Use of plasma human herpesvirus-8 viral load measurement: evaluation of practice in three UK HIV treatment centres

A retrospective audit of plasma human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8) viral load testing was performed in three HIV treatment centres over 24 months. Reasons for testing (360 tests) were: symptoms of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) (fever, lymphadenopathy and raised inflammatory markers); monitoring in known HHV-8 pathology other than Kaposi sarcoma (KS); investigation of known/suspected KS, and other/no reason. Of patients with multicentric Castleman disease (MCD), 14/16 (88%) had detectable plasma HHV-8, as did 27/45 (60%) with biopsy proven or clinically confirmed KS, and 6/19 (32%) with lymphoma. Neither of the two patients with MCD and no detectable HHV-8 had SIRS symptoms at the time of the test. There was wide variation between centres in the indications prompting HHV-8 testing, with a more conservative approach resulting in a higher proportion of positive results. Measuring plasma HHV-8 in the absence of SIRS symptoms, established HHV-8 disease monitoring, or confirmed/suspected KS is unlikely to yield detectable HHV-8 thus allowing potential cost savings

Sensory Communication

Contains table of contents for Section 2 and reports on five research projects.National Institutes of Health Contract 2 R01 DC00117National Institutes of Health Contract 1 R01 DC02032National Institutes of Health Contract 2 P01 DC00361National Institutes of Health Contract N01 DC22402National Institutes of Health Grant R01-DC001001National Institutes of Health Grant R01-DC00270National Institutes of Health Grant 5 R01 DC00126National Institutes of Health Grant R29-DC00625U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-88-K-0604U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-91-J-1454U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-92-J-1814U.S. Navy - Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division Contract N61339-94-C-0087U.S. Navy - Naval Air Warfare Center Training System Division Contract N61339-93-C-0055U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-93-1-1198National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Ames Research Center Grant NCC 2-77

Covalent modification of reduced graphene oxide with piperazine as a novel nanoadsorbent for removal of H2S gas

In the present research, piperazine grafted-reduced graphene oxide RGO-N-(piperazine) was synthesized through a three-step reaction and employed as a highly efficient nanoadsorbent for H2S gas removal. Temperature optimization within the range of 30–90 °C was set which significantly improved the adsorption capacity of the nanoadsorbent. The operational conditions including the initial concentration of H2S (60,000 ppm) with CH4 (15 vol%), H2O (10 vol%), O2 (3 vol%) and the rest by helium gas and gas hour space velocity (GHSV) 4000–6000 h−1 were examined on adsorption capacity. The results of the removal of H2S after 180 min by RGO-N-(piperazine), reduced graphene oxide (RGO), and graphene oxide (GO) were reported as 99.71, 99.18, and 99.38, respectively. Also, the output concentration of H2S after 180 min by RGO-N-(piperazine), RGO, and GO was found to be 170, 488, and 369 ppm, respectively. Both chemisorption and physisorption are suggested as mechanism in which the chemisorption is based on an acid–base reaction between H2S and amine, epoxy, hydroxyl functional groups on the surface of RGO-N-(piperazine), GO, and RGO. The piperazine augmentation of removal percentage can be attributed to the presence of amine functional groups in the case of RGO-N-(piperazine) versus RGO and GO. Finally, analyses of the equilibrium models used to describe the experimental data showed that the three-parameter isotherm equations Toth and Sips provided slightly better fits compared to the three-parameter isotherms

Telmisartan as Monotherapy or add-on Therapy in African Hypertensive Patients

Background: There is a paucity of information on the effectiveness of angiotensin II-receptor antagonists in lowering blood pressure (BP) in black African hypertensive patients. This study was conducted to evaluate the antihypertensive effect, tolerability and safety profile of telmisartan, an angiotensin II-receptor antagonist, when given alone or as add- on therapy to adult African subjects with mild to moderate essential hypertension for a period of 12- 48 weeks. Methods: This study was part of a multicentre, multinational, open – labeled non-comparative trial of the efficacy and safety of telmisartan in controlling blood pressure of hypertensive patients. 30 adult Black African hypertensive patients were recruited into the study and after a 2 week placebo washout period, were given either 40mg or 80mg telmisartan once daily (OD) for a period of 48 weeks. Subjects whose BP was not controlled on the 80mg dose at 12 weeks were given either 2.5mg bendrofluazide OD or 50mg atenolol twice daily (BID). Primary study end –point was to determine the percentage of controlled responders using trough seated BP after 12 weeks. Systolic B

Vascular α-Adrenoceptor Affinity Variation Is Not Due to Varying Populations of Subtypes Distinguished by WB 4101 and Chlorethylclonidine

Interaction with chlorethylclonidine has been used to subdivide populations of α1-adrenoceptors in some tissues. WB 4101 can distinguish high and low affinity states of the receptor. The present study was carried out to determine if different populations or affinity states of α1-adrenoceptors distinguished by either of these compounds, could explain the variation in α1-adrenoceptor agonist affinity found amongst rabbit arteries. Five arteries were studied whose affinity for noradrenaline vary between 4.8 and 6.4. These were the thoracic aorta, renal, superior mesenteric, ear and ovarian arteries. WB 4101 was found to be equally effective in antagonizing noradrenaline on all arteries. Chlorethylclonidine caused a 20-fold rightward shift of the noradrenaline dose-contraction curve in the thoracic aorta; but had little or no effect on the other vessels. Thus, the combination of different proportionsof subsets of α1-adrenoceptors distinguished by WB 4101 or chlorethylclonidine does not explain the variation in α1-adrenoceptor affinity found in these rabbit arteries

SILAR Growth of Ag₃VO₄ and Characterization for Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation

α-Ag₃VO₄ has shown promise as a photocatalyst for decomposition of organics and H₂O in particle dispersion studies, but no thin film studies of Ag₃VO₄ have looked at its photoelectrochemical (PEC) properties. Addressing this deficiency, we grow films via successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) and characterize the material using standard physical and PEC techniques. We confirm a low bandgap of 2.2 eV and report the first results on chemical and electrochemical stability, intrinsic doping behavior, flat-band potential, and potential dependence of photocurrent. While our results are not initially promising with respect to the applicability of Ag₃VO₄ to solar water splitting, they highlight the most important property changes necessary to make Ag₃VO₄ competitive with better known photocatalysts and the salience of thin-film studies for PEC material characterization

Synthesis and Characterization of CuV₂O₆ and Cu₂V₂O₇: Two Photoanode Candidates for Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation

Thin films of two copper-based metal vanadates (CuV₂O₆ and Cu₂V₂O₇) were synthesized by a facile drop-casting method. The primary photoelectrochemical (PEC) and physical properties of these two materials including photocurrent response, band gap, flat band potential, incident photon to current conversion efficiency, chemical stability, and oxygen evolution faradaic efficiency were researched. The photocurrent density of CuV₂O₆ and Cu₂V₂O₇ films at 1.23 V vs RHE in 0.1 M sodium borate buffer solution was about 25 and 35 μA/cm², respectively. At 1.58 V vs RHE, however, the photocurrent density reached approximately 220 and 120 μA/cm², respectively. Although the photocurrents observed for these two materials at 1.23 V vs RHE were relatively low, the photocurrents were much higher when tested with sodium sulfite as a hole scavenger. Suitable oxygen evolution catalysts are therefore expected to improve the PEC performance of these materials