bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Detecting
Candida albicans
in Human Milk
Authors: Morrill Jimi Francis , Pappagianis Demosthenes , Heinig M. Jane , Lönnerdal Bo , Dewey Kathryn G. 
Published: January 2003

ABSTRACT

Procedures for diagnosis of mammary candidosis, including laboratory confirmation, are not well defined. Lactoferrin present in human milk can inhibit growth of
Candida albicans
, thereby limiting the ability to detect yeast infections. The inhibitory effect of various lactoferrin concentrations on the growth of
C. albicans
in whole human milk was studied. The addition of iron to the milk led to a two- to threefold increase in cell counts when milk contained 3.0 mg of lactoferrin/ml and markedly reduced the likelihood of false-negative culture results. This method may provide the necessary objective support needed for diagnosis of mammary candidosis.
Trichosporon loubieri
Infection in a Patient with Adult Polycystic Kidney Disease
Authors: Padhye Arvind A. , Verghese Susan , Ravichandran P. , Balamurugan G. , Hall Leslie , Padmaja P. , Fernandez Maria C. 
Published: January 2003

ABSTRACT

A 45-year-old man from Nepal with a 13-year history of polycystic kidney disease was diagnosed as suffering from chronic renal failure with end-stage renal disease. After receiving empirical antituberculosis treatment, he was treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics. A left nephrectomy was performed, and after 4 months, he received a kidney transplant. The left kidney was grossly enlarged, with multiple cystic spaces filled with blackish material. Histologic examination of the excised left kidney tissue stained with hematoxylin and eosin and Gomori's methenamine silver stains showed numerous hyaline, septate, fungal hyphae of various lengths, many broken into rectangular arthroconidia in the cystic spaces. Culture of the kidney tissue yielded white, glabrous, yeast-like colonies. Based on its micromorphology, growth at 42°C, and ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequence analysis, and also sequence analysis of the internal-transcribed-spacer and D1/D2 rDNA regions, the yeast was identified as
Trichosporon loubieri.
Postsurgically, the patient was treated with amphotericin B and oral itraconazole, followed by maintenance therapy with fluconazole. He remained afebrile and asymptomatic. At the final follow-up, all parameters were found normal and the patient was doing well, with normal renal function reports. This paper presents the first known case of human infection caused by
T. loubieri.
Antimicrobial Activities against 84
Listeria monocytogenes
Isolates from Patients with Systemic Listeriosis at a Comprehensive Cancer Center (1955-1997)
Authors: Safdar Amar , Armstrong Donald 
Published: January 2003

ABSTRACT

Listeriosis is a serious complication in patients undergoing treatment for cancer. We present antimicrobial susceptibility profiles of 84 clinical
Listeria monocytogenes
isolates. During 1955 to 1997, in vitro susceptibility for penicillin (97.6%), ampicillin (90.7%), erythromycin (98.8%), tetracycline (96.9%), and gentamicin (98.0%) remained unchanged. All isolates were susceptible to amikacin, ciprofloxacin, imipenem, rifampin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX), and vancomycin. High prevalence of clindamycin resistance (96.2%) was unexpected. Ampicillin plus gentamicin is standard therapy for systemic listerosis, and TMP-SMX may be used for patients with beta-lactam intolerance. In vitro susceptibility profiles for carbapenem and fluoronated quinolone are promising, although clinical validation is critically needed before routine use is advocated, especially for listeric patients with severe cellular immune defects.
Clarithromycin Resistance among
Helicobacter pylori
Strains Isolated from Children: Prevalence and Study of Mechanism of Resistance by PCR-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism Analysis
Authors: Alarcón Teresa , Vega Alba E. , Domingo Diego , Martínez Maria Josefa , López-Brea Manuel 
Published: January 2003

ABSTRACT

Clarithromycin and metronidazole resistance was 29.1 and 23.9%, respectively, in 96
Helicobacter pylori
strains obtained from pediatric patients. No resistance to amoxicillin was observed. Resistance according to patients' ages to clarithromycin and metronidazole was 45.4 and 18.2% in 22 patients from 4 to 8 years old, 30.2 and 20.7% in 53 patients from 9 to 13 years old, and 9.5 and 38.1% in 21 patients from 14 to 18 years old, respectively. The A2143G mutation was the most prevalent (82.1%) among clarithromycin-resistant strains.
Cell Wall Thickening Is a Common Feature of Vancomycin Resistance in
Staphylococcus aureus
Authors: Cui Longzhu , Ma Xiaoxue , Sato Katsuhiro , Okuma Keiko , Tenover Fred C. , Mamizuka Elsa M. , Gemmell Curtis G. , Kim Mi-Na , Ploy Marie-Cecile , El Solh N. , Ferraz Vivian , Hiramatsu Keiichi 
Published: January 2003

ABSTRACT

We have previously shown that a thickened cell wall is responsible for the vancomycin resistance of vancomycin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus
(VRSA) (equivalent to vancomycin-intermediate
S. aureus
and glycopeptide-intermediate
S. aureus
) strain Mu50 (L. Cui, H. Murakami, K. Kuwahara-Arai, H. Hanaki, and K. Hiramatsu, Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 44:2276-2285, 2000). However, the mechanism of vancomycin resistance in other VRSA strains remained unclear. In this study, 16 clinical VRSA strains from seven countries were subjected to serial daily passage in drug-free medium. After 10 to 84 days of passage in the nonselective medium, passage-derived strains with decreased MICs of vancomycin (MIC, <4 mg/liter) were obtained. However, all of the passage-derived strains except one (15 of 16) still possessed subpopulations that were resistant to vancomycin as judged by population analysis, and vancomycin-resistant mutant strains were selected from the passage-derived strains by one-step vancomycin selection with a frequency of 4.25 × 10
−6
to 1.64 × 10
−3
. The data indicated that vancomycin-resistant cells are frequently generated from the passage-derived strains even after vancomycin selective pressure is lifted. Cell wall thicknesses and MICs of glycopeptides (vancomycin and teicoplanin) and beta-lactams (imipenem and oxacillin) were determined for a total of 48 strains, including 15 sets of three strains: the clinical VRSA strain, the passage-derived strain, and the vancomycin-resistant mutant strain obtained from the passage-derived strain. No simple correlation between glycopeptide and beta-lactam MICs was seen, while significant correlations between MICs of vancomycin and teicoplanin (
r
= 0.679;
P
< 0.001) and between MICs of imipenem and oxacillin (
r
= 0.787;
P
< 0.001) were recognized. Moreover, all of the VRSA strains had significantly thickened cell walls, which became thinner with the loss of vancomycin resistance during drug-free passages and again became thick in the resistant mutant strains. The data showed that cell wall thickness had high correlation with the MICs of the two glycopeptides (correlation coefficients, 0.908 for vancomycin and 0.655 for teicoplanin) but not with those of the beta-lactam antibiotics tested. These results together with coupled changes of cell wall thickness and vancomycin MICs in 16 isogenic sets of strains indicate that thickening of the cell wall is a common phenotype of clinical VRSA strains and may be a phenotypic determinant for vancomycin resistance in
S. aureus.
Uses and Limitations of the XTT Assay in Studies of
Candida
Growth and Metabolism
Authors: Kuhn D. M. , Balkis M. , Chandra J. , Mukherjee P. K. , Ghannoum M. A. 
Published: January 2003

ABSTRACT

Colorimetric tetrazolium assays are used increasingly in studies of fungi, often in the absence of standardization or correlation with other methods. We examined species- and strain-related tetrazolium metabolism in
Candida albicans
and
Candida parapsilosis
by using XTT {2,3-bis (2-methoxy-4-nitro-5-sulfophenyl)-5-[(phenylamino) carbonyl]-2H-tetrazolium hydroxide} and WST-8 [2-(2-methoxy-4-nitrophenyl)-3-(4-nitrophenyl)-5-(2,4-disulphonyl)-2H-tetrazolium] and found marked variations. Also, significant signal was often missed in the absence of dimethyl sulfoxide extraction.
Clostridium difficile
Brain Empyema after Prolonged Intestinal Carriage
Authors: Gravisse J. , Barnaud G. , Hanau-Berçot B. , Raskine L. , Riahi J. , Gaillard J. L. , Sanson-Le-Pors M. J. 
Published: January 2003

ABSTRACT

Clostridium difficile
, the most common cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea, is occasionally isolated from extraintestinal sites and is usually found as part of a polymicrobial flora. We report a case of brain empyema that occurred after the recurrent intestinal carriage of a nontoxigenic strain of
C. difficile
. Brain abscess cultures contained both toxigenic and nontoxigenic isolates. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis showed that nontoxigenic isolates from the intestine and from the brain were identical.
Introduction of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 2 Infection in the Philippines
Authors: Leaño Prisca Susan , Kageyama Seiji , Espantaleon Adelfa , Maniar Janak , Iwasaki Masaomi , Saple Dattatray , Yoshihara Namiko , Kurimura Takashi , Agdamag Dorothy May 
Published: January 2003

ABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to describe and document the first case of human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) in the Philippines by using serological and molecular techniques and to compare the diversity of this strain to that of strains from other countries. With the introduction of HIV-2 into the country and the presence of diversified strains of HIV-1, the use of highly sensitive assays to detect all these strains is recommended.
Serotyping of 467
Cryptococcus neoformans
Isolates from Clinical and Environmental Sources in Brazil: Analysis of Host and Regional Patterns
Authors: Nishikawa Marília M. , Lazera Márcia S. , Barbosa Glaucia G. , Trilles Luciana , Balassiano Beatriz R. , Macedo Regina C. L. , Bezerra Cláudia C. F. , Pérez Maurício A. , Cardarelli Paola , Wanke Bodo 
Published: January 2003

ABSTRACT

Cryptococcus neoformans
is an important zoopathogen, and it is one of the most prevalent lethal mycotic agents. Its polysaccharide capsule, synthesized in vivo and in vitro, is a virulence factor, contains predominantly glucuronoxylomannan, and is responsible for the antigenic differentiation of serotypes A, B, C, D, and AD. A total of 467 isolates of
C. neoformans
obtained from clinical and environmental sources from Brazilian regions were studied serologically by using the Crypto Check Iatron RM 304-K kit. Serotyping of the clinical isolates showed the following prevalences of the serotypes: A (77.95%), followed by B (18.2%), AD (1.3%), D (0.4%), C (0.2%), and untypeable (1.93%). The epidemiology of serotype A in the Brazilian southern and southeastern regions reproduces the picture observed worldwide. In contrast, serotype B was the most frequent agent of cryptococcosis in the northeastern region, occurring nearly equally in male and female healthy hosts. Among the isolates from environmental sources, serotypes A and B were found to occur in the hollows of tropical trees of the genera
Cassia
,
Ficus
, and
Moquillea
. The few isolates from
Eucalyptus camaldulensis
debris were serotypes A and B and untypeable. Overall, no association with a specific host tree was identified for these serotypes, denoting a distinct ecoepidemiological regional pattern. The one serotype C isolate was recovered from a human immunodeficiency virus-negative host. Serotype AD predominated over serotype D among both clinical and environmental isolates.
In Vitro Activities of Voriconazole, Posaconazole, and Four Licensed Systemic Antifungal Agents against
Candida
Species Infrequently Isolated from Blood
Authors: Pfaller M. A. , Diekema D. J. , Messer S. A. , Boyken L. , Hollis R. J. , Jones R. N. 
Published: January 2003

ABSTRACT

We determined the in vitro susceptibilities of 314 strains of
Candida
spp., representing 13 species rarely isolated from blood, to posaconazole and voriconazole as well as four licensed systemic antifungal agents (amphotericin B, flucytosine, fluconazole, and itraconazole). The organisms included 153 isolates of
C. krusei
, 67 isolates of
C. lusitaniae
, 48 isolates of
C. guilliermondii
, 10 isolates of
C. famata
, 10 isolates of
C. kefyr
, 6 isolates of
C. pelliculosa
, 5 isolates of
C. rugosa
, 4 isolates of
C. lipolytica
, 3 isolates of
C. dubliniensis
, 3 isolates of
C. inconspicua
, 2 isolates of
C. sake
, and 1 isolate each of
C. lambica
,
C. norvegensis
, and
C. zeylanoides
. MIC determinations were made by the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards reference broth microdilution method and Etest (amphotericin B). Resistance to both amphotericin B and fluconazole was observed in strains of
C. krusei
,
C. lusitaniae
,
C. guilliermondii
,
C. inconspicua
, and
C. sake
. Resistance to amphotericin B, but not to fluconazole, was also observed among isolates of
C. kefyr
and
C. rugosa
. Posaconazole and voriconazole were active (MIC, ≤1 μg/ml) against 94 to 100% of these isolates. In contrast to the more common species of
Candida
causing bloodstream infection, these rare species appear to be less susceptible to the currently licensed systemic antifungal agents, with the exception of voriconazole. Continued surveillance will be necessary to detect the emergence of these species as more prevalent, resistant pathogens. The new triazoles appear to offer acceptable coverage of uncommon
Candida
sp. bloodstream infections.
Regional Distribution of Antibodies to Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 (HSV-1) and HSV-2 in Men and Women in Ontario, Canada
Authors: Howard Michelle , Sellors John W. , Jang Dan , Robinson Noah J. , Fearon Margaret , Kaczorowski Janusz , Chernesky Max 
Published: January 2003

ABSTRACT

This study estimated the regional and age- and gender-specific seroprevalences of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and HSV-2 in Ontario, Canada. Stored serum specimens from subjects aged 15 to 44 years, including men (
n
= 979), women not under prenatal care (
n
= 638), and women under prenatal care (
n
= 701) submitted for routine viral serology were randomly selected according to regional population size from public health laboratories. HSV-1 and HSV-2 testing was done with the MRL enzyme immunoassay (EIA) (Focus Technologies), and HSV-2 was also tested by the Gull/Meridian EIA. Specimens discordant for HSV-2 antibodies between the two EIAs were resolved by a recombinant immunoblot assay (Focus Technologies). The overall age- and gender-standardized seroprevalences of HSV-1 and HSV-2 were 51.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 50.1 to 52.1) and 9.1% (95% CI, 8.6 to 9.7), respectively. The seroprevalence of HSV-1 antibodies increased from 26.9 to 54.7% in men between 15 to 16 and 40 to 44 years of age, from 32.0 to 88.7% in women not under prenatal care, and from 55.2 to 69.2% in women under prenatal care. The seroprevalence of HSV-2 increased from 3.8 to 21.3% in men between 15 to 16 and 40 to 44 years of age, from 0 to 18.9% in women not under prenatal care, and from 3.4 to 23.1% in women under prenatal care. HSV-2 results were discordant for 3.3% (76 of 2,318) of specimens. Both types of HSV antibodies appeared to be acquired earlier among women under prenatal care than among men and women not under prenatal care. Antibodies were more prevalent among people in northern Ontario (72.9% of subjects [range, 68.4 to 77.4%] for HSV-1 and 13.7% of subjects [95% CI, 10.2 to 17.2%] for HSV-2) than elsewhere.
Evaluation of Etest Method for Determining Voriconazole and Amphotericin B MICs for 162 Clinical Isolates of
Cryptococcus neoformans
Authors: Maxwell M. J. , Messer S. A. , Hollis R. J. , Diekema D. J. , Pfaller M. A. 
Published: January 2003

ABSTRACT

The performance of the Etest for voriconazole and amphotericin B susceptibility testing of 162 isolates of
Cryptococcus neoformans
was assessed against the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS) broth microdilution method. The NCCLS method employed RPMI 1640 broth medium, and MICs were read after incubation for 72 h at 35°C. MICs were determined by Etest for all 162 isolates with RPMI 1640 agar containing 2% glucose (RPG agar) and were read after incubation for 72 h at 35°C. The Etest results for both voriconazole and amphotericin B correlated well with reference MICs. Agreement was 94% for voriconazole and 99% for amphotericin B. When discrepancy was noted between the results obtained by Etest and broth microdilution for voriconazole, the Etest generally provided a higher MIC. The Etest method using RPG agar appears to be a useful method for determining the susceptibility of
C. neoformans
to voriconazole and amphotericin B.
EMPATH: A Neural Network that Categorizes Facial Expressions
Authors: Dailey Matthew N. , Cottrell Garrison W. , Padgett Curtis , Adolphs Ralph 
Published: January 2003

Abstract
There are two competing theories of facial expression recognition. Some researchers have suggested that it is an example of “categorical perception.” In this view, expression categories are considered to be discrete entities with sharp boundaries, and discrimination of nearby pairs of expressive faces is enhanced near those boundaries. Other researchers, however, suggest that facial expression perception is more graded and that facial expressions are best thought of as points in a continuous, low-dimensional space, where, for instance, “surprise” expressions lie between “happiness” and “fear” expressions due to their perceptual similarity. In this article, we show that a simple yet biologically plausible neural network model, trained to classify facial expressions into six basic emotions, predicts data used to support both of these theories. Without any parameter tuning, the model matches a variety of psychological data on categorization, similarity, reaction times, discrimination, and recognition difficulty, both qualitatively and quantitatively. We thus explain many of the seemingly complex psychological phenomena related to facial expression perception as natural consequences of the tasks' implementations in the brain.
Blindsight Modulation of Motion Perception
Authors: Intriligator James M. , Xie Ruiman , Barton Jason J. S. 
Published: January 2003

AbstractMonkey data suggest that of all perceptual abilities, motion perception is the most likely to survive striate damage. The results of studies on motion blindsight in humans, though, are mixed. We used an indirect strategy to examine how responses to visible stimuli were modulated by blind-field stimuli. In a 26-year-old man with focal striate lesions, discrimination of visible optic flow was enhanced about 7% by blind-field flow, even though discrimination of optic flow in the blind field alone (the direct strategy) was at chance. Pursuit of an imagined target using peripheral cues showed reduced variance but not increased gain with blind-field cues. Preceding blind-field prompts shortened reaction times to visible targets by about 10 msec, but there was no attentional crowding of visible stimuli by blind-field distractors. A similar efficacy of indirect blind-field optic flow modulation was found in a second patient with residual vision after focal striate damage, but not in a third with more extensive medial occipito-temporal damage. We conclude that indirect modulatory strategies are more effective than direct forced-choice methods at revealing residual motion perception after focal striate lesions.
Localization of Executive Functions in Dual-Task Performance with fMRI
Authors: Szameitat André J. , Schubert Torsten , Müller Karsten , von Cramon D. Yves 
Published: January 2003

Abstract
We report a study that investigated the neuroanatomical correlates of executive functions in dual-task performance with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Participants performed an auditory and a visual three-choice reaction task either separately as single tasks or concurrently as dual tasks. In the dual-task condition, two stimuli were presented in rapid succession to ensure interference between the component tasks (psychological refractory period). The behavioral data showed considerable performance decrements in the dual-task compared to the single-task condition. Dual-task-related activation was detected with two different neuroimaging methods. First, we determined dual-task-related activation according to the method of cognitive subtraction. For that purpose, activation in the dual-task was compared directly with activation in the single-task conditions. This analysis revealed that cortical areas along the inferior frontal sulcus (IFS), the middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) are involved in dual-task performance. The results of the subtraction method were validated with the method of parametric manipulation. For this purpose, a second dual-task condition was introduced, where the difficulty of the dual-task coordination was increased compared with the first dual-task condition. As expected, behavioral dual-task performance decreased with increased dual-task difficulty. Furthermore, the increased dual-task difficulty led to an increase of activation in those cortical regions that proved to be dual-task related with the subtraction method, that is, the IFS, the MFG, and the IPS. These results support the conclusion that dorsolateral prefrontal and superior parietal cortices are involved in the coordination of concurrent and interfering task processing.
Rethinking Feelings: An fMRI Study of the Cognitive Regulation of Emotion
Authors: Ochsner Kevin N. , Bunge Silvia A. , Gross James J. , Gabrieli John D. E. 
Published: January 2003

Abstract
The ability to cognitively regulate emotional responses to aversive events is important for mental and physical health. Little is known, however, about neural bases of the cognitive control of emotion. The present study employed functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the neural systems used to reappraise highly negative scenes in unemotional terms. Reappraisal of highly negative scenes reduced subjective experience of negative affect. Neural correlates of reappraisal were increased activation of the lateral and medial prefrontal regions and decreased activation of the amygdala and medial orbito-frontal cortex. These findings support the hypothesis that prefrontal cortex is involved in constructing reappraisal strategies that can modulate activity in multiple emotion-processing systems.