The effects of a monetary alternative on marijuana self-administration

We have used a variety of methods to characterize the genome of the archaeon Methanosarcina thermophila TM-1. Pulsed-field gel analysis indicates a genome size of 2.8 Mb. We have constructed a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library of M. thermophila and have used it to generate physical maps for this organism. The library is made up of 384 clones with an average insert size of 58 kb representing 8.0 genome equivalents. The utility of the library for low-resolution physical mapping was shown by identifying NotI linking clones and using these to order the NotI macrorestriction fragments of M. thermophila into a 2.8 Mb map. Hybridization of nine single copy genes and a 16S rRNA sequence to these macrorestriction fragments forms the basis for the first genetic map in this organism. High-resolution physical maps, consisting of overlapping clones, have been created using HindIII fingerprints of BAC clones. In this way, we identified a minimal path of five clones that span a 270 kb NotI fragment. The ease of manipulating BAC clones makes the BAC system an excellent choice for the construction of low-resolution and high-resolution physical and genetic maps of archaeal genomes. It also provides a substrate for future genome-sequencing efforts.     

Representing context, cognition, and crew performance in a shutdown risk assessment

This paper presents a potentially practical treatment of dynamic operator-system interactions. The approach employs a dynamic event tree framework to explicitly address plant dynamics, system indications, crew-plant interactions, time available, crew cognition, errors of commission (mistakes), and multiple planning and diagnosis possibilities. The approach is applied in an analysis of a hypothesize medium break loss of coolant accident for a test reactor that occurs during plant shutdown. This transient was selected on the basis of: a significant cognitive component being present, high consequences being associated with operator actions, and the importance of event timing to scenario progression. The results presented show how quantitative risk predictions are affected by the treatment of dynamics, and demonstrate how non-proceduralized recovery actions and a number of performance shaping factors (e.g., crew experience, stress, and confidence) can be explicitly treated. Insights and lessons learned regarding the performance of a dynamic assessment are also presented.     

Studies in software reengineering: Capturing navy legacy software

This report is a summary of the continuing efforts of several teams at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Divsion (NSWCDD) to evaluate technologies and to define and refine a process to reengineer Navy legacy CMS-2 code into Ada. This effort involves tool and technology evaluation, methodology definition, and cost model definition.For systems developed in CMS-2, a Navy specific high order language, consideration must be given as to the most cost effective method of converting to the current high order language of choice, i.e., Ada, without losing the legacy lessons learned. NSWCDD engineers evaluated three translation tools, evaluated reverse engineering technologies, and defined both a process and a methodology to incrementally transition Navy CMS-2 code into Ada. The source code used for the evaluation is from the AEGIS Weapon System and the distributed, open environment is the High Performance Distributed Computing Program co-sponsored by the Advanced Research Projects Agency and the AEGIS Program Manager.Many of the issues identified throughout these studies are unresolved, but software engineers are continuing to evaluated the impacts of transitioning to commercial environments and Ada. Some of the issues that are being studied follow: testing of distributed systems; system level integration; lack of time-stamped instrumentation: and reliability in commercial-off-the shelf environments. The Navy is in the early stages of identifying impacts of transitioning to Ada, commercial environments, and distributed architectures. NSWCDD is gathering data to confirm that capturing legacy systems, whether it is code or design ideas, is essential to minimizing the cost and the risk of these transitions. It is also evident that technology is neither mature nor ideal yet to satisfy the identified needs for capturing the legacy of a proven system. Translation, while useful to a point, is not suitable alone as a solution to the transition equation.     

Effect of fenfluramine on food intake, mood, and performance of humans living in a residential laboratory

Five male and four female normal weight research volunteers, participating in 13-day residential studies, received oral fenfluramine (20, 40 mg) or placebo at 09:30 and 17:00. Food intake, performance, and subjective ratings were measured throughout the day. Carbohydrate intake was manipulated by providing lunch meals high (males: 120 g; females: 80 g) or low (males: 25 g; females: 16 g) in carbohydrate on 8 days; on the remaining days subjects self-selected lunch. Total caloric intake (approximately 2800 Kcal) did not differ among the low- and high-carbohydrate, and self-selected lunch conditions when subjects received placebo, indicating caloric compensation. Total carbohydrate intake was significantly less, however, when subjects consumed the low-carbohydrate lunch compared to the other lunch conditions. Fenfluramine significantly decreased total caloric intake (approximately 500 kcal) by decreasing meal size, not number, only when subjects consumed the low-carbohydrate lunch. Fenfluramine was only an effective anorectic drug when subjects consumed a lunch with fewer calories and a lower carbohydrate:protein ratio than self-selected baseline. Also, fenfluramine improved performance on a range of computer tasks and increased ratings of "Alert," "Friendly," and "Talkative," while decreasing ratings of "Tired" and "Irritable."     

Production and performance of metal foil brushes

Electrical brushes which were made of silver, copper and aluminum foils of 12.5 and 25 μm thickness and were composed of 15–195 individual foils, were tested in purified argon on a polished copper rotor at a speed of 13 m s^?1. Brush pressures varied between 3.1 × 10³ and 2.8 × 10⁴ N m^?2 and current densities were up to about 700 A cm^?2 (about 4500 A in^?2).The observed dependence of the voltage drop across the brushes as a function of the current densities agreed closely with Holm 's contact theory as applied to foil brushes. The film resistivities were found to be near $\text{σ}{}_{\mathrm{F}}\text{= 10}{}^{\mathrm{?12}}\text{Ω}\text{m}{}^2$ for copper and silver and to be about $\text{3 × 10}{}^{\mathrm{?12}}\text{Ω}\text{m}{}^2$ for aluminum. The projected performance of foil brushes based on these results is very favorable and the future commercial use of foil brushes appears to be possible.The total loss, electrical and mechanical, through the brushes is independent of current density if the brush pressure is chosen to minimize the total loss. If so, the loss depends only on the brush speed, the hardness of the softer of the two materials involved (i.e. of foil and rotor or slip ring), the coefficient of friction and the film resistivity.Microscopic surface examinations of rotor and brushes show that the brush surface is smoothed through running the brush, whereas the rotor remains almost unaffected or is mildly roughened, as long as no arcing takes place. Arcing causes considerable surface roughening on both the brush and the rotor surface and debris is thus deposited on the rotor; this can score the brushes. Further experiments are required to determine the rate of brush wear.     

Photobleaching with phloxine B sensitizer to reduce food matrix interference for detection of Escherichia coli serotype O157:H7 in fresh spinach by flow cytometry

A flow cytometric method (RAPID-B™) with detection sensitivity of one viable cell of Escherichia coli serotype O157:H7 in fresh spinach (Spinacia oleracea) was developed and evaluated. The major impediment to achieving this performance was mistaking autofluorescing spinach particles for tagged target cells. Following a 5 h non-selective enrichment, artificially inoculated samples were photobleached, using phloxine B as a photosensitizer. Samples were centrifuged at high speed to concentrate target cells, then gradient centrifuged to separate them from matrix debris. In external laboratory experiments, RAPID-B and the reference method both correctly detected E. coli O157:H7 at inoculations of ca. 15 cells. In a follow-up study, after 4 cell inoculations of positives and 6 h enrichment, RAPID-B correctly identified 92% of 25 samples. The RAPID-B method limit of detection (LOD) was one cell in 25 g. It proved superior to the reference method (which incorporated real time-PCR, selective enrichment, and culture plating elements) in accuracy and speed.     

Analysis of pesticides by LC-electrospray-MS with postcolumn removal of nonvolatile buffers

Liquid chromatographic (LC) separations for pesticides and many other compounds make use of nonvolatile buffers in the mobile phase. The coupling of LC with mass spectrometry (MS) does not allow the use of nonvolatile buffers. Substitution with volatile buffers is possible, but changes in chromatographic retention and resolution can result even if pH is held constant. The postcolumn removal of nonvolatile buffers using a commercially available ion suppressor is evaluated for the analysis of carbamate pesticides. The suppressor efficiently removes phosphate anions from an LC mobile phase. Most compounds show an increased signal by factors of 2-7 after postcolumn phosphate removal. The suppressor has little effect on the chromatographic parameters of some compounds, while serious negative effects are noted for others. Some compounds will give poor results due to adsorption or retention by the suppressor. The results indicate that such a device may be useful for the LC-MS analysis of some pesticides using nonvolatile buffers.