2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), a plant growth regulator, has been used worldwide as a herbicide. Previously we evaluated the prenatal developmental effects of 2,4-D by feeding it to pregnant rats and found that it is maternally toxic and embryolethal, and it induces urogenital malformations in rat fetuses. In the study presented here, we investigated the effects of pure 2,4-D on rat em...

Hydrogen gas production from cellulose was investigated using an integrated hydrogen production process consisting of a dark fermentation reactor and microbial fuel cells (MFCs) as power sources for a microbial electrolysis cell (MEC). Two MFCs (each 25 mL) connected in series to an MEC (72 mL) produced a maximum of 0.43 V using fermentation effluent as a feed, achieving a hydrogen production r...

M e t h o d s Design: Randomized controlled trial. Allocation: Concealed.* Blinding: Blinded (outcome assessors).* Follow-up period: Up to 90 days. Setting: 21 intensive care units (ICUs) in university or community hospitals in France. Patients: 360 patients (mean age 65 y, 73% men) who had ARF, the multiple-organ dysfunction syndrome, and need for renalreplacement therapy. Exclusion criteria i...

OBJECTIVE To optimize the L-carnitine (LC) concentration as a supplement in embryo culture medium and to investigate the effect of LC on developing embryos. DESIGN Experimental study. SETTING Reproductive research center at a tertiary hospital. INTERVENTION(S) To optimize the LC concentration, 420 mouse embryos were divided into seven groups and incubated with different LC concentrations ...

Sodium polyanethol sulfonate (SPS) at 500 microgram/ml, but not sodium amylosulfate (SAS) at 500 microgram/ml, precipitated egg white lysozyme (1 mg and 50 microgram of lysozyme per ml) as determined with the assay strain Micrococcus lysodeikticus ATCC 4698. Fresh and heat-inactivated (56 degrees C, 30 min) human serum (80%, vol/vol) killed M. lysodeikticus (10(4) bacteria per ml at zero time) ...

OBJECTIVE To study whether quantitative analysis of M. tuberculosis mRNA could be used to assess bacterial viability. METHODS The levels of M. tuberculosis mRNA were compared 24, 48, and 72 hours after M. tuberculosis H(37)R(V) was treated with no drug, 1.0 micro g/ml and 10.0 micro g/ml rifampicin, 0.2 micro g/ml and 1.0 micro g/ml isoniazid, 2 micro g/ml and 4 micro g/ml ethambutol, 2 micro...

Phenolic compounds are secondary metabolites widely distributed in plants. This study aims to extract the phenolics in Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) and study its cytotoxic effect on human Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HepG2). Using Fast Blue BB, the crude phenolic extract of VCO yielded 25.54 ppm gallic acid equivalence per 0.5 mg/ml sample. The antioxidant capacity of the phenolic extract gave an IC50...

Cancellation of on-pump coronary artery bypass grafting after the circuit is primed may result in the discarding of unused circuits. In some off-pump cases, a surgeon may request that the circuit be primed, but complete the surgical procedure without utilizing the circuit. The major concerns about the unused circuit are its sterility and the performance of the oxygenator after it has been prime...