Armodafinil improves wakefulness and long-term episodic memory in nCPAP-adherent patients with excessive sleepiness associated with obstructive sleep apnea

Residual excessive sleepiness (ES) and impaired cognition can occur despite effective and regular nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) therapy in some patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). A pooled analysis of two 12-week, randomized, double-blind studies in nCPAP-adherent patients with ES associated with OSA evaluated the effect of armodafinil on wakefulness and cognition. Three hundred and ninety-one patients received armodafinil (150 or 250 mg) and 260 patients received placebo once daily for 12 weeks. Efficacy assessments included the Maintenance of Wakefulness Test (MWT), Cognitive Drug Research cognitive performance battery, Epworth Sleepiness Scale, and Brief Fatigue Inventory. Adverse events were monitored. Armodafinil increased mean MWT sleep latency from baseline to final visit by 2.0 min vs a decrease of 1.5 min with placebo (P < 0.0001). Compared with placebo, armodafinil significantly improved quality of episodic secondary memory (P < 0.05) and patients’ ability to engage in activities of daily living (P < 0.0001) and reduced fatigue (P < 0.01). The most common adverse events were headache, nausea, and insomnia. Armodafinil did not adversely affect desired nighttime sleep, and nCPAP use remained high (approximately 7 h/night). Adjunct treatment with armodafinil significantly improved wakefulness, long-term memory, and patients’ ability to engage in activities of daily living in nCPAP-adherent individuals with ES associated with OSA. Armodafinil also reduced patient-reported fatigue and was well tolerated

Oxidative discolouration in whole-head and cut lettuce: biochemical and environmental influences on a complex phenotype and potential breeding strategies to improve shelf-life

Lettuce discolouration is a key post-harvest trait. The major enzyme controlling oxidative discolouration has long been considered to be polyphenol oxidase (PPO) however, levels of PPO and subsequent development of discolouration symptoms have not always correlated. The predominance of a latent state of the enzyme in plant tissues combined with substrate activation and contemporaneous suicide inactivation mechanisms are considered as potential explanations for this phenomenon. Leaf tissue physical properties have been associated with subsequent discolouration and these may be influenced by variation in nutrient availability, especially excess nitrogen and head maturity at harvest. Mild calcium and irrigation stress has also been associated with a reduction in subsequent discolouration, although excess irrigation has been linked to increased discolouration potentially through leaf physical properties. These environmental factors, including high temperature and UV light intensities, often have impacts on levels of phenolic compounds linking the environmental responses to the biochemistry of the PPO pathway. Breeding strategies targeting the PALand PPOpathway biochemistry and environmental response genes are discussed as a more cost-effective method of mitigating oxidative discolouration then either modified atmosphere packaging or post-harvest treatments, although current understanding of the biochemistry means that such programs are likely to be limited in nature and it is likely that they will need to be deployed alongside other methods for the foreseeable future

ELECTRICAL-FIELD BREAKDOWN OF SF6 IN CROSSED MAGNETIC-FIELDS

This paper reports the DC electrical breakdown data of SF6 in crossed magnetic fields. The sparking potentials are measured between coaxial cylindrical electrodes over the P(R2-R1) range of 0.26 less-than-or-equal-to P(R2-R1) less-than-or-equal-to 28 Torr cm with the perpendicularly applied magnetic field varying from 0 to 13 000 G

Serial measurements of serum transaminases in renal transplant recipients with chronic hepatitis C: do they reflect disease severity?

Chronic hepatitis C infection is a common problem in renal allograft recipients. This study was designed to investigate the association of serum aminotransferase levels with liver histology, in renal transplant patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, in the long term

Genes of major histocompatibility complex class II influence chronic C hepatitis treatment with interferon in hemodialysis patients

The prevalence of anti-HCV among patients on hemodialysis is consistently higher than in the general population, indicating that patients on hemodialysis programs are at risk of acquiring HCV infection. The response to interferon alpha 26 (IFN -alpha 26) therapy in chronic C hepatitis depends on viral and host factors. We treated 22 chronic C hepatitis uremic patients with IFN -alpha 26 (3 MU three times a week) and compared interferon responsive and unresponsive patients with regard to HLA II genes. HLA II genes were investigated by PCR-SSP low resolution, anti-HCV with ELISA II and HCV-RNA with reverse transcriptase "nested" PCR. Findings: HLA DRB1*13 is 50% positive in the non-responder group (four women, four men, mean age; 28.8 +/- 11.9 years) and 7% in the responder group (five women, nine men, mean age; 32.2 +/- 7.8 years) (p 2b