New polymeric surfactants from butadiene,urea and sulfuric acid

Butadiene, urea, and sulfuric acid react to form a new sulfated polymer. The sodium salt of the polymer, called BUS, is a good detergent and dispersant; it is practically nontoxic and nonirritating. BUS-soap blends are good detergents for use in hard water. BUS can be precipitated from waste water by heavy metal salts and can be removed by percolation through soil.     

Seniority and criterion measures of job proficiency.

"On the basis of an analysis of 47 studies involving measures of the job proficiency of 2,462 workers employed in 39 different occupations, the average correlation between seniority and job proficiency is .17 with a standard error of correlation of .02. The type of measure of job success influences the relation between seniority and job success… [and]… the influence of seniority increases with the skill level of the occupations sampled… with skilled occupation the influence appears to be large relative to the magnitude of validity coefficients commonly obtained and should be taken into account and controlled whenever possible." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trauma care reimbursement in rural hospitals: implications for triage and trauma system design

American College of Surgeons triage guidelines recommend rapid identification and transfer of seriously injured patients to regional trauma centers, bypassing local hospitals if necessary. This approach raises concerns about the potential negative financial impact of implementing such triage strategies on already strained rural hospitals. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine the association between injury severity and reimbursement for trauma care in rural hospitals. It was our hypothesis that the seriously injured would be high cost and relatively low reimbursement patients, and thus be a significant financial liability to the rural hospital. This would imply that concerns by the rural hospital about triage of such patients to trauma centers would be unfounded. METHODS: Data on every injured patient seen in the emergency department during two 3-month periods were obtained from three rural hospitals in the state using the American College of Surgeons Trauma Registry data base. RESULTS: One thousand six hundred thirty patients had complete data available for analysis. The analyses demonstrated that as the injury severity increased, there was an increase in hospital charges, length of stay, and risk of dying. In contrast, the reimbursement changed little as the charges and severity increased. Thus, hospital losses increased in an exponential fashion as injury severity increased above 15. CONCLUSION: The study demonstrates that as injury severity increases, costs and charges increase, but reimbursement does not keep pace with these increased charges. The rural hospital was projected to lose an average of $25,000 for each patient with an Injury Severity Score over 15. This study supports the rapid triage and transport of the seriously injured patient from the rural hospital to the regional trauma center both for improved patient outcome and for the hospital's best interest. The potential impact of such a system on the trauma center also needs to be addressed.     

Infectious clones and vectors derived from adeno-associated virus (AAV) serotypes other than AAV type 2

Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) are single-stranded dependent parvoviruses being developed as transducing vectors. Although at least five serotypes exist (AAV types 1 to 5 [AAV1 to -5]), only AAV2, AAV3, and AAV4 have been sequenced, and the vectors in use were almost all derived from AAV2. Here we report the cloning and sequencing of a second AAV3 genome and a new AAV serotype designated AAV6 that is related to AAV1. AAV2, AAV3, and AAV6 were 82% identical at the nucleotide sequence level, and AAV4 was 75 to 78% identical to these AAVs. Significant sequence variation was noted in portions of the capsid proteins that presumably are responsible for serotype-specific functions. Vectors produced from AAV3 and AAV6 differed from AAV2 vectors in host range and serologic reactivity. The AAV3 and AAV6 vector serotypes were able to transduce cells in the presence of serum from animals previously exposed to AAV2 vectors. Our results suggest that vectors based on alternative AAV serotypes will have advantages over existing AAV2 vectors, including the transduction of different cell types, and resistance to neutralizing antibodies against AAV2. This could be especially important for gene therapy, as significant immunity against AAV2 exists in human populations and many protocols will likely require multiple vector doses.     

Differentiation of Corynebacterium amycolatum, C. minutissimum, and C. striatum by carbon substrate assimilation tests

We tested the carbon substrate assimilation patterns of 40 Corynebacterium amycolatum strains, 19 C. minutissimum strains, 50 C. striatum strains, and 1 C. xerosis strain with the Biotype 100 system (bioMérieux, Marcy-l'Etoile, France). Twelve carbon substrates of 99 allowed discrimination among the species tested. Additionally, assimilation of 3 of these 12 carbon substrates (maltose, N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, and phenylacetate) was tested with the API 20 NE identification system (bioMérieux). Since concordant results were observed with the two systems for these three carbon substrates, either identification system can be used as a supplementary tool to achieve phenotypic differential identification of C. amycolatum, C. minutissimum, and C. striatum in the clinical microbiology laboratory.     

Enhancement of fibrinolysis with 40-kHz ultrasound

BACKGROUND: Ultrasound at frequencies of 0.5 to 1 MHz and intensities of > or =0.5 W/cm2 accelerates enzymatic fibrinolysis in vitro and in some animal models, but unacceptable tissue heating can occur, and limited penetration would restrict application to superficial vessels. Tissue heating is less and penetration better at lower frequencies, but little information is available regarding the effect of lower-frequency ultrasound on enzymatic fibrinolysis. We therefore examined the effect of 40-kHz ultrasound on fibrinolysis, tissue penetration, and heating. METHODS AND RESULTS: 125I-fibrin-radiolabeled plasma clots in thin-walled tubes were overlaid with plasma containing tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) and exposed to ultrasound. Enzymatic fibrinolysis was measured as solubilization of radiolabel. Tissue attenuation and heating were examined in samples of porcine rib cage. Fibrinolysis was increased significantly in the presence of 40-kHz ultrasound at 0.25 W/cm2, reaching 39+/-7% and 93+/-11% at 60 minutes and 120 minutes, compared with 13+/-8% and 37+/-4% in the absence of ultrasound (P<0.0001). The acceleration of fibrinolysis increased at higher intensities. Attenuation of the ultrasound field was only 1.7+/-0.5 dB/cm through the intercostal space and 3.4+/-0.9 dB/cm through rib. Temperature increments in rib were <1 C/(W/cm2). CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that 40-kHz ultrasound significantly accelerates enzymatic fibrinolysis at intensities of > or =0.25 W/cm2 with excellent tissue penetration and minimal heating. Externally applied 40-kHz ultrasound at low intensities is a potentially useful therapeutic adjunct to enzymatic fibrinolysis with sufficient tissue penetration for both peripheral vascular and coronary applications.     

Fully integrated CMOS power amplifier design using the distributedactive-transformer architecture

A novel on-chip impedance matching and power-combining method, the distributed active transformer is presented. It combines several low-voltage push-pull amplifiers efficiently with their outputs in series to produce a larger output power while maintaining a 50-Ω match. It also uses virtual ac grounds and magnetic couplings extensively to eliminate the need for any off-chip component, such as tuned bonding wires or external inductors. Furthermore, it desensitizes the operation of the amplifier to the inductance of bonding wires making the design more reproducible. To demonstrate the feasibility of this concept, a 2.4-GHz 2-W 2-V truly fully integrated power amplifier with 50-Ω input and output matching has been fabricated using 0.35-μm CMOS transistors. It achieves a power added efficiency (PAE) of 41 % at this power level. It can also produce 450 mW using a 1-V supply. Harmonic suppression is 64 dBc or better. This new topology makes possible a truly fully integrated watt-level gigahertz range low-voltage CMOS power amplifier for the first time