Therapeutic abortion and its psychological implications: the Canadian experience

Approximately 9 months after a legal therapeutic abortion, 188 Canadian women were interviewed. One half were single and the rest were married, separated or divorced. They were matched closely for a number of demographic variables with control women who had not had abortions. Neurotic disturbance in several areas of personality functioning was assessed from questionnaire responses. Out of 27 psychological scales, differences between the abortion and control groups were found on only 3: in general, women who had had abortions were more rebellious than control women, abortion tended to be associated with somewhat greater depression in married women, and single women who had had abortions scored higher on the shallow-affect scale. However, all the personality scores were well within the normal range. Perceived social support was strongly associated with favourable psychological reactions after abortion. Use of contraceptives improved greatly after the abortion, when over 90% of women reported using contraceptives regularly.     

Congenital hepatic fibrosis with dilation of intrahepatic bile ducts. A therapeutic approach

A case of congenital hepatic fibrosis with dilation of the intrahepatic ducts is presented. External drainage and lavage of the biliary tract through a prosthetic "Y" tube and internal drainage accomplished by a Roux en-Y cholangiojejunostomy resulted in prevention of the patient's recurrent bouts of cholangitis and sepsis. Surgical therapy for recurrent cholangitis in this disease is reviewed.     

Advanced MR imaging techniques for evaluation of the heart and great vessels

A "one-stop shop" for evaluating cardiac disease with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is progressing toward clinical reality and promises to have a major effect on the care of patients with cardiac disease. T1-weighted conventional spin-echo imaging gated to the cardiac cycle yields good anatomic detail but requires long imaging times and provides only static images of a single cardiac phase. Fast MR imaging with electrocardiographically (ECG) gated, low-flip-angle, segmented k-space gradient-recalled-echo (GRE) sequences provides excellent image quality with sufficiently high temporal resolution to "freeze" cardiac motion. Segmented k-space sequences improve on standard ECG-gated GRE sequences by allowing many cardiac phases, or frames of a cine sequence, to be imaged in a single breath hold with prospective cardiac gating. As commercial implementations of segmented k-space imaging become more widely available, the applications of this technique are expanding from research protocols to include many clinical applications in the heart and great vessels. Such applications include evaluation of vascular anatomy (coronary angiography, aortic disease, aberrant vessels, vascular access), cardiac anatomy (congenital anomalies, right ventricular dysplasia, constrictive pericarditis, valvular function), myocardial perfusion, and myocardial wall motion.     

中国城市土壤重金属污染研究进展

随着城市现代工业的高速发展以及城市化进程的不断加快,人们越来越关注城市土壤重金属污染问题.介绍了城市土壤的概念,阐述了城市土壤重金属污染的特点和危害,分析了城市土壤重金属污染的来源,并对下一步的研究进行了展望,希望为实现重金属污染土壤的有效生态整治与安全高效益利用提供参考.     

德国高等教育自治制度及其运行模式研究

对德国高等教育管理制度中的中央、地方政府教育行政管理部门、中介组织的权限以及两者之间的相互关系进行了详细的研究,以期对我国现今进行的高等教育改革提供可资借鉴的域外经验。     

Cryptococcus neoformans resides in an acidic phagolysosome of human macrophages

Recently, we demonstrated that human monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) treated with chloroquine or ammonium chloride had markedly increased antifungal activity against the AIDS-related pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans. Both of these agents raise the lysosomal pH, which suggested that the increased antifungal activity was a function of alkalinizing the phagolysosome. Moreover, there was an inverse correlation between growth of C. neoformans in cell-free media and pH. These data suggested that C. neoformans was well adapted to survive within acidic compartments. To test this hypothesis, we performed studies to determine the pH of human MDM and neutrophil phagosomes containing C. neoformans. Fungi were labeled with the isothiocyanate derivatives of two pH-sensitive probes: fluorescein and 2',7'-difluorofluorescein (Oregon Green). These probes have pKas of 6.4 and 4.7, respectively, allowing sensitive pH detection over a broad range. The phagosomal pH averaged approximately 5 after ingestion of either live or heat-killed fungi and remained relatively constant over time, which suggested that C. neoformans does not actively regulate the pH of its phagosome. The addition of 10 and 100 microM chloroquine resulted in increases in the phagosomal pH from a baseline of 5.1 up to 6.5 and 7.3, respectively. Finally, by immunofluorescence, colocalization of C. neoformans and the MDM lysosomal membrane protein LAMP-1 was demonstrated, establishing that fusion of C. neoformans-laden phagosomes with lysosomal compartments takes place. Thus, unlike many other intracellular pathogens, C. neoformans does not avoid fusion with macrophage lysosomal compartments but rather resides and survives in an acidic phagolysosome.     

A comprehensive study of hydrogen production from ammonia borane via PdCoAg/AC nanoparticles and anodic current in alkaline medium: experimental design with response surface methodology

In this paper, the optimization of hydrogen (H₂) production by ammonia borane (NH₃BH₃) over PdCoAg/AC was investigated using the response surface methodology. Besides, the electro-oxidation of NH₃BH₃ was determined and optimized using the same method to measure its potential use in the direct ammonium boran fuel cells. Moreover, the ternary alloyed catalyst was synthesized using the chemical reduction method. The synergistic effect between Pd, Co and Ag plays an important role in enhancement of NH₃BH₃ hydrolysis. In addition, the support effect could also efficiently improve the catalytic performance. Furthermore, the effects of NH₃BH₃ concentration (0.1–50 mmol/5 mL), catalyst amount (1–30 mg) and temperature (20°C–50°C) on the rate of H₂ production and the effects of temperature (20°C–50°C), NH₃BH₃ concentration (0.05–1 mol/L) and catalyst amount (0.5–5 µL) on the electro-oxidation reaction of NH₃BH₃ were investigated using the central composite design experimental design. The implementation of the response surface methodology resulted in the formulation of four models out of which the quadratic model was adjudged to efficiently appropriate the experimental data. A further statistical analysis of the quadratic model demonstrated the significance of the model with a p-value far less than 0.05 for each model and coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.85 and 0.95 for H₂ production rate and NH₃BH₃ electrroxidation peak current, respectively.     

Reflections on what makes a good teacher

Nine 3-week-old conventional pigs were inoculated intranasally with a Korean isolate of porcine respiratory coronavirus (PRCV). Three 3-week-old conventional pigs were kept as noninoculated controls. Three inoculated and one control pig were euthanatized at 5, 10, and 15 days postinoculation (DPI), respectively. All nine inoculated pigs developed respiratory disease. Interstitial pneumonia characterized by mononuclear inflammatory cell infiltration into alveolar septa were seen microscopically in all nine PRCV-infected pigs. Histopathologic changes were severe at DPI, modest at 10 DPI, and almost resolved at 15 DPI. PRCV antigen was not detected in bronchial and bronchiolar epithelium but was detected in interstitial macrophages in the lungs. This Korean isolate of PRCV appeared to replicate primarily within alveolar macrophages in the respiratory system of the pig.