Cigarette smoke affects lipolytic activity in isolated rat lungs

Isolated perfused rat lungs liberated fatty acids at a rate of 15 μmol/hr during perfusion of triglyceride-rich medium through the pulmonary vascular bed. About 80% of this activity seemed to result from lipoprotein lipase and 20% to hormone-sensitive lipase. Ventilation of the lungs with cigarette smoke instead of air during the perfusion reduced fatty acid liberation by 23%. Pre-exposure of rats to cigarette smoke for either 1 or 10 days did not cause significant changes in lung lipolytic activity compared to sham-exposed controls.     

Change in job strain and progression of atherosclerosis: The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 16(2) of Journal of Occupational Health Psychology (see record 2011-06502-001). The order of authorship was listed incorrectly. The correct order is listed in the correction.] Evidence of the association between job strain, that is, a combination of high psychological demands and low job control, and markers of atherosclerosis is mixed, but few studies with repeat measures are available. The purpose of this study was to examine cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between job strain and atherosclerosis. The participants were 335 men and 374 women from the prospective Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study (mean age 38.5 years). Two sequential measurements of job strain and carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) were analyzed. No cross-sectional or longitudinal association between job strain and IMT was observed in women. In men, a cross-sectional association was found in 2001, but not in 2007. No dose-response effect was visible, nor a simple association between progression of job strain and progression of IMT. Instead, a more complex pattern of correlation was found in men with large decreases in job strain being associated with slower progression of IMT and combined decreases in job control and demands (a change toward passive jobs) being associated with greater IMT progression. These data suggest that temporal changes in job demands and control are associated with IMT in men via multiple mechanisms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mobile access to biological databases on the Internet

We have developed a new way of accessing biological databases and bioinformatics applications on the Internet. This new service, bioinformatics wireless application protocol (BioWAP) service, which is accessible by mobile devices makes it possible to access bioinformatics services, where normal PC or personal digital assistant (PDA) connections are not feasible. The BioWAP service includes major biological databases and applications demonstrating a simple method of implementing WAP interfaces to uncompliant applications, i.e. the applications that are not WAP or Internet based. The BioWAP service can be browsed with any WAP terminal.     

Activities of As,Sb, Bi,and Pb in copper mattes—impurity elimination

The theoretical possibilities for the elimination of As, Sb, Bi, and Pb from copper matte were evaluated on the basis of the activity behavior of these impurity elements in the matte, considering removal by purge gas blowing, chlorination, vacuum evaporation, and slagging. The calculations were made assuming equilibrium conditions between the prevailing phases and using different combinations of sulfur, oxygen, and chlorine potentials. Present evaluations show that (1) As can be evaporated from the matte, using moderate amounts of purge gas at a high sulfur pressure of about 10⁻² atm (1013.3 Pa) and a temperature of 1200°C (1473. 15 K); (2) Sb, Bi, and Pb can also be eliminated under similar conditions using a chloridizing purge gas; (3) the purge gas, consumption can be decreased by lowering the total pressure of the system; (4) on a thermodynamic basis, the vacuum evaporation rates of these impurity elements should be much higher from the matte than from copper, the actual differences not, however, having been so apparent in previously published experimental studies, due possibly to kinetic reasons; and (5) the distribution coefficients of As and Sb between slag and matte increase along with the sulfur pressure, although not sufficiently to utilize this phenomenon on an industrial scale. A. ROINE, formerly with Institution of Process Metallurgy, Helsinki University of Technology, SF-02150, ESPOO, Finland     

Methods for adaptive combination of classifiers with application to recognition of handwritten characters

This paper discusses two techniques for improving the recognition accuracy for online handwritten character recognition: committee classification and adaptation to the user. Combining classifiers is a common method for improving recognition performance. Improvements are possible because the member classifiers may make different errors. Much variation exists in handwritten characters, and adaptation is one feasible way of dealing with such variation. Even though adaptation is usually performed for single classifiers, it is also possible to use adaptive committees. Some novel adaptive committee structures, namely, the dynamically expanding context (DEC), modified current best learning (MCBL), and class-confidence critic combination (CCCC), are presented and evaluated. They are shown to be able to improve on their member classifiers, with CCCC offering the best performance. Also, the effect of having either more or less diverse sets of member classifiers is considered.Received: 17 September 2002, Accepted: 22 October 2002, Published online: 4 July 2003     

The status of trace elements in staple foods from the former Federal Republic of Germany

In representative samples of bread cereals and cereal products from the former Federal Republik of Germany (FRG) the status of 11 trace elements was analysed in 1989. It is demonstrated that the results are quite representative for the former FRG as compared with results published in the previous 15 years. The sampling technique for staple foods is explained. A number of certified standard reference materials were used to validate the analytical methods employed.     

Design,optimization, and construction of a dc SQUID with complete flux transformer circuits

The design of a complete dc SQUID with a flux transformer input circuit is discussed. The flux coupling circuits introduce a substantial capacitance across the SQUID and give rise to many resonances which may couple strongly to the SQUID dynamics. Both effects lead to multiple modes in the SQUID dynamics and consequently to excess noise. For a low-noise SQUID with smooth characteristics, our analysis and practical considerations suggest signal coupling via an intermediary transformer. This method allows simultaneous optimization of the SQUID parameters, minimizing the parasitic capacitance, control over the resonances, and good inductance matching to practical magnetometer coils. A model is developed to optimize the structure: it describes the whole circuit with the help of a suitably modified autonomous SQUID, provided that the system is free from multiple modes due to resonances or large parasitic capacitance. Following these design principles, we have built a dc SQUID, primarily for use in biomagnetic research, but also well suited for other applications. The fabrication of the SQUID and the high-quality electronics especially suitable for multiple-SQUID devices is presented. The SQUIDs showed smooth characteristics, and the lowest measured noise of our complete SQUID is % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafeart1ev1aqatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4rqqrFfpeea0xe9Lq-Jc9% vqaqpepm0xbba9pwe9Q8fs0-yqaqpepae9pg0FirpepeKkFr0xfr-x% fr-xb9adbaqaaeGaciGaaiaabeqaamaabaabaaGcbaGaaGymaiaac6% cacaaIZaGaey41aqRaaGymaiaaicdadaahaaWcbeqaaiabgkHiTiaa% iAdaaaGccqqHMoGrdaWgaaWcbaGaaGimaiaac+caaeqaaOWaaOaaae% aacaWGibGaamOEaaWcbeaaaaa!428B!$1.3 \times 10^{ - 6} \Phi _{0/} \sqrt {Hz} $, indicating the success of the design.     

Statistical Shape Features for Content-Based Image Retrieval

In this article the use of statistical, low-level shape features in content-based image retrieval is studied. The emphasis is on such techniques which do not demand object segmentation. PicSOM, the image retrieval system used in the experiments, requires that features are represented by constant-sized feature vectors for which the Euclidean distance can be used as a similarity measure. The shape features suggested here are edge histograms and Fourier-transform-based features computed from the image after edge detection in Cartesian or polar coordinate planes. The results show that both local and global shape features are important clues of shapes in an image.     

Homicide and Its Social Context: Analysis Using the Self-Organizing Map

Homicide is one of the most serious kinds of offenses. Research on causes of homicide has never reached a definite conclusion. The purpose of this article is to put homicide in its broad range of social context to seek correlation between this offense and other macroscopic socioeconomic factors. This international-level comparative study used a dataset covering 181 countries and 69 attributes. The data were processed by the Self-Organizing Map (SOM) assisted by other clustering methods, including ScatterCounter for attribute selection, and several statistical methods for obtaining comparable results. The SOM is found to be a useful tool for mapping criminal phenomena through processing of multivariate data, and correlation can be identified between homicide and socioeconomic factors.