Drug Release from Coadsorbates of Nonionic Surfactants with Parabenes on Porous Silica Supports

Parabenes are coadsorbed from aqueous solutions with nonionic surfactants (polyoxyethylene-nonyl-phenols) on silica surfaces. Rate and extend of para-bene desorption from corresponding coadsorbates on porous silica were shown to be dependent on the influence of structure and pore size (in the mesopore range 2-10 nm) of the silica supports, the alkyl chain length of the parabenes, the structure of the POE-surfactant, and the adsorption equilibria established during the drug loading of the supports. The consequences of coadsorption on drug release modification are discussed.     

Visiting hours. An open ICU

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic and progressive degenerative disorder of the central nervous system characterized by tremor, rigidity, slowness of movement (bradykinesia) and postural abnormalities. The cause is unknown, but the pathology shows that dopamine is profoundly reduced in the basal ganglia of patients with PD. When dopamine is replenished by the administration of levodopa, most of the symptoms of parkinsonism are reduced significantly. Levodopa is considered to be the most reliable and effective symptomatic drug treatment for keeping patients autonomous and functionally independent for as long as possible.     

Patients presenting with fresh trauma after interpersonal violence. Part II. Assault history

BACKGROUND: Patients presenting with fresh trauma are frequently victims of interpersonal violence. Nevertheless, few South African studies have documented the history surrounding such assaults and their management. METHODS: Patients presenting with fresh trauma to the Trauma Unit of Tygerberg Hospital were selected in order to provide a representative sample. Where patients were victims of interpersonal violence, a history of the current and previous assault(s) was taken. RESULTS: Victims of interpersonal violence often reported that they had been involved in such violence on previous occasions. Nevertheless, these patients had rarely received management from psychosocial services. Patients with a previous history of having been assaulted had a number of distinct characteristics, including female gender and increased substance use. CONCLUSIONS: Trauma has justifiably been described as a recurrent disease. There is an urgent need for effective psychosocial services for victims of interpersonal violence; ideally, this would prevent future multiple hospital admissions.     

Multiple Translational Containment Part I: An Approximate Algorithm

We present an algorithm for finding a solution to the two-dimensional translational approximate multiple containment problem: find translations for k polygons which place them inside a polygonal container so that no point of any polygon is more than 2ε inside of the boundary of any other polygon. The polygons and container may be nonconvex. The value of ε is an input to the algorithm. In industrial applications the containment solution acts as a guide to a machine cutting out polygonal shapes from a sheet of material. If ε is chosen to be a fraction of the cutter's accuracy, then the solution to the approximate containment problem is sufficient for industrial purposes. Given a containment problem, we characterize its solution and create a collection of containment subproblems from this characterization. We solve each subproblem by first restricting certain two-dimensional configuration spaces until a steady state is reached, and then testing for a solution inside the configuration spaces. If necessary, we subdivide the configuration spaces to generate new subproblems. The running time of our algorithm is , where s is the largest number of vertices of any polygon generated by a restriction operation. In the worst case s can be exponential in the size of the input, but, in practice, it is usually not more than quadratic. Received June 24, 1994; revised August 22, 1995.     

Hierarchical polytomous regression models with applications to health services research

The analysis of variations is an important area of interest in health services and outcomes research and has two main goals: to identify and quantify variability across units, such as geographic regions or health care providers, in terms of procedure utilization and outcomes, and to explore the links between process, such as regional or hospital practice patterns, and outcomes, such as patient mortality and functional status. Hierarchical regression models are well suited for this type of analysis. In this paper we formulate a hierarchical polytomous regression model and apply it to the analysis of variations in the utilization of alternative cardiac procedures in a national cohort of elderly Medicare patients who had an acute myocardial infarction during 1987. The model is designed to accommodate clustered multinomial data with covariate vectors available on individual cases and on clusters. We present a Bayesian approach to fitting and checking the model using simulated values from the posterior distribution of the parameters. The simulation algorithms are based on Gibbs sampling in combination with Metropolis steps. Using the hierarchical polytomous regression model, we examine how the rates of cardiac procedures depend on patient-level characteristics, including age, gender and race, and whether there exist interstate differences and regional patterns in the use of these procedures.     

A universal large/small signal 3-terminal FET model using anonquasistatic charge-based approach

Introduces a charge-based nonquasistatic large/small signal FET model that is extracted from measured small signal S-parameter and DC data and can be applied to an arbitrary three-terminal FET structure. The model is based on general physical principles, and provides consistent topologies for both large and small signal simulations to frequencies above f_t and over a wide range of node voltages. The procedure for extracting model elements includes deembedding linear parasitic elements and extracting bicubic, B-spline functions, which represent large signal model elements. The spline coefficients are calculated using a constrained least squares fit to a set of small signal parameters and/or DC currents that have been measured at a number of node voltage values. Advantages of this approach include fast parameter extraction for new FET structures, accuracy, computational efficiency, charge conservation, and the requirement of only a single model for all simulation modes. The model can also be used to interface device simulators (e.g., PISCES) with circuit simulators for accurate predictive modeling     

Association of Sj?gren's syndrome with HLA-B8

HLA antigens were examined by microdroplet lymphocyte cytotoxicity in 31 patients with Sj?grens syndrome. Fifty percent of 22 Causcasian patients (7 of 17 females and 4 of 5 males) had HLA-B8, as compared to 21% of 1205 controls (P=0.002). The presence of HLA-B8 was not correlated with parotid salivary flow, keratoconjunctivitis sicca, or focus score. Because of its association with a number of autoimmune diseases, including Sj?gren's syndrome, it is suggested that HLA-B8 is genetically liked to an immune response gene(s) that predisposes the individual to autoimmune phenomena. The expression of autoimmunity may be determined by infectious or environmental factors.