Women's use of complementary and alternative therapies in reproductive health care

Numerous studies have documented that health care consumers all over the world are spending money out of pocket for alternative therapies and that billions of dollars are spent in the United States alone. In this article, the use of complementary and alternative therapies by women health care consumers is discussed, particularly as this phenomenon relates to women's reproductive health in the United States. Women use conventional health care services more frequently than men; thus, it is not surprising that women account for approximately two thirds of health care appointments for complementary and alternative therapies. The traditional conceptual frameworks of herbal medicine, homeopathy, acupuncture, and acupressure are presented, and common clinical applications to women's reproductive care are discussed.     

Fostering children's revision skills through training in comprehension monitoring.

Elementary school children generally do not revise frequently or skillfully in the classroom. Two studies were conducted to learn if children's ability to revise problematic texts could be facilitated through training in a comprehension monitoring strategy. In the first study, third- and sixth-grade children who were trained on a self-questioning text-evaluation strategy located and revised significantly more target text problems than did control children. The goal of the second study was to compare the effects of prior exposure to problematic texts and self-questioning strategy training. The results showed that a combination of the two approaches was most effective in increasing third graders' revision scores. The results from both studies show that acquiring a strategy for evaluating the comprehensibility of a text can help children make appropriate revisions to improve that text's communicative quality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An evaluation of commercial expert system building tools

The Force Requirements Expert System (FRESH) is the first phase of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Navy Battle Management Program, part of the Strategic Computing Initiative. To encourage long term maintainability of the delivered system, DARPA required the use of a commercial Expert System Building Tool. The selection of a tool required the establishment of an evaluation methodology: Analyze the problem domain in terms of AI theory, examine the previous research solutions to the problem and determine their requirements, solve the problem with each tool, compare the results and make the selection. This methodology was followed for three tools that run on Lisp Machines: KEE™ from the IntelliCorp, ART™ from Inference Corporation, and Knowledge Craft™ from Carnegie Group Incorporated. The determining factors in our choice were the size and complexity of the domain and the fact that long term maintenance will be performed by people other than the original knowledge engineers. For these reasons the selection of expert system building tool for FRESH was Knowledge Craft™. This paper presents the application of this evaluation methodology, the results obtained from the tests, and selection decision given the results. Use of this methodology produces comprehensive and functionally accurate information with which to make a selection.     

Vibrational behavior of the -NO2 group in energetic compounds

The vibrational modes of the -NO2 group in more than fifty energetic compounds containing the C-nitro and N-nitro functionalities were observed and then calculated in optimized structures using density functional theory (B3LYP/6-31+G*). The trends in the symmetric and asymmetric stretches and scissor and out-of-plane deformations were explained by these calculations. A previously unreported correlation was found between the nitro group internal bonding angle and its asymmetric stretching frequency. The concept of meta and ortho/para directing groups was applicable to the trends in coupled motions in the nitroaromatic compounds. Both the scissor motion of C-NO2 groups and the out-of-plane deformation of N-NO2 groups were found to be virtually insensitive to the remainder of the molecule. These findings may be useful in analytical methods of explosive detection based on their infrared (IR) spectra.     

Relationship of self-disclosure and mental health in black females

Examined the relationship between self-disclosure and 3 facets of diminished mental health in 23 female Black students at a southeastern college. Ss' responses on a revision of the Self-Disclosure Questionnaire revealed that 2 of these facets, hostility and authoritarianism, were not related to self-disclosure. The 3rd facet, anxiety, did correlate significantly with self-disclosure, but did so in the direction opposite to that predicted from the theory of self-disclosure; high self-disclosure was associated with high anxiety, and no evidence of a curvilinear relationship appeared. Implications of these results for future research and for psychotherapy with Black clients are discussed. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pilot-plant selective hydrogenation of soybean oil: Activation and evaluation of copper-containing catalysts

In pilot-plant tests, the linolenate content of soybean oil was reduced to less than 1% without increasing the saturates, by hydrogenation to an IV of about 115 with an active copper-chromite catalyst. The linolenate-linoleate selectivity ratio (K_Le/K_Lo) was from 9 to 12. Several commercial copper-chromite catalysts were used in hydrogenation tests. The activities of four of five commercial catalysts tested were improved to various degrees by heating in air at 350 C (one was inactive both before and after heating). Examination by differential thermal analysis (DTA) of each catalyst, just as received and then after being heated at 350 C, demonstrated that heating greatly diminished or removed peak areas from the DTA curve. Studies made with one commerical copper-chromium-barium catalyst showed that heating the catalyst was also necessary to gain maximum linolenate-linoleate selectivity in hydrogenating soybean oil. Presented at the AOCS Meeting, New Orleans, May 1967. No. Utiliz. Res. Dev. Div., ARS, USDA.     

Quality of oil from damaged soybeans

Various processing steps were explored in an at-tempt to improve the quality of oil from field- and storage-damaged soybeans. A crude soybean oil (5.7% free fatty acid) commercially extracted from damaged soybeans was degummed in the laboratory with different reagents: water, phosphoric acid, and acetic anhydride. Two alkali strengths, each at 0.1 and 0.5% excess, were used to refine each degummed oil. After vacuum bleaching (0.5% activated earth) and deodorization (210 C, 3 hr), these oils were un-acceptable as salad oils. A flavor score of 6.0 or higher characterizes a satisfactory oil. Scores of water and phosphoric acid degummed oils ranged from 4.5 to 5.1, while acetic anhydride degummed oils aver-aged 5.6. Flavor evaluations of (phosphoric acid de-gummed) single- and double-refined oils (210 C deodorization) showed that the latter were signifi-cantly better. Flavor scores increased from 5.0 to about 6.0. To study the effects of deodorization tem-perature, the crude commercial oil was alkali-refined, water-washed and bleached with 0.5% activated earth, but the degumming step was omitted. Flavor evalua-tion of oil deodorized at 210, 230, and 260 C showed that each temperature increment raised flavor scores significantly. Further evaluations of specially proc-essed oils (water, phosphoric acid, and acetic anhy-dride degummed oils given single and double refinings and deodorized at 260 C) showed that deodorization temperature is the most important factor affecting the initial quality of oil from damaged beans. Flavor evaluations showed that hydrogenation and hydro-genation-winterization treatments produced oils of high initial quality, but with poorer keeping proper-ties than oils from normal beans. No evidence was found implicating nonhydratable phosphatides in the oil flavor problem. Iron had a deleterious effect in oils not treated with citric acid during deodorization. Presented at AOCS Meeting, Philadelphia, September 1974.     

New rigid vinyl compound molding technology

During injection molding, it is not uncommon for shear heating to cause localized temperatures exceeding 300°C. This heating, if not suppressed, can cause vinyl degradation. Three main factors influence shear heating. They are (a) mold design, especially restrictions such as small gates; (b) injection conditions, especially injection velocity; and (c) compound viscosity. To address the compound factor, two new vinyl compounds have been created for custom injection molding, which are especially designed to suppress the shear heating temperatures. Geon® M3700 has good impact at room temperature, and Geon® M3800 has outstanding impact at room temperature and at low temperatures. These compounds use a new technology that produces a balance of properties never before achievable. These innovative compounds show enhanced processability including improved static thermal stability, improved shear stability, tolerance of higher injection screw rpms, tolerance of higher injection speeds, the ability to mold at lower injection pressures, reduced molding cycles, and the ability to fill thin part walls. Also designed into the compounds are improved color fastness during exposure to light, improved appearance, and reduced corrosiveness. Other properties such as impact strength, tensile strength, modulus, heat deflection temperature, hardness, UL flammability rating, specific gravity, and mold shrinkage remain comparable to older technology.     

Improved analysis techniques for cylindrical and spherical double probes

A versatile double Langmuir probe technique has been developed by incorporating analytical fits to Laframboise's numerical results for ion current collection by biased electrodes of various sizes relative to the local electron Debye length. Application of these fits to the double probe circuit has produced a set of coupled equations that express the potential of each electrode relative to the plasma potential as well as the resulting probe current as a function of applied probe voltage. These equations can be readily solved via standard numerical techniques in order to determine electron temperature and plasma density from probe current and voltage measurements. Because this method self-consistently accounts for the effects of sheath expansion, it can be readily applied to plasmas with a wide range of densities and low ion temperature (T(i)∕T(e) ? 1) without requiring probe dimensions to be asymptotically large or small with respect to the electron Debye length. The presented approach has been successfully applied to experimental measurements obtained in the plume of a low-power Hall thruster, which produced a quasineutral, flowing xenon plasma during operation at 200 W on xenon. The measured plasma densities and electron temperatures were in the range of 1 × 10(12)-1 × 10(17) m(-3) and 0.5-5.0 eV, respectively. The estimated measurement uncertainty is +6%∕-34% in density and +∕-30% in electron temperature.