(C) 2010 Elsevier

Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“The design of a 5′ conjugated minor groove binder (MGB) probe real-time PCR assay is described for the rapid, sensitive and specific detection of African swine fever virus (ASFV) DNA. The assay is designed against the 9GL region and is capable of detecting 20 copies of a DNA standard. It does not detect any of the other common swine DNA viruses tested in this study. The assay can detect ASFV DNA in a range of clinical samples. Sensitivity was equivalent to the Office International des Epizooties (OIE) recommended TaqMan assay. In addition the assay was found to have a detection limit 10-fold more sensitive than the conventional PCR recommended by the OIE. Linear range was ten logs from 2 x 10(1) to 2 x 10(10). The assay is rapid with an amplification time just over 2 h. The Trichostatin A nmr development of this assay provides a useful tool for the specific diagnosis of ASF in statutory or emergency testing programs or for the detection of ASFV DNA in research applications. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.”
“We explore the mechanisms sub-tending the re-organization and memorization of visual

information by studying how these mechanisms fail in patients with schizophrenia. Several studies have suggested that patients have difficulties in organizing information in perception and memory. We explore to what extent prompting patients to group items influences memory performance. We distinguish automatic grouping from top-down grouping processes, which are especially involved in re-organizing information. The main task was to memorize pairs of figures. Following manipulation Ferroptosis inhibitor of proximity, pairs of figures were part of the same perceptual PKC412 research buy group (within-group pair, formed on the basis of automatic grouping) or belonged to different groups (between-group pairs, re-grouped through top-down processes). Prior to the memory task, subjects ran a perception task prompting them to prioritize either within-group or between-group pairs. Unlike patients, controls globally benefited from grouping by proximity in the memory

task. In addition, the results showed that prioritizing between-group pairs had a deleterious effect in patients, but with a large decrement in memory performance in the case of within-group rather than between-group figures. This occurred despite preserved focalization on within-group figures, as shown by eye-movement recordings. The suggestion is that when patients are prompted to re-group separate items, they can do so, but the benefit derived from automatic grouping is then not only lost but also reversed. This suggests re-organizing visual information not only involves re-grouping separate items but also integrating these new groups in a unified representation, which is impaired in patients with schizophrenia. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.