Leaf tissue of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) was found to contain prolinebetaine, pipecolatebetaine, hydroxyprolinebetaine, and glycinebetaine. As n-butyl esters, these chemical species exhibit molecular cations at mass/charge ratio (m/z) 200, 214, 216, and 174, respectively, when analyzed by fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry. The underivatized betaines exhibit protonated molecular ions at...

Tactical planning models for the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry can quickly become intractable due to the extremely large number of Stock Keeping Units (SKUs). We propose an SKU decomposition algorithm that is aimed at being able to solve cases containing thousands of SKUs. The full tactical planning model is decomposed into a set of single SKU models. These models are then solved s...

In this article a quantitative analysis was devised assessing driver's cognition responses by exploring the neurobiological information underlying electroencephalographic (EEG) brain signals in a left and right turning experiment on simulator environment. Driving brain signals have been collected by a 19-channel electroencephalogram recording system. The driving pathway has been selected with n...

Smartphone image-based sensing of microfluidic paper analytical devices (μPADs) offers low-cost and mobile evaluation of water quality. However, consistent quantification is a challenge due to variable environmental, paper, and lighting conditions, especially across large multi-target μPADs. Compensations must be made for variations between images to achieve reproducible results without a separ...

We describe a fast atom bombardment mass spectrometric method to determine the ratio of lecithin to sphingomyelin in amniotic fluid. Between m/z 400 and 1000, amniotic fluid extracts showed clear peaks for only sphingomyelin and lecithin. The molecular species of fatty acid in the phospholipids were analyzed quantitatively and quickly in a small volume of the extracts. The dipalmitoyllecithin/p...

OBJECTIVES Anticipating increases in hospital emergency department (ED) visits for respiratory illness could help time interventions such as opening flu clinics to reduce surges in ED visits. Five different methods for estimating ED visits for respiratory illness from Telehealth Ontario calls are compared, including two non-linear modeling methods. Daily visit estimates up to 14 days in advance...

A series of naphthyl-bridged amino-borane derivatives, namely 1-(dimethylamino)-8-naphthylboranes (1, 3, 5, 7) and 5-(dimethylamino)-6-acenaphthylboranes (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11), differing in the steric and electronic properties of the boryl moiety, have been synthesized and fully characterized by spectroscopic and crystallographic means. Structural X-ray analysis of the peri-atom displacement and...

We present the development and characterization of thin tile scintillator detectors with silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) readout for use in a multi-layer fast-neutron tracker. The tracker is based on interleaved Timepix and plastic scintillator layers [1]. Fast-neutrons recoil protons in the plastic scintillators, which may then travel to and stop in the neighboring Timepix. Using the measured r...