Effect of sequential surface irrigations on field-scale emissions of 1,3-dichloropropene

A field experiment was conducted to measure subsurface movement and volatilization of 1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-D) after shank injection to an agricultural soil. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of sprinkler irrigation on the emissions of 1,3-D to the atmosphere and is based on recent research that has shown that saturating the soil pore space reduces gas-phase diffusion and leads to reduced volatilization rates. Aerodynamic, integrated horizontal flux, and theoretical profile shape methods were used to estimate fumigant volatilization rates and total emission losses. These methods provide estimates of the volatilization rate based on measurements of wind speed, temperature, and 1,3-D concentration in the atmosphere. The volatilization rate was measured continuously for 16 days, and the daily peak volatilization rates for the three methods ranged from 18 to 60 microg m(-2) s(-1). The total 13-D mass entering the atmosphere was approximately 44-68 kg ha(-1), or 10-15% of the applied active ingredient This represents approximately 30-50% reduction in the total emission losses compared to conventional fumigant applications in field and field-plot studies. Significant reduction in volatilization of 1,3-D was observed when five surface irrigations were applied to the field, one immediately after fumigation followed by daily irrigations.

Liver metastasis in a case of adenoid cystic carcinoma of the Bartholin's gland: a rare presentation

INTRODUCTION

Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the Bartholin's gland accounts for a minority of all Bartholin's gland malignancies. Although local recurrences commonly occur distant metastasis is rare.

CASE REPORT

We present the first reported case of Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the Bartholin's gland with metastasis to the liver.

DISCUSSION

There is no consensus on the treatment of adenoid cystic carcinoma of the Bartholin's gland. Wide local excision and/or vulvectomy and radiotherapy are advocated for treatment of this cancer. There is not much data on treatment of metastasis and it varies according to site.

Adhesive growth of pancreatic islet cells on a polyglycolic acid fibrous scaffold

BACKGROUND

The use of cultured pancreatic islet cells for diabetes treatment offers several advantages. In theory, cultured cells show greater purity and lower immunogenicity. However, cultured islet cells display a low survival rate in vitro. In the present study we grew islet cells on a polyglycolic acid (PGA) fibrous scaffold to promote cell adhesion, growth, and viability during prolonged culture.

METHODS

Islets isolated from Wistar rat pancreata were digested with collagenase and purified by the Ficoll method. Cells were grown in culture with or without PGA scaffolds. Islet cell purity was determined using a dithizone stain; viability and survival rates were determined using an AO-PI stain. The insulin-secretion index was detected using radioimmunodetection and the growth on an adhesive scaffold analyzed using an inverted microscope and scanning electron microscope (SEM).

RESULTS

In contrast to the scaffold-free control group, cells cultured on PGA scaffolds exhibited improved morphology, less cell death, and prolonged survival times. Cell viability and survival rates were significantly increased in scaffolded cells when compared to control cells (P < .05). Increased insulin secretion was observed in the culture solution of scaffolded cells following stimulation with low glucose (5.6 mmol/L) versus high glucose (16.7 mmol/L). The secretion indices of the two groups were significantly different (P < .05). Islet cell growth, as observed under SEM, was tightly circumvolute, adhesive, and three-dimensional.

CONCLUSIONS

The present results demonstrated that islet cells can successfully grow and survive in culture on a PGA scaffold. These cells exhibited enhanced viability, survival, and insulin secretion.

Individual Fe-Co alloy nanoparticles on carbon nanotubes: structural and catalytic properties

We report the synthesis, characterization, and catalytic performance of Fe-Co alloy nanoparticles inside the tubular channel of carbon nanotubes. The homogeneous distributions of Fe and Co in the isolated nanoparticles were evidenced confidentially by bulk and surface structural and compositional characterizations, that is, scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscope in combination with elemental mapping by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. We also demonstrate for the first time an unusual synergism in alloy catalysis. The alloy nanoparticles with widely varying Co/Fe ratio are kept as active as Co for the H 2 production from NH 3 decomposition. The stability of Co was significantly improved by alloying with Fe. We expect our experimental method to be a general approach to elucidate the synergism phenomenon in alloy catalysis.

New method to determine the total carbonyl functional group content in extractable particulate organic matter by tandem mass spectrometry

A functional group analysis method was developed to determine the quantitative content of carbonyl functional groups in atmospheric particulate organic matter (POM) using constant neutral loss scanning-tandem mass spectrometry (CNLS-MS/MS). The neutral loss method consists in monitoring the loss of a neutral fragment produced by the fragmentation of a precursor ion in a collision cell. The only ions detected are the daughter ions resulting from the loss of the neutral fragment under study. Then, scanning the loss of a neutral fragment characteristic of a functional group enables the selective detection of the compounds bearing the chemical function under study within a complex mixture. The selective detection of carbonyl functional groups was achieved after derivatization with pentafluorophenylhydrazine (PFPH) by monitoring the neutral loss of C(6)F(5)N (181 amu), which was characteristic of a large panel of derivatized carbonyl compounds. The method was tested on 25 reference mixtures of different composition, all containing 24 carbonyl compounds at randomly determined concentrations. The repeatability and calibration tests were satisfying as they resulted in a relative standard deviation below 5% and a linear range between 0.01 and 0.65 mM with a calculated detection limit of 0.0035 mM. Also, the relative deviation induced by changing the composition of the mixture while keeping the total concentration of carbonyl functional groups constant was less than 20%. These reliability experiments demonstrate the high robustness of the developed procedure for accurate carbonyl functional group measurement, which was applied to atmospheric POM samples.

CFTR and its key role in in vivo resting and luminal acid-induced duodenal HCO3- secretion

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

We investigated the role of the recently discovered, villous-expressed anion exchanger Slc26a6 (PAT1) and the predominantly crypt-expressed cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator (CFTR) in basal and acid-stimulated murine duodenal HCO(3)(-) secretion in vivo, and the influence of blood HCO(3)(-) concentration on both.

METHODS

The proximal duodenum of anaesthetized mice was perfused in situ, and HCO(3)(-) secretion was determined by back-titration. Duodenal mucosal permeability was assessed by determining (51)Cr-EDTA leakage from blood to lumen.

RESULTS

Compared with wild type (WT) littermates basal duodenal HCO(3)(-) secretory rates were slightly reduced in Slc26-deficient mice at low ( approximately 21 mm), and markedly reduced at high blood HCO(3)(-) concentration ( approximately 29 mm). In contrast, basal HCO(3)(-) secretion was markedly reduced in CFTR-deficient mice compared with WT littermates both at high and low blood HCO(3)(-) concentration. A short-term application of luminal acid increased duodenal HCO(3)(-) secretory rate in Slc26a6-deficient and WT mice to the same degree, but had no stimulatory effect in the absence of CFTR. Luminal acidification to pH 2.5 did not alter duodenal permeability.

CONCLUSIONS

The involvement of Slc26a6 in basal HCO(3)(-) secretion in murine duodenum in vivo is critically dependent on the systemic acid/base status, and this transporter is not involved in acid-stimulated HCO(3)(-) secretion. The presence of CFTR is essential for basal and acid-induced HCO(3)(-) secretion irrespective of acid/base status. This suggests a coupled action of Slc26a6 with CFTR for murine basal duodenal HCO(3)(-) secretion, but not acid-stimulated secretion, in vivo.

From anesthetic mechanisms research to drug discovery

The ability to render patients insensible and amnesic to remarkably invasive procedures that are uncomfortable to watch, let alone experience, has been rightly designated as one of the greatest medical discoveries of all time. General anesthesia, introduced formally in the mid-nineteenth century, is now delivered to approximately 40 million patients every year in the United States alone. Given its central role in health care, it is indeed extraordinary how poorly we understand anesthesia and anesthetics. In fact, definitions are at best operational and convey little understanding of the underlying neurobiology, while the hypothetical mechanisms are surprisingly superficial. Worse, there is growing concern that the anesthetic drugs in current use, especially the inhaled anesthetics, have durable adverse effects on cognition.

Phenotypic analysis of Dlx5 overexpression in post-natal bone

Dlx5 plays an important role in the embryonic development of mineralized tissues. We hypothesized that Dlx5 also functions in regulating post-natal bone formation in mice. To prove this hypothesis, we infected 5-day-old bone sialoprotein (BSP)/avian retroviral receptor gene (TVA) transgenic mice with replication-competent retroviral vectors expressing wild-type Dlx5 (RCAS-Dlx5WT) and mutated Dlx5 at arginine (R) 31 of its homeodomain (RCAS-Dlx5RH). Immunohistochemistry indicated that RCAS-Dlx5WT increased BSP and osteopontin (OPN) expression, whereas it decreased that of osteocalcin (OC). RCAS-Dlx5RH mediated opposite effects. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR confirmed these results. Ex vivo overexpression of RCAS-Dlx5WT in BSP/TVA calvarial cells promoted, whereas that of RCAS-Dlx5RH inhibited, mineralized nodule formation as compared with that in control cells. Our results suggest that Dlx5 promotes expression of early markers of osteogenic differentiation and increases mineralization post-natally.

Increase in intracellular free/bound NAD[P]H as a cause of Cd-induced oxidative stress in the HepG(2) cells

The present study shows the use of confocal autofluorescence spectroscopy coupled with the time-resolved fluorescence decay analysis to measure changes in FAD/NAD[P]H and free/bound NAD[P]H in HepG(2) cells at 0.5, 1.5, 3 and 4.5h after exposure to cadmium chloride (Cd). These changes were compared to changes in GSSG/GSH and production of reactive oxygen radicals (ROS) production. The results demonstrated that both FAD/NAD[P]H and GSSG/GSH increased significantly upon exposure to Cd. The change in GSSG/GSH occurred as early as 1.5h after treatment while the change in FAD/NAD[P]H did not occur until 3h after exposure. Production of ROS was also increased at 1.5h. The ratio of free/bound NAD[P]H was studied. It was demonstrated that free/bound NAD[P]H increased significantly as early as 0.5h and remained elevated until 4.5h after treatment with Cd. The present study provides novel data to show that changes in NAD[P]H metabolism precedes the increase in ROS production and cellular oxidative stress (increase GSSG/GSH, FAD/NAD[P]H). It is suggested that Cd causes a release of NAD[P]H, an important cofactor for electron transfer, from its normal protein binding sites. This may result in a disruption of the activity of the enzyme and proteins, and may lead to the subsequent toxic events.

Duration of breast-feeding and the incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus in the Shanghai Women's Health Study

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS

The aim of this study was to examine the association between lifetime breast-feeding and the incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus in a large population-based cohort study of middle-aged women.

METHODS

This was a prospective study of 62,095 middle-aged parous women in Shanghai, China, who had no prior history of type 2 diabetes mellitus, cancer or cardiovascular disease at study recruitment. Breast-feeding history, dietary intake, physical activity and anthropometric measurements were assessed by in-person interviews. The Cox regression model was employed to evaluate the association between breast-feeding and the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus.

RESULTS

After 4.6 years of follow-up, 1,561 women were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Women who had breastfed their children tended to have a lower risk of diabetes mellitus than those who had never breastfed [relative risk (RR)=0.88; 95% CI, 0.76-1.02; p=0.08]. Increasing duration of breast-feeding was associated with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus. The fully adjusted RRs for lifetime breast-feeding duration were 1.00, 0.88, 0.89, 0.88, 0.75 and 0.68 (p trend=0.01) for 0, >0 to 0.99, >0.99 to 1.99, >1.99 to 2.99, >2.99 to 3.99 and >or=4 years in analyses adjusted for age, daily energy intake, BMI, WHR, smoking, alcohol intake, physical activity, occupation, income level, education level, number of live births and presence of hypertension at baseline.

CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION

Breast-feeding may protect parous women from developing type 2 diabetes mellitus later in life.

Progesterone receptor variation and risk of ovarian cancer is limited to the invasive endometrioid subtype: results from the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium pooled analysis

There is evidence that progesterone plays a role in the aetiology of invasive epithelial ovarian cancer. Therefore, genes involved in pathways that regulate progesterone may be candidates for susceptibility to this disease. Previous studies have suggested that genetic variants in the progesterone receptor gene (PGR) may be associated with ovarian cancer risk, although results have been inconsistent. We have established an international consortium to pool resources and data from many ovarian cancer case–control studies in an effort to identify variants that influence risk. In this study, three PGR single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), for which previous data have suggested they affect ovarian cancer risk, were examined. These were +331 C/T (rs10895068), PROGINS (rs1042838), and a 3′ variant (rs608995). A total of 4788 ovarian cancer cases and 7614 controls from 12 case–control studies were included in this analysis. Unconditional logistic regression was used to model the association between each SNP and ovarian cancer risk and two-sided P-values are reported. Overall, risk of ovarian cancer was not associated with any of the three variants studied. However, in histopathological subtype analyses, we found a statistically significant association between risk of endometrioid ovarian cancer and the PROGINS allele (n=651, OR=1.17, 95% CI=1.01–1.36, P=0.036). We also observed borderline evidence of an association between risk of endometrioid ovarian cancer and the +331C/T variant (n=725 cases; OR=0.80, 95% CI 0.62–1.04, P=0.100). These data suggest that while these three variants in the PGR are not associated with ovarian cancer overall, the PROGINS variant may play a modest role in risk of endometrioid ovarian cancer.

Diagnostic potential of near-infrared Raman spectroscopy in the stomach: differentiating dysplasia from normal tissue

Raman spectroscopy is a molecular vibrational spectroscopic technique that is capable of optically probing the biomolecular changes associated with diseased transformation. The purpose of this study was to explore near-infrared (NIR) Raman spectroscopy for identifying dysplasia from normal gastric mucosa tissue. A rapid-acquisition dispersive-type NIR Raman system was utilised for tissue Raman spectroscopic measurements at 785 nm laser excitation. A total of 76 gastric tissue samples obtained from 44 patients who underwent endoscopy investigation or gastrectomy operation were used in this study. The histopathological examinations showed that 55 tissue specimens were normal and 21 were dysplasia. Both the empirical approach and multivariate statistical techniques, including principal components analysis (PCA), and linear discriminant analysis (LDA), together with the leave-one-sample-out cross-validation method, were employed to develop effective diagnostic algorithms for classification of Raman spectra between normal and dysplastic gastric tissues. High-quality Raman spectra in the range of 800–1800 cm⁻¹ can be acquired from gastric tissue within 5 s. There are specific spectral differences in Raman spectra between normal and dysplasia tissue, particularly in the spectral ranges of 1200–1500 cm⁻¹ and 1600–1800 cm⁻¹, which contained signals related to amide III and amide I of proteins, CH₃CH₂ twisting of proteins/nucleic acids, and the C=C stretching mode of phospholipids, respectively. The empirical diagnostic algorithm based on the ratio of the Raman peak intensity at 875 cm⁻¹ to the peak intensity at 1450 cm⁻¹ gave the diagnostic sensitivity of 85.7% and specificity of 80.0%, whereas the diagnostic algorithms based on PCA-LDA yielded the diagnostic sensitivity of 95.2% and specificity 90.9% for separating dysplasia from normal gastric tissue. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves further confirmed that the most effective diagnostic algorithm can be derived from the PCA-LDA technique. Therefore, NIR Raman spectroscopy in conjunction with multivariate statistical technique has potential for rapid diagnosis of dysplasia in the stomach based on the optical evaluation of spectral features of biomolecules.

Impacts of weight change on prehypertension in middle-aged and elderly women

BACKGROUND

Individuals with prehypertension, a new blood pressure category defined as systolic blood pressure of 120-139 mm Hg and/or diastolic blood pressure of 80-89 mm Hg, are at an increased risk for heart diseases and are strongly recommended to practice lifestyle changes, including weight control. Data on impacts of long-term weight change on prehypertension are sparse.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the association between weight change since age 20 and prehypertension risk.

METHODS

In this cross-sectional analysis of 36 075 non-hypertensive women aged 40-70 years, information on weight history was collected at enrollment in the Shanghai Women's Health Study; blood pressures were measured 2-3 years later by medical professionals. The odds ratios (ORs) of prehypertension were calculated for women who gained or lost weight since age 20 compared with those with stable weight (gain or loss <5 kg), adjusting for age, lifestyle factors, sodium intake and body mass index at age 20.

RESULTS

A total of 47% of the study participants (n=16 981) had prehypertension. For a 6- to 10-kg gain, the OR (95% CI) was 1.36 (1.28-1.45); for 11- to 15-kg gain, 1.64 (1.54-1.75); for 16- to 20-kg gain, 2.32 (2.14-2.51); for 21- to 25-kg gain, 2.91 (2.60-3.26); and for a gain >25 kg; 3.65 (3.13-4.26). While for a 6- to 10-kg loss and a loss >10 kg, the respective ORs were 0.76 (0.67-0.87) and 0.47 (0.38-0.59). The increase in prehypertension risk associated with each 1-kg gain was similar to that associated with a 1-year increase in age. Although weight gain during early adulthood appeared to have a more pronounced effect on the risk of prehypertension, weight gain later in life also contributed significantly to an elevated risk.

CONCLUSION

Weight gain since age 20 substantially increases risk for prehypertension in non-hypertensive individuals, while weight loss significantly lowers the risk, emphasizing the importance of weight control throughout adulthood in preventing hypertension.

Gossypol with methyltestosterone and ethinylestradiol male does not affect rat spermatogonial stem cell differentiation

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether administration of the regimen of gossypol at 12 mg/kg/day combined with methyltestosterone at 20 mg/kg/day and ethinylestradiol at 100 microg/kg/day for a long term of twenty-four weeks could affect the existence and differentiation of rat spermatogonial stem cell. This was assessed by conducting TdT-mediated dUTP nick end-labeling detection, spermatogonial stem cell transplantation and fertility recovery evaluation. Our results showed that spontaneous apoptosis was observed in normal rats' testes from the control group with an apoptotic index (AI) average of 10.24+/-1.52. In the regimen-treated group, the predominant apoptotic cells were spermatocytes and spermatids in the seminiferous tubules. Spermatogonia were not apoptotic (AI averaged 113.42+/-13.24). Two to three months after transplantation of spermatogonial stem cells isolated from regimen-treated rats into recipient nude mice, elongated rat spermatids were identified in the seminiferous tubules of recipient nude mice. Six weeks after withdrawal of the administration, fertility of the regimen-treated rats was recovered compared with that of the control group. The number of litters produced by females mated with regimen-treated males averaged 9.88+/-0.166 matched 10.30+/-0.171 of control group and the litters of the first generation appeared to be normal. These results indicated that the administration of this regimen did not affect the existence and differentiation potential of spermatogonial stem cells of the regimen-treated rats.