Buchnera aphidicola is the endosymbiotic bacterium of the pea aphid. Due to its small genome size, Buchnera lacks many essential genes for autogenous life but obtains nutrients from the host. Although the Buchnera cell is nonmotile, it retains clusters of flagellar genes that lack the late genes necessary for motility, including the flagellin gene. In this study, we show that the flagellar gene...

Turner syndrome (TS) is characterized by the presence of one full X chromosome and total or partial deletion of the second sex chromosome. Diagnosis of TS is often delayed, resulting in inappropriate treatment. Early diagnosis of TS using a neonatal screening test may improve preventive measures and treatment, thus improving patient quality of life. The goal of this study was to standardize a n...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Newborns are at the highest risk of dying around the time of birth, due to intrapartum-related complications. Our study's objective was to improve adherence to the Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) neonatal resuscitation protocol and reduce perinatal mortality by using a quality improvement cycle (QIC) in a tertiary hospital in Nepal. METHODS The HBB QIC was implemented th...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the additional number of affected individuals based on the prevalence of sickle-cell syndromes among relatives of index cases. METHODS Cross-sectional study of relatives of a random sample of index cases identified through a neonatal screening program in Northeastern Brazil, between 2001 and 2005. The extended family trial model included 463 relatives of 21 index cases. ...

Inappropriately low expression of the key iron regulator hepcidin (HAMP) causes iron overload in untransfused patients affected by β-thalassemia intermedia and Hamp modulation provides improvement of the thalassemic phenotype of the Hbb(th3/+) mouse. HAMP expression is activated by iron through the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-son of mothers against decapentaplegic signaling pathway and inh...

BACKGROUND Early neonatal mortality has remained high and unchanged for many years in Tanzania, a resource-limited country. Helping Babies Breathe (HBB), a novel educational program using basic interventions to enhance delivery room stabilization/resuscitation, has been developed to reduce the number of these deaths. METHODS Master trainers from the 3 major referral hospitals, 4 associated re...

The amino acid compositions of the isolated cy and p chains from purified adult cat hemoglobins A and B have been determined. The data indicate that the Q! chains are similar but the /? chains differ by about four substitutions. Aminoterminal analysis has shown the presence of the typical Val-Leu sequence in the cat or chains. However, the two p chains differ at their amino terminals. NHz-termi...

The most common hemoglobinopathies, viz, hemoglobins S and C, and α- and β-thalassemias, were investigated through the molecular screening of 116 subjects from the community of Saracura, comprising fugitive African slaves from farms of the municipality of Santarém, in the west of Pará State, Brazilian Amazon. The observed frequency of the HBB*S gene (0.9%) was significantly lower than that enco...

Malarial resistance serves as a prime example of how infectious disease and parasite loads have affected human evolutionary biology. Claiming over 1 million deaths worldwide every year, malaria's wide and severe effects on the human condition are undeniably strong. However, studies on populations existing in malaria endemic areas have revealed numerous biological adaptations that confer resista...

Borrelia burgdorferi, an agent of Lyme disease, encodes the beta(3)-chain integrin ligand P66. P66 is expressed by B. burgdorferi in the mammal, in laboratory media, and as the bacteria are acquired or transmitted by the tick, but is not expressed by the bacterium in unfed ticks. Attempts to reveal factors influencing expression revealed that P66 was expressed in all in vitro conditions investi...