25 for each resident Nearly half the recommendations 731 (48%) c

25 for each resident. Nearly half the recommendations 731 (48%) could be considered clerical, with the aim of improving record keeping. The most common clerical recommendation was to remove medicines from records which were no longer used 232 (65.9%) and changing the dose or directions 148 (42%) was the most common clinical intervention. For 80 residents (22.7 %) the multi-professional Kinase Inhibitor Library order review team recommended a further review or follow-up following the medication review. Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis suggests that recommending

a further review (B = 0.28 (95% CI) 0.13–0.38) and changing medication (B = 0.40 (95% CI) 0.10–1.70) were the only significant predictors of emergency hospital admissions. Many of the recommendations for further review were for a specialist member of the wider healthcare team to review the resident, specific medication or condition; or where the GP wanted to further consider a recommendation from the multi-professional review. Details collected regarding the hospital admissions were not sufficient to determine the nature of the relationship to the interventions

made. The results of this exploratory analysis suggest that there are a significant number of interventions that are implemented when GPs, pharmacists and care home staff conduct a multi-professional medication review together. The majority of interventions were to improve the quality of documentation for each resident so that all professionals involved in their care knew what should be happening CP-690550 ic50 with their medication. When the multi-professional medication review team identified residents with problems that could not be resolved during the meeting, a further review was recorded as an intervention. This intervention may be a marker for residents who require specialist input. Therefore if frail care home residents are going to stay out of hospital, more responsive specialist models of care may need to be developed. 1. Desborough J, Houghton J, Wood J, Wright D, Holland R, Sach T et al. Multi-professional clinical medication reviews in care homes for the elderly: study protocol

for a randomised controlled trial with cost effectiveness analysis. Trials 2011; 12: Tau-protein kinase 218. This abstract presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under its Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) Programme (Grant Reference Number PB-PG-0808-16065). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health. P. Rivers, J. Waterfield, A. Afsar, M. Ali, H. Davgun, N. Fazal De Montfort University, Leicester, UK The purpose of the study was establish whether care home staff function within a stress and blame-free culture that is conducive towards the avoidance of medication errors A noteworthy minority of care workers were concerned about being blamed for making a mistake.

Due to

Due to GDC-0449 cell line the declining incidence of IA, the newer antifungal agents such as voriconazole and caspofungin have not been compared head-to-head or specifically studied in an HIV-seropositive population with invasive aspergillosis. On the basis of trials involving largely HIV-seronegative

individuals, but including small numbers of HIV-seropositive individuals, primary therapy for invasive pulmonary aspergillosis is with voriconazole (category IV recommendation) [113]. Voriconazole is administered at 6 mg/kg bd, as a loading dose for 24 h, and then 4 mg/kg bd for at least 7 days, followed by 200 mg bd po to complete 12 weeks’ therapy. This regimen is superior to amphotericin B deoxycholate in treatment of IA, as evidenced by improved response rates and decreased side effects, though the basis for this observation is a study that did not

compare voriconazole directly with liposomal amphotericin B and the primary statistical end-point was evidence of non-inferiority [113]. Liposomal amphotericin B 3 mg/kg od iv is the main alternative to voriconazole. Caspofungin 70 mg loading dose and 50 mg od iv thereafter is an alternative if neither voriconazole nor liposomal amphotericin B can be used and is the preferred agent if significant renal or hepatic disease is present [114]. Posaconazole 200 mg qid or 400 mg bd po is another alternative to voriconazole or liposomal amphotericin B. In Fulvestrant practice, individuals will usually receive dosing qid while in hospital, often with food supplements to enhance absorption. They then can switch to the bd schedule when discharged home and better able to tolerate a full meal, which is needed to optimise absorption at the bd dose. Posaconazole

oral solution po is, therefore an alternative for individuals intolerant or resistant to standard therapy for IA [115]. Initial therapy should be continued until clinical and radiological evidence of a response is detected, Bumetanide typically for at least 4–6 weeks. Therapy should then be continued with an oral azole such as voriconazole for a minimum of 12 weeks. A prolonged period of maintenance therapy with an agent such as itraconazole oral solution 200 mg bd po or voriconazole 200 mg bd po should be considered for chronic aspergillosis syndromes (conditions in which there is no evidence of parenchymal invasion) [116]. Azoles have multiple drug interactions and therapeutic drug monitoring should be performed to optimise dosing of voriconazole, posaconazole or itraconazole [117] (see Table 3.6). Routine prophylaxis for pulmonary aspergillosis is not warranted (category IV recommendation). There is little information concerning trends in invasive pulmonary aspergillosis but the incidence appears to have declined post-HAART [118]. Case reports exist of individuals who have developed chronic necrotizing pulmonary aspergillosis as an IRIS following HAART [119]. CMV is a DNA virus and member of the human β-herpesvirinae.

In both systems, the bacteriocin activity decreased more quickly

In both systems, the bacteriocin activity decreased more quickly in the presence of wt than in the presence of LMGel, i.e. 24 h sooner in the broth culture and 1 week sooner in the meat system. In broth, strain LMG grew fastest (μmax=0.52), followed by LMGel (0.32) and finally wt (0.22). As the bacteriocin level increased initially at the same rate and reached the same peak value in the LMGel and wt cultures,

it would seem that LMGel is a somewhat less efficient bacteriocin producer than wt, possibly because of plasmid instability. As expected, bacteriocin-degrading proteolytic activity remained low (at about 7.5 U mL−1) in broth cultures seeded with LMG or Autophagy Compound Library cell line LMGel. In cultures seeded with wt or mt, it was about twice as high at the start of the culture and seven times as high at the end. Here, we demonstrate that sakacin P production in L. curvatus is encoded by a plasmid. This is clear from the nonbacteriocinogenic phenotype of our plasmid-cured mutants, from binding of a sakacin-specific probe to plasmid restriction fragments on Southern blots, and from binding of the same

probe to the amplicon produced by PCR from gel-purified plasmid DNA. This approximately 10-kb plasmid, furthermore, appears to exist in two different forms and additionally Y-27632 price to confer streptomycin resistance and the ability to ferment d-celobiose, gentiobiose, and N-acetylglucosamine. These extra features facilitate selection of plasmid-containing cells (with streptomycin) or offer a means of enhancing plasmid

stability (using carbohydrates that can be fermented only if the plasmid is present). Plasmids associated with bacteriocin production, antibiotic resistance, and/or metabolic traits are common in lactobacilli (reviewed in Wang & Lee, 1997). Sometimes, the bacteriocin-encoding plasmid http://www.selleck.co.jp/products/Docetaxel(Taxotere).html also carries a gene conferring immunity to the bacteriocin concerned, and plasmid loss results in sensitivity to that bacteriocin (Møretrøet al., 2005). Here, our plasmid-cured mt isolates remained resistant to sakacin P (plate assays and high-titre exposure, data not shown). This contrasts with the situation described by Møretrøet al. (2005). Naturally occurring LAB have long been used in food technology, and the use of genetically engineered LAB with improved features is envisaged for many applications. In the European Union, regulation EC1829/2003 prohibits the use of genetically modified organisms in human food unless the proposed use has been approved on the basis of evidence that it is safe for human health, animal health, and the environment and that it neither misleads the consumer nor diminishes the nutritional quality of the food. This regulation is applicable to strain LMGel. Regarding the safety of this strain, it is worth stressing that this is genetic engineering performed between two LAB strains of the same genus that are suitable for use in food.

The final review in this supplement examines the data concerning

The final review in this supplement examines the data concerning vaccine recommendations for international travelers, taking into account recommendations from the US ACIP and authorities in Canada and Europe, as well as specific destination country requirements. A. W.-S. serves on the Advisory Board for Novartis and on the Meningococcal Vaccine Initiative. She has received speakers’ honoraria and financial sponsorships to attend conferences from Novartis, GSK, and Sanofi-Pasteur. “
“Increased international travel raises the importance of accurate surveillance of travel-associated

gastroenteric pathogens to improve treatment and the investigation of cross-border outbreaks. This study found that 45% of Salmonella and 17% of Campylobacter infections in England were travel-associated, but only 29 and 3% of travel histories were accurately identified by national laboratory surveillance. More structured data collection CHIR-99021 cell line Selleckchem 5-Fluoracil forms and staff training may be needed to address this. Campylobacter and Salmonella species are major causes of diarrheal disease in the UK

with 50,000 and 10,000 confirmed cases per year, respectively.1 Both pathogens can lead to serious complications with associated excess morbidity and mortality,2,3 particularly in vulnerable population groups. Increasing resistance to antibiotics4 and chronic Salmonella carriage3 are additional problems. Accurate travel information is necessary to monitor emerging subtypes or antibiotic resistance patterns, Chorioepithelioma to correctly interpret

output from national laboratory exceedance reporting tools5 (in order to direct further investigations into putative clusters) and to help identify and remove relevant exposures. It is also necessary for the surveillance and investigation of clusters in returning travelers and to distinguish these from infections acquired in the UK. Cases’ travel status is currently ascertained through laboratory surveillance, but the predictive value of this information has never been estimated. The aim of this study was to quantify the proportion of travel under-ascertainment for Salmonella and Campylobacter cases in the national laboratory surveillance system in England. In addition the proportion of foreign travel-associated salmonellosis and campylobacteriosis was estimated and characteristics of illness related to these pathogens described. We used data from the Coordinated Local Authority Sentinel Surveillance of Pathogens (CLASSP) study,6 a large, active population-based surveillance system in England. Detailed standardized questionnaires were administered to all the cases of laboratory-confirmed Campylobacter and non-typhoidal Salmonella infections in sentinel areas, and 11,523 questionnaires were returned from individuals with a recent history of campylobacteriosis and 2,393 from people with a recent history of salmonellosis (about 10 and 7% of all cases in England).

The reader needs to be reminded, however, that, in anatomical fac

The reader needs to be reminded, however, that, in anatomical fact, the GMD is actually either 0 (in white matter, which contains no neuronal cell bodies) or 1 (in gray matter, where neuronal cell bodies are exclusively located), with no intermediate values. It should also be noted that, in T1-weighted scans, this fictitious quantity PI3K inhibitor may vary because of variations in either the size of the gray matter structure (such as cortical thickness) or the density of myelin within it, which has a strong effect

on the T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging contrast. Spatial smoothing of magnetic resonance imaging data invariably has the result of inextricably confounding the spatial extent and amplitude. The average z-normalised valence ratings for the three categories were, respectively, 0.683 for the O, 0.567 for the DD and 0.265 for the D, with no significant difference between women and men.

The average z-normalised valence ratings for each category and for each participant are represented in Fig. 1. A Shapiro–Wilk test indicated a normal distribution of the data in the contrasts O–DD, DD–D, and dichotic–diotic dissonance difference. Two-tailed Pearson’s correlations, performed to test for possible correlations between age and valence rating behavior, and gender and valence rating behavior showed no significant results. The results showed a significant correlation between the pleasantness experience when processing dichotically presented dissonance, as indexed by the dichotic–diotic dissonance difference values GSK1120212 cell line and the Selleckchem AZD9291 GMD centred in the colliculus (including the IC, see Fig. 2) and left pulvinar. In other words, those participants who perceived the dichotically presented dissonance as rather pleasant had a higher GMD in the IC (and pulvinar), whereas those who perceived the dichotically presented dissonance as rather unpleasant had a lower GMD. The presentation of a DD music signal (where two consonant versions of the same musical excerpt but in different keys were presented simultaneously – one consonant version to each ear) was invariably perceived as

more unpleasant than the consonant, but less unpleasant than the D signal. This indicates that the cochlea is involved in the unpleasantness response to sensory dissonance (as, for example, assumed by Helmholtz), although not critically so. However, the unpleasantness ratings of the DD versions varied strikingly between participants (see Fig. 1). For example, several participants rated the DD stimuli almost as pleasant as the O. This would rather support the tonotopic theory (Sandig, 1938), stating that the roughness percept of the music signal (and thus indirectly the perceived valence) is determined at the level of the cochlea. As each cochlea is presented with a consonant sound, according to the tonotopic theory it would make sense if the DD stimulus were perceived as rather pleasant.

Taken together, the availability of distinct GABAAR subtypes prov

Taken together, the availability of distinct GABAAR subtypes provides a molecular mechanism endowing spatiotemporal specificity to GABAergic control of neuronal maturation in adult brain. “
“Sexual behavior can be usefully parsed into an appetitive and a consummatory

component. Both appetitive and consummatory male-typical sexual behaviors (respectively, ASB and CSB) are activated in male Japanese quail by testosterone (T) acting in the medial preoptic nucleus (POM), but never observed in females. This sex difference is based on a demasculinization (= organizational effect) by estradiol buy Kinase Inhibitor Library during embryonic life for CSB, but a differential activation by T in adulthood for ASB. Males expressing rhythmic cloacal sphincter movements (RCSMs; a form of ASB) or allowed to copulate display increased Fos expression in POM. We investigated

Fos brain responses in females exposed to behavioral tests after various endocrine treatments. T-treated females displayed RCSM, but never copulated when exposed to another female. Accordingly they showed an increased Fos expression in POM after ASB but not CSB tests. Females treated with the aromatase inhibitor Vorozole in ovo find more and T in adulthood displayed both male-typical ASB and CSB, and Fos expression in POM was increased after both types of tests. Thus, the neural circuit mediating ASB is present or can develop in both sexes, but is inactive in females unless almost they are exposed to exogenous T. In contrast, the neural mechanism mediating CSB is not normally present in females, but can be preserved by blocking the embryonic production of estrogens. Overall these data confirm the difference in endocrine controls and probably neural mechanisms supporting ASB and CSB in quail, and highlight the complexity of mechanisms underlying sexual differentiation

of behavior. “
“Changes in intracellular Ca2+ play a key role in regulating gene expression and developmental changes in oligodendroglial precursor cells (OPCs). However, the mechanisms by which Ca2+ influx in OPCs is controlled remains incompletely understood. Although there are several mechanisms that modulate Ca2+ influx, in many systems the large-conductance, voltage- and Ca2+-activated K+ channel (BK channel) plays an important role in regulating both membrane excitability and intracellular Ca2+ levels. To date, the role of the BK channel in the regulation of intracellular Ca2+ in oligodendroglial lineage cells is unknown. Here we investigated whether cells of the oligodendroglial lineage express BK channels and what potential role they play in regulation of Ca2+ influx in these cells. In oligodendrocytes derived from differentiated adult neural precursor cells (NPCs, obtained from C57bl6 mice) we observed outward currents that were sensitive to the BK channel blocker iberiotoxin (IbTx).

The addition of native viruses to the three different types of wa

The addition of native viruses to the three different types of water consistently stimulated VP, the increase being significant in all except one case (i.e. with hypersaline water) (Fig. 1). In the lacustrine, marine and hypersaline

water, VP increased, respectively, by 53.4 ± 11.1%, 37.2 ± 8.7% and 20.3 ± 3.4% as compared with the control (Fig. 2a, d and g). Similar NVP-LDE225 order observations have been reported previously when the probability of the contact rate between viruses and their prokaryotic hosts is artificially accentuated by viral enrichment (Noble et al., 1999; Schwalbach et al., 2004; Bonilla-Findji et al., 2008). These results suggest that a larger number of susceptible hosts were infected, thus promoting viral proliferation. Such lytic ‘success’ indicates that the protocol for generating viral neoconcentrates did not alter viral integrity and infectivity considerably. In contrast, in all the cross-transplant experiments involving allochtonous (non-native) viruses, no additional

VP was observed (Fig. 2b, c, e, f, h and i). At most, VP increased by 5.3 ± 1.2% in the incubation with marine viruses and hypersaline prokaryotes (Fig. 2h). The main finding here is that the mixing of viruses and prokaryotes from water of different osmolarity does not always result in a lytic success as was observed by Sano et al. (2004) and Bonilla-Findji et al. (2009). However, in this study, planktonic viruses were tested for their ability to move between ecosystems as learn more click here well as, to a larger extent, their capacity to move between domains of life. In the hypersaline lake Retba, the prokaryotic community has been shown to harbor up to 50% of Archaea (Y. Bettarel, T. Bouvier, C. Bouvier et al., unpublished data; Sime-Ngando et al., 2010), together

with a viral cortege dominated by pleomorphic archeoviruses including lemon-shaped, spindle, filamentous and spherical-shaped viruses (Sime-Ngando et al., 2010). Although it has been hypothesized that some particular viruses can span all domains of life, such as some of the thermophilic archaeal viruses (Rice et al., 2004), we know that most of viruses typically do not pass the genus barrier (Ackermann & Dubow, 1987). Archaeal viruses form a particular assemblage that is fundamentally different in morphotype and genome from the DNA viruses of the other two domains of life: the Bacteria and Eukarya (Pranghishvili et al., 2006). Transmission electron microscopy observations of Retba virioplankton also revealed extremely low proportions (about 1% of the total) of VLPs that morphologically resembled head-and-tail viruses (Sime-Ngando et al., 2010).

17 log10 copies/mL (95% CI 239–465 log10copies/mL) in those who

17 log10 copies/mL (95% CI 2.39–4.65 log10copies/mL) in those who started HAART in the early period; P for trend=0.03]. Sixty-two drug discontinuations (5.2%) were because of simplification. The Kaplan–Meier estimates by 1 year were 0.1% (95% CI 0–0.3%) among those who started HAART in 1997–1999,

2.0% (95% CI 1.1–3.0%) among those who started HAART in 2000–2002 and 7.6% (95% CI 5.4–9.9%) among those who started HAART in 2003–2007 (log rank P<0.0001) (Fig. 1). HAART initiation in 2000–2002 and in 2003–2007 was independently associated with a substantial increase in the risk of discontinuation because of simplification (ARH 15.26, 95% CI 3.21–74.45, P=0.0006 and ARH 37.97, 95% CI 7.56–190.64, P<0.0001 vs. 1997–1999, respectively). Two patients (1.5%) LDK378 who started HAART with three NRTIs and 15% of those who started HAART with a boosted PI discontinued ≥1 drugs included in the initial therapy because of simplification. Patients who started HAART with a single PI-based regimen (ARH 5.32, 95% CI 1.49–19.02, P=0.01) or a boosted PI-based regimen (ARH 13.07, 95% CI 4.48–32.12, P<0.0001) had a higher risk of discontinuing because of simplification

compared with those who started HAART with NNRTI-based regimens. Results were similar when all the analyses were repeated using the competing-risk approach (data not shown), suggesting that the informative censoring mechanism did not substantially influence the estimates of the Kinase Inhibitor Library high throughput rate of drug discontinuation. In the first ALK inhibitor year after HAART initiation, 36% of the patients discontinued at least one drug in the initial regimen,

most frequently because of intolerance/toxicity: this result is consistent with previous findings in the literature [7,9,11]. The incidence of discontinuation of first-line HAART for any reason did not change over time in our cohort. Time trends towards shorter times to treatment change in recent years have been described for other cohorts [4,5] and have been ascribed to an increase in the number of available drugs. However, the interpretation of time trends for the incidence of modification of initial HAART for any reason is difficult because the impact of the increasing number of treatment options may vary according to the reason for discontinuation. As previously reported [15], women were more likely to have treatment discontinuation than men; this is likely to be related to the higher relative hazards of initial HAART change because of intolerance/toxicity and poorer adherence. Furthermore, in our cohort, the higher rate of treatment interruption could be partly explained by the fact that pregnant women were not excluded from the study population. The significant decline in the rate of discontinuations because of intolerance/toxicity could reflect patients’ greater tolerability for the newly available regimens.

For some primer combinations it was necessary

For some primer combinations it was necessary MAPK inhibitor to increase the annealing temperature to 62°C to get a more specific product (pri-132). The mature miR-219 is generated from two genes, miR-219-1 and miR-219-2. We were unable to amplify the precursor of miR-219-1, possibly due to its extremely low abundance, and therefore focused our analysis on miR-219-2. Changes in relative concentration were calculated as the difference in threshold cycles (ΔCT) between the left dentate gyrus (experimental) and

right dentate gyrus (control). ΔCT was calculated by subtracting the CT of the housekeeping gene from the CT of the gene of interest. Fold change was generated using the equation 2−ΔΔCT. Student’s t-test was used dendate gyrus for statistical analysis. At the end of LTP recordings rats were intracardially perfused with 4% paraformaldehyde (PFA).

The brain was removed and submerged sequentially in 4% PFA for 24 h at 4°C and 30% sucrose for 48 h at 4°C. On the following day the brains were frozen in CO2 gas, and 30-μm-thick coronal sections were cut on a Leica CM3050S Hedgehog inhibitor cryostat using Richard-Allan Sec5e blades. Sections were immediately stored in phosphate buffer containing 0.1% azide at 4°C. For primary miRNA in situ hybridization, riboprobes were prepared from genomic rat DNA using the following PCR primers; fw-212-cluster 5′gaggggacctgagaagcag3′ and bw-212-cluster 5′gctctgtatctgcccaaacc3′, and cloned into the pCR®II-TOPO® vector (Invitrogen). The Arc RNA probe was prepared from a cDNA insert matching the first 2975 nucleotides of the Arc mRNA (GenBank accession number NM-019361) and cloned into the pCR®II-TOPO® vector. Antisense and sense probes were transcribed from linearized plasmids using T7 and SP6 polymerase in the presence of digoxigenin (DIG) labeling mix Reverse transcriptase (Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Mannheim, Germany) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. In situ hybridization was performed on 30-μm-thick floating sections, as described previously (Wibrand et al., 2006). Visualization was done either with the chromogenic substrates nitro blue-tetrazolium-chloride and 5-bromo-4-chloro-indolyl-phosphate

(Roche) or with a fluorescent alkaline substrate (Fast Red Tablets; Roche). In situ hybridization of mature miRNA was performed using locked nucleic acid (LNA) probes, as previously described (Pena et al., 2009). In tissues fixated with PFA only, significant amounts of mature miRNAs are released and diffuse out of the tissue during the in situ hybridization procedure. This is avoided by adding a fixation step with 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethyl-aminonpropyl) carbodiimide (EDC). Unlike formaldehyde, EDC reacts with the 5′ phosphate end of the miRNA, condensing it with the protein matrix to form stable linkages. Short oligo probes with LNA modifications are commonly used for the detection of mature miRNAs in Northern blots and during in situ hybridization (Kloosterman et al., 2006; Obernosterer et al., 2007).

IS countries and a single report from PROMED, a body of interna

I.S. countries and a single report from PROMED, a body of international infectious disease experts which sends daily reports on infectious diseases in humans, plants, and animals. Imported deaths was

defined as persons who contracted rabies while traveling and who subsequently died in the country where the report was made. Reports of travelers who contracted rabies and died in the country where the infection originated are selleck kinase inhibitor not included in the current analysis. As the population was not predefined and all literature cases of people who died after contracting rabies abroad were reviewed and reported, our study included different types of travelers, including those visiting friends and relatives and guest workers, as well as ordinary travelers. For each reported imported human rabies death, information on the country where the disease was contracted, age of the patient, animal source and any information on medical intervention or treatment was collected. Between 1990 and 2010, a total of 42 human deaths from rabies were reported in Europe, the United States, and Japan; all of these victims were assumed to have contracted the rabies infection abroad (Table 1).13–39 Of these imported human rabies

cases, 36 (86%) were reported in the clinical literature, 5 (12%) via personal communication, and 1 case (2%) via PROMED. Twenty-seven deaths (64%) occurred after 2000. During the observation period, the greatest number of deaths were reported in European Union countries (n = 22), followed by the United States (n = 13), the former USSR Hydroxychloroquine concentration (n = 5), and Japan (n = 2). One death, reported in Finland, was of a person Fludarabine in vitro from the country of rabies origin. No cases from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand were reported. Among the 39 reports for whom the animal cause of rabies was known, 37 patients (95%) had had contact with a dog or puppy. One patient reported contact with a fox and one with a member of an unknown insectivorous bat species. The most common continent of rabies origin was Asia (n = 19), followed by Africa (n = 14); in contrast, only eight cases were contracted in the Americas,

and of those, seven were from the United States. At the country level, the most cases were contracted in India (n = 6) and the Philippines (n = 6), followed by Mexico (n = 5). The Philippines was the only source of disease common to the United States, Europe, and Japan. Age was available for 41 of 42 cases. Twenty-eight deaths were in adults 19 to 64 y of age, nine were in children under 5 y of age, four were in children 11 to 18 y of age, and six were in persons 65 y of age or older. Among cases for whom information about treatment and prophylaxis was available (n = 29), only a few received post-exposure prophylaxis. Twelve did not seek medical attention and six sought medical attention that was ineffective or denied because healthcare workers lacked supplies or knowledge about the disease.