Dysphoric milk ejection reflex: A case report

Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex (D-MER) is an abrupt emotional "drop" that occurs in some women just before milk release and continues for not more than a few minutes. The brief negative feelings range in severity from wistfulness to self-loathing, and appear to have a physiological cause. The authors suggest that an abrupt drop in dopamine may occur when milk release is triggered, resulting in a real or relative brief dopamine deficit for affected women. Clinicians can support women with D-MER in several ways; often, simply knowing that it is a recognized phenomenon makes the condition tolerable. Further study is needed

Make a Key to Everyday Objects

Part of the Grab and Go With Science series, this game introduce students to dichotomous (two-choice) keys -- or scientific names. Keys are usually used to help discover the names of plants or animals. For example, you can use a key to find the name of a tree by looking at a leaf. This activity uses common classroom objects, such as pens, erasers, rulers, etc., to teach students how keys are made and how they work

Why Reptiles Bask - Hot vs Cold

Part of the Grab and Go With Science series, this activity teaches youth the difference between hot and cold blooded animals

Kermit's Friends

Part of the Grab and Go With Science series, this game helps youth model the changes in a frog population over time

Enhanced CO2 Capture in Metal-Organic and Covalent-Organic Frameworks

AbstractEnhanced CO2 Capture in Metal-Organic and Covalent-Organic FrameworksbyRobinson W FlaigDoctor of Philosophy in ChemistryUniversity of California, BerkeleyProfessor Omar Yaghi, ChairGlobal atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are rising. It is widely acknowledged by the scientific community that this phenomenon is contributing to climate change. Therefore, the need for effective CO2 capture from both point sources (power plants, etc.) and direct air capture is urgent. Despite years of investigation, the development of scalable, cost-effective, and energy-efficient, carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies remains an outstanding challenge. The most widely- employed technique to date is the use of aqueous monoethanolamine (MEA) solutions at CO2 point sources. Flue gas from point sources is pumped through these solutions which capture the CO2 by forming chemical bonds (e.g. ammonium carbamate formation) between the gas and the amine moieties in solution. Although a large amount of CO2 can be captured using this technology, it is energetically inefficient. With one of the highest specific heat capacities among common solvents, water requires a significant amount of energy to bring to temperatures at which the MEA molecules release the previously- captured CO2. The requisite energy is often produced at similar CO2-producing point sources, limiting the effectiveness of this technique when employed.For this reason and others, (e.g. instability of aqueous MEA solutions to other contaminants present in flue gas) many are considering alternative methods of CO2 capture from point sources. One particularly potent method involves the use of amine- functionalized porous adsorbents in an analogous fashion to MEA solutions, as these materials frequently exhibit lower heat capacities, higher selectivities, and greater chemical tunability compared to their liquid-based counterparts.Reticular chemistry, the process of assembling judiciously designed rigid molecular building blocks into predetermined ordered structures (networks) which are held together by strong bonds, has been widely applied to the synthesis of such porous adsorbents, most notably Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) and Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs). Much of the insight on the fundamental science which set the foundation for these materials as a potential next-generation of CO2 adsorbents was gleaned through development of many MOFs which demonstrate some of the highest CO2 uptake capacities of any porous material. Recent work has focused on elucidation of MOF systems with practical CO2 capture applications.Recently, the Yaghi group designed a new MOF, IRMOF-74-III-CH2NH2 that selectively captures CO2 in the presence of water under flue gas conditions. I followed up on this study with an augmented material, IRMOF-74-III-(CH2NH2)2 which exhibited a 133% increase in CO2 uptake in the pressure regime of interest to this application (e.g. <150 mbar). Upon further investigation, it was concluded that this drastic increase in CO2 uptake was caused not only by the increase in the amine population in the framework, but also by a new chemical capture mechanism, the formation of elusive, relatively unstable, carbamic acid species upon reaction between framework-based amines and CO2 under dry (<10% relative humidity) conditions. Interestingly, I discovered that CO2 captured as carbamic acid moieties is removed with more facility than CO2 captured as ammonium carbamates. The understanding gleaned by these fundamental studies has necessitated the assessment of the applicability of such systems, while exploring the potential of additional, potentially more promising, systems.Currently the use of COFs for CO2 capture is under investigation. Although only few have examined the behavior of COFs in such a manner, the potential advantages are quite apparent. Consisting of light atoms with high chemical and moisture stability, COFs have the potential to achieve high gravimetric uptake of CO2 with enhanced cyclability under humid, flue-gas analogous, conditions. Specifically, I synthesized a COF analogue (COF- 81) of IRMOF-74-III-(CH2NH2)2. This material has already exhibited modest CO2 adsorption capacity and formation of carbamic acid species under both dry and humid conditions. These observations warrant continued study of the material under flue gas conditions as the mechanistic tuning of the CO2 capture mechanism would allow this highly stable material to achieve high CO2 adsorption capacity accompanied by decreased regeneration energies.Additionally, I developed a new, post-synthetically modified MOF material, MOF- 808-Glycine. The parent material, MOF-808-P can be synthesized on gram scales and rendered CO2-phillic by incorporation of an economical, abundant amino acid, glycine. Herein, I demonstrate that the framework remains crystalline and porous after each post- synthetic modification and that MOF-808 can be loaded with high quantities of glycine. Furthermore, I show that MOF-808-Glycine has significantly improved CO2 adsorption properties compared to MOF-808-P, and that the material chemisorbs CO2, forming a mixture of carbamic acid and ammonium carbamate under dry (0% RH) conditions, and ammonium bicarbonate under humid (95%) conditions. This work represents a significant step toward real-world, large scale CO2 adsorption using MOFs

The Effect of a Mentor's Gender on Achievement of the Mentee

The purpose of this research was to determine the effect the gender of a mentor had on achievement of his or her mentee. This case-study research produced quantitative data including achievement, attendance, behavior, grade point average, and quantitative survey responses that were analyzed among all mentor and mentee groups. The quantitative data analysis indicated that the gender of the mentor had seemingly no effect on student achievement, grade point average, attendance, behavior, or the perception of the mentor-mentee relationship. The quantitative data analysis did show that the mentoring process, regardless of gender, seemingly had a positive effect in the areas of student achievement, attendance, and behavior. Quantitative data gathered through the survey responses were analyzed showed that all twelve mentors and ten of the twelve mentees had a positive perception of the mentor-mentee relationship. This researcher suggested that further research, that better isolated the role gender in the mentor-mentee relationship, was necessary to assess the impact a mentor's gender has on student achievement

A Conversation with Verne Rockcastle

This video is an oral history about Verne Rockcastle. Interview was by John Wiessinger on 07Oct13.1_3ce60lb