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https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-ps/3237/thumbnail.jp

PLASMA CONCENTRATIONS OF METHADONE DURING POSTOPERATIVE PATIENT-CONTROLLED EXTRADURAL ANALGESIA

Plasma concentrations of methadone were measured by gas chromatography in 16 patients receiving extradural methadone by continuous infusion for relief of postoperative pain. Venous blood samples were taken after a loading dose of extradural methadone 2 mg and during infusion of 0.46 mg h−1 plus patient-controlled increments of 0.2-1 mg. Mean (SD) plasma concentration of methadone was 9.8 (2.1) ng ml−1 at 15 min; this did not change significantly during the first 2 h, after which it increased gradually to 32.2 (4.6) ng ml−1 (P < 0.001) at the end of 24 h. The mean quantity of extradural methadone required to produce effective analgesia was 10.3 (1.8) mg during the first 12 h after operation and 6 (1.0) mg for the subsequent 12 h. The mean amount of methadone for effective analgesia on the second day was 7.6 (1.1) mg. No adverse effects were detected during the 2-3 days of methadone therapy. Plasma concentration of methadone increased significantly during patient-controlled infusion of extradural methadone in the first 24 h after operation, suggesting rapid vascular uptake. Systemic activity of the drug contributes to the analgesic effect of extradural methadon

The Health Literacy in Pregnancy (HeLP) program study protocol : development of an antenatal care intervention using the Ophelia process

A pregnant woman needs adequate knowledge, motivation, and skills to access, understand, appraise, and apply health information to make decisions related to the health of herself and her unborn baby. These skills are defined as health literacy: an important factor in relation to the woman’s ability to engage and navigate antenatal care services. Evidence shows variation in levels of health literacy among pregnant women, but more knowledge is needed about how to respond to different health literacy profiles in antenatal care. This paper describes the development protocol for the HeLP program, which aims to investigate pregnant women’s health literacy and co-create health literacy interventions through a broad collaboration between pregnant women, partners, healthcare providers, professionals, and other stakeholders using the Ophelia (Optimising Health Literacy and Access) process. The HeLP program will be provided at two hospitals, which provide maternity care including antenatal care: a tertiary referral hospital (Aarhus University Hospital) and a secondary hospital (the Regional Hospital in Viborg). The Ophelia process includes three process phases with separate objectives, steps, and activities leading to the identification of local strengths, needs and issues, co-design of interventions, and implementation, evaluation, and ongoing improvement. No health literacy intervention using the Ophelia process has yet been developed for antenatal care

New species of Colletotrichum from wild Poaceae and Cyperaceae plants in Iran

Twenty-two Colletotrichum strains were isolated from anthracnose symptoms or leaf spots on leaves of various wild Poaceae and Cyperaceae plants collected in three provinces of Iran and tentatively identified as belonging to the Graminicola species complex based on morphology. All strains were studied via a polyphasic approach combining colony characteristics, morphology and phylogeny inferred from multi-locus sequences, including the nuc rDNA ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 (ITS), partial sequences of the β-tubulin (tub2), actin (act), manganese superoxide dismutase 2 (sod2), DNA lyase 2 (apn2) genes, a 200-bp intron of the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (gapdh), and the intergenic spacer between the apn2 gene and the mat1 idiomorph (apn2/mat1). Six species were distinguished, including three new species, namely C. caspicum, C. persicum, and C. sacchari, and three previously described species, C. cereale, C. nicholsonii and C. sublineola. Comprehensive morphological descriptions and illustrations are provided for all species. Furthermore, this study provided new insights into the distribution and host range of known species

Mutual Zonated Interactions of Wnt and Hh Signaling Are Orchestrating the Metabolism of the Adult Liver in Mice and Human

The Hedgehog (Hh) and Wnt/β-Catenin (Wnt) cascades are morphogen pathways whose pronounced influence on adult liver metabolism has been identified in recent years. How both pathways communicate and control liver metabolic functions are largely unknown. Detecting core components of Wnt and Hh signaling and mathematical modeling showed that both pathways in healthy liver act largely complementary to each other in the pericentral (Wnt) and the periportal zone (Hh) and communicate mainly by mutual repression. The Wnt/Hh module inversely controls the spatiotemporal operation of various liver metabolic pathways, as revealed by transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome analyses. Shifting the balance to Wnt (activation) or Hh (inhibition) causes pericentralization and periportalization of liver functions, respectively. Thus, homeostasis of the Wnt/Hh module is essential for maintaining proper liver metabolism and to avoid the development of certain metabolic diseases. With caution due to minor species-specific differences, these conclusions may hold for human liver as well

Correction to “Mercury and monomethylmercury in fluids from Sea Cliff submarine hydrothermal field, Gorda Ridge”

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2007. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 34 (2007): L02603, doi:10.1029/2006GL028747

Florix, an index to assess plant species in floodplains for nature conservation – Developed and tested along the river Danube

Natural floodplains are ecosystems with a diverse mosaic of habitats and site conditions, but also highly threatened due to anthropogenic pressures. Plant species occur in all habitat types and can indicate their value for nature conservation. To improve sustainable management of rivers and floodplains, several indices such as the River Ecosystem Service Index (RESI) have been developed. However, there are so far no assessment schemes for the entire range of floodplain plants. The common assessment approaches like biological integrity, achievement rates or threatened species (Red list), applying to other species groups or other ecosystems, are not appropriate in floodplains. Legal obligations and the need to restore floodplains clearly call for an index assessing the ecological value in a reference area which can be combined with a 5-scale assessment in accordance to established assessments like RESI or the Water Framework Directive. Five typical characteristics describing vascular plants’ adaptation to floodplain habitats were identified. These can be derived from published data sets available for all species in Germany. We checked these indicators for multicollinearity and selected three of them: species number, hydrodynamic indicators, nature conservation indicators. Species number highly correlate with habitat indicators and geographic occurrence. For the selected three indicators we determined thresholds to group habitats and their indicator rate to five classes (very low to very high value for nature conservation). These thresholds are valid for the river Danube and for the habitat types scrutinized in this study. The Florix approach was sensitive in data sets testing active against former floodplains and protected against unprotected areas: For the entire reference region ‘Danube floodplain’, Florix values were higher in the active floodplain and in the protected areas. Only the habitat type ‘water bodies’ showed better scores for habitats in the former floodplain, for ‘softwood forests’ the status of being part of a protected area had no effect. Florix results were validated in two case studies differing in land use intensity. The region with dominant agricultural use showed significantly lower values than that with a higher portion of forests and grasslands. Florix can be used for a floristic conservation status assessment at single habitat level or for the entity of a study region in comparison to a reference region. It allows to identify main pressures and to complement a habitat-type based evaluation. To achieve higher comparability, we should strive for a generalized monitoring in Europe like it is common in aquatic ecosystem monitoring

Infrared behavior of the gluon propagator in lattice Landau gauge: the three-dimensional case

We evaluate numerically the three-momentum-space gluon propagator in the lattice Landau gauge, for three-dimensional pure-SU(2) lattice gauge theory with periodic boundary conditions. Simulations are done for nine different values of the coupling $\beta$, from $\beta = 0$ (strong coupling) to $\beta = 6.0$ (in the scaling region), and for lattice sizes up to $V = 64^3$. In the limit of large lattice volume we observe, in all cases, a gluon propagator decreasing for momenta smaller than a constant value $p_{dec}$. From our data we estimate $p_{dec} \approx 350$ MeV. The result of a gluon propagator decreasing in the infrared limit has a straightforward interpretation as resulting from the proximity of the so-called first Gribov horizon in the infrared directions.Comment: 14 pages, BI-TP 99/03 preprint, correction in the Acknowledgments section. To appear in Phys.Rev.

Refining AML treatment: the role of genetics in response and resistance evaluation to new agents

The number of treatment options for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has greatly increased since 2017. This development is paralleled by the broad implantation of genetic profiling as an integral part of clinical studies, enabling us to characterize mutation–response, mutation–non-response, or mutation–relapse patterns. The aim of this review is to provide a concise overview of the current state of knowledge with respect to newly approved AML treatment options and the association of response, relapse and resistance with genetic alterations. Specifically, we will highlight current genetic data regarding FLT3 inhibitors, IDH inhibitors, hypomethylating agents (HMA), the BCL-2 inhibitor venetoclax (VEN), the anti-CD33 antibody conjugate gemtuzumab ozogamicin (GO) and the liposomal dual drug CPX-351