A dimensional approach to maternal attachment state of mind: Relations to maternal sensitivity and maternal autonomy support.

The aim of this study was to examine the developmental significance of the newly developed dimensional approach to attachment state of mind by investigating its capacity to predict individual differences in the quality of two caregiving behaviors—maternal sensitivity and maternal autonomy support—that are linked to numerous important child outcomes. Seventy-one upper-middle-class, predominantly French-speaking and Caucasian dyads participated in 3 home visits (34 girls). The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) was administered when the infants were 8 months old, maternal sensitivity was assessed when they were 12 months old, and maternal autonomy support was assessed at 15 months. The results revealed that, above and beyond SES, maternal sensitivity was negatively related to the dismissing dimension of the AAI, whereas maternal autonomy support was negatively linked to the preoccupied/unresolved dimension. In contrast, the traditional AAI categories were not significantly linked to parenting. These results speak to the relevance of using a continuous approach to attachment state of mind when predicting individual differences in specific caregiving behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bisimulations for Temporal Logic

We define bisimulations for temporal logic with Since and Until. This new notion is compared to existing notions of bisimulations, and then used to develop the basic model theory of temporal logic with Since and Until. Our results concern both invariance and definability. We conclude with a brief discussion of the wider applicability of our ideas.     

Cryoextraction of orbital capillary hemangioma diagnosed by technetium-99m-labeled red blood cell scintigraphy

The authors report a case of an infant in whom orbital capillary hemangioma was diagnosed using technetium-99m-labeled red blood cell scintigraphy. The tumor was subsequently removed by transconjunctival cryoextraction.     

Gene recognition via spliced sequence alignment

Gene recognition is one of the most important problems in computational molecular biology. Previous attempts to solve this problem were based on statistics, and applications of combinatorial methods for gene recognition were almost unexplored. Recent advances in large-scale cDNA sequencing open a way toward a new approach to gene recognition that uses previously sequenced genes as a clue for recognition of newly sequenced genes. This paper describes a spliced alignment algorithm and software tool that explores all possible exon assemblies in polynomial time and finds the multiexon structure with the best fit to a related protein. Unlike other existing methods, the algorithm successfully recognizes genes even in the case of short exons or exons with unusual codon usage; we also report correct assemblies for genes with more than 10 exons. On a test sample of human genes with known mammalian relatives, the average correlation between the predicted and actual proteins was 99%. The algorithm correctly reconstructed 87% of genes and the rare discrepancies between the predicted and real exon-intron structures were caused either by short (less than 5 amino acids) initial/terminal exons or by alternative splicing. Moreover, the algorithm predicts human genes reasonably well when the homologous protein is nonvertebrate or even prokaryotic. The surprisingly good performance of the method was confirmed by extensive simulations: in particular, with target proteins at 160 accepted point mutations (PAM) (25% similarity), the correlation between the predicted and actual genes was still as high as 95%.     

Predicate Abstraction of ANSI-C Programs Using SAT

Predicate abstraction is a major method for verification of software. However, the generation of the abstract Boolean program from the set of predicates and the original program suffers from an exponential number of theorem prover calls as well as from soundness issues. This paper presents a novel technique that uses an efficient SAT solver for generating the abstract transition relations of ANSI-C programs. The SAT-based approach computes a more precise and safe abstraction compared to existing predicate abstraction techniques.     

A simulation-intensive approach for checking hierarchical models

Recent computational advances have made it feasible to fit hierarchical models in a wide range of serious applications. In the process, the question of model adequacy arises. While model checking usually addresses the entire model specification, model failures can occur at each hierarchical stage. Such failures include outliers, mean structures errors, dispersion misspecification, and inappropriate exchangeabilities. We propose an approach which is entirely simulation based. Given a model specification and a dataset, we need only be able to simulate draws from the resultant posterior. By replicating a posterior of interest using data obtained under the model we can “see” the extent of variability in such a posterior. Then, we can compare the posterior obtained under the observed data with this medley of posterior replicates to ascertain whether the former is in agreement with them and accordingly, whether it is plausible that the observed data came from the proposed model. Many such comparisons can be run, each focusing on a different potential model failure. Focusing on generalized linear mixed models, we explore the questions of when hierarchical model stages are separable and checkable and illustrate the approach with both real and simulated data. Research supported in part by NSF SCREMS grant DMS-9506557, NSF grant DMS-9301316 and by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada     

The immune response to trauma

The response to trauma begins in the immune system at the moment of injury. The loci are the wound, with activation of macrophages and production of proinflammatory mediators, and the microcirculation with activation of endothelial cells, blood elements, and a capillary leak. These processes are potentiated by ischemia and impaired oxygen delivery and by the presence of necrotic tissue, each exacerbating the inflammatory response. Hemorrhage alone may be a sufficient stimulus. Inflammation once was considered to be a host reaction to bacteria or other irritants. This concept was expanded by the discovery of autoimmune diseases, and we are now aware that some illnesses are the result of the body's response to an invader rather than the direct effect of the invader itself. The discoveries about the response to trauma described here add another dimension, showing inflammation to be a fundamental life process that begins at the molecular level at the moment of injury and that, depending on the severity of the stimulus and the effectiveness of initial treatment, may spread to include every cell, tissue, and organ in the body, for good or ill. An important part of these expanding concepts is the notion that all noxious stimuli activate the cytokine system as a final common pathway. Sepsis, hemorrhage, ischemia, ischemia-reperfusion, and soft tissue trauma all share an ability to activate macrophages and produce proinflammatory cytokines that may initiate the SIRS. Second-message compounds and effector molecules mediate the observed clinical phenomena.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)