Microtubules regulate pulmonary vascular smooth muscle contraction

Two patients with cluster-tic syndrome are reported. The first, a 43-years-old man, complaining of trigeminal pain in the right side of the face, accompanied by homolateral autonomic signs, such as ocular injection, sweating and drooped eyelid. The cluster attack was triggered by chewing, shaving and washing the face. The periodicity of bouts was six months. The pain was relieved by carbamazepine (800 mg/day). The second patient, a 43-year-old man, with an excruciant, neuralgic pain in the left side of the face, accompanied by tearing, conjuntival injection, drooped eyelid, rhinorrhea, photophobia and phonophobia. The neurologic examination showed triggered points in the first and second division of the trigeminal nerve. The patient was treated with verapamil (160 mg/day) and prednisone (60 mg/day), with relief of his symptoms. The periodicity of bouts was once a year. The literature was reviewed and 37 cases previosly reported are considered. We conclude that there are two different groups of patients. In the first group, the patients had cluster and trigeminal bouts in different time. In the second group, with only nine cases, the patients presented both cluster and trigeminal type of pain at the same time, as in the two cases reported here.     

A renewed study of singly ionized boron

Some energy levels and lifetimes in B II have been studied using classical emission spectroscopy and beam-foil spectroscopy. Revisions are suggested for the excitation energies of the 2s3s ¹S and 2s5p ¹P⁰ levels. The 2p3s ¹P⁰ and 2s6p ¹P⁰ terms have also been located. Lifetimes have measured for the 2s2p ¹P⁰, 2p²¹S, 2s3d ¹D and 2p²³P levels. The results are compared with theoretical data.     

Bulk storage applications in the illiac IV system

In the next year several fourth generation machines with performance in the 100 million instructions per second range will become available. The Illiac IV is one of these machines. With the advent of these machines it will become practical to include an extra dimension, or to greatly increase the resolution of many mesh calculations. Problems which are currently constrained to two spatial dimensions can be expanded to three dimensions, and problems which are currently limited to one spatial dimension can be expanded to include two. This expansion in dimensionality and refinement in resolution implies an increase of approximately two orders of magnitude in the size of the problem's data base. The Unicon 690 mass-memory system will have two distinct uses in the Illiac IV system. The primary use of the Unicon 690 will be to act as a replacement for the conventional restart-output tapes which are generated in the course of large mesh calculations. The Unicon 690 will also act as a storage resource for the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) network. The ARPA net is a collection of some twenty computers, interconnected by a 50 000 bit/s network of telephone lines and interface message processors. To facilitate the use as a resource on the ARPA net, a conventional computer will be interfaced to the 690 to act as a file manager. Performance parameters of the Unicon 690 are certainly not optimal for this requirement. As is generally the case, higher transfer and lower access time are desirable.     

The content and manipulation of cognitive maps in children and adults

Comparison of cognitive maps generated by first graders, fifth graders, and college students using a triangulation task revealed that the first graders possessed very accurate, coherent cognitive maps. However, analyses of the cognitive maps generated when Ss were asked to imagine either the room rotating (mental rotation) or themselves moving within the room (perspective-taking) revealed that the accuracy and completeness of the mental manipulation increased dramatically with age. Only the cognitive maps of the college students were coherent and accurate during mental rotation than during perspective-taking. Careful attention was given to the types of errors made, and several systematic error patterns were identified which reflected qualitative differences. These qualitative differences indicated mental manipulation was a two-stage process. In the first stage, a strategy of transformation was applied to the ordinal spatial relationships contained within the cognitive map. First graders evidenced difficulty here. In the second stage, more specific relationships between self and spatial layout were reconstructed. Fifth graders evidenced difficulty here. In contrast, college students were able to complete both stages of the process.     

Light propagation in twisted anisotropic media: application to photoreceptors

The propagation of light through a slowly twisting anisotropic medium is described by a coupled-mode theory; expressions are derived for the electric field for the case of a birefringent dichroic medium with a constant rate of twist. The method provides a simple and intuitive means for determing the effect of twisting on the linear birefringence and dichroic absorption of the medium, particularly when the light is initially linearly polarized. The theory is well suited to the analysis of light absorption in twisting insect photoreceptors, such as found in bees and ants. We provide full expressions and useful approximations for polarization sensitivity and the initial direction of polarization to give maximum absorption for several types of photoreceptors.     

Ruling out postnatal origins to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-like behaviors in a seizure-prone rat strain.

Adult Fast (seizure-prone) and Slow (seizure-resistant) kindling rat strains exhibit divergent behaviors in paradigms relevant to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in humans. Similar dissociations in rodent behavior have been linked to disparities in early life experience, suggesting that differential maternal care or postnatal interactions may underlie these behaviors. Consequently, the authors compared maternal behavior and preweaning pup weights in these 2 strains under control and cross-fostered conditions and examined its effects on subsequent adult offspring behavior. Ultimately, several distinct maternal behaviors were apparent between the 2 strains under control conditions, and some of those behaviors were then malleable by pup condition. Yet, in spite of the resultant complex maternal patterns across groups, all offspring showed behavioral phenotypes akin to their genetic strain. Thus, a specific postnatal environment is unlikely to underwrite ADHD-like behaviors in the seizure-prone Fast rats, which implicates a genetic or prenatal origin for the ADHD phenotype. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

In the eyes of the beholder: A non-self-report measure of workplace deviance.

Because employees may be reluctant to admit to performing deviant acts, the authors of this study reexamined the commonly used self-report measure of workplace deviance developed by R. J. Bennett and S. L. Robinson (2000). Specifically, the self-report measure was modified into a non-self-report measure based on multiple other-reported assessments to address methodological concerns with self-reported information regarding deviant workplace behaviors. The authors assessed the psychometric properties of this new measure by first conducting an exploratory factor analysis, which indicated a 3-factor structure (production deviance, property deviance, and personal aggression). Subsequent confirmatory factor analysis on a different sample verified these findings. Taken together, the results suggest that the content and psychometric qualities of this non-self-report measure of workplace deviance closely represent S. L. Robinson and R. J. Bennett's (1995) original typology of workplace deviance. The potential usefulness of this measure in organizational studies is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Yeast vitality during cider fermentation: assessment by energy metabolism

In an apple juice-based medium, an ethanol-tolerant Australian wine-yeast used for cider manufacture produced more than 10% ethanol over a 5 week period. Growth of the inoculum (10(6) organisms ml(-1)) occurred to a population of 3.1 x 10(7) ml(-1) during the first few days; at the end of the fermentation only 5 x 10(5) yeasts ml(-1) could be recovered as colony-forming units on plates. Respiratory and fermentative activities were measured by mass spectrometric measurements (O2 consumption and CO2 and ethanol production) of washed yeast suspensions taken from the cider fermentation at intervals. Both endogenous and glucose-supported energy-yielding metabolism declined, especially during the first 20 days. Levels of adenine nucleotides also showed decreases after day 1, as did adenylate energy charge, although in a prolonged (16.5 week) fermentation the lowest value calculated was 0.55. AMP was released into the medium. 31P-NMR spectra showed that by comparison with aerobically grown yeast, that from the later stages of the cider fermentation showed little polyphosphate. However, as previously concluded from studies of 'acidification power' and fluorescent oxonol dye exclusion (Dinsdale et al., 1995), repitching of yeast indicated little loss of viability despite considerable loss of vitality.     

Determining the extent of biodegradation of fuels using the diastereomers of acyclic isoprenoids

Improved testing and remediation procedures for sites contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons are a priority in remote cold regions such as Antarctica, where costs are higher and remediation times are longer. Isoprenoid/n-alkane ratios are commonly used to determine the extent of biodegradation at low levels but are not useful once the n-alkanes have been removed. This study demonstrates how the diastereomers of the acyclic isoprenoids can be used to determine the extent of biodegradation in moderately biodegraded fuel in soils from a bioremediation trial at Casey Station, Antarctica. The biological diastereomers of pristane (meso; RS = SR) are depleted more rapidly during moderate biodegradation than the geological or mature diastereomers (RR and SS), and thus, the ratio of pristane diastereomers can determine the level of biodegradation. The statistical difference among mean diastereomer ratios for samples grouped according to the biodegradation scale and pristane/phytane ratios was highly significant. The ratios of norpristane and phytane diastereomers also change with biodegradation in a similar fashion, and different levels of sensitivity exist for each. Additional benefits are that the method can be performed on conventional gas chromatographs by non-specialist chemists and that the ratios are independent of evaporation and do not necessarily require a non-biodegraded reference (T0) sample. This study details a simple alternative method for determining the extent of biodegradation of fuels at moderate levels that can be applied to a wide range of petroleum products.