Parental Rights vs. Best Interests of the Child: A False Dichotomy in the Context of Adoption

I. Introduction: Identifying the Controversy The mythology of adoption involves a scenario in which a teenage girl gets pregnant, and neither she nor the father is ready to raise a child. Upon birth, these young parents voluntarily relinquish the baby to an upwardly mobile couple who have been waiting years to adopt. The adoptive parents become, in essence, the birth parents to the baby who grows up happy and well-adjusted. The birth parents vanish from the picture, perhaps eventually marrying and having additional children. No one looks back. But what happens to this myth when the birth mother changes her mind or misidentifies the father, when the adoptee is not a baby but a ten-year-old foster child, when the adoptive parents abuse the child, when the adoptive parents are the baby\u27s grandparents, or when the adoptee begins asking questions about her family of origin? If ever the reality of adoption fit this myth, it certainly does not today. Adoption, as with every issue involving families, is much more complicated and diverse than the above scenario suggests. Indeed, most adoptions do not even involve infants, but instead concern older children who have lived with multiple families. 1 Moreover, it is now widely recognized that even children adopted as infants do not have just one family, but are always physically and existentially related to their birth families. 2 It is against this backdrop of contemporary adoption that courts are increasingly being called upon to resolve contested adoptions involving competing adults. ..

Antifungal antibiotics from potential biocontrol microorganisms

This thesis presents isolation and structure elucidation of twenty-five antifungal antibiotics. The compounds were isolated from four different microorganisms, which had all been found to suppress fungal pathogens in bioassays. Eight cyclic depsipeptides, enniatins, were isolated from the fungus Fusarium sp. F31. Four of them have not previously been isolated from natural sources. They inhibited Botrytis cinerea spore germination at levels down to 100 μg/ml. From the bacterium Pseudomonas sp. MF381-IODS, two linear polyene polyketides were isolated, pseudotrienic acids A and B, together with the known antifungals didehydro-deepoxirhizoxin, and pyrrolnitrin. The pseudotrienic acids inhibited Gram-positive bacteria at levels down to 70 μg/ml. The Pseudomonas sp. Ki19 strain produced four different dialkylresorcinols, of which two were new analogues. All four were active against fungi at levels down to 100 μg/ml, and also against Gram-positive bacteria down to 5 μg/ml. The actinomycete Kutzneria sp. 744 was found to produce a spectrum of nine di- and trichlorinated cyclic depsipeptides, containing several unusual amino acids. The trichlorinated compounds were significantly more active and inhibited fungi down to 60 μg/ml and Gram-positive bacteria down to 5 μg/ml A robust sample work-up method was developed for isolation of antifungal metabolites from both fungi and bacteria. It consisted of bioassay-guided isolation by solid phase extraction (SPE) and HPLC. The bioassay was based on inhibition of fungal spores or bacterial cells and was able to detect compounds with a range of antifungal activities. Such a multi-target functional bioassay was used in order to isolate compounds with several types of antifungal mechanisms. Bacteria were included in the bioassays in order to gain a broader knowledge of the antibiotic spectrum. The structural elucidation of the compounds relied on NMR and MS techniques together with chemical degradation and derivatization methods, and GCMS analysis for stereochemical investigation. The absolute configuration was determined for all previously unpublished compounds

A Disposable Chip for the Collection of Quantitative Dried Blood Spot Samples

This work presents a disposable chip for metering and transferring an exactly defined liquid volume into a paper matrix using self-actuated dissolvable valves. Once a liquid droplet of 20-50 μl is applied to the chip, a volume of 1 μl is automatically metered, separated from the applied volume and subsequently transferred into conventional Whatman 903 paper used in Dried Blood Spot (DBS) sampling.QC 20140619</p

Disposable Chip to Enable Metering in Dried Blood Spot Sampling

This work presents a disposable chip for metering and transferring an exactly defined liquid volume into a paper matrix by capillary filling and emptying of a microchannel together with self-actuated dissolvable valves. Once a liquid droplet of 20-50 μl is applied to the chip, a volume of 1 μl is automatically metered, separated from the applied volume and subsequently transferred into conventional Whatman 903 paper used in Dried Blood Spot (DBS) sampling. The presented concept allows accurate volume metering for lateral flow devices and is here designed to the specific purpose of metering blood spots for DBS analysis. The material costs for each chip are below 0.04 €.QC 20140613</p

A Disposable Chip Enabling Metering In Dried Blood Spot Sampling

This work presents a disposable chip for metering and transferring an exactly defined liquid volume into a paper matrix by capillary filling and emptying of a microchannel together with self-actuated dissolvable valves. Once a liquid droplet of 20-50 μl is applied to the chip, a volume of 1 μl is automatically metered, separated from the applied volume and subsequently transferred into conventional Whatman 903 paper used in Dried Blood Spot (DBS) sampling. The presented concept allows accurate volume metering for lateral flow devices and is here designed to the specific purpose of metering blood spots for DBS analysis. The material costs for each chip are below 0.04 €.QC 20140613</p

YOLO approach to human activity classification

Cilvēku aktivitātes klasificēšana ar viedierīču palīdzību ir noderīga gan medicīnas pielietojumiem, gan sporta pielietojumiem, un citiem. Piemēram, pateicoties tai ir iespējams atpazīt lietotāja kritienu un savlaicīgi izsaukt palīdzību. Šajā darbā ir apskatīts kā tiek veikta cilvēku kustību atpazīšana un sportisko aktivitāšu atkārtojumu skaitīšana ar viedtālruņiem. Darba praktiskajā daļā ir ievākti kustību dati no vairākiem cilvēkiem veicot pietupienus. Šie dati izmantoti, lai izveidotu dziļo neironu tīklu modeli, kurš spēj atpazīt pietupienus, kā arī saskaitīt to atkārtojumu skaitu. Darbā tiek piedāvāts izmantot konvolūciju līmeņus un idejas no YOLO dziļo neironu tīkla, kuru izmanto objektu atpazīšanai attēlos. Uz validācijas kopas modelis sasniedz 90% precizitāti, kas ir samērojama ar līdzīgiem pētījumiem. Šis darbs ir izstrādāts FLPP projekta "Kompleksa novērtēšanas un atbalsta programma, lai samazinātu ar ekrānos pavadīto laiku saistītos veselības riskus pusaudžiem" ietvaros, kuru veic LSPA sadarbībā ar LU.Human activity classification with the help of smart devices is useful for medical, sports, and other applications. For example, thanks to HAR it is possible to determine if a person has fallen, and promptly call for help. This thesis examines how the recognition of human movements and counting of repetitions in sports activities with smartphones is performed. In the practical part of the thesis, movement data is collected from several people performing squats. This data is used to create a model of deep neural networks that can recognize squats, as well as count their number of repetitions. The paper proposes to use convolutional layers and ideas from the YOLO network which is used for object recognition in images to create a single model for both of these tasks. The model on the validation set achieves an accuracy of 90%, which is comparable to similar studies. This work has been developed within the FLPP "Comprehensive Assessment and Support Program to Reduce Screen Time Related Health Risks in Adolescents" project, which is carried out by LSPA in cooperation with LU

Disposable Chip to Enable Metering in Dried Blood Spot Sampling

This work presents a disposable chip for metering and transferring an exactly defined liquid volume into a paper matrix by capillary filling and emptying of a microchannel together with self-actuated dissolvable valves. Once a liquid droplet of 20-50 μl is applied to the chip, a volume of 1 μl is automatically metered, separated from the applied volume and subsequently transferred into conventional Whatman 903 paper used in Dried Blood Spot (DBS) sampling. The presented concept allows accurate volume metering for lateral flow devices and is here designed to the specific purpose of metering blood spots for DBS analysis. The material costs for each chip are below 0.04 €.QC 20140613</p

Quantification of Tacrolimus and Three Demethylated Metabolites in Human Whole Blood Using LC-ESI-MS/MS

Background: A bioalanytical method for the quantification of tacrolimus (TAC) and 3 metabolites, 13-O, 15-O, and 31-O-demethylated TAC (M-I, M-III, and M-II) in human whole blood using liquid chromatography, electrospray ionization, tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) was developed and validated. Method: The analytes were extracted from 85 mu L of blood by protein precipitation followed by solid-phase extraction and a concentration step. The analytes and the internal standard (IS, ascomycin) were separated on a C18 column using a slow gradient mobile phase elution, with an analysis time of 3.3 minutes. The ammonium-adduct ions with transitions of m/z 821.5 > 768.7 (TAC), 807.5 > 754.7 (M-I, M-III, M-II), and 809.4 > 756.7 (IS) were measured in selected reaction monitoring mode using electrospray ionization. Results: Measuring ranges were 0.1-50 ng/mL for M-II, M-III, and TAC and 0.15-39 ng/mL for M-I. Imprecision in quantification was 50% for all analytes. The sample's stability was proven for 1 month at -20 degrees C and 72 hours at room temperature. Three freeze-thaw cycles had no significant effect on the stability. The prepared samples were stable at least 16 hours at 8 degrees C. Analysis of 53 patient samples resulted in average concentrations of 7.2 for TAC, 0.8 for M-I, 0.4 for M-III, and 0.2 ng/mL for M-II. The total metabolite concentration was 17% (4%-52%) of the TAC concentration. The TAC concentration measured by LC-MS/MS was 36.1% +/- 27.1% lower than by immunochemical (enzyme multiplied immunoassay technique) analysis. When adding the metabolite crossreactivity in the presence of TAC, the difference between the 2 methods was still 29.8% +/- 28.3%, indicating that the overestimation of TAC concentration of enzyme multiplied immunoassay technique compared with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry cannot only be ascribed to the demethylated metabolites. Conclusions: An LC-ESI-MS/MS method for the quantitative analysis of TAC and 3 metabolites, using a 2-step sample preparation was successfully developed, validated, and applied on 53 patient samples