Sweat and urine specimens were collected from 44 methadone-maintenance patients to evaluate the use of sweat testing to monitor cocaine use. Paired sweat patches that were applied and removed weekly ...(on Tuesdays) were compared with 3–5 consecutive urine specimens collected Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. All patches (N = 930) were extracted in 2.5 m/of solvent and analyzed by ELISA immunoassay (cutoff concentration 10 ng/mL); a subset of patches (N = 591) was also analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) for cocaine, benzoylecgonine (BZE), and ecgonine methyl ester (EME) (cutoff concentration 5 ng/mL). Urine specimens were subjected to qualitative analysis by EMIT (cutoff 300 ng/mL) and subsets were analyzed by TDx (semiquantitative, LOD 30 ng/mL) and by GC-MS for cocaine (LOD 5 ng/mL). Results were evaluated to (1) determine the relative amounts of cocaine and its metabolites in sweat; (2) assess replicability in duplicate patches; (3) compare ELISA and GC-MS results for cocaine in sweat; and (4) compare the detection of cocaine use by sweat and urine testing. Cocaine was detected by GC-MS in 99% of ELISA-positive sweat patches; median concentrations of cocaine, BZE, and EME were 378, 78.7, and 74 ng/mL, respectively. Agreement in duplicate patches was approximately 90% by ELISA analysis. The sensitivity, specificity, and efficiency of sweat ELISA cocaine results as compared with sweat GC-MS results were 93.6%, 91.3%, and 93.2%, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, and efficiency between ELISA sweat patch and EMIT urine results were 97.6%, 60.5%, and 77.7%, respectively. These results support the use of sweat patches for monitoring cocaine use, though further evaluation is needed.
Stearns discusses the symbolism of the pug dog in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. The lapdog's presence is less about feminity, gender roles and confinement than the silent presence of imperialism in ...British family life since it illustrates the utter dependancy and intimacy in which middle-class and aristocratic British women were connected to the evil workings of imperial endeavours whether they cared to believe it or not.
To determine the acute effects of intravenous (IV) cocaine on primarily digital skin blood flow and diffusion capacity for carbon monoxide (CO), and secondarily on subjective and cardiovascular ...measures.
A double-blind, Latinsquare, placebo-controlled, dose-response study was conducted in an inpatient general clinical research center and clinical pharmacology unit of a university teaching hospital. Twelve adult males with histories of illicit drug use including IV cocaine received 0, 25, and 50 mg of IV cocaine given as 1-minute infusions, on 3 consecutive test days. Digital cutaneous blood flow was determined via laser doppler flowmetry and skin temperature. Diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide (D
CO) was measured with standard techniques. Subjective responses were measured by oral report of a numerical ranking of strength of drug effect. Heart rate and blood pressure responses were measured by electronic syphygmomanometer.
A maximal decrease in skin blood flow occurred at 2 to 3 minutes after infusion, and was not distinguished among drug conditions. Blood flow returned to baseline more rapidly after placebo than after cocaine: 7 minutes (placebo), 35 minutes (25 mg cocaine), 50 minutes (50 mg cocaine). Skin temperature decreased by 1.25 °C after placebo and by 2.75 and 3.25 °C after 25 and 50 mg of cocaine, respectively. D
CO changed by −1.02 (mean) ± 0.25 (standard deviation), 0.16 ± 1.22, and 0.21 ± 1.63 ml/min/mm Hg following placebo, 25, and 50 mg of cocaine, respectively. Typical subjective, chronotropic, and pressor responses to cocaine were demonstrated, and these occurred in close temporal relationship to digital blood flow and skin temperature responses.
The digital cutaneous circulation is highly sensitive to vasoconstrictor effects of cocaine. Pulmonary blood volume tends to be preserved after IV cocaine. Subjective effects and cardiovascular responses occur in concert with peripheral blood flow changes. The peripheral vasoconstrictor effects have implications for cocaine users with concurrent vasospastic or vasculopathic disorders.
Human IgG Fc receptor (Fcγ R) cDNA clones were isolated by cross-species hybridization by probing cDNA libraries with the low-affinity Fcγ R β 1 cDNA clone from mouse as well as a pool of ...oligonucleotides constructed from the nucleotide sequence of this Fcγ R. Three cDNA clones were isolated and analysis of the predicted amino acid sequence indicated that the human Fcγ R protein is synthesized with a 34-amino acid leader and the mature protein is composed of 281 amino acids. The extracellular region of this Fcγ R was divided into two domains, which were very similar to each other and to the corresponding regions of both mouse α and β Fcγ Rs and showed a clear relationship to immunoglobulin variable regions. One possible N-linked glycosylation site was found in each of the extracellular domains. The human Fcγ R leader sequence was shown to be similar to the mouse α Fcγ R leader sequence, but the transmembrane region was most similar to the mouse β 1 Fcγ R. The intracellular domain of the human Fcγ R was surprisingly different from both mouse Fcγ Rs. RNA blot analysis of human cells demonstrated two transcripts (2.5 and 1.5 kilobases) that arise by use of different adenylylation signals. The cellular expression of these transcripts suggests that they encode the low-affinity p40 Fcγ R protein.
Experience sampling is a research technique in which participants record their behaviors and moods in real time in their day-to-day environments. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) is a refinement ...of experience sampling in which randomly timed assessments are combined with event-contingent assessments. EMA data are more reliable if obtained with handheld computers than with paper diaries. Robust EMA applications sufficiently flexible and easily adaptable for our various research efforts, including a study of polydrug use we are now undertaking at our outpatient treatment/research clinic, were not available. We developed transactional electronic diary (TED), a highly configurable EMA program. TED provides investigators the capability to conduct close assessment and monitoring of symptoms and intensity of drug withdrawal in participants. Data collected via TED is subsequently incorporated into our human research information system (HuRIS) for further analysis.
Evolutionary game theoretic accounts of justice attempt to explain our willingness to follow certain principles of justice by appealing to robustness properties possessed by those principles. Skyrms ...(1996) offers one sketch of how such an account might go for divide-the-dollar, the simplest version of the Nash bargaining game, using the replicator dynamics of Taylor and Jonker (1978). In a recent article, D'Arms et al. (1998) criticize his account and describe a model which, they allege, undermines his theory. I sketch a theory of evolutionary explanations of justice which avoids their methodological criticisms, and develop a spatial model of divide-the-dollar with more robust convergence properties than the models of Skyrms (1996) and D'Arms et al. (1998).
Contingency management has been successfully used to reinforce abstinence in drug-dependent patients. The major challenge associated with this technique, however, is its likely prohibitive cost ...especially when the reinforcement follows an escalating amount schedule. At our clinic, we have implemented a less costly approach involving prize draws as the reinforcer. Workflow challenges of such an implementation are extensive considering varying conditions concurrently used in various protocols for meeting inclusion criteria, stratifying into various groups, tracking categories of prizes, determining eligibility for bonus draws based on laboratory results, etc. To address these challenges we implemented the automated contingency management (ACM) decision support system for dynamic reward reinforcement in the study of treatment of cocaine and opiates. A discussion of the results of our research as well as possible insight into some of our findings provided by ACM is presented in this paper.
PDF
