Effect of deviations from temporal expectations on tempo discrimination of isochronous tone sequences

The effect of deviations from temporal expectations on tempo discrimination was studied in 3 experiments using isochronous auditory sequences. Temporal deviations consisted of advancing or delaying the onset of a comparison pattern relative to an "expected" onset, defined by an extension of the periodicity of a preceding standard pattern. An effect of onset condition was most apparent when responses to faster and slower comparison patterns were analyzed separately and onset conditions were mixed. Under these conditions, early onsets produced more "faster" judgments and lower thresholds for tempo increases, and late onsets produced more "slower" judgments and lower thresholds for tempo decreases. In another experiment, pattern tempo had a similar effect: Fast tempos led to lower thresholds for tempo increases and slow tempos led to lower thresholds for tempo decreases. Findings support oscillator-based approaches to time discrimination.     

Carcinoma in non-specific inflammatory intestinal diseases-- epidemiology, clinical aspects, dispensarization

Idiopathic proctocolitis and Crohn's disease are important precancerous conditions in particular in patients with the onset of the disease at a young age. The causes of colorectal carcinoma in these diseases remain hypothetical. The risk must not be underrated but it is not high enough to justify prophylactic colectomy. The fundamental contribution to dispensary programmes was the discovery of dysplasia, i. e. precancerous changes of the intestinal epithelia. The main method of dispensarization is coloscopy with multiple biopsies of different segments of the colon and rectum. It is recommended to initiate dispensary programmes 10 years after the onset of the disease. Dysplasia is not an ideal marker of the increased risk of carcinoma and other indicators of malignant transformation in intestinal biopsies are intensely sought. The further development of dispensary programmes depends on these efforts and the results of cost-benefit analyses.     

Precipitation Kinetics on a Nb-V Microalloyed Steel

The precipitation kinetics in a low carbon high strength low alloy (HSLA) steel,microalloyed with V+Nb has been studied by using the stress relaxation method.This technique was carried out in a dynamic dilatometer and allows to determine the onset and finishing precipitation times in hot deformed austenite.The evolution of the precipitates was also observed using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) on samples quenched at different times at given temperatures.Discussion is completed with the predictions by the thermodynamic software FactSage to identify stable precipitate phases under equilibrium conditions.Results confirm the feasibility of the stress relaxation technique as an efficient method for investigating precipitation kinetics.     

A meta-analysis of the relative efficacy and toxicity of Pneumocystis carinii prophylactic regimens

Accurate onset detection of the voluntary response is a prerequisite in reaction time studies when used in investigations on human motor control. The detection algorithm required performs a transformation of the continuous physical signal (e.g., force, movement) containing the response into a discrete event from which the reaction time (RT) is derived. Therefore, RT always comprises both the cognitive and/or motor delay component imaging the duration of the initiation process conducted by the sensorimotor system and, in addition, some spurious delay caused by the detection algorithm. As a standard method, onset detection is realized by the measurement device itself (e.g., the release of a micro switch) by defining the response onset as the point where the observed signal passes a certain threshold. Thus, weak and abnormal response profiles which are typical for a variety of central motor disorders (e.g., Parkinson's disease) may introduce high RT variability as well as systematic errors. The aim of this study was to improve accuracy of onset detection by application of an appropriate filter to the measured signal before entering the final decision stage. Three algorithms (lowpass differentiator, inverse filter, linear autoregressive (AR) predictor) were implemented and tested on simulated and real data under both on-line and off-line conditions with special interest to the influence of quasi-periodic background activity like tremor. It is shown that a significant improvement in onset detection accuracy, compared with the simple switch, can be achieved by using appropriate low order adaptive filters with the AR-predictor being the most efficient solution.     

Effect of the quenching temperature on the structural state of high-speed steels

The effect of the temperature of heating for quenching on the temperatures of the onset of intense grain growth and the onset of melting of grain boundaries is studied for high-speed steels of six grades. The mechanical properties of the tool are shown to be controlled with allowance for its design and operating conditions.     

原铝在离子液体中低温电解精炼的研究

采用离子液体1-乙基-3-甲基咪唑氯铝酸盐为电解质,对原铝的低温电解精炼反应进行研究。根据电化学测试结果,系统考察了原铝中各主要元素的氧化过程,证明铝与主要杂质元素在离子液体中具有明显不同的初始氧化电位,能够通过恒电位电解法对原铝进行精炼提纯。在此基础上,通过两步电解法完成了杂质的高效分离,获得了最佳的反应条件。结果表明,经过0.2~0.4V和40~80℃下的电解精炼反应,可以得到纯度高于99.95%的精铝。     

Left ventricular subendocardial haemorrhages. A study of their morphology, pathogenesis and prognosis

181 medicolegal and clinicopathological autopsy cases with subendocardial haemorrhages were studied with special reference to the primary conditions which might have triggered the haemorrhages, the time interval between the onset of these conditions and death, the gross and microscopic appearances of the subendocardium and other parts of the heart and the cause of death. There was a wide panorama of conditions associated with subendocardial haemorrhages: Trauma, poisoning, eilepsy, surgical and obstetric shock, intracranial diseases and others with the same sudden onset of a process which caused general hypoxia. Death occurred immediately or up to 24 days after the trauma or onset of the primary condition. The subendocardial haemorrhages were associated with myocytic necrosis, inflammatory reaction and vascular lesions in the entire myocardium. The subendocardial regions and the apexes of the papillar muscles were the most common sites of manifestations of the general hypoxic cardiovascular injury. The morphological alterations correlated well with the time lapse after the onset of the associated condition. In 27 cases, or 15 per cent, death was attributed to cardiovascular disturbances, presumably caused by the lesions described. In the rest of the cases, cardiovascular disturbances were not clinically registered due to the short time of survival, or were transient or absent, despite the presence of widely spread cardiovascular lesions. It is suggested that in cases with clinically transient or asymptomatic recent hypoxic cardiovascular lesions there is a possibility for a silent progression of the pathological process in chronic ischemic cardiomyopathy.     

Relaxation treatment for insomnia: A component analysis.

Compared 4 relaxation treatments—progressive relaxation, progressive relaxation without tension release, imagery with tension release, and imagery without tension release—for sleep onset insomnia with a waiting-list control (no treatment). Analysis of data from 44 19–71 yr old insomniacs recruited from the community showed all treatment conditions to be superior to no treatment in reducing latency of sleep onset and ratings of fatigue. The presence of muscle-tension release was unrelated to outcome. There was a nonsignificant trend for visual imagery treatments to be superior to somatic-focusing treatments in reducing sleep onset latencies. Treatments using visual focusing were superior to somatic-focusing treatments in reducing the number of nocturnal awakenings. At 6 mo follow-up, only the imagery treatments showed significant improvement over pretreatment levels on latency of sleep onset. Visual-focusing treatments produced significantly greater reductions in sleep onset latency at follow-up than did the somatic-focusing treatments. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

CCD-3693: an orally bioavailable analog of the endogenous neuroactive steroid, pregnanolone, demonstrates potent sedative hypnotic actions in the rat

Signal detectability was measured in three temporal conditions as a function of the bandwidth and configuration of simultaneous maskers that either did or did not spectrally overlap the signal. The 20-ms signal was 250 Hz wide and was centered at 2500 Hz (fs). Although there were marked individual differences, performance was typically poorer when signal onset came 1 ms rather than 250 ms after the onset of a 420-ms masker, and poorest when signal onset came 1 ms after the onset of a 23-ms masker. The results support the idea that two separate across-channel processes contribute to temporal changes in signal detectability. One process contributes to the improvement observed as signal onset is delayed from masker onset, and its influence is reduced by the presence of masking components at fs only when the masker extends exclusively below fs. The other process is associated with the improvement observed as masker offset is delayed from signal offset, and its influence is reduced by the presence of masking components at fs when the masker extends exclusively above, or both below and above fs. Both of these processes are primarily activated by frequencies ranging from 0.6 to 0.8fs and 1.2 to 1.4fs. The data also demonstrate that the measured critical bandwidth narrows as signal onset is delayed from masker onset.     

Phimosis of infants and young children in Japan

Bacterial and viral infections may be associated with the onset of a number of autoimmune diseases and relapses of these conditions. We describe a patient in whom there was a close temporal relationship between a suppurative wound infection and the onset of microscopic polyarteritis. The clinical features of this disease responded to treatment with high dose prednisolone and cyclophosphamide. The patient had several further infective episodes while being treated, but there were no disease exacerbations or relapses related to these. Anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA) were never demonstrated in this patient. Thus while it is likely that the infection precipitated the onset of the systemic vasculitic illness, this occurred independently of ANCA.     

Function and impact of an OR donor-transplant committee

Cisatracurium is a nondepolarizing muscle relaxant with a slow onset. We performed a prospective, randomized, double-blind clinical trial in 60 patients (ASA physical status I or II) to assess whether cisatracurium (0.15 or 0.25 mg/kg) or vecuronium (0.15 mg/kg), administered as a bolus immediately after induction of anesthesia with fentanyl and thiopental, would provide a faster onset time and better tracheal intubating conditions than previously reported. We sought to determine whether patients given muscle relaxants in this commonly used induction sequence would exhibit cutaneous, systemic, or chemical evidence of histamine release. Onset time of the relaxants was determined by using mechanomyography. Intubating conditions were scored on a defined interval scale by an anesthesiologist blinded to the relaxant administered. Heart rate and arterial blood pressure were measured noninvasively every minute from 10 min before to 5 min after the application of the muscle relaxant. Mean (+/- SD) onset times for 0.25 mg/kg cisatracurium (68.3 +/- 19.5 s) and for 0.15 mg/kg vecuronium (69.5 +/- 29.2 s) were significantly different from those in the 0.15 mg/kg cisatracurium group (105 +/- 41.2 s). The intubating conditions were better with the larger dose of cisatracurium or vecuronium (P < 0.03). Although plasma histamine levels were not statistically different among groups, levels >1 ng/mL were observed in 5 of 40 patients who received cisatracurium but in none of the 20 patients who received vecuronium. There were no significant hemodynamic differences among the groups. In a dose of 0.25 mg/kg, cisatracurium has as rapid an onset time as vecuronium 0.15 mg/kg, but the former shows evidence of histamine release. Implications: Cisatracurium has been considered a drug with a relatively slow onset but that has the significant benefit of being devoid of chemically mediated histamine release. In this study, we describe an onset time faster than previously reported when cisatracurium was given immediately after thiopental. We also note that several patients had abnormal histamine levels after cisatracurium administration.     

Episodic retrieval in negative priming and repetition priming.

Subjects identified target letters flanked by incompatible distractor letters (e.g., ABA). Distractor onset was randomly simultaneous with target onset or was delayed by 400 ms. In Experiment 1, one third of probe-trial targets were identical to the preceding prime-trial distractor. Responses were slower to repeated letters than to unrepeated letters (negative priming) only when prime and probe trials shared the same distractor-onset conditions. In Experiment 2, one third of probe-trial targets were identical to the preceding prime-trial target. Significant facilitation (repetition priming) occurred for repeated targets in all conditions but was again greater when prime and probe trials shared the same distractor-onset conditions. The results strongly support episodic retrieval theories of both negative priming and repetition priming and suggest that a common mechanism underlies both phenomena. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pedicled and microvascular reanastomosed transplants for reconstruction in the head-neck area

In seizures starting gradually, careful examination of the background is required to determine the time and region of onset. We propose a method for displaying EEG variables which characterize seizure onset: changes in amplitude and in average frequency compared to background. These variables are displayed topographically for each EEG channel so that 1 or 2 min of EEG may be viewed on a standard screen, thus representing pre-ictal and ictal periods. We evaluated the ability of this display to indicate seizure onset, by comparing the times and regions of seizure onset indicated by traditional EEG and by the display. The comparison was performed on 30 seizures from scalp recordings and 49 seizures from depth recordings. Seizures were selected for having a gradual onset with no or minimal artefact. Onset times from traditional EEG and the computer method, examined independently, coincided (within 3 sec) in 77% of scalp seizures and 63% of depth seizures. In 14% of seizures the computer display indicated an onset more than 3 sec earlier than visual examination; upon reexamination, however, this onset was thought to be possibly correct. This quantitative display, which in practice should be used with traditional EEG, may thus be useful for computer-assisted seizure interpretation and for a condensed representation of seizures.     

Ureterovaginal fistula: a report of 12 cases and review of the literature

Ureterovaginal fistula is an uncommon complication of pelvic operations, seen most often after Wertheim's hysterectomy. We report 12 cases of ureterovaginal fistulas seen during a 20-year period, all of which followed operations for benign gynecologic conditions. Most patients had no urinary symptoms until the sudden onset of incontinence 1 to 4 weeks postoperatively. Diagnosis was established readily by a combination of excretory urography, cystography, cystoscopy, retrograde pyeloureterography and dye studies. In our series only 1 patient was treated by primary nephrectomy, while 11 underwent ureteroneocystostomy: 2 with a Boari flap and 9 by a direct method. Reconstruction failed in 2 patients, 1 of whom required a secondary nephrectomy.     

The breakdown of single-crystal solidification in high refractory nickel-base alloys

The breakdown of single-crystal solidification has been studied over a wide range of solidification conditions in ten superalloys with large variations in Re, Ta, and W content. Over the range of experimental conditions investigated, grain defect formation was sensitive to local thermaland solutal conditions. For a fixed alloy composition and withdrawal rate, the transition from single-crystal to equiaxed solidification did not occur abruptly. Instead, as thermal gradients were decreased in a series of experiments, isolated, highly misoriented columnar grains with the same composition as that of the base alloy developed in the presence of positive (stabilizing) thermal gradients with increasing frequency until the advance of the single-crystal front was completely blocked. The onset of columnar grain formation occurred when the primary dendrite arm spacing exceeded a critical value, corresponding to a morphological transition in the dendritic array. The onset of “freckling” was observed at the same primary dendrite arm spacing where misoriented columnar grains began to appear. In experiments with varying levels of refractory alloy content, there was also a strong correlation between the onset of grain formation and freckle formation. These observations strongly suggest that in high refractory content superalloys, the breakdown of single-crystal solidification and the formation of misoriented grains as well as freckle-type defects are sensitively dependent on thermosolutal convection processes.     

Retention and acquisition of classical trace conditioned responses by rabbits with hippocampal lesions.

Examined the effects of dorsal hippocampal lesions on retention of classical trace conditioned responses (CRs) using the rabbit nictitating membrane preparation. In Exp I, 18 New Zealand albino rabbits were trained to criteria and then lesioned either in the cortex or in the hippocampus and the cortex. Hippocampal damage had no effect on the retention of responses but produced significantly longer onset latencies. A control group of hippocampal Ss acquired CRs at least as quickly as the prelesion Ss and exhibited longer response onset latency. Exp II, with 24 Ss, evaluated the performance of hippocampal-lesioned Ss in classical trace conditioning with either a low-intensity periorbital shock or a corneal air puff as the unconditioned stimulus (UCS). Hippocampal Ss successfully acquired CRs under both conditions but exhibited an alteration of response onset that depended on the form of the UCS. Hippocampal Ss displayed shorter response onset in the air-puff condition and longer response onset in the shock condition. Cortical Ss consistently timed responses regardless of the UCS. Findings suggest that the hippocampus modulates temporal characteristics of learned behavior. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Microinjection of antibody to Mad2 protein into mammalian cells in mitosis induces premature anaphase

In yeast, the Mad2 protein is required for the M phase arrest induced by microtubule inhibitors, but the protein is not essential under normal culture conditions. We tested whether the Mad2 protein participates in regulating the timing of anaphase onset in mammalian cells in the absence of microtubule drugs. When microinjected into living prophase or prometaphase PtK1 cells, anti-Mad2 antibody induced the onset of anaphase prematurely during prometaphase, before the chromosomes had assembled at the metaphase plate. Anti-Mad2 antibody-injected cells completed all aspects of anaphase including chromatid movement to the spindle poles and pole-pole separation. Identical results were obtained when primary human keratinocytes were injected with anti-Mad2 antibody. These studies suggest that Mad2 protein function is essential for the timing of anaphase onset in somatic cells at each mitosis. Thus, in mammalian somatic cells, the spindle checkpoint appears to be a component of the timing mechanism for normal mitosis, blocking anaphase onset until all chromosomes are aligned at the metaphase plate.     

Correlated individual differences in conditions used to measure psychophysical suppression and signal enhancement

Two-tone suppression and notched-noise signal enhancement (overshoot) were measured at 1000 Hz using standard procedures in 40 normal-hearing, naive adults, counterbalanced for sex, listening ear, and testing order. The threshold range across subjects for the same condition often exceeded 30 dB. In the suppression conditions, for some subjects the 20-ms forward-masked signal was as much as 15 dB easier to detect when the total masker (1000 Hz) and tonal suppressor (1150 Hz) were presented together, than when the masker was presented alone, indicating suppression. For other subjects, however, presenting the masker and suppressor together increased thresholds by as much as 13 dB, indicating additional masking. On average, adding the suppressor to the masker increased threshold by 0.6 dB. In the enhancement conditions, for every subject the 20-ms signal was harder to detect when it was presented at the onset of a 500-ms notched-noise masker (notch width: 1000 Hz) than when signal onset was delayed by 400 ms, and was hardest to detect when the signal and masker were gated on and off together for 20 ms. The average thresholds were 7 and 19 dB higher for the two conditions in which the signal was presented at masker onset than for the condition in which the signal was presented after a delay, indicating signal enhancement. The thresholds in all of the listening conditions appeared to be primarily determined by a single factor. However, it is not clear whether the best designation for this factor would be sharpness of frequency tuning or across-channel inhibitory strength.     

No evidence for menstrual synchrony in lesbian couples

Menstrual synchrony was investigated in a sample of 29 cohabiting lesbian couples, ranging in age from 22 to 48 years. One or both partners kept prospective daily records of variables including menses onset dates, intimate contact, and sexual activity. All women reported daily intimate interaction with their partners; none reported intimate interaction with men. Despite these potentially optimal conditions for the manifestation of synchrony, the differences between dyad members in menses onset dates were distributed randomly, and there was no evidence of convergence. In fact, most dyads exhibited divergence of onset dates. Reasons for lack of synchrony in this sample are discussed; one conclusion is that there is no solid evidence that menstrual synchrony is a stable attribute of past or contemporary human populations.