Abstract: Pharmaceutical compositions are described for preventing neurotoxicity, crising as active ingredient the stereospecific (+) enantiomer, having (3S,4S) configuration of .DELTA..sup.6 tetrahydrocannabinol type compounds. The compositions are particularly effective in alleviating and even preventing neurotoxicity due to acute injuries to the central nervous system, including mechanical trauma, compromised or reduced blood supply as may occur in cardiac arrest or stroke, or poisonings. They are also effective in the treatment of certain chronic degenerative diseases characterized by gradual neuronal loss.

Abstract: The present invention pertains to a method of controlling the microstructure and service properties of electrically conductive transparent and other materials by passing an electrical current through the materials while simultaneously employing an additional process. Examples of the additional process include heating, sintering, deposition, casting, electrical arcing, and immersion in liquids. In one embodiment of the present invention, the additional process is deposition of a transparent conductive coating material while passing a current through the deposited coating along the surface of the coated material.

Abstract: A method for preserving mammalian hearts while under ischemic conditions is accomplished by exposing the heart to a preservation solution containing a pharmacologically effective concentration of a Na.sup.+ /K.sup.+ /Cl.sup.- co-transporter blocker agent, such as Furosemide, Bumetanide or Piretanide, thereby extending survival of the heart.

Abstract: A laser beam waveguide particularly useful for transmitting infrared laser radiation includes a flexible, hollow plastic tube; a metal layer on the inner surface of the hollow plastic tube; a thin dielectric film on the inner surface of the metal layer; and a flexible layer over the outer surface of the hollow plastic tube capable of absorbing infrared radiation and preventing kinking of the hollow plastic tube.

Abstract: A hollow waveguide for guiding laser energy, includes a proximal end for receiving the laser energy and a distal end terminating in a distal tip for delivering the laser energy to a working area. The distal end of the hollow waveguide includes an annular, converging, inner surface converging the laser energy towards the distal tip such as to concentrate the laser energy delivered through the distal tip to the working area. Also described are methods of making the hollow waveguide.

Abstract: Encapsulation of active materials in chitosan beads of uniform size and improved mechanical and chemical stability. The active material is suspended in an acidic aqueous solution of a chitosan having a molecular weight of less than 250,000, the suspension is added dropwise to a crosslinking solution of diphosphate and glyoxal hydrate and the resulting beads are cured. It is possible to coat the active material with oil prior to suspension.

Abstract: The invention relates to a preparation exhibiting enzymatic activity, which preparation has the capability of delignifying wood pulp at a temperature of at least 65.degree. C. and a pH of at least 9. Further, the invention relates to a method of producing said preparation by aerobically fermentating a selected Bacillus stearothermophilus strain. Furthermore, the invention relates to two isolated Bacillus stearothermophilus strains and mutants and variants thereof. The invention also relates to applications of the preparation of the invention, namely to a process comprising treatment of wood pulp with a preparation according to the invention, and a wood pulp and a fluff pulp treated with a preparation according to the invention, and also a paper, a board and a fluff made from a wood pulp treated with a preparation according to the invention.

Abstract: The use of a compound of the formula: ##STR1## having the (3S,4S) configuration, and which is essentially free of the (3R,4R) enantiomer, wherein A--B designates a 1(2) or a 6(1) double bond, R designates --CH.sub.3 or --CH.sub.2 OH, R.sup.1 designates a hydrogen atom or a lower acyl group, and R.sup.2 designates (A) a straight-chained or branched C.sub.6-12 alkyl radical; or (B) a group --O--R.sup.3, in which R.sup.3 is a straight-chained or branched C.sub.5-9 alkyl radical or a straight-chained or branched alkyl radical substituted at the terminal carbon atom by a phenyl group in the manufacture of a medicament for reducing or preventing glutamate neurotoxicity. Some of the above compounds are novel, and their preparation is described.

Abstract: There are provided novel anodes for lithium alloy electrochemical cells, and cells based on such anodes. The alloys used comprise one or more active metals which leaves or leave the anode matrix during discharge of the cell, with the alloy remaining in an intermediate variostoichiometric range during both charge and discharge of the cell. The curve of open circuit voltage as well as working condition voltage versus lithium content of the anode slopes, with no appreciable plateau. A specific embodiment relates to such anodes with a solid polymer electrolyte containing a suitable polymer. Another embodiment refers to porous electrodes made by sintering an alloy powder with a binder.

Abstract: The invention relates to a novel assay for the determination of entities having biological activity and to a device for carrying out such determinations. The assay is a very sensitive one and quantities in the picogram per milliliter range can be determined. The assay is based on chrono-coulometric measurements with sequential measurements of a plurality of samples being carried out with the aid of a multiplexer, in combination with a potentiostat, there being provided suitable electrodes and means for applying a predetermined voltage. One of the electrodes is advantageously a glassy carbon electrode, carbon felt or cloth or carbon paper. Amongst biologically active entities there are antibodies/antigens; hormones/receptors; nuclotides/nucleotide probes, one of the members of such a pair being immobilized on an electrode surface, being tagged with an enzyme providing a signal in coulometric measurements.

Abstract: Interferon-beta, preferably in low doses, is used for stimulation of erythropoiesis in disorders characterized by lack of maturation of progenitor blood cells to red cells.

Abstract: The invention relates to a drug system for the treatment and alleviation of the symptoms of epilepsy; as anticonvulsant agent, and for the prevention or alleviation of brain damage due to strokes. The drug system comprises as active ingredient a compound such as MK-801, phencyclidine or as thienyl-cyclohexyl-piperidine (TCP), which is administered in such a manner that it encounters and binds to the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor channels. This is in the presence of glutamate or glycine, or similarly acting amino-acid, which is either present in the patient, or which can be administered separately. The effective drug can be effectively locked in the receptor channels by means of a glutamate antagonist, such as AP-5.

Abstract: A method for the bromination of aromatic compounds, including substituted deactivated aromatic compounds, at mild temperature conditions is disclosed. The method comprises reacting an aromatic compound with a bromination agent consisting of bromine-trifluoride and bromine at a temperature ranging between -10.degree. C. and 30.degree. C. The bromination reaction takes place instantaneously and the brominated aromatic compound is separated from the original reactant by known organic chemistry techniques.

Abstract: The invention relates to compositions which are capable of selectively binding a biologically active protein, retaining its activity. Such compositions have essentially three parts, linked together: a water-insoluble carrier, an antibody bound by the carrier and being against the Fc region of an immunoglobulin and an antibody bound thereto which is specific towards the protein which is to be bound to this composition. Proteins of choice are enzymes and isoenzymes such as carboxypeptidas A or isoenzyme 5 of porcine lactate dehydrogenase. Preferably the antibody bound to the carrier is a polyclonal anti-mouse antibody and the antibody bound thereto is a monoclonal mouse antibody. Based on such compositions, there is provided an assay for the quantitative determination of such proteins.

Abstract: Ophthalmologic apparatus for fundus examination of a patient's eyes, comprises a base, an illumination device carried by the base and rotatable about a vertical axis, a microscope carried by the base and rotatable about the vertical axis, a fixture for fixing the patient's head and eyes with respect to the vertical axis, a vertical rod carried by the base along the vertical axis, and a lens carried at the upper end of the vertical rod in the optical axis of the microscope and the examined eye and displaced from the vertical axis towards the examined eye such as to image the retina of the examined eye at a location for reimaging it by the microscope. The described apparatus enables funduscopic examinations to be made in a very convenient manner using existing opthalmological slit lamps.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for producing ions by surface ionization by increasing the molecular energy of the substance to be ionized to the hyperthermal energy range, and directing a beam of the substance to impinge against a solid surface disposed in a vacuum chamber. The solid surface is one e.g., clean diamond or dirty molybdenum, which is capable of inducing from the substance, e.g., an organic halide, molecular ionization or dissociative ionization of the substance, and one which does not react with the molecules or tend to neutralize the produced ions. The molecular energy includes kinetic energy gained in aerodynamic acceleration by seeding a light gas, e.g., hydrogen or helium, with molecules of the substance to be ionized, thereby producing a hyperthermal beam of 0.5-20 electron volts of the substance to be ionized.

Abstract: A device for transferring a portion of a sample to a culture medium to detect the presence of microorganisms in the sample comprises: a supporting member including two panels hinged together along one edge to permit the panels to assume a folded condition with one panel folded over the other, or an open condition; a culture medium carried on the face of one or both panels facing each other when the panels are in their folded condition; and a transfer member adapted to be supported between the faces of the two panels when in their folded condition and dimensioned such that the opposite ends of the transfer member project from the opposite ends of the culture medium, whereby one projecting end may be brought into contact with the sample to pick-up a part thereof, and the opposite projecting end may be grasped by the user and pulled to move the one end of the transfer member between the contacting faces of the folded panels to transfer and dilute, by smearing, the picked-up sample to the culture medium.

Abstract: A probe, for determining local shear stress on the face of a solid surface caused by relative movement between it and a fluid, comprises a 3-dimensional array of seven spaced electrodes constituted of: one electrode at the center of the array, two electrodes equally spaced from said center electrode along a first line through said center, two electrodes equally spaced from said center electrode along a second line through said center and perpendicular to said first line, and two electrodes equally spaced from said center electrode along a third line through said center and perpendicular to said first and second lines. The probe further includes magnetic means for producing a magnetic field in the region of the electrodes.

Abstract: A method of depositing a heat reflecting coating on the inner surface of a tube comprises: introducing the tube into the second zone of a furnace having two temperature zones; injecting into the first zone a mixture of chemicals capable of reacting to form the coating material; simultaneously injecting into the first zone towards the second zone a plurality of jets of a carrier gas defining an annular array of jets around the first jet, and a further jet of a carrier gas also substantially parallel to the first jet but spaced closer thereto; controlling the temperature of the first zone to effect vaporization of the mixture in the first jet; and controlling the temperature of the second zone to effect the reaction of the vaporized materials of the mixture to form the coating material, and the deposition of the coating material on the surface of the tube in the second zone.

Abstract: Heavy elements such as Pb, Zn, Cd, Ni, Cu and Cr constitute health hazards and are sources for environmental pollution. These elements should therefore be removed from industrial effluents. Biomass of Cladosporium cladosporioides (Fresen.) de Vries. Acc. No. 285712 is readily produced by culture in either standard fungal medium or on media composed of food-industry wastes: whey and distillery slop. The thus produced fungal biomass efficiently removes heavy elements from liquid solutions. Removal is achieved from fluids containing single heavy elements as well as from fluids containing two or more such elements. The removal of Cr can be vastly improved by Pb pretreatment of the biomass. Elements absorbed by Cladosporium cladosporioides Acc. No. 285712 are quantitatively removable providing an effluent-cleaning system which is renewable.