Peer reviewed: testing water quality for pesticide pollution

U.S. GeologicalSurvey investigations reveal widespread contamination of the nation's water resources.     

Diabetic retinopathy should not be a contraindication to thrombolytic therapy for acute myocardial infarction: review of ocular hemorrhage incidence and location in the GUSTO-I trial. Global Utilization of Streptokinase and t-PA for Occluded Coronary Arteries

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to evaluate the incidence of ocular hemorrhage in patients with and without diabetes after thrombolytic therapy for acute myocardial infarction. BACKGROUND: Ocular hemorrhage after thrombolysis has been reported rarely. However, there is concern that the risk is increased in patients with diabetes. In fact, diabetic hemorrhagic retinopathy has been identified as a contraindication to thrombolytic therapy without clear evidence that these patients have an increased risk for ocular hemorrhage. METHODS: We identified all suspected ocular hemorrhages from bleeding complications reported in patients enrolled in the Global Utilization of Streptokinase and t-PA for Occluded Coronary Arteries (GUSTO)-I trial. Additional information was collected on a one-page data form. We compared the incidence and location of ocular hemorrhages in patients with and without diabetes. RESULTS: There were 40,899 patients (99.7%) with information about diabetic history and ocular bleeding. Twelve patients (0.03%) had an ocular hemorrhage. Intraocular hemorrhage was confirmed in only one patient. There were 6,011 patients (15%) with diabetes, of whom only 1 had an ocular hemorrhage (eyelid hematoma after a documented fall). The upper 95% confidence intervals for the incidence of intraocular hemorrhage in patients with and without diabetes were 0.05% and 0.006%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Ocular hemorrhage and, more important, intraocular hemorrhage after thrombolytic therapy for acute myocardial infarction is extremely uncommon. The calculated upper 95% confidence interval for the incidence of intraocular hemorrhage in patients with diabetes was only 0.05%. We conclude that diabetic retinopathy should not be considered a contraindication to thrombolysis in patients with an acute myocardial infarction.     

A Novel Imaging Technique to Investigate the Influence of Atomization Air Pressure on Film–Tablet Interfacial Thickness

A novel X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS) technique combined with principal component analysis of spectra-to-image datasets was employed to study the effects of atomization air pressure used during the coating process on film–tablet interfacial thickness. Placebo tablet cores were prepared and coated with Eudragit^® RL 30 D. Atomization air pressure was varied from 10 to 20 psi, whereas all other processing parameters were held constant. Higher air pressures generally produced thinner interfaces, although the interfacial region was not uniform across the tablet surface and was dependent on the sampling location. These results demonstrate the suitability of this XPS technique to study the coating–tablet interface. Moreover, the variability in the interfacial thickness illustrates the need to further study such systems.     

Thermoelectric textile devices with thin films of nanocellulose and copper iodide

Owing to the rapid development of wearable electronics and smart textiles, demands for flexible and wearable thermoelectric (TE) devices, which can generate electricity in a ubiquitous, unintermittent and noiseless way for on-body applications are growing rapidly. Due to the inherent flexibility and wearability features, textile-based thermoelectric generators (TEGs) possess significant potential for biomedical and consumer health and safety applications. In this study, using commercial cotton fabric, we created efficient thermoelectric (TE) textile that, unlike analogs, is based on thin-film composite of biocompatible semiconductor copper iodide (CuI) and biodegradable polymer nanocellulose (NC_p) obtained by processing a widespread plant common reed. The CuI films with average thickness 10 µm were deposited via low-temperature aqueous cheap, facile, and scalable fabrication technique Successive Ionic Layer Adsorption and Reaction (SILAR). The NC_p sublayer made it possible to fabricate thin-film ohmic contacts through vacuum deposition of chromium on the nanostructured CuI film in the TE textile. The topping of CuI film with NC_p layer improved durability and wear resistance of the wearable thermoelectric module fabricated with this TE textile. The developed TE module has shown output power density 44 µW/cm² at temperature gradient 50 K that is among the best currently known results for solid miniature flexible and fabric-based TEGs.