Effect of fluorination and Li-excess on the Li migration barrier in Mn-based cathode materials

Computational study on effect of F and Li-excess on Li migration finds fluorination has no significant detrimental effect on Li barrier.

Stent Thrombosis

The most dreaded complication with percutaneous coronary intervention with stents, either bare-metal or drug-eluting stents is stent thrombosis (ST) and it has a significant detrimental effect on the outcome for the patient. The initial attempts at intervention with bare-metal stents had much higher rates of ST compared with what is currently prevailing in the modern interventional world. Significant changes with respect to the stent technology, pharmacology, and most importantly our understanding of this phenomenon have decreased the risk of ST. There are many factors that can be performed to minimize the risk of ST and this review will describe the incidence, pathophysiology, and contributing risk factors to ST.

Growth of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis in the Presence of Hexadecylpyridinium Chloride, Natamycin, and Vancomycin

A design-of-experiments approach was used to examine the effect of hexadecylpyridinium chloride (HPC), alone or in combination with the antibiotics vancomycin and natamycin, on the growth of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP). At concentrations above 74.4 μg/ml, HPC had a highly significant detrimental effect on the growth of MAP, whereas natamycin at 10.8 and 21.6 μg/ml and vancomycin at 5.2 and 10.4 μg/ml did not have such an effect. Titration of the amount of HPC tolerated by MAP indicated that growth can occur in the presence of 24.8 μg/ml or lower. Processing of bovine fecal specimens indicated that reducing the concentration of HPC from 32.22 to 1.07 mg/ml during decontamination may improve detection when cultures are grown on solid medium but not when cultures are grown in liquid medium. Further investigation into optimizing HPC concentration during processing of fecal samples is warranted. Natamycin, in conjunction with vancomycin, may be useful for controlling fungal contamination during isolation of MAP from fecal samples.

An “Ecological” Constructional Test

We describe a simple, three-dimensional constructional test (the Box test), which reflects common daily-living activities, to be used for the assessment of constructional disability in elderly brain-lesioned patients. Subjects are required to put as many of 12 objects of varied shape and volume as they can into a box. To carry out the task successfully subjects have to arrange the items according to an efficient constructional strategy. We administered this test to 68 normal subjects and to 50 brain-damaged patients. Analysis indicated the Box test is easy and simple to administer and can be used without difficulty by elderly patients having focal brain damage. Performance correlated well with general intelligence and other bidimensional, conventional constructional tasks. Right or left brain lesions have a similar, significant detrimental effect on performance but probably through different mechanisms.

To See or Not to See: The Debate over Pornography and its Relationship to Sexual Aggression

The role played by pornography in the generation of thoughts, feelings, impulses and behaviours in its viewers has long been a topic of debate and controversy. The uncertainty about its potential effects on human behaviour, especially its relationship to sexual aggression, has stimulated the recent debate with the possibility of tighter censorship laws being implemented throughout this country. A review of the topic from a number of different perspectives fails to establish that pornography in its purely erotic form has any significant detrimental effect on human behaviour. More difficult to determine are its effects on psychological development. If behavioural disturbances do occur following exposure to such material, they occur in the context of an individual who shows more global disturbances of personality. The current debate regarding pornography provides an opportunity to address in a broader social context issues perhaps more significant for our society: the relationships between men and women, and the roles and recognition provided to each of the sexes.