circumcision cost between $3009 and $3241 per case. CONCLUSIONS: The most cost-effective management for treating phimosis is to initiate topical therapy. Daily external application from the tip of the foreskin to the glandis corona with betamethasone 0.05% cream for 4 to 6 weeks has been demonstrated to be very effective, resulting in a 75% savings compared with circumcision. Surgical intervention should not be considered until topical therapy has been given an adequate trial. When contemplating surgery, the lower morbidity, lower costs, and tissue preservation of preputial plasty may make it preferable.

Administration, Topical↗

[Immunologic and parasitologic aspects of Biomphalaria tenagophila infected by Schistosoma mansoni and other Digenea].

The behavior of Biomphalaria tenagophila amoebocytes was studied in infections produced by Schistosoma mansoni and other Digenea. The resistance to superinfection was also verified in mixed infections. Data on amoebocyte phagocytic activity, on the number of amoebocytes in hemolymph, and on amoebocyte tissue reactions were obtained and electrophoretic and immunodiffusion examinations of the hemolymph were carried out. It was concluded that the snails infected with Digenea show resistance to superinfection with S. mansoni. Apparently sporocysts are not destroyed by the action of amoebocytes. An increase in amoebocyte phagocytic activity was discovered in infected snails. Immunoelectrophoresis shows quantitative and qualitative differences in the hemolymph of the infected snails.

Animals↗

Contagious agalactia of small ruminants: current knowledge concerning epidemiology, diagnosis and control.

Contagious agalactia of small ruminants is a syndrome which principally affects the mammary glands, joints and eyes. The main causal agents are Mycoplasma agalactiae in sheep, and M. agalactiae, M. mycoides subsp. mycoides large colony type and M. capricolum subsp. capricolum in goats. In addition, M. putrefaciens can produce a similar clinical picture, particularly in goats. Contagious agalactia occurs on all five continents and is often enzootic. The evolution of the infection tends to be chronic in affected animals and herds. Symptomless shedding of mycoplasmas, mainly in the milk, may persist for a long time. These insidious infections, associated with carriage in the ears of healthy animals, are difficult to diagnose and to control. The main mode of transmission between flocks is related to the sale of carrier animals and contact during transhumance, whereas transmission within a flock occurs through contact, suckling and milking. This review discusses the clinical features, epidemiology, treatment, prevention and control of the disease.

Animals↗

The application of recombinant human collagen in tissue engineering.

Collagen is the main structural protein in vertebrates. It plays an essential role in providing a scaffold for cellular support and thereby affecting cell attachment, migration, proliferation, differentiation, and survival. As such, it also plays an important role in numerous approaches to the engineering of human tissues for medical applications related to tissue, bone, and skin repair and reconstruction. Currently, the collagen used in tissue engineering applications is derived from animal tissues, creating concerns related to the quality, purity, and predictability of its performance. It also carries the risk of transmission of infectious agents and precipitating immunological reactions. The recent development of recombinant sources of human collagen provides a reliable, predictable and chemically defined source of purified human collagens that is free of animal components. The triple-helical collagens made by recombinant technology have the same amino acid sequence as human tissue-derived collagen. Furthermore, by achieving the equivalent extent of proline hydroxylation via coexpression of genes encoding prolyl hydroxylase with the collagen genes, one can produce collagens with a similar degree of stability as naturally occurring material. The recombinant production process of collagen involves the generation of single triple-helical molecules that are then used to construct more complex three-dimensional structures. If one loosely defines tissue engineering as the use of a biocompatible scaffold combined with a biologically active agent (be it a gene or gene construct, growth factor or other biologically active agent) to induce tissue regeneration, then the production of recombinant human collagen enables the engineering of human tissue based on a human matrix or scaffold. Recombinant human collagens are an efficient scaffold for bone repair when combined with a recombinant bone morphogenetic protein in a porous, sponge-like format, and when presented as a membrane, sponge or gel can serve as a basis for the engineering of skin, cartilage and periodontal ligament, depending on the specific requirements of the chosen application.

Animals↗

16-MDCT in the detection of occult wrist fractures: a comparison with skeletal scintigraphy.

OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to assess the potential use of MDCT in the detection of occult scaphoid fractures. Fifty-one patients with suspected radiographically occult scaphoid fractures at 10-14 days after trauma were investigated prospectively with skeletal scintigraphy and CT on the same day. Planar images of the wrist were taken 3 hr after IV injection of 400 MBq of (99m)Tc-methylene diphosphonate using a single-head gamma camera. CT was performed on a 16-MDCT machine using 0.75-mm detectors and reconstruction in 0.5-mm slices. Multiplanar reformatted images were then viewed in interactive cine mode. The examinations were reported independently, and discordant results were compared at follow-up. CT was positive for wrist fracture in 14 (27.4%) of 51 patients and skeletal scintigraphy in 23 (45.1%) of 51 patients. Even after retrospective review, there were seven discrepant cases (13.7%), all of which were positive for wrist fracture on scintigraphy but negative on CT. Four of these seven patients with discordant findings underwent further radiography at 6 weeks, which did not show fracture. CONCLUSION: Although CT was preferred by most patients and was quicker, scintigraphy appears to detect bony abnormality more frequently. However, there appears to be an interesting group of patients (7/51) with normal initial radiography findings but positive scintigraphy findings who would normally be considered to have a fracture but for whom CT results were negative. In some of these patients, the results of follow-up radiography at 6 weeks were also negative, suggesting that this group of patients warrants further study.

Adolescent↗

Children's auditory event-related potentials index sound complexity and "speechness".

Children's long-latency auditory event-related potential (LLAEP) structure differs from that of adults. Functional significance of childhood ERP components is largely unknown. In order to look for the functional correlates in adult and children's LLAEPs, stimulus-complexity effects were investigated in 8-10-year old children. To this end, auditory ERPs to vowels, acoustically matched complex tones, and sinusoidal tones were recorded. All types of stimuli elicited P100-N250-N450 ERP complex. Differences between the sinusoidal and complex tones were confined to the P100 and N250 peaks, complex tones eliciting larger responses. Vowels elicited smaller-amplitude N250 but larger-amplitude N450 than the complex tones. Some stimulus-complexity effects observed for N250 in children corresponded to those observed for the N1 in adults, whereas the N450 peak exhibited behaviour resembling that of the adult ERP components subsequent to the N1 wave.

Brain↗

Acute hepatitis E by a new isolate acquired in the United States.

OBJECTIVE: To report the first case of acute hepatitis E by a novel isolate acquired in the United States and confirmed by nucleotide sequencing. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We describe the clinical manifestations and the results of associated laboratory studies in a man who was found to have acute hepatitis E infection. RESULTS: A 62-year-old man was hospitalized because of fever, abdominal pain, and jaundice. After an initial evaluation did not provide a cause, his serum was found to be positive for IgG anti-hepatitis E virus (HEV) by three antibody assays. Serum was also positive for HEV RNA by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Sequencing results from the PCR products demonstrated substantial differences at the nucleotide level between this strain and the known Mexican and Burmese strains. CONCLUSION: On the basis of this initial report, HEV should be considered an etiologic agent in patients with acute non-ABC hepatitis in the United States.

Acute Disease↗