Homopolymer Nanolithography

Future progress in nanoscience and nanotechnology necessitates further development of versatile, labor‐, and cost‐efficient surface patterning strategies. A new approach to nanopatterning is reported, which utilizes surface segregation of a smooth layer of an end‐grafted homopolymer in a poor solvent. The variation in polymer grafting density yields a range of surface nanostructures, including randomly organized pinned spherical micelles, worm‐like structures, networks, and porous films. The capability to use the polymer patterns for site‐specific deposition of small molecules, polymers, or nanoparticles is shown. This versatile strategy enables patterning of curved surfaces with direct access to the substrate and no need in changing polymer composition to realize different surface patterns.     

Virtual planning in patients with frontal lobe lesions

The VIrtual Planning Test (VIP) was developed to investigate the planning and organisational abilities of 25 patients with frontal lobe neurosurgical lesions, comparing their performance with 25 matched control subjects. The task, presented in the form of a board game, simulates planning and execution of a set of target activities that have to take place over a four day period, involving those that are either preparatory for a fictional "trip" abroad, or those that relate to the subject's current environment (context). The frontal lobe patients were impaired overall, tending to select inappropriate activities associated with their current context and showing greater impairment on subtasks requiring only one, rather than two, preparatory acts. The findings are discussed in terms of the validity of the VIP test in identifying executive functioning impairment and the degree to which the pattern of deficits are consistent with neuropsychological models of executive function.     

The impact of employment and serious illness on grandmothers who are raising their grandchildren

Increasing numbers of children are living in families consisting of grandparents and grandchildren. This paper presents findings of a study in which 123 caregiving grandmothers were interviewed. Fifty-eight percent of these grandmothers were "career caregivers," whose homes were always filled with a child or grandchild. Most of them were in good to excellent physical health and their mental health was at least as good as that of a national sample. Regression analyses found that having a life-threatening physical condition, being younger and white explained psychological anxiety; and having a life-threatening physical condition and not being employed explained psychophysiological mental health symptoms. These findings suggest that some grandmothers are at risk for mental health symptoms and raise questions about the implications of caregiving of grandchildren for women.     

NK cells can recognize different forms of class I MHC

NK recognition and lysis of targets are mediated by activation receptor(s) whose effects may be over-ridden by inhibitory receptors recognizing class I MHC on the target. Incubation of normal lymphoblasts with a peptide that can bind to their class I MHC renders them sensitive to lysis by syngeneic NK cells. By binding to class I MHC, the peptide alters or masks the target structure recognized by an inhibitory NK receptor(s). This target structure is most likely an "empty" dimer of class I heavy chain and beta2m as opposed to a "full" class I trimer formed by binding of specific peptide that is recognized by CTL.     

Multidimensionality of oral health in dentate adults

OBJECTIVES: An understanding of the validity and usefulness of self-reported measures (as distinct from clinically determined measures) of oral health is emerging. These self-reported measures include self-rated oral health (SROH). Three objectives were to: (1) describe self-rated oral health in dentate adults, (2) quantify associations between self-rated oral health and other measures of oral health (oral disease and tissue damage, pain and discomfort, functional limitation, and disadvantage), and (3) assess the construct validity of a model of oral health proposed herein. METHODS: The Florida Dental Care Study is a longitudinal study of oral health, which included at baseline 873 subjects who had at least one tooth, were 45 years or older, and who participated for an interview and clinical examination. RESULTS: The prevalence of self-rated oral health decrements was substantial; approximately one fourth of subjects reported their oral health as only fair or poor. Bivariate and multivariate results provided consistent evidence of the construct validity of the proposed model of oral health. Additionally, the salience of one measure of dental appearance suggests that persons may use esthetic cues when rating their oral health. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed multidimensional model of oral health has construct validity. Self-rated oral health is affected by oral disease and tissue damage, oral pain and discomfort, oral functional limitation, and oral disadvantage. These self-reported measures and the proposed model should provide useful information for dental care effectiveness research. General health status has been disaggregated into the "physical" and the "mental;" an additional separation into the "oral" aspects of health seems warranted.     

Anterior cervical corpectomy for cervical spondylotic myelopathy

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of anterior surgery for the treatment of cervical spondylotic myelopathy, we have reviewed our experience with anterior cervical corpectomy (ACC) at the University of Florida, specifically analyzing neurological outcomes and complications. These results have been compared with historical control subjects receiving laminectomy or "no treatment." METHODS: Between 1982 and 1992, 93 ACC operations were performed for the primary diagnosis of cervical spondylotic myelopathy. This consecutive series of patients was reviewed retrospectively. Age, gender, pre- and postoperative myelopathy severity, number of levels decompressed, and neurological complications were assessed. Myelopathy severity was graded using the Nurick myelopathy grading system. The average follow-up period was 39 months (range, 2-137 mo). RESULTS: Symptomatic improvement was achieved for 92% of patients (F = 28.9, df = 2172, P < 0.001). Nurick scores reflected improvement for 86% of patients, with the conditions of 13% remaining unchanged and only one patient showing worsening. Preoperative myelopathy severity was weakly correlated with age (P < 0.05) but was not correlated with gender or number of levels decompressed. Similarly, postoperative myelopathy severity was not significantly correlated with age, gender, preoperative myelopathy severity, or number of levels decompressed. ACC-treated patients showed an average improvement of 1.24 points on the Nurick scale, compared with an improvement of 0.07 points for patients treated with laminectomy (P < 0.001) and a deterioration of 0.23 points for patients undergoing conservative treatment (P < 0.001). Complications were slightly more likely to occur in older patients (P < 0.05). The number of levels decompressed was not significantly correlated with complications. Only one permanent neurological complication was seen in this series of patients. CONCLUSION: We conclude that ACC is a safe and effective treatment for cervical spondylotic myelopathy. In an average of 39 months, ACC showed improved results in terms of myelopathy scores, compared with historical control subjects receiving either no treatment or laminectomy. Age, gender, preoperative myelopathy severity, and extent of disease were not negative predictors of clinical outcomes.     

Relationship between donor age and the replicative lifespan of human cells in culture: a reevaluation

Normal human diploid fibroblasts have a finite replicative lifespan in vitro, which has been postulated to be a cellular manifestation of aging in vivo. Several studies have shown an inverse relationship between donor age and fibroblast culture replicative lifespan; however, in all cases, the correlation was weak, and, with few exceptions, the health status of the donors was unknown. We have determined the replicative lifespans of 124 skin fibroblast cell lines established from donors of different ages as part of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. All of the donors were medically examined and were declared "healthy," according to Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging protocols, at the time the biopsies were taken. Both long- and short-lived cell lines were observed in all age groups, but no significant correlation between the proliferative potential of the cell lines and donor age was found. A comparison of multiple cell lines established from the same donors at different ages also failed to reveal any significant trends between proliferative potential and donor age. The rate of [3H]thymidine incorporation and the initial rates of growth during the first few subcultivations were examined in a subset of cell lines and were found to be significantly greater in fetal lines than in postnatal lines. Cell lines established from adults did not vary significantly either in initial growth rate or in [3H]thymidine incorporation. These results clearly indicate that, if health status and biopsy conditions are controlled, the replicative lifespan of fibroblasts in culture does not correlate with donor age.     

Birefringent properties of diametrically loaded gradient-index lenses

Gradient-index (GRIN) lenses have been widely used as collimators in various fiber-optic sensors and as optical coupling devices in components designed for optical communication systems. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the birefringent properties of GRIN lenses and the potential for using them as photoelastic sensing elements in optical transducers. Analytical and experimental results are described that were obtained for the intensity distribution produced by studying a GRIN lens by using a polariscope. The residual birefringence inherent in an unloaded lens is initially studied. The lens is then assumed to be diametrically loaded and the superposition is studied by the method of ray tracing. When the results obtained from the simulation for a Selfoc, 0.25-pitch lens are compared with experimental data, an excellent agreement is obtained. Intensity increases monotonically with load, confirming that the lens would be a good choice for the sensing element of an optical transducer designed as part of a strain or acceleration measurement system. The numerical simulation is then used to study the influence of residual stress on sensitivity.     

Rambo: a robust, reconfigurable atomic memory service for dynamic networks

In this paper, we present Rambo, an algorithm for emulating a read/write distributed shared memory in a dynamic, rapidly changing environment. Rambo provides a highly reliable, highly available service, even as participants join, leave, and fail. In fact, the entire set of participants may change during an execution, as the initial devices depart and are replaced by a new set of devices. Even so, Rambo ensures that data stored in the distributed shared memory remains available and consistent. There are two basic techniques used by Rambo to tolerate dynamic changes. Over short intervals of time, replication suffices to provide fault-tolerance. While some devices may fail and leave, the data remains available at other replicas. Over longer intervals of time, Rambo copes with changing participants via reconfiguration, which incorporates newly joined devices while excluding devices that have departed or failed. The main novelty of Rambo lies in the combination of an efficient reconfiguration mechanism with a quorum-based replication strategy for read/write shared memory. The Rambo algorithm can tolerate a wide variety of aberrant behavior, including lost and delayed messages, participants with unsynchronized clocks, and, more generally, arbitrary asynchrony. Despite such behavior, Rambo guarantees that its data is stored consistency. We analyze the performance of Rambo during periods when the system is relatively well-behaved: messages are delivered in a timely fashion, reconfiguration is not too frequent, etc. We show that in these circumstances, read and write operations are efficient, completing in at most eight message delays.     

A branch-and-cut algorithm for the minimum labeling Hamiltonian cycle problem and two variants

This paper proposes a mathematical model, valid inequalities and polyhedral results for the minimum labeling Hamiltonian cycle problem. This problem is defined on an unweighted graph in which each edge has a label. The aim is to determine a Hamiltonian cycle with the least number of labels. We also define two variants of this problem by assigning weights to the edges and by considering the tour length either as an objective or as a constraint. A branch-and-cut algorithm for the three problems is developed, and computational results are reported on randomly generated instances and on modified instances from TSPLIB.