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The content of ecstasy tablets has been changing over the years, and nowadays 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is not always present in the tablets. The aim of this study was to investigate the chemical composition in the seized tablets labeled as ecstasy. We analyzed samples from 150 different seizures made by Sao Paulo's State Police by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. MDMA was present in 44.7% of the analyzed samples, and another twenty different active substances were identified in these tablets, such as caffeine, 2C-B, piperazines, amphetamines, phencyclidine, and others. Methamphetamine was present in 22% of these samples. The results demonstrate a huge shift in the pattern of trafficking of synthetic drugs, where MDMA has been replaced in tablets mostly by illicit psychoactive substances, in a clear attempt to bypass the law. The great variability in the tablets composition may lead to an increased risk of drug poisoning.

Efficient monitoring and automatic control systems for biological wastewater treatment processes, especially those dealing with bioinhibitory pollutants, such as phenol, are urgently required in order to meet increasingly stringent environmental regulations. Practical on-line sensors of variables that describe water quality, such as BOD or individual toxic pollutants such as phenol, are not commercially available; e.g. phenol is generally monitored off-line by spectrofluorometry. Inference software sensors could be an attractive alternative for on-line monitoring of these variables. As a first step towards the development of inferential sensors for biological wastewater treatment processes, we consider in this study, a simplistic version of such a process which consists of a continuous culture of Pseudomonas putida Q5 degrading phenol. In this work, we propose a neural network based inferential sensor for phenol monitoring using on-line biomass concentration measurements by spectrophotometry. The network was built with wavelets as the basis functions and the adaptive algorithm for the weights was based on a Lyapunov stability analysis. Predicted phenol output of the network showed good agreement with experimental data, over fairly broad ranges of inlet phenol concentration and dilution rate step changes. Simulations were conducted to find convergence conditions and to investigate possible sources for errors in phenol estimates. Les systemes de surveillance efficace et de controle automatique des procedes de traitement des eaux usees biologiques, en particulier ceux ayant affaire a des polluants bio-inhibiteurs tels les phenols, deviennent absolument necessaires en vue de satisfaire les reglements environnementaux rigoureux. Des capteurs de variables montes en ligne pratiques decrivant la qualite de l'eau, comme la DBO ou differents polluants toxiques comme le phenol, ne sont pas disponibles dans le commerce, le phenol etant generalement surveille par des systemes non montes en ligne par la spectrofluorometrie. Les capteurs logiciels a inference pourraient etre une solution attrayante pour la surveillance en ligne de ces variables. Comme premiere etape vers la mise au point de capteurs inferentiels pour des procedes de traitement des eaux usees biologiques, nous considerons dans cette etude une version simplifiee d'un tel procede qui consiste en une culture continue de Pseudomonas putida Q5 degradant le phenol. Dans ce travail, nous proposons un capteur inferentiel base sur un reseau neuronal pour la surveillance du phenol utilisant des mesures de concentration de biomasse en ligne par spectrophotometrie. Le reseau a ete bâti avec des ondelettes comme fonctions de base, et l'algorithme adaptatif pour les ponderations a ete base sur une analyse de stabilite de Lyapunov. La reponse en phenol predit par le reseau montre un bon accord avec les donnees experimentales, dans des gammes assez larges de concentration de phenol en entree et de modifications en echelon de la vitesse de dilution. Des simulations ont ete effectuees pour trouver des conditions de convergence et etudier les sources possibles d'erreurs dans les estimations de phenol.

A new human leukocyte antigen-C (HLA-C) allele Cw*0442 was identified in a Spanish Caucasian patient by sequencing-based typing (SBT). HLA-Cw*0442 differs from Cw*04010101 by three amino acid replacements at positions 9 (S>D), 11 (S>A), and 14 (W>R).

We have successfully designed and fabricated a SASID SVGA 8.4V AMLCD display. This is the largest Self-scanned Amorphous Silicon Integrated Display (SASID) built to date for use in laptop computers and PDAs. New circuits have been added for threshold drift cancellation to extend lifetime and special bussing techniques were used to reduce power dissipation.

Product market concepts from industrial organization economics are integrated with financial valuation models of the firm to investigate relationships among systematic risk, capital intensity, and product market power. The theory of the firm facing uncertain input and output prices is extended to provide empirical models. Empirical results coincide with hypotheses derived from the theoretical model and pose questions about traditional single period hypotheses found in the finance literature.