Sublethal effects of an organophosphate insecticide on the European eel, Anguilla anguilla

Recent research has found that family caregivers do not discuss their caregiving in terms of tasks but instead describe their care as shaped by concerns, commitments and goals. The purpose of this paper is to challenge the ways in which nurses approach the family caregiving process and to explore possibilities for evolving nursing knowledge by questioning existing practice in the light of developing insight into the ways in which being a family caregiver is meaningful. A critique of the philosophical orientations of rationalism and empiricism provides a platform to discuss the merits of a Heideggerian phenomenological approach in assisting nurses to better understand family caring experience. Such critique serves to support the notion of displacing the traditional scientific view as the prime means of disclosing truth, acknowledging alternative ways of knowing.     

Hydro-economic Modeling in River Basin Management: Implications and Applications for the European Water Framework Directive

Economic ideas and processes are becoming increasingly integrated with more traditional engineering and hydrologic models of water management problems. Combining economic management concepts and performance indicators with an engineering-level of understanding of a hydrologic system can provide results and insights more directly relevant for water management decisions and policies. When such models are developed and used with involvement of stakeholders, they can become a basis for shared understanding of water problems as a foundation for negotiated management and policy solutions. When implemented with optimization software, integrated hydro-economic models also can suggest promising innovative solutions for policy-makers to consider. Their applications to river basin management problems are reviewed. Economic and integrated economic-engineering-hydrologic modeling is then discussed in the context of the evolving European Water Framework Directive. Relevant items are cost recovery and water pricing, cost-effectiveness of water management measures, and public participation in decision processes.     

Effect of annealing on the permeation characteristics of gases of coextruded LLDPE films

The temperature dependence of both the permeability and diffusion coefficients of carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen in annealed LLDPE films are studied. It is found that the values of the permeability coefficient through the annealed membranes are nearly four times larger than those through the non-annealed ones. The fact that annealing slightly diminishes the values of the diffusion coefficient leads to the conclusion that the rise in permeability detected in the films by effect of annealing should be attributed to an increase in solubility. The permeability characteristics of the films are interpreted in terms of the free volume theory.     

The assessment of ceramic and mixed recycled aggregates for high strength and low shrinkage concretes

Very few studies on recycled aggregate concretes (RC) have been extended to the use of recycled ceramic and mixed aggregates in relation with high strength concretes. In the main they concentrate only on the analysis of the physical and mechanical properties. This study deals with the investigation of the influence that different percentages (up to 30% substitution for natural aggregates) of high porous ceramic and mixed recycled aggregates have over the plastic, autogenous and drying shrinkage of the concretes. The physical and mechanical properties as well as the chloride resistance were also determine in order to assess the viability of the use of ceramic and mixed recycled aggregates in high strength concretes. The results revealed that the employment of highly porous recycled aggregates reduced the plastic and autogenous shrinkage values of the concrete with respect to those obtained by conventional concrete (CC). Although the total drying shrinkage of the recycled concrete proved to be 25% higher than that of the CC concrete, the CC concrete had in fact a higher shrinkage value than that of the RC from 7 to 150 days of drying. It can be concluded that the RC concrete produced employing up to 30% of fine ceramic aggregates (FCA, with 12% of absorption capacity) achieved the lowest shrinkage values and higher mechanical and chloride ion resistance. In addition, the concrete produced with low percentage (10–15%) of recycled mixed aggregates also had similar properties to conventional concrete.     

The active GTP- and ground GDP-liganded states of tubulin are distinguished by the binding of chiral isomers of ethyl 5-amino-2-methyl-1,2-dihydro-3-phenylpyrido[3,4-b]pyrazin-7-yl carbamate

NSC 613862 (S)-(-) and NSC 613863 (R)-(+) are the two chiral isomers of ethyl-5-amino-2-methyl-1,2-dihydro-3-phenylpyrido[3, 4-b]pyrazin-7-yl carbamate. Both compounds bind to tubulin in a region that overlaps the colchicine site. They induce formation of abnormal polymers from purified GTP-Mg-tubulin, the active assembly form of tubulin, in glycerol-free buffer with magnesium [De Ines, C., Leynadier, D., Barasoain, I., Peyrot, V., Garcia, P., Briand, C., Rener, G. A., and Temple, C., Jr. (1994) Cancer Res. 54, 75-84]. In this study, we observed that the S-isomer can promote polymerization of GDP-tubulin, the inactive assembly-incompetent form of tubulin, into nonmicrotubular structures at a critical protein concentration of 1 mg/mL (12 mM MgCl2). Neither the R-isomer nor colchicine have this ability. By electron microscopy, these tubulin polymers showed the same poorly defined filamentous structure when GDP-tubulin or GTP-Mg-tubulin were used. By HPLC measurements, we demonstrated that a dissociated GTP hydrolysis and exchange of nucleotide occurred during the isomer-induced abnormal assembly. Both isomers inhibited the Mg2+-induced tubulin self-association leading to 42 S double ring formation from GTP-Mg-tubulin or GDP-tubulin. Measurement of their binding under nonassociation conditions revealed a 3-fold decrease in the apparent equilibrium binding constant of the R-isomer to GDP-tubulin relative to GTP-Mg-tubulin. For the S-isomer, the decrease in the binding constant was less pronounced. Binding data, analyzed in terms of a system of linked conformational and association equilibria, provide evidence that the active ("straight") rather than the inactive ("curved") conformation of tubulin differentially recognizes these ligands. Whereas binding of colchicine to tubulin is well-known to induce GTP hydrolysis, this is the first case in which the interaction of a ligand with the colchicine site is shown to be sensitive to the presence of GDP or GTP at the distant nucleotide binding site.     

Design guidelines for Classroom Multiplayer Presential Games (CMPG)

In a Classroom Multiplayer Presential Game (CMPG) peers interact collaboratively with the virtual world and amongst themselves in a shared space. The design of this kind of game, however, is a complex process that must consider instruction strategies, methodology, usability and ludic aspects. This article’s aim is to develop and systematize guidelines for the design of CMPGs. To develop these guidelines we used a three-step process: evaluating an initial implementation of a CMPG and finding its problems; defining guidelines that can help overcome these problems; and redesigning the game based on the guidelines before testing it in a real class scenario to assess how helpful the guidelines were in solving the initial problems.     

A distance PLC programming course employing a remote laboratory based on a flexible manufacturing cell

The increasing necessity of engineers capable of handling the problems of the industry and able to face the technical challenges they will encounter in their professional career is boosting the teaching methods based on projects and real applications. The Center of Technological Innovation in Static Converters and Drives, Technical University of Catalonia (CITCEA-UPC) group, Barcelona, Spain, has introduced such learning methods applied to the automation field in a course taught for the electrical engineering degree and in some postgraduate workshops, making the laboratory platforms available through the Internet in order to allow the use of such practices in e-learning-based courses. The learning method is based on a flexible manufacturing cell, resulting from the collaboration between the CITCEA-UPC and Schneider Electric and its Training Center. The problem proposed to the students is the automation of such a cell with commercial programmable logic controllers (PLCs). The experience has proved to be positive, and the students have valued it accordingly.     

Addition of a reactive diluent to a catalyzed epoxy-anhydride system. I. Influence on the cure kinetics

The effect of a reactive diluent (RD) on the kinetics of the curing of an epoxy resin, based on diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA), with a carboxylic anhvdride derived from methyl-tetrahydrophthalic anhydride (MTHPA) catalyzed by a tertiary amine has been studied. The reactive diluent was a low-viscosity aliphatic diglycidyl ether, and the compositions per 100 parts by weight (pbw) of DGEBA were 10, 30, and 50 pbw of RD with the stoichiometric quantity of MTHPA and 1 pbw of catalyst. The curing kinetics was monitored by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and the kinetic parameters were determined from the nonisothermal DSC curves by the method described by Málek. The kinetic analysis suggests that the two-parameter autocatalytic model is the more appropriate to describe the kinetics of the curing reaction of this epoxy-anhydride system. The kinetic parameters thus derived satisfactorily simulate both the nonisothermal DSC curves and the isothermal conversion-time plots. Increasing the RD content leads to a small increase in both the nonisothermal and the isothermal heats of curing and has a slight effect on the kinetic parameters E, ln A, m, and n, and, consequently, on the overall reactivity of the system. On the other hand, the increase of the RD content significantly affects the structure of the crosslinked epoxy. It is confirmed that the introduction of aliphatic chains in the structure of the epoxy increases the mobility of the segmental chains in the glass transition region. The consequence of this chemical modification is a decrease of the glass transition temperature, T_g. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

OSMOTIC DEHYDRATION OP PAPAYA WITH CORN SYRDP SOLIDS

Abstract

The water activity (a_w) lowering capacity of four corn syrup solids (CSS) with nominal dextrose equivalent (DE) values of 10, 20, 30, and 40, and the osmotic concentration kinetics of papaya with solutions (50% w/w) of these solutes were studied. Apparent molecular weights (MW_a) were calculated and the a_wlowering capacity was characterized for each solute with Norrish's equation calculating a specific constant (K). The a_wlowering capacity increased as the DE value increased. Logarithmic relationships were found between the MW_aand the DE value and between K and DE (r ≥ 0.993).. The predicted a_wvalues using the MW_aand K of each CSS were in good agreement (average root mean square deviation ≤0.002) with the experimental data. Osmotic concentration was evaluated in terms of water loss (WL), loss of weight (LW) and solid gain (SG). The final values of SG increased and WL and LW decreased as the DE decreased. SG, WL and LW varied from 7.3 to 21.1% 76.1 to 49.1% and 72.0 to 28.0%, respectively for the CSS of 10 and 40 DE.