Human Nasal Myiasis Caused by Oestrus ovis in the Highlands of Cusco, Peru: Report of a Case and Review of the Literature

Myiasis is the infestation by dipterous larvae. The larvae can infect intact or decaying tissue including the skin or epithelial surfaces of the orbits, nose, and genitourinary and gastrointestinal tracts. We report a case of primary obligatory nasal myiasis by Oestrus ovis in a 56-year-old man from Cusco in Peru. He presented with nasal pruritus, congestion, and sneezing white "cottony" material. The material was identified as O. ovis larvae. A literature review of publications reporting nasal myiasis caused by O. ovis is presented.

Behcet's disease is associated with increased concentrations of antibodies against phosphatidylserine and ribosomal phosphoproteins

BACKGROUND

Although Behcet's disease (BD) is classified among the vasculitides laboratory diagnostic does not include regularly autoantibodies associated with vascular manifestations of systemic autoimmune diseases.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Twelve consecutive BD patients were studied for autoantibodies associated with vascular manifestations of systemic autoimmune diseases, HLA frequencies, and possible neurological involvement using neurophysiological methods and MRI.

RESULTS

HLA-C*15 and C*16 frequencies were significantly (p < 0.05) higher in the patients compared with a reference population. Immunoglobulin G concentrations of antiphosphatidylserine and antiribosomal phosphoprotein antibodies were significantly elevated in BD patients when compared with healthy controls.

CONCLUSIONS

The increased frequencies of HLA-C alleles in BD patients may stress the role of NK cells in the pathogenesis of this disease. Antiphosphatidylserine autoantibodies may in view of their role in apoptosis be involved in the development of vasculitis in BD. Because concentrations of antiphosphatidylserine and antiribosomal phosphoprotein antibodies were increased in BD diagnostic tools of this disease should be extended with humoral parameters associated with vascular manifestations of systemic autoimmune diseases.

Effects of a prenatal care intervention on the self-concept and self-efficacy of adolescent mothers

The objective of this study was to examine changes in self-concept and self-efficacy during the childbearing year among adolescent mothers (defined as young mothers up to age 20) who were involved in a behavioral intervention. Subjects included a sample of 282 urban, pregnant adolescents (94% African American, 4% white, 2% other). The Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS) was used to measure self-concept. A scale to measure the self-efficacy of the adolescent mother during the childbearing year was developed and evaluated. Questionnaires were administered during intake for prenatal care and in the postpartum period. In the larger study, the intervention was a peer-centered, mastery modeling intervention designed to increase self-efficacy, improve self-concept, and improve long- and short-term perinatal outcomes. The results in this portion of the data showed that self-concept increased significantly for young women in the experimental group but did not change significantly for young women in the control group. Changes were noted in the TSCS for overall self-concept as well as for several subscores, including identity, self-satisfaction, behavior, the personal self, the family self, and the social self. However, differences between groups did not reach significance once age, parity, site, and time were accounted for, except on TSCS subscales of identity and personal self. Between intake for prenatal care and postpartum, self-efficacy changed significantly for both the experimental and the control groups. Both groups increased in self-efficacy for labor and delivery and decreased in self-efficacy for infant care. In this group of mostly African American teens, peer support and small group care demonstrated positive effects on self-concept. Professional and peer interactions were equally associated in intervention and nonintervention groups with regard to self-efficacy.

Emergence of phase- and shift-invariant features by decomposition of natural images into independent feature subspaces

Olshausen and Field (1996) applied the principle of independence maximization by sparse coding to extract features from natural images. This leads to the emergence of oriented linear filters that have simultaneous localization in space and in frequency, thus resembling Gabor functions and simple cell receptive fields. In this article, we show that the same principle of independence maximization can explain the emergence of phase- and shift-invariant features, similar to those found in complex cells. This new kind of emergence is obtained by maximizing the independence between norms of projections on linear subspaces (instead of the independence of simple linear filter outputs). The norms of the projections on such "independent feature subspaces" then indicate the values of invariant features.

Testicular germ cell toxicity caused by vinylcyclohexene diepoxide in mice

Vinylcyclohexene diepoxide (VCD) produces ovarian toxicity in female mice and rats, whereas testicular damage occurs only in mice. The objectives of these studies were to determine the target cell(s) and spermatogonial survival following VCD administration. In addition, the effects of 4-vinylcyclohexene (VCH) and two epoxide metabolites, vinylcyclohexene 1,2-monoepoxide and VCD were compared. Male mice were dosed daily with VCD (320 mg/kg/d, i.p.) and killed at 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, or 30 d. Two groups were dosed daily for 30 d and allowed to recover for 30 or 60 d. Decreases in testis weight began at 5 d and continued to 30 d. These decreases corresponded to progressive necrosis of germ cells. After 5 d of VCD, there was loss of Type I and B spermatogonia in Stages II to VI and of preleptotene spermatocytes in Stages VI to VIII. After 30 d of dosing, seminiferous tubules were devoid of germ cells except for spermatogonial stem cells. Following 30 d of recovery, 100% of the seminiferous tubules were repopulated. Epididymal spermatozoa were present after 60 d of recovery. Increasing doses of VCD (0 to 320 mg/kg/d) resulted in increasing testicular toxicity. Neither VCH (800 mg/kg, i.p.) nor VCM (200 mg/kg, i.p.) caused testicular damage. VCD administration initially results in destruction of spermatogonia and spermatocytes, which are undergoing DNA synthesis and cell replication, followed by loss of maturing cells. Neither VCH nor VCM caused testicular germ cell destruction, although all three compounds destroy germ cells in female mice. Therefore, further investigation will be necessary to understand these differences in chemical-induced toxicity between ovaries and testes.