Hazel had been to a residential treatment program to help her overcome her addiction to crack cocaine. She found the classes offered there very helpful, both in their instruction but also for the social opportunities:
Abstract:Data-driven methods in structural health monitoring (SHM) is gaining popularity due to recent technological advancements in sensors, as well as high-speed internet and cloud-based computation. Since the introduction of deep learning (DL) in civil engineering, particularly in SHM, this emerging and promising tool has attracted significant attention among researchers. The main goal of this paper is to review the latest publications in SHM using emerging DL-based methods and provide readers with an overall understanding of various SHM applications. After a brief introduction, an overview of various DL methods (e.g., deep neural networks, transfer learning, etc.) is presented. The procedure and application of vibration-based, vision-based monitoring, along with some of the recent technologies used for SHM, such as sensors, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), etc. are discussed. The review concludes with prospects and potential limitations of DL-based methods in SHM applications.Keywords: deep learning; machine learning; structural health monitoring; crack detection; damage detection; data science; computer vision
CRACK Sage-Peachtree-Complete-2009-FAS-Crystal-Reports
For others, constraints operated both at the level of equipment provided and power dynamics inherent to their injection practice. Kirsty did not know how to prepare heroin and crack for injection and relied on her partner to both prepare and administer each injection:
I am 24, and was recently diagnosed with stage 1a Ovarian Cancer, I suppose I am very lucky for that much. I have always been heavy-set, seems to run in the family. Over the past couple of years I have put on quite a bit of weight in my stomach area. I have always been pear shaped, and I would have thought this to be odd except that everyone else in my family is apple shaped...just thought those good old family genes were begining to kick in I suppose. Always being ashamed of my weight, even among other heavy-set people, I tended to wear loose clothing and hide my weight as much as possible. I first noticed that I was putting on weight a couple of years ago, and also that my stomach was hard and uncomfortable to sleep on. I went to a gynecologist for my regular appointment and she asked me if anyone had ever talked to me about fibrosis. I told her that no one ever had, and she dropped the subject. I scheduled an appointment with my primary care physician to ask his opinion about what the gynecologist had said. He "informed" me that it was just muscle and that I should not worry about it. As I put on more and more weight over the next couple of years I continued to hide it, trusting my doctor's opinion that it was nothing to concern me. During the month of May 2002 I began to have quite a few persistent health problems (sinus infections, bronchitis, pnemonia) and they would not go away no matter what antibiotics they put me on. Worse yet the weight gain was increasing even though I was hardly eating anything from being sick for so long. I went in to see my doctor yet again, and this time my mother insisted on coming with me. He seemed confused about what could be causing my poor health, and while he was making notes my mother mentioned to him that I had been putting on quite a bit of weight in my abdomen. The doctor felt my stomach and scheduled an emergency ultrasound for an hour later. They found a huge tumor that they believed to be attached to an ovary, though it was so large that they could not locate my ovaries to be sure. I went into surgery 3 days later assured by the surgeon that it was most likely benign since cancer does not usually grow so rapidly. 4 days after the surgery, still recovering in the hospital, they got the test results back, and it was cancer. They had removed a tumor roughly the size of a beach ball weighing about 32lbs along with the ovary it was attached to and the fallopian tube. The tests indicate that the cancer did not spread, which I am grateful for. For some reason my body was able to keep the cancer at stage 1a, while making me balloon up to the point where I had stretchmarks that were begining to crack open. Because of the size and frailty of the tumor they were unable to remove it in one piece. They drained over 2 GALLONS!!! out of the tumor. Due to some spillage during the draining process they are going to have me undergo 3 treatments with carbo/taxol 3 weeks apart, just to give me a safety net in case the cancer got into the blood stream. I am hoping for the best, even if I no longer have my thigh length hair. I donated my hair to Locks of Love, an organization which makes hairpieces for children under the age of 18 who are undergoing medical treatments resulting in hair loss. Also I have been trying to locate fundraising info for Ovarian Cancer. Breast Cancer fundraisers are rampant but I have had difficulty finding any for OVCA that are anything other than "send us your money." If you know of any walks, or things that are sold to raise money for the cause I would love to get involved with a local chapter in Sacramento, CA or start one on my own if people have suggestions. Best wishes for you, your friends and family members, Barbara Woodruff athianaerinos@hotmail.com
The Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914 banned nonprescription use of cocaine-containing products. The resulting reduction in the use of cocaine marked the end of the first American cocaine epidemic. In the 1950s, amphetamine gradually replaced cocaine as the most common stimulant of abuse. However, this trend reversed in the 1970s, with crack ushering in the second epidemic of US cocaine use in 1985.
Crack (cocaine free base), which is generally sold in the form of "rocks," may also be sold in large pieces called slabs. These are approximately the size and shape of a stick of chewing gum and are sometimes scored to form smaller pieces. Crack cocaine differs from cocaine salt in that it is stable to pyrolysis and can be smoked. Users of cocaine in its crack form tend to be young adults aged 18-30 years who live in the central city and who are from low socioeconomic backgrounds. However, in 1986, the National Office of Drug Control Policy reported that young inner-city drug users were beginning to disdain crack as a ghetto drug. In Miami, for example, crack use had become unfashionable, and individuals continuing to use it, particularly blacks, were trying to hide it from their peers.
Crack is lipid soluble and therefore rapidly absorbed in the pulmonary capillaries. The term crack describes the crackling sound heard when cocaine freebase is smoked. Crack may be smoked in a pipe bowl containing 50-100 mg or in a cigarette with as much as 300 mg. Smoking crack bypasses the vasoconstriction that results when cocaine is snorted; therefore, the effects are similar to taking cocaine intravenously. Crack smokers may aggressively inhale against a small pipe and then perform a Valsalva maneuver before exhaling against pursed lips or forcefully blow the drug into a partner's mouth. These techniques are reputed to enhance the euphoria of cocaine.
Combining cocaine and heroin into a "speedball" causes frequent complications, as evidenced by the high-profile cases of actors John Belushi, River Phoenix, and Chris Farley in the 1980s and 1990s. Speedballing accounts for 12-15% of cocaine-related episodes in patients presenting to EDs in the United States. In speedballing, heroin is injected or snorted, followed immediately by smoking of cocaine. Cocaine is harder to purchase during the summer months than at other times, thus heroin users may speedball with crack in the summer. The effects of heroin last longer than do those of crack, and it modulates symptoms secondary to withdrawal from crack. In both cases, the second drug is used to supplement, rather than substitute, the primary drug.
Dissolving and injecting crack is less expensive than purchasing enough cocaine powder to produce the same effect. Some users dissolve crack in lemon juice or vinegar before injecting it intravenously, a practice that reportedly produces a more intense rush than smoking the same amount of crack. If the vein is missed, the result is pain and potential abscess formation.
Various agents can heighten the effects of cocaine and contribute to complications. Organophosphates may be taken to inhibit pseudocholinesterase, prolonging the effects of cocaine. However, because it produces organophosphate toxicity, the risk of fatality is increased. Cholinesterase inhibitors, such as carbamates, have a similar effect. Another practice involves coabusing crack cocaine and phenytoin to enhance the intoxication. In this practice, unbound phenytoin causes persons with hypoalbuminemia to become symptomatic at lowered drug levels; if death occurs, it usually is the result of respiratory and subsequent circulatory collapse.
Cocaine causes a direct negative inotropic effect on cardiac muscle, resulting in transient toxic cardiomyopathy. In one small series, 8 of 10 subjects who used cocaine long term had chest pain without MI but left ventricular ejection fractions less than 50%. In a case report, Jouriles describes a 35-year-old woman with hypotension, seizures, and hypoxemia who had an ejection fraction of 10% after smoking crack cocaine. [14]
The 2019 Annual Surveillance Report of Drug-Related Risks and Outcomes by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that in 2018, an estimated 5,529,000 persons aged 12 years and older (2.0% of the population) reported cocaine use in the past year, including 757,000 persons (0.3% cent of the population) who used crack cocaine. In 2018, an estimated 977,000 (0.4%) persons aged 12 years and older reported a substance use disorder in the past year involving cocaine. [1]
See a bat on a route, give a shout. Climbers for Bat Conservation is working with climbers to understand bat ecology and why bats choose certain cracks and flakes. If you see bats, and want to tell them, here is their email (climbersforbats@colostate.edu) and their website ( climbersforbats.colostate.edu/). 2ff7e9595c
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