The current "gold standard" in molecular epidemiological studies of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is IS6110 RFLP based on IS6110 polymorphism. However PCR-based methods are becoming increasingly important. Recently, fast ligation-mediated PCR (FLiP), based on IS6110 polymorphism was proposed. In this study, the discriminatory power of FLIP, spoligotyping and MIRU-VNTR typing, in differentiation of...

Host and reovirus mRNAs compete with one another for translation in infected cells. Kinetic analysis has suggested that the site of competition is a message discriminatory initiation factor which must bind to the mRNA before it can interact with the 40S ribosomal subunit. The present communication describes an in vitro assay which can detect message discriminatory activities. A competitive situ...

Objectives: To examine the level of discriminatory attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and factors in association with such attitudes. Methods: A population based cross sectional telephone survey was conducted. A total of 808 Hong Kong Chinese aged 18–50 randomly selected from the general population participated in the study. Results: Around 42% of the respondents exhibited di...

OBJECTIVES To examine the level of discriminatory attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and factors in association with such attitudes. METHODS A population based cross sectional telephone survey was conducted. A total of 808 Hong Kong Chinese aged 18-50 randomly selected from the general population participated in the study. RESULTS Around 42% of the respondents exhibited d...

The ability to distinguish between Escherichia coli strains is critical for outbreak investigations. Binary typing, based on the presence or absence of genetic material, provides a high-throughput alternative to gel- and PCR-based typing techniques that generate complex banding patterns and lack uniform interpretation criteria. We developed, validated, and determined the discriminatory power of...