Parameters influencing the fracture of Mo films and their wider significance.

Fragmentation testing has been used for decades to assess thin film fracture and delamination. Hooke's law is generally used to determine a film fracture stress from the crack onset strain observed in micrographs or measured as an electrical resistance increase. While this method is in theory suitable in the elastic regime, it neglects important film characteristics, such as residual stress, microstructure, or film architecture. Thus, there is a need to improve fracture analysis using fragmentation to avoid significant errors in measuring fracture stress or apparent fracture toughness of thin films. In-situ X-ray diffraction fragmentation experiments can measure the film fracture stress even for individual layers being part of a multilayer. Which characteristics influence the apparent fracture behavior will be demonstrated on Mo thin films on polyimide.

Avian predation intensity as a driver of clinal variation in colour morph frequency.

Phenotypic variation provides the framework for natural selection to work upon, enabling adaptive evolution. One of the most discernible manifestations of phenotypic variability is colour variation. When this variation is discrete, genetically based colour pattern morphs occur simultaneously within a population. Why and how colour polymorphisms are maintained is an evolutionary puzzle. Several evolutionary drivers have been hypothesized as influencing clinal patterns of morph frequency, with spatial variation in climate and predation being considered especially important. Despite this, no study has examined both of their roles simultaneously. The aims of this study were to: (a) examine the covariation of physiology, environmental variables and colouration at a local scale; and (b) determine if these factors and their interplay explain broad clinal variation in morph frequency. We used the lizard Liopholis whitii as a model system, as this species displays a discrete, heritable polymorphism for colour pattern (plain-backed, patterned morphs) whose morph frequency varies latitudinally. We measured reflectance, field activity temperatures and microhabitat structure to test for differences in crypsis, thermal biology and microhabitat selection of patterned and plain-backed morphs within a single population where colour morphs occur sympatrically. We then used data from the literature to perform a broad-scale analysis to identify whether these factors also explained the latitudinal variation of morph frequency in this species. At the local scale, plain-backed morphs were found to be less cryptic than patterned morphs while no other differences were detected in terms of thermal biology, dorsal reflectance and microhabitat use. At a broader scale, predation was the most influential factor mediating morph frequency across latitudes. However, the observed pattern of morph frequency is opposite to what the modelling results suggest in that the incidence of the least cryptic morph is highest where predation pressure is most severe. Clinal variation in the level of background matching between morphs or the potential reproductive advantage by the plain-backed morph may, instead, be driving the observed morph frequency. Together, these results provide key insights into the evolution of local adaptation as well as the ecological forces involved in driving the dynamics of colour polymorphism.

Study of arsenic content in mine groundwater commonly used for human consumption in Utah.

Of the various sources of arsenic released in to the environment, the presence of arsenic in water probably poses the greatest threat to human health. Arsenic is released in to the environment through water by dissolution of minerals and ores. Natural release is slow, but in some areas the concentration of arsenic in groundwater (commonly referred to as Acid Mine Drainage (or AMD)) is accelerated by mining activity. In fact the presence of arsenic may last a long time even after the mining activity has ceased. Hence it is imperative to study the quality of water (especially for those areas in the vicinity of mines) used for different purposes to identify an appropriate remediation technique for effective pollution control. In this paper, contents of arsenic and other metals in the water were quantified from three different sources: (1) groundwater from the mining tunnel (Judge tunnel), (2) drinking water, and (3) water used in the hydrant-flushed distribution system (Park City) in Utah (USA). The results showed the content of arsenic from the mining tunnel, after chlorination, and in tap water were below 10 microgl(-1). However, significant amounts of arsenic, lead, zinc, iron, manganese and antimony have been found in water samples taken from the distribution systems. In the consideration of the further use of mine groundwater for drinking purposes and the distribution system, Park City should regularly be maintained by a flushing program in the distribution system.

Deoxycholic acid at neutral and acid pH, is genotoxic to oesophageal cells through the induction of ROS: The potential role of anti-oxidants in Barrett's oesophagus.

Bile acids are often refluxed into the lower oesophagus and are candidate carcinogens in the development of oesophageal adenocarcinoma. We show here that the secondary bile acid, deoxycholic acid (DCA), is the only one of the commonly refluxed bile acids tested here, to show genotoxicity, in terms of chromosome damage and mutation induction in the human p53 gene. This genotoxicity was apparent at both neutral and acidic pH, whilst there was a considerable increase in bile-induced toxicity at acidic pH. The higher levels of cell death and low cell survival rates at acidic pH may imply that acid bile exposure is toxic rather than carcinogenic, as dead cells do not seed cancer development. We also show that DCA (at neutral and acid pH) induced the release of reactive oxygen species (ROS) within the cytoplasm of exposed cells. We further demonstrate that the genotoxicity of DCA is ROS mediated, as micronucleus induction was significantly reduced when cells were treated with DCA + the anti-oxidant vitamin C. In conclusion, we show that DCA, is an effective genotoxin at both neutral and acidic pH. As bile acids like DCA can induce DNA damage at neutral pH, suppressing the acidity of the refluxate will not completely remove its carcinogenic potential. The genotoxicity of DCA is however, ROS dependent, hence anti-oxidant supplementation, in addition to acid suppression may block DCA driven carcinogenesis in Barrett's patients.

The use of Fenton's system in the yeast industry wastewater treatment.

The paper presents the results of the research conducted with the use of hydrogen peroxide and iron (II) sulfate or chloride in the chemical pretreatment of Saccharomyces cerevisae yeast industry wastewater. It was found that the use of Fenton's system permitted a high reduction of sugar-like substances and total decolorizing of non-sugar compounds. The level of COD reduction depended on the amount and mutual proportions of COD:Fe(II):H2O2, as well as a type of the applied salt Fe(II). For iron concentrations: 1000-4000 mg l(-1) with molar excess [H2O2]:[Fe(II)] - 2-14:1 and reaction pH - 3.1-3.4, very high reproducibility of results and the COD reduction exceeding 75% were obtained. For this range of the reagent concentrations, the distribution of COD reduction values correlated with the equation: COD = - Ax4 + Bx3 - Cx2 + Dx - E (where: x = [H2O2]:[Fe(II)]). Additional neutralization with the use of lime milk made the secondary reduction of CODr(CaO) value possible, which resulted in the reduction of the total CODT above 90%. The method enabled us to consider the possibility of the preliminary chemical elimination of the wastewater load, which might increase the effectiveness of working wastewater treatment plants, especially in cases of continuous and occasional overloads above the level assumed by the project.

Lipid-based vehicle for oral drug delivery.

With an increasing number of lipophilic drugs under development, homolipids and heterolipids have gained renewed interests as excipients for oral drug delivery systems. Oral administration has many advantages for chronic drug therapy. It is relatively safe, convenient for the patient and allows self administration. This article is not intended to review the broad area of lipid-based vehicle for oral drug delivery comprehensively. The rationale behind choosing lipids materials for pharmaceutical dosage forms and their applications is discussed. It also comments on the methods for monitoring the physicochemical properties of vehicles and formulations and describes a range of pharmacopoeial excipients suitable for these purposes. The excipients selected here are pharmacopoeial in European Pharmacopoeia 4th Ed., United States Pharmacopoeia 24th Ed./National Formulary 19th Ed. and Japanese Pharmacopoeia 13th Ed. or are drafted in Pharmaeuropa and Pharmacopoeial Forum. Widening availability of lipidic excipients with specific characteristics offer flexibility of application with respect to improving the bioavailability of poorly water-soluble drugs and manipulating release profiles.

Synchronous and asynchronous brain-state-in-a-box information system neural models.

Synchronous and asynchronous information system neural models are proposed that are hybrids of Pawlak's information system and Brain-State-in-a-Box (BSB) neural models. The stability of the proposed models is studied using LaSalle's Invariance Principle. Applications to an analysis of the United Nations activities are presented as examples.

Analog neural nonderivative optimizers.

Continuous-time neural networks for solving convex nonlinear unconstrained programming problems without using gradient information of the objective function are proposed and analyzed. Thus, the proposed networks are nonderivative optimizers. First, networks for optimizing objective functions of one variable are discussed. Then, an existing one-dimensional optimizer is analyzed, and a new line search optimizer is proposed. It is shown that the proposed optimizer network is robust in the sense that it has disturbance rejection property. The network can be implemented easily in hardware using standard circuit elements. The one-dimensional net is used as a building block in multidimensional networks for optimizing objective functions of several variables. The multidimensional nets implement a continuous version of the coordinate descent method.

On neural networks that design neural associative memories.

The design problem of generalized brain-state-in-a-box (GBSB) type associative memories is formulated as a constrained optimization program, and "designer" neural networks for solving the program in real time are proposed. The stability of the designer networks is analyzed using Barbalat's lemma. The analyzed and synthesized neural associative memories do not require symmetric weight matrices. Two types of the GBSB-based associative memories are analyzed, one when the network trajectories are constrained to reside in the hypercube [-1, 1](n) and the other type when the network trajectories are confined to stay in the hypercube [0, 1](n). Numerical examples and simulations are presented to illustrate the results obtained.

The assessment of malnutrition in children under 3 years of age in Sichuan areas of China using two different growth standards.

6,666 children under 3 years of age were selected from 231 villages in 25 townships of the Sichuan Province using a stratified random sampling design. The subjects consisted of 3,356 boys (50.3%) and 3,310 girls (49.7%); 2,510 from plain areas (37.8%),1,857 from hill areas (27.9%), and 2,299 from mountain areas (34.4%). All the children in this study had four anthropometric variables measured: body weight, length, head circumference (HC), upper-arm circumference (UAC). Three anthropometric indicators were used to measure the prevalence of malnutrition: weight-for-age (underweight), length-for-age (stunting) and weight-for-length (wasting). The prevalence of malnutrition and Z scores were calculated for male and female, respectively, by age to compare the Chinese rural children with the Chinese standard (1985) and NCHS Standard. The prevalence of moderate plus severe underweight, stunting and wasting were 20.8%,40.7% and 1.78% in boys and 19.5%, 38.3% and 2.26% in girls. The prevalence of malnutrition also varied with age. The group with the highest prevalence of malnutrition was in the first year of life, with weaning time proving to be a critical period influencing child growth and development. Z score indicated that the growth and development of Chinese rural children was behind the Chinese Urban and NCHS populations, especially after 6 months of age. Furthermore, the mean head circumference and upper arm circumference was lower in mildly malnourished children in each age gr 1000 oup than in normal children, and much lower still in moderately and severely malnourished children. The influences of malnutrition were also manifested on bone and muscle development.

Solving linear programming problems with neural networks: a comparative study.

In this paper we study three different classes of neural network models for solving linear programming problems. We investigate the following characteristics of each model: model complexity, complexity of individual neurons, and accuracy of solutions. Simulation examples are given to illustrate the dynamical behavior of each model.

Synthesis of Brain-State-in-a-Box (BSB) based associative memories.

Presents a novel synthesis procedure to realize an associative memory using the Generalized-Brain-State-in-a-Box (GBSB) neural model. The implementation yields an interconnection structure that guarantees that the desired memory patterns are stored as asymptotically stable equilibrium points and that possesses very few spurious states. Furthermore, the interconnection structure is in general non-symmetric. Simulation examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed synthesis method. The results obtained for the GBSB model are successfully applied to other neural network models.

The Widrow-Hoff algorithm for McCulloch-Pitts type neurons.

We analyze the convergence properties of the Widrow-Hoff delta rule applied to McCulloch-Pitts type neurons. We give sufficiency conditions under which the learning parameters converge and conditions under which the learning parameters diverge. In particular, we analyze how the learning rate affects the convergence of the learning parameters.

On solving constrained optimization problems with neural networks: a penalty method approach.

Deals with the use of neural networks to solve linear and nonlinear programming problems. The dynamics of these networks are analyzed. In particular, the dynamics of the canonical nonlinear programming circuit are analyzed. The circuit is shown to be a gradient system that seeks to minimize an unconstrained energy function that can be viewed as a penalty method approximation of the original problem. Next, the implementations that correspond to the dynamical canonical nonlinear programming circuit are examined. It is shown that the energy function that the system seeks to minimize is different than that of the canonical circuit, due to the saturation limits of op-amps in the circuit. It is also noted that this difference can cause the circuit to converge to a different state than the dynamical canonical circuit. To remedy this problem, a new circuit implementation is proposed.

Dynamical analysis of the brain-state-in-a-box (BSB) neural models.

A stability analysis is performed for the brain-state-in-a-box (BSB) neural models with weight matrices that need not be symmetric. The implementation of associative memories using the analyzed class of neural models is also addressed. In particular, the authors modify the BSB model so that they can better control the extent of the domains of attraction of stored patterns. Generalizations of the results obtained for the BSB models to a class of cellular neural networks are also discussed.

Robust stability analysis of adaptation algorithms for single perceptron.

The problem of robust stability and convergence of learning parameters of adaptation algorithms in a noisy environment for the single preceptron is addressed. The case in which the same input pattern is presented in the adaptation cycle is analyzed. The algorithm proposed is of the Widrow-Hoff type. It is concluded that this algorithm is robust. However, the weight vectors do not necessarily converge in the presence of measurement noise. A modified version of this algorithm in which the reduction factors are allowed to vary with time is proposed, and it is shown that this algorithm is robust and that the weight vectors converge in the presence of bounded noise. Only deterministic-type arguments are used in the analysis. An ultimate bound on the error in terms of a convex combination of the initial error and the bound on the noise is obtained.

Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic comparison of an osmotic release oral metoprolol tablet and the metoprolol conventional tablet.

Four double-blind, Latin-square studies were conducted to compare the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamic bioavailability of metoprolol OROS (oral osmotic) and the conventional tablet (CT) of metoprolol. Metoprolol OROS (7/95 mg or 14/190 mg) was administered once daily in doses equivalent to 100 mg of metoprolol CT given once, twice, thrice, and four times a day. In all four studies, lower peak plasma concentrations and longer times to peak were observed after metoprolol OROS than after metoprolol CT, indicating a controlled-release profile for metoprolol OROS. beta-Adrenergic blockade, as measured by reductions in exercise heart rate, was lower after metoprolol OROS than after metoprolol CT, but metoprolol OROS provided a smoother and more sustained beta-blockade. All four doses of metoprolol OROS at steady state produced relative pharmacodynamic bioavailability that ranged from 87% to 104% of that produced by equivalent doses of metoprolol CT.

The Minnesota project: a focused approach to ambulatory quality assessment.

With national HMO quality assurance requirements pending for Medicare risk contracts, three HMOs in Minnesota established a working group with the state Department of Health to develop and test a new methodology proposed for quality of care review. A two-tiered system was developed for ambulatory chart review based on 15 hospitalization diagnoses having a potential for inadequate prehospital care. This system was applied to 796 cases from the HMOs (2% of admissions). Technical problems limited actual review to 673 of these cases. Although 304 (45%) of reviewed cases failed initial screening, physician review found only 22% of such failures (10% of reviewed cases) to represent probable quality of care problems. The approach appears to be feasible and unusually efficient. Although there is considerable variability that limits its potential use for interhealth plan comparison, the approach holds promise for quality assurance within an individual health plan.

Recombinant murine GM-CSF increases resistance of some factor dependent hematopoietic progenitor cells to low-dose-rate gamma irradiation.

The effects of murine recombinant IL-3 (multi-CSF) and murine recombinant GM-CSF (granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor) on the radiation biology of clonal hematopoietic progenitor cell lines were evaluated. Four clonal cell lines with growth response to either IL-3 or GM-CSF (FDCP-1JL26, and bg/bg d64) or exclusively dependent on IL-3 (32D cl 3 and B6SUtA), were pre-incubated in IL-3, or GM-CSF, for 7 days prior to gamma irradiation, then washed and irradiated at 5 cGy/min, or 116 cGy/min, and transferred to semisolid medium supplemented with either IL-3, or GM-CSF, for assay of 7 day greater than or equal to 50 cell colonies. The cell lines demonstrated similar radiosensitivity and lack of a detectable dose-rate effect when grown in IL-3 (FDCP-1JL26: D0 154, n 1.05 at 5 cGy/min, and D0 138, n 1.16 at 116 cGy/min; bg/bg d64: D0 95.7, n 1.16 at 5 cGy/min, and D0 97.7 n .993 at 116 cGy/min; B6SUtA: D0 101, n 1.29 at 5 cGy/min, D0 100, n 1.27 at 116 cGy/min; and cell line 32D cl 3: D0 123, n 1.65 at 5 cGy/min, and D0 126, n 1.17 at 116 cGy/min). In contrast, FDCP-1JL26 cells demonstrated a significant relative radioresistance at low-dose-rate when grown in recombinant GM-CSF, (D0 217, n 1.27 at 5 cGy/min, D0 138, n 1.34 at 116 cGy/min, p less than .005). The increase in radioresistance of FDCP-1 cells at low-dose-rate was induced either by preincubation in GM-CSF with transfer to IL-3, or by preincubation in IL-3 and transfer to recombinant GM-CSF. Growth factor independent malignant subclones of lines B6SUtA and FDCP-1JL26 demonstrated a significant increase in radioresistance at low-dose-rate (B6SUtA EL4JL: D0 187, n 1.39 at 5 cGy/min, and D0 133, n 1.73 at 116 cGy/min (p. less than .05); and FDCP-1JL26 F7 cl 2: D0 191, n 1.17 at 5 cGy/min, and D0 150, n 1.31 at 116 cGy/min [p less than .05]). Thus, some hematopoietic progenitor cell lines are induced by GM-CSF to grow after irradiation at low-dose-rate similar to the growth of clonal malignant cell lines. The data may have implications for the radiation biology of normal hematopoietic progenitor cells in two circumstances: (a) selective survival of GM-CSF responsive cells after total body irradiation, and (b) selective survival of some hematopoietic progenitors in vivo during clinical recombinant GM-CSF infusion.

EEG and clinical changes in patients with chronic seizures associated with slowly growing brain tumors.

The goal of this study was to define the electroencephalographic (EEG) and clinical features in 25 patients with chronic seizures (szs) associated with slowly growing (three to 36 years) brain tumors (BTs). A matched control group was also studied. When all EEGs were considered together without regard to their changes, no significant differences were found between the two groups, especially with respect to the high incidence (60%) of EEG abnormalities both ipsilateral and contralateral to the tumor. Exact localization of the BT by EEG (within one electrode) was found in 88% of patients. When changes in time were considered, the BT group more often showed increasing slow waves, increasing sharp-wave discharges, depression of normal rhythms, a change in type of sz, increase in frequency of szs, and a change in neurological signs and symptoms, especially motor. For single, double, or triple criteria, a change in clinical signs was the most discriminative, with a deteriorating EEG as the next best indication of a tumor. Patients with the latter signs should then be selected for a computed tomographic or magnetic resonance imaging scan, even if the scan was normal initially, rather than following the expensive policy that all patients at all ages with chronic szs should undergo these later tests.