A pilot study of ribavirin and interferon beta for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C

BACKGROUND: Chronic hepatitis C is a common and often progressive liver disease for which interferon alfa therapy widely spreads, but the beneficial response is frequently transient. Ribavirin is a nucleoside analog with a broad spectrum of antiviral action, and we investigated the efficacy of it in patients with chronic active hepatitis C. METHODS: We conducted a pilot study of oral ribavirin in patients with chronic active hepatitis C. Twenty-seven patients with hepatitis C virus RNA were randomly assigned to receive either 0.8-1.0 g of ribavirin daily or 3 MU of interferon beta three times weekly or combination of the two for 24 weeks. RESULTS: Ribavirin was tolerated well, and all completed the treatment schedule. Ribavirin decreased aminotransferase levels in all instances, and the mean value at termination decreased to half of the baseline level (P < 0.01), but the enzyme level increased after cessation of therapy in most cases. Ribavirin suppressed amounts of hepatitis C virus RNA in 4 of 9 patients, and 1 became negative during follow-up. Interferon alone (P < 0.05) or with ribavirin (P < 0.01) significantly decreased the viral population, resulting in sustained loss of viremia with normal enzyme levels in 2 of 9 and 3 of 9 patients, respectively, in each therapy during follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that ribavirin has a beneficial effect in some patients with chronic hepatitis C, although the antiviral effect is less than interferon beta. Large-scale trials are needed to determine whether the combination of interferon and ribavirin is of more benefit than interferon alone.     

Polarisation characteristics of a side-tunnel fibre

Modal birefringence and polarisation mode dispersion in a single-mode fibre having vacuum pits beside the core are measured in the wavelength region from 0.633 ?m to 1.52?m. Both quantities monotonically increase as the operation wavelength becomes large. The magnitudes of birefringence and modal dispersion are evaluated to be 1.0 × 10?4 at 1.52?m and 148 ps/km at 1.41 ?m, respectively. These values are much less than those predicted theoretically for side-tunnel-type optical fibres.     

Calcification of cervical ligamentum flavum--analysis of calcium compounds and histopathological findings

We operated 3 patients with cervical myelopathy due to calcification of ligamentum flavum (CLF). Specimens collected surgically were subjected to X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy (Raman) analysis and also histopathological examination. The calcium compounds deposited were calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate (CPPD) in Case 1, apatite in Case 2, and a double-layer structure with an outer CPPD layer and an inner carbonate apatite layer in Case 3. Histopathologically, CPPD deposition in Case 1 could be distinguished from apatite deposition in Case 2 and 3 by hematoxylin-eosin stain. Chondrocytes were observed in all 3 cases, suggesting the chondrocytes may have played a role in calcification in these three cases. To date, 62 cases of CLF (including the present cases) have been reported, and analysis of calcium compound has been performed for 29 of them. Of these 29, 15 were analyzed as calcium phosphate compounds, 9 as CPPD and 4 cases as mixed crystals like Case 3. However the analysis method and result about CPPD are no problem, the analysis result of calcium phosphate compounds depends on the using methods. Calcium phosphate or undetectable compounds was identified by XRD as hydroxyapatite (HAp), and by FTIR as calcium phosphate or undetectable compound. Analysis of calcium phosphate compounds should be condacted and identified by XRD, FTIR, and Raman. We propose two possible mechanisms for the formation of the double-layer structure in Case 3: one is formation of apatite first followed by deposition of CPPD outside, and the other is formation of CPPD first followed by conversion of CPPD in the central region to apatite. What the process of formation of the double-layer was in this cases remains unclear.     

Dispersion of ceramic powders into particulate superplastic Al-Li alloy

A new method for dispersing homogeneously fine ceramic powders into a particulate alloy matrix has been developed. The Al-Li matrix alloy, with controlled crystal grain size and shape, shows superplastic behaviour under certain conditions. The homogeneous dispersion of SiC in the matrix alloy was achieved by introducing the fine particles of filler along the grain boundaries within the alloy particles. This new compounding method yields a composite powder (i.e. each particle itself is a composite) rather than a mixture of different components.     

Performance analysis of RS-coded M-ary FSK forfrequency-hopping spread spectrum mobile radios

Decoding performance of Reed-Solomon (RS) coded M-ary FSK with noncoherent detection in a frequency-hopping spread spectrum mobile radio channel is theoretically analyzed. Exact formulas and an approximate one for evaluating word error rates (WERs) of error correction and error-and-erasure correction schemes on decoding the RS codes are derived. It is shown that with K symbol erasure and C symbol error detection, RS coded M-ary FSK achieves the equivalent diversity order of (K+1)(C+1)     

Enzymatic synthesis of N-acyl-l-amino acids in a glycerol-water system using acylase I from pig kidney

N-Medium- and long-chain acyl-l-amino acids were enzymatically synthesized from the corresponding l-amino acids and fatty acids using a reverse hydrolysis. Enzymes that are suitable for the synthetic reaction of N-acyl-l-amino acids were screened on the basis of hydrolytic activity toward N-lauroyl-l-glutamic acid as an indicator. Acylase I from pig kidney (EC 3.5.1.14) showed the highest N-acyl-l-amino acid hydrolytic activity among 57 commercially available enzymes tested. Acylase I effectively catalyzed the synthesis of N-lauroyl-l-amino acids except for N-lauroyl-l-proline and N-lauroyl-l-tyrosine in a glycerol-water system. Under the optimized reaction conditions, N-lauroyl-l-arginine and N-lauroyl-l-glutamic acid were obtained in conversions of 82 and 44%, respectively. The equilibrium constants calculated from the conversion obtained were 5.6, 15.4, 18.0, and 39.4 for the syntheses of N-lauroyl-l-glutamic acid, N_α-lauroyl-l-lysine, N-lauroyl-l-glutamine, and N-lauroyl-l-methionine, respectively. N-Acyl-l-arginines with myristic acid and palmitic acid as the fatty acid were also synthesized using acylase I.     

Online rescheduling of multiple picking agents for warehouse management

In this paper, we present a solution for a dynamic rescheduling problem involving new orders arriving randomly while static orders have been given in advance in warehouse environments. We propose two variations of an incremental static scheduling scheme: one based on the steepest descent insertion, called OR1, and the other, on multistage rescheduling, called OR2. Both techniques are enhanced by a local search procedure specifically designed for the problem at hand. We also implemented several existing online algorithms to our problem for evaluative purposes. Extensive statistical experiments based on real picking data indicate that the proposed methodologies are competitive with existing online schedulers and show that load-balancing algorithms, such as OR1, yield the best results on the average and that OR2 is effective in reducing the picking time when dynamism is low to moderate.     

Tryptophan H33 plays an important role in pyrimidine (6-4) pyrimidone photoproduct binding by a high-affinity antibody

The importance of Trp H33 in antibody recognition of DNA containinga central pyrimidine (6–4) pyrimidone photoproduct wasinvestigated. This residue was replaced by Tyr, Phe and Alaand the binding abilities of these mutants were determined bysurface plasmon resonance and fluorescence spectroscopy. Conservativesubstitution of Trp H33 by Tyr or Phe resulted in moderate lossesof binding affinity; however, replacement by Ala had a significantlylarger impact. The fluorescence properties of DNA containinga (6–4) photoproduct were strongly affected by the identityof the H33 residue. DNA binding by both the wild-type and theW-H33-Y mutant was accompanied by a small degree of fluorescencequenching; by contrast, binding by the W-H33-F and W-H33-A mutantsproduced large fluorescence increases. Taken together, thesevariations in binding and fluorescence properties with the identityof the H33 residue are consistent with a role in photoproductrecognition by Trp H33 in the high-affinity antibody 64M5.     

Effect of Nucleation Temperature on Detecting Molecular Ions and Charged Nanoparticles with a Diethylene Glycol-Based Particle Size Magnifier

The classical nucleation theory predicts that a decrease in nucleation temperature under a constant saturation ratio increases the energy barrier for homogeneous nucleation to occur; therefore lower nucleation temperature would allow higher saturation ratio inside a condensation particle counter (CPC) while suppressing homogenous nucleation of working fluid vapor below a threshold value. On the other hand, the classical theory also predicts that a decrease in nucleation temperature increases the energy barrier for heterogeneous nucleation to occur, which potentially increases the minimum detectable size of CPC. Accordingly, it is important to investigate experimentally whether higher super-saturation under lower nucleation temperature decreases the minimum detectable size or not. Minimum detectable sizes of a diethylene glycol (DEG)-based nanoparticle size magnifier (nano-PSM) developed by Ito et al. (Ito, E., Seto, T., Otani, Y., and Sakurai, H. [2011]. Aerosol Sci. Technol. 45:1250–1259) were investigated at three different nucleation temperatures. Mobility standard molecular ions and mobility-classified silver nanoparticles were used as test aerosol particles. The vapor flux exiting from the evaporator in nano-PSM is accurately controlled using a syringe pump. The temperature of the mixing region and condenser in the nano-PSM is controlled at adiabatic mixing temperature, which we call its nucleation temperature. When the nucleation temperature was set at 16.7, 25.0, and 33.3°C, the minimum detectable mobility diameter values, which were defined at 50% value of counting efficiency curve, were 2.2, 2.9, and 3.0 nm, respectively, indicating that lower nucleation temperature is favorable for detecting smaller sized particles using DEG-based PSM or CPCs.

Copyright 2015 American Association for Aerosol Research     

An Eddy-Covariance System for the Measurement of Surface/Atmosphere Exchange Fluxes of Submicron Aerosol Chemical Species—First Application Above an Urban Area

Until now, micrometeorological measurements of surface/ atmosphere exchange fluxes of submicron aerosol chemical components such as nitrate, sulfate or organics could only be made with gradient techniques. This article describes a novel setup to measure speciated aerosol fluxes by the more direct eddy covariance technique. The system is based on the Aerodyne quadrupole-based Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (Q-AMS), providing a quantitative measurement of aerosol constituents of environmental concern at a time resolution sufficient for eddy-covariance. The Q-AMS control software was modified to maximize duty cycle and statistics and enable fast data acquisition, synchronized with that of an ultrasonic anemometer. The detection limit of the Q-AMS based system for flux measurements ranges from 0.2 for NO₃ ^? to 15 ng m^?2 s^?1 for hydrocarbon-like organic aerosol (HOA), with an estimated precision of around 6 ng m^?2 s^?1, depending on aerosol loading. At common ambient concentrations the system is capable of resolving deposition velocity values < 1 mm s^?1, sufficient for measurements of dry deposition to vegetation. First tests of the system in the urban environment (6 to 20 June 2003) in Boulder, CO, USA, reveal clear diurnal, presumably traffic related, patterns in the emission of HOA and NO₃ ^?, with indication of fast production of moderately oxygenated organic aerosol below the measurement height, averaging about 15% of the HOA emission. The average emission factor for HOA was 0.5 g (kg fuel)^?1, similar to those found in previous studies. For NO₃ ^? an emission factor of 0.09 g (kg fuel)^?1 was estimated, implying oxidation of 0.5% of the traffic derived NO_x below the measurement height of 45 m. By contrast, SO₄ ^2? fluxes were on average downward, with deposition velocities that increase with friction velocity from 0.4 to 4 mm s^?1.