How is emergent writing based on drawing? Analyses of children's products and their sorting by children and mothers.

Writing and drawing produced by children 28-53 months old were compared. Israeli and Dutch preschoolers were asked to draw and write, to classify their products as drawing and writing, and to decide what they had drawn or written. Israeli and Dutch mothers classified the products. Scores on a scale for writing composed of graphic, "writing-like," and symbolic schemes showed improvement with age. Recognition of drawings as drawings preceded recognition of writings as writings. Scores on writing and drawing were substantially correlated, even with age partialed out, suggesting (a) that when children start drawing objects referentially, they write by drawing "print" and (b) that progress in object drawing involves progress in drawing print, so that their writing becomes more writing-like. Children unable to communicate meaning by writing spontaneously resort to drawing-like devices, indicating the primacy of drawing as a representational-communicative system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Erythema migrans-like rash illness at a camp in North Carolina: a new tick-borne disease?

BACKGROUND: Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease, has never been isolated from a patient thought to have acquired Lyme disease in any southeastern state. OBJECTIVE: To investigate 14 cases of an erythema migrans (EM)-like rash illness that occurred during 2 summers at an outdoor camp in central North Carolina in an effort to determine the etiologic, epidemiological, and clinical aspects of this illness. METHODS: Using active surveillance, we identified cases of clinically diagnosed EM in residents and staff of the camp. We collected clinical and demographic information; history of exposure to ticks; acute and convalescent serum antibodies to B. burgdorferi, Rickettsia rickettsii, and Ehrlichia chaffeensis; and cultures for spirochetes from biopsy specimens of skin lesions. Serum samples from a group of residents and staff who did not develop rashes were tested for the same antibodies. We speciated ticks removed from people and collected from vegetation. RESULTS: We identified 14 cases of EM-like rash illness during the 2 summers. Of the 14 case-patients, 10 had associated mild systemic symptoms and 1 had documented fever. All 14 case-patients had removed attached ticks, and 8 remembered having removed a tick from the site where the rash developed a median of 12 days earlier (range, 2-21 days). One tick removed from the site where a rash later developed was identified as Amblyomma americanum, the Lone Star tick; 97% of ticks collected from vegetation and 95% of ticks removed from people were A. americanum. No spirochetes were isolated from skin biopsy specimens. Paired serum samples from 13 case-patients did not show diagnostic antibody responses to B. burgdorferi or other tick-borne pathogens. CONCLUSIONS: This investigation suggests the existence of a new tick-associated rash illness. We suspect that the disease agent is carried by A. americanum ticks. In the southern United States, EM-like rash illness should no longer be considered definitive evidence of early Lyme disease.     

Two molecular models of initial left-right asymmetry generation

Left-right (LR) asymmetry is a fascinating problem in embryonic morphogenesis. Recently, a pathway of genes has been identified which is involved in LR patterning in vertebrates. Although this work characterizes the interactions of several asymmetrically-expressed genes, it is still entirely unclear how such asymmetric expression is set up in the first place. There are two promising molecular candidates which may play a role is such a process: the motor protein dynein, and the gap junction protein connexin-43 (Cx43). We present two models, significantly supported by previous findings, which hypothesize that (a) dynein asymmetrically localizes LR determinants in individual cells to establish cell-autonomous LR biasing, and (b) asymmetric activity of Cx43 gap junctions within key cells sets up electric potentials in multicellular fields, thus establishing large-scale LR asymmetry.     

Compactness maximum method and complex measurement problems

A methodical approach to solving complex measurement problems is presented with a review of the results of developing and applyinga posteriori prediction systems for the metrological maintenance of test, monitoring, and control hardware and software. Translated from Izmeritel'naya Tekhnika, No. 7, pp. 15–21, July, 1995.     

Treatment of the production waste water of Konstantinovka Refractory Plant

Conclusions The coagulating action of aluminum sulfate and of the combination of it with polyacrylamide on a suspension of chamotte and clay, leading to a significant increase in particle size of the dispersed phase, was investigated.The presence of a threshold value of the addition of coagulant as an important production parameter determining the unstable suspension type sedimentation of particles was shown.To disturb the stability of the systems and to accelerate the clarification process of waste waters contaminated with chamotte and clay the necessary additions of reagents are 25–50 mg/liter of aluminum sulfate and 5 mg/liter of polyacrylamide.Translated from Ogneupory, No. 6, pp. 42–44, June, 1985.     

Breast conservation and prolonged chemotherapy for locally advanced breast cancer: the University of Michigan experience

PURPOSE: To determine whether breast conservation and prolonged neoadjuvant chemotherapy have efficacy in locally advanced breast cancer (LABC), as measured by survival and rate of breast conservation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eighty-nine patients with stage III disease were enrolled at the University of Michigan (UM) onto a prospective nonrandomized trial. Patients received nine 21-day cycles of neoadjuvant chemohormonal therapy that consisted of doxorubicin 30 mg/m2 and cyclophosphamide 750 mg/m2 intravenously on day 1, conjugated estrogens 0.625 mg orally twice daily on days 6 to 8, methotrexate 40 mg/m2 and fluorouracil 500 mg/m2 intravenously on day 8, and tamoxifen 10 mg orally twice daily on days 9 to 14. Patients with a negative biopsy received radiation only, while those with residual disease underwent mastectomy and postoperative radiotherapy. Eight more cycles of chemohormonal therapy were administered after local-regional therapy. RESULTS: The clinical response rate to neoadjuvant therapy was 97%, 28% of patients had a complete pathologic response evaluated at biopsy. Five-year overall and disease-free survival probabilities were 54% and 44%, respectively. The median disease-free survival time was 2.4 years. The 5-year actuarial rates of local-regional control with local failure as only first failure were 82% and 78% following radiotherapy, and mastectomy and radiotherapy, respectively (P = .99). CONCLUSION: Prolonged neoadjuvant chemohormonal therapy and biopsy-driven local therapy have efficacy in LABC, with 28% of patients being candidates for breast conservation and a 5-year overall survival rate of 54%.