Copper and zinc metabolism in aspartylglycosaminuria and Salla disease

Changes in the metabolism of copper and zinc are described in aspartylglycosaminuria (AGU) patients. AGU patients had significantly reduced serum zinc concentrations. However, hair zinc levels were normal, and hyperzincuria could not be demonstrated. The copper content in the hair of AGU patients was highly elevated. Serum copper and ceruloplasmin concentrations were within normal range. In AGU, small-molecular-weight glycoasparagine storage products accumulate in tissues and are excreted in urine in large amounts. They may interfere with the transport mechanisms of trace elements, and thus alter their distribution and availability for tissues. The changes in copper and zinc levels may contribute to the pathogenesis of some of the clinical signs of AGU and Salla disease.     

Studies on the efficacy of hyperbaric rendering procedures in inactivating bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and scrapie agents

The efficacy of the procedures in use at the two rendering plants in the Netherlands was assessed on a laboratory-scale using procedures that simulated the pressure cooking part of the rendering process. A pool of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)-infected brainstem from the United Kingdom and a pool of scrapie-infected brainstem from Dutch sheep were used to spike the rendering materials. The mixtures were subjected to various time-temperature combinations of hyperbaric heat treatment related to the conditions used in Dutch rendering plants in the early 1990s, and to the combination of 20 minutes at 133 degrees C required by the EU Directive on rendering of 1996. The efficacy of the procedures in inactivating BSE or scrapie infectivity was measured by titrating the materials before and after heat treatment in inbred mice, by combined intracerebral and intraperitoneal inoculations at limiting dilutions. Two independent series of experiments were carried out. The design of the study allowed for minimum inactivations of up to 2.2 log (2.0 in the second series) to be measured in the diluted infective material and 3.1 log in the undiluted material. After 20 minutes at 133 degrees C there was a reduction of BSE infectivity of about 2.2 log in the first series (with some residual infectivity detected), and in the second series more than 2.0 log (with no residual infectivity detected). With undiluted brain material there was an inactivation of about 3.0 log (with some residual infectivity detected). With the same procedure, scrapie infectivity was reduced by more than 1.7 log in the first series and by more than 2.2 log in the second series. With undiluted brain material there was an inactivation of more than 3.1 log. In each case no residual scrapie infectivity was detected. The BSE agent consistently appeared to be more resistant to heat inactivation procedures than the scrapie agent, particularly at lower temperatures and shorter times.     

Use of 2-[18F]fluoro-2-deoxyglucose as a potential agent in the prediction of graft rejection by positron emission tomography

BACKGROUND: We investigated the potential of predicting allograft rejection by measuring the ability of graft-infiltrating cells to take up 2-[18F]fluoro-2-deoxyglucose ([18F]FDG). This molecule is a positron emitting glucose analogue that is taken up by metabolically active cells and can be detected using positron emission tomography. METHODS: Uptake of [18F]FDG during an alloresponse was measured both in vitro in mixed lymphocyte cultures and in vivo using allogeneic and syngeneic skin grafts. RESULTS: Uptake of [18F]FDG was seen in a mixed lymphocyte reaction. Using a mouse skin graft model, we found that mean [18F]FDG uptake was 1.5-2 times higher in allografts than in syngeneic grafts; the increase in uptake correlated with the level of T-cell infiltrate seen histologically. CONCLUSION: Assessing the metabolic activity of graft-infiltrating cells with [18F]FDG may be useful in the prediction of graft rejection episodes.     

Estimation of impurity profiles of drugs and related materials: part 19: theme with variations. Identification of impurities in 3-oxosteroids

Due to the varied reactions leading to the 3-oxo group in steroids and the reactivity of its environment, a large number of impurities related to this group are formed during the reaction steps and the degradation studies. In this paper the experiences from the authors laboratory with the 3-oxo-related impurities in 19-nor-4-ene-3-oxosteroids (norgestrel, norethisterone, nandrolone, its esters and Nestorone) as well as corticosteroids (prednisolone, mazipredone, etc) are presented. The impurities include saturated 3-ones, 1-ene-3-ones, 5(10)-ene-3-ones, 3-deoxo and 3-ethinyl-3,5-diene derivatives, 6-ene, 8(14)-ene, 6,8(14)-diene, 6-hydroxy (alpha and beta), 10beta-hydroxy and 6-one derivatives in 4-ene-3-oxosteroids and 8(9)-ene, 9(11)-ene, 11alpha-hydroxy, 11-oxo and 4-ene-3-one derivatives in 11beta-hydroxy-1,4-diene-3-oxosteroids. The chromatographic, spectroscopic and hyphenated techniques used in this study include TLC, GC, HPLC with diode array UV detector, GC-MS, LC-MS and NMR methods.     

Mechanically driven syntheses of carbides and silcides

Most metal carbides or slicides may be synthesized at room temperature, by ball milling mixtures of elemental powders for some tens of hours with a vibratory mill. Both stable and metastable compounds containing a high density of defects can be obtained. In general, phases stable at low temperatures are synthesized. This observation allows us to confirm recent estimations for the maximum temperature (600 K) attained in these powders during mechanical alloying. Exceptions are found for some MSi₂ suicides with M = titanium, iron or molybdenum for which both low- and high-temperature phases are formed.     

Study of thermal properties of glass system 77% B2O3-23% PbO doped with ZnO in the temperature range 300 to 700 K

The thermal properties: specific heat capacity (C _p), thermal conductivity (), and thermal diffusivity (a) of the glass system 77% B₂O₃-23% PbO doped with ZnO, were measured in the temperature range 300 to 700 K. It was found that electronic conduction has no significant contribution to the thermal conductivity. The main mechanism of heat transfer is therefore due to both phonons and photons. A discussion of the results is made in view of various theoretical aspects.     

HihO: accelerating artificial intelligence interpretability for medical imaging in IoT applications using hierarchical occlusion

Neural Computing and Applications - In the medical imaging domain, nonlinear warping has enabled pixel-by-pixel mapping of one image dataset to a reference dataset. This co-registration of data...     

Design of a two‐level controller for an active suspension system

The paper focuses on a control design for a vehicle suspension system in which a balance between different performance demands is achieved. The starting point of the control design is a full–car model which contains nonlinear components, i.e. the dynamics of the dampers and springs and nonlinear actuator dynamics. In order to handle the high complexity of the problem this paper proposes the design of a two‐level controller of an active suspension system. The required control force is computed by applying a high‐level controller, which is designed using a linear parameter varying (LPV) method. For the control design the model is augmented with weighting functions specified by the performance demands and the uncertainty assumptions. The actuator generating the necessary control force is modelled as a nonlinear system for which a low‐level force‐tracking controller is designed. To obtain the low‐level controller a backstepping method is proposed. As an alternative solution a feedback linearization method is also presented. The operation of the controller is illustrated through simulation examples. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society     

Changes in precipitation and corrosion characteristics of 18/10Ti austenitic stainless steel exposed to prolonged annealing at 750–850 °C

This investigation deals with the analysis of intergranular acicular precipitations by X-ray diffraction techniques and SEM. Results obtained during analysing acicular precipitate in 18/10Ti steel, isothermally annealed at 750–850 °C, can be summarised as follows: Intergranular needles are constituted by a complex phosphide of M₂P type whose chemical composition can be written as (Ti,Cr,Fe,Ni)₂P. Crystal growth direction of intergranular acicular M₂P particles in austenite is 〈 100 〉_γ. The following orientation relationship was determined between the complex phosphide of M₂P type and austenite: . Corrosion testing in boiling 65% HNO₃ revealed that there was a relationship between the occurrence of acicular precipitate and a reduction in corrosion rate to a level below 0.5 g m^?2h^?1.