Life stress and lymphocyte alterations among patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Studied the relation between life stress and immune parameters for 33 30–70 yr old female rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients interviewed during 3 routine monthly clinic checkups. Life stress from major and minor events, coping efficacy, and self-reported psychological distress were assessed, and immunofluorescence of T-cells and B-cells was performed on the blood drawn during each visit. Small stressful events were positively related to the proportion of circulating B-cells, psychological distress was inversely related to proportion of circulating T-cells, and major life events were associated with lower T-helper/T-suppressor cell ratios. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parallel constrained coding with application to two-dimensionalconstraints

A parallel constrained coding scheme is considered where p-blocks of raw data are encoded simultaneously into q tracks such that the contents of each track belong to a given constraint S. It is shown that as q increases, there are parallel block-decodable encoders for S whose coding ratio p/q converges to the capacity of S. Examples are provided where parallel coding allows block-decodable encoders, while conventional coding, at the same rate, does not. Parallel encoders are then applied as building blocks in the construction of block-decodable encoders for certain families of two-dimensional constraints     

Empirical efficiency and volume relationships for HPGe detectors

We have extended the empirical work of Vano et al.[1] relating the slope of the detector efficiency curve to the active volume for Ge detectors. The analysis was carried out using Monte Carlo techniques and covered a wide range of incident energies (200 keV-20 MeV) and active volumes (19.6 cm³–396 cm³). It is shown that the expression of Vano et al.[1] is only valid over the energy range 200 keV-3 MeV for active volumes <50 cm³. The upper bound decreases to 2 MeV for volumes of a few hundred cm³. The usable energy range can, however, be extended to 6 MeV by introducing higher order terms into the polynomial. Above this energy, the shape of the efficiency curve is better described by a non-linear function since linear forms fail simultaneously to fit large active volumes and high energies. We therefore propose a composite function which reduces to the form given in Vano et al. in the low energy/active volume limit. By comparison with the Monte Carlo results, it is estimated that relative efficiencies can be calculated to within 6% over the energy range 200 keV-20 MeV and active volumes 20 cm³–400 cm³. Since the largest errors occur for the smallest volumes, we recommend that for energies <3 MeV a two-fold approach be followed, i.e. using the expression of Vano et al.[1] for active volumes less than 50 cm³ and the proposed non-linear form for larger volumes. For high energy work (E > 3 MeV), we advocate the non-linear form. In this way, average errors can be kept 3%. Finally, we point out that the real power of the expression of Vano et al. lies not in predicting efficiencies, but active volumes.     

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Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Probabilistic crisscross error correction

The crisscross error model in data arrays is considered, where the corrupted symbols are confined to a prescribed number of rows or columns (or both). Under the additional assumption that the corrupted entries are uniformly distributed over the channel alphabet, and by allowing a small decoding error probability, a coding scheme is presented where the redundancy can get close to one half the redundancy required in minimum-distance decoding of crisscross errors     

Dominant negative alleles of SEC10 reveal distinct domains involved in secretion and morphogenesis in yeast

The accurate targeting of secretory vesicles to distinct sites on the plasma membrane is necessary to achieve polarized growth and to establish specialized domains at the surface of eukaryotic cells. Members of a protein complex required for exocytosis, the exocyst, have been localized to regions of active secretion in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae where they may function to specify sites on the plasma membrane for vesicle docking and fusion. In this study we have addressed the function of one member of the exocyst complex, Sec10p. We have identified two functional domains of Sec10p that act in a dominant-negative manner to inhibit cell growth upon overexpression. Phenotypic and biochemical analysis of the dominant-negative mutants points to a bifunctional role for Sec10p. One domain, consisting of the amino-terminal two-thirds of Sec10p directly interacts with Sec15p, another exocyst component. Overexpression of this domain displaces the full-length Sec10 from the exocyst complex, resulting in a block in exocytosis and an accumulation of secretory vesicles. The carboxy-terminal domain of Sec10p does not interact with other members of the exocyst complex and expression of this domain does not cause a secretory defect. Rather, this mutant results in the formation of elongated cells, suggesting that the second domain of Sec10p is required for morphogenesis, perhaps regulating the reorientation of the secretory pathway from the tip of the emerging daughter cell toward the mother-daughter connection during cell cycle progression.     

Surgical therapy of dens fracture

The use of Anderson/D'Alonso or Aebi/Nazarian classification of dens fractures is the basis for exact selection of therapy. The ventral screw-fixation of Anderson type-II-Fracture is today the common standard of treatment, especially in the elderly. The stabilisation of the fracture with maintenance of atlanto-axial rotation-function, the minimal rate of pseudarthrosis compared with conservative therapy, the minimal operation trauma and the immediate mobilisation with high patient comfort are decisive benefits of this method. Reposition of the fracture, visualisation in two planes and the use of adequate instruments are important conditions to get optimal operation results. In-vitro-experiments have shown that there is no difference of stability in one- or two-screw-technique. Flexion injuries with oblique fracture plane, insufficient stability after anterior screw fixation and typ-III-fractures are indications for dorsal, atlanto-axial screw fixation. The conservative treatment(HALO-vest) is recommended only in otherwise inoperable patients.     

Computability of Countable Subshifts in One Dimension

We investigate the computability of countable subshifts in one dimension, and their members. Subshifts of Cantor?CBendixson rank two contain only eventually periodic elements. Any rank two subshift in 2^? is decidable. Subshifts of rank three may contain members of arbitrary Turing degree. In contrast, effectively closed ( $\Pi^{0}_{1}$ ) subshifts of rank three contain only computable elements, but $\Pi^{0}_{1}$ subshifts of rank four may contain members of arbitrary $\Delta^{0}_{2}$ degree. There is no subshift of rank ??+1.