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Notes: : One hundred patients with a clinical diagnosis of a primary or secondary superficial pyoderma were entered into a double-blind study. They were allocated treatment with either trimethoprim-polymyxin B sulfate cream or fusidic acid cream according to a fully randomized treatment code. Data suitable for evaluation were obtained from 87 patients, and statistical analysis revealed trimethoprim-polymyxin B sulfate (TP) cream to be significantly better than fusidic acid cream in alleviating several of the individual signs and symptoms associated with pyogenic infection of the skin as well as in reducing the overall severity score at the end of the 2-week study period.

Notes: The only carotenoid detected in newly fertilized eggs of wild Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, from western Scotland was astaxanthin at a concentration [μg carotenoid g−1 wet wt of eggs, mean ±S.D. (number of parental females)] of 6.2±1.2(7) in 1982, 6.4±1.8(20) in 1983, and 7.6 ± 13(6) in 1984. In eggs of farmed Atlantic salmon the only carotenoid detected was canthaxanthin at concentrations which varied significantly between farms depending on the level of synthetic canthaxanthin in the broodstock diet. Thus on two farms using feed with 50 μgg−1, the levels were 11.8 ± 3.4(7) and 12.3 ± 2.9(6), while on two farms using 75μgg−1 the levels were 18.7 ± 5.0(9) and 21.2 ± 2.7(21). The levels in eggs of one-seawinter fish (grilse) did not differ from those of two-seawinter fish reared on the same farm and diet. During development from newly fertilized egg to fry at the end of yolk-sac absorption, the quantity of carotenoid present per individual decreased, presumably as a result of metabolism. Despite large differences in quantity present, the quantity so metabolized was fairly constant at 2–4 μg carotenoid g−1 original egg weight for eggs from two-seawinter farmed and wild salmon, except that in eggs from farmed grilse it was 7 μg g−1. In fry from wild eggs, 99.14% of the remaining carotenoid was present in the integument (skin and fins) as astaxanthin, astaxanthin monoester and astaxanthin diester. In fry from farmed salmon eggs, 47 ± 8% of the carotenoid present was found in the unused yolk oil droplets and in the liver, and 37 ± 6% was found in the integument as canthaxanthin and an unidentified metabolite of canthaxanthin. These findings explain visible colour differences between fry from wild parents and fry from canthaxanthin-fed farmed parents, particularly in the fins, liver and residual oil droplets. The canthaxanthin metabolite was also found, together with canthaxanthin, in the skin of farmed adults fed canthaxanthin. Preliminary tests showed it to be unchanged by saponification but reduced by sodium borohydride. For eggs from the three farms incubated under the same conditions in the same season, percentage mortality both to the eyed stage and between hatching and first feeding varied significantly between farms, but percentage mortality between the eyed stage and hatching did not do so. Results combined from two seasons for eggs from three farms and one wild source showed that egg mortality between fertilization and the eyed stage was not significantly different between wild and farmed salmon, but mortality between the eyed stage and hatching, and between hatching and first feeding, were both significantly higher in farmed salmon than in wild salmon. Such differences could not be explained simply by the large differences in egg carotenoid content, but were almost certainly due to factors such as broodstock nutrition, broodstock management, and stripping and fertilization procedures.

Notes: [Auszug] A recent Wall Street Journal article (“Attempts to Regulate Gene Splicing Harmony Between U.S., Industry,” Jan. 9, 1985) noted a remarkably cooperative spirit between the regulators and the regulated in the first stages of commercial biotechnology's development. Establishing such ...

Notes: This study assessed how ratings of the importance of contraceptive attributes varied with gender, age, relationship status, and contraceptive method usually used. In a classroom setting, 210 male and 217 female university students completed the 55-item Contraceptive Attribute Questionnaire (CAQ). Significant differences on importance ratings were found between women and men, age groups, women using barrier methods and women using the pill, and by relationship status. The underlying dimensions of the CAQ were investigated through factor analysis, and somewhat different factors emerged for men and women. Implications for the provision of family planning services to college students are discussed.

Notes: Summary 1. In a selection of representatives of the four major types of bisquaternary ammonium compounds selectively interfering with neuromuscular transmission and of some congeners lacking such selectivity, the linear intramolecular distance between the two reactive onium nitrogens was measured in molecular models. 2. The reactive atom distance was found to be variable over a wide range in each individual compound, multiple rotation about atomic bonds along the N-to-N interjacence allowing variation of the spatial arrangement of the molecule. 3. From no aspect, including the assumption that the maximum N-to-N distance is prevalent because of the mutual repulsion of the cationic heads, was it possible to find any correlation between selective activity and the reactive atom distance. 4. These observations and a discussion of other pertinent data were employed to evaluate the hypothesis that the N-to-N interjacence of bis-onium compounds serves as a rigid spacer of the cationic heads and that curarizing activity is explained by the reaction of optimally spaced onium groups of the drug with equidistant co-reactive groups of a biological receptor substance (equidistance hypothesis of curarizing activity). It is concluded that the equidistance hypothesis in its present form cannot be reconciled with the facts known about any of the various types of drug interference with neuromuscular transmission and the prominent representatives of these activities. 5. In order to demonstrate that with no lesser ease diametrically opposite concepts can be formed, in which the emphasis is shifted from the mere spacer role of the interjacence to the details of the spatial arrangement of the interjacence, an example is presented of the application of an “adumbration” hypothesis of curarizing activity to the series of bis-onium polymethylenes; in contrast to the equidistance hypothesis, this hypothesis applies to non-bis-onium compounds as well as to bis-oniums. 6. The adumbration hypothesis, though by no means offered as an explanation of curarizing activity, is found useful to accentuate the necessity of a return to considerations of the totality of tectonic and bonding potentialities whihc determine the spatial and energetic fit between drug and receptor.