The residential therapeutic caring community.

The residential therapeutic caring community (RTCC) for adolescents combines psychotherapeutic principles of the professional model and self-help concept of the therapeutic community by using the collective resources of members to mobilize peer pressure. The RTCC is a safe, structured, supportive treatment environment that employs a confrontation, teaching, interpretative, and reasoning approach and uses the psychotherapeutic principles of reality therapy and existential thought. In the RTCC, the staff serve as mentors and role models, and they demonstrate their concern by maintaining high expectations for immediate improved behavior. The personal qualities necessary for a psychotherapist working in an RTCC are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An electrocoaters guide to selecting and maintaining rectifiers

Considering the critical contribution of your rectifier to the safe, effective, and reliable operation of your electrocoating process, the selection and maintenance of the optimum unit for your operation is time well spent.     

Optimal control of nonlinear systems to given orbits

Using optimal control techniques we derive and demonstrate the use of an explicit single-step control method for directing a nonlinear system to a target orbit and keeping it there. We require that control values remain near the uncontrolled settings. The full nonlinearity of the problem in state space variables is retained. The “one-step” of the control is typically a composition of known or learned maps over (a) the time required to learn the state, (b) the time to compute the control and (c) the time to apply the control. No special targeting is required, yet the time to control is quite rapid. Working with the dynamics of a well-studied nonlinear electrical circuit, we show how this method works efficiently and accurately in two situations: when the known circuit equations are used, and when control is performed only on a Poincaré section of the reconstructed phase space. In each case, because the control rule is known analytically, the control strategy is computationally efficient while retaining high accuracy. The target locations on the selected target trajectory at each control stage are determined dynamically by the initial conditions and the system dynamics, and the target trajectory is an approximation to an unstable periodic orbit of the uncontrolled system. A linear stability analysis shows that dissipation in the dynamical system is essential for reaching a controllable state.     

EVALUATION OF BARLEY AND MALT QUALITY USING NEAR-INFRARED REFLECTANCE TECHNIQUES

A scanning near-infrared reflectance spectrophotometer was calibrated for the prediction of barley aleurone colour and malt moisture. The malt moisture was predicted on malt ground for the determination of malt extract (coarse grind) making the method suitable for moisture correction in malt extract estimation. Calibrations for the prediction of malt extract and endosperm modification from barley and malt were also attempted. A correlation (r= 0.851 n = 135) was found between malt hot water extract and the percentage of the endosperm estimated as being modified by microscopy following staining with Calcofluor. Probably because of this influence of modification on malt extract, the use of near-infrared reflectance to predict malt extract was most successful at predicting the malt extract values obtained following micro-malting in the absence of the additives, gibberellic acid and potassium bromate.     

Performance and tissue zinc and metallothionein accumulation in chicks fed a high dietary level of zinc

Four experiments were conducted to identify several factors that might improve the accuracy and reproducibility of Zn bioavailability assays for chicks. Response of tissue Zn and metallothionein (MT) concentrations to various elevated levels and soluble sources of dietary Zn were measured, as well as the effect of delaying high Zn administration until 7 d posthatching to alleviate the detrimental effect of Zn sulfate on feed intake to 3 wk of age. Bone Zn increased (P < 0.01) in all experiments in response to increasing dietary Zn concentrations. Liver and pancreas MT were affected (P < 0.01) by a source by age interaction and variability that made this criterion unsuitable for bioavailability assays. Lastly, 1-d-old chicks were used to study the effect of delaying feeding of a high-Zn diet up to 7 d of age. The basal diet was fed continuously for 21 d as a control. A diet containing 1,000 ppm Zn was either fed continuously from Day 1, or started on Day 3, 5, or 7. Chicks given high Zn on Day 3, 5, or 7 decreased (P < 0.01) feed intake within 24 h of feeding. Delayed feeding of high dietary Zn might help to alleviate decreased feed intake observed in previous studies. Delaying the onset of high Zn feeding by several days may help alleviate feed intake problems observed with Zn sulfate. Use of either Zn gluconate or Zn acetate as a standard in assays or use of MT synthesis as a bioavailability criterion will probably not be useful to improve accuracy of the estimates.     

The controversy over recovered memories.

Comments on the article by J. L. Alpert et al (see record 2000-13581-002), which presented the report of the American Psychological Association Working Group on Investigation of Memories of Childhood Abuse. The authors discuss 4 issues in this commentary: (a) the assumptions and evidence used to support the case for dissociated and recovered memories (noting that the evidence is weak and the assumptions internally inconsistent as well as contradictory to a mass of experimental evidence about human memory); (b) the process by which dissociated memories are said to be recovered (events that were originally very poorly encoded as fragmentary, kinesthetic memories cannot be recovered with accuracy later); (c) 4 bodies of relevant, but neglected, research on human memory (reminiscence and hypermnesia, effectiveness of retrieval cues, priming in implicit memory tests, and intentional forgetting); and (d) the issue of appropriate research strategies to gain evidence on the thorny issues of long-delayed retrieval of information. Current evidence does not support the conclusion that memories of repeated abuse are dissociated and recovered with accuracy years later. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Angiotensin II stimulates cardiac myocyte hypertrophy via paracrine release of TGF-beta 1 and endothelin-1 from fibroblasts

We examined the effects of different cytokine combinations and culture conditions on the expansion and modulation of cell surface antigens of CD34+ derived dendritic cells (DCs), the most efficient antigen-presenting cells capable of stimulating resting T cells in the primary immune response. Cells with a dendritic morphology and expressing HLA-DR, CD1a, S100 and CD83 were maximally expanded under serum-free conditions with the addition of SCF, GM-CSF, TNF-alpha, TGF-beta and Flt-3 ligand (fold increase of CD1a+ cells = 102 +/- 32 after 2 weeks of culture). CD34+ cells were also grown under continuous flow conditions in an artificial capillary system: after 14d of culture, the expansion in the total cell number was lower than that of the static cultures (3.3 +/- 2 v 18.9 +/- 4) but the percentage of CD1a+/CD83+/ CD80+ cells was considerably higher, whereas the CD14+ cells were significantly reduced (8.9 +/- 2 v 26 +/- 13). In continuous perfusion cultures, low levels of DC precursors and of LTC-IC were still present up to day 14. The DCs generated under flow conditions stimulated the mixed leucocyte reaction (MLR) more than the cells grown in static cultures. By electron microscopy, cells grown in the continuous flow system showed an increased number of large cells with numerous dendritic processes and abundant multilamellar complexes. The cells expanded under these conditions were sorted on the basis of their light-scatter properties into two fractions: one containing a predominance of CD1a+/S100+/ CD8 3+/CD80+/CD14- 'large cells' with great internal complexity (mature DCs); the second including 'small cells' either CD33+/CD14+, CD33+/CD15+ or CD33+/CD13-/CD14. The DCs generated and selected with this method are therefore particularly well suited for immunotherapeutic protocols.     

Effect of routine screening for Down's syndrome on the significance of isolated fetal hydronephrosis

OBJECTIVE: To determine the risk of Down's syndrome in fetuses with isolated hydronephrosis at 18-23 weeks in an unselected general population after routine screening for Down's syndrome, using first trimester nuchal translucency measurement and second trimester maternal serum biochemistry. POPULATION: All pregnant women undergoing a routine 18-23 week ultrasound scan, from a population who had been offered screening for Down's syndrome. SETTING: A district general hospital serving a low risk obstetric population. METHODS: Prospective study of all routine 18-23 weeks ultrasound scans. The prevalence of isolated hydronephrosis and Down's syndrome was determined and the relative risk for Down's syndrome was calculated for different ultrasound findings. RESULTS: 10,971 women were scanned at 18-23 weeks during the study period. Down's syndrome was diagnosed in 14 of 20 cases before this stage using first trimester nuchal translucency measurement and second trimester maternal serum biochemistry. Isolated fetal hydronephrosis was diagnosed in 423 pregnancies (3.9%); none of these pregnancies were affected by Down's syndrome. The relative risk for Down's syndrome was 0.18 (95% CI 0.06-0.53) for women with a normal scan (n = 9983). When multiple ultrasound markers were found (n = 565), the relative risk for Down's syndrome was 2.00 (95% CI 0.18-22.10) and 9.00 (95% CI 1.14-71.30) for all other aneuploidies. CONCLUSION: The finding of isolated fetal hydronephrosis does not significantly increase the age-related risk for Down's syndrome. The presence of multiple ultrasound markers is associated with an increased risk of aneuploidies other than Down's syndiome. These findings are explained by the reduced prevalence of Down's syndrome as a result of prior screening and diagnosis of this condition.     

Induction of forward mutations at the thymidine kinase locus of mouse lymphoma cells: evidence for electrophilic and non-electrophilic mechanisms

A database of 209 chemicals tested for induction of forward mutations at the heterozygous thymidine kinase (TK +/-) locus in L5178Y mouse lymphoma cells was analyzed for structure-activity relationships using the MultiCASE expert system. Consistent with evidence of several contributing biological mechanisms, these studies suggest that such mutations may occur by more than one mechanism. As might be expected, there was evidence for a component involving direct electrophilic attack on the cellular DNA, in a manner previously established as causative in the induction of mutations in Salmonella. In addition, however, there was also strong evidence for another mechanism or mechanisms involving chromosome missegregation, cellular toxicity or an alternate site of action, such as the microtubules.