Psychoneuroendocrinology of post-traumatic stress disorder

In 1980, the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was established to describe the long-lasting symptoms that can occur following exposure to extremely stressful life events. This article reviews the findings of neuroendocrinologic alterations in PTSD and summarizes the finding of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA), catecholamine, hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) and hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) systems. These are the neuroendocrine systems that have been studied in PTSD. Also included is a review of the basic facts about PTSD and biologic data.     

On a confidence gain measure for association rule discovery and scoring

This article presents a new interestingness measure for association rules called confidence gain (CG). Focus is given to extraction of human associations rather than associations between market products. There are two main differences between the two (human and market associations). The first difference is the strong asymmetry of human associations (e.g., the association “shampoo” → “hair” is much stronger than “hair” → “shampoo”), where in market products asymmetry is less intuitive and less evident. The second is the background knowledge humans employ when presented with a stimulus (input phrase). CG calculates the local confidence of a given term compared to its average confidence throughout a given database. CG is found to outperform several association measures since it captures both the asymmetric notion of an association (as in the confidence measure) while adding the comparison to an expected confidence (as in the lift measure). The use of average confidence introduces the “background knowledge” notion into the CG measure. Various experiments have shown that CG and local confidence gain (a low-complexity version of CG) successfully generate association rules when compared to human free associations. The experiments include a large-scale “free sssociation Turing test” where human free associations were compared to associations generated by the CG and other association measures. Rules discovered by CG were found to be significantly better than those discovered by other measures. CG can be used for many purposes, such as personalization, sense disambiguation, query expansion, and improving classification performance of small item sets within large databases. Although CG was found to be useful for Internet data retrieval, results can be easily used over any type of database. Edited by J. Srivastava     

Distributed Probabilistic Polling and Applications to Proportionate Agreement

This paper considers a probabilistic local polling process, examines its properties, and proposes its use in the context of distributed network protocols for achieving consensus. The resulting consensus algorithm is very simple and lightweight, yet it enjoys some desirable properties, such as proportionate agreement (namely, reaching a consensus value of one with probability proportional to the number of ones in the inputs), resilience against dynamic link failures and recoveries, and (weak) self-stabilization. The paper also investigates the maximum influence of small sets and establishes results analogous to those obtained for the problem in the deterministic polling model.     

Laser Ignition of Various Pyrotechnic Mixtures – an Experimental Study

Ignition of several pyrotechnic mixtures by diode‐laser was studied experimentally using a novel combustion chamber. The ignition delay times dependence on laser intensity could be fit by the expression t_ign=aI⁻ⁿ for all compositions, with I being the laser intensity at target and n=1.4–2.1. This is roughly in accordance with thermal ignition theories assuming a semi‐inert solid. Differences in ignition delay times did not depend on fuel alone or oxidizer alone. The temperature of oxidizer decomposition does not correlate with ignition delay time. Furthermore, the steady state combustion temperature, deduced from emission spectra of the composition products are not correlated with ignition delay time. It is proposed that chemical reactions, taking place in the gas‐phase or in the solid‐phase, play a significant role, but are not solely responsible for ignition delay time. The seemingly uncorrelated ignition delay results between pyrotechnics containing either the same fuel or oxidizer hamper the construction of a “unified theory” for laser ignition of pyrotechnic mixtures.     

Porous track cores along wakes of swift Pb ions in LiF

Continuous density decreases of 50% within 98 μm long and 3.2 nm wide cylindrical ion damage trails, latent ion tracks, created in a {1 0 0} LiF platelet by 2.31 GeV Pb ions, have been measured by small-angle X-ray scattering. Structural alteration is attributed mainly to radiolytic decomposition of the crystal into Li atoms and fluorine molecules, and subsequent transport and release of the fluorine gas through the low-density tracks. Free volume and Li residues undoubtedly account for the observed enhanced etchability of the track-core region.     

Successful treatment of early secondary myelofibrosis in SLE with IVIG

With increasing demand for esthetics, dentists face the challenge of delivering definitive restorations that fulfill patients' expectations of esthetics, biocompatibility, and durability. Recent technical developments have encouraged fabrication of gold-reinforced porcelain inlays that meet these important criteria. This article describes a sequence to construct metal-reinforced porcelain inlay restorations.     

De novo acute myeloid leukemia with near-pentaploidy: diploid karyotype and lymphoblastic phenotype at relapse

Hyperploidy is a rare finding in leukemias, with isolated cases of tetraploidy reported in acute myeloblastic and acute lymphblastic leukemias. We report the first case of acute myeloid leukemia with near-pentaploidy (5 n+/-) which was present in 100% of metaphases at diagnosis. By light microscopy, the leukemic blasts were exceptionally large and coarsely granulated. Following one cycle of induction chemotherapy, complete morphologic and cytogenetic remission was documented. Four weeks later relapse occured, at which time the karyotype was diploid and the morphological and immunophenotypic characteristics were those of a lymphoid leukemia. However, the presence of three aberrant chromosomes (5q+, 6q+ and 20q+) confirmed that this was clonal evolution of the original myeloid leukemia. To the best of our knowledge, this case represents the first report of near-pentaloidy in de novo, pretreatment human leukemia.     

On the hydrodynamic limit of long rod penetration

According to the quasi-steady-state approximation of long rod penetration, the total penetration efficiency should approach the so called hydrodynamic limit at high impact velocities. However, both experiments and computer simulations show that this is not the case. The total penetration efficiency usually overshoots the hydrodynamic limit at velocities above approximately 3 km/s. We ran computer simulations to investigate the significance of the hydrodynamic limit. We found that the overshoot occurs during the end (or terminal) phase. The end phase starts upon completion of the rod erosion. The kinetic energy trapped in the residual rod and in the target at this stage can cause significant additional deepening of the crater. As the overshoot of the hydrodynamic limit is an edge effect, it is expected to decrease as the aspect ratio of the rod increases.     

Neuroendocrine activity and memory-related impairments in posttraumatic stress disorder

This article reviews memory-related impairments in trauma survivors with posttraumatic stress disorder and their possible association to neuroendocrine alterations seen in this disorder. The neuroendocrine profile in PTSD first described in chronically ill combat veterans is characterized by lower basal cortisol levels, higher glucocorticoid receptor number, enhanced sensitivity to exogenous steroids, and increased variation in basal cortisol levels over the diurnal cycle. The generalizability and time course of these neuroendocrine alterations are explored in longitudinal studies and studies in other traumatized populations. These studies suggest that at least some aspects of this neuroendocrine profile can also be seen in other populations, including women, children, and victims of childhood trauma. Additionally, the alterations may be present early in the course of illness, perhaps even in the immediate aftermath of trauma, and may continue to be manifest in elderly trauma survivors. The mechanisms by which these neuroendocrine alterations may influence the formation and processing of traumatic memories are discussed.