英国银匠大师Paul de Lamerie

Paul de Lamene是18世纪早期英国银器鼎盛时期一颗耀眼的明星，他也是那个时代英国最多产的银匠。     

Resilience to Loss in Bereaved Spouses, Bereaved Parents, and Bereaved Gay Men.

Recent research has indicated that many people faced with highly aversive events suffer only minor, transient disruptions in functioning and retain a capacity for positive affect and experiences. This article reports 2 studies that replicate and extend these findings among bereaved parents, spouses, and caregivers of a chronically ill life partner using a range of self-report and objective measures of adjustment. Resilience was evidenced in half of each bereaved sample when compared with matched, nonbereaved counterparts and 36% of the caregiver sample in a more conservative, repeated-measures ipsative comparison. Resilient individuals were not distinguished by the quality of their relationship with spouse/partner or caregiver burden but were rated more positively and as better adjusted by close friends. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Device to Provide Respiratory-Mechanical Unloading

A commercially available and widely used servo-controlled ventilator has been modified to provide controlled inspiratory resistive unloading of the human respiratory system. This is achieved by establishing a positive mouth pressure throughout inspiration in a constant proportion to instantaneous flow, i.e., the ratio of mouth pressure to flow, which defines the "assistance," remaining constant. The performance of this device has been evaluated in four healthy subjects during steady-state, constant-load cycling (20-120 W). It is demonstrated that i) the device can successfully implement controlled degrees of inspiratory assistance on a breath-to-breath basis; ii) the assistance can be sustained over a substantial range of ventilatory drive (i.e., for ventilations up to some 30 1/min) and to an extent which approaches a 100 percent reduction of the normal respiratory resistance. This device should prove useful in experimental and clinical investigations of the respiratory responses to resistive unloading of the respiratory system.     

There's more to touch than meets the eye: The salience of object attributes for haptics with and without vision.

The availability and salience of object attributes under haptic exploration, with and without vision, were assessed by 2 tasks in which Ss sorted objects that varied factorially in size, shape, texture, and hardness. In the directed-discrimination task, Ss were instructed to sort along a particular dimension. Although levels on all dimensions were easily discriminated, shape was relatively less so for haptic explorers without vision, as was hardness for those using vision and haptics. Size was least discriminable for both groups. In the free-sorting task, Ss were to sort objects by similarity. Three groups used haptic exploration only; these were differentiated by the experimenters' definition of object similarity: unbiased haptics, haptically biased haptics, haptics plus visual imagery. A 4th group used vision as well as haptics, with instructions like those of the unbiased haptics group. Results support the contention that the haptic and visual systems have distinct encoding pathways, with haptics oriented toward the encoding of substance rather the shape. This may reflect a direct influence of haptic exploratory procedures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Potential energy planning conflicts in the UK

During the latter half of the 19ar 1970s there was great concern about potential conflicts over energy development proposals in the UK, most of which were expected to emerge within the framework of land use planning procedures and the associated opportunities for public participation. While there has been widespread dissatisfaction with the way in which the planning system handles energy developments, there is little consensus about the nature of the problem or about possible solutions to it. Greatly reduced energy forecasts allow a pause for reflection, but it is argued that there is no room for complacency about conflict over energy developments in future.     

Toward a comprehensive assessment of fundamental motivation: Factor structure of the Reiss Profiles.

Two instruments were developed to provide a comprehensive assessment of the strength of a person's fundamental end goals and motivational sensitivities. One instrument was a self-report inventory for adolescents and adults in general, and the other was an informant-rating scale for adolescents and adults with mental retardation and development disabilities. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and test-retest reliabilities are reported in 7 studies, with independent samples of participants from diverse geographical areas, occupations, and social groups, N?=?2,548. Each instrument was found to have a 15-factor solution, and the 2 solutions were similar to one another. Because the factors assess universal motives that are also seen in animals, a genetics-behavior-cognitive model of fundamental motivation is suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuroprotective Effects of Testosterone in the Hypothalamus of an Animal Model of Metabolic Syndrome

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is known to be associated to inflammation and alteration in the hypothalamus, a brain region implicated in the control of several physiological functions, including energy homeostasis and reproduction. Previous studies demonstrated the beneficial effects of testosterone treatment (TTh) in counteracting some MetS symptoms in both animal models and clinical studies. This study investigated the effect of TTh (30 mg/kg/week for 12 weeks) on the hypothalamus in a high-fat diet (HFD)-induced animal model of MetS, utilizing quantitative RT-PCR and immunohistochemical analyses. The animal model recapitulates the human MetS features, including low testosterone/gonadotropin plasma levels. TTh significantly improved MetS-induced hypertension, visceral adipose tissue accumulation, and glucose homeostasis derangements. Within hypothalamus, TTh significantly counteracted HFD-induced inflammation, as detected in terms of expression of inflammatory markers and microglial activation. Moreover, TTh remarkably reverted the HFD-associated alterations in the expression of important regulators of energy status and reproduction, such as the melanocortin and the GnRH-controlling network. Our results suggest that TTh may exert neuroprotective effects on the HFD-related hypothalamic alterations, with positive outcomes on the circuits implicated in the control of energy metabolism and reproductive tasks, thus supporting a possible role of TTh in the clinical management of MetS.     

BRAF Gene and Melanoma: Back to the Future

As widely acknowledged, 40–50% of all melanoma patients harbour an activating BRAF mutation (mostly BRAF V600E). The identification of the RAS–RAF–MEK–ERK (MAP kinase) signalling pathway and its targeting has represented a valuable milestone for the advanced and, more recently, for the completely resected stage III and IV melanoma therapy management. However, despite progress in BRAF-mutant melanoma treatment, the two different approaches approved so far for metastatic disease, immunotherapy and BRAF+MEK inhibitors, allow a 5-year survival of no more than 60%, and most patients relapse during treatment due to acquired mechanisms of resistance. Deep insight into BRAF gene biology is fundamental to describe the acquired resistance mechanisms (primary and secondary) and to understand the molecular pathways that are now being investigated in preclinical and clinical studies with the aim of improving outcomes in BRAF-mutant patients.     

Usher Syndrome in the Inner Ear: Etiologies and Advances in Gene Therapy

Hearing loss is the most common sensory disorder with ~466 million people worldwide affected, representing about 5% of the population. A substantial portion of hearing loss is genetic. Hearing loss can either be non-syndromic, if hearing loss is the only clinical manifestation, or syndromic, if the hearing loss is accompanied by a collage of other clinical manifestations. Usher syndrome is a syndromic form of genetic hearing loss that is accompanied by impaired vision associated with retinitis pigmentosa and, in many cases, vestibular dysfunction. It is the most common cause of deaf-blindness. Currently cochlear implantation or hearing aids are the only treatments for Usher-related hearing loss. However, gene therapy has shown promise in treating Usher-related retinitis pigmentosa. Here we review how the etiologies of Usher-related hearing loss make it a good candidate for gene therapy and discuss how various forms of gene therapy could be applied to Usher-related hearing loss.