Objective: To describe the impact of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza (nH1N1) on Indigenous people in the Top End of the Northern Territory at community, hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) levels.
...Design, setting and participants: We analysed influenza notifications for the Top End from 1 June to 31 August 2009, as well as data on patients admitted through Top End emergency departments with an influenza‐like illness. In addition, data on patients with nH1N1 who were admitted to Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) and the RDH ICU were prospectively collected and analysed.
Main outcome measures: Age‐adjusted notification rates for nH1N1 cases, Top End hospital admission rates for patients with nH1N1 and RDH ICU admission rates for patients with nH1N1, stratified by Indigenous status.
Results: There were 918 nH1N1 notifications during the study period. The age‐adjusted hospital admission rate for nH1N1 was 82 per 100 000 (95% CI, 68–95) estimated resident population (ERP) overall, with a markedly higher rate in the Indigenous population compared with the non‐Indigenous population (269 per 100 000 versus 29 per 100 000 ERP; adjusted incidence rate ratio, 12 95% CI, 7.8–18). Independent predictors of ICU admission compared with hospitalisation were hypoxia (adjusted odds ratio aOR, 4.5; CI, 1.5–13.1) and chest x‐ray infiltrates (aOR, 4.3; CI, 1.5–12.6) on hospital admission.
Conclusions: Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza had a disproportionate impact on Indigenous Australians in the Top End, with hospitalisation rates higher than those reported elsewhere in Australia and overseas. These findings have implications for planning hospital and ICU capacity during an influenza pandemic in regions with large Indigenous populations. They also confirm the need to improve health and living circumstances and to prioritise vaccination in this population.
Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) is a nutritious vegetable crop of Asian origin, used as a medicinal herb in Indian and Chinese traditional medicine. Molecular breeding in bitter gourd is in its ...infancy, due to limited molecular resources, particularly on functional markers for traits such as gynoecy. We performed de novo transcriptome sequencing of bitter gourd using Illumina next-generation sequencer, from root, flower buds, stem and leaf samples of gynoecious line (Gy323) and a monoecious line (DRAR1). A total of 65,540 transcripts for Gy323 and 61,490 for DRAR1 were obtained. Comparisons revealed SNP and SSR variations between these lines and, identification of gene classes. Based on available transcripts we identified 80 WRKY transcription factors, several reported in responses to biotic and abiotic stresses; 56 ARF genes which play a pivotal role in auxin-regulated gene expression and development. The data presented will be useful in both functions studies and breeding programs in bitter gourd.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Knockout of caspase-8, a cysteine protease that participates in the signaling for cell death by receptors of the TNF/nerve growth factor family, is lethal to mice in utero. To explore tissue-specific ...roles of this enzyme, we established its conditional knockout using the Cre/loxP recombination system. Consistent with its role in cell death induction, deletion of caspase-8 in hepatocytes protected them from Fas-induced caspase activation and death. However, application of the conditional knockout approach to investigate the cause of death of caspase-8 knockout embryos revealed that this enzyme also serves cellular functions that are nonapoptotic. Its deletion in endothelial cells resulted in degeneration of the yolk sac vasculature and embryonal death due to circulatory failure. Caspase-8 deletion in bone-marrow cells resulted in arrest of hemopoietic progenitor functioning, and in cells of the myelomonocytic lineage, its deletion led to arrest of differentiation into macrophages and to cell death. Thus, besides participating in cell death induction by receptors of the TNF/nerve growth factor family, caspase-8, apparently independently of these receptors, also mediates nonapoptotic and perhaps even antiapoptotic activities.
TNF family members and their receptors contribute to increased gene expression for inflammatory processes and intracellular cascades leading to programmed cell death, both via activation of NF-κB. ...TNF receptor (TNFR)-associated factors (TRAFs) are cytoplasmic adaptor proteins binding to various receptors of the TNFR family. In an attempt to delineate the role of individual TRAFs, we compared NF-κB activation by CD40wtand CD40 mutants with different TRAF recruitment patterns. Recognized only recently, NF-κB signaling occurs at least via two different pathways. Each pathway results in nuclear translocation of two different Reldimers, the canonical p50/RelA and the noncanonical p52/RelB. Here, we show that via TRAF6, CD40 mediates only the activation of the canonical NF-κB pathway. Via TRAF2/5, CD40 activates both the canonical and the noncanonical NF-κB pathways. We observed that TRAF3 specifically blocked the NF-κB activation via TRAF2/5. This inhibitory effect of TRAF3 depends on the presence of an intact zinc finger domain. Paradoxically, suppression of TRAF2/5-mediated NF-κB activation by TRAF3 resulted in enhanced transcriptional activity of TRAF6-mediated canonical NF-κB emanating from CD40. We also observed that 12 TNFR family members (p75TNFR, LTβR, RANK, HVEM, CD40, CD30, CD27, 4- 1BB, GITR, BCMA, OX40, and TACI) are each capable of activating the alternative NF-κB pathway and conclude that TRAF3 serves as a negative regulator of this pathway for all tested receptors.
Granular cell tumors are uncommon neoplasms. They appear in the skin, subcutaneous tissues, and many internal organs. It is essential to diagnose this disease because it mimics other tumors ...clinically. We report this case because of the rarity of tumors in Asians and the necessity of excision with clear margins.
A 55-year-old Indian woman reported swelling in the right side of the neck for six months and gradually increasing in size. Two years ago, she had a similar swelling excised from her neck. She had wide local excision of the tumor with wider margins in the plastic surgery department, and histopathology revealed a granular cell tumor with clear margins. She is undergoing close follow-up with history and physical examination with no evidence of disease recurrence.
Granular cell tumors can have recurrences. These slow-growing tumors appear benign. Histopathological examination with careful assessment of high-risk features is vital in evaluating Granular cell tumors. Wide local excision with clear margins is the mainstay of treatment.
Achieving clear margins in the head and neck area is sometimes tricky for granular cell tumors. Margin positivity is associated with a high risk of local recurrence and needs re-excision of the tumor for adequate local control.
•Granular cell tumors are uncommon in Asians.•In the head or neck area, it may mimic the symptoms of other malignancies.•Histopathology reveals polygonal, granular eosinophilic cells with vesicular nuclei and clumped chromatin.•A positive margin means that local recurrence is likely to occur, and clear surgical margins are required to avoid this.
A
bstract
We compute how bulk loops renormalize both bulk and brane effective interactions for codimension-two branes in 6D gauged chiral supergravity, as functions of the brane tension and ...brane-localized flux. We do so by explicitly integrating out hyper- and gauge-multiplets in 6D gauged chiral supergravity compactified to 4D on a flux-stabilized 2D rugby-ball geometry, specializing the results of a companion paper,
arXiv:1210.3753
, to the supersymmetric case. While the brane back-reaction generically breaks supersymmetry, we show that the bulk supersymmetry can be preserved if the amount of brane- localized flux is related in a specific BPS-like way to the brane tension, and verify that the loop corrections to the brane curvature vanish in this special case. In these systems it is the brane-bulk couplings that fix the size of the extra dimensions, and we show that in some circumstances the bulk geometry dynamically adjusts to ensure the supersymmetric BPS-like condition is automatically satisfied. We investigate the robustness of this residual supersymmetry to loops of non-supersymmetric matter on the branes, and show that supersymmetry-breaking effects can enter only through effective brane-bulk interactions involving at least two derivatives. We comment on the relevance of this calculation to proposed applications of codimension-two 6D models to solutions of the hierarchy and cosmological constant problems.
Abdominal symptoms are common in patients with lupus nephritis and are often attributed to drugs or uremia per se. Lupus mesenteric vasculitis (LMV) or lupus enteritis is a rare entity reported in ...patients with active systemic lupus erythematosus. It usually occurs in patients with a long-standing history of lupus with high disease activity. Usually, small bowel is predominantly affected. The stomach and rectum are spared in view of significant collateral circulation. Here, we describe an 18-year-old boy who presented with nephrotic syndrome without any extrarenal features of lupus. On subsequent evaluation, he was found to have active lupus nephritis. He developed acute gastric dilatation secondary to extensive LMV. Imaging showed an extensive involvement of gastrointestinal tract from the stomach to the sigmoid colon, sparing the rectum. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of LMV presenting as acute gastric dilatation.
•Strain BS5 exerted the higher mycelial growth inhibition of Bipolaris oryzae under in vitro.•Strain BS5 had the maximum number of evaluated antibiotic biosynthetic genes.•Liquid based formulation of ...BS5 was effectively reduced the brown spot disease in glasshouse and field conditions.•We investigated the molecular interaction of host-pathogen-bioagent through proteomic approach.•Nine differentially expressed proteins and their functions were identified.
The aim of the study is to evaluate the efficacy of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain BS5 against brown spot disease of rice and to understand the molecular mechanism of host-pathogen-bioagent interactions through a proteomic approach. We tested the antagonistic potential of forty Bacillus spp. against Bipolaris oryzae under in vitro. Based on their antagonism, ten effective strains were selected and characterized at the molecular level. The antibiotic biosynthetic genes producing bacillomycin, bacilysin, iturin, surfactin, subtilin, mersacidin, subtilosin, ericin, mycosubtilin and fengycin from the effective strains were detected by PCR analysis. Among the strains, BS5 exerted higher mycelial growth inhibition (76.66%) of the pathogen and possesses the maximum number (9) of antibiotic genes as well. We also evaluated the efficacy of liquid formulation of the Bacillus strains BS5, BS6 and BS39 against brown spot disease under glasshouse and field conditions. The results indicated a significant reduction in the intensity of brown spot disease with the combined application of seed treatment + seedling dip + foliar spray of BS5 liquid formulation under glasshouse and field conditions. Furthermore, a 2D-PAGE analysis revealed a total of nine proteins with differential expressions using MALDI-TOF Mass spectrometry (MS). The Mascot algorithm demonstrated homology among proteins such as ribulose 1, 5 bisphosphate carboxylase, 2-cys-peroxiredoxin, ATP synthase, trehalose-phosphate phosphatase, serine/threonine protein kinase and 50s ribosomal protein. The functions of the proteins were mainly related to plant metabolism, defense response and disease resistance. The three ways synergy associated with the host-pathogen-bioagent of rice plants will be provided in this study.
The most common preparative regimen for autologous transplantation (ASCT) in myeloma (MM) consists of melphalan 200 mg/m2 (MEL 200). Higher doses of melphalan 220–260 mg/m2, although relatively well ...tolerated, have not shown significant improvement in clinical outcomes. Several approaches have been pursued in the past to improve CR rates, including poly-chemotherapy preparative regimens, tandem ASCT, consolidation, and/or maintenance therapy. Since there is a steep dose–response effect for intravenous melphalan, we evaluated an alternative single ASCT strategy using higher-dose melphalan at 280 mg/m2 (MEL 280) with amifostine as a cytoprotectant as the maximum tolerated dose determined in an earlier phase I dose escalation trial. We report the final long-term outcomes of MM patients who underwent conditioning with MEL 280 with amifostine cytoprotection followed by ASCT. Although the complete response rate was quite high in the era pre-dating the routine use of novel therapies (proteasome inhibitors, immunomodulatory agents) (49%), the progression-free survival was a disappointing 22 months. The implications of this dichotomy between the excellent depth of ASCT response and progression-free survival are discussed.
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