Effects of Co‐composting of Municipal Solid Waste and Pigeon Pea Biochar on Heavy Metal Mobility in Soil and Translocation to Leafy Vegetable Spinach

Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology - An experiment was conducted to study the effects of co-composted products of municipal solid waste (MSW) and pigeon pea biochar (PPB) on...     

pH-adjusted periocular anaesthesia for primary vitreoretinal surgery

PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy of pH-adjusted bupivacaine in conjunction with medial orbital periconal block (periocular anaesthesia). METHODS: Sixty consecutive patients undergoing primary vitreoretinal surgery were enrolled prospectively. RESULTS: Adequate anaesthesia and akinesia with no intraoperative supplementation was achieved in 53 eyes (88.3%). Factors influencing intraoperative supplementation were combined vitrectomy with scleral buckling (p = 0.005) and duration of surgery of more than 2 hours (p = 0.001). No ocular or systemic complication resulted. CONCLUSION: pH-adjusted periocular anaesthesia is safe and effective in patients undergoing primary vitreoretinal surgery.     

Subcommissural organ-Reissner's fiber complex of the teleost Clarias batrachus responds to GABA treatment

Subcommissural organ (SCO) is a highly specialized ependymal gland located in the roof of the third ventricle. The secretory products of the SCO, which condense to form Reissner's fiber (RF), were recently found to cross-react with the anti-calcitonin antibody. To understand the mechanisms regulating the formation of the RF and the possible function of these discrete structures, we studied the response of the SCO-RF complex to intracranially administered GABA, using immunocytochemical labeling with anti-calcitonin antibody. Although the SCO-RF complex of control fish was intensely immunostained, 1 h after GABA treatment, the ependymal cells revealed partial loss of immunoreactivity; the RF showed occasional loss of immunoreactivity with its diameter increased by about 56% of the control value. Following 2 h of GABA treatment, the SCO revealed dramatic loss of calcitonin-like immunoreactivity from the ependymal cells. The RF showed a dual response in this group, while in some segments the RF appeared conspicuously thick, elsewhere it appeared thin. The mean diameter was, however, not significantly different from the normal. Following 4 h of GABA treatment, while calcitonin-like immunoreactive material made its reappearance in the SCO, the RF diameter was uniformly reduced to about 35% of the control value. The responses by the RF as well as the SCO to intracranially administered GABA were blocked by pretreatment with bicuculline, a GABA(A) receptor antagonist. The results suggest that GABA, acting via GABA(A) receptors, may trigger the release of secretory material from the SCO and induce histomorphological changes in the RF indicative of discharge of stored material.     

Induction of neuronal death by alpha-synuclein

The molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying neuronal loss in neurodegenerative diseases are unclear. It is generally thought that aggregation of mutated, abnormally modified or abnormally folded proteins leads to the accumulation of extracellular, intracellular or intranuclear deposits that severely compromise cell physiology, leading to the death of the affected neurons. However, there is growing evidence that neuronal apoptosis in the absence of obvious pathological deposits could have a serious impact on the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. alpha-Synuclein has been implicated in aetiology and pathogenesis of certain neurodegenerative diseases, although the precise role of this protein in neurodegeneration is uncertain. The normal functions of alpha-synuclein and other members of the synuclein family in the development and function of the nervous system also remain elusive. Here we show that overexpression of wild-type and mutant forms of alpha-synuclein in cultured neurons, but not the closely related persyn (gamma-synuclein), causes apoptosis. These findings suggest that abnormalities of alpha-synuclein metabolism could lead to the neuronal loss occurring in certain forms of neurodegeneration before the formation of characteristic pathological lesions.     

Growth of asthmatic children is slower during than before treatment with inhaled glucocorticoids

Reports on the influence of inhaled glucocorticoids on growth have been controversial. We studied the growth of prepubertal asthmatic children prior to and during glucocorticoid therapy. We collected retrospectively the notes of 201 asthmatic children aged 1–11 years receiving inhaled beclomethasone dipropionate or budesonide. We calculated their height and height velocity standard deviation scores (HSDS and HVSDS, respectively) before the treatment and up to 5 years during the treatment and compared those with the growth of healthy peers. The dose of the medication was calculated and the severity of asthma was assessed. The asthmatic children grew similarly to their healthy peers before treatment with inhaled glucocorticoids: the mean HSDS was +0.02 and the mean HVSDS +0.01 for boys and -0.16 and +0.13 for girls, respectively. Growth retardation took place soon after the start of the treatment, the most profound decrease in the growth velocity (the change in the mean HVSDS from +0.05 to -0.88) occurring during the first year of treatment. The growth-retarding effect of inhaled glucocorticoids was not dose dependent. In the covariance analysis the increasing severity of asthma had a significant interaction with repeated measurements, showing more growth retardation along with more severe asthma, especially during long-term treatment. Asthma per se does not impair growth, but inhaled glucocorticoids may do so. Careful monitoring of the growth of all asthmatic children receiving inhaled glucocorticoids is necessary because the growth-retarding effect of the medication is not dose dependent. Individual sensitivity might explain the differences seen in the growth patterns of children receiving inhaled glucocorticoids.     

Pleomorphic adenoma of nasal septum

The pleomorphic adenoma is the most common benign tumour of the major and minor salivary glands. We report a 40-year-old female patient, who presented with progressive swelling and deformity of the left side of her nose for last 2 years. On a lateral rhinotomy a mass (4 cm X3 cm in size) was found to be arising from the cartilaginous part of the nasal septum. The mass was emicleated from its capsule and the walls excised. The histopathological examination revealed it to be pleomorphic adenoma.     

A patient-specific quality assurance study on absolute dose verification using ionization chambers of different volumes in RapidArc treatments

The recalculation of 1 fraction from a patient treatment plan on a phantom and subsequent measurements have become the norms for measurement-based verification, which combines the quality assurance recommendations that deal with the treatment planning system and the beam delivery system. This type of evaluation has prompted attention to measurement equipment and techniques. Ionization chambers are considered the gold standard because of their precision, availability, and relative ease of use. This study evaluates and compares 5 different ionization chambers: phantom combinations for verification in routine patient-specific quality assurance of RapidArc treatments. Fifteen different RapidArc plans conforming to the clinical standards were selected for the study. Verification plans were then created for each treatment plan with different chamber-phantom combinations scanned by computed tomography. This includes Medtec intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) phantom with micro-ionization chamber (0.007 cm³) and pinpoint chamber (0.015 cm³), PTW-Octavius phantom with semiflex chamber (0.125 cm³) and 2D array (0.125 cm³), and indigenously made Circular wax phantom with 0.6 cm³ chamber. The measured isocenter absolute dose was compared with the treatment planning system (TPS) plan. The micro-ionization chamber shows more deviations when compared with semiflex and 0.6 cm³ with a maximum variation of ?4.76%, ?1.49%, and 2.23% for micro-ionization, semiflex, and farmer chambers, respectively. The positive variations indicate that the chamber with larger volume overestimates. Farmer chamber shows higher deviation when compared with 0.125 cm³. In general the deviation was found to be <1% with the semiflex and farmer chambers. A maximum variation of 2% was observed for the 0.007 cm³ ionization chamber, except in a few cases. Pinpoint chamber underestimates the calculated isocenter dose by a maximum of 4.8%. Absolute dose measurements using the semiflex ionization chamber with intermediate volume (0.125 cm³) shows good agreement with the TPS calculated among the detectors used in this study. Positioning is very important when using smaller volume chambers because they are more sensitive to geometrical errors within the treatment fields. It is also suggested to average the dose over the sensitive volume for larger-volume chambers. The ionization chamber-phantom combinations used in this study can be used interchangeably for routine RapidArc patient-specific quality assurance with a satisfactory accuracy for clinical practice.     

New chiral reverse phase HPLC method for enantioselective analysis of ketorolac using chiral AGP column

A simple, specific, precise, sensitive and rapid reverse phase-HPLC method was developed for determination of ketorolac enantiomers, a potent nonnarcotic analgesic in pharmaceutical formulations. The method was developed on a chiral AGP column. Mobile phase was 0.1 M sodium phosphate buffer (pH 4.5): Isopropanol (98:2, v/v), at a flow rate of 1 mL/min with run time of 15 min. Ultraviolet detection was made at 322 nm. The linearity range was 0.02–10 μg/mL for each of the enantiomers. The mobile phase composition was systematically studied to find the optimum chromatographic conditions. Validation of the method under the conditions selected showed that it was selective and precise and that the detector response was linear function of ketorolac.     

Quantification of coronary arterial stenoses in CTA using fuzzy distance transform

Quantification of coronary arterial stenoses is useful for the diagnosis of several coronary heart diseases. Being noninvasive, economical and informative, computed tomographic angiography (CTA) has become a common modality for monitoring disease status and treatment effects. Here, we present a new method for detecting and quantifying coronary arterial stenosis in CTA using fuzzy distance transform (FDT) approach and a new coherence analysis of observed data for computing expected local diameter. FDT allows computing local depth at each image point in the presence of partial voluming and thus, eliminates the need for binarization, commonly, associated with inclusion of additional errors. In the current method, coronary arterial stenoses are detected and their severities are quantified by analyzing FDT values along the medial axis of an arterial tree obtained by its skeletonization. A new skeletal pruning algorithm has been developed toward improving the quality of medial axes and thereby, enhancing the accuracy of stenosis detection and quantification. Further, we have developed a new method to estimate “expected diameter” along a given arterial branch using a new coherence analysis of observed diameter values along the branch. The overall method is completed in the following steps - (1) fuzzy segmentation of coronary artery in CTA, (2) FDT computation of coronary arteries, (3) medial axis computation, (4) estimation of observed and expected diameters along arteries and (5) detection of stenoses and quantification of arterial blockage. The performance of this method has been quantitatively evaluated on a realistic coronary artery phantom dataset with randomly simulated stenoses and the results have been compared with a binary distance transform based and a conventional binary algorithm. The method has also been applied on a clinical CTA dataset from thirteen heart patients and the results have been compared with an expert's quantitative assessment of stenoses. Results of the phantom experiment indicate that the new method (error: 0.53%) is significantly more accurate as compared to both binary distance transform based (error 2.11%) and conventional binary (error 3.71%) methods. Also, the results of the clinical study indicate that the new FDT-based method (kappa coefficient = 87.9%) is highly in agreement with the expert's assessments and, in this respect, outperforms the other two methods (kappa coefficients = 75.2% and 69.5%).