TOLERANCE TO AMINO ACID MIXTURES AND CASEIN DIGESTS GIVEN INTRAVENOUSLY : GLUTAMIC ACID RESPONSIBLE FOR REACTIONS

Several synthetic mixtures of natural and racemic crystalline amino acids suitable for the daily nitrogen requirement are tested in dogs for their tolerance upon intravenous injection. Certain mixtures of the ten essential amino acids plus non-essential amino acids exclusive of glutamic acid are accepted without any obvious sign of disturbance even at rates above 10 mg. nitrogen per kilo per minute for quantities greater than 300 mg. per kilo. One such mixture consists in parts per 100 of dl-threonine 7, dl-valine 15, l(-)-leucine 10.9, dl-isoleucine 9.9, l(+)-lysine· HCl·H₂O 10.9, dl-tryptophane 3, dl-phenylalanine 9.9, dl-methionine 6, l(+)-histidine·HCl·H₂O 5, l(+)-arginine-HCl 5, glycine 9.9, dl-α-alanine 4, dl-serine 2, l(-)-cystine 0.5, and l(-)-tyrosine 1. In addition other well tolerated mixtures included the prolines. When glutamic acid, natural or racemic, is included in similar mixtures vomiting reactions frequently occur at nitrogen rates above 4 mg. per kilo per minute. Vomiting almost always occurs on the first daily injection containing glutamic acid and usually on any subsequent injection containing more than 100 mg. glutamic acid per kilo unless given very slowly. Upon the addition of glycine certain mixtures of the ten essential amino acids show an improved tolerance. Two casein digests tested usually produced vomiting at injection rates above 2 mg. nitrogen per kilo per minute, probably because of their glutamic acid content. No serious reaction has ever occurrred to any mixture of amino acids or casein digest tested. Elimination of minor reactions such as vomiting appears possible and desirable for greater usefulness of these solutions in parenteral feeding.     

Use of Fertility Preservation Among a Cohort of Transgirls in the Netherlands

Purpose

The primary aims of the study are to examine the rate of attempted fertility preservation (FP) among a Dutch cohort of transgirls who started gonadotropin-releasing hormone analog treatment and the reasons why adolescents did or did not choose to attempt FP.

The Impact of Pharmacy Students’ Remediation Status on NAPLEX First-Time Pass Rates

Objective. To determine whether there is a difference in pass rates on the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination (NAPLEX) between students who did and did not require remediation for deficient course grades.Methods. Student-specific data were collected regarding course grade deficiencies and completion of a comprehensive examination or course for remediation. Student-specific first-time NAPLEX performance data for the graduating classes of 2008, 2009, and 2011were provided by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP).Results. A significant difference was found in first-time NAPLEX mean pass rates between students who did not need to undergo remediation versus those who did ( 97% vs 70%).Conclusion. Students requiring remediation for deficient course grades had a lower pass rate on the NAPLEX compared with those who did not require remediation. The difference can be attributed to several factors and therefore further study is needed.     

Myocardial K kinetics in rats on Mg-deficient diet.

Kinetics and distribution of K were studied in myocardiuum of chronic Mg-deficient rats. The experimental design was as follows. Rats were fed either Mg-deficient or control diet for 30 days. They were then injected with 0.2 mCi of K-43. One half hour after injection they were killed and a segment of myocardium was washed with nonradioactive Krebs solution in a special chamber. Radioactivity remaining in the tissue was recorded continuously for 1 hour. A three-compartment model (extracellular, main intracellular, and subcellular) was used; transport rate constants (kij) and relative compartment sizes (qj) were determined. In myocardium of Mg-deficient rats the kij's and q's indicated greatly reduced intracellular accumulation of K but a large accumulation of K within the subcellular compartment probably mitochondrial. There was also some enlargement of the extracellular compartment. The extracellular to overall intracellular ratio for K increased 46% in Mg-deficient myocardium. The hypothesis that dietary Mg deficiency affects Na-K pump function is discussed.     

Unraveling toxicological mechanisms and predicting toxicity classes with gene dysregulation networks

The use of genes for distinguishing classes of toxicity has become well established. In this paper we combine the reconstruction of a gene dysregulation network (GDN) with a classifier to assign unseen compounds to their appropriate class. Gene pairs in the GDN are dysregulated in the sense that they are linked by a common expression pattern in one class and differ in this pattern in another class. The classifier gives a quantitative measure on this difference by its prediction accuracy. As an in‐depth example, gene pairs were selected that were dysregulated between skin cells treated with either sensitizers or irritants. Pairs with known and novel markers were found such as HMOX1 and ZFAND2A, ATF3 and PPP1R15A, OXSR1 and HSPA1B, ZFP36 and MAFF. The resulting GDN proved biologically valid as it was well‐connected and enriched in known interactions, processes and common regulatory motifs for pairs. Classification accuracy was improved when compared with conventional classifiers. As the dysregulated patterns for heat shock responding genes proved to be distinct from those of other stress genes, we were able to formulate the hypothesis that heat shock genes play a specific role in sensitization, apart from other stress genes. In conclusion, our combined approach creates added value for classification‐based toxicogenomics by obtaining novel, well‐distinguishing and biologically interesting measures, suitable for the formulation of hypotheses on functional relationships between genes and their relevance for toxicity class differences. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Complexities in the process of translating research documents in cross-cultural settings

ABSTRACT

In multilingual societies, where researchers and participants often do not speak the same language, research is a challenge as a mismatch of understanding between researchers, research instruments and participants often occurs. Reporting on the translation process is crucial because of the potential implications for the validity of the data that follow from it. We aimed to report on the complexities of such a translation process and many considerations that came to our attention. Methodologically, we used a detailed case study to demonstrate that the complexity of translation might be underestimated by researchers who may neglect to report on the challenges that they experience to benefit the wider research community. We emphasise that translating documents, particularly between languages that are not cognate, requires time and financial resources that researchers often do not anticipate or plan for. By discussing what happened to texts that were translated, and how we as researchers were challenged by considerations that were primarily linguistic but also straddled cultural and socio-political domains, we hope to encourage a deeper understanding of the translation task. We conclude that consideration of these complexities is necessary if the aim is the development of translated documents which complement the researchers’ goals.