Guidelines for surgical procedures after liver transplantation

The ability to acquire a motor and cognitive skill was investigated in 26 patients with schizophrenia and 26 normal participants using repeated testing on the Tower of Toronto puzzle. Seven patients with defective performance were retested using additional trials and immediate feedback designed to facilitate problem solving. A component analysis of performance was used based on J. R. Anderson's (1987) model of cognitive skill learning. Patients exhibited a performance deficit on both motor and cognitive skills. However, their acquisition rate was similar to that of normal participants on most parameters, indicating that skill learning suffered little or no impairment. Performance deficit was accounted for by poor problem-solving ability, explicit memory, and general intellectual capacities. It was remediable in some, but not all, patients. Remediation failure was also related to severe defects of cognitive functions.     

Consideration of conformational transitions and racemization during process development of recombinant glucagon-like peptide-1

This article summarizes the results of a combined analysis from two identical multicenter clinical trials that investigated the efficacy and safety of sertraline versus placebo for treating panic disorder. Patients with panic disorder who were treated with sertraline had a statistically significant reduction in the mean number of panic attacks per week (the primary efficacy measure) as compared with placebo (4.8 vs. 2.5, p < .001). Sertraline-treated patients also showed greater improvement that was statistically significant on several ratings of panic disorder symptomatology and functioning. The design characteristics, clinical rating measures, and outcome measures in these trials included most of the features deemed essential by Shear and Maser (1994) in their summary of the NIMH Consensus Conference for the development of standardized assessments for panic disorder. This suggests that the NIMH Consensus Conference played a key role in developing successful multicenter pharmacological treatment studies, such as this one that ultimately demonstrated that sertraline was an effective treatment for panic disorder.     

Rapid, sensitive procedure to determine buspirone levels in rat brains using gas chromatography with nitrogen-phosphorus detection

Reported here is a rapid, sensitive and relatively inexpensive procedure using gas chromatography with nitrogen-phosphorus detection (GC-NPD) to quantify buspirone levels in brains of rats. The analyte was directly extracted from brain homogenate with toluene after basification and then subjected to GC-NPD analysis using a capillary column. The calibration curves were linear over the range of 10 to 320 ng per 2 ml of brain homogenate, with typical r2 values >0.99. The assay was highly reproducible and gave peaks with excellent chromatographic properties.     

Aggressive experience affects the sensitivity of neurons towards pharmacological treatment in the hypothalamic attack area

Early investigators of brain stimulation-evoked complex behaviours (attack, escape, feeding, self-grooming, sexual behaviour) reported that experience may affect the behavioural outcome of brain stimulation. This intriguing example of functional neuronal plasticity was later totally neglected. The present experiment investigated the behavioural outcome of in vivo microdialysis perfusion of the glutamate agonist kainate and/or the GABAA antagonist bicuculline into the hypothalamic attack area (HAA) of (1) animals naive to dyadic encounters; (2) animals with a recent aggressive experience (the probe being implanted 6-24 h after the last of a series of dyadic encounters); and (3) animals with an earlier aggressive experience (probe being implanted 2 weeks after the last aggressive experience). On the experimental day, rats received two 5-min infusions during a dyadic encounter lasting 35 min with an unknown opponent. Flow rate was 1.5-2 microliters/min, drug concentrations were 1.8 x 10(-5) and 1.5 x 10(-5) M for kainate and bicuculline, respectively. Behaviour was analysed before, during and after perfusions. Only the combined kainate + bicuculline treatment had significant effects on behaviour at the doses studied. A significant increase in aggressive behaviour was elicited only in animals with a recent aggressive experience, while naive animals and with an earlier experience responded to the treatments by grooming. These results appear to support early observations indicating that one important aspect of brain stimulation effects is previous experience.     

Comparison of ribosomal DNA length and restriction site polymorphisms in Gremmeniella and Ascocalyx isolates

The small subunit (SSU) and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA genes from 27 specimens of the fungal genera Gremmeniella and Ascocalyx were amplified by PCR. Length polymorphisms were observed in the SSU and allowed the differentiation of four groups among the isolates tested: (i) Ascocalyx abietis; (ii) Gremmeniella isolates from Picea spp.; (iii) Gremmeniella isolates from Abies balsamea; and (iv) Gremmeniella isolates from Abies sacchalinensis, Larix spp., and Pinus spp. The amplified ITS was the same length for all Gremmeniella specimens and was 60 bp longer in A. abietis. Phylogenetic analysis of length polymorphisms and of 24 restriction sites in the SSU and ITS showed that Gremmeniella isolates were more related to each other than to the Ascocalyx isolate. Furthermore, seven groups were evident within the genus Gremmeniella. Our results confirm that Gremmeniella and Ascocalyx should be kept as different taxa and suggest that the taxonomy of the former could be revised to consider isolates from Abies balsamea and from Picea spp. to be two different varieties while incorporating Gremmeniella laricina into G. abietina, as a new variety.     

Improving process models by mining mappings of low-level events to high-level activities

While it is possible to analyze the run-time behavior of a business process through process mining techniques, in practice there is often a gap between the low-level nature of the events recorded in an event log and the high-level of abstraction at which the process is modeled. This makes it difficult to understand the recorded behavior in terms of the high-level activities in the process model. Also, it makes it difficult to improve the model based on run-time data about the process. In this work we present an approach to mine mappings between the events in the log and the activities in the model. These mappings can be used to generate suggestions of how the process model can be extended in order to capture the behavior recorded in the event log. Using a real-world and publicly available event log, we show how the approach can improve the model in a stepwise manner, until it covers all the behavior recorded in the event log.     

Development of ceramic floor tile compositions based on quartzite and granite sludges

In the present work, industrial sludges derived from cutting and polishing natural stones (granite and quartzite) were characterised in terms of particles size distribution, chemical and mineralogical composition, and thermal behaviour and their potential to be incorporated as main components in red-clay-based stoneware tiles was evaluated. High levels (60–70 wt.%) of incorporation were attempted aiming at designing new formulations intended to be less expensive and possess better final properties (lower water absorption and higher flexural strength) in comparison to an industrial reference body used in the production of rustic tiles by extrusion, characterised 8–9% water absorption and a flexural strength of 17–18 MPa. Extruded rods of different formulations were produced and fired at 1100 °C, 1125 °C, 1150 °C and 1200 °C. The experimental results showed that all the new formulations performed better with the most significant improvements being obtained with incorporation of granite sludge. Flexural strength values more than triplicate and water absorption decreased by more than one order of magnitude in comparison to the reference paste. The new products fulfil the requirements of the ISO 13006 standard, group BIa (porcelain tiles).