Surveillance on Vi-II phage typing and antimicrobial susceptibilities of S. typhi strains in Beijing City

From 1973 to 1989, 961 strains of S. typhi collected in Beijing City were tested for their Vi-II phage typing and antimicrobial susceptibilities. The results of phage typing showed that 38 types were found with a high prevalence of types A, D2, E1, K1, D5, D1, O, D4, and L1. The results of antimicrobial susceptibilities showed that all of the 168 local strains were highly susceptible to chloramphenicol, similar to the 96 phage typing standard strains.     

Suppression of tumorigenicity and metastasis of human renal carcinoma cells by infection with retroviral vectors harboring the murine inducible nitric oxide synthase gene

The purpose of this study was to determine whether retrovirus-mediated transfer of the murine macrophage inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) gene can inhibit tumorigenicity and metastasis of human renal cancer cells. Retroviral vectors encoding murine macrophage iNOS were constructed in the pLXSN retroviral vector with the iNOS gene under the control of a long terminal repeat promoter and a neomycin resistance gene under the control of an internal simian virus 40 promoter. Highly metastatic human renal carcinoma SN12PM6 cells were infected with control or iNOS retrovirus. Expression of iNOS was confirmed by Northern and Western blot analyses, and expression of the functional iNOS protein, i.e., production of nitric oxide (NO), was determined by measuring nitrite accumulation in culture supernatants. Noninfected or control cells produced large orthotopic tumors in the kidney of nude mice and a larger number of experimental lung metastases, whereas iNOS-infected cells produced small tumors in the kidneys and few to no lung metastases. The data indicate that the infection of human renal cancer cells by retroviruses harboring the murine iNOS gene can induce the production of high levels of NO, which is associated with autocytotoxicity, suppression of tumorigenicity, and abrogation of metastasis.     

Synthesis of adenine derivatives and their activities against herpes virus in vitro

A series of 9-(N4-substituted acetaldehyde thiosemicarbazone) adenines were synthesized and evaluated for antiherpes virus activity. Compounds 4a-l were prepared by condensation of 9-(acetaldehyde) adenine(6) and the corresponding N4-substituted thiosemicarbazides (10). The antiviral effects of all compounds 4a-l were tested in vitro in primary rabbit kidney cell cultures infected with herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and varicella-herpes zoster virus (VZV), and in primary human embryo cell cultures infected with herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2). The results showed that the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of 4e and 4f for HSV-1 and VZV were 20, 40, 20 and 20 micrograms.ml-1, respectively, and other compounds were 200 micrograms.ml-1. For HSV-2, the MIC of all tested compounds were 300 micrograms.ml-1. We also evaluated the antiherpetic effect of 4e (and 4f) by combination with acyclovir (ACV) in the ratio of 1:1 in vitro. The MIC of the combined compounds were 2 micrograms.ml-1 for 4e and 6 micrograms.ml-1 for 4f, while their minimum cytotoxicities (MCC) in the cell were markedly reduced compared with the individual compounds.     

Absorption of CO2 by alkaline electrolyte and its effect on electrical discharge

Freshly prepared 37% potassium hydroxide was exposed to the atmosphere. Samples were taken periodically to measure amount of absorbed CO₂ and their specific conductance. After exposure for 10 months, the solution was virtually neutralized by absorption of CO₂. Effects of CO₂ content and KOH concentration on the discharge characteristics of the silver-zinc cell were tested. Discharge capacity was decreased when CO₂ content reached beyond 3%, and KOH concentration dropped to below 30%. Polarization experiments on silver oxide and zinc electrodes showed that only the zinc electrode was affected. Observation of the current-time behaviour lead to the equation (i-i ₁)=kt _p ^?1/2 , and X-ray diffraction showed that the passivation layer was ZnO.     

Effect of formaldehyde on Cu(II) removal from synthetic complexed solutions by solvent extraction

The effect of formaldehyde (HCHO) on the extraction of Cu(II) from an equimolar EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, H4L) solution with Aliquat 336 in kerosene (a quaternary amine) was examined. Experiments were carried out at different initial concentrations of Cu(II) (1.57-5 mol/m3), solution pH (3.0-8.0), HCHO concentrations (0-3 vol.%), Aliquat 336 concentrations (80-400 mol/m3), and temperatures (15-35 degrees C). It was shown that the distribution ratios (D) of Cu(II), which exists in the form of complexed anions CuL2-, increased with increasing equilibrium pH (pHeq), but reached a plateau at pHeq>4 for the system without HCHO and at pHeq>4.5 for the system with 1 vol.% HCHO. The D values increased with increasing HCHO concentration, likely due to the reduction of Cu(II) to Cu(I) by HCHO in solution. A semi-empirical two-parameter model was proposed to describe the extraction equilibrium, in which the non-ideality in organic phases was considered. The thermodynamic parameters were also evaluated and discussed.     

Stimulation of the prefrontal cortex in the rat induces patterns of activity in midbrain dopaminergic neurons which resemble natural burst events

Ro41-0960 is a potent, fluorine containing COMT inhibitor which has be en reported to cross the blood brain barrier and to inhibit COMT in the brain. It is structurally similar to Ro40-7592 which is currently undergoing clinical trials in Parkinson's disease. Positron emission tomographic (PET) studies in baboon using F-18 labeled Ro41-0960 demonstrated a negligible uptake in the brain both at tracer doses and with the addition of unlabeled drug (1.5 mg/kg) at all times through a 90 min experimental interval. The brain to plasma ratios of F-18 averaged about 0.025. Region of interest analysis of the brain tissue area suggests that most of F-18 in the brain was due to the blood in the brain and not the brain tissue itself. However, high uptake was observed in the kidneys and in other organs which are known to have high COMT activity. Studies in mice showed that at 30 min after injection of tracer, F-18 in kidneys was largely as unchanged [18F]Ro41-0960 and that it could be displaced with unlabeled Ro41-0960. The fact that the average brain to blood ratio for mice (n=12) was 0.04, and that similar HPLC metabolite patterns were observed for brain and blood, provides consistent evidence that nearly all the F-18 in the brain represents F-18 in the cerebral blood vessels. These studies raise the question of whether the central pharmacological effects of Ro41-0960 are due to its presence in the brain. They also provide the first example of a positron emitter labeled radiotracer for COMT, and provide initial encouraging evidence that [18F]Ro41-0960 may be used to examine COMT in peripheral organs in vivo.     

Efficient algorithms for optimistic crash recovery

Summary Recovery from transient processor failures can be achieved by using optimistic message logging and checkpointing. The faulty processorsroll back, and some/all of the non-faulty processors also may have to roll back. This paper formulates the rollback problem as a closure problem. A centralized closure algorithm is presented together with two efficient distributed implementations. Several related problems are also considered and distributed algorithms are presented for solving them. S. Venkatesan received the B. Tech. and M. Tech degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in 1981 and 1983, respectively and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1985 and 1988. He joined the University of Texas at Dallas in January 1989, where he is currently an Assistant Professor of Computer Science. His research interests are in fault-tolerant distributed systems, distributed algorithms, testing and debugging distributed programs, fault-tolerant telecommunication networks, and mobile computing. Tony Tony-Ying Juang is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the Chung-Hwa Polytechnic Institute. He received the B.S. degree in Naval Architecture from the National Taiwan University in 1983 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Dallas in 1989 and 1992, respectively. His research interests include distributed algorithms, fault-tolerant distributed computing, distributed operating systems and computer communications.This research was supported in part by NSF under Grant No. CCR-9110177 and by the Texas Advanced Technology Program under Grant No. 9741-036