Thyroid doses resulting from the Ukraine Chernobyl accident--Part I: Dose estimates for the population of Kiev

In the context of the radiation exposure of the Ukrainian population resulting from the Chernobyl accident, the quantification of the thyroid doses due to iodine incorporation is of special interest. This first part of a series of planned publications deals with the dose and risk estimation for Kiev citizens. Although these doses are expected to be considerably lower than those for some other regions of Ukraine, the investigations started with this population because the quantification of the thyroid doses due to iodine incorporation is of special interest. This first part of a series of planned publications deals with the dose and risk estimation for Kiev citizens. Although these doses are expected to be considerably lower than those for some other regions of Ukraine, the investigations started with this population because of the availability of rather reliable measurements and because of the size of this population. The methods developed allowed the estimation of individual thyroid doses. The average values of individual thyroid doses for five age groups (birth years 1983-1986, 1979-1982, 1975-1978, 1971-1974, and < 1971) are 104, 62, 19, 18, and 41 mGy, respectively. The collective thyroid doses were estimated as 83 x 10(3) person-Gy for those born before 1971 and as 38 x 10(3) person-Gy for younger inhabitants. The numbers of expected thyroid cancers in the whole Kiev population are 66 and 130, respectively.     

The feasibility of smoking bans on psychiatric units

Cryptococcal meningitis has a high mortality rate of central nervous infection. The patients usually die of the disease itself, or complications from increased intracranial pressure. Early diagnosis and treatment, including surgical drainage, will improve the results. In this series, twenty-one patients with high intracranial pressure (ICP > 300 mmH2 O) are presented. Fourteen received implantation of Ommaya reservoir to aspirate cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for relief of symptoms of ICP. Meanwhile 4 of these 14 patients also received intraventricular injection of amphotericin B because of poor response to systemic drugs. Another seven patient received systemic drug therapy only. Survival during therapy occurred in 11 of 14 patients in the surgical group, compared with only 1 of 7 patients treated by drug therapy alone (P = 0.019). In the 14 patients who received implantation of an Ommaya reservoir, there was one complication of CSF leakage when the reservoir ruptured because of repeated aspiration. For patients with cryptococcal meningitis with high ICP, early implantation of an Ommaya reservoir will improve the survival rate.     

Rapid evaluation of integer-order Bessel functions using an FFTalgorithm

A rapid, accurate, and stable method for computing integer-order Bessel functions is presented. In contrast to the iterative procedures normally used in the numerical evaluation of Bessel functions, this approach requires little more than a commonly available fast Fourier transform algorithm, and yet, for a given argument, can provide many J_ns in a single pass     

Progesterone protects against lipid peroxidation following traumatic brain injury in rats

Large scale use of lysozyme for periplasmic release has been impeded by the cost of the pure enzyme and its subsequent presence as a contaminant in later downstream processing steps. In this paper, we discuss the use of lysozyme for pilot scale recovery of a periplasmic enzyme from E. coli. The effects of concentration of sucrose, lysozyme and cells on periplasmic enzyme release were examined. Lysozyme concentration can be reduced 5-fold from previous reports and a reduction in sucrose concentration from 20 to 15% (w/v) allows an improvement in centrifugal harvesting by reducing viscosity. High levels of release were still achieved using this technique and further improvements in yield were obtained by optimising other components of the releasing mixture. Results show that some release is still achieved in circumstances where no lysozyme use is possible. Results also indicate that a substantial proportion (up to 70%) of lysozyme remains bound to the cellular debris after its action and is removed with this material.     

Correlation between ear canal resonance and tympanic membrane impedance in relation to age and body mass and postmortem changes

The human temporal bone preparation is an acknowledged model for research of the physical processes affecting the outer ear canal and eardrum. Changes affecting the oscillation and resonance behavior of the tympanic membrane and ear canal between death and temporal bone preparation presently exist in only a few studies. Since the influence of age and physique, as well as the width of ear canal on the ear canal resonance may be important, we prepared two separate studies to analyze these questions. The goal of our first test series involved children and was devised to determine if changes in the outer auditory canal resonances differed according to age. In so doing, canal resonance was recorded with a real ear measurement system. Further, we recorded middle ear pressure, impedance of the tympanic membrane, ear canal volume, height, weight and surface of the body, head and ear size. We found a significant decrease in the resonance frequency of the outer ear which was age-dependent and was 2.75 kHz in the 7-year-old child. In a separate study we wanted to know if results found in the postmortem temporal bone reflected in vivo relationships. A tympanometer and real ear measurement system was used to test the resonance behavior of the auditory canal as well as the vibration of the eardrum in dependence on temperature and the time after death for 9 h. We then proved the absence of significant changes in the auditory canal and eardrum oscillation in this time period before possible postmortem changes occurred. Our findings show that the method of bone preservation after its preparation is decisive for the validity of measurements in the isolated human temporal bone.     

Cross-specialty linkage and extrapolation of resource-based relative value scales

We used the fluorescent labelled dopamine D1-receptor antagonist Bodipy-SCH 23390 for the cellular localization of D1-ligand binding sites in the retinae of different vertebrates (teleosts, Xenopus, turtle, rat and rabbit). Competition experiments with unfixed cryosections of fish retina were performed to characterize the binding conditions of Bodipy-labelled SCH 23390. Tissue bound [3H]SCH 23390 was displaceable with increased amounts of bodipy-SCH 23390. The pharmacological specificity of the D1 fluorescent antagonist was determined by competition experiments with an excess of unlabelled SCH 23390. This treatment significantly reduced the level of fluorescence of the retina confirming the specificity of the binding. We observed a homogeneously distributed fluorescence signal in both plexiform layers in unfixed cryosections of fish, frog, turtle, rat and rabbit. Similar staining intensities of both plexiform layers were found in frog, turtle, rat and rabbit retina. In teleosts, the label of the outer plexiform layer was markedly more intense. Non-specific label was associated with photoreceptor outer and inner segments. The specific labelling of both plexiform layers indicates a mismatch of dopamine releasing and D1-binding sites, and suggests a possible extrasynaptic localization of the D1-receptor. The physiological significance of the observed distribution of D1-ligand binding sites is discussed with respect to the role of dopamine in controlling adaptational processes in the retina.