Adsorption thermodynamics and diffusion of disperse anthraquinone dyes in acetate fibre

Diffusion coefficients, thermodynamic parameters and adsorption equilibrium isotherms of some anthraquinone dyes for acetate fibre are reported. The chemical constitution seems to be more important than the size factor in determining dye diffusion into the interior of the fibres. The activation energies of diffusion decreased strongly when o-dichlorobenzene was present, due to the plasticising effect of carrier. Nernst partition isotherms were obtained, up to saturation. Substantivity decreased when water-solubilising groups are present in the molecule.The aqueous solubilities and heats of solution have been measured; the higher ΔH_w values were found for the derivatives which can form intermolecular hydrogen bonding in the crystalline state.     

Beneficial effects of Helicobacter pylori eradication on migraine

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Migraine is a commonly unilateral throbbing headache, which has been associated with disorders of the vascular tone. Helicobacter pylori, the most relevant cause of gastritis and peptic ulcer, has been recently associated with a typical functional vascular disorder such as primary Raynaud phenomenon. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of H. pylori for patients affected by migraine and the effects of H. pylori eradication on migraine symptoms. METHODOLOGY: Two-hundred and twenty-five patients were consecutively enrolled between October 1996 and January 1997. H. pylori was assessed by 13C-urea breath test. Infected subjects were eradicated of the bacterium; frequency, intensity and duration of attacks of migraine were assessed during a 6 month follow-up period. RESULTS: H. pylori was detected in 40% of the patients. Eighty-three percent of the patients who underwent therapy were eradicated. Intensity, duration and frequency of attacks of migraine were significantly reduced in all eradicated patients. CONCLUSIONS: H. pylori is common in subjects with migraine. Bacterium eradication causes a significant decrease in attacks of migraine. The reduction of vasoactive substances produced during infection may be the pathogenetic mechanism underlying the phenomenon.     

Oral arginine supplementation does not affect lymphocyte proliferation during endotoxin-induced inflammation in rats

Earlier studies from this laboratory were unable to confirm reported immunostimulatory effects of supplemental dietary arginine on healthy, unstressed young or aged rats. The present study was undertaken to determine effects of oral arginine supplementation on in vitro measures of immune function using a stressed rat model. The stressor used was intraperitoneal injection of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (1 mg/kg body wt). Four-month-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were placed in either a control or an arginine-supplemented (7.5 g/L arginine-HCl in drinking water) group for 7 d, after which control and supplemented rats received injections of endotoxin or phosphate-buffered saline. Rats were killed 3 d following injections. Endotoxin treatment resulted in lower food intake, less thymic cellularity and greater splenic weight. Endotoxin injections also enhanced proliferative response of rat splenocytes to pokeweed mitogen (1 mg/L) and lipopolysaccharide (25 and 100 mg/L) and enhanced response of thymocytes to concanavalin A (10 mg/L), phytohemagglutinin (25 and 100 mg/L) and pokeweed mitogen (1 mg/L). Supplemental arginine did not reduce thymic weight loss or influence mononuclear cell proliferation or interleukin-2 production in the presence or absence of endotoxin stress. These data indicate no benefit of arginine supplementation during endotoxin stress in rats.     

Saturation dynamics in FEL and optical-klystron FEL devices

In this note we present an analysis of FEL saturation mechanisms, with particular attention to the case of optical-klystron (O.K.) devices operating with low energy e-beam in the single-passage configuration. We discuss the range of validity of already introduced FEL gain versus intensity saturation formulae and show that O.K. FEL saturation occurs in two distinct steps. In the first, the dispersive section is “turned-off,” in the second, saturation in the conventional sense is reached     

Bioimpedance monitoring of rehydration in cholera

Measurement of bioimpedance (BI) is a simple non-invasive technique that relies on the different conductivity of tissues to define body composition and can be easily adapted to automated monitoring. We assessed the accuracy of BI in monitoring rehydration and acute fluid fluxes in 35 Peruvian cholera patients. Patients were monitored throughout the acute phase of diarrhoea and followed up at 3 and 10 days. BI was compared with other objective measures of dehydration including packed cell volume, serum protein, and calculated fluid balance. BI rapidly detected inadequate treatment and acute fluid flux, correlating highly with intravascular hydration as measured by serum protein and packed cell volume. BI values during dehydration were significantly raised compared with 10-day convalescent values and age-matched controls (p < 0.05). We also encountered an unexpected difference in the bioelectrical response to dehydration and rehydration between sexes. We conclude that BI has uses in monitoring dehydrated patients, in oral rehydration trials, and in physiological studies.     

Large-scale use of liquid-phase blocking sandwich ELISA for the evaluation of protective immunity against aphthovirus in cattle vaccinated with oil-adjuvanted vaccines in Argentina

Specific serum activity levels against four reference strains of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) were evaluated from 1634 animals vaccinated with commercial quadrivalent oil vaccines and from 746 unvaccinated, naive animals, using the liquid-phase blocking sandwich ELISA (lpELISA) test. Cows from the FMDV-free area of Argentina were tested for the absence of specific FMDV antibodies (sp FMDV Abs) and those showing lpELISA titres < 1.0 were grouped in lots of 16 animals. They were vaccinated and challenged at 90 days postvaccination (DPV) with one of four virus strains used for vaccine production and control (prototype strains). Serum samples from vaccinated and control cattle were collected 60 and 90 DPV and the level of sp FMDV Abs was determined by lpELISA. Animals were examined for clinical signs of disease. Results show that serum lpELISA titre levels directly correlate with the percentage of protected animals. It was seen that 100, 98, 93 and 87% of the vaccinated cattle with antibody titre levels > or = 2.1 were protected against challenge with serotypes C85, A87,01 Cas and A79, respectively. Evidence is also presented of seroconversion in a sample of 3-5-month-old calves vaccinated in the field, showing lpELISA titres compatible with protection against the four vaccine viruses as long as 150 DPV. Results reported in this paper strongly support the use of the lpELISA test for a rapid and reliable evaluation of the efficacy of FMDV commercial vaccines as well as for the assessment of the immunological status of cattle in FMDV-free and enzootic regions of South America.     

Graf-type theorem for Laguerre and Legendre functions

In this paper, we discuss Graf-type series for Laguerre and Legendre functions. Within this context, we indicate the existence of two-variable, one-index generalized functions and discuss their properties. This class of special functions represents a useful tool for dealing with a large number of physical problems, from that relevant to multilevel system dynamics to the study of incommensurate structures.     

Identification of active compounds in vegetal extracts based on correlation between activity and HPLC–MS data

We propose a method identifying candidates for active compounds in vegetal extracts. From a collection of samples, the method requires, for each sample, a HPLC–MS analysis and a measurement of the activity. By applying a correlation analysis between the activity and the chromatographic area for each interval of elution time and m/z ratio, the peaks corresponding to candidates for active compounds can be identified. Additionally, when peaks are identified, a model can be estimated to predict the activity in new samples. Both methods are evaluated in one experiment involving the phenolic extract (PE) from 22 samples of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) where the activity is a cytotoxicity index against JIMT-1 breast cancer cells. In this experiment, the samples were separated into two disjunct partitions: one was used for training (identification of candidates and estimation of prediction model), while the other was used for validation (by comparing the predicted and the measured activities). Three compounds were identified as candidates to be responsible for the cytotoxicity of the EVOO-PE against JIMT-1 cells. The prediction model provided an accurate estimation of the activity.     

Native carotenoids composition of some tropical fruits

Many tropical fruits can be considered a reservoir of bioactive substances with a special interest due to their possible health-promoting properties. The interest in carotenoids from a nutritional standpoint has recently greatly increased, because of their important health benefits. Here we report the native carotenoids composition in six tropical fruits from Panama, which is considered a region of great biodiversity. The native carotenoid composition was directly investigated by an HPLC-DAD-APCI-MS methodology, for the first time. In Corozo 32 different carotenoids were detected, including a high content of β-carotene and lycopene. Sastra showed the highest content of zeaxanthin among the fruit investigated. In Sapote 22 different carotenoids were detected, including β-carotene and 10 different zeaxanthin-di-esters. Frutita showed a very high content of the apo-carotenoid β-citraurin, and of a number of its esters. In Maracuyà chino 14 carotenoids were detected, including a high amounts of mono-esterified lauric acid with β-cryptoxanthin and with cryptocapsin. Mamey rojo was characterised by ketocarotenoids with κ rings, both hydroxylated and not hydroxylated.     

Image-based Shaving

Many categories of objects, such as human faces, can be naturally viewed as a composition of several different layers. For example, a bearded face with glasses can be decomposed into three layers: a layer for glasses, a layer for the beard and a layer for other permanent facial features. While modeling such a face with a linear subspace model could be very difficult, layer separation allows for easy modeling and modification of some certain structures while leaving others unchanged. In this paper, we present a method for automatic layer extraction and its applications to face synthesis and editing. Layers are automatically extracted by utilizing the differences between subspaces and modeled separately. We show that our method can be used for tasks such beard removal (virtual shaving), beard synthesis, and beard transfer, among others.