The use of anabolic steroids by athletes to increase body weight and strength

Over the past 20 years the taking of anabolic steroids by healthy athletes for the purpose of increasing body weight and strength has become very widespread. The ability of these agents to cause potentially serious side effects is discussed. In a series of 20 subjects studied over 18 months, no side effects of significance were recorded, and marked increases in strength and body weight were achieved.     

Effect of 5-hydroxytryptamine on the peripheral chemoreceptors in the rat

5-Hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), in the doses of 2-5 mug/kg injected into the carotid body area, produced a significant increase in the respiratory rate and carotid sinus nerve activity. Selective ablation of the ipsilateral carotid sinus nerve abolished the respiratory stimulation produced by the drug. On the other hand, the same doses of 5-HT injected into the ascending aorta did not produce stimulation of respiration when the carotid sinus nerves were sectioned. The activity of the aortic nerves did not increase after injecting the drug into the ascending aorta or at the root of the right subclavian artery. These results indicate that 5-HT stimulates the chemoreceptors in the carotid body of the rat. The lack of responses to the injections of the drug in the aortic or subclavian region was due to the absence of chemoreceptors in these regions of the rat.     

90dB‐DR 3.3V CMOS single‐ended‐to‐fully differential and fully differential‐to‐single‐ended amplifiers for audio applications

This paper presents the design and the realization of single‐ended‐to‐fully differential and fully differential‐to‐single‐ended amplifiers to be used in an audio signal processing system. The proposed blocks allow to reduce significantly the pin number of the developed system, while guaranteeing the high quality (16bit) performance required in an audio channel. The proposed circuits have been realized in a standard 3.3V 0.35 µm CMOS technology and achieve a Dynamic Range in excess of 90dB with a Total Harmonic Distortion lower than ‐80dB for a full scale signal amplitude. Their power consumption (≈6mW and each) and the area (0.1mm² each) are finally negligible with respect to the other blocks in the overall systems. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tuning the peak position of subwavelength silica nanosphere broadband antireflection coatings

Subwavelength nanostructures are considered as promising building blocks for antireflection and light trapping applications. In this study, we demonstrate excellent broadband antireflection effect from thin films of monolayer silica nanospheres with a diameter of 100 nm prepared by Langmuir-Blodgett method on glass substrates. With a single layer of compact silica nanosphere thin film coated on both sides of a glass, we achieved maximum transmittance of 99% at 560 nm. Furthermore, the optical transmission peak of the nanosphere thin films can be tuned over the UV-visible range by changing processing parameters during Langmuir-Blodgett deposition. The tunable optical transmission peaks of the Langmuir-Blodgett films were correlated with deposition parameters such as surface pressure, surfactant concentration, ageing of suspensions and annealing effect. Such peak-tunable broadband antireflection coating has wide applications in diversified industries such as solar cells, windows, displays and lenses.     

Work in progress. Intraoperative neurosurgical ultrasound: localization of brain tumors in infants and children

Intraoperative real-time ultrasonic sector scanning was performed through the unincised dura mater or the intact brain surface of eight patients (aged six months to 13 years), each of whom had a previously documented mass lesion (four supratentorial, three infratentorial, one intraventricular). In each case, there was a clear definition of the location, configuration, and tissue consistency of the mass. With the exception of a choroid plexus papilloma, all lesions demonstrated both solid and fluid components. The location of a subcortical parietal lobe mass (ependymoma) was apparent only by prior sonography. All neoplastic tissue of one cerebellar astrocytoma that was identified at gross examination was removed, but additional intraoperative scanning following removal of the neoplasm suggested the presence of residual abnormal tissue. This was confirmed during further exploration, and additional gross tumor tissue was excised.