Prenatal androgens and gender-typed behavior: A study of girls with mild and severe forms of congenital adrenal hyperplasia.

Gender-typed behaviors and interests were investigated in 26 girls, aged 2-10 years, affected with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) and in 26 unaffected girls matched for age. Girls with CAH were more interested in masculine toys and less interested in feminine toys and were more likely to report having male playmates and to wish for masculine careers. Parents of girls with CAH rated their daughters' behaviors as more boylike than did parents of unaffected girls. A relation was found between disease severity and behavior indicating that more severely affected CAH girls were more interested in masculine toys and careers. No parental influence could be demonstrated on play behavior, nor did the comparison of parents' ratings of wished for behavior versus perceived behavior in their daughters indicate an effect of parental expectations. The results are interpreted as supporting a biological contribution to differences in play behavior between girls with and without CAH. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A new set distance and its application to shape registration

We propose a new distance measure, called Complement weighted sum of minimal distances, between finite sets in ${\mathbb Z }^n$ and evaluate its usefulness for shape registration and matching. In this set distance the contribution of each point of each set is weighted according to its distance to the complement of the set. In this way, outliers and noise contribute less to the new similarity measure. We evaluate the performance of the new set distance for registration of shapes in binary images and compare it to a number of often used set distances found in the literature. The most extensive evaluation uses a set of synthetic 2D images. We also show three examples of real problems: registering a set of 2D images extracted from synchrotron radiation micro-computed tomography (SR $\upmu $ CT) volumes depicting bone implants; the difficult multi-modal registration task of finding the exact location of a 2D slice of a bone implant, as imaged by a light microscope, within a 3D SR $\upmu $ CT volume of the same implant; and finally recognition of handwritten characters. The evaluation shows that our new set distance performs well for all tasks and outperforms the other observed distance measures in most cases. It is therefore useful in many image registration and shape comparison tasks.     

Frequency-domain identification of continuous-time ARMA models from sampled data

The subject of this paper is the direct identification of continuous-time autoregressive moving average (CARMA) models. The topic is viewed from the frequency domain perspective which then turns the reconstruction of the continuous-time power spectral density (CT-PSD) into a key issue. The first part of the paper therefore concerns the approximate estimation of the CT-PSD from uniformly sampled data under the assumption that the model has a certain relative degree. The approach has its point of origin in the frequency domain Whittle likelihood estimator. The discrete- or continuous-time spectral densities are estimated from equidistant samples of the output. For low sampling rates the discrete-time spectral density is modeled directly by its continuous-time spectral density using the Poisson summation formula. In the case of rapid sampling the continuous-time spectral density is estimated directly by modifying its discrete-time counterpart.     

Extracting 3D information on bone remodeling in the proximity of titanium implants in SRμCT image volumes

Bone-implant integration is measured in several ways. Traditionally and routinely, 2D histological sections of samples, containing bone and the biomaterial, are stained and analyzed using a light microscope. Such histological section provides detailed cellular information about the bone regeneration in the proximity of the implant. However, this information reflects the integration in only a very small fraction, a 10 μm thick slice, of the sample. In this study, we show that feature values quantified on 2D sections are highly dependent on the orientation and the placement of the section, suggesting that a 3D analysis of the whole sample is of importance for a more complete judgment of the bone structure in the proximity of the implant. We propose features describing the 3D data by extending the features traditionally used for 2D-analysis. We present a method for extracting these features from 3D image data and we measure them on five 3D SRμCT image volumes.We also simulate cuts through the image volume positioned at all possible section positions. These simulations show that the measurement variations due to the orientation of the section around the center line of the implant are about 30%.     

Pathological Insight into 5-HT2B Receptor Activation in Fibrosing Interstitial Lung Diseases

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) encompasses a heterogeneous group of more than 200 conditions, of which primarily idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), idiopathic nonspecific interstitial pneumonia, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, ILD associated with autoimmune diseases and sarcoidosis may present a progressive fibrosing (PF) phenotype. Despite different aetiology and histopathological patterns, the PF-ILDs have similarities regarding disease mechanisms with self-sustaining fibrosis, which suggests that the diseases may share common pathogenetic pathways. Previous studies show an enhanced activation of serotonergic signaling in pulmonary fibrosis, and the serotonin (5-HT)₂ receptors have been implicated to have important roles in observed profibrotic actions. Our research findings in support by others, demonstrate antifibrotic effects with 5-HT_2B receptor antagonists, alleviating several key events common for the fibrotic diseases such as myofibroblast differentiation and connective tissue deposition. In this review, we will address the potential role of 5-HT and in particular the 5-HT_2B receptors in three PF-ILDs: ILD associated with systemic sclerosis (SSc-ILD), ILD associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA-ILD) and IPF. Highlighting the converging pathways in these diseases discloses the 5-HT_2B receptor as a potential disease target for PF-ILDs, which today have an urgent unmet need for therapeutic strategies.     

PBCDD and PBCDF from incineration of waste-containing brominated flame retardants

Brominated organic flame retardants comprise a large, heterogeneous group of compounds that are useful but also potentially damaging to the environment. In this investigation, three common brominated flame retardants were co-combusted with an artificial municipal solid waste in a pilot-scale fluidized bed incinerator. Combustion conditions ensured degradation of the flame retardants, but stable brominated organic compounds such as polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polybrominated dibenzofurans were formed in the cooling flue gases. The incineration of fuels that contain both chlorine and bromine leads to the formation of a complex mixture of polybrominated/chlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans. More bromination than chlorination was observed in these experiments, and the chlorination levels increased when bromine was added to the fuel. The most favored reactions led to the formation of dibromodichlorodibenzo-p-dioxin and dibromodichlorodibenzofuran. Theoretical calculations show that there is more Br2 than Cl2 in the flue gas when the two halogens are present at equimolar levels, because chlorine is mainly found in the form of HCl. This may explain the higher bromination level. BrCl is also present, which drives the chlorination observed when bromine is added.     

A refined circular template matching method for classification of human cytomegalovirus capsids in TEM images

An automatic image analysis method for describing, segmenting, and classifying human cytomegalovirus capsids in transmission electron micrograph (TEM) images of host cell nuclei has been developed. Three stages of the capsid assembly process in the host cell nucleus have been investigated. Each class is described by a radial density profile, which is the average grey-level at each radial distance from the center. A template, constructed from the profile, is used to find possible capsid locations by correlation based matching. The matching results are further refined by size and distortion analysis of each possible capsid, resulting in a final segmentation and classification.     

Monitoring post-tsunami vegetation recovery in Phang-Nga province,Thailand, based on IKONOS imagery and field investigations – a contribution to the analysis of tsunami vulnerability of coastal ecosystems

A major tsunami in December 2004 devastated the coastal ecosystems along the Andaman Sea coast of Thailand. Since intact coastal ecosystems provide many important services for local communities at the Andaman Sea, it is crucial to investigate to what extent (in terms of percentage area and speed) the affected ecosystems were capable of recovering after the tsunami. Field measurements and multi-date IKONOS imagery were used to estimate the recovery and succession patterns of coastal vegetation types in the Phang-Nga province of Thailand, three years after the tsunami. Thus, this study contributes to a holistic understanding of the ecological vulnerability of the coastal area to tsunamis. A zone-based change detection approach is applied by comparing two change detection techniques: the first method involves the calculation of a recovery rate based on multi-temporal TNDVI (transformed normalized difference vegetation index) images (TNDVI approach), whereas the second approach is a combined approach of the change vector analysis (CVA). Although these two methods provide different types of information (quantitative for the TNDVI approach, qualitative for the CVA), they are comparable in terms of results and accuracies. The results reveal that recovery processes vary based on the type of the ecosystem and, furthermore, are strongly influenced by human activities. Grasslands, coconut plantations and the mixed vegetation cover could recover faster than the mangroves and casuarina forests. Among the forest ecosystems, recovery rates of casuarina forests were higher than for mangroves, but the recovery area was smaller. This study also discusses the potential and some limitations and inaccuracies of applying high-resolution optical imagery for assessing vegetation recovery at a local scale.     

Exposure of cadmium from infant formulas and weaning foods

Cadmium levels were determined in 59 baby food samples, including milk-based, cereal and milk-based and soy-based formulas, recommended from 0 to 18 months of age. Determinations were performed by Zeeman graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometry, after dry ashing, with parallel determinations of certified reference samples. Mean cadmium levels were found to range from 1.10 to 23.5 mu g / kg fresh weight concentrated formulas. L evels were related to the composition of the diets. Formulas based on cow's milk had the lowest concentrations. Soy formulas contained approximately six times more cadmium than cow's milk formulas, and diets with a cereal content had 4-21 times higher mean levels. The mean weekly intakes of dietary cadmium were estimated to vary between 0.10 and 3 : 05 mu g / kg body weight of the child, if the recommended amount of formula were to be consumed at the recommended age, and if the child were of average weight. This estimation however does not include the contribution of cadmium from drinking water. The highest intake on a body weight basis was found in 6-month-old children, consuming the recommended amount of wheat-, oat- and milk-based formulas. This intake is below the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTW I) of 7 mu g / kg body weight, established by a W HO/FAO expert group. However, the risk assessment is based on renal effects in adults. Furthermore, preparations of a formula by adding water with cadmium concentrations at the W HO guideline level could lead to intakes at the PTW I level. Compared to breast-fed children, the exposure of dietary cadmium from weaning diets can be up to 12 times higher in children fed infant formula.