IL-6 and IL-1 beta responses to a carbohydrate-electrolyte drink in orienteering athletes

Background: This study was conducted to determine acute effects of carbohydrate-electrolyte (CHO-E) found in sports drinks, ingested just before an orienteering competition, on the levels of plasma IL-6 and IL-1 beta cytokine.Material and methods: The study was conducted in a randomized, double-blind design, including 23 elite orienteering athletes who volunteered to participate. Following the collection of resting specimens of blood, the experimental group (n = 12) was administered a sports drink containing CHO-E, while the placebo group (n = 11) was administered 500 ml of plain water. The subjects were asked to finish the orienteering competition.Result: IL-1 beta level in the 24th hour after the competition was found to be significantly lower than in precompetition and 2 hours after the competition in the placebo group (p 0.05).Conclusion: A drink containing CHO-E might have stopped muscle contraction-associated cytokine production by increasing the tissue stability of the muscles, compensating the loss of fluid and electrolytes from athletes' bodies

Erratum to: 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1208-6.]

Evaluation of pyritic tailings from a copper concentration plant for calcareous sodic soil reclamation

This study was aimed to investigate the feasibility to use waste pyrite and sulphuric acid produced from waste pyrite for the reclamation of calcareous sodic soils. The final aim is to displace Na from an exchange complex and replace it with Ca, leading to a decrease in pH and exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP) and an improvement of soil structure. A fertility of the soil may also be enhanced by this technique since waste pyrite can be rich in several micronutrients. An additional advantage to this strategy is that waste pyrite is inexpensive and readily available in large quantities, by contrast to gypsum. In this study, column-leaching tests were carried out to evaluate a change in soil properties upon addition of gypsum and pyritic tailing amendments from a copper concentration plant. An availability of essential micronutrients for a plant growth (Fe, Cu, Zn and Mn) and hazardous potential of pyritic tailings in terms of heavy metal contamination were taken into account. Gypsum, powder waste pyrite and sulfuric acid produced from waste pyrite were applied to the soil with reference to the gypsum requirement (GR) of the soils. The results showed that application of waste pyrite with a dose of 44.74 megagrams per ha was superior to gypsum of 55.20 Mg/ha dose in terms of exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP) in 42 weeks. In addition, application of all the concentrations of sulfuric acid produced from waste pyrite also decreased the ESP values. The best values with sulfuric acid were obtained with a dose of 35.31 Mg/ha in 26 weeks. It was observed that the content of all micronutrients in the soil increased significantly (P<0.01) with waste pyrite and sulfuric acid applications. The levels of the micronutrients after treatments can be classified sufficient for the plant growth except for the iron level with the minimum dose of sulfuric acid application 17 Mg/ha. The heavy metal content in the soil after treatment with the pyritic tailings was found to be lower than the legal limit values. Thus, waste pyrite can be effectively used since rapid amelioration of calcareous sodic soils is possible with no deleterious heavy metal contamination

A methodology to characterize fiber preform permeability by using Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation

Permeability tensor describes the resistance to fluid flow through the fibrous porous media, which may not be spatially uniform. This nonuniformity in fiber architecture causes variation in the permeability value of the fibrous domain. The time evolution and geometry of the rough interfaces of the fluid flow in fibrous porous medium are analyzed using the concepts of dynamic scaling and self-affine fractal geometry, and they are shown to belong to the Kardar–Parisi– Zhang (KPZ) universality class. The resulting growth exponent, β is found to match the 1 + 1 KPZ values, and the roughness exponent, α, describes the standard deviation of the variation in fiber preform permeability. Additionally, this characterization is used to develop a tool to quantify the percentage and strength of defects within the fibrous porous media from flow front profile analysis

Effects of Equisetum arvense Ointment on Dermal Wound Healing in Rats

WOS: 000283677300007PubMed ID: 25901493The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Equisetum arvense ointment on dermal wound healing in rats. Methods. The authors studied a total of 56 wounds in four groups of rats. Each wound measured 15 mm x 15 mm. The first group did not receive treatment while the second group was treated with a 1:1 mixture of Vaseline and lanolin ointment. Equisetum arvense ointment doses of 5% and 10% were used in the third and fourth groups. The rats were observed at days 7 and 14 post wounding. The state of the wound healing was evaluated using wound closure ratio and histopathologic studies. Results. Equisetum arvense 5% and 10% groups and the Vaseline-lanolin group had a statistically significant higher wound closure ratio than the control group (P < 0.05). Equisetum arvense ointment groups had a 95.26% and 99.96% wound closure ratio (P < 0.05) and higher dermal and epidermal regeneration, angiogenesis, and granulation tissue thickness after 14 days as compared to the other groups (P < 0.05). P. Equisetum arvense ointment exhibits significant wound healing activity in rats. Further clinical and experimental studies are needed to confirm these results