Changes in muscle blood flow distribution during hyperthermia

Blood flow is a critical parameter for obtaining satisfactory temperature distributions during clinical hyperthermia. This study examines the changes in blood flow distribution in normal porcine skeletal muscle before, during and after a period of regional microwave hyperthermia. The baseline blood flow distribution during general anaesthesia and after the insertion of the thermal probes was established independently in order to isolate the changes due to hyperthermia. General anaesthesia alone and thermocouple insertion during anesthesia had no significant effect on the muscle blood flow distribution. Regional microwave heating generated a non-uniform blood flow distribution which was a function of the tissue temperature distribution. Blood flow was greater in those tissues samples in which higher temperatures were recorded and less in those sampled further from the applicators peak SAR (Specific Absorption Rate). The increase in blood flow appears to be primarily a local phenomenon. Although muscle blood flow may be considered to be uniform prior to heating, this does not hold during hyperthermia treatment. Therefore, the non-uniform nature of the blood distribution during heating should be incorporated into any practical bioheat transfer model.     

Legal Frameworks Governing Water in the Middle East and North Africa

For millennia, countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have developed laws, regulations and other rules to govern their scarce water. These laws have been updated in recent years. This review of the legal frameworks (including regulations, decrees and other rules) reveals both progress and gaps in managing water quality, water quantity and procedural aspects. Of note, while the general frameworks are usually in place, in many instances the necessary details are lacking to give effect to the goals. However, in some instances the legal frameworks governing water lack certain key principles or approaches. In order to effectively meet the growing demands on their water resources, MENA countries will need to further strengthen and develop their legal frameworks.     

Predicting Improvement After First-Grade Reading Difficulties: The Effects of Oral Language, Emergent Literacy, and Behavior Skills.

This study investigated the role of early literacy and behavioral skills in predicting the improvement of children who have experienced reading difficulties in 1st grade. The progress of 146 low-income children whose reading scores in 1st grade were below the 30th percentile was examined to determine (a) how the poorest readers in 1st grade progressed in reading achievement through 4th grade and (b) which emergent literacy and behavioral skills measured in kindergarten predicted differential 4th grade outcomes. Results indicated that the divergence between children who improved and those who did not was established by the end of 2nd grade. Further, individual linguistic skills and behavioral attributes measured in kindergarten contributed substantively to this difference. Implications for intervention timing and educational policy are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcohol Consumption Moderates the Link Between Cannabis Use and Cannabis Dependence in an Internet Survey.

The link between cannabis use and cannabis dependence remains poorly understood. Some people use cannabis regularly without signs of dependence; others show dependence despite using less. This study examined alcohol consumption as a moderator of this association. A sample of 476 people (primarily Caucasian men) who used cannabis at least once per week reported their alcohol consumption, cannabis use, and cannabis dependence symptoms in an Internet survey. Regressions revealed significant interactions between measures of cannabis use and alcohol consumption when predicting cannabis dependence. Cannabis use covaried with cannabis dependence, particularly in people who consumed alcohol frequently or in large amounts per week. Despite limitations, these data suggest that alcohol may decrease the safety of cannabis consumption. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Concomitant treatment with mild hyperthermia, cisplatin and low dose-rate irradiation in human ovarian cancer cells sensitive and resistant to cisplatin

Hyperthermia has been shown to be an effective radiation sensitizer. Cisplatin has also been shown to cause radiosensitization. In part, the sensitization is through the inhibition of repair of radiation damage. In this study we have set out to combine low dose-rate irradiation (during which extensive repair occurs) with both cisplatin and hyperthermia to maximize the radiation sensitizing effect. Two human ovarian carcinoma cell lines, one parental (A2780S) and the other a cisplatin resistant derivative (A2780CP) cell line were used in these experiments. Long duration hyperthermia at 40 degrees C was combined with low concentrations of cisplatin (0.5-3 microg/ml) and low dose-rate irradiation (LDRI). The responses to the individual treatments showed that there was cross resistance in the two cell lines for cisplatin and radiation, but for hyperthermia the opposite effect was found. When all treatments were given concurrently the response was greater than the calculated response of all three individual treatments, indicating a synergistic interaction. The effect was greater in the cisplatin resistant cell line. The combination of mild hyperthermia, low dose cisplatin and LDRI are a good combination for potential clinical application. In addition, this could be a good approach to deal with cisplatin resistance.     

Loop transformations to prevent false sharing

To date, page management in shared virtual memory (SVM) systems has been primarily the responsibility of the run-time system. However, there are some problems that are difficult to resolve efficiently at run time. Chief among these is false sharing. In this paper, a loop transformation theory is developed for identifying and eliminating potential sources of multiple-writer false sharing and other sources of page migration resulting from regular references in numerical applications. Loop nests of one and two dimensions (before blocking) with single-level, DOALL-style parallelism are covered. The potential of these transformations is demonstrated experimentally. Supported by a Postdoctoral Research Associateship in Computational Science and Engineering under National Science Foundation Grant No. CDA-9310307, and by the Center for Research on Parallel Computation under Grant No. CCR-9120008. Supported by the Esprit Agency XIII under Grant No. APPARC 6634 BRA III and Intel SSD under Grant No. 1 92 C 250 00 31318 01 2.     

The role of helplessness in the recovery process for sexual trauma survivors.

Discusses the important role of helplessness in the cognitive-affective process of recovery from sexual trauma, the need to view the full emotional and interpersonal life of the traumatized individual, and the substantial ways in which sexual trauma impacts self-structure. Working through helplessness allows the victim to experience rage and fear, to let go of guilt and shame, to face and grieve loss, and to incorporate the experience into more adaptive schemata of self, others, and the world. The discussion is illustrated by case studies of 2 women from a study of the process of recovery in incest survivors undergoing trauma-focused group psychotherapy. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fractionation and Analysis of an Impact Poly(propylene) Copolymer by TREF and SEC‐FTIR

TREF fractionation was combined with SEC‐FTIR analysis to measure the compositional heterogeneity within a commercial impact PP copolymer. The chemical composition of all fractions was determined as function of their molecular weight distribution. This approach proved to be highly successful at identifying different constituents within fractions exhibiting bimodal molecular weight distributions. Furthermore, the determination of ethylene and propylene crystallinity distribution across the molecular weight distribution confirmed the morphological nature of each of the components of the bimodal distribution. It is demonstrated that the combination of TREF and SEC‐FTIR provides a simple alternative to more time‐consuming conventional ways of characterising impact PP copolymers of complex heterogeneity.