Quantitation of intrathecal measles virus IgG antibody synthesis rate: subacute sclerosing panencephalitis and multiple sclerosis

A method for quantitating specific anti-viral antibodies in serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is established using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Quantitated antibody levels are used to determine intrathecal specific IgG synthesis rate for the particular antibody. Measles virus was used as a model for validating this quantitative technique: a mutated form of measles virus is a cause of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) and there is a possibility that measles virus is related to the cause of multiple sclerosis (MS). Matched serum and CSF samples were assayed. Concentration of anti-measles IgG was determined and intrathecal measles-specific IgG synthesis rate was calculated. For the SSPE samples, measles-specific IgG synthesis rate was elevated and comprised > 20% of the total intrathecal IgG synthesis rate; these results are consistent with the literature. The ELISA method can be performed routinely, providing a quick, simple, reproducible means of quantitating specific antibody concentrations, with sensitivity greater than 1 nanogram per milliliter. With this method, quantitation of IgG antibodies to any other viral antigen can be reliably and precisely determined.     

Analysis of a human cDNA containing a tissue-specific alternatively spliced LIM domain

A unique clone, isolated from a human pancreatic cDNA library, was sequenced and characterized. Northern blot analysis showed that the gene is active in a number of fetal and adult tissues, and immunoblots showed expression in nuclear and cytosolic cell fractions. The gene corresponding to the clone was localized to chromosome 13 by human/rodent somatic cell hybrid panels. The largest open reading frame contains a LIM domain, and the deduced peptide from the open reading frame appears to have the characteristics of a LIM-only protein, designated LMO7. RT-PCR and genomic sequence analyses indicate that expression of this gene product is subject to tissue-specific modulation by elimination of the LIM domain by alternative splicing in neural tissues.     

Spatially resolved X-ray diffraction phase mapping and α → β → α transformation kinetics in the heat-affected zone of commercially pure titanium arc welds

Spatially resolved X-ray diffraction (SRXRD) is used to map the α → β → α phase transformation in the heat-affected zone (HAZ) of commercially pure titanium gas tungsten arc welds. In situ SRXRD experiments were conducted using a 180-μm-diameter X-ray beam at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) (Stanford, CA) to probe the phases present in the HAZ of a 1.9 kW weld moving at 1.1 mm/s. Results of sequential linear X-ray diffraction scans made perpendicular to the weld direction were combined to construct a phase transformation map around the liquid weld pool. This map identifies six HAZ microstructural regions between the liquid weld pool and the base metal: (1) α-Ti that is undergoing annealing and recrystallization; (2) completely recrystallized α-Ti; (3) partially transformed α-Ti, where α-Ti and β-Ti coexist; (4) single-phase β-Ti; (5) back-transformed α-Ti; and (6) recrystallized α-Ti plus back-transformed α-Ti. Although the microstructure consisted predominantly of α-Ti, both prior to and after the weld, the crystallographically textured starting material was altered during welding to produce different α-Ti textures within the resulting HAZ. Based on the travel speed of the weld, the α → β transformation was measured to take 1.83 seconds during heating, while the β → α transformation was measured to take 0.91 seconds during cooling. The α → β transformation was characterized to be dominated by long-range diffusional growth on the leading (heating) side of the weld, while the β → α transformation was characterized to be predominantly massive on the trailing (cooling) side of the weld, with a massive growth rate on the order of 100 μm/s.     

Supporting collaborative engineering design

The complexity of current engineering design demands the collaboration of specialists. Collaboration involves both communication between and coordination among members of a design team. Currently, design collaboration is carried out through the use of schedules, specifications and drawings which only capture the end results of the design process. They fail to record important design information such as the reasoning behind design decisions. In this paper, we describe a tool CADS, that supports collaboration in engineering design. CADS is based on an extension to the Axiomatic Design methodology which not only captures the design elements but also the rationale used to conceive them. CADS serves as a shared database of design information with facilities that support communication and coordination in engineering design.Currently at the Media Laboratory, MIT.     

Monte Carlo despeckling of transrectal ultrasound images of the prostate

In this paper, a novel stochastic method is developed for despeckling transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) images of the prostate. By incorporating the circular probe acquisition particularities and speckle noise statistics of TRUS images of the prostate into a likelihood-weighted Monte Carlo estimation scheme, the proposed method can better remove speckle noise while preserving image structures and details that are relevant for image screening, allowing for a better delineation of the lesion contour. Our in silico and in vivo experimental results are promising, which was confirmed by a clinical evaluation of the in vivo test cases by experienced clinicians, and indicate that our method potentially can perform better than other previously proposed methods.     

Bit transposition for very large scientific and statistical databases

Conventional access methods cannot be effectively used in large Scientific/Statistical Database (SSDB) applications. A file structure (called bit transposed file (BTF)) is proposed which offers several attractive features that are better suited for the special characteristics that SSDBs exhibit. This file structure is an extreme version of the (attribute) transposed file. The data are stored by vertical bit partitions. The bit patterns of attributes are assigned using one of several data encoding methods. Each of these encoding methods is appropriate for different query types. The bit partitions can also be compressed using a version of the run length encoding scheme. Efficient operators on compressed bit vectors have been developed and form the basis of a query language. Because of the simplicity of the file structure and query language, optimization problems for database design, query evaluation, and common subexpression removal can be formalized and efficient exact solution or near optimal solution can be achieved. In addition to selective power with low overheads for SSDBs, the BTF is also amenable to special parallel hardware. Results from experiments with the file structure suggest that this approach may be a reasonable alternative file structure for large SSDBs.     

High-speed milling of titanium alloys using binderless CBN tools

The performance of conventional tools is poor when used to machine titanium alloys. In this paper, a new tool material, which is binderless cubic boron nitride (BCBN), is used for high-speed milling of a widely used titanium alloy Ti–6Al–4V. The performance and the wear mechanism of the BCBN tool have been investigated when slot milling the titanium alloy in terms of cutting forces, tool life and wear mechanism. This type of tool manifests longer tool life at high cutting speeds. Observations based on the SEM and EDX suggest that adhesion of workpiece and attrition are the main wear mechanisms of the BCBN tool when used in high-speed milling of Ti–6Al–4V.     

Fluor SOx净化工艺--为俄罗斯绿色环境开发的将SO2转化为元素硫的经济技术

Fluor公司开发的Fluor SO_2净化工艺具有广泛多样的工艺布局,可以通过经济的方式定制脱除烟气中的有害组成。该工艺几乎能去除全部SO_2并减少CO排放。Fluor SO_x净化工艺的主要步骤已在多套工业装置中得到成功的证实。除技术可行、经济合理之外,Fluor SO_x净化工艺不会产生任何有害副产物,也不会遇到与SO_3 有关的腐蚀问题。此外,该工艺生产高纯度可市售的元素硫。论述了Fluor SO_x净化工艺的特征、技术和成本优势、设计和操作的简易性以及实施的便利性。     

3D soft-tissue tracking using spatial-color joint probability distribution and thin-plate spline model

Visual tracking techniques based on stereo endoscope are developed to measure tissue motion in robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery. However, accurate 3D tracking of tissue surfaces remains challenging due to complicated deformation, poor imaging conditions, specular reflections and other dynamic effects during surgery. This study employs a robust and efficient 3D tracking scheme with two independent recursive processes, namely kernel-based inter-frame motion estimation and model-based intra-frame 3D matching. In the first process, target region is represented in joint spatial-color space for robust estimation. By defining a probabilistic similarity measure, a mean-shift-based iterative algorithm is derived for location of the target region in a new image. In the second process, the thin-plate spline model is used to fit the 3D shape of tissue surfaces around the target region. An iterative algorithm based on an efficient second-order minimization technique is derived to compute optimal model parameters. The two processes can be computed in parallel. Their outputs are combined to recover 3D information about the target region. The performance of the proposed method is validated using phantom heart videos and in vivo videos acquired by the daVinci^®${\mathrm{daVinci}}^{\circledR }$ surgical robotic platform and a synthesized data set with known ground truth.