Irritable bowel syndrome: which definitions are consistent?

In searching for novel peptides with affinity for cadmium, the phage display technique was utilized. In the selection procedure, cadmium ions were immobilized on a metal chelating Sepharose gel. The peptides selected from a hexapeptide library showed no homology to naturally occurring metallothioneins. From the phage clones selected in the biopanning process, phages with affinity for Cd-109 in free solution were identified. The peptide His-Ser-Gln-Lys-Val-Phe, which was found to exhibit the strongest relative affinity for Cd-109, was cloned into Escherichia coli as a fusion to the cell surface exposed area of the outer membrane protein OmpA. Escherichia coli cells expressing this peptide showed increased survival in growth media containing up to 1.2 mM CdCl2 when compared with cells not expressing this peptide on their surface.     

Bidirectional processing in the olfactory-limbic axis during olfactory behavior

Field potentials were recorded simultaneously from the olfactory bulb (OB), prepyriform cortex (PPC), entorhinal cortex (EC), and dentate gyrus (DG) of rats trained to respond to appetitively reinforced odors. Preafferent anticipatory events in the beta band (12-35 Hz) suggest transmission from EC to OB before the odorant stimulus. Gamma band (35-120 Hz) power in olfactory regions is significantly reduced during stimulus presentation as compared with high values during preafferent expectation. High coherence of OB and PPC gamma activity during the preodorant control period is interrupted before the stimulus and is followed by increased gamma coherence among OB, EC, and DG. These results suggest that olfactory perceptual processing is bidirectional and covers a wide frequency range.     

Smart Identification Frameworks for Ubiquitous Computing Applications

We present our results of the conceptual design and the implementation of ubiquitous computing applications using smart identification technologies. First, we describe such technologies and their potential application areas, then give an overview of some of the applications we have developed. Based on the experience we have gained from developing these systems, we point out design concepts that we have found useful for structuring and implementing such applications. Building upon these concepts, we have created two frameworks based on Jini (i.e., distributed Java objects) and Web Services to support the development of ubiquitous computing applications that make use of smart identification technology. We describe our prototype frameworks, discuss the underlying concepts and present some lessons learned.     

Drugs and Lipid transport

Drugs such as ethanol, carbon tetrachloride, ethionine or ACTH have a profound influence on lipid metabolism. The enzymatic synthesis of triglycerides and phospholipids by the liver, the release of triglycerides from liver to plasma and the transport of free fatty acids from adipose tissue are affected. These changes in lipid metabolism may be considered as resulting from chemically induced stress. In order to study the transport of lipids during a stress not induced by drugs, cold stress was also investigated. The changes in lipid transport following ethanol or ACTH administration were quite different from those observed during cold stress where body temp must be maintained by mobilization of energy producing substrates. However, the alterations in lipid transport during both cold and drug induced stress are dependent on the sex of the rat. The observed effects apparently involve a sexdependent transport of triglycerides from liver to plasma and also a sex-dependent mobilization of energy-producing substrates.     

A study of methods of choosing the smoothing parameter in imagerestoration by regularization

The method of regularization is portrayed as providing a compromise between fidelity to the data and smoothness, with the tradeoff being determined by a scalar smoothing parameter. Various ways of choosing this parameter are discussed in the case of quadratic regularization criteria. They are compared algebraically, and their statistical properties are comparatively assessed from the results of all extensive simulation study based on simple images     

Mullard TAA263 and Plessey SL611C integrated circuit models for use in linear computer-aided circuit-design programs

Models of the complete Mullard TAA263 audio amplifier and the Plessey SL611C wideband automatic gain control (a.g.c.) amplifier are shown. The TAA263 model demonstrates the basic requirements of a linear model for a device being operated as a simple amplifier. The SL611C model shows how greater model complexity can be added to produce closer agreement between model and device performances. In addition the SL611C model illustrates how additional complex circuit functions such as a.g.c. can be incorporated in the model.