Using interactive digital images of products to teach pharmaceutics.

Objective: To implement interactive digital images of drug products and online quizzes in a pharmaceutics course to teach students where to look on product labels for information and how to evaluate ingredients of various dosage forms, and to reinforce pharmaceutical calculations with practical problems.

Design: Interactive digital images of drug products and a database of quiz questions pertaining to the products were created and an interactive online platform was designed. The interactive digital images were incorporated in pharmaceutics lectures as examples of dosage forms studied and calculations taught.

Influence of plastic deformation and prolonged ageing time on microstructure of a Haynes 242 alloy.

The material used in this study was a commercial HAYNES alloy 242 with a nominal composition of Ni-25% Mo-8% Cr (in wt.%). In the standard heat treatment, the 242 alloy is annealed at a temperature between 1065 and 1095 degrees C and then water quenched.

Influence of the processing route on microstructure and mechanical properties of the polycrystalline NiAl.

The influence of grain refinement on the mechanical properties of differently processed NiAl was presented. Five NiAl near-stoichiometric alloys were investigated, three conventionally cast and two sintered from powders (fine-grained powder made by mechanical alloying and nanopowder made by gas condensation). The mechanically alloyed and cast materials were hot extruded at different conditions to obtain diverse grain sizes.

In vivo evaluation of a closed loop monitoring strategy for induced paralysis.

Objective: Reliable closed loop infusion systems for regulating paralysis level can be a great convenience to the anesthesiologists in automating their task. This paper describes the in vivo performance evaluation of a self-tuning controller that is designed to accommodate large variations in patient drug sensitivity, drug action delays and environmental interfering noise.

Methods: The infusion system was evaluated in six adult mongrel dogs.

Influence of cardiopulmonary bypass on platelet and neutrophil accumulations in internal organs.

The authors employed gamma scintigraphy to quantify the post bypass accumulations of platelets and neutrophils in the lung, liver, and heart of adult pigs subjected to a standard 90 min regimen of normothermic cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Coated and uncoated microporous polypropylene oxygenator circuits were studied for Cobe Duo (Arvada, CO) oxygenators (amphophilic silicone-caprolactone oligomer [SMA] coating, n = 8 each) and Medtronic Maxima (Irvine, CA) oxygenators (Carmeda heparin coating, n = 5 each). Images of cells in the organs (deposited + blood pool) were corrected for tissue absorption and other factors and compared for a 2 hr period post CPB, using repeat measures ANOVA and rank tests.

Fabrication of resorbable microporous intravascular stents for gene therapy applications.

The authors have produced resorbable, microporous endoluminal stents from Poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA)/Poly epsilon-caprolactone (PCL) blends. Both helical and tube stent designs have been obtained by solvent casting and flotation-precipitation fabrication techniques. A range of PLLA/PCL blend ratios and process variables were employed to investigate their influence on mechanical properties, porosity, and degradation rate.

Noninvasive quantification of platelet accumulation and release on indwelling venous catheters.

An important element in the evaluation of biomaterials is quantification of the relationships and the sequence of events between blood elements, blood flow, and the foreign surface. We adapted a qualitative two-dimensional 111In-labeled platelet imaging method to a quantitative noninvasive analysis of platelet uptake/release kinetics for infusion catheters in a canine model. Bilateral femoral vein 6 Fr.

Continuous thermodilution cardiac output measurement in sheep.

A technique has been developed to continuously measure cardiac output by means of the principles of thermodilution. Pulmonary artery catheters were modified by placing a 10 cm filament near the usual injectate port. Small amounts of heat were infused according to a randomly repeating binary on-off sequence.

Evaluation of a continuous thermodilution cardiac output catheter.

The authors evaluated a thermodilution catheter designed to continuously measure cardiac output (CO). A 10 cm long surface heating element is positioned in a Swan-Ganz catheter corresponding to a right atrial-ventricular site. Heat is repetitively deposited into flowing blood in a unique, pseudorandom binary form.

Performance evaluation of hydroxylated and acylated silicone rubber coatings.

Hydroxylated and C16 acylated silicone rubber films were prepared with enhanced albumin binding. Lee-White clotting times were significantly increased for both treatments. Hydroxylation significantly reduced C5a production.