Psychological problems resulting from parent-to-adolescent renal transplantation

This paper deals with the ways in which the psychological responses of renal transplant donors and recipients interfere with the developmental tasks of adolescence. The characteristic responses of donors and recipients in general are briefly reviewed. The special problems of the adolescent who has received a transplant from a parent are considered. Interference with the separation-individuation process is discussed. Also considered is the difficulty posed to the development of sexual identity. Excerpts from brief therapy are presented that illustrate the characteristic psychological conflicts described.     

A preliminary report on the antiarrhythmic action of some newly synthesized glutarimide compounds

The effects of a new series of glutarimide compounds have been studied in acetylcholine induced auricular fibrillation in anaesthetized cats and epinephrine induced ventricular arrhythmmias in conscious pigeons. Some of the compounds showed varying degree of protective action against experimental arrhythmias. However these compounds were found to be less potent than quinidine. The mechanism of antiarrhythmic action has been discussed.     

Study on long-term biological variability of erythrocyte sedimentation rate

Thanks to progress in serologic techniques evidence was obtained in 1980 showing that acute hepatitis epidemics observed in India were due to neither virus A nor virus B. The presence of another virus was confirmed and its genome was cloned and sequenced in 1991. Hepatitis virus E is a small RNA virus that differs from other known human viruses. Man and probably a few animal species maintain dissemination by the fecal route. Subjects not previously contaminated are susceptible and produce protective antibodies. Contamination occurs by the fecal-oral route general from water or tainted food. Direct contamination is rare. Vertical transmission from mother to fetus can also be observed. Outbreaks of the disease are characterized by epidemic proportions, preferential involvement of adolescent and young adults, and high incidence of fulminant cases especially in pregnant women. Outbreaks have been observed in endemic settings in southern Asia, Africa, and Mexico where sporadic cases are observed. Endemic areas are found in all developing countries. Hepatitis E is not clinically different from other acute viral hepatitis. Asymptomatic forms are common especially in children. The course of the disease is usually benign with little risk of development of chronic symptoms and cirrhosis. However hepatitis E is associated with a high incidence of severe cases with a mortality of 1 to 2% from icteric forms which occur in 15 to 20% of cases involving women contaminated during the last three months of pregnancy. Diagnosis can be made using either synthetic proteins or recombinant peptides. for the epitopes of the virus. Prevention depends on protection of the water supply and proper sewage disposal. Successful active immunization of monkeys holds promise for development of a vaccine. Due to its magnitude and high mortality rate hepatitis E is a major health problem for numerous regions around the world including Southeast Asia.     

Search for overrepresented characteristics of genes: Implementation of permutation tests using GPUs

An algorithmic approach and software for solving the problem of search for statistically significant overrepresented biological characteristics of genes from a given set are proposed. The problem is related to implementation of permutation (randomization) tests well known in biology. Parallel software based on the potential parallelization of the permutation test is developed and implemented on GPUs. The efficiency of application of this software on empirical materials is estimated..     

Optimisation of processing conditions for infrared drying of cashew kernels with testa

Cashew kernels are thermally processed to facilitate the removal of their outer skin (testa). Infrared (IR) processing of cashew kernels for differential drying is a novel approach. Processed cashew kernels are valued for their colour, size and texture. The kinetics of colour change and the effect of thermal processing on compressive strength (indicator of brittleness) during IR drying of cashew kernels were investigated. Kernels with testa were dried for different durations (15–55 min) over a range of temperatures (55–95 °C). The change in colour was expressed as total colour difference and browning index. The colour values increased with increasing drying temperature and duration, indicating darkening of the kernel colour. Increase in drying duration reduced the compressive strength, imparting the desired brittleness to the kernel. Optimisation of the drying conditions by response surface methodology and the peelability factor indicated that the best results could be obtained when cashew kernels were dried at 55 °C for 55 min. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry