Easurements of placental,decidual, and fetal proteins before and after chorionic villus sampling

Circulating placental [human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG), Schwangerschafts protein 1 (SP1), pregnancy-associated plasma protein A (PAPP-A), decidual (pregnancy protein) 12 (PP12), and fetal alphafetoprotein (AFP)] proteins were measured immediately before and within 1 h in 18 women undergoing diagnostic chorionic villus sampling (CVS) in the first trimester. An elevation of serum AFP levels was consistently seen, while fluctuations in excess of 10 per cent of the pre-CVS levels of SP1 and PP12 were seen in the majority of patients. Fluctuations in hCG and PAPP-A were consistently less than 10 per cent of pre-CVS values. Post-CVS changes in levels were not apparently associated with any feature of the technique, the pregnancy, or its outcome (one missed abortion). As feto-maternal haemorrhage is a common event, anti-D should be offered to rhesus-negative women undergoing CVS. In the prediction of subsequent miscarriage, only hCG and PAPP-A measurements should be considered.     

Enhanced removal of high-As(Ⅲ) from Cl(-Ⅰ)-diluted SO4(-Ⅱ)-rich wastewater at pH 2.3 via mixed tooeleite and(Cl(-Ⅰ)-free) ferric arsenite hydroxychloride formation

An advanced cost-saving method of removal of high-As(Ⅲ) from SO₄(-Ⅱ)-rich metallurgi cal wastewater has been developed by diluting the SO₄(-Ⅱ) content with As(Ⅲ)-Cl(-Ⅰ)-rich metallurgical wastewater and then by the direct precipitation of As(Ⅲ) with Fe(Ⅲ) at pH2.3.As(Ⅲ) removal at various SO₄(-Ⅱ)/Cl(-Ⅰ) molar ratios and temperatures was investigated The results showed that 65.2–98.2%of As(III) immobilization into solids occurred at the SO₄(Ⅱ)/Cl(-Ⅰ) mo...     

Climatic variations in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea area

A very dry climate which prevailed during the last glacial maximum of the Pleistocene from India to the Sahara, was replaced by variable weather conditions with alternating more or less humid phases, starting from the Pleistocene-Holocene transition period and lasting up to about 3000 years ago, when present arid conditions set in. A particularly wet phase is recognized throughout the region some 5000 years ago. Phase shifts within the region and in particular changes in rain distribution patterns, are interpreted as due to shifting spheres of influence of the monsoonal circulation, of Atlantic depressions and moisture originating from the Mediterranean Sea. The condition of the Mediterranean Sea itself, which is influenced by runoff and melt waters from the European Continent and by the Nile floods, as well as by the eustatic sea-level changes, is not a good indicator of local climate conditions.