Percutaneous fibrin glue therapy of meningeal cysts of the sacral spine

The release of extracellular proteases by the axonal growth cone has been proposed to facilitate its movement by digesting cell-cell and cell-matrix contacts in the path of the advancing growth cone. The serine protease plasminogen activator (PA) has been shown to be secreted and focally concentrated at axonal growth cones of cultured mammalian neurons. Thus, PAs are well-placed to play an active role in growth cone movement and axonal pathfinding in development and regeneration. We discuss recent findings that suggest that the biological action of these proteases is more complex than originally thought.     

Schedulable garbage collection in CLI virtual execution system

Virtual software execution environment, known as Virtual Machine (VM), has been gaining popularity through Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and Common Language Infrastructure (CLI). Given their advantages in portability, productivity, and safety, etc., applying VM to real-time embedded systems can leverage production cost, fast time-to-market, and software integrity. However, this approach can only become practical once the VM operations and application tasks are made schedulable jointly. In this paper, we present a schedulable garbage collection algorithm applicable on real-time applications in CLI virtual machine environment. To facilitate the scheduling of real-time applications and garbage collection operations, we make the pause time due to garbage collection controllable, and the invocation of garbage collection predictable. To demonstrate the approach, a prototype for a schedulable garbage collection has been implemented in CLI execution environment. The garbage collection is carried out by a concurrent thread while meeting a targeted pause time and satisfying the memory requests of applications. A cost model of garbage collection is established based on measured WCET such that the execution time and overhead of garbage collection operations can be predicted. Finally, we illustrate a joint scheduling algorithm to meet the time and memory constraints of real-time systems.     

Growth response of the green algae Chlorella vulgaris to selective concentrations of zinc

A modification of a previously published fish cell culture technique (Rachlin and Perlmutter, 1968) has been successfully employed in this study to evaluate the effects of a metal toxicant on the growth response and therefore productivity of the green algae Chlorella vulgaris. The results of this study indicate that the concentration of zinc which reduces the growth rate of a test population of this alga, during a 96 h exposure, by 50 per cent, is 2.4±0.02 ppm. The test design has advantages in that it concerns itself with productivity reduction rather than standard survival (LC₅₀) of the test organisms. In addition the data generated is readily treated by the system of probit analysis for ease of evaluating the results. The use of this technique and test system, allows for the design of parallel studies in which the effects of toxicants on both animal and plant cell systems can be evaluated in terms of a more unified cellular approach.     

Going home: community reentry of light care nursing facility residents age 65 and over

Issues of consumer choice, and rising public expenditures of nursing facility care for the rapidly increasing elderly population have fueled interest in community reentry of nursing facility residents. The Minimum Data Set Plus (MDS+) contains a wealth of information which can be used to provide a better understanding of nursing facility residents including those who discharge. This study employs the Andersen model of health services utilization and logistical regression on MDS+ data to examine characteristics of higher functioning nursing facility residents age 65 and over related to community reentry in one midwestern state. Findings include having Medicaid as a payer source significantly decreased the likelihood of discharge. In contrast, being younger than 85, retaining decision making responsibilities, and having no cognitive impairments were found to increase the likelihood of discharge. Policy and program implications related to identifying and assisting nursing facility residents in resuming community living are discussed.     

Teleological behaviorism.

A psychological science of efficient causes, using internal mechanisms to explain overt behavior, is distinguished from another psychological science, based on Aristotelian final causes, using external objects and goals to explain overt behavior. Efficient-cause psychology is designed to answer the question of how a particular act is emitted; final-cause psychology is designed to answer the question of why a particular act is emitted. Physiological psychology, modern cognitive psychology, and some parts of behaviorism including Skinnerian behaviorism are efficient-cause psychologies; final-cause psychology, a development of Skinnerian behaviorism, is here called teleological behaviorism. Each of these 2 conceptions of causality in psychology implies a different view of the mind, hence a different meaning of mental terms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Substitutability in time allocation.

Describes a method of measuring substitutability, using concurrent schedules of reinforcement. It is assumed that an animal allocates its time to maximize utility (according to a certain function) within the constraints imposed by the choice situation (the limited time available and the schedules of reinforcement). This assumption implies that when it chooses among various rates and amounts of a single reinforcer, the animal allocates time proportionally to the value of the alternatives (matching). But when the animal chooses among various rates and amounts of different reinforcers, its time allocation deviates from matching. This deviation provides a measure of the substitutability of the commodities. (53 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)