Humans are able to attentively discriminate number from 6 months of age. However, the age of the emergence of this ability at the pre-attentive stage of processing remains unclear. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in newborn human infants aged from 3 to 5 days. At 500-ms intervals, the infants were passively exposed to 200-ms sequences of four tones. Each tone could be either 1000 or

This paper concerns voting with logical consequences, which means that anybody voting for an alternative x should vote for the logical consequences of x as well. Similarly, the social choice set is also supposed to be closed under logical consequences. The central result of the paper is that, given a set of fairly natural conditions, the only social choice functions that satisfy social logical clo

We consider the problem of minimizing the number of multiplications in computing f(x)=x n , where n is an integer and x is an element of any ring. We present new methods which reduce the average number of multiplications comparing with well-known methods, such as the binary method and the q-ary method. We do not compare our approach with algorithms based on addition chains since our approach is in

BACKGROUND: Despite screening of blood donors, hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection can occur in patients who receive multiple transfusions. OBJECTIVE: To clarify mechanisms of nosocomial transmission of HCV. DESIGN: Epidemiologic and molecular analyses of hepatitis C outbreaks. SETTING: Pediatric oncology ward. PATIENTS: Children with cancer. MEASUREMENTS: Epidemiologic analysis, HCV RNA detection,

Solid electrolyte membranes based on comb-shaped poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) doped with lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI) salt in blends with poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) have been studied. Membranes containing between 70 and 100 wt% PEG were prepared by a convenient two-step process where films containing a mixture of mono- and dimethacrylate-termi

OBJECTIVE: To compare effectiveness, complications, and cost of Amplatzer with surgical atrial septal defect (ASD) closure. DESIGN: Prospective study. SETTING: Tertiary cardiac referral centre. PATIENTS: 43 consecutive patients (excluding non-UK residents) aged between 2.1 and 56.8 years (median 7) undergoing ASD closure. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Procedural success, complications, regression of righ

The objective of this paper is to theoretically quantify large deflections of chromium nanocantilevers using Euler's theory. We show that, remarkably, Euler's theory originally derived for elastic macroscopic rods made of homogeneous material also describes the bending of nanocantilevers. In addition, the theory yields a precise method to deduce Young's extension modulus of the nanocantilevers. In

Background: More than ever, clinicians need regularly updated reviews given the continuously increasing amount of new information regarding innovative cervical cancer prevention methods. Material and methods: A summary is given from recently published meta-analyses on three possible clinical applications of human papillomavirus (HPV)-DNA testing: triage of women with equivocal or low-grade cytolog

We have shown that protein kinase C (PKC) var epsilon, independently of its kinase activity, via its regulatory domain (RD), induces neurites in neuroblastoma cells. This study was designed to evaluate whether the same effect is obtained in nonmalignant neural cells and to dissect mechanisms mediating the effect. Overexpression of PKCvar epsilon resulted in neurite induction in two immortalised ne

Channels were activated, in ripped-off patches from rat-cultured hippocampal neurons, by propofol alone, propofol plus 0.5 muM GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) or GABA alone. The propofol-activated currents were chloride-selective, showed outward-rectification and were enhanced by 1 muM diazepam. The maximum propofol-activated channel conductance increased with propofol concentration from less than

Chelatases catalyze the insertion of a specific metal ion into porphyrins, a key step in the synthesis of metalated tetrapyrroles that are essential for many cellular processes. Despite apparent common structural features among chelatases, no general reaction mechanism accounting for metal ion specificity has been established. We propose that chelatase-induced distortion of the porphyrin substrate

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of selective denervation of the rat pancreas on hormone secretion and on peripheral insulin sensitivity. Thirteen rats, 7 denervated and 6 sham operated, received an intravenous glucose challenge for 30 min. The basal plasma levels of insulin, glucagon and glucose did not differ between the two groups. An augmented insulin response to gluc

InAs pyramids and platelets on a zinc-blende InAs substrate are found to exhibit a wurtzite crystal structure. induced by wurtzite InAs nanowires, wurtzite InAs thin film and its associated zinc-blende/wurtzite heterocrystalline heterostructures may open up new opportunities in band-gap engineering and related device applications.

Objectives The aim of this study was to estimate the risk of symptoms and the possible derangement of levels of immunologic markers for contemporary Swedish rubber workers. Furthermore, the relation between exposure and these biomarkers of response was examined using urinary levels of 2-thiothiazolidine-4-carboxylic acid (TTCA), which reflect the exposure. Methods Included in the study were 166 ex

A 10-year multicentre analysis of the frequency of sensitivity to common preservatives collected in 16 centres in 11 countries has shown stable but persisting high levels of sensitivity to formaldehyde and 5-chloro-2-methyl-4-isothiazolin-3-one + 2-methyl-4-isothiazolin-3-one (MCI/MI). It has also revealed a significant increase in the level of reactivity to methyldibromoglutaronitrile (MDBGN) fro