Effects of situational demand upon social enjoyment and preference in schizotypy.

The socioemotional functioning of schizophrenic and schizotypic individuals is marked by withdrawal, poor organization, and limited emotional displays. Such behavioral tendencies and lack of social enjoyment in schizotypy could be linked to the relative situational demands or role ambiguity inherent in specific social activities. To determine whether high-schizotypy individuals prefer more clearly role-defined social activities (e.g., visiting relatives) to more ambiguous, novel situations (e.g., going alone to a party), the authors gathered reports from 52 high-schizotypy and 60 low-schizotypy individuals on their enjoyment and frequency of engaging in social situations varying in relative situational demand. Parallel reports were obtained from knowledgeable others. Group × Situational Demand interactions revealed the hypothesized pattern of reduced frequency and enjoyment ratings for ambiguous or novel situations by the high-schizotypy participants in both self and others' reports. Groups were more comparable in their reported frequency and enjoyment of less ambiguous situations. Results suggest the importance of situational demands in the socioemotional experience and behavioral withdrawal in schizotypy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

In-chain functionalization by alternating anionic copolymerization of styrene and 1-(4-dimethylaminophenyl)-1-phenylethylene

Anionic copolymerizations of styrene (M₁) with excess 1-(4-dimethyl-aminophenyl)-1-phenylethylene (M₂) were conducted in benzene at 25°C for 24h, using sec-butyllithium as initiator. Narrow molecular weight distribution copolymers with M?;_n = 16.1 × 10³ g/mol (M?_w/M?_n = 1.04) and 38.2 × 10³g/mol (M?_w/M?_n = 1.05), and 24 and 38 moles of M₂ per macromolecule, respectively, were characterized by size exclusion chromatography, ¹H NMR spectroscopy and DSC. The monomer reactivity ratio, r₁ = 5.6, was obtained from the copolymer composition at complete consumption of M₁, assuming that the rate constant k₂₂ =0,i.e. r₂ =0. The polymers exhibited T_g values of 128 and 119°C, respectively, which correspond to an estimated T_g = 217°C for the hypothetical homopolymer of M₂.     

Why quality of life measures should be used in the treatment of patients with respiratory illness

Treatment of airways disease is directed towards improving patients' health and well-being. Measurements of airways function do not reflect all the disease activity present in the airways that may affect the patient. Spirometry correlates poorly with health. Physicians appear to estimate their patients' health using criteria different from the patients themselves. Quality of life questionnaires provide a method of quantifying the effect of disease on patients' lives. They can summarize a number of aspects of the disease and provide an overall estimate of the effect of disease and benefits due to therapy. They have the potential to identify a threshold response to treatment that may be considered "worthwhile", and allow comparison between therapies with respect to the health gain that each provides.     

Three-dimensional analysis of contrast-filled microvessel diameters

Organ blood flow is controlled, in part, by changes in diameter of resistance vessels. In thick tissue, vessels can be imaged with a microscope using contrast-enhancing methods (e.g., fluorescence) and image analysis techniques can be used for quantitative diameter estimations. However, a change in the position of a vessel with respect to the plane of focus can be misinterpreted as a diameter change. In order to address this problem, a 3D image in a light microscope is obtained by serial optical sectioning, and a 3D deconvolution procedure (Avinash et al., 1991, "Fourteenth Association for Research in Otolaryngology Midwinter Meeting, St. Petersberg, FL," Abstract 156) is used to deblur 3D image data. Deblurred sections are computationally projected onto a 2D plane to give an extended-focus image, from which diameter estimates of microvessels are made using a quantitative, 2D diameter-tracking algorithm (Miles, 1987, "Semiautomatic Quantitative Image Analysis of Dynamic in Vivo Cochlear Microvessel Diameters." Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. Michigan; Miles and Nuttall, 1992, IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng.). Justification for 3D preprocessing before diameter analysis is provided by absolute and relative error analyses using computer-generated synthetic vessels. The 3D diameter analysis technique is validated using a capillary tube of known diameter, filled with fluorescent solution. Demonstration of its applicability is shown in diameter measurements from the vessels of guinea pig cochlea. Our approach, using extended-focus images, minimizes overestimation of microvascular diameters and underestimation of relative diameter changes. Therefore, unambiguous diameter measurements are possible with extended-focus images.     

Anionic synthesis of ω-1,1-diphenylethylene-terminated polystyrene macromonomers. Rational synthesis of ABC hetero three-armed-star-branched polymers

Summary Polystyrene macromonomers with terminal 1,1-diphenylethylene functionality were prepared by the reaction of one equivalent of poly(styryl)lithium with 1,4-bis (l-phenylethenyl)benzene (PDDPE). The macromonomer functionalities were determined by ¹H NMR [(vinyl CH₂)=5.4 ppm] and UV spectroscopy (_max=260 nm). The stoichiometric linking reaction of poly(styryl)lithium (M_n=15.3x10³ g/mol) with an -1,1-diphenylethylene-terminated polystyrene macromonomer (M_n=5.4x10³ g/mol) followed by addition of styrene monomer has been used to prepare a hetero three-armed, star-branched polymer with M_n=5.8x10⁴ g/mol (5,400-15,300-37,300). The g value ([]b/[]l) was equal to 0.92.     

Surface-initiated living anionic polymerization of isoprene using a 1,1-diphenylethylene derivative and functionalization with ethylene oxide

Summary Living anionic polymerization of isoprene on a silicon wafer was initiated by treatment of a 1,1-diphenylethylene surface-bound monolayer with n-butyllithium (growth from). The corresponding 1,1 diphenylhexyllithium derivative was used to initiate isoprene polymerization. The poly(isoprenyl)lithium chain ends were functionalized by addition of ethylene oxide to give a hydroxy-terminated polyisoprene brush. The thickness of the polymer brush was 9.5 ± 1.2 nm by ellipsometry. Grafting living chain ends to the 1,1-diphenylethylene monolayer and surface grafting of telechelic polymers were used for comparison (growth to). The polymer brushes were characterized by XPS, contact angle measurements, ATR-IR, and AFM. Received: 1 November 2000/Revised version: 23 November 2000/Accepted: 28 November 2000     

Dependency treelet translation: the convergence of statistical and example-based machine-translation?

We describe a novel approach to MT that combines the strengths of the two leading corpus-based approaches: Phrasal SMT and EBMT. We use a syntactically informed decoder and reordering model based on the source dependency tree, in combination with conventional SMT models to incorporate the power of phrasal SMT with the linguistic generality available in a parser. We show that this approach significantly outperforms a leading string-based Phrasal SMT decoder and an EBMT system. We present results from two radically different language pairs, and investigate the sensitivity of this approach to parse quality by using two distinct parsers and oracle experiments. We also validate our automated bleu scores with a small human evaluation.     

Dynamic analyses of information encoding in neural ensembles

Neural spike train decoding algorithms and techniques to compute Shannon mutual information are important methods for analyzing how neural systems represent biological signals. Decoding algorithms are also one of several strategies being used to design controls for brain-machine interfaces. Developing optimal strategies to design decoding algorithms and compute mutual information are therefore important problems in computational neuroscience. We present a general recursive filter decoding algorithm based on a point process model of individual neuron spiking activity and a linear stochastic state-space model of the biological signal. We derive from the algorithm new instantaneous estimates of the entropy, entropy rate, and the mutual information between the signal and the ensemble spiking activity. We assess the accuracy of the algorithm by computing, along with the decoding error, the true coverage probability of the approximate 0.95 confidence regions for the individual signal estimates. We illustrate the new algorithm by reanalyzing the position and ensemble neural spiking activity of CA1 hippocampal neurons from two rats foraging in an open circular environment. We compare the performance of this algorithm with a linear filter constructed by the widely used reverse correlation method. The median decoding error for Animal 1 (2) during 10 minutes of open foraging was 5.9 (5.5) cm, the median entropy was 6.9 (7.0) bits, the median information was 9.4 (9.4) bits, and the true coverage probability for 0.95 confidence regions was 0.67 (0.75) using 34 (32) neurons. These findings improve significantly on our previous results and suggest an integrated approach to dynamically reading neural codes, measuring their properties, and quantifying the accuracy with which encoded information is extracted.     

Investigation of ethylene oxide oligomerization during functionalization of poly(butadienyl)lithium using MALDI-TOF MS and H NMR analyses

Oligomerization of ethylene oxide during the functionalization of poly(butadienyl)lithium in benzene and cyclohexane at 25 °C has been investigated by MALDI-TOF MS and ¹H NMR. Chemically significant amounts of oligomer were found using 4 equiv. of ethylene oxide ([EO]/[PLi]) after 12 h in both benzene and cyclohexane. No oligomer was observed when the reaction time was minimized.     

Relationship of Fas ligand expression and atresia during bovine follicle development

The Fas antigen (Fas) is a cell surface receptor that may be involved in the initiation and progression of follicle cell apoptosis during atresia. Fas initiates apoptosis in sensitive cells after binding Fas ligand (FasL). Other experiments have shown that expression of Fas mRNA and responsiveness to Fas-mediated apoptosis vary in bovine granulosa and theca cells during follicle development. In the present study, FasL mRNA content was measured and Fas and FasL protein expression was examined in bovine granulosa and theca cells of healthy dominant follicles and the two largest atretic subordinate follicles on day 5 of the oestrous cycle (day 0 = oestrus), and of dominant follicles from the first wave of follicle development after they had become atretic and showed no growth for 4 days. FasL mRNA content was higher in granulosa cells from atretic compared with healthy follicles. FasL mRNA content was also higher in theca cells from atretic subordinate compared with healthy dominant follicles on day 5, but did not differ between theca cells from healthy and atretic dominant follicles. Immunohistochemical staining for FasL was more intense in theca compared with granulosa cells and in atretic compared with healthy follicles. Immunohistochemical staining for Fas was more intense in granulosa compared with theca cells and in atretic subordinate compared with healthy dominant follicles on day 5. Immune cells, known to express Fas and FasL, were localized in the theca, but not the granulosa, cell layer of all follicles. Higher concentrations of Fas and FasL in cells from atretic follicles, together with the previous demonstration of increased responsiveness of granulosa cells from subordinate follicles to FasL-induced apoptosis, support a potential role for FasL-mediated apoptosis during ovarian follicle atresia.