Chemical-vapor deposited semiconducting diamond is an excellent sensor material for harsh environments and high temperatures. The piezoresistive gauge factors measured at 300 K are in the ranges 200-550 and 6-25 for homoepitaxial and polycrystalline p-type diamond films, respectively. The gauge factor for polycrystalline films decreases with decreasing resistivity, but increases with increasing temperature. A multi-sensor microchip, with a number of diamond test structures and a minimum feature size of 5 mu m, has been fabricated using a six-mask process. The chip, employing diamond both as an electronic and a mechanical material, is expected to help commercialize integrated diamond sensors in the near term.

Gold sodium thiomalate was incubated with one cadmium-sensitive cell line and two cadmium-resistant variants. The resistant lines have been reported to synthesize metallothionein (MT) in response to both cadmium and zinc, whereas the sensitive line does not. All cell lines showed a dose-dependent inhibition of growth as a result of gold sodium thiomalate treatment. However, daily comparisons of cell numbers indicate that the cadmium-resistant lines actually increase in number at the highest gold concentrations, whereas numbers of cells in the nonresistant line decrease. MT biosynthesis was measured by monitoring the incorporation of [35S )cysteine into low molecular weight protein. None of the cells synthesized MT in response to gold. When incubated with both zinc and gold, MT was synthesized by both of the cadmium resistant lines; however, the amount of MT synthesized was reduced in the presence of gold which appears to inhibit the uptake of [35S]cysteine by all the cell lines. Although MT is synthesized in the presence of zinc and gold sodium thiomalate, the MT does not have a significant effect on the ability of these cells to withstand high concentrations of gold.

Auranofin, 2,3,4,6-tetra- O -acetyl-1-thio-β-D-glucopyranosato- S -(triethylphosphine)- gold(I), an experimental antiarthritis pharmaceutical, metabolized in contact with hamster or rat gut wall to yield the deacetylated form of the drug. This product, 1-thio-β-D-glucopyranosato- S -(triethylphosphine)gold(I), passed through hamster or rat intestinal wall in an everted gut experiment. The metabolite was separated by high-performance liquid chromatography and characterized by retention time, chemical reactivity to yield a known product, and comparison to a synthetic sample of the metabolite.