Measurement of serum levels of exogenously administered FSH and LH during ovulation induction therapy

The available surgical and non-surgical therapy options for treatment of gallstone disease are presented. Conventional cholecystectomy is regarded as standard therapy of symptomatic cholecystolithiasis. Other modes of therapy may be indicated under certain circumstances, depending on the results of imaging procedures. In this context conventional X-ray examination, oral and intravenous cholecystography, sonography, computed tomography, endoscopic retrograde cholangiography/cholecystography, and magnetic resonance imaging are discussed and their influence on therapeutic decisions is explained.     

Plastic changes in the cholinergic innervation of the rat cerebral cortex after unilateral lesion of the nucleus basalis with alpha-amino-3-OH-4-isoxozole propionic acid (AMPA): effects of basal forebrain transplants into neocortex

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, different methods to control the quality of analyses have been in use. The advent of modern analytical instruments has prompted the need for such controls. In a modern clinical chemistry laboratory, quality control is an important tool to maintain the high predictive value of the methods in use. In this article the most important aspects of quality control are outlined. For further study, I recommend the references listed at the end of this article.     

Islam, Jihad, and Terrorism in Post-9/11 Arabic Discussion Boards

This study analyzed the contents of three of the most popular Arabic-language online message boards regarding the attacks of September 11, 2001 on the United States. Although terrorists claimed that the attacks were committed in the name of Islam, those who posted messages on all three forums rejected this claim. More than 43% of the messages condemned the attacks as a criminal act of terrorism that contradicts the core teachings of Islam. Some 30% saw some justification behind the attacks, even if they felt sorry for the victims and their families. However, those participants viewed the attacks as a political, rather than a religious, issue.     

Kinetics of oxygen absorption in aqueous sodium dithionite solutions

The absorption and reaction of oxygen in aqueous alkaline solutions of sodium dithionite has been experimentally investigated in a novel gas-liquid contactor. The novel gas-lift bubble column contactor was used to study the kinetics over wide ranges of reactant concentrations, temperature, and pH. The oxygen-sodium dithionite reaction was found to be first-order with respect to dithionite in the range of dithionite concentration < 0.1 M, and second-order in the range of dithionite concentration > 0.1 M. The reaction with respect to oxygen was found to be zero-order for all dithionite concentrations. These results and experimental investigations of the effect of solution alkalinity and temperature on the reaction rate are consistent with previous findings obtained in different gas-liquid contactors. The results thus confirm the feasibility of using the gas-lift bubble column for the kinetics of gas-liquid reactions.     

Effect of Initial Annealing Temperature on Microstructural Development and Microhardness in High‐Purity Copper Processed by High‐Pressure Torsion

The effect of the initial annealing temperature on the evolution of microstructure and microhardness in high purity OFHC Cu is investigated after processing by HPT. Disks of Cu are annealed for 1 h at two different annealing temperatures, 400 and 800 °C, and then processed by HPT at room temperature under a pressure of 6.0 GPa for 1/4, 1/2, 1, 5, and 10 turns. Samples are stored for 6 months after HPT processing to examine the self‐annealing effects. Electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) measurements are recorded for each disk at three positions: center, mid‐radius, and near edge. Microhardness measurements are also recorded along the diameters of each disk. Both alloys show rapid hardening and then strain softening in the very early stages of straining due to self‐annealing with a clear delay in the onset of softening in the alloy initially annealed at 800 °C. This delay is due to the relatively larger initial grain size compared to the alloy initially annealed at 400 °C. The final microstructures consist of homogeneous fine grains having average sizes of ≈0.28 and ≈0.34 µm for the alloys initially annealed at 400 and 800 °C, respectively. A new model is proposed to describe the behavior of the hardness evolution by HPT in high purity OFHC Cu.     

An on-chip cell culturing and combinatorial drug screening system

A low-cost, convenient and precise drug combination screening microfluidic platform is developed, in which cell culture chambers designed with micropillars integrate with three laminar flow diffusion channels. This platform has several distinct features, including minimum shear stress on cells, biocompatibility, optimum concentration distribution and automatic combinatorial gradient generation, which can potentially speed up the discovery of an effective drug combination for cancer ablations. The presented device can generate two-drug combination gradients at the optimum flow rate of 90 μL/h and can be applied to identify the optimal combination of two clinically relevant chemotherapy drugs. For demonstration, paclitaxel at 0.77 × 10^?3 mg/mL and cisplatin at 0.23 × 10^?4 mg/mL were studied against lung cancer cells (A549). This microfluidic device has the potential to provide a precise and robust screening for anticancer combinational drugs practiced in clinics.     

Reinforcement Learning Based Algorithms for Average Cost Markov Decision Processes

This article proposes several two-timescale simulation-based actor-critic algorithms for solution of infinite horizon Markov Decision Processes with finite state-space under the average cost criterion. Two of the algorithms are for the compact (non-discrete) action setting while the rest are for finite-action spaces. On the slower timescale, all the algorithms perform a gradient search over corresponding policy spaces using two different Simultaneous Perturbation Stochastic Approximation (SPSA) gradient estimates. On the faster timescale, the differential cost function corresponding to a given stationary policy is updated and an additional averaging is performed for enhanced performance. A proof of convergence to a locally optimal policy is presented. Next, we discuss a memory efficient implementation that uses a feature-based representation of the state-space and performs TD(0) learning along the faster timescale. The TD(0) algorithm does not follow an on-line sampling of states but is observed to do well on our setting. Numerical experiments on a problem of rate based flow control are presented using the proposed algorithms. We consider here the model of a single bottleneck node in the continuous time queueing framework. We show performance comparisons of our algorithms with the two-timescale actor-critic algorithms of Konda and Borkar (1999) and Bhatnagar and Kumar (2004). Our algorithms exhibit more than an order of magnitude better performance over those of Konda and Borkar (1999).

Impact of sedimentation on groundwater recharge at Sahalanowt Dam,Salalah, Oman

Recharge dams in Oman detain floods to recharge groundwater. The impact of sedimentation on recharge at Wadi Sahalanowt Recharge Dam, in Salalah, Oman, was evaluated using field data and numerical modelling. Analysis of the thickness of sediments after flood events shows that maximum depositions were at the same locations after each event, coinciding with the lowest positions in the wadi. Numerical modelling suggests that the current practice of periodic removal of sediments will restore the storage capacity of the reservoir, but that ploughing or raking of the underlying native sedimentary rocks could be required to significantly improve infiltration rates.     

Attitudes of college students enrolled in 2-year health care programs towards online learning

Colleges offering 2-year diplomas to high-school graduates were among the forefront leaders in online learning however studies illustrating appropriate course construction for such student populations are scarce. Pharmacy Math (MATH16532) is a core course for students enrolled in the Practical Nursing (PN) and Pharmacy Technician (PT) programs at Sheridan Institute. PT and PN students enrolled in MATH16532 during their first term were surveyed to determine student attitudes and skills gained from participating in an online course. Students were then followed up during their second term studies to determine transferability of skills gained. Initially, students did not exhibit a positive attitude towards the online version of Math16532. Participation in the online version of MATH16532 however allowed students to enhance their written ability and critical appraisal skills, gain time management skills, and become independent learners. PT and PN students preferred an orientation session at the beginning of the course and a well organized, easy-to-navigate course. Even though considered as predominantly digital native students, both student groups remained anxious throughout the course regarding the online delivery and preferred a hybrid mode of delivery. Despite the initial resistance to an online math course, students indicated that they would retake the course again in an online format towards the end of the course and there appeared to be a trend to enrol in another online course. Several recommendations regarding the design and construct of online courses in a 2-year college program are provided to facilitate acceptance of online learning for students enrolled in such programs.