Activity of the pharmacology department of the I.M. Sechenov Moscow medical academy over the last 40 years (on the 70th birthday of academician of the Russian academy of medical sciences Dmitri? Aleksandrovich Kharkevich

The Department of Pharmacology of the Moscow Medical Academy has a renowned history of long standing. The course of pharmacology was read for the first time at the Medical Faculty of the Moscow University in 1764. The Department of Pharmacology was organized in 1804 and was headed during its existence by many eminent scientists (see the Table) who richly contributed to the development of Russian Pharmacology. The history of the Department of Pharmacology of the Moscow Medical Academy from the time of its foundation till 1957 has been set forth briefly by collaborators of the Department in a series of publications (V. G. Dagurov and A. A. Myazdrikova, 1981;. V. G. Dagurov, 1983, 1987; D. N. Samoilov, 1991). This article is dedicated to 70th birthday of professor D. A. Kharkevich and 40 years (1957-1997) of this activity in the department of pharmacology of the Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy. In 1957 D. A. Kharkevich was appointed as a docent, in 1963--professor and since 1964--he was been the chairman of this department.     

Hypotonic cerebral palsy. Which treatment?

BACKGROUND: Aim of this study is to verify whether tonus neurophysiological and communicative-relational aspects in hypotonic subjects can be recovered by psychomotor therapy. METHODS: This case series includes two randomized groups of children with central hypotonia observed at the Department of Child Neuropsychiatry of the Gaslini Institute of Genova from February 1992 to December 1996. The 1st group includes 6 subjects treated in a local rehabilitation service only by kinesitherapy. The 2nd group includes 6 children undergoing psychomotor treatment in our Department, where all the 12 cases underwent periodical controls. RESULTS: Tonus physiological aspects equally improved in the two groups, whereas the improvement of the communication aspect was more marked in the second. CONCLUSIONS: The conclusion is drawn that psychomotor therapy seems more appropriate for a global recovery of the hypotonic child.     

Modeling of mechanical alloying: Part III. Applications of computational programs

The computational modeling programs described in part II of this series are used in two ways. One is to compare program predictions to previous experimental data, thereby testing to some extent the utility of the programs. At this stage of their development, program “predictions” with respect to processing time, microstructural scale, and similar parameters are accurate to within a factor of 2 or so. Even so, the predictions offer support of the model developed in part I of this series and provide a vehicle for both model and process refinements. In addition to “testing” the model and the program in these manners, the effect of uncertainty in input material properties on program predictions is explored. Formerly Graduate Student, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903 Formerly Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Virginia     

Galvanic vestibular stimulation in humans: effects on otolith function in roll

All autopsy reports from 1990-1994 inclusive of the Department of Pathology, University of Hong Kong and the Wales Institute of Forensic Medicine were examined and cases of death due to massive pulmonary embolism were noted. The incidence of this condition was calculated and found to be insignificantly lower in the Hong Kong series than the Welsh series by statistical analysis, both in the crude incidence in all autopsies and when correcting for different case mixes in the two locations. The majority of cases in both locations were in the over-60 age group. The study helps refute the longstanding belief among Hong Kong physicians that fatal massive pulmonary embolism is rare in Hong Kong (with approximately 98% Chinese population) in comparison with a predominantly Caucasian population.     

Numerical techniques for the calculation of binary phase diagrams

Numerical techniques are presented for the calculation of binary phase diagrams. Most compositions are obtained directly through a Taylor series expansion of the composition with respect to temperature. The series is limited to the second order term and analytic expressions of the slopes and curvatures of phase boundaries have been developed for its use. A Newton-Raphson iteration technique tests the convergence of the results. The method is efficient and accommodates various formalisms for the free energy functions. The series is not applicable to very dilute solutions of a component, near the critical point of a miscibility gap or in the vicinity of the congruent transformation point of a compound; in these cases, alternate equations have been derived. Formerly Graduate Student, Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science, Carnegie-Mellon University.     

Numerical techniques for the calculation of binary phase diagrams

Numerical techniques are presented for the calculation of binary phase diagrams. Most compositions are obtained directly through a Taylor series expansion of the composition with respect to temperature. The series is limited to the second order term and analytic expressions of the slopes and curvatures of phase boundaries have been developed for its use. A Newton-Raphson iteration technique tests the convergence of the results. The method is efficient and accommodates various formalisms for the free energy functions. The series is not applicable to very dilute solutions of a component, near the critical point of a miscibility gap or in the vicinity of the congruent transformation point of a compound; in these cases, alternate equations have been derived. Formerly Graduate Student, Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science, Carnegie-Mellon University,     

Food lobbies, the food pyramid, and U.S. nutrition policy

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's 1991 withdrawal of its Eating Right Pyramid food guide in response to pressure from meat and dairy producers was only the latest in a long series of industry attempts to influence federal dietary recommendations. Such attempts began when diet-related health problems in the United States shifted in prevalence from nutrient deficiencies to chronic diseases, and dietary advice shifted from "eat more" to "eat less." The Pyramid controversy focuses attention on the conflict between federal protection of the rights of food lobbyists to act in their own self-interest, and federal responsibility to promote the nutritional health of the public. Since 1977, for example, under pressure from meat producers, federal dietary advice has evolved from "decrease consumption of meat" to "have two or three (daily) servings." Thus, this recent incident also highlights the inherent conflict of interest in the Department of Agriculture's dual mandates to promote U.S. agricultural products and to advise the public about healthy food choices.     

Simplified AASHTO Load and Resistance Factor Design Girder Live Load Distribution in Illinois

Illinois began full transition to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials load and resistance factor design (LRFD) bridge design specifications from the traditional load factor design code or standard specifications in 2002. To facilitate implementation of the new specification, engineers from the Illinois Department of Transportation undertook a series of investigations. The studies focused on interpretation of LRFD for the design of typical bridges in Illinois and the simplification of its procedures for determination of live load lane distributions to primary superstructure girders. Some important presented results from the conducted investigations are believed not only relevant to bridge design in Illinois, but to other states and jurisdictions which employ or will employ LRFD in the near future. The initial simplifications and interpretations focused on concrete deck-on-steel girder bridges and were subsequently expanded to include concrete deck-on-prestressed concrete girder structures. These types of structures comprise a large portion of Illinois’ inventory. Illinois Department of Transportation engineers continue to build on the studies described in the paper such that policies and procedures for other types of typical bridges can be formulated.     

Professional drivers: protection needed for a high-risk occupation

"On the job" motor vehicle deaths number more than 4,000 annually in the U.S. and comprise nearly one-third of all work-related deaths. Yet the Department of Labor has set no standards relating to on-the-road safety of the millions of workers whose jobs entail large amounts of driving, and Department of Transportation standards affecting occupational safety cover only drivers in interstate commerce. Drivers of some commercial vehicles, such as heavy trucks, are at special risk of injury because trucks have usually been exempted for many years from federal motor vehicle safety standards--such as standards for brakes and seatbelts--designed to prevent crashes or protect occupants in crashes. Observations based on a series of 150 fatal crashes involving tractor trailers illustrate the need for better protection of this large population of high-risk workers. Clarification of responsibility within the various federal agencies and application of available knowledge and technology are essential.     

Development of a quality improvement checklist for the Department of Veterans Affairs

BACKGROUND: In 1991, the Department of Veterans Affairs developed an instrument to monitor various aspects of quality in Veterans Affairs hospitals. The instrument, the Quality Improvement Checklist, is composed of a series of clinical indicators or questions about administrative or clinical processes, structures, or outcomes. METHOD: For most questions, data are obtained by automated search of electronic patient data-bases maintained in each facility. Individual hospital data are collated and displayed in comparative format with those from other hospitals. Hospitals use the information to identify areas needing further study or improvement. CONCLUSION: Hospital directors and physicians are slowly accepting the usefulness of the instrument.     

Lumbar intervertebral disk herniation in children

A consecutive series of 16 children from 9 to 18 years old, with lumbar intervertebral disc herniation who were treated surgically in Department of Neurosurgery Medical Academy in Poznań, between 1978-1992, was analysed. The clinical symptoms, X-ray assessment, type of operation and outcome are reviewed. In our analysis characteristic features of disc herniation in children are: the onset of pain due to violent injury in relation to lifting, bilateral neurological symptoms and radiculography imaging central intervertebral disc herniation.     

Impact of The Patient's Charter on A&E departments: 1

In the first of a two-part series presenting the results of a national survey of senior nurses in accident and emergency (A&E) departments, developments in the delivery of nursing care are examined within the context of the major organizational changes within the NHS since 1990; in particular, the requirements of meeting The Patient's Charter (Department of Health, 1991, 1995a) standards are discussed. The second article in this series will examine the developing role of the nurse practitioner in A&E departments.     

热轧轧机模型HSMM

介绍了北美钢铁协会及十多家钢铁公司资助开发的热轧轧机模型HSMM的基本原理及功能。模型可以根据实际情况灵活配置轧机的布置,综合考虑了各种生产因素。HSMM利用一系列物理模型来计算轧制时热力学及微观组织演变。强化的HSMM模型采用不同钢铁公司的不同样品来进行论证及校核。通过对比,最终的机械性能如屈服强度(YS),抗拉强度(TS)及铁素体的晶粒大小预测与实际测量吻合的非常好,考虑到测量误差,偏差在完全可接受的范围之内。     

Pregnenolone and progesterone metabolism by the testes of Bufo arenarum

Outcomes and predicting factors of mortality were studied in a consecutive series of 190 female medical patients admitted with acute illness to the Department of Medicine. Most of the patients were admitted from the Emergency Department. Twenty seven patients (14.2%) died. Seventy per cent of the patients who died, died during the first week of hospitalisation. Nearly 10 per cent of the patients who did not die, stayed in the hospital for longer than 4 weeks. At the time of home discharge, 20 patients (12.3%) had a Barthel ADL Index score less than 12, 19 patients (11.7%) had urinary incontinence, 16 patients (9.8%) had faecal incontinence, and only 103 patients (63.2%) could walk independently. The elderly patients had a significantly higher disability level at the time of home discharge than the younger patients. Independent predicting factors of mortality among this population study were "history of acute confusion", "systolic blood pressure < 100", "hematocrit < 30 per cent", "platelet < 100,000", and "a low Chula Mental Test score". Implementation of auditing and quality assurance in every acute-care hospitals is recommended.     

Long‐Range Forecasting Highway Construction Costs

In the process of decision making for design and execution of highway construction projects, long‐range cost forecasting is one of the most significant and complicated problems. This paper describes the development of a model that enables the user to make long‐range cost projections, taking into consideration general characteristics of the highway construction industry, as well as pertinent local conditions. The model presented uses conventional statistical methods to represent the main categories of typical jobs in the highway construction industry. From these categories, a composite model is created by assigning different weights to the input elements costs and then choosing a series of indicators to predict price trends for each separate element of the composite model. Use of this model reveals that bid volume in a certain area is a factor that has significant influence upon cost forecasts. This paper is accompanied by a case study based on actual data from highway construction projects performed for the Florida Department of Transportation in the years 1968–1981.     

Derivation and consistency of the partial functions of the ternary system involving interaction coefficients

The logarithm of activity coefficients of the components of the ternary system is derived based on the Maclaurin infinite series, which is expressed in terms of the integral property of the system and subjected to appropriate boundary conditions. The derivation of the functions involves extensive summation of various infinite series pertaining to the first-order interaction coefficients that have been shown completely to remove any truncational error. Since the conventional equations involving interaction coefficients are internally inconsistent, a consistent form of the partial functions is developed in the article using the technique just described. The thermodynamic consistency of the functions based on the Maxwell and the Gibbs-Duhem relations has been established. The derived values of the logarithmic activity coefficients of the components have been found to be in agreement with the thermodynamic data of the Fe-Cr-Ni system at 1873 K and have been found to be independent of the compositional paths. S. RAVINDRA REDDY formerly Undergraduate Student, Department of Metallurgy, Indian Institute of Science.     

A quantitative assessment of health risk induced by occupational exposure to inorganic arsenic

This article describes a series of 21 consecutive cases, each involving a solitary median maxillary central incisor; the patients were seen in the Department of Dentistry or the Victorian Clinical Genetics Unit, Murdoch Institute, at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, from 1966 to 1997. The spectrum of anomalies and associated features present in these cases--solitary median maxillary central incisor, choanal atresia, and holoprosencephaly--is described, and the literature related to the features, including genetic studies in these conditions, is reviewed. We relate our findings in these cases to current knowledge of developmental embryology. It is hoped that the findings, together with our interpretation of them, will help to clarify understanding of solitary median maxillary central incisor syndrome. This syndrome was previously considered a simple midline defect of the dental lamina, but it is now recognized as a possible predictor of holoprosencephalies of varying degrees in the proband, in members of the proband's family, and in the family's descendants.     

Modeling of mechanical alloying: Part II. Development of computational modeling programs

Computational modeling programs incorporating the physics of powder deformation, fragmentation, and coalescence occurring during mechanical alloying (MA) are developed. The programs utilize the equations developed in part I of this series; equations predicting the extent of powder deformation during an effective impact in MA and those specifying criteria for powder particle fragmentation and coalescence. Two programs have been developed for these purposes. One, MAPI, considers the behavior of a single species with the option of adding dispersoids. The other, MAP2, considers two ductile species being welded to form a third, composite species. Applications of the programs to previous experimental data, and for the purpose of identifying the effect of material and process variables on alloying behavior, are provided in the article following this one. Formerly Graduate Student, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903 Formerly Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Virginia     

The re-solution of inclusions in remelted stainless steels

As a follow-up to work done on the remelting of three grades of 300 series stainless steels on a small scale electroslag remelting unit, adjunct studies were made on the kinetics of inclusion re-solution during the “electrode stage” of remelting. The objective of this study was to attempt to quantify the metallographic observations of many investigators that vary-ing degrees of inclusion re-solution do take place during the consumable remelting of numer-ous grades of metals and alloys. In specific, the rate(s)of re-solution of the large stringer inclusions found in the 300 series air melt stock was investigated. A known and controlled temperature gradient was imposed on long cylindrical specimens for varying times and, by a metallographic inclusion sizing and counting technique described in this paper, a series of isochronal and isothermal data was generated. Plots of rates of re-solutionvs time indi-cated a zero-order reaction mechanism and the activation energy calculated from the mea-sured reaction rate constants was found to be 36,000 J/mole. C. F. CHAN, J. W. GUERARD, and D. MILLER were all Seniors in the Metallurgical Engineering Department, at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, when this work was done.     

Characterization of the morphological and lattice orientational microstructure of As-Cast aluminum ingot

The morphological and lattice orientational microstructure of commercial-purity aluminum ingot (1100 series) is investigated by section analysis and individual measurements of crystallite orientation from electron backscattering diffraction (EBD). These measurements render possible the determination of the sectional grain-area distribution, the number-of-sides per grain section distribution, the mean grain-interception length, the orientation distribution function, and the nearest-neighbor orientation coherence function. It is found that the morphological measures of the aluminum ingot are consistent with predictions based upon the classical Johnson-Mehl model. A small anisotropy of grain shape is observed, with the grains exhibiting a 17 pct larger dimension in the axial direction of the ingot compared with radial and hoop directions. The orientational measures indicate that the ingot has a random texture with random spatial orientation coherence relationships. Formerly Visiting Scholar, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, is retired.