POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBON O-QUINONES MUTATE p53 IN HUMAN LUNG ADENOCARCINOMA (A549) CELLS

Human lung adenocarcinoma (A549) cells form reactive and redox active PAH-o-quinones via constitutively expressed aldo-keto reductases. To determine whether these metabolites mutate p53, A549 cells were treated with N-methyl-N-nitroso-N-nitroguanidine (MNNG an alkylating mutagen), anti-BPDE (diol-epoxide) and benzo[a]pyrene-7,8-dione (o-quinone). p53 cDNA was amplified from the treated cells and cotransfected with a gap-repair plasmid designed to express p53 in yeast. When mutant p53 is expressed, it fails to drive the expression of an ADE2 reporter, and the yeast strain yIG397 turns red. The following mutational frequencies were observed versus the solvent controls: 1 mM MNNG (24.2% red colonies p = .02), 1 μ M anti-BPDE (9.9% red colonies p = .02), and 10 μ M BP-7,8-dione (9.3% red colonies p = .03). MNNG gave a high frequency (49%) of the expected C > T (G > A) mutations (p = .25). While anti-BPDE and BP-7,8-dione gave A > G (T > C) transitions (p = .034 – p = .054). These mutations would result from stable N⁶-deoxyadenosine adducts, but not from oxidatively damaged bases.     

Spirituality, quality of life, and functional recovery after medical rehabilitation.

Objectives: To explore (a) how spiritual well-being (WB), emotional WB, life satisfaction, and functional status change during and after rehabilitation; (b) the relationships among these variables over time; and (c) associations with demographic and clinical characteristics. Study Design: Longitudinal assessment across 3 time points. Participants and Setting: 155 adults admitted to a freestanding rehabilitation hospital. Main Outcome Measures: Spiritual Well-Being Scale, Life Satisfaction Questionnaire, Short-Form Health Survey, and the Functional Independence MeasureTM. Results: Emotional WB increased during rehabilitation, whereas life satisfaction and spiritual WB did not change; however, substantial subgroups of individuals experienced changes in life satisfaction and spiritual WB over time. Measures of spiritual WB, emotional WB, and life satisfaction were moderately correlated within and across time points. Persons making smaller functional gains during inpatient rehabilitation were least likely to experience increased emotional WB. Although African Americans as a group reported greater spiritual WB than other racial-ethnic groups on admission, they were least likely to increase in emotional WB over time.… (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Combined curvelet shrinkage and nonlinear anisotropic diffusion.

In this paper, a diffusion-based curvelet shrinkage is proposed for discontinuity-preserving denoising using a combination of a new tight frame of curvelets with a nonlinear diffusion scheme. In order to suppress the pseudo-Gibbs and curvelet-like artifacts, the conventional shrinkage results are further processed by a projected total variation diffusion, in which only the insignificant curvelet coefficients or high-frequency part of the signal are changed by use of a constrained projection. Numerical experiments from piecewise-smooth to textured images show good performances of the proposed method to recover the shape of edges and important detailed components, in comparison to some existing methods.     

The Possibility of Reducing the Mass of the Working Rollers in a Carding Machine

The paper analyses the deflection of working rollers with longitudinal ribs in a carding machine. An algorithm defining the number, the form, and the dimensions of the ribs by means of an optimisation procedure is described. An example of a numerical calculation is elaborated, and the results of the application of the approximate beamshell model and the finite-element-method model (FEM) are compared.     

Trustworthiness and influence: A reexamination in an extended counseling analogue.

An extended counseling analog interview study was designed to evaluate the effects of counselor trustworthiness on counselor influence in an interview setting. 36 college males rated their achievement motivation (a) 1 wk before, (b) immediately following, and (c) 1 wk after the 2nd of 2 20-min individual interviews in which they explored their achievement motivation. Both interviews ended with an attempt by an interviewer to influence their achievement-motivation ratings. Four conditions were defined by (1) 2 male interviewers and (2) trustworthy and untrustworthy interviewer role performance. Results indicate that the role manipulation was successful. These role discriminations continued to persist, as measured by the 2nd role ratings taken 1 wk after the original ratings. Results indicate that interviewer trustworthiness had no immediate effect on interviewer influence but did exert a significant influence at the 1-wk follow-up testing. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Susceptibility to hypnosis and susceptibility to social influence.

Measures of susceptibility to social influence were obtained from 80 male Ss through a persuasibility test (Janis), an influencibility test (Schachter), and an autokinetic test (Sherif). A test of hypnotic susceptibility followed; scores from personality inventories were also available. Factor analysis shows the hypnotic subscales to represent one factor ("primary suggestibility"), orthogonal to a bipolar factor represented largely by scores on the self-report inventories. Among the tests of social influence only the influencibility test showed a slight positive relationship to hypnosis. Birth-order relationships failed to confirm predictions based on Schachter's findings. (29 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

RULE-BASED STABILIZATION OF THE INVERTED PENDULUM

The inverted pendulum poses serious problems for qualitative modeling methods, so it is a good benchmark to lest their performance. This paper shows how a new data analysis method known as rough set theory can be utilized to swing up and stabilize the pendulum. Our approach to this task consists of deriving control rules from the actions of a human operator stabilizing the pendulum and subsequently using them for automatic control. Rule derivation is based on the "learning from examples" principle and does not require knowledge of a quantitative model of the system.