Older people's perspectives on frailty screening in primary care settings - a citizens' jury study.

Background: As the world's population ages, there is a growing concern with frailty, marked by reduced strength and greater vulnerability to stress. Overcoming obstacles like reluctance towards screening methods in this process is crucial for identifying and addressing frailty at an early stage. Understanding older people's perspectives can help adapt screening procedures in primary healthcare settings.

Perceptions of and preparedness for cross-cultural care: a survey of final-year medical students in Ireland.

Background: Migration is increasing globally, and societies are becoming more diverse and multi-ethnic. Medical school curricula should prepare students to provide high-quality care to all individuals in the communities they serve. Previous research from North America and Asia has assessed the effectiveness of medical cultural competency training, and student preparedness for delivery of cross-cultural care.

The Cannabinoid Receptor Type 1 Positive Allosteric Modulator ZCZ011 Attenuates Naloxone-Precipitated Diarrhea and Weight Loss in Oxycodone-Dependent Mice.

Opioid use disorder reflects a major public health crisis of morbidity and mortality in which opioid withdrawal often contributes to continued use. However, current medications that treat opioid withdrawal symptoms are limited by their abuse liability or lack of efficacy. Although cannabinoid 1 (CB) receptor agonists, including Δ-tetrahydrocannabinol, ameliorate opioid withdrawal in both clinical and preclinical studies of opioid dependence, this strategy elicits cannabimimetic side effects as well as tolerance and dependence after repeated administration.

Diacylglycerol Lipase-β Knockout Mice Display a Sex-Dependent Attenuation of Traumatic Brain Injury-Induced Mortality with No Impact on Memory or Other Functional Consequences.

The endogenous cannabinoid system modulates inflammatory signaling in a variety of pathological states, including traumatic brain injury (TBI). The selective expression of diacylglycerol lipase-β (DAGL-β), the 2-arachidonylglycerol biosynthetic enzyme, on resident immune cells of the brain (microglia) and the role of this pathway in neuroinflammation, suggest that this enzyme may contribute to TBI-induced neuroinflammation. Accordingly, we tested whether DAGL-β mice would show a protective phenotype from the deleterious consequences of TBI on cognitive and neurological motor functions.

CB1 receptor antagonism in the granular insular cortex or somatosensory area facilitates consolidation of object recognition memory.

Cannabinoid agonists typically impair memory, whereas CB1 receptor antagonists enhance memory performance under specific conditions. The insular cortex has been implicated in object memory consolidation. Here we show that infusions of the CB1 receptor antagonist SR141716 enhances long-term object recognition memory in rats in a dose-dependent manner (facilitation with 1.

Determination of the radiochemical purity of (99m) Tc medronate injection by thin layer chromatography on iTLC-SG: effect of medronate concentration on the value measured.

Background: When using iTLC-SG thin layer chromatography plates to measure radiochemical impurities in (99m) Tc medronate, falsely high values were obtained for (99m) Tc pertechnetate impurity. Preliminary investigations indicated that the mass of (99m) Tc medronate applied to the plate influences the value.

Aim: The goal of this study was to determine if the concentration of medronate influences the value obtained for (99m) Tc pertechnetate impurity.

Effect of chronic exposure to rimonabant and phytocannabinoids on anxiety-like behavior and saccharin palatability.

The acute effects of cannabinoid compounds have been investigated in animal models of anxiety-like behavior and palatability processing. However, the chronic effects of cannabinoids in such models are poorly understood. Experiment 1 compared the effects of both acute and chronic (14 days) exposure to the CB(1) receptor inverse agonist/antagonist, rimonabant, and the cannabis-derived CB(1) receptor neutral antagonist, tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV), on: 1) time spent in the open, lit box in the Light-Dark (LD) immersion model of anxiety-like behavior and 2) saccharin hedonic reactions in the taste reactivity (TR) test of palatability processing.

Effect of 99Tc on the radiochemical purity of 99mTc radiopharmaceuticals.

Objective: The longer the time between elutions of a technetium-99m (Tc) generator, the greater the Tc : Tc ratio in the eluate. Information is limited on how this affects the radiochemical purity (RCP) of Tc radiopharmaceuticals. The aim was to determine whether the RCPs of Tc radiopharmaceuticals are affected when prepared using Tc-pertechnetate from a generator that remained uneluted for 7 days.

Preparation of 99mTc radiopharmaceuticals: the effect on radiochemical purity of using sodium chloride injection from plastic ampoules that have been exposed to light.

Objective: To determine whether radiochemical purity is affected when 99mTc radiopharmaceuticals are prepared using sodium chloride injection from plastic ampoules that have been exposed to light.

Methods: Sodium chloride injection from plastic ampoules that were either exposed to light for 7 days or protected from light was used in the preparation of nine common 99mTc radiopharmaceuticals: albumin nanocolloid, exametazime, macrosalb, mebrofenin, medronate, pentetate, sestamibi, succimer and tetrofosmin. Five different batches of ampoules (exposed and unexposed) were used for each radiopharmaceutical.

Preparation of 99m Tc-MAG3: the effect on radiochemical purity of using sodium chloride injection from plastic ampoules that have been exposed to light.

Objective: To determine the circumstances under which sodium chloride injection (SCI) that has been exposed to fluorescent light then used to prepare 99m Tc-MAG3 causes low radiochemical purity (RCP).

Methods: Two brands of SCI in plastic ampoules (Braun and Steri-Amp) and one in glass vials (Drytec) were exposed to light for up to 7 days then used to prepare 99m Tc-MAG3. RCP was measured by liquid chromatography.

Preparation of 99mTc-Nanocoll for use in sentinel node localization: Validation of a protocol for supplying in unit-dose syringes.

Objectives: To determine if 99mTc-Nanocoll is affected by storage in a syringe, passage through an R-Lock or mixing with Patent Blue V dye.

Methods: A Nanocoll kit was reconstituted at 280 MBq/5 ml. Samples of 0.

Preparation of 99mTc-MAG3: radiochemical purity is affected by the residence time of sodium chloride injection in a three-part syringe.

Background: Routine technetium-99m mercaptoacetyltriglycine (99mTc-MAG3) radiochemical purity measurements have revealed occasional unacceptably low values. Preliminary investigations suggested a causal link with the residence time of sodium chloride injection in the syringe used to reconstitute the MAG3 kit.

Objectives: To investigate the cause of this phenomenon, determine how it can be avoided and establish whether it occurs with other 99mTc radiopharmaceuticals.

A comparison of techniques for analysing 90Y-Zevalin thin-layer chromatography plates.

Objectives: To simulate 90Y-Zevalin thin-layer chromatograms representing a range of radiochemical purities, to compare the radiochemical purities obtained with five techniques used to quantify 90Y on the plates and to measure the reproducibility of the five techniques at the minimum acceptable radiochemical purity of 95%.

Methods: Yttrium-90 solutions were pipetted onto the origin and solvent front lines of thin-layer chromatography (TLC) plates to simulate radiochemical purities of 90%, 92%, 94%, 95%, 96%, 98% and 100%. Each plate was analysed using three TLC scanners (Bioscan AR2000, Bioscan Mini-scan and an instrument constructed in-house) and two cut-and-count techniques: one using a sodium iodide well detector and the other a liquid scintillation counter.