The pharmacokinetics of pancuronium bromide in infants, children and adults

Laparoscopic retroperitoneal lymph node dissection is a new surgical procedure used to enhance staging in men with clinical stage I nonseminomatous germ cell tumors of the testis. The procedure has been performed in a limited number of patients at several centers with extensive laparoscopic experience. Laparoscopic retroperitoneal lymphadenectomy is a technically demanding procedure which can be successfully completed in the majority of patients. However, the risk of complications is greater than in patients who undergo standard open retroperitoneal lymph node dissection. The primary advantage of a laparoscopic approach is shortened hospitalization and rapid return to normal activity. The role of laparoscopy in the management of patients with testis malignancy has not been defined. The use of this staging procedure may help minimize the need for surveillance studies following surgery and may be best utilized in men with a lower likelihood of nodal metastases. Ultimately, prospective study in large groups of patients will be necessary to determine the role of laparoscopic retroperitoneal lymph node dissection in patients with testis cancer.     

Recent Developments in Equipment and Application of Ion Beam Assisted Thin Film Deposition

Ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) of thin films is still a new technology with respect to the number of applications. A broader industrial application depends on the availability and versatility of facilities which are able to process various kinds of workpieces under appropriate conditions. Recently, IBAD facilities of the second generation were described in literature and are partially commercially available. In the present report such IBAD machines with their special features such as number and kind of ion sources and evaporators are described. Particularly, the set-up of the ALLIGATOR, a versatile IBAD device for coating complex workpieces under ion bombardment with a broad range of ion energies, is described. As an application example, recent results on the treatment of medical implants are discussed. In -vivo tests of coated cardiovascular stents showed that the deposited noble metal films were effective in influencing the corrosivity and thromboresistance of the implant     

Importance of proximal femoral fractures in elderly patients. Results of a prospective study of 61 patients

In a prospective study we found good results concerning postoperative complications (21%), perioperative lethality (3.2%) and lethality during hospital stay (6.5%) after implantation of dynamic hip screws (DHS) in patients with per- and subtrochanteric fractures of the femur. The ability to walk, as well as housing and social care postoperatively and follow-up for at least six months after dismissal demonstrates the importance of these fractures for the elderly. One of three patients needs professional care, 21% at home, 13% in nursing homes. Six months after operation the lethality is nearly 20%, i.e. three times higher than in hospital. These are the essential data for all techniques of osteosynthesis used in patients with these fractures, which could only be documented in prospective studies.     

Herbert Olivecrona: founder of Swedish neurosurgery

Herbert Olivecrona (1891-1980) singlehandedly founded Swedish neurosurgery. At the International Congress in Neurology in Bern in August, 1931, Harvey Cushing invited the cream of the world's medical society to a private banquet. Among the 28 specially invited guests was Herbert Olivecrona. At 40 years old, Olivecrona took his seat with pioneers such as Otfrid Foerster, Percival Bailey, Hugh Cairns, Geoffrey Jefferson, and Sir Charles Sherrington. This suggests that Cushing was impressed by the Swedish aristocrat's didactic deeds when he visited the Serafimer Hospital in Stockholm 2 years earlier. During the mid-1920's, the radiologist Erik Lysholm greatly improved the technique of ventriculography and, challenged by Olivecrona, his diagnostic neuroradiology became of superior quality. In the early 1930's, utilizing technical innovations of his own, Lysholm became a master at demonstrating and localizing posterior fossa tumors, which Olivecrona then operated on. Olivecrona's clinic became the mecca to which many scholars, thirsting for more knowledge, went on a pilgrimage. The international reputation of the clinic was founded, not on epoch-making discoveries, but by the resolute and practical application of methods already launched elsewhere and the exemplary organization that Olivecrona had established in collaboration with Lysholm. In spite of hardships and primitive working conditions, the clinic at the Serafimer Hospital gradually developed into the ideal prototype for a modern neurosurgical department. Olivecrona trained many colorful personalities who later were to lay the foundation for neurosurgery in their home countries; these included Wilhelm T?nnis of Germany, Edvard Busch of Denmark, and Aarno Snellman of Finland. Olivecrona was a true pioneer who made major contributions in practically all fields of conventional neurosurgery.     

Tribological properties of oil-soluble polyolefins

Translated from Khimiya i Tekhnologiya Topliv i Masel, No. 11, pp. 17–18, 23, November, 1993.     

Identification of in vitro phosphorylation sites in the growth cone protein SCG10. Effect Of phosphorylation site mutants on microtubule-destabilizing activity

SCG10 is a neuron-specific, membrane-associated protein that is highly concentrated in growth cones of developing neurons. Previous studies have suggested that it is a regulator of microtubule dynamics and that it may influence microtubule polymerization in growth cones. Here, we demonstrate that in vivo, SCG10 exists in both phosphorylated and unphosphorylated forms. By two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, two phosphoisoforms were detected in neonatal rat brain. Using in vitro phosphorylated recombinant protein, four phosphorylation sites were identified in the SCG10 sequence. Ser-50 and Ser-97 were the target sites for protein kinase A, Ser-62 and Ser-73 for mitogen-activated protein kinase and Ser-73 for cyclin-dependent kinase. We also show that overexpression of SCG10 induces a disruption of the microtubule network in COS-7 cells. By expressing different phosphorylation site mutants, we have dissected the roles of the individual phosphorylation sites in regulating its microtubule-destabilizing activity. We show that nonphosphorylatable mutants have increased activity, whereas mutants in which phosphorylation is mimicked by serine-to-aspartate substitutions have decreased activity. These data suggest that the microtubule-destabilizing activity of SCG10 is regulated by phosphorylation, and that SCG10 may link signal transduction of growth or guidance cues involving serine/threonine protein kinases to alterations of microtubule dynamics in the growth cone.     

A hybrid spreading/despreading function with good SNR performancefor band-limited DS-CDMA

Code-division multiple-access (CDMA) implemented with direct-sequence spread spectrum (DS/SS) signaling is a promising multiplexing technique for cellular telecommunications services. The efficiency of a direct-sequence spread-spectrum code-division multiple-access (DS-CDMA) system depends heavily on the shape of the spectrum of the spread signal. Maximum efficiency is obtained with an ideal brick-wall bandpass spectrum. There are two approaches toward achieving such a spectrum. One is to use a simple spreader that produces a broad spectrum and then follow it with a precise, high order filter to band limit the spectrum. A second approach, which is the approach taken in this paper, is to use a spreader that produces a spectrum close to the ideal spectrum and then employ a simple filter to control the out-of-band power. The proposed spreader/despreader is based on a simple hybrid function and can be easily implemented. An analysis provides a compact expression for the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a RAKE receiver. The expression includes the effects of baseband, intermediate frequency (IF) and RF filtering as well as the effects of the spectral densities of the spreading/despreading functions. The analysis shows that the proposed spreader/despreader yields superior performance over a conventional pseudo noise (PN) spreading/despreading mechanism     

Shear horizontal wave propagation in periodically layeredcomposites

The transverse resonance approach to guided wave analysis is applied to shear horizontal (SH) wave propagation in periodically layered composites. It is found for SH waves that at high values of the guided wavevector β, the wave energy is trapped in the slower of the two media and propagates accordingly at the slower wavespeed. At low values of β, however, the modes demonstrate a clustering behavior, indicative of the underlying Floquet wave structure. The number of modes in a cluster is observed to correlate with the number of unit cells in the layered plate. New physical insights into the behavior of these systems are obtained by analyzing the partial waves of the guided SH modes in terms of Floquet waves. We show that the fast and slow shear waves in the periodically layered composite play an analogous role to the longitudinal and shear partial waves comprising Lamb waves in a homogeneous plate     

Nonpigmented fixed drug eruption from pseudoephedrine

The biotransformation of oxazepam by Bifidobacterium bifidum was studied. The major metabolite was purified by chromatographic methods and found to be desmethyldiazepam using NMR, IR and other physicochemical data.     

Synthesis of heterocyclic metal complexes and their evaluation as marine antifoulants

4-Amino-3-thio-1,24-triazolidine (L₁) and 4-amino-5-thio-1,3,4-thiadiazole (L_II) as well as their metal complexes of the general formulae ML_I·2H₂O and ML_IICl (M; Pb(II), Cd(II) and Zn(II)) were prepared. With Sn(II), we obtained Sn(L_I)₂·2H₂O and SnL_IICl, respectively. The structures of the compounds were identified through elemental analysis, and IR and UV spectra measurements, in addition to thermal analysis in case of the metal complexes. The antifouling properties of the compounds were tested by their incorporation into paint formulations which were applied to PVC substrates and tested in water from Alexandria western harbour. When the compounds were added at 17·5% by volume, the coated panels were fouled after 3 months of immersion. The addition of 6·7% by volume of tributyltin oxide to 15·8% of the prepared compounds in one formulation elevated the paint efficiency and prevented fouling for 11 months. Paint containing solely tributyltin oxide at the same concentration was inactive against algae.