A Full-Color Electroluminescent Device and Patterned Photoalignment Using Light-Emitting Liquid Crystals.

Blue, green, and red polymerizable light-emitting liquid crystals have been patterned photolithographically in a full-color liquid-crystal electroluminescent display. A new hole-transporting photoalignment copolymer is also reported and the spatial patterning of the polarization direction of emission is demonstrated.

Breast screening: the psychological sequelae of false-positive recall in women with and without a family history of breast cancer.

The psychological effects of false-positive mammography were evaluated in 124 women who had taken part in the U.K. National Health Service Breast Screening Programme. In addition, the effects of recall on women with and without a family history were compared. These women were asked to complete the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) before being invited to attend for screening, at recall and 5 weeks and 4 months after recall. At screening and at recall, the women were asked to complete the Health Questionnaire (HQ) which measures stress-related behaviour changes in the previous week. In the week before screening, compared with women who did not have a family history of breast cancer, women with a family history had lower scores on HADS depression and reported fewer stress-related behaviour changes. At recall, regardless of family history, the women were more likely to have borderline or clinically significant anxiety than at baseline or screening. Nevertheless, for most women, recall-induced anxiety was relatively transient (less than 5 weeks). Compared with women without a family history, women with a family history were more anxious 4 months after recall, although their anxiety scores tended to be lower (P < 0.06) than at baseline. A strength of the present study is that the initial baseline measure was uncontaminated by the screening process. Women who did not complete questionnaires at one or more of the subsequent time points scored higher on HADS depression at baseline, indicating that the results are likely to have underestimated the effects of recall. Screening appears to be less stressful for women with a family history than for those without a history. However, for both groups recall causes short term distress. Breast screening programmes should ensure that steps are taken to minimise the number of women who are recalled for unnecessary investigations.

Effect of comprehensive pharmaceutical services on drug use in long-term care facilities.

The effect of comprehensive pharmaceutical services on drug consumption and cost in long-term care facilities was studied over an eight-year period. Medication administration records for 1970-1977 were obtained for all patients in three long-term care facilities served by a centralized pharmaceutical service. Services included unit dose drug delivery, drug use and chart review, and medical staff consultation. Data from a 10% sample of 4,004 patient records were analyzed. A significant (p less than 0.05) decline in the number of prescription drugs (42.8%) and the number of prescription doses (34.6%) consumed occurred over the eight-year period. The number of nonprescription drugs decreased significantly by 34.4%, but consumption of nonprescription drug doses was not changed significantly. When adjusted for inflation, the average monthly medication bill per patient decreased 28.9%, with the average for Medicaid patients being significantly (p less than 0.001) greater than that for private-pay patients. No significant changes occurred in the therapeutic categories of drug use. Centralized pharmaceutical services, pharmacist consultation and drug use review significantly reduced drug use and medication costs in the facilities studied.

Analysis of azanaphthalenes and their enzyme oxidation products by high-performance liquid chromatography, infrared spectroscopy and mass spectrometry.

Adsorption and reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) have been successfully used to separate metabolites from the parent heterocycles (isoquinoline, 3-methylisoquinoline, phthalazine, quinazoline, quinoxaline and cinnoline). Retention data are reported. The metabolites, hydroxyazanaphthalenes, which arise as a result of aldehyde oxidase catalysed oxidation, could be extracted in microgram quantities from incubation mixtures by n-butanol. Complete identification of the oxidation products was achieved by collecting fractions corresponding to each compound from the HPLC eluate and subjecting these to infrared and mass-spectral analysis.

The oxidation of azaheterocycles with mammalian liver aldehyde oxidase.

1. Isoquinoline, cinnoline, quinoxaline, quinazoline and phthalazine were incubated with preparations of rabbit liver aldehyde oxidase. 2. The oxidation products, 1-hydroxyisoquinoline, 4-hydroxycinnoline, 2-hydroxy- and 2,3-dihydroxy-quinoxaline, 4-hydroxy- and 2,4-dihydroxy-quinazoline, and 1-hydroxyphthalazine were identified by comparison of their spectral and chromatographic characteristics with those of authentic compounds. 3. Michaelis-Menten constants are reported for the action of the parent heterocycles with aldehyde oxidase. The compounds reported in this study are among the most efficient substrates yet described for rabbit liver aldehyde oxidase. 4. The compounds in 1 above were incubated with bovine milk xanthine oxidase: only quinazoline and phthalazine yielded significant amounts of metabolites. Km values were calculated for these compounds. 5. Incubation of the heterocycles with rat liver preparations gave qualitatively the same results as those obtained using rabbit liver, but smaller amounts of the oxidation products were detected from rat liver incubations.