Longitudinal Study of the Fundamental Frequency of Hunger Cries Along the First 6 Months of Healthy Babies

SUMMARY: Potentially rich in information, the baby's cry has motivated several researches along the years. Although most of these studies have generated important knowledge about the baby's cry, they were focused on the neonatal period. The few longitudinal studies on changes in the acoustical features of the cry over the baby's growth have been done with a small sample and a large recording interval. Aiming to overcome such methodological limitations, this work investigated hunger cries using a more representative sample size (30 babies) and time resolution (biweekly intervals) from birth to 6 months of baby's age. The findings indicate that the fundamental frequency (f0) of the cry signals did vary more than previously reported in the literature. The results showed a widespread oscillatory behavior in f0 evolution along all the 6 months with an especially significant decrease from birth to the 15th day of life. The present results are not clinically applicable yet, but they pointed some novel aspects of the f0 mean values along the baby's growth. These findings and further longitudinal studies can help standardize age-related cry parameters, which are essential for medical and language development researches.     

Synthesis of oligo(phenyleneethynylene)s containing central pyromellitdiimide or naphthalenediimide groups and bearing terminal isocyanide groups: molecular components for single-electron transistors

Oligo(phenyleneethynylene)s that are of variable length, contain a central arenediimide unit, either a pyromellitdiimide or a naphthalenediimide group, and are terminated by isocyanide groups have been prepared. The extended frameworks were assembled from appropriately functionalized arenediimide and areneformamide units whose lengths were adjusted by adding phenyleneethynylene units. Final transformation of the formamide groups into isocyanide groups gave the title compounds. Several isocyanide-terminated oligo(phenyleneethynylene)s without an arenediimide unit have also been prepared.     

Why magnesium is five‐coordinate in methanol(phthalocyaninato)magnesium(II)

The square‐pyramidal Mg center in the title compound, [Mg(C₃₂H₁₆N₈)(CH₄O)], is five‐coordinate due to the formation of back‐to‐back π–π dimers that saturate the vacant apical site of the metal coordination sphere. Each complex is a member of a back‐to‐back and a face‐to‐face dimer; the latter are tethered by two strong O—H⋯N hydrogen bonds. The dimers form columns that likely determine the solid‐state packing. The phthalocyaninate ligands are essentially planar, with a slight `hat visor' conformation character.     

Schottky groups can not act on P C 2n as subgroups of PSL 2n+1(C)

In this paper we look at a special type of discrete subgroups of PSL _n+1(C) called Schottky groups. We develop some basic properties of these groups and their limit set when n > 1, and we prove that Schottky groups only occur in odd dimensions, i.e., they cannot be realized as subgroups of PSL _2n+1(C).      

Multiclass discrimination of cervical precancers using Raman spectroscopy

Raman spectroscopy has the potential to differentiate among the various stages leading to high‐grade cervical cancer such as normal, squamous metaplasia, and low‐grade cancer. For Raman spectroscopy to successfully differentiate among the stages, an applicable statistical method must be developed. Algorithms like linear discriminant analysis (LDA) are incapable of differentiating among three or more types of tissues. We developed a novel statistical method combining the method of maximum representation and discrimination feature (MRDF) to extract diagnostic information with sparse multinomial logistic regression (SMLR) to classify spectra based on nonlinear features for multiclass analysis of Raman spectra. We found that high‐grade spectra classified correctly 95% of the time; low‐grade data classified correctly 74% of the time, improving sensitivity from 92 to 98% and specificity from 81 to 96% suggesting that MRDF with SMLR is a more appropriate technique for categorizing Raman spectra. SMLR also outputs a posterior probability to evaluate the algorithm's accuracy. This combined method holds promise to diagnose subtle changes leading to cervical cancer. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gas chromatographic-tandem mass spectrometric analytical method for the study of inhalation, potential dermal and actual exposure of agricultural workers to the pesticide malathion.

New analytical gas chromatographic-tandem mass spectrometric approaches have been developed for assessing both potential and actual exposure of agricultural workers to malathion. The metabolites alpha- and beta-malathion monocarboxylic acids have been determined after a derivatisation process in order to obtain their hexafluoroisopropyl esters. Whole body dosimetry was used for potential dermal exposure assessment. Potential exposure by inhalation was estimated using personal air samplers and polyurethane foam plugs as sorbents. The intern dose measurements were carried out by analysing samples of urine after solid-phase extraction with C18. The recoveries of the analytes of the three matrices were between 90 and 102%. Quantification limits were lower than 0.24 ng L(-1). The proposed methods have been applied to evaluate potential and actual exposure of applicators spraying malathion in greenhouses.     

Development of Gelatin‐Alginate Hydrogels for Burn Wound Treatment

Hydrogels are interesting as wound dressing for burn wounds to maintain a moist environment. Especially gelatin and alginate based wound dressings show strong potential. Both polymers are modified by introducing photocrosslinkable functionalities and combined to hydrogel films (gel‐MA/alg‐MA). In one protocol gel‐MA films are incubated in alg‐MA solutions and crosslinked afterward into double networks. Another protocol involves blending both and subsequent photocrosslinking. The introduction of alginate into the gelatin matrix results in phase separation with polysaccharide microdomains in a protein matrix. Addition of alg(‐MA) to gel‐MA leads to an increased swelling compared to 100% gelatin and similar to the commercial Aquacel Ag dressing. In vitro tests show better cell adhesion for films which have a lower alginate content and also have superior mechanical properties. The hydrogel dressings exhibit good biocompatibility with adaptable cell attachment properties. An adequate gelatin‐alginate ratio should allow application of the materials as wound dressings for several days without tissue ingrowth.