A model for training psychologists to provide services for children and adolescents.

Background and rationale for a comprehensive model of training for psychologists to provide services to children and adolescents are outlined. Eleven integrated aspects of training are described with respect to training topics, justification for the training, and ways to implement the training. The model described address the need for guidance in training specialists in psychologically based mental health services for children, adolescents, and their families. Practitioners can use this model to assess their own backgrounds, knowledge, and skills in working with these populations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Localized scleroderma in breast cancer patients treated with supervoltage external beam radiation: radiation port scleroderma

OBJECTIVES: Analysis of an experience in treating girls with dysfunctional voiding with an outpatient pelvic-floor therapy consisting of voiding and drinking schedule, pelvic-floor relaxation biofeedback, instructions on toilet behavior, and uroflowmetry. METHODS: The files of 50 girls (between 6 and 13 years of age) with urodynamically proven dysfunctional voiding who participated in the training program were analyzed retrospectively. Thirty-five girls received anticholinergics during the entire course of the training. The long-term absence of diurnal incontinence was used as the criterion for the success of the therapy. The duration of treatment before reaching this success was used as a parameter to measure the intensity of therapy. For a portion of the study group, a comparison is made with the duration of the preceding therapies to demonstrate indirectly the cumulative effect of the pelvic-floor therapy. RESULTS: Forty-six girls (92%) normalized their flow and bladder capacity after therapy and saw their daytime incontinence disappearing. All of these girls achieved this result in a maximum of 18 sessions within a 6-month period. At the follow-up examination after 6 months, five of the girls had relapsed (10%), which brings the ultimate success after 6 months of follow-up to 82%. CONCLUSIONS: Pelvic-floor therapy seems to be a reasonable and meaningful component in the treatment of bladder dysfunction in which detrusor-sphincter dyscoordination plays a role.     

Controlling Spatiotemporal Mechanics of Supramolecular Hydrogel Networks with Highly Branched Cucurbit[8]uril Polyrotaxanes

Attempts to rationally tune the macroscopic mechanical performance of supramolecular hydrogel networks through noncovalent molecular interactions have led to a wide variety of supramolecular materials with desirable functions. While the viscoelastic properties are dominated by temporal hierarchy (crosslinking kinetics), direct mechanistic studies on spatiotemporal control of supramolecular hydrogel networks, based on host–guest chemistry, have not yet been established. Here, supramolecular hydrogel networks assembled from highly branched cucurbit[8]uril‐threaded polyrotaxanes (HBP‐CB[8]) and naphthyl‐functionalized hydroxyethyl cellulose (HECNp) are reported, exploiting the CB[8] host–guest complexation. Mechanically locking CB[8] host molecules onto a highly branched hydrophilic polymer backbone, through selective binary complexation with viologen derivatives, dramatically increases the solubility of CB[8]. Additionally, the branched architecture enables tuning of material dynamics of the supramolecular hydrogel networks via both topological (spatial hierarchy) and kinetic (temporal hierarchy) control. Relationship between macroscopic properties (time‐ and temperature‐dependent rheological properties, thermal stability, and reversibility), spatiotemporal hierarchy, and chain dynamics of the highly branched polyrotaxane hydrogel networks is investigated in detail. Such kind of tuning of material mechanics through spatiotemporal hierarchy improves our understanding of the challenging relationship between design of supramolecular polymeric materials and their complex viscoelasticity, and also highlights a facile strategy to engineer dynamic supramolecular materials.     

Extended Catalytic Scope of a Well‐Known Enzyme: Asymmetric Reduction of Iminium Substrates by Glucose Dehydrogenase

NADP(H)‐dependent imine reductases (IREDs) are of interest in biocatalytic research due to their ability to generate chiral amines from imine/iminium substrates. In reaction protocols involving IREDs, glucose dehydrogenase (GDH) is generally used to regenerate the expensive cofactor NADPH by oxidation of d ‐glucose to gluconolactone. We have characterized different IREDs with regard to reduction of a set of bicyclic iminium compounds and have utilized ¹H NMR and GC analyses to determine degree of substrate conversion and product enantiomeric excess (ee). All IREDs reduced the tested iminium compounds to the corresponding chiral amines. Blank experiments without IREDs also showed substrate conversion, however, thus suggesting an iminium reductase activity of GDH. This unexpected observation was confirmed by additional experiments with GDHs of different origin. The reduction of C=N bonds with good levels of conversion (>50 %) and excellent enantioselectivity (up to >99 % ee) by GDH represents a promiscuous catalytic activity of this enzyme.     

Mechanisms Underlying Dichotomous Procoagulant COAT Platelet Generation—A Conceptual Review Summarizing Current Knowledge

Procoagulant platelets are a subtype of activated platelets that sustains thrombin generation in order to consolidate the clot and stop bleeding. This aspect of platelet activation is gaining more and more recognition and interest. In fact, next to aggregating platelets, procoagulant platelets are key regulators of thrombus formation. Imbalance of both subpopulations can lead to undesired thrombotic or bleeding events. COAT platelets derive from a common pro-aggregatory phenotype in cells capable of accumulating enough cytosolic calcium to trigger specific pathways that mediate the loss of their aggregating properties and the development of new adhesive and procoagulant characteristics. Complex cascades of signaling events are involved and this may explain why an inter-individual variability exists in procoagulant potential. Nowadays, we know the key agonists and mediators underlying the generation of a procoagulant platelet response. However, we still lack insight into the actual mechanisms controlling this dichotomous pattern (i.e., procoagulant versus aggregating phenotype). In this review, we describe the phenotypic characteristics of procoagulant COAT platelets, we detail the current knowledge on the mechanisms of the procoagulant response, and discuss possible drivers of this dichotomous diversification, in particular addressing the impact of the platelet environment during in vivo thrombus formation.     

Determination of five tetracyclines and their epimers by LC-MS/MS based on a liquid-liquid extraction with low temperature partitioning

An LC-MS/MS method is presented for screening five tetracyclines and their epimers in a broad range of food products. The scope of matrices includes meat-, fish-, seafood-based products, various dairy ingredients, infant formulae and fats. The method principle is based on a liquid–liquid extraction with aqueous ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and acetonitrile followed by a freezing step to promote phase separation at low temperature. After defatting with hexane, sample extracts were evaporated and reconstituted before injection onto the LC-MS/MS system. The addition of oxalic acid in the aqueous mobile phase was mandatory to maintain good peak shape and sensitivity over the run. The screening is based upon a double preparation of each sample, one ‘as such’ and a second one with the analytes spiked in the sample, in order to mitigate the risk of false negative response. The method was validated according to the European Community Reference Laboratories Residues Guidelines. A total of 93 samples were included in the validation by two independent laboratories giving both false-negative and false-positive rates at 0% for all compounds. Over the last two years, 2600 samples were analysed routinely and only one chicken sample was found above the regulatory limit.     

Model Checking at IBM

Over the past nine years, the Formal Methods Group at the IBM Haifa Research Laboratory has made steady progress in developing tools and techniques that make the power of model checking accessible to the community of hardware designers and verification engineers, to the point where it has become an integral part of the design cycle of many teams. We discuss our approach to the problem of integrating formal methods into an industrial design cycle, and point out those techniques which we have found to be especially effective in an industrial setting.