The Electrolytic Recovery of Copper and Zinc from Scrap Brass with Special Reference to Lead-Bearing Brass.

Several methods have been investigated, with some success, for treating scrap brass to recover copper and zinc, either as pure metals or as salts of the metals. One of the more promising of these methods is electrolysis in sulfate solution for the recovery of pure copper and zinc.

Reference photographs for nasolabial appearance rating in unilateral cleft lip and palate

A popular method for nasolabial rating in unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) is the Asher-McDade system consisting of a 5-point ordinal scale assessing nasal form, nasal symmetry, nasal profile, and vermilion border. The aim of the current study was to identify reference photographs illustrating this scale to facilitate its use.Four observers assessed nasolabial appearance on frontal and profile photographs of the nasolabial area of 42 children of Caucasian origin with a repaired UCLP at age 9 years. Cronbachs alpha, based on the individual scores of the 4 observers, ranged from 0.73 to 0.82 for the 4 nasolabial ratings, indicating a good reliability. The reliability of the overall score (mean of the 4 component scores) was also high (Cronbachs alpha, 0.83). Both for the nasolabial component ratings and for the overall score, duplicate measurement errors were small. The reliability for the mean of the 4 observers' scores was good, Spearman rank correlation coefficients ranging from 0.56 to 0.96.Subsequently, photographs were selected that showed the highest agreement among observers. For each of the 4 components (eg, nasal form, nasal deviation, nasal profile, and shape of the vermilion border), 5 photographs were selected to illustrate the whole range of the scale (score, 1-5), resulting in the selection of 20 pictures.It was concluded that nasolabial appearance rating can be performed reliably using a panel of judges and averaging the scores of all observers. Reference photographs, as developed from this study, may facilitate the rating task.

Call for a reference model of chronic hind limb ischemia to investigate therapeutic angiogenesis

A large number of studies utilize animal models to investigate therapeutic angiogenesis. However, the lack of a standardized experimental model leaves the comparison of different studies problematic. To establish a reference model of prolonged moderate tissue ischemia, we created unilateral hind limb ischemia in athymic rnu-rats by surgical excision of the femoral vessels. Blood flow of the limb was monitored for 60 days by laser Doppler imaging. Following a short postoperative period of substantially depressed perfusion, the animals showed a status of moderate hind limb ischemia from day 14 onwards. Thereafter, the perfusion remained at a constant level (55.5% of normal value) until the end of the observation period. Histopathological assessment of the ischemic musculature on postoperative days 28 and 60 showed essentially no inflammatory cell infiltrate or fibrosis. However, the mitochondrial activity and capillary-to-fiber ratio of the muscular tissue was reduced to 52.7% of normal, presenting with a significant weakness of the ischemic limb evidenced by a progressive decline in performance. Intramuscular injection of culture-expanded human endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) resulted in a significant increase in blood flow (82.0+/-3.5% of normal), capillary density (1.60+/-0.08/muscle fiber) and smooth muscle covered arterioles (8.0+/-0.6/high power field) in the ischemic hind limb as compared to controls (55.0+/-3.1%; 0.99+/-0.03; 5.0+/-0.2). In conclusion, chronic, moderate hind limb ischemia with consistently reduced perfusion levels persisting over a prolonged period can be established reliably in rnu athymic nude rats and is responsive to pro-angiogenic treatments such as EPC transplantation. This study provides a detailed protocol of a highly reproducible reference model to test novel therapeutic options for limb ischemia.

Culture-induced changes in blood-brain barrier transcriptome: implications for amino-acid transporters in vivo

Tight homeostatic control of brain amino acids (AA) depends on transport by solute carrier family proteins expressed by the blood-brain barrier (BBB) microvascular endothelial cells (BMEC). To characterize the mouse BMEC transcriptome and probe culture-induced changes, microarray analyses of platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1-positive (PECAM1(+)) endothelial cells (ppMBMECs) were compared with primary MBMECs (pMBMEC) cultured in the presence or absence of glial cells and with b.End5 endothelioma cell line. Selected cell marker and AA transporter mRNA levels were further verified by reverse transcription real-time PCR. Regardless of glial coculture, expression of a large subset of genes was strongly altered by a brief culture step. This is consistent with the known dependence of BMECs on in vivo interactions to maintain physiologic functions, for example, tight barrier formation, and their consequent dedifferentiation in culture. Seven (4F2hc, Lat1, Taut, Snat3, Snat5, Xpct, and Cat1) of nine AA transporter mRNAs highly expressed in freshly isolated ppMBMECs were strongly downregulated for all cultures and two (Snat2 and Eaat3) were variably regulated. In contrast, five AA transporter mRNAs with low expression in ppMBMECs, including y(+)Lat2, xCT, and Snat1, were upregulated by culture. We hypothesized that the AA transporters highly expressed in ppMBMECs and downregulated in culture have a major in vivo function for BBB transendothelial transport.

Indirectly measuring evaluations of several attitude objects in relation to a neutral reference point

This article presents a new response time measure of evaluations, the Evaluative Movement Assessment (EMA). Two properties are verified for the first time in a response time measure: (a) mapping of multiple attitude objects to a single scale, and (b) centering that scale around a neutral point. Property (a) has implications when self-report and response time measures of attitudes have a low correlation. A study using EMA as an indirect measure revealed a low correlation with self-reported attitudes when the correlation reflected between-subjects differences in preferences for one attitude object to a second. Previously this result may have been interpreted as dissociation between two measures. However, when correlations from the same data reflected within-subject preference rank orders between multiple attitude objects, they were substantial (average r = .64). This result suggests that the presence of low correlations between self-report and response time measures in previous studies may be a reflection of methodological aspects of the response time measurement techniques. Property (b) has implications for exploring theoretical questions that require assessment of whether an evaluation is positive or negative (e.g., prejudice), because it allows such classifications in response time measurement to be made for the first time.

Reference intervals for common carotid intima-media thickness measured with echotracking: relation with risk factors

AIMS Common carotid artery intima-media thickness (CCIMT) is widely used as a surrogate marker of atherosclerosis, given its predictive association with cardiovascular disease (CVD). The interpretation of CCIMT values has been hampered by the absence of reference values, however. We therefore aimed to establish reference intervals of CCIMT, obtained using the probably most accurate method at present (i.e. echotracking), to help interpretation of these measures. METHODS AND RESULTS We combined CCIMT data obtained by echotracking on 24 871 individuals (53% men; age range 15-101 years) from 24 research centres worldwide. Individuals without CVD, cardiovascular risk factors (CV-RFs), and BP-, lipid-, and/or glucose-lowering medication constituted a healthy sub-population (n = 4234) used to establish sex-specific equations for percentiles of CCIMT across age. With these equations, we generated CCIMT Z-scores in different reference sub-populations, thereby allowing for a standardized comparison between observed and predicted ('normal') values from individuals of the same age and sex. In the sub-population without CVD and treatment (n = 14 609), and in men and women, respectively, CCIMT Z-scores were independently associated with systolic blood pressure [standardized βs 0.19 (95% CI: 0.16-0.22) and 0.18 (0.15-0.21)], smoking [0.25 (0.19-0.31) and 0.11 (0.04-0.18)], diabetes [0.19 (0.05-0.33) and 0.19 (0.02-0.36)], total-to-HDL cholesterol ratio [0.07 (0.04-0.10) and 0.05 (0.02-0.09)], and body mass index [0.14 (0.12-0.17) and 0.07 (0.04-0.10)]. CONCLUSION We estimated age- and sex-specific percentiles of CCIMT in a healthy population and assessed the association of CV-RFs with CCIMT Z-scores, which enables comparison of IMT values for (patient) groups with different cardiovascular risk profiles, helping interpretation of such measures obtained both in research and clinical settings.

Draft Genome Sequence of the Virulent Clostridium chauvoei Reference Strain JF4335

Clostridium chauvoei is the etiological agent of blackleg, a disease of cattle and sheep with high mortality rates, causing severe economic losses in livestock production. Here, we report the draft genome sequence of the virulent C. chauvoei strain JF4335 (2.8 Mbp and 28% G+C content) and the annotation of the genome.

SLR-derived terrestrial reference frame using the observations to LAGEOS-1/2, Starlette, Stella, and AJISAI

Currently, the contributions of Starlette, Stella, and AJISAI are not taken into account when defining the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF), despite the large amount of data collected in a long time-span. Consequently, the SLR-derived parameters and the SLR part of the ITRF are almost exclusively defined by LAGEOS-1 and LAGEOS-2. We investigate the potential of combining the observations to several SLR satellites with different orbital characteristics. Ten years of SLR data are homogeneously processed using the development version 5.3 of the Bernese GNSS Software. Special emphasis is put on orbit parameterization and the impact of LEO data on the estimation of the geocenter coordinates, Earth rotation parameters, Earth gravity field coefficients, and the station coordinates in one common adjustment procedure. We find that the parameters derived from the multi-satellite solutions are of better quality than those obtained in single satellite solutions or solutions based on the two LAGEOS satellites. A spectral analysis of the SLR network scale w.r.t. SLRF2008 shows that artifacts related to orbit perturbations in the LAGEOS-1/2 solutions, i.e., periods related to the draconitic years of the LAGEOS satellites, are greatly reduced in the combined solutions.