307 research outputs found
Insecticide resistance in Italian populations of Tribolium flour beetles
As a consequence of the widespread use of chemical insecticides in the control of insect pests in grain warehouses and in the food industry, insecticide resistance in grain insect pests has greatly increased all over the world. The goal of this work was to investigate insecticide resistance levels in Italian populations of Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) and Tribolium confusum du Val collected in grain and food storage facilities of 18 different localities. Six contact insecticides were tested on seven populations of the red flour beetle and on eleven populations of the confused flour beetle. Topical application bioassays were carried out on adults. Dose-mortality lines were estimated to determine the resistance ratios for each insecticide and population. A Principal Components Analysis (PCA) was performed on a data matrix describing the pattern of occurrence of the RR values of each insecticide across the set of data provided by 18 different sites. In both species, the slopes of LD-lines range within a rather narrow interval with respect to susceptible strains, while the highest RR value can be observed in a population of the confused flour beetle from Molise assayed with deltamethrin. The distribution of the experimental points in the PCA graph suggests that T. castaneum populations were generally more susceptible to malathion, diazinon and pirethrins than the T. confusum populations. RR values obtained in bioassays suggest that insecticide resistance is not a widespread problem in Italian strains of T. castaneum and T. confusum, but there are populations in which the phenomenon exists. An extended monitoring activity could, therefore, be crucially important in adopting proper control measures for pest management
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Tolerance induction after organ transplantation, “delayed tolerance,” via the mixed chimerism approach: Planting flowers in a battle field
We have previously reported that peri-transplant conditioning leads to successful induction of renal allograft tolerance via the mixed chimerism approach in nonhuman primates (NHP) and humans. However, this strategy requires treatments beginning six days prior to transplantation, which limits its relevance only to living donor transplant recipients. To extend the clinical applicability of this approach, we developed a novel regimen “delayed tolerance,” with which the recipient initially undergoes organ transplantation with conventional immunosuppression, followed by conditioning and donor bone marrow transplantation (DBMT) at a later date. This approach might be likened to “planting flowers in a battle field.” That is, the recipient’s immunologic environment after organ transplantation is like a battlefield filled with hostile innate and adaptive immune-responses directed against donor antigeneic specificities. Implanting fragile donor hematopoietic progenitors into this environment and encouraging them to bloom in this vicious field requires special treatments
Partial abdominal evisceration and intestinal autotransplantation to resect a mesenteric carcinoid tumor
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Midgut carcinoids are neuroendocrine tumors that commonly metastasize to the intestinal mesentery, where they predispose to intestinal obstruction, ischemia and/or congestion. Because of their location, many mesenteric carcinoid tumors are deemed unresectable due to the risk of uncontrollable bleeding and prolonged intestinal ischemia.</p> <p>Case Presentation</p> <p>We report the case of a 60-year-old male with a mesenteric carcinoid tumor obstructing his superior mesenteric vein, resulting in intestinal varices and severe recurrent GI bleeds. While his tumor was thought to be unresectable by conventional techniques, it was successfully resected using intestinal autotransplantation to safely gain access to the tumor. This case is the first described application of this technique to carcinoid tumors.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Intestinal autotransplantation can be utilized to safely resect mesenteric carcinoid tumors from patients who were not previously thought to be surgical candidates. We review the literature concerning both carcinoid metastases to the intestinal mesentery and the use of intestinal autotransplantation to treat lesions involving the mesenteric root.</p
Progress and status of APEmille
We report on the progress and status of the APEmille project: a SIMD parallel
computer with a peak performance in the TeraFlops range which is now in an
advanced development phase. We discuss the hardware and software architecture,
and present some performance estimates for Lattice Gauge Theory (LGT)
applications.Comment: Talk presented at LATTICE97, 3 pages, Late
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Live Donor Partial Hepatectomy for Liver Transplantation: Is There a Learning Curve?
Background: Donor safety is the first priority in living donor liver transplantation (LDLT). Objective: To determine the characteristics and outcome of live liver donors who underwent donor hepatectomy from January, 1997 to May, 2007 at Massachusetts General Hospital. Methods: 30 patients underwent LDLT between January, 1997 and May, 2007 at our institution. Results: The type of graft was the right lobe (segments 5-8) in 14, left lobe (segments 2-4) in 4, and left lateral sector (segments 2 and 3) in 12 patients. The mean donor age was 36 (range: 26-57) years. The mean follow-up was 48 (range: 18-120) months. No deaths occurred. Overall, 8 (26.6%) patients experienced a total of 14 post-operative complications. Donor complications based on graft type were as follows: left lateral sector (16.7%), left lobe (25%), and right lobe (35.7%). The experience was divided into two periods 1997-2001 (n=15) and 2002-2007 (n=15). Overall complications during 2 periods were 40% and 13.3%, respectively (p<0.001). The incidence of grade III complication also significantly decreased; 66.7% vs 33.3% (p<0.01). Conclusion: Partial hepatectomy in living donors has a learning curve which appears to be approximately 15 cases. This learning curve is not restricted to the surgeons performing the procedure but involves all aspects of patient care
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Induction with Rabbit Antithymocyte Globulin following Orthotopic Liver Transplantation for Hepatitis C
Background: Hepatitis C (HCV) is the most common indication for liver transplantation in the US. Objective: Since steroids are the major stimulus of viral replication, we postulated that steroid-free immunosuppression might be a safer approach. Methods: From January 1995 to October 2002, we used steroid plus calcineurin inhibitor (CNI) immunosuppression after liver transplantation for HCV (steroid group, n=81). From October 2002 to June 2007, rabbit antithymocyte globulin (RATG) induction, followed by CNI and azathioprine (RATG group, n=73) was utilized. Results: There were no differences in 1- and 3-year patient/allograft survival rates. The incidence of acute rejection rate (19% vs. 28%), of biopsy-proven HCV recurrence (70% vs. 75%), and chronic rejection (6% vs. 9%) were comparable. The mean time to develop recurrent HCV was significantly longer in the RATG group (16.2 vs. 9.2 months, p=0.008). The incidence of severe portal fibrosis appears to be lower in RATG group compared to the steroid group; 14% vs. 4% (p=0.07). Conclusions: RATG induction is safe and effective after liver transplantation for HCV, but has no impact on the incidence of HCV recurrence and patient/allograft survival. However, a significant delay in time to HCV recurrence and a trend toward less rejection and portal fibrosis was observed
Status and challenges for the concept design development of the EU DEMO Plant Electrical System
The EU DEMO Plant Electrical System (PES) main scopes are to supply all the plant electrical loads and to deliver to the Power Transmission Grid (PTG) the net electrical power generated. The studies on the PES during the Pre-Concept Design (PCD) Phase were mainly addressed to understand the possible issues, related to the special features both of the power generated, with respect to a power plant of the same size, and of the power to be supplied to the electrical loads. For this purpose, the approach was to start the design of the different PES components adopting technologies already utilized in fusion experiments and in Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) to verify their applicability and identify possible limits when scaled to the DEMO size and applied to the specific pulsed operating conditions. This work is not completed, however several issues have been already identified related to the pulsed operation of the turbine generator, the large amount of recirculation power, the very high peaks of active power required for the plasma formation and control, the huge reactive power demand, if thyristor converter technology was adopted to supply the superconducting coils, etc.. The paper gives an overview on the features and scope of the PES and its subsystems, on the main achievements during the Pre-Concept Design (PCD) Phase, on the challenges for the development of the conceptual design in the next framework program and on the plan to face them
RNA signatures allow rapid identification of pathogens and antibiotic susceptibilities
With rising rates of drug-resistant infections, there is a need for diagnostic methods that rapidly can detect the presence of pathogens and reveal their susceptibility to antibiotics. Here we propose an approach to diagnosing the presence and drug-susceptibility of infectious diseases based on direct detection of RNA from clinical samples. We demonstrate that species-specific RNA signatures can be used to identify a broad spectrum of infectious agents, including bacteria, viruses, yeast, and parasites. Moreover, we show that the behavior of a small set of bacterial transcripts after a brief antibiotic pulse can rapidly differentiate drug-susceptible and -resistant organisms and that these measurements can be made directly from clinical materials. Thus, transcriptional signatures could form the basis of a uniform diagnostic platform applicable across a broad range of infectious agents
The Present State of Liver Transplantation and the Future Prospects for Intestinal Transplantation
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