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At least 1,315 records · Page 73Linked to original sources
PubMed2006

Coagulation of NOM: linking character to treatment.

The paper presents an overview and discussion on the link between natural organic matter (NOM) character and its treatability by coagulation. Trials were conducted on a series of bench scale and pilot plant trials on three source waters: two from UK moorland catchments and one from a US snow melt source. Overall the work demonstrates the importance of the polarity balance and the charge density of the NOM contained within the source water. The hydrophobic content controls the coagulant demand such that variation in the demand between sources or sampling periods can be accounted for by changes in the hydrophobic content and its charge density. The raw water hydrophilic content, and specifically the nonacid fraction, provides a useful indicator of the achievable residual. Analysis of coagulation performance revealed a clear relationship between zeta potential and residual DOC. For each source an operational zeta potential range exists within which the residual concentration is optimal. Comparison of the ranges achieved during each trial demonstrated that a communal range between -10 and +3 mV exist for all waters thus providing a useful guide range for operational control.

Flocculation↗
PubMed1990

Computerized literature reference system: use of an optical scanner and optical character recognition software.

A computerized reference system for radiology journal articles was developed by using an IBM-compatible personal computer with a hand-held optical scanner and optical character recognition software. This allows direct entry of scanned text from printed material into word processing or data-base files. Additionally, line diagrams and photographs of radiographs can be incorporated into these files. A text search and retrieval software program enables rapid searching for keywords in scanned documents. The hand scanner and software programs are commercially available, relatively inexpensive, and easily used. This permits construction of a personalized radiology literature file of readily accessible text and images requiring minimal typing or keystroke entry.

Electronic Data Processing↗
PubMed1999

Writing Chinese characters and success on Mental Rotation Test.

Our recent study with Chinese and Chinese-American undergraduates indicated that writing Chinese characters was associated with better performance on the Piagetian Water-Level Task for Chinese-American men. The current study investigated whether the same effects would apply to the Vandenberg Mental Rotation Test. Two alternative hypotheses (bilingualism and birth place) were also tested. Participants were two groups of Chinese-American undergraduates: 48 writers of Chinese (21 men, 27 women) and 130 nonwriters of Chinese (58 men, 72 women). Analysis suggested that writing Chinese and birth in the USA contributed significantly to the success on Mental Rotation Test. Students who were born in the USA and able to write Chinese scored the highest on this test. Being bilingual was not associated with performance on the Mental Rotation Test. Men performed significantly better than women.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1991

Heterosis retention for birth and weaning characters of calves in the third generation of a five-breed diallel.

Data were 876 birth records and 727 weaning records of straightbred and F3 crossbred calves produced in the third generation of a five-breed diallel. Among straightbreds at birth, Holstein calves were heaviest and widest at the shoulders and hips. Jersey calves were lightest and narrowest at the hips, and Brahman calves were narrowest at the shoulders. Holstein crosses tended to be larger at birth than crosses among other breeds. Among straightbreds at weaning, Holstein calves were heaviest and tallest, and Hereford calves were lightest and shortest. Angus calves had the highest survival to weaning rate, and Holstein calves had the lowest survival rate. Among crossbred calves, Holstein crosses tended to be larger at weaning. Estimates of average heterosis retained for birth characters were not significant. Significant breed mean heterosis retention was observed for birth weight, shoulder width, and hip width of Hereford calves and for shoulder width and hip width of Holstein calves. Estimates of average heterosis retained for weaning weight and height were 6.1 kg (P less than .01) and 1.02 cm (P less than .05), respectively. In general, estimates of specific and average heterosis retained for survival to weaning were nonsignificant. Significant breed mean heterosis was observed for weaning weight and height of Brahman, Hereford, and Holstein calves and for survival to weaning of Hereford, Holstein, and Jersey calves.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

Identification of quantitative trait loci affecting birth characters and accumulation of backfat and weight in a Meishan-White Composite resource population.

A search for genomic regions affecting birth characters and accretion of weight and backfat was conducted in a Meishan-White Composite reciprocal backcross resource population. Birth traits analyzed (n = 750) were vigor score, number of nipples, and birth weight. Subsequent measures on gilts and barrows (n = 706) analyzed were weaning weight, 8-wk weight, ADG from 8 to 18 wk of age, ADG from 18 to 26 wk of age, 26-wk weight, and backfat over the first rib, last rib, and last lumbar vertebrae at 14 and 26 (n = 599) wk of age. Feed intake and growth of 92 individually penned barrows were also analyzed. A genomic scan was conducted with microsatellite markers spaced at approximately 20-cM intervals, a least squares regression interval analysis was implemented, and significance values were converted to genomewide levels. No associations were detected for traits measured at birth except for number of nipples, where one significant and two suggestive regions were identified on chromosomes (SSC) 10, 1, and 3, respectively. Early growth was affected by a region on SSC 1 as evidenced by associations with weights collected at weaning and 8 wk of age and ADG from 8 to 18 wk of age. Other regions detected for early growth rate were on SSC 2, 12, and X. Chromosomal regions on SSC 6 and 7 affected ADG from 18 to 26 wk of age. All measures of backfat were affected by regions on SSC 1 and X, whereas SSC 7 consistently affected backfat measures recorded at 26 wk of age. Suggestive evidence for QTL affecting backfat at 14 wk of age was also detected on SSC 2, 6, 8, and 9. These results have improved our knowledge about the genetics of growth rate and fat accretion at the molecular level in swine.

Adipose Tissue↗
PubMed1988

Bacteriology of maxillary sinusitis in relation to character of inflammation and prior treatment.

By antral aspiration, 200 sinus secretions were obtained from the same number of adult patients with maxillary sinusitis. The bacteriological findings were related to the character of the secretions as well as to the duration of symptoms, previous antibacterial treatment and possible dental genesis. Pathogens were isolated in 87% of 54 patients with untreated acute sinus empyema, Streptococcus pneumoniae being the most prevalent (57%). In 47 cases of treatment failure Haemophilus influenzae predominated and was found in 60% of the purulent secretions. In all, 11% of the 47 cases showed growth of beta-lactamase-producing H. influenzae, corresponding to 18% of all H. influenzae in this group. Staphylococcus aureus and anaerobic bacteria were infrequent findings except in purulent sinus secretion from patients with a long history. In contrast to patients with sinus empyema, no pathogens were found in the majority of 37 patients with non-purulent sinusitis.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Genetic relationship between body condition score, dairy character, mastitis, and diseases other than mastitis in first-parity Danish Holstein cows.

The aim of this study was to explore the possibilities of using body condition score (BCS) or dairy character (DC) as indicators of mastitis and diseases other than mastitis in first-parity Danish Holsteins. The dataset included 28,948 observations on conformation scores and 365,136 disease observations. The analysis was performed using a multitrait linear sire model. Heritability estimates for BCS and DC were moderate (0.25 and 0.22), and heritability estimates for mastitis and diseases other than mastitis were low (0.038 and 0.022). Between BCS and diseases other than mastitis, the genetic correlation was -0.22, whereas the genetic correlation was -0.16 between BCS and mastitis. The genetic correlation between DC and diseases other than mastitis was 0.43, and between DC and mastitis it was 0.27. The genetic correlation between BCS and DC was -0.61. Residual correlations were close to 0, except between BCS and DC (-0.37). Including DC as an indicator of diseases other than mastitis will increase the accuracy of the predicted breeding value for diseases, especially when the progeny group is small. Using BCS as an additional indicator of diseases did not increase the accuracy. Breeding for less DC will increase resistance to diseases.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Are college students more disturbed today? Stability in the acuity and qualitative character of psychopathology of college counseling center clients: 1992-1993 through 2001-2002.

Are clients at college counseling centers more disturbed today than they were 5, 10, or 20 years ago? Since the mid-1980s, counseling center personnel have consistently perceived student clients as more distressed or reported acutely distressed clients as more prevalent than they did 1, 3, or 5 years ago. Only 3 studies employing a systematic, data-based methodology have addressed this question. Two researchers used different actuarial measures of the acuity or character of client pathology and concluded that current student clients are not more disturbed than were earlier ones. One researcher used clinical judgments rendered at the end of therapy and concluded that current students were more distressed. Using the Personality Assessment Inventory, the author found the actuarially determined quantitative and qualitative indices of pathology unchanged for 3,400 counseling center clients seen during 10 consecutive years. Over the same period, the use of medications increased fivefold. An actuarial measure of client distress appears crucial to both accurate diagnosis and treatment and to the adequate preparation of future counseling center professionals.

Counseling↗
PubMed1991

Genetic resistance to a Marek's disease transplantable tumor cell line in chicken lines selected for different immunological characters.

The tumor incidence and mortality of Marek's disease (MD) were determined for 471 progeny from four pairs of lines two-way selected for different immunological characters: graft versus host reaction (GVHR) competence, IgG levels, antibody response to rabbit serum albumin (RSA), and anaphylactic shock to BSA. All chicks were inoculated at 1 wk of age with 1 to 2 x 10(6) viable cells of a MD lymphoblastoid cell line, MDCC-MSB1-41C (41 C). Tumor incidence differed significantly between the high (H) and low (L) lines of each GVHR-, IgG-, RSA-, or BSA-selected group. There were also significant differences in mortality rates between H and L lines of all selected groups. The IgG-H, BSA-H, and RSA-H lines were more resistant than their respective L lines. The H line of the GVHR-selected lines was more susceptible than the L line. Tumor regression could be detected only in the IgG- and RSA-selected lines. No definite correlation could be found between genetic resistance to 41C and genetic resistance to MD virus.

Anaphylaxis↗
PubMed2006

Study on biological characters of SGC7901 gastric cancer cell-dendritic cell fusion vaccines.

AIM: To detect the biological characters of the SGC7901 gastric cancer cell-dendritic cell fusion vaccines. METHODS: The suspending living SGC7901 gastric cancer cells and dendritic cells were induced to be fusioned by polyethylene glycol. Pure fusion cells were obtained by selective culture with the HAT/HT culture systems. The fusion cells were counted at different time points of culture and their growth curves were drawn to reflect their proliferative activities. The fusion cells were also cultured in culture medium to investigate whether they could grow into cell clones. MTT method was used to test the stimulating abilities of the fusion cells on T lymphocytes' proliferations. Moreover, the fusion cells were planted into nude mice to observe whether they could grow into new planted tumors in this kind of immunodeficiency animals. RESULTS: The fusion cells had weaker proliferative activity and clone abilities than their parental cells. When they were cultured, the counts of cells did not increase remarkably, nor could they grow into cell clones in culture medium. The fusion cells could not grow into new planted tumors after planted into nude mice. The stimulating abilities of the fusion cells on T lymphocytes' proliferations were remarkably increased than their parental dendritic cells. CONCLUSION: The SGC7901 gastric cancer cell-dendritic cell fusion vaccines have much weaker proliferative abilities than their parental cells, but they keep strong abilities to irritate the T lymphocytes and have no abilities to grow into new planted tumors in immunodeficiency animals. These are the biological basis for their anti-tumor biotherapies.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Effects of cryopreservation and phenylacetate on biological characters of adherent LAK cells from patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

AIM: To improve the preparation of adherent lymphokine-activated killer (A-LAK) cells and to study the effects of cryopreservation and phenylacetate (PA) on biological characters of A-LAK cells. METHODS: A-LAK cells were obtained from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of the patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by using L-phenylalanine methyl ester (PME) to deplete immunosuppressive monocytes. Proliferative activity of SMMC7721 cell line after treatment with phenylacetate (PA) was observed. A-LAK cells were treated with the supernatant of SMMC7721 cells that had been pretreated with PA. The changes of proliferation, cytotoxicity and phenotype of A-LAK cells were investigated after cryopreservation. RESULTS: The expansion of A-LAK cells (96.79 +/- 69.10 folds on Day 14) was significantly higher than that of non-adherent LAK (NA-LAK) cells (22.77 +/- 13.20) as well as conventional LAK cells (4.64 +/- 0.91). PA significantly suppressed the growth of SMMC7721 cells, and the inhibitor ratio was 46%. The supernatant of cultured tumor cells intensively suppressed the proliferation and cytotoxicity of A-LAK cells, but the suppressive effect of the supernatant was previously decreased after treatment with PA. Impairments in proliferation and cytotoxicity of A-LAK cells immediately after thawing of cryopreservation and recovery after reincubation with IL-2 were observed. The cytotoxicity of thawed A-LAK cells on Day 5 was significantly higher than that of fresh A-LAK before freezing (54.8 +/- 10.2% vs 40.5 +/- 6.4%). No significant change in the percentage of lymphocyte subsets was identified in frozen A-LAK cells as compared with that in the fresh control cells. CONCLUSION: A-LAK cells can be simply prepared by using PME, and showed a synergistic anti-tumor effect with the combination of PA. Cryopreservation can increase the immunoactivities of A-LAK cells from the patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic↗
PubMed2001

Invariance of the psychometric function for character recognition across the visual field.

The psychometric function for recognition of singly presented digits as a function of digit contrast was measured at 2 degrees steps across the horizontal meridian of the visual field, under monocular and binocular viewing conditions. A maximum-likelihood staircase procedure was used in a 10-alternative forced-choice recognition paradigm to gather the data Both the Weibull and the logistic psychometric functions provide excellent fits to the observed data. The slopes of these functions at their point of inflection ranged from 4.0 to 5.0 proportion-correct/log10-unit contrast, for both monocular and binocular viewing and for all loci in the visual field. These slope values correspond to short-term measurements (around 30 trials, or 1 min) and do not include performance variations of longer duration; the latter are estimated to increase slope by a factor of about 1.5. A single psychometric function shape, centered around a threshold value, therefore describes recognition performance at all retinal loci and binocularity. An empirical comparison of slope results across the literature shows that the function's slope is about twice that reported for a number of detection tasks. The comparison of recognition contrast thresholds, percentage correct values, and other performance measures across studies requires the knowledge of the psychometric function's slope, and our results thus provide a firm basis for the study of low-contrast character recognition.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Chinese characters: semantic and phonetic regularity norms for China, Singapore, and Taiwan.

Cognitive models of language processing in English are founded on norms for word properties, but their universality is now being explored across different writing scripts and subject groups. Although Chinese characters are popular for this comparative work, their salient properties remain ill defined or poorly controlled. We describe how norms for semantic and phonetic regularity in Mandarin can be calibrated on a regional basis. The rating data that we present from China, Singapore, and Taiwan also illustrate why the diversity of both oral and written forms of Chinese should be considered in future empirical work.

China↗
PubMed2006

[Physicochemical characters and gene delivery function of polyethylenimine modified with peptide CP9 containing RGD sequence].

OBJECTIVE: To construct a novel gene delivery vector using polyethylenimine (PEI) as backbone modified with the peptide CP9 containing Arginine-Glycine-Aspartic acid (RGD) sequence and to verify its physicochemical characters and the gene delivery function. METHODS: The chemical linker [N-Succinimidyl-3- (2-pyridyldithio) ] propionate (SPDP) was employed to bind CP9 onto PEI to form a novel gene delivery vector CP9-PEI. The (1)H-NMR and FT-IR were used to verify the linkage of CP9. The plasmid DNA condensing ability of CP9-PEI,the shape and the particle size of the polyplexes formed with CP9-PEI-plasmid DNA were demonstrated by gel retardation assay, electron microscope observation and particle size assay,respectively. The enhanced transfection efficiency and the integrin targeting capacity were detected by the transfection experiments in HepG2 cells and free RGD peptide inhibition test. RESULT: CP9 was linked onto PEI successfully. The new synthesized vector CP9-PEI could efficiently condense plasmid DNA at N/P ratio of 4 and when N/P ratio was equal to 10, the shape of polyplexes formed with CP9-PEI-plasmid DNA was round or round-alike with particle size of about 200 nm. The transfection efficiency of CP9-PEI was nearly 2 times of PEI in HepG2 cells and the free RGD peptide had the inhibition effect on the efficiency of CP9-PEI. CONCLUSION: The modification of CP9 on PEI can improve the transfection efficiency of PEI and has the integrin targeting ability.

Cell Line, Tumor↗
PubMed2004

Targeted deletion of the suppressor gene bin1/amphiphysin2 accentuates the neoplastic character of transformed mouse fibroblasts.

The Bin1/Amphiphysin2 gene encodes several alternately spliced BAR adapter proteins that have been implicated in membrane-associated and nuclear processes. Bin1 expression is often attenuated during tumor progression and Bin1 splice isoforms that localize to the nucleus display tumor suppressor properties. While these properties may reflect the ability of these isoforms to interact with and suppress the cell transforming activity of c-Myc, the effects of Bin1 deletion on the oncogenicity of c-myc or other transforming genes has not been gauged directly. Here we report that targeted deletion of Bin1 enhances the neoplastic character of primary murine embryo fibroblasts (MEFs) cotransformed by c-myc and mutant grasg. Specifically, Bin1 loss accentuated the spindle morphology of transformed cells, increased anchorage-independent proliferation, and promoted tumor formation in syngeneic hosts. These effects were specific as they were not recapitulated in cells transformed by viral oncoproteins and mutant ras. Although some Bin1 splice isoforms associate with endocytotic complexes the effects of Bin1 loss were not correlated with a generalized defect in receptor-mediated endocytosis. However, Bin1 loss increased sensitivity to paclitaxel, a drug that can affect endocytotic trafficking by disrupting microtubule dynamics. In E1A?transformed MEFs, Bin1 loss reduced the susceptibility to apoptosis triggered by tumor necrosis factor-alpha, an effect that was associated with precocious nuclear trafficking of NF-kappaB. These findings offer a novel line of support for the hypothesized role of Bin1 in limiting malignant growth, possibly as a negative modifier or anti-progression gene.

Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The discipline of building character.

What is the difference between an ethical decision and what the author calls a defining moment? An ethical decision typically involves choosing between two options: one we know to be right and another we know to be wrong. A defining moment challenges us in a deeper way by asking us to choose between two or more ideals in which we deeply believe. Such decisions rarely have one "correct" response. Taken cumulatively over many years, they form the basis of an individual's character. Defining moments ask executives to dig below the busy surface of their lives and refocus on their core values and principles. Once uncovered, those values and principles renew their sense of purpose at the workplace and act as a springboard for shrewd, pragmatic, politically astute action. Three types of defining moments are particularly common in today's workplace. The first type is largely an issue of personal identity. It raises the question, Who am I? The second type concerns groups as well as individuals. It raises the question, Who are we? The third kind involves defining a company's role within society. It raises the question, Who is the company? By learning to identify each of those three situations, managers can learn to navigate right-versus-right decisions successfully. The author asks a series of practical questions that will help managers take time out to examine their values and then transform their beliefs into action. By engaging in this process of self-inquiry, managers will be gaining the tools to tackle their most elusive, challenging, and essential business dilemmas.

Administrative Personnel↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Character neuroses and behavioural disorders in children: their treatment with pipamperone (Dipiperon). A clinical study.

Dipiperon drops 30-180 mg/day were given for eight weeks to 29 children with character neuroses and behavioural disorders. A 16-item rating-scale covering several features of behaviour disorder was completed by a psychologist and a teacher independent from each other. The individual number of pathological scores showed a decrease already within the first treatment week and a further decrease by the end of the trial, especially for the items of capriciousness, obstinacy, irritability and restlessness. The therapeutic benefit was not accompanied by an adverse effect on the school performance of the children. No side-effects were reported or observed.

Adolescent↗