Partner support and other determinants of smoking cessation maintenance among women.

Conducted a prospective examination of the effects of naturally occurring partner support on smoking cessation maintenance with 125 newly abstinent female smokers (mean age 41.8 yrs). 123 of the Ss were married, and 2 were living with a partner. Six days after smoking cessation, Ss supplied demographic and smoking habit data and ratings of a variety of their own and their partners' attributes and behaviors. Factor analysis of partner ratings revealed a dominant factor, Partner Facilitation, which accounted for 74% of the common variance, encompassed both quitting-related and general interactions, and loaded on the following behaviors: problem solving, rewarding quitting, understanding, listening, and facilitating the enactment of coping and nonsmoking skills. Results indicate that when the Partner Facilitation factor was entered into a stepwise discriminant analysis with 19 other variables, it emerged as the primary predictor of smoking cessation maintenance, accounting for 32% of the variance in outcome at 6–8 wks and accurately identifying more than 80% of both successful and unsuccessful outcomes. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Surgical Robotics: An Introduction

Surgical robots assisting surgeons during operations are being used in selected medical fields like neurosurgery, orthopaedics and endoscopy. In an introductory part, the authors present a workflow for robot assisted surgery, which includes the steps: image data acquisition, image processing, surgical planning and the actual robot assisted intraoperative transposition. Each step of the workflow comprises different computer aided methods and apparatuses, which are presented in this paper. The following part focuses on different mechanical set-ups and various application fields for surgical robots. They include neurosurgery, orthopaedic surgery, radiosurgery and radiotherapy, prostatectomy, endoscopy, laparoscopy, cardiac surgery and craniofacial surgery.     

Integrating a flexible anthropomorphic, robot hand into the control, system of a humanoid robot

This article presents the approaches taken to integrate a novel anthropomorphic robot hand into a humanoid robot. The requisites enabling such a robot hand to use everyday objects in an environment built for humans are presented. Starting from a design that resembles the human hand regarding size and movability of the mechatronical system, a low-level control system is shown providing reliable and stable controllers for single joint angles and torques, entire fingers and several coordinated fingers. Further on, the high-level control system connecting the low-level control system with the rest of the humanoid robot is presented. It provides grasp skills to the superior robot control system, coordinates movements of hand and arm and determines grasp patterns, depending on the object to grasp and the task to execute. Finally some preliminary results of the system, which is currently tested in simulations, will be presented.     

A technique for suboptimal feedback control of nonlinear systems

A simple easily implemented method is developed for obtaining a suboptimal control law for the optimization problem associated with minimizing a quadratic cost functional for nonlinear systems. The suboptimal control law is derived using a Taylor's series representation for the feedback gain matrix after modeling the nonlinear system by a linear system at each instant of time. The resultant control law is of feedback form and is nonlinear in state. The suboptimal control is obtained without using iterative techniques or any true optimal solutions. A second-order numerical example illustrates the effectiveness of the method and gives a comparison to the results of previous methods.     

Chylothorax: causes, diagnosis, therapy

The ductus thoracicus acts as the main vessel of the lymphatic system that flows into the venous system. It has the function of transporting lipis resorbed from the intestinal tract. Diseases of the thoracic duct are very rare and mostly result of injuries, tumors or as in most cases secondary infections. The main symptom in these cases is the presence of chylus outside of the ductus thoracicus, mainly in the thoracal spaces. Depending on the cause chylothorax is defined as traumatic, symptomatic or idiopathic. Therapy consists in drainage or ligature of the ductus thoracicus. The prognosis is good unless the cause is a malignant tumor resp. depends on the disease which is the cause of the chylothorax.     

Beta-1,3 Oligoglucans Specifically Bind to Immune Receptor CD28 and May Enhance T Cell Activation

Beta glucans are known to have immunomodulatory effects that mediated by a variety of mechanisms. In this article, we describe experiments and simulations suggesting that beta-1,3 glucans may promote activation of T cells by a previously unknown mechanism. First, we find that treatment of a T lymphoblast cell line with beta-1,3 oligoglucan significantly increases mRNA levels of T cell activation-associated cytokines, especially in the presence of the agonistic anti-CD3 antibody. This immunostimulatory activity was observed in the absence of dectin-1, a known receptor for beta-1,3 glucans. To clarify the molecular mechanism underlying this activity, we performed a series of molecular dynamics simulations and free-energy calculations to explore the interaction of beta-1,3 oligoglucans with potential immune receptors. While the simulations reveal little association between beta-1,3 oligoglucan and the immune receptor CD3, we find that beta-1,3 oligoglucans bind to CD28 near the region identified as the binding site for its natural ligands CD80 and CD86. Using a rigorous absolute binding free-energy technique, we calculate a dissociation constant in the low millimolar range for binding of 8-mer beta-1,3 oligoglucan to this site on CD28. The simulations show this binding to be specific, as no such association is computed for alpha-1,4 oligoglucan. This study suggests that beta-1,3 glucans bind to CD28 and may stimulate T cell activation collaboratively with T cell receptor activation, thereby stimulating immune function.     

Retinol and carotene content of foods consumed in East Africa determined by high performance liquid chromatography

The vitamin A activity of a number of fresh and dried foods important in the diet of people in East Africa was determined by high performance liquid chromatography. The analytical results obtained were combined with data from the literature for inclusion in a comprehensive food table which has been used in a study on xerophthalmia in the United Republic of Tanzania. The importance of adopting standard procedures for reporting retinol and carotenoid values is discussed.     

Korrelation von Betondruck‐ und Zugfestigkeit historischer Betone

Correlation between the compressive and tensile strength of old concretes – Applicability of the relationship described by DIN EN 1992‐1‐1 In the design of a new structure, DIN EN 1992‐1‐1 [1] normatively regulates the correlation between the compressive strength and tensile strength of concrete, produced according to DIN EN 206‐1 [2]. However, as there are many different time‐ and load‐dependent impacts on existing structures, the relationship described by DIN EN 1992‐1‐1 [1] can't be assumed without any further observations for existing structures. At the moment, there is no comprehensive investigation on the influences of e.g. subsequent hardening and carbonation on the concrete compressive or tensile strength. The tensile strength of concrete defined in DIN EN 1992‐1‐1 [1] is based on a water storage and a testing age of 28 days. Furthermore, the in‐situ tensile strength is affected by micro‐crack formation cause of internal stresses due to outflow of hydration heat. Generally, there is a different influence of micro‐crack formation on the tensile strength of concrete than on the compressive strength of concrete. The real value of the in‐situ tensile strength of concrete affects the shear force resistance and the load‐bearing capacity of anchors with concrete cone failure as decisive failure mode. Within the framework of a research project, financed by ”Forschungsinitiative Zukunft Bau“, an initiative of the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBR) structural investigations on the correlation between the compressive and tensile strength of old concretes have been performed. Below, the results of the research project are presented.