Intriguing gastrointestinal properties of bismuth: a folk remedy brought into the realm of clinical and investigative medicine

An 8-year-old girl showed symptoms of encephalitis during acute Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection. The diagnosis of EB virus infection was made by changes in the titres of EB virus-specific antibody. Cranial MRI demonstrated abnormal low and high signal intensities in the striatal body (putamen and caudate nucleus) on T1-weighted and T2-weighted images, respectively, during the acute phase. These abnormal findings had almost completely resolved 1 month later. EBV infection should be considered when lesions are localised to the basal ganglia.     

Computation of parameters in testing rods with large deflections for bending

We use the exact equation of the theory of bending to obtain computational formulas for the physicomechanical parameters measured in the process of testing of rods with large deflections for bending. We show that if deflections are large, then the state of pure bending is absent for the four-point loading mode. To solve the problem of four-point bending, it is necessary to measure the values of deflection at two different asymmetrically located points. Institute for Problems of Strength, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine. Translated from Problemy Prochnosti, No. 6, pp. 132–139, November–December, 1998.     

Acquisition of discrimination learning of patterns identical in configuration in macaques (Macaca mulatta and M. fuscata).

Compared the acquisition of discrimination of 5 pairs of pattern cues in a Wisconsin General Testing Apparatus by 223 naive macaque monkeys. The pairs of discriminanda were identical in configuration but varied slightly in either the size of the cue or the size of the background plaque; thus, the degree of separation of the cue from the fringe of the plaque, the response site, was slightly different for each pair of discriminanda. These small differences in cue–response separation had marked effects on the rate of acquisition of the discriminations. Even an increment of separation as small as 0.5 cm resulted in a retardation of the acquisition. This retardation was due to prolonged performance at the chance level and not to a slow rate of improvement from the chance to a criterion level. The finding indicates that the difficulty in the acquisition learning on pattern tasks depends largely on the difficulty of attending to the pattern cues at small cue–response separations. (45 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Investigation of spatial distribution of photocurrent in the plane of a Si p–n photodiode with GeSi nanoislands by scanning near-field optical microscopy

The spatial distribution of photocurrent in the plane of a Si-based p ⁺–n junction with embedded self-assembled Ge _x Si_1–x (x ≈ 0.35) nanoislands is studied by scanning near-field optical microscopy with local photoexcitation by a microscope probe at an emission wavelength of 1310 nm (larger than the intrinsicphotosensitivity red edge for Si). Inhomogeneities related to interband optical absorption in separate GeSi nanoislands are observed in the photocurrent images (maps of the spatial distribution of the photocurrent in the input-window plane of the p ⁺–n photodiodes). The results of this study demonstrate the possibility of visualizing individual GeSi nanoislands in images of the photocurrent with a spatial resolution of ~100 nm.

     

Monkeys with combined amygdalo-hippocampal lesions succeed in object discrimination learning despite 24-hour intertrial intervals.

14 rhesus monkeys, including 3 who had undergone amygdalo-hippocampal lesions before participating in a previous visual learning study, were trained on object-discrimination trials that were separated by 24 hrs to test the hypothesis that the 24-hr interval would prevent Ss with limbic lesions from learning. It is noted in previous research that monkeys with combined amygdalo-hippocampal removal show severe impairments on visual-memory tasks after delays of 1–2 min, yet they learn visual-discrimination habits nearly as quickly as normal monkeys with intertrial intervals of the same duration. Results of the present study indicate that, as long as the lesions did not encroach on the inferior temporal cortex, operated Ss could acquire concurrent sets of 20 object-discrimination habits at the same rate as unoperated Ss in an average of approximately 10 trials/set. Findings suggest that learning and retention processes are divisible into a mechanism for memory formation that is dependent on the limbic system and a mechanism for habit formation that is not. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Abnormal radionuclide cerebral angiograms and scans due to seizures

The effect of recent seizures on the brain scan was determined in a retrospective study of patients who had had seizures. All patients who underwent brain scanning within eight days of seizures and who did not have a specific intracranial lesion were included. The 99mTc-pertechnetate cerebral angiogram and/or delayed scan was abnormal in 73% of 22 patients. The data suggest that if seizures occur within six days of the brain imaging, the image is likely to be abnormal.