Acute kidney injury in burns: a story of volume and inflammation

Acute kidney injury occurs in approximately one-quarter to one-third of patients with major burn injury. Apart from the usual suspects – such as older age, severity of burn injury, sepsis and multiple organ dysfunction – volume overload probably has an important role in the pathogenesis of acute kidney injury

The connection between migration and regional structure in Finland around 1990 - a GIS viewpoint

The connection between migration and regional structure in Finland in the early 19905 is discussed on the basis of Geographic Irformation Systems (GIS) data from Statistics Finland, compiled for map coordinate grid cells of 1 x 1 km. The results indicate that data of this kind enable a more detailed typology to be drawn up for migration. At the regional level, this allows the defining of places of "passing through '' which gain population from other local government districts but lose population through migration within their own district. The connection between migration and regional structure is manifested in the fact that flows both between and within local government districts mainly involve the more urbanised population centres and areas with: high levels of unemployment

Preclinical antitumour activity of F 11782, a novel dual catalytic inhibitor of topoisomerases

F 11782 is a novel inhibitor of topoisomerases I and II, with an original mechanism of action (Perrin et al, 2000). This study, aimed to define its anticancer efficacy against a series of murine and human tumour models, has provided evidence of major antitumour activity for F 11782. This was demonstrated as a high level of activity against the P388 leukaemia, as reflected by increased survival of 143–457%, when administered i.p., p.o. or i.v. as single or multiple doses, and proved consistently superior to etoposide or camptothecin tested concurrently. Single or multiple i.p. doses of F 11782 also proved highly active against the s.c. grafted B16 melanoma, significantly increasing survival (P < 0.001) and inhibiting tumour growth (T/C of 0.3%), again superior to etoposide tested concurrently. Furthermore, F 11782 inhibited the number of pulmonary metastatic foci of the B16F10 melanoma by 99%. In human tumour xenograft studies, multiple i.p. doses of F 11782 resulted in major inhibitory activity against MX-1 (breast) tumours (T/C of 0.1%), as well as causing definite tumour regressions, whereas none resulted from similar experimental treatments with etoposide. Significant activity was also recorded with F 11782 against the relatively refractory LX-1 (lung) xenografts, with an optimal T/C value of 19%. It was notable that the antitumour activity of F 11782 was consistently demonstrated over a wide range of 2–6 dose levels, providing evidence of its good overall tolerance. In conclusion, these results emphasize the preclinical interest of this novel molecule and support its further preclinical development. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.co

Gas chimneys from source to surface: imaging and modelling in the Connemara Field, Porcupine Basin

The Porcupine basin is a north-south trending graben of Jurassic age filled with Mesozoic and Tertiary sediments lying unconformably on upper Palaeozoic rocks. The basin formed as a result of an early abortive northeasterly arm of the Mid-Atlantic spreading ridge. It continues to be a subsiding basin at present time. The Connemara field is located in the northern part of the basin. Structurally, it lies at the confluence of two principal fault systems: a N-S fault regime characteristic of the main Porcupine basin, and the E-W and NE-SW trends of reactivated Caledonian faults. It can be imaged as a broad, tilted block faulted structure trending northeast-southwest, bounded by major faults to the east and west. Between these faults appears a structure broadly synclinal in section, dipping southwest, with an axis parallel to the trend of the major faults, filled of mesozoic sediments, and partly closed by the base of the Cretaceous unconformity. Hydrocarbons were found at the end of the 70sŠ in three reservoirs within the middle Jurassic in the synclinal structure. Tight 2D and 3D seismic coverage over the Connemara field showed the presence of vertical paths of fluid and/or gas migrating upward in the formation. Most of these chimneys stop at the Plio-Pleistocene boundary, about 0.1 msec TWT below the seafloor. None of them reaches the present-day surface. They are mostly located above the structural high corresponding to the tilted fault block (horst), and are found along a south-north trend starting above the N-S fault bounding the horst to the west. Some isolated chimneys were also detected in the western part of the field. Detailed interpretation of chosen seismic cross-sections throughout the field, constrained by well-logs and core analysis allowed to propose a scenario for the genesis of these features. Some of the oil generated in the middle Jurassic source rocks, further south of the Porcupine basin, migrated updip to the north where it has either become entrapped within Jurassic reservoir layers, or percolated up fault planes to shallower layers where fluid and gas could escape through the more permeable upper Cretaceous and Tertiary sandstones. Another interesting feature is the abundance of pockmarks throughout the entire field. More than 1100 were mapped from 2D survey seismic profiles. They are known to form through the eruption of methane gas trapped in the sediments. They are proposed to be the expression at the surface of the fluid and gas that migrated from deeper parts of the basin, first through fault planes, then through the formation using more or less energetic ways (shock waves, percolation, diffusion)

Cushny, 1913; Eckenhoff and Oech

ABSTRACT This report describes a systematic analysis of opiate drug effects on ventilation and its components tidal volume and frequency in intact, awake and unrestrained rats. A whole-body plethysmo graphic method was used to measure these parameters of respiration while animals breathed air or various concentrations of CO2 in air. Subcutaneous doses of morphine lower than 40 mg/kg exerted little or no apparent effect in rats breathing air; in rats breathing 4 to 8% of CO2 these doses of morphine also failed to depress any of the ventilatory parameters below the level of saline controls breathing air. Doses (0.16 to 160 mg/kg) of morphine blunted the frequency response to CO2in a biphasic manner. The effects of morphine on tidal volume consisted of a slight increase at 0.16 and 0.63 mg/kg, a dose-dependent de crease at 2.5 to 40 mg/kg and a paradoxical nse at 160 mg/kg. These complex effects of morphine on tidal volume and fre quency resulted in a simple sigmoid depression of minute vol ume. The slope of this sigmoid dose-response curve varied with the inspirate; it increasedas the concentration of CO2was higher. Naloxone antagonized the frequency depression produced by 40 mg/kg of morphine in a dose-dependent manner at doses ranging from 0.01 to 0.16 mgfkg, but frequency decreased again at 0.63 mg/kg. The effects of naloxorte on the tidal volume depression consisted of a paradoxical further decrease at 0.01 mg/kg, a dose-dependent antagonism of depression at 0.04 to 0.16 mg/kg and a stimulation above the normal control level at 0.63 mg/kg. These complex effects of naloxone on tidal volume and frequency resulted in a simple sigmoid antagonism of the minute volume depression produced by morphine. These and other experiments support the hypothesis that opiates depress the ventilatory response to C02, but several experimental con ditions were identified in which the opiate action on minute volume was effected by intricate and perhaps paradoxical effects on tidal volume and frequency. The assumptions 1) that tidal volume is the sole directly controlled output vaviableof the CO2 controller and 2) that opiates decrease the sensitivity of the CO2 controller, do not seem to account in a parsimonious manner for all of the complex effects which opiates may exert on tidal volume and frequency of breathing in rats. opiates in subjects that are being exposed to a CO2 challenge (e.g., Lai et at., 1978). Intact and unanesthetized subjects were used 1) to match the conditions in which the analgesic effects of opiates are typically examined and 2) to avoid the confound ing influence that surgery, restraint, handling and anesthesia may have on ventilation (Borison, 1978