Natural colonizers effectively restore heavy metal polluted wasteland.

In India, ∼30% of total land is degraded due to pollution, salinization, and nutrient loss. Change in soil-quality at urban waste-dumping site prior and after cow-dung amendment was compared with control agriculture soil. The soil at waste-dumping site had elevated pH, EC, temperature and lowered OC and NPK concentrations when compared to control.

Epstein-Barr virus-associated hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis syndrome and collapsing focal segmental glomerulosclerosis.

Collapsing glomerulopathy is a distinct and aggressive clinicopathologic variant of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). Here we present a 46-year-old man with acute renal failure from biopsy-proven collapsing FSGS and nephrotic syndrome in the setting of a diagnosis of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis secondary to acute Epstein-Barr virus infection. This rare association has not been well described previously.

Trends in the use of therapeutic plasma exchange in multiple myeloma.

Introduction: Therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) is traditionally performed for hyperviscosity, neuropathy and to mitigate renal injury in the setting of high clonal free light chain burden in patients with multiple myeloma (MM) with unknown clinical benefit.

Materials And Methods: Retrospective study of adults ≥18 years with MM who received TPE in the in-patient setting in the United States from 1993 to 2015. We examined the temporal trends of TPE utilization in MM hospitalizations, hospital charges, in-hospital mortality, and length of hospitalization and the predictors of in-hospital mortality and length of hospitalizations.

Association of adverse events and associated cost with efficacy for approved relapsed and/or refractory multiple myeloma regimens: A Bayesian network meta-analysis of phase 3 randomized controlled trials.

Background: Several new treatment options have been approved for relapsed and/or refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM). In this systematic review, associations of the efficacy of each approved regimen with adverse events (AEs) and the total cost per cycle were compared with a Bayesian network meta-analysis (NMA) of phase 3 randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

Methods: Scopus, Cochrane, PubMed Publisher, and Web of Science were searched from January 1999 to July 2018 for phase 3 RCTs of regimens (approved by the US Food and Drug Administration) used in RRMM.

Baclofen-induced toxicity in renal disease with neurotoxicity and skin rash.

Baclofen is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for spasticity and is also used off-label for trigeminal neuralgia, cluster headache, and substance abuse dependency. Baclofen is 90% renally excreted and has a variable threshold for toxicity in patients with chronic kidney disease. We present a case of accidental overdose of baclofen in a 58-year-old woman with intractable trigeminal neuralgia.

Hydrocodone snorting leading to hypersensitivity pneumonitis.

We present a case of hypersensitivity pneumonitis caused by intranasal abuse of the prescription narcotic hydrocodone. The patient's clinical course was complicated by acute respiratory failure. A chest radiograph showed diffuse bilateral opacities.

Artificial Intelligence versus Statistical Modeling and Optimization of Cholesterol Oxidase Production by using Streptomyces Sp.

Cholesterol oxidase (COD) is a bi-functional FAD-containing oxidoreductase which catalyzes the oxidation of cholesterol into 4-cholesten-3-one. The wider biological functions and clinical applications of COD have urged the screening, isolation and characterization of newer microbes from diverse habitats as a source of COD and optimization and over-production of COD for various uses. The practicability of statistical/ artificial intelligence techniques, such as response surface methodology (RSM), artificial neural network (ANN) and genetic algorithm (GA) have been tested to optimize the medium composition for the production of COD from novel strain Streptomyces sp.