Personal experience of urate lithiasis (author's transl)

In Alsace, urate lithiasis accounts for 32.7% of cases of lithiasis requiring hospitalisation. Fifty nine per cent of patients are hyperuricaemic, and only 10% have typical gout. 14.6% are hyperuricosuric but all have isoaciduria. A male disorder in 3/4 cases, it occurs above all after the age of 50. The relatively late onset, combined with marked obesity (mean weight 81.5 kg) is considered by the authors to be an argument proving the role of dietary excesses in the aetiology of this lithiasis. Excessive protein would seem to be the essential feature.     

Low calcium diet and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) infusion modulate immune responses during Mycobacterium paratuberculosis infection in beige mice

A 12-month study was conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding a low calcium (Ca) diet or 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) (1,25(OH)(2)D(3) infusion on the persistence of Mycobacterium paratuberculosis infection using a mouse model. Male beige mice 6-8 weeks of age were assigned to one of the following treatments: (1) non-infected, (2) infected,(3) non-infected/1,25(OH)(2)D(3), (4) infected/1,25(OH)(2)D(3), and (5) infected/low Ca (0.15 percent) diet. Infected mice were inoculated intravenously with live M. paratuberculosis. At 1, 6 and 12 months postinfection, mice in Treatments 3 and 4 were implanted subcutaneously with mini-osmotic pumps to deliver 1,25(OH)(2)D(3). Infusion with 1,25(OH)(2)D(3) exacerbated M. paratuberculosis infection in most tissues at all time points. Mice infused with 1,25(OH)(2)D(3) had higher bacterial counts in spleen, liver, and ileum compared with control infected mice after 1 month of infection. In contrast, feeding a low Ca diet reduced the number of viable organisms cultured from the liver and ileum of infected mice. Plasma Ca and 1,25(OH)(2)D(3) were increased in mice infused with 1,25(OH)(2)D(3) at all time points but values for low Ca mice were not different than for non-infused mice. Splenocyte production of TNF, IL-1 and IL-6 was higher for mice fed the low Ca diet compared with control infected mice after 1 month of infection. Inducible IL-6 activity remained higher for this treatment at 6 months postinfection. These results suggest that feeding a low Ca diet to mice chronically infected with M. paratuberculosis appears to enhance their ability to clear the infection in a manner distinct from any effect of 1,25(OH)2D3.     

Residues of active substances after consumption of contaminated food: status report on the evaluation of residues with examples of two drugs

Pharmacokinetic models are presented for the computation of time courses of blood levels of drugs in man following the consumption of contaminated food. Mathematically, two linear systems of differential equations are set up for the donor organism (e.g., trout) and for the recipient, (e.g., man), where the first system generates the initial conditions for the second. Models of this kind are applied to the transfer of chloramphenicol to man via carp and trout (which had previously been administered this drug) and to the transfer of theophylline to infants via breast milk. Limiting concentration profiles are computed by constructing the most favourable and most adverse combinations of parameters with respect to drug elimination in both the donor and recipient organism.     

短纤维和织物增强混凝土薄板试验研究

研究了乱向短纤维、织物和预应力织物增强混凝土薄板的四点弯曲性能。混凝土基体采用了德国快硬硅酸盐水泥、中国硫铝酸盐水泥;短纤维用E玻璃纤维和耐碱玻璃纤维;织物采用耐碱玻璃纤维织物和碳纤维织物。试验表明,耐碱玻璃纤维织物较短纤维增强混凝土薄板的增强效率高,预应力碳纤维织物较非预应力碳纤维织物则有更高的增强效率。