Influence of gender on prednisolone effects on whole blood T-cell deactivation and trafficking in rats

Consuming Sauropus androgynus, a Malaysian plant, to reduce body weight began to become fashionable in Taiwan in 1994. According to some reports, people consuming this vegetable developed lung injuries. From July to November 1995, there were 81 nonsmoking women admitted to our hospital. Thirty-six cases had respiratory symptoms/signs and the remaining 45 had no symptoms/signs. We investigated these patients with pulmonary function tests (PFT) and technetium-99m DTPA radioaerosol inhalation lung scintigraphies (DTPA lung scan), a test to evaluate the lung ventilation and alveolar epithelial permeability. Eighteen patients had abnormal results in PFT, including obstructive type (n = 17), restrictive type (n = 5), and both (n = 4). There were 33 patients with abnormalities in DTPA lung scans, including unhomogeneous deposition of DTPA radioaerosols (n = 19), faster clearance of radioaerosols from lung (n = 26), and both (n = 12). Analyzing the results, we found that the patients with respiratory symptoms had a higher incidence of abnormal results of PFT and DTPA lung scans than the patients without respiratory symptoms (p < 0.05). Besides, we found that the DTPA lung scan was more sensitive than chest x-ray and PFT in detecting the lung injuries related to the consumption of S. androgynus (p < 0.05). Consuming S. androgynus can result in symptomatic or asymptomatic lung injuries, manifested as obstructive or restrictive ventilatory impairment, unhomogeneous radioaerosol distribution, and increased alveolar epithelial permeability. In addition, measurement of the 99mTc-DTPA clearance is the most sensitive test to detect the lung injuries caused by consuming S. androgynus.     

Natural history of early primary biliary cirrhosis

BACKGROUND: In 1986, we reported a group of 29 patients who were positive in serum for antimitochondrial antibody (AMA), the disease-specific marker for primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), but who had normal liver function test results and no symptoms of liver disease. However, liver histology was diagnostic or compatible with PBC in 24 patients and normal in only two. The aims of this 10-year follow-up study were to establish whether patients with AMA have very early PBC, to assess the outlook for such patients, and to follow the progression of the disease. METHODS: All patients were assessed every year at our PBC clinic: records were reviewed, cause of death verified when applicable, and current clinical and biochemical data collected, including repeat liver histology as indicated. Serum samples from the original study were located. Original and follow-up serum samples were tested by ELISA for E2 components of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex and 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase complex. FINDINGS: Five patients died during follow-up; no deaths were attributable to liver disease. Median follow-up of patients who survived was 17.8 years (range 11.0-23.9) from first-detected AMA to the last follow-up review. Overall, 22 (76%) developed symptoms of PBC and 24 (83%) had liver function tests persistently showing cholestasis. Repeat liver biopsy samples were obtained from ten patients; among these patients PBC progressed from Scheuer grade 1 to grade 2 in two and from grade 1 to grade 3 in two. No patient developed clinically apparent cirrhosis. ELISA of baseline serum samples from 27 patients was positive in 21, all of whom had original liver histology compatible with or diagnostic of PBC. Of the six patients who tested negative, only one had an original liver biopsy sample that was compatible with PBC. INTERPRETATION: This study confirms that before the advent of any clinical or biomedical indications, individuals positive for AMA do have PBC. This finding extends the natural history of PBC back in some cases for many years. What determines the eventual progression to biochemically and clinically apparent disease is not yet understood. During our study no patient developed clinically apparent portal hypertension or cirrhosis. Thus, although the finding of a solitary persistently raised AMA is confirmation of a diagnosis of PBC, patients with AMA but no other signs or symptoms of PBC seem to have slow progression of the disease.     

用异型模拉制高精度钼窄带的研究

广泛应用于国防及电信事业的钼窄带由于目前生产方法的局限性,其尺寸精度、表面质量及组织性能等远远不能够满足其指标要求,使其应用受到很大限制,采用圆钼丝轧制成钼窄带通过异型模拉制,然后根据所需尺寸调整异型模研制出符合要求的高精度钼窄带。     

Anisotropic mechanical amorphization drives wear in diamond

Diamond is the hardest material on Earth. Nevertheless, polishing diamond is possible with a process that has remained unaltered for centuries and is still used for jewellery and coatings: the diamond is pressed against a rotating disc with embedded diamond grit. When polishing polycrystalline diamond, surface topographies become non-uniform because wear rates depend on crystal orientations. This anisotropy is not fully understood and impedes diamond's widespread use in applications that require planar polycrystalline films, ranging from cutting tools to confinement fusion. Here, we use molecular dynamics to show that polished diamond undergoes an sp(3)-sp(2) order-disorder transition resulting in an amorphous adlayer with a growth rate that strongly depends on surface orientation and sliding direction, in excellent correlation with experimental wear rates. This anisotropy originates in mechanically steered dissociation of individual crystal bonds. Similarly to other planarization processes, the diamond surface is chemically activated by mechanical means. Final removal of the amorphous interlayer proceeds either mechanically or through etching by ambient oxygen.     

Smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulation of shear-induced powder migration in injection moulding

We present the application of the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) discretization scheme to Phillips' model for shear-induced particle migration in concentrated suspensions. This model provides an evolution equation for the scalar mean volume fraction of idealized spherical solid particles of equal diameter which is discretized by the SPH formalism. In order to obtain a discrete evolution equation with exact conservation properties we treat in fact the occupied volume of the solid particles as the degree of freedom for the fluid particles. We present simulation results in two- and three-dimensional channel flow. The two-dimensional results serve as a verification by a comparison to analytic solutions. The three-dimensional results are used for a comparison with experimental measurements obtained from computer tomography of injection moulded ceramic microparts. We observe the best agreement of measurements with snapshots of the transient simulation for a ratio D(c)/D(η)=0.1 of the two model parameters.     

Starch but not protein digestibility is altered in pigs fed transgenic peas containing α‐amylase inhibitor

Eighteen individually housed boars were randomly allocated to one of three dietary treatments, an experimental wheat diet containing 989.4 g kg^?1 of a basal wheat diet, or this experimental wheat diet with 500 g kg^?1 of the basal wheat diet replaced with 500 g kg^?1 of either transgenic or non‐transgenic peas. The transgenic peas expressed the bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) α‐amylase inhibitor 1 gene. Diets contained n‐hexatriacontane (0.2 g kg^?1) as an indigestible marker to allow the determination of nutrient digestibility at the terminal ileum. Pigs were offered 1.6 kg day^?1 for 15 days, after which they were anaesthetised, the ileal and faecal digesta collected and the pigs subsequently euthanased. The ileal dry matter and starch digestibilities of the experimental wheat, non‐transgenic and transgenic pea diets were 78.3, 74.2 and 45.8% and 95.9, 95.2 and 42.4%, respectively. The apparent nutrient digestibilities of the non‐transgenic and transgenic peas were determined by difference. The ileal dry matter digestibility was significantly reduced in the transgenic peas compared with the non‐transgenic peas (12.7 and 69.9%, respectively; P = 0.006), which was largely due to a reduced starch digestibility. The apparent crude protein digestibilities of the transgenic peas were similar to the non‐transgenic, being 79.7 and 78.5%, respectively. The amino acid digestibilities of the transgenic and non‐transgenic peas were also similar. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry     

微波辅助提取山楂中熊果酸的工艺研究

对微波辅助提取山楂中熊果酸的工艺条件进行了研究,通过正交试验对工艺条件进行了优化,结果表明：各因素对熊果酸提取率的影响顺序为：乙醇质量分数〉提取温度〉微波时间〉微波功率〉液料比,乙醇质量分数为显著影响因素;最佳条件为：乙醇质量分数为85%、提取温度为55℃、微波时间为4min、液料比为16∶1、微波功率300W,在此条件下的熊果酸提取率为3.42%。     

载货汽车悬架系统频率响应仿真

悬架系统是汽车底盘的重要部件,它的设计参数直接关系到载货汽车行驶的平顺性和操纵稳定性.为了对载货汽车行驶平顺性进行科学评价,建立了载货汽车1/2车辆五自由度仿真模型,采用频域分析法、以1/3倍频带加速度均方根值作为评价指标、用Matlab编制了随机路面输入下的悬架系统性能仿真程序,通过仿真得到空载和满载情况下加速度功率谱及加速度均方根值仿真曲线田,较好地反映了载货汽车行驶平顺性的实际状况.所开发的仿真程序可用于对汽车悬架系统进行平顺性评估以及后续的参数优化设计.