ESAT-6 (for 6-kDa early secreted antigenic target) is a secreted antigen found almost exclusively in organisms of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. We compared in vitro gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) responses by peripheral blood mononuclear cells to this antigen in patients with pulmonary disease due to either Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) or Mycobacterium tuberculosis with those in he...

This four-phase mixed method study developed an evidence based "Endotracheal Suction Assessment Tool" (ESAT) as a guide for nurses undertaking "endotracheal tube" (ETT) suction within "Paediatric Intensive Care" (PIC). Phase 1 involved a comprehensive literature review to determine the most commonly used criteria for assessing the need for ETT suction. In Phase 2 an "Endotracheal Suction Questi...

Knowledge of the prevalence of latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection is crucial for effective tuberculosis control, but tuberculin skin test surveys have major limitations, including poor specificity because of the broad antigenic cross-reactivity of tuberculin. The M. tuberculosis RD1 genomic segment encodes proteins, such as early secretory antigenic target (ESAT)-6, that are absent fro...

Tuberculosis (TB) in nonhuman primates is a serious menace to the welfare of the animals and human who come into contact with them, while the rapid, accurate, and robust diagnosis is challenging. In this study, we first sought to establish an appropriate primate TB model resembling natural TB in nonhuman primates. Four rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) of Chinese origin were infected intratrachea...

Tuberculosis remains a major global health problem worldwide, and hence there is a need for novel vaccines that better induce cellular-mediated immunity (CMI). In search of a better vaccine target, the QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube Test (QFT-GIT) and the interferon-γ ELISPOT assay (ELISPOT) were used to compare the magnitude of CMI in patients. Results of the ELISPOT assay led to the discovery of...

UIs as a long-term solution for non-visual access to GUIs Kris Van Hees, Jan Engelen Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Department of Electrical Engineering – ESAT – SCD – DocArch Kasteelpark Arenberg 10 B-3001 Heverlee-Leuven Belgium [email protected], [email protected]

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sse.2016.07.010 0038-1101/ 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (B. Kaczer). 1 Also at KU Leuven, ESAT Department, Leuven, Belgium. B. Kaczer a,⇑, J. Franco , P. Weckx , Ph.J. Roussel , M. Simicic , V. Putcha , E. Bury , M. Cho , R. Degraeve , D. Linten , G. Groeseneken , P. Debacker , B. Parvais , P. Ragh...

The tradeoff between energy efficiency (EE) and spectral efficiency (SE) under the smart grid with joint energy harvesting and grid power supply is considered. The price factor in economics is used to propose the economic EE and SE. Then a new EE-SE tradeoff metric called the EE-SE adaptive tradeoff (ESAT) is built under the fluctuating harvesting energy. Furthermore, the offline optimization p...

The use of defined protein and peptide antigens can overcome specificity limitations of purified protein derivatives in the detection of bovine tuberculosis when the antigens are used in blood-based tests. Since the use of these specific antigens as skin test reagents could have practical advantages, we investigated the potential of Mycobacterium bovis-specific antigens to stimulate delayed-typ...

Necrotic cell death during TB infection is an important prerequisite for bacterial dissemination and virulence. The underlying mechanisms and the bacterial factors involved therein are not well understood. The Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) co-operonic PE25/PPE41 protein complex, similar to ESAT-6/CFP-10, belonging to the PE/PPE and ESAT-6 families of genes has co-expanded and co-...