Cold plasma inactivation of chronic wound bacteria.

Cold plasma is partly ionized non-thermal plasma generated at atmospheric pressure. It has been recognized as an alternative approach in medicine for sterilization of wounds, promotion of wound healing, topical treatment of skin diseases with microbial involvement and treatment of cancer. Cold plasma used in wound therapy inhibits microbes in chronic wound due to its antiseptic effects, while promoting healing by stimulation of cell proliferation and migration of wound relating skin cells. In this study, two types of plasma systems are employed to generate cold plasma: a parallel plate dielectric barrier discharge and a capillary-guided corona discharge. Parameters such as applied voltage, discharge frequency, treatment time and the flow of the carrier gas influence the cold plasma chemistry and therefore change the composition and concentration of plasma species that react with the target sample. Chronic wound that fails to heal often infected by multidrug resistant organisms makes them recalcitrant to healing. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) are two common bacteria in infected and clinically non-infected wounds. The efficacies of the cold plasma generated by the two designs on the inactivation of three different isolates of MRSA and four isolates of P. aeruginosa are reported here.

Second Toe Systolic Pressure Measurements are Valid Substitutes for First Toe Systolic Pressure Measurements in Diabetic Patients: A Prospective Study.

OBJECTIVE: Toe systolic pressure is a component of the standard vascular and diabetic foot assessment. Until now,clinicians have measured only first toe pressure given a lack of evidence for measurements of the other toes. In diabetic patients, first toe measurements are often not possible because of ulceration or amputation. It was hypothesized that the adjacent second toe systolic pressure measurements would be interchangeable with those of the first toe. METHODS: A prospective study was performed on 100 participants with diabetes mellitus. Duplicate systolic toe pressures were measured in the first toe and adjacent second toe using the Systoe Automated Toe Pressure System, Systoe Photophlethysmograph Sensor Cuff, and occlusion cuffs measuring 120 x 25 mm for the first toe and 90 x 15 mm for the second toe. Correlation analysis was followed by Ordinary Least Products regression to detect and distinguish fixed and proportional bias between the two toe measurements. The acceptable limits of interchangeable results were defined as 5-10 mmHg. RESULTS: Correlation coefficient r » 0.908; p < 0.001. Eighty-two percent of the variations in the second toe measurements were accounted for by knowing the first toe measurements and vice versa. Ordinary Least Products regression showed no fixed or proportional bias between the two methods of measurement: second toe systolic pressure = (-0.579) + (1.038) * first toe systolic pressure. Repeatability analysis showed a 0.5%variation between duplicate measurements. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study which demonstrates that second toe systolic pressures are interchangeable with those of the first toe. Second toe pressures can be used in diabetic patients whose first toe pressures cannot be assessed.

Multispecies coexistence of trees in tropical forests: spatial signals of topographic niche differentiation increase with environmental heterogeneity.

Neutral and niche theories give contrasting explanations for the maintenance of tropical tree species diversity. Both have some empirical support, but methods to disentangle their effects have not yet been developed. We applied a statistical measure of spatial structure to data from 14 large tropical forest plots to test a prediction of niche theory that is incompatible with neutral theory: that species in heterogeneous environments should separate out in space according to their niche preferences. We chose plots across a range of topographic heterogeneity, and tested whether pairwise spatial associations among species were more variable in more heterogeneous sites. We found strong support for this prediction, based on a strong positive relationship between variance in the spatial structure of species pairs and topographic heterogeneity across sites. We interpret this pattern as evidence of pervasive niche differentiation, which increases in importance with increasing environmental heterogeneity.

The effect of chlorpromazine on cerebral glucose, ATP, ADP, AMP and ATPase in the mouse.

1. Administration of chlorpromazine 10 mg/kg intraperitoneally to mice produced no alteration in cerebral adenosine triphosphate (ATP), adenosine diphosphate (ADP) or adenosine monophosphate (AMP). In these animals there was an increase in the glucose content of the supernatants of homogenates of liver and brain following acid hydrolysis.2. Chlorpromazine 40 mg/kg intraperitoneally did not affect Mg(++) activated adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) activity in the brain.

Replacement of animal fat with fractionated and partially hydrogenated palm oil in beef burgers.

Four formulations of burgers, prepared with 65% lean meat and 15% fat consisting of RBD palm stearin (PS), Socfat 4000P and Socfat 4100P and beef fat (BF) as control were evaluated for solid fat content (SFC), slip melting point (SMP), cooking loss, proximate analysis (moisture, fat and protein), colour, i.e. lightness ('L'), redness ('a') and yellowness ('b'), free fatty acid (FFA), iodine value (IV), thiobarbituric acid (TBA) and texture profile analysis (TPA). Sensory evaluation was carried out for texture, juiciness, aroma, oiliness and overall acceptance. SFC and SMP for raw and cooked SF4000P beef burgers were closest to BF control burgers, falling into the range of 35-40 degrees C. Cooking loss was highest for PS burgers, there were no significant differences (P > 0.05) amongst BF, SF4000P and SF4100P burgers. Proximate analysis on raw burgers showed SF4000P to contain high fat and lowest moisture contents. Objective textural measurements using texture profile analysis (TPA) for all cooked burgers showed no significant differences (P > 0.05) for springiness and cohesiveness. Variation of values among the formulations for hardness, gumminess and chewiness are explained by the differences of SFC for beef burgers with various types of fats. Raw and cooked PS burgers have the lightest 'L' values compared with other fat-substituted burgers while BF, SF4000P and SF4100P indicated no significant differences (P > 0.05) for 'L', 'a' and 'b' values. Beef fat showed the highest amount of free fatty acids (FFA) compared to palm oil samples. For the iodine value (IV), SF4000P showed the highest value which means that it contained the highest level of unsaturated fatty acids followed by PS, BF and SF4100P successively. SF4000P had the highest TBA values followed successively by BF, PS and SF4100P. For sensory evaluation, PS burgers had the least oily taste. This may be due to its high cooking loss. Taste panelists could not differentiate burgers with substituted vegetable fats against the control burgers.

Dietary calcium intake in postmenopausal Malaysian women: comparison between the food frequency questionnaire and three-day food records.

The objective of this study was to compare the dietary calcium intakes assessed by a quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and the three-day food record method in 230 Chinese postmenopausal women aged 50-65 years in Kuala Lumpur. The results showed that the mean calcium intake from the dietary records was 447+/-168 mg/day and 499+/-211 mg/day from the FFQ. The mean difference in intake by the two methods was 51.3 mg (95% CI = -30.8-77.9; SD = 181.2, P>0.05), which did not differ significantly from zero. Pearson's correlation coefficient of 0.56 was obtained between the two methods. Ninety-five percent of the individuals classified by food records fell into the same or within-one-quartile category when classified by FFQ. Forty-eight percent were classified into the same quartile by both methods. No subjects were grossly misclassified by the FFQ. The FFQ correctly identified subjects with calcium intakes below the Malaysian recommended daily allowance (450 mg/day) with 60% specificity and with 92% specificity for women consuming less than 800 mg calcium/day. In conclusion, the FFQ developed was a useful, rapid clinical tool for assessing calcium intake and identifying postmenopausal Chinese women with low calcium intakes in Malaysia.