Circadian rhythm in the hypothermic response to serotonin1A receptor agonist 8-OH-DPAT in rats

The gene encoding the CD2 mouse cell surface antigen was retrovirally transduced into cord blood CD34+ cells. On infection by culture at the contact of retrovirus-packaging cells, the mCD2 marker was expressed by 30-40% CD34+ cells, that included the most primitive stem cell-enriched Thy-1+ and CD38- subsets. Accordingly, sorted cord blood CD34+Thy-1+ cells could be directly infected in the same conditions. mCD2- transgenic cord blood CD34+ cells were then used to reconstitute human fetal thymus implanted in SCID mice. Five to 8 weeks later, the mCD2 antigen was detected on approximately 10% of the human thymocytes repopulating the thymus grafts and the transgene genome was detected in graft cell DNA by Southern blot. These results demonstrate efficient gene transfer into primitive cord blood hematopoietic cells endowed with lymphoid potential and suggest gene therapy schemes in neonates suffering inherited or acquired-such as HIV infection-disorders of the T-cell lineage.     

The preliminary development of theory-based community treatment for sexual offenders.

A treatment program that is based on a theoretical model (Hall & Hirschman, 1991, 1992) was developed and implemented in community-based treatment programs with child molesters and rapists. Procedures that address physiological, cognitive, and affective motivational precursors of sexually aggressive behavior and relapse prevention are described. Seventeen of 24 of the participants who began treatment completed it. One of the 17 sexual offenders who completed treatment recidivated by violating probation, whereas 7 of the 13 sexual offenders who did not complete treatment recidivated. These results could simply be a function of participant motivation because participants were not randomly assigned to conditions. Nevertheless, the current program appears to be viable for research and clinical implementation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term study of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis sequelae after bilateral thoracoplasty-airway obstruction and its causes

Chest roentgenograms and results of pulmonary-function tests in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis sequelae 30 years after bilateral thoracoplasty were studied retrospectively to detect airway obstruction in these patients and to determine its causes. For periods of more than 10 years, vital capacity (VC) changed at a rate of 15.5 +/- 5.0 ml/year, and forced expiratory volume in one second as a percent of VC (FEV1%) changed at a rate of 0.546% +/- 0.380% per year (n = 13). Thirty years after thoracoplasty, the VC was 920 +/- 180 ml (%VC = 28.4% +/- 5.3%), and the FEV1% was 66.2% +/- 13.7% (n = 21). Thus, mild airway obstruction was found in about half of the cases. For each patient, the distance from the hilum to the diaphragm was measured along the mid-clavicular line on the side with fewer ribs resected, and this distance was divided by the patient's height. The results of that computation was found to be significantly and negatively related to FEV1% (r = -0.681, which suggests that longer bronchi in the lower and middle lobes on that side were associated with lower values of FEV1%. These findings are similar to those in patients with pulmonary tuberculous sequelae after total pneumonectomy. Over an average of 26 years, scoliosis, the vertebra showing the most bending, the intrapulmonary lesion, and the position of the diaphragm did not change, but the cardio-thoracic ratio increased.     

Generation of dendritic cells from fresh and frozen cord blood CD34+ cells

Extracellular recordings obtained from the extrastriate cortex of the California ground squirrel, a diurnal sciurid, show that large receptive fields and a strong direction selectivity are present in the middle lateral area (ML) and the lateral area (L), located laterally to V2 and V3. Direction selectivity was tested by presenting stimuli of varying dimensions, shapes and speeds at different locations in the visual field. Most cells in ML and L (84%) were direction selective, with a preference for fast speeds, indicating that these areas share a role in motion processing. Areas ML and L may be homologous to area MT or may represent a case of homoplasia. A directional anisotropy for motion towards the vertical meridian was found in ML and L cells, suggesting that these areas may be involved in detecting predators and other moving objects coming from the periphery, rather than in processing flow fields caused by forward locomotion, for which a centrifugal bias might be expected.     

The role of pyrophosphate in copper deposition from cupric pyrophosphate solutions

Cathodic polarization characteristics of copper was examined in cupric pyrophosphate solutions of different concentrations and temperatures. The structure and composition of the deposited copper was examined by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, electron probe microanalysis and Auger electron spectroscopy. The polarization characteristics implied that the coverage of the electrode by adsorbed pyrophosphate ions decreases with increasing cathodic polarization and it becomes almost zero past a critical potential E_b of about ?0.75 V vs sce. E_b becomes more negative with increasing concentration of free pyrophosphate ions. As expected, pyrophosphate was incorporated at relatively high concentrations (0.05–0.07 wt% as P) in the deposits in the potential region I (E ? E_b) and at lower concentrations (ca. 0.02 wt%) in region II (E < E_b). Smooth deposits with random crystalline orientations were obtained in a part of region I for cd ? ca. 5 mA/cm². The rough deposits obtained outside this showed preferred (220) orientations as could be expected from the orientation theory. The smooth deposition in region I is due to the pyroposphate adsorption which inhibits the ordered deposition of copper.     

The relationship between men's sexual aggression inside and outside the laboratory.

The purpose of this study was to develop a laboratory analog of sexually aggressive behavior. Ss viewed neutral, sexual-violent, and violent-sexual film vignettes and chose a vignette to show to a female confederate. Among highly sexually aggressive men (n?=?25) according to the Coercive Sexuality Scale (CSS; K. Rapaport and B. R. Burkhart; see record 1984-23391-001), 24% showed the sexual-violent vignette and 28% showed the violent-sexual vignette. Among men who did not report being sexually aggressive on the CSS (n?=?13), none showed the sexual-violent vignette and only one showed the violent-sexual vignette. The between-group difference in vignette showing was statistically significant. Ss who showed the sexually aggressive vignettes reported that the female confederate was upset and uncomfortable in viewing these vignettes more than the Ss did who showed the neutral vignette. These results support the validity of this film-showing procedure as a laboratory analog of sexually aggressive behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Immunolocalization of multiple membrane proteins on a carbon replica with STEM and EDX

We present a method for immunolabeling of multiple species of membrane proteins with high spatial resolution. It allows differentiation of equally sized very small markers with different chemical compositions, which leads to high labeling efficiency and reduces steric hindrance of closely spaced immunolabeled biomolecules. Markers such as CdSe/ZnS semiconductor quantum dots and colloidal gold particles are distinguished by differential contrast in high-angle annular detector dark-field STEM mode or by EDX microanalysis of their elemental contents. This method was tested by observation of labeled AMPA- and NMDA-type glutamate receptors on sodium-dodecyl-sulfate-digested replica prepared from rat hippocampus. To improve particle visibility and detectability, the replica films were made exclusively with carbon to avoid the high background of conventional platinum/carbon replica. Extension of the method is suggested by detection of 1.4 nm nanogold particles and its potential application in the biological imaging research.     

Parallel BDD-based monolithic approach for acoustic fluid-structure interaction

Parallel BDD-based monolithic algorithms for acoustic fluid-structure interaction problems are developed. In a previous study, two schemes, NN-I + CGC-FULL and NN-I + CGC-DIAG, have been proven to be efficient among several BDD-type schemes for one processor. Thus, the parallelization of these schemes is discussed in the present study. These BDD-type schemes consist of the operations of the Schur complement matrix-vector (Sv) product, Neumann-Neumann (NN) preconditioning, and the coarse problem. In the present study, the Sv product and NN preconditioning are parallelized for both schemes, and the parallel implementation of the solid and fluid parts of the coarse problem is considered for NN-I + CGC-DIAG. The results of numerical experiments indicate that both schemes exhibit performances that are almost as good as those of single solid and fluid analyses in the Sv product and NN preconditioning. Moreover, NN-I + CGC-DIAG appears to become more efficient as the problem size becomes large due to the parallel calculation of the coarse problem.     

Synthesis of nanocrystalline LaF3 doped silica glasses by hydrofluoric acid catalyzed sol–gel process

Silica glasses doped with LaF₃ nanocrystals were prepared by HF-catalyzed sol–gel method. HF was used both as fluorine source and as catalyst of the sol–gel reaction, making it possible to shorten the processing time with reducing the concentration of SiOH groups to ～10¹⁸ cm^?3. The resultant glasses are transparent at visible spectral range, and the optical loss at the ultraviolet absorption edge is dominated by the Rayleigh scattering from LaF₃ crystallites. The size of LaF₃ crystallites increases with an increase in the sintering temperature and time, and is smaller than ～40 nm in samples showing good visible transparency. Green upconversion photoluminescence is observed in an Er³⁺-doped sample under excitation at 980 nm.