Low-dose nicotine nasal spray use and effects during initial smoking cessation.

The purposes of this study were to determine if smokers wanting to quit smoking would use a low-dose nicotine nasal spray (i.e., acceptability) and what effect this spray use would have on withdrawal during the 1st week of cessation. Smokers (n?=? 52) were assigned double-blind to either placebo or nicotine spray (1.5 μg/kg. or approx. 0.1 mg, per spray) for ad lib use during the first week of cessation. All received group behavioral counseling. There was no difference in continuous 1-week abstinence (daily COa?     

Inexpensive,rapid screening method for aflatoxins in peanuts and peanut products

Surveys of major Brazilian foodstuffs demonstrated that peanuts and peanut products continue to be very susceptible to aflatoxin contamination. To prevent, or at least minimise, the problem the aflatoxins need to be monitored by a rapid and inexpensive screening method. The AOAC Romer method has been used and found highly reliable. However, the clean-up step utilises anhydrous FeCl₃ and basic CuCO₃ which are expensive and not readily available in Brazil. Thus, the extraction (with a mixture of 270 ml methanol plus 30ml 40 g litre^?1 aqueous KCl) and clean-up (150 ml 100 g litre^?1 aqueous CuSO₄) steps of the method of Soares and Rodriguez-Amaya (1985) were combined with the AOAC minicolumn to provide a rapid, inexpensive screening technique. Fifty-two sample lots of peanuts and peanut products were screened by this and Romer's method, and the results were in complete agreement: 28 samples were negative, four < 20 μg kg^?1, 12 in the range 20–50 μg kg^?1, three in the range 50–100 μg kg^?1 and 5 >100 μg kg^?1. The results also agreed well when the extracts obtained by the two methods were submitted to quantitative TLC.     

灯泡党，节能灯开关瞬间消耗多少电能？

他们一边一本正经地告诫大小“盆”友们千万不能吞灯泡,一边又暗自得意地观望着是否有人不信邪。他们就是传说中神出鬼没的以折腾灯泡如此邪恶的活动为乐子的灯泡党!“吞灯泡门”之后,灯泡党名震江湖。今天,灯泡党重出江湖!还好,这一次,与邪恶无关。     

Reliability Model for Electronic Devices under Time Varying Voltage

Present reliability models, which estimate the lifetime of electronic devices, work under the assumption that the voltage level must be constant when an Accelerated Life Testing is performed. Nevertheless, in a real operational environment, electronic devices are subjected to electrical variations present in the power lines; that means the voltage has a time‐varying behavior, which breaks the assumption of reliability models. Thus, in this paper, a reliability model is presented, which describes the lifetime of electronic devices under time‐varying voltage via a parametric function. The model is based on the Cumulative Damage Model with random failure rate and the modified Inverse Power Law. In order to estimate the parameters of the proposed model, the maximum likelihood method was employed. A case study based on the time‐varying voltage induced by electrical harmonics when Alternate Current/Direct Current (AC/DC) transformer is connected to the power line is presented in this paper. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effectiveness of the black spot programs in Western Australia

This study evaluates the effectiveness of the Black Spot Programs in Western Australia. Reduction in crash rate at the treated locations and the economic benefits of these treatments were assessed. The results showed that the programs have been effective overall, reducing all reported crash rate by 15%. The estimated crash cost savings were 50.8 million Australian dollars, of which 89% could be attributed to the reduction in casualty crashes. This led to net savings to the community of 40.4 million Australian dollars ($35.1 million attributable to casualty crashes) after subtracting the capital costs of treating sites, maintenance and operating costs. The benefit cost ratio across all treatment sites was 4.9. Evaluation of the treatments has identified some effective treatment types and others without any significant change in either the rate or cost of crashes. The latter could be due to insufficient number of sites that received the treatment, the post-treatment period being relatively short, or the treatments genuinely had little impact on road safety. Findings of this study provide objective information for the development of effective strategies on road safety investment.     

Electrochemical behavior of carbon paste electrodes modified with methylene green immobilized on two different X type zeolites

Two new modified carbon paste electrodes (CPEs) based on two different X type zeolites, a natural zeolitic volcanic tuff (NZ) and a NaX type synthetic zeolite (SZ), modified with methylene green (MG) were developed. Cyclic voltammetry measurements revealed a reasonably fast electron transfer rate and a good stability for both investigated electrodes. The observed differences between the electrochemical behavior of MG-NZ-CPEs and MG-SZ-CPEs (the effect of pH on the formal standard potential, the magnitude of the rate constants for heterogeneous electron transfer and electrode response decay) were explained in terms of zeolites structure. The modified electrodes showed moderate electrocatalytic effect towards H₂O₂ reduction and a relatively low limit of detection (0.5 mM for MG-NZ-CPEs).     

Anonymous Lightweight Proxy Based Key Agreement for IoT (ALPKA)

Wireless Personal Communications - The Internet of Things (IoT) technologies interconnect a broad range of network devices, differing in terms of size, weight, functionality, and resource...     

Comprehensive change management concepts. Development of a participatory approach

During the last years, many change projects in organizations did not have the planned success. Therefore at first, the causes for these failures and the success factors contributing to organizational change have to be discussed. To get better results, a comprehensive change management concept has been developed and tested in an ongoing research project. By using concepts for an integrated assessment and design of organizations, an approach for analyzing the current situation has been elaborated to identify “lack of integration” in the change initiatives of a company. To realize an integrated overall approach of modernization by harmonizing different methods and concepts, first, one has to prove their relationship to policy and strategy (vertical harmonization). The second step is to take into account the fact that there has to be a logical fit between the single concepts (horizontal harmonization). But even if all elements are logically coherent, that does not mean that the people working in the company also see this coherence. Therefore, in addition to the “logical fit”, one has to examine the “psychological fit”. In the end, a concept for analyzing the status quo in an organization as a result of “objective data” and “subjective data” originated.

Subsequently, instruments for harmonizing different modernizing concepts have been applied. As part of the comprehensive change management concept participatory ergonomic approaches have been used during the project. The present study shows this approach in the case of one company.     

Wide Dynamic Range in Tunable Electrochromic Bragg Stacks from Doped Semiconductor Nanocrystals

Electrochromic properties can be enhanced by constructing photonic architectures, in which the reflectance contributes to optical modulation along with the intrinsic dynamic absorptivity of the material. However, optimization of reflectance is challenging without a rational design approach. Here, electrochemically tunable Bragg reflectors are demonstrated that are tuned to be highly transparent in the “off” state, achieving synergistic dynamic optical modulation of absorption and reflection in the visible and near‐infrared range. These Bragg stacks are composed of alternating doped semiconductor nanocrystal (NC) layers of 5 nm sized oxygen vacancy‐doped WO_3?x and 15 nm sized 0.4 at% Sn:In₂O₃ NCs. Combining judicious NC selection and processing optimization with guidance from optical simulations, optimized Bragg stacks are implemented for electrochromic window applications. NCs with high absorption coefficients are essential for strong transmission modulation, though this characteristic limits the dynamic range of the Bragg reflectance. Optimal reflectance modulation including a highly transparent “off” state is confirmed with in situ reflectance and transmittance measurement. More broadly, ligand‐stripped NCs can enable fabrication of complex device architectures on low‐cost flexible substrates. These results guide the design rules for accessing different types of doped semiconductor NC‐based tunable Bragg stacks, an exemplary photonic structure, over a broad wavelength range.