A repeated-measures design with block randomization was used for the study, in which 14 adults with visual impairments attempted to detect three different vehicles: a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) with an artificially generated sound (Vehicle Sound for Pedestrians [VSP]), an HEV without the VSP, and a comparable internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle. The VSP vehicle (mean +/- standard deviat...

OBJECTIVE To determine the extent and pattern of treatment failure (TF) among children hospitalised with community-acquired pneumonia at a large tertiary hospital in Kenya. METHODS We followed up children aged 2-59 months with WHO-defined severe pneumonia (SP) and very severe pneumonia (VSP) for up to 5 days for TF using two definitions: (i) documentation of pre-defined clinical signs resulti...

A vertical seismic profiling (VSP) method was developed to produce compressional (p-wave) velocity sections in a 3-D survey volume, down to a maximum depth of 57 m. The VSP method consisted of a multilevel hydrophone tool deployed down several wells. Multiple offset surface shotpoints were recorded at multiple azimuths around each well head, using an impact source. The VSP data were processed a...

In taproot of oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.), a 23 kDa polypeptide has been recently identified as a putative vegetative storage protein (VSP) because of its accumulation during flowering and its specific mobilization to sustain grain filling when N uptake is strongly reduced. The objectives were to characterize this protein more precisely and to study the effect of environmental factors (N a...

The activity of many proteins depends on the phosphoinositide (PI) content of the membrane. E.g., dynamic changes of the concentration of PI(4,5)P2 are cellular signals that regulate ion channels. The susceptibility of a channel to such dynamics depends on its affinity for PI(4,5)P2. Yet, measuring affinities for endogenous PIs has not been possible directly, but has relied largely on the respo...

A common mechanism of immune evasion in pathogenic bacteria and protozoa is antigenic variation, in which genetic or epigenetic changes result in rapid, sequential shifts in a surface-exposed antigen. In this issue of Molecular Microbiology, Dai et al. provide the most complete description to date of the vlp/vsp antigenic variation system of the relapsing fever spirochaete, Borrelia hermsii. Th...

The linearity, precision and repeatability of visible spectrophotometric (VSP) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods for analysis of inhibitory activity of angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) were compared by using several inhibitors and Hip-His-Leu (HHL) as substrates. IC50 values (concentration at which ACE activity is inhibited by 50%) of 0.00206±0.00005 μg/mL for capto...

BACKGROUND Ventricular septal perforation (VSP) after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is accompanied by the worsening of rapid hemodynamics, resulting in a poor prognosis. In our department, infarct lesions are preoperatively detected with electrocardiogram (ECG)-synchronized contrast computed tomography, and the scope of approach and exclusion is determined. Furthermore, to effectively preve...

The Ciona intestinalis voltage sensor-containing phosphatase (Ci-VSP) shares high homology with the phosphatidylinositol phosphatase enzyme known as PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10). We have taken advantage of the similarity between these proteins to inquire about the coupling between the voltage sensing and the phosphatase domains in Ci-VSP. Recently, it was sho...