Environmentally induced analgesia: Age-related decline in a neurally mediated, nonopioid system.

Two experiments examined the function of an endogenous system of pain inhibition during aging. In Exp I, 80 male Sprague-Dawley rats (aged 3, 14, and 24 mo) were exposed to 90 sec of hindpaw shock. To investigate the pharmacology and anatomy involved in the production of hindpaw shock-induced analgesia, the effects of naltrexone (7 mg/kg), scopolamine (5 mg/kg), and adrenalectomy were examined. Results show that there was an age-related reduction in the degree of analgesia produced by hindpaw shock. Naltrexone and adrenalectomy did not alter the analgesia elicited by hindpaw shock. Scopolamine reduced the analgesia produced by hindpaw shock, and the effectiveness of scopolamine blockage declined with age. Exp II, with 18 3-mo-old and 13 23-mo-old male Sprague-Dawley rats, demonstrated that the effect of scopolamine was specific to the analgesia induced by hindpaw shock because scopolamine was ineffective in modifying the analgesia produced by a different stressor (cold water). It is suggested that the decline in hindpaw shock-induced analgesia is the result of an alteration in the function of the cholinergic system. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hyaline cartilage at porta hepatis in extrahepatic biliary atresia

Hyaline cartilage was found on microscopy of sections of the extrahepatic biliary tree in two infants with extrahepatic biliary atresia (EHBA). Respiratory epithelium was not present, and the cartilage did not seem to block the bile duct lumen. Hyperbilirubinemia was manifest in one infant on the second postnatal day, but clinical courses were otherwise unremarkable. In neither infant was the ductal plate malformation found on light microscopy of liver biopsy specimens, and in neither infant was visceral topography abnormal. Hyaline cartilage at the porta hepatis appears to be a novel finding in EHBA. Its significance remains to be defined.     

Reengineering in behavioral medicine

One-hundred seventy-one patients, operated for differentiated thyroid gland carcinoma, are subjected to serum thyroglobulin assessment and whole-body scanning. In twenty-nine of the total of 171 patients there is evidence of relapses and metastases, discovered by either examination. In 27/29 cases with metastases (positive scan finding) a high serum thyroglobulin level is documented. The correlation between serum thyroglobulin level and whole-body scanning finding among patients without residual normal thyroid parenchyma (status post total thyroidectomy) is much more favourable than the one in patients presenting normal residual parenchyma (status post organ-salvaging operation). The conclusion is drawn that serum thyroglobulin contributes greatly to the diagnosis of recurrences and metastases, especially in patients with normal residual parenchyma missing.     

Recommendations for handling of pediatric liver biopsy specimens

The coronary endothelium plays a central role in the modulation of coronary vascular tone via the production and release of vasoactive mediators. A number of cardiovascular disease states are associated with coronary endothelial dysfunction, which results in an imbalance between vasoactive substances. Endothelin is a potent vasoconstrictor produced by the coronary endothelium and has been implicated in the pathogenesis of coronary endothelial dysfunction. This review examines the relationship between endothelin and coronary endothelial dysfunction as it occurs in a number of cardiovascular disease states and explores potential therapeutic options.     

Evolution of wireless data services: IS-95 to cdma2000

Existing IS-95-based CDMA systems support circuit-mode and packet-mode data services at a data rate limited to 9.6-14.4 kb/s. Fueled by the explosive growth of the Internet, applications and market opportunities are demanding that higher capacity, higher data rates, and advanced multimedia services be supported in the near future. The evolution of the IS-95 CDMA standard to higher data rates and more advanced services occurs in two steps. The first step, IS-95-B, is an enhancement to the IS-95-A standard and offers the highest possible performance without breaking current IS-95-A air interface design characteristics, thereby maintaining strict compatibility with existing base station hardware. The proposed standard will support a high data rate (64 kb/s) in both directions, to and from the mobile device. A new burst mode packet data service is defined to allow better interference management and capacity utilization. The second evolution step, cdma2000, provides next-generation capacity, data rates, and services. The cdma2000 system includes a greatly enhanced air interface supporting CDMA over wider bandwidths for improved capacity and higher data rates while also maintaining backward compatibility with existing IS-95 CDMA end-user devices. The cdma2000 system also includes a sophisticated MAC feature to effectively support very-high-data-rate services (up to 2 Mb/s) and multiple concurrent data and voice services. This article describes the design and performance of the high-data-rate service provided by second- and third-generation CDMA systems     

Standardization of femtocells in 3GPP2 - [femtocell wireless communications]

Driven by the need for multivendor interoperability of femtocell devices and their supporting infrastructure equipment, the cdma2000reg standards community has been undertaking a large-scale and comprehensive effort to develop industry standards for femtocell devices and systems based on the cdma2000 family of radio access technologies. This article describes those standardization activities and provides an overview of the femtocell system architecture that has been developed within 3GPP2.     

Entropy-based dual-portal-to-3-DCT registration incorporating pixel correlation

For patient setup verification in external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) of prostate cancer, we developed an information theoretic registration framework, called the minimax entropy registration framework, to simultaneously and iteratively segment portal images and register them to three-dimensional (3-D) computed tomography (CT) image data. The registration framework has two steps, the max step and the min step, and evaluates appropriate entropies to estimate segmentations of the portal images and to find the transformation parameters. In the initial version of the algorithm (Bansal et al. 1999), we assumed image pixels to be independently distributed, an assumption not true in general. Thus, to better segment the portal images and to improve the accuracy of the estimated registration parameters, in this initial formulation of the problem, the correlation among pixel intensities is modeled using a one-dimensional Markov random process. Line processes are incorporated into the model to improve the estimation of segmentation of the portal images. In the max step, the principle of maximum entropy is invoked to estimate the probability distribution on the segmentations. The estimated distribution is then incorporated into the min step to estimate the registration parameters. Performance of the proposed framework is evaluated and compared to that of a mutual information-based registration algorithm using both simulated and real patient data. In the proposed registration framework, registration of the 3-D CT image and the portal images is guided by an estimated segmentation of the pelvic bone. However, as the prostate can move with respect to the pelvic structure, further localization of the prostate using ultrasound image data is required, an issue to be further explored in future.     

Standardization of femtocells in 3GPP - [femtocell wireless communications]

Cellular system operators have identified the critical need for standardization of femtocell devices and their associated interfaces into the operators' core networks as a critical requirement for the success of femtocell products. Driven by this demand, the UMTS/UTRAN standards community has been undertaking a large-scale and comprehensive effort to specify such standards for femtocell devices and systems that are based on the UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA family of radio access technologies. This article describes those standardization activities and provides an overview for the femtocell system architecture that has been developed within 3GPP.