Effects of magnesium sulfate and lidocaine in the treatment of ventricular arrhythmias in experimental amitriptyline poisoning in the rat

OBJECTIVES: Amitriptyline poisoning is associated with ventricular arrhythmias. Standard treatment is sodium bicarbonate but further intervention may be necessary. The present study compared the actions of lidocaine and magnesium sulfate on ventricular tachycardia induced by amitriptyline. DESIGN: Nonrandomized, controlled, intervention trial. SETTING: University laboratory. SUBJECTS: Thirty male Wistar rats anesthetized with pentobarbital and mechanically ventilated. INTERVENTIONS: After pretreatment with norepinephrine, the animals were subjected to a continuous infusion of amitriptyline. After the appearance of ventricular tachycardia, they were treated with magnesium sulfate (45 mg/kg + 15 mg/kg/min) or lidocaine (1 mg/kg + 0.5 mg/kg/min) or glucose infusion as a control. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: In the group treated with magnesium sulfate, electrocardiogram tracings demonstrated that nine of ten animals converted from ventricular tachycardia to sinus rhythm compared with one of ten in both the lidocaine- and glucose-treated groups (p < .001). The animals treated with magnesium sulfate also had a significantly longer total time in sinus rhythm (10.0 +/- 1.6 mins) than those rats treated with lidocaine (1.7 +/- 1.5 mins) or glucose (1.5 +/- 1.5 mins). Magnesium sulfate significantly decreased blood pressure and heart rate, but no severe hemodynamic side effects were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Magnesium sulfate is effective in converting ventricular tachycardia in hyperadrenergic amitriptyline poisoning. In contrast, lidocaine had no effect on arrhythmias.     

Carnot comparison of multi-temperature level absorption heat cycles

Comparison of different absorption heat cycles is not always made on the correct manner. This also includes comparison of an ideal absorption cycle with a mechanical analogy. A new Carnot model operating with two heat engines and two mechanical heat pumps is defined to be the correct and logical way to describe the mechanical analogy for an absorption heat pump and an absorption heat transformer. General equations for the Carnot coefficient of performance, COP_r, are exemplified and simulated for an absorption heat pump and an absorption heat transformer, and an entropy flow fraction diagram is introduced. The important fact that the absorption heat cycles must operate under the same conditions when they are compared is discussed.     

On the generalized successive approximations method

In this paper, denoted a continuous function from [0,1]² into [0,1] by f, we consider the iterative process:

Some Experiences of Using Different Analytical Methods in Screening for Oil and Protein Content in Rapeseed

In this study some analytical methods, which have been used in oil crop breeding, are compared from the point of view of plant breeding. For oil content determination a gravimetric method, NMR and NIR have been used. Protein content has been determined by the classical Kjeldahl technique, by the Biuret method and by NIR. The results indicate that the NIR spectroscopy is specially useful in screening breeding materials. This method enables the breeder to select for several quality characters simultaneously at a high speed and at a low cost. Since NIR spectroscopy is nondestructive, the same seed lot can be used for analysis and planting. Thus it is possible to select on a large scale for single plants.     

A study of sulfur bridges in filled natural rubber vulcanizates by pyrolysis gas chromatography with flame-photometric detection

Natural rubber vulcanizates of two formulations, with sulfur/N-cyclohexyl-2-benzothiazolesulfenamide (CBS) and tetramethylthiuram disulfide (TMTD), respectively, were analyzed by pyrolysis gas chromatography. A sulfur-selective flame-photometric detector was utilized. The main pyrolysis products were identified as CS₂ and some thiophenes. The yields of the pyrolysis products from the two types of rubber were very different. The yields also varied with the curing time of the rubbers.     

Dystopie und Methode: zur fiktionalen Verhandlung moralischer Überzeugungen in der Bioethik

Definition of the problem

The role of stories is well established in the traditions of narrative ethics and casuistry. However, from a methodological point of view, the inclusion of fictional works in moral deliberation remains yet unanswered. The paper explains the potential of dystopias for bioethics by means of selected examples and a critical reconstruction and expansion of existing approaches.

Arguments

By means of literary theories, it is proposed to include moral beliefs that motivate dystopias in coherent reflection and reasoning procedures. Furthermore, dystopia’s potential through socioculturally dense scenarios, a contemporary-historical context, and a sensitization to the moral relevance of language for bioethical research are systematically presented.

Conclusion

The methodological considerations provide, on the one hand, practical points of reference for didactic approaches and, on the other hand, for public deliberation. However, the analysis also shows that dystopias introduce their own moral positions beyond a mere illustration or warning.

     

Leveraging Values in Global Organizations: Premises,Paradoxes and Progress

In this focused issue on the theme of “Leveraging Values in Global Organizations”, we highlight several prevalent themes on national, organizational and individual values in the literature. We argue that many premises in the literature have been accepted as fact; yet there are still many avenues open to exploration. We present several paradoxes that are often overlooked or lead to inconsistencies in the literature on values. The five articles in this focused issue address these premises and paradoxes, presenting new challenges and opportunities, providing progress and paving the way for future research on leveraging values in global organizations. The selected articles explore values with respect to international alliances and subsidiaries of multinational organizations at the organizational level, among global managers at the group level, and among employees and inpatriates at the individual level of analysis. We trust that readers of this issue will agree that the articles provide novel insights into key issues in the established, yet dynamic, field of research on values in the context of global organizations.     

On the undecidability of the limit behavior of Cellular Automata

Cellular Automata (CA) are discrete dynamical systems and an abstract model of parallel computation. The limit set of a cellular automaton is its maximal topological attractor. A well-known result, due to Kari, says that all nontrivial properties of limit sets are undecidable. In this paper we consider the properties of limit set dynamics, i.e. properties of the dynamics of CA restricted to their limit sets. There can be no equivalent of Kari’s theorem for limit set dynamics. Anyway we show that there is a large class of undecidable properties of limit set dynamics, namely all properties of limit set dynamics which imply stability or the existence of a unique subshift attractor. As a consequence we have that it is undecidable whether the cellular automaton map restricted to the limit set is the identity map and whether it is closing, injective, expansive, positively expansive and transitive.