Structural and compositional characterization of the adhesive produced by reef building oysters.

Oysters have an impressive ability to overcome difficulties of life within the stressful intertidal zone. These shellfish produce an adhesive for attaching to each other and building protective reef communities. With their reefs often exceeding kilometers in length, oysters play a major role in balancing the health of coastal marine ecosystems.

Interferon-induced transmembrane protein-3 rs12252-C is associated with rapid progression of acute HIV-1 infection in Chinese MSM cohort.

Background: The interferon-inducible transmembrane protein-3 (IFITM3) is a protein that restricts multiple pathogenic viruses such as influenza virus. The single-nucleotide polymorphism rs12252-C, which is rare in Caucasian populations, but much more common in the Han Chinese population, has been found in much higher homozygous frequency in patients with severe acute influenza. Until now, there has been no study on the effect of this genetic variant on the clinical control of other viral infections.

Seroprevalence of Antibody-Mediated, Complement-Dependent Opsonophagocytic Activity against Neisseria meningitidis Serogroup B in England.

The correlate of protection for the licensure of meningococcal vaccines is serum bactericidal activity. However, evidence indicates that a complex situation and other mechanisms, such as antibody-mediated, complement-dependent opsonophagocytosis (OP), may play a role in protection and should be investigated in order to understand immunity to this disease. In this study, a high-throughput flow cytometric opsonophagocytic assay (OPA) was optimized.

Direct ion imaging approach for investigation of ion dynamics in multipole ion guides.

A key requirement of electrospray ionization (ESI) and other techniques facilitating ionization at elevated pressures is the efficient transport of free gas-phase ions into the high vacuum region of the mass spectrometer. Radio frequency (RF) multipole ion guides that allow for collisional cooling are one of the most popular means of achieving this. However, their performance is highly dependent on several experimental factors, including pressure and various electrode potentials along the ion path.

Antibody-mediated complement C3b/iC3b binding to group B Streptococcus in paired mother and baby serum samples in a refugee population on the Thailand-Myanmar border.

Streptococcus agalactiae (group B streptococcus [GBS]) is the leading cause of neonatal sepsis and meningitis. In this study, we determined antibody-mediated deposition of complement C3b/iC3b onto the bacterial cell surface of GBS serotypes Ia, Ib, II, III, and V. This was determined for 520 mother and umbilical cord serum sample pairs obtained at the time of birth from a population on the Thailand-Myanmar border.

A closed-loop inductive power control system for an instrumented strain sensing tibial implant.

Inductively-powered implantable biomedical devices are widely used nowadays, however the power variations due to the coil misalignment can significantly affect the device performance. A closed-loop power control system is proposed in this paper, which is implemented in a Subject-Carried Implant Monitoring Inductive Telemetric Ambulatory Reader (SCIMITAR) for remote strain data acquisition from an instrumented ovine tibia implant. The output power of the energizer is adaptively adjusted via a feedback circuitry connected the demodulator with the power energizer.

Anti-group B Streptococcus antibody in infants born to mothers with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.

Background: HIV-exposed uninfected infants have increased infection risk and mortality compared to HIV-unexposed infants. HIV-exposed infants may be at increased risk of invasive GBS disease due to reduced maternal antibody against GBS.

Methods: We quantified antibodies that bind to the surface of whole Group B Streptococcus (GBS) of serotypes Ia, Ib, II, III and V using novel flow cytometry assays in South African HIV-infected and non-infected mothers and their uninfected infants.

Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived B lymphocytes express sIgM and can be generated via a hemogenic endothelium intermediate.

The differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells to the B-cell lymphoid lineage has important clinical applications that include in vitro modeling of developmental lymphogenesis in health and disease. Here, we first demonstrate the capacity of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) to differentiate into CD144(+)CD73(-)CD43/CD235a(-) cells, characterized as hemogenic endothelium, and show that this population is capable of differentiating to CD10(+)CD19(+) B lymphocytes. We also demonstrate that B lymphocytes generated from hiPSCs are able to undergo full VDJ rearrangement and express surface IgM (sIgM(+)), thus representing an immature B-cell subset.

Analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons using desorption atmospheric pressure chemical ionization coupled to a portable mass spectrometer.

Desorption atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (DAPCI) is implemented on a portable mass spectrometer and applied to the direct detection of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and alkyl substituted benzenes. The presence of these compounds in the environment poses a significant threat to the health of both humans and wildlife because of their carcinogenic, toxic, and mutagenic properties. As such, instant detection outside of the laboratory is of particular importance to allow in-situ measurement at the source.

Saving Lives through visual health communication: a multidisciplinary team approach.

Introduction: Saving Lives is a public health awareness charity that aims to educate the UK public about HIV and encourage testing for the virus. In May 2011 Saving Lives contacted the Medical Illustration department at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust to discuss the idea of working together to develop a national HIV awareness campaign.

Methods: A number of local sporting celebrities were invited to a studio photography session.

Membrane inlet mass spectrometry for homeland security and forensic applications.

A man-portable membrane inlet mass spectrometer has been built and tested to detect and monitor characteristic odors emitted from the human body and also from threat substances. In each case, a heated membrane sampling probe was used. During human scent monitoring experiments, data were obtained for inorganic gases and volatile organic compounds emitted from human breath and sweat in a confined space.

Undetected oesophageal perforation and feeding-tube misplacement.

This is a case report of an electromagnetically (EM)-guided Cortrak feeding tube that perforated the lower oesophagus and was not detected by the EM trace or by plain X-ray. Misplacement was diagnosed from computed tomography (CT) following injection of radio-contrast medium down the tube. Recommendations are offered for use of the EM trace in patients at high risk of oesophageal perforation.

Hysteresis in Lanthanide Aluminum Oxides Observed by Fast Pulse CV Measurement.

Oxide materials with large dielectric constants (so-called high dielectrics) have attracted much attention due to their potential use as gate dielectrics in Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MOSFETs). A novel characterization (pulse capacitance-voltage) method was proposed in detail. The pulse capacitance-voltage technique was employed to characterize oxide traps of high dielectrics based on the Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) capacitor structure.

A micropixelated ion-imaging detector for mass resolution enhancement of a QMS instrument.

An in-vacuum position-sensitive micropixelated detector (Timepix) is used to investigate the time-dependent spatial distribution of different charge state (and hence different mass-to-charge (m/z)) ions exiting an electrospray ionization (ESI)-based quadrupole mass spectrometer (QMS) instrument. Ion images obtained from the Timepix detector provide a detailed insight into the positions of stable and unstable ions of the mass peak as they exit the QMS. With the help of image processing algorithms and by selecting areas on the ion images where more stable ions impact the detector, an improvement in mass resolution by a factor of 5 was obtained for certain operating conditions.

Organ-based tube current modulation: are women's breasts positioned in the reduced-dose zone?

Purpose: To retrospectively determine the potential of organ-based tube current modulation ( OBTCM organ-based tube current modulation ) to reduce the radiation dose delivered to breast tissue by computed tomography (CT) by determining breast angular position in relation to the zones of decreased versus increased radiation.

Materials And Methods: The authors obtained institutional review board approval for this study and patients' written informed consent. In two academic centers (center A: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Mass; and center B: Hôpital André Vésale, Montignies-le-Tilleul, Belgium), data were collected from clinical thoracic CT examinations performed in 498 women (mean age, 60 years; age range, 18-95 years) in the supine position and 34 women (mean age, 53 years; age range, 18-84 years) in the prone position.

Understanding functional miRNA-target interactions in vivo by site-specific genome engineering.

MicroRNA (miRNA) target recognition is largely dictated by short 'seed' sequences, and single miRNAs therefore have the potential to regulate a large number of genes. Understanding the contribution of specific miRNA-target interactions to the regulation of biological processes in vivo remains challenging. Here we use transcription activator-like effector nuclease (TALEN) and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/Cas9 technologies to interrogate the functional relevance of predicted miRNA response elements (MREs) to post-transcriptional silencing in zebrafish and Drosophila.

Brief report: complement C5a promotes human embryonic stem cell pluripotency in the absence of FGF2.

The complement activation product, C5a, is a pivotal member of the innate immune response; however, a diverse number of nonimmune functions are now being ascribed to C5a signaling, including roles during embryonic development. Here, we identify the expression of the C5a precursor protein, C5, as well as the C5a receptors, C5aR and C5L2, in both human embryonic stem cells and human-induced pluripotent stem cells. We show that administration of a physiologically relevant dose of purified human C5a (1 nM) stimulates activation of ERK1/2 and AKT signaling pathways, and is able to promote maintenance of the pluripotent state in the absence of FGF2.

Review on Non-Volatile Memory with High Dielectrics: Flash for Generation Beyond 32 nm.

Flash memory is the most widely used non-volatile memory device nowadays. In order to keep up with the demand for increased memory capacities, flash memory has been continuously scaled to smaller and smaller dimensions. The main benefits of down-scaling cell size and increasing integration are that they enable lower manufacturing cost as well as higher performance.

Fluoroquinolone resistant rectal colonization predicts risk of infectious complications after transrectal prostate biopsy.

Purpose: Infection after transrectal prostate biopsy has become an increasing concern due to fluoroquinolone resistant bacteria. We determined whether colonization identified by rectal culture can identify men at high risk for post-transrectal prostate biopsy infection.

Materials And Methods: Six institutions provided retrospective data through a standardized, web based data entry form on patients undergoing transrectal prostate biopsy who had rectal culture performed.

HTML5 PivotViewer: high-throughput visualization and querying of image data on the web.

Motivation: Visualization and analysis of large numbers of biological images has generated a bottle neck in research. We present HTML5 PivotViewer, a novel, open source, platform-independent viewer making use of the latest web technologies that allows seamless access to images and associated metadata for each image. This provides a powerful method to allow end users to mine their data.

Myelodysplastic syndromes are propagated by rare and distinct human cancer stem cells in vivo.

Evidence for distinct human cancer stem cells (CSCs) remains contentious and the degree to which different cancer cells contribute to propagating malignancies in patients remains unexplored. In low- to intermediate-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), we establish the existence of rare multipotent MDS stem cells (MDS-SCs), and their hierarchical relationship to lineage-restricted MDS progenitors. All identified somatically acquired genetic lesions were backtracked to distinct MDS-SCs, establishing their distinct MDS-propagating function in vivo.

Precautionary labelling of foods for allergen content: are we ready for a global framework?

Food allergy appears to be on the rise with the current mainstay of treatment centred on allergen avoidance. Mandatory allergen labelling has improved the safety of food for allergic consumers. However an additional form of voluntary labelling (termed precautionary allergen labelling) has evolved on a wide range of packaged goods, in a bid by manufacturers to minimise risk to customers, and the negative impact on business that might result from exposure to trace amounts of food allergen present during cross-contamination during production.

Confirming nasogastric tube position with electromagnetic tracking versus pH or X-ray and tube radio-opacity.

Recent evidence suggests official statistics greatly underestimate the occurrence of complications from misplaced nasogastric (NG) tubes, even when detected. Current methods of confirming tube position do not provide adequate protection from misplacement. In addition, some tubes are inadequately radio-opaque.

ATRX dysfunction induces replication defects in primary mouse cells.

The chromatin remodeling protein ATRX, which targets tandem repetitive DNA, has been shown to be required for expression of the alpha globin genes, for proliferation of a variety of cellular progenitors, for chromosome congression and for the maintenance of telomeres. Mutations in ATRX have recently been identified in tumours which maintain their telomeres by a telomerase independent pathway involving homologous recombination thought to be triggered by DNA damage. It is as yet unknown whether there is a central underlying mechanism associated with ATRX dysfunction which can explain the numerous cellular phenomena observed.