Association of plasma homovanillic acid with behavioral symptoms in patients diagnosed with dementia: a preliminary report

Neuroleptic treatment of psychotic symptoms or agitated behavior in elderly patients diagnosed with dementia is associated with reduced efficacy and increased rates of neuroleptic-induced parkinsonism in comparison to younger patients with schizophrenia. We report the first study to examine the relationship between an in vivo measure of dopaminergic function, plasma homovanillic acid (pHVA), and ratings of psychosis, agitation, and parkinsonism before and after neuroleptic treatment in dementia patients. Pretreatment pHVA was significantly correlated with parkinsonian rigidity, with a trend observed with agitation and hostility. Though mean pHVA did not change during perphenazine treatment, intraindividual change in pHVA at day 15 was correlated with improvement in hostility, with a similar trend for improvement in agitation. These preliminary findings are consistent with reports associating dopaminergic function with agitated, but not psychotic, symptoms in patients diagnosed with dementia, and with a reduced responsivity of dopaminergic systems to neuroleptic treatment in these patients.     

Targeted online liquid chromatography electron capture dissociation mass spectrometry for the localization of sites of in vivo phosphorylation in human Sprouty2

We demonstrate a strategy employing collision-induced dissociation for phosphopeptide discovery, followed by targeted electron capture dissociation (ECD) for site localization. The high mass accuracy and low background noise of the ECD mass spectra allow facile sequencing of coeluting isobaric phosphopeptides, with up to two isobaric phosphopeptides sequenced from a single mass spectrum. In contrast to the previously described neutral loss dependent ECD method, targeted ECD allows analysis of both phosphotyrosine peptides and lower abundance phosphopeptides. The approach was applied to phosphorylation analysis of human Sprouty2, a regulator of receptor tyrosine kinase signaling. Fifteen sites of phosphorylation were identified, 11 of which are novel.     

Brain–behavior correlations: Relationships between mother–stranger face processing and infants' behavioral responses to a separation from mother.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 6-month-olds (N = 30) as they looked at pictures of their mother's face and a stranger's face. Negative component (Nc) and P400 component responses from the ERP portion of the study were correlated with behavioral responses of the infants during a separation from their mothers. We measured the mother-directed infant behaviors of distress and visual search for mother during separation in order to determine if they were predictive of infants' brain responses to pictures of the mother's face versus a stranger's face. These behavioral measures are important because they likely reflect the functioning of the emerging mother–child relationship and inform debates about interactions between social experience and face processing. Infant distress and visual search for mother during separation were predictive of face processing ERPs, and this relationship differed across mother and stranger face presentations. In particular, distress was associated with larger amplitude P400 and Nc responses to the mother's face, and visual search for mother was associated with longer P400 and Nc latencies to the stranger's face. Implications for the developing mother–child relationship and face processing system are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tolerance design for the fit between bore and shaft for precision assemblies with significant error-scaling problems

An inspection procedure may be necessary when a process does not have the capability to produce parts that meet specifications. After inspection, the accepted parts then have a probability density function which is truncated. In a previous paper, the authors presented a method for the computation of tolerances for the fit between a bore and a shaft, based on the construction of a probabilistic model of the fit, using truncated probability density functions for the bore and shaft. In this paper, a method of design is presented for the computation of tolerances for the bore and shaft that are necessary to satisfy the tolerance of the fit and at the same time minimize the probability of rejection for the processes that produce the bore and shaft. Application is made to the situation where the variations in the dimensions of the parts may be large compared with their nominal dimension or the fit requirement of the assembly. Such a situation will be denoted as the error-scaling problem.     

Chronic cigarette smoking and the microstructural integrity of white matter in healthy adults: a diffusion tensor imaging study.

Results from recent studies suggest that chronic cigarette smoking is associated with increased white matter volume in the brain as determined by in vivo neuroimaging. We used diffusion tensor imaging to examine the microstructural integrity of the white matter in 10 chronic smokers and 10 nonsmokers. All individuals were healthy, without histories of medical or psychiatric illness. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and trace were measured in the genu, body, and splenium of the corpus callosum. FA provides a measure of directional versus nondirectional water diffusion, whereas trace provides a measure of nondirectional water diffusion. Lower FA and higher trace values are considered to reflect less brain integrity. Voxel-based morphometry was used to define volumes in each of these regions of the corpus callosum. Chronic smokers exhibited significantly higher FA in the body and whole corpus callosum and a strong trend for higher FA in the splenium compared with nonsmokers. FA did not differ between groups in the genu, and neither trace nor white matter volumes differed between groups in any of the regions of interest. When subdivided by Fagerstr?m score (low vs. high), the low Fagerstr?m group exhibited significantly higher FA in the body of the corpus callosum compared with the high Fagerstr?m group and the nonsmokers. These results suggest that, among healthy adults, lower exposure to cigarette smoking is associated with increased microstructural integrity of the white matter compared with either no exposure or higher exposure. Additional studies are needed to further explore differences in white matter integrity between smokers and nonsmokers.     

A fast switching segmented anode NPN controlled LIGBT

An ultrafast low energy loss lateral insulated gate bipolar transistor (LIGBT) with a novel segmented anode structure is demonstrated. The anode comprises segments of p/sup +/ and n/sup +//p (n/sup +/ region formed within a p-type region) along the width of the device. By simply varying the ratio of these segments the tradeoff between conduction and switching losses can be varied. Unlike an anode shorted structure this does not exhibit an undesirable snapback in its on-state characteristics. This structure is simple to realize in a CDMOS process without the need for any additional process steps.