Patient participation, encounter, and methadone-reinforcement in the treatment of heroin addicts

Tho present thesis represents a summary or research done by the author (and others) that was conducted with heroin addicts and drug abusers undergoing behavioral and pharmacological therapy at Stockton State Hospital, Stockton, California. From June 1970 to December 1970 the Research Department of Stockton State Hospital, in conjunction with the Drug Abuse Program at Stockton State Hospital, conducted research investigating a number of difference facets relating to inpatient programs for heroin addicts undergoing methadone maintenance and drug abusers. These facets included the investigation and evaluation of (a) motivational factors; affecting the voluntary participation of inpatient heroin addicts and drug abusers in behavioral and pharmacological therapy, (b) the effectiveness of the synthetic narcotic methadone hydrocloride as a primary reinforcing technique for appropriate behavior, (c) the effectiveness of various therapeutic approaches used in conjunction with behavioral modification techniques, and (d) the effect of methadone on perceptual and motor functioning in the heroin addict under-going methadone maintenance. The present thesis is a compilation cf these research projects

Cost-outcome description of clinical pharmacist interventions in a university teaching hospital

Background: Pharmacist interventions are one of the pivotal parts of a clinical pharmacy service within a hospital. This study estimates the cost avoidance generated by pharmacist interventions due to the prevention of adverse drug events (ADE). The types of interventions identified are also analysed. Methods: Interventions recorded by a team of hospital pharmacists over a one year time period were included in the study. Interventions were assigned a rating score, determined by the probability that an ADE would have occurred in the absence of an intervention. These scores were then used to calculate cost avoidance. Net cost benefit and cost benefit ratio were the primary outcomes. Categories of interventions were also analysed. Results: A total cost avoidance of €708,221 was generated. Input costs were calculated at €81,942. This resulted in a net cost benefit of €626,279 and a cost benefit ratio of 8.64: 1. The most common type of intervention was the identification of medication omissions, followed by dosage adjustments and requests to review therapies. Conclusion: This study provides further evidence that pharmacist interventions provide substantial cost avoidance to the healthcare payer. There is a serious issue of patient’s regular medication being omitted on transfer to an inpatient setting in Irish hospitals

External cavity diode laser based upon an FBG in an integrated optical fiber platform

An external cavity diode laser is demonstrated using a Bragg grating written into a novel integrated optical fiber platform as the external cavity. The cavity is fabricated using flame-hydrolysis deposition to bond a photosensitive fiber to a silica-on-silicon wafer, and a grating written using direct UV-writing. The laser operates on a single mode at the acetylene P13 line (1532.83 nm) with 9 mW output power. The noise properties of the laser are characterized demonstrating low linewidth operation (< 14 kHz) and superior relative intensity noise characteristics when compared to a commercial tunable external cavity diode laser

Multigenerational exposures of Daphnia magna to pristine and aged silver nanoparticles:epigenetic changes and phenotypical ageing related effects

Engineered nanoparticles (NPs) undergo physical, chemical, and biological transformation after environmental release, resulting in different properties of the ‘aged’ versus ‘pristine’ forms. While many studies have investigated the ecotoxicological effects of silver (Ag) NPs, the majority focus on ‘pristine’ Ag NPs in simple exposure media, rather than investigating realistic environmental exposure scenarios with transformed NPs. Here, we systematically evaluate the effects of ‘pristine’ and ‘aged’ Ag NPs with different surface coatings on Daphnia magna over four generations, comparing continuous exposure versus parental only exposure to assess recovery potential for three generations. Biological endpoints including survival, growth and reproduction and genetic effects associated with Ag NP exposure were investigated. Parental exposure to ‘pristine’ Ag NPs had an inhibitory effect on reproduction, induced expression of antioxidant stress related genes and reduced survival. Pristine Ag NPs also induced morphological changes including tail losses and lipid accumulation associated with aging phenotypes in the heart, abdomen and abdominal claw. These effects were epigenetic remaining two generations post-maternal exposure (F2 and F3). Exposure to identical Ag NPs (same concentrations) aged for 6 months in environmentally realistic water containing natural organic matter showed considerably reduced toxicological effects in continuously exposed generations and to the recovery generations

South China Sea internal tide/internal waves-impact on the temporal variability of horizontal array gain at 276 Hz

Author Posting. © IEEE, 2004. This article is posted here by permission of IEEE for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering 29 (2004): 1292-1307, doi:10.1109/JOE.2004.836794.The temporal variability of the spatial coherence of an acoustic signal received on a bottomed horizontal array has been calculated for 276-Hz narrow-band signals. A conventional plane wave beamformer was applied to the received signals. The temporal variability of the array's omnipower, beam power, and array gain are related to variability in the sound-speed field. The spectral characteristics of array omnipower are nonstationary and changed as the spectral characteristics of the temperature field varied. The array omnipower and beam-power variability tracked each other in time and varied by as much as 15 dB over time intervals as short as 7 min. Array gain varied up to 5 dB and usually tracked the omnipower variability. A contiguous 24-h section of data is discussed in detail. This data section is from a time period during which the high-frequency fluid dynamic perturbation of the sound-speed field was of smaller amplitude than other sections of the 16-d data set. Consequently, this section of data sets an upper bound for the realizable array gain. The temporal variability of array gain and spatial coherence at times appears to be correlated with environmental perturbation of the sound-speed field, but are also correlated with changes in the signal-to-noise ratio. The data was acquired during the Office of Naval Research's South China Sea Asian Seas International Acoustics Experiment. The 465-m 32-channel horizontal array was placed on the bottom in 120 m of water at the South China Sea shelf break. The acoustic source was moored in 114 m of water /spl sim/19 km from the receiving array.This work was supported by the Office of Naval Research

Real-time tomography mooring

A real-time tomography system has been developed which combines ocean acoustic tomography with satellite-based time keeping and satellite telemetry. The basis of the system is the acoustic tomography transceiver and its associated acoustic navigation grid. To this basic system, a link to the surface has been added to provide a pathway for telemetry of the tomographic data to shore and a downlink for satellite-derived time which is used to correct the transceiver's clock. The surface buoy contains a GPS receiver, clock comparator, system controller and multiple ID Argos transmitters. Processed tomography signals, transceiver location data time, time drift and surface buoy engineering data are transmitted to satellite using a total of 32 data buffers transmitted every eight minutes. The report describes the real-time tomography system in detail, with particular emphasis on the modifications implemented to convert the standard tomography instrument to a real-time oceanographic tool.Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Technology under Contract No. N000-14-C-90-0098

Estimating the horizontal and vertical direction-of-arrival of water-borne seismic signals in the northern Philippine Sea

Author Posting. © Acoustical Society of America, 2013. This article is posted here by permission of Acoustical Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 134 (2013): 3282, doi:10.1121/1.4818843.Conventional and adaptive plane-wave beamforming with simultaneous recordings by large-aperture horizontal and vertical line arrays during the 2009 Philippine Sea Engineering Test (PhilSea09) reveal the rate of occurrence and the two-dimensional arrival structure of seismic phases that couple into the deep ocean. A ship-deployed, controlled acoustic source was used to evaluate performance of the horizontal array for a range of beamformer adaptiveness levels. Ninety T-phases from unique azimuths were recorded between Yeardays 107 to 119. T-phase azimuth and S-minus-P-phase time-of-arrival range estimates were validated using United States Geological Survey seismic monitoring network data. Analysis of phases from a seismic event that occurred on Yearday 112 near the east coast of Taiwan approximately 450 km from the arrays revealed a 22° clockwise evolution of T-phase azimuth over 90 s. Two hypotheses to explain such evolution—body wave excitation of multiple sources or in-water scattering—are presented based on T-phase origin sites at the intersection of azimuthal great circle paths and ridge/coastal bathymetry. Propagation timing between the source, scattering region, and array position suggests the mechanism behind the evolution involved scattering of the T-phase from the Ryukyu Ridge and a T-phase formation/scattering location estimation error of approximately 3.2 km.This research is supported by the Office of Naval Research, both the Applied Research Laboratory program and Code 322(OA)

Temperature dependence of self-pulsation in compact disc lasers

Experimental data regarding the temperature dependence of compact disc lasers are presented. The authors demonstrate, for the first time, a temperature-dependent model which has been adapted from a well established compact disc laser model. By comparing the experimental trends and calculation, they attempt to highlight the role of certain phenomena such as nonradiative recombination and charge carrier diffusion on the device behaviour. From these results they come to a number of important conclusions regarding the origin of self-pulsation in these types of laser diodes

Preliminary acoustic and oceanographic observations from the ASIAEX 2001 South China Sea Experiment

The Asian Seas International Experiment (ASIAEX) was a very successful scientific collaboration between the United States of America (USA), the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Taiwan (ROC), the Republic of Korea (ROK), Japan, Russia, and Singapore. Preliminary field experiments associated with ASIAEX began in spring of 2000. The main experiments were performed in April-August, 2001. The scientific plan called for two major acoustics experiments, the first a bottom interaction experiment in the East China Sea (ECS) and the second a volume interaction experiment in the South China Sea (SCS). In addition to the acoustics efforts, there were also extremely strong physical oceanography and geology and geophysics components to the experiments. This report will concentrate on describing the moored component of the South China Sea portion of ASIAEX 2001 performed from the Taiwan Fisheries research vessel FR1 (Fisheries Researcher 1). Information on the environmental moorings deployed from the Taiwanese oceanographic research vessel OR1 (Oceanographic Researcher 1) will also be listed here for completeness, so that the reader can pursue later analyses of the data. This report does not pursue any data analyses per se.Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Research under Grant Numbers N00014-01-1-0772, N00014-98-1-0413 and N00014-00-1-0206