Life Cycle Assessment as a tool for environmental management

 This paper illustrates, using data from test cases, how Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) may be used to enhance environmental management, particularly when used in conjunction with Environmental Management Systems. There are a number of areas where LCA can be helpful: in the identification of significant environmental effects; in the quantification of those effects; in the assessment of year-to-year changes in environmental performance and in the assessment of the environmental benefits (or disadvantages) arising from changes (actual or planned) in operating conditions, equipment, procedures, raw materials or products. There are some issues which cannot (at present) be adequately assessed using LCA and these are also discussed. Received: 8 January 1999 / Accepted: 11 February 1999     

Ten points to ponder in picking an oscilloscope

Like microscopes for biologists, oscilloscopes serve electrical engineers as a second pair of eyes, often providing the only way to “see” what they are working on. Selecting the right one for the job is therefore worth taking some care over. While it is tempting simply to purchase the same model you've used before, you may then miss out on one or more of the many useful features and capabilities that scope manufacturers add to their products with each generation. This article is intended to speed and rationalize the selection process and to guide electrical engineers around some common pitfalls. It provides guidelines under which scopes of all manufacturers may be evaluated objectively     

Validation of depression and anxiety measures in White and Black youths: Multitrait–multimethod analyses.

The authors obtained yearly self-report, peer nomination, and teacher rating assessments of depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and social acceptance on 2 cohorts of African American (ns?=?139 and 184) and Caucasian school children (ns?=?328 and 339), yielding a total of 6 waves of data between 3rd and 8th grade. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the measures manifested significant convergent and discriminant validity in both groups. Multigroup analyses further demonstrated that the measures were equally valid across ethnic groups. Peer nomination measures of depression and anxiety symptoms were biased, however, leading to the underestimation of psychopathology in African American children and adolescents. Allowing for this bias, the authors discovered that African American children evinced more signs of depression and anxiety in Grades 3, 4, and 5 than did Caucasian children. Such differences were not significant in Grades 6, 7, and 8. No ethnic group differences emerged on the social acceptance dimension. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pharmacokinetics of the protease inhibitor KNI-272 in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid in nonhuman primates after intravenous dosing and in human immunodeficiency virus-infected children after intravenous and oral dosing

The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of routine falloposcopy in infertile patients undergoing basic infertility investigations, and to determine its usefulness in comparison with other tubal investigation methods. Seventy-five infertile women were selected based on the following criteria: 2 years of infertility, age between 18 and 40 years, normal ovulation, and partner with normal spermatozoa. Based on the results of the classical means of tubal evaluation (hysterosalpingography and laparoscopy), these patients were classified in one of two groups: tubal or unexplained infertility. All patients underwent a falloposcopy under general anaesthesia. The procedures were performed by the same surgeon with the linear everting catheter. Based on the falloposcopic findings, these patients were then reclassified in one of two other groups: falloposcopic tubal or falloposcopic unexplained infertility. The mean outcome measures were catheterization rate, duration of the procedure, pregnancy rates, complication rate and predictive value of Falloposcopy. The tubal catheterization rate was 94.5%. The mean duration of falloposcopy was 19 min per tube. Based on a standard scoring system, the spontaneous pregnancy rates were 27.6% for a score <20; 11.5% for a score between 21 and 30; and 0% if the score was >30. Complication rate was 5.1% of pinpoint perforations of the tube. With Cox's statistical model, none of the parameters analysed was statistically predictive of intrauterine pregnancy. We conclude that the greater accuracy of diagnosis by falloposcopy may indicate that it should be incorporated into the initial screening of infertile patients.     

Toward Secure Routing Infrastructures

The protocols, data, and algorithms that compute paths through interconnected network devices are possibly the most vital, complex, and fragile components in the global information infrastructure. They are also the least protected. This article examines the current state of, and practical prospects for, security in IP routing infrastructures     

Insight into reduced use of medical services after psychotherapy.

31 patients who had received a brief evaluation at the mental health department of a health maintenance organization either were placed on a 4-mo waiting list or received insight-oriented, time-limited psychotherapy. An 18-mo follow-up telephone interview was used to examine whether Ss showed insight into the link between their illness behavior and psychological factors. Examination of medical utilization before and after the mental health intervention showed that the acquisition of insight was unrelated to changes in utilization. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A strategy for designing inhibitors of beta-amyloid toxicity

beta-Amyloid peptide is the major protein component of Alzheimer's plaques. When aggregated into amyloid fibrils, the peptide is toxic to neuronal cells. Here, an approach to the design of inhibitors of beta-amyloid toxicity is described; in this strategy, a recognition element, which interacts specifically with beta-amyloid, is combined with a disrupting element, which alters beta-amyloid aggregation pathways. The synthesis, biophysical characterization, and biological activity of such an inhibitor is reported. This prototype inhibitor is composed of residues 15-25 of beta-amyloid peptide, designed to function as the recognition element, linked to an oligolysine disrupting element. The inhibitor does not alter the apparent secondary structure of beta-amyloid nor prevent its aggregation; rather, it causes changes in aggregation kinetics and higher order structural characteristics of the aggregate. Evidence for these effects includes changes in fibril morphology and a reduction in thioflavin T fluorescence. In addition to its influence on the physical properties of beta-amyloid aggregates, the inhibitor completely blocks beta-amyloid toxicity to PC-12 cells. Together, these data suggest that this general strategy for design of beta-amyloid toxicity inhibitors is effective. Significantly, these results demonstrate that complete disruption of amyloid fibril formation is not necessary for abrogation of toxicity.