The granulomatous response in murine Schistosomiasis mansoni does not switch to Th1 in IL-4-deficient C57BL/6 mice

IL-4 plays an important role in polarizing inflammation toward a Th2 response. It remains uncertain, however, whether IL-4 also serves to prevent expression of Th1 inflammation. Therefore, using a genetically pure C57BL/6 IL-4-deficient mouse, we studied the role of IL-4 in regulating the production of IFN-gamma and Th1 inflammation in the granulomas of mice infected with Schistosoma mansoni. In contrast to normal animals, IL-4 mutant mice generated smaller liver granulomas that contained fewer eosinophils and no mast cells. Collagenase-dispersed granuloma cells were analyzed by flow cytometry and cultured in vitro to measure cytokine and Ig production. Compared with control granuloma cells, IL-4-/- cells secreted only small quantities of IL-5 and IL-10. Also, there was impaired expression of the IL-4-dependent molecules IgE and IgG1 as well as B cell surface class II and CD23. Yet the granulomas of IL-4 -/- animals produced little IFN-gamma, IgG2a, or other molecules associated with Th1 inflammation even after Ag or anti-CD3 stimulation. Splenocytes from IL-4 -/- animals stimulated with schistosome Ag also failed to produce a Th1 response. Our data show that most aspects of the Th2 response in murine schistosomiasis are highly dependent on IL-4 production. But in the absence of IL-4, neither the natural local granulomatous response to schistosome ova nor the systemic response to soluble egg Ag switches to the type 1 phenotype. Thus the production of IL-4 early in the inflammatory response is not the only factor preventing Th1 expression in inflammation.     

Genitourinary trauma in the pediatric patient

Trauma is the major source of mortality in the pediatric population. A retrospective review was performed on patients admitted to the Children's Hospital and Health Center Trauma Program, San Diego, California, from August 1984 to May 1990. The purpose of this review was to evaluate pediatric trauma and to determine the best treatment and evaluation for genitourinary injuries. Blunt trauma was responsible for 98 percent of the injuries, with renal injuries being the most common. Bladder (7) and male urethral (2) injuries, and vaginal lacerations (8) also occurred. The most severe renal injuries (70%) and all significant bladder and urethral injuries were associated with gross hematuria. Hypotension was present in 31 percent of patients but rarely required surgical exploration for correction. Eighty-six patients underwent radiographic imaging. Computerized tomography (CT) scans demonstrated the most information about intra-abdominal solid organ injuries but was inaccurate in detecting bladder or urethral injuries. Genitourinary injury is common in children but rarely requires surgical management. CT scan is the best study to determine extent of solid-organ injury but is inferior to cystourethrography to diagnose bladder or urethral injuries.     

On perspectives, theories, models, and friends: A reply to the relationalists.

The authors respond to the "relational" issue of Psychoanalytic Psychology (PP; Vol. 12, No. 1) and support Karol Marshall's remonstration about the need to clarify what exactly the category relational refers to. It is noteworthy that in this issue of PP the relational thinkers do not engage the specific topics of our essay. The author's article attempted to review the most comprehensive relational thinkers of that time across theoretical variables. Relationalists have begun to spell out the technical consequences of their perspective in recent discussions of neutrality, authority, and self-disclosure, among other issues. This is a useful trend in the relational literature, and we hope it continues. We are concerned, however, that the relational thinkers writing in this issue tend to dismiss the contributions to PP 12(1) because the perspectives presented there did not satisfy the relationalist vision of how scientific exchange should be undertaken. Although we feel that it is important for emerging points of view to be able to elaborate assumptions, constructs, and principles within their own framework and in their own way, constructive dialogue, much less a comparative analysis of the contributions and limitations of different points of view, requires that we have some common ground. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Forward and Backward Simulations

A unified, comprehensive presentation of simulation techniques for verification of concurrent systems is given, in terms of a simple untimed automaton model. In particular, (1) refinements, (2) forward and backward simulations, (3) hybrid forward-backward and backward-forward simulations, and (4) history and prophecy relations are defined. History and prophecy relations are abstract versions of the history and prophecy variables of Abadi and Lamport, as well as the auxiliary variables of Owicki and Gries, Relationships between the different types of simulations, as well as soundness and completeness results, are stated and proved. Finally, it is shown how invariants can be incorporated into all the simulations. Even though many results are presented here for the first time, this paper can also be read as a survey (in a simple setting) of the research literature on simulation techniques. The development for untimed automata is designed to support a similar development for timed automata, Part II of this paper will show how the results of this paper can be carried over to the setting of timed automata.     

Anger reduction in early adolescents.

High-anger 6–8th graders received cognitive-relaxation coping skills (CRCS), social skills training (SST), or no treatment. Compared to the control, CRCS and SST were equally effective in reducing trait, general, and personal–situational anger and outward negative anger expression, as well as increasing controlled anger expression. On other variables, however, CRCS showed some superiority. Although both interventions led to equivalent reductions on one measure of anxiety, CRCS lowered depression, shyness, general deviance, and another measure of anxiety, whereas SST did not and was not significantly different from other groups. CRCS lowered school deviance more than SST. No between-group differences were found on self-esteem, alcohol consumption, or intoxication. Possible explanations of these findings were discussed, along with methodological issues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of processing and refrigeration on the bacterial numbers on beef and sheep offals

An investigation was carried out in a commercial abattoir on the influence of processing and refrigeration on a variety of beef and sheep offals. The influences of the different processes and the operations, to the bacterial load before refrigeration of the product, were determined. In general all the operations in the plant had an effect on the final bacterial load. The effect of inadequate refrigeration was noteworthy in all cases and this factor alone made the most significant contribution to the products having a poor shelf-life.     

The quantifier structure of sentences that characterize nondeterministic time complexity

For every nondeterministic Turing machineM of time complexityT(n), there is a second-order sentence of a very restricted form, whose set of finite models encodes the set of strings recognized byM. Specifically, has a relational symbol which is interpreted as addition restricted to finite segments of the natural numbers, and a prefix consisting of existentially quantified unary second-order variables followed by a universal-existential first-order part. Here, every input stringx is encoded by a model of sizeT(|x|). Using a closely related encoding of strings as models where the size of the model is the length of the string, a consequence is that ifT(n)=n ^d, then there is a sentence with a similar prefix but whose second-order variables ared-ary and whose finite models encode the strings accepted byM. Potential applications to low-level complexity are discussed.     

The role of the automation development group in analytical research and development at Dupont Merck

Laboratory robotics has been firmly established in many non-QC laboratories as a valuable tool for automating pharmaceutical dosage form analysis. Often a single project or product line is used to justify an initial robot purchase thus introducing robotics to the laboratory for the first time. However, to gain widespread acceptance within the laboratory and to justify further investment in robotics, existing robots must be used to develop analyses for existing manual methods as well as new projects beyond the scope off the original purchase justification. The Automation Development Group in Analytical Research and Development is a team of analysts primarily devoted to developing new methods and adapting existing methods for the robot. This team approach developed the expertise and synergy necessary to significantly expand the contribution of robotics to automation in the authors'' laboratory.     

Note: flowing ion population from a resonance cavity source

The experimental low energy plasma for hemispherical analyzers nominal testing thermal plasma facility of Dartmouth College uses a microwave plasma source which generates an ionosphere-like plasma through a two-step process. The plasma is initially generated inside a cylindrical, insulated, resonance cavity. This initial plasma must pass through a sheath in order to enter the main experimental region. This process imparts a significant flow velocity to the ions which has been neglected in previous analysis of this plasma source. We predict the flow energy of the ions to be between 12-15 eV depending on conservation laws and show agreement with experimental results.