National groups majority nations

The abciximab in Acute Ischemic Stroke trial was a randomized, placebo-controlled dose-escalation study to examine the safety of abciximab in acute stroke. It randomized 74 patients within 24 hours of stroke onset to receive one of four doses of abciximab (by bolus with or without additional infusion, 54 patients) or placebo (20 patients). The median baseline National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score was 15. The rates of asymptomatic ICH were 19% in the intervention group compared to 5% in the placebo group p = 0.07). Most (9 of 11) of the asymptomatic ICH patients had more severe stroke (NIHSS >14). No cases of symptomatic ICH or major systemic bleeding occurred. There was a trend toward a lower rate of stroke recurrence (2% vs. 5%) and a higher rate of functional recovery at 3 months in the group treated with abciximab than with placebo. 

The Promochem Group was the first international specialist supplier of certified reference materials (CRMs) and pharmaceutical reference substances used in environmental, medical and trace element analysis. Their experience provides a viewpoint that echoes, reinforces and expands on many of the trends discussed above (Jenks 1997). From the middle of the 1980 s, sales of CRM by Promochem increased between 10 % and 20 % annually, depending on the market sector and application. Since then National and International Metrology Institutes, such as the now privatized U.K. Laboratory of the Government Chemist (LGC), the European and U.S. Pharmacopoeias, the E.U. IRMM and others have recognized that efficient distribution of RMs, backed by available technical support, is as important as production and certification. Thus, they have moved to spread their influence outside their national origins. The Web and e-commerce will continue to grow as major facilitators of better information dissemination and supply of CRMs. 

The second milestone event in the USA in the 1990s was passage of the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) in 1996. The goal of the FQPA was to assure a reasonable certainty of no harm as a result of exposure to pesticides for all US population groups. The FQPA incorporated into federal law the major recommendations of the 1993 National Academy of Sciences (NAS)/NRC report, as well as the recommendations of a 1987 NAS/NRC report entitled Regulating Pesticides in Food The Delaney Paradox (National Research Council, 1987). 

In order to focus on more of the basic research problems related to radon, a symposium was organized in conjunction with the 191th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society. This volume presents most of the reports given at that symposium. There are five major groups of reports occurrence, measurement methods, physical and chemical properties of radon and its decay products, health effects, and mitigation of radon levels. 

The RA 25 contract has been extended by CEC and renumbered RA 100 in order to continue this exercise with the ISO 1182 apparatus. However, the major part of the work of the RA 100 group will be the preparation of unified test reports for each of the test methods, which will ensure that all the necessary details are recorded to enable a product to be classified in any of the EEC Member States. Two new laboratories, i.e. the French Laboratoire National d Essai and the Danish Dantest, joined the previous seven. 

A recent report by the National Institutes of Health estimated that at 14 to 22 million people in the United States are affected by an autoimmune disease.1 As a group, these diseases represent a leading cause of death among women under age 65, with systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, and type 1 diabetes being the major sources of this impact on mortality.2 The autoimmune thyroid diseases, type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis are the most common of the autoimmune diseases (Table 25.1).3-5 Most autoimmune diseases disproportionately affect women. In the thyroid diseases, primary biliary cirrhosis, scleroderma, systemic lupus erythematosus, and Sjogren s syndrome, more than 85% of patients are female, but it is not known why the female predominance is so high in these specific diseases. 

There are four other major projects which are conducting continuing and systematic compilations of evaluated thermodynamic data on aqueous solutions. One of these is the Electrolyte Data Center of the National Bureau of Standards. Publications of this and related groups at NBS are cited in references (10, 11, 17., 25, 52, 59, 63, 71, 72, 73, 122, and 139). This work will be described more fully by Dr. Staples in the fifth lecture of this session. 

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