Background: Allergic rhinitis and asthma show many similarities in their epithelial and inflammatory responses to allergens. However, one notable difference is that disruption and desquamation of the ...epithelium is a characteristic feature of asthma, whereas in perennial allergic rhinitis the epithelium is intact and thickened. One reason for this might be differing expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) or their inhibitors (TIMPs). There are few published data on the presence of MMPs or TIMPs in the nasal mucosa in rhinitis. Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate MMP and TIMP mRNA and protein in nasal mucosa from subjects with perennial allergic rhinitis and from nonrhinitic control subjects. Methods: Biopsy specimens of nasal mucosa were taken from 10 well-characterized subjects with perennial allergic rhinitis and 10 nonrhinitic control subjects. MMP and TIMP mRNA was quantified through use of competitive RT-PCR, and protein was detected by means of Western blotting and ELISA. Results: TIMP-1 mRNA and TIMP-2 mRNA were present in nasal samples, but there was no significant difference between the 2 groups. Only small amounts of MMP-1, -2, -3, and -9 mRNA were detected in the same samples. The corresponding proteins were detected by means of Western blotting. TIMP-1 protein and TIMP-2 protein were quantified in tissue homogenates; there was no significant difference between the 2 groups. Conclusion: Our studies have demonstrated the presence of large amounts of TIMP-1 and TIMP-2 mRNA and protein in nasal mucosa. There is no upregulation of MMPs or changes in TIMP expression in the nasal mucosa of patients with allergic rhinitis. (J Allergy Clin Immunol 2001;108:791-6.)
Anopheles is a diverse genus of mosquitoes comprising over 500 described species, including all known human malaria vectors. While a limited number of key vector species have been studied in detail, ...the goal of malaria elimination calls for surveillance of all potential vector species. Here, we develop a multilocus amplicon sequencing approach that targets 62 highly variable loci in the Anopheles genome and two conserved loci in the Plasmodium mitochondrion, simultaneously revealing both the mosquito species and whether that mosquito carries malaria parasites. We also develop a cheap, nondestructive, and high‐throughput DNA extraction workflow that provides template DNA from single mosquitoes for the multiplex PCR, which means specimens producing unexpected results can be returned to for morphological examination. Over 1000 individual mosquitoes can be sequenced in a single MiSeq run, and we demonstrate the panel’s power to assign species identity using sequencing data for 40 species from Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America. We also show that the approach can be used to resolve geographic population structure within An. gambiae and An. coluzzii populations, as the population structure determined based on these 62 loci from over 1000 mosquitoes closely mirrors that revealed through whole genome sequencing. The end‐to‐end approach is quick, inexpensive, robust, and accurate, which makes it a promising technique for very large‐scale mosquito genetic surveillance and vector control.
A computer model for stream water temperature was developed, and tested in a small pasture stream near Hamilton, New Zealand. The model quantifies shading by riparian vegetation, hillsides, and ...stream banks using three coefficients: canopy angle, topography angle, and canopy shade factor. Shade was measured directly and found to vary significantly along the channel. Using the maximum measured shade, a close match was achieved between observed and predicted daily maximum and minimum water and bed sediment temperature. Model predictions of incoming and outgoing long-wave radiation flux closely matched measurements, but there were unexplained discrepancies in short-wave radiation flux. Model predictions indicate that moderate shade levels (c. 70%) may be sufficient in temperate climates to restore headwater pasture stream temperatures to 20°C, an estimate of the thermal tolerance for sensitive invertebrates.
Pleural disease (excluding malignancy) Davies, Helen E; Davies, Robert J.O
Medicine (Abingdon. 1995, UK ed.),
06/2008, Letnik:
36, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Abstract Pleural disease is a common medical problem frequently encountered by both respiratory specialists and general physicians. A systematic approach to the patient with a pleural effusion or ...pneumothorax may avoid unnecessary investigations and reduce patient morbidity. This review focuses on the clinical assessment, diagnosis and management of patients with non-malignant pleural disease and provides some practical suggestions for the practising clinician.
Readers and writers of Spanish use an orthography that is highly transparent. It has been proposed that readers of Spanish can rely on grapheme-phoneme correspondences, alone, to access meaning or ...phonology from print. In recent years, a number of case studies have yielded evidence inconsistent with this idea. We review these studies with particular focus on those that report evidence for reading based on direct lexical mappings between print, orthographic representations, and meaning or phonology. We report a new case of acquired literacy impairment in Spanish, MJ, who presents a pattern of preserved abilities and deficits symptomatic of deep dyslexia. The patient is unable to read nonwords, but can read a substantial number of words. Her reading is characterized by the production of semantic, visual, and derivational errors. We argue that MJ has a deficit in her lexical selection ability, common to both her reading and her naming problems. We propose that MJ, and the other cases we review, demonstrate that lexical reading is adopted by skilled readers even in a transparent language.
This paper introduces a novel analytical model for estimating the cache hit ratio as a function of time. The cache may not reach the steady-state hit ratio when the number of Web objects, object ...popularity, and/or caching resources themselves are subject to change. Hence, the only way to quantify the hit ratio experienced by Web users is to calculate the instantaneous hit ratio. The proposed analysis considers a single Web cache with infinite or finite capacity. For a cache with finite capacity, two replacement policies are considered: Least Recently Used (LRU) and First-In-First-Out (FIFO). Based on the insights from the proposed analytical model, we propose a new replacement policy, called Frequency-Based-FIFO (FB-FIFO). The results show that FB-FIFO outperforms both LRU and FIFO, assuming that the number of Web objects is fixed. Assuming that new popular objects are generated periodically, the results show that FB-FIFO adapts faster than LRU and FIFO to the changes in the popularity of the cached objects when the cache capacity is large relative to the number of newly generated objects.
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