Family preservation using multisystemic therapy: An effective alternative to incarcerating serious juvenile offenders.

Multisystemic therapy (MST) delivered through a community mental health center was compared with usual services delivered by a Department of Youth Services in the treatment of 84 serious juvenile offenders and their multiproblem families. Offenders were assigned randomly to treatment conditions. Pretreatment and posttreatment assessment batteries evaluating family relations, peer relations, symptomatology, social competence, and self-reported delinquency were completed by the youth and a parent, and archival records were searched at 59 wks postreferral to obtain data on rearrest and incarceration. In comparison with youths who received usual services, youths who received MST had fewer arrests and self-reported offenses and spent an average of 10 fewer weeks incarcerated. In addition, families in the MST condition reported increased family cohesion and decreased youth aggression in peer relations. The relative effectiveness of MST was neither moderated by demographic characteristics nor mediated by psychosocial variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bioprocess applications of model-based estimation techniques

The last decade has seen the development of a number of approaches for estimating those variables which are difficult to measure on-line in industrial process situations. Whilst a range of techniques is available, a common element is the use of process knowledge in the form of a system model. In the case of bioprocess systems, although a large range of models has been presented in the literature, their use in estimation schemes on an industrial scale has been limited. A number of reasons can be identified for their low level of utilisation. Of particular significance is the uncertainty which exists in quantifying system performance and the process-model mismatch which inevitably results. The level of ‘pre-defined model’ uncertainty, together with the knowledge gained during the course of the fermentation, serves to dictate estimator structure. The paper considers a range of estimation strategies and contrasts, through industrial applications, their performance characteristics and utility.     

Evaluation of Soybean Seedcoat Cracking During Drying:PART II. Using MRI

MRI techniques were developed and employed for non-destructive and noninvasive study of seedcoat cracking in low moisture soybean kernels during heated air drying. Proton density image and transient moisture distribution profile of a single soybean kernel can be obtained using MRI. These MRI techniques proved to be particularly useful for the continuous observation of initiation and propagation of seedcoat cracking during the entire period of drying process without interruption.

The proton density images of soybean kernels showed that seedcoat cracking was initiated perpendicular to the long axis of the kernel near the hilum. The transient moisture distribution profiles in soybean kernels during drying indicate that moisture gradient developed during drying was higher in the seedcoat than in the cotyledon. Drying temperature and initial average moisture content were positively correlated with the soyhean seedcoat crackig. The location of the     

A comparative study of color measurement lntstrumentation

A multiplant Quality Improvement Team [QIT] was firmed to develop and implement an evaluation program for various color measurement .systems as potential replacements for the then-current aging systems. The emphasis qf this article is the analytical methodology utilized to evaluate the various color systems. The evaluation program consisted cf two phases. Phase I was a general overview/review of several systems, while Phase II was an extensive internal comparative evaluation measurement systems. These were Milton-Roy's ColorMate HDS, HunterLab's Ultrascan, Datacolor's CS-5, and BYK-Gardner's The Color Sphere [TCS]. The main comparison criteria were interinstrument agreement [agreement between two instruments ofthe same system], user-friendly software and computer interface capability, vendor amenability to a long-term logistical and maintenance relationship, and price. All systems were evaluated by duplicate measurements on various color tiles, yarns, and polymer flakes-over 1600 measurements on each system. The systems were compared with an instrument matrix, a decision matrix, and a product matrix. The instrument matrix was a comparison qfinstrument parameters, software/math treatments, and economics. The decision matrix was a forced ranking of each system by each criteria category [1–4 scale, with 1 representing the best and 4 representing the worst]. The product matrix accentuated the relative importance ofone criterion category over another by multiplying the forced ranking by the criticality of the category. The criticality of a given category wus determined by consensus within the QIT. Thr combination qf the three matrices allowed the evaluator[.s] t o select the color rneasuremmt system that best satixfied the color measurement needs and requirements of their facility and their products. For this evaluation, all ofthe evaluated systems were superior to the then-current agingsystems. As a result of this methodology, one instrument emerged as clearly superior. © 1994 John Wrley & Sons, Inc.     

PRMT 3, a type I protein arginine N-methyltransferase that differs from PRMT1 in its oligomerization, subcellular localization, substrate specificity, and regulation

Methylation is one of the many post-translational modifications that modulate protein function. Although asymmetric NG,NG-dimethylation of arginine residues in glycine-arginine-rich domains of eucaryotic proteins, catalyzed by type I protein arginine N-methyltransferases (PRMT), has been known for some time, members of this enzyme class have only recently been cloned. The first example of this type of enzyme, designated PRMT1, cloned because of its ability to interact with the mammalian TIS21 immediate-early protein, was then shown to have protein arginine methyltransferase activity. We have now isolated rat and human cDNA orthologues that encode proteins with substantial sequence similarity to PRMT1. A recombinant glutathione S-transferase (GST) fusion product of this new rat protein, named PRMT3, asymmetrically dimethylates arginine residues present both in the designed substrate GST-GAR and in substrate proteins present in hypomethylated extracts of a yeast rmt1 mutant that lacks type I arginine methyltransferase activity; PRMT3 is thus a functional type I protein arginine N-methyltransferase. However, rat PRMT1 and PRMT3 glutathione S-transferase fusion proteins have distinct enzyme specificities for substrates present in both hypomethylated rmt1 yeast extract and hypomethylated RAT1 embryo cell extract. TIS21 protein modulates the enzymatic activity of recombinant GST-PRMT1 fusion protein but not the activity of GST-PRMT3. Western blot analysis of gel filtration fractions suggests that PRMT3 is present as a monomer in RAT1 cell extracts. In contrast, PRMT1 is present in an oligomeric complex. Immunofluorescence analysis localized PRMT1 predominantly to the nucleus of RAT1 cells. In contrast, PRMT3 is predominantly cytoplasmic.