Can misalignments in typical infants be used as a model for infantile esotropia?

PURPOSE. To investigate the nature of early ocular misalignments in human infants to determine whether they can provide insight into the etiology of esotropia and, in particular, to examine the correlates of misalignments. METHODS. A remote haploscopic photorefraction system was used to measure accommodation and vergence in 146 infants between 0 and 12 months of age. Infants underwent photorefraction immediately after watching a target moving between two of five viewing distances (25, 33, 50, 100, and 200 cm). In some instances, infants were tested in two conditions: both eyes open and one eye occluded. The resultant data were screened for instances of large misalignments. Data were assessed to determine whether accommodative, retinal disparity, or other cues were associated with the occurrence of misalignments. RESULTS. The results showed that there was no correlation between accommodative behavior and misalignments. Infants were more likely to show misalignments when retinal disparity cues were removed through occlusion. They were also more likely to show misalignments immediately after the target moved from a near to a far position in comparison to far-to-near target movement. DISCUSSION. The data suggest that the prevalence of misalignments in infants of 2 to 3 months of age is decreased by the addition of retinal disparity cues to the stimulus. In addition, target movement away from the infant increases the prevalence of misalignments. These data are compatible with the notion that misalignment are caused by poor sensitivity to targets moving away from the infant and support the theory that some forms of strabismus could be related to failure in a system that is sensitive to the direction of motion.

Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Conference of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology, Department of Archaeology, University of Reading

The Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Conference of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology (BABAO) held at the University of Reading in 2007. Contents: 1) A life course perspective of growing up in medieval London: evidence of sub-adult health from St Mary Spital (London) (Rebecca Redfern and Don Walker); 2) Preservation of non-adult long bones from an almshouse cemetery in the United States dating to the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries (Colleen Milligan, Jessica Zotcavage and Norman Sullivan); 3) Childhood oral health: dental palaeopathology of Kellis 2, Dakhleh, Egypt. A preliminary investigation (Stephanie Shukrum and JE Molto); 4) Skeletal manifestation of non-adult scurvy from early medieval Northumbria: the Black Gate cemetery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Diana Mahoney-Swales and Pia Nystrom); 5) Infantile cortical hyperostosis: cases, causes and contradictions (Mary Lewis and Rebecca Gowland); 6) Biological Anthropology Tuberculosis of the hip in the Victorian Britain (Benjamin Clarke and Piers Mitchell); 7) The re-analysis of Iron Age human skeletal material from Winnall Down (Justine Tracey); 8) Can we estimate post-mortem interval from an individual body part? A field study using sus scrofa (Branka Franicevec and Robert Pastor); 9) The expression of asymmetry in hand bones from the medieval cemetery at Écija, Spain (Lisa Cashmore and Sonia Zakrezewski); 10) Returning remains: a curator’s view (Quinton Carroll); 11) Authority and decision making over British human remains: issues and challenges (Piotr Bienkowski and Malcolm Chapman); 12) Ethical dimensions of reburial, retention and repatriation of archaeological human remains: a British perspective (Simon Mays and Martin Smith); 13) The problem of provenace: inaccuracies, changes and misconceptions (Margaret Clegg); 14) Native American human remains in UK collections: implications of NAGPRA to consultation, repatriation, and policy development (Myra J Giesen); 15) Repatriation – a view from the receiving end: New Zealand (Nancy Tayles).

Phenotypic and genotypic characterization of avian Escherichia coli O86:K61 isolates possessing a gamma-like intimin

Escherichia coli O86:K61 has long been associated with outbreaks of infantile diarrhea in humans and with diarrheal disease in many animal species. Studies in the late 1990s identified E. coli 086:K61 as the cause of mortality in a variety of wild birds, and in this study, 34 E. coli 086:K61 isolates were examined. All of the isolates were nonmotile, but most elaborated at least two morphologically distinct surface appendages that were confirmed to be type I and curli fimbriae. Thirty-three isolates were positive for the eaeA gene encoding a gamma type of intimin. No phenotypic or genotypic evidence was obtained for elaboration of Shiga-like toxins, but most isolates possessed the gene coding for the cytolethal distending toxin. Five isolates were selected for adherence assays performed with tissue explants and HEp-2 cells, and four of these strains produced attaching and effacing lesions on HEp-2 cells and invaded the cells, as determined by transmission electron microscopy. Two of the five isolates were inoculated orally into 1-day-old specific-pathogen-free chicks, and both of these isolates colonized, invaded, and persisted well in this model. Neither isolate produced attaching and effacing lesions in chicks, although some pathology was evident in the alimentary tract. No deaths were recorded in inoculated chicks. These findings are discussed in light of the possibility that wild birds are potential zoonotic reservoirs of attaching and effacing E. coli.