127 research outputs found
THE ANCIENT DRUG OPIUM
The use of papaver somniferum (from the Latin fero ferre = âtobear/bringâ and somnium = âsleepâ) as a narcotic, goes backto the 13th century BC. The works of ancient authors such asDioscorides, Celsus, Galen, Theophrastus and Pliny the Elderprovide us with detailed information about the morphology of theplant, its processing and the administration of the drug.1 Theseauthors make it clear that opium was mainly employed as anodyneand narcotic but they also documented its use as a drug inthe treatment of a variety of ailments, either as one of manyingredients in a medicinal recipe or as the main ingredient.Modern botanical and pharmaceutical analysis of the plant and itsactive ingredients provide us with some surprising conclusionsregarding its effectiveness in the treatment of the medical conditionsfor which it was prescribed in the 1st and 2nd century
Dynamics of Elastic Excitable Media
The Burridge-Knopoff model of earthquake faults with viscous friction is
equivalent to a van der Pol-FitzHugh-Nagumo model for excitable media with
elastic coupling. The lubricated creep-slip friction law we use in the
Burridge-Knopoff model describes the frictional sliding dynamics of a range of
real materials. Low-dimensional structures including synchronized oscillations
and propagating fronts are dominant, in agreement with the results of
laboratory friction experiments. Here we explore the dynamics of fronts in
elastic excitable media.Comment: Int. J. Bifurcation and Chaos, to appear (1999
Self-Assembling Ice Membranes on Europa: Brinicle Properties, Field Examples, and Possible Energetic Systems in Icy Ocean Worlds
Brinicles are self-assembling tubular ice membrane structures, centimeters to
meters in length, found beneath sea ice in the polar regions of Earth. We
discuss how the properties of brinicles make them of possible importance for
chemistry in cold environments-including that of life's emergence-and we
consider their formation in icy ocean world. We argue that the non-ice
composition of the ice on Europa and Enceladus will vary spatially due to
thermodynamic and mechanical properties that serve to separate and fractionate
brines and solid materials. The specifics of the composition and dynamics of
both the ice and the ocean in these worlds remain poorly constrained. We
demonstrate through calculations using FREZCHEM that sulfate likely
fractionates out of accreting ice in Europa and Enceladus, and thus that an
exogenous origin of sulfate observed on Europa's surface need not preclude
additional endogenous sulfate in Europa's ocean. We suggest that, like
hydrothermal vents on Earth, brinicles in icy ocean worlds constitute ideal
places where ecosystems of organisms might be found
Lip tape therapy in patients with a cleft lip â a report on eight cases
INTRODUCTION: Lip tape therapy or lip taping is a widely
used tissue approximation technique in cleft lip babies. Various
tapes have been tested and used worldwide. Allergic
reactions and skin irritation are the most common problems
encountered. Tension force across the tape cannot be consistently
applied. Cost is also an obstacle to adopting lip
tape therapy, particularly in developing countries.
AIM: A study was undertaken to evaluate a different tape,
âphysio tapeâ, which has never been used for lip approximation
in cleft lip babies.
METHOD: Eight babies were available for this study, which
was conducted over a six-week period (Ethical Approval
number 33/2013). Standardised pre- and post-treatment
recordings were made with a digital camera and soft tissue
analysis was carried out with Cliniview software.
RESULTS: All participants showed a reduction in cleft size
ranging from 9.1mm to 36.7mm at the vermillion end of the
cleft. Caregivers had no difficulty with the lip tape procedure
and generally no untoward or allergic reactions were
reported.
CONCLUSION: On the basis of the positive results of this investigation,
it is recommended that this method of lip tape
therapy be used on all babies born with a cleft lip. It is affordable,
simple to use and should facilitate the surgical repair.http://www.sada.co.za2015-03-30am201
Exploding Chemical Gardens: A Phase-Change Clock Reaction.
Chemical gardens and clock reactions are two of the best-known demonstration reactions in chemistry. Until now these have been separate categories. We have discovered that a chemical garden confined to two dimensions is a clock reaction involving a phase change, so that after a reproducible and controllable induction period it explodes
Safety, tolerability and clinical implementation of 'ready-to-use' 68gallium-DOTA0-Tyr3-octreotide (68Ga-DOTATOC) (SomaKIT TOC) for injection in patients diagnosed with gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (GEP-NETs)
BACKGROUND: 68Ga-DOTA0-Tyr3-octreotide (68Ga-DOTATOC) positron emission tomography-CT (PET-CT) has superior diagnostic performance compared to the licensed tracer OctreoScan single photon emission CT-CT in patients with gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (GEP-NETs). A new preparation of 68Ga-DOTATOC using a new 'ready-to-use' 68Ga-DOTATOC formulation for injection has been developed (68Ga-DOTATOC (SomaKIT TOC)). OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess the safety and tolerability of 68Ga-DOTATOC (SomaKIT TOC) and evaluate the feasibility and robustness of implementing it in a NET clinical imaging service. METHODS: A first-in-human phase I/II multicentre, open-label study of a single dose of 68Ga-DOTATOC (SomaKIT TOC) 2 MBq/kg±10% (range 100-200 MBq) in patients with biopsy-proven grade 1-2 GEP-NETs. PET-CT was performed post injection. Patients were followed up for 28 days. We next implemented this new synthesis methodology in a clinical service assessed over 11 months. RESULTS: Twenty consenting patients were recruited; 14 males, 6 females; mean (SD) age 58 years (12); NET grade 1 (70%), grade 2 (30%); and 75% with stage IV disease. Twelve patients experienced at least one adverse event (AE) during the study with no grade 3-4 toxicities. Only four AEs were classified as possibly (headache (n=1; 4%), nausea (1; 4%)) or probably (dysgeusia (1; 4%), paraesthesia (1; 4%)) related to the study preparation. One hundred thirteen vials of 68Ga-DOTATOC (SomaKIT TOC) were synthesised with the 'kit' over a period of 11 months for clinical utility. Only 2/113 vials (1.77%) were rejected. CONCLUSIONS: The new ready-to-use preparation of 68Ga-DOTATOC (SomaKIT TOC) for injection was safe and well tolerated. This has led to the world's first (EMA) licensed 68Ga-DOTATOC (SomaKIT TOC) radiopharmaceutical for the utility of PET imaging in patients with NETs. This preparation can be robustly implemented into routine clinical practice
Global Diffusion in a Realistic Three-Dimensional Time-Dependent Nonturbulent Fluid Flow
We introduce and study the first model of an experimentally realizable
three-dimensional time-dependent nonturbulent fluid flow to display the
phenomenon of global diffusion of passive-scalar particles at arbitrarily small
values of the nonintegrable perturbation. This type of chaotic advection,
termed {\it resonance-induced diffusion\/}, is generic for a large class of
flows.Comment: 4 pages, uuencoded compressed postscript file, to appear in Phys.
Rev. Lett. Also available on the WWW from http://formentor.uib.es/~julyan/,
or on paper by reques
Nonlinear Dynamics of the Perceived Pitch of Complex Sounds
We apply results from nonlinear dynamics to an old problem in acoustical
physics: the mechanism of the perception of the pitch of sounds, especially the
sounds known as complex tones that are important for music and speech
intelligibility
Bailout Embeddings and Neutrally Buoyant Particles in Three-Dimensional Flows
We use the bailout embeddings of three-dimensional volume-preserving maps to
study qualitatively the dy- namics of small spherical neutrally buoyant
impurities suspended in a time-periodic incompressible fluid flow. The
accumulation of impurities in tubular vortical structures, the detachment of
particles from fluid trajectories near hyperbolic invariant lines, and the
formation of nontrivial three-dimensional structures in the distribution of
particles are predicted.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Dynamics of a small neutrally buoyant sphere in a fluid and targeting in Hamiltonian systems
We show that, even in the most favorable case, the motion of a small
spherical tracer suspended in a fluid of the same density may differ from the
corresponding motion of an ideal passive particle. We demonstrate furthermore
how its dynamics may be applied to target trajectories in Hamiltonian systems.Comment: See home page http://lec.ugr.es/~julya
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