Meeting a person with AIDS in the classroom: an evaluation

Meeting a person with AIDS in the classroom was evaluated to determine if it had an impact on students' perceived susceptibility to HIV infection and attitudes toward persons with AIDS. The meeting was incorporated into the Grade 9 AIDS education program of a school district in Nova Scotia. Four schools participated in this study. Two schools were randomly assigned to the treatment group, which met the person with AIDS, and the remaining two schools formed the comparison group. Measures of the two attitudinal variables were collected using a self-report questionnaire that was administered both prior to and two weeks after the educational intervention. Meeting a person with AIDS in the classroom had no measurable impact on students perceived susceptibility to HIV infection nor on their attitudes toward persons with AIDS. Suggestions for using the educational intervention more effectively and for further research are made.     

Gastric antrectomy with selective gastric vagotomy does not influence gallbladder motility during interdigestive and postprandial periods

Fasting gastrointestinal motility and gallbladder motility during the interdigestive state and in the postprandial period was studied in eight patients who were operated for ulcer disease with an antrectomy and selective gastric vagotomy. Nocturnal motility recording revealed all three phases of the migrating motor complex (MMC) in all but one patient, where no phase III activity was recorded. In the rest of the patients 3-10 events with phase III activity were recorded. At scintigraphy ([75Se]HCAT) a cyclic gallbladder filling and emptying in relation to the MMC cycle was found. Episodes with emptying were confined to phase II and a total of 13 episodes with a median duration of 25 min (range 10-70 min) were observed. A median of 10.7% (6.1-17.7%) of the gallbladder contents was emptied. In a control group of eight healthy young men the values were 13.5 min (9-36 min) and 6.9% (3.7-31.1%), respectively. These differences were not significant. During the postprandial period, a lag period in gallbladder emptying of median 15 min (5-20 min) was observed when food ingestion took place during phase I of the MMC. Thereafter a gradual emptying occurred with a rate of 0.95% min (0.71-1.15%/min). In a control group of healthy young males, the lag period was 13.5 min (9-22.5 min) and the emptying rate 0.61%/min (0.08-0.77%/min). When food ingestion occurred during phase II of the MMC, the lag period of gallbladder emptying in the patient group was median 0 min (0-5 min) and the emptying rate was 0.77%/min (0.33-0.86%/min). The values in the control group were 0 min (-9 to 13.5 min) and 0.76%/min (0.54-2.25%/min), respectively. These differences between the patients and controls were not significant. In conclusion, antrectomy and selective gastric vagotomy do not influence fasting gastrointestinal motility or gallbladder motility during the interdigestive state or in the postprandial period.     

Histochemical light microscopic study of catecholamine containing paraganglia in the human pelvis

Histological and histochemical techniques have been employed to determine the structure and autonomic innervation of paraganglia located in the human pelvis. In foetal and early postnatal tissues, paraganglia formed rounded cellular masses which were frequently in company with the autonomic nerves and ganglia of the urinary bladder and other pelvic viscera. The constituent cells contained only small amounts of cholinesterase and were unrelated to enzyme positive autonomic nerves; acetylcholinesterase containing nerves were occasionally observed in the capsule and the fibrous septa of the pelvic paraganglia. In early postnatal specimens, pelvic paraganglia frequently contained single or multiple "pacinian-like" corpuscles, each possessing a central region which was rich in both acetyl and pseudocholinesterase. These structures were rarely observed within autonomic ganglia and were absent 4 1/2 years post partum. By means of a histochemical technique, pelvic paraganglia were found to contain catecholamine which was attributed to the presence of relatively large quantities of noradrenaline. These observations have been discussed with particular reference to the results of other studies on the autonomic innervation of paraganglia.     

激光电容半桥串联谐振充电电源研究

在重复率脉冲固体激光器中,由于储能电容需要频繁的充放电,通常采用谐振充电电路以适应其负载的大范围变化。为此研制了开关频率为20kHz,充电电流为2.1A,最高充电电压为1.86kV的半桥串联谐振充电电路。该电路工作于电流断续模式,开关管的开通和关断均为软开关。通过对周期电压、电流递推公式的分析,表明该工作模式中每个周期的平均充电电流均为恒定。应用递推公式计算稳态和暂态谐振电容电压和电流,结果显示暂态最大工作电压是稳态最大电压的2倍,暂态最大电流为稳态最大峰值电流的1.5倍,为谐振电容和开关管的选取提供了依据。     

煤岩破坏电磁辐射信号的短时分形模糊滤波

介绍了短时分形滤波的基础理论,在分析煤岩破坏电磁辐射信号噪声特点基础上,提出了煤岩破坏电磁辐射信号的短时分形模糊滤波模型及分形维确定方法,并应用于型煤和原煤两种煤岩破坏电磁辐射信号的滤波处理.结果表明,短时分形滤波法用于煤岩破坏电磁辐射信号滤波是可行的,实现了煤岩破坏电磁辐射信号的自适应模糊控制滤波.     

United colors and untied meanings: Benetton and the commodification of social issues

The Benetton United Colors campaign illustrates how modern advertising has been radicalized into an explicitly political forum. Although lifestyle companies often attempt to associate their products with progressive social movements, Benetton was the first company to eliminate pictures of its products from its advertisements. In 1989, ads depicting Benetton's sportswear were replaced with powerful and problematic visual images of AIDS, environmental disasters, terrorism, and racism. Social issues became the embodiment of Benetton's product and, through the transformation into commodities, lost their significance as problematic human conditions. The campaign illustrates how the decontextualization of placing issues within the framework of product promotion, creates a tone of discordant meaning not adequately explained by mass culture critiques of consumerism. This case study recommends that advertising should be studied as a complex and contested social discourse within 1990s consumer culture.     

Nanowire Assisted Mechanotyping of Cellular Metastatic Potential

Nanotechnology has provided tools for next generation biomedical devices which rely on nanostructure interfaces with living cells. In vitro biomimetic structures have enabled observation of cell response to various mechanical and chemical cues, and there is a growing interest in isolating and harnessing the specific cues that 3D microenvironments can provide without the requirement for such culture and the experimental drawbacks associated with it. Here, a randomly oriented gold coated Si nanowire substrate with patterned hydrophobic–hydrophilic areas for the differentiation of isogenic breast cancer cells of varying metastatic potential is reported. When considering synthetic surfaces for the study of cell-nanotopography interfaces, randomly oriented nanowires more closely resemble the isotropic architecture of a natural extracellular matrix. In the study reported here, the authors show that primary cancer cells preferably attach to the hydrophilic region of randomly oriented nanowire substrate while secondary cancer cells do not adhere. Using machine learning analysis of fluorescence images, cells are found to spread and elongate on the nanowire substrates as compared to a flat substrate, where they mostly remain round. Such platforms can not only be used for developing bioassays but also as stepping stones for tissue printing technologies where cells can be selectively patterned at desired locations.     

一种面向大面阵焦平面阵列的低功耗多功能读出电路设计

大面阵焦平面成像探测器需要具有随机开窗和反转读出功能,同时需要降低功耗。文章基于标准数字电路设计流程。设计了一种新型的基于格雷码编码规律的寻址计数器,用于对阵列的行地址和列地址进行寻址,提高了寻址的可靠性。对设计进行RTL级仿真,结果表明该设计能够实现任意开窗和反转读出功能。采用TSMC90工艺库对1024×1024阵列规模的RTL级设计进行分析计算,结果显示供电电压为3.3V时,寻址计数器功耗仅为19.56μW,整体设计功耗仅为58.75μW,适用于大面阵焦平面读出电路的设计。