Anaerobic Digestion Of Mixed Chemical Pulping And Palm Oil Mill Effluent In Suspended Growth Anaerobic Digester.

The feasibility of anaerobic digestion treating palm oil mill effluent (POME) with addition of chemical pulping wastewater (black liquor) was studied in semi-continuous fed digesters under thermophilic (55°C) condition. The anaerobic digestibility of POME with and without addition of black liquor (2.5% and 5% by volume) was compared. Black liquor is an effluent obtained from pulping processes and it has high toxicity level and poor biodegradability. The digesters contained POME without black liquor functioned as a control in this study. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction for hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 5 days and 10 days were examined to evaluate the effect of HRT on the performance of the digesters. The results depicted that COD reduction could be achieved up to 87% in the digester without black liquor and 79% reduction in COD with black liquor added. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was used to identify the functional group of POME operated under thermophilic temperatures and with or without addition of black liquor. Differences in the functional group were depicted within ten days HRT for both conditions. The results of this work could be used as a basis to enhance the possibility of anaerobic digestion in treating the chemical pulping wastewater which is initially known difficult to degrade biologically

Serum IL-8 is a marker of white-matter hyperintensities in patients with Alzheimer's disease

Introduction Neuroinflammation and cerebrovascular disease (CeVD) have been implicated in cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The present study aimed to examine serum inflammatory markers in preclinical stages of dementia and in AD, as well as to investigate their associations with concomitant CeVD. Methods We performed a cross-sectional case–control study including 96 AD, 140 cognitively impaired no dementia (CIND), and 79 noncognitively impaired participants. All subjects underwent neuropsychological and neuroimaging assessments, as well as collection of blood samples for measurements of serum samples interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, and tumor necrosis factor α levels. Subjects were classified as CIND or dementia based on clinical criteria. Significant CeVD, including white-matter hyperintensities (WMHs), lacunes, and cortical infarcts, was assessed by magnetic resonance imaging. Results After controlling for covariates, higher concentrations of IL-8, but not the other measured cytokines, were associated with both CIND and AD only in the presence of significant CeVD (CIND with CeVD: odds ratios [ORs] 4.53; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.5–13.4 and AD with CeVD: OR 7.26; 95% CI 1.2–43.3). Subsequent multivariate analyses showed that among the types of CeVD assessed, only WMH was associated with higher IL-8 levels in CIND and AD (WMH: OR 2.81; 95% CI 1.4–5.6). Discussion Serum IL-8 may have clinical utility as a biomarker for WMH in AD. Longitudinal follow-up studies would help validate these findings

Reversal of cardiac damage in patients with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis following transcatheter aortic valve implantation: An echocardiographic study

Background: Severe aortic stenosis (AS) results in cardiac damages, such as left ventricular hypertrophy, left atrial enlargement, pulmonary pressure elevation and in advanced stage, right ventricular damage. Généreux and colleagues proposed a staging classification based on these extra-valvular damages in 2017, with increasing stage representing more cardiac damage. While regression of these cardiac damages is expected following aortic valve replacement, the reversal of cardiac damage based on this staging system has not been described. Purpose: This study aimed to describe and stage the changes in cardiac structure and function at 6 months and 1 year after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) in patients with symptomatic severe AS. Methods: This was a retrospective, single center, longitudinal observational study. Echocardiographic data of patients who underwent TAVI were retrieved and analysed. Results: From May 2018 to Feb 2021, 31 patients underwent TAVI. 5 patients were excluded due to death <6 months post-procedure (n=2) and incomplete echocardiographic data (n=3). The mean age of the remaining 26 patients was 70.9±9.4 years, 57.7% were male, and 34.6% bicuspid aortic valve. After TAVI, transvalvular aortic mean pressure gradient reduced from 45.2±14.5 mmHg to 8.0±5.4 mmHg (p<0.001), and aortic valve area increased from 0.57±0.21 cm2 to 1.75±0.68 cm2 (p<0.001). At baseline, 6-month and 1-year, the left ventricular mass index (LVMi) were 183.4±60.7g/m2, 150.8±55.3 g/m2 and 126.8±42.1 g/m2 (p<0.001) respectively; left-atrial volume index (LAVI) were 60.4±22.8 ml/m2 , 51.7±23.8ml/m2, and 48.1±23.6ml/m2 (p=0.009) respectively; left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) were 52.3±25.4%, 64.2±29.3%, and 62.4±12.1% (p=0.005) respectively. Based on the proposed cardiac damage staging for AS, at baseline 38% of patients were stage 1, 65.4% stage 2, 7.7% stage 3 and 23.1% stage 4. At 1 year, 8.3% were stage 0, 29.2% stage 1, 58.3% stage 2, and 4.2% stage 4. 12 patients (46%) showed improvement in cardiac damage staging, and the other 14 (54%) remained in the same stage. Conclusion: In patients with symptomatic severe AS, there were overall significant regression in LVMi and LAVI, and improvement in LVEF at 1 year after TAVI. However, improvement in cardiac damage staging was observed in only 46% of patients

Autoantibodies against type I IFNs in patients with life-threatening COVID-19

Interindividual clinical variability in the course of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is vast. We report that at least 101 of 987 patients with life-threatening coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia had neutralizing immunoglobulin G (IgG) autoantibodies (auto-Abs) against interferon-w (IFN-w) (13 patients), against the 13 types of IFN-a (36), or against both (52) at the onset of critical disease; a few also had auto-Abs against the other three type I IFNs. The auto-Abs neutralize the ability of the corresponding type I IFNs to block SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro. These auto-Abs were not found in 663 individuals with asymptomatic or mild SARS-CoV-2 infection and were present in only 4 of 1227 healthy individuals. Patients with auto-Abs were aged 25 to 87 years and 95 of the 101 were men. A B cell autoimmune phenocopy of inborn errors of type I IFN immunity accounts for life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia in at least 2.6% of women and 12.5% of men

International nosocomial infection control consortium (INICC) report, data summary of 36 countries, for 2004-2009

The results of a surveillance study conducted by the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) from January 2004 through December 2009 in 422 intensive care units (ICUs) of 36 countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe are reported. During the 6-year study period, using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN; formerly the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance system [NNIS]) definitions for device-associated health care-associated infections, we gathered prospective data from 313,008 patients hospitalized in the consortium's ICUs for an aggregate of 2,194,897 ICU bed-days. Despite the fact that the use of devices in the developing countries' ICUs was remarkably similar to that reported in US ICUs in the CDC's NHSN, rates of device-associated nosocomial infection were significantly higher in the ICUs of the INICC hospitals; the pooled rate of central line-associated bloodstream infection in the INICC ICUs of 6.8 per 1,000 central line-days was more than 3-fold higher than the 2.0 per 1,000 central line-days reported in comparable US ICUs. The overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia also was far higher (15.8 vs 3.3 per 1,000 ventilator-days), as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (6.3 vs. 3.3 per 1,000 catheter-days). Notably, the frequencies of resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates to imipenem (47.2% vs 23.0%), Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates to ceftazidime (76.3% vs 27.1%), Escherichia coli isolates to ceftazidime (66.7% vs 8.1%), Staphylococcus aureus isolates to methicillin (84.4% vs 56.8%), were also higher in the consortium's ICUs, and the crude unadjusted excess mortalities of device-related infections ranged from 7.3% (for catheter-associated urinary tract infection) to 15.2% (for ventilator-associated pneumonia). Copyright © 2012 by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved