Monitoring the planning quality of health promotion projects in Flanders

The levels of bacterial blood endotoxin, antiendotoxin antibodies and the overall immunity were studied in 48 females with inflammatory genital diseases complicated by pelvioperitonitis. The severest pelvioperitonitis-complicated abnormality was shown to characterized by high concentrations of endotoxin and low levels of antibodies. Endotoxinemia was found to be of diagnostic and prognostic value.     

Adrenomedullary secretion of epinephrine is increased in mild essential hypertension

To assess whether patients with mild essential hypertension have excessive activities of the sympathoneuronal and adrenomedullary systems, we examined total body and forearm spillovers and norepinephrine and epinephrine clearances in 47 subjects with mild essential hypertension (25 men, 22 women, aged 38.1 +/- 6.7 years) and 43 normotensive subjects (19 men, 24 women, aged 36.5 +/- 5.9 years). The isotope dilution method with infusions of tritiated norepinephrine and epinephrine was used at rest and during sympathetic stimulation by lower body negative pressure at -15 and -40 mm Hg. Hypertensive subjects had a higher arterial plasma epinephrine concentration (0.20 +/- 0.01 nmol.L-1: mean +/- SE) than normotensive subjects (0.15 +/- 0.01) (P < .01). The increased arterial plasma epinephrine levels appeared to be due to a higher total body epinephrine spillover rate in the hypertensive subjects (0.23 +/- 0.02 nmol.min-1.m-2) than the normotensive subjects (0.18 +/- 0.01) (P < .05) and not to a decreased plasma clearance of epinephrine. The arterial plasma norepinephrine level, total body and forearm norepinephrine spillover rates, and plasma norepinephrine clearance were not altered in the hypertensive subjects. The responses of the catecholamine kinetic variables to lower body negative pressure were not consistently different between normotensive and hypertensive individuals. These data indicate that individuals with mild essential hypertension (1) have elevated arterial plasma epinephrine concentrations that are due to an increased total body epinephrine spillover rate, indicating an increased adrenomedullary secretion of epinephrine; (2) have no increased generalized sympathoneuronal activity and no increased forearm norepinephrine spillover; and (3) have similar responses of both the sympathoneuronal and adrenomedullary systems to sympathetic stimulation by lower body negative pressure.     

Bioinspired Magnetite Crystallization Directed by Random Copolypeptides

Control over magnetite (Fe₃O₄) formation is difficult to achieve in synthetic systems without using non‐aqueous media and high temperatures. In contrast, Nature employs often intrinsically disordered proteins to tightly tailor the size, shape, purity, and organization of the nanocrystals to optimize their magnetic properties. Inspired by such “flexible polyelectrolytes,” here random copolypeptides having different amino acid compositions are used as control agents in the bioinspired coprecipitation of magnetite through a ferrihydrite precursor, following a recently developed mineralization protocol. Importantly, the copolypeptide library is designed such that the amino acid composition can be optimized to simultaneously direct the size of the nanoparticles as well as their dispersibility in aqueous media in a one‐pot manner. Acidic amino acids are demonstrated to regulate the crystal size by delaying nucleation and reducing growth. Their relative content thus can be balanced to tune between the superparamagnetic and ferrimagnetic regimes, and high contents of negatively charged amino acids result in colloidal stabilization of superparamagnetic nanoparticles at high pH. Conversely, with positively charged lysine‐rich copolypeptides ferrimagnetic crystals are obtained which are stabilized at neutral pH and self‐organize in chains, as visualized by cryo‐transmission electron microscopy. Altogether, the presented findings give important insights for the future development of additive‐mediated nanomaterial syntheses.     

Assessing landscape change and biodiversity values of the Middle Vistula river valley, Poland, using BIO-SAFE

This paper deals with the relation between legally protected biodiversity and riverine ecotopes and with the assessment of biodiversity values of the Middle Vistula river valley (Poland). Furthermore, it describes the effects of landscape change on spatial distribution of ecotope patches and biodiversity values in Kazimierski Landscape Park. Biodiversity values were calculated using BIO-SAFE, a model meant to quantify biodiversity and to value ecotopes based on legally protected species. Dissimilarity indices depict high uniqueness of ecotope types regarding their species assemblages (e.g., river dunes, banks and bars). The actual biodiversity values of the river valley in Kazimierski Landscape Park are high in comparison with floodplains of lowland rivers in Western Europe. GIS analyses of remotely sensed ecotope maps show remarkable differences in number, acreage and patchiness of ecotopes for the years 1953 and 2003. The total number of patches increased by almost 44%. Side channels and floodplain lakes became fragmented. The average and total surface area of bush, forest and arable land increased, but decreased for bare soil, pioneer vegetation and grassland. These landscape changes indicate natural vegetation succession, intensification of agriculture and progressive impacts of river regulation. The Vistula river valley still represents high biodiversity values for higher plants, birds, herpetofauna and fish. However, current landscape changes negatively affect potential values for protected and endangered species. Assessments with BIO-SAFE can help to balance biodiversity conservation, river management and landscape planning.     

Distributed computing with single read-single write variables

Single-read-single-write (SRSW) variables are presented for synchronous and asynchronous communication between processes. The operational semantics of the instruction accessing these variables is quite simple: a SRSW variable can be written if it is free, and, once written, it becomes busy. A SRSW variable can be read when busy, and, once read, it becomes free. A process attempting to read a free SRSW variable or write a busy SRSW variable is put in a wait state until the state of the variable changes. The advantages of SRSW variables are multiple. The syntax of a regular sequential language can be used without any change, other than the introduction of a new SRSW data type. Parallel programs tend to be concise and easy to prove correct. The message passing paradigm can be very easily modeled with SRSW variables     

A programmable systolic device for image processing based on mathematical morphology

Systolic array architectures are favourable for special purpose systems as they are simple and offer a high degree of concurrency. A programmable systolic device is designed to cater for all tasks of image processing based on mathematical morphology. The design consists of a systolic memory matrix accessible via a rotation operation by a linear systolic array of simple processing elements. The instruction set consists of 1-bit assignmments, logical and and or and shift operations on the memory. Thus extremely short clock cycles and a high degree of parallelism can be achieved.     

Intravenous instrumentation alters the autonomic state in humans

Intravascular instrumentation may induce syncope or presyncope. It is not known whether asymptomatic subjects also have autonomic reactions, albeit concealed. We addressed this issue by studying 44 healthy young male subjects of various levels of fitness, ranging from inactivity to athletic [mean maximal oxygen uptake was 49.1 (SD 10.7) ml*kg(-1)*min(-1), range 28.7-71.9 ml*kg(-1)*min(-1)]. The autonomic response to venous cannulation was quantified by measuring heart rate before cannulation (HR(1)), after cannulation (HR(2)), and after complete pharmacological autonomic blockade (HR(0) = the intrinsic heart rate). The sympathovagal balance before and after cannulation was computed as HR(1)/HR(0) and HR(2)/HR(0), respectively. The group means of heart rate and sympathovagal balance decreased significantly (paired Student's t-test P <0.01) from 62.5 to 59.9 beats*min(-1), and from 0.71 to 0.68, respectively. The maximal decrease in heart rate was 8.8 beats*min(-1), and in the sympathovagal balance was 0.11. Our study demonstrated that the asymptomatic subjects responded to intravenous instrumentation with a concealed autonomic reaction. Thus, from our findings it would seem that intravenous instrumentation interferes with measurements relating to autonomic nervous system activity.     

Combinatorial Evolution of Biomimetic Magnetite Nanoparticles

Inspired by Nature's capacity to synthesize well‐defined inorganic nanostructures, such as the magnetite particles produced by magnetotactic bacteria, genetic algorithms are employed to combinatorially optimize the aqueous synthesis of magnetite (Fe₃O₄) nanoparticles through the action of copolypeptide additives. An automated dispensing system is used to prepare and rapidly screen hundreds of mineralization reactions with randomized conditions, varying ferrous iron, base, oxidant, and polypeptide chemistry. Optimization over multiple generations allows identification of conditions under which the copolypeptides promote magnetite formation where this does not occur in their absence. It is found that nanoparticle size, size distribution, and shape can be tuned by the concentrations and compositions of the copolypeptides, and that the reaction pH is the most important factor in controlling the crystalline phase. This approach should be broadly applicable to the syntheses of solid‐state materials and represents a valuable strategy for extending biomimetic mineralization to the production of technological materials.