As the number falls,alternatives to the Hagberg–Perten falling number method: A review

This review examines the application, limitations, and potential alternatives to the Hagberg–Perten falling number (FN) method used in the global wheat industry for detecting the risk of poor end-product quality mainly due to starch degradation by the enzyme α-amylase. By viscometry, the FN test indirectly detects the presence of α-amylase, the primary enzyme that digests starch. Elevated α-amylase results in low FN and damages wheat product quality resulting in cakes that fall, and sticky bread and noodles. Low FN can occur from preharvest sprouting (PHS) and late maturity α-amylase (LMA). Moist or rainy conditions before harvest cause PHS on the mother plant. Continuously cool or fluctuating temperatures during the grain filling stage cause LMA. Due to the expression of additional hydrolytic enzymes, PHS has a stronger negative impact than LMA. Wheat grain with low FN/high α-amylase results in serious losses for farmers, traders, millers, and bakers worldwide. Although blending of low FN grain with sound wheat may be used as a means of moving affected grain through the marketplace, care must be taken to avoid grain lots from falling below contract-specified FN. A large amount of sound wheat can be ruined if mixed with a small amount of sprouted wheat. The FN method is widely employed to detect α-amylase after harvest. However, it has several limitations, including sampling variability, high cost, labor intensiveness, the destructive nature of the test, and an inability to differentiate between LMA and PHS. Faster, cheaper, and more accurate alternatives could improve breeding for resistance to PHS and LMA and could preserve the value of wheat grain by avoiding inadvertent mixing of high- and low-FN grain by enabling testing at more stages of the value stream including at harvest, delivery, transport, storage, and milling. Alternatives to the FN method explored here include the Rapid Visco Analyzer, enzyme assays, immunoassays, near-infrared spectroscopy, and hyperspectral imaging.     

Allocentric Versus Egocentric Spatial Memory After Unilateral Temporal Lobectomy in Humans.

Thirty patients who had undergone either a right or left unilateral temporal lobectomy (14 RTL; 16 LTL) and 16 control participants were tested on a computerized human analogue of the Morris Water Maze. The procedure was designed to compare allocentric and egocentric spatial memory. In the allocentric condition, participants searched for a target location on the screen, guided by object cues. Between trials, participants had to walk around the screen, which disrupted egocentric memory representation. In the egocentric condition, participants remained in the same position, but the object cues were shifted between searches to prevent them from using allocentric memory. Only the RTL group was impaired on the allocentric condition, and neither the LTL nor RTL group was impaired on additional tests of spatial working memory or spatial manipulation. The results support the notion that the right anterior temporal lobe stores long-term allocentric spatial memories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Failure to cure Mycobacterium gordonae peritonitis associated with continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis

Nontuberculous mycobacteria are increasingly recognized as important pathogens in peritonitis associated with continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD). Mycobacterium gordonae rarely causes human infection and is the least likely mycobacterium to produce clinical infection in CAPD patients. We describe a patient with persistent M. gordonae peritonitis acquired while undergoing CAPD. During 18 months of treatment, clinical improvement occurred but a microbiological cure could not be achieved. Principles of therapy for mycobacterial peritonitis developing during CAPD are reviewed, and potential explanations for our patient's failure to respond to therapy are discussed.     

Hemodynamic effects of spinal anesthesia in the elderly: single dose versus titration through a catheter

Protective immunity against infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis is imparted by T cells rather than antibodies, but B cells can play a role as antigen-presenting cells and in granuloma formation. We re-evaluated the role of B cells in the course of tuberculous infection in mu-chain knock-out (Ig-) mice. Surprisingly, the organs of M. tuberculosis-infected Ig- mice were found to have three- to eight-fold elevated counts of viable bacilli compared with normal littermates at 3-6 weeks post-infection. Splenic interferon-gamma responses to whole antigen were unimpaired, whilst proliferation to certain mycobacterial peptides was found to be diminished. However, bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination significantly reduced the infection in Ig- mice. The mechanisms by which B cells can influence primary tuberculous infection need further study.     

Comparison of PhD programs in clinical and counseling psychology

Some specific characteristics of the aging of the Brazilian population in different areas, states and communities all over the country, have shown significant variations. Historical series of demographic and health indicators for the population in their sixties and over in Brazil, state of S. Paulo and in the municipal district of Araraquara are listed as follows: level of education and urban population growth rate, income distribution, mortality rates and main causes of death. In 1991 the aged constituted were 7.8% of the Brazilian population and 9.7% in Araraquara community. The elderly population (of 70 years of aged and above) as a proportion of the whole, has increased and already stands for 40%. The same trend holds good for both the proportion of aged within the urban population and their level of education which increased to 90% in 1991. The main causes of death are chronic degenerative diseases which have replaced the infectious illness: first, the diseases of the circulatory system (which account for more than 40% of all deaths) and the neoplasms (which let to 15% of the deaths). On the basis of these health and demographic data relating to people of 60 years of age and over, this study suggests some procedures for the improvement of the quality of the assistance given to the target population: a) the assistance give to the aged should be improved by providing gerontological training for general physicians and nurses, both of public and private clinics; b) the already existing educational activities for the aged, for health workers and for teachers of secondary education should be further developed; c) the number of day-hospitals should be increased for the purpose of avoiding unnecessary confinement so as maintain the low rate of institutionalization in homes for the elderly (0.7% in Araraquara). It is reported that at least 35% of the aged population in this area is entitled to private health assistance, which brings out the importance of including such services in the local health programs for this group.     

Dopamine receptors influence vasoactive intestinal peptide release from turkey hypothalamic explants

Amongst the elements which contributed to the success of the early lung transplants at the beginning of the 1980's we feel that the careful selection of candidates probably played a predominant role. If some of the selection criteria initially described remain somewhat intangible, others have either been eased or have been invalidated. The experience acquired over the last 15 years has enabled to precise the optimal moment to include patients on the waiting list and to refine the choice for the type of surgical procedure according to the underlying disease. This article aims to review the different selection criteria for candidates for transplantation and stresses those which have recently undergone change.     

Nasopharyngeal colonization in Costa Rican children during the first year of life

BACKGROUND: The establishment of the nasopharyngeal flora was followed in Costa Rican children from birth to 1 year of age. METHODS: Nasopharyngeal cultures were obtained at 1 (n = 413), 3 (n = 393), 6 (n = 376) and 12 months (n = 356) of age from children representative of the population in the Puriscal district. Weekly cultures were obtained from a subcohort of these children (n = 101). Mother-infant diads (n = 95) and preschool children (n = 208) attending day-care centers were also studied. RESULTS: The estimated proportion of colonized children in the population differed markedly depending on the frequency of culture. Quarterly cultures showed a slow increase in carrier rates from 3.9% for Haemophilus influenzae, 3.1% for Streptococcus pneumoniae and 6.5% for Moraxella catarrhalis at 1 month of age to 10.1% carrying H. influenzae and 19.4% carrying S. pneumoniae by the end of the first year. By quarterly culture the proportion of children colonized at least once was 36% for S. pneumoniae, 26% for H. influenzae and 28% for M. catarrhalis. In contrast weekly sampling showed that 95 to 100% of the children were colonized at least once during the first year of life with H. influenzae, S. pneumoniae or M. catarrhalis. Nasopharyngeal carriage of H. influenzae, S. pneumoniae and M. catarrhalis was low in the mothers, and very few mother-infant pairs carried identical bacteria at the same time. In contrast carrier rates were high in the siblings attending day care (H. influenzae 27.9%, S. pneumoniae 39.4%, both organisms 26.6%). Infants with siblings had significantly higher bacterial carriage at all ages than infants without siblings. CONCLUSIONS: Quarterly nasopharyngeal cultures showed that Costa Rican infants acquire their nasopharyngeal flora at a rate comparable with that for infants in developed countries and that siblings are an important source of the bacteria. Weekly samplings showed that virtually all children were colonized at least once during the first year of life.     

Expression of three UDP-N-acetyl-alpha-D-galactosamine:polypeptide GalNAc N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferases in adenocarcinoma cell lines

The levels of mRNA expression of three UDP-N-acetyl-alpha-D-galactosamine:polypeptide GalNAc N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferases (GalNAc-transferases) were quantified for human adenocarcinoma cell lines from pancreas, colon, stomach, and breast. Two of the GalNAc-transferases, GalNAc-T1 and GalNAc-T2, were expressed constitutively and at low levels in most or all cell lines examined. A third GalNAc-transferase, GalNAc-T3, was differentially expressed. Well-differentiated adenocarcinoma cell lines expressed high levels and moderately differentiated cell lines expressed lower levels of GalNAc-T3. Cell lines classified as poorly differentiated failed to express GalNAc-T3 mRNA at levels that could be detected by Northern blot analysis. Differential expression of the GalNAc-T3 protein was confirmed in these cell lines by Western blotting. We propose that glycosylation in tumor cell lines may be regulated in part by differential expression of GalNAc-transferases, and we suggest that GalNAc-T3 gene expression may be a molecular indicator of differentiated adenocarcinoma.     

Neural network control of communications systems

Neural networks appear well suited to applications in the control of communications systems for two reasons: adaptivity and high speed. This paper describes application of neural networks to two problems, admission control and switch control, which exploit the adaptivity and speed property, respectively. The admission control problem is the selective admission of a set of calls from a number of inhomogeneous call classes, which may have widely differing characteristics as to their rate and variability of traffic, onto a network. It is usually unknown in advance which combinations of calls can be simultaneously accepted so as to ensure satisfactory performance. The approach adopted is that key network performance parameters are observed while carrying various combinations of calls, and their relationship is learned by a neural network structure. The network model chosen has the ability to interpolate or extrapolate from the past results and the ability to adapt to new and changing conditions. The switch control problem is the service policy used by a switch controller in transmitting packets. In a crossbar switch with input queueing, significant loss of throughput can occur when head-of-line service order is employed. A solution can be based on an algorithm which maximizes throughput. However since this solution is typically required in less than one microsecond, software implementation policy is infeasible. We will carry out an analysis of the benefits of such a policy, describe some existing proposed schemes for its implementation, and propose a further scheme that provides this submicrosecond optimization.     

Chronic fluoride exposure does not cause detrimental, extraskeletal effects in nutritionally deficient rats

On the basis of observations that endemic fluorosis occurs more often in malnourished populations, a series of studies tested the hypothesis that deficient dietary intake of calcium, protein or energy affects fluoride metabolism so that the margin of safe fluoride exposure may be reduced. The objective of the investigation was to determine whether changes in fluoride metabolism in nutritionally deficient rats resulted in manifestation of any extraskeletal toxic fluoride effects not observed in healthy animals. This investigation included two studies, one that monitored the effect of calcium deficiency on the effects of chronic fluoride exposure, and a second study that observed fluoride effects in rats that were deficient either in protein or in energy and total nutrient intake. Control and experimental rats received drinking water containing 0, 0.26 (5), 0.79 (15) or 2.63 (50) mmol fluoride/L (mg/L) for 16 or 48 wk. Control rats were fed optimal diets and experimental rats were fed diets deficient in calcium (Study 1) or protein (Study 2). An additional group of experimental rats (Study 2) was provided with a restricted amount of diet; thus these rats were deficient in energy and total nutrient intake. The intake, excretion and retention of fluoride were monitored; after the rats were killed, tissue fluoride levels and biochemical markers of tissue function were analyzed. Bone marrow cells were harvested from some of the rats, after 48 wk of treatment, for determining the frequency of sister chromatid exchange, a marker of genetic damage. Although there were significant differences among fluoride treatment groups in fluoride excretion and retention that resulted in significantly greater fluoride levels in tissues of the experimental rats, we were unable to detect any harmful, extraskeletal biochemical, physiologic or genetic effects of fluoride in the nutritionally deficient rats.