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.     

Magnetization and rotation of MTG HTSC ring in magnetic field

The magnetization of a melt-texture growth (MTG) HTSC ring has been studied. It is shown that the magnetic field inside the ring is larger than the external field under a certain range of external magnetic fields. We have also investigated the magnetic field dependence of the response of a detective coil near a rotating superconducting ring. The responses of the MTG sample are different for different cooling methods.     

Characteristics of hydrostatic bearing/seal parts for water hydraulic pumps and motors. Part 1: Experiment and theory

In this paper, the load-carrying capacity, power losses and stiffness of disk-type hydrostatic thrust bearings including the case of eccentric loading are discussed theoretically. The numerical analysis method is established based on a two-dimensional elastohydrostatic problem with an elastic deformation model, which is extended to adapt it for a non-axisymmetric load acting on the thrust bearing. The bearing is made of a combination of stainless steel/stainless steel and stainless steel/plastics. For the elastic materials, the maximum stiffness derived from, i.e., minimum film thickness is, larger than that of the rigid material in the range of a large ratio of pocket pressure and a hydrostatic balance ratio of over unity, which is defined as the ratio of the load to the maximum hydrostatic load-carrying capacity. The maximum load-carrying capacity and minimum power loss can exist in the domain of the hydrostatic balance ratio over unity for the case of the bearing consisting of elastic/rigid materials, in comparison with that composed of the same rigid materials. For the case of water, the power loss due to leakage flow is slightly larger but that due to frictional torque is much smaller than that in the case of hydraulic oil. Then, the total power loss is much smaller than that of hydraulic oil.     

The zinc-rich corner of the Zn-Fe-Ni-Si quaternary system at 450 °C

Following up on recent studies of the Zn-rich corners of the Zn-Fe-Ni and Zn-Fe-Si ternary systems, a 450 °C isothermal section of the Zn-Fe-Ni-Si quaternary phase diagram with the Zn composition being fixed at 93 at.% was determined experimentally using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and x-ray diffractometry (XRD). FeSi was found to be in equilibrium with almost all phases in the section, including the T, ζ, Ni-δ, NiSi₂, and FeSi₂ phases, as well as the liquid phase (L). Silicon solubilities in the T, ζ, and Ni-δ phases were rather limited. However, the solubilities of Fe and Zn in the NiSi₂ phase, at 4.5 at.% and 7.2 at.%, respectively, were appreciable. The existence of the (L+NiSi₂+Ni-δ) three-phase equilibrium state apparently prevents other Ni-Si compounds from entering equilibrium with the liquid at 450 °C. No true quaternary compound was found in the study.     

Evolutionary algorithms and de novo peptide design

One of the goals of computational chemistry is the automated de novo design of bioactive molecules. Despite significant progress in computational approaches to ligand design and efficient evaluation of binding energy, novel procedures for ligand design are required. Evolutionary computation provides a new approach to this design issue. This paper presents an automated methodology for computer-aided peptide design based on evolutionary algorithms. It provides an automatic tool for peptide de novo design, based on protein surface patches defined by user. Regarding the restrictive constrains of this problem a special emphasis has been made on the design of the evolutionary algorithms implemented.     

用仿真工具优化车辆动力系统(一)

在本文的第一部分，介绍了一种理想的车辆动力系统的计算机辅助开发过程。它显示了现代仿真技术在产品持续发展过程中的作用，该技术采用硬件回路作非在线的仿真，并通过现代化的试验手段对车辆进行匹配。特别重要的是提供了将电控变速器和发动机控制单元综合的可能性。接着是在线仿真在诸如发动机和变速器模式方面的应用和发展，它是上述开发过程的基础。根据上述的方法论，本文论述了仿真技术已取得的成绩和将来的应用可能性。     

Fringe probing of an evaporating microdroplet on a hot surface

The phenomenon of droplets impacting and evaporating on a hot surface is of interest in many areas of engineering. Quantitative measurement of these processes provides great help to reveal the physics behind. A novel technique was developed to quantitatively measure the volume evolution and contact diameter of an evaporating microdroplet on a hot surface utilizing interference fringe scattering method. In this method, fine fringes produced by the interference of two coherent laser beams was scattered by the droplet and projected onto a screen. The profile and volume of the droplet can be derived from the spatial fringe spacing on the screen. The number of total fringes measurable on the screen was used to determine the instantaneous contact diameter of the microdroplet. Validation experiments demonstrated that the measurement errors are less than ±5% and ±1% for microdroplet volume and contact diameter, respectively. By using this method, the dynamic of droplet impingement, evaporation and boiling using ethanol, pure water and water solution of a surfactant (sodium dodecyl sulfate) with impact velocity of 7.5 m/s and diameters ranged from 0.19 to 0.46 mm were investigated.     

Analog VLSI model of binaural hearing

The stereausis model of biological auditory processing is proposed as a representation that encodes both binaural and spectral information in a unified framework. A working analog VLSI chip that implements this model of early auditory processing in the brain is described. The chip is a 100000-transistor integrated circuit that computes the stereausis representation in real time, using continuous-time analog processing. The chip receives two audio inputs, representing sound entering the two ears, computes the stereausis representation, and generates output signals that can directly drive a color CRT display. Outputs from the chips for a variety of artificial and speech stimuli are shown.