Immunoscintigraphy of bone sarcomas--results in 5 patients

The feasibility of using the murine monoclonal antibody, TP-1, for clinical immunoscintigraphy was examined in a pilot study involving 5 patients with bone sarcomas. 131I-labelled F(ab')2 antibody fragments were injected in doses of 0.8-1.0 mg (90-130 MBq), and the accumulation of radioactivity was examined by scintigraphy, and assessed by direct measurements on biopsied tumour and normal tissue. One osteosarcoma patient had a primary tumour in the femur, whereas the other 4 had single lung metastases detected by other diagnostic methods. Immunoscintigraphy of the femoral primary was optimally visualised after 22 h. In 2 patients, the method failed to detect lung metastasis, in 1 of the cases possibly related to less than optimal methodological conditions. In 2 other patients, increased accumulation of radioactivity indicated one and three lung tumours, in addition to the single metastasis observed by X-ray and CT scanning, tumours that were later confirmed and removed surgically. The concentration of radioactivity in tumour and normal tissues 44-72 h after antibody injection could be measured in 4 patients. The tumour to blood ratios were in the range of 1.2-4.2, compared to 0.1-0.8 for various normal tissues. The results indicate that immunoscintigraphy with TP-1 antibody fragments have a potential for early detection of lung metastases in patients with bone sarcoma.     

Cover Picture: Programmable Motion and Separation of Single Magnetic Particles on Patterned Magnetic Surfaces (Adv. Mater. 14/2005)

Structured magnetic surfaces enabling programmable motion of single micrometer‐sized magnetic particles are reported on p. 1730 by Gunnarsson and co‐workers. Patterns of thin‐film magnetic elements are tailored to form transport lines with junctions for the separation of individual particles. This method has the potential to improve and generate new applications in biotechnology. The cover shows a schematic of the transportation and separation of magnetic particles functionalized with antibodies capable of selectively capturing the corresponding analytes from a sample.     

Effect of patchwise slip on fluid flow

In this paper, we show that large connected slip patches (hydrophobic patches) are a necessity to induce macroscopic slip effects of water flow in microchannels. For this purpose, the 2D fluid flow between a planar stationary surface with alternating stick and slip patches and a parallel planar surface moving with a constant relative velocity has been studied by computer simulations based on Navier–Stokes equations. A slip patch is defined as the slipping length in a 2D system or a slip area of the surface in a 3D system. The simulations reveal that the ratio (size of each slip patch)/(distance between the two parallel interfaces) has profound effect on the viscous stress on the moving surface when this ratio is around and above one. However, when the ratio is much below one, the effect of the slip patches are minor, even if the area fraction of slip patches are higher than 50 %. Obviously, the stick patches adjacent to the slip patches act as effective barriers, preventing the fluid velocity to increase near the surface with alternating stick and slip patches. The obtained results are scalable and applicable on all length scales, with an exception for narrow channels in the subnano regime, i.e. <1 nm where specific effects as the atomistic composition and the nanostructure of the wall as well as the interactions between the wall and the water molecules have an effect.     

Intoxicated behavioral disinhibition and the heart rate response to alcohol.

This study examined the association between the heart rate (HR) response to alcohol intoxication, which is thought to reflect sensitivity to alcohol-induced reward and alcohol-induced behavioral disinhibition. High- and low-HR responders to alcohol participated in a go/no-go task, under sober and intoxicated conditions. Errors of commission on this task have previously been related to behavioral disinhibition. High-HR responders made more intoxicated commission errors as compared with low-HR responders. High-HR responders also reported increased alcohol consumption, and controlling for the latter did not alter the significant association between high-HR responders and increased intoxicated errors of commission. These results are consistent with previous findings of an increased risk for addictive and disinhibited behavioral propensities in individuals with a high-HR response to alcohol intoxication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tantalum-filament pulling device for fabrication of submicrometer fused-silica tips

A simple and low-cost pulling device for fused-silica capillaries was developed. By using a tantalum heating filament and the self-tension in a bent capillary, tips and constricted regions with outer diameters of approximately 1 microm and inner diameters of a few hundred nanometers could be reproducibly pulled from 50-microm-i.d., 375-microm-o.d. capillaries. The tips can be used in different applications such as microinjection, micromanipulation, and single-channel patch-clamp, injection ends for CE or as electrospray tips. Constricted capillaries with optimized dimensions to minimize cylindrical lensing effects and to match the size of a diffraction-limited laser focus can be used as optical detection windows in CE and micro-HPLC. Fused silica has several advantages over other glasses such as high melting temperature and superior optical and mechanical properties.     

Lean NOx Trap Chemistry Under Lean-Gasoline Exhaust Conditions: Impact of High NOx Concentrations and High Temperature

The primary technical barrier to deployment of fuel saving lean gasoline engines is NOx emissions control. We conducted automated flow reactor experiments on a commercial LNT catalyst to identify opportunities and challenges associated with the higher temperatures and higher NOx concentrations expected in lean gasoline applications. Overall NOx conversion was quite high at low to moderate temperatures, but dropped off at high temperatures. The decrease in NOx conversion with temperature was worse for higher inlet NOx concentrations. As expected from equilibrium considerations, the catalyst stored more NOx under higher gas phase NOx concentrations, but that NOx was rapidly released during the rich phase and slipped out of the catalyst before it could be converted to N₂ by incoming reductant. This rich phase NOx release was the primary factor limiting performance of the catalyst at high temperatures, and resulted in significant spikes of NOx that would likely exceed any not-to-exceed regulated emissions levels. N₂O production was also significant, and increased with NOx concentration. The catalyst made very little NH₃ at high temperatures. NH₃ yield was significant at the lowest operating temperature studied, but it decreased with increasing NOx concentration.     

Robustness Testing of a Tablet Formulation Using Multivariate Design

ABSTRACT

A total of 45 experiments were carried out to evaluate the robustness of two similar tablet formulations—a product of two strengths—with respect to normal batch-to-batch variation of the excipients and the active pharmaceutical ingredient. The formulations consist of 10 ingredients. Because of the differing amounts of active pharmaceutical ingredients, the two formulations also differ in the amounts of two of the diluents and one of the binders. The excipients and active pharmaceutical ingredient were characterized in terms of multiple variables, and principal properties were calculated with principal component analysis. A Plackett and Burman design was applied to the principal properties. The relationships between the design factors and two responses, mean disintegration time and mean crushing strength, were evaluated by using regression methods. Both formulations were found to be robust under controlled conditions.     

Effects of alcohol on psychophysiological hyperreactivity to nonaversive and aversive stimuli in men at high risk for alcoholism.

Psychophysiological reactivity to nonaversive (1-KHz, 70-db tones) and aversive stimuli (shock) was examined in nonalcoholic men with multigenerational family histories (MFH) of alcoholism and family history negative (FH–) men, while sober and after consuming alcohol. In comparison with FH– Ss, sober MFH Ss had significantly larger skin conductance (SC) orienting responses (ORs), shorter OR latencies, slower habituation rates to the tones, and larger increases in heart rate and vasoconstriction to the shock. Alcohol dampened the magnitude of the SC-OR to the tones and the degree of cardiovascular reactivity to the shocks and increased the habituation rate to the tones in MFH Ss only. Alcohol consumption also increased the SC-OR recovery time in FH– Ss only. The MFH Ss' pattern of psychophysiological hyperreactivity is discussed in terms of a potential dysfunction in stimulus–response regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Efficacy of brief coping skills interventions that match different personality profiles of female substance abusers.

Female substance abusers recruited from the community were randomly assigned to receive 1 of 3 brief interventions that differentially targeted their personality and reasons for drug use. The 90-min interventions were: (a) a motivation-matched intervention involving personality-specific motivational and coping skills training, (b) a motivational control intervention involving a motivational film and a supportive discussion with a therapist, and (c) a motivation-mismatched intervention targeting a theoretically different personality profile. Assessment 6 months later (N?=?198) indicated that only the matched intervention proved to be more effective than the motivational control intervention in reducing frequency and severity of problematic alcohol and drug use and preventing use of multiple medical services. These findings indicate promise for a client-treatment matching strategy that focuses on personality-specific motives for substance abuse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychostimulant users are sensitive to the stimulant properties of alcohol as indexed by alcohol-induced cardiac reactivity.

One indicator of increased sensitivity to alcohol-induced reward is a heightened heart rate (HR) increase following alcohol intoxication, a characteristic associated with increased alcohol-induced dopamine (DA) release. The goal of this study was to determine whether users of drugs known to induce DA release have higher HR increases after alcohol intoxication than never users have. Sixty-four men with known drug-use histories participated in an alcohol challenge in which HR was measured. Stimulant users had significantly higher ethanol-induced HR increases than never users had, although use of marijuana or hallucinogens was not associated with this marker. Stimulant users obtained superior Sensitivity to Reward scores (R. Torrubia, C. ávila, J. Moltó, & X. Caseras, 2001) compared with never users. Stimulant drug users may be more sensitive to the stimulating properties of alcohol, and this appears to be mediated by superior activity in the Behavioral Approach System (J. A. Gray, 1991). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)