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The association between alcohol and blood glucose levels, and whether it is modified by other variables, was examined in a cross-sectional survey of 5518 staff aged 40-65 years at worksites in Auckland and Tokoroa, New Zealand. Diabetes was determined by oral glucose-tolerance tests using 1999 WHO criteria. Usual alcohol intake in the previous 3 months, measured by food frequency questionnaire, was related positively with fasting triglycerides and high-density-lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol, and unrelated with fasting glucose, but had an approximate U-shaped relationship with 2-h glucose, which varied from an adjusted mean (S.E.) of 5.62 (0.08) mmol/l in non-drinkers, down to 5.34 (0.08) mmol/l in light alcohol drinkers (alcohol or =20 g per day). Adjusting further for triglycerides increased the mean difference in 2-h glucose for all drinking categories compared with non-drinkers, particularly for heavy drinkers (> or =20 g per day), from -0.22 (S.E. = 0.10) to -0.37 (0.10) mmol/l. The confounding effect of triglycerides suggests alcohol may affect the diabetes risk by a mechanism related to the triglyceride metabolism, which in heavy drinkers may counteract the protective effect of improved insulin sensitivity, resulting in the U-shaped relationship between alcohol and diabetes described in previous studies.

Prenatal ethanol exposure produces severe changes in brain, liver, and kidney through mechanisms involving growth factors. These molecules regulate survival, differentiation, maintenance, and connectivity of brain, liver, and kidney cells. Despite the abundant available data on the short and mid-lasting effects of ethanol intoxication, only few data show the long-lasting damage induced by early ethanol administration. The aim of this study was to investigate changes in nerve growth factor (NGF), brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in brain areas, liver, and kidney of 18-mo-old male mice exposed perinatally to ethanol at 11% vol or to red wine at the same ethanol concentration. The authors found that ethanol per se elevated NGF, BDNF, HGF, and VEGF measured by ELISA in brain limbic system areas. In the liver, early exposure to ethanol solution and red wine depleted BDNF and VEGF concentrations. In the kidney, red wine exposure only decreased VEGF. In conclusion, the present study shows that, in aged mice, early administration of ethanol solution induced long-lasting damage at growth factor levels in frontal cortex, hippocampus, and liver but not in kidney. Otherwise, in mice exposed to red wine, significant changes were observed in the liver and kidney but not in the hippocampus and frontal cortex. The brain differences in ethanol-induced toxicity when ethanol is administered alone or in red wine may be related to compounds with antioxidant properties present in the red wine.

At present, Artemisia annua L. is the major source of artemisinin production. To control the outbreaks of malaria, artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) are recommended, and hence an ample amount of artemisinin is required for ACTs manufacture to save millions of lives. The low yield of this antimalarial drug in A. annua L. plants (0.01-1.1%) ensues its short supply and high cost, thus making it a topic of scrutiny worldwide. In this study, the effects of root endophyte, Piriformospora indica strain DSM 11827 and nitrogen fixing bacterium, Azotobacter chroococcum strain W-5, either singly and/or in combination for artemisinin production in A. annua L. plants have been studied under poly house conditions. The plant growth was monitored by measuring parameters like height of plant, total dry weight and leaf yield with an increase of 63.51, 52.61 and 79.70% respectively, for treatment with dual biological consortium, as compared to that of control plants. This significant improvement in biomass was associated with higher total chlorophyll content (59.29%) and enhanced nutrition (especially nitrogen and phosphorus, 55.75 and 86.21% respectively). The concentration of artemisinin along with expression patterns of artemisinin biosynthesis genes were appreciably higher in dual treatment, which showed positive correlation. The study suggested the potential use of the consortium P. indica strain DSM 11827 and A. chroococcum strain W-5 in A. annua L. plants for increased overall productivity and sustainable agriculture.

Abstract Vernacular settlements are characterized by their adaptability to local climatic conditions, topography and available resources, in terms of materials and methods of construction, while, most of them incorporate various bioclimatic design concepts. The present study examines the solar conditions in traditional settlements in a Mediterranean climate, caused by topographical features and the built form. The main aim is to explore traditional planning configurations of streetscapes in different elevations in order to discern built form patterns and planning strategies that are effective in ameliorating outdoor user-comfort conditions. For this purpose, case studies are examined from three rural traditional settlements in Cyprus; an island which features a typical Mediterranean climate. The chosen settlements are selected because they represent a comprehensive cross section of the varied topographical conditions, built forms and climatic zones representative of Mediterranean regions. Streetscapes in these villages are systematically investigated in terms of monthly and quarterly insolation simulations and the results are analyzed in terms of sunlight hours, incident solar radiation, shading percentages and sky view factors. The research findings show that certain geographical characteristics affect incident solar radiation at street corridors and related building facades. It is also made evident that traditional villages in mountainous areas – due to their denser building form and deeper street corridors compared to the more dispersed built form patterns found in the lowland areas – increase local shading patterns significantly. This particular built layout in the mountainous settlements has the potential to improve outdoor thermal user-comfort conditions during the summer. In contrast, overshadowing occurs in the winter for the vast majority of street corridors in all case studies and this is usually moderated by the incorporation of widenings of the street corridors to permit solar penetration.

SummaryStudies investigated the patient‐care (in‐hospital) and outside‐the‐hospital energy consumptions for delivering the hemodialysis (HD) service. A life cycle inventory methodology was used for this patient‐based analysis for two hospitals located in Wichita, Kansas. It was found that, for both hospitals, the actual HD machines consumed approximately 3.5 kilowatt‐hours (kWh) of electrical energy per HD, only 8% to 16% of the total energy used for delivering the HD service (in hospital). This increases to 9.6 to 28.9 kWh of hospital billable energy for the whole system of HD machine, auxiliaries, and dialysis water treatment. Converting these hospital direct electrical energy values to natural resource energy (nre) then adding the cradle‐to‐gate natural resource energy for the manufacturing and supply chain of all the HD consumables, the total is 78 to 149 kWh nre/HD. The nre measures all the direct fuel burned to generate energy and is thus directly related to emissions to the air, water, and land and is a direct secondary impact on public health from HD. The ratio of outside‐the‐hospital energy to direct hospital HD electrical energy consumption is 4:1 to 7:1, so a broader base exists for improvement than just the hospital.

Generally, compounds discriminated by animals possess psychotropic effects in animals and humans. As with many other drugs of abuse, strength of the ethanol discriminative stimulus is dose related. The majority of studies show that doses close to 1.0 g/kg are close to the minimum at which the discrimination can be learned easily. Substitution studies suggest that anxiolytic, sedative, atactic, and myorelaxant effects of ethanol all play an important role in the formation of its intercoeptive stimulus. Low doses of ethanol produce more excitatory cues, similar to amphetamine-like subjective stimuli, whereas higher doses produce rather sedative/hypnotic stimuli similar to those elicited by barbiturates. Substitution studies have shown that the complete substitution for ethanol may be exerted by certain GABA-mimetic drugs acting through different sites within the GABA(A)-benzodiazepine receptor complex (e.g., diazepam, pentobarbital, certain neurosteroids), gamma-hydroxybutyrate, and antagonists of the glutamate NMDA receptor. Among the NMDA receptor antagonists both noncompetitive (e.g., dizocilpine) and competitive antagonists (e.g., CGP 40116) are capable of substituting for ethanol. Further, some antagonists of strychnine-insensitive glycine modulatory sites among the NMDA receptor complex (e.g., L-701,324) dose-dependently substitute for the ethanol discriminative stimulus. On the other hand, neither GABA-benzodiazepine antagonists nor NMDA receptor agonists produce contradictory effects (i.e., reduce the ethanol discriminative stimulus). There is influence of a particular training dose of ethanol on the substitution pattern of different compounds. For example, 5-HT(1B/2C) agonists substitute for intermediate (1.0 g/kg) but not higher (2.0 g/kg) ethanol training doses. Discrimination studies with ethanol and drugs acting on NMDA and GABA receptors consistently indicate asymmetrical generalization. For example, ethanol is able to generalize to barbiturates and benzodiazepines, but neither the benzodiazepine nor barbiturate response generalizes to ethanol. Only a few drugs are able to antagonize, at least to some extent, the discriminative stimulus of ethanol (e.g., partial inverse GABA-benzodiazepine receptor antagonist Ro 15-4513 and the opioid antagonist naloxone). The ethanol stimulus effect may be increased (i.e., stronger recognition) by N-cholinergic drugs (nicotine), dopaminergic drugs (apomorphine), and 5-HT3 receptor agonists (m-chlorophenylbiguanide). Thus, the ethanol stimulus is composed of the several components, with the NMDA receptor and GABA(A) receptor complex being of particular importance. This suggests that a drug mixture may be more capable of substituting for ethanol (or block its stimulus) than a single compound. The ability of drugs to substitute for the ethanol discriminative stimulus is frequently, although not preclusively, associated with the reduction of voluntary ethanol consumption. The examples of positive correlation are gamma-hydroxybutyrate, possibly memantine and certain serotonergic drugs such as fluoxetine. However, it remains uncertain to what extent the discriminative stimulus of ethanol can be seen as relevant in the understanding of the complex mechanisms of dependence.

1 In a retrospective study, we stratified 79 patients with paracetamol hepatotoxicity into two groups according to weekly alcohol consumption below ( n = 49) or above ( n = 30) Royal College of Physicians' guidelines of 21 units week -1 for males and 14 for females. 2 Survival was lower (33%) and serum creatinine on admission higher (median 207 μmol) in patients whose alcohol consumption was above recommended guidelines than in those whose drank less than this (65.9% and 138 μmol, P < 0.01 and P = 0.027, respectively). An arterial blood pH < 7.30 on admission was also more common in those patients with a higher alcohol consumption (30% v 12.2%, P = 0.05). 3 In all patients whose alcohol consumption exceeded the guidelines, paracetamol overdose was fatal if associated with a serum creatinine greater than 300 μmol in conjunction with a prothrombin time over 100 s and grade 3 or 4 encephalopathy or a peak prothrombin time over 180 s. 4 Chronic alcohol intake above suggested limits is an adverse prognostic feature in cases of severe paracetamol overdose. This effect is partly related to increased nephrotoxicity.

Abstract A comprehensive thermochemical analysis of the equilibrium gaseous product composition resulting from burning chromium, hydrocarbon, and chlorohydrocarbon polymers in air at 101 kPa is presented. Calculations have been made over the range φ = 0.25–2.50 at adiabatic flame temperatures from 600 to 2100 K. The main chromium-containing species formed are CrO 3 , CrO 2 , CrO 2 Cl, and CrO 2 (OH). The yield of Cr(6+) derivatives reaches a maximum of 77% at 1650 K and φ = 0.25, mainly in the form of CrO 3 (g). The yield of CrO, CrOCl, CrOCl 2 , CrO 2 Cl 2 , CrOOH, and CrO 2 (OH) 2 does not exceed 0.1% of the initial chromium content, and that of other chromium-containing species is less than 10 −2 mol%. A reaction scheme is constructed on the basis of the data obtained. It includes reactions of the secondary oxidants CO 2 , H 2 O, HCl, OH, and O, as well as the reducing agents CO, H 2 , and H.

AbstractA mild, efficient, and green method with a reusable catalyst for the synthesis of the biologically active natural compounds (III) is developed.