Doctor\u27s Orders: A New Prescription for ADHD Medication Abuse

The article focuses on the problems regarding the misuse of medications used in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a neurobehavioral disorder. It discusses that drug Adderall that is prescribed for the patients of ADHD helps in increasing concentration, memory and focus. It also elaborates that in academic institutions, this drug has been misused by healthy people to perform better than others even after strict guidelines

Speaking as Country: A Ngarrindjeri Methodology of Transformative Engagement

The systemic nature of colonisation results in a trenchant series of problems for Indigenous peoples striving to protect their lands and waters, to ensure the health of their communities, and to rightfully enjoy their cultural life. Indigenous leaders and communities who seek the transformation of colonial systems of knowledge, law and practice must engage effectively and authoritatively with the non-Indigenous processes and structures that have long been the source of Indigenous disempowerment. How can Indigenous people engage with a dominant system, without being co-opted into that system? Similar issues are raised for non-Indigenous actors implicated with Indigenous affairs: how can the agencies of a dominant system partner meaningfully and respectfully with Indigenous peoples, to refrain from appropriating Indigenous cultural knowledge and assimilating Indigenous aspirations within a framework that has been developed insensitively, in ignorance of Indigenous needs, perspectives and philosophies? In sum, how can we collectively ensure that our ‘response to wrongs are not reinscriptions of colonial processes’?3 In South Australia, the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority (NRA) has developed an innovative response to colonial governmentality, which subverts and seeks to correct the structural conditions underlying the continuing dominance of colonial social forms and their associated epistemologies. The NRA makes strategic use of an Indigenous-led methodology of engagement that is culturally relevant and secured legally through contractual agreement.4 At its centre is the Ngarrindjeri concept of Yannarumi—broadly translated as ‘Speaking as Country’. Resulting interaction then reinforces Ngarrindjeri nationhood and agency in protecting Ngarrindjeri lands and waters, by sharing in knowledge production that respects rights to cultural knowledge as a form of intellectual property. Through this method of relationship-building, including in the domain of scientific research conducted on Ngarrindjeri Ruwe (Country), the NRA has been able to take an active and progressive role in the development of environmental policy and in decision-making around water and natural resource management (NRM) in the Murray-Darling Basin regio

Cardiovascular dynamics during space sickness and deconditioning

We are currently funded by NASA for the project, 'Cardiovascular Dynamics During Space Sickness and Deconditioning.' NASA has given priority to the investigation of two problems encountered in the long-term space flights currently being planned: (1) space motion sickness; and (2) cardiovascular deconditioning. We have proposed to use spectral and nonlinear dynamical analysis of heart rate data to quantify the presence of these problems and to evaluate countermeasures against them

Outliers involving the Poly(A) effect among highly-expressed genes in microarrays

BACKGROUND: The Poly(A) effect is a cross-hybridization artifact in which poly(T)-containing molecules, which are produced by the reverse transcription of a poly(A)(+ )RNA mixture, bind promiscuously to the poly(A) stretches of the DNA in microarray spots. It is customary to attempt to block such hybridization by adding poly(A) to the hybridization solution. This note describes an experiment intended to evaluate circumstances under which the blocking procedure may not have been successful. RESULTS: The experiment involves a spot-by-spot comparison between the hybridization signals obtained by hybridizing a microarray to: (1) end-labeled oligo(dT), versus, (2) cDNA prepared from muscle tissue. We found that the blocking appears to be successful for the vast majority of microarray spots, as evidenced by the weakness of the correlation between signals (1) and (2). However, we found that for microarray spots having oligo(dT) hybridization levels greater than a certain threshold, the blocking might be ineffective or incomplete, as evidenced by an exceptionally strong signal (2) whenever signal (1) is greater than the threshold. CONCLUSION: The PolyA effect may be more subtle than simply a hybridization signal that is proportional to the PolyA content of each microarray spot. It may instead be present only in spots that hybridize oligo(dT) greater than some threshold level. The strong signal generated at these "outlier" spots by cDNA probes might be due to the formation of hybridization heteropolymers

Vibrational spectroscopy studies of the role of water in metal ion extraction into room temperature ionic liquids

In efforts to evaluate the suitability of ionic liquids (ILs) as solvents for the extraction of fission products, two series of room temperature ILs, one comprising a diakylimidazolium cation and the other containing an analogous (1-hydroxyalkyl)-functionalized imidazolium cation, have been prepared as their bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]imide salts. The extraction of Sr(II) from aqueous nitric acid solutions by dicyclohexano-18-crown-6 into these ILs has been measured. A linear correlation has been observed between the extent of Sr(II) extraction and the equilibrium water content of the IL phases. Although a precedence has been established similarly with n-alcohol diluents, the relationship in extraction systems employing IL diluents has yet to be adequately studied.To investigate how water may be functioning in these biphasic systems, vibrational spectroscopy has been employed. A challenge to this analysis has been to differentiate between the vibrational modes of water and those of the of IL diluents. Raman spectroscopy offers the possibility to distinguish between -OH vibrational modes from solvent moieties and those in a different state, such as molecular water. Along with the near-IR and mid-IR ranges, Raman spectroscopy is being utilized the interrogate states of molecular water and other species that may be involved in metal ion partitioning. With the ultimate goal of elucidating the interactions between IL constituent ions, metal ion-crown ether complexes, co-extracted ions (e.g., nitrate) and water, these studies represent a principal step in gaining a better understanding of partitioning mechanisms in IL-based separation media

Webteaching: sequencing of subject matter in relation to prior knowledge of pupils

Two experiments are discussed in which the sequencing procedure of webteaching is compared with a linear sequence for the presentation of text material.\ud \ud In the first experiment variations in the level of prior knowledge of pupils were studied for their influence on the sequencing mode of text presentation. Prior knowledge greatly reduced the effect of the size of sequencing procedures.\ud \ud In the second experiment pupils with a low level of prior knowledge studied a text, following either a websequence or a linear sequence. Webteaching was superior to linear teaching on a number of dependent variables. It is concluded that webteaching is an effective sequencing procedure in those cases where substantial new learning is required

Variations in strain affect friction and microstructure evolution in copper under a reciprocating tribological load

The microstructure of the materials constituting a metallic frictional contact strongly influences tribological performance. Being able to tailor friction and wear is challenging due to the complex microstructure evolution associated with tribological loading. Here, we investigate the effect of the strain distribution on these processes. High-purity copper plates were morphologically surface textured with two parallel rectangles—referred to as membranes—over the entire sample length by micro-milling. By keeping the width of these membranes constant and only varying their height, reciprocating tribological loading against sapphire discs resulted in different elastic and plastic strains. Finite element simulations were carried out to evaluate the strain distribution in the membranes. It was found that the maximum elastic strain increases with decreasing membrane stiffness. The coefficient of friction decreases with increasing membrane aspect ratio. By analyzing the microstructure and local crystallographic orientation, we found that both show less change with decreasing membrane stiffness