Nonclassical behavior of the mouse CD1 class I-like molecule

The mouse CD1 (mCD1) molecule is a class I-like molecule that is encoded outside of the MHC. We show here that mCD1 shares several properties with Ag-presenting class I molecules, including a requirement for beta2-microglobulin for stable cell-surface expression in T lymphocyte transfectants and thymocytes. mCD1 is also capable of binding to mouse CD8alphabeta heterodimers participating in the activation of CD8+ T cells in a manner similar to classical class I molecules. However, mCD1 surface expression is not decreased at high temperatures in cells that lack the transporter associated with Ag processing (TAP), including both RMA-S and Drosophila melanogaster cells. The data indicate that mCD1 does not require TAP to be expressed in a stable fashion at the cell surface. We speculate that the ability of mCD1 to reach the cell surface in transporter-deficient cells may reflect its ability to present a distinct set of ligands. The properties of mCD1 described here can account, in part, for the selection of the diverse populations of T cells that are known to be mCD1 reactive.     

The excretion and characterization of intravenously administered olestra

Although sucrose octaoleate that is consumed is neither digested or absorbed, following intravenous injection it is found mainly in the liver. Olestra is a mixture of the hexa-, hepta-, and octaesters of sucrose. To follow the metabolic fate of intravenously administered [¹⁴C]sucrose-labeled olestra, we measured its urinary elimination, and the rate of excretion of¹⁴C in the feces, and characterized the¹⁴C-labeled material that appeared in bile. The fecal excretion for days 4–14 after dosing was found to be first order with the half-life of the injected olestra being 5.0±0.5 days. The¹⁴C recovered in the bile was soluble in chloroform. Two-dimensional thin-layer chromatography autoradiograms of the biliary lipid showed the pattern of the biliary¹⁴C to be essentially the same as that of the dosed olestra. Biliary excretion and subsequent fecal egestion of essentially unhydrolyzed sucrose esters is the principal route for the removal of intravenously administered olestra. Only traces of¹⁴C were found in the urine.     

Personality types of oncology nurses

Personality type influences the choice of occupation. The breadth of specialty areas within oncology nursing allows for divergent activities and relationships and, thus, the accommodation of different personality characteristics. This exploratory study examined personality types for a convenience sample of oncology nurses predominantly employed in hospitals. According to the personality typology defined by Carl Jung, a person demonstrates a preference among four dimensions, i.e., extraversion/introversion, sensory/intuition, thinking/feeling, and judging/perceiving. The type with the strongest self-selection for these oncology nurses was ISFJ, where feeling is introverted and perception is practical, so that helping others is both a responsibility and a pleasure. The discussion relates the personality types to Jung's theory and their impact in clinical practice. Strengths and weaknesses of each personality type are described.     

Identification of a New Yttrium Oxycarbide, Y2OC

A new face-centered-cubic (fee) compound has been identified in the system yttrium-oxygen-carbon (Y-O-C). Several synthesis routes with reaction temperatures from 930° to 2000°C produce the phase. Quantitative X-ray diffraction (XRD) phase analysis indicated the composition to be Y₂OC. The powder XRD pattern and refined lattice parameter are reported.     

Empirical investigation towards the effectiveness of Test First programming

The Test First (TF) programming, which is based on an iterative process of “setting up test cases, implementing the functionality, and having all test cases passed”, has been put forward for decades, however knowledge of the evidence of the Test First programming’s success is limited. This paper describes a controlled experiment that investigated the distinctions between the effectiveness of Test First and that of Test Last (TL) (the traditional approach). The experimental results showed that Test First teams spent a larger percentage of time on testing. The achievable minimum external quality of delivered software applications increased with the percentage of time spent on testing regardless of the testing strategy (TF or TL) applied, although there does not exist a linear correlation between them. With four years’ data, it is also found that a strong linear correlation between the amount of effort spent on testing and coding in Test First teams, while this phenomenon was not observed in Test Last teams.     

Prediction of thoracic injury severity in frontal impacts by selected anatomical morphomic variables through model-averaged logistic regression approach

This study resulted in a model-averaging methodology that predicts crash injury risk using vehicle, demographic, and morphomic variables and assesses the importance of individual predictors. The effectiveness of this methodology was illustrated through analysis of occupant chest injuries in frontal vehicle crashes.     

Surgical and nonsurgical management of primary and metastatic liver tumors

The medical records of 267 patients who had liver tumors, primary and metastatic, from 1988 to 1995 were retrospectively reviewed. Two hundred thirteen patients (80%) had metastatic disease, and 54 patients (20%) had primary liver disease. Their clinical manifestations and laboratory values were evaluated as factors predictive of diagnosis and survival. There was a significant increase in the occurrence of upper abdominal pain, weight loss, extrahepatic symptoms due to the metastatic origin, and hepatomegaly. Metastases from colorectal primary lesions were synchronous in 34 patients and metachronous in 31 patients. Stomach, lung, and pancreatic primaries were more commonly synchronous. Breast metastases were more commonly metachronous. Elevated serum glutamic-oxaloecetic transaminase and alkaline phosphatase and decreased albumin were the most common liver test abnormalities at diagnosis. Carcinoembryonic antigen values were elevated in the majority of colon cancer patients. Eighty-one percent of patients with primary liver cancer had elevated levels of alpha-fetoprotein, 40 per cent were seropositive for hepatitis B, and 23 per cent were seropositive for hepatitis C. Seventy-nine patients (30%) underwent surgery for their cancer, 37 (47%) had resections, 38 (48%) were unresectable, and 4 (5%) underwent liver transplantation. The patients who underwent surgery had a 32 per cent 5-year survival rate compared to a 0 per cent 5-year survival in the patients who did not have surgery (p = 0.0001). The patients who had resections had a better survival rate than those deemed unresectable at surgery (62% versus 0% at 5-years with p = 0.0008). The perioperative morbidity rate was 16 per cent, with lobectomies having the best rate and trisegmentectomies having the worst. Perioperative mortality rate was zero for all liver resections. Hepatic resection and, in selected patients, liver transplantation are the only two available therapeutic modalities that produce long-term survival with a possible cure in patients with primary and metastatic liver tumor.