The frequency of disfluencies during phonatory transitions in stuttered and nonstuttered speech

The AA. investigated the frequency of antibodies against Toxoplasma gondii in 426 women with repeated abortions, perinatal mortality and malformed newborns. They showed on the whole a low incidence even if they demonstrated a high incidence (77.7%) of antibodies in women with malformed newborns. The meaning of the observations are briefly discussed.     

The microwave characterization of single crystal lithium and calcium fluoride at cryogenic temperatures

The whispering-gallery mode method is used for very accurate permittivity and dielectric loss measurements of single crystal lithium fluoride (LiF) and calcium fluoride (CaF2) over the temperature range of 4.5 K to 300 K. The absolute uncertainty in the real part of permittivity was estimated to be less than 0.1%, and it was limited principally by uncertainty in dimensions of the samples. Dielectric losses were measured with uncertainties of about 10% limited by the accuracy of Q-factor measurements. The measured materials exhibited dielectric losses between 2-4 x 10(-7) near 5 K. The relative permittivity was evaluated as 6.502 (4.9 K) to 6.844 (296 K) at 17.5 GHz for CaF2 and 8.534 (4.6 K) to 9.063 (300 K) at 13.5 GHz for LiF.     

Tissue reactions induced by Schistosoma mansoni in Biomphalaria glabrata

In Biomphalaria glabrata with a strong natural resistance, Schistosoma mansoni sporocysts are rapidly encapsulated by granulocytes and killed, mainly by the strong phagocytic activity of the cells. Irradiated Echinostoma paraensei sporocysts seem able to suppress the function of the granulocytes. Tissue reactions in snails with self-cure demonstrate: involvement of two types of cells, granulocytes and hyalinocyte-like cells; formation of amoeba-fibrous capsules; limited tendency of granulocytes to become attracted to the parasites; a slow process of parasite destruction; and a possible involvement of humoral factors. It seems that there is partial suppression of the granulocyte function in smails with self-cure.     

Report of the Treasurer: 1982. 90 Years of Balancing Budgets.

The APA Treasurer reports on the financial status of the Association. The purchase of Psychology Today in 1983 is noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Physical characteristics of pig fat and their relation to fatty acid composition

One hundred and five samples of pig backfat were assessed for appearance (colour and translucency) and hardness. The fatty acid profile of a selected subset of 50 samples was determined. Increased yellow colour was associated with increased linoleic and α-linolenic acid percentages. Increased translucency and fat softness were associated with decreased percentages of palmitic and stearic and oleic acid and a concurrent increase in the proportions of linoleic and α-linolenic acid. Oleic acid was found to be the single highest component (33.0-45.4%) and linoleic to show the greatest variation in range (9.8-28.4%).     

Demonstration of a non-steroidal,non-inhibin factor in the ovine corpus luteum of pregnancy that reduces pituitary responsiveness to GnRH-induced LH secretion in vitro

The decline in pulsatile LH secretion and pituitary responsiveness to GnRH as pregnancy advances may be due to non-steroidal factors secreted by the ovine corpus luteum of pregnancy. Corpora lutea from ten ewes on days 70-80 of gestation were homogenized, charcoal-treated and, together with charcoal-treated follicular fluid from superovulated women, were subjected to inhibin immunoaffinity chromatography, reducing dimeric inhibin A and B by >90% and abolishing inhibin bioactivity. These preparations were investigated using cultures of rat pituitary cells. GnRH-induced LH and FSH secretion in vitro was reduced by ovine corpus luteum extract and human follicular fluid by 47+/-5% and 42+/-5% of control LH and by 37+/-5% and 50+/-10% of control FSH, respectively (P<0.001). Extracts prepared from corpora lutea and placentae that were collected on days 50, 90 and 120 of pregnancy (five ewes per stage of pregnancy) showed increased GnRH-induced LH-suppressing bioactivity, particularly in the case of the placental extracts, with a threefold increase in activity. When partially purified by pseudochromatofocusing, GnRH-induced LH-suppressing bioactivity in extracts of ovine corpora lutea was identified at pH 5.40 and 5.77. Although these values are similar to published gonadotrophin surge-attenuating factor (GnSAF) bioactivity pI values, a GnSAF-blocking antiserum had no consistent effect on ovine corpus luteum extract GnRH-induced LH-suppressing bioactivity. It was concluded that the ovine corpus luteum of pregnancy contains a non-steroidal, non-inhibin factor, probably not GnSAF, that has the ability to reduce pituitary responsiveness to GnRH in vitro.     

Addition patterns, codes and contact graphs for fullerene derivatives

The mathematical concept of the d-code and its associated contact graph give a model for sterically constrained addition patterns in fullerene derivatives C60Xm and C70Xm. In combination with simple electronic arguments, the stoichiometries, symmetries, and location of addends can be predicted, yielding a small number of candidates for further study. For example, sterically and optimal solutions C60Xm with pairwise separation of d bonds between addends are found at m(d) = 24(2), 12(3), 6(4,5), 2(6 to 9). The solution for C60X24 is unique, and the model selects 12 candidates for C60X12 from a starting set of 11661527060 possibilities.     

A stochastic approach to quantifying the blur with uncertainty estimation for high-energy X-ray imaging systems

One of the primary causes of blur in a high-energy X-ray imaging system is the shape and extent of the radiation source, or ‘spot’. It is important to be able to quantify the size of the spot as it provides a lower bound on the recoverable resolution for a radiograph, and penumbral imaging methods – which involve the analysis of blur caused by a structured aperture – can be used to obtain the spot’s spatial profile. We present a Bayesian approach for estimating the spot shape that, unlike variational methods, is robust to the initial choice of parameters. The posterior is obtained from a normal likelihood, which was constructed from a weighted least squares approximation to a Poisson noise model, and prior assumptions that enforce both smoothness and non-negativity constraints. A Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm is used to obtain samples from the target posterior, and the reconstruction and uncertainty estimates are the computed mean and variance of the samples, respectively. Synthetic data-sets are used to demonstrate accurate reconstruction, while real data taken with high-energy X-ray imaging systems are used to demonstrate applicability and feasibility.