Soybean containing products are widely consumed, thus reliable methods for detection of soy in foods are needed in order to make appropriate risk assessment studies to adequately protect soy allergic patients. Six methods were compared using eight food products with a declared content of soy: a direct sandwich ELISA based on polyclonal rabbit antibody (ab) to raw soy flakes, a commercial and an in-house competitive ELISA both based on ab to denatured, 'renatured' soy protein, an enzyme-allergosorbent test (EAST) inhibition based on two sera from soy allergic patients, histamine release (HR) using basophils passively sensitized with patient serum and a PCR method detecting soy DNA. Eight food products were selected as model foods to test the performance of the methods. There was an overall good agreement between the methods in terms of ranks of soy content but not the quantity. The sandwich ELISA aimed at native soy proteins had the lowest detection limit of 0.05 ppm, but only identified soy in 5/8 products, and generally in lower amounts compared to other methods. The competitive ELISA had a higher detection limit of 21 ppm, but seemed more successful in detecting processed soy. Only HR, EAST inhibition and PCR detected soy in all eight products. In spite of a general good correlation in terms of ranks of soy content, more than a single method may be necessary to confirm the presence of soy in foods.

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In the present study, we describe an expansion of CD16+ cells with a CD3+ TcR gamma/delta+ phenotype, in the presence of normal numbers of "classic" CD3-CD16+ natural killer (NK) cells, in two patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in late stage. The NK activity of the two subjects was substantially higher then that of HIV+ subjects in the same stage of infection. A second evaluation of one of the patients showed levels of NK activity consistent with the clinical stage of HIV infection, concomitant with a remarkable reduction in the percentage of double-positive CD3/TcR gamma/delta cells. The number of CD16+ cells also reached values comparable to those of the control group. In conclusion, we have identified a population of CD3+TcR gamma/delta+CD16+ cells that have the capability to lyse an NK-sensitive target in two patients with unusually high levels of NK activity.

For several years, roleplaying has been used as a device with preservice teachers in mathematics education. Although the potential of roleplaying in teacher education has been studied, the role of the mathematics educator in roleplaying remains poorly documented. In this paper, through teacher education practice narratives written by the authors of this text and with a framework, we describe the professional postures and gestures adopted by the mathematics educators in the different phases of the roleplaying design. Despite some differences in operating the device, important similarities emerge in the postures and gestures adopted by the mathematics educators through the four phases of roleplaying.