ФАРМАКОДИНАМИЧЕСКАЯ ЭКВИВАЛЕНТНОСТЬ ПРИМЕНЕНИЯ3-МЕСЯЧНОЙ И 28-ДНЕВНОЙ ФОРМЫ ДЕКАПЕПТИЛА ДЕПО МЕДЛЕННОГО ВЫСВОБОЖДЕНИЯ У ПАЦИЕНТОВ С РАСПРОСТРАНЕННЫМ РАКОМ ПРЕДСТАТЕЛЬНОЙ ЖЕЛЕЗЫ

Objective: to evaluate the pharmacodynamic equivalence of 3-month and 28-day formulations of tryptoreline, a sustained-release luteininghormone (LH)-releasing hormone analogue.Subjects and methods. The patients who had a verified diagnosis of locally advanced or metastatic prostate cancer were randomized intogroups to have either one injection of a 3-month dosage form (n = 63) or 3 injections of a 28-day formulation at 28-day intervals (n = 68).The onset rate of drug-induced castration, which was defined as a percentage of the patients achieving a plasma testosterone level of ≤0.5ng/ml, was compared on day 84 (i.e. thrice every 28 days). The plasma profiles of testosterone, LH, and tryptoreline, as well as the changesin the plasma concentration of prostate-specific antigen (PCA) from the baseline values were estimated within 3 months (from the initiationof therapy to day 91).Results. In the 3-month and 28-day groups, the onset rate of drug-induced castration was 98 and 96%, respectively (at confidenceintervals (94.2% bilaterally) in [-8.1%; 9.6%]. The median time for drug-induced castration was 18.8 and 18.5 days, respective-ly (p = 0.86; log-rank test). The ratios of the mean peak plasma concentrations to AUC91 of the two formulations for testosteroneand LH were within 0.80; 1.25 equivalence interval. By day 91, the mean PSA level was decreased by 91.0 and 91.7%, respec-tively (p = 0.73).Conclusion. The use of the two formulations during 3 months is pharmacologically equal.  Фармакодинамическая эквивалентность применения3-месячной и 28-дневной формы Декапептила депо медленного высвобождения у пациентов с распространенным раком предстательной железы

Production of ice-nucleating particles (INPs) by fast-growing phytoplankton

Sea spray aerosol contains ice-nucleating particles (INPs), which affect the formation and properties of clouds. Here, we show that aerosols emitted from fast-growing marine phytoplankton produce effective immersion INPs, which nucleate at temperatures significantly warmer than the atmospheric homogeneous freezing (−38.0 ∘C) of pure water. Aerosol sampled over phytoplankton cultures grown in a Marine Aerosol Reference Tank (MART) induced nucleation and freezing at temperatures as high as −15.0 ∘C during exponential phytoplankton growth. This was observed in monospecific cultures representative of two major groups of phytoplankton, namely a cyanobacterium (Synechococcus elongatus) and a diatom (Thalassiosira weissflogii). Ice nucleation occurred at colder temperatures (−28.5 ∘C and below), which were not different from the freezing temperatures of procedural blanks, when the cultures were in the stationary or death phases of growth. Ice nucleation at warmer temperatures was associated with relatively high values of the maximum quantum yield of photosystem II (ΦPSII), an indicator of the physiological status of phytoplankton. High values of ΦPSII indicate the presence of cells with efficient photochemistry and greater potential for photosynthesis. For comparison, field measurements in the North Atlantic Ocean showed that high net growth rates of natural phytoplankton assemblages were associated with marine aerosol that acted as effective immersion INPs at relatively warm temperatures. Data were collected over 4 d at a sampling station maintained in the same water mass as the water column stabilized after deep mixing by a storm. Phytoplankton biomass and net phytoplankton growth rate (0.56 d−1) were greatest over the 24 h preceding the warmest mean ice nucleation temperature (−25.5 ∘C). Collectively, our laboratory and field observations indicate that phytoplankton physiological status is a useful predictor of effective INPs and more reliable than biomass or taxonomic affiliation. Ocean regions associated with fast phytoplankton growth, such as the North Atlantic during the annual spring bloom, may be significant sources of atmospheric INPs.</p

Incontri, scontri, confronti Appunti sulla ricezione della xilografia nordica in Italia tra XV e XX secolo

Germany, France, Italy: the attribution of the first woodcut images has long been debated between several countries, to gain the technological primacy of the invention of reproductive printmaking, before Gutenberg’s movable type printing. Today we know how difficult it is, if not impossible, to establish a place and a date of origin of image printing in Europe. Impossible and probably unimportant. Printing was a European phenomenon in the 15th century, and we may ask ourselves whether a northern woodcut beyond the Italian borders was intended as something different than an Italian one. The contrast between northern and southern prints, which has been claimed by art historians from Vasari until the half of the 20th century, seems to be denied by early modern Italian sources. For example, a German woodcut from the first decades of the 15th century and a Florentine painting from the end of the 14th century can coexist as models for the illumination of the same manuscript. This unpublished case study of two Florentine 15th-century illuminations shows how a European cultural horizon was more common than we think today, and how much woodcut has been a fundamental tool for this broadening of horizons, since its very beginning

Automatic determination of aortic compliance based on MRI and adapted curvilinear detector

International audienc