Proton magnetic resonance and polarographic studies of some aminated naphthoquinones

Variable temperature n.m.r. and polarographic measurements have been performed on a series of cyclic secondary aminonaphthoquinones. The results indicate that ring strain is not the only factor which would explain the order of effective electron donation by the various amines to the quinone nucleus

Community Education on MTM Services

Abstract Background Medication nonadherence, defined as “the number of doses not taken or taken incorrectly that jeopardizes the patient’s therapeutic outcome,” is a major health problem with about 43% of the general population nonadherent to their medications. Medication nonadherence accounts for an estimated 125,000 deaths per year in the US, 33-69% of medication-related hospital readmissions, and an estimated $100 to$300 billion in direct and indirect medical costs. Medication therapy management (MTM), defined as “a distinct service or group of services that optimize therapeutic outcomes for individual patients,” has been found to reduce medication nonadherence. However, many individuals eligible for MTM services are not aware of the resource available to them and do not believe the service will be beneficial to them. Objectives A pre-post observational study design will be used to determine the effects of two types of educational interventions on MTM of patient’s perceptions of MTM and enrollment in MTM services. Methodology Participants will be divided into two intervention groups. All participants will complete a pre survey to assess current perceptions of MTM services. One group will attend a community educational event on MTM, and the second group will receive an educational brochure in the mail. All participants will complete a post survey to reassess perceptions of MTM after the educational intervention. In addition, all participants will be tracked to determine future enrollment in an MTM service. Analysis Descriptive tests and paired t-tests/Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests will be run on data acquired from pre and post surveys. Unpaired t-tests/Mann Whitney and chi-square tests will be run to compare data between intervention groups. Descriptive tests will be run on data acquired from tracking enrollment

Community Education on MTM Services

Background: Medication nonadherence, defined as “the number of doses not taken or taken incorrectly that jeopardizes the patient’s therapeutic outcome,” is a major health problem with about 43% of the general population nonadherent to their medications. Medication nonadherence accounts for an estimated 125,000 deaths per year in the US, 33-69% of medication-related hospital readmissions, and an estimated $100 to$300 billion in direct and indirect medical costs. Medication therapy management (MTM), defined as “a distinct service or group of services that optimize therapeutic outcomes for individual patients,” has been found to reduce medication nonadherence. However, many individuals eligible for MTM services are not aware of the resource available to them and do not believe the service will be beneficial to them. Objectives: A pre post observational study design will be used to determine the effects of two types of educational interventions on MTM of patient’s perceptions of MTM and enrollment in MTM services. Methodology: Participants will be divided into two intervention groups. All participants will complete a pre survey to assess current perceptions of MTM services. One group will attend a community educational event on MTM, and the second group will receive an educational brochure in the mail. All participants will complete a post survey to reassess perceptions of MTM after the educational intervention. In addition, all participants will be tracked to determine future enrollment in an MTM service. Analysis: Descriptive tests and paired t-tests/Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests will be run on data acquired from pre and post surveys. Unpaired t-tests/Mann Whitney and chi-square tests will be run to compare data between intervention groups. Descriptive tests will be run on data acquired from tracking enrollment

Predicting the Amplitude of a Solar Cycle Using the North-South Asymmetry in the Previous Cycle: II. An Improved Prediction for Solar Cycle~24

Recently, using Greenwich and Solar Optical Observing Network sunspot group data during the period 1874-2006, (Javaraiah, MNRAS, 377, L34, 2007: Paper I), has found that: (1) the sum of the areas of the sunspot groups in 0-10 deg latitude interval of the Sun's northern hemisphere and in the time-interval of -1.35 year to +2.15 year from the time of the preceding minimum of a solar cycle n correlates well (corr. coeff. r=0.947) with the amplitude (maximum of the smoothed monthly sunspot number) of the next cycle n+1. (2) The sum of the areas of the spot groups in 0-10 deg latitude interval of the southern hemisphere and in the time-interval of 1.0 year to 1.75 year just after the time of the maximum of the cycle n correlates very well (r=0.966) with the amplitude of cycle n+1. Using these relations, (1) and (2), the values 112 + or - 13 and 74 + or -10, respectively, were predicted in Paper I for the amplitude of the upcoming cycle 24. Here we found that in case of (1), the north-south asymmetry in the area sum of a cycle n also has a relationship, say (3), with the amplitude of cycle n+1, which is similar to (1) but more statistically significant (r=0.968) like (2). By using (3) it is possible to predict the amplitude of a cycle with a better accuracy by about 13 years in advance, and we get 103 + or -10 for the amplitude of the upcoming cycle 24. However, we found a similar but a more statistically significant (r=0.983) relationship, say (4), by using the sum of the area sum used in (2) and the north-south difference used in (3). By using (4) it is possible to predict the amplitude of a cycle by about 9 years in advance with a high accuracy and we get 87 + or - 7 for the amplitude of cycle 24.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, Published in Solar Physics 252, 419-439 (2008

Co-Curriculum Implementation and Assessment in Accredited Doctor of Pharmacy Programs

Objective. To determine how accredited Doctor of Pharmacy programs implement and evaluate the co-curriculum requirement as mandated by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE). Methods. A survey was administered to all ACPE-accredited pharmacy programs to collect information regarding how co-curriculum models were being implemented, including types of activities, structure, learning outcomes, oversight, and assessment. The frequency of responses to items were presented to describe the general features of co-curriculum models. Results. The types of co-curricular activities reported by programs were generally consistent, with the majority of programs categorizing these activities and allowing students to choose which they would engage in. Most respondents reported that the program mapped co-curricular activities to learning outcomes, primarily ACPE Standards 1-4. The structural oversight of the co-curriculum typically included a co-curriculum committee, subcommittee, or task force, and supporting offices. The most common offices/departments involved in the co-curriculum were assessment, student affairs/services, experiential education, and academic/curricular affairs. The most common assessments were reflections, self-assessment surveys, and checklists. Conclusion. In most programs, implementation of the co-curriculum was a joint effort among various individuals, committees, and offices. Given the developing nature of programs, descriptive studies should be repeated to identify how programs develop and enhance co-curriculum models. The study results may be useful to members of the Academy when evaluating the current state of co-curriculum implementation and potential areas for program development

Synchronous parallel kinetic Monte Carlo for continuum diffusion-reaction systems

A novel parallel kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) algorithm formulated on the basis of perfect time synchronicity is presented. The algorithm is intended as a generalization of the standard n-fold kMC method, and is trivially implemented in parallel architectures. In its present form, the algorithm is not rigorous in the sense that boundary conflicts are ignored. We demonstrate, however, that, in their absence, or if they were correctly accounted for, our algorithm solves the same master equation as the serial method. We test the validity and parallel performance of the method by solving several pure diffusion problems (i.e. with no particle interactions) with known analytical solution. We also study diffusion-reaction systems with known asymptotic behavior and find that, for large systems with interaction radii smaller than the typical diffusion length, boundary conflicts are negligible and do not affect the global kinetic evolution, which is seen to agree with the expected analytical behavior. Our method is a controlled approximation in the sense that the error incurred by ignoring boundary conflicts can be quantified intrinsically, during the course of a simulation, and decreased arbitrarily (controlled) by modifying a few problem-dependent simulation parameters

Fentanyl-related designer drugs W-18 and W-15 lack appreciable opioid activity in vitro and in vivo

W-18 (4-chloro-N-[1-[2-(4-nitrophenyl)ethyl]-2-piperidinylidene]-benzenesulfonamide) and W-15 (4-chloro-N-[1-(2-phenylethyl)-2-piperidinylidene]-benzenesulfonamide) represent two emerging drugs of abuse chemically related to the potent opioid agonist fentanyl (N-(1-(2-phenylethyl)-4-piperidinyl)-N-phenylpropanamide). Here, we describe the comprehensive pharmacological profiles of W-18 and W-15, as examination of their structural features predicted that they might lack opioid activity. We found W-18 and W-15 to be without detectible activity at μ, δ, κ, and nociception opioid receptors in a variety of assays. We also tested W-18 and W-15 for activity as allosteric modulators at opioid receptors and found them devoid of significant positive or negative allosteric modulatory activity. Comprehensive profiling at essentially all the druggable GPCRs in the human genome using the PRESTO-Tango platform revealed no significant activity. Weak activity at the sigma receptors and the peripheral benzodiazepine receptor was found for W-18 (Ki = 271 nM). W-18 showed no activity in either the radiant heat tail-flick or the writhing assays and also did not induce classical opioid behaviors. W-18 is extensively metabolized, but its metabolites also lack opioid activity. Thus, although W-18 and W-15 have been suggested to be potent opioid agonists, our results reveal no significant activity at these or other known targets for psychoactive drugs

Modeling the Subsurface Structure of Sunspots

While sunspots are easily observed at the solar surface, determining their subsurface structure is not trivial. There are two main hypotheses for the subsurface structure of sunspots: the monolithic model and the cluster model. Local helioseismology is the only means by which we can investigate subphotospheric structure. However, as current linear inversion techniques do not yet allow helioseismology to probe the internal structure with sufficient confidence to distinguish between the monolith and cluster models, the development of physically realistic sunspot models are a priority for helioseismologists. This is because they are not only important indicators of the variety of physical effects that may influence helioseismic inferences in active regions, but they also enable detailed assessments of the validity of helioseismic interpretations through numerical forward modeling. In this paper, we provide a critical review of the existing sunspot models and an overview of numerical methods employed to model wave propagation through model sunspots. We then carry out an helioseismic analysis of the sunspot in Active Region 9787 and address the serious inconsistencies uncovered by \citeauthor{gizonetal2009}~(\citeyear{gizonetal2009,gizonetal2009a}). We find that this sunspot is most probably associated with a shallow, positive wave-speed perturbation (unlike the traditional two-layer model) and that travel-time measurements are consistent with a horizontal outflow in the surrounding moat.Comment: 73 pages, 19 figures, accepted by Solar Physic

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02