Oral lesions in systemic lupus erythematosus. Do ulcerative lesions represent a necrotizing vasculitis?

BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that oral lesions in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) may be grouped clinically as erythema, discoid lesions, or oral ulcerations. Oral ulcerations have been said to foretell a severe systemic disease flare and the proposal that oral ulcers represent a mucosal vasculitis has been suggested to explain this hypothesis. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to test the hypothesis that oral ulcers in patients with SLE result from vasculitis. METHODS: We studied 10 patients with American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for a diagnosis of SLE who had oral lesions of lupus (six prospectively and four retrospectively) clinically and by routine and immunofluorescence microscopy. Biopsy specimens were reviewed in a single-blinded fashion. RESULTS: In our patients, no oral lesion, regardless of morphology, demonstrated vasculitis histologically. All lesions demonstrated an interface mucositis. CONCLUSION: Our data strongly contradict the hypothesis that leukocytoclastic vasculitis explains a possible unproven correlation between oral ulceration and disease flares in patients with SLE.     

Isolation and characterization of Acanthamoeba spp. from air-conditioners in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

During a study on the quality of the indoor environment, Acanthamoeba spp. were detected in 20 out of 87 dust samples collected from air-conditioners installed in a four-story campus building located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Twenty-one cloned Acanthamoeba isolates designated as IMU1 to IMU21 were established from the positive primary cultures. Five species were identified from the 16 isolates according to the morphological criteria of Pussard and Pons; i.e. A. castellanii, A. culbertsoni, A. griffini, A. hatchetti and A. polyphaga. Species identities for the remaining five isolates (IMU4, IMU5, IMU15, IMU20 and IMU21), however, could not be determined morphologically. At genotypic characterization, these isolates were placed into T3 (IMU14); T5 (IMU16 and IMU17) and T4 (all the remaining isolates). To predict the potential pathogenicity of these Acanthamoeba isolates, thermo- and osmotolerance tests were employed; many isolates were predicted as potential human pathogens based on the outcome of these tests. This is the first time potentially pathogenic Acanthamoeba have been isolated from air-conditioners in Malaysia.     

Synthesis of Geopolymer from a Novel Aluminosilicate-Based Natural Soil Precursor Using Electric Oven Curing for Improved Mechanical Strength

Natural soil (NS)-based geopolymers (GPs) have shown promise as environmentally friendly construction materials. The production of ordinary Portland cement is known to release significant amounts of greenhouse gas (CO₂) into the atmosphere. The main objective of this work is to synthesize a geopolymer (GP) from an uncommon aluminosilicate-based NS and a sodium silicate (SS) activating solution that would not only minimize the emission of harmful gases, but also offer improved mechanical strength. Samples of different compositions were produced by varying the wt.% of NS from 50% to 80% and adding a balancing amount of SS solution. The drying and curing of the samples were carried out in an electric oven at specific temperatures. The degree of geopolymerization in the samples was measured by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and microstructural analysis was performed using a scanning electron microscope. Mechanical tests were conducted to evaluate the range of compressive strength values of the prepared GP samples. A minimum compressive strength of 10.93 MPa at a maximum porosity of 37.56% was observed in a sample with an NS to SS ratio of 1:1; while a ratio of 3:1 led to the maximum compressive strength of 26.39 MPa and the minimum porosity of 24.60%. The maximum strength (26.39 MPa) was found to be more than the reported strength values for similar systems. Moreover, an improvement in strength by a factor of three has been observed relative to previously developed NS-based GPs. It may be inferred from the findings that for the given NS, with almost 90% aluminosilicate content, the extent of geopolymerization increases significantly with its increasing proportions, yielding better mechanical strength.     

Solution Processed PVB/Mica Flake Coatings for the Encapsulation of Organic Solar Cells

Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) die due to their interactions with environmental gases, i.e., moisture and oxygen, the latter being the most dangerous, especially under illumination, due to the fact that most of the active layers used in OPVs are extremely sensitive to oxygen. In this work we demonstrate solution-based effective barrier coatings based on composite of poly(vinyl butyral) (PVB) and mica flakes for the protection of poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT)-based organic solar cells (OSCs) against photobleaching under illumination conditions. In the first step we developed a protective layer with cost effective and environmentally friendly methods and optimized its properties in terms of transparency, barrier improvement factor, and bendability. The developed protective layer maintained a high transparency in the visible region and improved oxygen and moisture barrier quality by the factor of ~7. The resultant protective layers showed ultra-flexibility, as no significant degradation in protective characteristics were observed after 10 K bending cycles. In the second step, a PVB/mica composite layer was applied on top of the P3HT film and subjected to photo-degradation. The P3HT films coated with PVB/mica composite showed improved stability under constant light irradiation and exhibited a loss of <20% of the initial optical density over the period of 150 h. Finally, optimized barrier layers were used as encapsulation for organic solar cell (OSC) devices. The lifetime results confirmed that the stability of the OSCs was extended from few hours to over 240 h in a sun test (65 °C, ambient RH%) which corresponds to an enhanced lifetime by a factor of 9 compared to devices encapsulated with pristine PVB.     

Development and Validation of a RPLC Method for the Determination of 2-Phenoxyethanol in Senselle Lubricant Formulation

A new and simple reversed-phase liquid chromatographic method has been developed and validated for the determination of 2-phenoxyethanol preservative (0.3%, w/w) in senselle lubricant formulation. The separation was achieved with acetonitrile-tetrahydrofuran-water (21:13:66, v/v/v) as mobile phase, a C(8) column, and UV detection at 258 nm. The calibration curve is linear (r(2)= 0.9999) from 20-140% of the analytical concentration of 0.75 mg/ml. The mean percent relative standard deviation values for intra- and inter-day precision studies are <1%. The recovery of 2-phenoxyethanol ranged between 99.76 and 100.03% from lubricant formulation. The limits of detection and quantitation are determined to be 0.094 and 0.15 mg/ml, respectively. The method was found to be robust and can be successfully and reliably used to determine the 2-phenoxyethanol preservative content of marketed formulations.     

Mechanisms of G1 checkpoint loss in resected early stage non-small cell lung cancer

Loss of the G1 checkpoint appears to be extremely common among virtually all neoplasms. A variety of genetic and epigenetic mechanisms have been demonstrated to play significant roles in this process. In a consecutive series of early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), we have established the loss of expression of the G1 Cdk inhibitors p15INK4b) and p16INK4a by DNA methylation is very common (37%), and methylation of p16INK4a is tightly correlated with loss of expression of p16INK4a protein (P = 0.0018). Furthermore, methylation of p15INK4b and p16INK4a appear inversely correlated, although methylation of p15INK4b is an infrequent event in this cohort (4%). Methylation was detected in all stages of NSCLC equally, and did not correlate with survival in these patients. Evidence for methylation was more frequent in squamous cell carcinomas in comparison to other tumor histologies (P = 0.0156). In addition, over-expression of cyclin D1 was found to be tightly restricted (P = 0.0032) to those tumors that had retained wild-type expression of pRB, and did not correlate with methylation or expression of p16INK4a gene product. Although loss of p16INK4a function remains tightly correlated with pRB expression, loss of other regulatory elements in NSCLC such as p53 mutation and cyclin D1 over-expression appear independent of loss of the p16INK4a gene product.     

High resolution imaging of tunnels by magnetic resonance neurography

Peripheral nerves often traverse confined fibro-osseous and fibro-muscular tunnels in the extremities, where they are particularly vulnerable to entrapment and compressive neuropathy. This gives rise to various tunnel syndromes, characterized by distinct patterns of muscular weakness and sensory deficits. This article focuses on several upper and lower extremity tunnels, in which direct visualization of the normal and abnormal nerve in question is possible with high resolution 3T MR neurography (MRN). MRN can also serve as a useful adjunct to clinical and electrophysiologic exams by discriminating adhesive lesions (perineural scar) from compressive lesions (such as tumor, ganglion, hypertrophic callous, or anomalous muscles) responsible for symptoms, thereby guiding appropriate treatment.