Association of hyperhomocysteinemia to alcohol withdrawal in chronic alcoholics

This study is conducted in chronic alcoholics to assess the association of an Individual’s level of serum homocysteine with the success of achieving alcohol deaddiction in the patient. The patients’ nutrition status is also assessed. 50 chronic alcoholics admitted to a deaddiction center were inducted into the study. Patients underwent an 8 weeks holistic program to promote rehabilitation from alcoholism. All the patients were addicted to alcohol for 8 – 10 years. Of the 50 patients enrolled, 39 of them completed the 8 weeks program including complete abstinence from alcohol during this period. Fasting blood samples were collected on admission and again after 8 weeks of alcohol abstinence for analyses of serum homocysteine and serum prealbumin, transferrin, total proteins and albumin, gammaglutamyl transferase (GGT) and alanine transaminase (ALT). Of the 50 patients enrolled in the study, 39 completed the 8 weeks rehabilitation program. 11 patients discontinued within 2 weeks of admission. During the 8 weeks of complete alcohol abstinence, patients were given a balanced diet and multivitamin supplements. A significant improvement in their nutritional status was noted by the elevation of serum levels of prealbumin, transferrin, total proteins and albumin. Serum homocysteine levels decreased significantly (p<0.002) to normal levels from previous hyperhomocytenemia. This was accompanied by decrease in serum GGT and ALT levels indicating improved liver functions. Serum estimation of homocysteine in chronic alcoholics is important to assess whether the patient will have a successful rehabilitation. Normal homocysteine levels are achieved after dietary changes and abstinence from alcohol. Timely correction of hyperhomocysteinemia also provides successful rehabilitation.     

关于我国钢铁工业发展的思考

1996年我国粗钢产量首次突破1亿吨,产量跃居当年的世界第一,在我国的冶金史上树立了一块里程碑,圆了多年国人要把中国变为钢铁大国的梦.最近三四年我国已经扭转了从建国以来就一直存在的钢铁供应紧缺的局面,供和需转为大体平衡,钢铁进一步增产的紧迫性已不如从前,但这并不等于市场对钢铁的需求不会随着国民经济的发展进一步增长,事实上,尽管这几年钢铁的供需矛盾趋于缓和,但无论需求和生产仍是逐年增长的,只是增长的幅度不如前几年大.在面临世纪之交,对我国钢铁工业的发展进行分析,找出未来发展的方向是非常必要的.     

New age adjuvants and delivery systems for subunit vaccines

The dramatic advancements in the field of vaccinology has led to the formulation of chemically well defined vaccines composed of synthetic peptides and recombinant proteins derived from the immunologically dominant regions of the pathogens. Though these subunit vaccines are safer compared to the traditional vaccines they are known to be poorly immunogenic. This necessitates the use of adjuvants to enhance the immunogenicity of these vaccine formulations. The most common adjuvant for human use is alum. Research in the past has focused on the development of systemic immunity using conventional immunization protocols. In the present are, the emphasis is on the development and formulation of alternative adjuvants and delivery systems in generating systemic as well as mucosal immunity. This review mainly focuses on a variety of adjuvants (particulate as well as non-particulate) used with protective antigens of HIV, malaria, plague, leprosy using modified delivery vehicles. The experience of our laboratory and other researchers in this field clearly proves that these new age adjuvants and delivery systems undoubtedly generate enhanced immune response-both humoral and cell mediated. The choice of antigens, the nature of adjuvant used and the mode of delivery employed have a profound effect on the type of immune response generated. Besides the quantity, the quality of the antibodies generated also play a vital role in protection against these diseases. Some of the adjuvants and delivery systems used promoted high titre and affinity antibodies, which were shown to be cytophilic in nature, an important criteria in providing protection to the host. Thus the studies on these adjuvants/delivery systems with respect to various infectious diseases indicate their active role in efficient modulation of immune response along with safety and permissibility.     

Studies on some serum enzyme levels in various liver diseases

Serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP) (EC 3.1.3.1), 5′nucleotidase (5′NT) (EC 3.1.3.5), aldolase (ALD) (EC 4.1.2.13) and sorbitol dehydrogenase (SDH) (EC 1.1.1.14) were estimated in infective hepatitis, alcoholic hepatitis, chronic active hepatitis, obstructive jaundice, cirrhosis of liver and amoebic liver abscess. It was observed that serum ALP and 5′NT were significantly increased in all cases of chronic active hepatitis and obstructive hepatic disease. However, the elevation observed in the latter was much higher than the former. Serum SDH and ALD levels were elevated in all cases of infective hepatitis, studied though increase in the former was much higher than the latter, suggesting its significance in the diagnostic confirmation of this disease. Results presented suggest 5′NT and SDH as more reliable diagnostic test compared to ALP and ALD for obstructive jaundice and infective hepatitis respectively.     

Intelligent Indexing and Semantic Retrieval of Multimodal Documents

Finding useful information from large multimodal document collections such as the WWW without encountering numerous false positives poses a challenge to multimedia information retrieval systems (MMIR). This research addresses the problem of finding pictures. The fact that images do not appear in isolation, but rather with accompanying, collateral text is exploited. Taken independently, existing techniques for picture retrieval using (i) text-based and (ii) image-based methods have several limitations. This research presents a general model for multimodal information retrieval that addresses the following issues: (i) users' information need, (ii) expressing information need through composite, multimodal queries, and (iii) determining the most appropriate weighted combination of indexing techniques in order to best satisfy information need. A machine learning approach is proposed for the latter. The focus is on improving precision and recall in a MMIR system by optimally combining text and image similarity. Experiments are presented which demonstrate the utility of individual indexing systems in improving overall average precision.     

新课标高中化学选修教材《物质结构与性质》三种版本的比较研究

根据2003年出版的《普通高中化学课程标准(实验)》编定的高中化学教材已通过审定的有三种版本,分别由人民教育出版社、江苏教育出版社、山东科技出版社出版.高中化学课程8个模块中选修3"物质结构与性质"是属于化学基本理论知识的模块.本文将对新版三种教材(选修3"物质结构与性质")的设计思路、体系结构、栏目设置等方面进行比较研究,以期有助于教师理解新课标、选择教材、教法以及把握教学尺度.     

"全程情境教学法"在《国际贸易实务》课程教学中的实践与探索

课堂教学是高等教育教学体系中的重要组成部分,针对《国际贸易实务》课程实践性和操作性很强的特点,运用一种全程情境教学法,并分析和探讨了该方法的实践过程、特点及其实施条件。     

抓住"泛珠三角"经济协作契机实现高校教师资源共享--对"实施人才资源区域共享战略"的省思

树立和落实科学发展观，要树立人才资源是第一资源的观念。抓住“泛珠三角”经济协作契机，加强区域内人才资源共享，有效地挖掘人才资源，高校要以此实现教师资源共享。