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Background: The transmission of parasites, including Babesia, plasmodia, and Trypanosoma cruzi, via transfusions is an important public health concern. INACTINE technology is a pathogen-reduction process that utilizes PEN110, an electrophilic agent that inac-tivates a wide range of pathogens by disrupting nucleic acid replication. The present study investigated the effect of PEN110 treatment on the viability of protozoa in RBCs.Study Design and Methods: B. microti-parasitized RBCs from infected hamsters were treated with PEN110 and inoculated to naïve animals. Parasitemia was detected by blood smears and PCR. Human RBCs infected with P. falciparum were treated with PEN110 and incubated with fresh RBCs. P. falciparum multiplication was detected by blood smears. Human RBCs spiked with T. cruzi and treated with PEN110 were analyzed for the presence of live parasites using in-vitro infectivity assay or by inoculating susceptible mice.Results: Treatment of RBCs infected with B. microti or P. falciparum with 0.01 to 0.1 percent (vol/vol) PEN110 resulted in parasite inactivation to below the limit of detection during 24 hours. T. cruzi inoculated into human RBCs was inactivated below the limit of detection by 0.1 percent PEN110 after 3 hours.Conclusion: The study demonstrates that treatment of blood with PEN110 is highly effective in eradicating transfusion-transmitted protozoan parasites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cottonseed protein has the potential to increase the world's food supply while decreasing the incidence of malnutrition among the world's hungry. Nutritionally, cottonseed flour compares favorably to other animal and vegetable protein sources, as it is low in fat and contains a substantial amount of high biological value protein. Animal studies, as well as human research, using gossypol-free glandless cottonseed flour have shown that cottonseed protein promotes growth, increased weight gain, and a positive nitrogen balance. Cottonseed protein food products have been shown to be a healthy addition to the diets of children, college-age women, and the elderly. With its light color and bland flavor, cottonseed has many uses in the food processing arena. Baked goods, snack foods and candy, as well as pet and livestock feed are just a few successful products developed utilizing cottonseed protein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of consistent and unique radiographic features of JNA, it is not necessary, nor is it advisable, to biopsy these tumors to establish a diagnosis. In addition, the carotid arteriograms show the major feeding vessels to the lesion and also completely delineate the periphery of the tumor, thus establishing operability versus non-operability. If a JNA is treated by radiotherapy, the changes effected can be followed by carotid arteriography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To determine the prevalence of lower extremity deep venous thrombosis (LE-DVT) in children who spent at least 72 h in the pediatric intensive care unit (ICU).Materials and Methods: Children up to the age of 17 years who spent at least 72 h in the ICU underwent lower extremity venous ultrasound at the end of their stay. Prevalence range for the sample size was calculated with a confidence interval of 95%.Results: Among 76 children who spent 3-141 days in the ICU, the prevalence of acute (and silent) DVT was 4% (confidence interval 0-9%). All three affected children had femoral venous catheters in that leg during their ICU stay (17 unaffected children also had catheters).Conclusion: Children in an ICU setting are at significantly lower risk for thrombosis than adults in the same setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to examine the aspects of entrepreneurship within the broader context of the development of business strategy and structure. The discussion relates mainly, though not exclusively, to the development of British business, and large companies in particular, since 1870; and its critical and somewhat general nature is aimed at stimulating further discussion and investigation rather than at providing a set of firm conclusions. It is certainly not an aim of this article to become involved in the debate on the quality of British entrepreneurship in the late nineteenth century. Authors have attempted to argue that in the evaluation of business performance the quality of entrepreneurship is by no means necessarily central and that other factors may well exercise more powerful dynamic influence. Moreover, an examination of British economic development since the late nineteenth century suggests some factors, which might be considered as primary ones. The authors have paid particular attention to economists H.J. Habakkuk and David S. Landes' views on the role of entrepreneurship in economic development. Certainly, the analysis is much more in line with the former view than the latter, though it has been stressed that both approaches are too general and that it is essential to examine this relationship at the level of the individual firm in terms of business performance; which, in turn, involves close attention to a range of factors on both the demand and supply sides.

Purpose: To describe and characterize the association of hereditary cutaneous lichen amyloidosis with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2a (MEN 2a).Design: Survey of a family for two diseases.Setting: Evaluation of patients at a clinical research center.Patients: Nineteen family members with MEN 2a.Measurements and Main Results: In this family cutaneous lichen amyloidosis presented as multiple infiltrated papules overlying a well-demarcated plaque in the scapular area of the back (right or left). Immunohistochemical studies showed amyloid that stained for keratin but not calcitonin. Three family members had the characteristic skin lesion and also carried the gene for MEN 2a; two additional members carried the gene for MEN 2a, but did not manifest the observable skin changes associated with lichen amyloidosis.Conclusions: From the findings in this kindred and in another recently reported but unrelated family with an identical type of pruritic skin rash and MEN 2a, several conclusions can be drawn. First, the syndrome of cutaneous amyloidosis and MEN 2a is a clearly defined autosomal dominant hereditary syndrome. Second, the dermal amyloid appears to be caused by deposition of keratin-like peptides rather than by calcitonin-like peptides. Third, known families with hereditary lichen amyloidosis should be screened to determine the true frequency of this syndrome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]