Treatment of depressive symptoms during short-term rehabilitation: An attempted replication of the DOUR project.

Objective: To replicate and extend P. A. Lichtenberg and colleagues' (1996) cross-disciplinary intervention to improve physical and mental health among older adults. Participants: 14 depressed older adults (6 treatment, 8 control). Setting: The short-term rehabilitation unit of an urban nursing home. Intervention: Occupational therapists were trained to treat depression using pleasant events and cognitive-behavioral therapies. Outcome Measures: Geriatric Depression Scale, the Short Form-12, and the Multi-Level Assessment Instrument: Activities of Daily Living. Results: No significant group differences were found in physical or mental health. However, more control group members (75%) than treatment group members (33%) were depressed at study completion. Conclusions: The treatment of depressive symptoms can be integrated with a nonmental health treatment modality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reactions of hydroxymethyl derivatives of uric acid with oxiranes. II. An analysis of reaction course and product structure

Polyetherols containing thermostable purine rings are obtained in reactions of hydroxymethyl derivatives of uric acid with an excess of ethylene oxide or propylene oxide. By using elementary analytical tools and ¹H‐NMR spectroscopy, it was possible to follow the course of reaction at various molar ratios of reagents. A migration of formaldehyde molecules from N‐hydroxymethyl groups or from oligooxymethylene bridges to the end of oxyalkyl chains was observed. At the same time, the O‐hydroxymethyl groups are successively blocked by oxiranes. The most probable structure of polyetherols is proposed. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 83: 1955–1962, 2002     

Reactions of hydroxymethyl derivatives of uric acid with oxiranes. I. Synthesis of polyetherols with purine rings

Preliminary results on the utilization of uric acid in the synthesis of a new group of polyetherols with purine rings are presented. The polyetherols were prepared in a two‐stage process. First, hydroxymethyl derivatives of uric acid were obtained from an uric acid and formaldehyde solution. This intermediate was then reacted with ethylene oxide or propylene oxide without any additional solvent. The structure of the intermediates and polyetherols and some of their physical properties were determined, and the possibilities of application of the polyetherols in manufacturing thermostable polyurethane foams were tested. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 77: 2667–2677, 2000     

Cortical control of reaching movements

Recent studies provide further support for the hypothesis that spatial representations of limb position, target locations, and potential motor actions are expressed in the neuronal activity in parietal cortex. In contrast, precentral cortical activity more strongly expresses processes involved in the selection and execution of motor actions. As a general conceptual framework, these processes may be interpreted in terms of such formalisms as sensorimotor transformations and 'internal models'.     

Differential Polarization Nonlinear Optical Microscopy with Adaptive Optics Controlled Multiplexed Beams

Differential polarization nonlinear optical microscopy has the potential to become an indispensable tool for structural investigations of ordered biological assemblies and microcrystalline aggregates. Their microscopic organization can be probed through fast and sensitive measurements of nonlinear optical signal anisotropy, which can be achieved with microscopic spatial resolution by using time-multiplexed pulsed laser beams with perpendicular polarization orientations and photon-counting detection electronics for signal demultiplexing. In addition, deformable membrane mirrors can be used to correct for optical aberrations in the microscope and simultaneously optimize beam overlap using a genetic algorithm. The beam overlap can be achieved with better accuracy than diffraction limited point-spread function, which allows to perform polarization-resolved measurements on the pixel-by-pixel basis. We describe a newly developed differential polarization microscope and present applications of the differential microscopy technique for structural studies of collagen and cellulose. Both, second harmonic generation, and fluorescence-detected nonlinear absorption anisotropy are used in these investigations. It is shown that the orientation and structural properties of the fibers in biological tissue can be deduced and that the orientation of fluorescent molecules (Congo Red), which label the fibers, can be determined. Differential polarization microscopy sidesteps common issues such as photobleaching and sample movement. Due to tens of megahertz alternating polarization of excitation pulses fast data acquisition can be conveniently applied to measure changes in the nonlinear signal anisotropy in dynamically changing in vivo structures.     

Influence of semicrystalline order on the second-harmonic generation efficiency in the anisotropic bands of myocytes

The influence of semicrystalline order on the second-harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency in the anisotropic bands of Drosophila melanogaster sarcomeres from larval and adult muscle has been investigated. Differences in the semicrystalline order were obtained by using wild-type and mutant strains containing different amounts of headless myosin. The reduction in semicrystalline order without altering the chemical composition of myofibrils was achieved by observing highly stretched sarcomeres and by inducing a loss of viability in myocytes. In all cases the reduction of semicrystalline order in anisotropic bands of myocytes resulted in a substantial decrease in SHG. Second-harmonic imaging during periodic contractions of myocytes revealed higher intensities when sarcomeres were in the relaxed state compared with the contracted state. This study demonstrates that an ordered semicrystalline arrangement of anisotropic bands plays a determining role in the efficiency of SHG in myocytes.     

"Treatment of depressive symptoms during short-term rehabilitation: An attempted replication of the DOUR project": Correction.

Reports an error in the original article by J. R. Sood et al (Rehabilitation Psychology, 2003, 48[1], 44-49). On page 47, the caption of Figure 1 should read "The solid line represents the treatment group. The dashed line represents the control group." (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 2003-04296-008.) Objective: To replicate and extend P. A. Lichtenberg and colleagues' (1996) cross-disciplinary intervention to improve physical and mental health among older adults. Participants: 14 depressed older adults (6 treatment, 8 control). Setting: The short-term rehabilitation unit of an urban nursing home. Intervention: Occupational therapists were trained to treat depression using pleasant events and cognitive-behavioral therapies. Outcome Measures: Geriatric Depression Scale, the Short Form-12, and the Multi-Level Assessment Instrument: Activities of Daily Living. Results: No significant group differences were found in physical or mental health. However, more control group members (75%) than treatment group members (33%) were depressed at study completion. Conclusions: The treatment of depressive symptoms can be integrated with a nonmental health treatment modality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A cortico-spinal model of reaching and proprioception under multiple task constraints

A model of cortico-spinal trajectory generation for voluntary reaching movements is developed to functionally interpret a broad range of behavioral, physiological, and anatomical data. The model simulates how arm movements achieve their remarkable efficiency and accuracy in response to widely varying positional, speed, and force constraints. A key issue in arm movement control is how the brain copes with such a wide range of movement contexts. The model suggests how the brain may set automatic and volitional gating mechanisms to vary the balance of static and dynamic feedback information to guide the movement command and to compensate for external forces. For example, with increasing movement speed, the system shifts from a feedback position controller to a feedforward trajectory generator with superimposed dynamics compensation. Simulations of the model illustrate how it reproduces the effects of elastic loads on fast movements, endpoint errors in Coriolis fields, and several effects of muscle tendon vibration, including tonic and antagonist vibration reflexes, position and movement illusions, effects of obstructing the tonic vibration reflex, and reaching undershoots caused by antagonist vibration.     

Polyurethane Foams of Improved Thermal Stability

In reactions of polyetherols prepared from hydroxymethyl derivatives of uric acid and typical oxiranes with isocyanates and water one obtains a new group of polyurethane foams containing purine rings in their structure. These polyurethanes withstand prolonged heating at temperatures as high as 200 °C. Preliminary results on the effect of the type of polyetherol and the composition used in preparation of the polyurethane foams on their properties are presented. The results of studies on thermal stability and mechanical properties of the foams before and after thermal treatment are also reported.