Acute effects of nifedipine in renal transplant recipients treated with cyclosporine or azathioprine

Cyclosporine (CsA) impairs renal function, probably by preglomerular vasoconstriction. Vasodilating substances may therefore be of benefit to ameliorate CsA-induced renal dysfunction. We studied the acute effects on blood pressure and renal function of the dihydropyridine calcium antagonist nifedipine (10 mg orally) in 20 CsA-treated renal transplant patients. In addition, we compared the effects of nifedipine when given immediately before and 4 weeks after elective conversion from CsA to azathioprine. Compared with placebo (n = 14), administration of nifedipine led to a significant decrease in blood pressure and a strong natriuretic and diuretic response. Despite the reduction in blood pressure, glomerular filtration rate improved from 60 +/- 20 (mean +/- SD) to 69 +/- 24 mL/min/1.73 m2 (P < 0.001) and renal plasma flow (RPF) increased from 260 +/- 87 to 338 +/- 120 mL/min/1.73 m2 (P < 0.001). The combination of a decreased blood pressure with an increased RPF was reflected in a sharp decrease in renal vascular resistance (0.34 +/- 0.18 units v 0.23 +/- 0.10 units; P < 0.001). The conversion from CsA to azathioprine by itself led to significant increases in glomerular filtration rate (62 +/- 15 mL/min/1.73 m2 v 76 +/- 18 mL/min/1.73 m2; P < 0.05) and RPF (280 +/- 86 mL/min/1.73 m2 v 334 +/- 66 mL/min/1.73 m2; P < 0.05). During treatment with azathioprine an effect of nifedipine on glomerular filtration rate and RPF was no longer observed, although the natriuretic effect was similar on both occasions. The decrease in renal vascular resistance was larger during treatment with CsA than during treatment with azathioprine (P < 0.05).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Congenital contractural arachnodactyly

Five cases of congenital contractural arachnodactyly (CCA) are reported. Three belong to the one family. CCA has often been mistaken for Marfan's disease and arthrogrypois multiplex. Because CCA has a more favourable prognosis, it is very important to be able to recognize this syndrome.     

An Investigation into Turning of ASSAB-705 Steel Using Multiple Sensors

The complex behavior of various occurrences in turning has made the tool condition and process monitoring with a conventional tool-sensor setup difficult. An additional passive tool arrangement has been adopted to circumvent the multifaceted mechanism of different occurrences and thus to investigate them by measuring the acoustic emission (AE), and vibration signals produced thereof. The investigation shows that both the AE and the radial vibration component, V_y can independently assess the chip formation effect on cutting process and tool state. The tangential vibration component, V_z can effectively evaluate the rate of flank wear progression whereas the resultant vibration components are efficient in measuring the surface roughness of workpiece in turning. The feed directional vibration, V_x is always maximal regardless of cutting variables, tool wear, surface roughness, and chip formation type. The application of vibration sensor can eliminate the necessity of the additional passive tool setup, and jointly with the AE sensor can investigate the process and cutting tool condition more promisingly.     

Ex vivo culture of peripheral blood CD34+ cells: effects of hematopoietic growth factors on production of neutrophilic precursors

A major potential application for ex vivo culture of hematopoietic progenitor cells is the treatment of cytopenia following high-dose chemotherapy and hematopoietic transplantation. We have previously postulated that infusion of a sufficient number of neutrophil postprogenitor cells generated by ex vivo culture of CD34+ cells may be able to abrogate neutropenia. In this article, we describe further development of an efficient stromal-free, cytokine-dependent, static culture system for generation of these cells. Our previous studies indicated that maximal production of nucleated cells and myeloid progenitor cells from PB CD34+ cells occurred with multiple hematopoietic growth factor (HGF), notably the 6-HGF combination of interleukin (IL)-1, IL-3, IL-6, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), granulocyte-macrophage-CSF (GM-CSF), and stem cell factor (SCF). In the present study, we determine the contribution of each of these 6 HGF in generation of neutrophilic precursors. SCF, G-CSF, and IL-3 were found to be the most important HGF for production of neutrophilic cells. The 4-HGF combination of IL-3, IL-6, G-CSF, and SCF was optimized by performing dose-response experiments and shown to be as potent as 6 HGF for production of nascent CFU-GM and neutrophilic precursors.     

Attributions of responsibility in father-daughter incest in relation to gender, socio-economic status, ethnicity, and experiential differences in participants

One hundred and fifty-seven state college undergraduates (84 females and 73 males) answered the Jackson Incest Blame Scale [JIBS] modified to include mother-blaming after reading one of four vignettes about father-daughter incest in high or low SES White or Black families. Responses about incest prevalence (created for this study) in families with different ethnic and SES backgrounds varied with gender and SES of participants. Gender differences include blame of offender, situation, victim, and mother on the modified JIBS. Parents blamed the offender more than non-parents. Participants who knew an incest survivor disagreed significantly more with victim-blaming statements than those who did not know a survivor of incest.     

Perioperative risk factors affecting hospital stay and hospital costs in open heart surgery for patients > or = 65 years old

OBJECTIVE: Demographic changes, associated with increased demands for open heart surgery in the elderly, place increased burden on financial resources. To evaluate perioperative risk factors affecting incidence of hospital events and estimation of hospital charges, 2577 patients > or = 65 years (range 65-91), operated on from January 1991 to December 1994, were compared with a concurrent cohort of 2642 younger patients. METHODS: Statistical analysis, by surgical procedure, focused on hospital mortality, key postoperative complications affecting length of hospital stay and hospital charges. RESULTS: Overall hospital mortality was 4.7%, 3.5% in younger patients versus 6.1% in the older group (P < 0.01). Mortality was significantly lower in patients less than 65 years undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (3% versus 5%, P < 0.01) and valve replacement (4% versus 9%, P = 0.01). Significant risk factors for hospital death in the elderly: diabetes (P < 0.01), hypertension (P < 0.01), myocardial infarction (P < 0.01) and congestive heart failure (P < 0.01). Significant postoperative events, more common in older patients, included prolonged ventilation (P < 0.01), congestive heart failure (P < 0.01), infection (P < 0.01), cerebrovascular accident (P < 0.01), and intra aortic balloon pump (P < 0.01). Incremental risk factors for morbidity in the elderly were: higher New York Heart Association class, congestive heart failure, emergent operation, and female gender. Mean length of hospital stay for the < 65 group was 15.3 versus > 19.5 days for the > 65 group (P < 0.01). Length of stay over 18 days positively correlated with increased morbidity in both age groups. For patients > or = 65 years of age, the average hospital charge for open heart surgery was 172% higher for patients with a length of stay greater than 18 days compared with 165% for patients less than 65 years of age. CONCLUSIONS: Higher operative mortality and longer length of stay in elderly patients, resulting in increased health care costs, was associated with more co-morbidities. These results suggest interventions designed to reduce congestive heart failure and other co-morbidities may improve patient's recovery and reduce costs.     

Phosphorus recovery from wastewater through struvite formation in fluidized bed reactors: a sustainable approach.

Recovery of phosphate as struvite (MgNH4PO4.6H2O), before it forms and accumulates on wastewater treatment equipment, solves wastewater treatment problems and also provides environmentally sustainable, renewable nutrient source for the agriculture sector. A pilot-scale fluidized bed reactor was used to recover phosphate through crystallization of struvite, from anaerobic digester centrate at the Lulu Island Wastewater Treatment Plant, Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. The desired degree of phosphate removal was achieved by maintaining operating pH (8.0-8.2), and recycle ratio 5-9, to control the supersaturation conditions inside the reactor. The performance of the system was found to be optimal when in-reactor supersaturation ratio was 2-6. Among several other operating parameters, apparent upflow velocity and magnesium to phosphate molar ratio were also found important to maintain system performance, both in terms of efficiency of phosphate removal and recovery as struvite pellets. A narrow window of upflow velocity (400-410 cm/min) was found to be effective in removing 75-85% phosphate. TOC level inside the rector was found to affect the performance to some extent. The precipitation potential of struvite could be successfully predicted using a thermodynamic solubility product value of 10(-13.36) and its temperature dependence in PHREEQC.     

Electrical conduction mechanism in plasma polymerized 2‐(diethylamino)ethyl methacrylate thin films

Thin films of different thicknesses were prepared through glow discharge of 2‐(diethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DEAEMA) using a capacitively coupled reactor. Current density–voltage (J–V) characteristics for plasma polymerized (PP) DEAEMA thin films of thicknesses 100, 200, 250, and 300 nm in aluminum/PPDEAEMA/aluminum sandwich configuration were studied over the temperature range from 298 to 423 K. J–V curves reveal that in the low‐voltage region, the conduction current obeys Ohm's law while in the high‐voltage region the behavior attributed to be space charge‐limited conduction in PPDEAEMA thin films. The carrier mobility was calculated to be about 6.80 × 10^?19 to 2.38 × 10^?18 m^?2 V^?1s^?1 for various thicknesses. The free carrier density was found to be about 1.78 × 10²³ to 2.04 × 10²³ m^?3, and the trap density was found to be about 6.93 × 10²³ to 15.9 × 10²³ m^?3 for different thicknesses. The activation energies were estimated to be about 0.005–0.016 eV for 2 and 30 V of PPDEAEMA thin films of different thicknesses. The low‐activation energies indicate that the thermally activated hopping conduction is operative in PPDEAEMA thin films. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 55:2729–2734, 2015. © 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Investigation of Tool Wear and Surface Finish by Analyzing Vibration Signals in Turning Assab-705 Steel

Various occurrences in machining influence the machining dynamics and thus produce vibration in the cutting tool-workpiece arrangement. In this investigation, with tri-axial accelerometer mounted on the tool-holder in turning ASSAB-705 steel, vibration signals have been captured with and without cutting. The nature of vibrations arising in the cutting tool at different cutting conditions has been investigated. It has been observed that the RMS amplitude of vibration along all three axes for the increasing cutting speed was mixed in nature; however, an increasing trend was noticed in the vibrations along the feed, V_x and radial, V_y directions. The vibration along the main cutting direction, V_z was mixed, initiated by large vibration and then decreased until a particular cutting speed was reached and finally increased steadily. The feed vibration component, V_x has a similar response to the change of the workpiece surface roughness, while the other two components, V_y and V_z have the more coherent response to the rate of flank wear progression throughout the tool life. The natural frequency of different machine parts vibration has been found to be within the band of 0 Hz – 4.2 kHz, whereas the frequencies of different occurrences in turning varied between 98 Hz and 42 kHz.