Suppository administration of chemotherapeutic drugs with concomitant radiation for rectal cancer

PURPOSE: Preoperative radiation with combined chemotherapy is effective in shrinking advanced rectal cancer locally and facilitating subsequent surgery. Suppository delivery of 5-fluorouracil is associated with less toxicity and higher rectal tissue concentrations than intravenous administration. This prompted us to evaluate suppository and intravenous administration of 5-fluorouracil and mitomycin C with concomitant radiation to determine associated toxicity. METHODS: Rectal, liver, lymph node, and lung tissue and systemic and portal blood were collected serially from male Sprague Dawley rats to determine drug concentrations following suppository or intravenous delivery of 5-fluorouracil or mitomycin C. Thirty-six animals were randomly assigned to treatment groups and received 5-fluorouracil suppositories, mitomycin C suppositories, or an equivalent intravenous dose of 5-fluorouracil or mitomycin C 30 minutes before radiation therapy. Before and 3, 6, 10, and 15 days following this treatment, blood was collected, colonoscopy was performed, and rectal tissue was harvested for histologic examination. RESULTS: Mitomycin C suppository was significantly less toxic compared with intravenous delivery, and higher rectal tissue concentrations were observed from 10 to 30 minutes (P < 0.05). Compared with intravenous 5-fluorouracil administration and radiation, 5-fluorouracil suppository and radiation resulted in additive myelosuppression at day 6 (P < 0.05) with rapid recovery. CONCLUSIONS: 5-Fluorouracil and mitomycin C suppository delivery combined with radiation causes less systemic toxicity and is more effective than intravenous administration.     

Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument descriptionand experiment overview

The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument is scheduled for launch aboard the first of the Earth Observing System (EOS) spacecraft, EOS-AM1. MISR will provide global, radiometrically calibrated, georectified, and spatially coregistered imagery at nine discrete viewing angles and four visible/near-infrared spectral bands. Algorithms specifically developed to capitalize on this measurement strategy will be used to retrieve geophysical products for studies of clouds, aerosols, and surface radiation. This paper provides an overview of the as-built instrument characteristics and the application of MISR to remote sensing of the Earth     

Developmental differences in episodic retrieval: The role of differences in concept representations in semantic memory.

Developmental differences in the relative salience of features in concept representations in semantic memory and their contributions to differences in cued recall were examined in two experiments. For second graders, fifth graders, and college students, acquisition encoding of cue–target noun pair information was constrained by means of defining-, characteristic-, category-, and incidental-feature orienting questions. At retrieval, the encoding of cue information alone was constrained (Experiment 1) within subjects by means of the same (e.g., defining at acquisition and defining at retrieval) or related (e.g., defining at acquisition and characteristic at retrieval) retrieval questions or was unconstrained (Experiment 2). In both experiments, the acquisition presentation duration was manipulated (1 s or 5 s) in order to examine the spread of feature activation within concepts. The results showed that recall varied with feature salience, with the salience greatest for defining features. In addition, the results suggested that the relative salience of defining features was at least as great for the children as for the adults. The results offer no support for Keil and Batterman's (1984) hypothesis of a shift from characteristic to defining features in the development of word meaning representation in memory. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessment of workload in the microbiology laboratory

Workload measurement is necessary for laboratory management and planning. Adaptation of the College of American Pathologists' scheme to the requirements of a large clinical microbiology laboratory is described. Our method of applying basic work values is simpler and the calculation of workload is easily adapted to take account of alterations in laboratory method. The resulting system of workload measurement can be instituted without undue effort.     

Interfaces for high speed fiber-optic links: analysis andexperiment

An analysis of directly and externally modulated fiber-optic links is presented. The theoretical analysis is based on the signal flow diagram of the interface circuits to the laser diode, Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulator, and p-i-n photodiode. System parameters such as gain, noise figure, two-tone intermodulation distortion, and spurious free and compression dynamic range are expressed as a function of frequency and operating point of the laser and external modulator. Two directly and externally modulated fiber-optic links were designed and fabricated to verify the analytical models. The direct modulation FO link was developed at the Ku-band (11.6-12.4 GHz), whereas the external modulation link was at L-band (875-925 MHz). Spurious-free dynamic ranges of 95.8 dB Hz^2/3 and 113 dB Hz ^2/3, respectively, were achieved. The predictions based on the analytical models match the measured results     

An aptitude–treatment interaction approach to transfer within training.

The issues of skill specificity and transfer of training were examined from an aptitude–treatment interaction approach. The current investigations extended A. M. Sullivan's (1964) approach by using a procedural transfer task and training conditions that differed in amount of training task practice and the degree of training task similarity to the transfer task. Two experiments were conducted with 232 college students. Experiment 1 examined the effects of a length-of-training manipulation on reasoning ability and transfer task performance relationships, and on the amount of transfer. Experiment 2 evaluated the effects of 2 training tasks that differed in terms of similarity to the transfer task on ability-performance relationships and the amount of transfer. Results suggest that Sullivan's approach partially generalizes to the acquisition of procedural knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The preparation of fluorochlorides with the PbBiO2Cl structure

We demonstrate that the replacement of oxygen by fluorine in Sillen's phases is not limited only to BiOCl-type materials. It is possible to prepare PbBiO₂Cl-type compounds of general formula APbF₂X (A = Li, Na,K, X = Cl, Br, I). Crystal chemistry relations are examined.