The effect of cytokines, including IL4, IL7, stem cell factor, insulin-like growth factor on childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

We have investigated the effects of some interleukins, such as interleukin (IL) 4, IL7, stem cell factor (SCF) and insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), known to be involved in human lymphopoiesis, on proliferation, clonal growth and differentiation of cells from two acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) derived pre-B cell lines, that is, Nalm 1, Nalm 6 and purified blasts from 37 childhood ALL. IL4 did not display any promoting activity, an inhibitory effect being observed in two patients. IL7 showed an heterogeneous responsiveness, not related to immunophenotype or cytogenetic features, proliferation and clonal growth being observed in a minority of ALL. In other patients no or even inhibitory effects on proliferation were observed. In one case this inhibition of DNA synthesis was accompanied by maturation of the cells, as demonstrated by the induced expression of surface immunoglobulins (slg); other IL7 treated samples failed to express slg, but showed a decreased expression of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase and cALL antigen, suggesting that the cells have a potential of limited maturation by IL7. SCF, known to synergize with IL7 in the most primitive stages of normal B cell development, did not enhance the IL7 response in B cell precursor ALL. Finally IGF-1 failed to induce a proliferative response and clonal growth in BCP ALL either alone or in combination with IL7.     

Fatty diet and multiple sclerosis]

INTRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT: Multiple sclerosis (ME) is an inflammatory disease of the myelin of the central nervous system, the origin of which is still unknown. Genetic, infectious, immunological and environmental factors have all been blamed, but none of these factors on their own can explain the whole spectrum of this disease. Of the environmental factors, fat in the diet has given rise to most discussion. At the present time, it is known that polyunsaturated essential fatty acids form a part of biological membranes. A relationship has been found between the dietary fat consumed and the plasma levels and cell membrane content. CONCLUSIONS: The possible immuno-modulation function of these fatty acids justify rigorous evaluation of this hypothesis.     

Predominant expression of monoamine oxidase B isoform in rabbit renal proximal tubule: regulation by I2 imidazoline ligands in intact cells

Previous studies have shown that a subpopulation of the catecholamine-degrading enzymes monoamine oxidase (MAO) A and B holds a previously unknown regulatory site, the I2-imidazoline binding site (I2BS). In the present work, we characterized the isoforms of monoamine oxidases expressed in the rabbit renal proximal tubule, defined their relationship with I2BS, and investigated the ability of I2BS ligands to inhibit enzyme activity in intact cells. Two findings indicate that MAO-B is the predominant isoform expressed in the renal proximal tubule cells: 1) Western blot performed with an anti-MAO-A/MAO-B polyclonal antiserum revealed a single 55-kDa band corresponding to MAO-B; 2) enzyme assays showed an elevated MAO-B activity ([14C]beta-phenylethylamine oxidation: Vmax = 1.31 +/- 0.41 nmol/min/mg protein), whereas MAO-A activity was only detectable ([14C]5-HT oxidation: Vmax = 80.3 +/- 19 pmol/min/mg protein). Photoaffinity labeling with the I2BS ligand [125I]2-(3-azido-4-iodophenoxy)-methylimidazoline revealed a single 55-kDa band, which indicates that MAO-B of the renal proximal tubule cells holds the I2 imidazoline binding site. [3H]Idazoxan binding studies and enzyme assays showed that, in intact cells, I2BS ligands bind to and inhibit MAO-B. Indeed, the increase in the accessibility of intracellular compartment by cell permeabilization did not enhance [3H]idazoxan binding, which indicates that, in intact cells, intracellular I2BS are fully occupied by imidazoline ligands. In addition, enzyme assays showed that incubation of proximal tubule cells with imidazoline ligands leads to a complete, dose-dependent inhibition of MAO activity. These data show the predominant expression of MAO-B in rabbit renal proximal tubule and its regulation by imidazoline ligands in intact cells.     

Simultaneous design of power stage and controller for switchingpower supplies

This paper develops a method for simultaneously designing the power stage and controller for a switching power supply. The method utilizes a numerical optimization procedure, which facilitates computer-aided design. It is found that better performance can be achieved than with a traditional two-step design process, where the power stage and controller are designed sequentially. Optimization and simulation results for a buck power converter are presented to illustrate the design process and benefits     

Optimal detection of visual evoked potentials

The authors consider the problem of detecting visual evoked potentials (VEP's). A matched subspace filter is applied to the detection of the VEP and is demonstrated to perform better than a number of other evoked potential detectors. Unlike single-harmonic detectors, the matched subspace filter (MSF) detector is suitable for detecting multiharmonic VEP's. Moreover, the MSF is optimal in the uniformly most powerful sense for multiharmonic signals with unknown noise variance     

Performance of interface engineeredSiNx/ICL/InP/In0.53Ga0.47As/InP dopedchannel HIGFET's

SiN_x/InP/InGaAs doped channel passivated heterojunction insulated gate field effect transistors (HIGFETs) have been fabricated for the first time using an improved In-S interface control layer (ICL). The insulated gate HIGFETs exhibit very low gate leakage (10 nA@V_GS =±5 V) and I_DS (sat) of 250 mA/mm. The doped channel improves the DC characteristics and the HIGFETs show transconductance of 140-150 mS/mm (L_g=2 μm), f_t of 5-6 GHz (L_g=3 μm), and power gain of 14.2 dB at 3 GHz. The ICL HIGFET technology is promising for high frequency applications     

Parallel reduced area multipliers

As developed by Wallace and Dadda, a method for high-speed, parallel multiplication is to generate a matrix of partial products and then reduce the partial products to two numbers whose sum is equal to the final product. The resulting two numbers are then summed using a fast carry-propagate adder. This paper presents Reduced Area multipliers, which employ a modified reduction scheme that results in fewer components and less interconnect overhead than either Wallace or Dadda multipliers. This reduction scheme is especially useful for pipelined multipliers, because it minimizes the number of latches required in the reduction of the partial products. The reduction scheme can be applied to either unsigned (sign-magnitude) or two's complement numbers. Equations are given for determining the number of components and a method is presented for estimating the interconnect overhead for Wallace, Dadda, and Reduced Area multipliers. Area estimates indicate that for non-pipelined multipliers, the reduction in area achieved with Reduced Area multipliers ranges from 3.7 to 6.6 percent relative to Dadda multipliers, and from 3.8 to 8.4 percent relative to Wallace multipliers. For fully pipelined multipliers, the reduction in area ranges from 15.1 to 33.6 percent relative to Dadda multipliers, and from 2.9 to 9.0 percent relative to Wallace multipliers.