Considering patients' mental capacity when giving them bad news may help their well-being: a case of suicide attempt after being informed of lung cancer diagnosis.

Mental capacity is a central determinant of patients' ability to make autonomous decisions about their care and deal with bad news. Physicians should be cognizant of this when giving patients bad news in efforts to help them to cope with the illness and to avoid a deterioration of their mental well-being. To show the importance of this concept, a case of suicide attempt with lung cancer is exemplified. A 76-year-old woman attempted suicide after receiving a diagnosis of lung cancer. Her recent life had been emotionally turbulent and she did not have sufficient mental capacity to accept and cope with this truth. She developed depression before attempting suicide.

Nanopattern transfer from high-density self-assembled nanosphere arrays on prepatterned substrates.

We have fabricated nanoimprint moulds with high-density well-defined nanopatterns by pattern transfer from self-assembled nanosphere arrays on prepatterned substrates. Silica nanospheres of 100 and 25 nm diameter were regularly arranged over large areas in a self-assembling manner by capillary force via a dip-coating technique on topographically patterned substrates having 220 nm pitch line/space patterns. The nanosphere arrays were used as etching masks, and nanodot arrays with the same arrangements were created on the silica substrate surfaces by reactive ion etching (RIE). By developing a combined pattern transfer process using Ru and SiO(x) mask layers and CF4 and O2 RIE, the aspect ratio between the height and diameter of the nanodots made from the 25 nm nanospheres is improved to about two. It is demonstrated that the nanopatterns of the moulds can be inversely transferred into polymer surfaces reproducibly by UV nanoimprint process.

Role of the Nh (Non-hair) mutation in the development of dermatitis and hyperproduction of IgE in DS-Nh mice.

The DS-Nh (DS Non-hair) mouse is a spontaneous hairless mutant of the DS mouse. The inheritance mode of the Nh mutation is autosomal dominant, and the Nh locus is mapped to Chromosome 11. The roles of the Nh mutation in spontaneous dermatitis and IgE hyperproduction were studied using an Nh congenic strain with a genetic background from the BALB/c mouse. In contrast to DS-Nh (Nh/+) mice, BALB/c-Nh (Nh/+) mice under conventional conditions showed a marked increase in serum IgE, without the development of dermatitis. These results suggest that IgE hyperproduction is regulated by the Nh mutation, while other genetic factor(s) are also involved in the development of dermatitis.

Spontaneous development of dermatitis in DS-Nh mice under specific pathogen-free conditions.

Spontaneous development of dermatitis in DS-Nh mice under specific pathogen-free conditions was examined to verify the hypothesis [Exp. Anim. 46: 225-229, 1997] that Stapylococcus aureus (S. aureus) infection is causally associated with the dermatitis. Observation of the mice up to 28 weeks of age indicated that obvious dermatitis does occur under S. aureus-free conditions, though the incidence was low (six of 42 females and two of 90 males). Skin lesions in the absence of this bacterium showed histological changes very similar to those that can be observed under conventional conditions. In addition, hyperproduction of serum IgE was demonstrated in the dermatitis-positive mouse. These findings suggested that the dermatitis is triggered by IgE-mediated allergic reactions.

ICH Q7A; 4.40 containment of beta-lactam antibiotics: an industry perspective.

The ICH Q7A guidance was finalized at the Fifth International Conference on Harmonization in San Diego, Nov. 9-11, 2000, and has been implemented in Japan since Nov. 2, 2001. However, in ICH Q7A; 4.40, Containment, there is no clear stipulation about whether a dedicated or multi-purpose facility should be employed in the production of highly sensitizing materials of different types of beta-lactam antibiotics, such as cephalosporins and cephems. This study presents the threshold levels for the induction of anaphylaxis by beta-lactam antibiotics to show that it is possible to use a multi-purpose facility for the production of several different types of beta-lactam antibiotics except for penicillins, if there are validated cleaning standards based on threshold values.