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Selected AbstractsEvidence for repeated re-activation of old landslides under forestEARTH SURFACE PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS, Issue 3 2009M. Van Den Eeckhaut Abstract Local reactivations of landslides in forests are rarely reported in landslide catalogues. The occurrence of hillslope sections with fresh morphological landslide features in forested old, deep-seated landslides, however, suggests that landslide reactivations are not restricted to residential areas. In this study, a dendrogeomorphological analysis of beech stands was used to investigate the periods of reactivation of a deep-seated rotational slide in the Koppenberg forest (Flemish Ardennes, Belgium). The relation to rainfall and the correspondence to landslide reactivations reported in a nearby built-up area were also analysed. A dendrometrical study preceding the dendrochronological analysis proved that, compared with the nearby reference site, trees on the Koppenberg forest landslide site were significantly more inclined and showed more knees, indicating that the landslide site has not stabilized yet. As the sampled trees are younger than the landslide, dendrochronology did not allow determination of the year in which the landslide was initiated, but analysis of two different tree ring width parameters (i.e. ring eccentricity and growth change) calculated for trees sampled on the Koppenberg landslide and the reference site proved to be of great help in determining the temporal sequence of landslide reactivation. During the past 80 years, several periods indicative of local reactivations (i.e. 1943,1945, 1949,1952, 1967,1970, 1972,1977, 1979,1981, 1988,1997) were found within the investigated landslide, but delineation of the spatial extent of the reactivations during these indicative periods was not straightforward. These periods generally correspond to years with above-average rainfall. Finally, the fact that at least 34% of the years indicative of reactivation of the Koppenberg forest landslide correspond to a year in which a landslide reactivation was reported in the Flemish Ardennes suggests that in built-up areas, apart from anthropogenic interventions, natural triggering factors remain very important. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] N -Methylation Effects on the Coordination Chemistry of Cyclic Triamines with Divalent Transition Metals and Their CoII Dioxygen CarriersEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF INORGANIC CHEMISTRY, Issue 2 2006Silvia Del Piero Abstract The thermodynamics of complex formation of CoII and CdII ions with the triaza macrocyclic ligand 1,4,7-triazacyclononane (tacn) and its N -methylated derivative 1,4,7-trimethyl-1,4,7-triazacyclononane (Me3tacn) has been studied in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) at 298.1 K and in an ionic medium (0.1 M Et4NClO4) by means of potentiometric, UV/Vis, calorimetric and FT-IR techniques. The results are discussed by taking into account electronic and steric effects as well as solvation of the species concerned. Computational methods based on density functional theory (DFT) have been used to obtain structural information about the ligands and their complexes in order to provide further, independent insights into the effect of N -methylation on the coordination affinity of the ligands towards the metal ions. The computational suggestions are of great help to correlate steric effects and thermodynamic results. The kinetics of dioxygen uptake for the formation of the Co(tacn)2O2 superoxo adduct has also been studied by means of UV/Vis measurements. (© Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2006) [source] A case-based reasoning approach to derive object-oriented models from software architecturesEXPERT SYSTEMS, Issue 4 2010German L. Vazquez Abstract: Software architectures are very important to capture early design decisions and reason about quality attributes of a system. Unfortunately, there are mismatches between the quality attributes prescribed by the architecture and those realized by its object-oriented implementation. The mismatches decrease the ability to reason architecturally about the system. Developing an object-oriented materialization that conforms to the original architecture depends on both the application of the right patterns and the developer's expertise. Since the space of allowed materializations can be really large, tool support for assisting the developer in the exploration of alternative materializations is of great help. In previous research, we developed a prototype for generating quality-preserving implementations of software architectures, using pre-compiled knowledge about architectural styles and frameworks. In this paper, we present a more flexible approach, called SAME, which focuses on the architectural connectors as the pillars for the materialization process. The SAME design assistant applies a case-based reasoning (CBR) metaphor to deal with connector-related materialization experiences and quality attributes. The CBR engine is able to recall and adapt past experiences to solve new materialization problems; thus SAME can take advantage of developers' knowledge. Preliminary experiments have shown that this approach can improve the exploration of object-oriented solutions that are still faithful to the architectural prescriptions. [source] Detection of a t(1;22)(q23;q12) translocation leading to an EWSR1-PBX1 fusion gene in a myoepitheliomaGENES, CHROMOSOMES AND CANCER, Issue 7 2008Petter Brandal Chromosome banding as well as molecular cytogenetic methods are of great help in the diagnosis of mesenchymal tumors. Myoepithelial neoplasms of soft tissue including myoepitheliomas, mixed tumors, and parachordomas are diagnoses that have been increasingly recognized the last few years. It is still debated which neoplasms should be included in these morphologically heterogeneous entities, and the boundaries between them are not clear-cut. The pathogenetic mechanisms behind myoepithelial tumors are unknown. Only five parachordomas and one mixed tumor have previously been karyotyped, and nothing is known about their molecular genetic characteristics. We present a mesenchymal tumor classified as a myoepithelioma that had a balanced translocation t(1;22)(q23;q12) as the sole karyotypic change. A novel EWSR1-PBX1 fusion gene consisting of exons 1,8 of the 5,-end of EWSR1 and exons 5,9 of the 3,-end of PBX1 was shown to result from the translocation. Both genes are known to be targeted also by other neoplasia-specific translocations, PBX1 in acute lymphoblastic leukemia and EWSR1 in several solid tumors, most of which are malignant. Based on the structure of the novel fusion gene detected, its transforming mechanism is thought to be the same as for other fusion genes involving EWSR1 or PBX1. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Application of the equivalent-core calculation to the Cl in core level on condensed SiCl4INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF QUANTUM CHEMISTRY, Issue 13 2006G. V. S. Mota Abstract Utilization of the equivalent core may be of great help in the determination of excitation energies for condensed systems. This method presents a small difference in the excitation potential in relation to the experimental values, thus, enabling a better symmetry assignment for the excitations involved in the process. With the help of (Z+1)-core model, we estimated the absorption position and the symmetry for the discrete core-excitation state of the Cl K edge on SiCl4 and were able to understand the process of selective fragmentation for condensed systems with good calculation approximation. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2006 [source] Nursing research in Spain: bibliometrics of references of research papers in the decade 1985,1994JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 6 2001Carmen Pardo Nursing research in Spain: bibliometrics of references of research papers in the decade 1985,1994 Background.,Spain is one of the few European countries to have recently totally incorporated the study of nursing into the university sector. Bibliometric studies may be of a great help for the consolidation of nursing research. Aim of the study.,The aim of this paper is to describe bibliographic references in Spanish nursing research papers and their evolution over a decade. Method.,The method consists of a retrospective bibliometric study of a sample (cluster sampling) of 622 research papers (original papers and review papers), which were contained in the Spanish nursing journals Enfermería Científica, Revista ROL de Enfermería, Enfermería Clínica and Enfermería Integral, and published from 1985 to 1994. The journal Nursing Research was selected for qualitative comparative purposes. A series of classic bibliometric indexes were used. Results.,The mean of references per paper is 10·64 ± 10·42; this increased over time (P < 0·001). Review papers have more references (P < 0·001). Price index (percentage of references published during the last 5 years) is 44% and the Insularity (percentage of references published in same country as the article) is 55%. References to journals predominate (58·6%), with a growing tendency for references to Spanish nursing journals, although they are still scarce (18·1% of the references to journals). Spanish is the language of most of the references (60·3%), the second language being English (36·1%). Conclusions.,Bibliographic references in Spanish nursing research papers are scarce and not very specific: this happens both in regard to Nursing Research and to publications in other national and international science areas. However, there is an increasing tendency of references (including references to nursing journals) in the period analysed. The age of the references places Spanish nursing in an intermediate position between the ,hard' sciences and the humanities; and, according to the type of documentation used, we find it halfway between experimental and natural sciences, and technologies and social sciences. There has been a slight increase in references in English in recent years. [source] MODY: a program for calculation of symmetry-adapted functions for ordered structures in crystalsJOURNAL OF APPLIED CRYSTALLOGRAPHY, Issue 6 2004awa Sikora This paper describes a computer program, based on the theory of groups and representations, which calculates symmetry-adapted functions used for the description of various ordered structures in crystals. It is assumed that the ordered structure, which is formed by a configuration of occupational probabilities, ion displacements, magnetic moments, quadrupolar moments or other local physical quantities, is obtained from a high-symmetry crystal structure with a given space group G, as a result of a symmetry-lowering phase transition. The detailed characteristics of the phase transition are given by the specification of the irreducible representations of group G, active in the transition. The symmetry-adapted functions obtained from the calculation are perfect tools for the construction of model structures, which can be used for comparison with experimental (e.g. neutron diffraction) data, and can be a great help in numerical data elaboration by reducing the number of adjustable parameters describing the structure of a given symmetry. [source] Reduction of mother-to-child transmission of HIV at Saint Camille Medical Centre in Burkina FasoJOURNAL OF MEDICAL VIROLOGY, Issue 2 2006J. Simpore Abstract One thousand three hundred and twenty-eight pregnant women with less than 32 weeks of amenorrhea received voluntary counseling and testing at Saint Camille Medical Center from May 1, 2002 to December 30, 2004. Following informed consent and pre-test counseling, HIV screening was performed in 1,202 women. According to the prevention protocol, HIV-positive women received a single dose of Nevirapine (200 mg) during their labor, while their newborn received a single dose of Nevirapine (2 mg/kg) within 72 hr from birth. HIV seroprevalence (11.2%) was higher than in the overall population. One hundred and ninty-three children were born at the end of December 2004; 53 children (27.5%) followed a short breastfeeding protocol for 4 months, while 140 (72.5%) were fed artificially. All the children underwent RT-PCR test for HIV 5,6 months after their birth: 173 (89.6%) were HIV negative whilst 20 children (10.4%) were HIV positive. Out of the 20 positive children 5/53 (9.4%) had received breast milk for 4 months, while the remaining 15/140 (10.7%) had been fed artificially (P,=,0.814). Artificially fed babies (3/140 (2.1%)) and 1/53 (1.9%) of those breast fed for 4 months deceased according to mortality rate of HIV-positive children. This shows that there is no statistically significant difference (P,=,0.648) between the mortality of artificially fed (3/140 or 2.1%) and breast-fed (1/53 or 1.9%) children. Artificially fed children (20/140 (14.3%)) and 5/53 (9.4%) of breast-fed children died within 6,10 months. This figure indicates that there is no significant difference between the mortality rate of artificially and that of breast-fed children (P,=,0.427). Although the HIV prevention program reduced significantly the vertical transmission of HIV at Saint Camille Medical Center, the mortality of artificially fed children was still high due to gastrointestinal diseases. The HIV diagnosis by RT-PCR technique was of great help in the early identification of HIV-infected children. J. Med. Virol. 78:148,152, 2006. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Micro-Raman characterizations of Pompei'smortarsJOURNAL OF RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY, Issue 2 2008M. Castriota Abstract The ancient town of Pompei offers a unique opportunity to study in detail many aspects of the every day life during the Roman early imperial age. The application of micro-Raman spectroscopy can be of great help in performing a reasonably rapid comparative analysis of the mortars, quite useful to ascertain the degree of uniformity of the technical recipes among the various building firms and the eventual technical evolution in the time; moreover, the individuation of minerals of specific geographical origins can give useful information about the extension of commercial intercourses. An example of a micro-Raman investigation on building materials is reported in this work, concerning the analysis of the mortars coming from different points of the wall in the ,The House of the Wedding of Hercules'. Remarkable differences between ancient and modern mortars are found, allowing a discrimination that can be useful in the case of historical building which underwent several restoration works. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] A multi-angular mass spectrometric view at cyclic nucleotide dependent protein kinases: In vivo characterization and structure/function relationshipsMASS SPECTROMETRY REVIEWS, Issue 4 2008Arjen Scholten Abstract Mass spectrometry has evolved in recent years to a well-accepted and increasingly important complementary technique in molecular and structural biology. Here we review the many contributions mass spectrometry based studies have made in recent years in our understanding of the important cyclic nucleotide activated protein kinase A (PKA) and protein kinase G (PKG). We both describe the characterization of kinase isozymes, substrate phosphorylation, binding partners and post-translational modifications by proteomics based methodologies as well as their structural and functional properties as revealed by native mass spectrometry, H/D exchange MS and ion mobility. Combining all these mass spectrometry based data with other biophysical and biochemical data has been of great help to unravel the intricate regulation of kinase function in the cell in all its magnificent complexity. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Mass Spec Rev 27: 331,353, 2008 [source] What a reviewer wantsPEDIATRIC ANESTHESIA, Issue 12 2008ANDREW J. DAVIDSON MBBS MD Summary Understanding what a reviewer wants helps authors write better papers and design better research studies. Central to any research study is the research question. This is the first thing the reviewer looks for. The question, or research aim, should be relevant, original and very clearly defined. The paper should also be scientifically valid; the methods should achieve the aim by addressing the question, and the conclusions should match the results. The statistical analysis often attracts criticism, especially the relatively simple problems arising with the use of P -values and the concepts of statistical and clinical significance. There are several agreed guidelines describing exactly how studies should be reported. Following these is a great help to reviewers. [source] A Multimodality Approach to the Diagnosis of Breast Hamartomas with Atypical Mammographic AppearanceTHE BREAST JOURNAL, Issue 1 2001Juan D. Berná MD Abstract: The ultrasonographic appearance of breast hamartomas (BHs) is described and its diagnostic utility is discussed in this study of 27 women with mammographic findings both typical and atypical of BH. The role of computed tomography (CT) in the diagnosis of BH of atypical mammographic appearance is also analyzed. These 27 cases of BH were detected in women submitted to mammographic screening. Ages ranged from 45 to 65 years (mean age 52.6 years). In all cases physical and ultrasonographic examinations were carried out. CT studies were carried out in seven cases. Core biopsy was performed in 18 cases of lesions with a mammographic appearance atypical of BH. Lesions were palpable in 9 cases and nonpalpable in 18. Mammographic appearance was characteristic in nine cases. In 19 cases a hypoechoic solid mass with hyperechoic lines and/or bands was seen. This ultrasonographic image is suspicious of BH. Finally, both CT and core biopsy findings were of great help in the diagnosis of BH in the cases where mammographic and ultrasonographic studies were inconclusive. We consider that a combination of mammography, ultrasonography, CT, and core biopsy is fundamental for the successful diagnosis of breast hamartomas not seen in typical form in mammograms. [source] Phenological growth stages of cacao plants (Theobroma sp.): codification and description according to the BBCH scaleANNALS OF APPLIED BIOLOGY, Issue 1 2010N. Niemenak The detailed description of growth stages of useful plants followed by adequate codification facilitates communication between scientists and practicians if, for example, new findings of science have to be transferred to management procedures or if experiences made at one growing site have to be adapted to another. We describe the growth stages of the worldwide species of cacao trees (Theobroma sp.) to prepare the basis for production management, comparisons of epidemiological studies of disease, of growth patterns under different environmental factors and of genetically clone specific parameters. The codification follows the ,extended BBCH (BBCH, Biologische Bundesantalt, Bundessortenamt and CHemische Industrie, Germany) scale', a numerical system that differentiates between principal, secondary and tertiary growth stages. Each growth stage presented from seed germination to crown development and harvest is correlated with general management practices. This scale will be of great help to cacao growers and scientists around the world for better communication, more efficient planning of management practices and experiments. [source] Instrument-, age- and site-dependent variations of dermoscopic patterns of congenital melanocytic naevi: a multicentre studyBRITISH JOURNAL OF DERMATOLOGY, Issue 1 2006S. Seidenari Summary Background, Recently, we identified and described dermoscopic aspects, present with a higher frequency in congenital melanocytic lesions with respect to acquired naevi. We also classified small- and medium-sized congenital naevi (CN) into nine subtypes according to their macroscopic and dermoscopic aspects. Objectives, Because the recognition of dermoscopic features may be instrument dependent, in this study, we wanted to check whether dermoscopic patterns specific for CN can be identified in digital images acquired by means of different instruments. We also wanted to check the validity of our previously proposed classification and assess possible age- and site-dependent variations of dermoscopic patterns and naevus subtypes. Patients/methods, Images corresponding to 384 small- or medium-sized CN were collected in eight different centres employing four different instruments. Lesion images were evaluated and checked for the presence of specific dermoscopic criteria, classified, and compared with a database of 350 acquired naevi. Results, Specific and unspecific dermoscopic features were identifiable in images acquired by means of all four instrument types. The mean number of identified features per lesion did not vary according to the instrument employed for the acquisition of the images; however, it was lower for lesions recorded employing low magnifications. The previously proposed classification was easily applied to the whole image database. The variegated naevus type was identified as a highly specific clinical/dermoscopic pattern. Dermoscopic features varied according to age and location. The globular type prevailed in subjects under 11 years of age and on the trunk, whereas the majority of reticular lesions were located on the limbs. Conclusions, Because definite clinical and histological criteria for the diagnosis of the congenital nature of naevi are lacking, the use of dermoscopy can be of great help in identifying those lesions where the presence of specific dermoscopic features makes the diagnosis of CN more likely. Moreover, dermoscopy can be useful both for the classification of lesions already identified as congenital according to definite clinical and anamnestic data and for a possible correlation of naevus phenotype and dermoscopic patterns to the risk of developing a malignant melanoma in prospective studies. [source] Video reveals self-stimulation in infancyACTA PAEDIATRICA, Issue 6 2004K Casteels The medical literature on early childhood masturbation is sparse. Only 12 patients who presented with infantile self-stimulation under the age of 1 y are described. During the last 2 y, five girls under 1 y of age presented at our department with self-stimulating behaviour. The diagnosis of this behaviour was difficult, but could be made by watching a video of the attacks. Infantile self-stimulation is often misdiagnosed and unnecessary investigations and useless treatments are often prescribed. Video recording can be of great help to put forward the correct diagnosis. Masturbation is not so uncommon and treatment consists mostly in reassuring the parents. It can, however, be associated with behavioural problems. Few data are available on the clinical outcome of childhood masturbation, but most children seem to develop normally. Conclusion: Infantile self-stimulation should always be considered in the differential diagnosis of "strange episodes or attacks". [source] | ||||||||||||||||