Small bowel transplantation: current progress and clinical application

Total parenteral nutrition (TPN) is used routinely to maintain patients with the Short Bowel Syndrome (SBS). Until recently, TPN has been the only available therapeutic modality for patients with SBS. Currently, it is the treatment of choice for such individuals and occasionally, when the loss of bowel is extensive, it may be the only way of maintaining life. Unfortunately, TPN is expensive and markedly restrains an individual's lifestyle. Despite the overall success of TPN, the numerous risks associated with its use and the many complications of having an intravenous indwelling for years have served as the stimulus for alternative treatments such as small bowel transplantation (SBT). The first attempts at small bowel transplantation in clinical medicine were by Detterling almost 25 years ago. Patient death or graft loss in these early attempts was caused by the failure to control graft rejection and/or the inability to prevent Graft Versus Host Disease (GVHD). A stimulus for renewed clinical interest in SBT was provided by Starzl et al in 1988 with a report of prolonged graft survival without graft rejection or GVHD in a patient who was the recipient of a multivisceral graft consisting of the entire small bowel and other abdominal organs. Since 1964, 78 Small Bowel transplants have been performed in humans. Several variations of the multivisceral procedure in which the liver and the small bowel constitute the major components of the graft were adopted. The longest survival has been in a child who is still alive with a working graft for more than two years, as reported by Goulet from Paris in 1989. The introduction in SBT of the new immunosuppressive agent FK 506 had provided results which are superior to those achieved with Cyclosporine A (CsA). This latter observation prompted the Pittsburgh group to initiate a large series of isolated and composite intestinal grafts. The remarkable results have demonstrated the clinical utility of intestinal transplantation. This paper will try to summarize the history of the small bowel transplantation until the end of the year 1992, with the current progress in use today.     

6-Phospho-{beta}-galactosidases of Gram-positive and 6-phospho-{beta}-glucosidase B of Gram-negative bacteria: comparison of structure and function by kinetic and immunological methods and mutagenesis of the lacG gene of staphylococcus aureus

The 6-phospho-ß-galactosidase of Staphylococcus aureus,Lactococcus lactis and Lactobacillus casei and 6-phospho-ßglucosidaseB of Escherichia coli build a subfamily inside a greater enzymefamily, named the glycosal hydrolase family 1, which, hi addition,contains nine ß-glycosidases of different origins.Kinetic and immunological evidence is provided in this reportwhich strengthens the relationship of the four 6-phospho-ß-glycosidases.It is shown that the 6-phospho-ß-galactosidases and6-phospho-ß-glucosidase B are able to split aromaticß-galactoside phosphates and ß-glucosidephosphates. The turnover numbers of hydrolysis of substrateswith different epimerization at C-4 of the glycon vary up to15-fold only. Two polydonal antisera, one derived against thenative 6-phospho-ß-galactosidase from S.aureus andthe other derived against the 6-phospho-ß-glucosidaseB, cross-reacted with both enzymes. Peptides of the proteinswere separated by reverse phase HPLC. The cross-reacting peptideswere sequenced and shown to be localized at almost the sameposition in the aligned primary structures of both enzymes.An insertion of nine amino adds near these antigenic domainsis unique for the 6-phospho-ß-glycosidases and missingwithin the sequences of the ß-glycoside-specific membersof the family. The lacG gene of a 6-phospho-ß-galactosidasenegative S.aureus mutant was doned into E.coli and sequenced.In the totally inactive mutant protein only the glycine at position332 was changed to an arginine. This amino acid is part of thesequence insertion near the antigenic domain reacting with bothantisera. These data support the assumption that the regionis of great importance for the function of the enzymes and thatit is possible it determines the specificity of the phosphorylatedform of the substrates. In addition, the 6-phospho-ß-galactosidaseof S.aureus was modified by sitedirected mutagenesis of thecorresponding lacG gene hi order to replace residues Glul60and Glu375, which were suspected of being involved hi the generalacid catalysis of substrate hydrolysis, with glutamine residues.The mutant protein 160EQ retained some catalytic activity whilethe protein 375EQ was totally inactive. Glu375 is the activesite nudeophile of the 6-phospho-ß-galactosidase ofS.aureus. It is located in the sequence motif ENG where Glu358was identified as the catalytkally active nudeophile hi theß-glucosidase of Agrobacterium.     

Comprehensive meta-analysis of integrity test validities: Findings and implications for personnel selection and theories of job performance.

Conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis based on 665 validity coefficients across 576,460 data points to investigate whether integrity test validities are generalizable and to estimate differences in validity due to potential moderating influences. Results indicate that integrity test validities are substantial for predicting job performance and counterproductive behaviors on the job, such as theft, disciplinary problems, and absenteeism. The estimated mean operational predictive validity of integrity test for predicting supervisory ratings of job performance is .41. Results from predictive validity studies conducted on applicants and using external criterion measures (i.e., excluding self-reports) indicate that integrity tests predict the broad criterion of organizationally disruptive behaviors better than they predict employee theft alone. Despite the influence of moderators, integrity test validities are positive across situations and settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is Relevance Relevant? Market,Science, and War: Discourses of Search Engine Quality

In the face of rising controversy about search engine results—that they are too restrictive, too comprehensive, lacking in certain areas, over-represented in others—this article presents the results of in-depth interviews with search engine producers, examining their conceptions of search engine quality and the implications of those conceptions. Structuration theory suggests that the cultural schemas that frame these discourses of quality will be central in mobilizing resources for technological development. The evidence presented here suggests that resources in search engine development are overwhelmingly allocated on the basis of market factors or scientific/technological concerns. Fairness and representativeness, core elements of the journalists' definition of quality media content, are not key determiners of search engine quality in the minds of search engine producers. Rather, alternative standards of quality, such as customer satisfaction and relevance, mean that tactics to silence or promote certain websites or site owners (such as blacklisting, whitelisting, and index "cleaning") are seen as unproblematic.     

From dust till drawn

We present a system for drawing pastel media in real-time as an effective alternative to most existing digital solutions that basically allow for drawing arbitrary strokes in a particular style. Our approach is focused on the simulation of the natural material itself and on its interaction with the drawing surface and the drawing tool. Upon free-form drawing, a bidirectional transfer of pigment takes place. In one direction, the paper surface is dusted with new pigment particles broken off the tip (i.e., the end of the drawing tool). A large part of these particles will be deposited or blended together with previously deposited ones whereas the remainder does not contribute to the drawing and is blown off. On the other hand, a certain amount of previously deposited pigment is scraped off and picked up again soiling the tip. This is noticeable in the next strokes to be drawn. Furthermore, both the tip and the paper surface are subject to weathering depending on the exerted pressure and friction of the drawing tool, and the bumpiness of the paper. As a result, the paper surface becomes slightly damaged, limiting the deposition of new pigment. The tip, on the other hand, becomes blunt making new strokes wider. From a stylistic point of view, similarly to traditional drawings our results convey the artists’ characteristics (e.g., the way of wielding the brush, skillfulness, feeling for the medium). Therefore, we believe that our system allows an artist to create realistically looking pastel images without losing his/her personal touch.     

Six Synthesis Methods for Reversible Logic

The (2 ^w )! reversible transformations on w wires, i.e. reversible logic circuits with w inputs and w outputs, together with the action of cascading, form a group, isomorphic to the symmetric group S ₂ ^w . Therefore, we investigate the group S _n as well as one of its subgroups isomorphic to S _n/2 × S _n/2. We then consider the left cosets, the right cosets, and the double cosets generated by the subgroup. Each element of a coset can function as the representative of the coset. The coset can then be considered as the set of all group elements that differ from the representative by merely multiplying (either to the left or to the right or to both sides) by an arbitrary element of the subgroup. Different choices of the coset space and different choices of the coset representatives lead to six different syntheses for implementing an arbitrary reversible logic operation into hardware. Evaluation of all six methods, by means of three different cost functions (gate cost, switch cost, and quantum cost), leads to a best choice.     

NEDAP-Wahlcomputer – Manipulationsmethoden an Hard- und Software

In Deutschland geh?rt der Einsatz von NEDAP-Wahlcomputern in immer mehr Gemeinden zum Alltag. Durch Untersuchungen zur Sicherheit und Manipulierbarkeit konnten Erkenntnisse gewonnen werden, mit welchen Methoden manipulierte Software in den Wahlcomputer eingebracht und Hardwarekomponenten ausgetauscht werden k?nnen. Dadurch ist erstmals eine Beurteilung der Eignung der NEDAP-Wahlcomputer hinsichtlich der Anforderungen an manipulationsfeste, nachvollziehbare und transparente Wahlen m?glich.     

Impact of Preferential P-Diffusion Along the Grain Boundaries on Fine-Grained Polysilicon Solar Cells

Thin-film polysilicon solar cells are a promising low-cost alternative for bulk silicon solar cells due to their reduced material thickness. Recently, we showed that the use of an amorphous silicon/polycrystalline silicon heterojunction emitter instead of a diffused homojunction emitter led to a boost in the open-circuit voltage by 90 mV. Now, we present a full evidence that shows that this improvement is related to the absence of dopant smearing along the grain boundaries. By using scanning spreading resistance microscopy, we found an enlargement of the junction area by a factor of five in case of a homojunction. The tips of the dopant spikes represent lowly doped areas with an enhanced recombination.     

Interference effects from grammatically unavailable constituents during sentence processing.

Evidence from 3 experiments reveals interference effects from structural relationships that are inconsistent with any grammatical parse of the perceived input. Processing disruption was observed when items occurring between a head and a dependent overlapped with either (or both) syntactic or semantic features of the dependent. Effects of syntactic interference occur in the earliest online measures in the region where the retrieval of a long-distance dependent occurs. Semantic interference effects occur in later online measures at the end of the sentence. Both effects endure in offline comprehension measures, suggesting that interfering items participate in incorrect interpretations that resist reanalysis. The data are discussed in terms of a cue-based retrieval account of parsing, which reconciles the fact that the parser must violate the grammar in order for these interference effects to occur. Broader implications of this research indicate a need for a precise specification of the interface between the parsing mechanism and the memory system that supports language comprehension. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Energy-efficient penetration and perforation of targets in the hypervelocity regime

In general, the performance of a KE penetrator against most targets increases with velocity regardless of the particular penetrator-target interaction mode. It is possible to show that there exists an optimum velocity which maximizes the performance of an impacting penetrator for a given expenditure of kinetic energy. Simple graphical methods are described that determine the optimum velocity from general performance-velocity plots. These graphical methods may also be applied to experimental data alone. In addition, simple analytic models which describe the velocity dependent penetration/perforation performance of KE penetrators are examined and extended. These models may be used to explicitly assess the influence of parameters such as target strength and density and penetrator mass, strength and density. For some of the models in this analysis, the explicit relations between the optimum striking velocity for a specific kinetic energy value and the penetrator-target parameters are described.