BACKGROUND In addition to their more clinically evident abnormalities of social cognition, people with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) manifest perturbations of attention and sensory perception which may offer insights into the underlying neural abnormalities. Similar autistic traits in ASC relatives without a diagnosis suggest a continuity between clinically affected and unaffected family mem...

BACKGROUND The aims of this study were to compare the cytomorphologic features diagnostic of atypical squamous cells (ASC) in liquid-based preparations (LBPs) and conventional Pap (CP) smears and to cytomorphologically assess the performance of the Cell Scan 1500™ in cervical cytology practice. METHODS Cervicovaginal smears were obtained from 938 women. Two smears were obtained simultaneously...

A chronic inflammatory microenvironment favors tumor progression through molecular mechanisms that are still incompletely defined. In inflammation-induced skin cancers, IL-1 receptor- or caspase-1-deficient mice, or mice specifically deficient for the inflammasome adaptor protein ASC (apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a CARD) in myeloid cells, had reduced tumor incidence, point...

The inflammasome adaptor protein, ASC, contributes to both innate immune responses and inflammatory diseases via self-oligomerization, which leads to the activation of the protease, caspase-1. Here, we report that the cytosolic tyrosine kinases, FAK and Pyk2, are differentially involved in NLRP3 and AIM2 inflammasome activation. The inhibition of FAK and Pyk2 with RNA interference or chemical i...

Background: In addition to their more clinically evident abnormalities of social cognition, people with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) manifest perturbations of attention and sensory perception which may offer insights into the underlying neural abnormalities. Similar autistic traits in ASC relatives without a diagnosis suggest a continuity between clinically affected and unaffected family me...

Traits similar to those shown in autism spectrum condition (ASC) are apparent in relatives of individuals with ASC, and in the general population without necessarily meeting diagnostic criteria for an ASC. We assess whether the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ), a self-report measure, has hierarchical properties using Mokken scaling. Hierarchical scales allow the presence of a latent trait to be id...

Resting B cells can be cultured to induce antibody-secreting cell (ASC) differentiation in vitro. A quantitative analysis of cell behavior during such a culture allows the influences of different stimuli and gene products to be measured. The application of this analytical system revealed that the OBF-1 transcriptional coactivator, whose loss impairs antibody production in vivo, has two effects ...

Enhanced spatial processing of local visual details has been reported in individuals with autism spectrum conditions (ASC), and crowding is postulated to be a mechanism that may produce this ability. However, evidence for atypical crowding in ASC is mixed, with some studies reporting a complete lack of crowding in autism and others reporting a typical magnitude of crowding between individuals w...

This study investigates attention orienting to social stimuli in children with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) during dyadic social interactions taking place in real-life settings. We study the effect of social cues that differ in complexity and distinguish between social cues produced by facial expressions of emotion and those produced during speech. We record the children's gazes using a hea...

Apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a caspase recruitment domain (ASC) is an important adaptor protein for inflammasome activation, mediating the secretion of protumorigenic innate cytokines. However, ASC is also known to trigger apoptosis in tumor cells, acting as a tumor-suppressor gene, which is lost in several human cancers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical ...