Evaluation of "Toolkit" consisting of handheld and portable analytical devices for detecting active pharmaceutical ingredients in drug products collected during a simultaneous nation-wide mail blitz.

A "toolkit" consisting of a handheld Raman spectrometer equipped with a 1064 nm laser, a portable Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometer and a portable direct analysis in real-time mass spectrometer (DART-MS) was employed in a laboratory setting to examine 82 representative products collected during a nationwide mail blitz for the presence of APIs. These results were compared to those obtained using laboratory-based methods; 8 of the products were not found to contain APIs and 74 of the products were found to contain a total of 88 APIs (65 of the 88 APIs were unique). The individual performance of each device and combined performance of the three-device toolkit were evaluated with regard to true positives, true negatives, false positives and false negatives.

Evaluation of four field portable devices for the rapid detection of mitragynine in suspected kratom products.

The development of a method for the rapid screening of food and drug products for constituents such as mitragynine, the most abundant alkaloid found in Mitragyna speciosa (kratom) plant leaves, has become increasingly important. The use of kratom is said to produce stimulant or narcotic effects and poses risks of addiction, abuse, and dependence, much like other opioids. Direct Analysis in Real Time with thermal desorption mass spectrometry (DART-TD-MS), hand-held mass spectrometry, portable ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), and portable Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) were each evaluated as field-deployable screening techniques for the detection of mitragynine in food and drug products.

Capturing Multicellular System Designs Using Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL).

Synthetic biology aims to develop novel biological systems and increase their reproducibility using engineering principles such as standardization and modularization. It is important that these systems can be represented and shared in a standard way to ensure they can be easily understood, reproduced, and utilized by other researchers. The Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL) is a data standard for sharing biological designs and information about their implementation and characterization.

Metabolite profiles of repeatedly sampled urine from male fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) contain unique lipid signatures following exposure to anti-androgens.

The purpose of this study was twofold. First, we sought to identify candidate markers of exposure to anti-androgens by analyzing endogenous metabolite profiles in the urine of male fathead minnows (mFHM, Pimephales promelas). Based on earlier work, we hypothesized that unidentified lipids in the urine of mFHM were selectively responsive to exposure to androgen receptor antagonists, which is otherwise difficult to confirm using established fish toxicity assays.

Enhanced production and isotope enrichment of recombinant glycoproteins produced in cultured mammalian cells.

NMR studies of post-translationally modified proteins are complicated by the lack of an efficient method to produce isotope enriched recombinant proteins in cultured mammalian cells. We show that reducing the glucose concentration and substituting glutamate for glutamine in serum-free medium increased cell viability while simultaneously increasing recombinant protein yield and the enrichment of non-essential amino acids compared to culture in unmodified, serum-free medium. Adding dichloroacetate, a pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase inhibitor, further improves cell viability, recombinant protein yield, and isotope enrichment.

Pathogenesis of metaphyseal radiolucent changes following ischemic necrosis of the capital femoral epiphysis in immature pigs. A preliminary report.

Background: Although metaphyseal radiolucent changes are often seen in patients with Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease, the pathogenesis of these changes remains controversial. The purpose of the present study was to determine the prevalence and histopathological characteristics of these metaphyseal radiolucent changes in a piglet model of ischemic necrosis of the capital femoral epiphysis.

Methods: Ischemic necrosis of the right femoral head was produced in fifty piglets by surgically placing a ligature tightly around the femoral neck.

Anxiety and depression in hospitalized patients in resistant organism isolation.

Background: Previous studies have reported an increase in psychiatric symptoms in seriously ill patients who were placed in resistant organism isolation. We conducted this study to assess whether there is an increase in symptoms of anxiety and depression in patients who are not critically ill and are placed in isolation.

Methods: Patients hospitalized with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus species infections were evaluated with the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale at baseline and again during hospitalization.