Choosing the most appropriate treatment for stable angina. Safety considerations

Using a play-based methodology and a symptom checklist, this study investigated idiom comprehension in 26 children aged between 6-11 who were considered to have semantic-pragmatic difficulties. This group was compared with two groups of mainstream children and a group of children with (other) language disorders not primarily of a semantic or pragmatic nature. The results indicate that the children with semantic-pragmatic difficulties did, as a group, demonstrate significantly fewer appropriate idiomatic interpretations and significantly more inappropriate interpretations than did any of the other three groups. However, the higher level of inappropriate scores in the semantic-pragmatic difficulties group reflected a large number of 'fuzzy' actions rather than significantly higher rates of literality. This may indicate an awareness among these children that the literal meaning is inappropriate in the absence of adequate idiom vocabulary. It may also reflect difficulty in retrieving known idioms from memory and/or in selecting the most appropriate meaning from several possibilities in context. Despite relative weakness, the children with semantic-pragmatic difficulties displayed appropriate interpretations considerably more often than they evidenced inappropriate ones. Within-group analysis reveals that the children diagnosed with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism performed less well than did those diagnosed with 'semantic-pragmatic disorder'. Nevertheless, both of these subgroups encompassed a considerable range of comprehension ability with regard to the 12 common idioms tested. Analysis of the play task performance and symptom checklist suggests that this variation probably reflects differences in the critical semantic and pragmatic skills underpinning idiom comprehension. These include flexibility of thought, theory of mind, attention to context, prosody and overall coherence, as well as the ability to integrate world knowledge and current contextual information to guide inferencing. In combination with definition task data and broader knowledge of symptomatology, the play task may be used to identify the sites and sources of idiom comprehension breakdown in individual children. It is probable that idiom comprehension in this group of children with semantic-pragmatic difficulties was facilitated by the inclusion of only concrete idioms and by the visual support provided by the play set. Nevertheless, the moderate to age-appropriate ability displayed by this group in this context suggests that the characterization of children with semantic-pragmatic difficulties as predominantly literal needs to be revised. Rather than seeking a blanket characterization of an essentially heterogeneous group, it may be more useful to consider idiom comprehension a secondary manifestation of semantic and/or pragmatic difficulties. Since the children who exhibit these difficulties vary in symptomatology and, probably, in aetiology, it follows that they will also vary with respect to idiom comprehension and the reasons for its breakdown.     

Effects of chronic intrahypothalamic infusion of insulin on food intake and diurnal meal patterning in the rat.

In Experiment 1, rats were chronically infused with insulin (2.7, 27, or 270 ng/hr) or 0.9% saline into the ventromedial (VMH), medial perifornical (PF), or lateral (LH) hypothalamus. VMH infusions of insulin caused a significant, dose-dependent decrease in food intake and body weight; PF infusion of insulin was less effective, but significant; whereas LH infusions of insulin were ineffective. In Experiment 2, rats were chronically infused with insulin (0.54 ng/hr) or 0.9% saline into the VMH, paraventricular (PVN), or posterior (PN) hypothalamic nucleus. Subjects that received VMH or PN infusions of insulin failed to regain weight lost as a result of surgery even 2 weeks after infusion; subjects that received PVN infusions of insulin regained their preoperative weights faster than did controls. All of the groups that received insulin significantly increased their daytime food intake during the infusion period and decreased their night food intake slightly; 24-hr food intake remained unchanged. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Microwave dielectric properties of LaMgAl11O19

The suitable choice of a substrate material is one of the aims to be fulfilled in high speed microwave technology. LaMgAl₁₁O₁₉ oxide ceramic material, which belongs to the magnetoplumbite family, has been reported earlier as a potential candidate for such applications. This material has been prepared by conventional solid-state ceramic route. The structure has been studied by X-ray diffraction and characterized at microwave frequencies. The effect of dopant and glass addition on the microwave dielectric properties of this material has also been investigated. LaMgAl₁₁O₁₉ has relatively low dielectric constant (ε_r=14), low dielectric loss or high quality factor (Q_u×f>28,000 GHz at 7 GHz) and small temperature variation of resonant frequency (τ_f=−12 ppm/°C) at room temperature (300 K). These properties make LaMgAl₁₁O₁₉ as a good substrate material and as a dielectric resonator to be used in microwave devices operating at relatively high frequencies.     

Emotional history and pathogenesis of cancer

Emotional history was evaluated in a sample of cancer patients and a sample of noncancer patients who were hospitalized for treatment. An in-depth interview was conducted with each S to identify the frequency, duration, and intensity of each emotion-provoking event that he could remember across his life history. Evaluations of the interview information identified more frequent and intense emotional events in the Ss with cancer than in the controls who did not have cancer.     

Polychlorierte Biphenyle (PCB) in Fischen aus Teichwirtschaften und Nachklärteichen

European Food Research and Technology - Das Muskelgewebe von 58 Fischen aus Teichwirtschaften und 17 Fischen aus Nachklärteichen wurde auf seinen Gehalt an den sechs in der...     

Application of an interferometric phase contrast method to fabricate arbitrary diffractive optical elements

A novel approach for the fabrication of diffractive optical elements is described. This approach is based on an interferometric phase contrast method that transforms a complex object wavefront into an intensity pattern. The resulting intensity pattern is used to expose a photoresist layer on a substrate. After development, a diffractive phase object with an on-axis diffraction pattern is achieved. We show that the interferometric phase contrast method allows a precise control of the resulting intensity pattern. An array of blazed Fresnel lenses is realized in photoresist by using kinoform or detour-phase computer holograms for the interferometric phase contrast setup.     

XPS and Mössbauer studies on BaSn1−xNbxO3 (x ≤ 0.100)

A few compositions of perovskite oxide BaSn_1?xNb_xO₃ (with x ≤ 0.10) system, prepared by solid state ceramic method, have been studied employing XPS and Mössbauer spectroscopy techniques. Mössbauer spectra of these compositions in the temperature range of 78–300 K reveal that the oxidation state of Sn is +4. In XPS measurements, compositions with x ≤ 0.010 show no evidence of Nb⁵⁺ signal whereas the compositions with x ≥ 0.050 show clear evidence of Nb⁵⁺ signals indicating some unreacted Nb₂O₅ component in the system. This confirms the earlier report where presence of small amount of unreacted Nb₂O₅ was predicted.     

The effect of opinion clustering on disease outbreaks

Many high-income countries currently experience large outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles despite the availability of highly effective vaccines. This phenomenon lacks an explanation in countries where vaccination rates are rising on an already high level. Here, we build on the growing evidence that belief systems, rather than access to vaccines, are the primary barrier to vaccination in high-income countries, and show how a simple opinion formation process can lead to clusters of unvaccinated individuals, leading to a dramatic increase in disease outbreak probability. In particular, the effect of clustering on outbreak probabilities is strongest when the vaccination coverage is close to the level required to provide herd immunity under the assumption of random mixing. Our results based on computer simulations suggest that the current estimates of vaccination coverage necessary to avoid outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases might be too low.