Value of percutaneous ethanol injection in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma in a cirrhotic liver]

Over the last few decades there has been a substantially higher percentage of successful organ transplants but also a significant imbalance between the demand for and the supply of organs, creating the basis for a highly profitable black market trade in human organs. Sometimes there are reports that children have been kidnapped, only to reappear later lacking one kidney, or that they simply disappear and are subsequently killed to have all their transplantable organs removed for profit. The European Union feels that there is a need for action and that it has a duty to act in this field, especially for ethical reasons. There is now established close co-operation between the various European transplant organizations. The legal protection of children with regard to organ transplantation is not specifically mentioned in the existing conventions because this issue was not foreseen at the time of their preparation. However, the issue is covered in a broader sense by more general provisions. There are endless rumours surrounding this area. Members of various organizations who travel in the suspected countries say that the trafficking in children who are sold for transplantation is well known, but it is too difficult and very dangerous to catch the people involved. We have to conclude that it has been impossible to prove or disprove the rumours, but they are consistent and we all, especially in the health care professions, have an obligation to be keenly aware of how and where organs are obtained.     

Children's beliefs about drinking

This paper reports the results of a study in which age (grade level), racial/ethnic, and gender differences in beliefs and perceived norms about drinking were examined in a multi-ethnic urban sample of 4th through 7th grade children. Results showed that older children held beliefs and perceived norms that were more favorable toward drinking than younger children. The major difference between older and younger children lay in their differential estimates of the likelihood of certain consequences occurring and not in their evaluation of these consequences of drinking. Further, older children not only displayed less motivation to comply with their parents and greater motivation to comply with their peers, but they also perceived their parents, as well as their peers, as less disapproving of drinking than did younger children. There were few gender or race/ethnicity differences at these ages in children's beliefs and perceived norms about drinking.     

Roles of word frequency and age of acquisition in word naming and lexical decision.

Six experiments are reported that contrasted the effects of frequency and age of acquisition on written word recognition. Age of acquisition affected word-naming speed when frequency was controlled (Experiment 1), but there was no effect of frequency when age of acquisition was controlled (Experiment 2). Experiments 3 and 4 found an effect of age of acquisition upon immediate but not delayed naming speed, but no frequency effect on either immediate or delayed naming once age of acquisition was controlled. Independent effects of frequency and age of acquisition were observed in the lexical decision task (Experiments 5 and 6). Implications for theoretical accounts of word recognition and the possible roles of age of acquisition and frequency in word recognition are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What can the history of AI learn from the history of science?

There have been few attempts, so far, to document the history of artificial intelligence. It is argued that the historical sociology of scientific knowledge can provide a broad historiographical approach for the history of AI, particularly as it has proved fruitful within the history of science in recent years. The article shows how the sociology of knowledge can inform and enrich four types of project within the history of AI; organizational history; AI viewed as technology; AI viewed as cognitive science and historical biography. In the latter area the historical treatments of Darwin and Turing are compared to warn against the pitfalls of rational reconstructions of the past.     

Code generation for a family of executable modelling notations

We are investigating semantically configurable model-driven engineering (MDE). The goal of this work is a modelling environment that supports flexible, configurable modelling notations, in which specifiers can configure the semantics of notations to suit their needs and yet still have access to the types of analysis tools and code generators normally associated with MDE. In this paper, we describe semantically configurable code generation for a family of behavioural modelling notations. The family includes variants of statecharts, process algebras, Petri Nets, and SDL88. The semantics of this family is defined using template semantics, which is a parameterized structured operational semantics in which parameters represent semantic variation points. A specific notation is derived by instantiating the family’s template semantics with parameter values that specify semantic choices. We have developed a code-generator generator (CGG) that creates a suitable Java code generator for a subset of derivable modelling notations. Our prototype CGG supports 26 semantics parameters, 89 parameter values, and 7 composition operators. As a result, we are able to produce code generators for a sizable family of modelling notations, though at present the performance of our generated code is about an order of magnitude slower than that produced by commercial-grade generators.     

MSW devices for EW receiver applications

Conclusion Significant improvements are required in the performance of MSW dispersive delay lines and filter banks before they are ready for systems application. Typically delay lines with bandwidths of 1 GHz or greater, differential delays in the range 200 ns to 1s, and minimum phase errors (<±1 °) are required for large (40 dB) dynamic range compressive receivers. However, techniques are evolving (see rest of this issue) in this relatively new area of technology which will allow systems performance requirements on phase errors to be met. Possible approaches to low phase error dispersive delay lines include reflective arrays, stepped ground planes, and multiple YIG films. The stepped ground plane technique is the most advanced and uses an optimization approach to the delay-line design, which results in a minimum phase error [20]. Ultimately the minimum achievable phase error will be limited by reflections from transducers and multiple mode effects in the delay lines. The MSW compressive receiver requires parallel advances in high-speed digital processing techniques to achieve its full potential.The MSW filter bank provides a simple channelization technique applicable up to approximately 20 GHz. Narrowband channels with 10 dB insertion loss, 3 dB bandwidths of 10 to 40 MHz, and 50 dB bandwidths of 30 to 120 MHz are possible with the already demonstrated techniques. Broader bandwidth channels in the range 50 to 200 MHz with flat passband response require improved transducer design techniques. The channelized receiver does not require extremely high-speed operations but, since a large number of channels are involved, size and cost become very significant.     

Gap Junctional Communication via Connexin43 between Purkinje Fibers and Working Myocytes Explains the Epicardial Activation Pattern in the Postnatal Mouse Left Ventricle

The mammalian ventricular myocardium forms a functional syncytium due to flow of electrical current mediated in part by gap junctions localized within intercalated disks. The connexin (Cx) subunit of gap junctions have direct and indirect roles in conduction of electrical impulse from the cardiac pacemaker via the cardiac conduction system (CCS) to working myocytes. Cx43 is the dominant isoform in these channels. We have studied the distribution of Cx43 junctions between the CCS and working myocytes in a transgenic mouse model, which had the His-Purkinje portion of the CCS labeled with green fluorescence protein. The highest number of such connections was found in a region about one-third of ventricular length above the apex, and it correlated with the peak proportion of Purkinje fibers (PFs) to the ventricular myocardium. At this location, on the septal surface of the left ventricle, the insulated left bundle branch split into the uninsulated network of PFs that continued to the free wall anteriorly and posteriorly. The second peak of PF abundance was present in the ventricular apex. Epicardial activation maps correspondingly placed the site of the first activation in the apical region, while some hearts presented more highly located breakthrough sites. Taken together, these results increase our understanding of the physiological pattern of ventricular activation and its morphological underpinning through detailed CCS anatomy and distribution of its gap junctional coupling to the working myocardium.     

Novel Cell Permeable Polymers of N-Substituted L-2,3-Diaminopropionic Acid (DAPEGs) and Cellular Consequences of Their Interactions with Nucleic Acids

The present study aimed to synthesize novel polycationic polymers composed of N-substituted L-2,3-diaminopropionic acid residues (DAPEGs) and investigate their cell permeability, cytotoxicity, and DNA-binding ability. The most efficient cell membrane-penetrating compounds (O2Oc-Dap(GO2)_n-O2Oc-NH₂, where n = 4, 6, and 8) showed dsDNA binding with a binding constant in the micromolar range (0.3, 3.4, and 0.19 µM, respectively) and were not cytotoxic to HB2 and MDA-MB-231 cells. Selected compounds used in the transfection of a GFP plasmid showed high transfection efficacy and minimal cytotoxicity. Their interaction with plasmid DNA and the increasing length of the main chain of tested compounds strongly influenced the organization and shape of the flower-like nanostructures formed, which were unique for 5/6-FAM-O2Oc-[Dap(GO2)]₈-O2Oc-NH₂ and typical for large proteins.     

PACAP-38 in Acute ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction in Humans and Pigs: A Translational Study

Acute myocardial infarction (MI) is one of the most common causes of death worldwide. Pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide (PACAP) is a cardioprotective neuropeptide expressing its receptors in the cardiovascular system. The aim of our study was to examine tissue PACAP-38 in a translational porcine MI model and plasma PACAP-38 levels in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Significantly lower PACAP-38 levels were detected in the non-ischemic region of the left ventricle (LV) in MI heart compared to the ischemic region of MI-LV and also to the Sham-operated LV in porcine MI model. In STEMI patients, plasma PACAP-38 level was significantly higher before percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) compared to controls, and decreased after PCI. Significant negative correlation was found between plasma PACAP-38 and troponin levels. Furthermore, a significant effect was revealed between plasma PACAP-38, hypertension and HbA1c levels. This was the first study showing significant changes in cardiac tissue PACAP levels in a porcine MI model and plasma PACAP levels in STEMI patients. These results suggest that PACAP, due to its cardioprotective effects, may play a regulatory role in MI and could be a potential biomarker or drug target in MI.