Search

A lab-based H-type microbial fuel cell (MFC) was developed for the recovery of copper (Cu) accumulated in harvested biomass ash leachate with simultaneous electricity generation and treatment of real food wastewater from cocoa processing (C1), cassava processing (C2) and bakery (C3) at low and high ionic strengths using activated wood (AW) char and activated bamboo (AB) char as anodes. The optimum Cu concentration of 85.37% and 82.14% was recovered for C1 and C3, respectively, with high ionic intensity. The least Cu (23.15%) was recorded for C2 with low ionic strength. The maximum chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal of 79.3% was obtained for C1 with high conductivity in MFCs, whereas C2 with low conductivity gave the lowest COD removal of 47.5%. Maximum power density of 249.88 mW/m2was attained in C1 at high ionic strength and 65.70 mW/m2is achieved C2 with low ionic strength. AW char is a cost-effective and sustainable anode material alternative to carbon and graphite-based electrode in MFC. Findings from this study suggested MFC as a feasible low-cost and ecofriendly technology for copper recovery to limit the toxicity effects associated with disposal of harvested copper phyto-accumulated biomass with simultaneous treatment of real wastewater.

Objectives: Chlamydia trachomatis infection is the most common sexually transmitted disease among sexually active adolescents and young adults in Europe. The goal of this study was to determine the prevalence [...]

Idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) are a group of diseases characterized by inflammation of the skeletal muscle. Weakness, mainly affecting the proximal muscles, is the cardinal muscular symptom in IIM. In patients with dermatomyositis, peculiar skin lesions are observed. The assessment of patients with IIM includes clinical and laboratory evaluation, and clinimetric measurements. Different tools have been proposed to measure muscular and extramuscular disease activity and damage in patients with IIM. A core set of measurements to use in clinical practice was recently proposed. Among laboratory features the increase of serum creatine kinase (CK) is considered a hallmark of muscle inflammation/damage. However, subjects with persistent CK elevation, without any evidence of a definite myopathy, are often seen in clinical practice and need a careful assessment. Indeed, CK blood levels can also increase in non-myopathic conditions, e.g. in case of intense physical exercise, assumption of some drugs (statins), muscular dystrophy, muscular trauma or in case of neuro-muscular disorders which all should be considered in the diagnostic work-up. The assessment of patients with IIM and hyperCKemia will be discussed in this paper.

The aim of the study was to assess different outcome measures in a cohort of ambulant boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) over 12 months in order to establish the spectrum of possible changes in relation to age and steroid treatment.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is the most common single-gene lethal disorder. Substantial patient-patient variability in disease onset and progression and response to glucocorticoids is seen, suggesting genetic or environmental modifiers.

This paper presents an overview of a new protocol, called the Predictable Ethernet Access Control protocol (PEAC), which overcomes the unpredictable behaviour of the CSMA/CD, thus guaranteeing deterministic access to the medium to hard real-time traffic. The PEAC is a distributed protocol able to support both hard real-time and non-real-time traffic in an integrated way. The PEAC does not require any modification to the standard hardware, so COTS hardware can be used. The paper outlines the PEAC protocol, presents a timing analysis and shows experimental results obtained in a real scenario.

Summary:  The clinical, radiologic and pathologic features of a case of parasagittal solitary fibrous tumor of the meninges are reported. The patient was a 44 year-old male who presented with a complex partial seizure and a history of headaches and confusion. Radiological studies showed a large extra-axial dural-based mass in the right parietal region, predominantly isointense with gray matter and hypointense with respect to white matter on T1-weighted images, and hypointense with respect to gray matter on T2-weighted images. At surgery, the mass was very vascular, quite firm and very adherent to the convexity. Histologically the tumor was composed of spindle-shaped cells growing in fascicles within a collagenous matrix. Solitary fibrous tumor of the meninges is a newly described entity, which should be kept in mind in the clinical and radiological differential diagnosis of extra-axial brain tumors.

The 8.2 kb HindIII K-fragment of bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV1) lies entirely within the short unique region of the genome and contains all or parts of 7 coding regions. We have probed this fragment for the presence of nonessential genes by a simple, rapid method of insertional mutagenesis. Our analysis indicates that all the genes present in the K-fragment, except the glycoprotein D gene, are nonessential for replication of BHV1 in tissue culture. After inserting a copy of the glycoprotein D gene into the thymidine kinase locus of BHV1 it was possible to delete the entire HindIII K-fragment and the contiguous 0.36 kb O-fragment in one step. The deletion mutant, which contains 7 kb less BHV1 DNA than wtvirus and lacks ORF1, US2, the genes for protein kinase, glycoprotein G, glycoprotein I, and most of glycoprotien E was still replication-competent.

This study was conduced to determine optimal concentrations of sucrose and combinations of growth regulators required for callus initiation and plant regeneration from immature embryos of 'Councill' and other triticales (X TriticosecaleWittmack) and to make histological observations of triticale callus during differentiation and organogenesis. Immature triticale embryos were cultured on a basal medium containing the salts of Murashige and Skoog and vitamins plus selected concentrations of sucrose and different auxins or cytokinins, alone or in combination. The optimal concentration of sucrose for increasing fresh weight of callus derived from hexaploid embryos was 20 g/liter. The addition of 2, 4‐D [(2, 4 dichlorophenoxy) acetic acid] to the basal medium was superior to the addition of IAA (indoleacetic acid), kinetin (6‐furfurylaminopurine) and auxin/cytokinin combinations for both callus initiation and growth. higher concentrations of 2, 4‐D (6 mg/liter) promoted callus initiation and growth, but prevented plant regeneration on callus subsequently subcultured to a medium without growth regulators. Histological observations gave evidence of formation of active growth centers or meristemoids in callus. These subsequently led to differentiated root primordia. Our study showed that triticale embryos behaved similar to other cereals in their callus initiation and plant regeneration traits.

Summary A bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV 1) mutant variant with a deletion in the thymidine kinase (TK) gene was assessed for its ability to establish latency and be reactivated in cattle. After treatment with dexamethasone, reactivated TK- BHV 1 was isolated from one of four cattle that received virus by intravenous inoculation only, and from four of four cattle that received virus by intranasal, intravaginal, and intravenous inoculation. Results prove that TK- BHV 1 will establish latency and can be reactivated in the natural host.

La Risonanza Magnetica Funzionale (RMF) ha dimostrato di poter localizzare la sede di aree corticali funzionali in numerosi protocolli su volontari sani. La identificazione prechirurgica di aree corticali eloquenti è molto importante al fine della realizzazione di un intervento il meno lesivo possibile per la funzione. Il sowertimento più o meno grossolano della regione anatomica da parte di un processo espansivo rende spesso difficile la identificazione di determinati reperi anatomici.Ci siamo proposti di studiare con RMF, su tomografo convenzionale, pazienti affetti da neoplasie intra ed extrassiali che interessavano il lobo frontale posteriore o quello parietale. Sono stati studiati quindici pazienti, tutti destrimani, di età compresa tra i 15 ed i 64 anni. Sono state ottenute mappe di attivazione, che hanno evidenziato aree di significativo aumento del segnale in regione parieto-frontale posteriore.La morfologia delle aree di significativo aumento di segnale era il più delle volte di tipo serpiginoso. Quando l'effetto massa era netto, l'area attivata nell'emisfero patologico appariva dislocata rispetto a quella nell'emisfero controlaterale. Sino ad ora sono stati ripetuti gli esami di RMF dopo l'intervento chirurgico in tre pazienti che non presentavano deficit motori significativi all'arto superiore.Neoplasms compressing or infiltrating cerebral cortex often alter the normal anatomy in such a way that the neurosurgeon can not easily localize and spare functional areas. Moreover, the results of mass effect on brain functional anatomy have not been extensively investigated in vivo yet.

Callus was obtained from immature excised embryos of triticale using MS medium supplemented with 3 mg/l 2,4-D and 1 mg/l kinetin. The presence of 2,4-D was essential for continued callus proliferation. Plantlets were induced from the calli by sub-culturing on medium either devoid of auxin or containing 0.1 mg/l 2,4-D. The capacity to produce callus and to form organs and plantlets differed markedly among the genotypes used. Lines also had distinct response to presence and absence of 2,4-D in the regeneration media. The callus of most triticale lines used differentiated into organs more readily on MS medium supplemented with 0.1 mg/l 2,4-D than on medium without growth regulators. Very high frequencies (up to 75%) of plantlet regeneration were observed in several of the triticale lines studied.

This study reports the identification and initial characterization of the precursors, modified forms, and oligomers of bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV-1) gI and gE proteins with polyvalent rabbit serum specific for gI or gE. Our experiments used the Colorado strain of BHV-1 and mutant viruses with insertions of the Escherichia coli lacZ gene into the predicted gE and gI reading frames. We also translated the gE and gI open reading frames in vitro and expressed them in uninfected cells using eukaryotic expression vectors. Precursor-product relationships were established by pulse-chase analysis and endoglycosidase H and glycopeptidase F digestions. Like the homologous glycoproteins of herpes simplex virus type 1, pseudorabies virus, and varicella-zoster virus, BHV-1 gI and gE are modified by N-linked glycosylation and associate with each other soon after synthesis, forming a noncovalent complex in infected and transfected cells. An analysis of mutant and wild-type-virus-infected cells and transfected COS cells expressing gE or gI alone suggested that gE-gI complex formation is necessary for efficient processing of the gE precursor to its mature form. One new finding was that unlike the other alphaherpesvirus gI homologs, a fraction of pulse-labeled gI synthesized in BHV-1-infected cells apparently is cleaved into two relatively stable fragments 2 to 4 h after the pulse. Finally, we incubated BHV-1-infected cell extracts with nonimmune mouse, rabbit, horse, pig, and calf sera and found no evidence that gE or gI functioned as Fc receptors as reported for the herpes simplex virus type 1 and varicella-zoster virus homologs.

In a previous report, we localized the gene for a 130-kilodalton envelope glycoprotein (gI) of bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV-1) to a 3.6-kilobase HpaI-KpnI restriction endonuclease fragment from the long unique region of the BHV-1 genome (map position 0.405 to 0.432) and showed that a herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) glycoprotein B (gB) probe uniquely hybridized to this BHV-1 restriction fragment. Here we present the complete nucleotide sequence of the BHV-1 gI gene and the predicted 932-amino-acid sequence of the gI primary translation product. Comparison with the published nucleotide sequence of the HSV-1 (KOS) gB gene (D. J. Bzik, B. A. Fox, N. A. DeLuca, and S. Person, Virology 133:301-314, 1984) reveals a similarity of 56.3% at the nucleotide level and 45.9% at the amino acid level. Upstream of the proposed gI coding region are potential mRNA transcriptional promoter elements including a TATA box and multiple Sp1 binding sites (GC boxes). Downstream of the gI coding region are two sequence elements associated with mRNA cleavage and polyadenylation (AATAAA and a GT-rich region roughly 30 nucleotides further downstream). Like HSV-1 gB, the predicted gI amino acid sequence exhibits two broad hydrophobic regions likely to represent a transient amino-terminal signal sequence and a transmembrane anchor domain (near the carboxyl terminus). Additional features shared with gB include 6 potential N-linked glycosylation sites and 10 highly conserved cysteine residues in the gI extracellular domain. Two regions of nonsimilarity between gI and gB are a centrally located 22-amino-acid region of gI for which there is essentially no gB counterpart and the transient amino-terminal leaders which differ in both size and sequence. The hydrophobic signal sequence of the gI leader, unlike that of gB, is preceded by an unusually large region of predominantly hydrophilic amino acids. The unusual length of the gI leader may result from an overlap between that portion of the gI coding region and a potential upstream coding region.

A bovine herpesvirus 1 variant (mar6) containing a mutation in a viral glycoprotein with a molecular weight of 130,000 (g130) was isolated by selecting for resistance to a neutralizing monoclonal antibody (130-6) directed against g130. Mar6 was completely resistant to neutralization by monoclonal antibody 130-6 in the presence and absence of complement, but was neutralized by polyvalent immune sera. The mar6 mutant synthesized and processed g130, but produced plaques which failed to react with monoclonal antibody 130-6 in an in situ immunoassay (black plaque). However, monoclonal antibody 130-6 was capable of binding and immunoprecipitating g130 from infected-cell extracts produced by lysis of mar6-infected cells with nonionic detergents. The mutation in mar6 was mapped by marker rescue with cloned bovine herpesvirus 1 restriction enzyme fragments to a 3.8-kilobase fragment at approximate map units 0.405 to 0.432. In addition, it was found that a DNA probe containing the glycoprotein B gene of herpes simplex type 1 hybridized uniquely to the same 3.8-kilobase fragment which was shown by marker rescue to contain the mutation site in the gene for bovine herpesvirus 1 g130.

The impact of the diagnosis of cancer and its treatments on the body image of young adults (18–29 years) diagnosed with cancer is relatively unknown. This descriptive comparative study examined body image scores of young adults diagnosed with cancer and young adults without cancer. The conceptual framework for this study was taken from body image and developmental theory. Secord and Jourard's body cathexis/self-cathexis scales and a demographic sheet were mailed to 162 young adults diagnosed with cancer and to 150 young adults without cancer. A t test was used to compare the mean scores between the two groups. A statistically significant difference was found between the mean scores reported by the young adults diagnosed with cancer for the body cathexis and selfcathexis scales. The selfcathexis and body cathexis scores indicated that the young adults diagnosed with cancer had a more positive body image than the young adults without cancer. The mean scores were also compared in relation to the demographic data collected using t tests and analysis of variance. Within the group diagnosed with cancer, male subjects demonstrated a more secure body-cathexis (p value of 0.012) and married subjects demonstrated a more secure selfcathexis than the single subjects did (p value of 0.04). No statistically significant difference was found within the group without cancer related to demographic variables. Implications for the oncology clinical nurse specialist are explored.

Carbon-11 methionine (11C-Methionine) is a radio-labeled amino acid currently utilized in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) for imaging primary and metastatic brain tumors. Its clinical use relies mostly on oncologic applications, but the tracer has the potential to investigate other non-malignant conditions. So far, very limited evidence concerns the use of 11C-Methionine in patients suffering from seizure; however, the tracer can find a proper utilization in this setting especially as a diagnostic complement to 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG).

Bovine herpesvirus 1 has been reported to contain a thymidine kinase (tk) gene which is nonessential for virus replication. We have isolated a thymidine kinase-negative mutant of the virus and localized the mutation by marker rescue experiments to a 1.1-kilobase BglII-SalI fragment which maps at 0.47 to 0.48 on the bovine herpesvirus 1 genomic map. A thymidine kinase-negative bovine cell line isolated in our laboratory was used in these studies.

A patient with a history of facial myokymia presented with apoplectic headache and a 3rd nerve palsy. Initial CT, lumbar puncture, and cerebral angiogram were unremarkable, but subsequent CSF examination revealed oligoclonal bands. MRI displayed over 30 white matter lesions. This case demonstrates that multiple sclerosis may present with severe headache and a 3rd nerve palsy, simulating the clinical picture of a posterior communicating artery aneurysm.