The immense increase in availability of genomic scale datasets, such as those provided by the ENCODE and Roadmap Epigenomics projects, presents unprecedented opportunities for individual researchers to pose novel falsifiable biological questions. With this opportunity, however, researchers are faced with the challenge of how to best analyze and interpret their genome-scale datasets. A powerful way ...

Given the anthropometric differences between men and women and previous evidence of sex-difference in genetic effects, we conducted a genome-wide search for sexually dimorphic associations with height, weight, body mass index, waist circumference, hip circumference, and waist-to-hip-ratio (133,723 individuals) and took forward 348 SNPs into follow-up (additional 137,052 individuals) in a total ...

Community-acquired urinary tract infection (CA-UTI) is the most common infection caused by extended-spectrum blactamase (ESBL)-producing Enterobacteriaceae, but the clinical epidemiology of these infections in low prevalence countries is largely unknown. A population based case-control study was conducted to assess risk factors for CA-UTI caused by ESBL-producing E. coli or K. pneumoniae. The ...

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS; or acne inversa) is a scarring and frequently persistent inflammatory disorder of the terminal hair follicles of apocrine gland-bearing skin in adults. Treatments include local or systemic antibiotics, hormones, retinoids and systemic immunosuppressive agents (1), although on evaluation these have been shown to have only limited or temporary effect. In refractory cases, ...

Polyomaviruses are small, non-enveloped viruses with a circular double-stranded DNA genome. Using a generic polyomavirus PCR targeting the VP1 major structural protein gene, a novel polyomavirus was initially identified in resected human liver tissue and provisionally named Human Polyomavirus 12 (HPyV12). Its 5033 bp genome is predicted to encode large and small T antigens and the 3 structural ...

Objectives. The general aim was to assess the pattern and trend in cancer mortality among the indigenous people of coastal Chukotka during the period 1961 1990. Methods. All cases of cancer deaths of indigenous residents of the Chukotsky district in the northeasternmost coast of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug were copied from personal death certificates. There were a total of 219 cancer deaths during ...

Background: Outpatients with acute cough who expect, hope for or ask for antibiotics may be more unwell, benefit more from antibiotic treatment, and be more satisfied with care when they are prescribed antibiotics. Clinicians may not accurately identify those patients. Objective: To explore whether patient views (expecting, hoping for or asking for antibiotics) are associated with illness presentation ...

The article by He and colleagues, ‘‘Adverse Events Following Acupuncture: A Systematic Review of the Chinese Literature for the Years 1956–2010’’ is an important and timely contribution. In this commentary, the article is reviewed and issues are highlighted about how to interpret and contextualize the results of their study. While their review has been well performed, certain areas have been ...

Objectives Treatment of oral mucositis (OM) is challenging. In order to develop and test useful treatment approaches, the development of reliable, reproducible and simpler methods than are currently available for assessment of OM is important. A Patient-Reported Oral Mucositis Symptom (PROMS) scale was assessed in patients with head and neck cancer to determine if the patient-reported OM experience, ...

Metallo- -lactamases (MBLs) have rapidly disseminated worldwide among clinically important Gram-negative bacteria and have challenged the therapeutic use of -lactam antibiotics, particularly carbapenems. The blaGIM-1 gene, encoding one such enzyme, was first discovered in a Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolate from 2002 and has more recently been reported in Enterobacteriaceae. Here, we present crystal ...