Seven fatalities associated with ethylphenidate

Ethylphenidate is a stimulant novel psychoactive substance that is an analogue of the prescription drug methylphenidate (Ritalin®). Methylphenidate is used commonly for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Due to its stimulant effects ethylphenidate is being abused. There is a single case report of a death associated with ethylphenidate in Germany, and a case series of 19 deaths in the East of Scotland, but otherwise, the contribution of ethylphenidate to death is poorly documented. We report the analytical results of 7 cases (between February 2013 and January 2015) in which ethylphenidate was detected and quantitated with a validated liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method (LC-MS/MS). The individuals (all male) ranged in age from 23 to 49 years (median 25 years). The concentration of ethylphenidate in the cases ranged from 0.026mg/L to 2.18mg/L in unpreserved post-mortem femoral blood. Only one case had ethylphenidate present as a sole drug. All other cases had at least 2 other drug classes present (benzodiazepines, heroin, methadone antipsychotics, other new psychoactive compounds). Ethylphenidate toxicity was the sole contribution to the cause of death in one case. Hanging was the cause of death in 2 cases, with the other 4 cases being reported as having occurred due to mixed drug toxicity. These data will further help with the interpretation of post-mortem ethylphenidate levels

Development of a sensitive, low-cost and user-friendly centrifugal microfluidic cartridge for multi-analyte environmental monitoring

This paper describes the development of a simple centrifugal cartridge for the analysis of nitrite, ammonia and phosphate from a water sample. The cartridge is operated in combination with the Centrifugal Microfluidic Analysis System (CMAS)[1] which incorporates rotational control with optical and communication components for portable analysis of environmental and biomedical samples[1,2]. An LED and a photodiode allow colorimetric determination of specific analytes depending on which reagent-based analytical method is employed. Bluetooth wireless communications provides automatic uploading of analytical data to cloud-based information systems. Microfluidic discs consisting of three PMMA (Poly(methyl methacrylate)) layers bonded together by two PSA (Pressure Sensitive Adhesive) layers were prepared. The sample was transported from a single chamber to three aliquoting chambers at a low rotational frequency prior to the actuation of dissolvable film valves[3] at an increased rotational frequency to facilitate sample transport to reaction/detection chambers. Ammonia standards were analysed using a modified Berthelot method, the stannous chloride method was used to detect orthophosphate levels while a diazotization method was employed to determine nitrite concentration. Photodiode analysis on the CMAS platform obtained LOD’s of 0.233 ppm for ammonia and 0.189 ppm for orthophosphate and 50 ppb for nitrite

The effects of benzofury (5-APB) on the dopamine transporter and 5-HT2-dependent vasoconstriction in the rat

5-APB, commonly marketed as ‘benzofury’ is a new psychoactive substance and erstwhile ‘legal high’ which has been implicated in 10 recent drug-related deaths in the UK. This drug was available on the internet and in ‘head shops’ and was one of the most commonly sold legal highs up until its recent UK temporary ban (UK Home Office). Despite its prominence, very little is known about its pharmacology. This study was undertaken to examine the pharmacology of 5-APB in vitro. We hypothesized that 5-APB would activate the dopamine and 5-HT systems which may underlie its putative stimulant and hallucinogenic effects. Autoradiographic studies showed that 5-APB displaced both [125I]RTI-121 and [3H]ketanserin from rat brain tissue suggesting affinity at the dopamine transporter and 5-HT2 receptor sites respectively. Voltammetric studies in rat accumbens brain slices revealed that 5-APB slowed dopamine reuptake, and at high concentrations caused reverse transport of dopamine. 5-APB also caused vasoconstriction of rat aorta, an effect antagonized by the 5-HT2A receptor antagonist ketanserin, and caused contraction of rat stomach fundus, which was reversed by the 5-HT2B receptor antagonist RS-127445. These data show that 5-APB interacts with the dopamine transporter and is an agonist at the 5-HT2A and 5-HT2B receptors in the rat. Thus 5-APB’s pharmacology is consistent with it having both stimulant and hallucinogenic properties. In addition, 5-APB’s activity at the 5-HT2B receptor may cause cardiotoxicity

Design of a compact all-permanent magnet ECR ion source injector for ReA at the MSU NSCL

The design of a compact all-permanent magnet electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source injector for the ReAccelerator Facility (ReA) at the Michigan State University (MSU) National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) is currently being carried out. The ECR ion source injector will complement the electron beam ion trap (EBIT) charge breeder as an off-line stable ion beam injector for the ReA linac. The objective of the ECR ion source injector is to provide continuous-wave beams of heavy ions from hydrogen to masses up to 136Xe within the ReA charge-to-mass ratio (Q/A) operational range from 0.2 to 0.5. The ECR ion source will be mounted on a high-voltage platform that can be adjusted to obtain the required 12 keV/u injection energy into a room temperature radio-frequency quadrupole (RFQ) for further acceleration. The beam line consists of a 30 kV tetrode extraction system, mass analyzing section, and optical matching section for injection into the existing ReA low energy beam transport (LEBT) line. The design of the ECR ion source and the associated beam line are discussed

Proceedings of Patient Reported Outcome Measure’s (PROMs) Conference Oxford 2017: Advances in Patient Reported Outcomes Research

A33-Effects of Out-of-Pocket (OOP) Payments and Financial Distress on Quality of Life (QoL) of People with Parkinson’s (PwP) and their Carer

Cross correlation mitigation for C/A code GPS receivers

Many new applications of the Global Positioning System (GPS) are required to process weak GPS signals in the presence of other strong GPS signals. Unfortunately, the 1023 chip Gold code sequences used for the GPS C/A spreading codes limit the dynamic range of a typical GPS receiver such that the power difference between the strongest and weakest GPS signal is limited to less than 21 dB. When this condition is not satisfied, the multiple access interference (MAI) experienced can cause difficulties, ranging from poor measurement quality through to weak signal acquisition and tracking failures. This research investigates cross correlation mitigation (CCM) using digital signal processing performed within the GPS receiver, with the following research contributions:a) Development of a novel CCM technique called Adaptive Orthogonalisation Using Constraints in which the de-spreading code used to track the GPS signal is dynamically adjusted to reject MAI from other strong GPS signals. Computer simulations as well as a full C implementation using a software correlator were performed and the software correlator tested using GPS IF samples captured from a GPS receiver connected to a hardware GPS simulator. The limitations of this technique were also analysed.b) Development of a CCM technique called Delayed Parallel Interference Cancellation (DPIC) in which slave channels are employed to estimate the MAI between pairs of strong and weak signals, with the slave channel outputs subtracted from the weak signal correlations following appropriate scaling. Thorough performance characterisation of the technique was performed using computer simulations. The algorithm was validated using both a C software correlator and a Verilog hardware correlator by processing MAI affected signals generated using a hardware GPS simulator. A comparison of DPIC with other related methods is also provided.c) Development of 'on-the-fly' data bit estimation for data bit estimation as required for subtractive type CCM techniques such as DPIC and Successive Interference Cancellation (SIC).d) Development of a comb-filtering statistical technique to indicate the presence of MAI and continuous wave interference (CWI). Algorithms enabling calculation of detection thresholds using the comb-filter noise statistic (CFNS) are also presented and validated using computer simulations