Fair‐Weather Friends: Evidence of Lipoxin Dysregulation in Neurodegeneration

Lipoxins (LXs) are autacoids, specialized proresolving lipid mediators (SPMs) acting locally in a paracrine or autocrine fashion. They belong to a complex superfamily of dietary small polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA)–metabolites, which direct potent cellular responses to resolve inflammation and restore tissue homeostasis. Together, these SPM activities have been intensely studied in systemic inflammation and acute injury or infection, but less is known about LX signaling and activities in the central nervous system. LXs are derived from arachidonic acid, an omega‐6 PUFA. In addition to well‐established roles in systemic inflammation resolution, they have increasingly become implicated in regulating neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative processes. In particular, chronic inflammation plays a central role in Alzheimer's disease (AD) etiology, and dysregulated LX production and activities have been reported in a variety of AD rodent models and clinical tissue samples, yet with complex and sometimes conflicting results. In addition, reduced LX production following retinal injury has been reported recently by the authors, and an intriguing direct neuronal activity promoting survival and homeostasis in retinal and cortical neurons is demonstrated. Here, the authors review and clarify this growing literature and suggest new research directions to further elaborate the role of lipoxins in neurodegeneration.     

Understanding trust in ms-commerce: The roles of reported experience,linguistic style,profile photo,emotional, and cognitive trust

This paper examines what influences trust in mobile social commerce environment. Drawing on trust-based acceptance model (i.e. cognitive and emotional trust) and online review features (i.e. profile photo, linguistic style, and reported experience), we examine how these factors affect trust in mobile social commerce. Hypotheses were tested using survey data. The results of our model showed that there are significant influences of profile photo, reported experience, cognitive, and emotional trust towards trust in ms-commerce. This work contributes to existing literature by examining the roles of previous trust in mobile payments and online reviews on trust in mobile social commerce.     

A dual-mode bandpass filter with enhanced capacitive perturbation

A dual-mode ring bandpass filter with two pairs of capacitors has been designed. The capacitors are used to control the location of the even- and odd-mode frequencies independently, allowing weak coupling for narrow-band filter design with realizable capacitance values. Theoretical expressions have been derived for these frequencies. A 4% bandwidth bandpass filter centered at 1.9 GHz was designed and tested with good agreement between theoretical and measured results.     

Context-Processing Deficits in Schizotypal Personality Disorder.

Research suggests that schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) is a part of the spectrum of schizophrenia-related illnesses. This article hypothesizes that a deficit in the representation and maintenance of context is a core cognitive disturbance in schizophrenia and that SPD individuals should demonstrate context-processing deficits. To test this hypothesis, the authors administered 3 versions of their AX-CPT task, designed to assess context processing, to 35 healthy controls and 26 individuals with DSM-IV SPD. They also administered working memory and selective attention tasks. SPD individuals displayed context representation deficits similar to those found in schizophrenia but did not show the same additional deficits in context maintenance. Context processing was strongly associated with working memory and selective attention performance in the SPD individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Longitudinal weight changes, length of survival, and energy requirements of long-term care residents with dementia

OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that institutionalized patients with dementia, who frequently have feeding problems and require supervised and assisted feeding, would lose more weight during their residency than nondemented, independently functioning residents and have compromised survival. To test this hypothesis, we examined the survival and longitudinal changes in weight of two cohorts of institutionalized residents with dementia and compared these cohorts with a cohort of nondemented residents. We also measured the resting energy expenditures of a subset of the subjects with dementia as an indicator of their energy needs. DESIGN: A longitudinal cohort study with retrospective baseline chart review and subsequent follow-up of monthly weights and mortality over 4 years. SETTING: A 725-bed long-term care institution with specified levels of care. SUBJECTS: Two cohorts of residents with dementia, one consisting of subjects who required total care throughout their institutional stay (n = 31) and another group who did not initially require total care (n = 48); these were compared with a cohort with normal mentation who were functionally independent in their daily activities (n = 26). The total number of subjects was 105. MEASUREMENTS: Demographics, medical problems, and medications by chart review; functional and mental status evaluations; longitudinal monthly weights and mortality for the 48-month study period; and resting energy expenditures by indirect calorimetry. MAIN RESULTS: Residents with dementia had lower weights on admission and throughout their stay than nondemented, independently functioning residents, and they were more likely to have a weight loss of 10 lbs or more at some point during the 4-year study period. However, their mean weights did not change during the study period. The mean survival from admission of those demented residents who died was more than 3 years. Resting energy expenditures of women residents with advanced dementia were 12% lower than predicted from the Harris Benedict equations. CONCLUSION: Dementia is not necessarily associated with unremitting weight loss during institutionalization despite the frequent occurrence of feeding difficulties and temporary weight loss. This may be caused partly by the lower than expected resting energy expenditures and, hence, energy needs of affected residents as their dementia progresses. Demented residents weighed significantly less than nondemented, independently functioning residents throughout their institutional stay. Nevertheless, nursing staff are able to maintain weight and survival for extended periods even in very impaired residents.     

Advances in the stabilization of flexible PVC by using a liquid calcium‐zinc technology

The global market for liquid mixed‐metal stabilizers is migrating toward heavy‐metal‐free products, Historically, these systems have not been performance and cost competitive. High efficiency calcium‐zinc stabilizers have the potential to replace heavy‐metal‐based products. The intrinsic value of non‐phenolic lubricating calcium intermediates and calcium‐zinc stabilizers is discussed.     

Percutaneous ethanol injection therapy by ethanol mixed with CO2 microbubble for hepatocellular carcinoma

One of the shortcomings of percutaneous ethanol injection therapy (PEIT) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is that many sessions are necessary to accomplish the treatment. This may be caused by which the ultrasonography (US) image does not reflect correctly to the kinetics of injected ethanol into HCC nodule. It is considered that number of treatment sessions are able to be reduced if we just enough injected labelled ethanol under US into HCC nodule. Therefore, we tried PEIT by ethanol mixed with CO2 microbubble (CO2 ethanol). The injected CO2 ethanol was aquired as hyperechoic image without strong acoustic shadow to the end of injection. Consequently we could reduce the number of treatment sessions to almost 1 for lesions < or = 3 cm in diameter and markedly reduce total dose of injected ethanol. The detectable rate of CO2 ethanol leaked out HCC nodule was high. No serious complication occurred. There have been only 1 lesion of local recurrence and no case of intrahepatic and peritoneal dissemination for 11.5 months on average of observation after PEIT by CO2 ethanol (CO2PEIT). These findings suggest that CO2PEIT is useful method for reducing the number of treatment sessions and total dose of injected ethanol, moreover preventing complication by ethanol leakage.     

移动终端软件的成功要素

移动终端是一种采用先进通信协议栈的复杂系统,它需要具有与许多网络供应商设备的互操作性、支持先进而丰富的多媒体应用程序,而且,所有这些都必需在一个资源有限的嵌入式系统的约束条件下实现。提供一个满足上述要求的软件解决方案需要考虑许多方面的问题并经历诸多阶段。成功的要素是:平台质量、应用程序集成质量和产品质量。平台质量能让制造商用来生成多种设计方案的移动手机参考设计,必须提供一个用于制造高品质终端用户产品的优质平台。移动手机软件包括三个关键部分——协议栈、应用程序架构和应用程序。协议栈毫无疑问是最为复杂的…