Eurovision secures borders

Organizers of the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest Shop have made protecting the website a top priority amid fears that it may become an extortion target for Eastern European mafia gangs.     

Vitamin E protects chick tissues againstex vivo oxidation of heme protein

Protection by dietary vitamin E againstex vivo oxidation of heme proteins in liver and heart tissues of chicks was studied. A previously developed assay consisting of deconvoluting spectra obtained from tissue homogenates to measure oxidation of heme proteins proved successful. Compared to liver and heart from chicks fed the basal diet, the tissues from chicks receiving vitamin E exhibited less oxidation.     

Explorations with a model of passive solar housing

The paper explores at a more general level points raised in a previous study of the implications of density and overshadowing for passive solar housing for Milton Keynes New Town, England.Solar and typical land were data were fed into a simple housing layout model which simulated the performance of typical house types, frontages and densities.Single storey and narrow frontage two-storey housing suffer less from overshadowing, but many of the cases which failed were shown to be possible with different land use plans. Even three storey housing is possible.Land use policies should take into account the sort of relationships the paper shows to exist between the variables considered. By varying the parameters, the method could be used both by designers to review the options open to them and by planning agencies to check the possible effects of their policies in practice.     

Fibromyalgia. A critical review

Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain syndrome, more common in women. Its prevalence is estimated around 2% in the general population, and up to 20% among rheumatology outpatients. Besides musculoskeletal pain, symptoms as fatigue and sleep disturbance are considered characteristic. Research criteria have been set up, but their seemingly preciseness is unable to distinguish clearly between fibromyalgia and other functional somatic syndromes (chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome) and psychiatric disorders (depression, anxiety), with which a striking comorbidity is documented. The diagnosis of fibromyalgia does not theoretically require the exclusion of muscle, joint, or metabolic diseases, but in clinical practice this problem proves to be of crucial importance. There are numbers of pathophysiological hypothesis for fibromyalgia, but none of them is fully satisfying: muscle is probably innocent; sleep disturbance, although sometimes considered a landmark of the syndrome, is unspecific; stress response studies show subtle anomaly; psychiatric disorders may represent factors of vulnerability and perpetuation rather than causes. We propose to include some of these etiological contributors in vicious circles leading to a "final common pathway" characterized by generalized hyperalgesia. Treatments of fibromyalgia, whether pharmacological (antidepressants) or psychological (cognitive-behavioral therapies) are of little efficacy, and the global prognosis of fibromyalgia is poor. However, the outcome might prove better outside the specialized clinics in which studies of chronic sufferers with severe abnormal illness behaviors are done. The social consequences of the popularization of the diagnosis of fibromyalgia should not be neglected.     

Forward osmosis for concentration of anaerobic digester centrate

The nutrient-rich liquid stream produced during the dewatering of digested biomass (i.e., the centrate) is commonly mixed with the influent raw wastewater at wastewater treatment facilities. This increases the nitrogen and phosphorus loading on biological processes, increases operating costs, and in some cases, results in increased nutrient concentrations in the final effluent. Forward osmosis (FO) is a membrane treatment process that was investigated at bench scale to determine its feasibility to concentrate centrate under both batch and continuous operating conditions. The continuous bench-scale system used FO as pretreatment for reverse osmosis (RO). Results demonstrated that high water flux and high nutrient rejection could be achieved. The combined FO/RO process exhibited sustainable flux over an extended time period. A mathematical model was developed in order to determine the specific energy, power, and membrane area requirements for a larger-scale centrate treatment process. Modeling results indicated that to optimize power and membrane area requirements, the system should be operated at approximately 70% water recovery.