Local progression of atherosclerosis after optimal directional atherectomy. Endocoronary ultrasonography of 17 patients

In vivo endovascular ultrasonography has confirmed the extension of atheroma to angiographically normal segments. The authors set out to determine by endocoronary ultrasonography if the introduction of the atherotome changed the intimal thickness 20 mm proximal and distal to the site treated. The area circumscribed by the external elastic layer (EEL) and the surface area of the lumen was measured in 17 patients: 1) before atherectomy; 2) after atherectomy; 3) at control 6 months later. Atherectomy immediately increased the luminal area at the site dilated from 1.9 + 0.9 to 8.1 +/- 2mm (p < 0.001). At the proximal segment, the surface area of the lumen was unchanged (mean + 0.6 +/- 1.5 mm2; p = 0.13). Similarly the procedure did not change the surface circumscribed by the EEL (mean + 0.8 +/- 3.2 mm2; p = 0.32) in this zone. The same results were observed at the distal site. At 6 months, the areas under the EEL and those of the lumen were unchanged at the unoperated sites. The mean of the differences (+/- 1 SD) for the area under the EEL was respectively -0.2 +/- 1.5 mm2 proximally and +0.7 +/- 2.5 mm2 distally. The means for the luminal area were 0.2 +/- 1 mm2 proximally and -0.01 +/- 1.1 mm2; distally. At the site of atherectomy, the luminal surface increased (+2.0 +/- 2.6 mm2; p < 0.01) as did the area under the EEL (+2.0 +/- 3.5 mm2; p < 0.05). This preliminary series shows no significant progression of atherosclerosis at the sites not affected by atherectomy.     

Decreased expression of bcl-2 (p26) in CD8(+) lymphocytes of patients with T-cell lymphoproliferative disorders of large granular lymphocytes

The objective of the present study was to identify the polychlorinated biphenyl congeners of Aroclor 1254 that are responsible for the induction of the cytosolic bioactivation of aromatic amines. Various chlorobiphenyls, ranging from di- to hexa-substituted, were administered to rats and the ability of the hepatic cytosol to bioactivate 2-aminoanthracene and 2-aminofluorene was investigated. These studies revealed that the induction of the cytosolic activation of aromatic amines increased with the increasing extent of chlorination; moreover, planar congeners were more effective inducers of this activity compared to their non-planar isomers. This observation prompted us to investigate whether the cytosolic activation of aromatic amines is associated with the Ah receptor. Treatment of mice with Aroclor 1254 stimulated the cytosolic activation of aromatic amines in C57BL6 mice, an Ah-responsive strain, whereas it had no effect in DBA2 mice, a non-responsive strain. These findings indicate that the bioactivation of aromatic amines by the liver cytosol is linked to the Ah receptor.     

Power and mean flow characteristics in mixing vessels agitated by hyperboloid stirrers

The mean flow and energy consumption in vessels powered by hyperboloid stirrers was investigated. The Newton number followed an inverse linear law for Reynolds numbers below approximately 200, which had values more than twice higher the corresponding Newton number for a standard Rushton turbine. At high Reynolds number flows the Power number varied between 0.5 for a D/T = 0.78 impeller to 0.95 for a D/T = 0.24 impeller, as compared to a value of 5 for the standard Rushton stirrer, and to values of 0.31 and 1.58 for the Chemineer and Prochern hydrofoils. The power consumption did not change with the fluid height and was double for the double-stack configuration. The shear ribs below the impeller were the main contributor to the increased energy loss relative to a non-shear ribbed impeller and the small clearance had no major effect upon the power consumption. For the D/T= 1/3 hyperboloid stirrer the flow in the whole tank was rather gentle, defining a circulation number of 0.57, thus leading to a circulation efficiency more than 7 times lower than that of the hydrofoils.     

Intelligent Transportation Systems

This issues Works in Progress department features 10 interesting ongoing intelligent transportation systems projects. The first five projects (TIME, Sentient Transport, EVT, DynaCHINA, TrafficView) focus on traffic and vehicular data collection, transmission, and analysis. The sixth projects aims to provide intelligent-copilot services for driven, while the seventh focuses on asset identification and data collection for railroad environments. The eighth and ninth projects are budding application development environments for automobiles, and the tenth project is designing a multimodal biometric identification system for travel documents     

In vitro effect of complete Staphylococcus aureus extract on chemotaxis of polymorphonuclear cells in children with bronchial asthma and chronic relapsing upper airways infections

Chemokinesis and chemotaxis were measured in polymorphonuclear cells (PMN) from 51 children aged 1 to 8 years old, of either sex. Case group--41 non-allergic asthmatic children with chronic relapsing upper airways infections, diagnostic criteria were history of wheezing associated to an upper airways infection episode and negative skin tests. Control group: 10 healthy children. A sample of 10 ml of peripheral venous blood was drawn. PMN were incubated with Hank's solution to measure chemokinesis and with C5a and Staphylococcus aureus extract to measure chemotaxis. Chemokinesis values in healthy control children and in patients with non-allergic bronchial asthma were of 46.0 +/- 7.1 vs 23.8 +/- 6.1 microns (p < 0.01). C5a-stimulated chemotaxis values in healthy control children and in patients with non-allergic bronchial asthma were of 91.0 +/- 21.3 vs 92.3 +/- 21.0 microns (ns), and Staphylococcus aureus extract-stimulated chemotaxis values in healthy control children and in patients with non-allergic bronchial asthma were of 97.0 +/- 22.4 vs 92.0 +/- 23.0 microns (ns). These results suggest that PMN from children with non-atopic asthma have reduced chemokinesis. After a chemotactic stimulus with C5a and bacterial extract, leukocyte motility is corrected and reach similar values to that present in healthy children.     

A Cooperative Architecture for Hypermedia Editing – CoMEdiA

CoMEdiA is a cooperative hypermedia editing prototype, which enables co-authors to cooperatively produce hypermedia documents. It allows co-authors to communicate their ideas, drafts, guidelines, constraints, and annotations with other co-authors in order to exchange information (remotely or face-to-face), improvepassages and modify notes until a final document is achieved. We did not concentrate on the depth but on the breadth of the features. Our efforts were on integrating and coordinating concepts from collaboration, multimedia, and hyper organization rather than on making a specialized system in any of them. Our first step was to investigate issues in group editing and cooperation. Then we started by having text in our documents, later static images, and 2D-Graphics. This procedure was adopted because we felt these were the most simple media to integrate and process.     

The thermal conductivity of benzene and toluene

The thermal conductivity of liquid toluene and benzene was measured in the temperature range 298 to 370 K, near the saturation line, using an absolute transient hot-wire technique. The measurements were made in a modified version of an existing instrument, equipped with a new automatic Wheatstone bridge, computer controlled. The bridge measures the time that the resistance of a 7-m-diameter platinum wire takes to reach predetermined values, programmed by the computer. The computer can generate up to 1024 analog voltages, via a 12-bit D/A converter. The accuracy of the measurements with this new arrangement was assessed by measuring the thermal conductivity of a primary standard, toluene, at several temperatures and was found to be of the order of 0.3%. Benzene was chosen because it is under study as a possible secondary standard for liquid thermal conductivity by the Subcommittee on Transport Properties of IUPAC.Paper presented at the Tenth Symposium on Thermophysical Properties, June 20–23, 1988, Gaithersburg, Maryland, U.S.A.     

Development of biodegradable PLA/PBT nanoblends

Poly(lactic acid)/poly(butylene terephthalate) (PLA/PBT) blends with 3, 5, and 10 wt % of PBT were produced in a twin‐screw extruder, with the addition of ethylene–glycidyl methacrylate copolymer as compatibilizer. An uncompatibilized PLA/PBT blend with 5 wt % of PBT was prepared for comparison studies. The epoxy reactive groups in the compatibilizer allowed modification of the interfacial tension in the blends and reduced the PBT dimensions. The crystallinity of the blends was studied, and its influence on mechanical properties was analyzed. Tensile tests showed an increase in strain at break from 3% for neat PLA to 49% for PLA with 3 wt % PBT, while the tensile modulus dropped from 3.59 GPa to 3.35 GPa for the same samples. Izod results showed a transition from a brittle behavior of PLA to a ductile one for compatibilized blends. These results indicate that the nanometer‐size dispersed phase was effective in changing the deformation behavior of the matrix without a significant loss of modulus. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135, 45951.