The use of enzymes in treating patients with malignant lymphoma with a large tumor mass]

Systemic enzymes (wobenzime and wobe-mugos) were approved, that had been prescribed as part of polychemotherapy to 24 patients with malignant lymphomas, who presented with large masses of lymphatic nodes poorly resorbable against the background of polychemotherapy and who were assigned for a high-total dose irradiation, which fact would undoubtedly entail sclerosing of adjacent intact tissues. The use of the enzymes made for the optimum realization of the polychemotherapy effect and permitted avoiding a good many of undesirable side events and complication thereof. The above systemic enzymes are well tolerated by patients; they induce no significant changes in the cellular composition or in blood biochemical indices.     

Perceptions of caring. Comparison of antepartum and postpartum patients

An exploratory, comparative survey design was used to describe and compare similarities and differences in perception of caring behaviors between hospitalized antepartum and short-stay postpartum patients. Forty-two patients completed the 63-item Caring Behavior Assessment instrument (CBA). The scale, based on Watson's theory of caring, contains seven categories. There were no statistically significant differences in age, education, gravida, or para between the two groups. Significantly more women in the postpartum group were married. There were no statistically significant differences or correlations in the total CBA scores and the demographic variables. No statistically significant differences in total CBA scores were found between antepartum participants and postpartum participants. These findings corroborate the results of "caring" studies in other patient populations, that satisfying basic needs--that is, evidence of technical knowledge and skills--is more important to patients than meeting higher order needs.     

Biosynthesis of progesterone derived neurosteroids by developing avian CNS: in vitro effects on the GABAA receptor complex

Although enthusiasm for measuring health-related quality of life (HRQL) in clinical trials exists, information is limited on the meaning of scores. We examined the relation between scores from the 34-item Medical Outcomes Study HIV Health Survey (MOS-HIV) and the more detailed HIV Overview of Problems-Evaluation System (HOPES) using the responses of 318 HIV-infected outpatients being treated in Los Angeles and Baltimore. With the HOPES problem statements as independent variables, statistically significant predictors of the variation in MOS-HIV scores for the Physical Function, Mental Health, and Energy/Fatigue scales were identified using stepwise regression. Approximately 60% to 70% of the variation in each of the scores was explained by five to seven different HOPES problem statements, with a single item explaining 47% to 59% of the variation. We created illustrative profiles for each of the three MOS-HIV scales using the HOPES items identified in the regressions. Independent of the scale, persons scoring in the top MOS-HIV quartile tended to report few if any problems, whereas a decline in score to the next quartile was characterized by functional difficulties (e.g., "HIV interferes with work"). The onset of specific problems might trigger further evaluation and potential intervention from health care providers to help maintain patient functioning.     

Evaluation of two commercial kits for serum gastrin assay, and comparison with a conventional radioimmunoassay procedure

We compared two gastrin radioimmunoassay kits ("Immutope" kit, Squibb & Co.; "Gastrin R.I.A." kit, Schwarz/Mann) to the conventional gastrin radioimmunoassay of Yalow and Berson [Gastroenterology 58, 1 (1970)] as run by us and by a second reference laboratory. Although both kits were found to effectively discriminate above-normal and normal values for serum gastrin, they significantly underestimated very high values (greater than 1500 ng/liter). The Schwarz/Mann kit clearly had a superior quality label (lower nonspecific binding and higher specific activity) and a shorter incubation time. However, the 90-min incubation period cited for their kit caused overestimation of gastrin values in the lower range (5-300 ng/liter), which could be corrected by prolonging the incubation to 24 h. The Squibb antibody had fairly good cross reactivity to all gastrin species tested; the Schwarz/Mann antibody had poor affinity for natural human gastrin G34-II. Good correspondence was found for sera run by both reference laboratories (y = 0.96x + 10, r = 0.997), and values obtained with the Schwarz/Mann kit correlated best (+ 0.815) with those from the conventional radioimmunoassay procedure.     

Wide dynamic range parallel feedback transimpedance amplifier for 10 Gb/s optical links

This paper presents the design and implementation of a new wide dynamic range parallel feedback (PF) transimpedance amplifier (TIA) for 10 Gb/s optical links. The wide dynamic range is attributed to the novel TIA architecture employing both shunt-shunt and shunt-series feedback networks. The outstanding features of the TIA are wide dynamic range, high gain, low power consumption and design simplicity. A prototype implemented in a 0.5 μm SiGe BiCMOS technology and operating at −3.3 V power supply features an 18.4 dBm dynamic range with a BER less than 10⁻¹², an optical sensitivity of −16 dBm, optical overload of +2.4 dBm, a bandwidth of 8.27 GHz, a gain of 950 Ω and a power consumption of 189 mW. The new parallel feedback architecture offers improved overload and noise performance when compared to previously reported, state of the art, single feedback TIA designs and meets all the 10 Gigabit Ethernet and short-reach OC-192 SONET specifications. Ricardo Andres Aroca received the B.S. (Hons) degree in electrical engineering from the University of Windsor, Canada, and the M.S. degree from the University of Toronto, Canada, in 2001 and 2004, respectively. In 2000 he spent two 4 month internships with Nortel Networks in the Microelectronics Department. Mr. Aroca received the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Counsel of Canada (NSERC) Postgraduate Scholarship award in 2002. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree at the University of Toronto where his research interests lie in the area of high-frequency integrated circuits for wireless and wireline communication systems. C. Andre T. Salama received the B.A.Sc. (Hons.) M.A.Sc. and Ph. D. degrees, all in Electrical Engineering, from the University of British Columbia in 1961, 1962 and 1966 respectively. From 1962 to 1963 he served as a Research Assistant at the University of California, Berkeley. From 1966 to 1967 he was employed at Bell Northern Research, Ottawa, as a Member of Scientific Staff working in the area of integrated circuit design. Since 1967 he has been on the staff of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto where he held the J.M. Ham Chair in Microelectronics from 1987 to 1997. In 1992, he was appointed to his present position of University Professor for scholarly achievements and preeminence in the field of microelectronics. In 1989-90, he was awarded the ITAC/NSERC Research Fellowship in information technology. In 1994, he was awarded the Canada Council I.W. Killam Memorial Prize in Engineering for outstanding career contributions to the field of microelectronics. In 2000, he received the IEEE Millenium Medal. In 2003, he received the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Semiconductor Technology Conference for seminal and outstanding contributions to semiconductor device research and promotion of Canadian University research in microelectronics. In 2004, he received the NSERC Lifetime Achievement Award of Research Excellence for outstanding and sustained contributions to the field of microelectronics and the Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) Recognition Award for research excellence and outstanding leadership.He was associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems in 1986–88 and a member of the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) Technical Program Committeein 1980–82, 1987–89 and 1996–98. He was the chair of the Solid State Devices Subcommittee for IEDM in 1998 and was a member of the editorial board of Solid State Electronics from 1984 to 2002. He is presently a member of the editorial board of the Analog IC and Signal Processing Journal and the Technical Program Committee of the International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs (ISPSD) and the Technical ProgramCommittee of the International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design (ISLPED). He chaired the technical program committee of ISPSD in 1996 and was the general chair for the conference in 1999.Dr. Salama is the Scientific Director of Micronet, a network of centres of excellence focussing on microelectronics research and funded by the Canadian Government and Industry. He has published extensively in technical journals, is the holder of eleven patents and has served as a consultant to the semiconductor industry in Canada and the U.S. His research interests include the design and fabrication of semiconductor devices and integrated circuits with emphasis on deep submicron devices as well as circuits and systems for high speed, low power signal processing applications. Dr. Salama is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, a member of the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario, the Electrochemical Society and the Innovation Management Association of Canada.