Functional electronic inversion layers at ferroelectric domain walls.

Ferroelectric domain walls hold great promise as functional two-dimensional materials because of their unusual electronic properties. Particularly intriguing are the so-called charged walls where a polarity mismatch causes local, diverging electrostatic potentials requiring charge compensation and hence a change in the electronic structure. These walls can exhibit significantly enhanced conductivity and serve as a circuit path. The development of all-domain-wall devices, however, also requires walls with controllable output to emulate electronic nano-components such as diodes and transistors. Here we demonstrate electric-field control of the electronic transport at ferroelectric domain walls. We reversibly switch from resistive to conductive behaviour at charged walls in semiconducting ErMnO3. We relate the transition to the formation-and eventual activation-of an inversion layer that acts as the channel for the charge transport. The findings provide new insight into the domain-wall physics in ferroelectrics and foreshadow the possibility to design elementary digital devices for all-domain-wall circuitry.

Outcome of day treatment for older adults with affective disorders: An observational pre-post design of two transdiagnostic approaches.

OBJECTIVE: First, to evaluate the outcome of 2 transdiagnostic day treatment programs. A 20-week psychotherapeutic day treatment (PDT) and an activating day treatment (ADT) program delivered in blocks of 4 weeks with a maximum of 24 weeks with respect to depression, anxiety, and hypochondriasis. Second, to explore the impact of cognitive impairment and personality pathology on treatment outcome. METHODS: The course of depression (Inventory of Depressive Symptoms), anxiety (Geriatric Anxiety Inventory), and hypochondriasis (Whitley Index) were evaluated by linear mixed models adjusted for age, sex, level of education, and alcohol usage among 49 patients (mean age 65 years, 67% females) receiving PDT and among 61 patients (mean age 67.1, 61% females) receiving ADT. Pre-post effect-sizes were expressed as Cohen's d. Subsequently, cognitive impairment (no, suspected, established) and personality pathology (DSM-IV criteria as well as the Big Five personality traits) were examined as potential moderators of treatment outcome. RESULTS: Among patients receiving PDT, large improvements were found for depression (d = 1.1) and anxiety (d = 1.2) but not for hypochondriasis (d = 0.0). Patients receiving ADT showed moderate treatment effects for depression (d = 0.6), anxiety (d = 0.6), as well as hypochondriasis (d = 0.6). Personality pathology moderates treatment outcome of neither PDT nor ADT. Cognitive impairment negatively interfered with the course of depressive symptoms among patients receiving PDT. CONCLUSIONS: Transdiagnostic day treatment is promising for older adults with affective disorders with high feasibility.

Claw horn lesions in mid-lactation primiparous dairy cows under pasture-based systems: Association with behavioral and metabolic changes around calving.

The objectives of this study were to describe the lying behavior of primiparous dairy cows under pasture-based systems during the pre- and postcalving period and characterize the association of lying behavior and analytes related to energy metabolism during this period with claw horn disruption lesion development later in lactation. Our convenience sample included 39 primiparous Holstein cows from 3 commercial farms that were assessed for body condition score (BCS; 5-point scale, 0.25-point increments) and had blood collected at wk -3, -2, -1, 1, 2, and 3 relative to calving date. Blood samples were assayed for nonesterified fatty acids, ß-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), and cholesterol concentrations. Electronic data loggers (HOBO Pendant G Acceleration, Onset Computer Corporation, Bourne, MA) recorded lying behavior at 1-min intervals from 3 wk before calving to 3 wk after calving. Starting at 4 wk after calving and until 16 wk after calving, cows were examined for claw lesions at approximately 4-wk intervals. Sole lesions and white line lesions were scored on a 0 to 10 scale. Of the 39 primiparous cows, 19 cows scored 0 at all exams during the entire study period and 20 cows had at least 1 severe lesion (score ≥4) between 8 and 16 wk after calving. Time spent lying before calving averaged 10.3 ± 0.3 h/d, but declined to 7.3 ± 0.3 h/d after calving (least squares means ± standard error). At calving, we noted an increase in the number of lying bouts (12.9 ± 0.45 bouts/d) compared with the pre- and postcalving averages of 11.6 (±0.53) and 9.1 (±0.47) bouts, respectively. Cows that developed claw lesions later in mid lactation spent less time lying down than cows without lesions during wk 3 after calving compared with healthy cows (7.29 ± 0.22 vs. 8.51 ± 0.16 h/d). Lesion cows had fewer lying bouts per day, and these bouts were of longer duration than no-lesion cows after calving. Increased odds of lesion were found to be associated with shorter lying times and fewer number of lying bouts during wk 3 (odds ratio = 1.23). Nonesterified fatty acids (747 ± 58 vs. 990 ± 86.85 µmol/L) and BHB (0.77 ± 0.06 vs. 0.60 ± 0.04 mmol/L) concentrations during wk 1 were greater in cows that developed claw lesions relative to cows that did not develop lesions. The BHB concentrations also remained higher in wk 2 for cows that developed claw lesions (0.63 ± 0.04 vs. 0.46 ± 0.03 mmol/L) compared with cows that did not develop any lesions. Cows that developed lesions experienced greater losses in BCS from wk -3 to 3 than cows without lesions (0.74 ± 0.01 and 0.61 ± 0.01 BCS change, respectively). In summary, changes in lying behavior and energy metabolic status after calving were associated with claw horn disruption lesions in mid-lactation primiparous cows under pasture-based systems.

[PRESSURE ULCER TREATMENT EXPERIENCE AT CLINICAL DEPARTMENT OF PLASTIC, RECONSTRUCTIVE AND AESTHETIC SURGERY, DUBRAVA UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: COMPARISON OF RESULTS RECORDED IN THE 2011-2016 AND 2003-2008 PERIOD].

Results of this clinical study on surgical treatment of pressure ulcers at Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, Dubrava University Hospital showed that there was no difference between the 2011-2016 and 2003-2008 periods, indicating continuation of good surgical treatment planning and appropriate postoperative care. Despite the smaller number of hospitalized patients in the 2011-2016 period (31 patients and 42 reconstructive procedures), the number of reconstructive procedure was similar to the recent 2003-2008 period (47 patients and 57 reconstructive procedures). The best results of reconstruction of sacral region pressure ulcer were achieved with fasciocutaneous and musculocutaneous flaps. Whenever possible, depending on the extent of the defect, musculocutaneous flaps should be preferred for reconstruction. It is especially suitable for pressure ulcer recurrence. For ischial region reconstruction, good results can be obtained by mobilizing the semimembranosus and/or semitendinosus in defect gap. For trochanteric region, the tensor fascia lata flap is a good choice. For maximal functional and reconstructive results, a multidisciplinary approach in pressure ulcer treatment has the leading role in the modern concept of wound healing. Surgical treatment should always include radical debridement, ostectomy and well planned defect reconstruction. Conservative treatment should be support to surgical treatment with a focus on patient health care and high hygiene measures. In recent years (2011-2016), the usage of better conservative treatment led to reduction of patient hospital stay and surgical treatment of pressure ulcer. Further 'wound care' nurses training in Croatia can lead the trend towards advanced practice nursing in pressure ulcer prevention and conservative treatment.

Visually guided reaching in infant monkeys after restricted rearing.

Infant macaques were reared from birth in an apparatus which pre cluded sight of their body parts. At 35 days postpartum one hand was exposed to view. Visual fixation of this hand was insistent and prolonged; visually guided reaching was poor, but it improved during ten succeeding hours of exposure. Little concomitant improvement occurred in the reaching of the unexposed hand.

Dissociation of the visual placing response into elicited and guided components.

Kittens reared without sight of their limbs extended their forelimbs when carried down toward the edge of a horizontal surface. However, unlike normally reared kittens, they were not capable of guiding their paws accurately to the solid parts of an interrupted surface. This fractionation of the visually controlled placing response reveals that the guided reach requires an integration of sensorimotor systems not necessary for development of the elicited extension response.

Eye tracking of observer-generated target movements.

When an observer moves his arm he shows more precise visual tracking of a target mounted on his fingertip-the eye lags behind the target less and makes fewer corrective saccades-than when he relaxes his arm and the experimenter moves it in a similar manner. Apparently the control system for eye movements can use outflow (efferent) signals in order to anticipate motion of the self-moved target.

Color- and edge-sensitive channels in the human visual system: tuning for orientation.

After subjects scanned red stripes tilted clockwise off vertical and green stripes tilted equally but counterclockwise, vertical test stripes appeared tilted counterclockwise when red but clockwise when green. As the angle between scanned and test stripes was increased from 0 degrees to 75 degrees , the magnitude of the tilt aftereffect rapidly increased to a peak between 10 degrees and 15 degrees and then dropped close to zero at about 40 degrees , a result consistent with narrowly tuned edge-sensitive channels.

Astigmatism in infants.

Compared with children of school age, infants show ten times the incidence and considerably greater amounts of clinically significant astigmatism. The amount begins to decrease in the second semester of life, and the incidence declines during the third year. The unanticipated results bear on both the etiology and the neural sequelae of astigmatism.

Orientational anisotropy in infant vision.

Infants prefer to look at horizontal and vertical gratings rather than at oblique gratings only when they are at or near threshold spatial frequencies, as would be expected if acuity for oblique edges is lower than that for horizontal and vertical edges. That such a bias exists as early as 6 weeks of age suggests that the orientational asymmetry of the visual system depends on endogenous maturation rathat than exposure to a carpentered world.

Moving visual scenes influence the apparent direction of gravity.

When an observer views a wide-angled display rotating around his line of sight, he both feels his body tilted and sees a vertical straight edge tilted opposite to the moving stimulus. Displacement of the perceived vertical increases with stimulus speed to reach a maximum (averaging 15 degrees) at 30 degrees per second.

Stochastic multiscale model for carbonate rocks.

A multiscale model for the diagenesis of carbonate rocks is proposed. It captures important pore scale characteristics of carbonate rocks: wide range of length scales in the pore diameters; large variability in the permeability; and strong dependence of the geometrical and transport parameters on the resolution. A pore scale microstructure of an oolithic dolostone with generic diagenetic features is successfully generated. The continuum representation of a reconstructed cubic sample of side length 2mm contains roughly 42 x 10{6} crystallites and pore diameters varying over many decades. Petrophysical parameters are computed on discretized samples of sizes up to 1000{3}. The model can be easily adapted to represent the multiscale microstructure of a wide variety of carbonate rocks.

Role of metal ions in the hydrolysis reaction catalyzed by RNase P RNA from Bacillus subtilis.

Precursor tRNA (ptRNA) substrates carrying a single Rp or Sp-phosphorothioate modification at the RNase P cleavage site were used as tools to study the cleavage mechanism of RNase P RNA from Bacillus subtilis. Both the Sp and the Rp-diastereomer reduced the rate of processing at least 10(4)-fold under conditions where the chemical step is essentially rate-limiting. Neither the Rp nor the Sp-phosphorothioate modification affected ptRNA ground state binding to B. subtilis RNase P RNA. Processing of the Rp-diastereomeric ptRNA could be restored in the presence of Mn2+or Cd2+, demonstrating direct metal ion coordination to the pro -Rp oxygen during catalysis. With Cd2+, processing required the presence of another metal ion, such as Ca2+or Mg2+, to mediate substrate binding. This is in contrast to Escherichia coli RNase P RNA, which promotes cleavage of Rp-diastereomeric ptRNA in the presence of Cd2+as the sole divalent metal ion. Analysis of [Cd2+]-dependent processing of the Rp-diastereomeric substrate by B. subtilis RNase P RNA was consistent with the involvement of at least two metal ions in catalysis. The presence of two catalytic metal ion binding sites is also supported by the inhibition mode of Ca2+on cleavage of unmodified ptRNA. In the presence of an Sp-phosphorothioate modification at the scissile bond, neither Mn2+nor Cd2+were able to restore significant cleavage at this location. Instead, the ribozyme promotes cleavage at the neighboring unmodified phosphodiester with low efficiency. Unaffected ground state binding of the Sp-diastereomeric ptRNA but a >/=10(4)-fold reduced hydrolysis rate may indicate a crucial role of the pro -Sp oxygen in transition state stabilization or may be attributed to steric exclusion of catalytic metal ions. Based on our comparative analyses of B. subtilis and E. coli RNase P RNA, each representing the main structural subtypes of bacterial RNase P RNA, common features in terms of active site constraints and role of catalytic metal ions can now be formulated for bacterial RNase P RNAs. On the other hand, substantial and unexpected differences with respect to the overall metal ion requirements and tRNA binding modes have been observed for the two catalytic RNAs.

Absorption of cholesterol and beta-sitosterol from cigarette smoke in Macaca mulatta.

When smoke from single cigarettes containing [4-14C]cholesterol or beta-[4-14C]sitosterol was delivered to the lungs of Rhesus macaques, plasma contained radiolabeled sterols up to 50 days later. Since cholesterol, as well as plant sterols (campesterol, stigmasterol and beta-sitosterol), are normally present in cigarette smoke, our observations suggest that protracted absorption of sterols occurs after cigarette smoking.

The development of binocular summation in human infants.

The difference in pupil diameter between monocular and binocular viewing conditions was used as a measure of binocular luminance summation in 97 infants aged 0 to 12 months. No significant difference in pupil diameter under monocular versus binocular viewing conditions was found until the end of the fourth month of life. The age of onset was positively correlated with the age of onset for stereopsis as assessed by preferential looking. By the end of the 6th month, the difference in pupil diameter under the two viewing conditions was adult-like in magnitude. The procedure provides an objective measure of binocular function that is not affected by fixation error. The data suggest that the visual pathways by which signals from the two eyes converge are not functional until the 4th month of life.

Myopic children show insufficient accommodative response to blur.

PURPOSE: The study was performed to establish the relationship between the slope of the accommodative response function and refractive error in children. METHODS: Using an autorefractor, accommodative responses were measured in children under the following conditions. The subjects wore their best subjective refraction to view targets (a 3 x 3 array of 20/100 letters) displayed at seven distances (4.0 to 0.25 m). They viewed letters placed at 4.0 m through a series of negative lenses and letters placed at 0.25 m through a series of positive lenses. RESULTS: Myopic children accommodate significantly less than emmetropic children for real targets at near distances. Compared with emmetropic subjects, myopic children use blur poorly to increase accommodation, as shown by shallow slopes of the accommodative response functions for negative lenses. However, with positive lenses, requiring relaxation of accommodation, there is no significant difference in slope between myopic and emmetropic children. CONCLUSIONS: Blur is not an effective stimulus for accommodation in myopic children.

Orthogonal astigmatic axes in Chinese and Caucasian infants.

Caucasian infants are known to have a high incidence of astigmatism. The axis of greatest power is usually in the orientation orthogonal to the most common type found in Caucasian adults, with-the-rule astigmatism. We now find that Chinese infants also have a high incidence of astigmatism relative to adults, but its orientation is orthogonal to that of Caucasian infants. The source of this racial difference is not clear. It is unlikely to be due to the most obvious difference, the structure of the eyelids.

The effectiveness of a retinoscope beam as an accommodative stimulus.

Two experiments with adult subjects and one with infant subjects showed that the beam of a retinoscope, when viewed monocularly in a dark surround, does not stimulate accommodation. In this situation, the eye assumes an intermediate focus that is correlated with the individual's intermediate dark focus or resting state of accommodation. These results provide further evidence that near retinoscopy is a useful method of refraction which controls accommodation by minimizing effective stimulation. The technique is particularly valuable for refracting infants or young children who would otherwise require cycloplegia, and it may be an effective clinical method for the correction of night myopia and related anomalies in adults.

Astigmatism in children: changes in axis and amount from birth to six years.

Noncycloplegic refractions of 1,000 children aged 0-6 years revealed a high incidence of astigmatism, especially in the first 2 years of life. Before age 41/2 years, most of the astigmatism was against-the-rule and after that age most was with-the-rule. Of 19 children who did not show astigmatism in the first year, only one acquired it by 4 years. Of 29 children who had large amounts of astigmatism in the first year, all showed elimination or a large reduction in the amount of the cylindrical error by 4 years. These results are relevant to the etiology of astigmatism.