Water consumption in Iron Age, Roman, and Early Medieval Croatia.

Patterns of water consumption by past human populations are rarely considered, yet drinking behavior is socially mediated and access to water sources is often socially controlled. Oxygen isotope analysis of archeological human remains is commonly used to identify migrants in the archeological record, but it can also be used to consider water itself, as this technique documents water consumption rather than migration directly. Here, we report an oxygen isotope study of humans and animals from coastal regions of Croatia in the Iron Age, Roman, and Early Medieval periods. The results show that while faunal values have little diachronic variation, the human data vary through time, and there are wide ranges of values within each period. Our interpretation is that this is not solely a result of mobility, but that human behavior can and did lead to human oxygen isotope ratios that are different from that expected from consumption of local precipitation.

Recurrent mandibular fractures: a retrospective study over 17 years on aetiology, demographics, fracture patterns, and management.

Recurrent fractures of the mandible are rare, however in Darwin, Australia, their occurrence is relatively frequent. This retrospective study identified 127 patients with 148 recurrent mandibular fractures treated at Royal Darwin Hospital between 2000 and 2017. Age, sex, ethnicity, marital status, aetiology, risk factors, anatomical location of the fractures, fracture patterns, and management of the fractures were analysed. The majority of patients were male (85.8%) (P < 0.001); 62.8% were unmarried (P < 0.001) and 72.4% were indigenous (P < 0.001). Alcohol was involved in 79.1% of cases (P < 0.001) and assault was the most common mechanism of injury (84.5%) (P < 0.001). The angle of the mandible was the most common site (P < 0.001), and recurrent fractures were more likely to occur at sites different to a previous fracture fixation site (P < 0.001). Smoking, alcohol abuse, and diabetes were strongly associated with recurrent fractures (all P < 0.001). Most patients were managed with open reduction internal fixation. In conclusion, recurrent fractures of the mandible frequently involved the angle of the mandible and occurred at different sites. Their incidence was more common among the unmarried, male, and indigenous population, and smoking, alcohol abuse, and diabetes were found to be significant risk factors.

Adsorptive membrane chromatography for purification of plasmid DNA.

Adsorptive membranes were investigated for the downstream processing of plasmid DNA by quantifying both separation efficiencies and adsorption uptake with the anion-exchange membranes. Separation efficiencies of the 10-ml Mustang-Q were measured using pulses of 6.1-kilo base pair plasmid DNA and lysozyme tracers, and comparing the responses for both conventional and reverse-flow operation. The plasmid exhibited nearly 200 plates/cm, almost as high efficiency as the protein despite the large difference in size. This behavior contrasts strongly with typical behavior for spherical porous particle packings, which predicted large decreases in efficiency with increases in tracer size. Batch adsorption isotherms for the 6.1-kilo base pair plasmid on small sheets of anion-exchange membranes at various ionic strengths showed high capacities for very large biomolecules. The maximum binding capacity for the membrane unit was calculated as 10 mg plasmid/ml, an order of magnitude greater than typical values reported for porous beads.

Bioseparations.

Here we review key applications of separation technology in applied biology. We first sketch out the field as a whole, but then narrow our scope to the processing of fermentation products, particularly to high-value biologicals such as proteins and nucleotides. We go on to provide a qualitative overview describing the importance and general nature of this large field, major trends, and the strategies that have proven most fruitful in evolving effective separation and purification processes. We then give a detailed description of individual separations equipment and the principles governing their operation. We concentrate throughout on making the available literature accessible to the reader; we provide what is hoped to be a representative set of basic references. However, these references, in turn, include some that suggest promising new developments as well as a number of more specialized reviews. We hope that our overall result provides the reader with access to the most relevant literature.

The effect of thromboresistent surfaces on the development of blood emboli and hemolysis.

Heparinized dog blood was sheared in conicylindrical test cells which had been coated with thrombo-resistant materials. Hemolysis and blood emboli formation in the coated cells were as great or greater than in uncoated polycarbonate cells. These results suggest that materials which resist the buildup of thrombi may still be stimulating emboli formation and red cell damage.