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Micro and macroalgae are renewable and carbon-neutral sources of energy that can grow naturally or can be cultivated in nutrient-rich wastewater, without compromising the production of food crops. Microalgae use nutrients, accumulate heavy metals and reduce coliform bacteria from wastewater, thus contributing to their phytoremediation. Furthermore, the conversion of algae biomass into biofuels contributes to reducing the dependence on fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. Depending on the species and cultivation method, microalgae have a very fast growth rate (12 days) and their potential to produce biodiesel is 15 to 300 times higher than that of agricultural and energy crops conventionally used for biofuels. Lipid content in microalgae can reach 75-80% by weight of dry biomass. To produce 39 billion liters of biodiesel, 15 million tons of nitrogen and 2 million tons of phosphorus are required during the growth process of microalgae. From algae cultivated in 500 billion m3 of industrial wastewater, approximately 37 million tons of oil can be extracted that can be transformed into biodiesel. However, there are also challenges in large-scale utilization of microalgae, due to the high energy input, technical difficulties encountered in harvesting unicellular microalgae, and the need for subsequent pretreatment operations to improve lipid extraction. This paper reviews the potential of microalgae species to thrive in wastewater and the technological achievements in converting microalgae biomass for the sustainable biodiesel production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background: Immunotherapy is currently used to treat multiple types of cancer. While dermatologic toxicity of all grades occur, there are few reports of leukocytoclastic vasculitis induced by immunotherapy. Case report: a 65 years old Romanian man known with chronic lymphatic leukaemia and stage IV non-keratinized squamous cell carcinoma of the lung received second line monotherapy with nivolumab. After the second cycle the patient was referred to our service with general malaise and an eruption of palpable purpuric lesions confluent in plaques with multiple ulcerations disseminated on the thighs and forearms bilaterally, associated with local oedema and pain. A skin biopsy was performed and leukocytoclastic vasculitis was diagnosed. Systemic vasculitis was excluded by extensive investigations. The patient was treated with corticotherapy and hydroxychloroquine, with a favourable evolution of the vasculitis. With maintenance therapy he was able to continue the oncologic treatment. Conclusion: We report a rare case of vascular toxicity of immunotherapy with good response to systemic corticotherapy and hydroxychloroquine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Infectio.ro is the property of MEDICHUB MEDIA, S.R.L. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Deposition of some materials as thin layers on cutting tools, to increase the wear resistance of these, has become a major interest for the cutting tool industry in recent years. Coating the cutting inserts with some different materials improves their wear resistance and prolongs the life. There are known many researches concerning the cutting inserts coated with materials by the vacuum deposition, using methods as: physical vapor deposition (vacuum thermal evaporation and condensation from the vapor phase, ionic plating and pulverization) or chemical vapor deposition. In this study it is measured the influence of coatings thickness deposited by the physical vapor deposition (PVD), namely by ionic plating method on the machining performance of the cutting inserts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlabelled: THE AIMS OF THE STUDY: Evaluation of the prevalence of HBV, HCV, HDV infection in patients with chronic lymphoproliferative diseases (CL), identification of the most involved viral genotypes, correlation between viremia dynamics and CL evolution, detection of molecular mechanisms implicated in CL pathogenesis, identification of lymphocytic receptors for viral antigens and biologic markers for early diagnosis of CL., Methods: We present preliminary results of the first year of our research grant. This is a prospective, analytic, observational study in patients diagnosed with CL and HBV, HCV, HDV chronic infection. We included the following forms of CL: non-Hodgkin malignant lymphoma (NHL), Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). We used the following commercial test kits: HCV RNA Real time PCR on a COBAS TaqMan (Roche Diagnostics) analyzer with 28 to 140.000.000 UI/ml detection range for HCV viremia, HBV DNA Real time PCR on a COBAS TaqMan (Roche Diagnostics) analyzer with 6 to 110.000.000 UI/ml detection range for HBV and the Roboscreen-RoboGene AJ kit with 10-10.000.000 replica/ml detection range for HDV., Results: We have included 20 patients with CL and chronic hepatitis infection so far. Median age of the patients was 61 years. The identified CL forms were: B cell NHL (15 cases), T cell NHL (1 case), CLL (3 cases), Hodgkin lymphoma (1 case), equally distributed in aggressive and indolent forms of CL. HCV infection was diagnosed in 10 patients with CL, HBV infection was found in 10 patients with CL, 3 of them having co-infection HBV + HDV. In 4 patients with HBV infection viremia was over 20.000 IU/ml and the pattern of the CL was the aggressive form of the disease. The feature of the co-infection HBV + HDV was the predominance of indolent forms of CL. Among patients with HCV infection, only 3 cases were detected with viremia over 600.000 IU/ml and CL was represented by aggressive forms of the disease. We also have immunohistochemical data available in 19 cases, which seem to confirm the role of hepatitis viruses in lymphoproliferative disease etiopathogenesis., Conclusions: We ascertained an almost equally represented prevalence of HCV and HBV infection in patients with CL. The levels of HBV, HCV and HDV viremia were low in most of the cases. The most frequent form of CL was B cell NHL. We found an equal distribution between indolent and aggressive forms of NHL associated to hepatitis virus infection.