Prenatal diagnosis of trisomy 8 mosaicism in cvs after abnormal ultrasound findings at 12 weeks

We describe a case of trisomy 8 mosaicism in which fetal chromosome analysis was prompted by ultrasound abnormalities, i.e., hygroma colli and dilatation of the renal pelves. Chorionic villus sampling (CVS) was performed, with a false-negative result on direct karyotype analysis, although cultured trophoblasts revealed trisomy 8 mosaicism. Fetal autopsy confirmed the abnormalities found on ultrasound examinations and fetal tissue examination showed different levels of trisomy 8 mosaicism. To our knowledge, this is the first prenatal diagnosis of trisomy 8 made on ultrasound findings.     

Comportement photochimique du nitro-4 phenol en solution aqueuse

The quantum yield of the phototransformation of 4-nitrophenol has been evaluated as 4.5×10⁻⁵±0.6×10⁻⁵ at pH=2; at 3.0×10⁻⁵±0.6×10⁻⁵ at pH=5.5; 1.8×10⁻⁵±0.5×10⁻⁵ at pH=8.3. However the half-life is relatively low and no accumulation of aromatic or quinonic products was observed. Hydroquinone (QH₂) is the main organic primary product formed when an air-saturated or degassed solution was irradiated in 365 nm monochromatic light (about 80% of the 4-nitrophenol initially converted at pH=5.5 in the absence of oxygen). In air-saturated neutral or acidic solution, the formation of NO⁻₃ ions accounted for about 80% of the 4-nitrophenol converted, but in degassed medium a mixture NO : NO⁻₂ : NO⁻₃ is formed. An heterolytical mechanism of photohydrolysis with primary formation of QH₂ and HNO₂ is suggested. Several by-products as benzoquinone, 4-nitrosophenol, 4-nitrocatechol and nitrohydroquinone are formed according to the conditions. Many secondary reactions are involved as the disproportionation or the oxidation of HNO₂, the oxidation of QH₂ by HNO₂ and oxidations induced by excitation of NO⁻₂ and NO⁻₃.     

Low bone density and renal dysfunction following environmental cadmium exposure in China

This paper presents the main findings of a study on health effects of environmental cadmium pollution in China, performed in 1998, i.e. approximately 25 years after the first warnings of such effects were published in Ambio. Forearm bone mineral density (BMD) and renal dysfunction were assessed in population groups exposed to cadmium via rice. Decreased BMD was found in postmenopausal women with elevated urinary cadmium (CdU) or cadmium in blood (CdB) and among men with elevated CdB. Also, clear and statistically significant dose-effect and dose-response relationships were found between CdB or CdU and renal dysfunction (increased excretion of retinol-binding protein). This is the first report of bone effects among Cd-exposed population groups in Asia outside Japan. The report is also of interest since it demonstrates that bone effects, a comparatively severe adverse health effect of Cd, in combination with renal dysfunction, still occurs in environmentally exposed population groups in Asia. Recent reports on bone effects in Cd-exposed population groups in Europe are discussed.     

Measuring the effect of photocatalytic purifiers on indoor air hydrocarbons and carbonyl pollutants

Laboratory tests of photocatalytic air purifiers are usually performed with a single pollutant, in the parts per million by volume domain and at airflow rates < or =0.1 m3/hr. Clearly, it is necessary to probe photocatalytic materials and apparatuses under real conditions or conditions closely mimicking reality. Photocatalytic prototypes were placed in an ordinary room. To collect hydrocarbons over a shorter period (15 min) than with adsorbent-containing cartridges, solid-phase microextraction (SPME) was used. Typically, concentrations in substituted benzene hydrocarbons and tetrachloroethene were decreased to 20-35% of initial values; toluene and m- + p-xylene concentrations dropped to 2-6 parts per billion by volume, and o-xylene and benzene concentrations were still lower. In the absence of appropriate, commercialized SPME fibers, carbonyl compounds (both formed and destroyed by photocatalysis) were extracted using cartridges containing 2,4- dinitrophenylhydrazine-coated silica. The concentration ranges (in parts per billion by volume) were shifted to higher values in treated air: from 9-15.5 to 12.5-18 for methanal, from 1.5-3 to 8-11.5 for ethanal, and from 4.5-19 to 8-26.5 for propanone with the prototype used; these unprecedented results do not exclude using photocatalysis to treat air, but they illustrate that improvement is needed. Because these tests are time-consuming, preliminary tests are useful; results obtained with a 225-L closed-loop, airtight, photocatalytic reactor with an external turbine enabling the ambient air inside the reactor to be circulated through the purifier device at 15-450 m3/hr flow rates are reported.     

Bacteriophage transport through a fining-upwards sedimentary sequence: laboratory experiments and simulation

A column containing four concentric layers of progressively finer-grained glass beads (graded column) was used to study the transport of the bacteriophage T7 in water flowing parallel to layering through a fining-upwards (FU) sedimentary structure. By passing a pulse of T7, and a conservative solute tracer upwards through a column packed with a single bead size (uniform column), the capacity of each bead type to attenuate the bacteriophage was determined. Solute and bacteriophage responses were modelled using an analytical solution to the advection-dispersion equation, with first-order kinetic deposition simulating bacteriophage attenuation. Resulting deposition constants for different flow velocities indicated that filtration theory-determined values differed from experimentally determined values by less than 10%. In contrast, the responses of solute and bacteriophage tracers passing upwards through graded columns could not be reproduced with a single analytical solution. However, a flux-weighted summation of four one-dimensional advective-dispersive analytical terms approximated solute breakthrough curves. The prolonged tailing observed in the resulting curve resembled that typically generated from field-based tracer test data, reflecting the potential importance of textural heterogeneity in the transport of dissolved substances in groundwater. Moreover, bacteriophage deposition terms, determined from filtration theory, reproduced the T7 breakthrough curve once desorption and inactivation on grain surfaces were incorporated. To evaluate the effect of FU sequences on mass transport processes in more detail, bacteriophage passage through sequences resembling those sampled from a FU bed in a fluvioglacial gravel pit were carried out using an analogous approach to that employed in the laboratory. Both solute and bacteriophage breakthrough responses resembled those generated from field-based test data and in the graded column experiments. Comparisons with the results of simulations using averaged hydraulic conductivities show that simulations employing averaged parameters overestimate bacteriophage travel times and underestimate masses recovered and peak concentrations.     

Biochemical and molecular studies on declining and decline-resistant spruce in the north-east of France

In declining forests of the Vosges mountains (northeast of France), we previously observed that the yellowing of spruce (Picea abies L. cv. Karsten) needles was associated with impairment of the free radical scavenging capacity of the cells and coincided with chronic exposure to ozone. Chloroplasts of yellow needles were characterized by an abnormal accumulation of photosystem II (PSII) D1-protein in the thylakoids. Further experiments carried out on declining and decline-resistant individual spruce trees characterized in previous studies showed that needle yellowing was associated with impairment of the overall anti-oxidative defense in both the cytosol and the chloroplasts. Both enzymic (peroxidases) and non-enzymic (carotenoids) oxidant scavengers were shown to be affected in the declining spruce. PSII D1-protein accumulation seemed to result from a stabilization of the polypeptide, which led us to hypothesize that oxidative processes might interfere with the specific degradation of this protein in declining spruce, with destructive consequences for the photosystems.     

Phylogeographic study of the dwarf oyster, Ostreola stentina, from Morocco, Portugal and Tunisia: evidence of a geographic disjunction with the closely related taxa, Ostrea aupouria and Ostreola equestris

Despite the economic importance of oysters due to the high aquaculture production of several species, the current knowledge of oyster phylogeny and systematics is still fragmentary. In Europe, Ostrea edulis, the European flat oyster, and Ostreola stentina, the Provence oyster or dwarf oyster, are both present along the European and African, Atlantic and Mediterranean, coasts. In order to document the relationship not only between O. stentina and O. edulis, but also with the other Ostrea and Ostreola species, we performed a sequence analysis of the 16S mitochondrial fragment (16S rDNA: the large subunit rRNA-coding gene) and the COI fragment (COI: cytochrome oxidase subunit I). Oysters were sampled from populations in Portugal (two populations), Tunisia (two populations) and Morocco (one population), identified as O. stentina on the basis of shell morphological characters. Our data supported a high degree of differentiation between O. stentina and O. edulis and a close relationship between O. stentina and both Ostrea aupouria (from New Zealand) and Ostreola equestris (from Mexico Gulf/Atlantic). The status of this geographic disjunction between these closely related species is discussed. Furthermore, although identified in a separate genus Ostreola by Harry (Veliger 28:121–158, 1985), our molecular data on O. stentina, together with those available for the other two putative congeneric species, O. equestris and Ostreola conchaphila, would favour incorporation of Ostreola in Ostrea. Finally, a PCR-RFLP approach allowed the rapid identification of O. edulis and O. stentina.     

Fate of the veterinary medicine ivermectin in soil

We investigated the fate of the drug ivermectin in the soil. We found that ivermectin was transformed solely by photos, leading to the formation of two ivermectin isomers. We indeed failed to detect any biotransformation reaction of the chemical either in the soil or in fungal liquid cultures. According to its limited water solubility, the bioavailability of ivermectin was very low in the soil solution. Here, we show that ivermectin, transferred to the soil from faeces of drug-treated cattle, could be stored for long periods in the soil.