Behavioral medicine, clinical health psychology, and cost offset.

The use of medical services is a function of several interacting psychological and social variables as well as a function of physical malfunction. The clinical significance of addressing patients' psychosocial issues has only occasionally been considered. However, the shift in health care economics toward health care maintenance is responsible for the increased interest in interventions in the domain of behavioral medicine and health psychology. Evidence is reviewed for 6 mechanistic pathways by which behavioral interventions can maximize clinical care and result in significant economic benefits. The rationale for further integration of behavioral and biomedicine interventions is also reviewed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluating expectations about negative emotional states of aggressive boys using Bayesian model selection.

Researchers often have expectations about the research outcomes in regard to inequality constraints between, e.g., group means. Consider the example of researchers who investigated the effects of inducing a negative emotional state in aggressive boys. It was expected that highly aggressive boys would, on average, score higher on aggressive responses toward other peers than moderately aggressive boys, who would in turn score higher than nonaggressive boys. In most cases, null hypothesis testing is used to evaluate such hypotheses. We show, however, that hypotheses formulated using inequality constraints between the group means are generally not evaluated properly. The wrong hypotheses are tested, i.e.. the null hypothesis that group means are equal. In this article, we propose an innovative solution to these above-mentioned issues using Bayesian model selection, which we illustrate using a case study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the interdependency of primary and initial secondary equilibrium paths in sensitivity analysis of elastic structures

The scientific motivation for this paper is lack of clarity about the interdependency of primary and initial secondary equilibrium paths in the frame of sensitivity analysis of elastic structures. The investigation of this interdependency comprises of the following four cases: (1) nonlinear primary path, nonlinear stability problem, (2) linear primary path, nonlinear stability problem, (3) nonlinear primary path, linear stability problem, and (4) linear primary path, linear stability problem. The consistently linearized eigenproblem is used for differentiation of two classes of nonlinear stability problems with markedly different characteristics of both the prebuckling and the postbuckling behavior. For one of them, e.g. zero-stiffness postbuckling is impossible. For the other one, which is restricted to a prebuckling regime with axial deformations only, sensitivity analysis of the initial postbuckling behavior either exhibits its continuous improvement or its continuous deterioration, depending on whether the bifurcation point diverges from or converges to the snap-through point. In other words, a monotonic variation of the design parameter cannot result in a non-monotonic change of the initial postbuckling behavior. The practical motivation for this work is to explore the mechanical reasons for qualitatively different modes of transition from imperfection sensitivity to insensitivity in the course of sensitivity analysis for the purpose of improving the postbuckling behavior of structures by means of minor design changes. Results from a numerical investigation corroborate the theoretical findings.     

Weizen w?hrend der Reifung

Zusammenfassung In Fortführung einer früheren Arbeit über chemische Veränderungen der Weizensorte Schirokko während der Reifung [1] wurden die Gliadine und Glutenine mit Hilfe der RP-HPLC näher untersucht. Für die Gliadinfraktion konnte gezeigt werden, daß im Reifungsverlauf die-Gliadine zuerst und die-Gliadine zuletzt auftreten. Zur Entwicklung des reifen, stark differenzierten-Gliadinmusters wird ein relativ langer Zeitraum von ca. vier Wochen nach der Blüte benötigt. Die Chromatogramme der Gluteninfraktion zeigen bei den HMW-Untereinheiten nur qualitative Unterschiede, während bei den LMW-Untereinheiten eine stärkere Differenzierung im Laufe der Reifung zu beobachten ist. Der Anteil der HMW-Untereinheiten am Gesamtglutenin nimmt von ca. 15% auf ca. 30% zu und der der LMW-Untereinheiten von ca. 75% auf ca. 60% ab. Die MMW-Fraktion bleibt mit ca. 10% relativ konstant. Innerhalb der HMW-Fraktion kommt es infolge unterschiedlicher Zunahme der einzelnen Komponenten zu stärkeren Verschiebungen. Während in frühen Reifungsstadien die HMW-Untereinheiten 3 und 10 deutlich stärker vertreten sind als die Untereinheiten 5, 1 und 9 (Bezeichnung entsprechend [2]), dominiert in reifem Schirokko die Untereinheit 5, gefolgt von den Komponenten 3 und 10, während die Untereinheiten 1 und 9 in deutlich geringerer Menge vertreten sind.

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Wheat during maturation: analysis of gliadins and glutenins by RP-HPLC

Summary In continuation of a study of changes in the chemical composition of the wheat variety Schirokko during ripening [Kieffer R et al. (1988) Z Lebensm Unters Forsch 187:339], the gliadins and glutenins were investigated in more detail by RP-HPLC. The chromatograms of the gliadin fraction show very clearly that the-gliadins appear first and the-gliadins last during the ripening process. A relatively long period of about four weeks after flowering is necessary for the development of the ripe, strongly differentiated,-gliadin pattern. The chromatograms of the glutenins exhibit only qualitative changes in the high-molecular-weight subunits during maturation, while the low-molecular-weight subunits show an increasing differentiation, similar to the gliadins. The proportion of high-molecular-weight subunits increases from about 15% to 30% of whole glutenin, while the low-molecular-weight subunits decrease from about 75% to 60%. The medium-molecular-weight subunits remain relatively constant in the range of 10%. Remarkable quantitative shifts between high-molecular-weight glutenins were observed during ripening. While subunits 3 and 10 [nomenclature according to Krause I et al. (1988) Z Lebensm Unters Forsch 186:398] dominate the pattern in early stages, large amounts of subunit 5, followed by decreasing amounts of subunits 3 and 10 and, after longer tires, subunits 1 and 9 are characteristic for ripe Schirokko.

     

Accelerated Ionic Motion in Amorphous Memristor Oxides for Nonvolatile Memories and Neuromorphic Computing

Memristive devices based on mixed ionic–electronic resistive switches have an enormous potential to replace today's transistor‐based memories and Von Neumann computing architectures thanks to their ability for nonvolatile information storage and neuromorphic computing. It still remains unclear however how ionic carriers are propagated in amorphous oxide films at high local electric fields. By using memristive model devices based on LaFeO₃ with either amorphous or epitaxial nanostructures, we engineer the structural local bonding units and increase the oxygen‐ionic diffusion coefficient by one order of magnitude for the amorphous oxide, affecting the resistive switching operation. We show that only devices based on amorphous LaFeO₃ films reveal memristive behavior due to their increased oxygen vacancy concentration. We achieved stable resistive switching with switching times down to microseconds and confirm that it is predominantly the oxygen‐ionic diffusion character and not electronic defect state changes that modulate the resistive switching device response. Ultimately, these results show that the local arrangement of structural bonding units in amorphous perovskite films at room temperature can be used to largely tune the oxygen vacancy (defect) kinetics for resistive switches (memristors) that are both theoretically challenging to predict and promising for future memory and neuromorphic computing applications.     

Simulations and experiments for optimal deployment of an RFID‐based location‐aware system

The proliferation of communication and mobile computing devices and local‐area wireless networks has cultivated a growing interest in location‐aware systems and services. An essential problem in location‐aware computing is the determination of physical locations. RFID technologies are gaining much attention, as they are attractive solutions to indoor localization in many healthcare applications. In this paper, we propose a new indoor localization methodology that aims to deploying RFID technologies in achieving accurate location‐aware undertakings with real‐time computation. The proposed algorithm introduces means to improve the accuracy of the received RF signals. Optimal settings for the parameters in terms of reader and reference tag properties were investigated through simulations and experiments. The experimental results indicate that our indoor localization methodology is promising in applications that require fast installation, low cost and high accuracy. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Long time reliability study of soldered flip chips on flexible substrates

Due to the requirements of new light, mobile, small and multifunctional electronic products the density of electronic packages continues to increase. Especially in medical electronics like pace makers the minimisation of the whole product size is an important factor. So flip chip technology becomes more and more attractive to reduce the height of an electronic package. At the same time the use of flexible and foldable substrates offers the possibility to create complex electronic devices with a very high density. In terms of human health the reliability of electronic products in medical applications has top priority.In this work flip chip interconnections to a flexible substrate are studied with regard to long time reliability. Test chips and substrates have been designed to give the possibility for electrical measurements. Solder was applied using conventional stencil printing method. The flip chip contacts on flexible substrates were created in a reflow process and underfilled subsequently.The assemblies have been tested according to JEDEC level 3. The focus in this paper is the long time reliability up to 10,000 h in thermal ageing at 125 °C and temperature/humidity testing at 85 °C/85% relative humidity as well as thermal cycling (0 °C/+100 °C) up to 5000 cycles. Daisy chain and four point Kelvin resistances have been measured to characterise the interconnections and monitor degradation effects.The failures have been analysed in terms of metallurgical investigations of formation and growing of intermetallic phases between underbump metallisation, solder bumps and conductor lines. CSAM was used to detect delaminations at the interfaces underfiller/chip and underfiller/substrate respectively.     

Disulphide bonds in wheat gluten: further cystine peptides from high molecular weight (HMW) and low molecular weight (LMW) subunits of glutenin and from γ-gliadins

Glutenin was prepared from gluten of the wheat variety Rektor by extraction of gliadin with aqueous ethanol. It was cleaved successively into soluble peptides by the enzymes trypsin and thermolysin. Separation of the peptide mixtures was performed by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) on Sephadex G25 and reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) on ODS-Hypersil. Cystine peptides were detected by differential chromatography of the samples prior to and after reduction. After isolation by multi-step RP-HPLC, the cystine peptides were reduced. The resulting cysteine peptides were alkylated with 4-vinylpyridine, separated by RP-HPLC and sequenced by means of the Edman degradation. The isolated cystine peptides represented a considerable portion of the total cysteine in glutenin: four out of seven cysteine residues of HMW subunits, and eight out of nine cysteine residues of LMW subunits are documented by at least one cystine peptide. Most of the peptides corresponded to known sequences of gluten protein components. From the structures of some tryptic peptides, inter- and intramolecular disulphide bonds for HMW subunits of glutenin have been proven. Cystine peptides from the thermolytic digest have been assigned to LMW subunits of glutenin and toγ-gliadins. Other peptides have been closely related to partial sequences of these protein components. The results have allowed several conclusions about the arrangement of intra- and intermolecular disulphide bridges in gluten proteins.