Beginning of viniculture in France.

Chemical analyses of ancient organic compounds absorbed into the pottery fabrics of imported Etruscan amphoras (ca. 500-475 B.C.) and into a limestone pressing platform (ca. 425-400 B.C.) at the ancient coastal port site of Lattara in southern France provide the earliest biomolecular archaeological evidence for grape wine and viniculture from this country, which is crucial to the later history of wine in Europe and the rest of the world. The data support the hypothesis that export of wine by ship from Etruria in central Italy to southern Mediterranean France fueled an ever-growing market and interest in wine there, which, in turn, as evidenced by the winepress, led to transplantation of the Eurasian grapevine and the beginning of a Celtic industry in France. Herbal and pine resin additives to the Etruscan wine point to the medicinal role of wine in antiquity, as well as a means of preserving it during marine transport.

The Long-term Release of Antibiotics From Monolithic Nonporous Polymer Implants for Use as Tympanostomy Tubes.

A technology is elaborated for the fabrication of a novel tympanostomy tube (TT) from solidified polymer melts (Elvax and Polyurethane) and antibiotics (Ciprofloxacin and Usnic acid) for insertion into tympanic membrane (ear drum) according to the established surgical procedure. The long-term in vitro release kinetics of the antibiotics into liquid water has been assessed using standard methods. The measured kinetic curves revealed two stages of antibiotic release into the finite space. During the first stage (fast), the fast release rate is almost invariant and is determined by the diffusion through the steady diffusion layer formed due to solution agitation. In this first stage, the influence of the initial internal transport is weak because it takes place at negligibly small distance from interface and accordingly, at negligibly concentration drop. After the antibiotic concentration decreases within the much broader layer of matrix near interface, the internal transport becomes important. This manifests itself as the second stage in measured kinetics of release curves which is characterized by a gradual decrease in rate. The minimum inhibition concentrations of three antibiotics/antimicrobial compounds for four bacterial species were measured. The first stage of fast release from the polymer implant lasts 6 days at a polymer loading by Ciprofloxacin (0.03 g/cm(3)) and this was sufficient for preventing biofilm formation on the surface of the implant material. The measured kinetic curves of drug release showed more rapid decrease in the release rate compared to the Higuchi approximation. Comparison with existing theories, which account for the finite rate of drug dissolution, showed that this may explain the observed deviation from the diffusion-controlled Higuchi model. Large dimensions of drug particles and their aggregation retard the dissolution stage and consequently the release rate. Melt blending was found to cause the drug particle aggregation within polymer matrixes which was confirmed by microscopic reexamination of the polymer implant materials.