PATHOLOGICAL CHANGES IN 37 HUMAN RENAL HOMOTRANSPLANTS TREATED WITH IMMUNOSUPPRESSIVE DRUGS

Pathological changes in thirty‐seven human renal homotransplants are described. All the patients had been treated with Imuran, prednisone and actinomycin C; ten had also received local X‐irradiation to the transplant. Fifteen of the transplants were from patients in a rejection phase. Most of these kidneys were enlarged because of interstitial oedema and several were speckled with petechial hemorrhages. There was fibrinoid necrosis of afferent arterioles and interlobular arteries in twelve of the transplants, and the peritubular capillaries were disrupted in ten. Swelling of the arteriolar endothelial cells, fibrino‐platelet and fibrous intimal thickening of interlobular arteries were also common. In most of the transplants there was a light infiltration with small lymphocytes, plasma cells and a few larger pyroninophilic cells. Similar changes were present in the pelvis and ureter. Twelve of the transplants came from patients whose last rejection episode had been clinically reversed 14 to 117 days previously. AH these kidneys were enlarged because of compensatory hypertrophy. Seven showed some intimal thickening of the interlobular arteries and in three there was fibrinoid necrosis of arteriolar walls. Tubular atrophy, interstitial fibrosis and a light cellular infiltration were also common changes. Only one kidney appeared normal. Three transplants came from patients who had not experienced clinical evidence of a rejection episode. One showed acute tubular necrosis due to prolonged ischemia at the time of transplantation; one was almost normal; the third showed vascular lesions suggestive of old unrecognised rejection. Seven transplants had either not functioned or developed some complication necessitating their early removal. One of these was infarcted due to obstruction of the venous drainage; two showed massive acute tubular necrosis due to ischaemia; two, which were incompatible with their hosts on the basis of ABO blood groups, failed to excrete urine and showed distension of the arterioles and glomerular capillaries with erythrocytes; one bled uncontrollably from the pelvis; one came from a patient who died at twelve hours from hyperkalemia and hyponatremia during a massive post‐operative diuresis. This work was aided by grants A‐6283, A‐6344, HE‐07735, AM‐07772, AI‐01452, and OG‐27 from the U.S. Public Health Service, and by a grant from the Medical Research Council. The necropsies on cases described in this paper were either performed or supervised by Drs Coral Cotterall, Doris Courington, Carol Ewing, R. B. Hill, J. Jamroz, D. W. King, D. M. Lang, Martha La Via, Elizabeth Macintyre, N. McGrath, J. C. Maisel, C. G. Massion, D. R. Meekin, H. B. Neustein, S. Ryan, and D. E. Smith. We would like to thank all these pathologists for making this study possible. We are particularly grateful to Dr D. T. Rowlands, who supervised some of the necropsies, for his helpful co‐operation throughout this study. Expert assistance in preparing the sections and photomicrographs was given by Miss Jane Rendall. © 1965 BJU International Compan

Analyzing the Impact of Airborne Particulate Matter on Urban Contamination with the Help of Hybrid Neural Networks

In this study, particulate matter (PM), total suspended particulate (TSP), PM10, and PM2.5 fractions) concentrations were recorded in various cities from south of Romania to build the corresponding time series for various intervals. First, the time series of each pollutant were used as inputs in various configurations of feed-forward neural networks (FANN) to find the most suitable network architecture to the PM specificity. The outputs were evaluated using mean absolute error (MAE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), root mean square error (RMSE), and Pearson correlation coefficient (r) between observed series and output series. Second, each time series was decomposed using Daubechies wavelets of third order into its corresponding components. Each decomposed component of a PM time series was used as input in the optimal feed-forward neural networks (FANN) architecture established in the first step. The output of each component was re-included to form the modeled series of the original pollutant time series

Contributions to the Development of a Crop Growth Model for Assessing Grass-Legume Interactions

Crop growth and development, as well as ecophysiological assessments, can be obtained directly from field experiments, but only a finite set of variables can be studied in this way. A model used to simulate the biological efficiency cycle considering the soil-plant-climate system is essential in assessing the associated fluctuations due to year-to-year variability of the climate, or for testing the effect of various cropping practices. Models that simulate crop growth were developed, on one hand, to predict the yields, and on the other hand to analyze the impacts of agricultural practices on environment and productivity. The aims of this study were to develop a crop simulation model, coupled with experimental work on phenotypic and physiological mechanisms and their interactions in binary associations of perennial legumes and grasses. A logical flow diagram to conceive and interact for prototyping was built. Experimental data comprising crop growth values required for simulation were implemented as variables in each specific module. The diagrammatic model helped to assess the components of the LabVIEW software application as state variables, auxiliary variables, processes and parameters. At individual level, interspecific competition capacity depends on the deployment efficiency of morphological organs specialized to gain resources. Crop models could use the added structural detail by incorporating detailed routines of light interception and resource allocation to respond to spatial variations of local conditions that result from species growth within mixed canopy

Water Quality and Anthropogenic Pressures in a Changing Environment: The Arges River Basin, Romania

The objective of this work was to present several benchmarks regarding the water quality at hydrological basin level under increasing anthropogenic pressures. The first part briefly describes the sources of water pollution, the hydromorphological pressures, and the main water quality parameters widely used for the assessment. The second part presents as an example the dynamics of several water quality parameters recorded between 2007 and 2014 downstream of Argeș River, Romania, near the confluence with the Danube River. Argeș River supplies water for several important Romanian cities including Bucharest, and from here comes the rationale of the work, which envisages characterizing water quality status to substantiate proper water management. The following parameters were statistically analyzed: water temperature, suspended solids, pH, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, ammonium, nitrates, nitrites, and dissolved heavy metals. The factor analysis results showed that the first factor contains temperature and dissolved oxygen, the second has the heavy metals, the third groups have the ammonium and pH, the fourth contains the TSS and nitrites, while the fifth is formed by BOD5 and nitrates. Water quality plays a significant role in promoting socioeconomic development and maintaining viable ecosystems. The protection of water quality requires improved monitoring and reliable watershed management plans

Time Series Analysis of the Pollutants Imissions in Urban Areas

Environmental pollution of urban areas is one of the key factors that local agencies and authorities have to consider in the decision-making process. To succeed a sustainable management of the environment, there is necessary to use different kinds of instruments in order to evaluate and forecast the evolution of the environmental state. Understanding temporal and spatial distribution of air quality is essential in making decisions for regional management. In this paper a model for urban air quality forecasting using time series of monthly averages concentrations is presented. Sedimentable dusts (SD), total suspended particulates (TSP), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and sulfur dioxide (SO2), imissions, recorded between 1995 and 2008 in the urban area of Târgovişte city are used as inputs in the model. The measured pollutant data from the local Environmental Agency database were statistically analyzed in time series including monthly patterns using the auto-regressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) method, linear trend, simple moving average of three terms and simple exponential smoothing. There was discussed the efficiency of using this method in forecasting the environmental air quality. In general, ARIMA technique scores well in predicting the analysed environmental air quality parameters

Air Quality Characterization in Ploiesti Urban Area Afected by Industrial and Traffic Pollution

Emissions of air pollutants derive from almost all economic and societal activities. Due to the concentration of crude oil processing activities around Ploiesti city, which is an urban agglomeration of Romania, this area was carefully monitored regarding air pollutants concentrations. The aim of this work was the characterization of air quality in the city of Ploiesti, affected by industrial and traffic pollution, the analysis of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) concentrations collected from a continuous monitoring system and the identification of some relationships between air pollution and meteorological parameters in the studied area. Descriptive statistics was applied to analyze the time series of air pollutants monitored by an automated monitoring network composed by six stations, in order to establish the relationship between air pollutants and important weather factors. Data were measured in Ploiesti urban area between November 2011 and March 2012. The statistical models indicated that weather variables such as temperature and relative humidity had significant impact on the most air pollutants

Uraemia from benign hypertension

Criteria for the diagnosis of uraemia as a result of benign essential nephrosclerosis were established in a group of 12 patients, most of whom had a long history of inadequately treated hypertension, arteriosclerosis, cardiomegaly and mild proteinuria. They are representative of a larger group of patients with long-standing hypertension and uraemia, in whom a presumptive diagnosis of essential benign nephrosclerosis was made on clinical grounds, but in whom histological confirmation was not possible. Thus, while we have firmly established the occurrence of uraemia from benign hypertension, the incidence of this condition remains to be determined.S. Afr. Med. J., 48, 953 (1974)