Spatial learning based on the shape of the environment is influenced by properties of the objects forming the shape.

In 3 experiments rats had to find a submerged platform that was located in a corner of a kite-shaped pool. The color of the walls creating this corner provided an additional cue for finding the platform in the shape + color condition but not the shape-only condition. During tests in a pool with walls of a uniform color but no platform, more time was spent in the corner where the platform was originally located after training in the shape + color than in the shape-only condition. The results challenge theories that assume either that learning about the shape of the environment takes place in a dedicated module or that cues compete for the control they acquire over behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of heat shock on cell volume regulation: protection from hypertonic challenge in a human monocyte cell line

Heat shock response provides cells with higher tolerance against a variety of insults such as heavy metals, reperfusion injury, and endotoxin. In addition, heat treatment is known to affect ion transport mechanisms associated with vital cellular processes, including cell volume regulation. However, there has been no reports to date of a heat shock effect on cellular volume regulation itself. The aim of our study was to investigate whether the heat shock response influences volume regulation of cells. Human promonocytic U937 cells display an increase in volume in response to osmotic shrinkage. This regulatory volume increase (RVI) is mediated mainly by ion antiporters. U937 cells exposed to a temperature of 45 degrees C for 10 min (heat shock) show an enhancement of RVI after hypertonic challenge compared with untreated cells. Also, heat-treated cells display a lower intracellular pH (pHi) than untreated cells; similar control mechanisms are believed to be involved in regulating both pHi and RVI. In agreement with this, heat-shocked cells demonstrated increased activity of an HCO3(-)-independent/DIDS-sensitive pHi down-regulator, postulated to be a Cl-/HCO3- exchange. We suggest that heat shock-mediated RVI enhancement is at least partially mediated by an increased Cl-/HCO3- exchange. Our results indicate that heat shock of U937 cells activates a hitherto unknown cytoprotective effect that may help cells to overcome hypertonic challenge.     

Simultaneous laparoscopic therapy of cholecysto- and choledocholithiasis. An analysis of results

INTRODUCTION: With the advent of laparoscopic cholecystectomy, ERCP has gained importance in the treatment of choledocholithiasis. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy with intraoperative cholangiography and common bile duct surgery allows diagnosis and treatment of cholecystolithiasis and choledocholithiasis in a single procedure. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Laparoscopic treatment of choledocholithiasis was evaluated in 99 consecutive patients with choledocholithiasis. 28 patients underwent successful preoperative ERCP. Of the patients with intraoperative confirmation of choledocholithiasis, removal was attempted by a transcystic approach in 36 and 23 underwent choledochotomy. 24 patients with a high operative risk underwent postoperative ERCP. RESULTS: The transcystic approach was successful in 72.2%. Choledochotomy was successful in 91.3%, yielding a combined success rate of 80%, 3.4% had local complications and 8.4% had other complications (complication rate 11.8%), 20.3% of the patients underwent ERCP after failed laparoscopic procedures. One patient had a laparoscopic redo. There was no mortality and no conversion to open surgery. CONCLUSION: ERCP and laparoscopic common bile duct surgery are complementary, efficient and safe modalities of treatment for choledocholithiasis. Choice of procedure is influenced by the surgeon's experience and institutional infrastructure, and the individual patient.     

Potentiation, overshadowing, and blocking of spatial learning based on the shape of the environment.

Rats were trained in Experiment 1 to find a submerged platform in 1 corner of either a rectangular or a kite-shaped pool. When the walls creating this corner were a different color than the opposite walls, then learning about the shape of the pool was potentiated in the kite but not in the rectangle. Experiments 2-4 revealed that learning about the rectangle can be overshadowed and blocked when information about the wall color indicates the location of the platform. The results mimic findings that have been obtained with Pavlovian conditioning, and they challenge the claim that learning about the shape of the environment takes places in a dedicated geometric module. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Positive and negative hedonic contrast with musical stimuli.

Stimuli are evaluated less positively if they follow good stimuli than otherwise; stimuli are evaluated more positively if they follow bad stimuli than otherwise. These phenomena, positive and negative hedonic contrast, have been demonstrated with a variety of stimuli but never with music. No single studies have induced both kinds of contrast by pitting better against less good stimuli. In the present study, 32 subjects heard good musical selections before bad ones or bad selections before good ones. Their evaluations of those stimuli exhibited both positive and negative hedonic contrast. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Britton and bernstein on vygotsky: divergent views on mind and language in the pedagogic context

In recent influential work in language and social cognition relevant to pedagogical contexts, references to Basil Bernstein's work are notably absent, despite renewed recognition of the significance of his continued contribution to theories of classroom practices, sociolinguistics and the sociology of education. This article discusses several historical and ideological factors that have contributed to this lacuna. It reconsiders the organisation of the intellectual field of English education in Britain during the 1970s within which Bernstein's theorising about language took place. Within that field, it pays particular attention to the divergent readings of Vygotsky by James Britton and Bernstein with respect to power and the discursive regulation of 'legitimate' meanings in the pedagogic context. Finally, it considers the relevance in the post-Vygotskian field of social cognition of Bernstein's early attention to the relationship between social/institutional factors and individual functioning.     

Pretreatment social relations, therapeutic alliance, and improvements in parenting practices in parent management training.

The authors examined the parent-therapist alliance in parent management training for children (N = 218; 53 girls and 165 boys, ages 2-14) referred clinically for oppositional, aggressive, and antisocial behavior. The interrelations of pretreatment parent social relationships, the parent-therapist alliance over the course of treatment, and improvements in parenting practices at the end of treatment were evaluated by different raters. As expected, the better the quality of the parent-therapist alliance, the greater the improvements in parenting practices by the end of treatment. Social relations of the parents prior to treatment were associated with the parent-therapist alliance during treatment and parental improvements at the end of treatment. The relation between the therapeutic alliance and improvement in parenting practices was partially explained by pretreatment parent social relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in histamine and microbiological analyses in fresh and frozen tuna muscle during temperature abuse

Temperature abuse of tuna (Thunnus alalunga) was carried out in order to assess the histamine buildup in fish-processing facilities where fish can be exposed to high temperatures for short periods of time. Histamine production was studied in tuna loins under different storage and abuse conditions. Tuna was stored at 0-2°C, 3-4°C, and 6-7°C, and abused for 2 h daily at 20°C and 30°C for 7-12 days. Loins abused at 30°C for 2 h daily contained potentially toxic histamine concentrations (67-382 mg kg^-1) when stored at a low refrigeration temperature (0-2°C), whereas when stored at 6-7°C, the loins contained highly toxic histamine concentrations (544.5-4156.6 mg kg^-1). Lower histamine concentrations (23-48 mg kg^-1 in loins stored at 0-2°C and 124.7-2435.8 mg kg^-1 in loins stored at 6-7°C) were observed in temperature-abused loins that were initially frozen. An increase over time was observed in most microbial counts tested. Bacteria isolated from the temperature-abused loins showed a varied ability of histamine production, with Morganella morganii, Klebsiella oxytoca, Staphylococcus hominis, and Enterococcus hirae being the most active histamine-producing bacteria.     

Determination of activation barriers for the diffusion of sodium through CIGS thin‐film solar cells

We have determined the activation energies of sodium diffusion from the soda‐lime glass substrate through the Mo back‐contact layer, as well as through copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) deposited on the Mo back‐contact layer of CIGS thin‐film solar cells. The activation energies were determined by X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to measure surface sodium concentrations before and after thermally induced diffusion. The activation energies were found to be similar for the diffusion of Na through the Mo/glass and CIGS/Mo/glass thin films, approximately 8·6 and 9·6 kcal/mol, respectively. Furthermore, the sodium diffusion was found to occur by annealing in an environment of 1·0×10⁻⁵ Torr of air, oxygen, or water vapor, but not in vacuum of less than 1×10⁻⁸ Torr. In addition, the diffusion of Na was found to occur faster in the presence of oxygen than in water under identical annealing conditions. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Short-chain fatty acid analysis—A comparison between two gas-chromatography methods

The compositions of a number of known mixtures of volatile fatty acids in aqueous solution and of volatile fatty acids in samples of rumen liquor were estimated by two gas-liquid chromatographic procedures, one of which operated in conjunction with an automatic titrating device and the other with a flame-ionisation detector. It was found that the method using flame-ionisation as the system of detection was more accurate and yielded results more rapidly than did that in which automatic titration was employed.