Lime Cake as an Alternative Stabiliser for Loose Clayey Loams

Lime Cake (precipitated calcium carbonate PCC), a by-product of sugar production, is proposed as a stabiliser for improvement of loose silty clayey loams. Two inorganic pedogenic and organic precipitated calcium carbonate polymorphs are artificially synthesized into a base loosely compacted loamy soil. Formation, micromorphology, quality of cementing bonds, and physiochemical interactions in the interlayer are modelled at molecular level and verified by a suite of micro-analytical spectrometry techniques. Emphasis is put into determining the impacts of polysaccharides on soil strength and implications on soil pore anatomy. Erodibility, compressibility, volumetric change, and hydro-mechanical behaviour of base, and modified soils at yield and post-yield states are studied. Anomalies in suction-controlled post-yield stress–strain behaviour of modified soils are discussed and explained within the tenets of mechanics of composite soils with double porosity. PCC-reinforcement offers the closest possible packing at optimum water content. Desiccation cracking remains likely, but at relatively higher lower-bound water contents. Under low confinement levels and unsaturated state, strain-hardening prevails. Loss of shear strength on saturation is minimal. When saturated, PCC-reinforced soil develops substantially high levels of shear strength at all strain levels. Higher levels of confinement are needed for organic fibrous and onion-skin coating matters to effectively encrust the soil pore network; such high levels, however, leads to formation of an unwelcomed brittle, strain–softening stress–stress behaviour

Oncolytic reovirus enhances rituximab-mediated antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity against chronic lymphocytic leukaemia

The naturally occurring oncolytic virus (OV), reovirus, replicates in cancer cells causing direct cytotoxicity, and can activate innate and adaptive immune responses to facilitate tumour clearance. Reovirus is safe, well tolerated and currently in clinical testing for the treatment of multiple myeloma, in combination with dexamethasone/carfilzomib. Activation of natural killer (NK) cells has been observed after systemic delivery of reovirus to cancer patients; however, the ability of OV to potentiate NK cell-mediated antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) is unexplored. This study elucidates the potential of oncolytic reovirus for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), both as a direct cytotoxic agent and as an immunomodulator. We demonstrate that reovirus: (i) is directly cytotoxic against CLL, which requires replication-competent virus; (ii) phenotypically and functionally activates patient NK cells via a monocyte-derived interferon-α (IFNα)-dependent mechanism; and (iii) enhances ADCC-mediated killing of CLL in combination with anti-CD20 antibodies. Our data provide strong preclinical evidence to support the use of reovirus in combination with anti-CD20 immunotherapy for the treatment of CLL

Transforming growth factor-β1 in congenital ureteropelvic junction obstruction: diagnosis and follow-up

OBJECTIVE: To assess the role of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) in congenital ureteropelvic junction obstruction at diagnosis and during postoperative follow-up. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We conducted a case-control study including 19 patients with a mean age of 6.7 years and 19 matched controls. All patients presented negative voiding cystourethrography, obstructive diuretic renogram and underwent dismembered pyeloplasty. Urinary TGF-β1 and other markers were measured pre-, intra- and postoperatively. RESULTS: The mean bladder urine TGF-β1 concentration in obstructed patients prior to pyeloplasty was higher than in controls (92.5 pg/mL ± 16.8 vs. 35.8 pg/mL ± 16.2; p = 0.0001). The mean renal pelvic urine TGF-β1 concentration in the hydronephrotic kidney was higher than in the preoperative bladder urine sample (122.3 pg/mL ± 43.9 vs. 92.5 pg/mL ± 16.8; p = 0.036). Postoperative mean TGF-β1 concentration was significantly lower than preoperative TGF-β1 (48.7 pg/mL ± 13.1 vs. 92.5 pg/mL ± 16.8; p = 0.0001). CONCLUSION: TGF-β1 is a cytokine leading to renal fibrosis. The measurement of urinary TGF-β1 could become a useful tool for the diagnosis of obstructive hydronephrosis and the evaluation of the parenchyma function status, pre and postoperatively