Ultrastructural studies of the ileum neobladder

Of 101 women, 15-50 years of age, presenting with vaginal discharge, 34 had bacterial vaginosis and were randomly assigned to a seven-day course of oral treatment with either erythromycin (0.5 g b.i.d.) or metronidazole (0.4 g b.i.d.) in a single-blind, cross-over study. Treatment failure (> or = three clinical signs of bacterial vaginosis) occurred in 13 (81%) of 16 patients given erythromycin, as compared with three (17%) of 18 women treated with metronidazole (p < 0.001). Persistence of Gardnerella vaginalis, Mobiluncus species and/or Mycoplasma hominis was found in 14 of 16 patients treated with erythromycin, and in four of 16 patients treated with metronidazole. Treatment with metronidazole was successful (< or = two clinical signs of bacterial vaginosis) in eight of 10 cases of erythromycin treatment failure. Neither of two cases of metronidazole treatment failure was cured with erythromycin. At three-month follow-up of 31 women, persistence or recurrence of bacterial vaginosis was diagnosed in 11 cases (36%).     

Aggregate Queries Over Conditional Tables

Conditional tables have been identified long ago as a way to capture unknown or incomplete information. However, queries over conditional tables have never been allowed to involve column functions such as aggregates. In this paper, the theory of conditional tables is extended in this direction, and it is shown that a strong representation system exists which has the closure property that the result of an aggregate query over a conditional table can be again represented by a conditional table. It turns out, however, that the number of tuples in a conditional table representing the result of an aggregate query may grow exponentially in the number of variables in the table. This phenomenon is analyzed in detail, and tight upper and lower bounds concerning the number of tuples contained in the result of an aggregate query are given. Finally, representation techniques are sketched that approximate aggregation results in tables of reasonable size.     

Some Aspects of Reliability Growth

Reliability growth is examined with the use of a variant of the Duane model. This variant is based on stepwise growth and avoids some of the mathematical and philosophic dificulties associated with the Duane model. Monte Carlo simulation, while confirming the noisy behavior of reliability growth data, indicates that central tendencies are sufficiently strong to justify the use of Gaussian approximations for analysis of some aspects of growth. Some exact methods and some approximations for parameter estimation are presented.     

Highly sensitive thromboplastins do not improve INR precision

OBJECTIVE: Severe obesity (ie, at least 100% overweight or body mass index > or =40 kg/m2) is associated with significant morbidity and increased mortality. It is apparently becoming more common in this country. Conventional weight-loss treatments are usually ineffective for severe obesity and bariatric surgery is recommended as a treatment option. However, longitudinal data on the long-term outcome of bariatric surgery are sparse. Available data indicate that the outcome of bariatric surgery, although usually favorable in the short term, is variable and weight regain sometimes occurs at 2 years after surgery. The objective of this study is to present a review of the outcome of bariatric surgery in three areas: weight loss and improvement in health status, changes in eating behavior, and psychosocial adjustment. The study will also review how eating behavior, energy metabolism, and psychosocial functioning may affect the outcome of bariatric surgery. Suggestions for additional research in these areas are made. METHOD: Literature review. RESULTS: On average, most patients lose 60% of excess weight after gastric bypass and 40% after vertical banded gastroplasty. In about 30% of patients, weight regain occurs at 18 months to 2 years after surgery. Binge eating behavior, which is common among the morbidly obese, may recur after surgery and is associated with weight regain. Energy metabolism may affect the outcome of bariatric surgery, but it has not been systematically studied in this population. Presurgery psychosocial functioning does not seem to affect the outcome of surgery, and psychosocial outcome is generally encouraging over the short term, but there are reports of poor adjustment after weight loss, including alcohol abuse and suicide. CONCLUSIONS: Factors leading to poor outcome of bariatric surgery, such as binge eating and lowered energy metabolism, should be studied to improve patient selection and outcome. Long-term outcome data on psychosocial functioning are lacking. Longitudinal studies to examine the long-term outcome of bariatric surgery and the prognostic indicators are needed.     

Reliability and validity of the Parent-Child Relationship Inventory (PCRI): Evidence from a longitudinal cross-informant investigation.

Psychometric properties of the Parent-Child Relationship Inventory (PCRI) were examined using data collected from adolescents and their parents in the Fullerton Longitudinal Study. Results revealed acceptable internal consistency for most scales and moderate to high 1-year stability for all scales. Both parents' PCRI scores correlated with their views of family climate. Cross-informant concordance was pervasive and strong between mothers' PCRI scores and adolescents' perceptions of the parent-child relationship and family climate; however, convergence was not evident between fathers' and adolescents' reports. Additionally, poor performance was observed for the Autonomy scale. In conjunction with other research on parent-adolescent relationships, concerns are raised regarding the utility of scales to contrast mother-adolescent with father-adolescent relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sliding wear of an unlubricated frictional combination of ductile metal and brittle abrasive

The concept of determining wear from hypotheses concerning shear effects in metal surface regions was applied to the sliding wear of a smooth elastoplastically deformable metal substance and a rough brittle abrasive. Interfacial layers or lubricating depositions on either surface were neglected. The form of the contact was modelled using random fields for the roughness profiles. The resulting intensities of wear may be compared with published experimental results. The wear intensity level was quantitatively determined. Dependence on the nominal pressure and properties of the rough abrasive is thus explained. Instead of hardness the compressive strength of abrasive peaks is the dominant characteristic parameter.     

Analytical model of the blast wear intensity of metals based on a general arrangement for abrasive wear

The hypothesis that during the abrasive wear of metals the volume removed is proportional to the work of the shearing force in the surface region was used to derive an analytical arrangement for the intensity of blast wear in the stationary phase. Although the analysis is relatively general, the results are surprisingly clear. The analysis shows a good agreement with test results, explains some general tendencies of blast wear and illustrates the applicability of its hypotheses.     

Role of cognitively stimulating home environment in children's academic intrinsic motivation: a longitudinal study

The short- and long-term, and direct and indirect, relations between cognitively stimulating home environment and academic intrinsic motivation were investigated in a longitudinal study from childhood through early adolescence. Structural equations modeling was used to test the hypothesis that home environment positively predicts academic intrinsic motivation over this period. It was also hypothesized that home environmental processes would positively predict motivation controlling for socioeconomic status (SES). When children were age 8, home environment (comprising both direct observations and parent report) and SES were measured. Academic intrinsic motivation was assessed at ages 9, 10, and 13. Results supported the hypotheses. Home environment had statistically positive and significant, direct and indirect paths to academic intrinsic motivation from childhood through early adolescence, indicating both short- and long-term effects across these ages. Moreover, home environment was significant above and beyond SES. The findings revealed that children whose homes had a greater emphasis on learning opportunities and activities were more academically intrinsically motivated.     

Zusammenarbeit von Industrie,Forschung, Technischer Überwachung,Lehre und der Rechtswissenschaft zur Erhöhung der technischen Sicherheit

Collaboration between industry, research, technical surveillance, teaching, and jurisprudence to increase the level of technical safety . An attempt is made to localize the difficulties occurring in the dialogue between the technologist and other groups in society representing far greater numbers, to show how collaboration proceeds between the many disciplines of technology, and what problems have to be solved together with lawyers, in order to permit technology continue to serve the wellbeing of society. It is hoped that this account will also stimulate fruitful discussions.