Murine typhus: endemic Rickettsia in southwest Texas.

Murine Typhus is a zoonosis caused by the organism Rickettsia typhi and is transmitted to humans by fleas. It is endemic in several areas of Texas, California and Hawaii where the vector is supported predominantly by rodents in addition to opossums, domestic and feral cats and domestic dogs. We present a typical case in an adult from Corpus Christi, located in one of the four endemic areas in Texas.

Salivary cortisol levels in students challenged with a testing stressor.

Objective: The objective was twofold. The focus of the study was primarily to determine if the stress of a particularly difficult exam could cause students to lose the normal diurnal variation seen in human cortisol levels and secondarily, to validate the use of a competitive enzyme immunoassay for salivary cortisol.

Design: Physical therapy students enrolled in Research Design were asked to participate in the study by collecting baseline evening and morning salivary cortisols during what was regarded as a relatively stress free time in the Fall of 2009.

Students as vital participants in research projects.

Inclusion of research coursework into a medical technology or clinical laboratory science program is currently viewed as a mark of a good degree program. Examples of this type of coursework are evaluation of scientific papers, techniques of scientific writing, application and performance of statistical analysis and introduction to research ethics (e.g.

Identification of the J and K genes in the bacteriophage Mu genome sequence.

Bacteriophage Mu was the first transposable phage to be discovered and still serves as the model for a large family of related transposable phages and prophages. The Mu genome sequence is known (NC-000929.1 GI:9633494), but not all of the genes have been assigned to the ORFs in the genome sequence.