Neurological symptoms might be associated with a Covid-19 infection. There are frequent reports in the last weeks. The neurological symptoms range from harmless side effects of a viral infection to meningoencephalitis and acute haemorrhagic necrotizing encephalopathy. Our patient reported burning headache and paresthesia as the initial symptoms mainly without other signs of viral infection like cough or fever. Such an initial neurological presentation seems to be rare. Most cases have neurological symptoms which can be expected after severe systemic viral infections like fever associated headache. Many COVID-19 patients with mild disease are at home and the further course is unknown. Our case shows, that neurological symptoms can be the first manifestation of an COVID-19 disease. While restricted paraesthesia has been reported in SARS-CoV-2 infections, hemisymptoms have not been described as initial symptoms.

Fe K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy is utilized to study a series of 22 synthetic high-spin iron(I1) complexes.The 1s -3d pre-edge peak of each complex is quantitated and compared with the others in order to explore its correlation with the coordination number and symmetry of the iron center. Like the high-spin iron(II1) complexes (Roe, A. L.; Schneider, D. J.; Mayer, R. J.; Pyrz, J. W.; Que, L., Jr. J . Am. Chem. SOC. 1984,106, 1676-1681, the iron(I1) complexes can be grouped on the basis of their normalized pre-edge peak intensities: the six-coordinate complexes have pre-edge areas from 4 to 6 units, the five-coordinate from 8 to 13 units, and the tetrahedral 16 to 21 units. Three six-coordinate "iron(I1)" nitrosyl complexes examined have pre-edge areas comparable to those of normal iron@) five-coordinate complexes due to their highly distorted geometry. The information obtained here can be used to determine the coordination number of the high-spin iron(I1) centers in iron(I1)-containing proteins and other model complexes and to complement analyses based on extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS)

The EIA kit is useful for the rapid diagnosis of MAC-PD and for differentiating MAC-PD from pulmonary TB and, if validated by studies in other populations, could find wide application in clinical practice.

The distribution of Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare complex (MAC) in residences was examined. MAC was only recovered from bathrooms but not from other sites of residences. The appearance ratio in the bathrooms of patients with pulmonary MAC was significantly higher than that in healthy volunteers' bathrooms (P=.01). For 2 patients, the genotypes of environmental isolates were identical to their respective clinical isolates.

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It is difficult to distinguish pulmonary disease due to Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) from that due to other mycobacteria, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium kansasii. We developed an enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for diagnosis of MAC pulmonary diseases that uses glycopeptidolipid (GPL) antigens specific for MAC, and we used it for diagnosis in immunocompetent patients. The mean optical densities (+/- standard deviation) of serum immunoglobulin G antibodies to GPLs in patients with MAC disease, MAC colonization, M. kansasii disease, and tuberculosis and in healthy subjects were 0.778+/-0.784, 0.042+/-0.035, 0.059+/-0.035, 0.071+/-0.035, and 0.030+/-0.027, respectively. A significant increase in the level of anti-GPL antibodies was detected in patients with MAC disease. The level of anti-GPL antibodies reflected disease activity, because the level was decreased in culture-negative patients who had conversion of culture results. When a cutoff level of seropositivity (0.119) was defined, the sensitivity of EIA for diagnosis of MAC disease was 92.3%, and the specificity was 96.7%. Measurement of serum anti-GPL antibodies is useful for both the diagnosis of and assessment of activity in MAC disease.

Preparation of CuO thin films by decomposition of self-assembled multibilayer films as a molecular template was investigated. Furthermore, the CO 2 sensing property of the resultant CuO thin films on a porous BaTiO 3 was investigated as a capacitive type sensor. Self-assembled bilayer films of a few 1000 layers thickness can be readily obtained by casting an aqueous suspension composed of dimethyldihexadecylammoniun bromide (DC1-16), Cu(CH 3 CO 2 ) 2 , hexadecylethylenediamine and poly(vinyl alcohol). Divalent copper ions (Cu2+) which are associated with two hexadecylethylenediamine molecules were arranged in the hydrophobic layer of the multibilayer film. Rapid heating to the combustion temperature of DC1-16 was desirable for removing organic molecules in the multibilayer template. Thin films of CuO can be obtained by calcination at temperatures higher than 573 K. The resultant CuO thin films were porous and consisted of fine particles. The capacitance of CuO thin films prepared from self-assembled multibilayer films as a molecular template on the BaTiO 3 porous substrate exhibited a high sensitivity to CO 2 , which is twice that of a conventional mixed oxide capacitor of CuO-BaTiO 3. The capacitance of CuO thin films on BaTiO 3 increases with increasing CO 2 concentration in the range from 100 ppm to 50% at 873 K. Consequently, it is concluded that CuO thin films on BaTiO 3 were appropriate capacitive type CO 2 sensors.improve the sensitivity and the response characteristics of