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A new large area imager for X-ray crystallography is described based on active pixel sensor technology. In order to meet the demanding requirements for crystallography the detector is designed with real time correction for reset noise, nonlinearity, spatial uniformity and bad pixels. The design of the detector is described along with its operating characteristics including noise, DQE and quantum gain. We describe new techniques to rapidly calibrate and characterize the X-ray imager.

Abstract: Studies of the breeding behavior of clones containing high levels of anthocyanins were conducted. Red-fleshed clones appeared in proportions suggesting multigenic control of degree of pigmentation. Red-fleshed and pur-ple-fleshed clones were always accompanied by red and purple skin, respectively. Red flesh ranged from partial pigmentation to complete pigmentation represented by pigment present in all tuber tissues. Percentage of com-pletely red-fleshed progeny was 14.5% and 4.1% in red x red crosses vs red × white (or the reciprocal), respectively. Purple-fleshed progeny were obtained from red x white crosses where the white-fleshed parent harbored theP pigment gene in juxtaposition with the nulliplex recessive state of theI gene (i.e.,iiii), which suppressed expression. Total anthocyanin ranged from 6.9 to 35 mg per 100 g fresh weight in the red-fleshed and 5.5 to 17.1 in the purple-fleshed clones. Red-fleshed clones contained predominantly acylated glycosides of pelargonidin while the purple-fleshed clones contained predominantly acylated glycosides of petunidin and peonidin. Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity and Ferrous Reducing Ability of Plasma revealed that the antioxidant levels in the red or purple-fleshed potatoes were two to three times higher than white-fleshed potato.

Psychiatric morbidity among foreign tourists is usually connected to external factors such as unfamiliar surroundings, language problems, and special religious experiences, as well as biological factors such as dyschronism of circadian rhythms. Long-range flights through several time zones are typically followed by symptoms of jet lag such as fatigue, severe sleep schedule disturbance, impairment of cognitive functions, and even mild depression. Jet lag is generally attributed to a conflict between external time cues and internal biological rhythms. This study examined the possible association between jet lag and psychiatric morbidity among long-distance travelers hospitalized in the Jerusalem Mental Health Center, Kfar Shaul Hospital between 1993 and 1998. This was a prospective open-label study. Patients (n = 152) were divided into two groups based on the number of time zones crossed in the flight to Israel: group I, seven time zones or more (n = 81); and group II, three time zones or less (n = 71). The direction of flight was mainly eastbound. After controlling the two groups for demographic and religious background, past psychiatric history, and diagnosis on admission (P[gt ] 0.1, Fisher's exact test), the possible association between jet lag and psychotic or major affective disorder was evaluated according to the following criteria: (1) absence of major mental problems before the flight or good remission of an existing disorder 1 year or more before flight; and (2) the appearance of psychotic or major affective syndromes during the first 7 days after landing. The number of first psychotic/major affective episodes in both groups presumed as associated with jet lag was found similar (P= .5), whereas the number of relapses conjoint with jet lag in the seven or more time zone group was significantly higher (P= .04). The results suggest that the dyschronism of circadian rhythms and jet lag possibly play a role in the exacerbation of major psychiatric disorders.

Jet lag is a travel-induced circadian rhythm phenomenon that afflicts healthy individuals following long- distance flights through several time zones. The typical jet-lag manifestations – insomnia during local sleep time, day fatigue, reduced concentration, irritability, and exhaustion with mild depression – are attributed to transient desynchronization in the circadian rhythm until the internal biological clock is rephased to the new environmental conditions.

Two Divisions of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), namely Physical Chemistry (Commission I.7 on Biophysical Chemistry formerly Steering Committee on Biophysical Chemistry) and Analytical Chemistry (Commission V.5 on Electroanalytical Chemistry) have prepared recommendations on the definition, classification and nomenclature related to electrochemical biosensors; these recommendations could, in the future, be extended to other types of biosensors.

In a recent series of papers1–3 the use of dye-containing liposomes as a component of immunochemical field assay methods for the detection and measurement of environmental contaminants has been demonstrated. These assays produce a colored measurement zone on a plastic-backed nitrocellulose strip, with the amount of color in the zone being proportional to the amount of analyte present in the test sample. The color in this zone has been measured using scanning densitometry of the strips. While giving a quantitative measurement, such a system is not field-portable and cannot differentiate between multiple colors in the measurement zone. The human eye is also limited in the case of mixed colors. In this report, the use of a ColortronTM 32-band digital color sensor for the quantitation measurement is demonstrated. This instrument is designed for inexpensive color analysis in the desktop publishing industry, but the fact that it can be used as a portable scanning reflectometer means that it has great potential for the spectral analysis of colors produced on a solid surface as analytical signals. As it is a scanning reflectometer rather than a single wavelength instrument, it can discriminate and quantitate a mixture of dyes, and thus has the potential to become part of a field-portable, multianalyte assay system.

Published procedures for polymer-film electrodes often give unsatisfactory results because of instability of the film electrode interface or film dissolution. We report a procedure which involves the thermal crosslinking of polymer-film electrodes. These polymer films, prepared from a poly(vinylpyridine/styrene) copolymer, are stable toward a variety of solvents both polar and nonpolar.Electrochemical evaluation of these crosslinked polymer films after chemical derivatization with transition metal-porphyrin.A simple two factor simplex is used to optimize the separation of several ionic naphthylamines by varying the pH and percent methanol in the eluting solvent.

Psychotropic medications, mainly phenothiazines, are known to be associated with cardiac insult. The case report presented here describes nearly fatal arrhythmia (sustained supraventricular tachycardia) consequent to phenothiazine treatment. The authors aim to alert psychiatrists to the possible adverse, and even fatal, effects of phenothiazines.

The potential for development of a multi‐analyte liposome immunomigration solid‐phase competition (LIM‐SPC) assay based on multivariate calibration of spectral reflectance measurements was investigated. A simulation of a multi‐analyte LIM‐SPC assay was carried out using a mixture of three analyte‐tagged liposome preparations, each containing a different colored dye. The liposome preparations were combined according to a statistical experiment design and allowed to migrate up nitrocellulose test strips to a binding zone. After the liposomes were captured at this zone, the reflectance spectrum of the zone was measured. Partial least squares regression was used to develop multivariate calibrations. For the liposome‐encapsulated dyes, the coefficients of determination obtained for car‐boxyfluorescein, sulforhodamine B and isosulfan blue were 0.902, 0.990 and 0.977, respectively. It was concluded that the approach used was suitable for a multi‐analyte LIM‐SPC.

The Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) has been operating safely and routinely with deuterium-tritium fuel for more than two years. In this time, TFTR has produced a number of record breaking results including core fusion power, ∼ 2 MW/m , comparable to that expected for ITER. Advances in wall conditioning via lithium pellet injection have played an essential role in achieving these results. Deuterium-tritium operation has also provided a special opportunity to address the two years of operation was approximately 40%. Recently the in-torus tritium inventory was reduced by half through a combination of glow discharge cleaning, moist-air soaks, and plasma discharge cleaning. The tritium inventory is not a constraint in continued operations. Recent results from TFTR in the context of plasma wall interactions and deuterium-tritium issues are presented.

A novel sealed gaseous parallel plate avalanche chamber detector is described which is significantly less prone to discharges and can consequently achieve high gas gains at high counting rates. The detector has demonstrated stable gains greater than 104at counting rates in excess of 107counts/mm2s.

Hypocalcemia associated with labor and lactation is a rare condition reported previously in patients with hypovitaminosis D. We here describe a case of a young woman in whom symptomatic severe hypocalcemia appeared after her second delivery, early in lactation. At the end of lactation the condition worsened. We review all previously reported cases and suggest a possible physiologic explanation for the association between pregnancy, lactation and the appearance of symptomatic hypocalcemia.

Psychiatrists from the former Soviet Union serve in the Department of Mental Health of the Israel Defense Forces. The new immigrant psychiatrists confront a wide range of difficulties during the process of integration to the military system and adaptation to the specifically military aspects of psychiatry. These include unfamiliarity with the military system, cultural clashes with the different groups of soldiers representing the various subgroups of the absorbing society, the psychopathology of soldiers, which is different from that seen in civil psychiatry, and the change in focus in the military mental health service, which emphasizes the importance of evaluating ego strength. Arbitrarily, one can describe four stages of adaptation that the immigrant psychiatrist has to pass through before recruitment and during service until adaptation and integration in the new role take place. Individual and group supervision are the main means by which the assimilation process is eased. The military service smooth the acculturation process and has an important role in helping the immigrant's adaptation to Israeli society and in building his or her professional identity.

The paper discusses the role of speech in the generation of psychosis. The traditional phenomenological approach describes schizophrenic speech as desocialized, autistic and destructive. Based on ‘Speech Act Theory’, we argue that patients in an acute psychotic state assign maximal illocutionary force to their utterances and mark these speech acts as felicitous. We hypothesize that the pragmatic approach can serve a special role in bilingual patients, the mother tongue being more pronounced in the generation of the psychosis. This view gains support from clinical experience and case studies and can be used as a treatment strategy for bilingual patients.

A breeding effort designed to increase the antioxidant level of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) by means of high concentrations of anthocyanins and/or carotenoids provided selected materials for analysis. Extraction methods suitable for isolating both hydrophilic and lipophilic compounds were used and measurements of total anthocyanin and total carotenoid were made. Two methods of measurement of oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) adapted to hydrophilic and lipophilic compounds were applied. Total anthocyanin values varied between 9.5 and 38 mg per 100 g fresh weight (FW). The hydrophilic fraction ORAC measurements among anthocyanin-rich clones varied between 250 and 1420 μmol Trolox equivalents per 100 g FW. These two variables were significantly correlated, r = 0.73, and with significant positive slope in linear regression. Measurement of total carotenoids revealed differing degrees of yellowness covered a range of total carotenoid extending from 35 to 795 μg per 100 g FW. Dark yellow cultivars had roughly 10 times more total carotenoid than white-flesh cultivars. The lipophilic fraction ORAC values ranged from 4.6 to 15.3 nmoles α-tocopherol equivalents per 100 g FW. Total carotenoid was correlated with the lipophilic ORAC values, r = 0.77, and also had a statistically significant positive regression coefficient. Clones with red and yellow pigments visible in the flesh had anthocyanins and carotenoids in elevated levels and ORAC contributions from both fractions. The introgression of high levels of carotenoid from germplasm directly extracted from the Papa Amarilla (yellow potato) category of cultivars of South America into long-day adapted North American materials is presented here. Although anthocyanins and carotenoids are major contributors to antioxidant activity, other constituents of potato flesh likely play significant roles in total antioxidant values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]