Ifosfamide and vinorelbine: an active regimen for patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin's disease

Twenty-six patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin's disease (HD) were treated with an intensive salvage regimen combining ifosfamide (3000 mg/m2/d, days 1-4 through continuous intravenous infusion) and vinorelbine (25 mg/m2, i.v. days 1 and 5) with mesna uroprotection and G-CSF support. Courses were given at 3-week intervals. Ten patients achieved a complete and 10 patients a partial response, yielding an overall response rate of 77%. The main toxic effect was neutropenia and the combination was well tolerated.     

The Large Electrochemical Capacitance of Microporous Doped Carbon Obtained by Using a Zeolite Template

A novel microporous templated carbon material doped with nitrogen is synthesized by using a two‐step nanocasting process using acrylonitrile (AN) and propylene as precursors, and Na–Y zeolite as a scaffold. Liquid‐phase impregnation and in situ polymerization of the nitrogenated precursor inside the nanochannels of the inorganic scaffold, followed by gas‐phase impregnation with propylene, enables pore‐size control and functionality tuning of the resulting carbon material. The material thereby obtained has a narrow pore‐size distribution (PSD), within the micropore range, and a large amount of heteroatoms (i.e., oxygen and nitrogen). In addition, the carbon material inherits the ordered structure of the inorganic host. Such features simultaneously present in the carbon result in it being ideal for use as an electrode in a supercapacitor. Although presenting a moderately developed specific surface area (S_BET = 1680 m² g^–1), the templated carbon material displays a large gravimetric capacitance (340 F g^–1) in aqueous media because of the combined electrochemical activity of the heteroatoms and the accessible porosity. This material can operate at 1.2 V in an aqueous medium with good cycleability—‐beyond 10 000 cycles—and is extremely promising for use in the development of high‐energy‐density supercapacitors.     

Application of the Repeated Measures (Split-Plot) Design to the Development of Processes for Drug Substances

A case study from the chemical and pharmaceutical industries is used to show the value of the repeated measures design in developing processes for drug substances. This article advocates the use of the repeated measures design in situations that commonly arise in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries when repeated measurements are taken on the same experimental unit, instead of the common practice of comparing only individual conditions, a procedure that is inappropriate in many cases. One of the most important advantages of applying the repeated measures design is the abundance of data that can be obtained by taking into account the entire response curve instead of only isolated individual points on it.     

The polymerization of acenaphthylene by sulphuric acid in methylenedichloride

Summary Acenaphthylene was polymerized in methylenedichloride at 273, 291 and 308 K by sulphuric acid. The initiation step takes place by addition of the proton of sulphuric acid to the monomer. The propagation step is through ion-pairs, and the propagation constants are first-order with respect to the monomer and initiator(k_p = 0.22 M^–1. s^–1(273K), k_p=0.88 M^–1. s^–1(291K), k_p = 2.81 M^–1. s^–1 (308K)). There is not appreciable loss of active centres, being this confirmed by experiments carried out with succesive additions of monomer. The molecular weights obtained confirm the importance of processes to monomer in this polymerization.     

Beneficial effect on serum apo AI, apo B and Lp AI levels of Ramadan fasting

To investigate the developmental distribution of cochlear nucleus (CN) astrocytes, we used immunocytochemical localization of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and S100beta in rats at 0, 5, 10, 15, 21, 30 postnatal days plus the adult. Differential developmental trends were observed for both proteins. The spatial distribution showed a progressive increase of the number of GFAP-immunoreactive (GFAP-IR) astrocytes during development. GFAP positive cells occurred first in the granule cell domain of the ventral CN and in the molecular cell layer of the dorsal CN, then followed an outside to inside pattern of progression. The GFAP-IR reached an adult distribution 1 month after birth. By contrast with GFAP, the apparition of S100beta-immunoreactivity (S100beta-IR) was abrupt (between 0 and 5 days) followed by a rapid stabilization of density and distribution of IR cells (between 15 and 21 days). The developmental distribution of S100beta-IR cells occurred from the posterodorsal region and progressed toward a rostroventral direction. With contrast to GFAP-IR astrocytes, S100beta-positive cells were mainly restricted to the central part of the CN, while only few IR astrocytes were observed in the granule cell domain of the ventral CN or in the molecular cell layer of the dorsal CN. This differential distribution suggests that both antigens were expressed by two different cell populations at least, it is obvious during the first postnatal week. The gradual expression of GFAP and S100beta is interpreted as reflecting the time course of astrocytic maturation. These data suggest that the maturation of CN astrocytes may be linked to the final maturation of CN neurons.     

Liposomes in wool dyeing — the stability of dye-liposome systems and their application to untreated wool fibres

The use of two different types of liposome suspensions (multilamellar vesicles, MLV, and large unilamellar vesicles, LUV) as carriers in the commercial dyeing of untreated wool with a milling acid dye is described. Liposomes prepared with egg phosphatidylcholine and containing the dye CI Acid Blue 90 were used. The physico-chemical stability of liposomes was studied by measuring the mean particle size distribution of phospholipidic vesicles during dyeing. The possible hydrolysis of phospholipid molecules was also determined. Kinetic aspects involving dye adsorption and bonding were investigated. Dye exhaustion on untreated wool fibres was inhibited and dye bonding was improved. The lipid concentration and type of liposomes were important factors in this process.     

Reliability of coding of diagnoses recorded in the computerized information system at primary health care centers

OBJECTIVE: To find the reliability of the coding of diagnoses in the doctor's note in this computer system and to analyse where there are most discrepancies. DESIGN: An observational study. The concordance between the reason for consultation, codified by an external assessor, and the coding of the main diagnosis. SETTING: Health Districts 17 (Murcia/Barrio del Carmen) and 66 (Molina de Segura/La Ribera) in the Autonomous Community of Murcia. PATIENTS: A sub-sample of 228 consultations, belonging to a larger study of 1,904 general medical consultations (total: 98,768 consultations). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: There were discrepancies between the coding of the reason for consultation and the diagnosis in 23% of the consultations recorded. The reason for consultation was not correctly recorded in 12.3%. The diagnostic group or section with the highest level of agreement was number XVIII or the supplementary section; and with the least agreement in XVII (injuries and adverse side-effects) and Number V covering mental disorders. CONCLUSIONS: Quality control of information and its validation enables errors and problems in the systems to be identified and corrected. This study points to the need to improve the filling-out of the reason for consultation and activity carried out, in order to obtain afterwards a more reliable coding of the diagnosis.     

A Navigation System for Assistant Robots Using Visually Augmented POMDPs

Assistant robots have received special attention from the research community in the last years. One of the main applications of these robots is to perform care tasks in indoor environments such as houses, nursing homes or hospitals, and therefore they need to be able to navigate robustly for long periods of time. This paper focuses on the navigation system of SIRA, a robotic assistant for elderly and/or blind people based on a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) to global localize the robot and to direct its goal-oriented actions. The main novel feature of our approach is that it combines sonar and visual information in a natural way to produce state transitions and observations in the framework of Markov Decision Processes. Besides this multisensorial fusion, a two-level layered planning architecture that combines several planning objectives (such as guiding to a goal room and reducing locational uncertainty) improves the robustness of the navigation system, as its shown in our experiments with SIRA navigating corridors.