The Ethical and Social Dimensions of Chemistry: Reflections, Considerations, and Clarifications.

"Ethics in Chemistry" is a huge topic with various viewpoints and arguments on what it actually is and what compliance to ethical guidelines and participation in ethical discourse imply, covering principles of science and research ethics, profession ethics, and technology ethics. Overview and clarity are lost easily. The authors-members of the recently formed EuCheMS working party "Ethics in Chemistry"-present an attempt to collect and sort the ethically relevant aspects and challenges that chemists see themselves confronted with.

Chemical leasing in the context of sustainable chemistry.

Chemical leasing is a new and innovative approach of selling chemicals. It aims at reducing the risks emanating from hazardous substances and ensuring long-term economic success within a global system of producing and using chemicals. This paper explores how, through chemical leasing, the consumption of chemicals, energy, resources and the generation of related wastes can be reduced.

Chemical leasing--a review of implementation in the past decade.

In the past decade, research on innovative business models to manage the risk of chemical substances has sought to provide solutions to achieve the goals of the World Summit on Sustainable Development of 2002, which called for a renewal of the commitment to the sound management of chemicals and of hazardous wastes throughout their life cycle and set the ambitious goal, by 2020, to use and produce chemicals in ways that do not lead to significant adverse effects on human health and the environment. Chemical Leasing is an innovative business model that shows a great potential to become a global model for sustainable development within chemical management. This paper provides a review of the current standings of literature regarding the implementation of Chemical Leasing in the past decade.

Chemical Leasing business models and corporate social responsibility.

Chemical Leasing is a service-oriented business model that shifts the focus from increasing sales volume of chemicals towards a value-added approach. Recent pilot projects have shown the economic benefits of introducing Chemical Leasing business models in a broad range of sectors. A decade after its introduction, the promotion of Chemical Leasing is still predominantly done by the public sector and international organizations.

Urine drug testing of chronic pain patients. II. Prevalence patterns of prescription opiates and metabolites.

This study of 20,089 urine specimens from chronic pain patients provided a unique opportunity to evaluate the prevalence of prescription opiates and metabolites, assess the usefulness of inclusion of normetabolites in the test panel, and compare opiate and oxycodone screening results to liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) results. All specimens were screened by an opiate [enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), 100 ng/mL] and oxycodone assay [ELISA, 100 ng/mL or enzyme immunoassay (EIA), 50 ng/mL] and simultaneously tested by LC-MS-MS [limit of quantitation (LOQ) = 50 ng/mL] for 10 opiate analytes (codeine, norcodeine, morphine, hydrocodone, dihydrocodeine, norhydrocodone, hydromorphone, oxycodone, noroxycodone, and oxymorphone). Approximately two-thirds of the specimens were positive for one or more opiate analytes.

Urine drug testing of chronic pain patients. III. Normetabolites as biomarkers of synthetic opioid use.

Opioids are important therapeutic agents available to patients with moderate to severe pain. The synthetic opioids, buprenorphine, fentanyl, meperidine, methadone, and propoxyphene have been utilized for decades as analgesics. One of the major biotransformation pathways of these drugs occurs through N-demethylation leading to the formation and excretion of normetabolites.

Urine testing for norcodeine, norhydrocodone, and noroxycodone facilitates interpretation and reduces false negatives.

Urine drug testing of pain patients provides objective information to health specialists regarding patient compliance, diversion, and concurrent illicit drug use. Interpretation of urine test results for semi-synthetic opiates can be difficult because of complex biotransformations of parent drug to metabolites that are also available commercially and may be abused. Normetabolites such as norcodeine, norhydrocodone and noroxycodone are unique metabolites that are not available commercially.

Multiple drug ingestion by ecstasy abusers in the United States.

The abuse of ecstasy-type drugs such as 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA) is generally associated with young adults attending "Rave" parties. Little toxicological information has been reported regarding ecstasy usage by individuals undergoing monitoring in other settings in the United States. The goal of this study was to determine the prevalence and patterns of licit and illicit drugs in urine specimens of ecstasy users.

Normalization of urinary drug concentrations with specific gravity and creatinine.

Excessive fluid intake can substantially dilute urinary drug concentrations and result in false-negative reports for drug users. Methods for correction ("normalization") of drug/metabolite concentrations in urine have been utilized by anti-doping laboratories, pain monitoring programs, and in environmental monitoring programs to compensate for excessive hydration, but such procedures have not been used routinely in workplace, legal, and treatment settings. We evaluated two drug normalization procedures based on specific gravity and creatinine.

Urine drug testing of chronic pain patients: licit and illicit drug patterns.

Chronic pain patients are frequently maintained on one or more powerful opioid medications in combination with other psychoactive medications. Urine tests provide objective information regarding patient compliance status. Little information is available on testing this unique population.

Evidence that morphine is metabolized to hydromorphone but not to oxymorphone.

A minor pathway for the biotransformation of morphine to hydromorphone has been identified in humans. Recently, an unsubstantiated claim that morphine is metabolized to hydromorphone and then to oxymorphone was published. The goal of this study was to determine if credible evidence that oxymorphone is a metabolite of either morphine or hydromorphone exists.

Chemical leasing business models: a contribution to the effective risk management of chemical substances.

Chemicals indisputably contribute greatly to the well-being of modern societies. Apart from such benefits, however, chemicals often pose serious threats to human health and the environment when improperly handled. Therefore, the European Commission has proposed a regulatory framework for the Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) that requires companies using chemicals to gather pertinent information on the properties of these substances.

The state of the art in the analysis of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis images.

Software-based image analysis is a crucial step in the biological interpretation of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis experiments. Recent significant advances in image processing methods combined with powerful computing hardware have enabled the routine analysis of large experiments. We cover the process starting with the imaging of 2-D gels, quantitation of spots, creation of expression profiles to statistical expression analysis followed by the presentation of results.

Functional and anatomical outcomes of vitreoretinal surgery for posterior segment complications after elective cataract surgery.

Purpose: To assess the outcomes in patients who required 1 or more vitreoretinal interventions for posterior segment complications arising from elective uneventful cataract surgery.

Setting: Tertiary referral center, single-center study.

Methods: A retrospective interventional case series included 56 consecutive patients who were referred for surgical correction of posterior segment complications within 6 months of cataract surgery.

The application of chemical leasing business models in Mexico.

Background, Aim And Scope: To better address the requirements of the changing multilateral order, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Cleaner Production Programme, in 2004, developed the new Sustainable Industrial Resource Management (SIRM) approach. This approach is in accordance with the principles decided at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. Unlike the traditional approaches to environmental management, the SIRM concept captures the idea of achieving sustainable industrial development through the implementation of circular material and energy flows in the entire production chain and reduction of the amount of material and energy used with greater efficiency solutions.

Photolytic fabrication of phase gratings on silver halide crystals.

Diffraction phase gratings are formed on samples of crystalline silver halide by exposing them through a mask to 353-nm laser light followed by chemical processing. The exposure and photographic development processes generate metallic silver strips on the sample surface. The fixing process removes the silver strips, leaving grooves on the surface as deep as 1.

On the biodegradation of beta-peptides.

A consortium of microorganisms was established that was able to grow with the beta-tripeptide H-beta-HVal-beta-HAla-beta-HLeu-OH, with the beta-dipeptide H-beta-HAla-beta-HLeu-OH, and with the beta-amino acids H-beta-HAla-OH, H-beta-HVal-OH, and H-beta-HLeu-OH as the sole carbon and energy sources. This growth was achieved after several incubation-transfer cycles with the beta-tripeptide as the substrate. During degradation of the beta-tripeptide H-beta-HVal-beta-HAla-beta-HLeu-OH, the temporary formation of a metabolite was observed.