Elastic effects in the flow of polymer solutions in channels of variable cross section and a porous medium

The manifestation of elastic effects during the filtration of polymer solutions is analyzed theoretically.Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 49, No. 3, pp. 390–397, September, 1985.     

Artefactual cleavage of E coli H-NS by OmpT

In the bacterium Escherichia coli, H-NS-(H1, H1a) is a heat-stable protein with a molecular mass of 15.5 kDa involved in nucleoid organisation and gene regulation linked to certain signal transduction pathways. We have shown that, following addition of preparations of everted inner membrane vesicles, heat-stable cleavage products of approximately 10 kDa of H-NS are formed in vitro from newly synthesised, radio-labelled H-NS and from purified H-NS. The 15.5 kDa protein and its cleavage products were also recovered from a minicell system. These results raised the possibility that cleavage of H-NS is physiologically significant. However, the cleavage of H-NS observed appears to occur during cell breakage and to depend on the method of protein extraction and the presence of the outer membrane protease, OmpT. Nevertheless, the results indicate that H-NS may contain at least two separate domains with cleavage occurring between these domains at a preferred OmpT site. Failure to take account of H-NS cleavage in sample preparation and analysis can lead to serious underestimation of H-NS levels.     

Study of the nutrient distribution in root tips of the tropical forage Brachiaria

A Brachiaria breeding project is being conducted at CIAT, Colombia to combine acid soil adaptation of B. decumbens with other favourable traits of Brachiaria species that are less adapted to acid soils. Micro-PIXE was applied to investigate nutrient uptake and distribution in root tips of different species grown in hydroponic culture under control and simulated acid soil stress conditions. Different sample measurement approaches were evaluated, including: (1) linear scans with single point measurements along the root axis; (2) mapping of whole root tips; and (3) mapping of root cross sections. Different tissue types could be distinguished on the base of differences in nutrient concentrations and/or Al stress. Al, if supplied under nutrient stress conditions, increased P accumulation in the central vascular tissue of the meristematic and elongation zone of B. decumbens and B. brizantha. Furthermore, a negative correlation was found between Al and Cl accumulation in the root cap of B. decumbens.     

Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome

The authors describe the illness of a Czech soldier who while serving in the UNPROFOR forces in an area with the endemic occurrence of hantaviruses became infected with this agent and developed haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. The severe clinical course which called for seven haemodialyzation procedures led to the patient's recovery. The authors describe the course of the disease and epidemiological circumstances.     

Genetic algorithms in engineering electromagnetics

This paper presents a tutorial and overview of genetic algorithms for electromagnetic optimization. Genetic-algorithm (GA) optimizers are robust, stochastic search methods modeled on the concepts of natural selection and evolution. The relationship between traditional optimization techniques and the GA is discussed. Step-by-step implementation aspects of the GA are detailed, through an example with the objective of providing useful guidelines for the potential user. Extensive use is made of sidebars and graphical presentation to facilitate understanding. The tutorial is followed by a discussion of several electromagnetic applications in which the GA has proven useful. The applications discussed include the design of lightweight, broadband microwave absorbers, the reduction of array sidelobes in thinned arrays, the design of shaped-beam antenna arrays, the extraction of natural resonance modes of radar targets from backscattered response data, and the design of broadband patch antennas. Genetic-algorithm optimization is shown to be suitable for optimizing a broad class of problems of interest to the electromagnetic community. A comprehensive list of key references, organized by application category, is also provided     

Infections in patients with cystic fibrosis following lung transplantation

BACKGROUND: There is controversy over whether colonization with drug-resistant organisms is a contraindication to lung transplantation. METHODS: We undertook a retrospective review of the results of lung transplantation for patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) at Duke University Medical Center. RESULTS: As of May 1996, 21 patients with CF underwent bilateral lung transplantation. The first patient died within 24 h of transplantation from sepsis due to Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. Of the remaining 20 patients, 17 (85%) are alive and in stable condition. The three deaths were related primarily to bronchiolitis obliterans at 4 and 18 months in two patients and to cytomegalovirus pneumonitis at 5 months in the other patient. The 17 surviving patients have been followed up for a mean of 13 months (range, 0.5 to 34 months). Most of them were colonized and infected with multidrug-resistant organisms before transplantation. Following transplantation, 11 patients had complications from infections. One patient had bacteremia due to a panresistant Burkholderia cepacia and was treated successfully. Two patients had bacteremia and wound infection due to Burkholderia gladioli, previously thought to be pathogenic only in plants. Both patients were treated successfully. Of the six patients with Aspergillus fumigatus isolated from cultures before transplantation, only one had invasive disease following transplantation and responded to treatment. CONCLUSION: The organisms present before transplantation were not the primary cause of mortality in our patient population. Our findings suggest that lung transplantation should be considered in CF patients infected with multidrug-resistant organisms.     

Maximum likelihood estimation of constellation vectors for blindseparation of co-channel BPSK signals and its performance analysis

In this paper, we present a method for blind separation of co-channel BPSK signals arriving at an antenna array. This method consists of two parts: the maximum likelihood constellation estimation and assignment. We show that at high SNR, the maximum likelihood constellation estimation is well approximated by the smallest distance clustering algorithm, which we proposed earlier on heuristic grounds. We observe that both these methods for estimating the constellation vectors perform very well at high SNR and nearly attain Cramer-Rao bounds. Using this fact and noting that the assignment algorithm causes negligible error at high SNR, we derive upper bounds on the probability of bit error for the above method at high SNR. These upper bounds fall very rapidly with increasing SNR, showing that our constellation estimation-assignment approach is very efficient. Simulation results are given to demonstrate the usefulness of the bounds     

Chitosan microcapsules as controlled release systems for insulin

This study analyses the use of chitosan for the production of surface crosslinked microparticulate systems containing insulin. The microcapsules were prepared by an innovative technique based on interfacial crosslinkage of different amounts of chitosan solubilized in the inner phase of a water/oil emulsion by means of ascorbyl palmitate. The correlation between the main formulation parameters and the functional properties of the microcapsules were analysed. Insulin is incorporated with high efficiency. The peptide release is constant for appreciable periods of time. The content of chitosan modulates the main physico-chemical properties of the matrix.