Opinions regarding the importance of body image disorders in the development and in the course of eating disorders

The article presents a review of most important research results as well as opinions about the role and importance of body image disturbances in the development and the course of eating disorders. It also contains a review of definitions of body image, and techniques used in the evaluation of this type of disorders.     

Growth condition of iodine-doped n+-CdTe layers in metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy

Iodine doping of CdTe layers grown on (100) GaAs by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) was studied using diethyltelluride (DETe) and diisopropyltelluride (DiPTe) as tellurium precursors and ethyliodine (EI) as a dopant. Electron densities of doped layers increased gradually with decreasing the growth temperature from 425°C to 325°C. Doped layers grown with DETe had higher electron densities than those grown with DiPTe. When the hot-wall temperature was increased from 200°C to 250°C at the growth temperature of 325°C, doped layers grown with DETe showed an increase of the electron density from 3.7×10¹⁶ cm⁻³ to 2.6×10¹⁸ cm⁻³. On the other hand, such an increase of the electron density was not observed for layers grown with DiPTe. The mechanisms for different doping properties for DETe and DiPTe were studied on the basis of the growth characteristics for these precursors. Higher thermal stability of DETe than that of DiPTe was considered to cause the difference of doping properties. With increasing the hot-wall temperature from 200°C to 250°C, the effective ratio of Cd to Te species on the growth surface became larger for layers grown with DETe than those grown with DiPTe. This was considered to decrease the compensation of doped iodine and to increase the electron density of layers grown with DETe. The effective ratio of Cd to Te species on the growth surface also increased with decreasing growth temperature. This was considered to increase the electron density with decreasing growth temperature.     

Effects of cytogenin on spontaneous arthritis in MRL/1 mice and on pristane-induced arthritis (PIA) in DBA/1J mice

Cytogenin, 8-hydroxy-3-hydroxymethyl-6-methoxyisocoumarin, has low cytotoxicity on murine and human tumour cells in vitro. It augments or suppresses phagocytosis of macrophages and lymphocyte proliferation. It has been reported that cytogenin has a potent inhibitory effect clinically on adjuvant arthritis in Lewis rats and on type II collagen-induced arthritis in DBA/1J mice. Our experimental findings provide evidence that cytogenin has beneficial effects on spontaneous polyarthritis in MRL/1 mice and pristane-induced arthritis in DBA/1J mice. The results suggest that the mode of the anti-arthritic action of cytogenin is different from those of NSAIDs; although the precise mode of action remains unclear, cytogenin may become an excellent therapeutic agent for rheumatoid arthritis.     

Porphyrin fluorescence in plasma of various types of porphyria

Fluorescence spectra of plasma porphyrin were measured in 6 patients with the acute intermittent porphyria (AIP), 30 patients with variegate porphyria (PV), 2 patients with hereditary coproporphyria, 2 patients with porphyria cutanea tarda, and in 6 patients with erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP). It was found that the excitation and emission wavelengths at which maximum fluorescence is seen may help to diagnose and differentiate PV and EPP. In patients with AIP spectrum characteristic for porphyria of such a type was noted in all patients during the attack of disease and in only 33% of patients in remission. Fluorescence spectrum was normal in asymptomatic family members. In variegate porphyria spectrum with a characteristic maximum of fluorescence was noted in all patients during an attack and remission, and 62% of the asymptomatic family members.     

Effects of sea trout egg quality on stability of salted roe during cold storage

Sea trout eggs were salted in NaCl solution after 4 and 14 days of cold storage. The study indicated that the egg resistance to crushing decreased during cold storage from the initial 220 g to 180 g after 14 days. Changes in hardness of the egg membrane accelerated salt diffusion by about 30% to 80% during immersion in NaCl solution. Salting the eggs to 2.3% and 4.0% NaCl content decreased the hardness during cold storage, the decrease being larger in the roe manufactured from a lower quality raw material. In the eggs containing 5.3% and 7.0% NaCl the resistance to crushing increased during storage at 4°C to the extent similar in both egg freshness states obtained prior to salting. The salt content in sea trout eggs ranging from 23% to 7.0% only slightly activated hydrolysis and oxidation of lipid components at 4°C. Lipid oxidation was more rapid in eggs salted after 14 than in those salted after 4 days of storage in ice. Carotenoids of the salted eggs showed a decrease in undesirable cis-bonds during cold storage. Salting the sea trout eggs after 14 days of storage at 2°C shortened the storage time of the final product at 4°C by at least 1 month as compared to the salted roe kept in ice for 4 days before salting.     

Influence of the amount of ferromagnetic addition on the rheological properties of spinning solutions,the structure,the strength,and thermal properties of polyacrylonitrile fibres

The rheological properties of spinning solutions of polyacrylonitrile in dimethyl formamide (DMF) containing various amounts of a ferromagnetic nanoaddition were investigated. The porous structure, the strength and thermal properties of fibers obtained from these solutions were assessed, as well as the uniformity of the nanoaddition distribution on the fiber surface was estimated. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

Morphological aspects of rubber fracture and wear

Morphology of carbon black (CB)‐filled rubber was studied with AFM and SEM and the classification of filler agglomerates, based on their internal structure and filler–matrix interactions, has been proposed. It varies according to the activity of CB and the kind of rubber. It has been shown that fracture of rubber starts either inside filler agglomerates (de‐cohesion) or in a filler–matrix interphase (de‐adhesion) initiating wear of the material. Microscopic observations correlate well with TGA and EPR data of wear debris collected during friction of rubber. The increase of thermal stability of CB and the appearance of additional spin signals, respectively, for elongated samples or debris, are proposed to be associated with de‐cohesion or de‐adhesion of the agglomerates. New approach to the fracture of rubber called “fatal agglomerate concept” is presented. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

Laser irradiation of oligosiloxane copolymer thin films functionalized with side chain bulky carbosilane moieties

Linear oligosiloxanes functionalized with bulky side chain tris(trimethylsilyl)hexyl (TTSH) substituents were transformed into cross-linked materials by UV 193 nm excimer pulsed laser ablation. The process occurred without any catalyst, by reactions of radicals formed in UV laser induced photolysis of side tris(trimethylsilyl)hexyl groups. Chemical changes were monitored by FTIR, LC/UV, GC/MS and solubility tests.     

On the effectiveness of early life cycle defect prediction with Bayesian Nets

Standard practice in building models in software engineering normally involves three steps: collecting domain knowledge (previous results, expert knowledge); building a skeleton of the model based on step 1 including as yet unknown parameters; estimating the model parameters using historical data. Our experience shows that it is extremely difficult to obtain reliable data of the required granularity, or of the required volume with which we could later generalize our conclusions. Therefore, in searching for a method for building a model we cannot consider methods requiring large volumes of data. This paper discusses an experiment to develop a causal model (Bayesian net) for predicting the number of residual defects that are likely to be found during independent testing or operational usage. The approach supports (1) and (2), does not require (3), yet still makes accurate defect predictions (an R ² of 0.93 between predicted and actual defects). Since our method does not require detailed domain knowledge it can be applied very early in the process life cycle. The model incorporates a set of quantitative and qualitative factors describing a project and its development process, which are inputs to the model. The model variables, as well as the relationships between them, were identified as part of a major collaborative project. A dataset, elicited from 31 completed software projects in the consumer electronics industry, was gathered using a questionnaire distributed to managers of recent projects. We used this dataset to validate the model by analyzing several popular evaluation measures (R ², measures based on the relative error and Pred). The validation results also confirm the need for using the qualitative factors in the model. The dataset may be of interest to other researchers evaluating models with similar aims. Based on some typical scenarios we demonstrate how the model can be used for better decision support in operational environments. We also performed sensitivity analysis in which we identified the most influential variables on the number of residual defects. This showed that the project size, scale of distributed communication and the project complexity cause the most of variation in number of defects in our model. We make both the dataset and causal model available for research use.     

Genotoxic effect of triarylmethane dye--acid green 16 after chronic ethanol consumption in mice

Genotoxic effect and hepatic microsomal monooxygenase activities were assessed in mice treated with Acid Green 16 (single i.p. injection at dose 75 mg/kg) superimposed on prolonged ethanol consumption (10% solution in drinking water for 2-4 months). Treatment of mice with Acid Green 16 led to an increased frequency of micronucleated erythrocytes in bone marrow. In animals pretreated with ethanol the frequency of micronucleated erythrocytes, produced by Acid Green 16, was significantly higher. The changes in frequency of micronucleated erythrocytes were accompanied by the enhanced activity of microsomal monooxygenases manifested by higher activity of 7-ethoxycoumarin o-deethylase (the level of cytochrome P-450 was not altered). The obtained results showed that ethanol tended to increase the genotoxic effect of Acid Green 16. However, the slight inductive effect of ethanol on microsomal monooxygenases did not provide clear evidence that the genotoxic effect of Acid Green 16 was associated with ethanol stimulation of the metabolic activation of the dye in the liver.