Photocurable Bioink for the Inkjet 3D Pharming of Hydrophilic Drugs.

Novel strategies are required to manufacture customized oral solid dosage forms for personalized medicine applications. 3D Pharming, the direct printing of pharmaceutical tablets, is an attractive strategy, since it allows for the rapid production of solid dosage forms containing custom drug dosages. This study reports on the design and characterization of a biocompatible photocurable pharmaceutical polymer for inkjet 3D printing that is suitable for hydrophilic active pharmaceutical ingredients (API). Specifically, hyaluronic acid was functionalized with norbornene moieties that, in the presence of poly(ethylene) glycol dithiol, Eosin Y as a photoinitiator, and a visible light source, undergoes a rapid step-growth polymerization reaction through thiol-ene chemistry. The engineered bioink was loaded with Ropinirole HCL, dispensed through a piezoelectric nozzle onto a blank preform tablet, and polymerized. Drug release analysis of the tablet resulted in 60% release within 15 min of tablet dissolution. The study confirms the potential of inkjet printing for the rapid production of tablets through the deposition of a photocurable bioink designed for hydrophilic APIs

A review of the Sumba avifauna

There were 41 additions to the Sumba avifauna between the publication of the White & Bruce (1986) check list of the birds of Wallacea. and Coates & Bishop (1997). Each of these is detailed, in addition to species that are scarcely recorded or not recorded at all in the current phase of field activity (1984 to 1997). The status of rare and little known breeding species (including some of the endemic taxa) is also described. A systematic list of all species recorded on Sumba provides information on habitat, status, recent breeding records and new migration dates. Comment is made on Sumba's ecology and current bird conservation activity. Appendices give details of recent ornithological visits, the range of regional endemics found on Sumba, and species regarded as threatened

Extremely high energy cosmic rays and the Auger Observatory

Over the last 30 years or so, a handful of events observed in ground-based cosmic ray detectors seem to have opened a new window in the field of high-energy astrophysics. These events have energies exceeding 5x10**19 eV (the region of the so-called Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin spectral cutoff); they seem to come from no known astrophysical source; their chemical composition is mostly unknown; no conventional accelerating mechanism is considered as being able to explain their production and propagation to earth. Only a dedicated detector can bring in the high-quality and statistically significant data needed to solve this long-lasting puzzle: this is the aim of the Auger Observatory project around which a world-wide collaboration is being mobilized.Comment: 14 pages, no figures, Latex, to be published in Proc. of the 7th Int. Workshop on Neutrino Telescopes (Venice 27/2-1/3 1996

The Suess effect in Fiji coral δ13C and its potential as a tracer of anthropogenic CO2 uptake

In the context of increasing anthropogenic CO2 emissions, determining the rate of oceanic CO2 uptake is of high interest. Centennial-scale changes in δ13C of the surface water dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) reservoir have been shown to be influenced by the carbon isotopic composition of atmospheric CO2. However, the availability of direct oceanic δ13C measurements is limited and methods for reconstructing past δ13C variability of the oceanic DIC are needed. Geochemical reconstructions of DIC variability can help in understanding how the ocean has reacted to historical changes in the carbon cycle. This study explores the potential of using temporal variations in δ13C measured in five Fijian Porites corals for reconstructing oceanic δ13C variability. A centennial-scale decreasing δ13C trend is observed in these Fiji corals. Other studies have linked similar decreasing δ13C trends to anthropogenic changes in the atmospheric carbon reservoir (the “13C Suess effect”). We conclude that solar irradiance is the factor influencing the δ13C cycle on a seasonal scale, however it is not responsible for the centennial-scale decreasing δ13C trend. In addition, variations in skeletal extension rate are not found to account for centennial-scale δ13C variability in these corals. Rather, we found that water depth at which a Fijian Porites colony calcifies influences both δ13C and extension rate mean values. The water depth-δ13C relationship induces a dampening effect on the centennial-scale decreasing δ13C trend. We removed this “water depth effect” from the δ13C composite, resulting in a truer representation of δ13C variability of the Fiji surface water DIC (δ13CFiji-DIC). The centennial-scale trend in this Fiji coral composite δ13CFiji-DIC time-series shares similarities with atmospheric δ13CCO2, implicating the 13C Suess effect as the source of the this coral δ13C trend. Additionally, our study finds that the δ13C variability between the atmosphere and the ocean in this region is not synchronous; the coral δ13C response is delayed by ~ 10 years. This agrees with the previously established model of isotopic disequilibrium between atmospheric δ13CCO2 and oceanic surface water DIC

Paleoecological Interpretation of the Rogers City Limestone (Middle Devonian, Northeastern Michigan)

119-123http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/48478/2/ID328.pd

Neutrino afterglow from Gamma-Ray Bursts: ~10^{18} eV

We show that a significant fraction of the energy of a gamma-ray burst(GRB) is probably converted to a burst of 10^{17}-10^{19} eV neutrinos and multiple GeV gammas that follow the GRB by > 10 s . If, as previously suggested, GRB's accelerate protons to ~10^{20} eV, then both the neutrinos and the gammas may be detectable.Comment: Accepted ApJ; added sentence re: sterile neutrinos; related material at http://www.sns.ias.edu/~jn

On the Discovery of the GZK Cut-off

The recent claim of the '5 sigma' observation of the Greisen and Zatzepin and Kuzmin cut-off by the HiRes group based on their nine years data is a significant step toward the eventual solution of the one of the most intriguing questions which has been present in physics for more than forty years. However the word 'significance' is used in the mentioned paper in the sense which is not quite obvious. In the present paper we persuade that this claim is a little premature.Comment: 10 page

The effects of intensive agriculture on the breeding of the lapwing (Vanellus vanellus L.).

Changes in modem agriculture have been shown to have detrimental affects on those bird species whose populations mainly inhabit the wider countryside. Recently extensive changes to the farmed landscape have occurred through implementation of European agricultural policy much of which has been concerned with decreasing agricultural production. Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus), with almost the entire British population breeding on farmland, is a species that is thought to have been particularly affected by agricultural change. A study attempting to assess the impact that modern, intensive arable farming had on a breeding population of lapwing was undertaken from 1995 to 1997 in south-west Lancashire. The study site had an open character and was predominantly winter farmed (cultivation occurring September-February)although more than a third of the area was spring cultivated. Permanent pasture and rotational set-aside (RSA) accounted for about 2% and 5% of the cropped area respectively. Lapwings preferred to nest in spring farmed fields and RSA. The overall nest survival was 55.5% and did not differ significantly between years. Hatching success was highest in RSA (88%), lowest in spring farmed fields (48.4%) and intermediate in winter farmed fields (57.2%). Hatching success was significantly higher in spring farmed fields than in other habitats but did not differ significantly between winter and spring farmed fields. The hatching success of winter farmed fields was elevated by the success of nests of fields cultivated late in the winter. The main cause of nest losses was farming operations which caused 77.4% of all nests lost. Predation accounted for 14.4% of nest losses and desertion for 8.2%. There were annual differences in nest destruction in winter farmed crops caused by differences in the timing of agricultural operations. Nest destruction was highest in unsown fields but was compensated for by a high rate of replacement and high hatching success in replacement clutches. Two types of crop were spring farmed, combinable (mainly cereals) and vegetable (mainly potatoes) crops. Higher hatching 2 success in spring cereals than in vegetables was related to the differing intensities of management between the two crop categories. Lapwing preferred to nest in dense aggregations and far from ditches both of which reduced the risk of predation. Low densities of nest predators were maintained in the study area by predator control. Chicks from larger eggs survived better than chicks from smaller eggs. Chicks undertaking movements from natal to rearing fields suffered high levels of mortality. Chick mortality was caused by poor body condition, entrapment in field boundary ditches or predation or from the interaction of these factors. Brood movements were influenced by the distribution of crop types. Spring farmed fields and pasture were used for rearing broods. Predation was the main proximate cause of mortality for radio-marked chicks and accounted for 52% of all losses. Predation was a significant mortality factor until chicks were at least 20 days old, whereas poor body condition (31 % of all radio-marked chick losses) and ditch entrapment (17% of all losses) only killed very young chicks. Fledging success or hatching success is thought to be the main limit on productivity. Dietary studies revealed chicks ate mainly beetles but their diet varied depending upon rearing location. Surface living chick prey was abundant throughout the season in arable fields and late-hatched chicks suffered higher mortality than those hatched earlier mainly due to an increase in predation late in the season. Recommendations to maintain or improve the conditions for breeding lapwing within the study site are discussed. They include proposals which could operate under the agrienvironment regulations of the CAP, such as an increase in the area spring farmed with the cultivation of both cereal and vegetables and changes to the management of rotational set-aside to make such fields more suitable for brood rearing

Features of Muon Arrival Time Distributions of High Energy EAS at Large Distances From the Shower Axis

In view of the current efforts to extend the KASCADE experiment (KASCADE-Grande) for observations of Extensive Air Showers (EAS) of primary energies up to 1 EeV, the features of muon arrival time distributions and their correlations with other observable EAS quantities have been scrutinised on basis of high-energy EAS, simulated with the Monte Carlo code CORSIKA and using in general the QGSJET model as generator. Methodically various correlations of adequately defined arrival time parameters with other EAS parameters have been investigated by invoking non-parametric methods for the analysis of multivariate distributions, studying the classification and misclassification probabilities of various observable sets. It turns out that adding the arrival time information and the multiplicity of muons spanning the observed time distributions has distinct effects improving the mass discrimination. A further outcome of the studies is the feature that for the considered ranges of primary energies and of distances from the shower axis the discrimination power of global arrival time distributions referring to the arrival time of the shower core is only marginally enhanced as compared to local distributions referring to the arrival of the locally first muon.Comment: 24 pages, Journal Physics G accepte