Multiple myeloma forming subcutaneous on the skull

Adenovirus infections are a frequent cause of severe complications in the post allogeneic bone marrow transplantation period, and to date, no established form of treatment exists. We report the case of an autologous bone marrow transplant recipient who developed adenovirus pneumonitis which was successfully treated with intravenous ribavirin.     

Osteoclast differentiation factor is a ligand for osteoprotegerin/osteoclastogenesis-inhibitory factor and is identical to TRANCE/RANKL

Osteoclasts, the multinucleated cells that resorb bone, develop from hematopoietic cells of monocyte/macrophage lineage. Osteoclast-like cells (OCLs) are formed by coculturing spleen cells with osteoblasts or bone marrow stromal cells in the presence of bone-resorbing factors. The cell-to-cell interaction between osteoblasts/stromal cells and osteoclast progenitors is essential for OCL formation. Recently, we purified and molecularly cloned osteoclastogenesis-inhibitory factor (OCIF), which was identical to osteoprotegerin (OPG). OPG/OCIF is a secreted member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor family and inhibits osteoclastogenesis by interrupting the cell-to-cell interaction. Here we report the expression cloning of a ligand for OPG/OCIF from a complementary DNA library of mouse stromal cells. The protein was found to be a member of the membrane-associated tumor necrosis factor ligand family and induced OCL formation from osteoclast progenitors. A genetically engineered soluble form containing the extracellular domain of the protein induced OCL formation from spleen cells in the absence of osteoblasts/stromal cells. OPG/OCIF abolished the OCL formation induced by the protein. Expression of its gene in osteoblasts/stromal cells was up-regulated by bone-resorbing factors. We conclude that the membrane-bound protein is osteoclast differentiation factor (ODF), a long-sought ligand mediating an essential signal to osteoclast progenitors for their differentiation into osteoclasts. ODF was found to be identical to TRANCE/RANKL, which enhances T-cell growth and dendritic-cell function. ODF seems to be an important regulator in not only osteoclastogenesis but also immune system.     

Dispersion measurements in single-mode fibres using sum-frequency mixing as a picosecond optical shutter

We describe a novel technique of measuring dispersion in single-mode fibres using picosecond pulses generated by a temperature tuned LiNbO3 optical parametric oscillator as a light source and sum-frequency mixing as a picosecond shutter. The temporal resolution is less than 30 ps.     

Bilinear system identification by Volterra kernels estimation

This note considers the identification of bilinear discrete-time dynamic systems from sequences of input and noise corrupted output measurements. In contrast to other approaches, the proposed algorithm is simple and does not require knowledge of the noise statistics. It is also shown that the obtained estimates are unbiased and consistent, which is not shown in the previous papers.     

Occlusion of the posterior humeral circumflex artery: detection with MR angiography in healthy volunteers and in a patient with quadrilateral space syndrome

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of MR angiography in detecting occlusion of the posterior humeral circumflex artery and to determine if the finding is specific for the diagnosis of quadrilateral space syndrome. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Two-dimensional fast low-angle shot MR angiography was used to image both shoulders of one symptomatic patient and six asymptomatic volunteers (10 posterior humeral circumflex arteries). RESULTS: With the arm in a neutral position, the posterior humeral circumflex arteries appeared normal on MR angiograms of all subjects. However, when the arm was in abduction, occlusion of the posterior humeral circumflex artery was seen both in the symptomatic patient and in 80% of the asymptomatic volunteers. CONCLUSION: Our data show that occlusion of the posterior humeral circumflex artery is common in asymptomatic volunteers. Thus, MR angiography has no value in the diagnosis of quadrilateral space syndrome.     

Activity determinator for the automatic measurements of the chemical potentials of FeO in metallurgical slags

An automatic system for rapid determinations of the activities of FeO in metallurgical slags has been developed. With this facility, one datum is obtainable within 5 minutes. The facility was applied for the activity measurements in the system CaO + SiO₂ + FeO, while activity data obtained were consistent with those deduced from the phase diagram.     

Simultaneous amplification of wavelength-division-multiplexed signals by a highly efficient fibre Raman amplifier pumped by high-power semiconductor lasers

We describe the first operation of a high-power semiconductor-laser pumped fibre Raman amplifier (FRA) using high-Raman-gain optical fibre in the 1.5?m region. A high optical gain of 5 dB for 60mW of pump power is obtained. We have also achieved simultaneous amplification of wavelength-division-multiplexed signals by the FRA.     

Accumulation enhancement of human monoclonal antibody HB4C5 to lung tumor xenografts by N-deglycosylation

The fractional uptake of intact monoclonal antibodies by tumors is relatively low. Various methods to alter the molecular structure have been used to augment tumor uptake. These chemical manipulations, however, may alter the specificity of antibody binding. METHODS: Comparative studies of biodistribution, radioimmunoimaging and macroautoradiography in LC-6 xenografted mice were conducted with the 125I-labeled intact and N-terminal deglycosylated monoclonal antibodies to evaluate the effect on deglycosylation on antibody binding. RESULTS: The removal of N-glycosyl residues from this monoclonal antibody significantly enhanced specific localization of the radioactivity to the tumor, especially to its necrotic fraction. Nonspecific accumulation of radioactivity to the necrotic fraction of the tumor was excluded by biodistribution studies demonstrating selective accumulation of 125I-labeled monoclonal antibody after coadministration of 125I-monoclonal antibody (intact or N-deglycosylated) with 131I-labeled control IgM. CONCLUSION: The lung cancer-associated human monoclonal antibody HB4C5, which recognizes histone H2B as the antigen, accumulates specifically to the necrotic fraction of tumor. The uptake is enhanced by removal of N-terminal glycosyl residues from the antigen-binding site of the light chain.     

High-speed InGaP/GaAs transistors with a sidewall base contactstructure

We have fabricated InGaP/GaAs double heterojunction bipolar transistors with a sidewall base contact structure. These transistors operate in both emitter-up and emitter-down modes. Symmetric characteristics of the cutoff frequency f_T=68 GHz and the maximum oscillation frequency f_max=31 GHz were obtained at a base-collector bias V_BC of 0 V. For emitter-down operation, f _T was found to reach a maximum of 78 GHz when the base-collector junction was forward biased at 0.9 V. The product of f _T for emitter-down operation and f_T for emitter-up operation was 5.3×10³ GHz², which is about six times that of previously reported SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors     

Measurements of K-Band Antenna Patterns

Methods and results of on-board antenna pattern measurements of Medium-scale Broadcasting Satellite for Experimental Purpose (BSE) are described in this paper. The measurements were carried out by means of satellite attitude offsets about the pitch and roll axes. Measured antenna patterns at both up-and down-link frequencies (14 and 12GHz) agree with the pre-launch data in the eastwards of the patterns, while they have more gentle gain slopes in the westwards. Further, antenna pattern deformation is observed along with the change in the antenna temperature. The whole appearance of the deformation seems to be complicated, however, in the center regions of the patterns which almost covers Honshu island, the dominant behavior of the deformation looks like antenna beam shift of 0.1°to 0.2°in the east-west direction.