diagenic

Urbanisation has a profound influence on our environment, and its burden is often transferred to aquatic systems. The surface sediments of urban lake systems are severely threatened with major contamination on a daily basis. Empirical evidence gleaned from the study of Akkulam Veli, a tropical urban lake in Southern India, indicates the need to evaluate all factors defining the contamination status of lake systems, rather than the conventional procedure that use Al or Fe, and select normalisers to evaluate metal enrichment in contaminated lake systems...

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: Final adjustments may result in a loss of ceramic glaze, a situation which must be corrected by reglazing or polishing to obtain clinically successful restorations; such restorations may be susceptible to staining. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the stainability of ceramics exposed to coffee after different surface treatments and to correlate the surface roughness with the color differences. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Sixty-six ceramic (IPS e...

This study focused on several wetlands in Laguna del Tigre National Park (Guatemala) as part of Conservation International's Rapid Assessment Program. Sediment and water samples were collected from a laguna near Xan field, Guatemala's largest oil facility, and three other sites for determination of levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Cichlid fish (Thorichthys meeki and Vieja synspila) were collected for determination of DNA strand breakage (by gel electrophoresis), chromosomal breakage (flow cytometry), and fin erosion...

An objective of a multiyear monitoring program, sponsored by the US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management was to examine temporal and spatial changes in chemical and biological characteristics of the Arctic marine environment resulting from offshore oil exploration and development activities in the development area of the Alaskan Beaufort Sea. To determine if petroleum hydrocarbons from offshore oil operations are entering the Beaufort Sea food web, we measured concentrations of hydrocarbons in tissues of amphipods, Anonyx nugax, sediments, Northstar crude oil, and coastal peat, collected between 1999 and 2006 throughout the development area...

BACKGROUND: Few data are available on the prevalence of celiac disease (CD)-predisposing, HLA-related genes in Arab populations. AIM OF THE STUDY: To investigate the distribution of HLA-DQ2 and -DQ8 genotypes in Libyan children with CD and healthy controls. PATIENTS: We tested 31 Libyan children with CD (22 females and 9 males, median age 9.2 years) and 156 Libyan controls (81 females and 75 males, median age 10.9). METHODS: HLA genes were determined on a drop of dried blood by the DQ-CD Typing Plus kit (DiaGene, Palermo, Italy)...

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a common, polygenic chronic disease with high heritability. The purpose of this whole-genome association study was to discover novel T2D-associated genes. We genotyped 500 familial cases and 497 controls with >300,000 HapMap-derived tagging single-nucleotide-polymorphism (SNP) markers. When a stringent statistical correction for multiple testing was used, the only significant SNP was at TCF7L2, which has already been discovered and confirmed as a T2D-susceptibility gene. For a replication study, we selected 10 SNPs in six chromosomal regions with the strongest association (singly or as part of a haplotype) for retesting in an independent case-control set including 2,573 T2D cases and 2,776 controls...

Thyroxine-binding globulin (TBG) is the main thyroid hormone transport protein in serum. Inherited TBG defects lead to a complete (TBG-CD) or a partial (TBG-PD) deficiency and have a diagenic transmission, being clinically fully expressed only in hemizygous males and in homozygous females. In the present study, seven patients from two unrelated families with TBG-CD were studied and two novel TBG mutations were documented. In particular, a T insertion at the 5' donor splice site of exon 0, between nucleotides 2 and 3 at the beginning of intron 1 (g...

The Fractionation of Fe, Zn, Cu, Pb, Mn and Cd in the sediments of the Achankovil River, Western Ghats, India using a sequential extraction method was carried out to understand the metal availability in the basin for biotic and abiotic activities. Spatial distribution of heavy metals has been studied. Sediment grain size has significant control over the heavy metal distribution. The fluctuations in their concentration partly depend upon the lithology of the river basin and partly the anthropogenic activities...

Papyrus swamps usually form at the interface between river inlet and open lake. From one such wetland ecosystem (the Kibos system located in the Nyanza Gulf, Lake Victoria, Kenya), three sediment cores were recovered using piston corer in order to determine the fate of organic matter derived from papyrus and possible nutrient pathways in this system. The coring represented a transect from the river through the floating papyrus mat to the lake. Two short cores were retrieved from the lake and river. One long core (2 m) was recovered on a floating papyrus mat...

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Several methods are now available for the laboratory assessment of activated protein C resistance (APCR). In this study, we evaluated two activated partial thromboplastin time-based assays [Coatest activated protein C (APC) and Diagen protein C activator (PCA)], with and without predilution of test plasma in factor V-deficient plasma (FVdp) and an amidolytic assay (Immuno Ltd, Vienna, Austria). Testing plasmas from normal volunteers who had received 1-deamino-8-D-arginine vasopressin (DDAVP) also assessed the effect of elevated factor VIII on APCR...

AIMS: To assess the accuracy and precision of INR measurement by trained practice and district nursing staff using the Thrombolytic Assessment System (TAS) analyser. METHODS: Seventeen nurses from four practices were trained to measure INR using the TAS analyser on citrated capillary blood samples. Quality control (QC) consisted of: daily internal QC using normal and abnormal commercial plasmas; monthly local external QC scheme using fresh citrated venous blood; and registration of all analysers in the NEQAS (national external quality assessment scheme) main users scheme...

BACKGROUND: A number of instruments have been developed for determination of prothrombin time (PT) and International Normalised Ratio (INR) at locations not limited to central laboratories. AIM: To evaluate one such portable instrument, the Thrombolytic Assessment System (TAS), which can be used in a near-patient setting. METHODS: Samples from 20 normal subjects and 48 patients treated with warfarin for venous thromboembolic disease were studied...

Computer-based genetical register "GENREG" allows to carry out a prophylactic medical examination for families with children, having hereditary diseases, multifactorial pathology and congenital developmental defects of various nature, and also epidemiological examination. Automated consultative system for pre-laboratory diagnosis of genetically determined diseases after the phenotypical manifestations "DIAGEN" allows to identify up to 1200 nosologic units; diagnostic value (or weight) of the signs according to physician's evaluation is taken into consideration...

Immunodepleted plasmas from Organon Teknika, Dade, Stago, Diagen and the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS), and haemophilic plasma from Immuno were compared by several laboratories with haemophilic plasma from local donors as substrates in one-stage factor VIII assays. Five clinical plasma samples and four concentrates were assayed against British Standard plasma and International Standard concentrate. Potencies of all plasma samples were not significantly different from those with local haemophilic plasma for Immuno, Organon Teknika, Stago and SNBTS substrates...

A DIAGENES computer system was developed which enables an doctor without experience in informatics to organise a database, to fill it with own diagnostic data, to verify this data from various standpoints, to assess the discriminative value of each of the used studies and the whole database with its eventual modification, as well as to develop an own clinically useful discriminating system. The result of the discriminative analysis has the form of a likelihood list or a computer figure, easy to evaluate.

When the International Normalised Ratio (INR) is used for control of oral anticoagulant therapy the same result should be obtained irrespective of the laboratory reagent used. However, in the UK National External Quality Assessment Scheme (NEQAS) for Blood Coagulation INRs determined using different reagents have been significantly different. For 18 NEQAS samples Manchester Reagent (MR) was associated with significantly lower INRs than those obtained using Diagen Activated (DA, p = 0.0004) or Instrumentation Laboratory PT-Fib HS (IL, p = 0...

Optimal temperature conditions for the detection of 28 known mutations on 15 exons of the human cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator gene by single strand conformation polymorphism analysis using the Diagen TGGE Apparatus were established. This procedure was applied to the detection of unknown mutations in 58 non-deltaF508 chromosomes. Three novel mutations, -471del3 (5' flanking region), 3171insC (exon 17a) and 4700(T)8/9 (3' non-translated region) of the CFTR gene were found. Mutation 3171insC occurred in conjunction with the delta F508 mutation on the other allele of a child presenting with severe pathology...

The interaction between factor VIII clotting antigen (VIIICAg) and phospholipid (PL) was studied using a two-site solid phase immunoradiometric assay (IRMA) for VIII CAg. Incubation (2 h, 37 degrees C) of normal plasma, cryoprecipitate or factor VIII concentrate with Diagen PL (0.5 mg/unit VIIICAg) resulted in 80-90% loss of IRMA-measurable VIIICAg. No loss of factor VIII related antigen (VIIIRAg) or factor VIII clotting activity (VIIIC) was seen. Treatment of factor VIII concentrate with purified PLs showed greatest VIIICAg reduction with phosphatidylserine, less with phosphatidylethanolamine, and very little with phosphatidylcholine...

Fibrinogen antigens were measured either with an agglutination inhibition method (using latex particles coated with fibrinogen; Diagen test) or with a direct agglutination technique (using latex particles coated with a mixture of anti-D and anti-E antibodies; Thrombo-Wellcotest). Both methods were compared with the tanned red cell haemagglutination inhibition immunoassay (TRCHII) during progressive degradation of fibrinogen with plasmin and using purified fibrinogen fragments or urine concentrates from chronic glomerulonephritis or transplanted patients...