Restrictions on the use of short-term action nifedipine in the United States. A review of facts

We have treated 50 patients with stage III, VI malignant tumors confirmed by pathology. The patients were divided into two groups. One group was treated by combination of chemotherapy and traditional Chinese medicine (treatment group); the other only by chemotherapy (control group). The effect of cancer treatment was evaluated according to the criteria of WHO. The results showed that the effective rate was 80% in treatment group and 52% in control group. The pain relieving rate was 68% in treatment group and 40% in control group (P < 0.01). This fact demonstrates that the application of traditional Chinese medicine can invigorate blood circulation, eliminate blood stasis, soften hardness and dissolve the mass, nourish blood and increase vigor. This kind of application can not only enhance the effect of cancer treatment but also increase the cancer pain relieving rate.     

Disappearing subdural hematomas in children

Serum glucose and plasma C-peptide response to i.v. glucagon administration was evaluated in 24 healthy dogs, 12 dogs with untreated diabetes mellitus, 30 dogs with insulin-treated diabetes mellitus, and 8 dogs with naturally acquired hyperadrenocorticism. Serum insulin response also was evaluated in all dogs, except 20 insulin-treated diabetic dogs. Blood samples for serum glucose, serum insulin, and plasma C-peptide determinations were collected immediately before and 5, 10, 20, 30, and (for healthy dogs) 60 minutes after i.v. administration of 1 mg glucagon per dog. In healthy dogs, the patterns of glucagon-stimulated changes in plasma C-peptide and serum insulin concentrations were identical, with single peaks in plasma C-peptide and serum insulin concentrations observed approximately 15 minutes after i.v. glucagon administration. Mean plasma C-peptide and serum insulin concentrations in untreated diabetic dogs, and mean plasma C-peptide concentration in insulin-treated diabetic dogs did not increase significantly after i.v. glucagon administration. The validity of serum insulin concentration results was questionable in 10 insulin-treated diabetic dogs, possibly because of anti-insulin antibody interference with the insulin radioimmunoassay. Plasma C-peptide and serum insulin concentrations were significantly increased (P < .001) at all blood sampling times after glucagon administration in dogs with hyperadrenocorticism, compared with healthy dogs, and untreated and insulin-treated diabetic dogs. Five-minute C-peptide increment, C-peptide peak response, total C-peptide secretion, and, for untreated diabetic dogs, insulin peak response and total insulin secretion were significantly lower (P < .00l) in diabetic dogs, compared with healthy dogs, whereas these same parameters were significantly increased (P < .01) in dogs with hyperadrenocorticism, compared with healthy dogs, and untreated and insulin-treated diabetic dogs. Although not statistically significant, there was a trend for higher plasma C-peptide concentrations in untreated diabetic dogs compared with insulin-treated diabetic dogs during the glucagon stimulation test. Baseline C-peptide concentrations also were significantly higher (P < .05) in diabetic dogs treated with insulin for less than 6 months, compared with diabetic dogs treated for longer than 1 year. Finally, 7 of 42 diabetic dogs had baseline plasma C-peptide concentrations greater than 2 SD (ie, > 0.29 pmol/mL) above the normal mean plasma C-peptide concentration; values that were significantly higher, compared with the results in healthy dogs (P < .001) and with the other 35 diabetic dogs (P < .001). In summary, measurement of plasma C-peptide concentration during glucagon stimulation testing allowed differentiation among healthy dogs, dogs with impaired beta-cell function (ie, diabetes mellitus), and dogs with increased beta-cell responsiveness to glucagon (ie, insulin resistance). Plasma C-peptide concentrations during glucagon stimulation testing were variable in diabetic dogs and may represent dogs with type-1 and type-2 diabetes or, more likely, differences in severity of beta-cell loss in dogs with type-1 diabetes.     

Assessing Human Impact of Organizational Crises: Reliability and Validity of the Triage Assessment Scale for Organizations (TAS:O)

The present study evaluated the reliability and validity of the Triage Assessment Survey: Organizations (TAS:O), a 27-item, 5-point, Likert summated rating scale. One hundred and seventeen participants responded to the TAS:O after reading mild, moderate, marked and severe organizational crisis scenarios. The overall Cronbach's alpha and split-half reliability were both .93. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed three factors, supporting the hypothesis that the TAS:O is comprised of three distinct factors (i.e., Affect, Behavior, and Cognition). An analysis of variance provided evidence that the TAS:O has the capacity to distinguish among mild, moderate, marked, and severe crises. Because this research is the first to evaluate the TAS:O, further studies are needed to strengthen confidence in the psychometric properties of this scale.     

The complexity of some reachability problems for a system on a finite group

We consider a system defined as the product of a finite set of periodic systems on cyclic groups. It is of interest to determine if certain subgroups and unions of subgroups of the state set are reachable from a specified initial state, and in particular to determine the computational complexity of verifying such reachability. These questions are motivated by certain problems that arise in the modelling and control of discrete event systems and certain forms of periodic scheduling. Our main result is that deciding whether or not the union of a certain set of subgroups is reachable or not is NP-complete.     

A new technique for on-line and off-line high speed computation

A novel technique for both online and offline computation is presented. With this technique, a reconstruction analysis in elementary particle physics, otherwise prohibitively long, has been accomplished. It will be used online in an upcoming Fermilab experiment to reconstruct more than 100000 events per second and to trigger on the basis of that information. The technique delivers 40 gigaoperations per second, has a bandwidth on the order of gigabytes per second, and has a modest cost. An overview of the program, details of the system, and performance measurements are presented     

Development and characterization of magnetorheological polymer gels

Magnetorheological materials have been used in many applications in recent years. To develop new materials, polyurethane and silicone polymer gels were investigated. Rheology is qualitatively controlled for each system by controlling the concentration of reactants and diluents. The resulting polymers have solid, gel, or liquid states, depending on the crosslinking and dilution. The gels were characterized through kinetic analysis. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used with analysis methods to find the kinetic properties for diluted and undiluted polyurethane systems. Heat of reaction, order of reaction, preexponential constant, and activation energy were obtained from the experimental DSC data. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 84: 2733–2742, 2002     

FOCUS-type fuel assembly for PWRs

In recent years the development efforts for Siemens PWR fuel assemblies were mainly concentrated on reducing the fuel cycle costs and increasing the operational reliability of the fuel assemblies.The first objective was aimed at increasing the average discharge burnup to > 50 MWd/kgU and increasing the critical heat flux. The high envisaged burnup required to develop a corrosion resistant cladding tube outside the Zry-4 range. The decision was made to use a Duplex cladding tube consisting of a corrosion optimized outer layer on a Zry-4 base material. A ZrSnFeCr alloy with reduced tin content was chosen for the outer layer. The critical heat flux could be increased by introducing mixing vanes on the spacer grids within the active length.To reach the second objective, reliable avoidance of spacer grid damage during core loading and unloading and reduction of fuel rod defects by debris fretting, the spacer grid corners were improved and a debris separation grid was developed.These design improvements were introduced into the new FOCUS-type fuel assembly. The name FOCUS stands for “Fuel assembly with Optimized Cladding and Upgraded Structure”.     

Depressive symptomatology in maritally discordant women and men: The role of individual and relationship variables.

Marital discord and depressive symptomatology have repeatedly been found to be associated, but little is known about variables that influence this relationship. Data were collected from 139 couples seeking marital therapy, and analyses were conducted separately by gender. For wives, lower problem-solving ability, physical aggression by the partner, and 1 relationship belief predicted depressive symptomatology after the variance due to marital discord was removed in regression analyses. In addition to these predictors, less spouse-specific assertiveness, unemployment, and 1 other relationship belief were associated with depressive symptomatology for women after the variance due to marital discord was removed in partial correlation analyses. For men, only lower problem-solving ability added to the prediction of depressive symptomatology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)