Dynamics of aerosol size during inhalation : Hygroscopic growth of commercial nebulizer formulations

We thank the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute (EBI) for financial support through the EBI Early Career Research Fellowship awarded to AEH, and the EPSRC for financial support through a Leadership Fellowship awarded to JPR (grant reference EP/G007713/1). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are creditedThe size of aerosol particles prior to, and during, inhalation influences the site of deposition within the lung. As such, a detailed understanding of the hygroscopic growth of an aerosol during inhalation is necessary to accurately model the deposited dose. In the first part of this study, it is demonstrated that the aerosol produced by a nebulizer, depending on the airflows rates, may experience a (predictable) wide range of relative humidity prior to inhalation and undergo dramatic changes in both size and solute concentration. A series of sensitive single aerosol analysis techniques are then used to make measurements of the relative humidity dependent thermodynamic equilibrium properties of aerosol generated from four common nebulizer formulations. Measurements are also reported of the kinetics of mass transport during the evaporation or condensation of water from the aerosol. Combined, these measurements allow accurate prediction of the temporal response of the aerosol size prior to and during inhalation. Specifically, we compare aerosol composed of pure saline (150 mM sodium chloride solution in ultrapure water) with two commercially available nebulizer products containing relatively low compound doses: Breath, consisting of a simple salbutamol sulfate solution (5 mg/2.5 mL; 1.7 mM) in saline, and Flixotide Nebules, consisting of a more complex stabilized fluticasone propionate suspension (0.25 mg/mL; 0.5 mM in saline. A mimic of the commercial product Tobi (60 mg/mL tobramycin and 2.25 mg/mL NaC1, pH 5.5-6.5) is also studied, which was prepared in house. In all cases, the presence of the pharmaceutical was shown to have a profound effect on the magnitude, and in some cases the rate, of the mass flux of water to and from the aerosol as compared to saline. These findings provide physical chemical evidence supporting observations from human inhalation studies, and suggest that using the growth dynamics of a pure saline aerosol in a lung inhalation model to represent nebulizer formulations may not be representative of the actual behavior of the aerosolized drug solutions. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe

A structural study of the interaction between the Dr haemagglutinin DraE and derivatives of chloramphenicol

The structures of two Dr adhesin (DraE) complexes with chloramphenicol derivatives, namely chloramphenicol succinate and bromamphenicol, have been solved. The structures reveal important functional groups for small-molecule binding and imply possible modifications to the molecule that would permit a more wide-ranging interaction without the toxic side effects associated with chloramphenicol

Follistatin, a Novel Biomarker for Malignant Gliomas

Molecular biomarkers are commonly used for the management of several types of malignant tumours in routine clinical practice. However, this is not the case for malignant gliomas. Cytokines and Angiogenesis factors are potential candidates due to their intrinsic role in tumourigenesis. Pre- and post-operative serum from 36 malignant glioma patients and 36 controls was analysed using the Bio-Plex Pro Angiogenesis and Cytokines Assay (Bio-Rad, USA). Amongst the molecules tested, the serum concentration of follistatin was significantly higher in patients than in controls. Moreover, the serum concentration of follistatin of the patients postoperatively was significantly reduced compared to that preoperatively. Factors such as age and gender did not affect the concentrations of follistatin measured in the serum of patients pre- and post-operatively as well as healthy controls. This is the first report of follistatin as potential biomarker for the detection of malignant gliomas

You are what you eat? Vegetarianism, health and identity

This paper examines the views of ‘health vegetarians’ through a qualitative study of an online vegetarian message board. The researcher participated in discussions on the board, gathered responses to questions from 33 participants, and conducted follow-up e-mail interviews with 18 of these participants. Respondents were predominantly from the United States, Canada and the UK. Seventy per cent were female, and ages ranged from 14 to 53 years, with a median of 26 years. These data are interrogated within a theoretical framework that asks, ‘what can a vegetarian body do?’ and explores the physical, psychic, social and conceptual relations of participants. This provides insights into the identities of participants, and how diet and identity interact. It is concluded that vegetarianism is both a diet and a bodily practice with consequences for identity formation and stabilisation

Perceptions of male rape and sexual assault in a male sample from the United Kingdom: Barriers to reporting and the impacts of victimization

The present study explored the prevalence of myths about male sexual assault, assault by penetration, and rape in a male general population sample (N = 98; mean age = 26.17 years), with the aim of determining potential barriers to the reporting of incidents of male sexual victimization and reasons for reluctance to report. In addition, the impacts of prior experience of male sexual victimization, both direct and indirect, on rape and sexual assault myth acceptance and on attitudes to reporting were evaluated. Participants completed an online survey indicating their levels of agreement with a range of statements reflecting different rape and sexual assault myths identified within the previous literature. Overall, there were high levels of disagreement (>90%) with the majority of the statements. The only items generating higher agreement ratings were those suggesting that the police are unlikely to take male sexual victimization seriously and—where the offence in question was sexual assault or assault by penetration and the perpetrator female—that men should be able to defend themselves against such crimes. Those without any prior experience of male sexual victimization tended to disagree more with the rape myths than those with previous experience. When asked whether they would report these offences if they were to happen to them, participants said that they were more likely to report each of the types of offences when the perpetrator was male than when they were female. Potential implications of the findings, for male sex offence investigations and for the criminal justice system more generally, are discussed

Sexuality in the Therapeutic Relationship: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the Experiences of Gay Therapists

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health on 17/10/2014 date, available online: DOI: 10.1080/19359705.2014.957882Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) clients have reported experiencing heterosexist/homophobic attitudes from heterosexual therapists, but this has seldom been discussed for gay therapists. Such experiences could impact the therapeutic process and a gay therapist’s willingness to self-disclose their sexuality. Self- disclosure of sexuality can be therapeutically beneficial for LGBTQ or heterosexual clients. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven gay male therapists and analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Five themes emerged: affinity for work- ing with LGBTQ clients, heterosexual males’ resistance to the therapeutic process, the impact of homophobia within the therapeu- tic relationship, empathy through shared humanity, and utilizing therapist sexuality as a tool within the therapeutic relationship