The CT nephrogram: implications for evaluation of urinary tract disease

The urographic nephrogram is an important indicator of underlying functional and structural renal disease. With expansions in use of cross-sectional imaging, the computed tomographic (CT) nephrogram (ie, contrast material enhancement within the renal parenchyma) has assumed a greater role in the evaluation of urinary tract disorders. Both quantitative and qualitative nephrographic abnormalities are well demonstrated by CT, including global or segmental absence or persistence of the nephrogram, slowed temporal progression, striated pattern, and rim pattern. Global absence is nearly always unilateral and is most often seen with blunt abdominal trauma with renal pedicle injury. Segmental absence is attributable to focal renal infarction, most likely due to arterial emboli. Global persistence, which is much more common than segmental persistence, may be unilateral (caused by renal artery stenosis, renal vein thrombosis, or urinary tract obstruction) or bilateral (due to systemic hypotension, intratubular obstruction, or abnormalities in tubular function). Striated nephrograms may be unilateral or bilateral and are caused by ureteric obstruction, acute pyelonephritis, contusion, renal vein thrombosis, tubular obstruction, hypotension, and autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease. The rim pattern is most often associated with renal infarction and occasionally with acute tubular necrosis and renal vein thrombosis. Careful evaluation of the CT nephrogram is an integral part of the abdominal CT examination.     

Proliferative potential and apoptosis in rat glioma cell lines after hyperthermia

The proliferative potential of cultured rat glioma cells (C6 and 9L) was evaluated after hyperthermia using immunohistochemical staining with bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) and Ki-67 monoclonal antibodies. Apoptosis was assessed by in situ end-labeling of deoxyribonucleic acid breaks. Both BrdU and Ki-67 labeling indexes decreased with increasing hyperthermia time. The decrease of the Ki-67 labeling index was not as great as that of the BrdU labeling index. The number of apoptotic cells increased with time after hyperthermia. These results indicate that the antitumor effect of hyperthermia may reflect the induction of apoptosis in the cells within the cell cycle, and the resultant reduction of the proliferative potential of surviving cells, especially in the S phase.     

A 3D-QSAR study on ginkgolides and their analogues with comparative molecular field analysis

Comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA), a three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship (3D-QSAR) paradigm was used to study the correlation between the physicochemical properties and the in vitro bioactivities of ginkgolide analogues. The correlation derived from CoMFA analysis has a good predictive capability. Based on the result of CoMFA analysis, we designed some compounds. Pharmacological assay indicated that three of these new designed compounds are 2 and 4 times more potent than that of ginkgolides.     

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) production using wastewater as carbon source and activated sludge as microorganisms.

Activated sludge from different full-scale wastewater treatment plants (municipal, pulp and paper industry, starch manufacturing and cheese manufacturing wastewaters) was used as a source of microorganisms to produce biodegradable plastics in shake flask experiments. Acetate, glucose and different wastewaters were used as carbon sources. Pulp and paper wastewater sludge was found to accumulate maximum concentration (43% of dry weight of suspended solids) of polyhydroxy alkanoates (PHA) with acetate as carbon source. Among the different wastewaters tested as a source of carbon, pulp and paper industry and starch industry wastewaters were found to be the best source of carbon while employing pulp and paper activated sludge for maximum accumulation of PHA. High concentration of volatile fatty acids in these wastewaters was the probable reason.     

Patient doses in abdominal aortogram and aorta femoral runoff examinations

BACKGROUND: The present study was designed to assess the effects of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) alone and in combination with growth hormone (GH) on differentiation and replication in cultured human granulosa cells. METHODS: Granulosa cells from patients undergoing in vitro fertilization were isolated and cultured for 2 days in culture medium with 10% serum, the medium was removed and the cells were incubated with IGF-I (1, 10 and 100 ng/ml) with or without GH (10 ng/ml) in serum-free medium and in the presence of 3H-methylthymidine (2 microCi/ml). RESULTS: IGF-I alone resulted in a significant dose-dependent increase in medium estradiol (E2) (p<0.05) and progesterone (P) (p<0.001) and suppression of IGF-binding protein-1 (IGFBP-1) (p<0.001), without any increase in [3H]-thymidine incorporation (P=0.10). The combination of IGF-I and GH further increased the release of E2 (p<0.001), and the amount of [3H]-thymidine incorporation (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: These results indicate a synergistic effect of IGF-I and GH on differentiation and replication of human granulosa cells, and thus support a role of both GH and IGF-I in regulation of ovarian function.     

Morphological characterization of small cells resulting from nutrient starvation of a psychrophilic marine vibrio

In a study of 662 sera from a hydatidosis endemic area, the indirect hemagglutination test based on a minimal nonspecificity criterion of positivity and the latex agglutination (LA) test were found to be suitable screening techniques for the detection of sera positive to the arc 5, diagnostic of hydatid infection. The lower nonspecificity of the LA test, its greater simplicity and its excellent correlation with the immunoelectrophoresis test suggest that it is the choice screening technique for use in field surveys or seroepidemiologic studies of hydatid disease. The advantages and limitations of this serologic approach for the detection of human hydatid cyst carriers in field studies are discussed.     

Removal of Indoor Airborne Bacteria by Nano-Ag/TiO2 as Photocatalyst: Feasibility Study in Museum and Nursing Institutions

Deterioration of indoor air quality attributable to airborne bacterial consortia is a widespread environmental problem. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of applying the syngetic effect of nano-Ag/TiO2 as a photocatalyst and UV light to enhance the disinfecting capability of full-scale bacterial restraining equipment on-site in the National Museum of Natural Science and a medical-nursing institute. The influence of initial counts of total airborne bacteria and volume of space on the efficiency of bacterial restraining have been studied. In the case of museum application, a higher initial total bacterial count leads to better bacterial restraining rates; Site A (initial total bacterial counts = 506??CFU/m3) has the best bacterial restraining rate (92%) as compared with Site B (69%, initial total bacterial counts = 158??CFU/m3) and Site C (80%, initial total bacterial counts = 338??CFU/m3) after 24 h of operation. Higher initial counts of total airborne bacteria lead to an increasing bacterial restraining rate. Approximately 92% (Site A) and 74% of restrained bacterial rate were observed in a museum and nursing institutions, respectively, under the similar initial total airborne bacterial counts (506, 598??CFU/m3). The results illustrate that changes in the volume of space do not have significant inhibitory effects on the efficiency. The proposed equipment can disinfect air to restrain bacteria effectively, as demonstrated on-site in museums and nursing institutions; the results will be valuable references for designing a full-scale commercialized device for large-scale applications in the future.     

Development of a Four-Phase Remedial Scheme to Clean Up Petroleum-Hydrocarbon Contaminated Soils

In this study, a four-phase remedial scheme was developed for in situ cleanup of petroleum-hydrocarbon contaminated soils. The developed remedial scheme contained the following four phases: surfactant flushing, groundwater flushing, chemical oxidation using KMnO4 as the oxidant, and enhanced bioremediation. Laboratory bench-scale experiments were performed to evaluate the effectiveness of this developed remedial scheme on the treatment of diesel oil contaminated soils. In the surfactant and groundwater flushing batch experiment (the first and second phases), biodegradable surfactant, Simple Green (SG) (5% by weight) was applied to flush diesel oil contaminated soils with initial total petroleum-hydrocarbon (TPH) concentration of approximately 31,500??mg?kg-1. Results show that more than 90% of TPH could be removed after flushing with 40 pore volumes (PVs) of SG, followed by 25?PVs of groundwater. In the KMnO4 oxidation experiment (third phase) with initial soil TPH concentration at approximately 4,900??mg?kg-1, up to 65% of TPH removal efficiency can be obtained when 1% by weight of KMnO4 was applied for oxidation. Results also reveal that the slight increase in TPH removal was observed in experiments with SG addition (0.1% by volume) owing to increased dissolution and desorption of TPH from soils. In the enhanced bioremediation (fourth phase) batch experiments, a petroleum-hydrocarbon degrading bacterium was isolated from the soil materials after the KMnO4 oxidation experiments and identified as Pseudomonas sp. via biochemical tests and further confirmation of DNA sequencing. Results from biodegradation experiments indicate that the isolated bacterium, which survived after KMnO4 oxidation process, was capable of degrading TPH caused by diesel oils, and caused the TPH to drop from 2,105 to 487??mg?kg-1 within 15?days of incubation. The effectiveness of the four-phase remedial scheme was further confirmed by a semicontinuous batch experiment. Results from this study indicate that the four-phase scheme is a promising technology for the treatment of petroleum-hydrocarbon contaminated soils.