Application of compression stockings to the lower extremities is a widely used therapeutic intervention to improve venous return, but there is little information about the effects of compression on local arterial perfusion. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that a positive external pressure increases forearm perfusion. The relation of increasing external pressure induced by standardized compression to the arterial inflow and arterial flow reserve of the forearm was critically evaluated in a group of healthy young men (n = 9). Flow was measured with venous occlusion plethysmography after a 10-min application of six different stockings with compression pressure increasing from 13 to 23 mmHg. During compression, the arterial inflow increased significantly from 3.7 +/- 0.85 to 8.8 +/- 2.01 ml.min(-1).100 ml tissue(-1) (P < 0.001) and the arterial flow reserve increased from 17.7 +/- 4.7 to 28.3 +/- 7.0 ml.min(-1).100 ml tissue(-1). The flow increase was persistent after 3 h of constant application of external pressure and also during simultaneous low-intensity hand grip. Similar results obtained with occlusion plethysmography were seen with MRI. During the interventions, forearm temperature was unchanged, and the volunteers reported no discomfort. In conclusion, 1) arterial perfusion of the human forearm increases more than twofold during application of external compression over a pressure range of 13-23 mmHg, and 2) the result is interpreted as an autoregulatory response following the decrease of the vascular transmural pressure gradient.
Mercury-contaminated chemical wastewater of a mercury cell chloralkali plant was cleaned on site by a technical-scale bioremediation system. Microbial mercury reduction of soluble Hg(II) to precipitating Hg(0) decreased the mercury load of the wastewater during its flow through the bioremediation system by up to 99%. The system consisted of a packed-bed bioreactor, where most of the wastewater's mercury load was retained, and an activated carbon filter, where residual mercury was removed from the bioreactor effluent by both physical adsorption and biological reduction. In response to the oscillation of the mercury concentration in the bioreactor inflow, the zone of maximum mercury reduction oscillated regularly between the lower and the upper bioreactor horizons or the carbon filter. At low mercury concentrations, maximum mercury reduction occurred near the inflow at the bottom of the bioreactor. At high concentrations, the zone of maximum activity moved to the upper horizons. The composition of the bioreactor and carbon filter biofilms was investigated by 16S-23S ribosomal DNA intergenic spacer polymorphism analysis. Analysis of spatial biofilm variation showed an increasing microbial diversity along a gradient of decreasing mercury concentrations. Temporal analysis of the bioreactor community revealed a stable abundance of two prevalent strains and a succession of several invading mercury-resistant strains which was driven by the selection pressure of high mercury concentrations. In the activated carbon filter, a lower selection pressure permitted a steady increase in diversity during 240 days of operation and the establishment of one mercury-sensitive invader.
Acoustic or visual warning signals for workers in hazardous situations might fail under loud and/or lowvisibility work situations. A warning system should be developed that uses electrocutaneous stimulation through textile electrodes. Previous work investigated suitable stimulation parameters using TENS electrodes. The aim of this study was to compare TENS and textile cuff electrodes in terms of sensation thresholds, qualitative and spatial sensation. A study on 30 healthy volunteers (f=13, m=17) of mean age of 26.7 years was conducted applying bi-phasic rectangular current pulses to electrodes attached to the upper right arm. The study revealed that perception, attention and intolerance thresholds, qualitative and spatial perception are comparable indicating that future studies with the textile cuff electrodes can be generally based on the previous results with TENS electrodes.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.