Triiodothyronine may be possibly associated with better cognitive function and less extrapyramidal symptoms in chronic schizophrenia.

Objective: Many chronic inpatients with schizophrenia demonstrate enduring psychiatric symptoms and various side effects of antipsychotic drugs. Several biological markers such as prolactin, thyroid hormones and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) are reportedly associated with psychiatric symptoms and/or antipsychotic side effects in patients with schizophrenia but to date findings are inconsistent. The objective of the present study was to comprehensively investigate the association of psychiatric and extrapyramidal symptoms with hormones and BDNF in chronic schizophrenia.

Strange taste and mild lithium intoxication.

So far, it has not been emphasised that lithium can lose or change taste in some patients. This report addresses such side effect of lithium. A 61-year-old bipolar patient experienced taste changes while increasing lithium levels up to 1.

Production of biologically safe digested manure for land application by a full-scale biogas plant with heat-inactivation.

Inactivation of indigenous indicator micro-organisms such as faecal coliforms, coliphages, and faecal streptococci was investigated in a full-scale biogas plant that mainly digested cow manure. The biogas plant consisted principally of a feed reservoir, fermentation tank (37 degrees C), heat-inactivation process (70 degrees C), and five reservoirs for the heat-inactivated, digested manure that was used by a local livestock farmer as liquid fertilizer. Although all the indicators tended to exhibit stepwise decreases with each stage of treatment, coliphages were found to be more capable of surviving than faecal coliforms and faecal streptococci under mesophilic anaerobic conditions as well as high temperature conditions (heat-inactivation at 70 degrees C).

Soluble and particulate methane monooxygenase gene clusters in the marine methanotroph Methylomicrobium sp. strain NI.

Soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO) and particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO) gene clusters in the marine methanotroph Methylomicrobium sp. strain NI were completely sequenced and analysed. Degenerated primers were newly designed and used to amplify the gene fragments containing intergenic mmoX-Y and mmoD-C regions and a partial pmoC region.

Degradative capacities and bioaugmentation potential of an anaerobic benzene-degrading bacterium strain DN11.

Azoarcus sp. strain DN11 is a denitrifying bacterium capable of benzene degradation under anaerobic conditions. The present study evaluated strain DN11 for its application to bioaugmentation of benzene-contaminated underground aquifers.