Remnants of chylomicron and very low density lipoprotein impair endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation

Given the multiple impairments in host defense that occur during HIV infection, patients with AIDS are at risk for a variety of pleural infections and neoplasms. Of infectious causes, bacterial parapneumonic effusions and empyemas and tuberculous pleurisy occur more frequently than effusions caused by P. carinii. In each case, therapy is directed at eradication of the causative organisms. In the setting of systemic Kaposi's sarcoma, pleural involvement is common, although diagnosis is difficult and therapeutic options are limited. Pleural effusions caused by non-Hodgkin's lymphoma often occur in the setting of pulmonary parenchymal disease and can be diagnosed cytologically. The recently described entity of primary effusion lymphoma occurs in the absence of solid-organ involvement. The development of a spontaneous pneumothorax in a HIV-infected individual should prompt a search for P. carinii infection. Although these pneumothoraces often recur and are difficult to manage, recent series suggest that surgical approaches to bronchopleural fistulas are reasonable in selected patients.     

μ-synthesis of an electromagnetic suspension system

This paper deals with μ-synthesis of an electromagnetic suspension system. First, an issue of modeling a real physical electromagnetic suspension system is discussed. We derive a nominal model as well as a set of models in which the real system is assumed to reside. Different model structures and possible model parameter values are fully employed to determine unstructured additive plant perturbations, which directly yield uncertainty frequency weighting function. Second, based on the set of plant models, we setup robust performance control objectives. Third, we make use of the D-K iteration approach for the controller design. Finally, implementing the controller with a digital signal processor, experiments are carried out. With these experimental results, we show robust performance of the designed control system     

Endothelin-1 secretion from cultured vascular endothelial cells of DOCA-salt hypertensive rats

The profile of endothelin-1 (ET-1) release from cultured vascular endothelial cells (ECs) obtained from deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA)-salt hypertensive rats, was examined and compared with that from normotensive sham rats. ET-1 release from ECs was increased in a time-dependent manner, and the level of DOCA-salt hypertensive rats was higher than that of sham rats. Incubation of ECs with transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta 1 or thrombin resulted in a significant increase in the ET-1 release, while FK409, a novel nitric oxide donor, produced a dose-dependent decrease in the release. In the case of ECs from DOCA-salt hypertensive rats, the potencies of TGF-beta 1- or thrombin-induced action was much less than that seen with sham rats, while the difference of reactivity to FK409 was not observed between ECs of DOCA-salt rats and sham rats. Thus, ET-1 production in ECs appears to be up-regulated in DOCA-salt hypertensive rats. In addition, there seems to be an abnormalities in the signaling pathway via TGF-beta 1- or thrombin-induced enhancement of ET-1 production in ECs of DOCA-salt hypertensive rats.     

A case of cardiac sarcoidosis with remarkable atrophy of the left ventricular septum on two-dimensional echocardiography

Sarcoidosis is a multisystem granulomatous disorder of unknown etiology which mainly affects the lungs, skin, the lymphoreticular system, and the heart. We report a case of cardiac sarcoidosis in which a remarkably thin ventricular septum was demonstrated on two-dimensional echocardiography.     

Hypertrophic cranial pachymeningitis with spinal epidural granulomatous lesion

A 67-year-old woman with a one-year history of tinnitus and headache had multiple cranial nerve palsies of V, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI and spastic paraparesis. She also had a secretory otitis media. Gd-DTPA-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed hypertrophy of the dura of the posterior fossa and spinal epidural mass which extended from C7 to T10. A biopsy of the epidural mass showed chronic granulomatous change. These lesions were completely cured with administration of antibiotics. We believe this case of double-lesion of hypertrophic cranial pachymeningitis and spinal epidural granulomatous lesion originated from a bacterial infection secondary to the secretory otitis media.     

Radiation from curved single-mode fibres

A study of propagation in curved single-mode fibres shows that the transmission loss increases sharply below a critical bend radius. However the radiation does not leak away uniformly with distance but in a series of discrete well-defined rays.     

Alkaline hydrolysis of alkylated acidic groups on carbon black

Potentiometric pH-stat titration was performed on alkylated carbon black dispersed in aqueous solution at pH 9.0, 10.0 and 11.0 and alkaline hydrolysis rate constant of the alkylated functional groups on the carbon black was obtained therefrom. Carbon black treated with C₁-C₈n-alcohols in vapor or liquid phase was used in this experiment. Hydrolysis proceeded more rapidly for carbon black treated with lower alcohols. For each alkylated carbon black, the hydrolysis rate constant decreased with time and, after the hydrolysis rate diminished, a hydrolysis resistant fraction of alkylated groups remained. For example, the hydrolysis rate constants at 25°C were 24.33, 17.50 and 4.501 · mol^?1 · sec^?1 at 15 min and 6.00, 6.00 and 3.671 · mol^?1 · sec^?1 at 45 min after the start of hydrolysis at pH 9.0 for carbon black treated with C₂, C₃ and C₄ alcohols respectively.     

Isolation and characterization of a novel gene encoding alpha-L-arabinofuranosidase from Aspergillus oryzae

We cloned and characterized a novel gene (abfA) encoding alpha-L-arabinofuranosidase (alpha-L-AFase) from Aspergillus oryzae. One clone homologous to the alpha-L-AFase gene of Thermotoga maritima was found in an expressed sequence tag (EST) library of A. oryzae and a corresponding gene was isolated. Molecular analysis showed that the abfA gene carried six exons interrupted by five introns and had an open reading frame encoding 481 amino acid residues. The amino acid sequence similarity at active sites to the alpha-L-AFases from other organisms indicated that the alpha-L-AFase encoded by abfA was classified as a family 51 glycoside hydrolase. When the abfA was overexpressed in the homologous hyperexpression system of A. oryzae, a large amount of alpha-L-AFase was produced as intracellular protein. The apparent molecular mass of the purified enzyme was estimated to be 228,000 by gel filtration and that of its subunit as 55,000 by SDS-PAGE, suggesting that the enzyme is a tetramer. The enzyme hydrolyzed p-nitrophenyl-alpha-L-arabinofuranoside but not other p-nitrophenyl glycosides. These results demonstrated that the abfA gene encodes a functional alpha-L-AFase.     

Modulation of the sensitive temperature range of fluorescent molecular thermometers based on thermoresponsive polymers

Fluorescent molecular thermometers based on polymers showing a temperature-induced phase transition and labeled with polarity-sensitive fluorescent benzofurazans are the most sensitive known. Here we show a simple and effective method for modulating the sensitive temperature ranges of fluorescent molecular thermometers based on such temperature-responsive polymers. 4-N-(2-acryloyloxyethyl)-N-methylamino-7-N,N-dimethylaminosulfonyl-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole was adopted as a polarity-sensitive fluorescent benzofurazan, and nine copolymers of two kinds of acrylamide derivative (N-n-propylacrylamide, N-isopropylacrylamide, and/or N-isopropylmethacrylamide) with a small amount of DBD-AE were obtained. The fluorescence intensities of these copolymers in aqueous solution sharply increased with increasing temperature over a small range (6-7 degrees C). In contrast, these fluorescent molecular thermometers differed from one another in the sensitive temperature range (between 20 and 49 degrees C). Moreover, the sensitive temperature ranges were well related to the acrylamide ratios in feed. In addition, the responses from these fluorescent molecular thermometers to the change in temperature were reversible and exactly repeatable during 10 cycles of heating and cooling (relative standard deviation of the fluorescence intensity, 0.44-1.0%).