p53 hot-spot mutational analysis in advanced Western gallbladder carcinoma

In gallbladder carcinoma, studies on the prime target of genetic alterations and gene therapy in human gallbladder malignancies, the p53 tumor suppressor gene, have been focusing on this gene's immunohistochemical detection. From November 1991 to October 1993, seven patients suffering from gallbladder carcinoma underwent surgical resection. Cancerous and normal liver tissues were obtained immediately after surgery, snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen, and stored at -80 degrees C for immunohistochemistry and DNA isolation. Exons 5, 6, 7, and 8 of the p53 gene were completely sequenced following polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of a 1574-bp fragment. Missense mutations were detected in the cancerous tissues of two patients: one transition each on codons 134 (Phe-->Leu) and 146 (Trp-->Arg). Immunohistochemical p53 staining was positive in the latter patient only. This is the first report on sequence analysis and mutagenesis of the p53 gene in Caucasian patients with gallbladder cancer. Both mutations were transitions and seem to represent a rather rare event. The possible impact of p53 mutagenesis on gallbladder tumorigenesis requires evaluation in larger studies.     

Building modular legal knowledge systems

A practical legal knowledge system must be versatile and capable of supporting many fundamentally different aspects of the lawyer's work. In this paper a general framework for building knowledge systems from distinct but communicating modules is proposed. There are currently three different kinds of modules: computation, data storage, and environmental interaction. These modules include inference engines, database managers, and hypertext. Several strategies for coupling these modules are discussed. This framework is used to construct expert systems for two distinct domains: a legal expert system for labour law and a real-time expert system for process control in a pulp plant. The legal application shows that this system can be used to construct an “intelligent library”, guiding the user to relevant documents, rather than merely retrieving documents on request.     

Fortschritte in der technischen Anwendung von Kunststoffverbundsystemen

Progresses in the application of plastic compound materials Plastics possess a number of various properties one cannot find in another material in this combination. Beyond that the desired properties can be reached by compounding several different materials. The best known example is the glass reinforced plastic. The arguments for the application of compound materials are very different: increase of strength and stiffness, cheaper injection moulded parts due to shorter cycle times, thinner wall-thicknesses and therefore less raw material consumption, lower distortion and thermal elongation for technical parts and excellent thermal insulation of the foams. Research on the topic of the bonding between the plastic and the carbon, glass and organic fibres led the way to an ever spreading field of the application of reinforced plastics.     

The haemodynamic and antithrombotic effects of intermittent pneumatic calf compression of femoral vein blood flow. A comparison between different pump types

Postural changes in plasma renin activity were studied in three groups of age and duration-matched male diabetics (potent, impotent and with postural hypotension) and in non-diabetic control subjects. Those diabetic subjects with postural hypotension due to automatic neuropathy had no increase in plasma renin activity to the erect posture whereas both the potent and impotent groups had similar plasma renin activity responses to the control subjects. There was a significant inverse correlation between the rise in plasma renin activity on standing and the postural drop in blood pressure (r = 0.476, P less than 0.01) but no correlation with other tests of autonomic reflex function such as the Valsalva manoeuvre and blood pressure response to sustained handgrip. The results suggested that the lesion responsible for the postural hypotension is in the efferent sympathetic pathway. However, neuropathy per se did not wholly explain the decreased postural plasma renin activity response. Diabetic nephropathy, with involvement of cells of juxtaglomerular apparatus, may also be implicated.     

Dynamic precipitation and coarsening of niobium carbonitrides during the hot compression of HSLA steels

The size distribution of the static precipitates produced in unstrained austenite was determined at 900° C by the method of extraction replication. The effect of deformation on the rate of coarsening of the particles was established up to a true strain of 0.75. Size distributions were also measured in materials containing static precipitates which were undergoing dynamic precipitation at 900°C. The mean size in these materials decreased while dynamic precipitation was occurring and then increased due to dynamic coarsening. The rate of increase duringdynamic ripening was two to three orders of magnitude higher than the rate ofstatic Ostwald ripening reported in the literature. The effect of particle size on the initiation of dynamic recrystallization was also evaluated. The results confirm the general rule that fine particles (d ≃ 6 nm) are more effective than coarser ones (e.g. d ≃ 20 nm) with respect to the retardation of dynamic recrystallization. The necessary fine particles can be nucleated homogeneously in the alpha phase or heterogeneously on gamma phase dislocations. This paper is based on a presentation made at a symposium on “Precipitation Processes in Structural Steels” held at the annual meeting of the AIME, Denver, Colorado, February 27 to 28, 1978, under the sponsorship of the Ferrous Metallurgy Committee of The Metallurgical Society of AIME.     

Hydrotherapy of patients with intermittent claudication: a novel approach to improve systolic ankle pressure and reduce symptoms

OBJECTIVE: To study the effects of alternating cold and hot water therapy on walking ability and systolic blood pressure in claudicants. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: A prospective case study with repeated measurements before and 1, 4 and 12 months after treatment. The systolic blood pressure levels were measured with an occlusion cuff for brachial and ankle and with a strain gauge for the first toe. STUDY POPULATION: Twenty consecutively included patients, 11 women and 9 men; mean age 73.9 yrs, with intermittent claudication according to clinical examination and ankle-arm systolic blood pressure (AAI) below 0.90. INTERVENTION: Alternate hot and cold hydrotherapy of the legs were given at ten 25-minute treatments during a three-week period. The outcome measures were maximal walking ability (MW), walking ability before pain (PW) and systolic blood pressures of toe, ankle, arm and AAI. RESULTS: Fourteen patients (70%) reported reduced pain after treatment and their PW increased from 134 +/- 29 m to 415 +/- 119 m 12 months later (p < 0.05) and the MW in the total group increased form 348 +/- 75 m to 523 +/- 103 m. Systolic blood pressure increased in right ankle and toe one month after treatment in the total group. Among those who reported improved walking ability one year after treatment, systolic blood pressure in both right and left ankles and toes increased; e.g. right toe increasing from 72 +/- 7 to 86 +/- 2 (p < 0.001). Improvements of systolic blood pressure in left and right leg and changes of walking ability were correlated, in the order of 0.60 to 0.81, p < 0.05. CONCLUSIONS: Showering the legs of claudicants improved walking ability and blood pressures which sustained up to 1-year later. This therapy might be an additional alternative to conservative treatment of intermittent claudication.     

A triangular finite element mesh generator for fluid dynamic systems of arbitrary geometry

A two-dimensional finite element mesh generator capable of discretizing arbitrarily shaped flow regions is described. This economical, interactive computer code, written in FORTRAN IV and employing PLOT 10 software together with TEKTRONIX graphics terminals (4000 series or similar devices), generates a triangular network of variable element density according to the geometry and local kinematic flow patterns of a given fluid flow problem. The algorithm is an easy-to-use preprocessor and mesh generator delivering for a particular source program suitable input data which contribute to a higher degree of accuracy, efficiency and flexibility of the numerical scheme. The code was tested for the triangularization of the confluence region of the Ohio and Tennessee rivers with two islands forming subchannels of different sizes.