4 viral genome copies. It was shown to be highly specific, as tissues from uninfected chickens and other viral genomes, such as those of Marek’s disease virus, fowlpox virus and infectious laryngotracheitis virus did not produce positive signal. The sensitivity of the real-time PCR was comparable with nested PCR and it was 100 times more sensitive than
the conventional PCR.
The assay was validated by testing DNA from tissues of chickens infected CAL-101 cell line with FAdV-9 collected at different days post-infection. FAdV-9 DNA was detected in liver, bursa of Fabricius and cecal tonsil tissues in a range of 10(2)-10(7) copies per 100 ng of total DNA. High amounts of viral DNA were present in the cecal tonsils for a week after inoculation making this tissue an ideal sample source for the diagnosis of FAdV infection. This assay is an excellent research and diagnostic tool that provides high sensitivity, specificity and rapid post-PCR analyses. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.”
“Severe traumatic brain injury is frequently associated with alterations in performance monitoring, including reduced
awareness of physical and cognitive deficits. We examined the relationship between awareness of deficits and electrophysiological indices of performance monitoring, including the error-related negativity and posterior positivity (Pe) components of the scalp-recorded event-related potential, in 16 traumatic brain injury survivors who completed a Stroop color-naming task while event-related potential SBI-0206965 nmr measurements Protirelin were recorded. Awareness of deficits was measured as the discrepancy between patient and significant-other ratings on the Frontal Systems Behavior Scale. The amplitude of the Pe, but not error-related negativity, was reliably associated with decreased awareness of deficits. Results indicate that Pe amplitude may serve as an electrophysiological indicator of awareness of abilities and deficits. NeuroReport 20:1486-1490 (C) 2009 Wolters Kluwer Health I Lippincott Williams
& Wilkins.”
“Unclassified bovine enteric calicivirus (BECV) is a newly recognized bovine enteric calicivirus that differs from bovine norovirus, and which causes diarrhea in the small intestines of calves. To date, methods such as real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) have not been developed for the rapid detection, quantitation and diagnosis of BECV. Presently, a BECV-specific SYBR Green real-time RT-PCR assay was evaluated and optimized. Diarrheic specimens (n = 118) collected from 2004 to 2005 were subjected to RT-PCR, nested PCR and SYBR Green real-time RT-PCR. By conventional RT-PCR and nested PCR, 9 (7.6%) and 59 (50%) samples tested positive, respectively, whereas the SYBR Green assay detected BECV in 91 (77.1%) samples. Using BECV RNA standards generated by in vitro transcription, the SYBR Green real-time RT-PCR assay sensitively detected BECV RNA to 1.