Histomorphometric study in children with idiopathic nephrotic syndrome

There is agreement on the clinical diagnostic criteria for acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (AIDP/GBS) however, there is lack of consensus for detection of demyelination. In order to critically evaluate the prevailing criteria, sixty-six patients who fulfilled NINCDS criteria and had typical features of GBS were studied for electrophysiological abnormalities of peripheral nerves by using standard methods (median, common peroneal, sural and ulnar) between 1 to 12 weeks after the onset of symptoms. The commonest abnormality on motor nerve conduction study was prolonged distal latency (75%-83%) followed by reduction in CMAP amplitude (63%-82%), decreased velocity (48%-62%), conduction block (17%-39%) and f-wave abnormalities (37.8%-59%). Sensory conduction abnormalities were detected in over 20% of median, 25% of ulnar and 33% of sural nerves. All the patients had abnormality of at least two motor conduction parameters in one nerve when values beyond 2 SD of the mean were considered abnormal and over 70% of patients had three abnormalities in two nerves or two abnormalities in three nerves. Comparison with the prevailing criteria for demyelination revealed that the number of patients fulfilling them varied widely: Albers et al. (1985): 74.2%, Albers et al. (1989): 40.9% and Cornblath: 30.3%. We believe that the current criteria for detection of demyelination in acute neuropathy are too strict, underestimate the underlying pathology in GBS and need reassessment.     

An antinociceptive effect of the intraperitoneal injection of nifedipine in rats, measured by tail-flick test

The tail-flick (TF) technique was used to assess the antinociceptive properties of nifedipine (NIF) given intraperitoneally (i.p.). First, the most suitable intensity of the noxious stimulus (temperature of the bulb) has been ascertained and used in the main study. Male Sprague-Dawley rats received NIF, dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) at the doses of 0.0, 0.5, 2, 5, 10 and 15 mg/kg, or control with no injection. For the main study, the noxious stimulus was limited to 15 sec (cut-off time) and TF latencies were recorded up to 120 min. The antinociceptive response was expressed as the area under the curve for each rat and analyzed by one-way ANOVA. The antinociceptive response to the lower doses of NIF (0.5 and 2 mg/kg) did not differ from control (no injection) and DMSO alone. Significance was found at 5, 10 and 15 mg NIF with no difference among the doses. However, there was an increasing tendency of the mean values from 0.5 to 15 mg NIF resulting in a positive correlation. The correlation coefficient was 0.32483 (p = 0.015) and regression equation Y = (19.37) x dose + 1320. Our data suggest that spinal mechanisms are involved in NIF-induced antinociception.     

Does expert psychological testimony inform or influence juror decision making? A social cognitive analysis.

The authors examined whether expert testimony serves an educational or a persuasive function. Participants watched a simulated sexual abuse trial in which the child witness had been prepared for her testimony (i.e., she was calm, composed, and confident) or unprepared (i.e., emotional, confused, and uncertain). The trial contained different levels of expert testimony: none, standard (i.e., a summary of the research), repetitive (i.e., standard testimony plus a 2nd summary of the research), or concrete (i.e., standard testimony plus a hypothetical scenario linking the research to the case facts) testimony. Repetitive testimony bolstered the child's testimony, whereas concrete and standard testimony did not. Concrete testimony sensitized jurors to behavioral correlates of sexual victimization; standard and repetitive testimony desensitized jurors to these correlates. Implications for the use of procedural innovations in sexual abuse trials are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Collection of peripheral blood progenitor cells after the administration of cyclophosphamide, etoposide, and granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor: an analysis of 497 patients

BACKGROUND: There is great interpatient variability in the number of peripheral blood stem cells collected, as measured by CD34+ cell content, after the administration of chemotherapy and a growth factor. The ability to predict patients who fail to yield adequate quantities of CD34+ cells would be of value. However, very few reports include large numbers of patients treated in an identical fashion. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Between 1991 and 1995, 497 consecutive patients with a variety of malignant diseases received cyclophosphamide (4 g/m2), etoposide (600 mg/m2), and granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor (6 micrograms/kg/day) for mobilization and collection of a target dose > or = 2.5 x 10(8) CD34+ cells per kg. Multivariate analyses were performed to determine the factors associated with failure to achieve this target harvest. RESULTS: A median of 14.71 x 10(6) CD34+ cells per kg (range, 0.08-137.55) was harvested with a median of 2 (range, 1-11) apheresis procedures. Ninety-one percent of patients yielded > or = 2.5 x 10(5) CD34+ cells per kg. Patients with Stage II-III breast cancer, who had pretreatment platelet counts > or = 150 x 10(9) per L and patients who underwent < or = 1 prior chemotherapy regimen had improved CD34+ cell yields. However, most patients with adverse risk factors yielded > or = 2.5 x 10(6) CD34+ cells per kg. CONCLUSION: A regimen of cyclophosphamide, etoposide, and granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor led to the successful collection of adequate numbers of CD34+ cells in most patients without excessive toxicity. These observations confirm previous reports that intense prior therapy adversely affects the quantity of CD34+ cells harvested. Pretreatment and posttreatment variables did not predict with any certainty the small fraction of patients who fail to yield > or = 2.5 x 10(6) CD34+ cells per kg via multiple apheresis procedures.     

Sexual disorders: demographic and diagnostic profile during one year of a multidisciplinary project

Taking into consideration a study published 10 years ago on sexual disturbances of students at the University of S?o Paulo, the importance of the subject is discussed, along with the creation in 1993 of the Sexuality Project at the university hospital of the University of S?o Paulo School of Medicine. In its first year, this multidisciplinary project attended 140 patients with sexual dysfunctions (associated or not to other clinical manifestations); the majority were younger than 60 years-old, and 80 percent were male.     

Evaluation of the anisotropic Green's function in three dimensional elasticity

A perturbation expansion technique for approximating the three dimensional anisotropic elastic Green's function is presented. The method employs the usual series for the matrix (I–A)^-1 to obtain an expansion in which the zeroth order term is an isotropic fundamental solution. The higher order contributions are expressed as contour integrals of matrix products, and can be directly evaluated with a symbolic manipulation program. A convergence condition is established for cubic crystals, and it is shown that convergence is enhanced by employing Voigt averaged isotropic constants to define the expansion point. Example calculations demonstrate that, for moderately anisotropic materials, employing the first few terms in the series provides an accurate solution and a fast computational algorithm. However, for strongly anisotropic solids, this approach will most likely not be competitive with the Wilson-Cruse interpolation algorithm.This research was sponsored by the Exploratory Studies Program of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Division of Materials Science, U. S. Department of Energy, under contract DE-AC05-84OR21400 with Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, Inc.     

Comparison of calcium phosphate cement mixture and pure calcium hydroxide as direct pulp-capping agents

This review reports the different genetic factors that have been identified either as risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD) or directly causing the disease. First are reviewed epidemiological data and biological mechanisms about the apoplipoprotein E gene allele epsilon 4 that is a major risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. The second part describes the mutations responsible for early-onset autosomal dominant AD found in three different genes. The gene located on chromosome 21 encodes the amyloid precusor protein (APP). The presenilin 1 and presenilin 2 genes, located on chromosome 14 and 1 respectively, encode not yet known membrane proteins.     

A 20-MHz sixth-order BiCMOS parasitic-insensitive continuous-timefilter and second-order equalizer optimized for disk-drive read channels

A fast parasitic-insensitive continuous-time filter and equalizer integrated circuit that uses an active integrator is described. Circuit techniques for excess-phase cancellation and for setting the corner-frequency of the filter and equalizer are also described. These techniques result in a filter and equalizer chip with performance independent of process, supply, and temperature without employing phase-lock loops. The 20-MHz sixth-order Bessel filter and second-order equalizer operate from 5 V and generate only 0.24% (-52 dB) of total harmonic distortion when processing 2-V_pp differential output signals. The device is optimized to limit high-frequency noise and to amplitude equalize the data pulses in hard disk read-channel systems. The device supports data rates of up to 36 Mb/s and is built in a 1.5-μm, 4-GHz BiCMOS technology