No abstract available.
Antibodies* ; Humans* ; Immunoglobulin M* ; Penicillins* ; Syphilis* ; Treponema pallidum* ; Treponema*

Aims: Waste electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) are among the fastest growing waste products worldwide and solutions to their remediation are urgently needed. Bioremediation is a green approach that is helpful to minimize environmental pollution associated with Electronic waste (E-waste). The present study aimed at exploring the potential of endophytic fungi from Nepenthes ampullaria for bioremediation purposes of the plastic component in E-waste, polyurethane (PUR) polymers. Methodology and results: Endophytic fungal isolates were assessed for their ability to degrade PUR as well as their ability to utilise PUR as sole carbon source. Nine (9) out of 150 isolates demonstrated the ability to efficiently degrade polyurethane in solid medium and the top three (3) isolates were able to grow on PUR as the only carbon source. These three isolates were identified using ITS1 and ITS4 and found to be closely related to the genus Pestalotiopsis. The top two of the three isolates were then assessed for their esterase enzyme activity as well as changes in their proteome when grown with and without PUR. The highest enzymatic activity was found to be 1850.4 U/mL when tested using pnitrophenol acetate as the substrate. Analyses of the 2-dimensional electrophoresis profile revealed changes in the abundance of proteins when treated with polyurethane. Conclusion, significance and impact of study: This study is to our knowledge the first on endophytes isolated from N. ampullaria that can degrade PUR, and also their proteomes. Results obtained from this study can in the future help to reduce polyurethane wastes. Besides degrading PUR polymer, endophytic fungi produce potential valuable proteins that may find broad applications in bioremediation applications.

10.3969/j.issn.2095-4344.2013.26.012

Weather variations have clear associations with the epidemiology of dengue fever and populations of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Data on humidity associations, however, lags with respect to its effect on host-biting, nectar-seeking and survival. This experimental study on Ae. aegypti, sourced from the arid tropics, investigated the effect of low and high relative humidity and diet in relation to host-biting, temporal variations in feeding frequency, and mosquito mortality. In each environmental setting, 10 replicates, containing one male and five female mosquitoes, were challenged with different nutritional sources every six hours over 12 days. Results showed that host-biting did not diminish in low humidity and was six times higher than expected. Sucrose feeding was observed to significantly moderate hostbiting and water alone was inadequate for survival. The high host-biting rates help to explain the intensity of dengue epidemics, while the ability of the mosquito to disregard adverse humidity-related conditions helps to explain how dengue epidemics in arid tropical regions can be just as devastating as those in the wet tropics.

There are many serologic tests for syphilis. By means of the usual serologic tests, it is not possible to differentiate between patients who need therapy and those who are cured. In this paper I want to discuss the scientific developments and demonstrate the results of immunologic research in syphilis, which makes it possible to differentiate between treated and untreated cases.
Antibodies, Bacterial/analysis ; Chromatography, Gel ; Electrophoresis, Starch Gel ; Fluorescent Antibody Technique ; Hemagglutination Tests ; Human ; Immunoglobulin G/analysis ; Immunoglobulin M/analysis ; Syphilis/immunology* ; Syphilis Serodiagnosis* ; Treponema pallidum/immunology

Snake bites are one among the under reported clinical emergencies from tropical countries. There are variations in clinical presentation of snake bites and its toxic features differ with the species and type of bite. There are lots of controversies in the treatment guidelines which often makes it difficult to manage. We report the case of a severe hemotoxic snake bite who presented to the outpatient service of our hospital with a trivial foot injury. Even though snakebites are familiar clinical situations for an emergency physician from tropics, we report this case as most are under reported. We also intend to emphasize the excellent outcome of appropriately diagnosed and treated cases of snake bite.
Adult ; Animals ; Anticoagulants ; toxicity ; Antivenins ; therapeutic use ; Blood Coagulation ; Humans ; Male ; Snake Bites ; blood ; drug therapy ; pathology ; Snake Venoms ; toxicity ; Viperidae

Ixora coccinea Linn., (Rubiaceae) commonly known as jungle of geranium and red ixora, is an evergreen shrub found throughout India. Depending on the medical condition, the flowers, leaves, roots, and the stem are used to treat various ailments in the Indian traditional system of medicine, the Ayurveda, and also in various folk medicines. The fruits, when fully ripe, are used as a dietary source. Phytochemical studies indicate that the plant contains important phytochemicals such as lupeol, ursolic acid, oleanolic acid, sitosterol, rutin, lecocyanadin, anthocyanins, proanthocyanidins, glycosides of kaempferol and quercetin. Pharmacological studies suggest that the plant possesses antioxidative, antibacterial, gastroprotective, hepatoprotective, antidiarrhoeal, antinociceptive, antimutagenic, antineoplastic and chemopreventive effects, thus lending scientific support to the plant's ethnomedicinal uses. In the present review, efforts are made in addressing its ethnomedicinal uses, chemical constituents, and validated pharmacological observations.
Animals ; Humans ; Medicine, Traditional ; Phytotherapy ; Plant Extracts ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Reproducibility of Results ; Rubiaceae ; chemistry

Aims: Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is a major agricultural waste product of Malaysia. The aim of this study was to identify endophytic fungi capable of producing biofuel feedstock utilizing POME. Methodology and results: Endophytes were isolated from the Nipah palm tree, Nypa fruticans, and exposed to different POME concentrations (25%, 50% and 75%), with and without the addition of nutrients. The utilization of glucose was measured using the Dinitrosalicylic Acid assay whereas the lipid content in the fungal cells was extracted using the Bligh and Dyer method with slight modifications. Three endophytic fungi that displayed the highest growth on POME were identified using ITS 1 and 4 primers and found to be related to Pestalotiopsis sp., Lasiodiplodia theobromae and Rhizoctonia bataticola. Nutrient addition caused an average increase of 8 times in biomass, indicating nitrogen requirement for cell proliferation. The highest POME concentration (75%) resulted in lower biomass yield. Furthermore, all fungal samples in high POME concentration and nutrient conditions showed a decrease in lipids accumulated per milligram of biomass whereby lipid synthesis was enhanced under nitrogen limitation (25% without nutrients). Conclusion, significance and impact of study: In conclusion, all fungal samples can be classified as oleaginous microorganisms with Pestalotipsis sp. being the most efficient (up to 70% of its biomass). This is to our knowledge the first study that shows the potential use of Pestalotiopsis sp., L. theobromae and R. bataticola for the utilisation of POME as biofuel feedstock and could in the future potentially provide an alternative approach to the treatment of POME with value-added effect.

The 5th edition WHO Classification of Breast Tumours (2019) has introduced changes to our practices. Highlights are presented below, with a focus on modifications to morphological subtype categorization. In addition, we summarize important updates to ER and PR testing made in the 2020 ASCO/CAP guidelines, and briefly discuss PD-L1 and Ki-67 testing in breast cancer.

OBJECTIVETo compare the postoperative outcomes of patients with the diagnostic univentricular heart undergoing lateral tunnel (LT) operation with extracardiac conduit (EC) operation.

METHODSFrom June 1996 to July 2007, 114 consecutive patients with a single ventricle underwent total cavopulmonary connection (TCPC) in Children's Heart Center, University Hospital Giessen and Marburg GmbH, Germany. A LT was performed in 19 (16.7%) patients, and an EC in 95 (83.3%) patients. The mean age of EC group was 50.8 +/- 31.6 (ranging from 22 to 212) months, and that of LT group was 61.5 +/- 41.2 (ranging from 30 to 168) months. Early and midterm outcomes of two groups were analyzed.

RESULTSOne died in LT group (5.3%) and three in EC group (3.2%). The overall mortality was 3.5%. There was no significant difference in mortality between EC and LT groups (P>0.05). The postoperative pulmonary arterial pressure, oxygen saturation, and effusion time of two groups had no significant difference (all P>0.05). No significant difference in the occurrences of complications (arrhythmias, enteropathy, and thrombosis) was found between two groups after operation (P>0.05).

CONCLUSIONSThere seems no difference between LT and EC in the clinical results in the early and middle postoperative stage. Glenn anastomosis followed by an EC seems to have some advantages.