Search results for "laboratory"

The role of the reporting framework MIATA within current efforts to advance immune monitoring

2014

The Social Exclusion Bench Tool (SEBT): A visual way of assessing interpersonal social exclusion

2021

People usually prefer to appear with an inclusive and positive attitude to others’ eyes. For this reason, the self-report scales assessing social exclusion intentions are often biased by social desirability. In this work, we present an innovative graphical tool, named Social Exclusion Bench Tool (SEBT), for assessing social exclusion not influenced by social desirability. The tool is based on the consistency between social distance and physical distance evaluation. The results showed that in two samples of adults from Italy (N = 252) and the UK (N = 254), the SEBT positively correlated with self-report measures of social exclusion, but not with the social desirability measure. The tool has …

Highly stable Zerodur based optical benches for microgravity applications and other adverse environments

2019

A number of cold atom experiments are restrained by the impeding effects of gravity. While efforts have been made to overcome these limitations in a gravitational environment, another approach is placing the experiment in a microgravity environment, as can be found aboard sounding rockets, satellites or a space station. The cornerstone of such experiments is a robust laser system. The adverse conditions during a rocket launch impose stringent requirements on thermal stability and resilience against mechanical stress on this part of the experimental setup. Furthermore, the very limited space found on any of the aforementioned microgravity platforms necessitates maximal miniaturization. In or…

A retrospective international study on factors associated with injury, discomfort and pain perception among cyclists

2019

International audience; Although cycling has been associated with overuse/fatigue and acute injuries, there is lack of information regarding associated risk factors and prevention factors. The objective of the study was to determine the factors associated with injury, and perceptions of discomfort and pain in cyclists. A total of 739 cyclists completed an online questionnaire between February and October 2016. The questionnaire acquired information on participant demographics, characteristics related to cycling profile and fitness training, bike components and cycling posture, self-reported perceptions of comfort and pain, and injuries sustained in the last 12 months. Logistic regression mo…

Infection risks of city canal swimming events in the Netherlands in 2016.

2018

Introduction Swimming events in city canals are gaining popularity in the Netherlands, even though canal water is usually not officially designated for recreational use. Knowledge regarding the risk of infection after swimming in canals is limited. An outbreak was reported in 2015 following a canal swimming event in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Local governments were concerned about the health risks of such events. In order to assess the safety of canal swimming, the Public Health Service (PHS) prospectively investigated two city canal swimming events in 2015. In 2016, we repeated this study, aiming to prospectively determine the risks of infection during two urban swimming events, the Utrecht…

The ER-Membrane Transport System Is Critical for Intercellular Trafficking of the NSm Movement Protein and Tomato Spotted Wilt Tospovirus.

2015

Plant viruses move through plasmodesmata to infect new cells. The plant endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is interconnected among cells via the ER desmotubule in the plasmodesma across the cell wall, forming a continuous ER network throughout the entire plant. This ER continuity is unique to plants and has been postulated to serve as a platform for the intercellular trafficking of macromolecules. In the present study, the contribution of the plant ER membrane transport system to the intercellular trafficking of the NSm movement protein and Tomato spotted wilt tospovirus (TSWV) is investigated. We showed that TSWV NSm is physically associated with the ER membrane in Nicotiana benthamiana plants. An…

Exceptional Heterogeneity in Viral Evolutionary Dynamics Characterises Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection.

2016

The treatment of HCV infection has seen significant progress, particularly since the approval of new direct-acting antiviral drugs. However these clinical achievements have been made despite an incomplete understanding of HCV replication and within-host evolution, especially compared with HIV-1. Here, we undertake a comprehensive analysis of HCV within-host evolution during chronic infection by investigating over 4000 viral sequences sampled longitudinally from 15 HCV-infected patients. We compare our HCV results to those from a well-studied HIV-1 cohort, revealing key differences in the evolutionary behaviour of these two chronic-infecting pathogens. Notably, we find an exceptional level o…

An unusually high substitution rate in transplant-associated BK polyomavirus in vivo is further concentrated in HLA-C-bound viral peptides

2018

Infection with human BK polyomavirus, a small double-stranded DNA virus, potentially results in severe complications in immunocompromised patients. Here, we describe the in vivo variability and evolution of the BK polyomavirus by deep sequencing. Our data reveal the highest genomic evolutionary rate described in double-stranded DNA viruses, i.e., 10−3–10−5 substitutions per nucleotide site per year. High mutation rates in viruses allow their escape from immune surveillance and adaptation to new hosts. By combining mutational landscapes across viral genomes with in silico prediction of viral peptides, we demonstrate the presence of significantly more coding substitutions within predicted cog…

Human norovirus binding to select bacteria representative of the human gut microbiota

2016

Recent reports describe the ability of select bacterial strains to bind human norovirus, although the specificity of such interactions is unknown. The purpose of this work was to determine if a select group of bacterial species representative of human gut microbiota bind to human norovirus, and if so, to characterize the intensity and location of that binding. The bacteria screened included naturally occurring strains isolated from human stool (Klebsiella spp., Citrobacter spp., Bacillus spp., Enterococcus faecium and Hafnia alvei) and select reference strains (Staphylococcus aureus and Enterobacter cloacae). Binding in PBS was evaluated to three human norovirus strains (GII.4 New Orleans 2…

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Different Testing Strategies that Use Antibody Levels to Detect Chronic Hepatitis C in Blood Donors.

2016

Aim. We conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis of seven hepatitis C virus (HCV) testing strategies in blood donors. Methods. Three of the seven strategies were based on HCV diagnosis and reporting guidelines in Mexico and four were from previous and current recommendations outlined by the CDC. The strategies that were evaluated determine antibody levels according to the signal-to-cut-off (S/CO) ratio and use reflex Immunoblot (IMB) or HCV RNA tests to confirm true positive (TP) cases of chronic HCV infection. Costs were calculated from the perspective of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS). A decision tree model was developed to estimate the expected number of true positive cas…