Review of The Transmission of Schizophrenia.

Reviews the book, The Transmission of Schizophrenia by David Rosenthal and Seymour Kety (eds.) (1968). It is probably safe to say that this hard cover version of the proceedings of the Second Research Conference of the Foundations' Fund for Research in Psychiatry, Dorado, Puerto Rico, June-July 1967 (originally published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research) is the best introduction to the problem of the schizophrenias extant. It reports the contributions of 34 of the leading experts in the field and succinctly yet thoroughly deals with the genetic, social, cultural, interpersonal and interactional points of view. The reviewer found this to be one of the most stimulating books he has read in recent years. It should be in every university library and could be usefully used as a text in graduate courses dealing with behavior disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Rorschach with Children.

Reviews the book, Rorschach with Children by Jessie Francis-Williams (1968). Those who have worked with Lady Francis-Williams know her to be an extremely skillful clinician who, in practice, very carefully uses a battery of tests, selected for the particular case, and who weighs the evidence judiciously before making evaluative statements. Therefore, it is with regret that one finds that the present book does not measure up to the standards set by the author in her daily work. More specifically, as is so often the case, nowadays, the chapters bear little relation one to another. It seems, also, that the book reveals contradictory aims. In all, the book is a compilation of mainly useful and interesting case studies (organic, psychotic, deprivation and learning disability syndromes) rounded out by a very good chapter on the use of a test battery in a longitudinal study (Ch. 10) and some very sketchy theoretical and methodological chapters. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Use of infrared spectroscopy for the determination of electronegativity of rare earth elements

Infrared spectroscopy has been used to study a series of synthetic agardite minerals. Four OH stretching bands are observed at around 3568, 3482, 3362, and 3296 cm(-1). The first band is assigned to zeolitic, non-hydrogen-bonded water. The band at 3296 cm(-1) is assigned to strongly hydrogen-bonded water with an H bond distance of 2.72 A. The water in agardites is better described as structured water and not as zeolitic water. Two bands at around 999 and 975 cm(-1) are assigned to OH deformation modes. Two sets of AsO symmetric stretching vibrations were found and assigned to the vibrational modes of AsO(4) and HAsO(4) units. Linear relationships between positions of infrared bands associated with bonding to the OH units and the electronegativity of the rare earth elements were derived, with correlation coefficients >0.92. These linear functions were then used to calculate the electronegativity of Eu, for which a value of 1.1808 on the Pauling scale was found.     

Molecular modeling of sigma 1 receptor ligands: a model of binding conformational and electrostatic considerations

We have performed molecular modeling studies on several sigma 1 specific ligands, including PD144418, spipethiane, haloperidol, pentazocine, and others to develop a pharmacophore for sigma 1 receptor-ligand binding, under the assumption that all the compounds interact at the same receptor binding site. The modeling studies have investigated the conformational and electrostatic properties of the ligands. Superposition of active molecules gave the coordinates of the hypothetical 5-point sigma 1 pharmacophore, as follows: R1 (0.85, 7.26, 0.30); R2 (5.47, 2.40, -1.51); R3 (-2.57, 4.82, -7.10); N (-0.71, 3.29, -6.40); carbon centroid (3.16, 4.83, -0.60), where R1, R2 were constructed onto the aromatic ring of each compound to represent hydrophobic interactions with the receptor; and R3 represents a hydrogen bond between the nitrogen atom and the receptor. Additional analyses were used to describe secondary binding sites to electronegative groups such as oxygen or sulfur atom. Those coordinates are (2.34, 5.08, -4.18). The model was verified by fitting other sigma 1 receptor ligands. This model may be used to search conformational databases for other possibly active ligands. In conjunction with rational drug design techniques the model may be useful in design and synthesis of novel sigma 1 ligands of high selectivity and potency. Calculations were performed using Sybyl 6.5.     

Ultra‐precision Surface Finishing by Ion Beam Techniques

Ion beam etching based ultra precision surface finishing is a versatile technology with a high degree of predictability due to the high stability of state of the art ion sources and the acquired knowledge of the physics of beam surface interaction. The independent control of the ion energy and the ion current density over wide ranges and the possible additional use of chemical reactive species in combination with physical sputter removal allow solving tasks in a wide variety of applications. The paper summarizes the present status of more than 20 years of development of ion beam finishing technology in IOM. It gives an overview on the equipment and the components developed for production purposes and on the ion beam technologies developed to achieve nanometer and sub‐nanometer depth accuracies over the entire spectrum of spatial surface wavelength from the full aperture size down to the microroughness level of only micrometer lateral feature size. Results of the finishing of high‐end optical surfaces shown demonstrate the outstanding performances of the techniques with topography and roughness control on the atomic scale.     

The yin-yang driving urinary tract infection and how proteomics can enhance research,diagnostics, and treatment

Bacterial urinary tract infections (UTIs) afflict millions of people worldwide both in the community and the hospital setting. The onset, duration, and severity of infection depend on the characteristics of the invading pathogen (yin), as well as the immune response elicited by the infected individual (yang). Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) account for the majority of UTIs, and extensive investigations by many scientific groups have elucidated an elaborate pathogenic UPEC life cycle, involving the occupation of extracellular and intracellular niches and the expression of an arsenal of virulence factors that facilitate niche occupation. This review will summarize the current knowledge on UPEC pathogenesis; the host immune responses elicited to combat infection; and it will describe proteomics approaches used to understand UPEC pathogenesis, as well as drive diagnostics and treatment options. Finally, new strategies are highlighted that could be applied toward furthering our knowledge regarding host-bacterial interactions during UTI.