The regulation of British colonial lunatic asylums and the origins of colonial psychiatry, 1860–1864.

In this paper I outline a brief period in the history of the British Empire, during which colonial lunatic asylum policy began to be formulated. I begin with a scandal that erupted in Jamaica and suggest that this set in motion processes that led to critical changes in asylum administration. The first of these processes was an audit of hospitals and asylums in the colonies. The results of the audit and the policy that emerged from it marked the beginning of systematic regulation of lunatic asylum practice across the British Empire. It revealed a formulation of policy that was intended to cut across the self-governing regimes that had up to this point been allowed to evolve. Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault and Nikolas Rose, I argue that the policy and the practices associated with it contribute to an understanding of the emergence of the psy-sciences in colonial settings. They illustrate the establishment of a panoptic gaze on previously neglected insane spaces. Systematic surveillance constituted government at a distance and made colonial lunacy administration a governable discursive space. The regulation of the medical officers, lunatic attendants, and hospital boards began the process of creating a professional psychiatric workforce. I conclude with a discussion of the implications and the mixed impact of this policy change for the mentally ill across the empire, over the ensuing decades. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Associations between jet lag and cortisol diurnal rhythms after domestic travel.

Objective: Millions of adults in the United States travel abruptly across time zones each year. Nevertheless, the impact of traveling over relatively short distances (across 3 or fewer time zones) on diurnal patterning of typical physiological response patterns has yet to be studied in a large, epidemiological sample. Design: The current research focuses on 764 middle-aged men comparing variations in diurnal cortisol regulation based on number of time zones traveled eastward or westward the day before. Main Outcome Measure: Participants provided samples of salivary cortisol at waking, 30-min postwaking, 10 a.m., 3 p.m., and bedtime. Results: Eastward travel was associated with a steeper salivary cortisol awakening response (p     

A stochastic model for early placental development

In the human, placental structure is closely related to placental function and consequent pregnancy outcome. Studies have noted abnormal placental shape in small-for-gestational-age infants which extends to increased lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease. The origins and determinants of placental shape are incompletely understood and are difficult to study in vivo. In this paper, we model the early development of the human placenta, based on the hypothesis that this is driven by a chemoattractant effect emanating from proximal spiral arteries in the decidua. We derive and explore a two-dimensional stochastic model, and investigate the effects of loss of spiral arteries in regions near to the cord insertion on the shape of the placenta. This model demonstrates that disruption of spiral arteries can exert profound effects on placental shape, particularly if this is close to the cord insertion. Thus, placental shape reflects the underlying maternal vascular bed. Abnormal placental shape may reflect an abnormal uterine environment, predisposing to pregnancy complications. Through statistical analysis of model placentas, we are able to characterize the probability that a given placenta grew in a disrupted environment, and even able to distinguish between different disruptions.     

‘Don't forget to put the cat out’ — or why collaborative authoring software and everyday writing pass one another by!

Abstract

Hypermedia technology is seen as offering potentially innovative support for the process of writing as much as information access and reading. However authoring environments to date have had little impact in the real-world production of text. One possible reason is our poor conceptualisation of current writing practice. In the present paper, 31 adult writers kept diaries of their writing activities over the course of one week. The results indicate that for most people, real world writing is a short communicative act aimed at a limited audience and that technological support for such writing is less likely to resemble a hypermedia workstation than a portable personal communication device. Implications for work in the design of authoring tools are developed.     

Solving reverse logistics vehicle routing problems with time windows

A vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pick-up and delivery in closed-loop logistics network optimization is studied in this paper. Since, in practice, material pick-up and delivery are only allowed to take place on certain time periods, we consider the reverse logistics vehicle routing problem with time windows. A mixed integer programming model is proposed to formulate the considered problem. A heuristic solution approach for solving the model is developed due to the NP-hard nature of solving the model. The heuristic solution is then used as an initial solution of a simulated annealing procedure for improved solutions. The proposed heuristic method and the simulated annealing procedure yield very promising solutions in much less computational time when compared with optimal solutions generated by exact solution procedures. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the developed model and solution methods.     

Incorporating domain knowledge into attribute‐oriented data mining

It is frequently the case that data mining is carried out in an environment which contains noisy and missing data. This is particularly likely to be true when the data were originally collected for different purposes, as is commonly the case in data warehousing. In this paper we discuss the use of domain knowledge, e.g., integrity constraints or a concept hierarchy, to re‐engineer the database and allocate sets to which missing or unacceptable outlying data may belong. Attribute‐oriented knowledge discovery has proved to be a powerful approach for mining multi‐level data in large databases. Such methods are set‐oriented in that attribute values are considered to belong to subsets of the domain. These subsets may be provided directly by the database or derived from a knowledge base using inductive logic programming to re‐engineer the database. In this paper we develop an algorithm which allows us to aggregate imprecise data and use it for multi‐level rule induction and knowledge discovery. ©2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Modulation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Enhanced Therapeutic Utility in Ischemic Vascular Diseases

Mesenchymal stem cells are multipotent stem cells isolated from various tissue sources, including but not limited to bone marrow, adipose, umbilical cord, and Wharton Jelly. Although cell-mediated mechanisms have been reported, the therapeutic effect of MSCs is now recognized to be primarily mediated via paracrine effects through the secretion of bioactive molecules, known as the “secretome”. The regenerative benefit of the secretome has been attributed to trophic factors and cytokines that play neuroprotective, anti-angiogenic/pro-angiogenic, anti-inflammatory, and immune-modulatory roles. The advancement of autologous MSCs therapy can be hindered when introduced back into a hostile/disease environment. Barriers include impaired endogenous MSCs function, limited post-transplantation cell viability, and altered immune-modulatory efficiency. Although secretome-based therapeutics have gained popularity, many translational hurdles, including the heterogeneity of MSCs, limited proliferation potential, and the complex nature of the secretome, have impeded the progress. This review will discuss the experimental and clinical impact of restoring the functional capabilities of MSCs prior to transplantation and the progress in secretome therapies involving extracellular vesicles. Modulation and utilization of MSCs–secretome are most likely to serve as an effective strategy for promoting their ultimate success as therapeutic modulators.     

Evaluation of carbon-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic matrices in a flat braid process

An investigation was conducted to evaluate the effect of blending thermoplastic filament fibers with carbon filament fibers in varying yarn forms to study the efficiency of matrix wetting and infiltration into a laminate. Poly(etheretherketone) (PEEK) and poly(phenylene sulfide) (PPS) were studied in commingled, DREF, and powder form, as a flat triaxial braid. The as-braided and laminated specimens were both subjected to tensile testing and optical microscopy to establish the efficiency of the impregnation process. It was observed that both thermoplastic matrices commingled with carbon yarn maximized the tensile properties and produced the best quality laminate. To impart the best translational properties of the thermoplastic matrix to the carbon/thermoplastic composite, improvements are necessary in the commingling and powder infiltration processes.     

The external validity of Asperger disorder: Lack of evidence from the domain of neuropsychology.

The present study compared individuals with high-functioning autism (HFA) and Asperger disorder (AD) in intellectual, motor, visuospatial, and executive function domains. Participants with AD demonstrated significantly higher Verbal and Full Scale IQ scores, significantly larger Verbal–Performance IQ discrepancies, and significantly better visual–perceptual skills than those with HFA. Once the superior intellectual abilities of the AD group were controlled (both statistically through analysis of covariance and by examining IQ-matched subgroups of HFA and AD participants), no significant group differences in motor, visuospatial, or executive functions were evident, save a marginally significant trend toward poorer fine motor performance in the AD group. This suggests that AD may simply be "high-IQ autism" and that separate names for the disorders may not be warranted. The relation of these findings to theories of autism and AD are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)