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PubMed2002

Magneto-optical measurements of chromophore/semiconductor nanocrystalline superstructures.

The magneto-optical properties of chromophore/semiconductor nanocrystalline superstructures were examined using optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) and time-resolved photo-luminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The samples consisted of CdS or PbS nanocrystals separated by conjugated organic chains, forming three-dimensional superstructures. The ODMR measurements revealed that the magnetooptical properties of the superstructures are mainly controlled by the individual characteristic of the nanocrystals. The ODMR spectra were compared with simulated curves generated by the diagonalization of a spin Hamiltonian, indicating the existence of the following luminescence events. a) Recombination between electron-hole pairs trapped at a stoichiometric defect (metal or sulfur vacancies) or oxygen adatom sites at the surface of the nanocrystals. These electron-hole pairs showed anistropic g-factors and weak exchange interactions. b) Bound exciton emission, from strongly coupled electron-hole pairs trapped at intrinsic stoichiometric or structural defects at the core of the nanocrystals. The existence of the two overlapping luminescence events is further confirmed by the acceptance of biexponential PL decay processes.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1991

Alternative therapies, 1990. An overview.

The availability of alternative therapies for many health problems is a well-documented historical fact. Alternative therapies are generally understood to be those therapies outside of the usually accepted medical therapies for disease processes, such as cancer, arthritis, diabetes, psoriasis, lupus, and AIDS. Some other descriptive terms utilized include questionable, unproven, dubious, unorthodox, and unconventional. These alternative therapies vary from active involvement in promotion of one's own health (exercise, diet) to quackery. In today's society, with emphasis on self-involvement with individual health, metabolic therapies have become the most widely practiced alternative therapy. In an antiestablishment, anti-intellectual climate, with an increasingly mobile, rootless population, alternative therapies are in somewhat of a renaissance. Some confusion exists regarding clinical trials and alternative therapies in the general population and in the noninvolved health profession. Various studies indicate that from 10% to 50% of cancer patients use some alternative therapy, with national expenditures ranging as high as $10 billion annually. Better-educated patients with higher-than-average income are more likely to choose alternative therapies and are frequently supported by a physician in this choice. Most cancer patients continue under a physician's care and continue usual therapy while pursuing alternative methods. Approximately 5% of cancer patients abandon appropriate therapy and pursue potentially harmful alternative methods. A variety of sociomedical questions are brought forth by studies of the use of alternative therapies. A great need for public and professional education regarding this subject is evident.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Political analysis of rapid change in Uganda's health financing policy and consequences on service delivery for malaria control.

The aim of this study was to assess the political and social dynamics resulting from the rapid change in user-fee reforms in Uganda and the effects on service delivery for malaria control. Using political mapping and political risk analysis techniques, the study analysed qualitative and quantitative data obtained from secondary data sources and key actors in the policy arena. The results have shown that the feasibility of user-fees in Uganda was undermined by the absence of strong central government leadership and strategies to manage the politics of the reforms. The resultant rapid change in policy adversely affected the recurrent expenditures of health units that previously relied heavily on cost sharing, which led to a chronic shortage of malaria drugs and undermined the ability of health facilities to hire and motivate staff. The study results demonstrate that in order to contribute positively to healthcare delivery goals for malaria control in endemic countries, user-fees require full ownership and strong political leadership by the central government. Decentralization, when merely used as a strategy to navigate the political risks associated with user-fees, is unlikely to succeed without a centrally coordinated and managed process of policy formulation and acceptance involving wider consultations and political management of interest groups.

Communicable Disease Control↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Confocal microscopic image sequence compression using vector quantization and three-dimensional pyramid.

The three-dimensional (3-D) pyramid compressor project at the University of Glasgow has developed a compressor for images obtained from confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) device. The proposed method using a combination of image pyramid coder and vector quantization techniques has good performance at compressing confocal volume image data. An experiment was conducted on several kinds of CLSM data using the presented compressor compared with other well-known volume data compressors, such as MPEG-1. The results showed that the 3-D pyramid compressor gave a higher subjective and objective image quality of reconstructed images at the same compression ratio, and presented more acceptable results when applying image processing filters on reconstructed images.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

In defense of representation.

The computational paradigm, which has dominated psychology and artificial intelligence since the cognitive revolution, has been a source of intense debate. Recently, several cognitive scientists have argued against this paradigm, not by objecting to computation, but rather by objecting to the notion of representation. Our analysis of these objections reveals that it is not the notion of representation per se that is causing the problem, but rather specific properties of representations as they are used in various psychological theories. Our analysis suggests that all theorists accept the idea that cognitive processing involves internal information-carrying states that mediate cognitive processing. These mediating states are a superordinate category of representations. We discuss five properties that can be added to mediating states and examine their importance in various cognitive models. Finally, three methodological lessons are drawn from our analysis and discussion.

Cognition↗
PubMed2000

The Film Formation of Polymer Particles in Drying Thin Films of Aqueous Acrylic Latices.

The aim of this study is to determine the factors that contribute to the process of film formation of binder particles in drying aqueous dispersion coatings, based on acrylic polymers. It is known that concentrated latices of uniform size show iridescent, colored light patterns. These colors are caused by interparticle interference, and they are only present when the latex particles are ordered in a regular structure. The interparticle interference can be characterized by measuring the transmission as a function of wavelength of the incident light. It appeared that the changes of the interparticle interference of a drying latex film can be related to changes in the interparticle distance and displacement. It was also found that the interparticle distance becomes "negative" upon coalescence of the latex particles. This means that from this point on, the change in interparticle interference is directly related to the indentation or deformation of the latex particles. It became clear that the coalescence process differs from deformation mechanisms accepted in the literature. It seems that the deformation of the particles follows a biaxial mechanism. This means that the particles deform only in one direction, perpendicular to the film surface. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1993

Heart, body, and soul: a church-based smoking-cessation program for Urban African Americans.

BACKGROUND: This article provides a descriptive overview of the implementation process of the Heart, Body, and Soul program. The program objective was to test strategies to reduce the prevalence of cigarette smoking among urban African Americans in East Baltimore. METHOD: This study constitutes a prospective randomized trial among inner-city African Americans designed to improve quit rates among church attenders. A random-digit-dialing survey was conducted to establish baseline levels of self-reported cigarette smoking, examine attendant attitudes, and determine the presence of known cardiovascular risk factors among community residents of the catchment area. A similar survey was conducted among churchgoers to establish a baseline. Twenty-two churches were recruited and randomly assigned to either intensive or minimal (self-help) intervention strategies. Baseline health screenings were held in all participating churches. Innovative culturally specific smoking cessation strategies mediated through lay volunteers from participating churches were implemented in the intensive intervention churches. RESULTS: Pastors of all churches were directly involved in all aspects of the planning and implementation process. A total of 29 volunteer lay smoking-cessation specialists were trained and successfully implemented the intensive interventions in churches. An additional 272 church members were trained to conduct their church's health screenings. CONCLUSION: The essential component of this successful implementation process were building trust and acceptance and providing the technical support to encourage smoking-cessation strategies. This description of the project is presented to assist others involved in church-based trials in urban African American communities.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

The role of second messenger molecules in the regulation of permeability in the cerebral endothelial cells.

The view that the cerebral endothelial cells represent the cellular analogue of the blood brain barrier has been generally accepted. The regulation of transport processes operating in the cerebral endothelial cells is of great current interest. Different elements of the intracellular signaling messenger systems have been detected in the course of our studies in the cerebral endothelial cells. Our knowledge of these regulatory mechanisms is briefly reviewed here with special emphasis on the importance of second messenger molecules and phosphorylation of certain proteins of microvascular origin.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Proviral unit II of endogenous mouse mammary tumour virus is selectively amplified and expressed in C57B1/10 mammary tumours induced by non-viral carcinogens.

Restriction enzyme analysis and molecular hybridization assay of DNA isolated from C57B1/10 mammary adenocarcinomas induced by a combination of dimethylbenzanthracene, oestrogen, and prolactin, revealed the presence of four extra copies of endogenous mouse mammary tumour virus (MMTV). PstI restriction pattern of the amplified proviral sequences indicated their identity with the proviral Unit II of endogenous MMTV. The amplified proviruses are hypomethylated and expressed in a hormone-dependent fashion. Their internal structure is slightly modified, since an additional EcoRI recognition site is present within the proviral genomic DNA. Selective amplification of Unit II MMTV provirus in the course of mammary tumourigenesis initiated by chemical carcinogens and hormones is compatible with the accepted multifactorial nature of this process, and is interpreted in terms of the insertional mutagenesis model for MMTV-induced oncogenesis. However, sequences of cellular DNA, adjacent to the amplified Unit II proviruses, show no homology to the integration domains int-1 and int-2 common to exogenous MMTV.

Adenocarcinoma↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Rhythmic regulation of pulse and respiration while standing in subjects with stable and labile orthostatic blood pressure].

The pulse and respiration rate of normal people in a recumbant position has a fairly high degree of coordination. This increases in a upright position. In patients with orthostatic hypotension the degree of coordination is fairly low when lying and mostly decreases when standing. - The rhythmic regulation of the bradycard subgroup of the patients with orthostatic hypotension is still relatively strong, but the hypotension is extreme; that of the tachycard subgroup is extremely unstable, but the hypotension is not so marked. As collapse occurs with the same frequency in both subgroups, blood pressure and rhythmic regulation must be able to compensate each other to a certain degree. - Normal values can be detected by observing regulative optima. The marked optimum in an upright position is found by a pulse rate of 80-85 min-1, a respiration rate of 16-18 min-1 and a QP/R of 5. A minor, second optimum exists near a pulse rate of 100-105 min-1, a respiration rate of 14-15 min-1 and a QP/R of 7. - In patients with orthostatic hypotension these optima also can occur but sometimes less markedly. It can thus be accepted that the normal regulative process is latent more or less in ill people. This becomes particularly meaningful for all methods of therapies which strengthen this regulative process. - As in pathological cases a minor, second optimum is found in the regulative process, illness cannot mean a total loss of order but merely a reorganisation.

Bradycardia↗
PubMed2000

The Selection and Design of Multiple-Species Habitat Preserves.

Multiple-species habitat conservation plans (MSHCPs) are designed to eliminate project-by-project review and minimize species-by-species conflicts; but these one-time, short-term processes invariably compress the divergent expectations of interest groups into an exercise driven by economic, amenity, and aesthetic values rather than scientific values. Participants may define an MSHCP as an exchange of habitat preserves for federal permits to take populations of endangered animals and plants, but the outcome is typically driven by overarching arguments over land development and suburban sprawl. Existing land uses also constrain the size, shape, and linkages among wildlife habitats, leading to a divergence of MSHCPs from the scientific preserve selection and design literature. Problems created by constraints to preserve configuration (e.g., land costs, fragmentation, pre-existing amounts of edge, lack of connectivity) must be resolved by long-term, post facto management. To date, estimates of preserve persistence have not been used in MSHCPs. Rather than focus on map-based exercises of preserve elements, it may be more productive to set goals for the persistence of species (states) and ecosystems (processes) within the preserves-accepting that preserve configurations and arrays will be defined by the landscape and politics of suburban areas and that long-term management will provide the primary means of maintaining biodiversity along the wildland/urban interface.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2002

Screen film vs full-field digital mammography: image quality, detectability and characterization of lesions.

The objective of this study was to compare screen-film mammography (SFM) to full-field digital mammography (FFDM) regarding image quality as well as detectability and characterization of lesions using equivalent images of the same patient acquired with both systems. Two mammography units were used, one with a screen-film system (Senographe DMR) and the other with a digital detector (Senographe 2000D, both GEMS). Screen-film and digital mammograms were performed on 55 patients with cytologically or histologically proven tumors on the same day. Together with these, 75 digital mammograms of patients without tumor and the corresponding previous screen-film mammograms not older than 1.5 years were reviewed by three observers in a random order. Contrast, exposure, and the presence of artifacts were evaluated. Different details, such as the skin, the retromamillary region, and the parenchymal structures, were judged according to a three-point ranking scale. Finally, the detectability of microcalcifications and lesions were compared and correlated to histology. Image contrast was judged to be good in 76%, satisfactory in 20%, and unsatisfactory in 4% of screen-film mammograms. Digital mammograms were judged to be good in 99% and unsatisfactory in 1% of cases. Improper exposure of screen-film system occurred in 18% (10% overexposed and 8% underexposed). Digital mammograms were improperly exposed in 4% of all cases but were of acceptable quality after post-processing. Artifacts, most of them of no significance, were found in 78% of screen-film and in none of the digital mammograms. Different anatomical regions, such as the skin, the retromamillary region, and dense parenchymal areas, were better visualized in digital than in screen-film mammography. All malignant tumors were seen by the three radiologists; however, digital mammograms allowed a better characterization of these lesions to the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS;) [corrected] categories (FFDM better than SFM in 23 of 165 vs 9 of 165 judged cases in SFM). In conclusion, digital mammography offers a consistent, high image quality in combination with a better contrast and without artifacts. Lesion detection in digital images was equal to that in screen-film images; however, categorization of the lesions to the BI-RADS classification was slightly better.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Why me? Why not me?

: The decision to undergo BRCA testing is very complex and emotionally laden. This decision can be further complicated by the loss of a mother at an early age. The following personal account by a genetic counselor discusses the testing process and the struggle to accept the results and reframe one's self-identity. The sensitive nature of this testing and the implications for other family members is explored.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

In vitro studies on the reactivation by oximes of phosphylated acetylcholinesterase--II. On the formation of O,O-diethyl phosphorylated AChE and O-ethyl methylphosphonylated AChE and their reactivation by PS2.

The in vitro reactivation profiles of O,O-diethyl phosphorylated AChE and O-ethyl methyl phosphonylated AChE by P2S (2-hydroxy iminomethyl-1-methyl-pyridinium methane sulphonate) have been determined. Whilst reinhibition of the reactivated AChE by phosphorylated oxime (POX) is not important in determining the reactivation profile of O,O-diethyl phosphorylated AChE, reinhibition of the reactivated AChE by phosphonylated oxime can, however, be important in determining the reactivation profile of O-ethyl methylphosphonylated AChE and the extent of this reinhibition is determined by the initial concentration of phosphonylated AChE. Kinetic analysis of the reactivation profiles demonstrated that the generally accepted scheme for this reactivation process is incorrect and that phosphylated AChE cannot be considered as a single species although an adequate description of the present data is afforded by a model using a 1:1 mixture of two species each with its own rate of reactivation. In the case of O,O-diethyl phosphorylated AChE the main kinetic difference between these two species is found not in the formation or stability of the phosphorylated AChE-P2S complex but in its subsequent reaction. From results with O-ethyl methylphosphonylated AChE prepared from two pairs of enantiomers as well as from the racemic fluoridate it was concluded that phosphonylation of AChE may not always occur via a mechanism involving inversion of configuration at phosphorus but can also occur with retention of configuration. Reactivation by P2S of O-ethyl methylphosphonylated AChE prepared from (S) organophosphates proceeds with inversion of configuration at phosphorus. Inversion also occurs in the reinhibition of AChE by the POX produced in the initial reactivation.

Acetylcholinesterase↗
PubMed1991

A comprehensive method validation strategy for bioanalytical applications in the pharmaceutical industry--2. Statistical analyses.

The first paper in this two-part series described [Lang and Bolton, J. Pharm. Biomed. Anal. 9, 357-361 (1991)] an overall validation strategy for bioanalytical methods. This second paper focuses on the statistical analyses performed on the validation data that will allow the analyst to evaluate the reliability and reproducibility of a bioanalytical method. Based on the validation results, acceptance criteria for the quality control concentrations are established and used during the study proper to determine if the analytical run is valid. After analysing the clinical study samples and accepting the analytical runs, the quality control results are incorporated into databases to update their acceptance limits. This continuous validation process enables the analyst to monitor the method's performance over time and be confident that accurate sample concentrations are being reported. It is important to emphasize that the statistical analyses of the data provide information that should be considered from a practical point of view by the analyst. The analyst should use sound judgement in evaluating the reliability of the method.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2006

Histology of the thick scar on the female, red Duroc pig: final similarities to human hypertrophic scar.

The etiology and treatment of hypertrophic scar remain puzzles even after decades of research. A significant reason is the lack of an accepted animal model of the process. The female, red Duroc pig model was described long ago. Since the skin of the pig is similar to that of humans, we are attempting to validate this model and found it to be encouraging. In this project we quantified myofibroblasts, mast cells and collagen nodules in the thick scar of the Duroc pig and compared these to the values for human hypertrophic scar. We found the results to be quite similar and so further validated the model. In addition, we observed that soon after wounding an inflammatory cell layer forms. The thickness of the inflammatory layer approaches the thickness of the skin removed as if the remaining dermis "knows" how much dermis is gone. In deep wounds this inflammatory layer thickens and this thickness is predictive of the thickness of the ultimate scar.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Recent progress in biocatalyst discovery and optimization.

The use of enzymes in industrial catalysis continues to grow because of the considerable advantages of natural catalytic systems. The need for enantiomerically pure fine chemicals and the movement away from chemically burdened technologies will drive the acceptance of enzyme-assisted processes. New technologies for enzyme discovery and optimization have enabled the application of enzymes in harsh industrial conditions and in processes demanding stringent selectivity. These discovery and laboratory evolution methods entail genomic approaches that by their nature engender screening of extremely large numbers of gene types and variants. By extension, the fitness of an individual high-throughput screen requires an intelligent, process-targeted assay amenable to a chosen screening platform.

Biotechnology↗
PubMed2004

Do neurosurgeons subscribe to the guideline lumbosacral radicular syndrome?

BACKGROUND: This study presents a survey of the opinion of neurosurgeons on the multidisciplinary clinical guideline 'lumbosacral radicular syndrome'. The aim was to describe to what extent neurosurgeons in the Netherlands endorse the content of this guideline. The guideline was issued in 1996 by the Netherlands Institute of Quality Health Care and this is the first attempt to evaluate the implementation of this guideline. METHODS: All active neurosurgeons (n=92) in the Netherlands were invited to complete a questionnaire investigating to what extent they agree with the 26 recommendations in the guideline 'lumbosacral radicular syndrome'. The results are represented in frequencies (%) in order to express the magnitude of their consent or dissent with the recommendations. RESULTS: Overall, 75% of the neurosurgeons responded and, of these, 94% agreed (at least partially) with the content of the guideline. Of the 26 recommendations in the guideline, seven were not fully endorsed by the neurosurgeons. Three of these seven recommendations may need revision based on newly published data. CONCLUSION: This survey shows that almost all neurosurgeons subscribed (at least partially) to the multidisciplinary LRS guideline. Therefore, one important aspect of the implementation process has been fulfilled, i.e. acceptance of the content of the guideline.

Adult↗