•9 % of drivers tested positive for cocaine in oral fluid confirmatory analysis.•4.4 % of drivers were positive for cannabinoids in oral fluid confirmatory analysis.•Almost all devices achieved a ...performance greater than 80 % for cocaine detection.•Cannabinoid detection did not show good parameters in three of four devices tested.
Point-of-collection testing (POCT) devices for psychoactive substance detection through oral fluid samples are used in several countries for traffic enforcement. However, the reported reliability of such devices is quite heterogeneous among studies, and evaluating and comparing their analytical performance is of paramount importance to guide enforcement policies.
To evaluate the analytical reliability of four POCT devices for the detection of cocaine and cannabinoids using oral fluid samples of Brazilian drivers.
A total of 168 drivers were recruited during standard roadblockfI procedures in Southern Brazil. Subjects were screened using one of the following POCT devices: the DDS2™, the DOA MultiScreen™, the Dräger Drug Test 5000™ and the Multi-Drug Multi-Line Twist Screen Device™ (MDML). Results of the screening tests were compared with chromatographic analyses in order to obtain the reliability parameters.
The prevalence of confirmed positive samples for cocaine and cannabinoids were 9 % and 4.4 %, respectively. For cocaine, three POCT devices (MDML™, Dräger DrugTest 5000™, DOA MultiScreen™) showed good reliability, greater than 80 % of performance measures, using guidelines for research on drugged driving published by Walsh et al. (cutoff 10ng/mL). However, for cannabinoids, the devices had low reliability-only Dräger DrugTest 5000™ had good performance using cut-offs proposed by Walsh et al. (cutoff 2ng/mL).
We observed a high prevalence of drivers testing positive for cocaine and cannabinoids. Most devices achieved good reliability performance for cocaine detection using cutoffs proposed by Walsh et al. or using the device’s own cutoff. Instead, the reliability for cannabinoid detection obtained the desired parameters in just one device using cut-offs proposed by Walsh et al. and its own cutoff. Difficulties in detecting cannabinoids at the roadside should be better evaluated before the implementation of such tests.
Dietary supplements containing bitter orange unripe fruit extract/
p-synephrine are consumed worldwide for lose weight. This study were conducted to determine the concentration of
p-synephrine in ...unripe fruits and leaves from
Citrus aurantium Lin,
C. sinensis Osbeck,
C. deliciosa Ten,
C. limon Burm and
C. limonia Osbeck, collected in Southern Brazil, and to evaluate the acute toxicity of
C. aurantium extract and
p-synephrine. A high performance liquid chromatographic method with diode array detector (HPLC-DAD) was optimized and validated for determination of
p-synephrine. The results indicate that all of analyzed samples present
p-synephrine in amounts that range from 0.012% to 0.099% in the unripe fruits and 0.029 to 0.438% in the leaves. Acute oral administration of
C. aurantium extracts (2.5%
p-synephrine, 300–5000
mg/kg) in mice produced reduction of locomotor activity,
p-synephrine (150–2000
mg/kg) produced piloerection, gasping, salivation, exophtalmia and reduction in locomotor activity, which was confirmed in spontaneous locomotor activity test. All the effects were reversible and persisted for 3–4
h. The toxic effects observed seem to be related with adrenergic stimulation and should alert for possible side effects of
p-synephrine and
C. aurantium.
The main reason for the increasing cocaine consumption in South America is the high consumption of drugs in Brazil, which is the largest market on the continent. In light of this, the Brazilian ...Federal Police (BFP) started implementing its own drug chemical profiling program, the PeQui project, aiming to provide useful technical-scientific information about the drug scenario in the country. In this article, a liquid chromatography with a diode array detector (LC-DAD) method was developed through Doehlert optimization for the analysis of cocaine seized in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, by the Brazilian Federal Police. In addition to cocaine, the main cocaine adulterants (diltiazem, benzocaine, levamisole, caffeine, phenacetin, lidocaine and dipyrone) were also evaluated. Through Doehlert optimization relating to the resolution and total area, a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile : water (isocratic mode) with phosphate buffer (pH 8.3) was chosen. Fifty eight cocaine samples seized in 2013-2015 were analyzed. The average cocaine content was 45% of the drug weight and the only adulterants detected were levamisole, phenacetin and caffeine. Levamisole was detected only in salt cocaine samples and low concentrations (below 0.1 mg g
−1
), whereas phenacetin was detected in base form cocaine in higher concentrations. Caffeine was the only adulterant detected in both the salt and base forms, and was also at low concentrations. These results showed that the drugs seized in this Brazilian state had, on average, a lower cocaine content in relation to the rest of the country.
A liquid chromatography with a diode array detector (LC-DAD) method was developed through Doehlert optimization for analysis of cocaine seized in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Long-period fiber gratings (LPGs) have been inscribed in nitrogen-doped fibers by electrical arc discharge. The influence of drawing tension as well as external load applied during arc discharge on ...coupling strength has been investigated. The influence of drawing tension on the grating's coupling strength is found to be negligible, whereas the coupling strength increases considerably with external load. Tomographic stress profiles of the fiber have been recorded before and after electric arc discharge. The axial stress modulation in the core region of the grating was found to be smaller than 10 MPa and is thus too small to be the dominating mechanism for grating formation.
Purpose
This study aimed to evaluate the effects of the subchronic consumption of energy drinks and their constituents (caffeine and taurine) in male Wistar rats using behavioural and oxidative ...measures.
Methods
Energy drinks (ED 5, 7.5, and 10 mL/kg) or their constituents, caffeine (3.2 mg/kg) and taurine (40 mg/kg), either separately or in combination, were administered orally to animals for 28 days. Attention was measured though the ox-maze apparatus and the object recognition memory test. Following behavioural analyses, markers of oxidative stress, including SOD, CAT, GPx, thiol content, and free radicals, were measured in the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and striatum.
Results
The latency time to find the first reward was lower in animals that received caffeine, taurine, or a combination of both (
P
= 0.003; ANOVA/Bonferroni). In addition, these animals took less time to complete the ox-maze task (
P
= 0.0001; ANOVA/Bonferroni), and had better short-term memory (
P
< 0.01, Kruskal–Wallis). The ED 10 group showed improvement in the attention task, but did not differ on other measures. In addition, there was an imbalance in enzymatic markers of oxidative stress in the prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus, and the striatum. In the group that received both caffeine and taurine, there was a significant increase in the production of free radicals in the prefrontal cortex and in the hippocampus (
P
< 0.0001; ANOVA/Bonferroni).
Conclusions
Exposure to a combination of caffeine and taurine improved memory and attention, and led to an imbalance in the antioxidant defence system. These results differed from those of the group that was exposed to the energy drink. This might be related to other components contained in the energy drink, such as vitamins and minerals, which may have altered the ability of caffeine and taurine to modulate memory and attention.
The CNS activity of
Lippia alba liquid and spray-dried extracts, containing the non-volatile fraction from the leaves, was investigated.
L. alba liquid extracts were prepared by percolation with EtOH ...40, 60 or 80%. The liquid extracts, named ES
40%, ES
60% and ES
80%, were concentrated, the ethanol eliminated and then tested in Swiss mice to evaluate its sedative and anticonvulsant effects. The animals received the extracts, orally, in doses corresponding to 200 mg of dry residue by kilogram of body weight. All mice were evaluated in the barbiturate-induced sleep test. Similarly, other groups of mice were submitted to convulsions induced by pentylenetetrazol (PTZ). The concentrated extract obtained from ES
80% showed the most significant sedative and myorelaxant effects as well as the highest total flavonoid content (66 mg/100 g, expressed in apigenin). Two spray-dried powders, SDP
1 and SDP
2, were prepared from ES
80% using as excipients, respectively, colloidal silicon dioxide (CSD) and CSD associated to β-cyclodextrin. Only SDP
1 showed sedative profile similar to that presented by ES
80. In conclusion, we demonstrated that the non-volatile fraction of
L. alba, extracted in ethanol 80% (v/v), presents sedative and myorelaxant effects and that, among the tested extracts, this presents the highest flavonoid content. We demonstrated also the technological feasibility of spray-dried extracts and the influence of the excipient on its sedative properties.
A Bragg grating fast tunable filter prototype working over a linear tuning range of 45 nm with a maximum tuning speed of 21 nm/ms has been realized. The tunable filter system is based on two ...piezoelectric stack actuators moving a mechanical device thus compressing an apodized fiber Bragg grating. The filter allows both traction and compression and can work in transmission and in reflection. It is designed to work with a channel spacing of 100 GHz according to the ITU specifications for wavelength division multiplexing systems.
Extracts of Citrus aurantium L. (Rutaceae) unripe fruits have gained popularity for the treatment of obesity. Due to the wide use of C. aurantium/p-synephrine-containing products, this research was ...undertaken to evaluate its subchronic toxicity in mice and their actions in oxidative stress biomarkers. Groups of 9–10 mice received for 28 consecutive days a commercial C. aurantium dried extract (containing 7.5% p-synephrine) 400, 2000 or 4000mg/kg and p-synephrine 30 or 300mg/kg by oral gavage. There was a reduction in body weight gain of animals treated with both doses of p-synephrine. Organs relative weight, biochemical and hematological parameters were not altered in all treated mice. There was an increase in reduced glutathione (GSH) concentration in groups treated with C. aurantium 4000mg/kg and p-synephrine 30 and 300mg/kg. In glutathione peroxidase (GPx), there were an inhibition of the activity in C. aurantium 400 and 2000mg/kg and p-synephrine 30 and 300mg/kg treated animals, respectively, and was no alteration in malondialdehyde (MDA) levels. Thus, the results indicate a low subchronic toxicity of the tested materials in mice and a possible alteration in the oxidative metabolism. However, further tests are required to better elucidate the effects of these compounds in the antioxidant system.
We present a digital holographic microscope that permits one to image polarization state. This technique results from the coupling of digital holographic microscopy and polarization digital ...holography. The interference between two orthogonally polarized reference waves and the wave transmitted by a microscopic sample, magnified by a microscope objective, is recorded on a CCD camera. The off-axis geometry permits one to reconstruct separately from this single hologram two wavefronts that are used to image the object-wave Jones vector. We applied this technique to image the birefringence of a bent fiber. To evaluate the precision of the phase-difference measurement, the birefringence induced by internal stress in an optical fiber is measured and compared to the birefringence profile captured by a standard method, which had been developed to obtain high-resolution birefringence profiles of optical fibers.
We report on the fabrication of optical channel waveguides inside KY(WO
4)
2 crystals, both undoped and Yb-doped, for applications in compact solid-state lasers and three-dimensional photonic ...devices. Nonlinear absorption of femtosecond laser pulses has been employed in order to induce refractive-index changes in these crystals. The irradiation damage results in a decrease of the material density compared to the surrounding bulk. In this work, two types of buried channel waveguides have been fabricated in the KY(WO
4)
2 crystals. First ones (type I) were formed in the vicinity of the irradiated regions due to the presence of an induced compressive lattice strain, which causes an increase of the local refractive index. Light can be better confined in the second (type II) of channel waveguides that are created between pairs of damaged regions. For the best confined channels (type II), the propagation loss value measured at 1
μm amounted to 2–2.5
dB/cm.
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