Molecular genetics of alpha-L-fucosyltransferase genes (H, Se, Le, FUT4, FUT5 and FUT6)

The records of 1018 patients with low back pain in a tertiary spine referral practice were reviewed. One hundred thirty-nine out of 1018 (13.6%) underwent technetium-99m planar bone scanning as part of their investigation. Seventy-three out of 139 scans (52%) showed increased uptake in some area, but only 27 out of 139 (19.4%) showed increased uptake specifically in the low back. Scans consistently yielded no findings with reference to the back when the prescan diagnosis was spinal stenosis, lumbar pain syndrome, herniated nucleus pulposus, or postlaminectomy syndrome. Some scans gave positive findings in patients with a diagnosis of degenerative disc disease, pseudarthrosis, spondylolisthesis, fracture, infection, metabolic disorder, or tumor. Positive scans were generally obtained early after presentation (within 3 months) and negative scans obtained later (after 6 months), suggesting that clinical suspicion is still the main indication for early scanning. Planar bone scanning was helpful in both diagnosis and therapeutic decision-making in many conditions.     

Self health care when faced with acute pathology in childhood

OBJECTIVE: To quantify and describe the self-care practices for children up to 14 seeking care because of an acute pathology. DESIGN: An observation study carried out by means of a questionnaire administered to the person accompanying the patient. SETTING: Primary Care: an urban Health Centre. PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS: The total number of cases of acute pathology treated during April and May 1993 in the Centre's paediatric clinics. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: 248 cases were studied (53% boys and 47% girls, with an average age of 5.3 +/- 3.85). Self-care (self-medication, 84.6%; non-pharmacological measures, 11.5%; both of these, 3.9%) was practised in 61.3% of cases (CI 95%: 55.2-67.4). The most common drugs were: antipyretics-analgesics (60%), antitussives (9.6%) and antibiotics (8.1%). Self-care was practised most often on patients presenting respiratory symptoms (69.6%) (p < 0.001), with self-medication predominant (91.2%) (p < 0.001). The number of days occurring between the appearance of symptoms and the medical consultation was greater among those who did not practise self-care (4.5 +/- 5.2 as against 2.1 +/- 1.8) (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Self-care is a very common practice among people seeking paediatric treatment. Self-medication, especially for respiratory trouble, is the most common form. Patients who practise self-care tend to be earlier in seeking a medical consultation.     

Transmission Mueller matrix ellipsometry of chirality switching phenomena

Mechanisms of molecular chirality induction are fundamental to many questions in chemistry. Interest in these mechanisms is shifting toward media of increasing complexity that simultaneously exhibit linear birefringence and dichroism and where the common assumption that optical activity is the only optical effect that affects light polarization is no longer valid. Light propagation through several of these anisotropic media can be appropriately studied with transmission Mueller matrix ellipsometry. The applications presented herein include the measurement of optical activity in stirred solutions of soft-matter nanophases and the determination of chiral domains in solid-state samples.     

In-situ remediation of acid mine drainage using a permeable reactive barrier in Aznalcóllar (Sw Spain)

Following on the accident occurred in Aznalcóllar in 1998, whereby a huge amount of acid mine drainage and heavy metal-bearing pyritic sludge was released to the Agrio river valley with the subsequent contamination of groundwater, a subsurface permeable reactive barrier (PRB) was installed to mitigate the long-term impacts by the spillage. The PRB material consisted of a mixture of limestone and vegetal compost. A particular characteristic of the Agrio aquifer is its high water flow velocity (0.5-1 m/d), which may pose difficulties in its remediation using PRB technology. The present study reports the 36-month performance of the PRB. Vertical differences in water velocity were observed within the PRB, with the deeper part being slower and more effective in neutralizing pH and removing heavy metals (Zn, Al, Cu). On the other hand, partial sulfate removal appeard to be restricted to the bottom of the PRB, but with no apparent influence on downgradient water quality. The results are finally compared with the other four reported existing PRBs for AMD worldwide.     

Hysteresis current control technique of VSI for compensation of grid-connected unbalanced loads

The global trends nowadays in the power generation industry are to supplement the electricity production using distributed generation (DG) technologies based on renewable energy resources such as photovoltaic, wind power, etc. However, failure to properly control the operation of distributed energy resources as they connect to the exiting power grid could provoke many power quality problems on the grid side. For this reason, due considerations must be given to power generation and safe running before DG units is actually integrated into the power grid. The main aim of this paper is to address the grid interconnection issues that usually arise as DG units connect to the electric grid. The proposed strategy, implemented in Matlab/Simulink environment in different operating scenarios, provides compensation for active, reactive, unbalanced, and harmonic current components of grid-connected nonlinear unbalanced loads. The simulation results obtained in this study demonstrate the level of accuracy of the proposed technique, which ensure a balance in the overall grid phase currents, injection of maximum available power from DG resources to the grid, improvement of the utility grid power factor, and a reduction in the total harmonic distortion of grid currents.