Ultrasound facilitated marking of gastrointestinal tissue with fluorescent material

The epithelial lining of the gastrointestinal (GI) mucosal layer is an effective barrier to the contents of the gut lumen. Selective channels and tight junctions prevent contamination of the sterile internal environment of the body. Conversely, the gut barrier also prevents desired agents from entering the GI tissue. This hinders marking of tissue for further clinical follow-up. Focused ultrasound (US) may provide a potential means of overcoming the gut barrier and allowing penetration of material beyond it which was explored in a series of tests. Experiments were carried out on 14 individual postmortem-obtained murine small bowel samples for a total of 23 sonication/control paired tests. A favourable result of 80% indicated that focused US can pass a nanoscale fluorescent agent through the gut barrier. Further work is required to elucidate where the agent resides, intercellular or intracellular, post-sonication

Restraint, disinhibition and food-related processing bias

This study examined associations between restraint, disinhibition and food-related processing bias (FPB, assessed by the emotional Stroop task) in males and females in the UK, Greece and Iran. Results showed high restraint was associated with higher FPB. However, high restrained current dieters showed lower FPB that high restrained non-dieters. There was no significant difference in FPB for those showing high versus low disinhibition. Results are discussed in relation to theories of incentive salience and current concerns

Capsule-based ultrasound-mediated targeted gastrointestinal drug delivery

Diseases which are prevalent in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, such as Crohn's disease, are a topic of increasing concern because diagnosis and specific treatment are difficult and may be ineffective. New techniques are therefore sought after and this paper describes a proof-of-concept tethered capsule for targeted drug delivery (TDD) in the GI tract. The capsule consists of a camera, illumination, a drug delivery channel and an ultrasound (US) transducer. The transducer is described in detail, including a comparison of different piezoceramic materials that has been carried out. It was found that PZ54 (Ferroperm Piezoceramics, Kvistgaard, Denmark) was the most suitable material for our application. When driven at 4 Vpp, the outer diameter 5 mm PZ54 transducer operates at a frequency f = 4.05 MHz providing an acoustic pressure, Pac = 125 kPa, with a beam diameter, BD = 0.75 mm at the focus. Pressures in the range 50 - 300 kPa have been previously reported as suitable for sonoporation, a process vital in many TDD applications, so this is a promising result. Basic functional testing of the capsule was performed by supplying glass microbubbles (MBs) through the drug delivery channel into the US focus, monitored via the onboard camera. It was found that the acoustic radiation forces have a clear influence on the MBs, significantly changing their direction at the US focus. This suggests that drugs may be targeted to specific tissue in the GI tract by the new capsule. The results translate into a capsule configuration with the potential to be clinically and biologically useful

American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting Report

The American Library Association Midwinter Meeting was held in San Antonio, Texas, January 20–25, 2006. The following are highlights from the meeting. We have a range of coverage and reviewers. Christopher Cox gives us an update on groups discussing digital media such as HD-DVD and Blu-ray, electronic reference books, and RFID issues. Hui Hua Chua writes about a discussion on federated searching. M. Claire Stewart reports on the inaugural meeting of the ALCTS Preservation and Reformatting Section’s Digital Preservation Discussion Group and a whirlwind meeting on standards, which included the discussion of five standards and the overall National Information Standards Organization (NISO) structure. We conclude with a review of the day-long program on OCLC Digitization Standards sponsored by OCLC Digital Collection Services & Preservation Service Center by S.G. Ranti Junus

Pretreatment with beta-blockers and the frequency of hypokalemia in patients with acute chest pain

Plasma potassium concentration was measured at admission in 1234 patients who presented with acute chest pain. One hundred and ninety five patients were on P blockers before admission. The potassium concentrations of patients admitted early (within four hours of onsetof symptoms) were compared with those admitted later (4-18 hours after onset of symptoms). There was a transient fall in plasma potassium concentrations in patients not pre-treated with , B blockers. This was not seen in patients who had been on P blockers before admission. Nonselective, B blockers were more effective than cardioselective agents in maintaining concentrationsof plasma potassium. These findings suggest a mechanism for the beneficial effects of ,B blockers on morbidity and mortality in acute myocardial infarction

Nanotechnology in multimodal theranostic capsule endoscopy

Video capsule endoscopy (VCE) has become a clinically accepted diagnostic modality in the last 20 years and has established a technological roadmap for other capsule endoscopy (CE) devices, incorporating microscale technology, a local power supply and wireless communication. However, VCE does not provide a therapeutic function and research in therapeutic capsule endoscopy (TCE) has been limited. This paper proposes a new route towards viable TCE based on multiple CE devices including essential nanoscale components. A first device is used for multimodal diagnosis, with quantitative microultrasound as a complement to video imaging. Ultrasound-enhanced fluorescent marking of sites of pathology allows follow-up with a second device for therapy. This is based on fluorescence imaging and ultrasound-mediated targeted drug delivery. Subsequent treatment verification and monitoring with a third device exploits the minimally invasive nature of CE. Clinical implementation of a complete patient pathway remains the subject of research but several key components have been prepared in early prototype form. These are described, along with gaps that remain to be filled

Specific Heat of a Three Dimensional Metal Near a T=0 Magnetic Transition with Dynamic Exponent z=2,3,4

We derive expressions for the universal contribution to the specific heat of a three-dimensional metal near a zero-temperature phase transition with dynamic exponent $z=2,3$, or 4. The results allow a quantitative comparison of theory to data. We illustrate the application of our results by analyzing data for Ce$_{1-x}$Lu$_x$Cu$_2$Si$_2$, which has been claimed to be near a quantum critical point.Comment: 23 pages, revtex. For figures, send mail to [email protected]

Specific Heat Discontinuity, deltaC, at Tc in BaFe2(As0.7P0.3)2 - Consistent with Unconventional Superconductivity

We report the specific heat discontinuity, deltaC/Tc, at Tc = 28.2 K of a collage of single crystals of BaFe2(As0.7P0.3)2 and compare the measured value of 38.5 mJ/molK**2 with other iron pnictide and iron chalcogenide (FePn/Ch) superconductors. This value agrees well with the trend established by Bud'ko, Ni and Canfield who found that deltaC/Tc ~ a*Tc**2 for 14 examples of doped Ba1-xKxFe2As2 and BaFe2-xTMxAs2, where the transition metal TM=Co and Ni. We extend their analysis to include all the FePn/Ch superconductors for which deltaC/Tc is currently known and find deltaC/Tc ~ a*Tc**1.9 and a=0.083 mJ/molK**4. A comparison with the elemental superconductors with Tc>1 K and with A-15 superconductors shows that, contrary to the FePn/Ch superconductors, electron-phonon-coupled conventional superconductors exhibit a significantly different dependence of deltaC on Tc, namely deltaC/Tc ~ Tc**0.9. However deltaC/gamma*Tc appears to be comparable in all three classes (FePn/Ch, elemental and A-15) of superconductors with, e. g., deltaC/gamma*Tc=2.4 for BaFe2(As0.7P0.3)2. A discussion of the possible implications of these phenomenological comparisons for the unconventional superconductivity believed to exist in the FePn/Ch is given.Comment: some disagreement in reference and footnote numbering with the published versio