BACKGROUND: The cell mediated immunity has an important role in the pathogenesis of tuberculosis. sIL-2R has been known as a sensitive marker of T lymphocyte activation. Elevated serum levels of sIL-2R have been found in patients with lymphoproliferative disorders, organ transplantation, autoimmune diseases, and various granulomatous diseases. Elevated levels of sIL-2R have been also found in the seam and pleural fluid of the patients with tuberculosis. To evaluate the diagnostic value of sIL-2R in the differentiation of tuberculous pleurisy and. nontuberculous pleurisy. We measured the level of sIL-2R in the sera and pleural fluids of 12 patients with tuberculous pleurisy and 32 patients with nontuberculous pleurisy. METHOD: Samples of pleural fluid and serum were centrifuged at 2500 rpm for 10 min to remove cell pellets. Soluble R-2R was measured with a sandwitch enzyme immunoassay using the Cellfree r Interleukin-2 Receptor Test kit( T-cell science, Inc. Cambridge, MA). RESULTS: The results obtained were as follows: 1) The sIL-2R level in pleural fluid of the patients with tuberculous pleurisy was higher than that of patients with nontuberculous pleurisy(P<0.005). 2) When the sIL-2R level above 5,000 u/ml in pleural fluid was used as the cut-off value to diagnose tuberculous pleurisy, it had a sensitivity of 84.6% and a specificity of 90.9%. 3) The sIL-2R level in the sera of the patients with tuberculous pleurisy was higher than that of patients with bacterial pleural effusions and normal control group(P<0.05) and there was no difference of levels compared with malignant pleural effusions and transudative pleural effusions(P>0.05). 4) In patients with tuberculous pleurisy, the mean concentration of sIL-2R in pleural fluid was higher than that in serum(P<0.005). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that the measurement of elevated levels of pleural fluid sIL-2R in tuberculous pleurisy may be useful in the differential diagnosis between patients with tuberculous pleurisy and nontuberculous pleurisy.
Autoimmune Diseases ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Humans ; Immunity, Cellular ; Immunoenzyme Techniques ; Interleukin-2* ; Lymphocyte Activation ; Lymphoproliferative Disorders ; Organ Transplantation ; Pleural Effusion ; Pleural Effusion, Malignant ; Pleurisy* ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; T-Lymphocytes ; Transplants ; Tuberculosis ; Tuberculosis, Pleural*

Finishing is the most time-consuming step in sequencing, and many genome projects are left unfinished due to complex repeat regions. Here, we have developed BACContigEditor, a prototype shotgun sequence finishing tool. It is essentially an editor that visualizes assemblies of shotgun sequence fragment reads as gapped multiple alignments. The program offers some flexibility that is needed to rapidly resolve complex regions within a working session. The sole purpose of the release is to promote collaborative creation of extensible software for fragment assembly editors, foster collaborative development, and reduce barriers to initial tool development effort. We describe our software architecture and identify current challenges. The program is available under an Open Source license.
Genome ; Indonesia ; Pliability ; Sequence Alignment

We reported a case of nevus sebaceus associated with trichilemmoma in a 19-year- old female patient. The lesion was a 2 x 2 cm sized yellowish verrucous plaque with two 0.3 x 0.3 cm sized dome-shaped papules. Histopathological examinat,ion revealed hyperkeratosis, papillomatosis and acanthosis, proliferation of sebaceus glands, presence of apocrine gland and mild inflammatory cellular infiltration around superficial vessels. In the epidermis of the lesion, there were two foci of lobulated mass consisted of clear cells with columnar basal cells and thick basement membrane.
Apocrine Glands ; Basement Membrane ; Epidermis ; Female ; Humans ; Nevus* ; Nevus, Sebaceous of Jadassohn ; Papilloma

Background: The coronavirus disease pandemic has directly impacted global health. In developing countries, health service problems are more serious because of the lack of healthcare infrastructure. In this situation, if medical needs could be predicted, it would be helpful to bridge the medical gap with the provision of appropriate medical support. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between climate change and skin diseases in developing countries to better prepare for medical missions. Methods: From 2012 to 2016, except for 2014, we visited a mission site located in Luzon, Philippines, every July.We retrospectively reviewed 499 patient data as well as weather information. Results: The total number of patients decreased each year. The climate change analysis using Pearson correlation showed that the temperature and ultraviolet index tended to increase every year (r2 =0.99, 0.93, respectively; p＜ 0.05). Conversely, humidity and rainfall decreased (r2 =−0.99, −0.96, respectively; p＜0.05). The Cochran–Armitage test showed that the rate of infectious skin disease diagnoses decreased every year compared to that of eczematous diseases. Conclusion The total number of patients decreased by approximately 50% during medical service. We believe that the improvement in living standards and hygiene through continuous medical support has influenced the change in the incidence of skin diseases. Climate change was also thought to have affected the rate of skin disease diagnoses; in fact, the rate of infectious disease diagnoses tended to decrease compared to that of eczematous diseases. This analysis would be helpful for preparing for medical support.

Background: The coronavirus disease pandemic has directly impacted global health. In developing countries, health service problems are more serious because of the lack of healthcare infrastructure. In this situation, if medical needs could be predicted, it would be helpful to bridge the medical gap with the provision of appropriate medical support. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between climate change and skin diseases in developing countries to better prepare for medical missions. Methods: From 2012 to 2016, except for 2014, we visited a mission site located in Luzon, Philippines, every July.We retrospectively reviewed 499 patient data as well as weather information. Results: The total number of patients decreased each year. The climate change analysis using Pearson correlation showed that the temperature and ultraviolet index tended to increase every year (r2 =0.99, 0.93, respectively; p＜ 0.05). Conversely, humidity and rainfall decreased (r2 =−0.99, −0.96, respectively; p＜0.05). The Cochran–Armitage test showed that the rate of infectious skin disease diagnoses decreased every year compared to that of eczematous diseases. Conclusion The total number of patients decreased by approximately 50% during medical service. We believe that the improvement in living standards and hygiene through continuous medical support has influenced the change in the incidence of skin diseases. Climate change was also thought to have affected the rate of skin disease diagnoses; in fact, the rate of infectious disease diagnoses tended to decrease compared to that of eczematous diseases. This analysis would be helpful for preparing for medical support.

BACKGROUND: In the management of liver transplantation, massive blood loss, interruption of venous retum to the heart, sudden infusion of acidic, cold and hyperkalemic blood from the graft, and uses of inotropic and vasoactive agents make cardiac output (CO) change unpredictably. We tried to find convenient method to estimate the change of CO by mixed venous oxygen saturation (SvO2) which can be monitored by pulmonary artery catheterization with fiberoptic oximeter using a spectrophotometer, By adapting the equation of oxygen transport and oxygen consumption(VO2), the equation CO=V/O2(Hbx0.134)x1/(SaO2-SvO2) can be obtained. If we assume the VO2 and hemoglobin concentration is constant and hypoxemia is excluded, CO might be proportional to I/(100-Sv O2). METHOD: For the management of orthotopic liver transplantations in 5 mongrel dogs, we continuously monitored Sv O2 with fiberoptic pulmonary catheter and intermittently measured the CO by thermodilution method according to operative phases. The Pearsons correlation coefficients between CO and mean arterial pressure, CO and S vO. and CO and 1/(100 SvO2) were measured in each dog. RESULT: The correlation coefficients between CO and 1/(100 SvO2) are raging from 0.74 to 0.98 with a corrected mean of 0.847 and significant in all dogs (p<0.05), and the correlation coefficients between CO and SvO2 are ranging from 0.67 to 0.96 with a corrected means of 0.786 and significant in 4 of 5 dogs. CONCLUSIONS: For the management of liver transplantation, the continuous monitoring of mixed venous oxygen saturation by a fiberoptic pulmonary catheter is helpful to detect changes of cardiac output.
Animals ; Anoxia ; Arterial Pressure ; Cardiac Output* ; Catheterization, Swan-Ganz ; Catheters ; Dogs* ; Heart ; Liver Transplantation* ; Liver* ; Oxygen* ; Rage ; Thermodilution ; Transplants

The explosion in biological data resulting from highthroughput experiments requires new software tools to manipulate and display pathways in a way that can integrate disparate sources of information. A visual Java-based CAD tool for drawing and annotating biological pathways with semiautomatic image-processing features is described in this paper. The result of the image-editing process is an XML file for the appropriate links. This tool integrates the pathway images and XML file sources. The system has facilities for linking graphical objects to external databases and is capable of reproducing existing visual representations of pathway maps.
Computational Biology ; Computer-Aided Design ; Explosions ; Software ; Systems Biology

We have released five Java Application Programming Interface (API) packages for viewing three-dimensional structures of proteins from the Protein Data Bank. To this end, the user interface of an earlier version has been refactored in an object-oriented fashion, in which refactoring is the process of changing a software system to improve its internal structure, without altering the external behavior. Various GUI design and features have been provided conveniently thanks to the Model-View-Control (MVC)model, which is an architectural pattern used in software engineering. Availability: The source code and API specification can be downloaded from https://sourceforge.net/projects/j3dpsv/.
Computational Biology ; Databases, Protein ; Indonesia ; Proteins ; Software

We have released five Java Application Programming Interface (API) packages for viewing three-dimensional structures of proteins from the Protein Data Bank. To this end, the user interface of an earlier version has been refactored in an object-oriented fashion, in which refactoring is the process of changing a software system to improve its internal structure, without altering the external behavior. Various GUI design and features have been provided conveniently thanks to the Model-View-Control (MVC)model, which is an architectural pattern used in software engineering. Availability: The source code and API specification can be downloaded from https://sourceforge.net/projects/j3dpsv/.
Computational Biology ; Databases, Protein ; Indonesia ; Proteins ; Software

Endoscopic variceal ligation is the preferred endoscopic treatment method for esophageal variceal bleeding. The incidence of complications such as chest pain, bleeding, stricture formation, and aspiration pneumonia is low. We report a case wherein a malfunctioning multiple-band ligator could have potentially caused damage to the esophageal varices and massive bleeding. The equipment was safely removed using scissors and forceps. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first published report detailing the management of a case of esophageal variceal bleeding.