Intralesional radiolabeled human monoclonal IgM in human tumor xenografts

Sensory-perceptual abnormalities in people with autism are discussed from two perspectives: published firsthand accounts and existing psychological research evidence. A range of abnormalities, including hyper- and hyposensitivity, sensory distortion and overload, and multichannel receptivity and processing difficulties, are described in firsthand accounts and frequently portrayed as central to the autistic experience. A number of dangers are inherent in uncritically accepting these accounts at face value and in any wider generalization to the autistic population as a whole. Evidence from clinical studies suggests that unusual sensory responses are present in a majority of autistic children, that they are manifested very early in development, and that they may be linked with other aspects of autistic behavior. In addition, experimental studies using a range of indices have found evidence of unusual responses to sensory stimuli in autistic subjects. However the clinical and experimental research to date suffers from serious methodological limitations and more systematic investigation is warranted. Key issues for future psychological research in the area are identified.     

Microflora of periodontal pockets in advanced periodontitis

The aim of study was the evaluation of periodontal pockets microflora in patients with advanced periodontitis. From each subject 16-20 samples were taken using paper points. Pooled sample after 60 s. mixing was serially diluted in reduced BHI. For total cell counts and for the isolation of black pigmented anaerobes Brucella agar supplemented with 5% sheep blood, hemin, menadione, with and without Kanamycin-Vancomycin mixture and BM agar plates were used. For isolation of A. actinomycetemcomitans TSBV agar plates were used. Cultures were incubated in anaerobic chamber at 37 degrees C for 7 days and TSBV agar plates in an atmosphere of 95% air-5% CO2 at 37 degrees C for 5 days. Microorganisms were identified by Gram staining, colony morphology, fluorescence in UV-light, haemagglutination of 3% sheep erythrocytes, fermentation of sugars, production of indole, urease (API 20A), specific enzymes (Rapid ID 32A). Twenty seven subjects with clinically recognized periodontitis were examined. Microorganisms important in periodontitis were isolated from periodontal pockets of almost all examined subjects. The number of bacteria obtained from the sample of one patient ranged from 1 x 10(4) CFU/ml to 3,6 x 10(6) CFU/ml. Porphyromonas gingivalis was identified in the samples taken from 17 patients, Prevotella intermedia-19, Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans -11, Fusobacterium nucleatum-9, Peptostreptococcus spp.-22.     

Revised cutoff values of serum aminotransferase in detecting viral hepatitis among CAPD patients: experience from Taiwan, an endemic area for hepatitis B

BACKGROUND: To determine the best cutoff values of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine amino-transferase (ALT) in detecting viral hepatitis C infection among patients of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD). METHODS: 90 (44 male and 46 female) CAPD patients and 526 adult controls (266 male, 260 female) were enrolled. Serum AST and ALT were measured by an auto-analyser monthly. Serum HBsAg was examined using a RIA method and anti-HCV by an second-generation EIA method. The best cutoff values of AST and ALT for detecting viral hepatitis were obtained from the ROC (receiver-operating characteristic) curve. RESULTS: The prevalence of anti-HCV(+) was significantly higher in CAPD patients (16.7%) than in normal controls (4.9%), while that of HBsAg(+) was similar in both groups. CAPD patients had significantly lower levels of serum aminotransferases compared to normal controls. Mean AST were 23.8 IU/l in normal control and 18.8 IU/l in the CAPD patients (P < 0.001). Mean ALT were 21.9 IU/l in normal controls and 15.3 IU/l in the CAPD patients (P < 0.001). CAPD patients with HCV infection had higher serum AST and ALT levels than those without. However, HBV infection did not cause significant serum aminotransferase elevation in patients. The conventional cutoff values of AST (40 IU/l) and ALT (40 IU/l) for detecting viral hepatitis yielded only a sensitivity of 27.3 and 18.2% respectively; on the contrary, our revised cutoff values of AST (24 IU/l) and ALT (17 IU/l) had better sensitivities (AST, 72.7%; ALT, 63.6%). For serial aminotransferase values, the sensitivity of AST and ALT for detecting HCV were 36.4 and 27.3% by conventional criteria, and were both 81.8%, by our newly revised criteria. CONCLUSIONS: Serum aminotransferase cutoff values should be modified for screening viral hepatitis in a CAPD population. Our new cutoff criteria had important clinical implications in providing benefits of earlier detection and possible prevention from chronic hepatic deteriorations.     

Coronary bypass in vascular patients: a relatively high-risk procedure

A premise of cardiac risk stratification is that the added risk of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is offset by the improved safety of subsequent vascular reconstruction (VR). We questioned if elective CABG is patients with severe peripheral vascular disease (PVD) is a relatively high-risk procedure. A cohort study of 680 elective CABG patients from January 1993 to December 1994 was performed using three mutually exclusive outcomes of complication-free survival, morbidity, and mortality. Patient characteristic, operative, and outcome data were prospectively collected. Retrospective review determined that 58 patients had either a standard indication for or a history of VR. Overall CABG mortality was 2.5%, with statistically similar but relatively higher rates for PVD as compared to non-PVD patients. In contrast, major morbidity occurred at rates 3.6-fold higher in PVD patients (39.7%) than in disease-free patients (16.7%) after adjustment for the effects of patient and operative variables (odds ratio [OR] 3.67, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.93-6.99). CABG morbidity in the PVD patient was most likely in those patients with aortoiliac (OR 9.51, CI 3.20-28.27) and aortic aneurysmal (OR 5.24, CI 1.28-21.41) disease types. CABG in PVD patients is associated with significant major morbidity. Such morbidity may preclude or alter the timing of subsequent VR.     

Cure of malignant ascites and generation of protective immunity by monoclonal antibody-targeted activation of a glucuronide prodrug in rats

We examined the in vivo efficacy of targeting beta-glucuronidase (betaG) to activate a glucuronide prodrug (BHAMG) of p-hydroxyaniline mustard (pHAM) at hepatoma ascites in Sprague-Dawley rats. Injection i.p. of 500 microg RH1-betaG, a conjugate formed between recombinant betaG and monoclonal antibody RH1 with specificity for an antigen expressed on AS-30D rat hepatoma cells, into rats bearing AS-30D ascites resulted in the accumulation of 54 microg conjugate per 10(9) tumor cells after 2 hr. Ascites fluid and serum contained 0.53 and 0 microg/ml, respectively, RH1-betaG 2 hr after injection of the conjugate. Conjugate binding to AS-30D cells was heterogeneous and non-saturated, as determined by flow cytometry. BHAMG was less toxic than pHAM to SD rats based on measures of animal mortality, weight loss and hematological toxicity. Treatment of rats bearing established hepatoma ascites with 500 microg RH1-betaG followed 2 hr later with a single i.p. injection of 30 mg/kg BHAMG or 3 i.p. injections of 10 mg/kg BHAMG 2, 3 and 4 hr later resulted in the cure of 6/8 and 8/8 animals, respectively. Treatment with BHAMG or pHAM alone did not produce cures, whereas treatment with a control antibody-betaG conjugate and BHAMG produced significantly greater hematological toxicity compared to treatment with RH1-betaG and BHAMG. All cured rats were completely protected from rechallenge with 2 x 10(7) AS-30D cells, indicating that successful treatment of animals induced protective immunity.     

Statistical synchronization among participants in real-time multimedia conferencing

In this paper, an algorithm to determine the set of packets generated continuously and periodically from different participants that are arriving at a node either for mixing at the master of a conference, or for simply playing back at a regular participant of a conference, is proposed. The essence of the algorithm is to estimate the expected packet arrival time (or reference time) for each participant. With the reference time at hand, the maximum jitter and the optimum waiting time for a mixer to wait packets from all participants can be determined. An enhancement to improve synchronization which deals with the estimation of the time offsets between the individual periods of the sources and the period of the receiver is also presented. The error of the proposed algorithm is enumerated by the Chernoff bound and demonstrated by simulation and is shown to be acceptable in practical application. The algorithm can also be employed when traffic sources operate with different periods.     

Early patterning of prelimbic cortical axons to the striatal patch compartment in the neonatal mouse

The striatum receives excitatory input from virtually the entire cerebral cortex. In the adult, this input is segregated into two functionally distinct compartments of the striatum, the patch (striosome) and matrix regions. This study determined whether the patterning of corticostriatal afferents from the prelimbic cortex to the striatal patch compartment develops during the early period of collateral formation or instead at the time of peak synaptogenesis. Initial formation of corticostriatal axon collaterals was observed by embryonic day (E) 19. Quantification of corticostriatal collaterals revealed a significant increase in the number and complexity of collateral branches at postnatal day 6 as compared to E19. Concomitant with the increase in collateral branching, a heterogeneous pattern of collateralization consisting of parallel rows of corticostriatal collaterals was observed in the medial striatum. In addition to the rows, clusters of corticostriatal axons occurred more laterally. These clusters colocalized with patches of dense tyrosine hydroxylase-positive fibers, a marker for the striatal patch compartment in the neonatal mouse. Together, these data indicate that corticostriatal patterning occurs during the period of early axon collateralization resulting in a segregation of corticostriatal axon collaterals from the prelimbic cortex to the striatal patch compartment.     

A PC program for diagnosing abnormal growth, growth velocity and acceleration from longitudinal observations

A human fibroblastic cell line transformed by the SV40-T antigen sequence and continuously cultured for 7 months displayed large periodic variations in cell proliferation. This contrasted with other characteristics of this cell line that remained constant: mosaic cell shape, absence of cell contact inhibition, and predominance of a hypodiploid population. Similar fluctuations in proliferative capacity were also found during the long-term growth of a transformed but nonimmortalized human fibroblastic line prior to senescence, and in the established hamster fibroblastic Nil cell line. This growth pattern suggests a recurrent stimulation of growth in these three transformed cell lines. The proliferation pattern from cultured transformed cells may thus be complex and requires further investigation. These variations presumably influence major cell functions. This observation has important implications for the analysis of data from such cell lines.     

隧道挖掘中采用补偿灌浆的实例

在英国伦敦多克兰斯轻便铁路刘易舍姆延长线（DLR－LWE）双隧道掘进工程中，在敏感建筑物下进行了补偿灌浆，以防止隧道开挖引起的过度沉降。但是，过度灌浆也会对隧道下部施加超越。介绍了由隧道掘进承包商所编辑的关于地面和建筑物沉降以及由补偿灌浆引起的隧道衬砌变形的详细现场监测数据。     

Principle and applications of retroreflective vision sensing for discrete part-presentation

For flexible manufacturing of short production runs where a large variety of product sizes, component types, and surface reflectance characteristics are encountered, it is desirable to build flexible computer-controlled systems for feeding parts into machine tools or assembly processes that combine maximum flexibility and reliability with minimum cost and cycle-time. This is not a general bin-picking problem; the parts are assumed to be propositioned approximately in totes/pallets/kits with regularly spaced locations. This article presents a machine vision technique based on the principle of retroreflective vision sensing for part-presentation. Since retroreflective material has a distinctive surface reflectance that is not commonly found in natural or man-made objects, the use of retroreflective surfaces enables reliable high object-to-background contrast images to be obtained for a wide variety of objects. Unlike conventional machine vision techniques, which rely on the variance of the surface reflectance of the objects to generate detailed images, retroreflective vision sensing aims at generating a reliable two-dimensional digital object silhouettes so that the location and orientation of the part can be reliably determined. Two application examples, machine loading and assembly, are illustrated.