Orthotopic heart transplantation in a transgenic pig-to-primate model

BACKGROUND: Previous studies demonstrated that hearts from transgenic pigs expressing human decay-accelerating factor (hDAF) were not hyperacutely rejected when transplanted heterotopically into the abdomen of cynomolgus monkeys. This study examines orthotopic transplantation of hDAF transgenic pig hearts into baboon recipients. METHODS: Orthotopic xenogeneic heart transplantation was performed using piglets, transgenic for hDAF, as donors. Ten baboons were used as recipients and were immunosuppressed with a combination of cyclophosphamide, cyclosporine, and steroids. RESULTS: Five grafts failed within 18 hr without any histological signs of hyperacute rejection. Pulmonary artery thrombosis induced by a size mismatch was observed in two of these animals. The other three recipients died because of failure to produce even a low cardiac output and/or dysrhythmia. The remaining five animals survived between four and nine days. One animal died of bronchopneumonia on day 4. Three xenografts stopped beating on day 5 due to acute vascular rejection. The longest survivor was killed on day 9 with a beating, histologically normal xenograft, because of pancytopenia. CONCLUSIONS: The results reported here demonstrate that hDAF transgenic pig hearts are not hyperacutely rejected when transplanted into baboon recipients. Orthotopically transplanted transgenic pig hearts are capable of maintaining cardiac output in baboons. An optimum immunosuppressive regimen is the subject of ongoing research.     

Turning up the contrast: Self-enhancement motives prompt egocentric contrast effects in social judgments.

Contrast effects occur when people judge the behavior and attitudes of others relative to their own. We tested a motivational account suggesting that these effects arise because people tailor their judgments of others to affirm their own self-worth. Consistent with that interpretation, participants displayed more egocentric contrast in their judgments of another person's intelligence (i.e., their evaluation of his score on the Scholastic Aptitude Test was more negatively related to their own score) after their self-esteem was threatened than after it was bolstered (Studies 1 and 2). High-self-esteem individuals displayed more judgmental contrast overall than did their low-esteem counterparts (Study 2). Strongly pro-choice participants whose esteem was threatened also displayed more contrast in their judgments of another person's attitude on abortion, relative to esteem-bolstered participants (Study 3). Discussion centers on the implications of these findings for theory on social comparison, self-affirmation, and social judgment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of Silicon and Aluminum Additions on the Oxidation Resistance of a Lean-Chromium Stainless Steel

The effect of Si and Al additions on the oxidation of austenitic stainless steels with a baseline composition of Fe–16Cr–16Ni–2Mn–1Mo (wt.%) has been studied. The combined Si and Al content of the alloys did not exceed 5 wt.%. Cyclic-oxidation tests were carried out in air at 700 and 800°C for a duration of 1000 hr. For comparison, conventional 18Cr–8Ni type-304 stainless steel specimens were also tested. The results showed that at 700°C, alloys containing Al and Si, and alloys with only Si additions showed weight gains about one half that of the conventional type-304 alloy. At 800°C, alloys that contained both Al and Si additions showed weight gains approximately two times greater than the type-304 alloy. However, alloys containing only Si additions showed weight gains four times less than the 304 stainless. Further, alloys with only Si additions preoxidized at 800°C, showed zero weight gain in subsequent testing for 1000 hr at 700°C. Clearly, the oxide-scale formation and rate-controlling mechanisms in the alloys with combined Si and Al additions at 800°C were different than the alloys with Si only. ESCA, SEM, and a bromide-etching technique were used to analyze the chemistry of the oxide films and the oxide–base-metal interface, in order to study the different oxide film-formation mechanisms in these alloys.     

Level‐set topology optimization with many linear buckling constraints using an efficient and robust eigensolver

Linear buckling constraints are important in structural topology optimization for obtaining designs that can support the required loads without failure. During the optimization process, the critical buckling eigenmode can change; this poses a challenge to gradient‐based optimization and can require the computation of a large number of linear buckling eigenmodes. This is potentially both computationally difficult to achieve and prohibitively expensive. In this paper, we motivate the need for a large number of linear buckling modes and show how several features of the block Jacobi conjugate gradient (BJCG) eigenvalue method, including optimal shift estimates, the reuse of eigenvectors, adaptive eigenvector tolerances and multiple shifts, can be used to efficiently and robustly compute a large number of buckling eigenmodes. This paper also introduces linear buckling constraints for level‐set topology optimization. In our approach, the velocity function is defined as a weighted sum of the shape sensitivities for the objective and constraint functions. The weights are found by solving an optimization sub‐problem to reduce the mass while maintaining feasibility of the buckling constraints. The effectiveness of this approach in combination with the BJCG method is demonstrated using a 3D optimization problem. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mott electron spin polarization analysis system of novel design

A novel Mott polarization analysis system is described. This system is much simpler than earlier designs and offers improved rejection of electrons inelastically scattered from the gold target foil. In addition the analyzer is capable of 'in-line' polarization measurements.     

On the social psychology of hearsay evidence.

The issue of using hearsay evidence in cases involving children's testimony is a difficult one for both the legal scholar and psychological researcher. At best, the psychological research done so far can be considered only a 1st step along a long path of future efforts. The author suggests a framework for future work on hearsay and highlights 2 issues: the fidelity issue, which centers on whether hearsay witnesses provide better or worse accounts of events than do child witnesses; and the calibration issue, which refers to whether jurors give appropriate weight to factors that indicate accuracy or error on the part of the hearsay witness. For each, the author describes specific issues that social and cognitive psychological research indicates are central or problematic ones. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)