Training school psychological services directors in organizational behavior management.

Describes a 5-session training program for 6 directors (mean age 44.8 yrs) of school psychological services intended to prepare the Ss for organizational behavior management projects to be implemented in their school districts. After the initial training, Ss met monthly to discuss the projects and receive positive social reinforcement. During training sessions, Ss learned to pinpoint and record problems of organizational behavior and performance, design and implement organization intervention programs, link desired program behaviors with particular consequences, and evaluate intervention effectiveness. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of phenylpropanolamine and related compounds on beta-adrenoceptor-induced activation of adenylyl cyclase

While oral administration of therapeutic doses of phenylpropanolamine (PPA) does little to cardiovascular function in humans, intravenous doses administered to experimental animals are known to alter heart rate and blood pressure. Previous in vivo and in vitro studies have documented a beta-adrenoceptor agonist action for PPA and thus it was of interest to investigate whether these effects could be partially mediated by a direct interaction with beta-adrenoceptors. Phenylpropanolamine, [1R, 2R]-(-)-norephedrine, [1S, 2S]-(+)-norephedrine, [1S, 2R]-(+)-norpseudoephedrine, [S]-(+)-amphetamine, and [1R, 2S]-(-)-ephedrine, were compared with the known beta-adrenoceptor agonists [R]-(-)-epinephrine (EPI), [R]-(-)-norepinephrine (NE), and [R*, S*]-(+/-)-isoproterenol (ISO) for their ability to increase the intracellular concentration of cyclic-3',5'-adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) in minces of rat heart. Of the compounds investigated only NE, EPI, and ISO, as well as, forskolin, which directly stimulates adenylyl cyclase, significantly (p < 0.05) increased intracellular levels of cAMP. The other phenethylamines were without effect. The results of this study demonstrate that PPA and its diastereomers do not act directly at beta-adrenoceptors to alter cardiac function and supports the hypothesis that significant agonist activity of beta-phenethylamines at the beta-adrenoceptor requires phenolic/aryl ether substitution on the phenyl-ring (typically positions 3, 4 and/or 5).     

Retinal findings in Malawian patients with AIDS

The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of retinal disease in a group of patients with AIDS in Malawi. Indirect ophthalmoscopy was performed on 99 patients with AIDS who were admitted consecutively to a medical ward at a central hospital. Necrotising retinitis was present in one eye of one patient examined. Non-infectious retinopathy was present in 13%. Retinitis is less common in AIDS patients from Africa compared with those from developed countries; it is believed that most patients die before acquiring it. Non-infectious retinopathy may also be less common.     

Survey on Wireless Sensor Network Applications and Energy Efficient Routing Protocols

Wireless sensor network (WSN) is a group of small power-constrained nodes that sense data and communicate it to the base station (BS). These nodes cover a vast region of interest (ROI) for several purposes according to the application need. The first challenge encountered in WSNs is how to cover the ROI perfectly and send the monitored data to the BS. Although the energy introduced during setup phase and the violation of energy fairness constraint of dynamic routing topologies, they achieve high network performance in terms of coverage and connectivity. In this paper, we categorize the applications of WSN based on different aspects to show the major protocol design issues. Thus, the energy efficiency of the recent proactive routing protocols is studied from different angles. The energy overhead and energy fairness of each protocol were carefully analyzed. The most energy efficient routing protocols for homogeneous proactive networks were studied and compared to highlight the research challenges and existing problems in this area. The results proved that energy overhead and route selection are the most effective aspects of network lifetime and network efficiency.

     

Robust controller for uncertain parameters systems

In this paper, we present the synthesis of a robust controller for Linear Time Invariant (LTI) uncertain systems. A linear parametric uncertainties model is used to describe the system dynamic behavior. The main purpose of this controller is to guarantee some step response performances such as the settling time and the overshoot. The controller synthesis is formulated as a min-max optimization problem which takes in account the desired closed-loop performances and the uncertainties on the model parameters. Then the controller parameters represent the best solution for the worst case of all possible models. In order to emphasize its performances and its efficiency, a real time implementation of the proposed controller on a laboratory pilot plant has been presented.     

The SemSPM approach: fine integration of WS-SecurityPolicy semantics to enhance matching security policies in SOA

The lack of semantics in WS-SecurityPolicy standard hampers the effectiveness of matching security policies. To resolve this problem, we present a semantic approach for matching Web service security policies. The approach consists in the transformation of WS-SP into an OWL-DL ontology and the definition of a set of rules which automatically generate semantic relations that can exist between the provider and requestor security requirements. We show how these relations lead to more correct and refined matching of security policies. We also describe the implementation details of our approach and its validation through a real-world use case.     

Relationships Between Textural Modifications,Lipid and Protein Oxidation and Sensory Attributes of Refrigerated Turkey Meat Sausage Treated with Bacteriocin BacTN635

In this study, bacteriocin “BacTN635” was used to maintain quality and extend shelf life of refrigerated turkey meat sausage. Connections between lipid and protein oxidations and instrumentally textural changes using Bayesian networks during storage of turkey meat sausage were also studied. BacTN635 slowed down metmyoglobin and carbonyl group accumulation and delayed the disappearance of sulphydryl proteins (P < 0.05) in turkey meat sausage. This bacteriocin led to a decrease in primary and secondary lipid oxidation (P < 0.05) and enhanced texture characteristics of sausage by reducing hardness (P < 0.05) and controlling the elasticity lose during refrigeration. We have also investigated the correlations between protein and lipid oxidation and instrumentally measured the parameters of turkey meat sausage treated by BacTN635. The developed model, based on Bayesian network techniques, can automatically learn emerging models in data to explain protein and lipid oxidation and texture modification relationships. Equally, sensorial parameters were used for constructing regression models to predict overall acceptability. In conclusion, BacTN635 could be a promising tool for extending the safety and quality of refrigerated turkey meat sausage. This bacteriocin could be a strong candidate for future applications in a wide range of meat products.     

Next‐Generation Activated Carbon Supercapacitors: A Simple Step in Electrode Processing Leads to Remarkable Gains in Energy Density

The global supercapacitor market has been growing rapidly during the past decade. Today, virtually all commercial devices use activated carbon. In this work, it is shown that laser treatment of activated carbon electrodes results in the formation of microchannels that can connect the internal pores of activated carbon with the surrounding electrolyte. These microchannels serve as electrolyte reservoirs that in turn shorten the ion diffusion distance and enable better interaction between the electrode surfaces and electrolyte ions. The capacitance can be further increased through fast and reversible redox reactions on the electrode surface using a redox‐active electrolyte, enabling the operation of a symmetric device at 2.0 V, much higher than the thermodynamic decompostion voltage of water. This simple approach can alleviate the low energy density of supercapacitors which has limited the widespread use of this technology. This work represents a clear advancement in the processing of activated carbon electrodes toward the next‐generation of low‐cost supercapacitors.