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Neste artigo apresentamos algumas práticas desenvolvidas pelo Kollektiv Orangotango, um círculo de geógrafos críticos e amigos, em coevolução desde os anos 2000. Além das intervenções artísticas no espaço público, a cartografia crítica é parte crucial de nosso trabalho, temos co-conduzido vários mapeamentos coletivos, publicado materiais educacionais de mapeamento, manuais multilíngues, tutoriais em vídeo e uma coleção internacional de contracartografias chamada This Is Not an Atlas. O mapeamento coletivo é um processo de reflexão territorial, conscientização e auto-organização, integrando diferentes tipos de conhecimentos, quotidianos, tradicionais, encarnados e acadêmicos, que podem fluir juntos e abrir espaço para a ação. Sentimos que é crucial integrar uma noção de "sentipensar" - sentir/pensar - no que, com referência a Bell Hooks, pode ser chamado de "cartografia engajada", ou seja, uma cartografia baseada no diálogo que engaja "coração e mente". Instaurando uma perspectiva espacial sobre a relação dialética entre nós humanos e nosso meio ambiente, entendemos o mapeamento coletivo como processo de alfabetização geográfica na vida quotidiana e espaço de ação por meio do diálogo "mediado pelo mundo". Como educadores populares, pesquisadores militantes, lutamos por uma produção horizontal coletiva de conhecimento, por meio de intervenções práticas e reflexão teórica, numa perspectiva de uma cidade educadora.

Dieser Beitrag ist eine Handreichung für die Organisation, Durchführung und Reflexion von kollektiven Kartierungen, einer Methode der Aktionsforschung, die einen gemeinschaftlichen kritisch-geographischen Reflexions- und Gestaltungsprozess ermöglicht.

Dieser Artikel befasst sich mit dem Verhaltnis von politischem Aktivismus und kritischer Forschung. Dabei fuhren wir in methodologische Ansatze der Aktionsforschung und der militanten Untersuchung sowie Diskussionen um aktivistische oder aktionsorientierte Geographie ein, die in der deutschsprachigen Geographie bislang wenig Beachtung finden. Diese Debatten erganzen wir um die in lateinamerikanischen sozialen Bewegungen praktizierte – von Paulo Freires „educacao popular“ gepragte – Padagogisierung des Politischen. Wie Aktionsforschung und militante Untersuchung fordert Freires „Bildung von unten“ die „Auflosung der Trennung“ zwischen Bildung und sozialer Transformation sowie die Einbeziehung anderer Wissensformen in kollektive „dialogische“ Bildungsprozesse. Die Praxis von Kollektiv Orangotango entsteht im Uberschneidungsfeld von Subkultur, Forschung und Aktivismus. Anhand dieser Erfahrungen zeigen wir, wie eine als „Bildung von unten“ verstandene angewandte kritische Geographie die Trennung zwischen Forschung, Lernen und Aktivismus sowie den jeweiligen Akteuren und Akteurinnen verschwimmen lasst.

The relationship between abstract formal procedures and the activities of actual physical systems has proved to be surprisingly subtle and controversial, and there are a number of competing accounts of when a physical system can be properly said to implement a mathematical formalism and hence perform a computation. I defend an account wherein computational descriptions of physical systems are high-level normative interpretations motivated by our pragmatic concerns. Furthermore, the criteria of utility and success vary according to our diverse purposes and pragmatic goals. Hence there is no independent or uniform fact to the matter, and I advance the ‘anti-realist’ conclusion that computational descriptions of physical systems are not founded upon deep ontological distinctions, but rather upon interest-relative human conventions. Hence physical computation is a ‘conventional’ rather than a ‘natural’ kind.

Modal logic is principally concerned with the alethic modalities of necessity and possibility, although this branch of logic is applied to a wide range of linguistic and conceptual phenomena, including natural language semantics, proof theory, theoretical computer science and the formal characterization of knowledge and belief. This wide range of application stems from the basic form of modal assertions, such as ‘it is necessarily the case that φ’, where an entire statement φ is embedded within a context possessing rich logical structure. When constructing a formal representation of these embedding contexts, there are several choices concerning their specific symbolic form. The most standard approach symbolizes modal contexts as operators, which combine directly with formulas of the object language to yield new formulas. The primary alternative to this approach is to treat modal contexts as predicates, which attach not to formulas directly, but to names of formulas, and thereby attribute a metalinguistic property to a syntactic object. A variation on the operator approach, which assumes the interpretive framework of possible worlds semantics, is to treat modal contexts as quantifications over possible worlds. Finally, a variation on the predicate approach is to analyse modal contexts as predicates of propositions rather than as predicates of syntactic objects.

During the long and complex history of Indian philosophy, a number of divergent conceptions of matter have been developed and explored. These conceptions diverge both with respect to the ontological analysis of matter, and with respect to its specific structural characteristics. In terms of ontological conceptions of matter, the rival positions of materialism, idealism and substance-pluralism are all advanced by competing schools of thought. For example, pure materialism is espoused by the Cārvāka school, while absolute idealism is defended by Advaita Vedānta, and varying forms of pluralism are advocated by the Sāṅkhya, Yoga, Nyāya and Vaiśeṣika schools. Regarding the structural characteristics of matter, the most interesting conceptions are advanced by the pluralistic philosophies. In particular, the Vaiśeṣika and Nyāya schools recognize five physical substances, four of which are held to possess atomic structure. According to this conception, matter is composed of imperceptibly small units or paramāṇus, which constitute the basic substrate in which perceptible qualities inhere. All macroscopic objects are transient composites of atoms, while the paramāṇus themselves are indivisible and indestructible. The atoms are held to be naturally at rest, and an external force is required to initiate motion. In contrast, the Sāṅkhya and Yoga traditions espouse a metaphysical dualism of the two basic categories of matter and consciousness, where the continuity and dynamic transformations of matter are emphasized. All of the diverse phenomena of the physical world result from modifications of a single underlying source known as pradhāna or primal matter, which is said to be continuous, all pervading, indestructible and imperceptible. Pradhāna exists in a balanced and unmanifest state of pralaya until it is disturbed by the presence of consciousness. This disturbance leads to an imbalance between the internal constituents of pradhāna, and the resulting disequilibrium accounts for the evolutionary transformations of the physical world.

The use of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in block designs provides measures of cortical activity in ecologically valid environments. However, in some cases, the use of block designs may be problematic when data are not corrected for performance in a time-restricted block. We sought to investigate the effects of task complexity and processing speed on hemodynamic responses in an fNIRS block design. To differentiate the effects of task complexity and processing speed, 20 subjects completed the trail making test (TMT) in two versions (TMT-A versus TMT-B) and three different speed levels (slow versus moderate versus fast). During TMT-A, subjects are asked to connect encircled numbers in numerically ascending order (1-2-3 ... ). In the more complex TMT-B, subjects are instructed to connect encircled numbers and letters in alternating ascending order (1-A-2-B ... ). To illustrate the obscuring effects of processing speed on task complexity, we perform two different analyses. First, we analyze the classical measures of oxygenated blood, and second, we analyze the measures corrected for the number of processed items. Our results show large effects for processing speed within the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus, left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and superior parietal lobule (SPL). The TMT contrast did not show significant effects with classical measures, although trends are observed for higher activation during TMT-B. When corrected for processed items, higher activity for TMT-B in comparison to TMT-A is found within the SPL. The results are discussed in light of recent research designs, and simple to use correction methods are suggested. (c) The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

This chapter highlights one practice of opposition to the hygienizing policies of cleaning and cleansing, by visually intervening on walls in Sao Paulo's public space. Pixacao is a typical style of graffiti writing in Brazilian cities originally practised by marginalized youth in Sao Paulo since the mid-1980s. The simple line, muddled typography, commonly painted with black latex ink, evades hegemonic aesthetics. Pixacao writers aim to spread their signatures, generally not containing explicit political content, across the whole city, but particularly in representative places such as the centre's skyscrapers' facades. The chapter shows how recent policies now especially focus on pixacao as one of the most important threats to 'modern' Sao Paulo. It argues that it is first of all necessary to overcome role models based on Western modernist aesthetics in urban studies, planning and policy making to be able to acknowledge heterogeneity and difference within 'the 21st century metropolis'.

The Computational Theory of Mind (CTM) holds that cognitive processes are essentially computational, and hence computation provides the scientific key to explaining mentality. The Representational Theory of Mind (RTM) holds that representational content is the key feature in distinguishing mental from non-mental systems. I argue that there is a deep incompatibility between these two theoretical frameworks, and that the acceptance of CTM provides strong grounds for rejecting RTM. The focal point of the incompatibility is the fact that representational content is extrinsic to formal procedures as such, and the intended interpretation of syntax makes no difference to the execution of an algorithm. So the unique 'content' postulated by RTM is superfluous to the formal procedures of CTM. And once these procedures are implemented in a physical mechanism, it is exclusively the causal properties of the physical mechanism that are responsible for all aspects of the system's behaviour. So once again, postulated content is rendered superfluous. To the extent that semantic content may appear to play a role in behaviour, it must be syntactically encoded within the system, and just as in a standard computational artefact, so too with the human mind/brain - it's pure syntax all the way down to the level of physical implementation. Hence 'content' is at most a convenient meta-level gloss, projected from the outside by human theorists, which itself can play no role in cognitive processing.

This paper asks to what extent urban agriculture projects based on principles of Solidarity Economics are in a position to develop new economic forms based on solidarity—rather than competition—thereby posing an alternative model to neo-liberal capitalism. It seeks to understand how solidarity economies function concretely, what motivations, interests and goals move people to establish and participate in such initiatives, and what utopias they associate with such projects. It focuses on the Swiss gardening cooperative ortoloco, which can be defined as a peri-urban organic farm organised on principles that go beyond the supply of food to embrace explicit political aims and to realise an alternative economic model. For two years of existence, ortoloco has successfully applied these principles on its economic practice, but also constantly questioned them and developed them further. Extending the diversity of products and activities, and intensifying practical and theoretical cooperation with similar projects...

Background: Retrospective studies concerning the operative preservation and nonoperative management of splenic injuries in patients with splenic trauma have been published; however, few studies have analyzed prospectively the results and early complication rates of a defined management in splenic injury. Methods: From 1986 to 2006, adult patients with blunt splenic injuries were evaluated prospectively with the intent of splenic preservation. Hemodynamically unstable patients underwent laparotomy. Stable patients were treated conservatively regardless of the grade of splenic injury determined by ultrasound and/or CT scan. Results: During a 20-year period, 155 patients were prospectively evaluated. In 98 patients (63%), the spleen could be preserved by nonoperative (64 patients, 65%) or operative (34 patients, 35%) treatment and 57 patients (37%) needed splenectomy. There were no differences in age, sex, or trauma score between the groups, but a higher early infection rate in patients with splenectomy compared with patients with splenic preservation (p < 0.005) was observed, even if the patients were matched with respect to multiple trauma using the Injury Severity Score (p < 0.01). Conclusions: Splenic preservation in patients with blunt splenic injury by operative or nonoperative treatment leads to lower early infection rates in adults and, therefore, should be advocated.

In den letzten Jahren ist Brasilien als aufsteigende oder wachsende Ökonomie diskutiert worden. Vor allem São Paulo spielt eine zentrale Rolle in diesen Entwicklungsnarrativen. Dabei wird die Stadt als ökonomischer Motor und als Insel der Modernität im Land und in ganz Lateinamerika dargestellt. Doch die Politiken, die darauf abzielen, São Paulo als globale Stadt oder als Weltstadt zu konsolidieren, vertiefen Ungleichheiten und Exklusionen. Nichtsdestoweniger sind diese Politiken mit visuellen Interventionspraktiken in öffentlichen Räumen konfrontiert, die nicht mit modernen, europäisch-amerikanischen Imaginationen über oder Standards einer Kapitalhauptstadt zusammenpassen. Pixação ist ein typischer Graffiti-Stil in Brasilien. Er wurde ursprünglich in den 1980er Jahren von Jugendlichen in São Paulo praktiziert. Obwohl diese Zeichnungen, die sich überall auf Fassaden in brasilianischen Städten finden, generell keinen bestimmten politischen Inhalt aufweisen, diskutieren die AutorInnen pixação als alltägliche Widerstandspraxis im Kontext von räumlicher Segregation und repressiver Kontrolle des öffentlichen Raums. Ferner beziehen sie sich auf jüngere Fälle, in denen pixadores in breitere soziale Auseinandersetzungen involviert waren, wobei sie ihre Techniken und ihr Wissen zu einem fruchtbaren Werkzeug sozialer Bewegungen machten. Schließlich zeigen sie auf, dass Graffiti-Sprayer_innen kürzlich diese Techniken in europäischen Städten übernommen haben. So legen sie dar, dass multidirektionaler Wissensaustausch, den die post-koloniale Stadttheorie einfordert, auf dem Feld visueller Interventionen im öffentlichen Raum bereits praktiziert wird., In recent years, Brazil has been discussed as an emergent or booming economy. São Paulo plays a central role in these development narratives, being presented as the country’s economic powerhouse and an island of modernity within Brazil and Latin America. Policies aiming to consolidate São Paulo’s global or world city-ness deepen inequalities and exclusions. Nevertheless, these policies are confronted with visual intervention practices in public spaces that do not fit modern Euro-American business capital imaginaries and standards. Pixação is a typical style of graffiti found in Brazilian cities, originally practiced by youth in São Paulo in the 1980s. Though the signatures, spread across Brazilian cities’ façades, generally do not contain any explicit political content, we discuss pixação as an everyday practice of resistance in the context of spatial segregation and the repressive policing of public space. Furthermore, we refer to recent cases of pixadores getting involved in broader social struggles, making their techniques and knowledge prolific instruments for social movements. Finally, we show that practitioners in European cities have recently adopted these techniques. Thus, we argue that the multidirectional knowledge exchange claimed by post-colonial urban theory is being practiced in the field of visual interventions in public space.

Background Arcuate ligament vascular compression syndrome has not been described previously in the pediatric or pediatric surgical literature. However, it is mentioned in the literature of vascular and general surgery and in journals of radiology and orthopedics. In this review, the intraoperative pathological anatomy and the principles of treatment for 8 children will be presented. Methods The chart records and the anatomical sketches that were documented by the surgeon immediately after each procedure were analyzed retrospectively. In addition, preoperative courses and long-term follow-up (range, 3-18 years) were evaluated by a defined program. Results The diagnosis of celiac artery compression by an arcuate ligament was suspected in children presenting with a history of several years of recurrent acute abdominal pain associated with a typical arterial bruit in the midline of the epigastric region. Conclusions Other diseases with recurrent abdominal pain and an arterial bruit must be excluded before making the decision for an operative intervention. Duplex ultrasound and angiography are possibly helpful tools to establish the respective diagnosis, but in the patients of the present series, these techniques neither confirmed compression of the celiac axis nor demonstrated decreased perfusion of the superior mesenteric artery. However, as the clinical symptoms clearly announce the disease, these diagnostic measures are not mandatory.

Background: The heparin-binding growth factors pleiotrophin (PTN), midkine (MK), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) stimulate tumor cell proliferation and angiogenesis. In this study the authors wanted to know if these growth factors are expressed by cell lines and tumor tissue of solid pediatric tumors, growth factor expression is influenced by proinflammatory cytokines, and local growth factor concentration has an influence on experimental tumor growth. Methods: Growth factor mRNA expression was analyzed by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and protein secretion by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Neuroblastoma cells were suspended in solutions containing different growth factor concentrations before injection into the nude mice, which were given pentosan polysulfate (PPS) for antagonism. Results: The analyzed growth factors were expressed by most cells of solid malignant pediatric tumors. Their expression was not influenced by proinflammatory cytokines. The inhibition of tumor growth by PPS in the nude mouse model was dependent on the local growth factor concentration. High concentration excluded significant tumor suppression. Conclusions: Because of the redundancy of growth factor expression and the abolishment of PPS efficacy by a high local growth factor concentration, the authors conclude that overall targeting of growth factors is a promising approach to cancer therapy in childhood.

Autocrine growth stimulation by IGF-II and BDNF is frequently observed in neuroblastoma. The signals of the receptors of these growth factors are transduced to the nucleus via the Ras-MAP-kinase pathway where they induce proliferation. Inactivation of Ras-proteins by farnesyltransferase inhibitors such as FTI-277 disrupts growth stimulation of ras-transformed cells. We investigated whether FTI-277 is also active against tumor cells with constitutively activated growth factor receptors but lacking ras-mutations.We analyzed eight different neuroblastoma cell lines for the expression of BDNF and its receptor trkB. Two of these cell lines with a complete autocrine BDNF loop were treated with FTI-277, and the effects of Ras-inactivation on the signal transduction of BDNF were analyzed.Treatment of neuroblastoma cells with 10 microM FTI-277 for 4 days reduced the amount of membrane-bound Ras-protein to almost 50%. Activation of MAP-kinase, induction of N-myc expression, and proliferation were clearly reduced in the treated cells. In addition, we observed some cytotoxic effects of FTI-277 accompanied by morphological changes of the neuroblastoma cells and a delayed induction of apoptosis.Farnesyltransferase inhibitors are active against neuroblastoma cells but the mechanism of action is not limited to inactivation of Ras. Further investigations on the targets of FTI-277 are recommended.

It is often thought that the computational paradigm provides a supporting case for the theoretical autonomy of the science of mind. However, I argue that computation is in fact incompatible with this alleged aspect of intentional explanation, and hence the foundational assumptions of orthodox cognitive science are mutually unstable. The most plausible way to relieve these foundational tensions is to relinquish the idea that the psychological level enjoys some special form of theoretical sovereignty. So, in contrast to well known antireductionist views based on multiple realizability, I argue that the primary goal of a computational approach to the mind should be to facilitate a translation of the psychological to the neurophysiological.

Le neuroblastome est au second rang des tumeurs solides de l'enfant. La majorite des patients ont un mauvais pronostic en rapport avec la croissance tumorale et les metastases. Par ailleurs, dans de rares cas, une regression spontanee ou la differenciation en un ganglioneurome benin est observee. Dans cette etude, nous rapportons les resultats de nos tentatives pour induire l'expression des genes necessaire pour la differenciation des cellules de neuroblastome. TrkA code pour le recepteur de NGF, une neurotrophine connue pour promouvoir la differenciation. Le traitement avec l'acide retinoique entraine une augmentation de l'expression de trkA dans les lignees de cellules neuroblastiques. La neurofibromine, le gene producteur de NF-1, est concernee dans la diminution de l'activite des ras-proteines. Par opposition au tissu neuronal immature dans le cerveau mature, l'isoforme de type Il de la neurofibromine est exprimee de maniere predominante. L'acide retinoique etait capable d'augmenter la proportion de type II NF-1 exprimee dans les cellules de neuroblastome.

We describe the establishment and characterization of a new neuroblastoma (Nb) cell line, SiMa, carrying the major recurrent chromosome changes associated with poor prognosis Nb, including amplification of N-MYC by formation of double minutes (dmin), der(1)t(1;17)(p35;q12) and der(22)t(17;22)(q22;p13), and loss of chromosome 11, documented at both initiation and late passage. In contrast to these cytogenetic stigmata of poor prognosis, analysis of catecholamine synthesis by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) measurement revealed an advanced degree of adrenergic differentiation with high rates of 3,4-Dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA), noradrenaline, homovanillic acid (HVA), and vanillylmandelic acid (VMA) production. Contrastingly advanced differentiation and poor prognostic genetic markers combine to render SiMa a unique instrument for investigating the pathology and therapy of Nb.

But de l'etude : Dans une etude prospective, il s'agit d'etudier comment et a quel degre la morphologie du hile hepatique peut permettre un pronostic precoce chez les enfants atteints d'EHBA. Les resultats peuvent avoir des consequences sur le traitement chirurgical et sur la formulation d'un pronostic de succes ou d'echec de HPE. Methodes: L'etude macroscopique et microscopique du foie a ete pratiquee sur des specimens entiers et sur des preparations apres corrosion chez des adultes decedes, d'enfants et des embryons. La zone susceptible de drainer potentiellement la bile a ete precisee en excisant PH chez des enfants atteint de EHBA. Les zones mesurees histologiquement et planimetriquement ont ete correlees avec les suites cliniques. Les conditions de la modification de la structure intrahepatique (niveau de fibrose, modifications metriques et morphologiques des ductules biliaires dans la capsule de Glisson) ont ete considerees comme egales de facon a etudier exclusivement l'influence de la morphologie de PH. 61 specimens de PH excises dans ces conditions ont ete etudies. Le niveau de fibrose a ete determine en accord avec la definition de Schweizer/Muller 1984 (9). Resultats: 1) Les ductules biliaires au niveau de PH se terminent dans trois zones bien definies de facon habituelle. 2) Les ductules biliaires de la zone de PH circulent a proximite des structures vasculaires. 3) Les ductules biliaires de la zone de PH sont souvent disposes entre les structures vasculaires et ne sont pas toujours accessibles a l'anastomose. 4) La quantite de flux biliaire dans les specimens PH excises a une signification fonctionnelle de la surface des ductules biliaires. 5) Des ductules biliaires sectionnes au moment de l'excision peuvent se boucher a nouveau dans la cicatrice de l'anastomose conduisant a une interruption precoce du flux biliaire. 6) L'ouverture des ductules biliaires uniquement dans la zone centrale n'est pas suffisante pour garantir un flux biliaire permanent. Un pronostic positif peut seulement etre fait si les ductules biliaires intacts sont traites au niveau des deux lobes hepatiques lateraux.

PURPOSE To present special methodical and clinical findings of transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunts (TIPSS) in children and to discuss potential indications. PATIENTS AND METHODS Between 1993 and 1996, 6 children aged 2-13 years were treated by TIPSS-insertion. In four cases, the underlying disease was extrahepatic biliary atresia (EHBA) and in two cases liver fibrosis secondary to treatment of neoplasms during early childhood. Indications for TIPSS insertion were variceal bleeding resistant to other treatment modalities in three patients, hypersplenism in one patient and both bleeding and hypersplenism in two. Portal vein punctures were performed using 16-gauge needles, because 19-gauge fine-needles showed insufficient stiffness. The mean follow-up was 24.5 months. RESULTS Shunt insertion succeeded in all children with a mean procedure time of 5.2 hours. Periportal fibrosis associated with EHBA, atypical course of hepatic veins and small diameters and distances of vessels were conditions making the procedure difficult. Bleeding ceased in all patients, peripheral platelet counts rose by a mean value of 58%. Procedure-related complications were minor extrahepatic bleeding in one child and temporary haemolysis in another child. Restenosis resulted in three patients and were treated successfully by means of transjugular interventions. 5 children remain free of symptoms to this day, one child underwent successful orthotopic liver transplantation 8 months after TIPSS. CONCLUSIONS TIPSS insertion is technically more difficult in children and has to consider child growth and possible subsequent liver transplantation. Potential indications are recurrent variceal bleeding, also of intestinal origin, resistant to standard treatment and clinically significant hypersplenism.

But: Etude prospective de 151 enfants atteints d'atresie biliaire extra-hepatique operes entre 1972 et 1997 et en particulier de 108 patients qui ont ete operes depuis 5 ans et plus, de facon a preciser l'efficacite de l'hepatico-porto-enterostomie (HPE). Methodes: L'evolution a ete evaluee de facon prospective d'apres un programme conditionne pour des enfants operes depuis 5 ans et plus. Les parametres objectifs ont ete l'histologie hepatique au moment de la chirurgie et la modification de ces parametres suivis pendant 5 ans et plus. Ils sont en accord avec la secretion biliaire et l'âge du patient. Resultats: 108 patients ont ete operes depuis 5 ans et plus: 62 sont parfaitement bien portants (57 %), 58 enfants sont anicteriques. Les resultats suivants peuvent etre etablis: 1. Il y a une relation etroite entre l'âge de patient et l'importance de la fibrose hepatique au moment de la chirurgie. 2. Il y a une relation etroite entre l'âge et le niveau de fibrose hepatique au moment de la chirurgie d'une part et le pourcentage de survie a long terme, l'absence d'ictere et la qualite de la fonction hepatique d'autre part. 3. Il y a une relation etroite entre l'âge et le niveau de fibrose hepatique au moment de la chirurgie d'un cote et le flux biliaire permis chirurgicalement de l'autre. 4. La morphologie et les parametres biophysiques du hile du foie dans la region portale de meme que les cholangites post-operatoires ont une influence negative sur le pronostic alors s qu'une fibrose peu intense au moment de la chirurgie, un flux biliaire post-operatoire important ont une influence positive u sur l'evolution. Conclusion: L'efficacite de l'HPE depend de l'âge et (en correlation avec) du niveau de la fibrose hepatique au moment de l'intervention chirurgicale; elle depend egalement de la morphologie et des proprietes biophysiques de la region portale hepatique et des episodes de cholangite post-operatoire. Le niveau de fibrose de la triade de Glisson au moment de l'intervention chirurgicale, les parametres morphologiques et biophysiques du hile du foie sont consideres comme des causes de defaillance du flux biliaire apres HPE et de la progression de la fibrose. En l'absence de cause precise, on etablit que l'obliteration primitive des voies biliaires traduit une evolution de la maladie primaire. L'efficacite de HPE est resumee dans les resultats: sur 108 enfants qui ont ete operes depuis plus des 5 ans, 62 sont parfaitement bien portants, 58 sont anicteriques, 25 ne presentent pas de progression de la fibrose et 46 sur 82 qui initialement etaient sains, ne presentent pas non plus de fibrose actuellement.

The paper examines the nature of the behavioral evidence underlying attributions of intelligence in the case of human beings, and how this might be extended to other kinds of cognitive system, in the spirit of the original Turing Test (TT). I consider Harnad‘s Total Turing Test (TTT), which involves successful performance of both linguistic and robotic behavior, and which is often thought to incorporate the very same range of empirical data that is available in the human case. However, I argue that the TTT is still too weak, because it only tests the capabilities of particular tokens within a preexisting context of intelligent behavior. What is needed is a test of the cognitive type, as manifested through a number of exemplary tokens, in order to confirm that the cognitive type is able to produce the context of intelligent behavior presupposed by tests such as the TT and TTT.

In AML patients LDL concentration of the serum is reduced due to the high LDL receptor activity of the AML cells. This phenomenon enables the use of LDL particles as vehicles for drug targeting. Toxic lipid peroxides and aldehydes were introduced into LDL particles by the simple but effective oxidation with 10 μM CuSO4. Up to 250 nmol peroxides and 6 nmol malondialdehyde were formed per mg LDL protein within 30 h of oxidation. This oxidized LDL is effectively taken up by AML cells of the FAB type M3 and M5 indicating the presence of scavenger receptors on these cells. Within 96 h 61–84% of the AML cells are killed by the oxidized LDL. Our results open a possibility to achieve specificity for targeting lipophilic antineoplastic drugs towards AML cells using oxidized LDL as vehicles. The use of oxidized LDL as drug carrier is recommended for purging of AML bone marrow because hematopoietic stem cells that don't possess scavenger receptors are protected from toxic action.

Three-dimensional endorectal sonography with a specially developed system is able to produce an image of the entire pelvic floor including the sphincter muscles and the rectal wall even in small children. This special system is based on conventional endorectal ultrasound and allows recording of a controlled withdrawal of the axially rotating transducer, creating an image sequence resembling that of a spiral CT-scan; this sequence is digitized off-line and evaluated in a three-dimensional form by a workstation computer. This evaluation has several advantages compared with conventional examination, for example, the complete recording of organs with the possibility of volumetry, construction of arbitrary sections, volume-rendering procedures and the interactive segmentation of organ borders and their three-dimensional visualization. Based on images from this 3D endorectal sonography, the normal anatomy of the pelvic floor that is visible using ultrasound is described, followed by some pathological findings concerning continence surgery. Finally we discuss the advantages and restrictions compared to other examination procedures and the possibilities of technical development.

Neurofibromin, the gene product of the NF-1 gene is expressed in two isoforms. The m-RNA of NF-1 type II contains an insertion of 63 bases in the so called GAP-related domain, that distinguishes it from the type I transcript. By sequence homology neurofibromin is supposed to have a similar function in regulating activity of ras in intracellular signal transduction as the GTPase activating protein (GAP). Both transcripts of NF-1 are simultaneously expressed in different molar ratio in neuroblastoma tumors.1) We examined 9 different neuroblastoma cell lines for the ratio of expression of NF-1 type I and type II.For quantification of the two transcripts we performed RT-PCR of the m-RNA of the neuroblastoma cells using primers designed to cover the GAP-related domain.We found values ranging from a more than 3-fold excess of type I transcript in the cell line Kelly to a slight excess of the type II transcript (I/II = 0.6) in the cell line IMR 5.2) As there are indications that expression of NF-1 type II is related to the state of differentiation, we tried to shift expression of NF-1 from type I to type II by treatment of the neuroblastoma cells with retinoic acid.Treatment of Kelly cells with 5 μM retinoic acid for 24 h already lowered the excess of the type I transcript from 3-fold to an only 1.6-fold excess.An inversion of the molar ratio from an excess of the type I transcript to an excess of type II transcript would enable to investigate the different role of the two transcripts in the regulation of ras-activity and differentiation.

Clinical and procedural experience using transjugylar intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) on 7 children with recurrent hemorrhage of esophageal varices is reported. Recurrent hemorrhage from esophageal varices following repeated paravasal sclerosing of the varices as well as severe-grade hypersplenism are proposed as the indication for its use. The technical details of TIPS, observed and possible early and late complications, the demand for a decrease in the portosystemic pressure gradient to less than 15 mmHg and the influence of TIPS on improvement of the varices, hypersplenism and the frequently observed malabsorption are described.

The thioether lysophospholipid BM 41.440 proved to be toxic against cells of two neuroblastoma cell lines in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The ID50 estimated in three different in vitro test systems declined from about 10 micrograms/ml after 24 h to 1 microgram/ml after a 1-week treatment of the neuroblastoma cells. These values are comparable to the ID50 found for neoplastic cells derived from other tissues. In comparison, hematopoietic progenitor cells (granulocyte/monocyte-colony-forming units) proved to be less sensitive to short-term treatment with BM 41.440. After long exposure to this drug the selectivity towards neuroblastoma cells decreased. This observation makes it unlikely that BM 41.440 can be used for treatment of neoplasia such as neuroblastoma, because only short-term treatment is acceptable considering the high bone marrow toxicity.