Opa proteins are major surface-expressed proteins located in the Neisseria meningitidis outer membrane, and are potential meningococcal vaccine candidates. Although Opa proteins elicit high levels of bactericidal antibodies following immunisation in mice, progress towards human clinical trials has been delayed due to previous findings that Opa inhibits T cell proliferation in some in vitro assa...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The laryngoscope is a potential source of cross-infection as it involves contact with the mucous membrane, saliva and occasionally blood. This study compared efficacy and cost-effectiveness of two Centre for Disease Control approved agents for disinfection of laryngoscope blades. METHODS One hundred and sixty patients requiring laryngoscopy and intubation for general anaes...

BACKGROUND To evaluate the ocular pulse amplitude (OPA) in patients with chronic non-arteritic anterior ischaemic optic neuropathy (NAION). METHODS This cross-sectional study comprised a study group of 30 eyes from 30 patients with NAION and a control group of 31 eyes from 31 age and gender-matched healthy subjects. Bilateral OPA was measured with dynamic contour tonometry (DCT) and was compa...

We calculate the cross section for the dissociation of J/ψ by kaons within the framework of a meson exchange model. We find that, depending on the values of the coupling constants used, the cross section can vary from 5 mb to 30 mb at √ s ∼ 5 GeV. In relativistic heavy ion collisions J/ψ suppression has been recognized as an important tool to identify the possible phase transition to quark-gluo...

Octadecylphosphonic acid (OPA) forms monolayers on amorphous smooth titania surfaces. The OPA was deposited by immersion in tetrahydrofuran solutions. The process takes place rapidly at 2× 10−4 M OPA, evidence of which is an advancing water contact angle of approx. 100◦ after 10 s of immersion. The advancing water contact angle plateaus at 110± 2◦ after several hours. At lower concentrations (2...

The neisserial opacity (Opa) proteins are a family of antigenically distinct outer membrane proteins that undergo phase-variable expression. Opa(+) variants of Neisseria gonorrhoeae strain FA1090 are selected in a cyclical pattern from the lower genital tract of estradiol-treated mice. Here we show that cyclical recovery of Opa(+) gonococci does not occur in ovariectomized mice; therefore, the ...

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to compare the ocular pulse amplitude (OPA) in patients with different types of glaucoma, and also to evaluate the usefulness of OPA for the elucidation of normal-tension glaucoma (NTG). OPA is thought to reflect choroidal circulation. SUBJECTS Sixty-six patients with normal-tension glaucoma (NTG), 52 patients with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG), 42 with ...

Condensed octadecylphosphonic acid (OPA) dimers, i.e., two OPA molecules combined with the loss of a water molecule, were detected by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) on OPA self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) that are only weakly bonded on the native oxide layer of a silicon wafer. In contrast, these condensed dimers were absent on OPA SAMs formed on the oxide layer of an...

OBJECTIVE Physical inactivity is a major health risk for working adults, yet the interplay between physical activity levels in work and non-work settings is not well understood. The association between occupational physical activity (OPA) and non-occupational physical activity (non-OPA), and associations by sex, were examined in a group of 233 working adults in the Minneapolis, MN metro area be...