Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis cerebrospinal fluid is not toxic to cultured spinal motor neurons

We have studied an effect of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) on explanted and dissociated ventral spinal cord cultures from 13-day-old rat embryos. CSF samples were obtained from 10 ALS patients, 10 other neurological patients, and 10 non-neurological patients. CSF was added at dilution of 10, 25, and 50%. Neurite length and neuronal survival ratio were not significantly different among these three groups. ALS CSF does not contain a neurotoxic factor on the cultured spinal motor neurons.     

Single crystals in the Bi2O3/1bMoO3 binary system: Growth and optical properties

Single crystals of Bi₂O₃·3MoO₃ and 3Bi₂O₃·2MoO₃ in the Bi₂O₃/1bMoO₃ binary system were grown by pulling from the melt. Single crystal Bi₂O₃·MoO₃ (Bi₂MoO₆), which is well known as Koechlinite, could not be grown successfully. A new compound 3Bi₂O₃·2MoO₃ was found to melt congruently and to be easily grown from the melt. It belongs to the monoclinic crystal system with space group C⁴_2h. Refractive indices of Bi₂O₃·3MoO₃ and 3Bi₂O₃·2MoO₃ were investigated.     

Analysis of multivariate medical data by face method

This paper describes the application of face pattern as a medium to illustrate to man complex computer-processed medical diagnosis. The case of a nephrotic syndrome was selected to show the mechanics of the study. First, the design of the face pattern was constructed and psychometrical experiments analyzing the resulting facial expressions were conducted. Next, the results obtained from the analysis of facial expressions based and constructed from the original findings of conventional medical methods were used to loosely predict the patient's future conditions, and the same results were compared with those of statistical procedures to test the efficiency of the method. Finally, a separate application of the method was also performed to indicate a possible effect of corticosteroid on idiopathic nephrotic syndrome.     

Simple polarisation-independent optical circulator for optical transmission systems

A simple polarisation-independent optical circulator has been developed. The circulator consists of a 45°Y3Fe5O12 rotator and a quartz rotator and two polarising beam-splitting cubes. Measured insertion loss was about 1.3 dB at 1.32 ?m wavelength. The circulator was connected to graded-index multimode fibres using rod lenses.     

Requirement for distinct Janus kinases and STAT proteins in T cell proliferation versus IFN-gamma production following IL-12 stimulation

While IL-12 is known to activate JAK2 and TYK2 and induce the phosphorylation of STAT4 and STAT3, little is known regarding how the activation of these signaling molecules is related to the biologic effects of IL-12. Using an IL-12-responsive T cell clone (2D6), we investigated their requirements for proliferation and IFN-gamma production of 2D6 cells. 2D6 cells could be maintained with either IL-12 or IL-2. 2D6 lines maintained with IL-12 (2D6(IL-12)) or IL-2 (2D6(IL-2)) exhibited comparable levels of proliferation, but produced large or only small amounts of IFN-gamma, respectively, when restimulated with IL-12 after starvation of either cytokine. 2D6(IL-12) induced TYK2 and STAT4 phosphorylation. In contrast, their phosphorylation was marginally induced in 2D6(IL-2). The reduced STAT4 phosphorylation was due to a progressive decrease in the amount of STAT4 protein along with the passages in IL-2-containing medium. 2D6(IL-12) and 2D6(IL-2) similarly proliferating in response to IL-12 induced comparable levels of JAK2 activation and STAT5 phosphorylation. JAK2 was associated with STAT5, and IL-12-induced STAT5 phosphorylation was elicited in the absence of JAK3 activation. These results indicate that IL-12 has the capacity to induce/maintain STAT4 and STAT5 proteins, and that TYK2 and JAK2 activation correlate with STAT4 phosphorylation/IFN-gamma induction and STAT5 phosphorylation/cellular proliferation, respectively.     

An exact algorithm for any-flavor lattice QCD with Kogut-Susskind fermion

We propose an exact simulation algorithm for lattice QCD with dynamical Kogut-Susskind fermion in which the N_f-flavor fermion operator is defined as the N_f/4th root of the Kogut-Susskind (KS) fermion operator. The algorithm is an extension of the Polynomial Hybrid Monte Carlo (PHMC) algorithm to KS fermions. The fractional power of the KS fermion operator is approximated with a Hermitian Chebyshev polynomial, with which we can construct an algorithm for any number of flavors. The error which arises from the approximation is corrected by the Kennedy-Kuti noisy Metropolis test. Numerical simulations are performed for the two-flavor case for several lattice parameters in order to confirm the validity and the practical feasibility of the algorithm. In particular tests on a 16⁴ lattice with a quark mass corresponding to m_PS/m_V∼0.68 are successfully accomplished. We conclude that our algorithm provides an attractive exact method for dynamical QCD simulations with KS fermions.     

The dual iteration for fixed-order control

This paper proposes a new heuristic algorithm for fixed-order control problems using linear matrix inequalities. The authors call the algorithm the dual iteration because it is based on the iteration of two design steps, state feedback and filtering, which are dual to each other. Extensive numerical experiments show that the algorithm has a decent performance     

NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester inhibits bone metastasis after modified intracardiac injection of human breast cancer cells in a nude mouse model

A retrospective evaluation of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), and unconjugated oestriol (uE3) levels in maternal blood in the second trimester was conducted for cases of aneuploid pregnancies identified from a series of women who underwent amniocentesis. Blood samples were collected from 1078 women just before genetic amniocentesis was performed, mainly for individuals of advanced maternal age (greater than 35 years). Twenty-five maternal serum samples from pregnant women with an aneuploid fetus, including 14 with Down's syndrome, were available for analysis of all three parameters. An algorithm to detect Down's syndrome was used for this analysis with a risk of > or = 1:299 classified as screen-positive, this being found for 20.4 per cent of the cases (220/1078). The actual Down's syndrome detection rate was 85.7 per cent (12/14), whereas the detection rate for all aneuploidies was 72.0 per cent (18/25). Those that were not detected were two cases of trisomy 21, one trisomy 18, two trisomy 13, three sex chromosome abnormalities, and one case of an additional marker chromosome. The data indicate that this tri-analyte test should be provided after thorough genetic counselling and informed decision-making regarding maternal serum screening for women who wish for a prenatal diagnosis.     

Isolation and characterization of mouse nasal-associated lymphoid tissue

SETTING: Mycobacterial galactofuran is essential to the linking of the peptidoglycan and mycolic acid cell wall layers. Galactofuran biosynthesis should thus be essential for viability. OBJECTIVE: The objective was to determine the pathway of galactofuranosyl biosynthesis and to clone a gene encoding an essential enzyme necessary for its formation. DESIGN: Specific enzymatic conversions involved in formation of galactopyranose and galactofuranose residues in other bacteria were tested for in Mycobacterium smegmatis. M. tuberculosis deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was identified by homology. RESULTS: It was shown that the de novo synthesis of the galactose carbon skeleton occurred in M. smegmatis by the transformation of UDP-glucopyranose to UDP-galactopyranose via the enzyme UDP-glucose 4-epimerase (E.C. 5.1.3.2). The N-terminal sequence of this enzyme was obtained after purification. The galactose salvage pathway enzyme, UDP-glucose-galactose-1-phosphate uridylyltransferase (E.C. 2.7.7.12), was also shown to be present. The critical biosynthetic transformation of the galactopyranose to galactofuranose ring form was shown to occur at the sugar nucleotide level via the enzyme UDP-galactopyranose mutase (E.C. 5.4.99.9). The M. tuberculosis DNA encoding this enzyme was sequenced, the gene expressed in Escherichia coli, and the expected enzymatic activity demonstrated. CONCLUSION: Galactofuranose biosynthesis can now be pursued as a potential drug target in M. tuberculosis.