The assay is highly reproducible, less hazardous (involves no radioactivity) and requires little and cheap technical equipment. Relatively unskilled personnel can conduct this user-friendly assay. All this makes it attractive to be employed in resource-poor laboratories.”
“The focus of this study was the notched impact property of high-density polyethylene (HDPE)organoclay composites and the resultant morphology of impact-fractured surfaces. Composites with a different organoclay content and degree of organoclay dispersion were compared with neat HDPE under identical
conditions. The degree of organoclay dispersion was controlled through the use of a compatibilizer, maleic anhydride grafted
polyethylene. It was found that the addition of organoclay can slightly increase the elastic modulus and HM781-36B notched impact strength of the composite. When the level of organoclay dispersion was improved by using compatibilizer, NU7441 DNA Damage inhibitor elastic modulus and toughness further increased. A significant increase in yield strength was also notable. The presence of organoclay was found to suppress strain hardening of the matrix during tensile testing. The impact-fractured surfaces of failed specimens were studied with scanning electron microscopy. The micromechanism for the increased toughness of HDPE-organoclay composites was discussed. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 113:1887-1897, 2009″
“Introduction: Patients suffering from brain tumours often experience a wide range of cognitive impairments that impair their ability to report on their quality of life and symptom burden. The use of proxy ratings by significant others may be a promising alternative to gain information for medical decision making or research purposes, if self-ratings are not obtainable. Our study investigated the agreement of quality of life and symptom ratings by the patient him/herself or by a significant other.
Methods: Patients with primary selleck brain tumours were recruited at the neurooncological outpatient unit of Innsbruck Medical University. Quality of life
self- and proxy-ratings were collected using the EORTC QLQ-C30 and its brain cancer module, the QLQ-BN20.
Results: Between May 2005 and August 2007, 42 pairs consisting of a patient and his/her significant other were included in the study. Most of the employed quality of life scales showed fairly good agreement between patient-and proxy-ratings (median correlation 0.46). This was especially true for Physical Functioning, Sleeping Disturbances, Appetite Loss, Constipation, Taste Alterations, Visual Disorders, Motor Dysfunction, Communication Deficits, Hair Loss, Itchy Skin, Motor Dysfunction and Hair Loss. Worse rater agreement was found for Social Functioning, Emotional Functioning, Cognitive Functioning, Fatigue, Pain, Dyspnoea and Seizures.