Matching and mismatching: The effect of own limit, other's toughness, and time pressure on concession rate in negotiation.

Augmented the research design used by H. H. Kelley et al (1967) to examine negotiation about the division of a common reward to include 2 factors expected to interact with bargainer's limit: time pressure and the other bargainer's toughness. Five hypotheses were tested: (1) Concession rate is lower the higher a bargainer's limit; (2) concession rate is greater under high, as opposed to low, time pressure; (3) bargainer toughness is mismatched, that is, the greater the other's initial demand and the slower the other's concessions, the larger will be the S's concessions; (4) concession rate is more influenced by limit level under high, as opposed to low, time pressure; and (5) mismatching of the other's toughness is more pronounced under high time pressure than under low. Ss were 48 female undergraduates. All hypotheses were supported except Hypothesis 3, which received partial support. Ss conceded slowly when the other conceded slowly and rapidly when the other conceded rapidly. A possible explanation for this finding is that matching occurs when it is possible to judge the fairness of the other's offers. When this is possible, bargainers engage in reciprocity. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evolution of malaria in Africa for the past 40 years: impact of climatic and human factors

MOTIVATION: Prediction methods for identifying binding peptides could minimize the number of peptides required to be synthesized and assayed, and thereby facilitate the identification of potential T-cell epitopes. We developed a bioinformatic method for the prediction of peptide binding to MHC class II molecules. RESULTS: Experimental binding data and expert knowledge of anchor positions and binding motifs were combined with an evolutionary algorithm (EA) and an artificial neural network (ANN): binding data extraction --> peptide alignment --> ANN training and classification . This method, termed PERUN, was implemented for the prediction of peptides that bind to HLA-DR4(B1*0401). The respective positive predictive values of PERUN predictions of high-, moderate-, low- and zero-affinity binders were assessed as 0.8, 0.7, 0.5 and 0.8 by cross-validation, and 1.0, 0.8, 0.3 and 0.7 by experimental binding. This illustrates the synergy between experimentation and computer modeling, and its application to the identification of potential immunotherapeutic peptides. AVAILABILITY: Software and data are available from the authors upon request. CONTACT: vladimir@wehi.edu. au     

Li-Fraumeni syndrome in pediatric patients with soft tissue sarcoma or osteosarcoma

Family history of cancer and features of the Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) were investigated in 42 patients with soft tissue sarcoma or osteosarcoma in a pediatric hospital in Mexico City, and compared with 42 non-cancer children. Six subjects with cancer were found among 204 first-degree relatives of cancer patients while there were none among 183 first-degree relatives of non-cancer children. In three families, the proband had two affected relatives, and the type of neoplasia as well as the age of onset suggested the clinical diagnosis of LFS. Our results show that 7.1% of our pediatric patients with soft tissue sarcoma or osteosarcoma may belong to LFS families. The authors encourage pediatric and adult oncologists to pay more attention to the history of cancer in nuclear families for eventual hereditary cancer syndrome identification and cancer prevention.     

Silica waveguide circuits with low polarisation dependencefabricated on silica substrates

Silica waveguide circuits for 1×N and 2×N splitters have been fabricated on silica (quartz glass) substrates. They show very low polarisation dependence and have insertion loss comparable to silica-on-silicon devices     

Microfluidic devices modulate tumor cell line susceptibility to NK cell recognition

This study aims to adoptively reduce the major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I) molecule surface expression of cancer cells by exposure to microfluid shear stress and a monoclonal antibody. A microfluidic system is developed and tumor cells are injected at different flow rates. The bottom surface of the microfluidic system is biofunctionalized with antibodies (W6/32) specific for the MHC-I molecules with a simple method based on microfluidic protocols. The antibodies promote binding between the bottom surface and the MHC-I molecules on the tumor cell membrane. The cells are injected at an optimized flow rate, then roll on the bottom surface and are subjected to shear stress. The stress is localized and enhanced on the part of the membrane where MHC-I proteins are expressed, since they stick to the antibodies of the system. The localized stress allows a stripping effect and consequent reduction of the MHC-I expression. It is shown that it is possible to specifically treat and recover eukaryotic cells without damaging the biological samples. MHC-I molecule expression on treated and control cell surfaces is measured on tumor and healthy cells. After the cell rolling treatment a clear reduction of MHC-I levels on the tumor cell membrane is observed, whereas no changes are observed on healthy cells (monocytes). The MHC-I reduction is investigated and the possibility that the developed system could induce a loss of these molecules from the tumor cell surface is addressed. The percentage of living tumor cells (viability) that remain after the treatment is measured. The changes induced by the microfluidic system are analyzed by fluorescence-activated cell sorting and confocal microscopy. Cytotoxicity tests show a relevant increased susceptibility of natural killer (NK) cells on microchip-treated tumor cells.     

A Lyapunov Proof of an Improved Maximum Allowable Transfer Interval for Networked Control Systems

Simple Lyapunov proofs are given for an improved (relative to previous results that have appeared in the literature) bound on the maximum allowable transfer interval to guarantee global asymptotic or exponential stability in networked control systems and also for semiglobal practical asymptotic stability with respect to the length of the maximum allowable transfer interval     

Colorectal schistosomiasis: report of three cases

The facility for mass movement of segments of our world populations creates the need for physicians to recognize and manage diseases not seen in native patients. Such a need has occurred in New York City, where schistosomiasis, with its protean manifestations has been seen with increasing frequency. The cases of three patients who had different clinical manifestations of infestation by S. mansoni are presented. Clinical, radiologic, and pathologic features are discussed. To avoid delay in treatment, physicians must consider the possibility of this disorder in cases of patients from areas of endemic schistosomiasis.     

Use of parentage testing to determine optimum insemination time and culture media for oocyte transfer in mares

Parentage identification was used to test the developmental competence of oocytes cultured under different conditions and fertilized in vivo after oocyte transfer. Oocytes were collected transvaginally from follicles of estrous mares approximately 22 h after administration of human chorionic gonadotropin. Oocytes were cultured for approximately 16 h in one of three media, with or without addition of hormones and growth factors. Groups of three or four oocytes, cultured in different media, were transferred into the oviduct contralateral to a recipient's own ovulation. Recipients were inseminated with semen from two different stallions at 15 h before and 2.5 h after oocyte transfer. Sixteen days after transfer, embryos were recovered from uteri and submitted for parentage testing. The percentage of oocytes resulting in embryonic vesicles was nearly identical (P >0.05) for transferred oocytes (32/44, 73%) versus ovulated oocytes of recipients (9/13, 69%). More (P <0.01) oocytes were fertilized by sperm inseminated before (35/38, 92%) versus after (3/38, 8%) oocyte transfer. Tissue culture medium (TCM)-199 was superior to equine maturation medium I (EMMI; a SOF-based medium) for culturing oocytes (P <0.05), although addition of hormones and growth factors during culture did not improve (P >0.05) development of embryos.