IntroductionPyrrole undergoes oxidative polymerization from acetonitrile solution at a metallic anode to form a dark coloured skin that adheres firmly to the metal surface. This simple electropolymerization step, when applied to pyrrole monomers with covalently attached redox centres, offers a method for fixing these redox centres to an electrode. The very large range of modified electrodes prepared by this method is discussed here. A main aim of this area of research is the construction of electrodes on which a catalytic centre is present, and which can be activated by placing the electrode at the required redox potential.A number of important oxidation and reduction processes involve the transfer of atoms or groups of atoms and the making or breaking of bonds which involve a pair of electrons. These reactions do not occur readily at a normal electrode surface which promotes the transfer of single electrons only. Hence, there is a need to develop an electrode surface coating containing an electrocatalyst. If we consider an oxidation process, the catalyst is so designed that it reacts with the substrate and is itself reduced to an inactive form. This inactive form is in turn oxidized at the electrode surface by a sequence of single electron transfer steps. The advantage of such a system lies in constraining the catalyst to the electrode surface where it can be regenerated. The rate of the catalysed oxidation or reduction is limited by the diffusion of substrate to the coated electrode surface. Examples will be given where electrocatalytic processes have been achieved on a small scale.
We report the results of the New Zealand Acute Gastrointestinal Illness (AGI) Community Study, a representative cross-sectional community telephone survey of 3655 participants conducted over a 12-month period. Respondents were asked questions about vomiting and diarrhoea in the previous 4 weeks. At least one episode of diarrhoea and/or vomiting was reported by 8·6% of respondents, an incidence of 1·11 episodes/person per year. Prevalence was highest in children aged <5 years and lowest in those aged >64 years. The mean duration of illness was 2·5 days and most common symptoms were diarrhoea (82·5%), stomach cramps (75·7%), nausea (56·9%) and vomiting (49·0%). Extrapolation of the adjusted estimates indicates there are about 4·66 million episodes of AGI per year in New Zealand, nearly 1 million visits to the general medical practitioner, in excess of 300,000 courses of antibiotics being dispensed and more than 4·5 million days of paid work lost due to AGI. This represents a significant burden of disease.
Penicillium marneffei is a thermally dimorphic fungus that causes severe human immunodeficiency virus-related opportunistic infection in endemic areas of Southeast Asia and has rarely been reported in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients. We report here the case of an Australian renal transplant patient who presented with disseminated P. marneffei infection shortly after a 10-day holiday to Vietnam, and review all previously published cases of penicilliosis associated with renal transplantation. This is the first reported case, to our knowledge, of P. marneffei infection in an SOT recipient acquired during travel to an endemic country, and highlights the importance of an accurate travel history when opportunistic infection is suspected, as well as giving appropriate health advice to transplant patients who travel.
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