Respiratory system assessment of marine spray painting workers

Workers at the Marine Spray Painting Workshop [MSPW] are exposed to respiratory hazards durig ship surface preparation and spray painting. To identify hazards at the Marine Spray Painting Workshop [MSPW] and assess the impact of these hazards on the respiratory system of Marine Spray Painters [MSPs]. The study included 80 workers, of these were 40 MSPs from the Alexandria Shipyard Company. The rest were control workers, not exposed to respiratory hazards in their work environment. All MSPs and unexposed workers were subjected to an interviewing schedule; to collect data on personal characteristics, occupational, and medical history. The Medical Research Council [MRC] questionnaire was used, it included questions on respiratory symptoms, and diseases. All workers underwent a general clinical examination, a local chest examination, pulmonary function tests, and lung imaging by conventional chest radiographs [CCR]. The present study demonstrated that breathlessness grade IV, wheeze, and bronchial asthma, were significantly more encountered among MSPs compared with unexposed workers. On assessing lung functions, mean percent predicted values of lung function indices [LFI] reflecting large and small-airway functions were lowered among MSPs compared with unexposed workers, but the lowering was not statistically significant. Furthermore, it was found that 47.5% of MSPs had no radiological abnormalities [0/0 ILO profusion grade], while 52.5% of MSPs were either with suspicious radiological abnormalities of [0/1 or 1/0 ILO profusion, glade] [10.00%] or with definite radiological abnormalities whose ILO profusion grade was of [2/1, 2/2, or 2/3 ILO profusion grade] [10.00%, 17.5%, or 15.0% respectively]. A comparison between silicotic and non-silicotic MSPs was conducted, where no significant differences were found between them regarding respiratory symptoms, diseases, and spirometric measurements, thus, the significant increase in bronchial asiluna among MSPs in the present study can be attributed to exposure to HDI during spray painting. The study revealed a significant positive correlation between grade of profusion and age, duration of exposure and breathlessness, especially those with profusion grade >/= 1/1, but no significant correlations between the grade of profusion and mean values of spirometric measurements were recorded. A potential respiratory health hazard exists at the [MSPW] in Alexandria Shipyard Company and the level of protection for workers should be increased

Testicular tumours: a retrospective study of 154 cases

In a retrospective study of all cases of testicular tumors managed at the National Cancer Institute, Cairo University and Kasr El-Aini University Hospital during 7 years [from 1986 till 1992], the files of the patients had been revised in the Statistic Departments. The results obtained showed that 154 cases of testicular tumors were managed during that period. Ninety six cases presented with a testicular tumor proved to be malignant after inguinal orchiectomy, 32 cases referred from outside with a testicular biopsy or orchiectomy which proved to be malignant and 26 cases referred for biopsy from the medical oncology departments with testicular relapse of leukemia or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Eleven cases had a history of undescended tests, 8 cases had a history of congenital inguinal hernia and 12 cases had a history of previous inguinoscrotal operations. The age of patients ranged between 9 months and 73 years with a mean age of 27.34 years. Tumors of the right testis [51.9%] were more common than the left [31.8%]. The commonest pathological type was seminoma [28.6%] and the rarest was choriocarcinoma [1.3%]. The commonest presentation was only a testicular swelling [71.43%]. Elevation of human chorionic gonadotrophin occurred in 77.9% of the cases while elevation of alpha fetoprotein occurred in 51.7% only. Pelviabdominal sonography showed enlarged abdominal lymph nodes in 45.2%, while pelviabdominal CT showed enlarged nodes in 30.8%. Pedal lymphography showed signs of positive abdominal lymph nodes invasion in 44.9%. The commonest management done was orchiectomy and chemotherapy [31.8%]. Retroperitoneal lymph nodes dissection was done in 3 cases. One case was positive for metastases and 2 cases were negative

Serum amino acids in hepatobiliary disorders

Serum amino acids were investigated in 53 patients with variable hepatobiliary disorders. 38 of them with obstructive jaundice [20 preoperative [group 1] and 18 postoperative after relieving the obstruction [group 2]] and 15 patients with liver cirrhosis [group 3]. In addition, 15 subjects free of any disease, were selected as control group. In group 1 the results obtained showed significant elevation of phenylalanine, tyrosine, glutamine, serine, leucine, ornithine, cysteine, threonine and methionine and decreased levels of valine, isoleucine, arginine and glycine. In group 2 with obstructive jaundice one month after relieving the obstruction, the amino acids, arginine, glycine cysteine, leucine and isoleucine, returned nearly to normal levels. In group 3, the patients of liver cirrhosis with affection of liver function showed increase of the aromatic and sulphur containing amino acids and decrease of the branched chain amino acids [BCAA]. This study points to the beneficial effect of estimating serum amino acids with other conventional liver function tests in assessing various hepatobiliary disorders

influence of spore wall thickness and pigmentation of the penetrability of mutagenic UV radiation in ascobolus immerses

Mechanisms of protection against lethal UV radiation [254 nm] in fungal spores were investigated. This was made possible by the availability of various mutants of Ascobolusimmersus producing ascospores differing from the dark red pigmented wild-type in both pigment and thickness of spore wall. The basic mechanism of protection is suggested to be a shielding effect from UV radiation through a thicker pigmented spore wall. The presence of a photoreactivating repair system in A. immersus capable of reducing the lethal effects of UV radiation is also emphasized

Optimisation of filtrationenrichment methods in fungi lacking asexual spores: mutagenesis, filtration and isolation of mutants

Filtration-enrichment is a very successful method for obtaining auxotrophs in fungi, where traditional methods can not applied directly to fungi lacking suitable asexual spores. This is mainly because of a heavy carry-over of parental nutrients into sexual spores such as ascospores. A procedure has been devised to apply filtration-enrichment to such fungi by using hyphal mutagenesis, crossing, germination of sexual spores, fragmentation of germination hyphae into small propagules, followed by two cycles of filtration-enrichment in liquid minimal medium. This technique was first applied by Helmi [1985] and then by others [Zwolinski, 1988]. In the present work this technique has been optimised with Ascobolus --immersus for mutagenesis, hyphal fragmentation and recovery, filtration pore size, duration and number of growth periods, and final isolation of colonies. It was possible to get yields of about 30% auxotrophs. This technique is easily applicable to other fungi, such as Sordaria

Elements of mating competition in the heterothalic fungus Ascobolus immerses

Mutliple crosses between Ascobolus immersus strains differing in ascospore colour produced from sexual cycles were made to investigate patterns of mating competition. Two major elements were found to control the competitive force of a strains to mate with opposite mating type Sins in a multiple crossing equally spaced cultures. There are: growth rate and fertility. However, in a finite mixed population of hyphae of mating strains, the formation of heterokaryotic cells continues until a certain equilibrium between heterokaryotic cells and vegetative cells has been reached. Hyphae coming into mass of mating mycelia, after this equilibrium have no chance "opportunity" to fuse or mate

On the analysis of alloys refined by zone melting

Some variables in the spectrographic analysis of tin alloys refined by zone melting are studied. It was found that to estimate the impurities such as Pb and Cu in purified tin alloys, the preparation of standards and zone melting process must be done under restricted conditions. These conditions depend upon the quality of these impurities in alloys

Errors in deductions about gene conversion from studies using detection of wild-type recombinants from repulsionphase heteroalletic crosses

Studies using the selection of wild-type recombinants from repulsionphase heteroallelic crosses, to get data on gene conversion, have given useful information on recombination, especially in Drosophila. The same method is also used in testing the effect of certain agents on recombination in yeast. However, errors in deductions from these data affect the validity of various conclusions, such as whether there are real differences in conversion frequencies between alleles of a locus and whether conversion frequencies are related to map positions within a locus. These errors arise from a failure to consider that conversion to wild-type and conversion to mutant may have quite different frequencies for a given mutation, and that the direction and extent of disparity in conversion direction can differ greatly for mutations at the same locus. In fungal data from tetrads and octads, where conversion to mutant and to wild-type can both be studied, variations in disparity of conversion direction cause much greater variation in frequencies of conversion to wild-type than in total conversion frequencies for individual mutations at a locus. This work is meant to give method for comparing conversion frequencies from Drosophila-type heteroallelic crosses with those from tetrad or octad analyses

Complementary genes controlling gene conversion in ascobolus immerses

Genes controlling recombination in the Pasadena strains of Ascobolus immersus were identified and related to the possible molecular functions involved in this complex process. Genetic analysis showed that there are two more loci, other than the three loci previously detected by Helmi [1980], present in these strains and control gene conversion at w-78 site [locus I mutations]. These two loci and the site they control are of different linkage groups. There are two alleles at each locus: one is completely dominant over the other. The dominant alleles at these two loci complement each other in enhancing gene conversion frequency at W-78 site [up to 121]. The specificity of these two genes for different loci is not yet known. The relationship between the newly detected conversion control factors [ccf s], namely ccf-14 [E/e] and ccf-15 [E/e], and the previously detected locus ccf-11 [P/K/91] was discussed