Suppressive effect of corticosteroids on the gene expression of interleukin-5 and eosinophil activation in asthmatics

Although cortico steroids are effective anti-inflammatory agents in ameliorating asthma symptoms and bronchial hperreactivity, their mechanism of action is unknown. Interleukin (IL)-5 is known to play a key role in regulating eosinophil proliferation and activation. Therefore, we examined the changes of IL-5 mRNA expressions in PBMC semi-quantitatively with RT-PCR as well as serum ECP levels and MCH-PC20 values in asthmatics before and after being treated with corticosteroids. The results revealed that there were significant decrease in the level of IL-5 mRNA and serum ECP concentration after therapy (P < 0.05) and there was remarkable improvement in the values of MCH-PC20 and FEV1% (P < 0.05). It was also found that the changes of serum ECP levels or MCH-PC20 values were accompanied by a reduction in IL-5 mRNA expression (r = 0.5426 or 0.4857, P < 0.05). These results suggested that the therapeutic effects of corticosteroids in asthma may result from modulation of IL-5 gene expression with consequent inhibition of eosinophil activation.     

A multi-agent decision support system for stock trading

A distributed problem solving system can be characterized as a group of individual cooperating agents running to solve common problems. As dynamic application domains continue to grow in scale and complexity, it becomes more difficult to control the purposeful behavior of agents, especially when unexpected events may occur. This article presents an information and knowledge exchange framework to support distributed problem solving. From the application viewpoint the article concentrates on the stock trading domain; however, many presented solutions can be extended to other dynamic domains. It addresses two important issues: how individual agents should be interconnected so that their resources are efficiently used and their goals accomplished effectively; and how information and knowledge transfer should take place among the agents to allow them to respond successfully to user requests and unexpected external situations. The article introduces an architecture, the MASST system architecture, which supports dynamic information and knowledge exchange among the cooperating agents. The architecture uses a dynamic blackboard as an interagent communication paradigm to facilitate factual data, business rule, and command exchange between cooperating MASST agents. The critical components of the MASST architecture have been implemented and tested in the stock trading domain, and have proven to be a viable solution for distributed problem solving based on cooperating agents     

用晶种技术解决低品位石灰石配料中存在的问题

采用晶种技术，能有效地改善熟料的煅烧过程和熟料的质量。晶种和复合矿化剂的作用机理不同，在某些方面具有互补性。     

油田污水中咪唑啉缓蚀剂浓度检测技术研究

研究评价了油田污水中咪唑啉缓蚀剂浓度检测的七种方法 ,其中紫外光分析法和显色反应法适合于低浓度咪唑啉缓蚀剂检测 ,且方法简便、速度快、成本低 ,检测浓度范围 2～ 5 0mg/L。     

脱落酸、乙烯和赤霉素对豌豆苗采后品质的影响

为了解植物生长调节剂对幼苗类蔬菜采后品质变化的影响，用脱落酸、乙烯、赤霉素处理豌豆苗（Pisum Satu-vum L.）。结果表明：脱落酸和乙烯处理加速了叶绿素、蛋白质、可溶性糖含量的下降和纤维素含量的升高。而赤霉素处理则显著延缓了叶绿素、蛋白质和可溶性糖含量的下降和纤维素含量的增加。     

气泡在粘弹性液体中溶解的研究进展

在发泡塑料的制造过程中，均相气体－聚合物体系的形成直接影响了制品的物理机械性能，因此了解气泡在粘弹性液体中的溶解机理成为必然。本文讲述了气泡在流体中塌陷行为的研究进展。对Rayleigh对低粘度牛顿流体，Foqer和Goddand在无线量线性Maxwell模型的粘弹性体，Tanasawa和Tang用oldroyd三常数粘弹模型等科学家的研究行为做了概述，总结出影响此过程的复杂的影响因素，并指出进一步的研究方向。     

宽带无源光网络(BPON)关键技术的发展与研究

宽带无源光网络（BPON）是实现宽带、多业务接入的理想物理平台，本文介绍了BPON网络的发展，重点讨论了将ATM技术和PON技术相结合的APON系统及其升级系统SuperPON的基本结构和关键技术，对最近兴起的将以太技术和PON技术相结合的EPON系统的基本概念和工作原理也进行了阐述，并对未来BPON技术的发展进行了展望。     

腈纶纤维上油率的稳定控制

从油剂泵、皮辊和钢罗拉等设备构件运行状态考虑，探讨了腈纶纤维上油率的稳定控制问题。     

固定电话网的新趋势——固网信息服务系统

本文首先讨论了中国电信开展固网短信业务的必要性，然后分析了开展固网短信业务存在的问题，最后介绍了固网短信系统的构成。     

IMPACCT: Methodology and Tools for Power-Aware Embedded Systems

Power-aware systems are those that must exploit a widerange of power/performance trade-offs in order to adapt to the power availabilityand application requirements. They require the integration of many novel powermanagement techniques, ranging from voltage scaling to subsystem shutdown.However, those techniques do not always compose synergistically with eachother; in fact, they can combine subtractively and often yield counterintuitive,and sometimes incorrect, results in the context of a complete system. Thiscan become a serious problem as more of these power aware systems are beingdeployed in mission critical applications.To address the problem of technique integration for power-aware embedded systems, we propose a new design tool framework called IMPACCT and the associated design methodology. The system modeling methodology includes application model for capturing timing/powerconstraints and mode dependencies at the system level. The tool performs power-awarescheduling and mode selection to ensure that all timing/power constraintsare satisfied and that all overhead is taken into account. IMPACCT then synthesizesthe implementation targeting a symmetric multiprocessor platform. Experimentalresults show that the increased dynamic range of power/performance settingsenabled a Mars rover to achieve significant acceleration while using lessenergy. More importantly, our tool correctly combines the state-of-the-arttechniques at the system level, thereby saving even experienced designersfrom many pitfalls of system-level power management.