Quantitation of Ink Transferred During Pharmaceutical Printing Operations Using Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy

The identification of solid dosage forms is often achieved through printing with a non-toxic ink. Due to product purity requirements, a method to quantify the amount of ink applied to tablets and capsules is of interest to the pharmaceutical industry.

The following presentation investigated the use of inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) as a direct method of quantifying the amount of ink on a tablet. Because the ink used contained an iron oxide pigment of known composition, quantitation of the iron content could be used to measure the amount of ink transferred to the tablet.

The quantitative results obtained using ICP-AES were in agreement with calculated values for the volume of ink in the gravure roll. Tablets exposed to “double printing” were easily detected by the ICP-AES method.     

Biogeochemical Evaluation of Mechanisms Controlling CaCO3(s) Precipitation in Landfill Leachate-Collection Systems

A common failure mode for landfills is clogging of the leachate-collection system. The reduction in hydraulic conductivity associated with clogging causes a buildup of leachate head on the underlying liner, potentially increasing advective contaminant transport from the landfill and contaminating adjacent groundwater. In this paper, the biogeochemical model CCBATCH is used to link a primary cause of leachate collection system failure—CaCO3(s) precipitation?to anaerobic degradation of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) in column reactors used to study the clogging phenomena. One key to applying CCBATCH correctly was dividing the VFA conversion into two steps: conversion of propionate to acetate, carbonic acid, and methane; and acetate conversion to methane and carbonic acid. The primary driver for CaCO3(s) precipitation in the columns was acetate fermentation to CH4 and H2CO3, which increased the total carbonate concentration in the leachate and shifted the acid/base control to a weaker acid system, which caused an increase in solution pH. A second key to proper modeling was adding CO2(g) gas transfer to CCBATCH. The modeling results indicate that the kinetics of CO2(g) gas transfer was a key control over leachate chemistry once acetate fermentation was nearly complete. These results suggest that the best approach for the long-term control of CaCO3(s) clogging may be to enhance CO2(g) gas transfer from the leachate while buffering the leachate pH to near neutral. Taken together, these actions should decrease the yield of CaCO3(s) precipitated per mass of acetate removed.     

Applying the two-state invar model to delta-phase plutonium

This article describes the authors’ use of the Weiss two-state model for Fe-Ni invar alloys to understand the anomalous thermal expansion of Pu-Ga alloys. Studies on thermal expansion of Pu-Ga are reviewed briefly, and the two-state invar model is described. The authors fit the available neutron-diffraction data for Pu-Ga alloys to the invar model and discuss the consequences. For more information, contact Andrew C. Lawson, Structure and Properties Group: MST-8, MS H-805, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545; (505) 667-8844; fax (505) 665-2676; e-mail lawson@lanl.gov.     

Construal processes and trait ambiguity: Implications for self-peer agreement in personality judgment.

The relationship between trait ambiguity and self–peer agreement in personality judgment was examined. In Study 1, self–peer agreement was lower on ambiguous traits (those with many behavioral referents) than on unambiguous ones (those with few behavioral referents). This finding was partially moderated by the level of friendship between peers. These results suggest that people disagree in their judgments because they use idiosyncratic trait definitions when making judgments on ambiguous traits. Study 2 tested this explanation by exploring self–peer agreement when participant pairs were forced to use the same trait definition versus different ones when judging themselves and each other. Forcing participants to use the same trait definition increased the degree to which their judgments covaried with one another. Discussion centers on the cognitive and motivational forces that can influence the degree to which personality judgments differ. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Specificity grafting of human antibody frameworks selected from a phage display library: generation of a highly stable humanized anti-CD22 single-chain Fv fragment

A prerequisite for the enrichment of antibodies screened fromphage display libraries is their stable expression on a phageduring multiple selection rounds. Thus, if stringent panningprocedures are employed, selection is simultaneously drivenby antigen affinity, stability and solubility. To take advantageof robust pre-selected scaffolds of such molecules, we graftedsingle-chain Fv (scFv) antibodies, previously isolated froma human phage display library after multiple rounds of in vitropanning on tumor cells, with the specificity of the clinicallyestablished murine monoclonal anti-CD22 antibody RFB4. We showthat a panel of grafted scFvs retained the specificity of themurine monoclonal antibody, bound to the target antigen withhigh affinity (6.4–9.6 nM), and exhibited exceptionalbiophysical stability with retention of 89–93% of theinitial binding activity after 6 days of incubation in humanserum at 37°C. Selection of stable human scaffolds withhigh sequence identity to both the human germline and the rodentframeworks required only a small number of murine residues tobe retained within the human frameworks in order to maintainthe structural integrity of the antigen binding site. We expectthis approach may be applicable for the rapid generation ofhighly stable humanized antibodies with low immunogenic potential. Received June 10, 2003; accepted August 27, 2003.     

Building communities of place: Habitual movement around significant places

Familiar social concepts such ascommunity, home and family are increasinglyredefined in terms of process in contrast to`place', which is often viewed as a ratherinert spatial designation. Definitions ofcommunity do not always coincide with locationbut a lack of distinctive features or socialfocus in many residential housing areas promptsthe question of whether the separation between`place' and `interest' could lead to a more orless sustainable condition for humansettlement.Based on data collected from an ethnographicstudy in Northeast Scotland, this analysis aimsto explore the continuities between `place' and`interest' in constructing a more satisfyingenvironment for housing development.Communities with an awareness of place exhibithabitual patterns of movement around familiarand significant objects in the construction ofboth individual and social identity and memory.Increased identification produces a morepositive `sense of place' as an inherent aspectof what is termed `social sustainability'. This paper argues that a more sustainable sitefor residential development emerges at thecoincidence of movement and socialsignificance.Qualitative improvements to the builtenvironment need to take account of existinglocal distinctiveness and the patterns ofmovement that communicate their significanceand sense of identity. It is argued that agreater awareness of these key social factorsin urban planning would facilitate greaterpotential `social sustainability' inresidential environments. Some of the differentoptions for the design and layout ofresidential areas are considered in relation tothe research findings.     

Gender differences in acute tobacco withdrawal: Effects on subjective, cognitive, and physiological measures.

Gender differences in tobacco withdrawal are of considerable clinical importance, but research findings on this topic have been mixed. Methodological variation in samples sizes, experimental design, and measures across studies may explain the inconsistent results. The current study examined whether male (n = 101) and female (n = 102) smokers (≥15 cigarettes/day) differed in abstinence-induced changes on a battery of self-report measures (withdrawal, affect, craving), cognitive performance tasks (attention, psychomotor performance), and physiological responses (heart rate, blood pressure, brain electroencephalogram). Participants attended 2 counterbalanced laboratory sessions, 1 following 12 hr of abstinence and the other following ad libitum smoking. Results showed that women reported greater abstinence-induced increases in negative affect, withdrawal-related distress, and urge to smoke to relieve withdrawal distress. In contrast, both genders reported similar abstinence-induced changes in positive affect and urge to smoke for pleasure. Men and women exhibited generally similar abstinence-induced changes in physiological and cognitive performance measures. In addition, gender did not moderate the association between withdrawal symptoms and baseline measures of smoking behavior and dependence. Abstinence-induced changes in withdrawal distress mediated the effect of gender on latency until the 1st cigarette of the day at trend levels ( p     

Implementing data structures on a hypercube multiprocessor, and applications in parallel computational geometry

In this paper, we study the problem of implementing standard data structures on a hypercube multiprocessor. We present a technique for efficiently executing multiple independent search processes on a class of graphs called ordered h-level graphs. We show how this technique can be utilized to implement a segment tree on a hypercube, thereby obtaining O(long²n) time algorithms for solving the next element search problem, the trapezoidal composition problem, and the triangulation problem.