The cranial MRI in severe cerebral palsy: a comparative study with clinical data

The magnetic resonance examination was performed in 38 patients with severe cerebral palsy (CP; 15 males and 23 females) who had both motor delay (unable to move anywhere) and mental retardation (I. Q or D. Q below 30). Neuroimaging findings were compared with the CP type, etiology, and grade of understanding of language. Cranial magnetic resonance imagings (MRI) in CP were divided into five types. Type 1 : nine predominantly showed cyst-liked ventricles and periventricular hyperintensity on T2-weighted imaging (PVH) and only scarred basal ganglia and thalamus were visible. All suffered from neonatal asphyxia and the clinical type was rigospastic tetraplegia (RST). Type 2: eleven predominantly showed PVH and hyperintensity on T2-weighted (HT2) in basal ganglia and thalamus. All suffered from neonatal asphyxia and the clinical type was RST or rigospastic diplegia. Type 3: five showed PVH and three had cortical atrophy. All suffered from neonatal asphyxia and the clinical type was spastic diplegia. Type 4: four predominantly showed HT 2 in putamen and thalamus. Three had cortical atrophy. All suffered from neonatal asphyxia. The clinical type was athetotic CP (ATH). Type 5: nine predominantly showed HT 2 in globus pallidus. Four had cortical atrophy and two had hippocampal atrophy. All suffered from neonatal jaundice and the clinical type was ATH. All patients who suffered from neonatal asphyxia and spastic CP had MRI in PVH. All patients who suffered from neonatal asphyxia and ATH showed HT 2 in putamen and thalamus. Almost patients who suffered neonatal jaundice and ATH showed HT 2 in globus pallidus. With athetotic CP, cases with atrophy of the cerebral cortex or/and hippocampus were lower grade of understanding of language than no atrophy of both. The result of studies of MRI are in agreement with neuropathological findings.     

Mechanical Properties of Large Arteries in Mother and Fetus during Normal and Diabetic Pregnancy

Cardiodilatin (CDD)/atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) is a 28-amino acid peptide hormone known to be synthesized in the heart of a large number of different vertebrates. It plays an important role in the regulation of blood pressure and natriuresis/diuresis. Since the cardiovascular system of the horse has to meet the highest requirements concerning its physiological performance, we intended to characterize the cardiodilatin/atrial natriuretic peptide system of this species. By means of immunohistochemistry and immunoelectron microscopy, we precisely identified auricular cardiocytes as the loci of CDD/ANP synthesis. Using aortic smooth muscle relaxation assay and CDD/ANP-ELISA, we succeeded in isolating the biologically active prohormone. We subsequently cloned the equine cDNA of the CDD/ANP precursor protein and deduced its primary sequence. The entire precursor protein is in good agreement with the CDD/ANP prohormones of other mammals. The deduced theoretical average Mr of equine CDD/ANP-1-126 is 13,764, corresponding to the molecular weight of purified peptide determined by ESI-MS. Our findings suggest that equine CDD/ANP is produced in auricular cardiocytes and the predominant storage form of CDD/ANP in the auricle is the prohormone CDD/ANP-1-126.     

Identification and disruption of a plant shaker-like outward channel involved in K+ release into the xylem sap

SKOR, a K+ channel identified in Arabidopsis, displays the typical hydrophobic core of the Shaker channel superfamily, a cyclic nucleotide-binding domain, and an ankyrin domain. Expression in Xenopus oocytes identified SKOR as the first member of the Shaker family in plants to be endowed with outwardly rectifying properties. SKOR expression is localized in root stelar tissues. A knockout mutant shows both lower shoot K+ content and lower xylem sap K+ concentration, indicating that SKOR is involved in K+ release into the xylem sap toward the shoots. SKOR expression is strongly inhibited by the stress phytohormone abscisic acid, supporting the hypothesis that control of K+ translocation toward the shoots is part of the plant response to water stress.     

Performance of interface engineeredSiNx/ICL/InP/In0.53Ga0.47As/InP dopedchannel HIGFET's

SiN_x/InP/InGaAs doped channel passivated heterojunction insulated gate field effect transistors (HIGFETs) have been fabricated for the first time using an improved In-S interface control layer (ICL). The insulated gate HIGFETs exhibit very low gate leakage (10 nA@V_GS =±5 V) and I_DS (sat) of 250 mA/mm. The doped channel improves the DC characteristics and the HIGFETs show transconductance of 140-150 mS/mm (L_g=2 μm), f_t of 5-6 GHz (L_g=3 μm), and power gain of 14.2 dB at 3 GHz. The ICL HIGFET technology is promising for high frequency applications     

Threshold voltage-minimum gate length trade-off in buried channelPMOS devices for scaled supply voltage CMOS technologies

The trade-off between threshold voltage (V_th) and the minimum gate length (L_min) is discussed for optimizing the performance of buried channel PMOS transistors for low voltage/low power high-speed digital CMOS circuits. In a low supply voltage CMOS technology it is desirable to scale V_th and L_min for improved circuit performance. However, these two parameters cannot be scaled independently due to the channel punch-through effect. Statistical process/device modeling, split lot experiments, circuit simulations, and measurements are performed to optimize the PMOS transistor current drive and CMOS circuit speed. We show that trading PMOS transistor V_th for a smaller L_min results in faster circuits for low supply voltage (3.3 to 1.8 V) n⁺-polysilicon gate CMOS technology, Circuit simulation and measurements are performed in this study. Approximate empirical expressions are given for the optimum buried channel PMOS transistor V _th for minimizing CMOS circuit speed for cases involving: (1) constant capacitive load and (2) load capacitance proportional to MOS gate capacitance. The results of the numerical exercise are applied to the centering of device parameters of a 0.5 μm 3.3 V CMOS technology that (a) matches the speed of our 0.5 μm 5 V CMOS technology, and (b) achieves good performance down to 1.8 V power supply. For this process the optimum PMOS transistor V_th (absolute value) is approximately 0.85-0.90 V     

Myeloma stem cells in autografting in multiple myeloma

Autologous transplantation has been used increasingly over the last 10 years for the treatment of multiple myeloma. As is the case in other cancers treated by high-dose therapy and stem cell rescue, the contribution of occult tumor cells in the graft to relapse posttransplant remains to be resolved. In this report, we review the biology and differentiation of plasma cells in the context of their significance as an origin of relapse in multiple myeloma.