Aminopeptidases in cells of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of varying degrees of malignancy and in lymphogranulomatosis

26 cases of lymphoproliferative diseases were studied: 8 cases of reactive follicular hyperplasia (RFH), 11 cases of non-Hodgkin's malignant lymphomas (NML), 7 cases of lymphogranulomatosis (LGM). Only gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) was found in lymphoid cells of B- and T-dependent areas of lymph nodes with reactive changes as well as in tumor cells of NML and LGM. GGT activity was more pronounced in NML of high-grade malignancy (centroblast and immunoblast) as compared to lymphomas of lower grade of malignancy (lymphocytic, centroblast-centrocytic and in Lennert lymphoma). GGT activity in cells of Hodgkin and Berezovsky-Sterberg in some cases of LGM was high, in others low. Significant differences in GGT activity between RFH and follicular centroblast-centrocytic lymphoma were not found. Activity of aminopeptidase M was observed in histiocytes, fibroblasts, vessels and areas of connective tissue growth. Aminopeptidase A activity was observed in vessels only. Activity of dipeptidyl(amino)peptidase IV was observed in some lymphoid cells in RFH, NML and LGM. Thus, GGT activity may be considered as a differential-diagnostic marker in separating NML of high and low degree of malignancy and this may presume a different sensitivity to the therapy.     

Role of Epstein-Barr virus in fine-needle aspirates of metastatic neck nodes in the diagnosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma

The crystal structure of the peptide Boc-Phe-Val-OMe determined by X-ray diffraction methods is reported in this paper. The crystals grown from aqueous methanol are orthorhombic, space group P2(1)2(1)2(1),a = 11.843(2), b = 21.493(4), c = 26.676(4) A3 and V = 6790 A3. Data were collected on a CAD4 diffractometer using MoK alpha radiation (lambda = 0.7107 A) up to Bragg angle theta = 26 degrees. The structure was solved by direct methods and refined by a least-squares procedure to an R value of 6.8% for 3288 observed reflections. There are three crystal-lographically independent peptide molecules in the asymmetric unit. All the three molecules exhibit extended conformation. The sidechain of the Val2 residue shows two different conformations. The conformation of the peptide Boc-Phe-Val-OMe is compared with the conformation of Ac-delta Phe-Val-OH. It is observed that while Boc-Phe-Val-OMe exhibits an extended conformation, Ac-delta Phe-Val-OH shows a folded conformation. The results of this comparison highlight the conformation constraining property of the delta Phe residue. Interestingly, even though Boc-Phe-Val-OMe and Ac-delta Phe-Val-OH are conformationally different, they exhibit similar packing patterns in the solid state.     

聚酯酰胺热熔胶的合成及其性能研究

研究了以聚酯胶和聚酰胺胶为原料在催化剂作用下加热共熔,通过大分子链交换反应制备织物用聚酯酰胺热熔胶的方法。用聚酯胶的溶剂对所得产品进行溶取试验并且通过红外光谱分析都证明了链交换反应的存在。用该法所得产品粘接强度大,既耐水洗又耐干洗,适用于粘合衬生产。     

Gas-Chromatographic Analyses of the Subcaudal Gland Secretion of the European Badger (Meles meles) Part I: Chemical Differences Related to Individual Parameters

In many species, chemical signals are important in the context of intraspecific communication. European badgers (Meles meles) use the secretion of their subcaudal gland to mark both the environment and conspecifics. In this paper, we investigated the chemical composition of subcaudal gland secretions and how it varies among individuals according to group membership, season, sex, age, body condition, and reproductive status. We analyzed 66 samples by gas chromatography using a mass-spectrometer as detector. We found 110 different components, of which 21 were present in every profile. The chemical composition of the secretions proved to be highly individual-specific, but no single peak was found to be typical for one of the investigated categories (season, sex, etc.). Analyses of the relative area (% area) that every peak contributed to the overall profile area showed that, in general, group members have more similar profiles than do badgers from different groups. Composition varied over seasons and between sexes and was influenced by age, body condition, and reproductive status. We, therefore, conclude that the secretion not only encodes group membership and individuality as previously assumed, but might also convey information about fitness-related parameters.     

Permeation of gases through modified polymer films. V. Permeation and diffusion of helium,nitrogen, methane,ethane, and propane through γ-ray crosslinked polyethylene

The permeation and diffusion of helium, nitrogen, methane, ethane, and propane through γ-irradiated polyethylene films were investigated. These studies were carried out with two objectives in mind: (1) to determine the effect of crosslinking by γ irradiation on permeability and diffusivity using the gas molecules as molecular probes; and (2) to study the plasticizing effects of the low hydrocarbons on the polyethylene film. The γ-ray-induced crosslinking efficiency of polyethylene was investigated in the following irradiation atmospheres: vacuum, acetylene, and nitrogen–acetylene mixtures. Results showed that irradiation in acetylene decreased the crosslinking efficiency while an acetylene–nitrogen atmosphere increased the efficiency compared to irradiation in vacuum. Both the permeation constants and the diffusion coefficients were found to decrease with increasing irradiation dose while the activation energies increased. The permeation constants of the organic gases through polyethylene increased with molecular diameter while the diffusion coefficients decreased. This increase in permeability was attributed to an increase in the solubility due to solubilization of the membrane by the penetrant. For example, the molecular diameter of propane is 4.397 Å compared with 2.807 Å for methane; however, propane permeated the polyethylene film at a rate twice that of methane. Nitrogen and methane have approximately the same molecular diameters—2.7085 and 2.807 Å, respectively—but owing to the plasticizing effect of methane, it permeated the film at a rate three times greater than that of nitrogen. It is interesting to note that the stronger the plasticizing ability of the penetrant, the greater the effect of the irradiation dose. The permeability of propane decreased by 40.7%, while the permeability of helium decreased by 6.4% after an irradiation dose of 50 Mrad.     

A Numerical Study of Diagonally Split Runge–Kutta Methods for PDEs with Discontinuities

Diagonally split Runge–Kutta (DSRK) time discretization methods are a class of implicit time-stepping schemes which offer both high-order convergence and a form of nonlinear stability known as unconditional contractivity. This combination is not possible within the classes of Runge–Kutta or linear multistep methods and therefore appears promising for the strong stability preserving (SSP) time-stepping community which is generally concerned with computing oscillation-free numerical solutions of PDEs. Using a variety of numerical test problems, we show that although second- and third-order unconditionally contractive DSRK methods do preserve the strong stability property for all time step-sizes, they suffer from order reduction at large step-sizes. Indeed, for time-steps larger than those typically chosen for explicit methods, these DSRK methods behave like first-order implicit methods. This is unfortunate, because it is precisely to allow a large time-step that we choose to use implicit methods. These results suggest that unconditionally contractive DSRK methods are limited in usefulness as they are unable to compete with either the first-order backward Euler method for large step-sizes or with Crank–Nicolson or high-order explicit SSP Runge–Kutta methods for smaller step-sizes. We also present stage order conditions for DSRK methods and show that the observed order reduction is associated with the necessarily low stage order of the unconditionally contractive DSRK methods. The work of C.B. Macdonald was partially supported by an NSERC Canada PGS-D scholarship, a grant from NSERC Canada, and a scholarship from the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS). The work of S. Gottlieb was supported by AFOSR grant number FA9550-06-1-0255. The work of S.J. Ruuth was partially supported by a grant from NSERC Canada.     

Level Set Equations on Surfaces via the Closest Point Method

Level set methods have been used in a great number of applications in ?² and ?³ and it is natural to consider extending some of these methods to problems defined on surfaces embedded in ?³ or higher dimensions. In this paper we consider the treatment of level set equations on surfaces via a recent technique for solving partial differential equations (PDEs) on surfaces, the Closest Point Method (Ruuth and Merriman, J. Comput. Phys. 227(3):1943–1961, [2008]). Our main modification is to introduce a Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory (WENO) interpolation step into the Closest Point Method. This, in combination with standard WENO for Hamilton–Jacobi equations, gives high-order results (up to fifth-order) on a variety of smooth test problems including passive transport, normal flow and redistancing. The algorithms we propose are straightforward modifications of standard codes, are carried out in the embedding space in a well-defined band around the surface and retain the robustness of the level set method with respect to the self-intersection of interfaces. Numerous examples are provided to illustrate the flexibility of the method with respect to geometry.