Optimization of production medium is required to maximize the metabolite yield. This can be achieved by using a wide range of techniques from classical "one-factor-at-a-time" to modern statistical and mathematical techniques, viz. artificial neural network (ANN), genetic algorithm (GA) etc. Every technique comes with its own advantages and disadvantages, and despite drawbacks some techniques ar...

Drug-induced kidney disease occurs primarily in patients with underlying risk factors. A number of factors enhance the vulnerability of the kidney to the nephrotoxic effects of drugs and toxins. They are broadly categorized as patient-specific, kidney-related, and drug-related factors. One, two, or all three of the factor categories can act to promote various forms of renal injury. Importantly,...

OBJECTIVE Burn wound depth is a significant determinant of patient treatment and morbidity. While superficial partial-thickness burns generally heal by re-epithelialization with minimal scarring, deeper wounds can form hypertrophic or contracted scars, often requiring surgical excision and grafting to prevent a suboptimal result. In addition, without timely intervention, more superficial burn w...

Pesticides are an important hazard in agriculture. In developed countries their use is strictly regulated. Risk assessment for new pesticides includes comparison of the potential exposures of spray operators and other farm workers with a reference value. Usually, this is derived from toxicological studies in animals with allowance for the uncertainties in extrapolating between and within specie...

I n the late 19th century, reports by Frerichs (1861) and Flint (1863) noted an association among advanced liver disease, ascites, and oliguric renal failure in the absence of significant renal histologic changes (1). Almost 100 yr later, in a seminal article by Hecker and Sherlock (2), the pathogenesis of hepatorenal syndrome (HRS) was unraveled. The authors demonstrated the lack of major rena...

It has been well established that a rapid decrease in bone mineral density (BMD) occurs in the first 6 to 12 mo after a successful renal transplantation and persists, albeit at a lower rate, for many years. This rapid BMD loss significantly increases the fracture risk of these patients to levels that are even higher than those of patients who have chronic kidney disease stage 5 and are on dialy...

quantitative mapping of binocular receptive fields of the We perceive the world in three-dimensions even though cat visual cortical cells and suggested models for simuthe input to our visual system, the images projected lating their responses. While these and many other exonto our two retinas, has only two spatial dimensions. periments have demonstrated the neural substrates for How is this acc...

Inadequate space and funds for the construction of new roads and the steady increase in number of vehicles has prompted scholars to investigate other solutions to traffic congestion. One area gaining interest is the use of smart traffic control systems (STCS) to make traffic routing decisions. These systems use real time data and try to mimic human reasoning thus prove promising in vehicle traf...

Scoliosis, by its most basic definition, is a musculoskeletal deformity of the spine characterized by an observable lateral curvature [1]. The diagnosis known as Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) was first defined by John James in 1954 as he attempted to divide childhood idiopathic scoliosis into three peak periods of incidence. Adolescent onset was described as the appearance of scoliosis ...