No abstract

The diagnostic accuracy of FE(NO) measurement was superior to that of the standard diagnostic spirometry in patients with symptoms suggestive of asthma. The use of FE(NO) measurement and induced sputum Eos% together to diagnose asthma in clinical practice is more accurate than spirometry or FE(NO) assessment alone and easier to perform.

To develop a spore inactivation strategy, the effect of 15-min hydrostatic pressure treatments (550 and 650 MPa) at 55 and 75 degrees C in citric acid buffer (4.75 and 6.5 pH) on spores of 5 isolates of Clostridium perfringens type A carrying the gene that encodes the C. perfringens enterotoxin (cpe) on the chromosome (C-cpe), 4 isolates carrying the cpe gene on a plasmid (P-cpe), and 2 strains of C. sporogenes were investigated. Treatments at 650 MPa, 75 degrees C and pH 6.5 were moderately effective against spores of P-cpe (approximately 3.7 decimal reduction, DR) and C. sporogenes (approximately 2.1 DR) but not for C-cpe (approximately 1.0 DR) spores. Treatments at pH 4.75 were moderately effective against spores of P-cpe (approximately 3.2 DR) and C. sporogenes (approximately 2.5 DR) but not of C-cpe (approximately 1.2 DR) when combined with 550 MPa at 75 degrees C. However, when pressure was raised to 650 MPa under the same conditions, high inactivation of P-cpe (approximately 5.1 DR) and C. sporogenes (approximately 5.8 DR) spores and moderate inactivation of C-cpe (approximately 2.8 DR) spores were observed. Further advances in high-pressure treatment strategies to inactivate spores of cpe-positive C. perfringens type A and C. sporogenes more efficiently are needed.

In this Letter are presented three-dimensional quantum mechanical cross sections for the title reaction, as calculated for the ab initio potential energy surface of Urban, Jaquet, and Staemmler. The calculations were done within the coupled-states approximation. It is shown that not only are the J = 0 probabilities affected by numerous sharp resonances but even the energy-dependent cross sections, for which such resonances are expected to be smoothed out, are characterized by a rich resonance structure. This is the first time that such oscillatory integral cross sections have been obtained for a chemical exchange process. From comparison with quasi-classical-trajectory results, it is shown that the reaction is dominated by quantum effects to the extent that the quasi-classical-trajectory calculations sometimes become irrelevant.