Ceric-induced grafting of ethyl-acrylate onto sodium alginate

Sodium alginate was graft-copolymerized with ethyl acrylate using ceric ammonium nitrate as an initiator. In order to optimize the conditions for grafting, the concentrations of nitric acid, initiator and monomer together with temperature, time and amount of substrate were varied. The kinetic scheme of free radical graft copolymerization has been proposed and the equations relating the values of rate of polymerization, rate of graft copolymerization and rate of homopolymerization are also suggested. The experimental results agree very well with the proposed kinetic scheme.     

Mutual information based registration of multimodal stereo videos for person tracking

Research presented in this paper deals with the systematic examination, development, and evaluation of a novel multimodal registration approach that can perform accurately and robustly for relatively close range surveillance applications. An analysis of multimodal image registration gives insight into the limitations of assumptions made in current approaches and motivates the methodology of the developed algorithm. Using calibrated stereo imagery, we employ maximization of mutual information in sliding correspondence windows that inform a disparity voting algorithm to demonstrate successful registration of objects in color and thermal imagery. Extensive evaluation of scenes with multiple objects at different depths and levels of occlusion shows high rates of successful registration. Ground truth experiments demonstrate the utility of the disparity voting techniques for multimodal registration by yielding qualitative and quantitative results that outperform approaches that do not consider occlusions. A basic framework for multimodal stereo tracking is investigated and promising experimental studies show the viability of using registration disparity estimates as a tracking feature.     

Calcium-activated neutral protease activity is decreased in PC12 cells after ethanol exposure

Calcium-activated neutral protease activity was determined in PC12 cells exposed to ethanol for 96 h using a fluorescence-based assay with N-succinyl-Leu-Tyr 7-amido-4-methylcoumarin as the substrate. Stimulated activity was measured at high (1,400 microM) or low (140 microM) Ca2+ concentrations in the presence of 20 microM ionomycin. Kinetic parameters were derived by fitting a model relating fluorescence intensity to time: F(t) = F(final)*(1 - e(-k(obs)t). Cell extracts were subjected to nondenaturing gel electrophoresis and casein zymography with quantification of the activity of the two calpain isoforms. Exposure to ethanol significantly decreased whole cell calpain activity measured by k(obs) beginning at 20 mM, to 27.8% of control at 1,400 microM Ca2+ and 29.2% of control at 140 microM Ca2+ in the presence of 20 microM ionomycin. No changes in mu-calpain or m-calpain activities were found in cell extracts from cells exposed to 20 mM ethanol, whereas at 40 and 80 mM ethanol, significant decreases in both mu-calpain and m-calpain activities were discovered.     

Aorto-left atrial fistula in prosthetic aortic endocarditis

Aortic valve endocarditis commonly leads to the formation of a root abscess, but fistulae are uncommon. The echocardiographic findings in a patient with Streptococcus viridans endocarditis of a prosthetic aortic valve associated with a fistula between the aorta and the left atrium are presented. The diagnosis was made by transthoracic echocardiography, although the transesophageal study gave higher resolution views and allowed a more confident exclusion of mitral valve involvement.     

4 beta, 15-Diacetoxyscirpenol induces cytotoxicity and alterations in phagocytic and Fc-receptor expression functions in chicken macrophages in vitro

Teleoperation is frequently performed with misalignments between operator or camera viewing direction and controller orientation. Examples of this occur in endoscopic surgery and in teleoperation with multiple camera views. The objective of this study was to find a method to automatically compensate for those misalignments so that human operators performing tasks under such scenarios could achieve levels of performance comparable to aligned conditions without additional training requirements. In this paper we report on a set of experiments conducted to test a method developed for that purpose. Participants were asked to track a randomly moving target on a computer display using a cursor controlled with a joystick. Performance was recorded under various visual-motor misalignments with and without automated compensation. Results indicated significant improvements in operator performance through use of automatic compensation only under certain types of misalignment. Actual or potential applications of this research include teleoperation and endoscopic surgery.     

Peak expiratory flow rate control chart in asthma care: chart construction and use in asthma care

We have analyzed X-chromosome inactivation patterns in lymphocytes of 264 females from 38 families not known to have any genetic disease. Quantitative measures of X-inactivation showed strong sister-sister correlation in the degree of departure from equal numbers of cells having each X chromosome active, suggesting heritability of this phenotype. Strong sister-sister correlation was also observed for the fraction of cells having the same parent's X chromosome active, consistent with the possibility that this trait might be controlled by a cis-acting, X-linked gene. We used a sib-pair approach to determine whether X-inactivation phenotype was linked to loci in any region of the X chromosome. Both quantitative and discrete measures of X-inactivation phenotype showed evidence of linkage to markers in the region of the X inactivation center (XIC). The quantitative measure of X-inactivation phenotype used in our study also showed linkage to loci at Xq25-q26. This study provides the first evidence for X-linked inheritance of X chromosome inactivation phenotype derived from linkage analysis in phenotypically normal human families.