Hepatitis induced by noni juice from Morinda citrifolia: A rare cause of hepatotoxicity or the tip of the iceberg?

A 24-year-old female patient presented to her community hospital with mild elevations of serum transaminase and bilirubin levels. Because of multiple sclerosis, she was treated with interferon beta-la for 6 weeks. After exclusion of viral hepatitis due to hepatitis A-E, interferon beta-la was withdrawn under the suspicion of drug-induced hepatitis. One week later, she was admitted again to her community hospital with severe icterus. The transaminase and bilirubin levels were highly elevated, and a beginning impairment of the liver synthesis was expressed by a reduced prothrombin time. The confinement to our department occurred with a fulminant hepatitis and the suspicion of beginning acute liver failure. There was no evidence for hepatitis due to potentially hepatotoxic viruses, alcoholic hepatitis, Budd-Chiari syndrome, hemochromatosis, and Wilson's disease. In her serum there were high titers of liver-kidney microsomal type 1 autoantibody; the serum gamma globulin levels were in the normal range. Fine-needle aspiration biopsy of the liver ruled out an autoimmune hepatitis but showed signs of drug-induced toxicity. During the interview, she admitted that for `general immune system stimulation' she had been drinking Noni juice, a Polynesian herbal remedy made from a tropical fruit (Morinda citrifolia), during the past 4 weeks. After cessation of the Noni juice ingestion, her transaminase levels normalized quickly and were in the normal range within 1 month. Copyright (c) 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel

How anthropogenic climate change exacerbates vulnerability in prison communities; a critical environmental justice analysis

This thesis examines the link between anthropogenic climate change and mass incarceration by examining how governments address conditions in and around prisons resulting from hurricanes and wildfires. Critical Environmental Justice, Treadmill of Production and Destruction theories are synthesized using what is debuted here as an intersectional camera based on the theory of intersectionality. It examines how Trump administration policies will greatly exacerbate dangers caused by climate change and increase risks and dangers caused by mass incarceration. In addition to being a call to action, this project is intended to serve as a resource for prisoner rights activists. Prisons have become more ubiquitous, perilous and toxic over the past five decades, while the network of local, state, federal, and private systems responsible for their safety and maintenance has become increasingly chaotic. This thesis is a descriptive study that utilizes existing data from academic papers, news reports and legal cases to highlight the impacts of climate change on the marginalized inmate community and, simultaneously, the natural environment that surrounds incarceration facilities. The need for this analysis is particularly imperative in light of recent efforts by the Trump administration to bureaucratically and legislatively eviscerate regulations designed to protect human and ecological health that will magnify dangers caused by increasing global temperatures and subsequent extreme weather events like hurricanes, floods, and wildfires. Further, Trump Administration policies designed to increasingly criminalize and incarcerate already marginalized communities will exacerbate their vulnerabilities to the effects of climate change

Improved quality of life in patients with refractory or recidivant ascites after insertion of transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunts

Background. We have recently shown that the transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) is more effective than paracentesis in the treatment of cirrhotic patients with severe ascites and can prolong survival in selected patients. Although an improved quality of life (QOL) has been suggested in these patients after the TIPS procedure, so far there are no data available to substantiate this assumption. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effect of TIPS on the QOL in cirrhotic patients with refractory or recidivant ascites. Methods: 21 cirrhotic patients who underwent TIPS for refractory or recidivant ascites were investigated. All patients were pretreated with repeated paracentesis for at least 1 year. Before the procedure and at 3 and 6 months during follow-up, the patients themselves rated QOL, fatigue and physical performance on a visual analogue scale (range 0-100). Furthermore, QOL was determined by the QOL index (range 0-10) according to Spitzer. Results: Patients' rating of the QOL on the visual analogue scale significantly increased from 35 +/- 25 (baseline) to 64 +/- 28 (3 months), and 66 +/- 24 (6 months; p = 0.02). Similarly, the QOL index significantly increased from 6.9 +/- 2.0 (baseline) to 8.3 +/- 2.1 (3 months), and 8.6 +/- 1.7 (6 months; p < 0.001). The increase of QOL was more pronounced in patients with complete response to TIPS. Conclusions: We demonstrate that TIPS for refractory or recidivant ascites improves the QOL in patients with cirrhosis. Our data indicates that this improvement is dependent on the response to therapy. Copyright (C) 2002 S. Karger AG, Basel

Broadscale density and aggregation of pelagic birds from circumnavigational survey of the Antarctic Ocean

We analyzed the spatial distribution and habitat relationships of pelagic birds on a circumnavigational cruise of Antarctica. Our analysis focused on two issues. First, we present a quantitative description of the structure of Antarctic seabird assemblages. This descriptive information benefits from a much more longitudinally extensive data set than previously available. Second, we used 18 crossings of the edge of the pack ice and 15 crossings of the continental slope to clarify the spatial relationship between aggregations of pelagic birds and these physical features. Our analysis corroborates the uniformity of bird species composition over the longitudinal range we covered. We found that the habitats with light (2/10 to 6/10 coverage) pack-ice cover had the lowest density and biomass of birds of the four ice habitats (open water, icebergs only, light pack ice, heavy pack ice) surveyed. Even though overall bird abundance was not concentrated at the ice edge, aggregations of individual species were statistically likely to appear there. We found only a slight (34%) elevation in bird biomass over the continental slope, despite repeated previous findings of bird aggregations associated with the Antarctic slope front. Finally, 45% of the seabirds we observed were in three large aggregations. We suggest this concentration demonstrates the importance of localized patches of prey to foraging seabirds in the Antarctic

Digital Music Notation Data Model and Prototype Delivery System

The U.Va. Library requests $44,164 in outright funds from NEH to collaborate with the University of Paderborn in Detmold, Germany, in conducting two workshops, one to be held in summer 2009 and one in spring 2010, which will promote an international collaboration to create a music notation data model and prototype delivery system. We intend to engage a select group of international scholars and technologists with a broad range of expertise in discussing the features and functions required in a scholarly XML music notation model, critically evaluate the existing data models, discuss optimum solutions for achieving the desired features, and plan for future implementation of the solutions. Our long-term plans include applying for further grant funding to continue to develop this project after this basic collaboration is complete

Numerical solution of exterior Maxwell problems by Galerkin BEM and Runge-Kutta convolution quadrature

In this paper we consider time-dependent electromagnetic scattering problems from conducting objects. We discretize the time-domain electric field integral equation using Runge-Kutta convolution quadrature in time and a Galerkin method in space. We analyze the involved operators in the Laplace domain and obtain convergence results for the fully discrete scheme. Numerical experiments indicate the sharpness of the theoretical estimate