Assessing the daily consistency of bladder filling using an ultrasonic Bladderscan device in men receiving radical conformal radiotherapy for prostate cancer

Consistency in target organ and organ at risk position from planning to treatment is an important basic principle of radiotherapy. This study evaluates the effectiveness of bladder-filling instructions in achieving a consistent and reproducible bladder volume at the time of planning CT and daily during the course of radical radiotherapy for prostate cancer. It also assessed the rate of bladder filling before and at the end of radiotherapy.

Response consistency in young adolescents’ drug use self-reports: a recanting rate analysis.

Aims: To assess the reliability of drug use reports by young respondents, this study examined the extent of recanting previous drug use reports within an ongoing longitudinal survey of adolescent drug use. Here, recanting was defined as a positive report of life-time drug use that was subsequently denied 1 year later. The covariates of recanting were also studied. Design: An ongoing longitudinal survey of young adolescents (Belfast Youth Development Study) in Northern Ireland. Setting: Pencil and paper questionnaires were administered to pupils within participating schools. Measurements: Measures analysed included (a) recanting rates across 13 substances, (b) educational characteristics, (c) offending behaviour and (d) socioeconomic status. Findings: High levels of drug use recanting were identified, ranging from 7% of past alcohol use to 87% of past magic mushroom use. Recanting increased with the social stigma of the substance used. Denying past alcohol use was associated with being male, attending a catholic school, having positive attitudes towards school, having negative education expectations and not reporting any offending behaviour. Recanting alcohol intoxication was associated with being male and not reporting serious offending behaviour. Cannabis recanting was associated with having negative education expectations, receiving drugs education and not reporting serious offending behaviour. Conclusions: The high levels of recanting uncovered cast doubts on the reliability of drug use reports from young adolescents. Failure to address this response error may lead to biased prevalence estimates, particularly within school surveys and drug education evaluation trials.

Self-assembled triple helicates with preferential helicity

The enantiomerically pure ligands LRR and LSS (N,N'-bis(-2,2'-bipyridyl-5-yl)carbonyl-(1S/R,2S/R)-(+/-)-1,2-diaminocyclohexane) have been synthesised by linking two 2,2'-bipyridine units by (R,R)- and (S,S)-1,2-diaminocyclohexane respectively. The crystal structure confirmed that the ligand had a twisted orientation between the two chelating units. The reaction of LRR and LSS with Fe(II), Co(III), Cd(II) and Zn(II) afforded dinuclear complexes confirmed by ES mass spectroscopy. CD spectroscopy indicated that the chiral diaminocyclohexane conferred helicity to the metal centre giving a dominant triple helicate diastereoisomer, with the LRR ligand giving a delta-configuration of each metal centre (P helicate) and the LSS ligand a lambda configuration (M helicate). 1H NMR spectroscopy confirmed a dominant major diastereoisomer with cadmium. The Zn(II) and Cd(II) complexes however were observed to undergo rapid ligand dissociation in solution.

Performance assessment of nanoscale double- and triple- gate FinFETs

This is the first paper to describe performance assessment of triple and double gate FinFETs for High Performance (HP), Low Operating Power (LOP) and Low Standby Power (LSTP) logic technologies is investigated. The impact of gate work-function, spacer width, lateral source/drain doping gradient, fin aspect ratio, fin thickness on device performance, has been analysed in detail and guidelines are presented to meet ITRS specification at 65 and 45 nm nodes. Optimal design of lateral source/drain doping profile can not only effectively control short channel effects, yielding low off-current, but also achieve low values of intrinsic gate delay.

Emission-line ratios for [N II] in gaseous nebulae and a comparison between theory and observation

R-matrix calculations of electron impact excitation rates among the 2s(2)2p(2) P-3, D-1, S-1, and 2s2p(3) S-5 levels of N II are presented. These results are used in conjunction with other recent calculations of electron impact excitation rates and Einstein A-coefficients for N II to derive the emission-line ratio: ratio diagrams and where (R-1, R-2) (R-1, R-3), where R-1 = I(5756.2 Angstrom)/I(6549.9 + 6585.2 Angstrom), R-2 = I(2143.5 Angstrom)/I(6549.9 + 6585.2 Angstrom), and R-3 = I(2139.7 Angstrom)/I(6549.9 + 658.2 Angstrom), for a range of electron temperatures (T-e = 5000-20,000 K) and electron densities (N-e = 10(2)-10(7) cm(-3)) appropriate to gaseous nebulae. These diagrams should, in principle, allow the simultaneous determination of T-e and N-e from measurements of the [N II] lines in a spectrum. Plasma parameters deduced for a sample of gaseous nebulae, using observational data obtained from ground-based telescopes plus the International Ultraviolet Explorer and Hubble Space Telescope satellites, are found to show generally excellent internal consistency and to be in good agreement with the values of T-e and N-e estimated from other line ratios. These results provide observational support for the accuracy of the theoretical ratios and hence the atomic data adopted in their derivation. Theoretical ratios are also presented for the infrared line pair R-4 = I(122 mum)/I(205 mum), and the usefulness of R-4 as an electron density diagnostic is briefly discussed.

Electron impact ionization of He above the threshold

Near-threshold ionization of He has been studied by using a uniform semiclassical wavefunction for the two outgoing electrons in the final channel. The quantum mechanical transition amplitude for the direct and exchange scattering derived earlier by using the Kohn variational principle has been used to calculate the triple differential cross sections. Contributions from singlets and triplets are critically examined near the threshold for coplanar asymmetric geometry with equal energy sharing by the two outgoing electrons. It is found that in general the tripler contribution is much smaller compared to its singlet counterpart. However, at unequal scattering angles such as theta (1) = 60 degrees, theta (2) = 120 degrees the smaller peaks in the triplet contribution enhance both primary and secondary TDCS peaks. Significant improvements of the primary peak in the TDCS are obtained for the singlet results both in symmetric and asymmetric geometry indicating the need to treat the classical action variables without any approximation. Convergence of these cross sections are also achieved against the higher partial waves. Present results are compared with absolute and relative measurements of Rosel et al (1992 Phys. Rev. A 46 2539) and Selles et al (1987 J. Phys. B. At. Mel. Phys. 20 5195) respectively.

Metal-Directed Synthesis of Enantiomerially Pure Dimetallic Lanthanide Luminescent Triple-Stranded Helicates

The synthesis and photophysical evaluation of two enatiomerially pure dimetallic lanthanide luminescent triple-stranded helicates is described. The two systems, formed from the chiral (R,R) ligand 1 and (S,S) ligand 2, were produced as single species in solution, where the excitation of either the naphthalene antennae or the pyridiyl units gave rise to Eu(III) emission in a variety of solvents. Excitation of the antennae also gave rise to circularly polarized Eu(III) luminescence emissions for Eu2:13 and Eu2:23 that were of equal intensity and opposite sign, confirming their enantiomeric nature in solution providing a basis upon which we were able to assign the absolute configurations of Eu2:13 and Eu2:23.

Formation of Novel Di-Nuclear Lanthanide Luminescent Sm(III), Eu(III) and Tb(III) Triple Stranded Helicates from a C2 Symmetrically 2,6-Dicarboxylic Amide based 1,3-Xylene Ligand in CH3CN

The synthesis of the C2-symmetrical ligand 1 consisting of two naphthalene units connected to two pyridine-2,6-dicarboxamide moieties linked by a xylene spacer and the formation of LnIII-based (Ln1/4 Sm, Eu, Tb, and Lu) dimetallic helicates [Ln2 · 13] in MeCN by means of a metal-directed synthesis is described. By analyzing the metal-induced changes in the absorption and the fluorescence of 1, the formation of the helicates, and the presence of a second species [Ln2 · 12] was confirmed by nonlinear- regression analysis. While significant changes were observed in the photophysical properties of 1, the most dramatic changes were observed in the metal-centred lanthanide emissions, upon excitation of the naphthalene antennae. From the changes in the lanthanide emission, we were able to demonstrate that these helicates were formed in high yields (ca. 90% after the addition of 0.6 equiv. of LnIII), with high binding constants, which matched well with that determined from the changes in the absorption spectra. The formation of the LuIII helicate, [ Lu2 · 13 ] , was also investigated for comparison purposes, as we were unable to obtain accurate binding constants from the changes in the fluorescence emission upon formation of [Sm2 · 13], [Eu2 · 13], and [Tb2 · 13].

Effect of temperature and mixing conditions on quality and consistency of poly(methyl methacrylate) bone cement

The mixing of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) bone cement has been studied to develop methods for preparing a consistently high quality cement. A novel droplet test experimental procedure was developed that characterised the wetting characteristics involved in bone cement mixing. Using this technique it was established that increased wetting occurred by mixing bone cement at a lower temperature (-28 degreesC) than normal mixing at room temperature.