Empowerment: An ideal long-term goal: But what about now?

Comments on the article by H. Amaro (see record 1995-34352-001) regarding the problem of women's risk for HIV infection. The authors argue that Amaro's article has a major shortcoming in the argument that rather than focusing on current realities, long-term ideal solutions are emphasized. The authors believe that empowerment-based solutions contradict the current realities of many dyadic relationships. The authors found that dyadic sociocultural issues in both college students and adolescents are far too complex to be framed in terms of the individualistic change models cited by Amaro. The authors agree that empowerment may be the ideal ultimate solution, but that a more immediate strategy is also necessary. Thus, they advocate focusing on the woman's right to protect herself against HIV infection and pregnancy by methods that would not require the knowledge nor the consent of her partner. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spatially adaptive subsampling of image sequences

In a spatially adaptive subsampling scheme, the subsampling lattice is adapted to the local spatial frequency content of an image sequence. In this paper, we use rate-distortion theory to show that spatially adaptive subsampling gives a better performance than subsampling with a fixed sampling lattice. A new algorithm that optimally assigns sampling lattices to different parts of the image is presented. The proposed spatially adaptive subsampling method can be applied within a motion-compensated coding scheme as well. Experiments show an increased performance over fixed lattice subsampling.     

Perfluorooctyl Bromide Polymeric Capsules as Dual Contrast Agents for Ultrasonography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Polymeric capsules with a thick shell made of biodegradable and biocompatible polymer and a liquid core of perfluorooctyl bromide (PFOB) were evaluated for stability as well as for ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast enhancement. The method of preparation allows the mean capsule diameter to be regulated between 70 nm and 25 µm and the capsule thickness‐to‐radius ratio from 0.25 to 0.54. Capsule diameter remains stable at 37 °C in phosphate buffer for at least 4 and 6 h for nanocapsules and microcapsules, respectively. The in vitro ultrasound signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) was measured from 40 to 60 MHz for 6 µm and 150 nm capsules: the SNR increases with capsule concentration up to 20–25 mg mL⁻¹, and then reaches a plateau that depends on capsule diameter (13.5 ± 1.5 dB for 6 µm and 6 ± 2 dB for the 150 nm capsules). The ultrasound SNR is stable for up to 20 min for microcapsules and for several hours for nanocapsules. For nanocapsules, the thinner the shell, the larger the SNR and the more compressible the capsules. Nanocapsule suspensions imaged in vitro with a commercial ultrasound imaging system (normal and tissue harmonic imaging modes, 7–14 MHz probe) were detected down to concentrations of 12.5 mg mL⁻¹. Injections of nanocapsules (200 µg ml⁻¹) in mice in vivo reveal that the initial bolus passage presents significant ultrasound enhancement of the blood pool during hepatic imaging (7–14 MHz probe, tissue harmonic imaging mode). ¹⁹F‐MRI images were obtained in vitro at 9.4T using spin‐echo and gradient echo sequences and allow detecting nanocapsules in suspension (50 mg mL⁻¹). In conclusion, these results show initial feasibility for development of these capsules toward a dual‐modality contrast agent.