AIM The Captia Syph G enzyme immuno assay (EAI) offers the potential for the rapid automated detection of syphilis antibodies. This study was designed to assess the role of other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in producing false positive reactions in the Captia Syph G EIA. The role of rheumatoid factor (RF) as a potential source of false positives was also analysed. METHODS Patients who...

In this article, we present a new method termed CatFam (Catalytic Families) to automatically infer the functions of catalytic proteins, which account for 20-40% of all proteins in living organisms and play a critical role in a variety of biological processes. CatFam is a sequence-based method that generates sequence profiles to represent and infer protein catalytic functions. CatFam generates p...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the evolution of HIV-1 coreceptor tropism in proviral DNA of patients during maraviroc-based therapy. METHODS Fourteen heavily high active antiretroviral therapy (HAART)-treated patients with a CCR5 Trofile profile were monitored over a 24 month period from the start of maraviroc therapy. Whole-blood samples were obtained at different timepoints, and coreceptor tropism ...

We have carried out a series of frequency-of-seeing experiments similar to those performed by Hecht, Shlaer, and Pirenne [J. Gen. Physiol. 25, 819-840 (1942)], using an Ar+ laser operated at 514.5 nm as the source of light. In certain blocks of trials, our subjects were encouraged to report as seen those trials in which the stimulus might have been present. It was determined that sensitivity an...

OBJECTIVE Few data are available about the efficacy of maraviroc (MVC) during routine use. We characterized indications for MVC use and the efficacy of MVC in clinical practice. METHODS Thirty-two patients treated with MVC at our institution between 2006 and 2009 were included. Genotypic (n +/- 31) and phenotypic (n +/- 13) tropism analysis was performed. We determined indications for MVC use...

OBJECTIVE To review clinical validation or implementation studies of maternal blood cell-free (cf) DNA analysis and define the performance of screening for fetal trisomies 21, 18 and 13 and sex chromosome aneuploidies. METHODS Searches of PubMed, EMBASE and The Cochrane Library were performed to identify all peer-reviewed articles on cfDNA testing in screening for aneuploidies between January...

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are vulnerable to various sensor faults and faulty measurements. This vulnerability hinders efficient and timely response in various WSN applications, such as healthcare. For example, faulty measurements can create false alarms which may require unnecessary intervention from healthcare personnel. Therefore, an approach to differentiate between real medical conditi...

OBJECTIVES To assess Congo red urine test in the first trimester for preeclampsia (PE) prediction. SAMPLE A Congo red test was developed with a cohort of 81 pregnant women in Bnai Zion hospital, Israel, at 26-41 weeks of gestation (12 PE cases). The test was then applied to a first-trimester cohort of 642 women at King's College Hospital, UK (105 subsequently developed PE, 21 early, i.e., <34...

BACKGROUND Big data is steadily growing in epidemiology. We explored the performances of methods dedicated to big data analysis for detecting independent associations between exposures and a health outcome. METHODS We searched for associations between 303 covariates and influenza infection in 498 subjects (14% infected) sampled from a dedicated cohort. Independent associations were detected u...

Copy number variants (CNVs) are currently defined as genomic sequences that are polymorphic in copy number and range in length from 1000 to several million base pairs. Among current array-based CNV detection platforms, long-oligonucleotide arrays promise the highest resolution. However, the performance of currently available analytical tools suffers when applied to these data because of the low...