Blood parameter and heart rate response to training in Andalusian horses

The psychopathology and associated disabilities experienced by persons with schizophrenia have only partially responded to conventional pharmacological and psychosocial treatment approaches. Biobehavioral treatment and rehabilitation employs behavioral assessment, social learning principles, skills training, and a focus on the recovery process to amplify the effects of pharmacotherapy. Utilizing the Medline database, we review a selection of English-language studies published from 1970 to 1994 that support the effectiveness of each of the components of biobehavioral therapy, such as case management, psychopharmacology with behavioral assessment, psychoeducation, family involvement, and social skills training. An integrated biobehavioral therapy directed toward early detection and treatment of schizophrenic symptoms, collaboration between consumers and caregivers in managing treatment, family and social skills training, and teaching coping skills and self-help techniques has been documented to improve the course and outcome of schizophrenia, as measured by symptom recurrence, social functioning, and quality of life. A case vignette is presented to illustrate the successful integration of biobehavioral therapies into a treatment system that focuses on consumers' attempts to become increasingly responsible for recovering from illness.     

A Statistical Determination of the Transit Speed of Pollutants in a Water Reservoir Affected by Acid Mine Drainage from the Iberian Pyrite Belt

The El Sancho reservoir is located in the Odiel River basin, which crosses the Iberian Pyrite Belt. The reservoir receives acid mine drainage (AMD) from the Meca River, a tributary of the Odiel River. Two multi-parameter probes, one placed at the tail (up-gradient) end of the reservoir, where the contaminants enter, and another close to the reservoir dam were used to characterize acidity migration through the Sancho reservoir. The probes both measured pH and conductivity every 30 min. Two different levels of contamination were found, due to dilution that takes place within the reservoir and changes in the AMD composition. The cross-correlation function allowed quantification of the migration process from tail to dam. For both pH and conductivity, the maximum correlation occurred 17 days after sampling, indicating a mean transit time of 17 days. Since the distance between the two sampling points was 14,500 m, the contaminant transit speed was 0.0098 m/s.     

Porosity effects on the neutron total cross section of graphite

For subthermal neutron energies, polycrystalline graphite shows a larger total cross section than predicted by existing theoretical models. In order to investigate the origin of this discrepancy we measured the total cross section of graphite samples of three different origins, in the energy range from 0.001 to 10 eV. Different experimental arrangements and sample treatments were explored, to identify the effect of various experimental parameters on the total cross section measurement. The experiments showed that the increase in total cross section is due to neutrons scattered around the forward direction. We associate these small angle scattered neutrons (SANS) to the porous structure of graphite, and formulate a very simple model to compute its contribution to the total cross section of the material. This results in an analytic expression that explicitly depends on the density and mean size of the pores, which can be easily incorporated in nuclear library codes.     

Residual Stress Measurement and Fatigue Crack Growth Prediction after Cold Expansion of Cracked Fastener Holes

The cold expansion technique is often used to introduce beneficial compressive stress at fastener holes, and can be used for remedial work where cracks already exist. In this paper, results are presented showing the effect of preexisting cracks on the residual stress field produced by cold expanding a fastener hole, and on subsequent fatigue crack growth. The effect on the residual stresses was experimentally evaluated in two ways: indirectly, in terms of retained expansion and directly, by measurement of the stresses using the X-ray and neutron diffraction techniques. The retained expansion ratio showed that cold expansion is more sensitive to the existence of precracks at lower levels of applied interference, and the inlet and outlet faces have different behavior. The stress measurements showed that preexisting cracks reduce the compressive residual stresses more on the mandrel inlet face than on the outlet face and in the middle of the specimen. The effect on fatigue crack growth rates was modeled using a linear-elastic fracture mechanics approach. It was found that cold expansion of a hole containing a preexisting crack longer than 1 mm introduces little benefit for subsequent fatigue crack growth behavior.     

Adenosine deaminase deficiency in adults

Adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency typically causes severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) in infants. We report metabolic, immunologic, and genetic findings in two ADA-deficient adults with distinct phenotypes. Patient no. 1 (39 years of age) had combined immunodeficiency. She had frequent infections, lymphopenia, and recurrent hepatitis as a child but did relatively well in her second and third decades. Then she developed chronic sinopulmonary infections, including tuberculosis, and hepatobiliary disease; she died of viral leukoencephalopathy at 40 years of age. Patient no. 2, a healthy 28-year-old man with normal immune function, was identified after his niece died of SCID. Both patients lacked erythrocyte ADA activity but had only modestly elevated deoxyadenosine nucleotides. Both were heteroallelic for missense mutations: patient no. 1, G216R and P126Q (novel); patient no. 2, R101Q and A215T. Three of these mutations eliminated ADA activity, but A215T reduced activity by only 85%. Owing to a single nucleotide change in the middle of exon 7, A215T also appeared to induce exon 7 skipping. ADA deficiency is treatable and should be considered in older patients with unexplained lymphopenia and immune deficiency, who may also manifest autoimmunity or unexplained hepatobiliary disease. Metabolic status and genotype may help in assessing prognosis of more mildly affected patients.     

Corrosion of Metallic and Structural Elements Exposed to Acid Mine Drainage (AMD)

Mining equipment and structural elements (e.g. bridges, mining exploration equipment), which are mainly made of steel and concrete, undergo corrosion processes that are strongly accelerated in these extremely acidic environments, with the further aid of acidophilic bacteria that act as catalysts.     

Somatostatin is expressed in FRTL-5 thyroid cells and prevents thyrotropin-mediated down-regulation of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p27kip1

A novel gene, jumonji was identified by a mouse gene trap strategy. The jumonji gene encodes a protein containing a putative DNA binding domain. The mice homozygous for jumonji gene with a BALB/cA genetic background show hypoplasia of the fetal liver and embryonic lethality, suggesting impaired hematopoiesis. In the peripheral blood of jumonji mutant embryos, the number of fetal liver-derived definitive erythrocytes, but not yolk sac-derived primitive erythrocytes, showed a marked reduction, suggesting that jumonji mutants die of anemia. The defects of definitive erythrocytes in jumonji mutants seemed to be caused by a decrease in the numbers of multiple hematopoietic progenitors including colony-forming unit-spleen (CFU-S) in the fetal liver. However, hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in the fetal liver of jumonji mutants could reconstitute the hematopoietic system of lethally irradiated recipients. In the fetal liver, the jumonji gene is expressed in fibroblastic cells and endothelial cells, but not in Lin-/c-Kit+/Sca-1(+) cells known to include HSCs. These results suggest that an environmental defect induce the impaired hematopoiesis in the fetal liver of jumonji mutant embryos.     

Correction to: Corrosion of Metallic and Structural Elements Exposed to Acid Mine Drainage (AMD)

Mine Water and the Environment -     

Study of the direct Fourier method for the three-dimensional reconstruction of objects in the case of a missing angular data range

Some practical and theoretical considerations on the three-dimensional reconstruction of an object from its two-dimensional projections by the direct Fourier method have been obtained using computer generated images. The procedure applied has been designed to study the specific problems derived from the collection of images in transmission electron microscopes (TEM), making special emphasis on images of biological objects. The study of the calculated point spread function (PSF) of the experimental system and the mean and variance profiles of the reconstructions have provided useful criteria to assess the quality and the interpretability of three-dimensional reconstructions of real data.