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Background: To compare the effectiveness of a custom-made skills simulator (CMSS) with the commercially available da Vinci® skills simulator (DVSS) that help improving surgical skills for effective and safe robotic surgical interventions. Methods: A randomized control study was conducted to determine the performance of participants after undergoing robotic surgical training. Total 64 students who had no previous experience with robotic surgery enrolled this study. After 5 min—introduction of robotic surgical system, the participants got random-assignment into two groups to perform either CMSS-or DVSS-exercises. After 15 min-practicing the corresponding simulator, task-execution performance and individual questionnaires were compared between participants trained with the CMSS and those trained with the DVSS. Results: Regardless of simulator the participants used, the system understanding and manipulation ability of the participants was found to be higher than after completing the simulation-based robotic surgical training (p < 0.05). However, there were no significant differences in terms of the required time to complete the tasks, and improvement of understanding the concept of robotic surgery, or surgical skill capacity between two groups (p > 0.05). Conclusions: The training effectiveness of CMSS was not significantly different to DVSS. It can be synergetic tool to DVSS for novice trainees of robotic surgery to get accustomed to the robotic surgical system and to improve their basic robotic surgical skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mitochondria play key roles in cellular immunity. How mitochondria contribute to organismal immunity remains poorly understood. Here, we show that HSP-60/ HSPD1, a major mitochondrial chaperone, boosts anti-bacterial immunity through the up-regulation of p38 MAP kinase signaling. We first identify 16 evolutionarily conserved mitochondrial components that affect the immunity of Caenorhabditis elegans against pathogenic Pseudomonas aeruginosa ( PA14). Among them, the mitochondrial chaperone HSP-60 is necessary and sufficient to increase resistance to PA14. We show that HSP-60 in the intestine and neurons is crucial for the resistance to PA14. We then find that p38 MAP kinase signaling, an evolutionarily conserved anti-bacterial immune pathway, is down-regulated by genetic inhibition of hsp-60, and up-regulated by increased expression of hsp-60. Overexpression of HSPD1, the mammalian ortholog of hsp-60, increases p38 MAP kinase activity in human cells, suggesting an evolutionarily conserved mechanism. Further, cytosol-localized HSP-60 physically binds and stabilizes SEK-1/ MAP kinase kinase 3, which in turn up-regulates p38 MAP kinase and increases immunity. Our study suggests that mitochondrial chaperones protect host eukaryotes from pathogenic bacteria by up-regulating cytosolic p38 MAPK signaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid, quantitative and sensitive detection methods are essential for prevention and risk assessment of food poisoning. In this study, we developed quantitative real-time immuno-polymerase chain reaction ( qRT-iPCR), a highly sensitive and efficient method for detection of staphylococcal enterotoxin H ( SEH). The qRT-iPCR is based on antigen-antibody recognition, similar to the traditional enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay ( ELISA). However, unlike ELISA, the method relies on DNA probes and RT-PCR for detection rather than on a chromogenic reaction. We produced recombinant SEs and monoclonal antibodies for SEH. Then, coupled RT-PCR using DNA probes was applied. This qRT-iPCR showed a lower limit of detection ( LOD) than traditional ELISA did. In the sandwich format, qRT-iPCR system could detect approximately 4.5 pg/mL of SEH. Our qRT-iPCR system simplified the detection and quantification of SEH and accelerated the process compared with traditional ELISA. To our knowledge, this is the most sensitive technique for detection of SEH reported to date. Practical Applications Sensitive and rapid commercial kits to detect and quantify staphylococcal enterotoxin H, which could not be detected by the existing kits, would be developed based on the quantitative real-time immuno-polymerase chain reaction method in this study and they can improve the process of risk assessment of food poisoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A reduced [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A total of 339 Enterococcus faecalis strains were isolated from pork production chain, slaughterhouses, processing plants and retails, and were compared with human infection strains for investigating the transmission from animal to human via food production chain. From slaughterhouses to retails, most of antimicrobial resistances and multidrug resistance rates decreased or were not changed significantly. Meanwhile, the prevalence rate of strong or moderate biofilm-forming isolates was highest at retails. In the result of random amplified polymorphic DNA-polymerase chain reaction analysis, there was no strain persisting along the pork production chain or being similar to human strains. Consequently, it is suggested that E. faecalis strains from pork meat would not be delivered to humans by consumption of pork. Practical Applications Through investigation of antimicrobial resistant bacteria of the pork production chain of Korea, more information and relief would be provided to consumers and its results could help policy making in public health and food safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry-based restriction fragment mass polymorphism (RFMP) assay was adapted to human papillomavirus (HPV) genotyping. The analytical sensitivity and the clinical utility were evaluated by testing defined HPV genome equivalents and a total of 426 specimens composed of normal cytology, atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance, low grade squamous intraepithelial lesion, high grade squamous intraepithelial lesion and invasive squamous cell carcinoma. The RFMP assay was able to detect 38.4-114.6 genomic equivalents of a wide variety of HPV types. The RFMP assay detected 34 different HPV genotypes in cervical samples of which 8% were found to be multiple-type infections. The high-risk HPV positivity rate according to the histological diagnosis was 7.9% (8/101), 31.7% (38/120), 50% (55/110), 86% (37/43), 96.2% (50/52) in normal, atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance, low grade squamous intraepithelial lesion, high grade squamous intraepithelial lesion and squamous cell carcinoma subgroups, respectively. Diagnostic sensitivities/specificities for the cervical lesions of squamous cell carcinoma and high grade squamous intraepithelial lesion or worse histology were found to be 96.2%/92.1% and 91.6%/92.1%, respectively. The sensitivity, accuracy, wide range of genotype identification and high-throughput capacity with cost-effectiveness of the test consumables make the RFMP assay suitable for mass screening and monitoring of HPV-associated cervical cancer. J. Med. Virol. 83:471-482, 2011. © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The block bootstrap for time series consists in randomly resampling blocks of the original data with replacement and aligning these blocks into a bootstrap sample. Recently several matching schemes for the block bootstraps have been suggested to improve its performance by reduction of bias [ Bernoulli 4 (1998), 305]. The matching schemes are usually achieved by aligning with higher likelihood those blocks which match at their ends. The kernel matching scheme we consider here takes some of the dependence structure of the data into account and is based on a kernel estimate of the conditional lag one distribution. In this article transition probabilities of the kernel matching scheme are investigated in detail by concentrating on a simple case. Our results here discuss theoretical properties of the transition probability matrix including ergodicity, which shows the potential of the matching scheme for bias reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]