Relevance of patch testing in patients of chronic spontaneous urticaria and its correlation with serum IgE level

Objectives: Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) is defined as short lived (< 24h) wheals occurring spontaneously without any triggering factors, daily or almost daily for at least 6 weeks. Though CSU is mainly a Type 1 hypersensitivity reaction, earlier studies suggested contact allergy may have some role to play an important role in the etiopathogenesis of CSU. The objective of the study is to find out the relevance of patch test in the etiopathogenesis of and its correlation with serum IgE level. Materials and Methods: Thirty-one patients of CSU were thoroughly evaluated for clinical and laboratory parameters. We conducted patch testing with Indian Standard Series (ISS) in all of them and tried to find out the relevance of every positive reaction. Relevant positive cases were asked to avoid exposure for 2 months and were maintained only in breakthrough antihistamines. Furthermore, correlation of positive patch test reaction with high IgE and eosinophil count were studied. Results: Seventeen (55%) cases came positive for patch test. Potassium dichromate, lanolin, benzocaine, and fragrance mix were the most common offenders. Patients with very high IgE count had patch test positivity with multiple allergens. Seven of the fifteen patients who had relevant positive patch results could be followed up to remission; three were lost to follow-up. Conclusion: Patch test with ISS may give important clue to in a subset of patients of CSU and thus may be considered an important part of routine investigations of CSU.

Mass Transfer in Hierarchical Silica Monoliths Loaded With Pt in the Continuous-Flow Liquid-Phase Hydrogenation of p-Nitrophenol

Sol-gel-based silica monoliths with hierarchical mesopores/macropores are promising catalyst support and flow reactors. Here, we report the successful preparation of cylindrically shaped Pt-loaded silica monoliths (length: 2 cm, diameter: 0.5 cm) with a variable mean macropore width of 1, 6, 10, or 27 μm at a fixed mean mesopore width of 17 nm. The Pt-loaded monolithic catalysts were housed in a robust cladding made of borosilicate glass for use as a flow reactor. The monolithic reactors exhibit a permeability as high as 2 μm2 with a pressure drop below 9 bars over a flow rate range of 2–20 cm3 min−1 (solvent: water). The aqueous-phase hydrogenation of p-nitrophenol to p-aminophenol with NaBH4 as a reducing agent was used as a test reaction to study the influence of mass transfer on catalytic activity in continuous flow. No influence of flow rate on conversion at a fixed contact time of 2.6 s was observed for monolithic catalysts with mean macropore widths of 1, 10, or 27 µm. As opposed to earlier studies conducted at much lower flow velocities, this strongly indicates the absence of external mass-transfer limitations or stagnant layer formation in the macropores of the monolithic catalysts.

Construct Validity and Reliability of a New Basketball Multidirectional Reactive Repeated Sprint Test

The objective of this study was to investigate the construct validity and reliability of a new reactive multidirectional repeated sprinting test (RRSA5COD) in basketball players. Forty male basketball players were divided into two groups: Professional (PRO; n = 20) and Semi-professional (SEMI; n = 20). Participants completed the yo-yo intermittent recovery test level 1 (Yo-YoIR1), the squat jump (SJ), the counter movement jump (CMJ), the single leg drop jump (DJ), the 20-m sprint test, the planed multidirectional repeated sprinting test (PRSA5COD), and the RRSA5COD test. Reaction time (RT) and movement time (MT), total time (TT), best time (BT), and fatigue index (FI) were assessed. Heart rate (HR) was continuously recorded, while rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and blood lactate concentration (LA) were measured post-tests. The reliability of the RRSA5COD test was also assessed between two attempts with one week between them. The RRSA5COD results demonstrated to be reliable with most of the variables showing ICC > 0.80. BA Bonferroni post hoc revealed a significant better TT in favor of RRSA5COD (p < 0.001; ES = 0.15; small), and in favor of PRO (p < 0.001; ES = 0.006; small). The result showed a significant better performance in favor of PRO in all physical fitness tests. In conclusion, it was found that the RRSA5COD discriminates between professional and semi-professional male basketball players, and the results were demonstrated to be reliable.

Isolation and Biochemical Characterization of Lactic Acid Bacteria from Fermented Foods

Probiotics are considered as successful major category of food supplements. Probiotics can be functional foods because their health benefits are essentially higher than traditional nutritional products. Probiotic bacteria was collected from home made and commercial fermented food samples. A total of 30 food samples were collected from local areas of Guntur in Andhra Pradesh. Bacteria were isolated on MRS agar medium after observation of growth and pure culture was obtained by sub-culturing on the same medium. Purity of each culture was confirmed by morphological investigation, Gram’s staining and further identification by specific biochemical tests. The isolates from both dairy and non-dairy fermented foods were identified as rods, bacilli, cocci and chain shape. While some isolates showed positive results some showed negative results for catalase test, methyl red test, oxidase test, aescualin fermentation, starch hydrolysis, arginine hydrolysis, citrate utilization and voges prausker’s test reaction. Based on morphological, cultural and biochemical characterization of 16 bacterial isolates out of 30 were identified as Lactobacillus spp.

Results of patch tests (using Indian standard battery of allergens) in cement workers with clinically diagnosed allergic contact dermatitis to cement: A cross-sectional study

Objectives: The objective of the study was to identify the allergens showing positive patch test reaction (using Indian standard battery of allergens) in cement workers with clinically diagnosed allergic contact dermatitis (CD) to cement attending a tertiary referral center. Materials and Methods: We included cement workers with clinically diagnosed allergic CD to cement who attended the dermatology outpatient clinic of our tertiary referral center from January 2013 to December 2013. We did patch testing in all the cases ( after subsidence of active dermatitis) with Indian standard battery of patch test allergens and documented the allergens that showed a positive reaction. Results: Forty-seven (94%) of the 50 study participants showed a positive reaction to one or more of the allergens. The most common allergen that showed a positive reaction was potassium dichromate (43/50, 86%). Twenty-five patients (50%) showed positive reactions to more than 1 allergen. Four patients (8%) showed positive reactions only to allergens that were not seen in cement. Limitations: Small sample size and lack of information on clinical response of dermatitis to avoidance of identified allergen were the major limitations. Conclusion: Twenty-five (50%) patients showing positive reactions to more than 1 allergen tested and 4 (8%) showing positive patch test reaction to none of the allergens in cement (but to other allergens) highlight the role of patch testing in identifying the probable allergens in patients with clinically diagnosed allergic CD to cement.

Mixing control in a continuous-flow microreactor using electro-osmotic flow

In recent years, the gradual minimization of continuous-flow chemical reactors, which is stimulated by the interests of pharmaceutical production, has led to the emergence of a new generation of microreactors. A decrease in the thickness of the channels where the species contact and react, forces to search for new, non-mechanical, mechanisms for mixing the initial solutions. In this work, we consider the efficiency of mixing the reactants induced by electro-osmotic flow in a Hele-Shaw configuration with non-uniform zeta potential distribution. We consider the neutralization reaction, which has simple but non-linear kinetics, as a test reaction. The reaction occurs between two miscible solutions, which are initially separated in space and come into contact in a continuous-flow microreactor. The reaction proceeds frontally, which prevents the efficient mixing of the reactants due to diffusion. We show numerically that the mixing of solutions can be effectively controlled by specifying special forms of the zeta potential, which make it possible to lengthen the reaction front by an order of magnitude and increase the yield of the reaction product by several times.

Determinants of Reactive Agility in Tests with Different Demands on Sensory and Motor Components in Handball Players

This study investigates the relationship between reactive agility and reaction speed, sprint speed, and muscle strength and their contribution to Y-shaped agility test and reactive agility test (RAT) performance in handball players. Seven handball players performed a Y-shaped agility test and RAT, simple and choice-based reaction time test, reaction test to fast and slow generated visual stimuli, 5 m and 20 m sprint tests, a 505 Agility test, a squat jump, a countermovement jump, and a drop jump. The results reveal a significant relationship between the times for the Y-shaped agility test and the 20 m sprint (r = 0.777, p = 0.040, R = 0.604), as well as the time for the 505 Agility test (r = 0.770, p = 0.043, R2 = 0.593), and RSI (r = −0.755, p = 0.050, R2 = 0.570); however, no relationship was found with parameters pertaining to reaction speed. RAT performance did not significantly correlate with RSI, time in the 505 Agility test, squat jump height, time in the 20 m sprint, and reaction time to fast generated visual stimuli, although large effect sizes were found (r > 0.5). It seems that the contribution of sensory and motor components depends on the structure of the agility test. While the Y-shaped agility test is mainly determined by sprinting, the change of direction speed, and reactive strength, there is the tendency for the reactive agility test to be determined by strength, speed, and visual reaction time.

Imposed dynamic irradiation to intensify photocatalytic reactions

Dynamic irradiation is a potent option to influence the interaction between photochemical reactions and mass transport to design high performant and efficient photochemical processes. To systematically investigate the impact of this parameter, the photocatalytic reduction of nitrobenzene was conducted as a test reaction. Dynamic irradiation was realized through provoked secondary flow patterns, multiple spatially distributed light emitting diodes (LEDs) and electrical pulsation of LEDs. A combined experimental and theoretical approach revealed significant potential to enhance photochemical processes. The reaction rate was accelerated by more than 70% and even more important the photonic efficiency was increased by more than a factor of 4. This renders imposed dynamic irradiation an innovative and powerful tool to intensify photoreactions on the avenue to large scale sustainable photochemical processes.

Accurate reaction time methods demonstrate similar results from different sensory modalities

Over the past few decades, there has been a significant number of reports that suggested that reaction times for different sensory modalities were different – e.g., that visual reaction time was slower than tactile reaction time. A recent report by Holden and colleagues stated that (1) there has been a significant historic upward drift in reaction times reported in the literature, (2) that this drift or degradation in reaction times could be accounted for by inaccuracies in the methods used and (3) that these inaccurate methods led to inaccurate reporting of differences between visual and tactile based reaction time testing. The Holden study utilized robotics (i.e., no human factors) to test visual and tactile reaction time methods but did not assess how individuals would perform on different sensory modalities. This study utilized three different sensory modalities: visual, auditory, and tactile, to test reaction time. By changing the way in which the subjects were prompted and measuring subsequent reaction time, the impact of sensory modality could be analyzed. Reaction time testing for two sensory modalities, auditory and visual, were administered through an Arduino Uno microcontroller device, while tactile-based reaction time testing was administered with the Brain Gauge. A range of stimulus intensities was delivered for the reaction times delivered by each sensory modality. The average reaction time and reaction time variability was assessed and a trend could be identified for the reaction time measurements of each of the sensory modalities. Switching the sensory modality did not result in a difference in reaction time and it was concluded that this was due to the implementation of accurate circuitry used to deliver each test. Increasing stimulus intensity for each sensory modality resulted in faster reaction times. The results of this study confirm the findings of Holden and colleagues and contradict the results reported in countless studies that conclude that (1) reaction times are historically slower now than they were 50 years ago and (2) that there are differences in reaction times for different sensory modalities (vision, hearing, tactile). The implications of this are that utilization of accurate reaction time methods could have a significant impact on clinical outcomes and that many methods in current clinical use are basically perpetuating poor methods and wasting time and money of countless subjects or patients.