Women with methamphetamine dependence: research on etiology and treatment.

The epidemic of methamphetamine dependence is spreading eastward across the United States. Unlike the gender ratio associated with most other drugs of abuse, the proportion of woman methamphetamine users is nearly equal to men. This review will describe reasons why women begin use of methamphetamine, especially those that differ from the usual reasons for initiating drug use.

Accomplishments in bioastronautics research aboard International Space Station.

The tenth long-duration expedition crew is currently in residence aboard International Space Station (ISS), continuing a permanent human presence in space that began in October 2000. During that time, expedition crews have been operators and subjects for 18 Human Life Sciences investigations, to gain a better understanding of the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the crewmembers and of the environment in which they live. Investigations have been conducted to study: the radiation environment in the station as well as during extravehicular activity (EVA); bone demineralization and muscle deconditioning; changes in neuromuscular reflexes; muscle forces and postflight mobility; causes and possible treatment of postflight orthostatic intolerance; risk of developing kidney stones; changes in pulmonary function caused by long-duration flight as well as EVA; crew and crew-ground interactions; changes in immune function, and evaluation of imaging techniques.

Lessons learned from Mir--a payload perspective.

Among the principal objectives of the Phase 1 NASA/Mir program were for the United States to gain experience working with an international partner, to gain working experience in long-duration space flight, and to gain working experience in planning for and executing research on a long-duration space platform. The Phase 1 program was to provide the US early experience prior to the construction and operation of the International Space Station (Phase 2 and 3). While it can be argued that Mir and ISS are different platforms and that programmatically Phase 1 and ISS are organized differently, it is also clear that many aspects of operating a long-duration research program are platform independent.

Research progress and accomplishments on International Space Station.

The first research payloads reached the International Space Station (ISS) more than two years ago, with research operating continuously since March 2001. Seven research racks are currently on-orbit, with three more arriving soon to expand science capabilities. Through the first five expeditions, 60 unique NASA-managed investigations from 11 nations have been supported, many continuing into later missions.

Phase 1 research program overview.

The Phase 1 research program was unprecedented in its scope and ambitious in its objectives. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration committed to conducting a multidisciplinary long-duration research program on a platform whose capabilities were not well known, not to mention belonging to another country. For the United States, it provided the first opportunity to conduct research in a long-duration space flight environment since the Skylab program in the 1970's.

Integration of multiple research disciplines on the International Space Station.

The International Space Station will provide an extremely high-quality, long-duration microgravity environment for the conduct of research. In addition, the ISS offers a platform for performing observations of Earth and Space from a high-inclination orbit, outside of the Earth's atmosphere. This unique environment and observational capability offers the opportunity for advancement in a diverse set of research fields.

Temporal changes in the abundance, leaf growth and photosynthesis of three co-occurring Philippine seagrasses.

The analysis of the temporal changes in shoot density, areal leaf biomass, leaf growth and parameters of the photosynthesis-irradiance relationship of three tropical seagrass species (Enhalus acoroides, Thalassia hemprichii and Cymodocea rotundata), co-existing in a shallow subtidal meadow in Cape Bolinao, Philippines, shows that species-specific traits are significant sources of temporal variability, and indicates that these seagrass species respond differently to a common environmental forcing. Species-specific differences are much less important as source of variability of the temporal change in chlorophyll concentration of seagrass leaves. The results indicate that the temporal changes in photosynthetic performance of these seagrasses were driven by environmental forcing and their specific responses to it mostly, but the temporal change in their abundance and leaf growth was also controlled by other factors.

Is Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 a colicin producing strain? (a note).

The well-characterized strain of Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 recommended and widely used as a control Gram-negative bacterium for various laboratory experiments, especially for antibiotic susceptibility assays, was found to be antagonistic against another E. coli strain which is uniquely susceptible to fusidic acid, an antibiotic mainly active against Gram-positive bacteria. This antagonistic property appears to be selective, since it was not found against other E.

Antibacterial antagonism between fusidic acid and ciprofloxacin.

A routine laboratory disk susceptibility testing of a resistant Staphylococcus aureus strain showed that around the ciprofloxacin disk, placed by chance in proximity to a fusidic acid disk, the inhibition zone was truncated. Follow-up of this observation by a planned disk approximation method showed that there is a real antagonism between these two antibacterial agents. The antagonism was observed while testing S.

Changes in leg volume during microgravity simulation.

Little published information exists regarding the magnitude and time course of cephalad fluid shift resulting from microgravity simulations. Six subjects were exposed to 150 min each at horizontal bed rest, 6 degrees head-down tilt, and horizontal water immersion. Fluid shift was estimated by calculating leg volumes from eight serial girth measurements from groin to ankle before, during, and after exposure.

Diazald, a newly recognized antimicrobial agent and its spectrophotometric determination.

Diazald, a chemical intermediate for the synthesis of biologically active compounds, was found to be a potent in vitro antimicrobial agent against yeasts, yeast-like and filamentous fungi as well as Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains. Its activity is not inhibited by either para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) or the nitroso group-specific 2-aminothiazole-methoxyimino acetic acid (ATMAA). This suggests that the molecule as such is responsible for the antimicrobial activity.

Oculomotor function during space flight and susceptibility to space motion sickness.

Horizontal vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) and saccadic eye movements (SEM) were studied in 18 subjects before and during five Space Shuttle missions to evaluate the effects of weightlessness and correlations between results and susceptibility to and actual presence of space motion sickness (SMS). Active sinusoidal head oscillation was the stimulus for VOR tests with vision (VVOR), with eyes shaded (VOR-ES), and VOR suppression (VOR-S). Eye movements were recorded by electrooculography and head position by a potentiometer.

Studies of the horizontal vestibulo-ocular reflex in spaceflight.

Changes in the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) during space flight have been suspected of contributing to space motion sickness. The horizontal VOR was studied in nine subjects on two space shuttle missions. Active unpaced head oscillation at 0.

A comparison of cefonicid with other beta-lactams regarding the effect of human and mouse sera on antibacterial activity.

The effect of the addition of 50% human or mouse serum on the antibacterial activity of cefonicid, three first generation cephalosporins and ampicillin was studied. Human serum added to the test system considerably reduced the activity of cefonicid against Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis strains, and to a lesser degree against Proteus mirabilis, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae strains. Human serum also reduced, albeit to a lesser extent, the activities of cephalothin, cefazolin, and ampicillin, whereas it increased the activity of cephaloridine.

Colorimetric detection and spectrophotometric determination of the aminothiazolyl-alkoxyimino beta-lactams.

The 2-aminothiazolyl-4-yl-2-alkoxyiminoacetamido substituent-containing beta-lactam antibiotics (cephalosporins and monobactams) develop a stable, concentration-dependent purple or cherry-red color after reaction with sodium nitrite in acidic condition. The color-formation is highly specific; it requires certain defined structural features such as the simultaneous presence of the intact aminothiazole-ring and an alkoxyimino substituent in the syn configuration. Other substituents on the beta-lactam nucleus have effect only on the intensity of the color.

Novel fermentation procedures for the production and the isolation of antibiotics.

Novel procedures for the production, in shaken and/or air-agitated fermentations, and the isolation of antibiotics were developed by which active crystalline flavofungin by Streptomyces flavofungini and an antibiotic produced by Streptomyces SK&F, BC-1652 were obtained.

Stability of cefatrizine in aqueous solution and in sera.

Cefatrizine (SK & F 60771; BL--S640), like most other phenylglycine-type cephalosporins, has a tendency to lose potency in aqueous solutions and in normal sera even at low temperatures. Cefatrizine can be stabilized during storage by sodium metabisulphite (Na2S2O5), a reducing agent partially in tap water, better in deionized water, and to a lesser degree in citric acid-phosphate buffer (pH 6). Although this partial stabilizing effect of sodium metabisulphite is temperature-dependent, storage at 4 degrees C gives better results than storage in the frozen state (-20 degrees C).

Comparative laboratory studies on alpha-methoxyimino furyl- and phenylacetamido cephalosporins: structure-activity relationships.

Eleven new cephalosporins (three phenylacetamido and eight furylacetamido) containing a methoxyimino group on the 7 beta-acyl side chain and having various substituents at their 3-positions, exhibited similar qualitative, but differing quantitative in vitro antibacterial spectra compared to that of cefuroxime, the first therapeutically used alpha-methoxyimino cephalosporin. The syn-isomers and the alpha-acyl substituted compounds are more active than either the anti-isomer or the beta-acyl substituted compounds. Compounds containing substituted tetrazole rings at the 3-position are likewise more active than those containing other types of substituents in this position.

Antibacterial activity of primycin against multiple strains of gram-positive bacteria.

Crystalline primycin was found to be very active in broth dilution assay against Staphylococcus aureus (50 strains), Staphylococcus epidermidis (77 strains), Streptococcus faecalis (76 strains) and one strain of Listeria monocytogenes with minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of 0.12-0.5 microgram/ml.

Staphylococcus aureus Tour, a selectively mouse-pathogenic strain for experimental chemotherapeutic study (a note).

Staphylococcus aureus Tour is a unique strain. It is highly pathogenic to mice but not to other laboratory animals and primates. This selective pathogenicity makes it useful for experimental chemotherapeutic studies.

Structure-related effect of pH on the bioassay sensitivity of five thiadiazole cephalosporins (a note).

Using the buffered disc agar-diffusion method with Bacillus subtilis as test organism' a direct relationship was found between the pH, incubation temperature and the structure-dependent activity of five thiadiazole cephalosporins. This appears to be related to the ionizable group(s) of the molecules.

Enoxacin: a potent inducer of filamentous Escherichia coli cells (a note).

Enoxacin (CI-919; AT-2266), a new naphthyridine derivative was found to induce morphologic changes at very low concentrations in Escherichia coli but not in Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa cells. The development of the long filamentous forms observed with nalidixic acid is most probably a consequence of inhibition of DNA synthesis. The phenomenon may, however, not be the sole mechanism of the broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity of enoxacin.