Deformed wing virus implicated in overwintering honeybee colony losses.

The worldwide decline in honeybee colonies during the past 50 years has often been linked to the spread of the parasitic mite Varroa destructor and its interaction with certain honeybee viruses. Recently in the United States, dramatic honeybee losses (colony collapse disorder) have been reported; however, there remains no clear explanation for these colony losses, with parasitic mites, viruses, bacteria, and fungal diseases all being proposed as possible candidates. Common characteristics that most failing colonies share is a lack of overt disease symptoms and the disappearance of workers from what appears to be normally functioning colonies.

Changing referral trends of acute pancreatitis in children: A 12-year single-center analysis.

Background: Acute pancreatitis is a painful inflammatory disorder known to occur in children. Recent reports, primarily on the basis of adult data, have suggested an increasing incidence. However, pediatric studies are limited.

Exact phase diagram of a quasispecies model with a mutation rate modifier.

We consider an infinite asexual population with a mutator allele which can elevate mutation rates. With probability f, a transition from nonmutator to mutator state occurs but the reverse transition is forbidden. We find that at f=0, the population is in the state with minimum mutation rate, and at f=fc, a phase transition occurs between a mixed phase with both nonmutators and mutators and a pure mutator phase.

Pancreatic tuberculosis: a clinical and imaging review of 32 cases.

Background: Tuberculosis of the pancreas is a rare entity, and anecdotal reports describing imaging features of pancreatic tuberculosis have been described in medical literature. The imaging features including computed tomography (CT) and ultrasonography in diagnosed cases of tubercular involvement of the pancreas are described, with an overview of clinical features and laboratory investigations.

Materials And Methods: We analyzed records of 384 patients of diagnosed cases of abdominal tuberculosis for involvement of pancreas and detected 32 patients (8.

Ethanol exposure depletes hepatic pigment epithelium-derived factor, a novel lipid regulator.

Background & Aims: Ethanol abuse can lead to hepatic steatosis and evolve into cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) is a multifunctional secreted glycoprotein that is expressed by hepatocytes. Proteomic, experimental, and clinical studies implicate PEDF's role in lipid regulation.

Boundary-induced abrupt transition in the symmetric exclusion process.

We investigate the role of the boundary in the symmetric simple exclusion process with competing nonlocal and local hopping events. With open boundaries, the system undergoes a first-order phase transition from a finite density phase to an empty road phase as the nonlocal hopping rate increases. Using a cluster stability analysis, we determine the location of such an abrupt nonequilibrium phase transition, which agrees well with numerical results.

Neoplastic and non-neoplastic proliferative disorders of the perirenal space: cross-sectional imaging findings.

The perirenal space, located between the anterior and the posterior renal fasciae, is shaped like an inverted cone with an apex that extends into the iliac fossa. Perirenal tumors and pseudotumors primarily originate either from the kidney or as part of a systemic disease process and have characteristic histopathologic features and biologic behavior. The lesions may be classified on the basis of their distribution and imaging features as solitary soft-tissue masses (renal cell carcinoma, lymphangioma, hemangioma, and leiomyoma), rindlike soft-tissue lesions (lymphoma, retroperitoneal fibrosis, and Erdheim-Chester disease), masses containing macroscopic fat (angiomyolipoma, liposarcoma, myelolipoma, and extramedullary hematopoiesis), and multifocal soft-tissue masses (metastases, plasma cell tumors).

Successful Multimodality Endoscopic Treatment of Gastric Outlet Obstruction Caused by an Impacted Gallstone (Bouveret's Syndrome).

Bouveret's syndrome is a rare condition of gastric outlet obstruction resulting from the migration of a gallstone through a choledochoduodenal fistula. Due to the large size of these stones and the difficult location in which they become impacted, endoscopic treatment is unsuccessful and most patients require surgery. We report the case of an elderly male who presented with nausea and hematemesis, and was found on CT scan and endoscopy to have an obstructing gallstone in his duodenal bulb.

Imaging findings in posterior instability of the shoulder.

Posterior shoulder instability refers to the symptoms and signs resulting from excessive posterior translation of the humerus. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is the radiological modality of choice in the diagnostic assessment of posterior instability. Computed tomography (CT) is useful in the evaluation of osseous abnormalities associated with posterior instability.

Paradoxical cerebral arterial gas embolism: Computed tomography findings.

Computed tomography scan findings are described in cerebral arterial gas embolism in two patients with right to left intracardiac shunts by accidental injection of air during intravenous therapy. Although imaging may not be necessary to diagnose the condition, the patient may be referred to CT scan as a case of stroke. Cerebral arterial gas embolism should be considered in the differential diagnosis of stroke, particularly in case of right-to-left shunts.

Isolated colonic ulcers: diagnosis and management.

Isolated ulcers of the large intestine are not associated with an underlying colitis and may be an incidental finding on screening colonoscopy or present with abdominal pain, hematochezia, chronic gastrointestinal bleeding, and rarely, perforation. A common cause of isolated colonic ulcers is the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), with ulcers in the cecum and right colon. Isolated rectal ulcers are caused by ischemia, solitary rectal ulcer syndrome (SRUS), radiation, or fecal impaction.

Blood-fluid levels in the brain.

17 cases reviewed prospectively over a period of 4 months highlight the varied appearance of blood-fluid levels in intracranial cystic lesions of different aetiologies; a finding which has not featured significantly in the medical literature. Four types of intracranial cysts demonstrating blood-fluid levels have been categorised according to the nature of the pathology, i.e.

Clinical and molecular diagnosis of Familial Mediterranean Fever in Egyptian children.

Background: Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF) is an autosomal inherited disorder affecting certain races including Arabs. Diagnosis depends mainly on clinical basis, but mild forms may remain undiagnosed.

Objectives: This study aims at an accurate diagnosis of FMF in Egyptian children by detection of genetic mutations in addition to clinical assessment.

Acute pancreatitis.

Acute pancreatitis begins as acute pancreatic injury and may generate a systemic inflammatory response that evolves into multiorgan failure, leading to death. Multiple inciting factors such as toxins (alcohol), gallstones, or endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography result in a cascade of events beginning with the intra-acinar activation of zymogens and the release of cytokines and other proinflammatory mediators. Their release is a major determinant of the systemic inflammatory response and distant organ failure.

Strong clustering of noninteracting, sliding passive scalars driven by fluctuating surfaces.

We study the clustering of passive, noninteracting particles moving under the influence of a fluctuating field and random noise, in one and two dimensions. The fluctuating field in our case is provided by surfaces governed by the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) and the Edwards-Wilkinson (EW) equations, and the sliding particles follow the local surface slope. As the KPZ equation can be mapped to the noisy Burgers equation, the problem translates to that of passive scalars in a Burgers fluid.

Gastrointestinal endoscopic findings in men with unexplained anemia and low normal ferritin values.

Background: Most practice guidelines recommend endoscopic evaluation of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract in men and postmenopausal women with anemia and a serum ferritin less than 20-40 ng/ml. The diagnostic yield of endoscopy in patients with anemia, no GI symptoms or signs, and low normal ferritin is not known.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the yield of upper and lower GI endoscopic evaluations in anemic patients with ferritin levels between 40 and 100 ng/ml.

Subpicomolar sensing of delta-opioid receptor ligands by molecular-imprinted polymers using plasmon-waveguide resonance spectroscopy.

Here we report, for the first time, the formation of a biomimetic covalently imprinted polymeric sensor for a target ligand, the delta-opioid G-protein coupled receptor agonist DPDPE, which reproducibly exhibits subpicomolar binding affinity in an aqueous environment. In addition to having a well-defined and homogeneous binding site, the imprinted polymer template is quite stable to storage in both the dry and wet states and has at least 6 orders of magnitude higher affinities than exhibited by similar peptide-based molecular-imprinted polymers (MIPs) thus far. A highly sensitive optical detection methodology, plasmon-waveguide resonance spectroscopy, was employed, capable of measuring binding in real time and discriminating between ligand molecules, without requiring labeling protocols (fluorophores or radioisotopes).