Hypoxemia, hypoglycemia and IMCI danger signs in pediatric outpatients in Malawi.

Hypoxemia and hypoglycemia are known risks for mortality in children in low-income settings. Routine screening with pulse oximetry and blood glucose assessments for outpatients could assist in early identification of high-risk children. We assessed the prevalence of hypoglycemia and hypoxemia, and the overlap with Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) general danger signs, among children seeking outpatient care in Malawi.

Laboratory-scale assessment of vacuum-degassed activated sludge for improved settling properties.

Vacuum degassing of activated sludge was tested at eight different Swedish wastewater treatment plants with laboratory-scale equipment in batch mode in order to evaluate its efficiency on improvement of sludge compaction and settling properties. The results show that the efficiency of the degassing technique is mainly dependent on the initial sludge volume index (SVI) of the target sludge which was found to be related to its process configuration. Facilities with full activated sludge-based nitrogen removal processes, including both nitrification and denitrification, had high SVIs (>300 mL g) and were strongly affected by vacuum degassing with reduction of SVI up to 30%.

Lessons learnt from evaluating full-scale ammonium feedback control in three large wastewater treatment plants.

Three large wastewater treatment plants in Sweden participate in a project evaluating different types of ammonium feedback controllers in full-scale operation. The goal is to improve process monitoring, maintain effluent water quality and save energy. The paper presents the outcome of the long-term evaluation of controllers.

ROS-scavenger and radioprotective efficacy of the new PrC-210 aminothiol.

To identify new aminothiol radioprotectors that are active when applied topically and have fewer side effects when administered systemically, a new family of aminothiol radioprotectors was designed and synthesized. Three key elements in the aminothiol design were, (1) small size for efficient transmembrane diffusion, (2) positive charged amines in alkyl backbone for strong ionic interaction with DNA backbone, and (3) a perpendicular, alkyl side-chain with a terminal thiol that is projected away from the DNA backbone to enable reactive oxygen species scavenging around DNA. Several in vitro assays were used to characterize the prototype aminothiol, PrC-210, for efficacy: protection against reactive oxygen species-induced plasmid DNA nicking, mass spectrometry to detect aminothiol-reactive oxygen species by-products, S.

Reduction of FK-506 requirements by combination with polyethylene glycol superoxide dismutase in orthotopic rat liver transplantation.

Reperfusion after ischemia results in endothelial cell injury and Kupffer cell activation. Inflammatory cytokines thus released can induce major histocompatibility complex antigens and increase the immunogenecity of the graft. An orthotopic rat liver allotransplant model was used to test the hypothesis that prevention of reperfusion injury by infusion of polyethylene glycol superoxide dismutase (PEG-SOD) would result in long-term allograft survival in the presence of subthreshold immunosuppressive dosages.

Variable region correlates of group b allotypes: amino acid sequence studies of b9 L chains from homogeneous antibodies.

The amino acid sequence was determined for residues for residues 1 to 88 and residues 110 to 147 for a rabbit light chain (4153-I) with allotype b9 from a homogeneous anti-streptococcal antibody. The amino acid sequence of the L chain from a second antibody (4153-II) was also determined for residues 1 to 49 and 62 to 77. In spite of the large differences in constant region sequence between b4 and b9 L chains, the variable regions of these antibodies are quite similar to those reported for b4 L chains.

Homogeneous rabbit immunoglobulin lacking group a allotypes: amino acid sequence analysis of the heavy chain.

The partial amino acid sequence of rabbit a-negative heavy chain has been determined for residues 1--43 as: less than EEQLEESGGGLVQPGGSLKLSCKGSGFDFSVYGVTWVRQAPGK; and for residues 64--120 as: MNGRFTISSDNAQNRLYLQLNSLTAADTATYFCARSMVVVAGVHSYFDVWGPGTLVTV. Comparison of this sequence with the human heavy chain subgroup III shows homology of 78% suggesting that a common ancestral variable region gene existed in mammals prior to speciation. The constant region of the a-negative chain is structurally identical with that of a-positive chains, whereas the variable region differs substantially between a-positive and a-negative molecules.

Amino acid sequence of rabbit light chains: variable region of a light chain from a homogeneous immunoglobulin raised by streptococcal immunization.

The variable region sequence has been determined for the light chain (L) from a rabbit homogeneous immunoglobulin (3547) produced by immunization with group A streptococcal vaccine. Unlike most immunoglobulins produced by these vaccines, this immunoglobulin had no binding activity for the group A polysaccharide nor for any of a wide range of streptococcal cell components tested, nor did it have binding activity for rabbit IgG. Tryptic digestion of the citraconylated L chain and acid hydrolysis of the aspartyl-proline bond at positions 109-110 were used to obtain two variable region peptides comprising residues 1-61 and 62-109, respectively.

Sequence variability of rabbit antibody light chains. Familial occurrence of n-terminal sequence differences between b4 and b9 light chains.

Amino acid sequence analyses of the IgG light (L) chains from selected members of a rabbit family with allotypes b4 and b9 showed N-terminal substitutions that segregated with the b4 allotype. The L chains of allotype b4 had tyrosine at step 2, whereas this residue was absent from that step in the b9 L chains. Steps 12 and 13 of b4 L chains yielded a high percentage of glutamic acid, whereas a low percentage was observed for the b9 L chains.