Categories
Cardiovascular
Diagnostics
Endocrinology
Health Insurance
Medical Devices
Mental Health
Nutrition
Oncology
Public Health
Sexual Health
Popular Articles
Burdock Root

Paladin Labs Announces Canadian Launch Of Twinject(R) TwinpackTM For Anaphylaxis
Good news for the 1.3 million Canadian patients at risk for anaphylaxis, as Paladin Labs Inc. (TSX:PLB), a leading Canadian specialty pharmaceutical company, announced the Canadian launch of Twinject® TwinpackTM, making it more convenient for people to manage this potentially life threatening condition.
generic viagra online
The Mystery Of Why HIV Patients Are More Susceptible To TB Infection Solved By Harvard Scientists
A team of Harvard scientists has taken an important first step toward the development of new treatments to help people with HIV battle Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) infection. In their report, appearing in the July 2009 print issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology they describe how HIV interferes with the cellular and molecular mechanisms used by the lungs to fight TB infection. This information is crucial for researchers developing treatments to help people with HIV prevent or recover from TB infection.
News of the day
Fighting The Challenges Of Poverty
It is estimated that 1.4 billion people live in extreme poverty, on less than $2 a day. In 2000, 189 nations declared that they would "free all men, women, and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty". These nations signed up to Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to combat poverty by 2015. To help meet these complex challenges and "make poverty history" more knowledge and evidence is needed. A launch event Wednesday 22nd July 2009 at the Department for International Development (DFID) marks a new phase of research collaboration between the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and DFID which will provide more robust social science research to address poverty alleviation amongst the poorest countries and peoples of the world.
Mental Health

Important Symbol Of Pollution Is Broken Down By Microbes

Immobilized microbes can break down potentially harmful phthalates, according to researchers in China, writing in the International Journal of Environment and Pollution. The microbes might be used to treat industrial waste water and so prevent these materials from entering the environment. Phthalic Acid Esters (PAEs), commonly known as phthalates, are widely used as additives in polymer manufacture as plasticizers. They do not readily degrade in the environment and so have become widely distributed in natural water, wastewater, soils, and sediment. Concerns about their suspected ability to cause genetic mutations and cancer have led to their listing as priority pollutants by the US Environmental Protection Agency, the European Union, the China National Environmental Monitoring Centre, and other regulatory authorities. Weizhong Wu of the College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, at Peking University, in Beijing, and Xianlin Meng of Harbin Institute of Technology, in Nangang District, have identified and isolated a microbe that can digest one of the most common PAEs, d-n-butyl phthalate. This compound is widely used and is one of the most frequently found in diverse environmental samples including groundwater, river water, drinking water, open ocean water, soil humates, lake sediments and marine sediments, the researchers say. They have now used acclimation and enrichment techniques to ferment adequate quantities of the active microbe, which was obtained from the activated sludge from a wastewater treatment plant. It was enriched and acclimated by incubating activated sludge. This involves cultivating the microbes in a solution containing phthalate as the only of carbon for the microbes. Successive divisions of microbial cells quickly leads to the evolution of a strain that can quickly metabolize the phthalate and convert it into the raw materials for microbial growth and reproduction. The researchers then tested this phthalate-digesting microbe by immobilizing cells on a new type of ceramic honeycomb support. They then measured the before and after concentration of phthalate in a simulated wastewater sample. Initial concentration was 100 milligrams per liter which fell to less than 1.0 milligram per liter within two days of treatment with the microbial honeycomb. The team points out that the rate of degradation was two and a half times faster with immobilized microbes than with microbes floating free in the sample. "Biodegradation of plasticiser di-n-butyl phthalate by immobilised microbial cells" in Int. J. Environment and Pollution, 2009, 38, 203-211 Weizhong Wu Inderscience Publishers


Add your comment:
Name:
Site address: http://
Your message:
Enter today\\\\'s date, 2 digits
(spam protection):

© Copyright 2009