Potential of Opuntia ficus-indica for air pollution biomonitoring: a lead isotopic study.

Opuntia ficus-indica (Ofi) is a long-domesticated cactus that is widespread throughout arid and semiarid regions. Ofi is grown for both its fruits and edible cladodes, which are flattened photosynthetic stems. Young cladodes develop from mother cladodes, thus forming series of cladodes of different ages.

Health hazard prospecting by modeling wind transfer of metal-bearing dust from mining waste dumps: application to Jebel Ressas Pb-Zn-Cd abandoned mining site (Tunisia).

This work presents a modeling approach to simulate spatial distribution of metal contamination in aerosols with evaluation of health hazard. This approach offers the advantage to be non-intrusive, less expensive than sampling and laboratory analyses. It was applied to assess the impact of metal-bearing dust from mining wastes on air quality for a nearby community and agricultural lands in Jebel Ressas (Tunisia) locality.

Multielementary (Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni) Stable Isotopic Exchange Kinetic (SIEK) method to characterize polymetallic contaminations.

A new method is proposed to precisely and simultaneously quantify the exchangeable pool of metals in soils and to describe its reactivity at short- and long-term. It is based on multielementary Stable Isotopic Exchange Kinetics (multi-SIEK), first validated by a comparison between two monoelementary radioactive ((109)Cd*, (65)Zn*) IEK experiments, a mono- ((106)Cd) and multi- ((62)Ni, (65)Cu, (67)Zn, (106)Cd, (204)Pb) SIEK. These experiments were performed on a polluted soil located near the Zn smelter plant of Viviez (Lot watershed, France).

Reliability of transcutaneous oxygen tension measurement on the back of the hand and complex regional pain syndrome after stroke.

Objective: To verify the reproducibility of measurement of transcutaneous oxygen tension (TcPo(2)) on the back of the hand in control subjects and stroke patients in the assessment of the complex regional pain syndrome type I (CRPS I).

Design: Case series study.

Setting: Physical medicine and rehabilitation department at a university hospital.

Clinical factors in the prognosis of complex regional pain syndrome type I after stroke: a prospective study.

Objective: To evaluate clinical prognostic factors of complex regional pain syndrome type I (CRPS I) in patients with stroke in an attempt to improve the Perrigot score, which does not include shoulder subluxation, unilateral neglect, or depression.

Design: This was a prospective study. The initial clinical data (first month) included motor index, Ashworth scale, de Bats score for shoulder subluxation, Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale, and sensory disorders evaluation.