Disposition, bioavailability and clinical efficacy of orally administered acepromazine in the horse

The pharmacokinetics and pharmacological efficacy of orally (p.o.) administered acepromazine were studied and compared with the intravenous (i.v.) route of administration in a cross-over study using six horses. The oral kinetics of acepromazine can be described by a two-compartment open model with first-order absorption. The drug was rapidly absorbed after p.o. administration with a half-life of 0.84 h, tmax of 0.4 h and Cmax of 59 ng/ml. The elimination was slower after p.o. administration (half-life 6.04 h) than after i.v. injection (half-life 2.6 h). The bioavailability of the orally administered drug formulation was 55.1%. After p.o. administration of 0.5 mg/kg acepromazine, the parameters of the sedative effect were similar to those obtained after i.v. injection of 0.1 mg/kg. The effect of the drug on blood cell count and haemoglobin content was similar after both p.o. administration and injection, while the effects on the parameters of penile prolapse and on the mean arterial blood pressure were less pronounced after p.o. administration than after injection. After p.o. administration, no significant effects on haematocrit-level as well as on the heart and respiratory rates were observed, while these parameters were significantly affected after injection. It is concluded that the high initial plasma level of the drug after i.v. injection may play a role in producing adverse effects of acepromazine.     

Improving model accuracy using optimal linear combinations of trained neural networks

Neural network (NN) based modeling often requires trying multiple networks with different architectures and training parameters in order to achieve an acceptable model accuracy. Typically, only one of the trained networks is selected as "best" and the rest are discarded. The authors propose using optimal linear combinations (OLC's) of the corresponding outputs on a set of NN's as an alternative to using a single network. Modeling accuracy is measured by mean squared error (MSE) with respect to the distribution of random inputs. Optimality is defined by minimizing the MSE, with the resultant combination referred to as MSE-OLC. The authors formulate the MSE-OLC problem for trained NN's and derive two closed-form expressions for the optimal combination-weights. An example that illustrates significant improvement in model accuracy as a result of using MSE-OLC's of the trained networks is included.     

Synthesis,Characterization, and Some Utilization of Cellulose/Melamine Formaldehyde/Methylamine Anion Exchange Resin

Cellulose, melamine formaldehyde precondensate (MF), and methylamine hydrochloride (MA.HCl) were reacted in aqueous medium at different conditions, including time, temperature, MF/MA.HCl molar ratio, and liquor-to-cellulose ratio (LR). Reaction conditions were selected to prepare a cellulose/MF/MA anion exchanger having a total nitrogen and an amino nitrogen of 23.1% and 131 mEq/100 g, respectively. Potentiometric titration showed that the strength, pK_b , of this resin was 7.2. The resin lost about 3% and 9% of its total and amino nitrogen, respectively, during the first five cycles of the durability test, after which it suffered no losses up to 25 cycles. The resin was utilized in the removal of three anionic dyestuffs (direct, acid, and reactive) as well as permanganate and dichromate anions from aqueous solutions at different pH values ranging from 3 to 12. Maximum extents of removal were manifested at a pH value of 3, at which they followed the descending order: (permanganate ～ acid dye) > (reactive dye ～ dichromate) » direct dye.     

Scattering of Harmonic Waves by a Circular Cavity in a Porous Medium: Complex Functions Theory Approach

An analytical solution for the evaluation of scattering of waves by a circular cavity in infinite isotropic elastic porous media is presented. Two groups of complex functions for solid skeleton and pore fluid in a two-dimensional complex plane are introduced in order to solve the Biot equations. Stress, displacement, and pore pressure fields induced by incident and scattered waves in the medium and especially in the vicinity of the cavity are evaluated in this complex plane. The validation of the proposed solution is shown by various numerical examples. A parametric study including the effects of fluid compressibility changes, shear modulus, and permeability variations, several wave numbers, and wave types (fast, slow, and shear waves) is performed.     

Preparation and Utilization of Cationized Sawdust

Glycidyl trimethyl ammonium acetate (GTMAA) was prepared. Factors affecting the cationization of sawdust with GTMAA in presence of sodium hydroxide were investigated. These factors include sodium hydroxide/GTMAA molar ratio, liquor ratio, reaction duration, and temperature. The extent of cationization was traced by estimating the nitrogen content of the cationized sawdust, and its structural features were confirmed by IR analysis. The ability of cationized sawdust to adsorb anionic dyes, viz., Acid Fast Red 1, Acid Green 16, and Direct Blue 75, was investigated at 30°C. The adsorption data follow both Langmuir and Freundlish isotherms. The adsorption capacity, Q_max, were 82, 86.2, and 81.3 mg/g, for Acid Red 1, Direct Blue 75, and Acid Green 16, respectively. Cationized sawdust exhibited a much better adsorption capacity towards anionic dyes than native sawdust.     

Behaviour of tocopherols,heavy metals and stability of some vegetable oils from Egypt and Iraq during refining

Samples of crude, neutralized; bleached and deodorized cotton seed oil (Egypt), safflower oil (Iraq) and sunflower oil (Iraq) were analyzed for their total tocopherol and their contents of iron and copper, The stability of oils under investigation was measured by the Active Oxygen Method. The crude oils investigated contained from 1.22 to 1.87 ppm of iron and from 0.083 to 0.956 ppm of copper. These values for completely refined oils used were found to range from 0.626 to 1.01 ppm for iron and from 0.051 to 0.576 ppm for copper. The total tocopherol decreased from a range of 77.8 to 113 mg/100 g oils in crude oils to a range of 62.8 to 91.3 mg/100 g oil when the crude oils were completely refined. Studies on oils differing in the degree of refining used in this work evidence that neutralization and bleaching cause great decrease in total tocopherol, iron and copper. Meanwhile, deodorization had no pronounced effect on iron and copper, whereas its effect on total tocopherol was slight. The stability of the vegetable oils investigated decreased markedly during refining.     

Effect of carbon black and thermal aging on the conduction mechanism of natural and styrene butadiene rubbers

Two types of carbon black namely fast extrusion furnace black (FEF) and high abrasion furnace black (HAF) were incorporated with a concentration of 50 phr into styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) and natural rubber (NR). The effect of the time of aging and temperature on the electrical conductivity was studied. It was found that a thermal aging at 95°C leads to the appearance of minimum in conductivity (σ) in both FEF/NR and HAF/NR. This was explained by a competition between two factors: degradation and increase of crosslinking density in the rubber matrix. In case of FEF/SBR and HAF/SBR it seems that these factors have comparable effects on the conductivity after 10 days of aging. From the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics the carrier concentration, trap density, and the drift mobility were calculated. The minimum found in the temperature dependence of σ for FEF/NR is discussed and found to be controlled by the relative dimension of carbon and rubber aggregates.     

Potential benefits of cool roofs on commercial buildings: conserving energy, saving money, and reducing emission of greenhouse gases and air pollutants

Cool roofs—roofs that stay cool in the sun by minimizing solar absorption and maximizing thermal emission—lessen the flow of heat from the roof into the building, reducing the need for space cooling energy in conditioned buildings. Cool roofs may also increase the need for heating energy in cold climates. For a commercial building, the decrease in annual cooling load is typically much greater than the increase in annual heating load. This study combines building energy simulations, local energy prices, local electricity emission factors, and local estimates of building density to characterize local, state average, and national average cooling energy savings, heating energy penalties, energy cost savings, and emission reductions per unit conditioned roof area. The annual heating and cooling energy uses of four commercial building prototypes—new office (1980+), old office (pre-1980), new retail (1980+), and old retail (pre-1980)—were simulated in 236 US cities. Substituting a weathered cool white roof (solar reflectance 0.55) for a weathered conventional gray roof (solar reflectance 0.20) yielded annually a cooling energy saving per unit conditioned roof area ranging from 3.30 kWh/m² in Alaska to 7.69 kWh/m² in Arizona (5.02 kWh/m² nationwide); a heating energy penalty ranging from 0.003 therm/m² in Hawaii to 0.14 therm/m² in Wyoming (0.065 therm/m² nationwide); and an energy cost saving ranging from 0.126/m < sup > 2 < /sup > in West Virginia to0.126/m² in West Virginia to 1.14/m² in Arizona ($0.356/m² nationwide). It also offered annually a CO₂ reduction ranging from 1.07 kg/m² in Alaska to 4.97 kg/m² in Hawaii (3.02 kg/m² nationwide); an NO_x reduction ranging from 1.70 g/m² in New York to 11.7 g/m² in Hawaii (4.81 g/m² nationwide); an SO₂ reduction ranging from 1.79 g/m² in California to 26.1 g/m² in Alabama (12.4 g/m² nationwide); and an Hg reduction ranging from 1.08 μg/m² in Alaska to 105 μg/m² in Alabama (61.2 μg/m² nationwide). Retrofitting 80% of the 2.58 billion square meters of commercial building conditioned roof area in the USA would yield an annual cooling energy saving of 10.4 TWh; an annual heating energy penalty of 133 million therms; and an annual energy cost saving of $0.356/m² nationwide). It also offered annually a CO₂ reduction ranging from 1.07 kg/m² in Alaska to 4.97 kg/m² in Hawaii (3.02 kg/m² nationwide); an NO_x reduction ranging from 1.70 g/m² in New York to 11.7 g/m² in Hawaii (4.81 g/m² nationwide); an SO₂ reduction ranging from 1.79 g/m² in California to 26.1 g/m² in Alabama (12.4 g/m² nationwide); and an Hg reduction ranging from 1.08 μg/m² in Alaska to 105 μg/m² in Alabama (61.2 μg/m² nationwide). Retrofitting 80% of the 2.58 billion square meters of commercial building conditioned roof area in the USA would yield an annual cooling energy saving of 10.4 TWh; an annual heating energy penalty of 133 million therms; and an annual energy cost saving of 735 million. It would also offer an annual CO₂ reduction of 6.23 Mt, offsetting the annual CO₂ emissions of 1.20 million typical cars or 25.4 typical peak power plants; an annual NO_x reduction of 9.93 kt, offsetting the annual NO_x emissions of 0.57 million cars or 65.7 peak power plants; an annual SO₂ reduction of 25.6 kt, offsetting the annual SO₂ emissions of 815 peak power plants; and an annual Hg reduction of 126 kg.