The injury profile after the 2008 earthquakes in China.

Unlabelled: The 8.0 magnitude earthquake that struck China on May 12, 2008, was the deadliest earthquake in 30 years. Most hospitals were destroyed and limited facilities were available for medical service in the earthquake regions.

IDEA: Interactive Display for Evolutionary Analyses.

Background: The availability of complete genomic sequences for hundreds of organisms promises to make obtaining genome-wide estimates of substitution rates, selective constraints and other molecular evolution variables of interest an increasingly important approach to addressing broad evolutionary questions. Two of the programs most widely used for this purpose are codeml and baseml, parts of the PAML (Phylogenetic Analysis by Maximum Likelihood) suite. A significant drawback of these programs is their lack of a graphical user interface, which can limit their user base and considerably reduce their efficiency.

Reply to Clare and Høeg 2008. Balanus amphitrite or Amphibalanus amphitrite? A note on barnacle nomenclature.

The scientific names of living organisms can and do sometimes change. Such changes generally reflect advances in knowledge of the relationships of species and/or higher taxa. The new name, Amphibalanus amphitrite (subfamily Amphibalaninae), for a well-known fouling barnacle previously known as Balanus amphitrite (subfamily Balaninae), was proposed in accordance with the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and is now widely accepted.

Comparative evolutionary genomics of human malaria parasites.

The parasites Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax are responsible for the majority of human malaria cases worldwide. Despite many similarities in their biology, they frequently are studied in isolation. With the completion of the P.

The transcriptome of Plasmodium vivax reveals divergence and diversity of transcriptional regulation in malaria parasites.

Plasmodium vivax causes over 100 million clinical infections each year. Primarily because of the lack of a suitable culture system, our understanding of the biology of this parasite lags significantly behind that of the more deadly species P. falciparum.

Comparative genomics of the neglected human malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax.

The human malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax is responsible for 25-40% of the approximately 515 million annual cases of malaria worldwide. Although seldom fatal, the parasite elicits severe and incapacitating clinical symptoms and often causes relapses months after a primary infection has cleared. Despite its importance as a major human pathogen, P.

GiardiaDB and TrichDB: integrated genomic resources for the eukaryotic protist pathogens Giardia lamblia and Trichomonas vaginalis.

GiardiaDB (http://GiardiaDB.org) and TrichDB (http://TrichDB.org) house the genome databases for Giardia lamblia and Trichomonas vaginalis, respectively, and represent the latest additions to the EuPathDB (http://EuPathDB.

Differential requirements for Alix and ESCRT-III in cytokinesis and HIV-1 release.

The ESCRT machinery functions in topologically equivalent membrane fission events, namely multivesicular body formation, the terminal stages of cytokinesis and HIV-1 release. Here, we show that the ESCRT-III-binding protein Alix is recruited to the midbody of dividing cells through binding Cep55 via an evolutionarily conserved peptide. Disruption of Cep55/Alix/ESCRT-III interactions causes formation of aberrant midbodies and cytokinetic failure, demonstrating an essential role for these proteins in midbody morphology and cell division.

The clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of screening programmes for amblyopia and strabismus in children up to the age of 4-5 years: a systematic review and economic evaluation.

Objectives: To estimate the cost-effectiveness of screening for amblyopia and strabismus in children aged up to 4-5 years, also identifying the major areas of uncertainty and so inform future research priorities in this disease area.

Data Sources: Major electronic databases were searched in January 2006.

Review Methods: Systematic literature reviews were undertaken to determine the prevalence and natural history, the screening methods, the effectiveness of treatment options and health-related quality of life issues relating to amblyopia and strabismus.

Plasmodium vivax in India.

Four Plasmodium species cause malaria in humans: Plasmodium vivax is the most widespread and results in pronounced morbidity. India (population >1 billion) is a major contributor to the burden of vivax malaria. With a resurgence in interest concerning the neglected burden of vivax malaria and the completion of the P.

Local adaptation and vector-mediated population structure in Plasmodium vivax malaria.

Plasmodium vivax in southern Mexico exhibits different infectivities to 2 local mosquito vectors, Anopheles pseudopunctipennis and Anopheles albimanus. Previous work has tied these differences in mosquito infectivity to variation in the central repeat motif of the malaria parasite's circumsporozoite (csp) gene, but subsequent studies have questioned this view. Here we present evidence that P.

Evidence-based annotation of the malaria parasite's genome using comparative expression profiling.

A fundamental problem in systems biology and whole genome sequence analysis is how to infer functions for the many uncharacterized proteins that are identified, whether they are conserved across organisms of different phyla or are phylum-specific. This problem is especially acute in pathogens, such as malaria parasites, where genetic and biochemical investigations are likely to be more difficult. Here we perform comparative expression analysis on Plasmodium parasite life cycle data derived from P.

Erectile function after urethral reconstruction.

Advances in urogenital plastic surgical tissue transfer techniques have enabled urethral reconstruction surgery to become the new gold-standard for treatment of refractory urethral stricture disease. Questions remain, however, regarding the long-term implications on sexual function after major genital reconstructive surgery. In this article, we review the pathologic features of urethral stricture disease and urologic trauma that may affect erectile function (EF) and assess the impact of various specific contemporary urethroplasty surgical techniques on male sexual function.

SNX4 coordinates endosomal sorting of TfnR with dynein-mediated transport into the endocytic recycling compartment.

SNX-BAR proteins are a sub-family of sorting nexins implicated in endosomal sorting. Here, we establish that through its phox homology (PX) and Bin-Amphiphysin-Rvs (BAR) domains, sorting nexin-4 (SNX4) is associated with tubular and vesicular elements of a compartment that overlaps with peripheral early endosomes and the juxtanuclear endocytic recycling compartment (ERC). Suppression of SNX4 perturbs transport between these compartments and causes lysosomal degradation of the transferrin receptor (TfnR).

Parallels between cytokinesis and retroviral budding: a role for the ESCRT machinery.

During cytokinesis, as dividing animal cells pull apart into two daughter cells, the final stage, termed abscission, requires breakage of the midbody, a thin membranous stalk connecting the daughter cells. This membrane fission event topologically resembles the budding of viruses, such as HIV-1, from infected cells. We found that two proteins involved in HIV-1 budding-tumor susceptibility gene 101 (Tsg101), a subunit of the endosomal sorting complex required for transport I (ESCRT-I), and Alix, an ESCRT-associated protein-were recruited to the midbody during cytokinesis by interaction with centrosome protein 55 (Cep55), a centrosome and midbody protein essential for abscission.

Contrasting genetic structure in Plasmodium vivax populations from Asia and South America.

Populations of Plasmodium falciparum show striking differences in linkage disequilibrium, population differentiation and diversity, but only fragmentary data exists on the genetic structure of Plasmodium vivax. We genotyped nine tandem repeat loci bearing 2-8 bp motifs from 345 P. vivax infections collected from three Asian countries and from five locations in Colombia.

Relapses of Plasmodium vivax infection usually result from activation of heterologous hypnozoites.

Background: Relapses originating from hypnozoites are characteristic of Plasmodium vivax infections. Thus, reappearance of parasitemia after treatment can result from relapse, recrudescence, or reinfection. It has been assumed that parasites causing relapse would be a subset of the parasites that caused the primary infection.

Draft genome sequence of the sexually transmitted pathogen Trichomonas vaginalis.

We describe the genome sequence of the protist Trichomonas vaginalis, a sexually transmitted human pathogen. Repeats and transposable elements comprise about two-thirds of the approximately 160-megabase genome, reflecting a recent massive expansion of genetic material. This expansion, in conjunction with the shaping of metabolic pathways that likely transpired through lateral gene transfer from bacteria, and amplification of specific gene families implicated in pathogenesis and phagocytosis of host proteins may exemplify adaptations of the parasite during its transition to a urogenital environment.

Biological invasions: recommendations for U.S. policy and management.

The Ecological Society of America has evaluated current U.S. national policies and practices on biological invasions in light of current scientific knowledge.

Determinants of health related quality of life and health state utility in patients with age related macular degeneration: the association of contrast sensitivity and visual acuity.

Background: There has been increasing interest in the use of measures of health related quality of life (HRQoL) and health state utility values in Age Related Macular Degeneration (ARMD). Visual acuity has been found to be an important determinant of such measures in previous studies. More recently, another measure of visual impairment, contrast sensitivity has received considerable attention.

The mammalian phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate 5-kinase (PIKfyve) regulates endosome-to-TGN retrograde transport.

The yeast gene fab1 and its mammalian orthologue Pip5k3 encode the phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate [PtdIns(3)P] 5-kinases Fab1p and PIKfyve, respectively, enzymes that generates phosphatidylinositol 3,5-bisphosphate [PtdIns(3,5)P(2)]. A shared feature of fab1Delta yeast cells and mammalian cells overexpressing a kinase-dead PIKfyve mutant is the formation of a swollen vacuolar phenotype: a phenotype that is suggestive of a conserved function for these enzymes and their product, PtdIns(3,5)P(2), in the regulation of endomembrane homeostasis. In the current study, fixed and live cell imaging has established that, when overexpressed at low levels in HeLa cells, PIKfyve is predominantly associated with dynamic tubular and vesicular elements of the early endosomal compartment.

Macronuclear genome sequence of the ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila, a model eukaryote.

The ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila is a model organism for molecular and cellular biology. Like other ciliates, this species has separate germline and soma functions that are embodied by distinct nuclei within a single cell. The germline-like micronucleus (MIC) has its genome held in reserve for sexual reproduction.