An improved analysis of experimental data from 125 I hot-line autoradiographs: allowing for the effects of background grains

In this paper we suggest a new statistical method of correcting the results of hot-line experiments for the effects of background sources and we use the new method to reassess the adequacy of three probability distributions proposed in the literature for image spread from line sources. The data are from sources labelled with ¹²⁵I in semi-thin resin sections 0·4-0·8 μm in thickness. The new method reveals that two of the models describe the empirical distributions more closely than earlier analysis had suggested, and it confirms an increasing relationship between half distance of image spread and the thickness of the source. However, it also confirms that considerable ‘inter hot-line’ experimental variation remains, even after background correction. This suggests that multiple experiments are needed to produce reliable estimates of half distance.     

A new adaptation of mapping method to study mixing of multiphase flows in mixers with complex geometries

The main objective of the present work is to modify the traditional mapping method for the simulation of distributive mixing of multiphase flows in geometries involving moving parts such as, internal mixers or twin-screw extruders without a limitation on their geometrical periodicity. The periodicity condition, limits the results of traditional mapping method to tracking mapping mesh between specific discrete time intervals or distances for that geometry is repeated, hence, result is only for fixed orientation of rotors. Imaginary domain method is introduced to track mapping mesh from one state to the next free of geometrical periodicity limitations. In this work the method is introduced and its applicability and accuracy is discussed in details. A two-dimensional (2D) simulation of mixing of two Newtonian fluids with different viscosities in an intermeshing internal mixer is used as a test case study. In this example the key issues of ability to predict mixing state in details for all orientations of rotors is presented. To reduce diffusion errors of mapping method in the boundaries of the rotors, mapping mesh refinement technique that relies upon one single reference mesh is also presented.     

Trauma, dissociation, and conflict: The space where neuroscience, cognitive science, and psychoanalysis overlap.

The authors describe their scientific and clinical interests in developing the panel Trauma, Dissociation, and Conflict: The Space Where Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, and Psychoanalysis Overlap, given at the 22nd Annual Spring Meeting of the Division of Psychoanalysis of the American Psychological Association. They cite the influence of the panelists, Philip M. Bromberg, Wilma Bucci, and Joseph LeDoux, on their own work. Specializing in the treatment of chronic pain, Anderson has developed a relational intersubjective technique informed by this interdisciplinary approach. Gold's work has focused on the distinction between dissociative processes and repression in traumatic memory. The relevance of trauma, dissociation, and conflict, heightened since September 11, 2001, could not have been anticipated in the planning of the panel. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Tool Support for Reusing ELAN Rule-Based Components

The adaptation of software components developed for a specific application in order to generate reusable components often includes some kind of generalization. This generalization may be carried out, for instance, by the renaming of some identifiers or by its parameterization. In our work, we are specially interested in the generalization by parameterization of algebraic specification components. Generalization and some other transformations on algebraic specifications are being integrated in the FERUS tool. This tool was initially developed for the Common Algebraic Specification Language, called CASL, and we show in the paper its adaptation to the new version of the rule-based programming language ELAN.     

Artefactual cleavage of E coli H-NS by OmpT

In the bacterium Escherichia coli, H-NS-(H1, H1a) is a heat-stable protein with a molecular mass of 15.5 kDa involved in nucleoid organisation and gene regulation linked to certain signal transduction pathways. We have shown that, following addition of preparations of everted inner membrane vesicles, heat-stable cleavage products of approximately 10 kDa of H-NS are formed in vitro from newly synthesised, radio-labelled H-NS and from purified H-NS. The 15.5 kDa protein and its cleavage products were also recovered from a minicell system. These results raised the possibility that cleavage of H-NS is physiologically significant. However, the cleavage of H-NS observed appears to occur during cell breakage and to depend on the method of protein extraction and the presence of the outer membrane protease, OmpT. Nevertheless, the results indicate that H-NS may contain at least two separate domains with cleavage occurring between these domains at a preferred OmpT site. Failure to take account of H-NS cleavage in sample preparation and analysis can lead to serious underestimation of H-NS levels.     

Fungal carriage in lizards

The occurrence of fungi was investigated in the gut of 200 common garden lizards (Agama agama). The most important pathogenic fungus isolated was Basidiobolus haptosporus, an aetiological agent of subcutaneous zygomycosis. It was recovered from the intestinal contents of 112 (56%) lizards. Other important fungi isolated included Aspergillus spp. in 24 (12%) lizards, Candida spp. in 12 (6%), Penicillium spp. in 12 (6%) and Fusarium spp. in 12 (6%). Mucor spp. were isolated from eight (4%) male lizards only. Agamid lizards are plentiful in rural and urban areas of Nigeria. As they live in close vicinity to man, they are likely to play an important role in the spread of disease that may be caused by these fungi and its transmission to man. None of the animals investigated that yielded fungal cultures revealed any external fungal infection.     

Alpha 2 mRNA of Na+K+ ATPase is increased in astroctyes of rat hippocampus after treatment with kainic acid

The Na+K+ ATPase (Na+ pump) plays a central role in regulating cation homeostasis and is thought to have an important role in cell proliferation. The multitude of subunit isoforms comprising the functional Na+K+ ATPase has raised the possibility that specific subunit isoform combinations may be involved in different cellular processes. We have investigated the involvement of the specific isoforms in neurons and glia at the site of a CNS lesion. Intracerebroventricular injection of kainic acid was used to induce neuronal cell loss and reactive gliosis in rat hippocampus and levels of Na+K+ ATPase subunit isoform mRNA levels were determined in cells of rat hippocampus using in situ hybridization. alpha 2 mRNA levels increased 35-40% in CA1 and CA3 astrocytes between 1-3 weeks after KA injection with no significant change in other subunit isoform mRNA levels. In addition alpha 3 mRNA levels in CA1 pyramidal neurons were decreased by approx. 35%. Small neurons in the CA1 and CA3 region showed no changes in mRNA levels for any of the Na+K+ ATPase subunit isoforms. These results may indicate a possible role for alpha 2 subunit isoform in the conversion of glial cells from a normal phenotype to the reactive phenotype characteristic in this model of CNS injury.     

Subcontinuations

Continuations have proven to be useful for implementing a variety of control structures, including exception handling facilities and breadth-first searching algorithms. However, traditional continuations are not useful in the presence of concurrency, because the notion of the rest of the computation represented by a continuation does not in general make sense. Traditional continuations can also be difficult to use in nonconcurrent settings, since their global nature is sometimes problematic. This article presents a new type of continuation, called asubcontinuation. Just as a traditional continuation represents the rest of a computation ¿from a given point in the computation, a subcontinuation represents the rest of asubcomputation ¿from a given point in the subcomputation. Subcontinuations may be used to control tree-structured concurrency by allowing nonlocal exits to arbitrary points in a process tree and allowing the capture of a subtree of a computation as a composable continuation for later use. In the absence of concurrency the localized control achievable with subcontinuations makes them more useful than traditional continuations.