BACKGROUND The immunopathogenesis of tuberculosis-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS) remains incompletely understood, and we know of only 1 disease site-specific study of the underlying immunology; we recently showed that Mycobacterium tuberculosis culture positivity and increased neutrophils in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with tuberculous meningitis (TB...

This paper examines TBM vibration as a source of information about geological conditions. An EPB TBM was outfitted with accelerometers to monitor vibration during excavation of the University Link light rail tunnel project (U230) in Seattle Washington. Impact-response testing of the TBM indicated that significant signal over a wide range of frequencies transfers from the cutterhead where vibrat...

Schaefer and Ruxton recently reviewed the mechanisms involved in plant deception, with an emphasis on pollination [1]. They proposed that generalised food deception evolves if plants exploit the innate preferences of pollinators, and thus represents a form of exploitation of perceptual biases (EPB). They contrast this with floral mimicry, which is viewed as a distinct phenomenon that might orig...

In this paper, we present the current status of the JPWL standardization work item. JPWL is an extension of the JPEG 2000 baseline specification in order to enable the efficient transmission of JPEG 2000 codestream over an error-prone network. In particular, JPWL supports a set of tools and methods for error protection and correction such as Forward Error Correcting (FEC) codes, Unequal Error P...

BACKGROUND Diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is difficult. Rapid confirmatory diagnosis is essential to initiate required therapy. There are very few published reports about the diagnostic significance of 65 kD heat shock protein (hsp) in TBM patients, which is present in a wide range of Mycobacterium tuberculosis species and elicits a cellular and humoral immune response. In the presen...

The prevalence of preterm birth is widespread with very little understanding of its causes and no unambiguous epidemiological data for predicting its occurrence. Formed in weeks 30 to 33 of pregnancy (Wilson and Maibach, 1980), the protective epidermal permeability barrier (EPB) of the skin is essential for survival as it provides the first line of defense against infection, environmental insul...

A defective epidermal permeability barrier (EPB) in premature birth remains a leading cause of neonatal death as a result of its associated complications, which include poor temperature stability, infection by micro-organisms through the skin, and the outflow of water. Despite its importance in survival, the mechanisms involved in the formation and maintenance of the EPB are not well understood...

Tingible body macrophages (TBM), long thought simply as scavengers of apoptotic lymphocytes, are located in the unique microenvironment of germinal centers in close proximity to antigen-retaining follicular dendritic cells (FDC). Observations that TBM endocytose FDC-iccosomal (immune-complex coated bodies) antigen suggested that TBM might present this antigen and help regulate the germinal cent...

The present study was designed to investigate Rv2623 antigen, a major dormancy regulon protein of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) in CSF of suspected latent and active tuberculous meningitis (TBM) patients. A total of 100 CSF samples from TBM (n = 31), suspected latent TBM (n = 22), and suitable noninfectious control subjects (n = 47) were collected and evaluated for Rv2623 antigen level using...

Breast cancer is one of the most common and lethal cancers in women. As a hub gene involved in a diversity of tumors, the ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme H10 (UbcH10), may also play some roles in the genesis and development of breast cancer. In the current study, we found that the expression of UbcH10 was up-regulated in some breast cancer tissues and five cell lines. We established a dual drug re...