Adoptive immunotherapy with donor mononuclear cell infusions to treat relapse of acute leukemia or myelodysplasia after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation

Relapse remains a significant problem after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). For patients with relapsed chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), infusions of donor mononuclear cells (MNC) provide a potent graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) reaction inducing complete remissions in the majority of patients. Little is known about the efficacy of donor MNC infusions for patients who relapse with other diseases. We have studied the GVL effects of donor MNC in eight patients with relapsed acute leukemia or myelodysplasia (MDS). One patient with relapsed MDS achieved complete remission and another patient had a transient response. Five of six non-responders died of progressive leukemia and one non-responder died of complications during second BMT. Three patients developed grade I-II acute GVHD responsive to immunosuppression. These data, and review of the literature, suggest that GVL induction with donor MNC infusions is less effective for patients with relapsed acute leukemia than for patients with relapsed CML; too few patients with relapsed MDS have been treated to draw definite conclusions. However, some patients respond, and given the high mortality associated with alternative procedures such as second BMT, donor MNC infusions are a reasonable approach for relapsed acute leukemia and MDS after allogeneic BMT.     

Changes in paO2 and of acid-base equilibrium of the arterial blood of hypoxemic polyglobulic patients subjected to acute blood depletion

Partial respiratory gas tension and acid-base equilibrium patterns were examined in polyglobulic patients subjected to acute blood depletion. The increase in oxyhaemoglobin concentration and fall in haematocrit value already described were confirmed. It was also noted that: 1) pH increased significantly in all subjects; 2) urinary osmolarity increased in all subjects; 3) blood sodium and potassium concentration increased significantly in 14 patients (1st group), but fell in the 2nd group (8 subjects). It is suggested, therefore, that acute blood depletion changes renal reabsorption of the main electrolytes, i.e. increased values in cases where a fall in glomerular arteriolar pressure leads to increased renal medullary osmolarity, and decreased values where a fall in circulation leads to increased arteriolar pressure, hyperosmolarity of the medulla, and retainment of liquids as opposed to electrolytes.     

Proprietes des betons realises avec des granulats de differentes densites

The recent development of concrete technology is more and more frequently leading to the use of special concretes having different densities compared with the normal concrete. This result is obtained by the use of aggregates with different densities, whose characteristics are so important that they often affect the properties of concrete decisively. whose characteristics are so important that they often affect the properties of concrete decisively. Four different concretes were prepared employing different light-weight aggregates (one composed of expanded clay and another one of sintered pulverised fuel-ash), normal gravel and heavy weight aggregates. An almost monodimensional size of the grains and a constant volumetric ratio between the aggregates and a reference mortar have been fixed up so that the concrete properties obtained can be immediately correlated with the aggregate characteristics. In this paper the results of multiaxial compressive strength tests on cubic specimens are described, with reference to strain measurements too. Furthermore, both the bending and splitting tests and the shrinkage and creep measurements give more information on concrete-aggregate relation and show how the density of aggregates affects the properties of concrete.     

New soldering processes and solder systems for hybrid microsystems: developments and applications

One of the promising joining technologies for the assembly of hybrid microsystems is soldering. This technique meets the specific requirements of the microstructures, like a high flexibility concerning materials and geometry and low process temperatures ensuring the function of the joined components. Soldering offers the possibility of joining different materials in an easy way. Regarding the temperature aspects, the soldering processes can be carried out by low temperature to guarantee any damages in the joined components. Two soldering technologies are examined in this study: transient liquid phase (TLP) bonding and active soldering. Active solders based on Sn and different TLP systems have been developed and optimised according to the requests of the microsystems being joined. The application of the solder systems by magnetron sputter physical vapour deposition has been investigated. The deposition temperature has to be lower than the later joining temperature and lower than the melting points of the solder materials. This fact is a great challenge for the PVD process. The presented investigations and results are acquired within the project SFB 440 “Assembly of Hybrid Microsystems”, financed by the “German Research Foundation” (DFG).     

Comments on "Fusion of body surface potential and body surface Laplacian signals for electrocardiographic imaging"

D.B. Geselowitz and J. Ferrara comment on a paper by R.D. Throne and L.G. Olson which was published in ibid., vol.47, p. 452-62 (2000). Throne and Olson reply to these comments. The discussion concerns the use of a spherical model and a body surface Laplacian in the solution of the electrocardiographic inverse problem and the influence of noise     

Stress Measurement Technique to Monitor Porous Silicon Processing

Macroscopic stress measurements are used to monitor Porous Silicon processing. Silicon wafer of 1 cm resistivity, n-type and 1 0 0 orientation were used as starting material. Porous Silicon layers with a porosity of 57% and a thickness of 85 m, fabricated by electrochemical anodisation, were differently dried, then the evolution of the wafer deflection has been followed with storage time in air. Thermal treatments both in inert and oxidant atmosphere have been performed up to 1000°C. The stress behaviour vs. temperature allows to estimate the hydrogen desorption activation energy.     

Nanopatterned platinum electrodes by focused ion beam in single palladium nanowire based devices

In this paper we present different devices, working as hydrogen sensors, based on single palladium nanowire and realized combining focused ion beam and dielectrophoresis techniques. The combination of these two techniques consists in the employ of focused ion beam for electrode patterning onto silicon/silicon dioxide substrates, followed by the assembly of a single palladium nanowire applying between electrodes an electric field at fixed frequency (dielectrophoresis) to a palladium nanoparticles solution. The nanowire morphology can be branched or not, depending on the applied frequency value. The devices are characterized in hydrogen environment at room temperature and their responses are compared.     

Observation of contrast agent response to chirp insonation with a simultaneous optical-acoustical system

Rayleigh-Plesset analysis, ultra-high speed photography, and single bubble acoustical recordings previously were applied independently to characterize the radial oscillation and resulting echoes from a microbubble in response to an ultrasonic pulse. In addition, high-speed photography has shown that microbubbles are destroyed over a single pulse or pulse train by diffusion and fragmentation. In order to develop a single model to characterize microbubble echoes based on oscillatory and destructive characteristics, an optical-acoustical system was developed to simultaneously record the optical image and backscattered echo from each microbubble. Combined observation provides the opportunity to compare predictions for oscillation and echoes with experimental results and identify discrepancies due to diffusion or fragmentation. Optimization of agents and insonating pulse parameters may be facilitated with this system. The mean correlation of the predicted and experimental radius-time curves and echoes exceeds 0.7 for the parameters studied here. An important application of this new system is to record and analyze microbubble response to a long pulse in which diffusion is shown to occur over the pulse duration. The microbubble response to an increasing or decreasing chirp is evaluated using this new tool. For chirp insonation beginning with the lower center frequency, low-frequency modulation of the oscillation envelope was obvious. However, low-frequency modulation was not observed in the radial oscillation produced by decreasing chirp insonation. Comparison of the echoes from similar sized microbubbles following increasing and decreasing chirp insonation demonstrated that the echoes were not time-reversed replicas. Using a transmission pressure of 620 kPa, the -6 dB echo length was 0.9 and 1.1 micros for increasing and decreasing chirp insonation, respectively (P = 0.02). The mean power in the low-frequency portion of the echoes was 8 (mV)2 and 13 (mV)2 for increasing and decreasing chirp insonation, respectively (P = 0.01).