Gelatin microparticles containing propolis extractive solution (PES) were prepared by spray-drying technique. The optimization of the spray-drying operating conditions and the proportions of gelatin ...and mannitol were investigated. Regular particle morphology was obtained when mannitol was used, whereas mannitol absence produced a substantial number of coalesced and agglomerated microparticles. Microparticles had a mean diameter of 2.70
μm without mannitol and 2.50
μm with mannitol. The entrapment efficiency for propolis of the microparticles was upto 41% without mannitol and 39% with mannitol. The microencapsulation by spray-drying technique maintained the activity of propolis against
Staphylococcus aureus. These gelatin microparticles containing propolis would be useful for developing intermediary or eventual propolis dosage form without the PES’ strong and unpleasant taste, aromatic odour, and presence of ethanol.
A simple, sensitive and specific agar diffusion bioassay for the antibacterial gatifloxacin was developed using a strain of
Bacillus subtilis ATCC 9372 as the test organism. Gatifloxacin could be ...measured in tablets and raw material at concentration ranging 4–16
μg
ml
−1. The calibration graph for gatifloxacin was linear from 4.0 to 16.0
μg
ml
−1. A prospective validation of the method demonstrated that the method was linear (
r
2
=
0.9993), precise (R.S.D.
=
1.14%) and accurate. The results confirmed its precision and did not differ significantly from others methods described in the literature. The validated method yielded good results in terms of the range, linearity, precision, accuracy, specificity and recovery. We concluded that the microbiological assay is satisfactory for in vitro quantification of the antibacterial activity of gatifloxacin.
We describe a new generation of the high-performance
GEOS-Chem (GCHP) global model of atmospheric composition developed as part
of the GEOS-Chem version 13 series. GEOS-Chem is an open-source
...grid-independent model that can be used online within a meteorological
simulation or offline using archived meteorological data. GCHP is an
offline implementation of GEOS-Chem driven by NASA Goddard Earth Observing
System (GEOS) meteorological data for massively parallel simulations.
Version 13 offers major advances in GCHP for ease of use, computational
performance, versatility, resolution, and accuracy. Specific improvements
include (i) stretched-grid capability for higher resolution in user-selected
regions, (ii) more accurate transport with new native cubed-sphere GEOS
meteorological archives including air mass fluxes at hourly temporal
resolution with spatial resolution up to C720 (∼ 12 km), (iii)
easier build with a build system generator (CMake) and a package manager
(Spack), (iv) software containers to enable immediate model download and
configuration on local computing clusters, (v) better parallelization to
enable simulation on thousands of cores, and (vi) multi-node cloud
capability. The C720 data are now part of the operational GEOS forward processing (GEOS-FP) output stream, and a C180 (∼ 50 km)
consistent archive for 1998–present is now being generated as part of a new
GEOS-IT data stream. Both of these data streams are continuously being
archived by the GEOS-Chem Support Team for access by GCHP users. Directly
using horizontal air mass fluxes rather than inferring from wind data
significantly reduces global mean error in calculated surface pressure and
vertical advection. A technical performance demonstration at C720
illustrates an attribute of high resolution with population-weighted
tropospheric NO2 columns nearly twice those at a common resolution of
2∘ × 2.5∘.
Kumar, V., Madabushi, R., Lucchesi, M. B. B., Derendorf, H. Pharmacokinetics of cefpodoxime in plasma and subcutaneous fluid following oral administration of cefpodoxime proxetil in male beagle dogs. ...J. vet. Pharmacol. Therap.34, 130-135. Pharmacokinetics of cefpodoxime in plasma (total concentration) and subcutaneous fluid (free concentration using microdialysis) was investigated in dogs following single oral administration of prodrug cefpodoxime proxetil (equivalent to 5 and 10 mg/kg of cefpodoxime). In a cross over study design, six dogs per dose were utilized after a 1 week washout period. Plasma, microdialysate, and urine samples were collected upto 24 h and analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography. The average maximum concentration (Cmax) of cefpodoxime in plasma was 13.66 (±6.30) and 27.14 (±4.56) μg/mL with elimination half-life (t₁/₂) of 3.01 (±0.49) and 4.72 (±1.46) h following 5 and 10 mg/kg dose, respectively. The respective average area under the curve (AUC₀₋∞) was 82.94 (±30.17) and 107.71 (±30.79) μg·h/mL. Cefpodoxime was readily distributed to skin and average free Cmax in subcutaneous fluid was 1.70 (±0.55) and 3.06 (±0.93) μg/mL at the two doses. Urinary excretion (unchanged cefpodoxime) was the major elimination route. Comparison of subcutaneous fluid concentrations using pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic indices of fT>MIC indicated that at 10 mg/kg dose; cefpodoxime would yield good therapeutic outcome in skin infections for bacteria with MIC50 upto 0.5 μg/mL while higher doses (or more frequent dosing) may be needed for bacteria with higher MICs. High urine concentrations suggested cefpodoxime use for urinary infections in dogs.
Social distancing to combat the COVID-19 pandemic has led to widespread reductions in air pollutant emissions. Quantifying these changes requires a business-as-usual counterfactual that accounts for ...the synoptic and seasonal variability of air pollutants. We use a machine learning algorithm driven by information from the NASA GEOS-CF model to assess changes in nitrogen dioxide (NO.sub.2) and ozone (O.sub.3) at 5756 observation sites in 46 countries from January through June 2020. Reductions in NO.sub.2 coincide with the timing and intensity of COVID-19 restrictions, ranging from 60 % in severely affected cities (e.g., Wuhan, Milan) to little change (e.g., Rio de Janeiro, Taipei). On average, NO.sub.2 concentrations were 18 (13-23) % lower than business as usual from February 2020 onward. China experienced the earliest and steepest decline, but concentrations since April have mostly recovered and remained within 5 % of the business-as-usual estimate. NO.sub.2 reductions in Europe and the US have been more gradual, with a halting recovery starting in late March. We estimate that the global NO.sub.x (NO + NO.sub.2) emission reduction during the first 6 months of 2020 amounted to 3.1 (2.6-3.6) TgN, equivalent to 5.5 (4.7-6.4) % of the annual anthropogenic total. The response of surface O.sub.3 is complicated by competing influences of nonlinear atmospheric chemistry. While surface O.sub.3 increased by up to 50 % in some locations, we find the overall net impact on daily average O.sub.3 between February-June 2020 to be small. However, our analysis indicates a flattening of the O.sub.3 diurnal cycle with an increase in nighttime ozone due to reduced titration and a decrease in daytime ozone, reflecting a reduction in photochemical production.
Therapy directed against the toxic effects of reactive oxygen species may reduce the final extent of ischemic injury in otherwise viable tissue irreversibly injured by the abrupt reoxygenation of ...reperfusion. In four groups of dogs, superoxide dismutase plus catalase (groups I—III) or saline (controls) (group IV) was infused into the left atrium. Group I received the infusion for 2 hours, beginning 15 minutes before occlusion of the left circumflex coronary artery (90 minutes) and ending 15 minutes after reperfusion. Group II received the infusion for 1 hour starring 15 minutes before reperfusion. Group III received the infusion for 1 hour beginning 40 minutes after reperfusion. Dogs were killed the next day, and infarct size was determined by dissection and weighing, and confirmed histologically. Infarct size expressed as percent of the anatomic area at risk wasgroup I, 19.4 ± 5.0; group II, 21.8 ± 3.3; group III, 47.6 ± 10.3; group IV, 43.6 ± 3.5 (mean ± sem). Analysis of variance followed by Duncanʼs multiple range test showed that ultimate infarct size as assessed in groups I and II differed significantly (P < 0.05) from that observed in the control animals in group IV, whereas infarct size between groups III and IV did not differ significantly (P > 0.05). The percent of left ventricle at risk did not differ between the four groups. The beneficial effects of superoxide dismutase plus catalase could not be explained by hemodynamic differences. Similar protection of jeopardized myocardium in groups I and II suggest that potentially viable tissue is salvaged by scavenging free radicals during early reperfusion. Lack of protection in group III suggests that injury has occurred within the first 40 minutes of reperfusion. The results of this investigation demonstrate that the ‘primary’ myqcardial cellular damage due to ischemia is additive to the cardiac cell damage during the phase of reperfusion, and that the “secondary” effects are mediated by toxic metabolites of oxygen.
Objective
To define the relationship of synovial B cells to clinical phenotypes at different stages of disease evolution and drug exposure in rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Methods
Synovial biopsy ...specimens and demographic and clinical data were collected from 2 RA cohorts (n = 329), one of patients with untreated early RA (n = 165) and one of patients with established RA with an inadequate response to tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi‐IR; n = 164). Synovial tissue was subjected to hematoxylin and eosin and immunohistochemical staining and semiquantitative assessment for the degree of synovitis (on a scale of 0–9) and of CD20+ B cell infiltrate (on a scale of 0–4). B cell scores were validated by digital image analysis and B cell lineage–specific transcript analysis (RNA‐Seq) in the early RA (n = 91) and TNFi‐IR (n = 127) cohorts. Semiquantitative CD20 scores were used to classify patients as B cell rich (≥2) or B cell poor (<2).
Results
Semiquantitative B cell scores correlated with digital image analysis quantitative measurements and B cell lineage–specific transcripts. B cell–rich synovitis was present in 35% of patients in the early RA cohort and 47.7% of patients in the TNFi‐IR cohort (P = 0.025). B cell–rich patients showed higher levels of disease activity and seropositivity for rheumatoid factor and anti–citrullinated protein antibody in early RA but not in established RA, while significantly higher histologic synovitis scores in B cell–rich patients were demonstrated in both cohorts.
Conclusion
We describe a robust semiquantitative histologic B cell score that closely replicates the quantification of B cells by digital or molecular analyses. Our findings indicate an ongoing B cell–rich synovitis, which does not seem to be captured by standard clinimetric assessment, in a larger proportion of patients with established RA than early RA.
The paper presents a method for determining the evolution of the cumulative distribution function of random processes which are encountered in the study of dynamic systems with some uncertainties in ...the characterizing parameters. It is proved that these distribution functions are the solution of a partial differential equation, whose coefficients can be determined once the dynamic system has been solved, and whose numerical solution can be obtained with the finite difference method. Two simple problems are solved here both explicitly and numerically, then the obtained results are compared with each other.
Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) increases its plasmid numbers when stressed, as occurs in clinical trachoma samples. Most CT tests target the plasmid to increase the test sensitivity, but some only target ...the chromosome. We investigated clinical urogenital samples for total plasmid copy numbers to assess its diagnostic value and intra-bacterial plasmid copy numbers to assess its natural variation. Both plasmid and chromosome copies were quantified using qPCR, and the plasmid:chromosome ratio (PCr) calculated in two cohorts: (1) 383 urogenital samples for the total PCR (tPCr), and (2) 42 vaginal swabs, with one half treated with propium-monoazide (PMA) to prevent the quantification of extracellular DNA and the other half untreated to allow for both tPCr and intra-bacterial PCr (iPCr) quantification. Mann-Whitney U tests compared PCr between samples, in relation to age and gender. Cohort 1: tPCr varied greatly (1-677, median 16). Median tPCr was significantly higher in urines than vaginal swabs (32 vs. 11, p < 0.001). Cohort 2: iPCr was more stable than tPCr (range 0.1-3 vs. 1-11). To conclude, tPCr in urogenital samples was much more variable than previously described. Transport time and temperature influences DNA degradation, impacting chromosomal DNA more than plasmids and urine more than vaginal samples. Data supports a plasmid target in CT screening assays to increase clinical sensitivity.
The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission Level-4 Soil Moisture (L4_SM) product provides 3-hourly, 9-km resolution, global estimates of surface (0–5 cm) and root-zone (0–100 cm) soil moisture ...and related land surface variables from 31 March 2015 to present with ∼2.5-day latency. The ensemble-based L4_SM algorithm assimilates SMAP brightness temperature (Tb) observations into the Catchment land surface model. This study describes the spatially distributed L4_SM analysis and assesses the observation-minus-forecast (O – F) Tb residuals and the soil moisture and temperature analysis increments. Owing to the climatological rescaling of the Tb observations prior to assimilation, the analysis is essentially unbiased, with global mean values of ∼0.37K for the O – F Tb residuals and practically zero for the soil moisture and temperature increments. There are, however, modest regional (absolute) biases in the O – F residuals (under ∼3 K), the soil moisture increments (under ∼0.01 m³ m−3), and the surface soil temperature increments (under ∼1 K). Typical instantaneous values are ∼6 K for O – F residuals, ∼0.01 (∼0.003) m³ m−3 for surface (root zone) soil moisture increments, and ∼0.6 K for surface soil temperature increments. The O – F diagnostics indicate that the actual errors in the system are overestimated in deserts and densely vegetated regions and underestimated in agricultural regions and transition zones between dry and wet climates. The O – F autocorrelations suggest that the SMAP observations are used efficiently in western North America, the Sahel, and Australia, but not in many forested regions and the high northern latitudes. A case study in Australia demonstrates that assimilating SMAP observations successfully corrects short-term errors in the L4_SM rainfall forcing.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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