During a six-month period, we observed an increase in the incidence of presumed Legionnaires' disease (LD) due to false-positive direct immunofluorescent antibody (DFA) staining. Contamination of the DFA staining reagents with Legionella appeared to account for our pseudoepidemic. Although a positive DFA stain has been regarded as highly specific for the diagnosis of LD, the clinician must inte...

This study aimed to examine the effects of different taping pressures with or without external force on the maximum dorsal flexion angle (DFA). Twenty-two healthy male university students with >5 years of athletic experience participated. A qualified trainer wound a rigid tape thrice around subject’s wrist joint. Taping pressure was measured using the pressure measuring system AMI3037-SB. Indep...

In this paper, a characterization of an AlSiMg alloy processed by direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) is presented, from the analysis of the starting powders, in terms of size, morphology and chemical composition, through to the evaluation of mechanical and microstructural properties of specimens built along different orientations parallel and perpendicular to the powder deposition plane. With ...

When investigating the dynamical properties of complex multiple-component physical and physiological systems, it is often the case that the measurable system's output does not directly represent the quantity we want to probe in order to understand the underlying mechanisms. Instead, the output signal is often a linear or nonlinear function of the quantity of interest. Here, we investigate how v...

A two-component direct fluorescent-antibody (DFA) assay, using fluorescein-labeled monoclonal antibodies specific to the Bacillus anthracis cell wall (CW-DFA) and capsule (CAP-DFA) antigens, was evaluated and validated for rapid identification of B. anthracis. We analyzed 230 B. anthracis isolates; 228 and 229 were positive by CW-DFA and CAP-DFA assays, respectively. We also tested 56 non-B. an...

During casting of aluminum alloys, the partially solidified material is submitted to thermally induced strains that can lead to severe casting defects, such as hot tearing. In this work, carried out in the frame of the European project VIR[CAST], the rheological behavior of a partially solidified AA5182 aluminum alloy has been investigated in order to provide constitutive equations to predict h...

Variability indicates motor control disturbances and is suitable to identify gait pathologies. It can be quantified by linear parameters (amplitude estimators) and more sophisticated nonlinear methods (structural information). Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA) is one method to measure structural information, e.g., from stride time series. Recently, an improved method, Adaptive Fractal Analys...

An indirect immunofluorescence assay and a direct immunofluorescence assay were evaluated for typing clinical isolates of herpes simplex virus (HSV). The indirect immunofluorescence assay (Electro-Nucleonics, Inc.) correctly identified 16 HSV type 2 (HSV-2) isolates, but failed to identify 4 of 14 HSV-1 isolates because of background fluorescence and instability of reagents. Forty-nine HSV-1 is...

rabies is acutely fatal encephalitis caused by a neurotropic virus. this virus belongs to the family ofrhabdoviridae and genus of lyssavirus. the virus is almost always transmitted to human through infectedmammalian saliva. rabies is inoculated to a wound by an infected animal bite. since infection is establishedin the cns, the outcome is almost always fatal. according to the outstanding role o...

background cryptosporidium spp. is a widespread protozoan parasite involving humans and animals. objectives this study was carried out to evaluate the immunofluorescence assay (ifa) and pcr results for more accurate diagnosis of faecal specimens. patients and methods forty six faecal human specimens of cryptosporidium oocysts were examined by pcr and ifa in calgary, canada. in statistical analy...