VITAMIN REQUIREMENTS OF CERTAIN PEDIOCOCCI ISOLATED FROM BREWERY PRODUCTS

A medium has been developed for determination of the vitamin requirements of a number of pedicocci, most of which were isolated from brewery products and classified as Pediococcus damnosus. Tween 80 was essential to a number of the P. damnosus strains in the medium used. Folic acid was active only on a test strain, P. cerevisiae NCTC 8066. Biotin had a strong growth-promoting effect on most of the strains. Pantothenic acid was essential or highly stimulating to the growth of all strains. Riboflavin is considered essential to the P. damnosus strains, but was inactive with the two test strains used, P. cerevisiae NCTC 8066 and P. acidilactici NCIB 6990. Pyridoxin had a growth-promoting effect on most of the strains, and was essential to one P. damnosus strain. Ascorbic acid was inactive on the P. cerevisiae and P. acidilactici strains, had a slight growth-promoting effect on one P. damnosus strain, but inhibited, partly or completely, the growth of the other strains. Ascorbic acid was therefore omitted from the vitamin medium. p-Aminobenzoic acid, vitamin B-12 (cyanocobalamin), thiamine, nicotinic acid, nicotinamide, retinol acetate and c. 0·5% v/v alcohol were inactive on all the pediococcus strains studied.     

Photoacoustic and photothermal spectroscopy — novel tools for the analysis of particulate matter

Measurments on powders using photoacoustic (PAS) and photothermal (PTS) spectroscopic techniques are described. These methods avail themselves of the heat that is generated in a sample upon irradiation, which can be used to analyse and identify the sample through its absorption spectrum.Three different techniques have been used to extract the required information: (i) By having the specimen inside a chamber, illuminating it through a window and recording the resulting pressure variations; (ii) similarly, only having the sample outside the chamber but in contact with a membrane in the chamber wall: (iii) by measuring the extra thermal emission from the object when heated upon illumination. The advantages of using PAS and PTS methods to powder analysis are presented, and their applications to in-stream measurements of particulate solid properties are discussed.     

A stabilized nodally integrated tetrahedral

A stabilized, nodally integrated linear tetrahedral is formulated and analysed. It is well known that linear tetrahedral elements perform poorly in problems with plasticity, nearly incompressible materials, and acute bending. For a variety of reasons, low‐order tetrahedral elements are preferable to quadratic tetrahedral elements; particularly for nonlinear problems. But the severe locking problems of tetrahedrals have forced analysts to employ hexahedral formulations for most nonlinear problems. On the other hand, automatic mesh generation is often not feasible for building many 3D hexahedral meshes. A stabilized, nodally integrated linear tetrahedral is developed and shown to perform very well in problems with plasticity, nearly incompressible materials and acute bending. The formulation is analytically and numerically shown to be stable and optimally convergent for the compressible case provided sufficient smoothness of the exact solution u ∈ C² ∩ (H¹)³. Future work may extend the formulation to the incompressible regime and relax the regularity requirements; nonetheless, the results demonstrate that the method is not susceptible to locking and performs quite well in several standard linear and nonlinear benchmarks. Published in 2006 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of transference work in the context of therapeutic alliance and quality of object relations.

Objective: Transference interpretation is considered as a core active ingredient in dynamic psychotherapy. In common clinical theory, it is maintained that more mature relationships, as well as a strong therapeutic alliance, may be prerequisites for successful transference work. In this study, the interaction between quality of object relations, transference interpretation, and alliance is estimated. Method: One hundred outpatients seeking psychotherapy for depression, anxiety, and personality disorders were randomly assigned to 1 year of weekly sessions of dynamic psychotherapy with transference interpretation or to the same type and duration of treatment, but without the use of transference interpretation. Quality of Object Relations (QOR)–lifelong pattern was evaluated before treatment (P. H?glend, 1994). The Working Alliance Inventory (A. O. Horvath & L. S. Greenberg, 1989; T. J. Tracey & A. M. Kokotovic, 1989) was rated in Session 7. The primary outcome variable was the Psychodynamic Functioning Scales (P. H?glend et al., 2000), measured at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 1 year after treatment termination. Results: A significant Treatment Group × Quality of Object Relations × Alliance interaction was present, indicating that alliance had a significantly different impact on effects of transference interpretation, depending on the level of QOR. The impact of transference interpretation on psychodynamic functioning was more positive within the context of a weak therapeutic alliance for patients with low quality of object relations. For patients with more mature object relations and high alliance, the authors observed a negative effect of transference work. Conclusion: The specific effects of transference work was influenced by the interaction of object relations and alliance, but in the direct opposite direction of what is generally maintained in mainstream clinical theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Precision of T1-relaxation time measurements in the hepatic portal vein: influence of measurement technique and sequence parameters

Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics, Biology and Medicine - To investigate the effects of a range of parameter settings on T1 measurement stability in the portal vein using the T1-mapping...     

Parrel processing in visual short-term memory.

Visual short-term memory for the contrast and spatial frequency of sinusoidal gratings was measured in a delayed discrimination task in which the 2 stimuli to be compared were separated in time by 1-10 s interstimulus intervals (ISIs). Delayed discrimination thresholds for spatial frequency and contrast were compared, both when the 2 types of thresholds were measured in separate blocks of trials and when the 2 types of measures were randomly intermixed in an uncertainty paradigm, which required participants to process information about both dimensions on each trial. In both cases, accuracy of memory for spatial frequency was independent of ISI, but memory for contrast decreased as ISI increased. Performance was lower in the uncertainty case, but only by an amount predicted by statistical decision theory for independent sources. The results are consistent with a model assuming a set of parallel special-purpose visual discrimination and short-term memory mechanisms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The gene encoding the catalytic subunit C alpha of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (locus PRKACA) localizes to human chromosome region 19p13.1

OBJECTIVE: The importance of portal hypertensive gastropathy, as a potentially bleeding lesion in cirrhotics with portal hypertension, has recently been appreciated. Histologically, dilation of the mucosal and submucosal vessels of the stomach is noted in this entity. The possibility of nitric oxide acting as a mediator for this mucosal vascular dilation has not been explored. METHODS: We determined, in a group of 10 male cirrhotic patients with esophageal varices and endoscopic changes consistent with severe portal hypertensive gastropathy (Group A), the gastric mucosal nitric oxide synthase activity. This was determined by measuring the rate of conversion of [3H]-arginine to [3H]-citrulline. Serum levels of nitrates and nitrites, the end products of nitric oxide, were also measured. The results were compared with those of a group of 10 male controls with no liver disease (Group B). RESULTS: Gastric mucosal constitutive and inducible nitric oxide synthase levels were significantly higher in group A (125.4 +/- 4.3 and 259.7 +/- 5.5 pmol/mg protein/minute, respectively) than in group B (88 +/- 8.6 and 130.8 +/- 6.6 pmol/mg protein/minute, respectively) ( p < 0.002 and < 0.0001, respectively). Serum nitrate/nitrite levels were 30.1 +/- 3.2 nmol/ml in group A and 15.5 +/- 0.09 nmol/ml in group B (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the significantly increased gastric mucosal nitric oxide synthase activity, in patients with portal hypertensive gastropathy, suggests an important role for nitric oxide in the pathogenesis of this mucosal lesion.     

Effect of aquatic mosses on juvenile fish density and habitat use in the regulated River Suldalslågen,western Norway

Two morphologically distinct moss communities were found in the River Suldalslågen. The liver moss community consists of species which form a dense mat on the bottom, while the river moss (Fontinalis) community forms long tufts. Moss growth has increased since hydropower regulations due to reduced floods and increased winter flows. Increased moss cover affects the bottom structure, as well as intra‐gravel and near‐bottom hydraulics. We studied densities of juvenile Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and brown trout (Salmo trutta) by electrofishing and habitat selection by direct underwater observation, in areas with natural moss cover compared with areas where mosses were experimentally removed. Areas with dense mats of liver mosses held lower densities of young of year (YoY) and older salmon parr than areas where liver moss had been removed. No differences in densities of YoY salmon were found between areas with and without Fontinalis. For older salmon, parr results were inconclusive. In some samples more and in others fewer fish were found in areas with Fontinalis moss removed. For trout, densities were higher in areas with Fontinalis, while results for liver moss were inconclusive. No major differences were found with regard to microhabitat selection between areas with and without river moss, suggesting that habitat quality in these areas was similar during summer, except with respect to substrate. Salmon held more exposed positions in areas without liver moss, but this is mainly attributed to different habitat availabilities. It is concluded that the relative increase in liver mosses in the River Suldalslågen has a negative impact on juvenile Atlantic salmon fish density. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.