ABSORPTION OF CONTROLLED RELEASE MORPHINE SULPHATE IN THE IMMEDIATE POSTOPERATIVE PERIOD

The absorption of morphine sulphate, given orally as a controlled release preparation, was studied in 10 patients who had undergone peripheral vascular surgery with a standard opioid-based general anaesthetic technique. Serum morphine concentrations were measured (high pressure liquid chromatography) every 2 h for the first 16 h after surgery and the results were strongly suggestive of a decrease in the rate of absorption of morphine in this situatio

Antibiotic and Antimalarial Quinones from Fungus-Growing Ant-Associated Pseudonocardia sp.

Three new members of the angucycline class of antibiotics, pseudonocardones A–C (1–3), along with the known antibiotics 6-deoxy-8-O-methylrabelomycin (4) and X-14881 E (5) have been isolated from the culture of a Pseudonocardia strain associated with the fungus-growing ant Apterostigma dentigerum. Compounds 4 and 5 showed antibiotic activity against Bacillus subtilis 3610 and liver-stage Plasmodium berghei, while 1–3 were inactive or only weakly active in a variety of biological assays. Compound 5 also showed moderate cytotoxicity against HepG2 cells

Caracterização de acessos de pimenta-do-reino com base em sistemas enzimáticos.

Setenta e oito acessos de pimenta-do-reino, incluindo algumas espécies silvestres foram submetidos à análise eletroforética de isoenzimas em gel de poliacrilamida, visando distinguir diferenças fenotípicas que auxiliem na discriminação e seleção dos acessos. Foram utilizados os sistemas enzimáticos SKDH, GOT, ACP, ACO, PGI, FUM, 6PGDH e G6PDH. O polimorfismo de isoenzimas foi avaliado pelo número de alozimas com diferentes mobilidades por sistema enzimático, pelas freqüências de alozimas dentro de cada sistema enzimático em relação ao total de bandas do sistema e pela análise da similaridade genética, com base na ausência e presença de bandas. Todos os sistemas enzimáticos utilizados tiveram boa resolução e definição de bandas, com ênfase para SKDH, 6PGDH, PGI e ACP. Em sua totalidade, os sistemas apresentaram polimorfismo capaz de caracterizar e identificar acessos ou grupos de pequeno número de acessos, sendo que o sistema GOT foi o que apresentou maior variabilidade de alozimas e de perfis; e o que apresentou menor variabilidade foi o sistema FUM, com três alozimas e quatro perfis. Cinqüenta e sete por cento das alozimas podem ser usadas para caracterizar e identificar clones ou grupos de clones. Cerca de 64% dos acessos analisados podem ser identificados por um a seis fenótipos individuais de sistemas enzimáticos. A análise da similaridade indicou os grupos G1, G2 e G3 como os mais divergentes da coleção, os quais são indicados para cruzamentos intraespecíficos e interespecíficos visando a obtenção de clones superiores.Título em inglês: Characterization of black pepper accessions using isozymes. Publicado também on-line

System for MR image-guided prostate interventions: canine study

Cataloged from PDF version of article.The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the use of a transrectal system that enables precise magnetic resonance (MR) image guidance and monitoring of prostate interventions. The system used a closed-bore 1.5-T MR imaging unit and enables one to take advantage of the higher signal-to-noise ratio achieved with traditional magnet designs, which is crucial for accurate targeting and monitoring of prostate interventions. In the first of the four canine studies, reliable needle placement, with all needles placed within 2 mm of the desired target site, was achieved. In two other studies, MR imaging was used to monitor distribution of injected contrast agent solution (gadopentetate dimeglumine mixed with trypan blue dye) in and around the prostate, thereby confirming that solution had been delivered to the desired tissue and also detecting faulty injections. In the final study, accurate placement and MR imaging of brachytherapy seeds in the prostate were demonstrated. The described system provides a flexible platform for a variety of minimally invasive MR image-guided therapeutic and diagnostic prostate interventions

Coal liquefaction process streams characterization and evaluation. Novel analytical techniques for coal liquefaction: Fluorescence microscopy

This study demonstrated the feasibility of using fluorescence and reflectance microscopy techniques for the examination of distillation resid materials derived from direct coal liquefaction. Resid, as defined here, is the 850{degrees}F{sup +} portion of the process stream, and includes soluble organics, insoluble organics and ash. The technique can be used to determine the degree of hydrogenation and the presence of multiple phases occurring within a resid sample. It can also be used to infer resid reactivity. The technique is rapid, requiring less than one hour for sample preparation and examination, and thus has apparent usefulness for process monitoring. Additionally, the technique can distinguish differences in samples produced under various process conditions. It can, therefore, be considered a potentially useful technique for the process developer. Further development and application of this analytical method as a process development tool is justified based on these results

Coal liquefaction process streams characterization and evaluation

This study demonstrated the feasibility of using fluorescence and reflectance microscopy techniques for the examination of distillation resid materials derived from direct coal liquefaction. Resid, as defined here, is the 850{degrees}F{sup +} portion of the process stream, and includes soluble organics, insoluble organics and ash. The technique can be used to determine the degree of hydrogenation and the presence of multiple phases occurring within a resid sample. It can also be used to infer resid reactivity. The technique is rapid, requiring less than one hour for sample preparation and examination, and thus has apparent usefulness for process monitoring. Additionally, the technique can distinguish differences in samples produced under various process conditions. It can, therefore, be considered a potentially useful technique for the process developer. Further development and application of this analytical method as a process development tool is justified based on these results

Damage function for historic paper. Part I: Fitness for use

Background In heritage science literature and in preventive conservation practice, damage functions are used to model material behaviour and specifically damage (unacceptable change), as a result of the presence of a stressor over time. For such functions to be of use in the context of collection management, it is important to define a range of parameters, such as who the stakeholders are (e.g. the public, curators, researchers), the mode of use (e.g. display, storage, manual handling), the long-term planning horizon (i.e. when in the future it is deemed acceptable for an item to become damaged or unfit for use), and what the threshold of damage is, i.e. extent of physical change assessed as damage. Results In this paper, we explore the threshold of fitness for use for archival and library paper documents used for display or reading in the context of access in reading rooms by the general public. Change is considered in the context of discolouration and mechanical deterioration such as tears and missing pieces: forms of physical deterioration that accumulate with time in libraries and archives. We also explore whether the threshold fitness for use is defined differently for objects perceived to be of different value, and for different modes of use. The data were collected in a series of fitness-for-use workshops carried out with readers/visitors in heritage institutions using principles of Design of Experiments. Conclusions The results show that when no particular value is pre-assigned to an archival or library document, missing pieces influenced readers/visitors’ subjective judgements of fitness-for-use to a greater extent than did discolouration and tears (which had little or no influence). This finding was most apparent in the display context in comparison to the reading room context. The finding also best applied when readers/visitors were not given a value scenario (in comparison to when they were asked to think about the document having personal or historic value). It can be estimated that, in general, items become unfit when text is evidently missing. However, if the visitor/reader is prompted to think of a document in terms of its historic value, then change in a document has little impact on fitness for use

Application of the microhole and strip plate detector for neutron detection

We introduce the microhole and strip plate (MHSP) detector as a micropattern detector for the detection of thermal and epithermal neutrons. Detection sensitivity is obtained by filling these detectors with 3He at high pressures. We propose the use of argon-xenon penning mixtures as the stopping gas as opposed to the usual carbon based stopping gases. These argon-xenon mixtures provide suitable gas gains for the high pressure/high resolution neutron detector applications. With these mixtures it is possible to obtain a sealed detector with only rare-gas filling which is simple to purify and not subject to ageing. An MHSP gas detector filled with a 3-bar argon/50-mbar xenon/6-bar helium mixture can achieve gains above 2×103. This mixture allows neutron detection efficiencies of about 70% at 1 Å for a 2.5-cm thick absorption region and intrinsic position resolution (full-width at half-maximum) of about 1.8 mm. The sensitivity to γ-rays of the present mixture will be the same when compared to that of 2.6-bar CF

Application of the microhole and strip plate detector for neutron detection

We introduce the microhole and strip plate (MHSP) detector as a micropattern detector for the detection of thermal and epithermal neutrons. Detection sensitivity is obtained by filling these detectors with 3He at high pressures. We propose the use of argon-xenon penning mixtures as the stopping gas as opposed to the usual carbon based stopping gases. These argon-xenon mixtures provide suitable gas gains for the high pressure/high resolution neutron detector applications. With these mixtures it is possible to obtain a sealed detector with only rare-gas filling which is simple to purify and not subject to ageing. An MHSP gas detector filled with a 3-bar argon/50-mbar xenon/6-bar helium mixture can achieve gains above 2×103. This mixture allows neutron detection efficiencies of about 70% at 1 Å for a 2.5-cm thick absorption region and intrinsic position resolution (full-width at half-maximum) of about 1.8 mm. The sensitivity to γ-rays of the present mixture will be the same when compared to that of 2.6-bar CF