Mining statistically significant associations for exploratory analysis of human sleep data.

We introduce a specialized association rule mining technique that can extract patterns from complex sleep data comprising polysomnographic recordings, clinical summaries, and sleep questionnaire responses. The rules mined can describe associations among temporally annotated events and questionnaire or summary data; e.g., the likelihood that an occurrence of a rapid eye movement (REM) sleep stage during the second 100 sleep epochs of the night is associated with moderate caffeine intake. We use chi2 analysis to ensure statistical significance of the mined rules at the level P < 0.05. Our results, obtained by mining sleep-related data from 242 human subjects, reveal clinically interesting associations among the polysomnographic and summary variables. Our experience suggests that association mining may also be useful for selection of variables prior to using logistic regression.     

Liposomal hamycin in the control of experimental aspergillosis in mice: effect of phosphatidic acid with and without cholesterol

Hamycin incorporated into liposomes containing phosphatidylcholine (SPC) and phosphatidic acid (PA) had reduced toxicity and an enhanced antifungal activity in experimental aspergillosis in balb/c mice. Incorporation of cholesterol into liposomes led to a dose dependent decrease in the toxicity of hamycin. The LD50 (mg/kg) of hamycin contained in SPC/cholesterol/PA (molar ratio 4:5:1) liposomes was 2.8 whereas that in SPC/PA liposomes (molar ratio 9:1) was 0.35. Although the free drug had little or no protective effect on the animals, those administered liposomal hamycin at an equivalent dose (0.1 mg/kg) in the absence of cholesterol (SPC/PA; molar ratio 9:1) showed 90% survival after seven days of therapy. On the other hand the presence of cholesterol in the carrier phosphatidic acid liposomes (SPC/cholesterol/PA; molar ratio 4:5:1) at a similar dose (0.1 mg/kg) led to a 60% survival over the same time period. Hamycin incorporation in phosphatidic acid liposomes both in the presence or absence of cholesterol was found to be effective in reducing the fungal load in lung, liver, spleen and kidney. Studies with distribution of hamycin in various tissues by HPLC showed a significant reduction in the concentration of the liposomal drug in circulation as compared to those seem after administration of free drug.     

Spatial distribution and habitat characterization of schistosomiasis host snails in lake and land habitats of western Kenya

Intermediate host snails of schistosomiasis were surveyed in this study to determine their abundance and distribution in the lake and land aquatic habitats of Lake Victoria basin of Kenya. Several sites were sampled at eight locations, both in the lake and on the land. The habitat and/or vegetation type (i.e. open water, hippo grass, hyacinth, ambatch trees, other vegetation, stream, swamp, pond, dam) of the sampled aquatic sites within the locations were also differentiated, water physicochemical parameters were determined, and the abundance of different species or taxa of phytoplankton and zooplankton were enumerated and correlated with the abundance of schistosomiasis snails in the sites. The results indicated significantly more Biomphalaria sudanica snails than Bulinus africanus snails in different physical habitats on land (Student's t‐test, P < 0.05), as well as in different locations on land (Student's t‐test, P = 0.026). Regression analyses revealed that several physicochemical parameters, including dissolved oxygen (R² = ?0.659; n = 8; P = 0.014), pH (R² = 0.728; n = 8; P = 0.007) and turbulence (R² = ?0.616; n = 8; P = 0.02), were predictive of Biomphalaria spp. abundance, while pH (R² = 0.610; n = 8; P = 0.02) and turbulence (R² = ?0.578; n = 8; P = 0.028) were predictive of Bulinus spp. abundance in different locations in the lake. Cyanobacteria (R² = 0.638; n = 8; P = 0.02) and chlorophyceae (R² = ?0.50; n = 8; P = 0.05) were shown to be predictive of both Biomphalaria spp. and Bulinus spp. abundance in different locations in the lake. Zooplankton abundance varied significantly between different locations in the lake (One‐way anova , P < 0.001). Bosmina spp. were found to be predictive of both Biomphalaria spp. (R² = ?0.627; n = 8; P = 0.01) and Bulinus spp. (R² = ?0.50; n = 8; P = 0.05) in different locations in the lake. The results from this study will help inform policy regarding control measures for schistosomias and intermediate snail hosts in Lake Victoria waters, as well as in adjacent terrestrial aquatic habitats and even beyond.     

Editorial for the 30th anniversary special issue

Applied Intelligence -     

Utilization of carbon derived from mustard oil cake (CMOC) for the removal of bivalent metal ions: Effect of anionic surfactant on the removal and recovery

Effect of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) on the adsorption of Zn(II) and Ni(II) on CMOC was investigated. Addition of SDS favored the adsorption process. Adsorption process was found to be dependent on concentration, pH, dose, contact time and temperature. Thermodynamic studies showed that the process is endothermic and spontaneous. The spontaneity increases with increase in temperature. D–R isotherm suggests that the adsorption is chemical in nature. Kinetics studies showed better applicability of pseudo second order model. Reichenberg equation showed that pore diffusion was not only the rate determining step but some other process like film diffusion was also involved in the adsorption. These metals could be desorbed (75–80%) with 0.1 M HCl as eluent.     

Life-cycle assessment of diesel, natural gas and hydrogen fuel cell bus transportation systems

The Sustainable Transport Energy Programme (STEP) is an initiative of the Government of Western Australia, to explore hydrogen fuel cell technology as an alternative to the existing diesel and natural gas public transit infrastructure in Perth. This project includes three buses manufactured by DaimlerChrysler with Ballard fuel cell power sources operating in regular service alongside the existing natural gas and diesel bus fleets. The life-cycle assessment (LCA) of the fuel cell bus trial in Perth determines the overall environmental footprint and energy demand by studying all phases of the complete transportation system, including the hydrogen infrastructure, bus manufacturing, operation, and end-of-life disposal. The LCAs of the existing diesel and natural gas transportation systems are developed in parallel. The findings show that the trial is competitive with the diesel and natural gas bus systems in terms of global warming potential and eutrophication. Emissions that contribute to acidification and photochemical ozone are greater for the fuel cell buses. Scenario analysis quantifies the improvements that can be expected in future generations of fuel cell vehicles and shows that a reduction of greater than 50% is achievable in the greenhouse gas, photochemical ozone creation and primary energy demand impact categories.     

Double hinged articulated tower interaction with wind and waves

Articulated offshore towers are highly flexible against rotation at the hinges and derive their stability by means of inherently large buoyancy forces. The displacement response of such towers is mainly governed by the rigid body mode of vibration which has a very low frequency. Since the fluctuating wind velocity spectrum has high energy content in the low frequency region, therefore, wind induces significant dynamic response of such towers. In this paper, the responses of single and double hinged articulated towers are compared under various ocean environments. A Monte Carlo simulation technique is used to model the random sea environment. The sea state is characterized by Pierson–Moskowitz spectrum while the fluctuating wind has been estimated using Simiu's spectrum for compliant platforms. Iterative time domain solution procedure is adopted to take care of time dependent parameters and nonlinearities. Stochastic response is characterized by statistical quantities and power spectral density functions (PSDF) for various parametric combinations. Studies of wind effects are found to be imperative for double hinged articulated towers to serve and survive in the hostile offshore environment. The response PSDF highlights the wind induced dynamic responses of the towers.     

Ethical and professional considerations in divorce and child custody cases.

The provision of psychological (e.g., psychotherapy, coparenting, mediation, collaborative divorce, child custody evaluation) services for families of divorce are growing specialties for many clinical and forensic psychologists. However, practice in domestic relations psychology, such as divorce and custody assessment and testimony, is a high-risk venture for incurring ethics complaints and law suits. The lead article and the three commentaries that follow enumerate the various roles practitioners might play, clarify how each role requires specific skill sets that may be outside one’s particular competence and necessitate additional training, describe how countertransferential issues arise, urge meticulous record keeping, discuss some of the subtleties of confidentiality and the releasing of information, describe how transparency in clarifying expectations leads to a lowering of contentiousness, and provide tips for divorce and forensic practice. The special challenges associated with psychologists being tempted to move beyond their role on a case and those of particularly high-risk situations (e.g., complaints of child abuse or domestic violence) are also discussed. Suggestions are offered to help psychologists better serve the public while taking steps to better inoculate themselves from complaints. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

HEAT TRANSFER IN MULTIPHASE CONTACTORS

A procedure for the prediction of wall-bed heat transfer coefficient for bubble columns and gas-solid fluidized beds is developed on the basis of hydrodynamic behavior of these contactors. A comparison between the predicted and experimental values of heat transfer coefficient over a wide range of design and operating variables is presented. An attempt is made to analyze the occurrence of maxima in heat transfer coefficient with respect to gas velocity in the case of fluidized beds. A procedure for the calculation of the optimum superficial gas velocity is outlined.