Aripiprazole as a potential pharmacotherapy for stimulant dependence: Human laboratory studies with d-amphetamine.

Amphetamine and cocaine dependence present significant public health concerns, yet no broadly effective pharmacotherapy for stimulant dependence has been developed. Two human laboratory studies are reviewed that tested the ability of aripiprazole, a novel antipsychotic with partial agonist activity at D2 dopamine receptors, to alter the behavioral effects of stimulants using d-amphetamine as a model agent. In each of these experiments, volunteers learned to discriminate 15 mg d-amphetamine (i.e., ≥80% drug-appropriate responding over 4 consecutive sessions). The effects of a range of doses of d-amphetamine (0, 2.5, 5, 10, and 15 mg) were then tested alone and following pretreatment with aripiprazole (20 mg in Experiment 1; 10 mg in Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, aripiprazole (20 mg) attenuated the discriminative stimulus and many of the subject-rated effects of amphetamine. Aripiprazole alone produced performance decrements. To determine whether a lower dose of aripiprazole would also attenuate the behavioral effects of d-amphetamine without impairing performance, Experiment 2 was conducted. Aripiprazole (10 mg) failed to alter the discriminative-stimulus effects but attenuated some of the subject-rated effects of d-amphetamine. This dose of aripiprazole did not impair performance. The results of these experiments indicate that aripiprazole may have clinical utility in treating stimulant dependence. Future human laboratory research should better model the clinical use of aripiprazole by examining the effects of chronic aripiprazole combined with either methamphetamine or cocaine in dependent individuals. A large-scale clinical trial is also needed to evaluate the efficacy of aripiprazole for the treatment of stimulant dependence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Managing Fashion Goods Inventories: Dynamic Recourse for Retailers with Outlet Stores

The proliferation of both online and bricks and mortar outlet stores underscores the observation that secondary markets are readily accessible to retailers of short-life-cycle products. These secondary markets provide recourse channels for retailers to sell excess inventory of out-of-favor items at reduced prices when overstocking occurs in a primary market. We study the problem of determining when a retailer should terminate its primary selling season by selling remaining inventory on a secondary market. The retailer has a single opportunity to procure prior to a primary selling season consisting of multiple periods. Demand in each period is random, but correlated. At the end of each period, any remaining inventory incurs a holding cost. Then, based upon the current level of inventory and the cumulative demand-to-date, the retailer decides either to terminate the primary selling season by selling all or part of the remaining inventory on a secondary market, or to extend the current primary selling season by another period. We develop structural properties of the optimal policy for determining when to terminate the primary selling season, and we develop corresponding implications for procurement.     

Recovery of gold cyanide using inherently conducting polymers

Removal of gold from basic solutions containing [Au(CN)₂]^? has been demonstrated using the inherently conducting polymer polypyrrole. Polymers containing sulfonated aromatic dopants have been found to display a significant ability to remove gold from such solutions. Experiments performed in solutions containing both gold and copper cyanide complexes indicate that the recovery process is not highly selective. However, the polypyrroles used display significantly faster rates of gold recovery than activated carbon. © 2003 Society of Chemical Industry     

Scanning Acoustic Microscopy of SCS-6 Silicon Carbide Fiber

Scanning acoustic microscopy of SCS-6 silicon carbide fiber reveals large radial variations in acoustic reflectivity associated with the chemical composition and microstructure of a given fiber region. Rayleigh wave fringe patterns observed in each of five subregions are used to calculate the average Young modulus of that subregion. The Young modulus is found to increase monotonically from 40 GPa in the carbon core to a value of 413 GPa in the stoichiometric SiC region. The effective Young modulus of the fiber as a whole is estimated from the moduli of the individual regions and it is compared with mechanical measurements reported in the literature.     

Self and mutual admittance of slot antennas on a dielectric half-space

In this paper, an efficient implementation of the spectral domain moment technique is presented for computing the self and mutual coupling between slot antennas on a dielectric half-space. It is demonstrated that by the proper selection of the weighting functions in the method of moments, the analytic evaluation or simplification of the transverse moment integrals is enabled. This results into a significant reduction of the required computational labor. The method is then utilized in order to provide design data for the self and mutual admittances between two slot antennas on a dielectric substrate lens in the case of fused quartz (∈ _r =3.80), crystal quartz (∈ _r =4.53), silicon (∈ _r =11.9) and GaAs (∈ _r =12.8). The presented technique and associated results are useful when designing twin slot quasi-optical receivers, imaging arrays, phased arrays or power-combining arrays of slot elements at millimeter-wave frequencies.     

REENGINEERING DONE RIGHT Intermediate Solutions That Are Cost-Effective

Effective systems development techniques attract a lot of attention, but little has been done to effectively address systems maintenance. This article describes an effective, proven approach to resurrecting existing systems and Increasing their useful life, using a system that employs both software tools and a rigorous methodology.     

Modeling of Diffusion in Capillary Porous Materials During the Drying Process

This paper presents a model of heterogenous diffusion in capillary porous materials during the process of drying. The governing heat and mass transfer equations have been established using the liquid as well as vapor flow. Two models have been presented. Model 1 does not consider the heat conduction while the model 2 has been established by considering the conduction. The developed models and the numerical solutions of the resulting differential equations can take into account the moisture and temperature dependent thermophysical properties of the product. All equations have been established in spherical coordinates but the programme written for the purpose of calculations can be used for other geometries also. Numerical calculations have been performed for gas concrete and tiles using model 1, while model 2 has been used for gas concrete only because of the lack of data for thermophysical properties of the tile. For gas concrete it was seen that conduction has only marginal effect on the drying process and the numerical predictions of the drying process were reasonably accurate.