Changes of lymphocyte subpopulations in pigs infected with porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus

Abnormal changes of T-cell subpopulation were observed in the peripheral blood lymphocytes of pigs infected with porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus. Pigs with naturally occurring PRRS revealed increases in CD2+ and CD8+ cells, and decreases in CD4+ cells and the ratios of CD4+/CD8+ cells. Specific-pathogen-free pigs inoculated with PRRS virus showed remarkable decreases in total lymphocytes, CD4+ and CD2+ cells on Postinoculation Day (PID) 3. The decline of CD4+ cells continued for at least 14 days, while CD2+ cells showed a tendency to increase thereafter. On the other hand,CD8+ cells slightly decreased in number on PID 3, and then increased remarkably; their number was significantly larger on PIDs 28 and 35 than on PID 0. The ratios of CD4+/CD8+ cells were significantly low between PIDs 3 and 28 as compared with PID 0. However, there were no differences in thymocyte subpopulations between infected and non-infected pigs, suggesting that the PRRS virus does not modulate intrathymic T-cell differentiation. In an experiment with peripheral blood mononuclear cell cultures, PRRS virus caused neither alteration of T-cell subpopulations nor cell proliferation, suggesting that the virus is not cytotoxic for CD4+ cells and not mitogenic for CD8+ cells.     

High‐luminous‐efficacy structure for plasma tubes

Abstract— The plasma‐tube‐array display is expected to become a wall‐sized display with very high luminous efficacy. The cell design for high luminous efficacy was investigated. Also, discharging in the plasma tube was observed in order to investigate the structure for high luminous efficacy. As the result, a high luminous efficacy of 5.4 lm/W was achieved.     

A 4-Mbit DRAM with 16-bit concurrent ECC

A 256 K-word×16-bit dynamic RAM with concurrent 16-bit error correction code (ECC) has been built in 0.8-μm CMOS technology, with double-level metal and surrounding high-capacitance cell. The cell measures 10.12 μm² with a 90-fF storage capacitance. A duplex bit-line architecture used on the DRAM provides multiple-bit operations and the potential of high-speed data processing for ASIC memories. The ECC checks concurrently 16-bit data and corrects a 1-bit data error. This ECC method can be adapted to higher-bit ECC without expanding the memory array. The ratio of ECC area to the whole chip is 7.5%. The cell structure and the architecture allow for expansion to 16-Mb DRAM. The 4-Mb DRAM has a 70-ns RAS access time without ECC and a 90-ns RAS access time with ECC     

Consideration on the frequency limitation of Wilkinson powerdivider with coupled wires in ferrite

The frequency performance of a Wilkinson power divider with tightly coupled wires in ferrite is obtained using the theory of coupled distributed lines. The lowest and highest frequencies are connected to ferrite performance and electrical angle of the wires. The results are relevant to the use of the divider in CATV systems     

Turbulent/viscous interactions control Doppler/catheter pressure discrepancies in aortic stenosis. The role of the Reynolds number

BACKGROUND: Despite good correlation between Doppler and catheter pressure drops in numerous reports, it is well known that Doppler tends to apparently overestimate pressure drops obtained by cardiac catheterization. Neither (1) simplification of the Bernoulli equation nor (2) pressure recovery effects can explain this dilemma when taken alone. This study addressed the hypothesis that a Reynolds number-based approach, which characterizes (1) and (2), provides a first step toward better agreement of catheter and Doppler assessments of pressure drops. METHODS AND RESULTS: Doppler and catheter pressure drops were studied in an in vitro model designed to isolate the proposed Reynolds number effect and in a sheep model with varying degrees of stenosis. Doppler pressure drops in vitro correlated with the directly measured pressure drop for individual valves (r = .935, .960, .985, .984, .989, and .975) but with markedly different slopes and intercepts. A Bland-Altman type plot showed no useful pattern of discrepancy. The Reynolds number was successful in collapsing the data into the profile proposed in the hypothesis. Parallel results were found in the animal model. CONCLUSIONS: Apparent overestimation of net pressure drop by Doppler is due to pressure recovery effects, and these effects are countered by both viscous effects and inertial/turbulent effects. Only by reconciliation of discrepancies by use of a quantity such as Reynolds number that embodies the relative importance of competing factors can the noninvasive and invasive methods be connected. This study shows that a Reynolds number-based approach accomplishes this goal both in the idealized in vitro setting and in a biological system.     

A 10 Gb/s hybrid-integrated receiver array module using a planarlightwave circuit (PLC) platform including a novel assembly regionstructure

A planar lightwave circuit (PLC) platform for optoelectronic hybrid integration shows potential for achieving 10 Gb/s operation. It uses AuSn bump-type bonding pads on a silica layer to decrease parasitic capacitance, which limited the CR time constant in the optical chip assembly region, and two-layer electrical wiring to reduce parasitic inductance, which caused resonance in the electrical circuit region. An arrayed receiver module fabricated by integrating a two-channel monolithic opto-electronic integrated circuit (OEIC) chip on the PLC platform demonstrated a 3 dB-bandwidth of 8 GHz in both channels, which is equal to the bandwidth of the OEIC chip. This shows the feasibility of using this PLC platform for multichannel 10 Gb/s operation. Furthermore, this PLC platform can combine the versatile optical circuit functions of a PLC, such as an arrayed-waveguide grating wavelength multiplexer, with the high-speed signal processing function of mature electronic IC circuits. Consequently, this platform is a key device that will lead to high-capacity optical signal processing systems using optical wavelength/frequency routing