Knowledge, actual and potential use of HIV self-sampling testing kits among MSM recruited in eight European countries.

AIM: To describe the knowledge as well as current and potential use of self-sampling kits among men who have sex with men (MSM) and to analyse their preferred biological sample and result communication method. METHODS: We analyse data of MSM of HIV negative or unknown serostatus from an online survey conducted in eight countries (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Spain) between April and December 2016. It was advertised mainly in gay dating websites. We conduct a descriptive analysis of the main characteristics of the participants, and present data on indicators of knowledge, use and potential use of HIV self-sampling as well as their preferences regarding blood or saliva sample and face or non-face-to-face result communication by country of residence. RESULTS: A total of 8.226 participants of HIV negative or unknown serostatus were included in the analysis. Overall, 25.5% of participants knew about self-sampling (range: 18.8-47.2%) and 1.1% had used it in the past (range: 0.3-8.9%). Potential use was high, with 66.6% of all participants reporting that they would have already used it if available in the past (range: 62.1-82.1%). Most (78.6%) reported that they would prefer using a blood-based kit, and receiving the result of the test through a non-face-to-face-method (70.8%), even in the case of receiving a reactive result. CONCLUSION: The high potential use reported by MSM recruited in eight different European countries suggests that self-sampling kits are a highly acceptable testing methodology that could contribute to the promotion of HIV testing in this population.

Altered vesicular glutamate transporter distributions in the mouse cochlear nucleus following cochlear insult.

Vesicular glutamate transporters 1 and 2 (VGLUT1 and VGLUT2) have distinct distributions in the cochlear nucleus that correspond to sources of the labeled terminals. VGLUT1 is mainly associated with terminals of auditory nerve fibers, whereas VGLUT2 is mainly associated with glutamatergic terminals deriving from other sources that project to the cochlear nucleus (CN), including somatosensory and vestibular terminals. Previous studies in guinea pig have shown that cochlear damage results in a decrease of VGLUT1-labeled puncta and an increase in VGLUT2-labeled puncta. This indicates cross-modal compensation that is of potential importance in somatic tinnitus. To examine whether this effect is consistent across species and to provide a background for future studies, using transgenesis, the current study examines VGLUT expression profiles upon cochlear insult by intracochlear kanamycin injections in the mouse. Intracochlear kanamycin injections abolished ipsilateral ABR responses in all animals and reduced ipsilateral spiral ganglion neuron densities in animals that were sacrificed after four weeks, but not in animals that were sacrificed after three weeks. In all unilaterally deafened animals, VGLUT1 density was decreased in CN regions that receive auditory nerve fiber terminals, i.e., in the deep layer of the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN), in the interstitial region where the auditory nerve enters the CN, and in the magnocellular region of the antero- and posteroventral CN. In contrast, density of VGLUT2 expression was upregulated in the fusiform cell layer of the DCN and in the granule cell lamina, which are known to receive somatosensory and vestibular terminals. These results show that a cochlear insult induces cross-modal compensation in the cochlear nucleus of the mouse, confirming previous findings in guinea pig, and that these changes are not dependent on the occurrence of spiral ganglion neuron degeneration.

Activation of the dentate nucleus in a verb generation task: A 7T MRI study.

There is increasing evidence of a topographic organization within the human cerebellar cortex for motor and non-motor functions. Likewise, a subdivision of the dentate nucleus in a more dorsal and rostral motor domain and a more ventral and caudal non-motor domain has been proposed by Dum and Strick (2003) based on anatomical studies in monkey. In humans, however, very little is known about topographic organization within the dentate nucleus. Activation of the dentate nucleus in a verb generation task was examined in young and healthy subjects using ultra-highfield 7T functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with its increase in signal-to-noise ratio. Data of 17 subjects were included in statistical analysis. Subjects were asked to (i) read words (nouns) aloud presented on a screen, (ii) silently read the same nouns, (iii) silently generate the appropriate verbs to the same nouns and (iv) to silently repeat the names of the months. A block design was used. For image processing, a recently developed region of interest (ROI) driven normalization method of the dentate nuclei was applied. Activation related to motor speech (contrast aloud reading minus silent reading) was strongest in the rostral parts of the dentate nucleus. Dorsorostral activations were present bilaterally. Activation related to verb generation (contrast verb generation minus silent reading) was found in the ventrocaudal parts of the dentate nucleus on the right. The present findings are in good accordance with the anatomical data in monkeys and suggest that the human dentate nucleus can be subdivided into a rostral and more dorsal motor domain and a ventrocaudal non-motor domain.

Epitope extraction technique using a proteolytic magnetic reactor combined with Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry as a tool for the screening of potential vaccine lead peptides.

Epitope extraction technique is based on the specific digestion of a target protein followed by immunoaffinity isolation of a specific recognition peptide. This technique, in combination with mass spectrometry, has been efficiently used for epitope identification. The major goal of this work was to utilize newly developed enzyme and immunoaffinity magnetic reactors for the epitope extraction procedure and confirm the efficiency of this improved system for epitope screening of proteins. Alginic acid-coated magnetite microparticles with immobilized TPCK-trypsin provided high working efficiency with low non-specific adsorption, digestion time in minutes and low frequency of missed cleavages. The sensitivity and specificity of tryptic fragmentation of the beta-amyloid-peptide Abeta (1-40) as a model polypeptide was confirmed by Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry analysis. The Sepharose reactor or immunoaffinity magnetic reactors, both with anti-amyloid-beta monoclonal antibodies, were used for specific isolation and identification of target peptides. In this way, the epitope extraction technique combined with mass spectrometric analysis is shown to be an excellent base for molecular screening of potential vaccine lead proteins.

A Grid service for the interactive use of a parallel non-rigid registration algorithm of medical images.

OBJECTIVE: The goal of this work is to improve the usability of a non-rigid registration software for medical images. METHOD: We have built a registration grid service in order to use the interactivity of a visualization workstation and the computing power of a cluster. On the user side, the system is composed of a graphical interface that interacts in a complex and fluid manner with the registration software running on a remote cluster. CONCLUSION: Although the transmission of images back and forth between the computer running the user interface and the cluster running the registration service adds to the total registration time, it provides a user-friendly way of using the registration software without heavy infrastructure investments in hospitals. The system exhibits good performances even if the user is connected to the grid service through a low throughput network such as a wireless network interface or ADSL.

Riemannian elasticity: a statistical regularization framework for non-linear registration.

In inter-subject registration, one often lacks a good model of the transformation variability to choose the optimal regularization. Some works attempt to model the variability in a statistical way, but the re-introduction in a registration algorithm is not easy. In this paper, we interpret the elastic energy as the distance of the Green-St Venant strain tensor to the identity, which reflects the deviation of the local deformation from a rigid transformation. By changing the Euclidean metric for a more suitable Riemannian one, we define a consistent statistical framework to quantify the amount of deformation. In particular, the mean and the covariance matrix of the strain tensor can be consistently and efficiently computed from a population of non-linear transformations. These statistics are then used as parameters in a Mahalanobis distance to measure the statistical deviation from the observed variability, giving a new regularization criterion that we called the statistical Riemannian elasticity. This new criterion is able to handle anisotropic deformations and is inverse-consistent. Preliminary results show that it can be quite easily implemented in a non-rigid registration algorithms.

[Ureterolithotomy versus retrograde ureteroscopy for lumbar ureteral stone. A cost analysis]. / Ureterolitotomia versus ureteroscopia retrograda pentru calcul ureteral lombar o analiza a costurilor.

Ureterolithotomy is considered to be the last option for treating a lumbar ureteric stone. The authors reviewed two cases with lumbar ureteric stones treated in january 2003, one by ureterolithotomy and one by retrograde ureteroscopy regarding the costs for hospitalisation, investigations and medication. Among the certain clinical advantages for the patients, including a smaller rate of complications, ureteroscopy is considerably cheaper than open surgery. We consider that these costs criteria should be taken into consideration when the necessary equipment for-urological departments are set.

[Internal urethrotomy, a modern method in the treatment of urethral strictures]. / Uretrotomia optica: metoda moderna de tratament în stricturile uretrale.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the internal urethrotomy in the treatment of urethral strictures, by the retrospective analysis of 54 cases. The patients' age ranged between 18-92. 35 patients (64.8%) had iatrogenic strictures and 10 (18.5%) had traumatic ones. 35 patients presented with urinary infections before the procedure. Following internal urethrotomy, the medium hospital stay was 3.15 days. There were only 7 patients with postoperative fever and no death was recorded. The follow-up period was between 1-12 months with a medium of 9 months and only 2 patients required recurrent internal urethrotomy. Out of the 54 patients, 8 had recurrent urethral stricture disease and 6 of them had posttraumatic membranous urethral strictures. Optical internal urethrotomy appears to be the ideal therapeutic method of urethral strictures, because it has a low morbidity, it is safe to perform and the postoperative results are good. The hospitalization and the recovery periods are short, allowing a quick socio-professional reintegration. Most of the recurrencies occur with posttraumatic strictures.

Lasting effects on mouse brain growth of 24 hr postpartum deprivation.

When inbred BALB/c mice were separated from their mother for 24 or 36 hr beginning shortly after birth, growth of the body, whole brain and corpus callosum was almost completely stopped. After being returned to their mother, mice deprived for 24 hr gained weight more slowly than non-deprived littermates over the next 6 days but later showed moderate catch-up growth after weaning at 4 weeks of age. After 55 days of recovery, mice deprived for only 24 hr showed significant reductions in brain weight and size of forebrain commissures compared to littermate controls. Approximately twice as many deprived mice had a corpus callosum that was abnormally small compared to controls. These results demonstrate that a rather brief but severe period of separation from the mother can have lasting effects on brain growth.

Prenatal protein deprivation increases defects of the corpus callosum in BALB/c laboratory mice.

The development of two forebrain fiber tracts, the anterior commissure (CA) and corpus callosum (CC), was examined in BALB/cCF laboratory mice in relation to the maternal dietary protein concentration during gestation. The diets contained either 8 or 27% casein. The BALB/c strain was used because it is prone to having a corpus callosum which is either deficient in size or absent. Female mice were assigned to the low-protein diet either 2 weeks prior to mating (chronic malnutrition) or on the seventh day of gestation (acute malnutrition), and fetal brain development was assessed at 18.5 days after conception. Protein deficiency increased the number of animals which did not have a corpus callosum present in a midsagittal section. In those animals in which the structure was present, it was evident that the cross-sectional area was smaller in the chronically deprived animals than in the control group. In addition to CC area, both CA area and brain weight were reduced by protein deprivation. When brain weight was used as a covariate in an analysis of covariance the effect on CA area was no longer apparent. Part of the effect on the corpus callosum was, however, independent of the effect on brain weight and CA area.