Isoniazid poisoning: Pharmacokinetics and effect of hemodialysis in a massive ingestion

Isoniazid is a rare overdose that causes seizures and there is limited evidence to guide treatment. We report a 20‐year‐old female migrant who presented with recurrent seizures after ingesting 25 g of isoniazid. She was treated with activated charcoal, repeated doses of midazolam for the seizures, and given multiple doses of pyridoxine (14 mg), limited by availability. She was admitted to intensive care, and 5.5 hours post‐ingestion, she was commenced on continuous veno‐venous hemodiafiltration (CVVHDF). She was extubated after 24 hours and CVVHDF was ceased 6 hours later (30 hours post‐overdose). Her renal function remained normal and her initial lactate was the highest at 2.3. She made a full recovery. Five plasma samples were collected before, during, and after CVVHDF, and isoniazid was quantified with liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry. A pharmacokinetic analysis of time‐isoniazid concentration data was fitted to a two‐compartment model with first‐order input (with fixed k_a) with the effect of CVVHDF modeled as a time‐dependent covariate. This suggested that there was initially good clearance with CVVHDF (4 times endogenous clearance), which rapidly declined within hours.     

Identifying a Threshold Impurity Level for Organic Solar Cells: Enhanced First‐Order Recombination Via Well‐Defined PC84BM Traps in Organic Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells

Small amounts of impurity, even one part in one thousand, in polymer bulk heterojunction solar cells can alter the electronic properties of the device, including reducing the open circuit voltage, the short circuit current and the fill factor. Steady state studies show a dramatic increase in the trap‐assisted recombination rate when [6,6]‐phenyl C₈₄ butyric acid methyl ester (PC₈₄BM) is introduced as a trap site in polymer bulk heterojunction solar cells made of a blend of the copolymer poly[N‐9″‐hepta‐decanyl‐2,7‐carbazole‐alt‐5,5‐(4′,7′‐di‐2‐thienyl‐2′,1′,3′‐benzothiadiazole) (PCDTBT) and the fullerene derivative [6,6]‐phenyl C₆₁ butyric acid methyl ester (PC₆₀BM). The trap density dependent recombination studied here can be described as a combination of bimolecular and Shockley–Read–Hall recombination; the latter is dramatically enhanced by the addition of the PC₈₄BM traps. This study reveals the importance of impurities in limiting the efficiency of organic solar cell devices and gives insight into the mechanism of the trap‐induced recombination loss.     

Spectroscopic ellipsometry studies on hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin films deposited using DC saddle field plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition system

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si H) films deposited on crystalline silicon substrates using the DC saddle field (DCSF) plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system have been investigated. We have determined the complex dielectric function, ε(E) = ε₁(E) + iε₂(E) for hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin films by spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) in the 1.5-4.5 eV energy range at room temperature. The results indicate that there is a change in the structure of the a-Si:H films as the thickness is increased above 4 nm. This is attributed to either an increase in the bonded hydrogen content and, or a decrease of voids during the growth of a-Si:H films. The film thickness and deposition temperature are two important parameters that lead to both hydrogen content variation and silicon bonding change as well as significant variations in the optical band gap. The influence of substrate temperature during deposition on film and interface properties is also included.     

澳门园林建筑与装饰小品特色研究

澳门是亚洲典型的东西方文化交汇的城市,特殊的发展背景使澳]园林呈现出明显的中西合璧的特点.澳门的城市园林大多小巧精致,园林建筑与装饰小品的风格受葡萄牙建筑与园林风格的影响较大,具有鲜明的南洋风格,即融合了本地民居建筑、南欧葡式建筑和中国传统建筑的特色.其整体形象简洁大方,中西园林建筑形式兼容并蓄,细部装饰精致,色彩鲜艳明亮.对澳门园林建筑与装饰小品特色的研究,有助于澳门 世界文化遗产的传承和国际旅游观光业的发展.     

A general expression of dyadic Green's functions in radiallymultilayered chiral media

A general expression of spectral-domain dyadic Green's function (DGF) is presented for defining the electromagnetic radiation fields in spherically arbitrary multilayered and chiral media. Without any loss of the generality, each of the radial multilayers could be the chiral layer with different permittivity, permeability, and chirality admittance, while both distribution and location of current sources are assumed to be arbitrary. The DGF is composed of the unbounded DGF and the scattering DGF, based on the method of scattering superposition. The scattering DGF in each layer is constructed in terms of the modified and normalized spherical vector wave functions. The coefficients of the scattering DGFs are derived and expressed in terms of the equivalent reflection and transmission coefficients, by applying boundary conditions satisfied by the coefficient matrices     

Digital quantification of the enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT)

Enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) is a sensitive technique for the detection of cytokines released by immune cells. The technique is well established and correlates closely with the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique. Here, we introduce an integrated imaging-analysis system to quantitate the spots formed by the ELISPOT assay. The spots can be easily counted when the background is clear and the spots are few. However, when the number of spots increases to > 100, this task becomes challenging and time-consuming. To minimize time and standardize the counting procedure, we have used a digital camera linked to a computer system for reading the plates. In general, the computer is able to count more spots and has a smaller standard deviation when compared with the manual microscopic count. This integrated system is commercially available, and we believe that this method is objective, time-saving and consistent in routine ELISPOT assay counting, especially when numerous spots are present.     

Detailed analysis of high‐quality symmetrical octagonal spiral inductors on Si substrate

Research studies of symmetrical spiral inductors for silicon technology have become very important and challenging. In this article, we attempt to give a detailed explanation of how symmetrical spiral inductors help to improve the quality factor (Q) as compared to conventional nonsymmetrical inductors. The experimental results are presented to verify our theory. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2005.     

Effect of heat‐sealing temperature on the properties of OPP/CPP heat seals. Part II. Crystallinity and thermomechanical properties

The crystalline structure of the heat‐sealed part of oriented polypropylene (OPP) and cast polypropylene (CPP) films was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and thermal mechanical analysis (TMA). The relationship between the crystalline structure and the mechanical properties was analyzed. It was found that the high total crystallinity of both OPP and CPP gave rise to good mechanical properties and that the orientation of the crystalline structure in the OPP film also was an important factor. The optimum condition for heat sealing was the temperature at which total crystallinity was highest while still retaining the crystalline orientation of OPP. The assessment of crystalline orientation by TMA is an innovation initiated by the authors. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 99: 513–519, 2006