[Study on the mitoxantrone ethylcellulose microspheres for liver artery embolization].

In this paper, orthogonal test was used to optimize the preparation conditions and technique of mitoxantrone ethylcellulose microspheres (DHAQ-EC-MS) for liver embolization. The dynamic osmosis method was used to study the drug release characteristics of DHAQ-EC-MS. DHAQ-EC-MS suspension for clinical liver artery embolization was prepared. The result showed that the DHAQ-EC-MS is regular in its morphology with a mean diameter of 110.24 +/- 38.19 microns. The drug loading was 12.5% and embedding ratio was 55.6%. The release characteristics was in accord with single exponential model. The drug release equation is lg(Yinfinity - Y) = -0.116t - 1.198 x 10(-3) (gamma = 0.9992, t50 = 2.6 h). The DHAQ-EC-MS was shown to be physically and chemically stable and its suspension is suitable for clinical use. Experiments in dogs indicate that drug concentration of DHAQ-EC-MS in hepatic vein blood was higher than DHAQ solution, and the MRT0-72 was 2.45 times higher than DHAQ solution.

Correlations on radioimmunoassay, fluorescence polarization immunoassay, and enzyme immunoassay of cannabis metabolites with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis of 11-nor-delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid in urine specimens.

Results obtained from three commercial immunoassay kits, Abuscreen, TDx, and EMIT, commonly used for the initial test of urine cannabinoids (and metabolites) were correlated with the 11-nor-delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid (9-THC-COOH) concentration as determined by GC/MS. Correlation coefficients obtained based on 26 (out of 1359 total sample population) highly relevant samples, are 0.601 and 0.438 for Abuscreen and TDx. Correlation coefficients obtained from a parallel study on a different set of 47 (out of 5070 total sample population) highly relevant specimens are 0.658 and 0.575 for Abuscreen and Emit. The immunoassay concentration levels, that correspond to the commonly used 15 ng/ml GC/MS cutoff value for 9-THC-COOH, as calculated from the regression equations are 82 ng/ml and 75 ng/ml for TDx and EMIT and 120 ng/ml and 72 ng/ml for Abuscreen manufactured at two different time periods. The difference of these calculated corresponding concentrations provides quantitative evidence of the reagent specificity differences.

A hierarchical multiple-view approach to three-dimensional object recognition.

A hierarchical approach is proposed for solving the surface and vertex correspondence problems in multiple-view-based 3D object-recognition systems. The proposed scheme is a coarse-to-fine search process, and a Hopfield network is used at each stage. Compared with conventional object-matching schemes, the proposed technique provides a more general and compact formulation of the problem and a solution more suitable for parallel implementation. At the coarse search stage, the surface matching scores between the input image and each object model in the database are computed through a Hopfield network and are used to select the candidates for further consideration. At the fine search stage, the object models selected from the previous stage are fed into another Hopfield network for vertex matching. The object model that has the best surface and vertex correspondences with the input image is finally singled out as the best matched model. Experimental results are reported using both synthetic and real range images to corroborate the proposed theory.

The role of interscapular brown adipose tissue in cold acclimation in the rat.

The role of the interscapular brown adipose tissue (IBAT) in the defense against cold exposure and subsequent acclimation to it was studied in the rat, a homeotherm. When placed at 4 degrees C, the rat was able to maintain a constant core temperature even though skin and even more so tail temperature dropped drastically. Metabolic rate became significantly higher than control animals kept at 23 degrees C after 24 hrs and continued to rise throughout the 6 weeks exposure period. Starting at week 1, there was hypertrophy of the IBAT with concomitant proliferation of mitochondria. Bilateral surgical removal of IBAT led to significant reduction in metabolic rate only in the fully cold-acclimated rat. However, the survival rate was not affected. It is thus concluded that IBAT played an important but not absolutely essential role in cold acclimation.