Membranes used for dialysis therapy activate complement. Complement activation is maximal after initiating dialysis and returns to predialysis values by the end of dialysis. No changes in C3 levels ...have been detected after dialysis. We hypothesized that although C3 levels were unchanged, C3 activity could be altered by dialysis. We measured complement activation in vitro in serum from patients randomized to dialysis treatments using different types of membranes. The classical pathway was activated with aggregated immunoglobulin G (IgG), and the alternative pathway was activated with inulin. Both the classical and alternative pathways were suppressed after dialysis using cellulose membranes (aggregate IgG, P lt 0.01; inulin, P lt 0.001). When polyacrylonitrile (PAN) or polyethylene glycol grafted cellulose membranes were used for dialysis, only minor suppression of complement pathways was measured. Levels of the control factor SP-40,40 increased at later times for dialysis using cellulose membranes (P lt 0.05). Factor H levels were also greater after dialysis using cellulose membranes compared with PAN membranes (P lt 0.05). In summary, cellulose membranes suppress complement activation in serum. One suppressing factor may be the complement control factor SP-40,40. copy 2001 by the National Kidney Foundation, Inc.
Pesticide exposure to greenhouse handgunners Stamper, J H; Nigg, H N; Mahon, W D ...
Archives of environmental contamination and toxicology,
07/1989, Letnik:
18, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The exposure of pesticide applicators in a commercial greenhouse facility was assessed. Data were collected from four handgunners who applied fluvalinate (insecticide), chlorpyrifos (insecticide), ...ethazol (fungicide), and dicofol (miticide). Potential exposure was measured with exposure pads placed outside all clothing of the applicator. Handwashes and air samples were also collected, as were pre- and post-exposure tank mixture samples. Pesticide penetration was measured with exposure pads placed inside protective clothing. When all exposure assessments were normalized for spray rate, it was determined that applicators were at significantly greater potential dermal risk (excluding hands) from fluvalinate. The normalized air samples showed significantly more exposure to the applicator from ethazol. Exposure to outside pads was primarily (84%) to the legs of the applicators. Ethazol penetrated Tyvek coveralls more readily than the other compounds. Tank mixture analyses suggested that the wettable powder formulations were not well-mixed.
The purpose of these experiments was to determine the reversibility of α-chaconine and α-solanine inhibition of human plasma butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE). For the substrate α-naphthylacetate, ...optimal assay conditions were 0.50Msodium phosphate buffer and a substrate concentration of 3–5 × 10−4M. Dibucaine (1 × 10−5M) indicated the usual phenotype for all subjects; α-chaconine and α-solanine at 2.88 × 10−6Minhibited BuChE about 70 and 50%, respectively. One- and 24-hr incubations at 1 × 10−5Mwith α-chaconine, α-solanine, paraoxon, eserine, and ethanol yielded reversible inhibition with dilution except for paraoxon. Twenty-four-hour dialyses of incubations showed no inhibition except for paraoxon. PAGE enzyme activity gels of 1- and 24-hr incubations also showed no inhibition except for paraoxon. α-Chaconine and α-solanine are reversible inhibitors of human butyrylcholinesterase. At estimated tissue levels, α-chaconine, α-solanine, and solanidine inhibited BuChE 10–86%. In assays which combined α-chaconine, α-solanine, and solanidine, inhibition of BuChE was less than additive. No inhibition of albumin α-naphthylacetate esterase (an arylesterase) was noted with any inhibitor. The importance of these data to adverse toxicological effects of potato alkaloids is discussed..
Neoplastic transformation of fibroblasts results in widely different cell morphologies. We have attempted to correlate cell morphology with cytoskeletal organization and fibronectin expression in ...murine and avian fibroblasts transformed by a diverse group of viral and chemical agents. The distribution of vinculin, alpha-actinin, actin, and surface fibronectin was studied, and, where appropriate, also the extent of phosphotyrosine modification of vinculin. Irrespective of the transforming agent we found that increased cell rounding was generally correlated with a reduction in vinculin-containing focal adhesions, a dissolution of microfilament bundles, and a reduction of extracellular fibronectin. In contrast, spindle-shaped fibroblasts expressed relatively high levels of surface fibronectin. Reorganization of vinculin, actin, and alpha-actinin into rosette-like structures was observed in polygonal or rounded cells transformed by viruses encoding tyrosine kinases, but was not seen in fibroblasts transformed by agents without associated tyrosine kinase activity or in spindle-shaped cells. No correlation was found between the extent of phosphotyrosine modification of vinculin and the extent of cell rounding. Irrespective of cell morphology, the extent of tyrosine phosphorylation of vinculin was high in all cells transformed by viruses carrying the src gene, but low in those transformed by viruses expressing the fps gene. Our results indicate that the morphology of a transformed cell is determined by a combination of several factors which are affected to different extents by different transforming agents.
Well-controlled quantum devices with their increasing system size face a new roadblock hindering further development of quantum technologies: The effort of quantum tomography---the characterization ...of processes and states within a quantum device---scales unfavorably to the point that state-of-the-art systems can no longer be treated. Quantum compressed sensing mitigates this problem by reconstructing the state from an incomplete set of observables. In this work, we present an experimental implementation of compressed tomography of a seven qubit system---the largest-scale realization to date---and we introduce new numerical methods in order to scale the reconstruction to this dimension. Originally, compressed sensing has been advocated for density matrices with few non-zero eigenvalues. Here, we argue that the low-rank estimates provided by compressed sensing can be appropriate even in the general case. The reason is that statistical noise often allows only for the leading eigenvectors to be reliably reconstructed: We find that the remaining eigenvectors behave in a way consistent with a random matrix model that carries no information about the true state. We report a reconstruction of quantum states from a topological color code of seven qubits, prepared in a trapped ion architecture, based on tomographically incomplete data involving 127 Pauli basis measurement settings only, repeated 100 times each.
In the Canton of Zurich in Switzerland, 1,252 red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) were examined during 1990-1991 for intestinal stages of Echinococcus multilocularis using the mucosal smear technique. Special ...safety precautions were employed during examination. An average of 35% (432 foxes) were infected, mostly with low to medium numbers of gravid worms producing thick-shelled eggs. In the eleven districts of the Canton, prevalence rates varied between 13% and 57%. An average of 29% of the foxes had antibodies in serum or body fluid against a highly species-specific antigen of E. multilocularis (Em2-antigen). The fact that foxes with intestinal E. multilocularis infection have been found in all parts of the Canton of Zurich indicates a relatively high potential infection risk for humans, but apparently the risk is reduced by certain extrinsic or intrinsic factors which have yet to be determined.
