Relationships between nocturnal activity, parental ratings of daytime activity and measues from the Children's Sleep Behaviour Scale.

Monitored the nocturnal activity levels of 20 boys and 20 girls (mean age 10.46 yrs) from 12:00 AM to 6:00 AM over 2 consecutive nights in their homes. Frequency of sleep-related behaviors based on retrospective parental ratings was assessed by the Children's Sleep Behavior Scale (CSBS). Children who were rated high on sleep behaviors with an observable motor component were also more active during the night, thereby validating the motor subscale of the CSBS. Nocturnal activity was associated with another CSBS-derived sleep score that included items with positive affective content, such as laughing and smiling while asleep. Children who showed bedtime resistance behaviors and complained of difficulty going to sleep were not more active during the night. Gender, age, and parental perception of daytime activity levels were not related to objective measures of nocturnal activity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Use of Carbon Monoxide Packaging for Improving the Shelf Life of Pork

ABSTRACT: Effects of carbon monoxide in modified-atmosphere packaging (MAP-CO) for pork were investigated. Eighty pork loins (40 injected, 40 uninjected) were used to evaluate color, microbial growth, rancidity, purge, and sensory quality of pork chops in 4 packaging environments (aerobic-overwrap, vacuum, MAP without CO, and MAP-CO). Treatments were evaluated during 36 d of refrigerated storage. Overall Hunter a values were significantly ( P < 0.001) greater in MAP-CO (11.25) than aerobic (6.93) packages. Sensory color values (100 point scale) were also greater for chops in MAP-CO (85.91) than aerobic (62.47) packages. However, MAP-CO did not reduce purge loss. Results showed that CO significantly improved color stability and sensory panel scores for both injected and noninjected pork chops.     

A new method to radiolabel natural organic matter by chemical reduction with tritiated sodium borohydride

In this paper, we describe a new method for labeling NOM with the radioisotope tritium (3H) using fulvic acid (FA) as the target NOM fraction. During labeling, FA ketone groups are chemically reduced with tritiated sodium borohydride (NaBH4), while the chemical functionality of the carboxyl and phenol groups is preserved. The labeling procedure was optimized in efficiency experiments that determined the excess concentration of tritiated NaBH4 required for optimum reduction conditions. The chemical characterization of the labeled FA product using FTIR and 1H NMR spectral analysis confirms the proposed reaction mechanism and rules out any significant amounts of impurities or undesirable side reactions. Results from size exclusion chromatography indicate thatthe tritium label is distributed uniformly over the whole molecular size range of FA and that it is stable over time and under various pH conditions. Potential differences in FA sorption behavior onto mineral surfaces due to labeling were excluded based on experimental data. This method produces NOM of high specific activity (e.g., 1.9 mCi mg(-1) FA); this permits the tracing of FA at a detection limit of 0.3 microg L(-1) FA.     

Determination of stability constants of U(VI)-Fe(III)-citrate complexes

Ion-exchange experiments were performed to evaluate the formation of the uranium-citrate and uranium-iron-citrate complexes over a wide concentration range; i.e., environmentally relevant concentrations (e.g., 10(-6) M in metal and ligand) and concentrations useful for spectroscopic investigations (e.g., 10(-4) M in metal and ligand). The stability of the well-known uranium-citrate complex was determined to validate the computational and experimental methods applied to the more complex system. Values of the conditional stability constants for these species were obtained using a chemical equilibrium model in FITEQL. At a pH of 4.0, the stability constant for uranium-citrate complex (log beta1,1) was determined to be 8.71+/-0.6 at I = 0. Analysis of the results of ion-exchange experiments for the U-Fe-citric acid system indicates the formation of the 1:1:1 and 1:1:2 ternary species with stability constants (log beta) of 17.10+/-0.41 and 20.47+/-0.31, respectively, at I= 0.     

The next frontier is anticipation: Thinking ahead about conflict to help clients find constructive ways to engage issues in advance

Assuming a comfort level by lawyers and companies with conflict resolution processes, five top conflict resolution authorities have joined together to discuss the next step. They believe that sophisticated ADR practice will be characterized by anticipatory dispute prevention