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We report a case of pulmonary nocardiosis in an immunosuppressed patient having vasculitis who presented with fever, cough and chest pain. A suspicion of nocardiosis was made on auramine O [...]

Central nervous system infection with free-living amoebae is rare. We present a fatal case of Acanthamoeba encephalitis in a 63-year-old female from India where acanthamoebae were demonstrated and cultured from [...]

Antiangiogenesis agents are now being used in clinical trials to reduce the risk of recurrence of cancer. Several of these agents, however, are associated with thrombosis, especially when used in combination with chemotherapy. Antiangiogenesis and thrombosis are both endothelial‐related activities, and we therefore evaluated one presumed antiangiogenesis agent (thalidomide) on intact cultured endothelial cells, and on cultured endothelial cells injured by preincubation with doxorubicin. We evaluated cell viability, caspase‐3 activation, morphology of cells using light microscopy, and protease activated receptor‐1 (PAR‐l) expression. In our experiments, doxorubicin induced a dose‐ and incubation time‐dependent and caspase‐3‐mediated apoptosis of endothelial cells. Thalidomide alone caused no changes in intact endothelial cells in terms of morphology, cell viability or activation of caspase‐3. In contrast, when thalidomide was added to doxorubicin‐injured endothelial cells, there was protection from cell death, increase in viability of endothelial cells, induction of differentiation and formation of neotubules. Doxorubicin reduced the expression of thrombin receptor, PAR‐1, as evaluated by immunostaining and flow cytometry. Thalidomide did not alter PAR‐1 expression in untreated cells but restored its expression reduced by doxorubicin. These findings suggest that thalidomide may be procoagulant, not by enhancing doxorubicin‐mediated endothelial cell injury, but by altering the expression of PAR‐1 on injured endothelium and resulting in endothelial dysfunction, which may explain hypercoagulability in patients treated with chemotherapy followed by thalidomide.

Eupatorium adenophorum(Crofton weed), a native of Central America, has appeared as a major weed in several areas in different parts of the world. Horses that eat this plant are poisoned on prolonged exposure. Toxicity due to consumption of this plant by other grazing animals is not clear. Administration of freeze-dried leaf powder to mice results in hepatotoxicity. Earlier attempts to produce toxicity in rats using the leaves of this plant were not successful. In the present study, administration of oven-dried E. adenophorumleaves collected at the flowering stage elicited hepatotoxicity in rats. The affected animals had a marked increase in the concentration of plasma bilirubin and in the activities of 5′-nucleotidase, alkaline phosphatase, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase and lactate dehydrogenase. There were no significant differences in plasma creatinine, urea or total protein values in the affected animals compared to controls. The livers of the affected animals had focal areas of necrosis throughout the parenchyma and hepatocytes showed megalocytosis. The bile ducts were dilated and the epithelium showed degenerative to necrotic changes. The alterations in bilirubin, enzymes and histopathological changes imply cholestasis and liver injury.

A group of rats were administered a methanolic extract of Eupatorium adenophorum(Ageratina adenophora) oven-dried (60°C) leaf powder and a partially purified fraction from the methanolic extract. Administration of the methanolic extract and the partially purified fraction elicited a significant increase in total and conjugated bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, 5′-nucleotidase and transaminases. Histopathology of the livers from these animals revealed dilated bile ducts and proliferative changes. Hepatocytes around the bile ducts showed necrotic changes. Biochemical and histopathological changes resembled those observed in response to administration of whole leaf powder. The hepatotoxin present in E. adenophorumleaves can be extracted with methanol and partially purified further using the procedure described.

The APA1 gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae encodes Ap4A phosphorylase I, the catabolic enzyme for diadenosine 5',5"'-P1,P4-tetraphosphate (Ap4A). APA1 has been inserted into a multicopy plasmid and into a centromeric plasmid with a GAL1 promoter. Enhanced expression of APA1 via the plasmids resulted in 10- and 90-fold increases in Ap4A phosphorylase activity, respectively, as assayed in vitro. However, the intracellular concentration of Ap4A exhibited increases of 2- and 15-fold, respectively, from the two different plasmids. Intracellular Ap4A increased 3- to 20-fold during growth on galactose of a transformant with APA1 under the control of the GAL1 promoter. Intracellular adenosine 5'-P1-tetraphospho-P4-5"'-guanosine (Ap4G) and diguanosine 5',5"'-P1,P4-tetraphosphate (Gp4G) also increased in the transformant under these conditions. The chromosomal locus of APA1 has been disrupted in a haploid strain. The Ap4A phosphorylase activity decreased by 80% and the intracellular Ap4A concentration increased by a factor of five in the null mutant. These results with the null mutant agree with previous results reported by Plateau et al. (P. Plateau, M. Fromant, J.-M. Schmitter, J.-M. Buhler, and S. Blancquet, J. Bacteriol. 171:6437-6445, 1989). The paradoxical increase in Ap4A upon enhanced expression of APA1 indicates that the metabolic consequences of altered gene expression may be more complex than indicated solely by assay of enzymatic activity of the gene product.

The authors have assessed the role of computerized three-dimensional (3-D) and traditional (TD) radiotherapy planning and inhomogeneity corrections in improving target volume coverage and normal tissue sparing in carcinoma of the tongue. Coverage of target volumes in 3-D versus TD plans revealed the following. Volume receiving 95 of dose, clinical target volume (CTV): 1-68 versus 0-24; gross tumour volume-lymph nodes (GTV-I): 0-80 versus 0-20; gross tumour volume-primary tumour (GTV-II): 0-65 versus 0-26. Dose to 95 of target volume CTV 77-92 versus 76-87; GTV-I: 81-90 versus 61-88; GTV-II: 82-93 versus 68-87. Minimum dose to 5 of target volume, CTV: 77-93 versus 74-81; GTV-I: 81-90 versus 61-88; GTV-II: 76-93 versus 68-87. Minimum dose to a volume of no less than 5 of the target volume, CTV: 93-98 versus 88-96; GTV-I: 87-100 versus 88-97; GTV-II: 86-98 versus 88-96. A new parameter (inhomogeneity difference) was devised to study target volume dose homogeneity and was found to be very useful. Dose to two-thirds of the parotid glands in 3-D versus TD plans showed a mean of 46 versus 65 for right parotid glands and 44 versus 56 for left parotid glands in all patients. Better tumour dose homogeneity, increased mean tumour dose, avoidance of geographic misses and better parotid sparing was achieved in 3-D plans as compared to TD plans. We could not demonstrate any role for inhomogeneity corrections using currently available computerized dose algorithms.

Seventy-eight patients with carcinoma of the penis treated over a period of twelve years (1972-1983) were retrospectively analyzed. According to Jackson's clinical staging, 18.0 per cent were in stage I, 20.5 in stage II, 26.9 in stage III, and 34.6 per cent in stage IV. Some early-stage patients (12 with stage I and 4 with stage II) were primarily treated by external irradiation to a dose of 55 Gy/5 week/25 fr. Thirteen of these 16 patients had local control with preservation of the organ. The remaining patients with stage II were treated by partial or total penectomy. In stage III penectomy with inguinopelvic lymph node dissection was done. Stage IV patients received palliative irradiation and/or chemotherapy. There years' disease-free survival (including salvage surgery) was 93 per cent in stage I, 62.5 per cent in stage II and 38 per cent in stage III.

Central nervous system infection with free-living amoebae is rare. We present a fatal case of Acanthamoebaencephalitis in a 63-year-old female from India where acanthamoebae were demonstrated and cultured from CSF. In spite of treatment with amphotericin B, fluconazole and rifampicin the patient did not survive. Amoebic infection should be suspected in a patient of encephalitis of unexplained aetiology as timely diagnosis can lead to a favourable outcome.

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are malignant and rare form of soft tissue sarcoma of the digestive tract. The incidence of gastrointestinal stromal tumors is very low Kramer et al. 2005 Jejunal GISTs are extremely rare. Here we present a rare case of jejunal GIST with unusually large size at presentation. The patient presented with severe abdomen pain, exophytic growth, and dimorphic anemia. Surgical resection of the tumor was carried out, and operative findings revealed a 15 × 10 cm growth, arising from serosal surface of jejunum, at the antimesenteric surface. Diagnosis in this case was made by subjecting the resected specimen to immunohistochemical analysis. In view of large size of the resected tumor, and high-risk histopathological features, imatinib mesylate 400 mg once daily was given as adjuvant chemotherapy. Patient is asymptomatic without any evidence of tumor recurrence after six months of postoperative followup. Imatinib as such is recommended in metastatic, residual or recurrent cases of GISTs or which are surgically not removable; however, recent recommendations suggests the use of imatinib mesylate after radical surgery in high-risk cases, because it has shown a significant decrease in the recurrence rate, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also approved the use of imatinib as adjuvant therapy after complete resection of localized, primary GIST.

We experimentally demonstrate fast separation of a two-ion crystal in a microstructured segmented Paul trap. By the use of spectroscopic calibration routines for the electrostatic trap potentials, we achieve the required precise control of the ion trajectories near the critical point, where the harmonic confinement by the external potential vanishes. The separation procedure can be controlled by three parameters: a static potential tilt, a voltage offset at the critical point, and the total duration of the process. We show how to optimize the control parameters by measurements of ion distances, trap frequencies, and the final motional excitation. We extend the standard measurement technique for motional excitation to allow for discriminating thermal and oscillatory states, and to cover a dynamic range covering more than 4 orders of magnitude in energy. It is shown that for fast separation times, oscillatory motion is excited, while a predominantly thermal state is obtained for long times. At a separation duration of 80µs, a minimum mean excitation of n=4.16(0.16) vibrational quanta per ion is achieved, which is consistent with the adiabatic limit given by our particular trap. The presented technique does not rely on specific trap geometry parameters and can therefore be adopted for different segmented traps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate a swap gate between laser-cooled ions in a segmented microtrap via fast physical swapping of the ion positions. This operation is used in conjunction with qubit initialization, manipulation, and readout and with other types of shuttling operations such as linear transport and crystal separation and merging. Combining these operations, we perform quantum process tomography of the swap gate, obtaining a mean process fidelity of 99.5(5)%. The swap operation is demonstrated with motional excitations below 0.05(1) quantum for all six collective modes of a two-ion crystal for a process duration of 42 µ s. Extending these techniques to three ions, we reverse the order of a three-ion crystal and reconstruct the truth table for this operation, resulting in a mean process fidelity of 99.96(13)% in the logical basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]