A case of fatal multidrug intoxication involving flualprazolam: distribution in body fluids and solid tissues

Purpose Designer benzodiazepines (DBZDs) increasingly emerged on the novel psychoactive substance (NPS) market in the last few years. They are usually sold as readily available alternatives to prescription benzodiazepines (BZDs) or added to counterfeit medicines. BZDs are generally considered relatively safe drugs due to the low risk of serious acute adverse effects in mono-intoxication, though e.g., alprazolam seems to display an elevated risk of respiratory depression. Here we report on a fatal intoxication involving the novel DBZD flualprazolam. Methods A complete postmortem examination was performed. General unknown screenings and analysis of drugs of abuse were performed on postmortem samples by immunoassay, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and liquid chromatog- raphy–mass spectrometry. The standard addition method was employed to quantify flualprazolam in postmortem blood and tissues. Finally, a toxicological significance score (TSS) was assigned. Results Flualprazolam was detected in heart serum (25.4 ng/mL) and peripheral blood (21.9 ng/mL) as well as in urine, stomach contents, brain, liver and kidney (65.2–323 ng/g). The cause of death was deemed as central nervous system (CNS) and respiratory depression with agonal aspiration of stomach contents, in the setting of a multiple drug intake. Given the concentration levels of the co-consumed CNS depressants, the contribution of flualprazolam to the death was considered likely (TSS of 3). Conclusions Our results support that highly potent DBZDs like flualprazolam carry an elevated risk for unintended toxic- ity, especially in association with other CNS depressants. A multidisciplinary evaluation of fatalities remains mandatory, especially when pharmacological/toxicological data on intoxicating compounds are lacking. To our knowledge this is the first report of flualprazolam concentrations in solid tissues in human

Production of phi mesons at mid-rapidity in sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC

We present the first results of meson production in the K^+K^- decay channel from Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV as measured at mid-rapidity by the PHENIX detector at RHIC. Precision resonance centroid and width values are extracted as a function of collision centrality. No significant variation from the PDG accepted values is observed. The transverse mass spectra are fitted with a linear exponential function for which the derived inverse slope parameter is seen to be constant as a function of centrality. These data are also fitted by a hydrodynamic model with the result that the freeze-out temperature and the expansion velocity values are consistent with the values previously derived from fitting single hadron inclusive data. As a function of transverse momentum the collisions scaled peripheral.to.central yield ratio RCP for the is comparable to that of pions rather than that of protons. This result lends support to theoretical models which distinguish between baryons and mesons instead of particle mass for explaining the anomalous proton yield.Comment: 326 authors, 24 pages text, 23 figures, 6 tables, RevTeX 4. To be submitted to Physical Review C as a regular article. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm

J/psi production from proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV

J/psi production has been measured in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s)= 200 GeV over a wide rapidity and transverse momentum range by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC. Distributions of the rapidity and transverse momentum, along with measurements of the mean transverse momentum and total production cross section are presented and compared to available theoretical calculations. The total J/psi cross section is 3.99 +/- 0.61(stat) +/- 0.58(sys) +/- 0.40(abs) micro barns. The mean transverse momentum is 1.80 +/- 0.23(stat) +/- 0.16(sys) GeV/c.Comment: 326 authors, 6 pages text, 4 figures, 1 table, RevTeX 4. To be submitted to PRL. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm

Centrality Dependence of Charm Production from Single Electrons in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV

The PHENIX experiment has measured mid-rapidity transverse momentum spectra (0.4 < p_T < 4.0 GeV/c) of single electrons as a function of centrality in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV. Contributions to the raw spectra from photon conversions and Dalitz decays of light neutral mesons are measured by introducing a thin (1.7% X_0) converter into the PHENIX acceptance and are statistically removed. The subtracted ``non-photonic'' electron spectra are primarily due to the semi-leptonic decays of hadrons containing heavy quarks (charm and bottom). For all centralities, charm production is found to scale with the nuclear overlap function, T_AA. For minimum-bias collisions the charm cross section per binary collision is N_cc^bar/T_AA = 622 +/- 57 (stat.) +/- 160 (sys.) microbarns.Comment: 326 authors, 4 pages text, 3 figures, 1 table, RevTeX 4. To be submitted to Physical Review Letters. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm

Systematic Studies of the Centrality and sqrt(s_NN) Dependence of dE_T/deta and dN_ch/deta in Heavy Ion Collisions at Mid-rapidity

The PHENIX experiment at RHIC has measured transverse energy and charged particle multiplicity at mid-rapidity in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 19.6, 130 and 200 GeV as a function of centrality. The presented results are compared to measurements from other RHIC experiments, and experiments at lower energies. The sqrt(s_NN) dependence of dE_T/deta and dN_ch/deta per pair of participants is consistent with logarithmic scaling for the most central events. The centrality dependence of dE_T/deta and dN_ch/deta is similar at all measured incident energies. At RHIC energies the ratio of transverse energy per charged particle was found independent of centrality and growing slowly with sqrt(s_NN). A survey of comparisons between the data and available theoretical models is also presented.Comment: 327 authors, 25 pages text, 19 figures, 17 tables, RevTeX 4. To be submitted to Physical Review C as a regular article. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm

Measurement of Single Electron Event Anisotropy in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV

The transverse momentum dependence of the azimuthal anisotropy parameter v_2, the second harmonic of the azimuthal distribution, for electrons at mid-rapidity (|eta| < 0.35) has been measured with the PHENIX detector in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV. The measurement was made with respect to the reaction plane defined at high rapidities (|eta| = 3.1 -- 3.9). From the result we have measured the v_2 of electrons from heavy flavor decay after subtraction of the v_2 of electrons from other sources such as photon conversions and Dalitz decay from light neutral mesons. We observe a non-zero single electron v_2 with a 90% confidence level in the intermediate p_T region.Comment: 330 authors, 11 pages text, RevTeX4, 9 figures, 1 tables. Submitted to Physical Review C. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm

Dijet azimuthal correlations and conditional yields in pp and p plus Pb collisions at √{S}^NN=5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents a measurement of forward-forward and forward-central dijet azimuthal angular correlations and conditional yields in proton-proton (pp) and proton-lead (p + Pb) collisions as a probe of the nuclear gluon density in regions where the fraction of the average momentum per nucleon carried by the parton entering the hard scattering is low. In these regions, gluon saturation can modify the rapidly increasing parton distribution function of the gluon. The analysis utilizes 25 pb^{-1} of pp data and 360 mp^{-1} of p + Pb data, both at {S}^NN=5.02 TeV, collected in 2015 and 2016, respectively, with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The measurement is performed in the center-of-mass frame of the nucleon-nucleon system in the rapidity range between -4.0 and 4.0 using the two highest transverse-momentum jets in each event, with the highest transverse-momentum jet restricted to the forward rapidity range. No significant broadening of azimuthal angular correlations is observed for forward-forward or forward-central dijets in p + Pb compared to pp collisions. For forward-forward jet pairs in the proton-going direction, the ratio of conditional yields in p + Pb collisions to those in pp collisions is suppressed by approximately 20%, with no significant dependence on the transverse momentum of the dijet system. No modification of conditional yields is observed for forward-central dijets

COMPASS++/AMBER: Proposal for Measurements at the M2 beam line of the CERN SPS Phase-1: 2022-2024

The Compass++/Amber (proto-)collaboration proposes to establish a “New QCD facility at the M2 beam line of the CERN SPS” and perform in phase-1, i.e. starting in the year 2022, three experiments that will use either muons or hadrons delivered by the existing M2 beam line: (1) Proton charge radius measurement using muon-proton elastic scattering, (2) Drell-Yan and J/Psi production experiments using the conventional M2 hadron beam, (3) Measurement of proton-induced antiproton production cross sections for dark matter searches

A New QCD facility at the M2 beam line of the CERN SPS: COMPASS++/AMBER

In this Letter of Intent, we propose a broad experimental programme for the ``New QCD facility at the M2 beam line of the CERN SPS''. This unrivalled installation will provide the site for a great variety of measurements to address fundamental issues of Quantum Chromodynamics, which are expected to lead to significant improvements in the understanding of QCD as our present theory of strong interactions. The proposed measurements cover the range from lowest-$Q^2$ physics as the determination of the proton radius by elastic muon-proton scattering, over average-$Q^2$-reactions to study hadron spectroscopy, to high-$Q^2$ hadron-structure investigations using the Drell-Yan process and Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering