Coordinated care early discharge of postpartum patients at Irwin Army Community Hospital

A trial program of early discharge of postpartum patients was instituted at the Fort Riley MEDDAC as part of a coordinated-care initiative. The goals of this program were to increase quality and access to care while containing health costs. A total of 788 bed days valued at $705,260 were made available for use by other patients. Maternal readmission rate was 0.3%; length of stay was decreased from 3.22 days to 1.22 days. Early discharge was made possible through a combination of medical record screening and comprehensive patient education. This study indicates that early discharge provides quality of care and cost effectiveness without adverse outcomes.     

RUSPACE(log n) \subseteq DSPACE(log2 n/log log n)

We present a deterministic algorithm running in space O(log² n /log log n ) solving the connectivity problem on strongly unambiguous graphs. In addition, we present an O(log n ) time-bounded algorithm for this problem running on a parallel pointer machine. Received February 1997, and in revised form August 1997, and in final form February 1998.     

Ensembles of protein termini and specific proteolytic signatures as candidate biomarkers of disease

Early accurate diagnosis and personalized treatment are essential in order to treat complex or fatal diseases such as cancer and autoimmune, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. To realize this vision, new diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers are urgently required. MS-based proteomics is the most promising approach for protein biomarker identification, but suffers in clinical translation of biomarker candidates that show only quantitative differences from normal tissue. Indeed, success in translating proteomic data to biomarkers in the clinic has been disappointing. Here, we propose that protein termini provide a new opportunity for biomarker discovery due to qualitative differences in intact and new protein termini between diseased and normal tissues. Altered proteolysis occurs in most pathologies. Disease- and process-specific protein modifications, including proteolytic processing and subsequent modification of the terminal amino acids, frequently lead to altered protein activity that plays key roles in the disease process. Thus, mapping of ensembles of characteristic protein termini provides a proteolytic signature of high information content that shows both quantitative and most importantly qualitative differences in different diseases and stage of disease. These unique protein biomarkers have the added benefit of being mechanistically informative by revealing the activity state of the bioactive protein. Moreover, proteome-wide isolation of protein termini leads to generalized sample simplification, thereby enabling up to three orders of magnitude lower LODs compared to traditional shotgun proteomic approaches. We introduce the potential of protein termini for biomarker discovery, briefly review methods enabling large-scale studies of protein termini, and discuss how these may be integrated into a termini-oriented biomarker discovery pipeline from discovery to clinical application.     

Emissivity measurements of reflective surfaces at near-millimeter wavelengths

We have developed an instrument for directly measuring the emissivity of reflective surfaces at near-millimeter wavelengths. The thermal emission of a test sample is compared with that of a reference surface, allowing the emissivity of the sample to be determined without heating. The emissivity of the reference surface is determined by one's heating the reference surface and measuring the increase in emission. The instrument has an absolute accuracy of Δε = 5 × 10(-4) and can reproducibly measure a difference in emissivity as small as Δε = 10(-4) between flat reflective samples. We have used the instrument to measure the emissivity of metal films evaporated on glass and carbon fiber-reinforced plastic composite surfaces. We measure an emissivity of (2.15 ± 0.4) × 10(-3) for gold evaporated on glass and (2.65 ± 0.5) × 10(-3) for aluminum evaporated on carbon fiber-reinforced plastic composite.     

The viscoelastic response of cement paste to three-dimensional loading

The majority of the viscoelastic constitutive data for cement paste or concrete found in the literature deal exclusively with uniaxial loading. To predict the isotropic response of concrete or cement paste under multiaxial loading or multiaxial prescribed deformation, it is necessary to have knowledge of at least two viscoelastic constitutive properties. In the past, the typical treatment of three-dimensional modeling of concrete viscoelasticity has involved the assumption of a time-independent viscoelastic Poisson ratio. However, the experimental evidence supporting this simplification is inconclusive. In this study, experiments were performed on hardened cement paste that allowed the simultaneous measurement of both the dilatational and shear compliances, allowing the full three-dimensional characterization of the constitutive response. It was found that the dilatational compliance leveled off after several days for three of four mixtures tested. In these three materials, the Poisson’s ratio was found to be an increasing function of time. Prediction of the measured uniaxial compliance using the measured bulk and shear compliances indicated that the confined compressive test used in this research may cause changes in the material which affect the measured dilatational compliance, and therefore the calculated viscoelastic Poisson ratio.     

Cuticular hydrocarbons and defensive compounds ofReticulitermes flavipes (Kollar) andR. santonensis (feytaud): Polymorphism and chemotaxonomy

Colonies ofReticulitermes flavipes andR. santonensis were collected from the southeastern United States (Georgia) and the southwest of France (Charente-maritime). Defensive compounds and cuticular hydrocarbons were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and quantified by gas chromatography using an internal standard for each caste and all colonies. These analyses show that although the cuticular hydrocarbons ofR. santonensis in Europe andR. flavipes in Georgia are identical, their relative proportions are different. However, the defensive compounds synthesized by their soldiers are different. A strong chemical polymorphism between sympatric colonies ofR. flavipes in the SW United States was detected in terms of both the hydrocarbons of the workers and soldiers and in the defensive secretions of the soldiers. The six defensive secretion phenotypes are based on the presence or absence of terpenes whereas the cuticular hydrocarbon phenotypes are based on significant differences in the proportions of the various components. A multivariate analysis (analysis of principal components) clearly permitted discrimination of four phenotypes (three inR. flavipes and one inR. santonensis) without intermediates. The hydrocarbons responsible for these variations were identified, and it was shown that the variations are neither seasonal nor geographic. The phenotypes of the cuticular hydrocarbons (workers and soldiers) and defensive compounds are linked in each colony, forming in three groups inR. flavipes Georgia, one subdivided into four subgroups according to the defensive secretion phenotypes. The role of these polymorphisms is discussed and ethological tests indicate that the chemical polymorphism do not determine aggressive behavior. The taxonomic significance of these results is considered and two hypothesis are formulated: (1) We only detected a strong genetic polymorphism in one unique species, and we believe thatR. santonensis was introduced into Europe in the last century from oneR. flavipes colony. (2) Chemical variability characterizes the sibling species that can be grouped into the same subspeciesR. flavipes. Unknown mechanisms of reproductive isolation separate them.     

1-丁烯共聚弹性体的微观结构表征

采用红外光谱仪、差示量热扫描仪、偏光显微镜等对负载钛催化体系合成的1-丁烯/1-己烯共聚物进行了微观结构表征.结果表明,共聚样的组成由投料比决定且随反应时间变化不大,1-己烯结构单元的引入可以有效的打破聚合物中1-丁烯单元链节的结晶性,其结晶度随着1-己烯含量的增加逐渐降低.偏光显微镜照片显示随1己烯含量增加,共聚物的球晶逐渐变小,且最终消失.     

Modeling of metastable phase formation diagrams for sputtered thin films

A method to model the metastable phase formation in the Cu–W system based on the critical surface diffusion distance has been developed. The driver for the formation of a second phase is the critical diffusion distance which is dependent on the solubility of W in Cu and on the solubility of Cu in W. Based on comparative theoretical and experimental data, we can describe the relationship between the solubilities and the critical diffusion distances in order to model the metastable phase formation. Metastable phase formation diagrams for Cu–W and Cu–V thin films are predicted and validated by combinatorial magnetron sputtering experiments. The correlative experimental and theoretical research strategy adopted here enables us to efficiently describe the relationship between the solubilities and the critical diffusion distances in order to model the metastable phase formation during magnetron sputtering.