A recognition advantage for distinctive faces has been widely reported (e.g., Valentine, 1991). In such studies, distinctive faces produce more hits and fewer false alarms than typical faces. Although the finding is robust, the mechanism for this advantage has not been carefully explored. The choice of distractors in these studies does not guarantee equivalent target-distractor distances for ty...

Since congenital toxoplasmosis was first recognized as a human infection 18 years ago, it has been found in many parts of the world, and, following the first report by Jacoby and Sagorin in 1948, over 50 cases have been recorded in the British literature. Only four of the reports from this country concern the findings in fatal cases (Cathie and Dudgeon, 1949; Valentine, 1952; Valentine, Lane, B...

Cases of skin infections caused by Panton–Valentine leukocidin (PVL)-positive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), particularly USA300 clone, have been increasing in Japan. We report that clinical findings 5 patients with PVL-positive MRSA and compared to those four PVL-negative MRSA. Severities were significantly higher than Average durations antimicrobial therapy for 3.4-fold l...

To the Editor: The pathogenicity of Staphylococcus aureus depends on various bacterial surface components and extracellular proteins. However, the precise role of single virulence determinants in relation to infection is hard to establish. The frequent recovery of staphylococcal isolates that produce leukocidal toxins from patients with deep skin and soft tissue infections, particularly furuncu...

fections. Prevalence of MRSA and distribution of MRSA sequence types in livestock in Italy are not known. However, surveys of foods of animal (pig) origin have showed an MRSA prevalence of 3.7% (1,10). In view of the low prevalence of MRSA ST398 in patients with no exposure to animals, food products currently seem to play a negligible role. However, this clone is likely spreading because of the...