Thrombolytic and endovascular treatment of peripartum iliac vein thrombosis: a case report

This case report details the multidisciplinary treatment of peripartum left iliac vein thrombosis using percutaneous catheter-directed urokinase thrombolysis and balloon thromboplasty. Enhanced chances for long-term patency and the normalization of venous function make these minimally invasive procedures accepted options for the treatment of iliofemoral deep venous thrombosis in selected peripartum patients.     

Constructing inferences during narrative text comprehension.

Describes a constructionist theory that accounts for the knowledge-based inferences that are constructed when readers comprehend narrative text. Readers potentially generate a rich variety of inferences when they construct a referential situation model of what the text is about. The proposed constructionist theory specifies that some, but not all, of this information is constructed under most conditions of comprehension. The distinctive assumptions of the constructionist theory embrace a principle of search (or effort) after meaning. According to this principle, readers attempt to construct a meaning representation that addresses the reader's goals, that is coherent at both local and global levels, and that explains why actions, events, and states are mentioned in the text. This study reviews empirical evidence that addresses this theory and contrasts it with alternative theoretical frameworks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Serum IgA antibodies from patients with coeliac disease react strongly with human brain blood-vessel structures

BACKGROUND: Our objective was to determine the possible presence of IgA antibodies directed against human central nervous system (CNS) structures in sera from coeliac disease (CD) patients. METHODS: Serum samples were collected from 4 patients with active CD on a gluten-containing diet, 11 biopsy-proven CD patients on a gluten-free diet (GFD), and 52 non-coeliac gastrointestinal controls. In all patients IgA antigliadin antibody (AGA) titres were determined with enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA), and IgA antiendomysium antibodies (EMA) with indirect immunofluorescence on human umbilical cord. Cryostat sections of human brain occipital cortex were incubated with the patients' sera and subsequently labelled with anti-human IgA fluorescein conjugate. RESULTS: All sera from patients with active CD on a gluten-containing diet yielded positive results in both the IgG-AGA and EMA test and in indirect immunofluorescence on brain tissue, disclosing a strong fluorescence over blood-vessels structures. All sera from CD patients on a GFD and from non-coeliac gastrointestinal controls gave a negative result on both the EMA test and the immunofluorescence reaction on human brain. CONCLUSIONS: Sera from patients with active CD contain IgA antibodies that react with human brain vessel structures, giving intense fluorescence. These antibodies are not present in sera from coeliac patients on a GFD or non-coeliac controls. This finding might be involved in the abnormal nervous system manifestations frequently described in association with coeliac disease.     

Investigating onset, cessation, relapse, and recovery: Why you should, and how you can, use discrete-time survival analysis to examine event occurrence.

Illustrates how discrete-time survival analysis can address questions about onset, cessation, relapse, and recovery. Using data on the onset of suicide ideation and depression and relapse into cocaine use, the authors introduce key concepts underpinning the method, describe the action of the discrete-time hazard model, and discuss several types of main effects and interactions that can be included as predictors. Practical issues of data analysis and strategies for interpretation and presentation are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The application of loss-free resistors in power processing circuits

Applications of loss-free elements with resistive characteristics in power processing systems are discussed. The synthesis of this kind of element is based on the control of a two port which has a transformer or gyrator matrix. Both of the controlled two ports can be realized by means of switched mode circuits. The loss-free resistor can be applied to the stabilization of unstable systems, for damping oscillatory waveforms, and balancing of power flow in AC-DC conversion systems. This kind of element has been applied to the stabilization of a gas laser system. It replaced a conventional resistive element which was applied for this purpose     

Area-efficient high-throughput MAP decoder architectures

Iterative decoders such as turbo decoders have become integral components of modern broadband communication systems because of their ability to provide substantial coding gains. A key computational kernel in iterative decoders is the maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) decoder. The MAP decoder is recursive and complex, which makes high-speed implementations extremely difficult to realize. In this paper, we present block-interleaved pipelining (BIP) as a new high-throughput technique for MAP decoders. An area-efficient symbol-based BIP MAP decoder architecture is proposed by combining BIP with the well-known look-ahead computation. These architectures are compared with conventional parallel architectures in terms of speed-up, memory and logic complexity, and area. Compared to the parallel architecture, the BIP architecture provides the same speed-up with a reduction in logic complexity by a factor of M, where M is the level of parallelism. The symbol-based architecture provides a speed-up in the range from 1 to 2 with a logic complexity that grows exponentially with M and a state metric storage requirement that is reduced by a factor of M as compared to a parallel architecture. The symbol-based BIP architecture provides speed-up in the range M to 2M with an exponentially higher logic complexity and a reduced memory complexity compared to a parallel architecture. These high-throughput architectures are synthesized in a 2.5-V 0.25-/spl mu/m CMOS standard cell library and post-layout simulations are conducted. For turbo decoder applications, we find that the BIP architecture provides a throughput gain of 1.96 at the cost of 63% area overhead. For turbo equalizer applications, the symbol-based BIP architecture enables us to achieve a throughput gain of 1.79 with an area savings of 25%.     

From children's hands to adults' ears: Gesture's role in the learning process.

Children can express thoughts in gesture that they do not express in speech--they produce gesture-speech mismatches. Moreover, children who produce mismatches on a given task are particularly ready to learn that task. Gesture, then, is a tool that researchers can use to predict who will profit from instruction. But is gesture also useful to adults who must decide how to instruct a particular child? We asked 8 adults to instruct 38 third- and fourth-grade children individually in a math problem. We found that the adults offered more variable instruction to children who produced mismatches than to children who produced no mismatches--more different types of instructional strategies and more instructions that contained two different strategies, one in speech and the other in gesture. The children thus appeared to be shaping their own learning environments just by moving their hands. Gesture not only reflects a child's understanding but can play a role in eliciting input that could shape that understanding. As such, it may be part of the mechanism of cognitive change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

X-ray digital subtraction angiography to magnetic resonance-digital subtraction angiography using three-dimensional TRICKS. Historical perspective and computer simulations: a review

Seventeen years after the introduction of x-ray digital subtraction angiography (DSA), gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) angiography techniques have become available for the performance of MR-DSA. For the purposes of this article, we will consider this to include two-dimensional and three-dimensional approaches using time-resolved and non-time-resolved applications. Magnetic resonance-DSA is one in a historical progression of techniques which have aimed to produce less invasive forms of angiography. After outlining some historical milestones, several current issues regarding current methods for MR-DSA are discussed.