Normal pathogen-specific immune responses mounted by CTLA-4-deficient T cells: a paradigm reconsidered.

CTLA-4 is a critical negative regulator of T cell responses and CTLA-4-deficient (CTLA-4(-/-)) mice die of a lymphproliferative disease. Nevertheless, RAG-2-deficient mice reconstituted with a mixture of CTLA-4(-/-) and normal (CTLA-4(+/+)) bone marrow survive in the absence of any signs of disease, although 50% of their T cells do not express CTLA-4. Using such mixed chimeras, we analyzed the role of CTLA-4 in specific T cell responses to lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, Leishmania major and mouse mammary tumor virus, which cause acute, chronic and persistent infections, respectively. The populations of antigen-specific CTLA-4(-/-)CD4(+) and CTLA-4(-/-)CD8(+) T cells became activated, expanded and contracted indistinguishably from CTLA-4(+/+)CD4(+) and CTLA-4(+/+)CD8(+) T cells after infection with all three pathogens. Thus, CTLA-4 is not involved in the down-regulation of specific T cell responses and peripheral deletion in a T cell-autonomous fashion.

Intelligence-led crime scene processing. Part I : Forensic intelligence.

Forensic science is generally defined as the application of science to address questions related to the law. Too often, this view restricts the contribution of science to one single process which eventually aims at bringing individuals to court while minimising risk of miscarriage of justice. In order to go beyond this paradigm, we propose to refocus the attention towards traces themselves, as remnants of a criminal activity, and their information content. We postulate that traces contribute effectively to a wide variety of other informational processes that support decision making inmany situations. In particular, they inform actors of new policing strategies who place the treatment of information and intelligence at the centre of their systems. This contribution of forensic science to these security oriented models is still not well identified and captured. In order to create the best condition for the development of forensic intelligence, we suggest a framework that connects forensic science to intelligence-led policing (part I). Crime scene attendance and processing can be envisaged within this view. This approach gives indications abouthowto structure knowledge used by crime scene examiners in their effective practice (part II).

Is the ATIC terminology oriented to nursing phenomena?

The main goal of this observational and descriptive study is to evaluate whether the diagnosis axis of a nursing interface terminology meets the content validity criterion of being nursing-phenomena oriented. Nursing diagnosis concepts were analyzed in terms of presence in the nursing literature, type of articles published and areas of disciplinary interest. The search strategy was conducted in three databases with limits in relation to period and languages. The final analysis included 287 nursing diagnosis concepts. The results showed that most of the concepts were identified in the scientific literature, with a homogeneous distribution of types of designs. Most of these concepts (87.7%) were studied from two or more areas of disciplinary interest. Validity studies on disciplinary controlled vocabularies may contribute to demonstrate the nursing influence on patients" outcomes.

Constraining ACT-R models of decision strategies: An experimental paradigm

It has been repeatedly debated which strategies people rely on in inference. These debates have been difficult to resolve, partially because hypotheses about the decision processes assumed by these strategies have typically been formulated qualitatively, making it hard to test precise quantitative predictions about response times and other behavioral data. One way to increase the precision of strategies is to implement them in cognitive architectures such as ACT-R. Often, however, a given strategy can be implemented in several ways, with each implementation yielding different behavioral predictions. We present and report a study with an experimental paradigm that can help to identify the correct implementations of classic compensatory and non-compensatory strategies such as the take-the-best and tallying heuristics, and the weighted-linear model.

Chirurgie endoscopique endonasale des tumeurs de la base du crane : historique, état de l'art et perspectives d'avenir [Shifting paradigm in skull base surgery: Roots, current state of the art and future trends of endonasal endoscopic approaches].

During the last two decades, endoscopic endonasal approach has completed the minimally invasive skull base surgery armamentarium. Endoscopic endonasal skull base surgery (EESBS) was initially developed in the field of pituitary adenomas, and gained an increasing place for the treatment of a wide variety of skull base pathologies, extending on the midline from crista galli process to the occipitocervical junction and laterally to the parasellar areas and petroclival apex. Until now, most studies are retrospective and lack sufficient methodological quality to confirm whether the endoscopic endonasal pituitary surgery has better results than the microsurgical trans-sphenoidal classical approach. The impressions of the expert teams show a trend toward better results for some pituitary adenomas with the endoscopic endonasal route, in terms of gross total resection rate and probably more comfortable postoperative course for the patient. Excepting intra- and suprasellar pituitary adenomas, EESBS seems useful for selected lesions extending onto the cavernous sinus and Meckel's cave but also for clival pathologies. Nevertheless, this infatuation toward endoscopic endonasal approaches has to be balanced with the critical issue of cerebrospinal fluid leaks, which constitutes actually the main limit of this approach. Through their experience and a review of the literature, the authors aim to present the state of the art of this approach as well as its limits.

Congenital high airway obstruction syndrome and airway reconstruction: an evolving paradigm.

OBJECTIVES: To refine the classic definition of, and provide a working definition for, congenital high airway obstruction syndrome (CHAOS) and to discuss the various aspects of long-term airway reconstruction, including the range of laryngeal anomalies and the various techniques for reconstruction. DESIGN: Retrospective chart review. PATIENTS: Four children (age range, 2-8 years) with CHAOS who presented to a single tertiary care children's hospital for pediatric airway reconstruction between 1995 and 2000. CONCLUSIONS: To date, CHAOS remains poorly described in the otolaryngologic literature. We propose the following working definition for pediatric cases of CHAOS: any neonate who needs a surgical airway within 1 hour of birth owing to high upper airway (ie, glottic, subglottic, or upper tracheal) obstruction and who cannot be tracheally intubated other than through a persistent tracheoesophageal fistula. Therefore, CHAOS has 3 possible presentations: (1) complete laryngeal atresia without an esophageal fistula, (2) complete laryngeal atresia with a tracheoesophageal fistula, and (3) near-complete high upper airway obstruction. Management of the airway, particularly in regard to long-term reconstruction, in children with CHAOS is complex and challenging.

Performance of Randomly Oriented, Fiber-Reinforced Roadway Soils, HR-211, 1982

Several primary techniques have been developed through which soil aggregate road material properties may be improved. Such techniques basically involve a mechanism of creating a continuous matrix system of soil and/or aggregate particles, interlocked through the use of some additive such as portland cement, lime, or bituminous products. Details by which soils are stabilized vary greatly, but they are dependent on the type of stabilizing agent and nature of the soil, though the overall approach to stabilization has the common feature that improvement is achieved by some mechanism(s) forcing individual particles to adhere to one another. This process creates a more rigid material, most often capable of resisting the influx of water during freezing, loss of strength due to high moisture content and particle dispersion during thawing, and loss of strength due to migration of fines and/or water by capillarity and pumping. The study reported herein, took a new and relatively different approach to strengthening of soils, i.e., improvement of roadway soils and/or soil-aggregate materials by structural reinforcement with randomly oriented fibers. The purpose of the study was to conduct a laboratory and field investigation into the potential of improving (a) soil-aggregate surfaced and subgrade materials, including those that are frost-prone and/or highly moisture susceptible, and (b) localized base course materials, by uniting such materials through fibrous reinforcement. The envisioned objective of the project was the development of a simple construction technique(s) that could be (a) applied on a selective basis to specific areas having a history of poor performance, or (b) used for improvement of potential base materials prior to surfacing. Little background information on such purpose and objective was available. Though the envisioned process had similarities to fibrous reinforced concrete, and to fibrous reinforced resin composites, the process was devoid of a cementitious binder matrix and thus highly dependent on the cohesive and frictional interlocking processes of a soil and/or aggregate with the fibrous reinforcement; a condition not unlike the introduction of reinforcing bars into a concrete sand/aggregate mixture without benefit of portland cement. Thus the study was also directed to answering some fundamental questions: (1) would the technique work; (2) what type or types of fibers are effective; (3) are workable fibers commercially available; and (4) can such fibers be effectively incorporated with conventional construction equipment, and employed in practical field applications? The approach to obtaining answers to these questions, was guided by the philosophy that an understanding of basic fundamentals was essential to developing a body of engineering knowledge, that would serve as the basis for eventual development of design procedures with fibrous products for the applications previously noted.

Paraphrase concept and typology. A linguistically based and computationally oriented approach

In this paper, we present a critical analysis of the state of the art in the definition and typologies of paraphrasing. This analysis shows that there exists no characterization of paraphrasing that is comprehensive, linguistically based and computationally tractable at the same time. The following sets out to define and delimit the concept on the basis of the propositional content. We present a general, inclusive and computationally oriented typology of the linguistic mechanisms that give rise to form variations between paraphrase pairs.

On the Selection of Non-Invasive Methods Based on Speech Analysis Oriented to Automatic Alzheimer Disease Diagnosis

The work presented here is part of a larger study to identify novel technologies and biomarkers for early Alzheimer disease (AD) detection and it focuses on evaluating the suitability of a new approach for early AD diagnosis by non-invasive methods. The purpose is to examine in a pilot study the potential of applying intelligent algorithms to speech features obtained from suspected patients in order to contribute to the improvement of diagnosis of AD and its degree of severity. In this sense, Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) have been used for the automatic classification of the two classes (AD and control subjects). Two human issues have been analyzed for feature selection: Spontaneous Speech and Emotional Response. Not only linear features but also non-linear ones, such as Fractal Dimension, have been explored. The approach is non invasive, low cost and without any side effects. Obtained experimental results were very satisfactory and promising for early diagnosis and classification of AD patients.

Mission-Oriented Dust Control and Surface Improvement Processes for Unpaved Roads, HR-194, 1981

Six subject areas prompted the broad field of inquiry of this mission-oriented dust control and surface improvement project for unpaved roads: • DUST--Hundreds of thousands of tons of dust are created annually by vehicles on Iowa's 70,000 miles of unpaved roads and streets. Such dust is often regarded as a nuisance by Iowa's highway engineers. • REGULATIONS--Establishment of "fugitive dust" regulations by the Iowa DEQ in 1971 has created debates, conferences, legal opinions, financial responsibilities, and limited compromises regarding "reasonable precaution" and "ordinary travel," both terms being undefined judgment factors. • THE PUBLIC--Increased awareness by the public that regulations regarding dust do in fact exist creates a discord of telephone calls, petitions, and increasing numbers of legal citations. Both engineers and politicians are frustrated into allowing either the courts or regulatory agencies to resolve what is basically a professional engineering responsibility. • COST--Economics seldom appear as a tenet of regulatory strategies, and in the case of "fugitive dust," four-way struggles often occur between the highway professions, political bodies, regulatory agencies, and the general public as to who is responsible, what can be done, how much it will cost, or why it wasn't done yesterday. • CONFUSION--The engineer lacks authority, and guidelines and specifications to design and construct a low-cost surf acing system are nebulous, i.e., construct something between the present crushed stone/gravel surface and a high-type pavement. • SOLUTION--The engineer must demonstrate that dust control and surface improvement may be engineered at a reasonable cost to the public, so that a higher degree of regulatory responsibility can be vested in engineering solutions.