Trialing wetlands to treat coal mining wastewaters in a low rainfall, high evaporation environment

The large number of wetlands treating mining wastewaters around the world have mostly been constructed in temperate environments. Wetlands have yet to be proven in low rainfall, high evaporation environments and such conditions are common in many parts of Australia. BHP Australia Coal is researching whether wetlands have potential in central Queensland to treat coal mining wastewaters. In this region, mean annual rainfall is < 650 mm and evaporation > 2 000 mm. A pilot-scale wetland system has been constructed at an open-cut coal mine. The system comprises six treatment cells, each 125 m long and 10 m wide. The system is described in the paper and some initial results presented. Results over the first fourteen months of operation have shown that although pH has not increased enough to enable reuse or release of the water, sulfate reduction has been observed in parts of the system, as shown by the characteristic black precipitate and smell of hydrogen sulfide emanating from the wetlands. These encouraging signs have led to experiments aimed at identifying the factors limiting sulfate reduction. The first experiment, described herein, included four treatments where straw was overlain by soil and the water level varied, being either at the top of the straw, at the top of the soil, or about 5 cm above the soil. The effect of inoculating with sulfate-reducing bacteria was investigated. Two controls were included, one covered and one open, to enable the effect of evaporation to be determined. The final treatment consisted of combined straw/cattle manure overlain with soil. Results showed that sulfate reduction did occur, as demonstrated by pH increases and lowering of sulfate levels. Mean pH of the water was significantly higher after 19 days; in the controls, pH was < 3.3, whereas in the treatments, pH ranged from 5.4 to 6.7. The best improvement in sulfate levels occurred in the straw/cattle manure treatment. (C) 1997 IAWQ. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

Physical Training Leads to Remodeling of Diaphragm Muscle in Asthma Model

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are crucial to the development and maintenance of healthy tissue and are mainly involved in extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling of skeletal muscle. This study evaluated the effects of chronic allergic airway inflammation (CAAI), induced by ovalbumin, and aerobic training in the MMPs activity in mouse diaphragm muscle. Thirty mice were divided into 6 groups: 1) control; 2) ovalbumin; 3) treadmill trained at 50% of maximum speed; 4) ovalbumin and trained at 50%; 5) trained at 75%; 6) ovalbumin and trained at 75%. CAAI did not after MMPs activities in diaphragm muscle. Nevertheless, both treadmill aerobic trainings, associated with CAAI increased the MMP-2 and -1 activities. Furthermore, MMP-9 was not detected in any group. Together, these findings suggest an ECM remodeling in diaphragm muscle of asthmatic mice submitted to physical training. This result may be useful for a better understanding of functional significance of changes in the MMPs activity in response to physical training in asthma.

New Specific Equation to Estimate Resting Energy Expenditure in Severely Obese Patients

Calculating the estimated resting energy expenditure (REE) in severely obese patients is useful, but there is controversy concerning the effectiveness of available prediction equations (PE) using body weight (BW). We evaluated the efficacy of REE equations against indirect calorimetry (IC) in severely obese subjects and aimed to develop a new equation based on body composition compartments. One hundred and twenty severely obese patients had their REE measured (MREE) by IC and compared to the most commonly used PE (Harris-Benedict (HB), Ireton-Jones, Owen, and Mifflin St. Jeor). In a random sample (n = 60), a new REE equation based on fat-free mass (FFM) was developed and validated. All PE studied failed to estimate REE in severe obesity (low concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) and limits of agreement of nearly 50% of the sample +/- 10% of MREE). The HB equation using actual BW exhibited good results for all samples when compared to IC (2,117 +/- 518 kcal/day by HB vs. 2,139 +/- 423 kcal/day by MREE, P > 0.01); these results were blunted when patients were separated by gender (2,771 vs. 2,586 kcal/day, P < 0.001 in males and 1,825 vs. 1,939 kcal/day, P < 0.001 in females). A new resting energy expenditure equation prediction was developed using FFM, Horie-Waitzberg, & Gonzalez, expressed as 560.43 + (5.39 x BW) + (14.14 x FFM). The new resting energy expenditure equation prediction, which uses FFM and BW, demonstrates higher accuracy, precision, CCC, and limits of agreement than the standard PE in patients when compared to MREE (2,129 +/- 45 kcal/day vs. 2,139 +/- 423 kcal/day, respectively, P = 0.1). The new equation developed to estimate REE, which takes into account both FFM and BW, provides better results than currently available equations.

Hematological indices at birth in relation to arterial and venous Doppler in small-for-gestational-age fetuses

Objective. To correlate Doppler results with hematological indices at birth in small-for-gestational-age (SGA) fetuses. Design. Prospective study. Setting. Tertiary teaching hospital, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Population. One hundred singleton pregnancies with SGA fetuses of > 27 weeks gestational age. Methods. All women had Doppler velocimetry of the umbilical arteries, middle cerebral artery, and ductus venosus within < 72 hours prior to delivery. After birth, umbilical artery blood was collected for hematological analysis. Main outcome measures. The association between fetal Doppler velocimetry pulsatility index (PI) and some hematological indices. Results. Umbilical artery PI showed a positive correlation with nucleated red blood cell count in the umbilical cord (r = 0.46; p<0.01), and a negative correlation with platelet count (r = -0.53; p<0.01) and white blood cell count (r = -0.42; p<0.01). Middle cerebral artery PI was positively correlated with platelet count (r = 0.43; p<0.01) and white blood cell count (r = 0.38; p<0.01), and was negatively correlated with nucleated red blood cell count (r = -0.39; p<0.01). The ductus venosus pulsatility index showed a positive correlation with nucleated red blood cell count (r = 0.36; p<0.01), and a negative correlation with platelet count (r = -0.37; p<0.01) and white blood cell count (r = -0.26; p<0.01). Conclusion. A significant positive or negative correlation between nucleated red blood cell, platelet and white blood cell counts, and Doppler indices suggests an association between placental insufficiency and the fetal hematological response.

Decision-Making Deficits Linked to Real-life Social Dysfunction in Crack Cocaine-Dependent Individuals

Crack cocaine-dependent individuals (CCDI) present abnormalities in both social adjustment and decision making, but few studies have examined this association. This study investigated cognitive and social performance of 30 subjects (CCDI x controls); CCDI were abstinent for 2 weeks. We used the Social Adjustment Scale (SAS), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Disadvantageous choices on the IGT were associated with higher levels of social dysfunction in CCDI, suggesting the ecological validity of the IGT. Social dysfunction and decision making may be linked to the same underlying prefrontal dysfunction, but the nature of this association should be further investigated. (Am J Addict 2010;00: 1-9).

A practical approach to assess depression risk and to guide risk reduction strategies in later life

Background: Many factors have been associated with the onset and maintenance of depressive symptoms in later life, although this knowledge is yet to be translated into significant health gains for the population. This study gathered information about common modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors for depression with the aim of developing a practical probabilistic model of depression that can be used to guide risk reduction strategies. \Methods: A cross-sectional study was undertaken of 20,677 community-dwelling Australians aged 60 years or over in contact with their general practitioner during the preceding 12 months. Prevalent depression (minor or major) according to the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) assessment was the main outcome of interest. Other measured exposures included self-reported age, gender, education, loss of mother or father before age 15 years, physical or sexual abuse before age 15 years, marital status, financial stress, social support, smoking and alcohol use, physical activity, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and prevalent cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases and cancer. Results: The mean age of participants was 71.7 +/- 7.6 years and 57.9% were women. Depression was present in 1665 (8.0%) of our subjects. Multivariate logistic regression showed depression was independently associated with age older than 75 years, childhood adverse experiences, adverse lifestyle practices (smoking, risk alcohol use, physical inactivity), intermediate health hazards (obesity, diabetes and hypertension), comorbid medical conditions (clinical history of coronary heart disease, stroke, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema or cancers), and social or financial strain. We stratified the exposures to build a matrix that showed that the probability of depression increased progressively with the accumulation of risk factors, from less than 3% for those with no adverse factors to more than 80% for people reporting the maximum number of risk factors. Conclusions: Our probabilistic matrix can be used to estimate depression risk and to guide the introduction of risk reduction strategies. Future studies should now aim to clarify whether interventions designed to mitigate the impact of risk factors can change the prevalence and incidence of depression in later life.

Prefrontal cortical and striatal activity to happy and fear faces in bipolar disorder is associated with comorbid substance abuse and eating disorder

Background: The spectrum approach was used to examine contributions of comorbid symptom dimensions of substance abuse and eating disorder to abnormal prefrontal-cortical and subcortical-striatal activity to happy and fear faces previously demonstrated in bipolar disorder (BD). Method: Fourteen remitted BD-type I and sixteen healthy individuals viewed neutral, mild and intense happy and fear faces in two event-related fMRI experiments. All individuals completed Substance-Use and Eating-Disorder Spectrum measures. Region-of-Interest analyses for bilateral prefrontal and subcortical-striatal regions were performed. Results: BD individuals scored significantly higher on these spectrum measures than healthy individuals (p<0.05), and were distinguished by activity in prefrontal and subcortical-striatal regions. BD relative to healthy individuals showed reduced dorsal prefrontal-cortical activity to all faces. Only BD individuals showed greater subcortical-striatal activity to happy and neutral faces. In BD individuals, negative correlations were shown between substance use severity and right PFC activity to intense happy faces (p<0.04), and between substance use severity and right caudate nucleus activity to neutral faces (p<0.03). Positive correlations were shown between eating disorder and right ventral putamen activity to intense happy (p<0.02) and neutral faces (p<0.03). Exploratory analyses revealed few significant relationships between illness variables and medication upon neural activity in BID individuals. Limitations: Small sample size of predominantly medicated BD individuals. Conclusion: This study is the first to report relationships between comorbid symptom dimensions of substance abuse and eating disorder and prefrontal-cortical and subcortical-striatal activity to facial expressions in BD. Our findings suggest that these comorbid features may contribute to observed patterns of functional abnormalities in neural systems underlying mood regulation in BD. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

CCR2 receptor is essential to activate microbicidal mechanisms to control Toxoplasma gondii infection in the central nervous system

Chemokines comprise a structurally related family of cytokines that regulate leukocyte trafficking. Because infection with Toxoplasma gondii can induce an important inflammatory reaction that, if left uncontrolled, can lead to death, we investigated the role of the chemokine receptor CCR2 in T gondii infection. We orally infected CCR2(-/-) mice with five ME-49 T gondii cysts and monitored morbidity, survival, and immune response thereafter. The CCR2(-/-) mice displayed higher susceptibility to infection as all mice died on day 28 after infection. Despite similar Th1 responses, a more evident anti-inflammatory response was induced in the peripheral organs of CCR2(-/-) mice compared with wild-type C57BL/6 mice. Additionally, CCR2-/- mice presented greater parasitism and a milder inflammatory reaction in their peripheral organs with lesser CD4(+) and MAC-1(+) and greater CD8(+) cell migration. The parasite load decreased in these organs in CCR2(-/-) mice but remained uncontrolled in the central nervous system. Additionally, we observed down-regulated inducible nitric oxide synthase expression in peripheral organs from CCR2(-/-) mice that was associated with a small nitric oxide production by spleen macrophages. In conclusion, in the absence of CCR2, another mechanism is activated to control tissue parasitism in peripheral organs. Nevertheless, CCR2 is essential for the activation of microbicidal mediators that control T gondii replication in the central nervous system.

New transposons to generate GFP protein fusions in Candida albicans

Transposon elements are important tools for gene function analysis, for example they can be used to easily create genome-wide collections of insertion mutants. Transposons may also carry sequences coding for an epitope or fluorescent marker useful for protein expression and localization analysis. We have developed three new Tn5-based transposons that incorporate a GFP (green fluorescent protein) coding sequence to generate fusion proteins in the important fungal pathogen Candida albicans. Each transposon also contains the URA3 and Kan(R) genes for yeast and bacterial selection, respectively. After in vitro transposition, the insertional allele is transferred to the chromosomal locus by homologous recombination. Transposons Tn5-CaGFP and Tn5-CaGFP-URA3:FLIP can generate C-terminal truncated GFP fusions. A URA3 flipper recycling cassette was incorporated into the transposon Th5-CaGFP-UFRA3:FLIP. After the induction of Flip recombinase to excise the marker, the heterozygous strain is transformed again in order to obtain a GFP-tagged homozygous strains. In the Tn5-CaGFP-FL transposon the markers are flanked by a rare-cutting enzyme. After in vitro transposition into a plasmid-borne target gene, the markers are eliminated by restriction digestion and religation, resulting in a construct coding for full-length GFP-fusion proteins. This transposon can generate plasmid libraries of GFP insertions in proteins where N- or C-terminal tagging may alter localization. We tested our transposon system by mutagenizing the essential septin CDC3 gene. The results indicate that the Cdc3 C-terminal extension is important for correct septin filament assembly. The transposons described here provide a new system to obtain global gene expression and protein localization data in C. albicans. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Novel Mutations in CYP11B1 Gene Leading to 11 beta-Hydroxylase Deficiency in Brazilian Patients

Background: Deficiency of 11 beta-hydroxylase results in the impairment of the last step of cortisol synthesis. In females, the phenotype of this disorder includes different degrees of genital ambiguity and arterial hypertension. Mutations in the CYP11B1 gene are responsible for this disease. Objective: The objective of the study was to screen the CYP11B1 gene for mutations in two unrelated Brazilian females with congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to 11 beta-hydroxylase deficiency. Design: The coding and intron-exon junction regions of CYP11B1 were totally sequenced. A putative splice mutation was further investigated by minigene transcription. Results: We report two novel CYP11B1 mutations in these Brazilian patients. An Arabian Lebanese descendent female was found to be homozygous for a cytosine insertion at the beginning of exon 8, changing the 404 arginine to proline. It alters the open reading frame, creating a putative truncated protein at 421 residue, which eliminates the domain necessary for the association of heme prosthetic group. A severely virilized female was homozygous for the g. 2791G>A transition in the last position of exon 4. This nucleotide is also part of 5` intron 4 donor splice site consensus sequence. Minigene experiments demonstrated that g. 2791G>A activated an alternative splice site within exon 4, leading to a 45-bp deletion in the transcript. The putative translation of such modified mRNA indicates a truncated protein at residue 280. Conclusions: We describe two novel mutations, g. 4671_4672insC and g. 2791G>A, that drastically affects normal protein structure. These mutations abolish normal enzyme activity, leading to a severe phenotype of congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to 11 beta-hydroxylase deficiency. (J Clin Endocrinol Metab 94: 3481-3485, 2009)

HLA polymorphisms as incidence factor in the progression to end-stage renal disease in Brazilian patients awaiting kidney transplant

Chronic renal failure (CRF) leads in the majority of instances to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) requiring renal replacement therapy. Age, gender, genetics, race, hypertension, and smoking among others are factors associated with ESRD. Our interest was to evaluate the possible associations of class I and II HLA antigens with ESRD renal disease independent of other factors, among patients with CRF, having various diagnoses in the Brazilian population of the Sao Paulo state. So 21 HLA-A, 31 HLA-B, and 13 HLA-DR were detected in 105 patients who were compared with 160 healthy controls of both sexes who were not related to the patients evaluated until 2005. We calculated allelic frequencies, haplotypes frequencies, etiological fractions (EF), preventive fractions, and relative risks (RR). We compared demographic data of patients and controls. The antigens positively associated with ESRD were: HLA-A78 (RR = 30.31 and EF = 0.96) and HLA-DR11 (RR = 18.87 and EF = 0.65). The antigens HLAB14 (RR = 29.90 and EF = 0.75) was present at a significantly lower frequency among patients compared with controls. In contrast, no haplotype frequency showed statically significant associations. Further molecular studies may clarify types and subtypes of alleles involved with ESRD progression.