I enjoyed reading Bilgen et al.’s case report, The effect of HBB: (c*+96T>C (3’UTR+1570 T>C) on the mild β-thalassemia intermedia pheonotype, in the recent issue of the Journal (2011; 28: 219-222). I congratulate the authors for exploring at the molecular level at least one of the thalassemia minima that fits well with the present clinical thalassemia nomenclature. Based on their clinical descr...

Echo virus 9- or Coxsackie A 9-infected newborn mice are protected from paralysis and death by combined treatment with nontoxic concentrations of HBB plus guanidine. HBB alone also protects Coxsackie A 9, but not echo virus 9-infected animals, whereas guanidine alone is ineffective in either case. Protection is due to inhibition of virus multiplication via the antiviral activity of these select...

Mortality among children under 5 years of age in developing countries has fallen dramatically in recent decades. Unfortunately, declines in neonatal mortality during this period have been less impressive. Neonatal mortality now accounts for >40% of under-5 mortality.1 About onequarter of neonatal deaths result from intrapartum-related conditions and their consequences (eg, birth asphyxia), 2 wi...

Purpose: Peristalsis of the small bowel leads to considerable movement artifacts in MR-examinations, which hamper diagnostic quality [1, 2]. Therefore a spasmolytic premedication agent is commonly administered intravenously to inhibit bowel motion, shortly before performing the abdominal imaging studies. Two main paralyzing agents, hyoscine N-butylbromide (HBB; Buscopan Boehringer Ingelheim, Ge...

Four novel brominated flame retardants (NBFRs), i.e., decabromodiphenylethane (DBDPE), 1,2-bis(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy) ethane (BTBPE), pentabromoethylbenzene (PBEB), and hexabromobenzene (HBB) were studied in 377 liquid samples and 288 solid samples collected from 20 wastewater treatment plants. Lagoon, primary, secondary, and advanced treatment processes were included, in order to investigate N...

Mammalian chromosome replication starts from distinct sites; however, the principles governing initiation site selection are unclear because proteins essential for DNA replication do not exhibit sequence-specific DNA binding. Here we identify a replication-initiation determinant (RepID) protein that binds a subset of replication-initiation sites. A large fraction of RepID-binding sites share a ...

Spatially varying selection on a given polymorphism is expected to produce a localized peak in the between-population component of nucleotide diversity, and theory suggests that the chromosomal extent of elevated differentiation may be enhanced in cases where tandemly linked genes contribute to fitness variation. An intriguing example is provided by the tandemly duplicated b-globin genes of dee...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of stereoscopic display alignment errors on visual fatigue and prefrontal cortical tissue hemodynamic responses. We collected hemodynamic data and perceptual ratings of visual fatigue while participants performed visual display tasks on 8 ft × 6 ft NEC LT silver screen with NEC LT 245 DLP projectors. There was statistical significant diffe...

Current techniques used to investigate the mechanisms responsible for the sensory responses to distension of the human esophagus provide limited information because the degree of circumferential stretch required to determine tension can only be inferred. We used impedance planimetry to measure the cross-sectional area during esophageal distension to ascertain the degree of stretch and tension t...

Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) is an evidence-based medical educational curriculum designed to improve neonatal resuscitation and be taught in resource-limited circumstances. It has been field-tested for educational effectiveness and feasibility of wide implementation. We are committed to supporting the expansion of effective neonatal care, agree that HBB is highly suitable for that purpose, and ...