20119 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 113: 2499-2506, 2009″
“Background Few studies have described improvement in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) associated with opioid dependence treatment with buprenorphine (ODT-B).

Objective To evaluate HRQOL changes in domain

scores, physical and mental component summaries, and health utilities (HUs) associated with ODT-B using the Short Form 36 (SF-36).

Methods We assessed HRQOL changes in a substudy of a pharmacokinetic study that compared buprenorphine oral tablet and liquid dosage formulations over 16 weeks. Individuals, aged 18-65 years, were screened for opioid dependence. They were excluded if they would not agree to birth control or had a serious medical condition. Subjects received psychosocial counseling ACY-738 MCC950 price and weekly group therapy. The SF-36 was administered upon enrollment and at 4-week intervals. We used the SF-6D to estimate HUs. We performed intention to treat (ITT) analyses based on the last observation available for each subject. Paired t tests of each domain and HU, limited to remaining patients at each 4-week interval, were also conducted.

Results Of 96 subjects enrolled, cumulative dropouts over time resulted in 80, 69, 59, and 44 subjects remaining at 4, 8, 12, and 16 weeks. There were no significant differences in opioid-positive urines, dropout rates,

or dosage changes between formulations. In the ITT analyses, HRQOL improvements over time were bodily pain (62.1 vs. 69.1, P = 0.017), vitality (49.8 vs. 56.5, P = 0.001), mental health (59.9 vs. 66.0, P = 0.001), social function (66.4 vs. 74.7, P = 0.001), role emotional (59.4 vs. 71.9, P = 0.003), role physical (60.9 GSK923295 vs. 70.6, P = 0.005), and

mental component summary (41.9 vs. 45.4, P < 0.001). HU scores also improved (0.674 vs. 0.715, P = 0.001). Results from paired t tests, with only concurrently enrolled patients, showed similar improvements from baseline to 4, 8, 12, or 16 weeks.

Conclusion Buprenorphine, accompanied with psychosocial counseling, was associated with improved HRQOL and HUs.”
“We present a general analysis of the coupling of nonlinear photonic crystal cavities using coupled-mode theory. The nonlinear transmission properties of two coupled nonlinear cavities have been investigated. We validate the analysis by comparing the theoretical result with rigorous numerical simulations based on finite-difference time-domain techniques. A device consisting of two nonidentical photonic crystal cavities is proposed, by which we demonstrate that this theory can be employed for designing high-contrast all-optical switches or diodes. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3246783]“
“The electrospinning of the biopolymer chitosan (CS) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) was investigated with 90% acetic acid as the solvent and with different CS/PVA ratios.