Gonococci possessing certain opacity-associated (Opa) outer membrane proteins adhere to and are phagocytosed by human neutrophils in the absence of serum. Recently, it has been shown that serum-sensitive strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae possessing the appropriate lipooligosaccharide phenotype become serum resistant when grown in the presence of CMP-N-acetylneuraminic acid (CMP-NANA) because of ...

BACKGROUND Elderly people do not mount strong immune responses to vaccines. We compared 23-valent capsular polysaccharide (23vPPV) alone versus 7-valent conjugate (PCV7) vaccine followed by 23vPPV 6 months later in hospitalized elderly. METHODS Participants were randomized to receive 23vPPV or PCV7-23vPPV. Antibodies against serotypes 3, 4, 6A, 6B, 9V, 14, 18C, 19A, 19F, 23F were measured by ...

Glutaraldehyde (GA) and ortho-phtalaldehyde (OPA) have been widely used as major components of disinfectants in hospitals. We evaluated the alterations in GA or OPA in rats after subacute inhalation exposure by determining levels of neurotransmitters (norepinephrine [NE], dopamine [DA], DA metabolites, dihydroxyphenylacetic acid [DOPAC] and homovanillic acid [HVA], indoleamine serotonin [5-HT] ...

INTRODUCTION Objective data on the association of maximal aerobic capacity (VO2max) with work related physical activity are sparse. Thus, it is not clear whether occupational physical activity (OPA) contributes to an increase of VO2max. This study examined the association of VO2max with work and non-work related physical activity in a Swiss working population. METHODS In this cross-sectional ...

The high security of optical phased array (OPA) signals is an important requirement for OPA-based wireless communication (OWC). We propose a method improving the OWC systems using optically injection-locked (OIL) semiconductor lasers. theoretically demonstrate amplitude and phase modulation OIL-OPA elements by controlling injection-locking parameters OIL When Taylor window function applied as p...

in this study, farm level technical efficiency (te) and its determinants were investigated. a stochastic cobb-douglas (cd) production frontier was used to provide estimates of input-oriented te for a sample of 100 rain fed farms in two palestinian governorates. empirical findings showed that the estimated te of the farms in the pooled sample ranged from 35.7 to 95.6%, with a mean value of 72.2%...

Previous evidence from our laboratory suggested that the tight intercellular adhesions between the outer membranes of gonococci displaying the opacity colony phenotype occurred because Opa proteins expressed on one gonococcus adhered to the lipooligosaccharide (LOS) of the opposing bacterium (M.S. Blake, p. 51-66, in G. G. Jackson and H. Thomas, ed., The Pathogenesis of Bacterial Infections, 19...

PURPOSE To compare the refractive, visual acuity, topographic, and spherical aberration outcomes of LASIK using the Quest excimer laser platform with the optimized prolate ablation (OPA) profile (NIDEK Co Ltd) in one eye and conventional ablation profile in the fellow eye of the same patient. METHODS Thirty-seven myopic patients underwent LASIK bilaterally, with one eye randomized to receive ...

Neisseria gonorrhoeae is the causative agent of gonorrhea and an obligate pathogen of humans. The Opa proteins of these bacteria are known to mediate attachment and internalization by host cells, including neutrophils. The Opa protein repertoire of a typical N. gonorrhoeae isolate is encoded on ~11 genes distributed throughout the chromosome and is subject to stochastic changes in expression th...