A novel enzymatic method for isolation of plastic particles from human blood.

Microplastic particles have been detected in the human body. This study aimed to develop a blood digestion method that preserves microplastics during analysis. Acidic and alkaline reagents, commonly used for isolating plastic particles from organic materials, were tested on human blood samples and microplastics.

A Coupled Global Atmosphere-Ocean Model for Air-Sea Exchange of Mercury: Insights into Wet Deposition and Atmospheric Redox Chemistry.

Air-sea exchange of mercury (Hg) is the largest flux between Earth system reservoirs. Global models simulate air-sea exchange based either on an atmospheric or ocean model simulation and treat the other media as a boundary condition. Here we develop a new modeling capability (NJUCPL) that couples GEOS-Chem (atmospheric model) and MITgcm (ocean model) at the native hourly model time step.

Familial Sinus Node Disease Caused by a Gain of GIRK (G-Protein Activated Inwardly Rectifying K Channel) Channel Function.

Background: Inherited forms of sinus node dysfunction (SND) clinically include bradycardia, sinus arrest, and chronotropic incompetence and may serve as disease models to understand sinus node physiology and impulse generation. Recently, a gain-of-function mutation in the G-protein gene GNB2 led to enhanced activation of the GIRK (G-protein activated inwardly rectifying K channel). Thus, human cardiac GIRK channels are important for heart rate regulation and subsequently, genes encoding their subunits Kir3.

The Impact of the Major Baltic Inflow of December 2014 on the Mercury Species Distribution in the Baltic Sea.

The Baltic Sea is a marginal sea characterized by stagnation periods of several years. Oxygen consumption in its deep waters leads to the buildup of sulfide from sulfate reduction. Some of the microorganisms responsible for these processes also transform reactive ionic mercury to neurotoxic methylmercury.

A Mutation in the G-Protein Gene Causes Familial Sinus Node and Atrioventricular Conduction Dysfunction.

Rationale: Familial sinus node and atrioventricular conduction dysfunction is a rare disorder that leads to paroxysmal dizziness, fatigue, and syncope because of a temporarily or permanently reduced heart rate. To date, only a few genes for familial sinus and atrioventricular conduction dysfunction are known, and the majority of cases remain pathogenically unresolved.

Objective: We aim to identify the disease gene in a large 3-generation family (n=25) with autosomal dominant sinus node dysfunction (SND) and atrioventricular block (AVB) and to characterize the mutation-related pathomechanisms in familial SND+AVB.

Mercury Emission by the Baltic Sea: A Consequence of Cyanobacterial Activity, Photochemistry, And Low-Light Mercury Transformation.

Marine mercury emission plays an important role in the atmospheric mercury budget. It is caused by the transformation of ionic mercury to volatile elemental mercury (Hg(0)) and the subsequent release of the latter from surface waters. In this study, we investigated mercury transformation using three approaches: incubation experiments, statistical analyses of phytoplankton and Hg(0) data, and microbiological determinations.

Pharmacodynamic and response surface analysis of linezolid or vancomycin combined with meropenem against Staphylococcus aureus.

Purpose: To systematically assess the impact of pharmacodynamic interactions when adding either linezolid or vancomycin to meropenem on the antibacterial activity against methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA). These regimens are frequently used in empiric therapy when risk factors for MRSA are present, but MSSA will often turn out as pathogen.

Methods: Checkerboard and time-kill curve studies were performed against three strains of MSSA covering clinically relevant concentrations of all antibiotics.

Elemental mercury concentrations and fluxes in the tropical atmosphere and ocean.

Air-sea exchange of elemental mercury (Hg(0)) is a critical component of the global biogeochemical Hg cycle. To better understand variability in atmospheric and oceanic Hg(0), we collected high-resolution measurements across large gradients in seawater temperature, salinity, and productivity in the Pacific Ocean (20°N-15°S). We modeled surface ocean Hg inputs and losses using an ocean general circulation model (MITgcm) and an atmospheric chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem).

Autostereoscopic 3D visualization and image processing system for neurosurgery.

A demonstrator system for planning neurosurgical procedures was developed based on commercial hardware and software. The system combines an easy-to-use environment for surgical planning with high-end visualization and the opportunity to analyze data sets for research purposes. The demonstrator system is based on the software AMIRA.

Quantitative fluorescence angiography for neurosurgical interventions.

Present methods for quantitative measurement of cerebral perfusion during neurosurgical operations require additional technology for measurement, data acquisition, and processing. This study used conventional fluorescence video angiography--as an established method to visualize blood flow in brain vessels--enhanced by a quantifying perfusion software tool. For these purposes, the fluorescence dye indocyanine green is given intravenously, and after activation by a near-infrared light source the fluorescence signal is recorded.

[The World Initiative for the Eradication of Poliomyelitis: a long road full of pitfalls].

The World Initiative for the Eradication of Poliomyelitis (IMEP), launched in 1988, is based on two strategies: mass vaccination with oral polio vaccine (OPV) and surveillance of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP). The disease incidence was reduced by 99%, but eradication, originally scheduled for 2000, has still not been reached in 2010, and four countries continue to be endemic (India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria). The obstacles to eradication are the difficulty in reaching all children to be vaccinated, especially in areas of insecurity; the imperfections of OPV--irregular efficacy and genetic instability; and the limitations of surveillance in detecting only the paralytic form of the disease, which often remains asymptomatic.

A head phantom prototype to verify subdural electrode localization tools in epilepsy surgery.

When planning epilepsy surgery, the position of subdural electrodes in relation to the cortex is crucial. Electrodes may dislocate after implantation. Neurosurgeons are highly interested in the accuracy of methods that visualize these electrodes.

An integrated tool for automated visualization of subdural electrodes in epilepsy surgery evaluation.

Purpose: An automated tool embedded in image processing and visualization software should be developed to visualize subdural electrodes on the human cortical surface of the brain.

Methods: For accurate positioning of electrodes on the cortical surface, preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and postoperative computed tomography (CT) datasets of pharmacoresistant epilepsy patients were co-registered and segmented. For the brain segmentation of preoperative MRI a new algorithm was implemented.

An elemental mercury diffusion coefficient for natural waters determined by molecular dynamics simulation.

Mercury is a priority pollutant as its mobility between the hydrosphere and the atmosphere threatens the biosphere globally. The air-water gas transfer of elemental mercury (Hg0) is controlled by its diffusion through the water-side boundary layer and thus by its diffusion coefficient, D(Hg), the value of which, however, has not been established. Here, the diffusion of Hg0 in water was modeled by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and the diffusion coefficient subsequently determined.

Variability of the gaseous elemental mercury sea-air flux of the Baltic Sea.

The importance of the sea as a sink for atmospheric mercury has been established quantitatively through models based on wet and dry deposition data, but little is known about the release of mercury from sea areas. The concentration of elemental mercury (Hg0) in sea surface water and in the marine atmosphere of the Baltic Sea was measured at high spatial resolution in February, April, July, and November 2006. Wind-speed records and the gas-exchange transfer velocity were then used to calculate Hg0 sea-air fluxes on the basis of Hg0 sea-air concentration differences.

Gene therapy and medical genetics on Internet.

In this report we consider the development of the Internet, from its origins as a military invention in the times of the cold war to its present day role, together with the World Wide Web, as a means of global communication which plays a key role in medical research and particularly in medical genetics. A few of the major genetics related research projects and gene research centers are introduced and their aims are briefly discussed. Detailed information about chromosome and gene mapping, together with sequence and structure databases, can be easily and rapidly accessed through the Internet.

Tamoxifen as initial endocrine therapy for metastatic breast cancer: long term follow-up of two Piedmont Oncology Association (POA) trials.

Purpose: To examine the outcomes of endocrine naive patients treated with tamoxifen as initial endocrine therapy for metastatic breast cancer. Data were obtained from the long-term follow-up of two previously published randomized trials.

Patients And Methods: All patients received tamoxifen 20 mg po in a single daily dose.

[Abandonment-adoption: experience at the neonatology service of the University Hospital Center in Sousse, Tunisia].

We studied the outcome of 178 newborns abandoned in the maternity hospital of Sousse, Tunisia during the past eight years. The natural mothers are frequently very young: 40% less than 20 years of age, 10% less than 16 years. In most cases (65%), there is no medical supervision of the pregnancy.

[Bile plug syndrome. A rare cause of curable cholestatic jaundice in the infant].

An eight week old baby who presented with a cholestatic jaundice had a bile plug in the ampulla of Vater. The plug was removal via a transduodenal approach. The bile plug syndrome is a rare cause of extrahepatic biliary cholestasis and is different from the inspissated bile syndrome in which the involvement is predominantly hepatocellular.

[Peripheral retinal lesions in the premature infant].

The periphery of the retina was examined with the use of contact lenses at the age of 5 years in children who were born prematurely and weighed less than 1,500 g at birth. In this retrospective series 65% of the children were found to have lesions similar to the classical findings in retrolental fibroplasia although only to a minor degree. Low oxygen levels with a short duration of the exposure cannot completely prevent these sequalae.