Factors influencing pain and efficacy of topical photodynamic therapy:a retrospective study

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is widely used to treat superficial non-melanoma skin cancers and dysplasia. Pain may be experienced during irradiation, with one study showing pain intervention was required in 44% of PDT treatments. Other retrospective studies indicated that large treatment areas on head and neck sites, actinic keratoses and strong protoporphyrin IX fluorescence may be predictors of more severe PDT-induced pain, but data were not conclusive. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.</p

Syndromic surveillance to assess the potential public health impact of the Icelandic volcanic ash plume across the United Kingdom, April 2010

The Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland erupted on 14 April 2010 emitting a volcanic ash plume that spread across the United Kingdom and mainland Europe. The Health Protection Agency and Health Protection Scotland used existing syndromic surveillance systems to monitor community health during the incident: there were no particularly unusual increases in any of the monitored conditions. This incident has again demonstrated the use of syndromic surveillance systems for monitoring community health in real time

Irradiance, as well as body site and timing of readings, is important in determining ultraviolet A minimal erythemal dose. (Response to Gambichler et al. July BJD)

Gambichler et al. demonstrated that, in their population, using a 25 mWcm−2 ultraviolet A-1 (UVA-1) source the median 24-hour delayed minimal erythema dose (MED) on the inner forearm was &gt; 130 Jcm−2. This differs from the 20 Jcm−2 to 28 Jcm−2 median MED reported from our centre

Daylight photodynamic therapy:patient willingness to undertake home treatment

In the UK, almost one in four individuals over 60 are affected by actinic keratoses (AK), and this is a cause of significant morbidity in an ageing population, with risk of progression to squamous cell carcinoma. Daylight photodynamic therapy (dPDT) is an effective and simple treatment for field change AK, with similar efficacy to conventional PDT. Commonly, skin surface preparation is performed in a Dermatology clinic prior to dPDT. However, a recent German study by Karrer and colleagues investigated dPDT as a patient‐applied home‐delivered treatment for face and scalp AK and reported that patients who undertook this self‐administered treatment had high levels of efficacy, tolerance and patient satisfaction.<br/

Cluster Interpretation of Properties of Alternating Parity Bands in Heavy Nuclei

The properties of the states of the alternating parity bands in actinides, Ba, Ce and Nd isotopes are analyzed within a cluster model. The model is based on the assumption that cluster type shapes are produced by the collective motion of the nuclear system in the mass asymmetry coordinate. The calculated spin dependences of the parity splitting and of the electric multipole transition moments are in agreement with the experimental data.Comment: 29 pages, 10 figure

Effect of nucleon exchange on projectile multifragmentation in the reactions of 28Si + 112Sn and 124Sn at 30 and 50 MeV/nucleon

Multifragmentation of quasiprojectiles was studied in reactions of 28Si beam with 112Sn and 124Sn targets at projectile energies 30 and 50 MeV/nucleon. The quasiprojectile observables were reconstructed using isotopically identified charged particles with Z_f <= 5 detected at forward angles. The nucleon exchange between projectile and target was investigated using isospin and excitation energy of reconstructed quasiprojectile. For events with total reconstructed charge equal to the charge of the beam (Z_tot = 14) the influence of beam energy and target isospin on neutron transfer was studied in detail. Simulations employing subsequently model of deep inelastic transfer, statistical model of multifragmentation and software replica of FAUST detector array were carried out. A concept of deep inelastic transfer provides good description of production of highly excited quasiprojectiles. The isospin and excitation energy of quasiprojectile were described with good overall agreement. The fragment multiplicity, charge and isospin were reproduced satisfactorily. The range of contributing impact parameters was determined using backtracing procedure.Comment: 11 pages, 8 Postscript figures, LaTeX, to appear in Phys. Rev. C ( Dec 2000