Formulation Factors Affecting Thimerosal Stability

A high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) assay has been developed for thimerosal and some of its degradation products: thiosalicylic and 2,2'-dithiosalicylic acids. Using this method, the influence of formulation factors as: isotonic agent, initial concentration, addition of tromethamine, pH and container material, over thimerosal stability was studied.     

D-lactic acidosis: a treatable encephalopathy in pediatric patients

Isolation of Salmonella from the feces of impounded dogs was carried out to make clear the recent microbiological condition of dogs introduced into our facilities. Salmonella was isolated from 10 out of 283 samples (3.5%). Inparticular, during the first week after introduction, Salmonella was isolated from nine out of 74 dogs (12.2%). The isolation rate during the first week after introduction was significantly higher than that for dogs introduced later. No isolates were detected from dogs reared for more than 3 weeks after introduction. This study indicates that impounded dogs had the highest risk of infecting a person with Salmonella during the first week after introduction into our laboratory animal facilities, and that we need to pay attention to this fact when handling them.     

The information-theoretic capacity of discrete-time queues

The information-theoretic capacity of continuous-time queues was analyzed recently by Anantharam and Verdu (see ibid. vol.42, p.4-18, 1996). Along similar lines, we analyze the information-theoretic capacity of two models of discrete-time queues. The first model has single packet arrivals and departures in a time slot and independent packet service times, and is the discrete-time analog of the continuous-time model analyzed by Anantharam and Verdu. We show that in this model, the geometric service time distribution plays a role analogous to that of the exponential distribution in continuous-time queues, in that, among all queues in this model with a given mean service time, the queue with geometric service time distribution has the least capacity. The second model allows multiple arrivals in each slot, and the queue is modeled as serving an independent random number of packets in each slot. We obtain upper and lower bounds on the capacity of queues with an arbitrary service distribution within this model, and show that the bounds coincide in the case of the queue that serves a geometrically distributed number of packets in each slot. We also discuss the extremal nature of the geometric service distribution within this model     

Adiabatic couplers: design rules and optimization

Explicit analytic design rules are derived for both 3 dB and full adiabatic couplers. The design rules are in excellent agreement with numerical calculations using the beam propagation method (BPM). It is shown that the length scaling for 3 dB couplers compared to full couplers makes the former more difficult to design. The design for each case is optimized to obtain the upper limit of performance and a comparison is carried out between two different design geometries for both 3 dB and full adiabatic couplers     

Successive interference cancellation for multiuser asynchronousDS/CDMA detectors in multipath fading links

There has been an increasing interest in the use of code-division multiple access (CDMA) in cellular mobile and wireless personal communications. The choice of such multiaccess technique is attractive because of its potential capacity increases and other technical factors such as privacy and multipath rejection capabilities. However, it is well known that the performance of CDMA can be significantly degraded due to cochannel interference (CI) and the near-far effects. We consider the performance of direct-sequence (DS)-based CDMA over fading channels that are modeled as slowly varying Rayleigh-fading discrete multipath channels. Specifically, we propose and analyze an adaptive multistage interference cancellation strategy for the demodulation of asynchronous DS spread-spectrum multiple-access signals. Numerical results show that the proposed multistage detector, which alleviates the detrimental effects of the near-far problem, can significantly improve the system performance     

Spectral and mode characteristics of InAsSbP/InAsSb/InAsSbP lasers in the spectral region near 3.3 µm

The characteristic features of the continuous-wave lasing spectra near 3.3 μm of multimode InAsSbP/InAsSb/InAsSbP double-heterostructure diode lasers are shown. The observation of mode switching to longer and shorter wavelengths at cryogenic temperatures is reported. It is shown that suppression of the longitudinal side modes closest to the main mode results in large mode jumps in energy during mode tuning by current. The characteristics which were observed are explained by gain spectrum inhomogeneity due to spectral hole burning in narrow-gap semiconductors. The intraband charge-carrier relaxation times in the active region are estimated. Fiz. Tekh. Poluprovodn. 39, 1139–1144 (September 1998)     

Multi-emitter Si/GexSi1-x heterojunctionbipolar transistor with no base contact and enhanced logic functionality

We demonstrate multi-emitter Si/Ge_xSi_1-x n-p-n heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT's) which require no base contact for transistor operation. The base current is supplied by the additional emitter contact under reverse bias due to the heavy doping of the emitter-base junction. Large-area HBT test structures exhibit good transistor characteristics, with current gain β≈400 regardless of whether the base current is supplied by a test base electrode or one of the emitter contacts. These devices have enhanced logic functionality because of emitter contact symmetry. Since device fabrication does not require base electrode formation, the number of processing steps can be reduced without significant penalty to HBT performance     

Vitamin A deficiency and nocturnal vision in teenagers with cystic fibrosis

The aim of this study was to document plasma retinol status and nocturnal vision in ten eutrophic adolescents with cystic fibrosis (CF) receiving daily retinol supplementation. Plasma retinol, alpha and beta carotenes and retinol binding protein were measured in ten clinically stable CF patients (mean age: 14.3 years; Shwachman score: 80-100). Nocturnal vision evaluation was performed with a Beyne optometer. Plasma retinol (mean 0.42 +/- 0.16 mg/l), alpha carotene and beta carotene levels were below the lower limit of normal in all but one patient. Five out of ten patients with normal standard opthalmological examination presented a poor (n = 3 patients) or a pathological (n = 2) dark adaptation test. These two patients showed a dramatic increase in nocturnal vision after 1 year of adapted retinol supplementation. CONCLUSION: Low vitamin A levels occur frequently in clinically stable, eutrophic and retinol supplemented CF adolescents. Since vitamin A deficiency is associated with poor nocturnal vision and since this pattern can be reversed by adapted retinol supplementation, we recommend monitoring plasma vitamin A levels in CF patients and evaluation of dark adaptation in retinol deficient patients.