High-level fed-batch fermentative expression of an engineered Staphylococcal protein A based ligand in E. coli: purification and characterization

The major platform for high level recombinant protein production is based on genetically modified microorganisms like Escherichia coli (E. coli) due to its short dividing time, ability to use inexpensive substrates and additionally, its genetics is comparatively simple, well characterized and can be manipulated easily. Here, we investigated the possibilities of finding the best media for high cell density fermentation, by analyzing different media samples, focusing on improving fermentation techniques and recombinant protein production. Initial fermentation of E. coli BL21 DE3:pAV01 in baffled flasks showed that high cell density was achieved when using complex media, Luria–Bertani (LB) and Terrific medium broth (TB) (10 and 14 g/L wet weight, respectively), as compared to mineral media M9, modified minimal medium (MMM) and Riesenberg mineral medium (RM) (7, 8 and 7 g/L, respectively). However, in fed-batch fermentation processes when using MMM after 25 h cultivation, it was possible to yield an optical density (OD600) of 139 corresponding to 172 g/L of wet biomass was produced in a 30 L TV Techfors-S Infors HT fermenter, with a computer controlled nutrient supply (glucose as a carbon source) delivery system, indicating nearly 1.5 times that obtained from TB. Upon purification, a total of 1.65 mg/g of protein per gram cell biomass was obtained and the purified AviPure showed affinity for immunoglobulin. High cell density fed batch fermentation was achieved by selecting the best media and growth conditions, by utilizing a number of fermentation parameters like media, fermentation conditions, chemical concentrations, pO2 level, stirrer speed, pH level and feed media addition. It is possible to reach cell densities higher than shake flasks and stirred tank reactors with the improved oxygen transfer rate and feed.Fil: Kangwa, Martin. Jacobs University; AlemaniaFil: Yelemane, Vikas. Jacobs University; AlemaniaFil: Polat, Ayse Nur. Jacobs University; AlemaniaFil: Gorrepati, Kanaka Durga Devi. Jacobs University; AlemaniaFil: Grasselli, Mariano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes; ArgentinaFil: Fernández Lahore, Marcelo. Jacobs University; Alemani

Acute Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding Due to Metastatic Lung Cancer: An Unusual Case

There have been several published reports on metastatic lesions in the stomach, but the number of cases have been limited due to the low frequency of the condition. Metastatic lesions in the stomach are usually asymptomatic. A 55-year-old man with known metastatic lung adenocancer exhibited epigastric pain, hematemesis, and melena. A bleeding, ulcerated gastric metastasis was found and treated with endoscopic therapy and omeprazole

Proliferative actinic keratosis: An invasive squamous cell carcinoma or not?

Actinic keratoses have variants that differ clinically and pathologically. Proliferative actinic keratoses (PAK) are known to be resistant against standard therapies and to create a tendency for the development of invasive squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). This study retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 50 patients with 51 PAK lesions. Fifty patients (40 male, 10 female) with a mean age of 68.5 were included in the study. Thirty-two (63%) PAK lesions were clinically selected for total excision but only 27 of them could be totally excised. Among the excised lesions, 13 were reported to be PAK, 13 were SCC, and 1 was keratoacanthoma. There was no significant difference between the PAK and SCC groups. Overall, the groups with excised and unexcised lesions were statistically similar with respect to age, sex, lesion duration, localization, size, and surface features, but induration was more common in the SCC group. The mean follow-up time was 19.7 and 17.0 months in the PAK and SCC group, respectively. In conclusion, 25% (13/51) of lesions diagnosed as PAK were invasive SCC, which is of clinical and histopathological significance. Our results suggest that the definition of PAK should be histopathologically revised and that total excisional biopsy instead of punch biopsy should be considered, especially for lesions with a proliferative appearance. </p

An ethno-veterinary study on plants used for the treatment of livestock diseases in Genç (Bingöl-Turkey)

81-88There are a very limited number of studies on plants traditionally used in animal diseases in Turkey. As a result, valuable information is getting lost. Traditional plant use in Genç District (Turkey) was recorded by semi-structured interviews with breeders and shepherds. The collected information was subjected to quantitative analysis using the informant consensus factor. It was recorded that a total of 53 plants from 24 families were used in the traditional treatment of animal diseases. 8 of these plants are endemic plants with a narrow distribution area and were recorded for the first time by us. The breeders stated that they applied such plants to animals with peace in mind as these plants had been used for human treatment as well. This study is the first ethnoveterinary study conducted in the province. Phytochemical studies need to be carried out on medicinal plants used in livestock around Bingöl Province. We believe that the use of this preliminary information obtained from ethnoveterinary studies by researchers will contribute to the production of natural animal medicines

COL4A1-related autosomal recessive encephalopathy in 2 Turkish children.

OBJECTIVE: This study presents the neurologic phenotypes of 2 brothers with a novel homozygous COL4A1 mutation that was identified in a large Turkish consanguineous cohort of neurogenetic diseases. METHODS: Whole-exome sequencing and bioinformatic analysis of consanguineous families with children affected by early-onset, neurogenetic disorders was performed using the RD-Connect Genome-Phenome Analysis Platform. We also performed clinical, EEG, and neuroimaging analyses in unaffected siblings and parents. RESULTS: We have identified a homozygous missense mutation in COL4A1 (p.Gly1278Ser, NM_001845.5:c.3832G>T) in 2 siblings affected by small vessel brain disease with periventricular leukoencephalopathy and ocular defects. Presenting symptoms included mild weakness, hemiparetic gait, pyramidal findings, and seizures, whereas their intellectual and behavioral functions were normal. Both parents and 5 of the siblings (3 boys and 2 girls) were heterozygous for the variant. They did not show any clinical or laboratory signs of small vessel disease. CONCLUSIONS: COL4A1 has previously been associated with dominant small vessel disease of the brain and other organs, manifesting with high penetrance in heterozygous mutation carriers. Our findings provide evidence that COL4A1-related encephalopathy can be inherited in an autosomal recessive manner, which is important for counseling, prognosis, and treatment. Genotype-phenotype correlations remain to be established

Demographic, Clinical and Radiological Features of Healthcare Workers and Two Index Cases That Were Infected with COVID-19 (SARS-Cov-2)

To evaluate the index cases leading to the transmission of healthcare workers (HCWs) in Rize/Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan University Faculty of Medicine Education and Research Hospital with COVID-19 infection and the clinical features of infected HCWs. The first two COVID-19 test positive patients treated at Rize/Turkey between 10.03.2020 and 12.04.2020 and HCWs those who examined these two patients whose COVID-19 PCR test results were positive were included in this study. In Rize/Turkey, the first and second cases of positive COVID-19 which was recorded on 13.03.2020 on 25.03.2020, 27 HCWs (female, 63%, n = 17 and male, 37%, n = 10 and the mean age was 33.2 ± 6.9 years) who contacted during the treatment of these cases and became COVID-19 positive were examined. The median of symptom duration (days) of the HCWs was 5 days (range: 0–17 days). Fever, 55.6% (n = 15); malaise, 44.4% (n = 12); cough, 40.7% (n = 11); sore throat, 33.3% (n = 9); myalgia, 33.3% (n = 9); dyspnea, 14.8% (n = 4); diarrhea, 22.2% (n = 6); vomiting, 14.8% (n = 4); anosmia, 18.5% (n = 5); ageusia, 22.2% (n = 6) and headache, 37% (n = 10) of the cases. The rates of headache in female HCWs infected with COVID-19 were found to be significantly higher compared to men (52.9%). None of them had severe clinical situation requiring intensive care follow-up or acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Laboratory measurements of HCWs were carried out at the first when they had symptoms and when they recovered, and results were compared accordingly. The thorax computerized tomography (CT) findings of HCWs were normal in 74.1% (n = 20) of total. HCWs were initially affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Early measures provided by the Health authorities, access to diagnosis and treatment, and the young age average in HCWs prevented severe outcomes such as severe clinical course and mortality at the beginning of the outbreak

The evolution and uses of the stories of the Prophets

This is a stable archival PDF of an open-access, peer-reviewed journal volume originally published at www.mizanproject.org/journal

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P &lt; 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Fugitivity and Carceral Humanitarianism in the Ottoman Mediterranean, c. 1876-1916

This thesis explores the evolution of Ottoman humanitarianism as a legal, moral, and political enterprise. It is a critical inquiry into the rhetoric of humanity: how it shapes law and the jurisdiction thereof. Building on the settlement of immigrants – *Muhajirs* – in the Ottoman Mediterranean between c. 1876 and 1916, I demonstrate how the provision of humanitarian refuge was a legal instrument of state- and empire-making. In doing so, I ask the following questions: How did an immigrant enter political society? How did humanitarian norms and practices police the boundaries and the margins of political society, and to what end? How did humanitarian and contractual notions of political society interact in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth centuries? How has contractarianism shaped the modern humanitarian enterprise? I contend that the imperial humanitarianisms of the nineteenth century advanced the ‘standard of civilisation’ as the organising principle of contractual society, as this humanitarian maxim generated new kinds of gendered, classed, and racial exclusions. This research draws upon a socio-legal archive of fugitives – exiles, asylees, the stateless – comprising memoirs, petitions, consular archives, governmental correspondence, and legal texts and opinions. It unfolds in three sections, focusing on the legal constructions of the refugee settlement or *mesken*, the settler household, or *mahrem*, and the settler-citizen, or *muvatın*. In each section, I centre fugitive histories attesting to the aporias of the Ottoman humanitarian enterprise. I discuss how the material contradictions of Ottoman humanitarianism precipitated and sustained the gendered, classed, and racial conflicts within the settlement, the household, and the body politic. I then follow these conflicts, as they unfolded between the *Settler* and the *Native*, the *Master* and the *Slave*, and the *Citizen* and the *Enemy*, respectively. The first part of the thesis, ‘*Mesken*’, examines how the carceral formation of agrarian settlement transformed Caucasian settler communities, drawing a diachronic comparison between Caucasian exile in the Balkans and Syria. I argue that the success of the settlements came at the cost of expropriating and exploiting the most vulnerable among the refugee settlers. In the second part of the thesis, ‘*Mahrem*’, I look at the legal fabrications of the settler household, exploring the juridical justifications for the exploitation and exclusion between the landholding elites and their slaves and workers. In the dissertation’s third and final part, ‘*Muvatın*’, I draw upon the debates surrounding the Ottoman Immigration Resolution of 1902 to disclose the pariahs of this emerging order. I juxtapose the humanitarian and conditional inclusion of Muslim settlers within Ottoman political society with the parallel contractual exclusion of Armenian out-migrants from the body politic. In conclusion, I argue that the unequal incorporation of migrants into Ottoman modernity both construed and challenged the carceral ends of this humanitarian enterprise.St John's College, Cambridge University, UK Royal Historical Society, UK Cambridge History Faculty Trust Fund, UK Cambridge International Trust, U

Examination of Volatile Organic Compounds From Building Products in Terms of Building Biology

WOS: 000448459700008Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are within important pollutant groups which cause indoor air pollution and many serious health problems. VOCs include hundreds of different pollutants with similar properties and can easily volatilize at low temperatures. In order to avoid problems, negativities caused by VOCs in the building and its environments and the effects on human health must be determined. In this study, an examination and relations model, produced for this purpose in the field of building biology, is used. The process of this model includes the determination of a negative feature in building: building products with VOCs, a negative condition: VOCs in indoor air, a hazardous effect: being exposed to VOCs and many health problems. The research has shown that many different building products may contain VOCs. The indoor environment conditions are effective on emission properties. It has been understood that indoor air concentrations of these pollutants are mostly much higher than outdoor concentrations in many studies. For the exposure of users, not only the type of pollutants but also the properties of exposure are effective. In order to avoid negative effects or to reduce the concentrations, it is advised not to prefer VOCs containing building products, to control their usage conditions and to supply accurate ventilation in buildings. Recommendations are provided for future researches