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General Function (general + function)
Selected AbstractsThe validity of the family relationships index as a screening tool for psychological risk in families of cancer patientsPSYCHO-ONCOLOGY, Issue 7 2005Ben Edwards The Family Relationships Inventory (FRI) has been proposed as a measure of psychological risk however its validity has only been tested in one cross-sectional study against another measure of family functioning where patients had less than six months to live. The current study presented longitudinal data on the validity of the FRI in identifying family dysfunction, and clinical levels of depression and anxiety in 48 families where the patient had been recently diagnosed. Over the three phases, the FRI identified all families at risk of family dysfunction, 88% or more families with one or more members with clinical depression and 78% or more with a member with clinical levels of anxiety. The FRI was also far more sensitive in identifying families with a member with clinical levels of depression and anxiety than the General Functioning (FAD-GF) scale of the Family Assessment Device. Although other measures of screening adequacy (such as specificity), suggested that the FRI identified too many false positives, the higher sensitivity of the FRI makes it preferable to the FAD-GF as a screening measure for families at risk of a poor psychological outcome in the oncology setting. However, because of the FRI's poor specificity, further follow-up of those families that are identified as being at some risk of a poor psychological outcome should be undertaken before referral to a mental health professional is warranted. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Pair Duets in the Yellow-Naped Amazon (Psittaciformes: Amazona auropalliata): Responses to Playbacks of Different DialectsETHOLOGY, Issue 2 2001Timothy F. Wright Yellow-naped amazons, Amazona auropalliata, have regional dialects in which several functional classes of vocalization, including contact calls and pair duets, change their acoustic structure at the same geographic boundaries. Here we examine the responses of 11 pairs of yellow-naped amazons to playbacks of duets from other pairs nesting near the same roost, other roosts within the same dialect, and roosts in foreign dialect areas. Overall, pairs responded more strongly to duets from their own dialect than to those of the foreign dialect. Pairs responded to both treatments from their own dialect (local same dialect and distant same dialect) with movement towards the broadcasting loudspeaker and more rarely with squeals, a vocalization typically observed only in the context of aggressive chases. These aggressive responses were never observed during playbacks of the foreign dialect treatment or congeneric controls. There were no differences among treatments in the incidence of contact calls or pair duets. A similar pattern of stronger aggressive responses to local than to foreign dialects has been found in a wide range of oscine songbirds. The results of the present experiment suggest that a general function may underlie this behavioral response both in oscines and in other bird taxa with vocal learning. [source] Steady-state 3D rolling-contact using boundary elementsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING, Issue 10 2007R. Abascal Abstract This work presents a new approach to the steady-state rolling contact problem for 3D elastic bodies. The problem solution is achieved by minimizing a general function representing the equilibrium equation and the rolling-contact restrictions. The boundary element method is used to compute the elastic influence coefficients of the surface points involved in the contact (equilibrium equations); while the contact conditions are represented with the help of projection functions. Finally, the minimization problem is solved by the generalized Newton's method with line search. Classic rolling problems are also solved and commented. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Surface wound healing: a new, general function of eukaryotic cellsJOURNAL OF CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR MEDICINE, Issue 3 2003J. Meldolesi Abstract The ability to repair surface wounds is a property, necessary for long-term survival, expressed to various extents by all eukaryotic cell types except erythrocytes. The process is based on the rapid Ca2+ -induced exocytosis of various types of specific organelles, such as lysosomes and enlargeosomes, that decreases surface tension and makes possible the spontaneous fusion of lipid monolayers at the lesion edges. The recognized importance of the process in physiology and in several cases of pathology is discussed. [source] Is Runx a linchpin for developmental signaling in metazoans?JOURNAL OF CELLULAR BIOCHEMISTRY, Issue 2 2009James A. Coffman Abstract The Runt domain (Runx) is a 128 amino acid sequence motif that defines a metazoan family of sequence-specific DNA binding proteins, which appears to have originated in concert with the intercellular signaling systems that coordinate multicellular development in animals. In the model organisms where they have been studied (fruit fly, mouse, sea urchin, and nematode) Runx genes are essential for normal development, and in humans they are causally associated with a variety of cancers, manifesting both oncogenic and tumor suppressive attributes. During development Runx proteins support both cell proliferation and differentiation, and function in both transcriptional activation and repression. Runx function is thus context-dependent, with the context provided genetically by cis -regulatory sequence architecture and epigenetically by development. This context dependency makes it difficult to formulate reductionistic generalizations concerning Runx function in normal and carcinogenic development. However, a growing body of literature links Runx function to each of the major intercellular signaling systems in animals, suggesting that the general function of Runx transcription factors may be to potentiate and govern genomic responsiveness to developmental signaling. J. Cell. Biochem. 107: 194,202, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Restoration of DWF4 expression to the leaf margin of a dwf4 mutant is sufficient to restore leaf shape but not size: the role of the margin in leaf developmentTHE PLANT JOURNAL, Issue 6 2007Beate Reinhardt Summary The role of the margin in leaf development has been debated over a number of years. To investigate the molecular basis of events in the margin, we performed an enhancer trap screen to identify genes specifically expressed in this tissue. Analysis of one of these lines revealed abnormal differentiation in the margin, accompanied by an abnormal leaf size and shape. Further analysis revealed that this phenotype was due to insertion of the trap into DWF4, which encodes a key enzyme in brassinolide biosynthesis. Transcripts for this gene accumulated in a specific and dynamic pattern in the epidermis of young leaf primordia. Targeted expression of DWF4 to a subset of these cells (the leaf margin) in a dwf4 mutant background led to both restoration of differentiation of a specific group of leaf cells (margin cells) and restoration of wild-type leaf shape (but not leaf size). Ablation of these cells led to abrogation of leaf development and the formation of small round leaves. These data support the hypothesis that events in the margin play an essential role in leaf morphogenesis, and implicate brassinolide in the margin as a key mediator in the control of leaf shape, separable from a general function of this growth factor in the control of organ size. [source] Patients' Evaluation of Two Occlusal Schemes for Implant OverdenturesCLINICAL IMPLANT DENTISTRY AND RELATED RESEARCH, Issue 3 2008BHealSc, John M. Aarts BEd, MhealSc, PGDipCDTech ABSTRACT Background: There is an absence of conclusive evidence for occlusal schemes in implant overdentures. Purpose: To investigate the consequences of two different occlusal schemes on levels of satisfaction for patients wearing implant overdentures. Materials and Methods: Within an existing randomized controlled clinical trial, a physiologic occlusal scheme was compared with a lingualized occlusal scheme for 18 selected participants all with implant overdentures. Nine participants had conventional maxillary complete dentures opposing mandibular 2-implant overdentures; a further nine participants had maxillary 3-implant overdentures opposing mandibular 2-implant overdentures. All participants recruited had been wearing their original prostheses for 3 years with a bilateral balance occlusal scheme. The participants' existing satisfaction levels, as a baseline, were determined using visual analogue scale questionnaires. They were followed by similar assessments of two further occlusal schemes using 2-month assessment periods. On completion of the study, the participants selected their preferred occlusal scheme and semiformal interviews were conducted to assess the rationale for their choices. Results: Baseline data showed all the participants had pre-existing high satisfaction levels. Thereafter, of those participants that received lingualized occlusion first, 55.6% reported that the physiologic occlusion was better than lingualized occlusion. For those participants who received the physiologic occlusion first, 85.7% reported that physiologic occlusion was better than lingualized occlusion. On completion of the study, 64.7% of the participants preferred the physiologic occlusion, 35.3% preferred the lingualized occlusion. However, when the two groups' satisfaction scores were modeled using the three main key indicator questions (general satisfaction, general ability to chew, or general function), there were no significant differences between them. Conclusions: Within the limitations of a small number of participants, the majority of them still indicated a preference for a physiologic occlusion for implant overdentures. Improved function was given as the main indicator for that preference. Having implant overdentures in one or both jaws is not a formative factor in patient's opinions on occlusal schemes. [source] Consistent tangent matrices for density-dependent finite plasticity modelsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL AND ANALYTICAL METHODS IN GEOMECHANICS, Issue 11 2001Agustí Pérez-Foguet Abstract The consistent tangent matrix for density-dependent plastic models within the theory of isotropic multiplicative hyperelastoplasticity is presented here. Plastic equations expressed as general functions of the Kirchhoff stresses and density are considered. They include the Cauchy-based plastic models as a particular case. The standard exponential return-mapping algorithm is applied, with the density playing the role of a fixed parameter during the nonlinear plastic corrector problem. The consistent tangent matrix has the same structure as in the usual density-independent plastic models. A simple additional term takes into account the influence of the density on the plastic corrector problem. Quadratic convergence results are shown for several representative examples involving geomaterial and powder constitutive models. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Semiempirical equation of the levitation-force density for (Sm123)1,x(Yb211)x superconducting samplesPHYSICA STATUS SOLIDI (A) APPLICATIONS AND MATERIALS SCIENCE, Issue 4 2009. Çelik Abstract After the preparation of Sm123 and Yb211 by melt-powder-melt growth and solid-state-reaction, respectively, the nominal compositions of (Sm123)1,x (Yb211)x for x = 0.00, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, 0.20 and 0.25 were prepared to examine experimentally and theoretically the effect of x in the composition on the levitation-force density. Although the amount of Yb211 increased on increasing the content x, the levitation-force density increased because the Yb211 phase structure decomposed into Yb123 and liquid phase. Owing to the fact that Yb123 welded the Sm123 grains under a slow-cooling regime, the increasing of the interaction between Sm123 grains gave rise to high potential barriers of the flux pinning and resulted in increasing of the levitation-force density with the content x. The results of the obtained general functions of the levitation-force density for all samples are in good agreement with the experimental data. This new formulation of the levitation-force density is very useful for material optimization to other researchers. (© 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] | ||||||||||||||||