Mediator-Related Symptoms and Anaphylaxis in Children with Mastocytosis

Mastocytosis is characterized by the pathological accumulation of mast cells (MC) in various organs. In these patients, MC may degranulate and thereby contribute to clinical symptoms, especially when a concomitant allergy is present. However, MC activation can not only be induced by high-affinity receptors for IgE, but also by anaphylatoxins, neuropeptides, IgG immune complexes, complement-components, drugs, products of bacteria or parasites, as well as physical factors such as heat, cold, vibration, stress, sun, or physical effort. Symptoms due to mediators released by activated MC may develop in adults suffering from systemic mastocytosis, but also evolve in children who usually have cutaneous mastocytosis (CM). Clinically, CM is otherwise characterized by typical brown, maculopapular skin lesions or mastocytoma associated with a positive Darier’s sign. Pruritus and flushing are common and blistering may also be recorded, especially in diffuse CM (DCM). Pediatric patients with mastocytosis may also have gastrointestinal, respiratory, and neurologic complaints. Although anaphylaxis is not a typical finding, pediatric patients with massive skin involvement and high tryptase levels have a relatively high risk to develop anaphylaxis. This paper reviews MC mediator-related symptoms and anaphylaxis in children with mastocytosis, with special emphasis on risk factors, triggers, and management.     

Modeling time criticality of information

In this paper, we continue the research on formal treatment of attributes of information, based on the computational approach. In this scenario, the usefulness of advisory information is measured by the decrease in complexity of a problem we need to solve. We propose to model the time criticality via usefulness of a piece of information which is received during the computation. As a modeling tool, we use deterministic finite automata.     

On the Computational Complexity of Measuring Global Stability of Banking Networks

Threats on the stability of a financial system may severely affect the functioning of the entire economy, and thus considerable emphasis is placed on the analyzing the cause and effect of such threats. The financial crisis in the current and past decade has shown that one important cause of instability in global markets is the so-called financial contagion, namely the spreadings of instabilities or failures of individual components of the network to other, perhaps healthier, components. This leads to a natural question of whether the regulatory authorities could have predicted and perhaps mitigated the current economic crisis by effective computations of some stability measure of the banking networks. Motivated by such observations, we consider the problem of defining and evaluating stabilities of both homogeneous and heterogeneous banking networks against propagation of synchronous idiosyncratic shocks given to a subset of banks. We formalize the homogeneous banking network model of Nier et al. (J. Econ. Dyn. Control 31:2033–2060, 2007) and its corresponding heterogeneous version, formalize the synchronous shock propagation procedures outlined in (Nier et al. J. Econ. Dyn. Control 31:2033–2060, 2007; M. Eboli Mimeo, 2004), define two appropriate stability measures and investigate the computational complexities of evaluating these measures for various network topologies and parameters of interest. Our results and proofs also shed some light on the properties of topologies and parameters of the network that may lead to higher or lower stabilities.     

Negative electrodes for nickel-cadmium accumulators: their properties as determined by impregnation procedure

Sintered negative electrodes for nickel-cadmium secondary cells were studied. Model electrodes prepared by means of three different impregnation methods were evaluated. It was demonstrated that the impregnation procedure may affect properties of active mass and the service life of electrodes in a significant way.     

Kinetic studies on copolycondensation processes. VI. Influence of copolycondensation temperature on tetrad distribution of the PDT/FT aromatic copolyterephthalate by 1H-NMR spectroscopy

¹H-NMR and Eu(fod)₃ lanthanide shift reagent were used to determine tetrad distribution of comonomer units of the PDT/FT copolyterephthalate obtained from terephthaloyl chloride (intermonomer) and 3,3′-dimethylbisphenol A and phenolphtalein (comonomers). Computer simulations of the terephthalic proton signal split into the lines of compositional tetrads were performed to obtain quantitative data. To characterize the microstructure of the copolymer samples synthesized at different temperatures, the degree of randomness and the degree of alternation were calculated. It was shown that the latter can differentiate the chains which seemed to be identical concerning the diad distribution only.     

Surface and interfacial FTIR spectroscopic studies of latexes. IX. The effect of homopolymer and copolymer structures on surfactant mobility in Sty/BA latices

The effects of homopolymer and copolymer compositions and structures in styrene/n-butyl acrylate (Sty/BA) latices on sodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate (SDOSS) surfactant mobility and its preferential concentration at the film–air (F–A) and film–substrate (F–S) interfaces were examined using attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR FTIR) spectroscopy. It appears that the SDOSS concentration at the F–S interface is highest when the Sty/BA feed ratio is 50/50, and the excess of Sty results in migration of SDOSS surfactant to the F–A interface. This behavior is attributed to the increased glass transition temperature and diminished compatibility between surfactant molecules and copolymer latex. This study also shows that the primary factors that influence exudation to either F–A or F–S interfaces are surface tension of the substrate, glass transition temperature, water flux during coalescence, and compatibility between latex components. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The behaviour of high polar organic solvents at platinum electrode — II. Adsorption and electrode reactions of acetonitrile

The adsorption of acetonitrile and reduction of adsorbed molecules at platinized platinum electrode were studied by potentiodynamic and radiometric techniques. During acetonitrile adsorption the reversibly and irreversibly adsorbed species are formed. One electron reduction process occurs in the potential range 0.45-0.15 V. Below 0.15 V the deeper reduction of adsorbed acetonitrile takes place — the final products are ammonia and ethane. The differences of smooth and platinized platinum electrodes properties are briefly discussed.     

The assessment of microorganism growth in the membrane distillation system

Growth of microorganism in the membrane distillation (MD) system has been evaluated, and their presence on the membrane surface was studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersion spectrometry (EDS). The membrane samples were collected from MD modules used for the following applications: concentration of salts and acids, production of demineralized water from tap water, separation of ethanol from fermentation broth in a membrane bioreactor and treatment of saline wastewater containing Pseudomonas and Streptococcus faecalis bacteria and Penicillium and Aspergillus fungi. The MD experiments were performed with polypropylene capillary membranes. SEM examinations of the membranes used for the treatment of saline wastewater indicated a significant amount of S. faecalis bacteria and Aspergillus fungi. The polypropylene membranes used did not reject S. faecalis bacteria, which were detected on the membrane surface on the distillate side. The presence of fungi in the membrane pores was observed only on the feed side. The contamination of the membrane surface by yeast cells was not observed in the case of the membrane bioreactor operated over one year. The running conditions of the MD process (such as elevated temperature, significant salt concentrations and low pH values) inhibited the growth of microorganism in the MD system.