Highly efficient induction of protective immunity by a vaccinia virus vector defective in late gene expression.

Vaccinia viruses defective in the essential gene coding for the enzyme uracil DNA glycosylase (UDG) do not undergo DNA replication and do not express late genes in wild-type cells. A UDG-deficient vaccinia virus vector carrying the tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus prM/E gene, termed vD4-prME, was constructed, and its potential as a vaccine vector was evaluated. High-level expression of the prM/E antigens could be demonstrated in infected complementing cells, and moderate levels were found under noncomplementing conditions.

Variability and sequential order of consonant normalization in children with speech delay.

A source of discrepancy among attempts to establish a rank order in the development of English consonants has been the inability to cope concurrently with principled generalization and individual variability. This problem may be surmounted by survival analytic techniques. From the conversational speech of 24 children with speech delay (SD) recorded over 2 years, a Kaplan-Meier (KM) survival analysis provided a rank order of acquisition for all probabilities above .

Probability estimates and paths to consonant normalization in children with speech delay.

Probable ages of normalization were calculated for 24 children with speech delay, using Kaplan-Meier analysis and a threshold score of 85% on the Percent of Consonants Correct, Percent of Consonants Correct-Adjusted, and Percent of Consonants Correct-Revised metrics. Simple formulas are provided that permit calculation of the likelihood that individual children with speech delay will normalize by a given age. The sex of a child was found to have no significant influence on age of normalization.

Tutorial: survival analysis--a statistic for clinical, efficacy, and theoretical applications.

Current demands for increased research attention to therapeutic efficacy, efficiency, and also for improved developmental models call for analysis of longitudinal outcome data. Statistical treatment of longitudinal speech and language data is difficult, but there is a family of statistical techniques in common use in medicine, actuarial science, manufacturing, and sociology that has not been used in speech or language research. Survival analysis is introduced as a method that avoids many of the statistical problems of other techniques because it treats time as the outcome.

CD30-positive cutaneous anaplastic large cell lymphoma with ichthyosis acquisita.

Anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) is a high-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma recognized by the expression of the CD30 marker and by its morphology. We report an unusual case of ALCL in a 42-year-old woman. For ten years the patient only had pruritic erythematous skin lesions, then a plaque with nodules and ulcers on the right thigh and leg developed, followed by ichthyosis acquisita.

Precise quantitation of human parvovirus B19 DNA in biological samples by PCR.

An application of a quantitative PCR-based method was developed for the detection of human parvovirus B19 DNA. The procedure was characterised according to guidelines for the validation of analytical procedures. Furthermore, the reliability was demonstrated by the correct quantitation of samples of an international collaborative study.

Azithromycin compared with minocycline in the treatment of acne comedonica and papulo-pustulosa.

This open study was conducted in 72 outpatients with acne vulgaris, to compare the clinical efficacy and tolerability of azithromycin and minocycline. Azithromycin was administered as a single oral dose (500 mg/day) for 4 days in four cycles every 10 days and minocycline was administered 100 mg daily for 6 weeks. Improvement was assessed 6 weeks after initiation of treatment with a four-graded scale.

Comparative trial of azithromycin and ciprofloxacin in the treatment of gonorrhea.

This single-blind (investigator) comparative study was designed to determine the efficacy and tolerability of 1 g of azithromycin vs 500 mg of ciprofloxacin both given as a single oral dose in patients with gonorrhea, who were constantly on the move. One hundred eight patients (59 men and 49 women) with clinically suspected gonococcal infection, confirmed by Gram-stain and culture, were enrolled. Data of 50 patients treated with azithromycin and 51 with ciprofloxacin were evaluable for efficacy and tolerability at the end of the study.

Postcoital fixed drug eruption in a man sensitive to trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole.

We describe a 34-year-old patient with a probable fixed drug eruption caused by trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole, having developed the eruption after sexual intercourse with his wife, who was taking the drug. The patient was known to be allergic to trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole by history, and the lesion then recurred at the same site when the drug was administered orally to his wife. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report describing postcoital fixed drug eruption.

Specific quantitation of genomic DNA in the femtogram range by amplification of repetitive sequences.

An assay was developed to specifically quantitate concentrations as low as 50 fg/ml genomic DNA based on the amplification of repetitive sequences. Reliable results were obtained by using internal standard molecules which were coextracted, coamplified, and coanalyzed with the nucleic acids of interest. Amplification was performed by the polymerase chain reaction in the presence of fluorescent dye-labeled primers followed by quantitation of fluorescence derived from the reaction products after separation by PAGE.

Identification of some ectomycorrhizal basidiomycetes by PCR amplification of their gpd (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) genes.

Degenerated oligonucleotide primers designed to flank an approximately 1.2-kb fragment of the gene encoding glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (gpd) from ascomycetes and basidiomycetes were used to amplify the corresponding gpd fragments from several species of the ectomycorrhizal fungal taxa Boletus, Amanita, and Lactarius. Those from B.

Cloning and characterisation of genes (pkc1 and pkcA) encoding protein kinase C homologues from Trichoderma reesei and Aspergillus niger.

Oligonucleotides, designed on the basis of conserved flanking amino acid sequence segments within the catalytic domain of eukaryotic protein kinase C (PKC) proteins, were used as primers for polymerase chain reactions to amplify a 427-bp chromosomal DNA fragment from the filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei. This fragment was then used to isolate genes encoding PKC homologues of T. reesei and Aspergillus niger (pkc1 and pkcA, respectively).

Replacement of the frog test in physiology teaching by the myograph: practical validation in Germany.

The myograph is a newly developed instrument to replace the classical frog experiments in physiology teaching by testing on volunteers, usually by self-testing of the students. First experiences with the myograph obtained during physiology teaching at four universities in Germany are summarized and evaluated. The myograph was tested in four additional universities.

Study about the grant programme of the German BMBF for the promotion of alternatives to animal experiments.

From 1980 until 1991, 98 research projects covering a total amount of 86.1 million German Marks were sponsored by the German Ministry for Education, Science, Research, and Technology in a research grant programme for the promotion of alternatives to animal experiments. The German Ministry for Education, Science, Research, and Technology appointed the German foundation SET (Foundation for the Promotion of Research on Replacement and Supplementary Methods for the Reduction of Animal Experiments) to carry out an essay on the efficiency of this grant programme.

Stereotactic core biopsy of nonpalpable breast lesions.

We report our experience with stereotactic core breast biopsies (SCBB) for mammographically suspicious, nonpalpable breast lesions. Ninety-seven patients, ages 29 to 94 (mean 57.3 years) underwent SCBB with a 14-gauge Biopty gun.

Developmental phonological disorders. III: Long-term speech-sound normalization.

Prior articles in this series provide a descriptive profile of 178 children with developmental phonological disorders (Shriberg & Kwiatkowski, 1994) and predictive correlates of short-term speech-sound normalization in 54 children (Shriberg, Kwiatkowski, & Gruber, 1994). The present article reports findings from a study of 10 children with developmental phonological disorders whose progress was followed at least once yearly for 7 years. Analyses characterize the sequence, rates, and error patterns of long-term speech-sound normalization in relation to developmental perspectives on the nature of children's phonological disorders.

Developmental phonological disorders. II. Short-term speech-sound normalization.

A companion paper (Shriberg & Kwiatkowski, 1994) provides a descriptive profile of three samples of children (n = 178) with developmental phonological disorders. The present paper describes a conceptual framework for short-term and long-term speech-sound normalization research and reports 1-year normalization outcomes for 54 of the children described in the companion paper. Although certain individual speech variables were significantly associated with normalization, there were no speech, prosody-voice, or risk-factor variables that discriminated children who achieved short-term speech-sound normalization in 1 year.

Teaching family and community dimensions of clinical family medicine in Venezuela.

Background And Objectives: In Venezuela, family medicine is taught and practiced almost exclusively in ambulatory care settings. This article describes the evolution of the educational strategies that emphasize family and community aspects of clinical practice within one residency program in the country of Venezuela.

Methods: Three distinct phases of development are depicted, beginning with a biomedical and individual-centered approach.