Risedronate sodium is an orally active antiresorptive agent and a member of the pyridinyl class of bisphosphonates. It has been approved for the treatment of Paget’s disease of the bone and is under ...development as a chronic therapy for the treatment and prevention of osteoporosis. A novel cellulose film-coated tablet formulation was developed to optimize esophageal transit of this bisphosphonate. The aim of the present study was to compare the esophageal transit of the film-coated tablet formulation of risedronate with its original gelatin capsule dose form. A total of 25 elderly, healthy volunteers (mean 66 years), who were dysphagia-free, participated in this randomized cross-over study. On separate occasions, volunteers swallowed radiolabeled placebo formulations with 50 ml water. Dynamic images with participants in a sitting position were recorded for 10 min using a gamma camera. Scintigraphic imaging showed a delay in esophageal transit (greater than 15 s) in 28% of patients in the capsule group but in none of the tablet group (
P<0.05). The mean transit times of the capsules and tablets were 23.8 and 3.3 s, respectively. Esophageal transit of film-coated tablets was faster than gelatin capsules, suggesting that film-coated tablets would be the appropriate formulation for all pivotal trials with risedronate and for subsequent commercialization.
A laboratory experiment was used to investigate the effects on decision-maker performance of using geographic information system (GIS) technology as a spatial decision support system (SDSS). GIS are ...increasingly being used for decision-making, yet research about their contributions to the performance of decision-makers has been lacking. This study makes a contribution to that apparent void. Volunteer subjects completed a site location task that required decisions to be made based upon spatially referenced information. Performance was operationalized as elapsed time and accuracy. The task environment was manipulated in two dimensions. In one dimension, task complexity was varied on two levels. In the other dimension, some subjects were provided a geographic information system as a decision aid; the rest were not. Significant differences were found between task solutions developed by SDSS users and those developed by non-SDSS users. SDSS users experienced shorter solution times and fewer errors for both levels of task complexity. The study builds upon and extends image theory as a basis for explaining efficiency differences resulting from different graphical displays of spatial information.
The second phase of the Beam Energy Scan at RHIC, BES-II, is scheduled for 2019–2020 and will explore with precision measurements the high baryon density region of the QCD phase diagram. The program ...will examine the energy region of interest determined from the results of BES-I. Some of the key measurements anticipated are: the net-protons kurtosis that could pinpoint the position of a critical point, the directed flow that might prove a softening of the EOS, and the chiral restoration in the dilepton channel. The measurements will be possible with the order of magnitude better statistics provided by the electron cooling upgrade of RHIC and with the detector upgrades planned to extend STAR's experimental reach. The upgrades are: the inner TPC sectors (iTPC), the Event Plane Detector (EPD), and the end-cap TOF (eTOF). We present the BES-II program details and the physics opportunities enabled by these upgrades.
The STAR Vertex Position Detector Llope, W.J.; Zhou, J.; Nussbaum, T. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
09/2014, Volume:
759
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The 2×3 channel pseudo Vertex Position Detector (pVPD) in the STAR experiment at RHIC has been upgraded to a 2×19 channel detector in the same acceptance, called the Vertex Position Detector (VPD). ...This detector is fully integrated into the STAR trigger system and provides the primary input to the minimum-bias trigger in Au+Au collisions. The information from the detector is used both in the STAR Level-0 trigger and offline to measure the location of the primary collision vertex along the beam pipe and the event “start time” needed by other fast-timing detectors in STAR. The offline timing resolution of single detector channels in full-energy Au+Au collisions is ~100ps, resulting in a start time resolution of a few tens of picoseconds and a resolution on the primary vertex location of ~1cm.
The linear and mode-coupled contributions to higher-order anisotropic flow are presented for Au+Au collisions at sNN = 27, 39, 54.4, and 200 GeV and compared to similar measurements for Pb+Pb ...collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The coefficients and the flow harmonics' correlations, which characterize the linear and mode-coupled response to the lower-order anisotropies, indicate a beam energy dependence consistent with an influence from the specific shear viscosity (η/s). In contrast, the dimensionless coefficients, mode-coupled response coefficients, and normalized symmetric cumulants are approximately beam-energy independent, consistent with a significant role from initial-state effects. These measurements could provide unique supplemental constraints to (i) distinguish between different initial-state models and (ii) delineate the temperature (T) and baryon chemical potential (μB) dependence of the specific shear viscosity ηs(T,μB).
We introduce two-particle pt correlations as a function of event centrality for Au+Au collisions at √sNN = 7.7, 11.5, 14.5, 19.6, 27, 39, 62.4, and 200 GeV at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider ...using the STAR detector. These results are compared to previous measurements from CERES at the Super Proton Synchrotron and from ALICE at the Large Hadron Collider. The data are compared with UrQMD model calculations and with a model based on a Boltzmann-Langevin approach incorporating effects from thermalization. The relative dynamical correlations for Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV reveal a power law dependence on the number of participant nucleons 3 and agree with the results for Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV from ALICE. As the collision energy is lowered from $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV to 7.7 GeV, the centrality dependence of the relative dynamical correlations departs from the power law behavior observed at the higher collision energies. In central collisions, the relative dynamical correlations increase with collision energy up to $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV in contrast to previous measurements that showed little dependence on the collision energy.
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