Lack of attention to the early design process in relation to Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has lead to an unsustainable built environment. Often building auditing/monitoring utilising EIA and Life Cycle Cost Assessment (LCCA) tools are used after the completion of the project, when it is too late to influence the design, materials or components to be used. A sub-processes focusing on en...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of transfusion-induced chronic liver disease in hemophiliacs, with 70% to 90% being anti-HCV positive. Seroreversion or loss of antibody response to HCV has been observed in a small proportion of human immunodeficiency virus-positive [HIV(+)] anti-HCV(+) hemophilic men. Despite the seroreversion to an anti-HCV-negative state, such patients continue to sh...

Riboflavin serves as a precursor for flavocoenzymes (FMN and FAD) and is essential for all living organisms. The two committed enzymatic steps of riboflavin biosynthesis are performed in plants by bifunctional RIBA enzymes comprised of GTP cyclohydrolase II (GCHII) and 3,4-dihydroxy-2-butanone-4-phosphate synthase (DHBPS). Angiosperms share a small RIBA gene family consisting of three members. ...

BACKGROUND For many people infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV), the route of exposure, risk of transmission, and severity of associated liver disease are unknown. We studied these variables in people who donated blood voluntarily. METHODS Blood donors who tested positive for HCV antibodies on enzyme immunoassay were classified according to whether the results of a confirmatory second-ge...

Background Evaluation of serological assays for hepatitis C (HCV) antibody screening is crucial ,as supplemental testing [Nucleic Acid Testing & Recombinant Immunoblot Assay (RIBA)] to verify anti-HCV reactive results is not widely practiced, due to limited availability and high cost. The current study was undertaken from January to May 2011, to evaluate 4 serological assays for HCV diagnosis, ...

Dr. Marcia da Suva Cardoso, German Red Cross Blood Bank and, Department of Transfusion , Medicine, University of Ulm, Helmholzstrasse 10, D-89081 Ulm (Germany) Dear Sir, In order to establish the prevalence of HCV infectious patients in the Dialysis Unit of the Board of Dialysis of Transplantation Ulm, we investigated a group of 195 patients by HCV RT/PCR. For this purpose we used a well-establ...

BACKGROUND Antibodies to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) have typically been detected by enzyme immunoassay (EIA). A chemiluminescence assay (CA) for anti-HCV is now commercially available. METHODS We compared the positive rate for a CA in a HCV screening program for veterans with historical rates obtained with EIA. We also compared results in 2824 samples tested by both methods and assessed the...

The sensitivity and specificity of two third-generation screening tests for the detection of antibody to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) was evaluated in a side-by-side study (Abbott HCV EIA 3.0/Ortho HCV ELISA 3.0). Specimens that were reactive in either ELISA were then retested by the other ELISA, and confirmed by RIBA-3. The screening of 15,540 serum samples from healthy blood donors showed a s...