Three patients with insulin-treated diabetes and senile dementia of Alzheimer''s type

Caught between the successes of modern psychopharmacology, the requests of suffering patients for quick relief, and the shortsightedness of many third-party payers, psychodynamic psychotherapy might seem to be on the ropes. It is, however, thriving and providing crucial help to many individuals for whom medication and brief counseling are insufficient. Meanwhile, many more who could benefit from psychotherapy do not have an opportunity to do so. Although psychodynamic psychotherapy originated and developed within a medical framework, it has minimal visibility on the current medical scene, and many physicians have been provided with little meaningful information about it. This article is intended to give physicians a general idea of what psychodynamic psychotherapy is and how it works.     

Simultaneous estimation of echo path and channel responses usingfull-duplex transmitted training data sequences

To reduce the system initialization time in high-speed full-duplex data transmission over two-wire lines, we propose an efficient full-duplex fast training algorithm which can simultaneously estimate the impulse responses of echo paths and channels at both ends. Two mutually orthogonal periodic sequences are designed and used to co-estimate the near echo, the far echo with bulk delay, and the channel response. The new algorithm can reduce the tap-setting time to half of that required by the traditional half-duplex fast training schemes. The effects of channel noise and symbol rate offset between two ends are examined in terms of both mean-square error (MSE) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Both the theoretical analysis and computer simulation show that there are three degrading factors due to symbol rate offset. The SNR is inversely proportional to the sum of the estimated coefficients, the half period of the training sequences, and the square of symbol rate offset. If the far-signal-to-channel-noise ratio is 30 dB, then the degradation is significant when the symbol rate offset is more than 10 ^-4. If it is 40 dB, then the degradation is significant when the symbol rate offset is above 3×10^-5     

Clinical and molecular genetic study in seven Japanese families with spinocerebellar ataxia type 6

This study examined the effect of thyrotrophin-releasing hormone (TRH) administration on thermoregulation in the newborn. Twin lambs were either delivered near-term by caesarean section or born vaginally at term. Colonic temperature, O2 consumption, CO2 production, breathing and heart rates, plus plasma thyroid hormone and nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA) concentrations and thermogenic activity (i.e. GDP binding) of brown adipose tissue (BAT) were measured. In caesarean section delivered lambs colonic temperature decreased rapidly after birth, a response that was greater in the group designated for TRH treatment, in which colonic temperature fell to below 36.0 degrees C at 80 min of life, prior to TRH administration. At this age colonic temperature had been restored to a mean of 38.70 degrees C in controls. TRH had no influence on the composition or thermogenic activity of BAT. The incidence of shivering was not influenced by TRH, but treated lambs maintained a higher rate of O2 consumption and ventilation compared with controls after colonic temperature had been restored to 38.56 degrees C. TRH appeared to promote fat oxidation as O2 consumption remained unchanged and CO2 production declined by a greater rate in treated lambs, resulting in a lower respiratory quotient compared to controls. Heart rate and plasma concentrations of NEFA increased following TRH administration although this did not result in values greater than controls. Normothermic lambs born vaginally had BAT with a greater thermogenic activity, higher plasma thyroid hormone and NEFA concentrations compared with caesarean section delivered lambs, but a thermogenic response was not observed to TRH despite a rise in thyroid hormone concentrations. In conclusion, TRH can improve thermoregulation, an effect that could be linked to an increase in fat oxidation.     

Observation of residual stress and defects in silicon induced by scribing

Residual stresses induced by three scribing methods, diamond point scriber, laser scriber and diamond blade saw, are studied quantitatively by infra-red photoelasticity. It is clear that diamond blade saw scribing is most desirable, for residual stress induced by it is several times smaller than the stress caused by the other methods. The stress gradient differs between the laser scribed sample and the others, probably because of the difference in stress generation mechanism. Removing the damaged layer by etching reduces residual stress. The three scribing methods are also studied by the observation of defects after annealing and the results are compared with those determined by photoelastic measurement.     

Lung phosphatidylcholine and fasting in male and female rats

Lung from male and female rats fasted for 4 days were used. Phospholipid, phosphatidylcholine and its molecular species were analyzed in lungs from these rats and effects of fasting upon the biosynthesis of phosphatidylcholine in lungs from both sexes were determined using radioactive choline. The molecular species of phosphatidylcholine in both male and female rats did not differ with fasting except the monoenoic species. Incorporation of choline into phosphatidylcholine in both male and female rats significantly increased after fasting, but distribution of radioactivity in phosphatidylcholine yielded similar values in each group. These results suggest that the decrease of saturated phosphatidylcholine content after fasting may be not due to specific change in saturated phosphatidylcholine.     

Effect of dispersed oxides of rare earths and other reactive elements on the high temperature oxidation resistance of Fe-20Cr alloy

The isothermal oxidation resistance in air at 1273, 1323, and 1373 K of Fe-20Cr alloys with 1 wt pct dispersoid of Y₂0₃, La₂O₃, A1₂O₃, TiO₂, SiO₂, Cr₂O₃ and without dispersoid prepared by a conventional sintering and rolling procedures was examined. It was found that SiO₂ dispersoid reduced, while A1₂O₃ dispersoid slightly increased the oxidation resistance. The dispersoids of TiO₂ and Cr₂O₃ showed no beneficial effect on the oxidation resistance except for the oxidation after 10 h at 1373 K. The oxidation behavior after 10 h at 1373 K was rather complex including accelerated oxidation. The beneficial effect of La₂O₃ and Y₂O₃ dispersoids was excellent at all temperatures. The oxidation rates during the early stage of oxidation for the alloys with dispersoid were apparently dependent on the type of the dispersoid. There was no evidence that dispersoid accumulated at the scale-alloy interface. Comparison of results obtained for the oxidation of the alloys prepared by a powder metallurgical procedure with results for the alloys by arc-melting procedure indicated that the grain size of the alloy is an important factor for reduction of oxidation rate but does not seem to be critical, because the grain size of the alloys with dispersoid was not dependent on the type of the dispersoid. Ion Microanalyses of the Cr₂O₃ scale formed after 1 h oxidation at 1373 K showed an interesting feature in that all the dispersed elements were incorporated in the scale and the iron content of the scale was lower on the alloys which exhibited better oxidation resistance.     

Delivery of medical multimedia contents through the TCP/IP network using RealSystem

We developed a low cost, user-friendly multimedia delivery system, to provide medical lectures saved as multimedia contents to persons engaged in medicine. This system was created using the RealSystem package with the TCP/IP network. Users can review lectures and medical meeting presentations with video and audio through the Internet, whenever convenient. Each medical source of video and slide has been clearly displayed on a screen. Members of medical associations or medical students can easily review the most interesting parts of these files. This system is being used efficiently in distance learning and aids the diffusion of the latest information and technology to busy physicians and medical students.     

Ice clouds and Asian dust studied with lidar measurements of particle extinction-to-backscatter ratio, particle depolarization, and water-vapor mixing ratio over Tsukuba

The tropospheric particle extinction-to-backscatter ratio, the depolarization ratio, and the water-vapor mixing ratio were measured by use of a Raman lidar and a polarization lidar during the Asian dust seasons in 2001 and 2002 in Tsukuba, Japan. The apparent (not corrected for multiple-scattering effects) extinction-to-backscatter ratios (Sp) showed a dependence on the relative humidity with respect to ice (RHice) obtained from the lidar-derived water-vapor mixing ratio and radiosonde-derived temperature; they were mostly higher than 30 sr in dry air (RHice < 50%), whereas they were mostly lower than 30 sr in ice-supersaturated air (RHice > or = 100%), where the apparent extinction coefficients were larger than 0.036 km(-1). Both regions showed mean particle depolarization ratios of 20%-22%. Comparisons with theoretical calculations and the previous experiments suggest that the observed dependence of Sp on RHice is attributed to the difference in the predominant particles: nonspherical aerosols (mainly the Asian dust) in dry air and cloud particles in ice-supersaturated air.     

A location model for smart environments

This paper presents a location model for location-aware and user-aware services in smart environments. It can be dynamically organized like a tree based on geographical containment, such as that in a user–room–floor–building hierarchy and each node in the tree can be constructed as an executable software component. The model is unique in existing approaches because it enables location-aware services to be managed without any database servers, it can be managed by multiple computers, and it can provide a unified view of the locations of not only physical entities and spaces, including users and objects, but also computing devices and services. A prototype implementation of this approach was constructed on a Java-based mobile agent system. This paper presents the rationale, design, implementation, and applications of the prototype system.