The double-reversing Z-plasty in primary palatoplasty: operative experience and early results

The double-reversing Z-plasty of Furlow for closure of the soft palate was used in 34 children with various types of cleft palate. Mean age at repair was 12.8 months. Intraoperative experience was favorable, with acceptable operating time and blood loss. Length of hospitalization averaged 1.9 days. Postoperatively, two children experienced temporary stridor, which resolved within 24 to 48 hours. One child had dehiscence of the hard palate (Von Lagenbeck repair) 4 weeks postoperatively, and three children developed small oronasal fistulae. Early speech evaluation demonstrated adequate soft palate mobility in 33 of 34 patients, with observable velopharyngeal function. Twelve children had mild velar compromise, with eight exhibiting slight nasal air escape.     

Evaluation of passive microwave snow water equivalent algorithms in the depth hoar-dominated snowpack of the Kuparuk River Watershed, Alaska, USA

This research investigates the utility of passive microwave remote sensing instruments to accurately determine snow water equivalent (SWE) over large spatial extents. Three existing Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) snow water equivalent algorithms produced by Chang, Tait and Goodison were evaluated for their ability to determine snow water equivalent in a snowpack containing substantial depth hoar, large faceted snow crystals. The Kuparuk River Watershed (8140 km²) test site on the North Slope of Alaska was chosen for its snowpack containing a think depth hoar layer and long history of ground truth data. A new regional snow water equivalent algorithm was developed to determine if it could produce better results than the existing algorithms in an area known to contain significant depth hoar. The four algorithms were tested to see how well they could determine snow water equivalent: (1) on a per pixel basis, (2) across swath-averaged spatial bands of approximately 850 km², and (3) on a watershed scale. The algorithms were evaluated to see if they captured the annual spatial distribution in snow water equivalent over the watershed. Results show that the algorithms developed by Chang and from this research are generally within 3 cm of the spatially averaged snow water equivalents over the entire watershed. The algorithms produced by Chang, Tait, and in this research were able to predict the basin-wide ground measured snow water equivalent value within a percent error range from −32.4% to 24.4% in the years with a typical snowpack. None of the algorithms produce accurate results on a pixel-by-pixel scale, with errors ranging from −26% to 308%.     

Stochastic model for a wavelike exothermal reaction in condensed heterogeneous systems

The labile protons of two 32-base-pair, four-arm models of immobile Holliday junctions have been studied by two-dimensional 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Overlap of resonances in the imino-imino region of two-dimensional nuclear Overhauser enhancement (NOE) spectra necessitates the use of a multi-pathway approach for obtaining sequence-specific assignments wherein all possible NOE connectivities to the labile protons are utilized, including those from the 2H of adenine, 5CH3 of thymine, and 5H of cytosine. Resonance assignments are obtained for all slowly exchanging imino and cytosine amino protons. Base-pairing up to and including the junction point is found in all four arms of both Holliday junctions. Several cross-arm NOE connectivities are identified and can be used to infer the geometry of the helical stacking domains. The two Holliday junctions studied, which differ only by the exchange of two base pairs at the branch point, appear to have opposite arm stacking geometries. These assignments form an important part of the critical background for detailed NMR analysis of Holliday junction structure and dynamics.     

A case-mix classification system for medical rehabilitation

Dissatisfaction with Medicare's current system of paying for rehabilitation care has led to proposals for a rehabilitation prospective payment system, but first a classification system for rehabilitation patients must be created. Data for 36,980 patients admitted to and discharged from 125 rehabilitation facilities between January 1, 1990, and April 19, 1991, were provided by the Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation. Classification rules were formed using clinical judgment and a recursive partitioning algorithm. The Functional Independence Measure version of the Function Related Groups (FIM-FRGs) uses four predictor variables: diagnosis leading to disability, admission scores for motor and cognitive functional status subscales as measured by the Functional Independence Measure, and patient age. The system contains 53 FRGs and explains 31.3% of the variance in the natural logarithm length of stay for patients in a validation sample. The FIM-FRG classification system is conceptually simple and stable when tested on a validation sample. The classification system contains a manageable number of groups, and may represent a solution to the problem of classifying medical rehabilitation patients for payment, facility planning, and research on the outcomes, quality, and cost of rehabilitation.     

Hepatic and splenic sarcoidosis: ultrasound and MR imaging

Two polypeptide antigens with molecular sizes of 34,000 daltons (34 kDa) and 38 kDa were separated from heated cells of a human clinical treponeme strain G7201 and Treponema denticola ATCC 35404, respectively. The rabbit polyclonal antisera against these antigens were produced and examined for their immunological reactions with the two heated antigens or intact spirochetal cells. Immunoblot analysis showed that the 34-kDa protein was also detected in T. denticola ATCC 35404 and ATCC 33520, and the 38-kDa protein was detected only in the two ATCC strains. Immunoelectron microscopy using the two rabbit antisera and protein A-gold complexes demonstrated that the 38-kDa protein antigen was present on the axial flagella of two T. denticola strains, and that the 34-kDa protein was located in the axial flagella of the G7201 cell, but neither in axial flagella nor on outer envelopes of the two ATCC strains cells, suggesting that the native 34-kDa axial flagellar protein of the G7201 strain may be different from that of T. denticola in terms of immunological reactivity.     

Bodies, antibodies, and neighborhood-density effects in masked form priming.

Facilitatory priming effects due to similarity of orthographic form are obtained for high-N target words provided that they have low-frequency bodies and the body is shared between the prime and target (e.g., perd-HERD). Conversely, it is shown that low-N target words show priming regardless of the frequency of the body, provided that the prime and target do not share the same body (e.g., drice-DRIVE). If the body is shared, then priming occurs only for targets with low-frequency bodies. These results suggest that neighborhood density should be defined in terms of both individual letter units and subsyllabic units and that both types of density jointly determine priming. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)