Semiquantitative assessment of pre-core stop-codon mutant and wildtype hepatitis B virus during the course of chronic hepatitis B using a new PCR-bas…

1996

In most patients with chronic hepatitis B positive for antibodies (anti-HBe) to HBe antigen (HBeAg), a pre-core mutant hepatitis B virus (HBV) with a point-mutation at nt. 1896 can be isolated. Clinical significance of the mutant virus in chronic hepatitis B is not proven yet, and screening of large numbers of sera during different clinical courses of numerous patients is necessary. We therefore aimed to develop a fast and reliable assay, that allows to discriminate wildtype from nt. 1896 G-->A mutant HBV and to determine the ratio of mutant and wildtype HBV in patients' sera. A mutation specific polymerase chain reaction (ms PCR) with new primers served to distinguish nt. 1896 G-->A mutant…

Selective hydrogenation of acetylene in ethylene feedstocks on Pd catalysts

1996

Abstract Pumice supported palladium catalysts were compared with Pd SiO 2 and Pd Al 2 O 3 in the hydrogenation of acetylene using typical industrial ethylene feedstocks: front-end and tail-end cuts. Pd/pumice catalysts exhibit good activity and excellent selectivity and stability in the title reaction. Their activity/selectivity pattern is controlled by the composition of the reaction mixture. The turnover frequency (TOF) increases, and the apparent activation energy (Ea) decreases, with the H 2 C 2 H 2 ratio, but they are not affected by the C 2 H 2 C 2 H 4 ratio. The selectivity to ethane (SE) does not change with acetylene conversion at low H 2 C 2 H 2 ratio (tail-end cut) and increases …

Cervical Neuroma Presenting as a Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: Case Report

1996

OBJECTIVE AND IMPORTANCE: The association of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) with spinal lesions is well known, but hemorrhage from a cervical schwannoma is exceedingly rare. The histopathology and the mechanism of bleeding are discussed. CLINICAL PRESENTATION: We report a healthy 37-year-old man presenting with SAH after intense physical stress caused by bleeding of a cervical neuroma. INTERVENTION: A C6-T1 laminectomy disclosed an ovoid lesion, 4 cm in diameter; extremely dilated veins originated from the tumor. Removal of the spinal lesion resulted in immediate decongestion of the related venous network. The histopathological examination confirmed that the lesion was a telangiectatic schwa…

Performance of micellar mobile phases in reversed-phase chromatography for the analysis of pharmaceuticals containing beta-blockers and other antihyp…

1996

A rapid and simple reversed-phase micellar liquid chromatographic procedure for the simultaneous determination of the beta-blockers atenolol, metoprolol and oxprenolol, the diuretics amiloride, bendroflumethiazide, chlorthalidone and hydrochlorothiazide and the vasodilator hydralazine in pharmaceuticals, is proposed. An interpretive optimization procedure, which uses the chromatographic data for only five mobile phases, was applied to select a suitable micellar mobile phase. A comparative study was also made of the performance of micellar and aqueous-organic mobile phases in the analysis of pharmaceuticals that combine beta-blockers and diuretics. The determination of all the drugs could be…

Immune Response to Gelatin- and Collagen-Impregnated Aortic Dacron Grafts

1996

Dacron grafts are very common in vascular surgery. Primarily sealed grafts have been available for ten years. These improve handling and reduce intraoperative blood loss. Despite a widespread use all over the world, it has as yet not been clarified whether coating (sealing) substances might cause an immune response, especially in situations of fever or other unexplained events in the postoperative course after graft implantation. In this study, 37 patients with a gelatin-impregnated (Unigraft) and 33 with a collagen-impregnated (Hemashield) graft for aortic or aortoiliac replacement were compared. Serum samples were investigated for collagen antibodies at operation, one week and three mont…

Iodide Mumps After Intravenous and Oral Administration of Contrast Medium

1996

A 70-year-old woman with a history of radical cystectomy and continent urinary diversion with a Mainz pouch I due to muscle invasive bladder carcinoma presented for a routine evaluation. Physical examination, electrocardiogram, chest x-ray and routine laboratory values showed no pathological findings. There was no history of salivary gland disease. Excretory urography was performed with 100 ml. nonionic contrast medium (iopromide) injected intravenously. Painless bilateral swelling of the submandibular glands developed 16 hours later without any dysphagia, dyspnea or other allergic reactions (see figure). After systemic treatment with an antihistamine and prednisolone the swelling resolved …

Concave macrobicycles: Absorption spectra, luminescence properties, and endocavital complexation of neutral organic guests

1996

By a mild modified Eglinton coupling a series of diynebridged macrobicyclic hosts capable of endocavital complexation were synthesized and their structures and complexation properties investigated by X-ray analysis. The inclusion of DMSO in 7 suggests a direct correlation between steric fit and orientation of the guest. On the basis of this hypothesis, the orientation of acetone in an endocavital inclusion of 2 was predicted and verified by X-ray analysis. Comparison of the single-crystal X-ray structures of the vacant macrobicycle 3 and of a family of macrobicycles showing endocavital or “pocket” complexation of neutral organic guests suggests that torsion of the cavities upon complexation…

Metal doping effects in NIR Raman spectra of YBCO epitaxial films

1996

Metal doping (Co, Zn) of YBCO epitaxial thin films leads to large changes of the scattering efficiencies of various lattice modes in near-infrared (NIR) -Raman spectra (1064 nm) if it is accompanied by a variation of the charge carrier concentration. The results resemble earlier observations in oxygen depleted YBCO thin films. In contrast, no effect is found when metal doping does not change the carrier concentration even if it leads to a massive Tc suppression.

Correlation effects in proton transfer reactions in solution

1996

Abstract The effects of correlation energy on proton transfer reactions in solution for [H 2 OHOH 2 ] + and [NH 3 HH 2 O] + systems have been studied. Solvent effects have been represented by means of a continuum model. The proton transfer energy profiles for fixed proton donor-proton acceptor distances have been obtained in the gas phase and in solution, both at the HF/6-311G ∗∗ and MP2/6-311G ∗∗ //HF levels of theory. Differences between the correlation energies calculated in the gas phase and in solution are negligible, showing that solvent effects can be correctly described for these proton transfer processes at the HF level.

Inhibition of phospholipase A2 activities and some inflammatory responses by the marine product ircinin

1996

The marine product ircinin has been tested for its effects on secretory and cytosolic phospholipase A2 (PLA2) activities in vitro as well as for inhibition of cellular functions in human neutrophils and inflammatory responses in mice. Ircinin inhibited Naja naja venom, human synovial recombinant, bee venom and zymosan-injected rat air pouch PLA2 with IC50 values in the microM range, similar to those of the known inhibitor scalaradial. On the other hand, ircinin was less active on cytosolic PLA2 from human monocytes and decreased potently the release of LTB4 in human neutrophils. This marine product affected weakly human neutrophil functions like superoxide generation and degranulation. In t…

Dielectric relaxation models applied of the dynamics of myoglobin as determined by Mössbauer spectroscopy

1996

Abstract Protein specific modes of motions are found in myoglobin crystals above 180 K. In this contribution we show that this type of motions can be analyzed by a Davidson-Cole, a Cole-Cole or a Havriliak-Negami distribution in analogy to dielectric relaxation. However, the temperature dependence of the obtained parameters is quite unusual indicating a broadening of the distributions with temperature instead of motional narrowing. This can be understood from the picture of conformational substates if one assumes that more and more substates become accessible with increasing temperature. The result shows that the analogy between glass forming organic liquids and proteins should not be exagg…

Polymorphism in the immunoglobulin-like domains of the receptor tyrosine kinase from the sponge Geodia cydonium.

1996

Sponges [Porifera] are the phylogenetically oldest phylum of the Metazoa. They are provided with both cellular and humoral allorecognition systems. The underlying molecules are not yet known. To study allorecognition in sponges we first determined the frequency of graft rejection in a natural population of the marine sponge Geodia cydonium. We then determined, for the first time at the molecular level, the degree of sequence polymorphism in segments of one molecule which may be related to sponge allorecognition and host defense: the Ig-like domains from the receptor tyrosine kinase [RTK]. Thirty six pairs of auto- and allografts were assayed, either by parabiotic attachment or insertion of …

Determination of pesticide residues in fruit and vegetables.

1996

A review concerning the determination of pesticide residues in fruit and vegetables is presented. The basic principles and recent developments in the extraction and quantitation of pesticides are discussed. Consideration is given to solid phase and supercritical extraction techniques, automation and robotic systems, and immunoassay procedures.

NMR Spectra of Some Chlorinated Diphenyliodonium Salts and Iodobenzenes

1996

Interaction of Taurine on Baclofen Intestinal Absorption: A Nonlinear Mathematical Treatment using Differential Equations to Describe Kinetic Inhibit…

1996

Previous studies showed that the in situ absorption of baclofen in rat jejunum was inhibited by beta-alanine, a nonessential amino acid, and therefore mediated, at least in part, by some beta-amino acid carrier. In this paper a similar study was undertaken using taurine, a sulfonic beta-amino acid, in order to evaluate its effect and to establish a general inhibition model. To achieve this goal, remaining concentrations of inhibitor were also measured and incorporated into the model. Previously, kinetic absorption in situ parameters for taurine in free solution were obtained: Vm = 27.73 +/- 9.99 mM h-1, K(m) = 8.06 +/- 2.82 mM, Ka (passive difussion component) = 0.40 +/- 0.28 h-1. Isotonic …

Correlation of the Extent of Fjord-Region Oxidation with DNA Binding and Mutagenicity of the Enantiomeric 11,12-Dihydrodiols of Dibenzo[a,l]pyrene

1996

Abstract In vitro studies on the hepatic biotransformation of the enantiomeric trans-11,12-dihydrodiols of dibenzo[a,l]pyrene (DB[a,l]P) using microsomal fractions of animals pretreated with Aroclor 1254 revealed that the formation of fjord-region dihydrodiol epoxides strongly depends on the absolute configuration of the substrate. Both the (-)-11R,12R- and the (+)-11S,12S-enantiomer are converted diastereoselectively to the (-)- and (+)-anti-dihydrodiol epoxide, respectively, by either rat or mouse liver microsomes. Fjord-region oxidation occurs to greatest extent on incubation of the (-)-11R,12R-dihydrodiol with preparations from rats. This finding is in line with the differences seen for…

Localized hydrogen cracking in the austenitic phase of a duplex stainless steel

1996

The aim of this study is to investigate the role of hydrogen on the mechanical behavior of an austenitic phase, in the particular situation of duplex stainless steels. In these duplex alloys, in presence of hydrogen, the ferritic phase is embrittled by hydrogen and the resistance to cracking is mainly related to the behavior of the austenitic phase. Thus, a discussion of the role of hydrogen at the crack tip of a duplex alloy (as function of the microstructure) has been proposed by T. Perng and C.J. Altester after experiments conducted in gaseous environment. A similar experimental approach has been followed in this study; slow strain rate tests (SSRT) have been performed on duplex stainles…

Equivalence Relations on Stonian Spaces

1996

Abstract Quotient spaces of locally compact Stonian spaces which generalize in some sense the concept of Stone representation space of a Boolean algebra are investigated emphasizing the measure theoretical point of view, and a representation theorem for finitely additive measures is proved.

Effects of Conduction Band Structure and Dimensionality of the Electron Gas on Transport Properties of InSe under Pressure

1996

We report Hall effect and resistivity measurements in InSe under pressure. The electron concentration strongly decreases under pressure in samples exhibiting 3D transport behaviour. This is explained by the existence of an excited minimum in the conduction band moving to lower energies under pressure. The related impurity level traps electrons as it reaches the band gap and approaches the Fermi level. In samples exhibiting 2D behaviour the electron concentration remains constant. This behaviour, together with the pressure dependence of the Hall mobility, is consistent with a previous model which considers high mobility 3D electrons and low mobility 2D electrons to contribute to charge trans…

On certain linear operators in spaces of ultradifferentiable functions

1996

Let ω be a weight in the sense of Braun, Meise, Taylor, which defines a non-quasianalytic class. Let H be a compact subset of ℝn. It is proved that for every function ƒ on ℝn which belongs to the non-quasianalytic (ω)-class, there is an element g of the same class which is analytic on ℝn\H and such that Dαƒ(x) = Dαg(x) for every x ∈ H and α ∈ ℕ0n. A similar result is proved for functions of the Roumieu type. Continuous linear extension operators of Whitney jets with additional properties are also obtained.

Amino acid substitutions at position 97 in HLA-A2 segregate cytolysis from cytokine release in MART-1/Melan-A peptide AAGIGILTV-specific cytotoxic T …

1996

CD8+ T lymphocytes recognize antigenic peptides presented by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules. Individual peptide termini appear to be fixed at the C- and N-terminal ends. In contrast, central peptide side chains residues may point in different directions and exhibit limited flexibility, dependent on the MHC class I structural variation. For instance, position 97 in HLA-A201 has been shown to shift individual peptide species into different coordinations, one oriented towards the peptide N terminus, or more towards the C-terminal end. The conformational shape of such non-anchor peptide residues may affect the affinity of MHC/peptide/TCR interaction, resulting in quant…

Evaluation of reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction (RT/PCR) for the detection of rotaviruses: applications of the assay.

1996

Summary Our aim was to evaluate the reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction (RT/PCR) technique for the detection of rotavirus shedding by infected children as a routine diagnostic procedure, in comparison to the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), electron microscopy (EM) and polyacrylamide gel etectrophoresis (PAGE) of rotavirus double stranded RNA. Two-hundred and twenty stool specimens were collected from infants and young children with diarrhoea, and 10–20% faecal suspensions were made. Several methods of rotavirus dsRNA extraction were assayed. Electrophoretic analysis of viral RNA was carried out on 10% polyacrylamide gols followed by silver staining. RT/PCR was per…

Dynamics of crystallization in hard-sphere suspensions.

1996

Density fluctuations are monitored by small-angle light scattering during the crystallization of 0.22-\ensuremath{\mu}m-radius, hard colloidal spheres. Measured structure factors show an intensity maximum at finite-scattering vectors. The shape of the intensity distribution scales at early times during nucleation and growth and again at large times during ripening. At intermediate times there is a crossover region where scaling ceases to be valid. Both the amplitude and the position of the maximum intensity show quasi-power law behavior in time. The values of the observed exponents are within the range expected for classical growth models. The breadth of the intensity distribution increases…

Synthesis of Protected Enantiopure Erythrulose Derivatives

1996

D- and l-Erythrulose derivatives 2–6 bearing protective O-silyl and O-benzyl groups in various positions were synthesized in enantiopure form from l-ascorbic acid, D-isoascorbic acid, and D-glucose.

Regulation of immunomodulatory functions by granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor in vivo

1996

The present study was designed to investigate in vivo immunomodulatory properties of hematopoietic growth factors. The influence on the activation of cytokine synthesis and on the expression of surface antigens associated with cellular activation of G-CSF or GM-CSF was investigated in cancer patients receiving these factors. One single dose of growth factor was administered to patients with bladder cancer (G-CSF group) or small cell lung cancer (GM-CSF group) before chemotherapy. After cytoreductive chemotherapy patients received supportive therapy with G-CSF or GM-CSF. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells and plasma samples were obtained for flow cytometry, Northern blot analysis, and assess…

Linear spectral mixture modelling to estimate vegetation amount from optical spectral data

1996

Abstract Spectral mixture modelling has developed in recent years as a suitable remote sensing tool for analysing the biophysical and compositional character of ground surfaces. In this paper the potentiality of the linear spectral mixture model to extract vegetation related parameters from 0·4-2·5 μm reflectance data has been tested. High spectral resolution reflectance measurements of soil-plant mixtures with different soil colour and plant densities were carried out in a laboratory experiment. The constrained least-squares and the factor analysis unmixing procedures were applied to generate endmember fractions of the components present in the mixtures and to test the validity of the mode…

Aging of the liver: Age-associated mitochondrial damage in intact hepatocytes

1996

Mitochondrial damage may be a major cause of cellular aging. So far, this hypothesis had only been tested using isolated mitochondria. The aim of this study was to investigate the involvement of mitochondria in aging using whole liver cells and not isolated mitochondria only. Using flow cytometry, we found that age is associated with a decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential (30%), an increase in mitochondrial size, and an increase in mitochondrial peroxide generation (23%). Intracellular peroxide levels were also increased. The number of mitochondria per cell and inner mitochondrial membrane mass did not change. Gluconeogenesis from glycerol or fructose (mitochondrial-independent) did…

Adrenergic activation of phospholipase D in primary rat astrocytes.

1996

Phospholipase D (PLD) activity was investigated in astrocytes prepared from newborn rat cerebral cortex using the transphosphatidylation assay. Basal PLD activity was measurable and was found to be enhanced by ATP, carbachol and noradrenaline. The activation by noradrenaline (EC50, 0.68 microM) was mimicked by methoxamine (EC50, 65 microM), an alpha 1-specific adrenergic agonist, and was inhibited by prazosine, an alpha 1-specific adrenergic antagonist. Clonidin, an alpha 2-adrenergic agonist, slightly lowered PLD activity whereas beta-adrenergic drugs were without effect. Experiments with mitogens indicate that PLD activation in astrocytes may be involved in the control of astrocytic cell …

Tumorlet pulmonar. A propósito de cinco casos

1996

Los tumorlets pulmonares son pequenos agregados de celulas neuroendocrinas derivadas de las celulas de Kulchitsky del epitelio bronquial. Generalmente su hallazgo suele ser casual. Se les considera como lesiones benignas que raramente metastatizan. Presentamos 5 casos de tumorlet diagnosticados de forma casual, en pacientes con patologia pulmonar previa que obligo a un estudio histologico del pulmon. A pesar de tener un comportamiento benigno, conviene realizar un seguimiento evolutivo de los pacientes mediante controles radiologicos ya que, aunque sea excepcional, se han descrito casos de metastasis en los ganglios linfaticos regionales.

Effects of clozapine metabolites and chronic clozapine treatment on rat brain GABAA receptors

1996

Abstract Similarly to clozapine, a clozapine metabolite, N -desmethylclozapine, but not clozapine N -oxide, antagonized brain γ-aminobutyric acid type A (GABA A ) receptors at high micromolar concentrations. However, daily subcutaneous injections of clozapine (10 and 25 mg/kg) and haloperidol (0.5 mg/kg) for 14 days failed to alter the modulation by GABA of rat cerebrocortical and cerebellar benzodiazepine ([ 3 H]flunitrazepam) or convulsant ( t -[ 35 S]bicyclophosphorothionate) binding sites of the GABA A receptor. The results thus suggest that the GABA A receptor antagonism exerted by chronic in vivo clozapine treatment is weak as compared to this treatment's actions on certain monoamine …

Characterization of the Adjuvant Effect of IL-12 and Efficacy of IL-12 Inhibitors in Type II Collagen-Induced Arthritis

1996

A destructive joint disease can be induced in susceptible DBA/1 mice by immunization with type II collagen emulsified with oil and either killed Mycobacterium tuberculosis or IL-12 as adjuvant. Cellular and humoral anti-collagen immune mechanisms appear to be involved in the pathogenesis of arthritis. We have characterized the adjuvant effect or IL-12 in more detail and addressed the question whether mycobacteria might act via the induction of endogenous IL-12. Injections of IL-12 into collagen-immunized DBA/1 mice promoted the development of IFN-gamma-producing CD4+ T cells and strongly upregulated the production of complement-fixing IgG2a and IgG2b antibodies resulting in severe arthritis…

Primordial Nucleosynthesis, Majorons and Heavy Tau Neutrinos

1996

We determine the restrictions imposed by primordial nucleosynthesis upon a heavy tau neutrino, in the presence of nu-tau annihilations into Majorons, as expected in a wide class of particle physics models of neutrino mass. We determine the equivalent number of light neutrino species $N_{eq}$ as a function of nu-tau mass and the nu-tau-Majoron coupling $g$. We show that for theoretically plausible $g$ values $\gsim 10^{-4}$ present nucleosynthesis observations can not rule out nu-tau masses in the MeV range. Moreover, these models give $N_{eq} \leq 3$ in the nu-tau mass region 1-10 MeV, for very reasonable values of $g \geq 3 \times 10^{-4}$. The evasion of the cosmological limits brings new…

Charging in Solitary, Voltage Biased Tunnel Junctions.

1996

Electromagnetic Production of the Hypertriton

1996

Kaon photoproduction on He3, gamma + He3 --> K+ + Hypertriton, is studied in the framework of the impulse approximation. Realistic He3 wave functions obtained as solutions of Faddeev equations with the Reid soft-core potential are used along with different Hypertriton wave functions. Results are compared for several elementary operator models, which can successfully describe the elementary kaon production off the proton up to a photon lab energy of k = 2.2 GeV. It is found that the corresponding cross sections are small, of the order of several nanobarns. It is also shown that the influence of Fermi motion is important, while the effect of different off-shell assumptions on the cross sec…

Processing and characterization of blends of fluoroelastomers with semirigid liquid crystal polymers

1996

Fluoroelastomers (FEs) usually have working temperatures above 150°C and a great resistance to aggressive agents such as oils, fuels, aliphatic and aromatic solvents, steam, moderate acid, and basic environments. Liquid crystal polymers (LCPs) can be effective processing aids and reinforcing agents for elastomers. These characteristics are very attractive to lower melt viscosity and to stiffen and strengthen the final product through a simple blending. Among the LCPs, the semirigid LCPs seem the most appealing for blending with flexible thermoplastics (FTs) because their processing temperatures can be arranged to be in the same processing temperature range of FTs and because the presence of…

Langzeitergebnisse nach Versorgung medialer Schenkelhalsfrakturen mit Keramikkopfendoprothesen

1996

Total hip replacement is often recommended for the treatment of femoral neck fractures in elderly patients. A less invasive approach with shorter operating time is the replacement of the femoral head only, leaving the acetabular cartilage in situ. Hemiarthroplastic hip replacement using a metallic head prosthesis was not successful in the past, because the majority of patients developed protrusio acetabuli after surgery. In the present study hemiarthroplastic hip replacement using an Al2O3-ceramic head was shown to be a useful method for the treatment of femoral neck fractures in elderly patients. From 1985 to 1990 277 patients were treated with hemiarthroplasty. The average age at the time…