Family functioning processes and diabetic ketoacidosis in youths with type I diabetes.

Purpose/Objective: To examine relations between episodes of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and parental warmth, parental negativity, and lack of responsibility for diabetes-related tasks in a sample of youths with Type 1 diabetes (T1D). Research Method/Design: 100 youths with T1D and their caregivers, recruited from an inpatient diabetes unit and an outpatient diabetes clinic, participated. Participants completed disease-specific measures of family functioning (e.g., parental warmth, parent and child perceptions of negativity, family responsibility for diabetes regimen), and medical information (e.g., glycosylated hemoglobin and incidences of DKA) was obtained from medical records. Results: Results showed that higher child perceptions of parental warmth and caring related to the regimen were associated with decreased odds of experiencing a DKA episode. Child reports of higher parental negativity about the regimen were associated with increased odds of experiencing a DKA episode. Reports of who in the family was responsible for the diabetes regimen were not related to episodes of DKA. Conclusions/Implications: Findings suggested that family factors play a significant role in the occurrence or absence of DKA in children's long-term management of diabetes. Future intervention efforts should focus on warmth, caring, and negativity when children and their parents are problem solving and communicating about the diabetes regimen. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acclimation of activated sludge to degrade toxic levels of 2,4-dinitrophenol.

Biodegradation of 75 and 100 mg/l of 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP) by activated sludge acclimated in a Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) consistently required less than 6 hours although a lag at the beginning of every 48-hour SBR cycle was observed. Other investigators have reported that DNP levels of 100 mg/l and higher are significantly toxic even to acclimated bacteria. The activated sludge acclimated to 75 mg/l initial DNP had over 100 times the DNP-degrading bacteria than an SBR acclimated to 10 mg/l DNP, although the MLSS concentration in both reactors was similar. Results suggest that two mechanisms are responsible for activated sludge acclimation to toxic levels of DNP: maintenance of DNP-degrading biomass sufficiently large to reduce initial DNP to non-toxic levels, allowing for subsequent rapid degradation; and extension of the aeration period well beyond the time required for degradation to prevent gradual accumulation of any by-product which might also be toxic.     

Information processing, social cognition, and psychiatric rehabilitation in schizophrenia

Pattern electroretinograms are small physiologic signals that require good patient cooperation and long recording times, particularly when conditions are not optimal. Six electrodes were compared to evaluate their efficacy. Pattern electroretinograms were recorded in eight healthy volunteers to high-contrast, pattern-reversal checks (40' width) with Burian-Allen, DTL fiber, C-glide, gold foil, HK loop and skin electrodes. Raw data for 320 reversals were analyzed off-line to evaluate signal amplitude, quality, P50 and N95 peak times, artifact rate and electrical noise. Insertion time, impedance and subjective comfort were also assessed. The Burian-Allen contact lens electrode gave the largest signal and lowest impedance but was the least comfortable and had the highest artifact rate (p < 0.01). A skin electrode on the lower eyelid produced the smallest pattern electroretinogram with the poorest quality (p < 0.05). The four other electrodes were foil or fiber electrodes in contact with the tear film, conjunctiva and/or the inferior cornea. The signal from these showed only minor differences. When electrodes are compared for pattern electroretinograms recording, the foil and fiber electrodes do not differ substantially but contact lens and skin electrodes show substantial disadvantages.     

Behavioral rehabilitation of the "treatment-refractory" schizophrenia patient: Conceptual foundations, interventions, and outcome data.

This article describes an intensive, inpatient behavioral rehabilitation program for patients with schizophrenia who have been considered "treatment-refractory" at state hospitals. The program is a public-private partnership involving state and private hospitals and community residence providers. The essential elements of this program are described, along with the conceptual and philosophical bases of its treatment and examples of staff behaviors critical to treatment success. Outcome data are then discussed to emphasize the point that when evidence-based psychological treatment is implemented with this population, outcomes can be positive in most cases, and therefore, the number of treatment-refractory patients is actually far less than is estimated on the basis of response to medication alone. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Properties and structure of elastomeric two-stage emulsion interpenetrating networks

Interpenetrating polymer networks (IPNs) consist of two crosslinked polymers which form a network within a network. Bulk-prepared IPNs are thermosetting and cannot be processed due to the formation of a macroscopic network. Emulsion IPNs, although thermosetting, can be processed as thermoplastic materials. This is due to a special particle-slippage flow mechanism which is practically insensitive to molecular weight. The morphology of the reported latex particles is unique in the sense that very small polystyrene domains are formed by phase-separation of polymerizing styrene added to a seeded flexible polyacrylate latex. Compression or injection moulded specimens of these crosslinked elastomeric materials show significant mechanical properties. Some properties and structural observations using a special electron microscopy technique are described in this article. This method is based on the differential radiation damage to various polymers embedded in ice and can be used as an analytical tool to determine the microstructure of certain multiphase systems.     

Effect of average flow and capacity utilization on effluent water quality from US municipal wastewater treatment facilities

There is increasing interest in decentralization of wastewater collection and treatment systems. However, there have been no systematic studies of the performance of small treatment facilities compared with larger plants. A statistical analysis of 4 years of discharge monthly report (DMR) data from 210 operating wastewater treatment facilities was conducted to determine the effect of average flow rate and capacity utilization on effluent biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total suspended solids (TSS), ammonia, and fecal coliforms relative to permitted values. Relationships were quantified using generalized linear models (GLMs). Small facilities (40 m³/d) had violation rates greater than 10 times that of the largest facilities (400,000 m³/d) for BOD, TSS, and ammonia. For facilities with average flows less than 40,000 m³/d, increasing capacity utilization was correlated with increased effluent levels of BOD and TSS. Larger facilities tended to operate at flows closer to their design capacity while maintaining treatment suggesting greater efficiency.     

Cytokines and perinatal brain injury

A rapidly expanding body of data provides support for the hypothesis that pro-inflammatory cytokines including interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) are expressed acutely in injured brain and contribute to progressive neuronal damage. Little is known about the pathogenetic role of these cytokines in perinatal brain injury. Recent experimental studies have incorporated two closely related in vivo perinatal rodent brain injury models to evaluate the role(s) of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the progression of neuronal injury: a perinatal stroke model, elicited by unilateral carotid artery ligation and subsequent timed exposure to 8% oxygen in 7-day-old rats, and a model of excitotoxic injury, elicited by stereotactic intra-cerebral injection of the selective excitatory amino acid agonist NMDA. Each of these lesioning methods results in reproducible, quantifiable focal forebrain injury at this developmental stage. Acute brain injury, evoked by cerebral hypoxia-ischemia or excitotoxin lesioning, results in transient marked increases in expression of IL-1 beta, and TNF-alpha mRNA in brain regions susceptible to irreversible injury, and there is evidence that pharmacological antagonism of IL-1 receptors can attenuate injury in both models. Recent studies also suggest that complementary strategies, based on pharmacological antagonism of platelet activating factor and on neutrophil depletion can also limit the extent of irreversible injury. In summary, current data suggest that pro-inflammatory cytokines contribute to the progression of perinatal brain injury, and that these mediators are important targets for neuroprotective interventions in the acute post-injury period.     

Oxygen ordering and chain formation in YBa2Cu3Oz

A distinctive aspect of the thermodynamic properties of YBa₂Cu₃O_z is the basal-plane oxygen ordering which leads to the formation of Cu-O chains and the development of orthorhombic phases. Theoretically, this phenomenon may be explained in terms of an Ising Hamiltonian with two types of second-neighbor interactions (ASYNNNI model). This symmetry breaking and ground-state degeneracy lead to kinetically arrested multi-domain structures. This paper reports new simulation results for these mesoscopic features, with specific emphasis on the effects of dopants, elastic deformation, and possible structural phase separation.     

Elastomeric latex domain-interpenetrating polymer networks: Physical and rheological properties

The combination of rubbery and rigid polymers in a multiphase structure using staged emulsion polymerization has yielded materials with properties ranging from reinforced elastomers to high impact plastics. The many different particle morphologies that result from a two-stage latex (TSL) polymerization include core/shell, domain, interpenetrating polymer networks (IPN), and various combinations thereof. The sequence of polymerization, crosslinking, grafting, and composition are among the significant parameters that determine the particle morphology. Elastomeric TSL with soft polyacrylates (PA) as the seed particles and polystyrene (PS) as the second stage, with each stage lightly crosslinked, may yield IPN-microdomain particles. The particle morphology has been elucidated through a combination of microscopy and mechanical property analyses. The significant modulus of elastomeric latex interpenetrating polymer networks (LIPN) results from reinforcement by PS intra-particle microdomains and their significant tensile strength from a strength forming mechanism of PS inter-particle microdomains. The increase in the PA seed crosslinking increases the crosslinked PS (xPS) level of molecular mixing with, and grafting via residual unsaturation to, the crosslinked PA (xPA) network and decreases particle deformnability. At higher xPS concentrations the formation of an xPS-rich shell enhances xPS continuity in the molded material through the partial coalescence of the shells, diminishing the PA continuity, and yielding more PS-like properties. The submicron lightly crosslinked latex particles with these different morphologies flow as a pseudoplastie material through a particle slippage flow mechanism exhibiting neither a Newtonian plateau nor a yield stress at low shear rates. The deformable lightly crosslinked particles with interchangeable PS ties which disintegrate at elevated temperatures retain their identity and regain their shape at the cessation of shear. The LIPN can be processed using standard thermoplastic methods and machinery, with power law constants and shear insensitive flow activation energies that are similar to those of thermoplastics at high levels of shear. Uncrosslinked PS shells around crosslinked PA seed particles, on the other hand, completely coalesce upon molding to form a continuous thermoplastic PS matrix that may essentially flow through molecular deformation.