The mechanisms underlying stem cell acquisition of a cardiac phenotype are unresolved. We studied early events during the acquisition of a cardiac phenotype by a cloned adult liver stem cell line (WB F344) in a cardiac microenvironment. WB F344 cells express a priori the transcription factors GATA4 and SRF, connexin 43 in the cell membrane, and myoinositol 1,4,5-triphosphate receptor in the per...

Testing for Borrelia burgdorferi (BB), the spirochetal agent of Lyme disease, is problematic due to poor sensitivity of commercially available serological tests. We evaluated an in-house Western Blot (WB) prepared with a mixture of two strains of BB, B31 and 297. Sensitivity and specificity of IgG and IgM testing using the two-strain WB was compared to testing with a commercial single-strain WB...

BACKGROUND Little evidence exists to guide the selection of methods for teaching clinical diagnosis. PURPOSE To compare the efficacy, student preference, and cost of a Web-based (WB) program versus a standardized patient (SP) encounter for teaching clinical diagnosis skills to 2nd-year medical students. METHODS Randomized, controlled, crossover study comparing WB versus SP-based teaching fo...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Serodiagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection typically requires repeatedly reactive positive screening test followed by Western blot (WB) assay. When WB assay result is indeterminate, the results of follow-up WB assay may remain inconclusive. This study evaluated use of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and particle agglutination test (PAT) as seq...

BACKGROUND The clinical diagnosis of meningococcal disease (MCD) can be difficult. Non-culture methods like the previous ELISA meningococcal PCR improved case confirmation rates, but were not ideal. A Taqman meningococcal PCR, using DNA extracted from serum (S-Taqman), which has an improved sensitivity compared to the ELISA method in vitro, was introduced into clinical practice in July 1997. A ...

High-intensity (resistance) exercise (HIT) and whole-body electromyostimulation (WB-EMS) are both approaches to realize time-efficient favorable changes of body composition and strength. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of WB-EMS compared with the gold standard reference HIT, for improving body composition and muscle strength in middle-aged men. Forty-eight healthy u...

BACKGROUND Measuring hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA in serum or plasma may underestimate the true HCV burden. Extracting viral RNA from whole blood (WB) with a cationic surfactant (Catrimox-14) has resulted in HCV RNA concentrations up to 1000-fold higher than from serum or plasma in some studies, but not others. We compared the Catrimox-14 WB assay with a standard serum assay. METHODS Seventy-t...

We present a dynamic model of endogenous interest group sizes and policymaking. The model integrates ‘top-down’ (policy) and ‘bottom-up’ (individual and social-structural) influences on the development of interest groups. Comparative statics results show that the standard assumption of fixed-sized interest groups can be misleading. Furthermore, dynamic analysis of the model demonstrates that re...

In this study, Glucoamylase production by Aspergillus Niger was investigated under solid state conditions with low cost by-products of agricultural processes as substrate. Highest enzyme production was observed when a combination of wheat bran (WB) and corn flour (CF) was used as compared to WB+ rice bran, WB+ rice flour and WB alone. Different additions of (CF) were tested and WB+ 10% CF showe...