Spinal neurilemmomas and neurofibromas: central dot sign in postgadolinium MRI

The MR studies of three histologically proven spinal neurilemmomas and neurofibromas were reviewed retrospectively. There were two benign neurilemmomas (schwannomas) and one neurofibroma. The common characteristic of these cases was a central low intensity focus ("dot") seen on postcontrast T1-weighted imaging. The low intensity foci corresponded histologically to a congeries of changes including edema, microcysts, foam cells, hyalinization of blood vessels, old hemorrhage, and dystrophic calcification.     

Chlorpropamide-induced hypoglycemia: successful treatment with diazoxide

A healthy adolescent boy was treated on two occasions for an overdose of chlorpropamide (Diabinese). Glucose therapy alone was not sufficient to control the hypoglycemia, but the administration of glucose plus diazoxide raised the blood sugar to supranormal levels. A bolus of intravenous glucagon briefly raised the blood sugar level to within normal limits, increased the blood ketones but also augmented insulin secretion. An overdose of sulfonylurea may cause prolonged and fatal hypoglycemia. Rational therapy, both in diabetic and normal persons, is glucose plus an "insulin antagonist." The administration of diazoxide was effective in our patient, substantially reducing the plasma insulin level; this agent may be the "insulin-antagonist" of choice for use in sulfonylurea-induced hypoglycemia.     

Pathophysiology and Emerging Molecular Therapeutic Targets in Heterotopic Ossification

The term heterotopic ossification (HO) describes bone formation in tissues where bone is normally not present. Musculoskeletal trauma induces signalling events that in turn trigger cells, probably of mesenchymal origin, to differentiate into bone. The aetiology of HO includes extremely rare but severe, generalised and fatal monogenic forms of the disease; and as a common complex disorder in response to musculoskeletal, neurological or burn trauma. The resulting bone forms through a combination of endochondral and intramembranous ossification, depending on the aetiology, initiating stimulus and affected tissue. Given the heterogeneity of the disease, many cell types and biological pathways have been studied in efforts to find effective therapeutic strategies for the disorder. Cells of mesenchymal, haematopoietic and neuroectodermal lineages have all been implicated in the pathogenesis of HO, and the emerging dominant signalling pathways are thought to occur through the bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP), mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), and retinoic acid receptor pathways. Increased understanding of these disease mechanisms has resulted in the emergence of several novel investigational therapeutic avenues, including palovarotene and other retinoic acid receptor agonists and activin A inhibitors that target both canonical and non-canonical signalling downstream of the BMP type 1 receptor. In this article we aim to illustrate the key cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of HO and outline recent advances in emerging molecular therapies to treat and prevent HO that have had early success in the monogenic disease and are currently being explored in the common complex forms of HO.     

Artificial disbonds for calibration of transient thermography inspection of thermal barrier coating systems

Transient thermography is commonly used for the detection of disbonds in thermal barrier coatings (TBC). As for other NDT techniques, reference test specimens are required for calibration, but unfortunately, real disbonds are very difficult to use because it is difficult to control their size, and large ones tend to spall. Flat bottomed holes are commonly used, but these over-estimate the thermal contrast obtained for a defect of a given diameter. This paper quantifies the differences in thermal response using finite element analysis validated by experiments, and proposes a form of artificial disbond that gives a better representation of the thermal responses seen with real defects. Real disbonds tend to have a non-uniform gap between the disbonded surfaces across the defect, and the effect of this on the thermal response is evaluated using finite element simulations. It is shown that the effect can be compensated for by adjusting the diameter of the calibration defect compared to the real defect.     

Modifying Bitterness in Functional Food Systems

The functional foods sector represents a significant and growing portion of the food industry, yet formulation of these products often involves the use of ingredients that elicit less than desirable oral sensations, including bitterness. Promising new functional ingredients, including polyphenolics, may be more widely and readily employed in the creation of novel functional foods if their aversive bitter taste can be significantly reduced. A number of approaches are used by the industry to improve the taste properties and thus the acceptance of conventional foods that elicit excessive bitterness. This article reviews the most commonly employed techniques, including the use of bitter-modifying additives, which may prove useful for successfully introducing new functional ingredients into this rapidly growing sector.     

The effect of chelator and white rot fungi treatments on long hemp fibre-reinforced composites

Hemp fibre was treated using a chelator (ethylene diamine tetra methylene phosphonic acid pentasodium salt) and white rot fungi Schizophyllum commune (S.com) with the purpose of improving its interfacial bonding with a polypropylene matrix. Composites were produced by film-stacking long fibre, oriented by carding, with polypropylene (PP) and maleated polypropylene (MAPP) coupling agent. The fibre and composite densities, composite fibre and void contents, as well as fibre and composite tensile strength were analysed. Tensile strength of treated fibre composites was higher than that for untreated fibre composites, despite fibre strength reducing with treatments. This supports that interfacial bonding between hemp and PP was improved by treatment. This trend was also obtained using a modification of the simple “rule of mixtures” model taking account of voids, suggesting that this could be an appropriate means of simply modelling interfacial modification.     

Folding pathway of a lattice model for proteins

The folding of a protein-like heteropolymer is studied by using direct simulation of a lattice model that folds rapidly to a well-defined "native" structure. The details of each molecular folding event depend on the random initial conformation as well as the random thermal fluctuations of the polymer. By analyzing the statistical properties of hundreds of folding events, a classical folding "pathway" for such a polymer is found that includes partially folded, on-pathway intermediates that are shown to be metastable equilibrium states of the polymer. These results are discussed in the context of the "classical" and "new" views of folding.