Evidence for instrument and family-specific variation of subclinical psychosis dimensions in the general population.

It is unknown to what degree dimensions of schizotypy (subclinical psychosis) show independent, family-specific variation in the general population. Psychologists administered the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences, the Structured Interview for Schizotypy-Revised (SIS-R), and the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale to 257 subjects pertaining to 82 general population families. All 3 instruments showed family-specific variation for positive and negative subclinical psychosis dimensions with between-families proportions of total variance between 10% and 40%. However, only the SIS-R showed family-specific variation of the negative dimension independent of its correlation with the positive dimension. The positive dimension of subclinical psychosis shows familial-specific variation in samples unselected for psychiatric disorder, suggesting dimensional liability in the population. The SIS-R additionally captures family-specific variation in the negative domain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Promise is Debt, Threat Another Matter: The Effect of Credibility on the Interpretation of Conditional Promises and Threats.

Evidence from reasoning tasks shows that promises and threats both tend to receive biconditional interpretations. They also both display high speaker control. On the face of it, the only difference seems to be the positive or negative signing of the consequent. In a promise, the speaker tries to persuade the hearer to do something by holding out the prospect of a particular reward; in a threat, the speaker tries to refrain the hearer from doing something by holding out the prospect of a particular punishment. This paper investigates the respects in which conditional promises and threats differ further by means of an inference task. The credibility of the consequent was manipulated in order to examine whether the acceptability ratings of inferences based on promises and on threats would be equally affected. The results of the inference task and an analysis of the reasons people give for their answers suggest that the credibility of promises is less affected by the use of excessive consequents than the credibility of threats. In other words, promise remains debt, whereas threat is another matter. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Insulin-like growth factor I activates the invasion suppressor function of E-cadherin in MCF-7 human mammary carcinoma cells in vitro

The calcium-dependent cell-cell adhesion molecule E-cadherin has been shown to counteract invasion of epithelial neoplastic cells. Using three monoclonal antibodies, we have demonstrated the presence of E-cadherin at the surface of human MCF-7/6 mammary carcinoma cells by indirect immunofluorescence coupled to flow cytometry and by immunocytochemistry. Nevertheless, MCF-7/6 cells failed to aggregate in a medium containing 1.25 mM CaCl2, and they were invasive after confrontation with embryonic chick heart fragments in organ culture. Treatment of MCF-7/6 cells with 0.5 microgram ml-1 insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) led to homotypic aggregation within 5 to 10 min and inhibited invasion in vitro during at least 8 days. The effect of IGF-I on cellular aggregation was insensitive to cycloheximide. However, monoclonal antibodies that interfered with the function of either the IGF-I receptor (alpha IR3) or E-cadherin (HECD-1, MB2) blocked the effect of IGF-I on aggregation. The effects of IGF-I on aggregation and on invasion could be mimicked by 1 microgram ml-1 insulin, but not by 0.5 microgram ml-1 IGF-II. The insulin effects were presumably not mediated by the IGF-I receptor, since they could not be blocked by an antibody against this receptor (alpha IR3). Our results indicate that IGF-I activates the invasion suppressor role of E-cadherin in MCF-7/6 cells.     

Coaxial curved instrumentation for minimal access surgery

New coaxial curved and bayonet instruments have been designed which permit controlled dissection and directional change of the functional tip, blunt dissection and lift retraction. The instruments are introduced into the peritoneal and thoracic cavities through flexible re-usable metal cannulae. The excellent ergonomic properties of the new instruments have been confirmed by their use in major laparoscopic and thoracoscopic operations. Coaxial instruments enhance the scope of minimal access surgery and have distinct advantages over the traditional straight instruments.     

The effect of matrix microstructure on cyclic response and fatigue behavior of particle- reinforced 2219 aluminum: Part I. room temperature behavior

The low-cycle and high-cycle fatigue behavior and cyclic response of naturally aged and overaged 2219/TiC/15p and unreinforced 2219 Al were investigated using plastic strain-controlled and stress-controlled testing. In addition, the influence of grain size on the particle-reinforced materials was examined. In both reinforced and unreinforced materials, the naturally aged conditions were cyclically unstable, exhibiting an initial hardening behavior followed by an extended region of cyclic stability and ultimately a softening region. The overaged reinforced material was cyclically stable for the plastic strains examined, while the overaged unreinforced material exhibited cyclic hardening at plastic strains greater than 2.5 × 10⁻⁴. Decreasing grain size of particle-reinforced materials modestly increased the cyclic flow stress of both naturally aged and overaged materials. Reinforced and unreinforced materials exhibited similar fatigue life behaviors; however, the reinforced and unreinforced naturally aged materials had superior fatigue lives in comparison to the overaged materials. Grain size had no effect on the fatigue life behavior of the particle-reinforced materials. The fatigue lives were strongly influenced by the presence of clusters of TiC particles and exogenous Al₃Ti intermetallics. formerly Research Assistant with the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 This article is based on a presentation made in the symposium entitled “Creep and Fatigue in Metal Matrix Composites” at the 1994 TMS/ASM Spring meeting, held February 28–March 3, 1994 in San Francisco, California, under the auspices of the Joint TMS-SMD/ASM-MSD Composite Materials Committee.     

A European community source of reference materials for neutron metrology requirements

Recognizing the importance of an assured supply of reference materials of high purity for use as neutron dosimeters, the Monitor Materials subgroup of the European Working Group on Reactor Dosimetry collaborated with the Central Bureau for Nuclear Measurements, Geel, Belgium to establish a list of requirements.CBNM is organizing the availability and characterization of these materials in collaboration with specialist laboratories within the European Community. At present 12 activation and 6 fission dosimetry materials are being examined prior to certification and issue.This source of materials is expected to be of great use for reactor surveillance, interlaboratory comparisons, and other neutron metrology requirements.     

Hydrological simulations in the Rhine basin.

Simulations with regional climate models (RCMs), carried out for the Rhine basin, have been analyzed in the context of implications of the possible future discharge of the Rhine river. In a first analysis, the runoff generated by the RCMs is compared to observations, in order to detect the way the RCMs treat anomalies in precipitation in their land surface component. A second analysis is devoted to the frequency distribution of area averaged precipitation, and the impact of selection of various driving global climate models.     

A weak form of the conjugate gradient FFT method for plate problems

A number of electromagnetic field problems for planar structures can be formulated in terms of a hypersingular integral equation, in which a grad-div operator acts on a vector potential. The vector potential is a convolution of the free-space Green's function and some surface current density over the domain of interest. A weak form of this integral equation is obtained by testing it with subdomain basis functions defined over the plate domain only. As a next step, the vector potential is expanded in a sequence of subdomain basis functions and the grad-div operator is integrated analytically over the plate domain only. For the problem of electromagnetic scattering by a plate, the method shows excellent numerical performance. The numerical difficulties encountered in some previous conjugate gradient fast Fourier transform (CGFFT) methods have been eliminated     

Very high-order microring resonator filters for WDM applications

High-order microring resonators having from 1 to 11 coupled cavities are demonstrated. These filters exhibit low loss, flat tops, and out-of-band rejection ratios that can exceed 80 dB. They achieve performance that is suitable for commercial applications.