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The demand for high-throughput DNA profiling has increased with the introduction of national DNA databases and has led to the development of automated methods of short tandem repeat (STR) profile production; however, a potential b...
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The demand for high-throughput DNA profiling has increased with the introduction of national DNA databases and has led to the development of automated methods of short tandem repeat (STR) profile production; however, a potential bottleneck still exists at the gel electrophoresis stage. Capillary electrophoresis sequencers capable of processing 96 samples with considerably reduced manual intervention are now available. In this paper, we compare the ABI Prism 377 slab-gel sequencer currently used by the Forensic Science Service with three leading capillary array electrophoresis instruments: the ABI Prism 3700, the Amersham MegaBACE 1000 and the 16-capillary ABI Prism 3100. We describe the experiments used to evaluate and validate these platforms for forensic use with the STR multiplex Ampf/STR SGMplus [1, 2], along with comparative data from the ABI Prism 377 sequencer.
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Bronchiectasis is a common disease in the Asia-Pacific and affected patients suffer from chronic sputum production and recurrent exacerbations. Bronchiectasis is largely idiopathic although there is diverse aetiology. The pathogen...
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Bronchiectasis is a common disease in the Asia-Pacific and affected patients suffer from chronic sputum production and recurrent exacerbations. Bronchiectasis is largely idiopathic although there is diverse aetiology. The pathogenesis of bronchiectasis comprises infective, inflammatory and emzymetic elements. These interact to perpetuate continued airway damage in bronchiectasis leading to progressive airway and lung damages. Treatment of bronchiectasis is unsatisfactory and there are only very few trials. Existing data suggest some efficacy of inhaled corticosteroid therapy, which has been shown recently to clinical and anti-inflammatory properties in bronchiectasis. Immunomodulating agent such as low-dose macrolides have also been shown to have some efficacy although more data are needed to advocate their long-term usage. Antibiotic therapy is complex in bronchiectasis and includes short-term empirical treatment for acute exacerbation, and consideration of long-term maintenance of oral, nebulized and i.v. therapy. This long-neglected illness should receive more research attention in order that we can have better understanding of its aetiology, pathogenesis and treatment.
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Bronchiectasis is a common disease in the Asia-Pacific and affected patients suffer from chronic sputum production and recurrent exacerbations. Bronchiectasis is largely idiopathic although there is diverse aetiology. The pathogen...
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Bronchiectasis is a common disease in the Asia-Pacific and affected patients suffer from chronic sputum production and recurrent exacerbations. Bronchiectasis is largely idiopathic although there is diverse aetiology. The pathogenesis of bronchiectasis comprises infective, inflammatory and emzymetic elements. These interact to perpetuate continued airway damage in bronchiectasis leading to progressive airway and lung damages. Treatment of bronchiectasis is unsatisfactory and there are only very few trials. Existing data suggest some efficacy of inhaled corticosteroid therapy, which has been shown recently to clinical and anti-inflammatory properties in bronchiectasis. Immunomodulating agent such as low-dose macrolides have also been shown to have some efficacy although more data are needed to advocate their long-term usage. Antibiotic therapy is complex in bronchiectasis and includes short-term empirical treatment for acute exacerbation, and consideration of long-term maintenance of oral, nebulized and i.v. therapy. This long-neglected illness should receive more research attention in order that we can have better understanding of its aetiology, pathogenesis and treatment.
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Although ciliary dysfunction and numerous ultrastructural defects have been described, and these could be etiologically important in the development of bronchiectasis, their correlation with relevant clinical parameters have not b...
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Although ciliary dysfunction and numerous ultrastructural defects have been described, and these could be etiologically important in the development of bronchiectasis, their correlation with relevant clinical parameters have not been systematically evaluated. We have prospectively evaluated the prevalence and clinical significance of ciliary beat frequency and ultrastructural defects of nasal respiratory mucosa obtained from 152 stable patients with idiopathic bronchiectasis (100F, 57.7 +/- 15.2 yrs) and 127 control subjects (58F, 56.0 +/- 24.2 yrs). Bronchiectasis patients had significantly slower ciliary beat frequency (p < 0.05), and a greater percent of patients had central and peripheral microtubular defects (OR 14.4, 95% CI 5.6-36.8), namely, extra peripheral microtubules, "9 + 1", "8 + 2", and compound cilia (p < 0.05), but not microtubular disarrangement, extra matrix or ciliary tail abnormalities (p > 0.05), than controls. Bronchiectasis patients also had a greater proportion of cilia with anyultrastructural microtubular defects, compound cilia, and ciliary tails than controls (p < 0.05). Ciliary beat frequency did not correlate with clinically relevant parameters (p > 0.05). However, the percent of cilia with central, but not peripheral, microtubular defects correlated with 24 h sputum volume (r = 0.40, p = 0.001, and r = -0.04, p = 0.70, respectively) and FEV1 (r = -0.24, p = 0.01, and r = 0.00, p = 0.99 respectively). Our results strongly suggest a pathogenic role for central microtubular defects in the development of idiopathic bronchiectasis.
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Asia is a highly heterogeneous region with vastly different cultures, social constitutions and populations affected by a wide spectrum of respiratory diseases caused by tropical pathogens. Asian patients with community-acquired pn...
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Asia is a highly heterogeneous region with vastly different cultures, social constitutions and populations affected by a wide spectrum of respiratory diseases caused by tropical pathogens. Asian patients with community-acquired pneumonia differ from their Western counterparts in microbiological aetiology, in particular the prominence of Gram-negative organisms, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Burkholderia pseudomallei and Staphylococcus aureus. In addition, the differences in socioeconomic and health-care infrastructures limit the usefulness of Western management guidelines for pneumonia in Asia. The importance of emerging infectious diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome and avian influenza infection remain as close concerns for practising respirologists in Asia. Specific infections such as melioidosis, dengue haemorrhagic fever, scrub typhus, leptospirosis, salmonellosis, penicilliosis marneffei, malaria, amoebiasis, paragonimiasis, strongyloidiasis, gnathostomiasis, trinchinellosis, schistosomiasis and echinococcosis occur commonly in Asia and manifest with a prominent respiratory component. Pulmonary eosinophilia, endemic in parts of Asia, could occur with a wide range of tropical infections. Tropical eosinophilia is believed to be a hyper-sensitivity reaction to degenerating microfilariae trapped in the lungs. This article attempts to address the key respiratory issues in these respiratory infections unique to Asia and highlight the important diagnostic and management issues faced by practising respirologists.
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It is shown that any topological cone, with a base consisting of a metrizable Choquet simplex, arises as the positive tracial cone of a simple stably projectionless C*-algebra inductive limit of certain specified non-unital algebr...
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It is shown that any topological cone, with a base consisting of a metrizable Choquet simplex, arises as the positive tracial cone of a simple stably projectionless C*-algebra inductive limit of certain specified non-unital algebras of matrix-valued functions over the interval [0,1]. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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A simple and specific LC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS method has been developed and applied for the primary investigation of the chemical constituents absorbed or metabolized in vivo, after the rat oral administration of Erxian Decoction (EXD), ...
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A simple and specific LC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS method has been developed and applied for the primary investigation of the chemical constituents absorbed or metabolized in vivo, after the rat oral administration of Erxian Decoction (EXD), a Chinese medicine prescription for menopausal syndromes. Through the online ESI-MS(n) analysis, a total of 35 compounds have been identified or tentatively characterized from the seven tested samples, and 13 of them were unambiguously identified through a direct comparison of the retention time, UV spectra and MS(n) fragmentation patterns with the authentic ones. The results showed that 21 compounds were detected from rat plasma, 20 compounds were detected from rat kidneys and adrenal glands, 19 compounds were detected from rat ovaries, 12 compounds were found in rat intestines, nine compounds were identified from rat livers and nine compounds were detected from rat brains at certain time points after oral administration of the effective EXD fraction.
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In this study, the authors examined perceived benefits and costs of the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Mixed accounts of benefits and costs, rather than exclusive accounts of only benefits or costs, were pro...
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In this study, the authors examined perceived benefits and costs of the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Mixed accounts of benefits and costs, rather than exclusive accounts of only benefits or costs, were proposed to be characterized by nondefensiveness and enduring changes in psychosocial resources. Participants were 70 SARS recoverers, 59 family members of SARS recoverers, and 172 healthy adults residing in Hong Kong-a SARS-affected region. Results show that participants giving an exclusive account of benefits had higher levels of defensiveness than those giving a mixed account and those giving an exclusive account of costs. Only the perceived impact of benefits given in mixed accounts were related to future accruements in personal and social resources over an 18-month period.
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The eigenvalue pattern of a *-homomorphism between two matrix algebras over commutative C*-algebras is a generalization of the Gelfand map in the commutative case. We give a systematic formulation of abstract eigenvalue pattern an...
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The eigenvalue pattern of a *-homomorphism between two matrix algebras over commutative C*-algebras is a generalization of the Gelfand map in the commutative case. We give a systematic formulation of abstract eigenvalue pattern and extend the classical results by using a technique involving the groupoid algebras of eigenvalue patterns. In the case with matrix algebras over the one-dimensional circle, we characterize all the *-homomorphisms up to unitary equivalence by their eigenvalue patterns. Moreover, this technique has an application to recent classification theorems of C*-algebras proved by the present author.
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The purpose of this study was to investigate the risk factors associated with lung cancer in Hong Kong. Three hundred and thirty-one histologically or cytologically proven consecutive cases of lung cancer and the same number of in...
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The purpose of this study was to investigate the risk factors associated with lung cancer in Hong Kong. Three hundred and thirty-one histologically or cytologically proven consecutive cases of lung cancer and the same number of in- and out-patients without cancer matched for age and sex were recruited for this study using a detailed questionnaire completed by a trained interviewer. Smoking was the most important risk factor associated with lung cancer but the attributable risk (AR) was estimated to be 45.8% in men and 6.2% in women, considerably lower compared with those estimated in early 1980s. In addition, among women, exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) at work+/-at home and lack of education, were independent risk factors for lung cancer with adjusted odds ratio (OR) 3.60, (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.52-8.51) and OR 2.41 (95% CI 1.27-4.55), respectively. Among men, exposure to insecticide/pesticide/herbicide, ETS exposure at work or at home, and a family history of lung cancer and were independent risk factors with adjusted OR 3.29 (95% CI 1.22-8.9, OR 2.43, 95% CI 1.24-4.76 and OR 2.37, 95% CI 1.43-3.94, respectively). Exposure to incense burning and frying pan fumes were not significant risk factors in both sexes. A moderate or high consumption of fat in the diet was associated with increased risk in men but decreased risk in women. The results of this study suggested that as the prevalence of smoking declined, the influence of smoking as a risk factor for lung cancer decreased even further. Moreover, the contribution of other environmental, occupational and socioeconomic factors may be more apparent as etiological factors for lung cancer in a population with relatively high lung cancer incidence but low AR from active smoking.
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