Phage typing of Staphylococcus aureus associated with subclinical bovine mastitis

Six hundred and seventeen isolates of Staphylococcus aureus from subclinical clinical mastitis cases in 63 dairy herds in Northern Ireland were typed using a set of 25 phages. Ninety-four per cent of the isolates were typable, with nine phages, predominantly from groups I and III, being responsible for almost all of the lysis. Although 68 phage patterns were found, six of them typed 47.2% of the isolates. One strain accounted for 14.7% of the isolates, but the largest number of strains (44) was restricted to individual farms. The epidemiological significance of these findings for on-farm mastitis control is discussed.     

Combined utility of functional MRI, cortical mapping, and frameless stereotaxy in the resection of lesions in eloquent areas of brain in children

We studied 16 children with lesions in the eloquent brain to determine if the amalgamation of information from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), frameless stereotaxy, and direct cortical mapping and recording could facilitate the excision of these lesions while minimizing potential neurological deficits. The mean age of the children was 10 years. Fourteen children presented with seizures. All lesions were located in or near eloquent cerebral cortex. fMRI was successful in all patients in delineating the relationship between the lesion and regions of task-activated cortex. The ISG wand was utilized in all cases for scalp and bone flap placement, and for intraoperative localization of the lesion. Direct cortical stimulation or recording of phase reversals with somatosensory evoked potentials helped delineate the central sulcus and language cortex in patients with lesions near the motor or language cortex. Intraoperative electrocorticography (ECoG) was utilized in all patients who presented with seizures to guide the extent of resection of the epileptiform cortex. Ten children had benign cerebral neoplasms, nine of which were totally resected. The other diagnoses included vascular malformations, Sturge-Weber, tuberous sclerosis, Rasmussen's encephalitis, and primitive neuroectodermal tumor. Only 1 patient with a left Rolandic AVM developed a new neurological deficit postoperatively. Thirteen of fourteen patients who presented with seizure disorders were rendered either seizure free or improved in terms of seizure control postoperatively. Follow-up has ranged from 12 to 18 months, with a mean follow-up of 15 months. We conclude that the techniques of fMRI, frameless stereotaxy, direct cortical stimulation and recording can be utilized in sequence to accurately localize intracerebral lesions in eloquent brain, and to reduce the morbidity of resecting these lesions in children.     

Death associated with disseminated intravascular coagulation after hip replacement

Sudden-onset disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) occurred 3 h after uneventful polymethacrylate bone cement insertion for a revision left Charnley hip replacement. Profuse bleeding caused a hypovolaemic state aggravating existing myocardial ischaemia; as a result death occurred secondary to myocardial infarction 6 h after operation.     

How to stop and change a response: The role of goal activation in multitasking.

Multitasking was studied in the stop-change paradigm, in which the response for a primary GO1 task had to be stopped and replaced by a response for a secondary GO2 task on some trials. In 2 experiments, the delay between the stop signal and the change signal was manipulated to determine which task goals (GO1, GO2, or STOP) were involved in performance and to determine whether the goals were activated in series or in parallel. As the delay increased, the probability of responding on stop trials changed very little, but GO2 task reaction times decreased substantially. Such effects are consistent with both a nondeterministic serial model (in which the GO1 goal is replaced by the STOP goal, which is subsequently replaced by the GO2 goal) and a limited-capacity parallel model (in which stopping and GO2 processing occur concurrently) with a capacity-sharing proportion that resembles serial processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Control of first-wall surface conditions in the 2XIIB magnetic mirror plasma confinement experiment

The control of first-wall surface conditions in the 2XIIB Magnetic Mirror Plasma Confinement experiment is described. Before each plasma shot, the first wall is covered with a freshly gettered titanium surface. Up to 5 MW of neutral beam power has been injected into 2XIIB, resulting in first-wall bombardment fluxes of 10¹⁷ atoms · cm^?2 · s^?1 of 13-keV mean energy deuterium atoms for several ms. The background gas flux is measured with a calibrated, 11-channel, fast-atom detector. Background gas levels are found to depend on surface conditions, injected beam current, and beam pulse duration. For our best operating conditions, an efective reflex coefficient of 0.3 can be inferred from the measurements. Experiments with long-duration and high-current beam injection are limited by charge exchange; however, experiments with shorter beam duration are not limited by first-wall surface conditions. We conclude that surface effects will be reduced further with smoother walls.     

Breeding context and response to song playback in mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos).

Northern mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) sing more during nest building than at any other time in the breeding cycle. Playback tests in which the songs of nest-building and unmated males were played to mated males during incubation and nest building were conducted to determine if nest-building song is a mate guarding signal. Analyses indicated no greater aggressive response to song during nest building versus incubation in mated males. Singing itself was never evoked by song playback, and neither mated nor unmated males responded differently to songs produced by unmated versus nest-building males. The aggressive responses of unmated males were greater than those of mated males nest building without offspring, and males nest building with older offspring present responded as much as unmated males and more than males nest building without offspring. Aggressive response to song playback in once-mated males, whose mates disappeared during the breeding season, did not change as much as two months after disappearance of the mate. Nonetheless, ambient song production increased significantly above that apparent in the same birds when mated. These experiments indicate that aggressive reaction to song playback fluctuates across breeding contexts but not as predicted by the use of song as a mate guarding signal and not in a manner that parallels natural fluctuations in song production. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A study of deep levels in GaAs by capacitance spectroscopy

We show how the DLTS capacitance spectroscopy technique can be used to detect small amounts of deep level impurities in GaAs p-n junctions. The DLTS spectra associated with Cu, Fe, Cr, 0, and two unidentified but commonly occurring deep levels in GaAs are shown. The LPE distribution coefficients are obtained for Cu, Fe, and Cr. The carrier capture cross sections for six levels are measured and give evidence for capture by multiphonon emission.     

AN INVESTIGATION OF TWO HOMOLOGOUS SERIES OF CARBOXYLIC ACIDS IN BLACK TRONA WATER FROM THE GREEN RIVER BASIN

Two series of carboxylic acids were Identified in the dialysate from a sample of Black Trona Water from the Green River Basin of Wyoming. One of the series consists of straight-chain dicarboxylic acids ranging in carbon number from four to fourteen. This series had been observed by previous workers. The other series, much less abundant than the dicarboxylic scids, appears to be a series of homologous tricarboxylic acids that are derivatives of succinic acids. The structures of these compounds were determined by analysis of the mass spectra of their methyl esters and trideuteromethyl esters. Definitive biological precursors of this unusual class of compounds could not be assigned     

What is learned during automatization? The role of attention in constructing an instance.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 20(6) of Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition (see record 2008-10475-001). In the aforementioned article, the Appendix on page 1050 was incomplete. The complete Appendix is presented in the erratum.] Seven experiments with 372 Ss were conducted to examine the role of attention in automatization. Ss searched 2-word displays for members of a target category in divided-attention, focused-attention, and dual-task conditions. The main issue was whether attention conditions would affect what Ss learned about co-occurrences of the words in the displays. The attention hypothesis, derived from the instance theory of automaticity, predicts learning of co-occurrences in divided-attention and dual-task conditions in which Ss attend to both words but not in focused-attention conditions in which Ss only attend to 1 word. The data supported the attention hypothesis and therefore the instance theory. [A correction concerning this article appears in Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition, 1994(Nov), Vol 20(6), 1390. The Appendix was incomplete and the complete Appendix is presented.] (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)