Effects of a single, daily alcoholic beverage on lipid and hemostatic markers of cardiovascular risk

There is substantial epidemiologic data, but limited experimental data, supporting the mortality benefit of low-dose alcohol consumption. A regimen of a single, daily alcoholic beverage was sufficient to increase both high-density lipoprotein (HDL) (4.4%, p = 0.03) and HDL2 (7.7%, p = 0.04) in men and women, but did not significantly affect hemostatic markers of cardiovascular risk.     

Primary immunodeficiency diseases at Red Cross War Memorial Children''s Hospital

BACKGROUND: Normally, a Buffalo (BUF) recipient (RT1b) rejects a heterotopically transplanted Lewis (LEW) heart (RT1l) drained into the portal vein (PV) within 14 days. However, the addition of PV administration of 25x10(6) ultraviolet B (UVB)-treated LEW spleen cells (SC) to BUF recipients 7 days before cardiac transplantation results in 70% long-term allograft survival. METHODS: In this study, we used gadolinium chloride (GdCl3) (7 mg/kg/day) to selectively block the phagocytosis of recipient hepatic Kupffer cells before PV injection of UVB-treated donor SC to examine the mechanism of tolerance induction, as measured by in vitro analysis of mixed lymphocyte culture (MLC), T cell cytotoxicity, T helper cell precursors (pTH), and cytotoxic T cell precursors (pCTL) by limiting dilution analysis. RESULTS: A BUF recipient that received untreated or gamma-irradiated LEW SC intraportally reacted to in vitro stimulation by LEW alloantigen with increased MLC proliferation, T cell cytotoxicity, pTH and pCTL frequencies, and interleukin-2 production. In contrast, SC from BUF that received UVB-treated LEW SC were hyporesponsive on MLC stimulation by donor LEW alloantigen and exhibited markedly reduced cytotoxicity, pTH and pCTL frequency, and interleukin-2 production. However, normal in vitro responsiveness resulted with stimulation by third-party Brown-Norway (RT1n) SC, thus indicating that the systemic hyporesponsiveness was specific for the UVB donor alloantigen given PV. On the other hand, GdCl3 given by intravenous injection daily for 3 days before PV alloantigen blocked the induction of in vitro hyporesponsiveness. CONCLUSION: Therefore, prevention of alloantigen sequestration by GdCl3 inhibition of hepatic Kupffer cell phagocytosis was pivotal in preventing the development of portal venous tolerance.     

Communicating naturally — the opportunities of wideband coding

Voice is one of the oldest telecommunications services and remains the most ubiquitous. Despite the longevity of voice services, and huge investment in development over many decades, the baseline characteristics of telecommunications speech have remained unchanged for many decades — namely, narrowband audio with a bandwidth of 300 Hz to 3.4 kHz. With an arguably mundane legacy one might question whether voice will ultimately lose out to other forms of so-called rich media. This paper shows that voice, enhanced by wideband coding technology is far from passé. Rather, voice continues to complement the other media types that augment it to offer the user a more natural communications experience.     

Disposal of Disk and Tape Data by Secure Sanitization

User data is often unprotected on disk and tape drives or not erased when no longer needed, creating data security vulnerabilities that many computer users are unaware of. Federal and state laws require data sanitization, which comprises a variety of data eradication methods. Secure sanitization refers to methods meeting those federal and state laws. Companies that fail to meet these laws can be subject to fines of $5 million, and individuals can be imprisoned for up to 10 years. Physical destruction of storage devices offers the highest security. But executing the disk drive internal secure-erase command also offers a higher security level than external-block-overwrite software, according to federal guideline NIST 800-88. Recent disk drives with internal full disk encryption now implement an enhanced secure-erase command that takes only milliseconds to complete.     

Complications of latissimus dorsi myocutaneous flap breast reconstruction

Two qualitative rapid appraisal techniques were used in a community-based study to investigate health beliefs, attitudes and practices in a rural district in Nepal. Pregnancy and childbirth remain non-medical activities managed at home. Deaths may be avoided by better access to hospital emergency services. Health awareness of some problems, e.g. oral rehydration and diarrhoeal disease, is high; but of others, e.g. association of haemoptysis with tuberculosis, is poor. These methods require few resources, are efficient in time and manpower required, and generate useful relevant information on a target population. They are recommended for district health development programmes elsewhere.     

The package integration of RF-MEMS switch and control IC for wireless applications

The integration of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) switch and control integrated circuit (IC) in a single package was developed for use in next-generation portable wireless systems. This packaged radio-frequency (RF) MEMS switch exhibits an insertion loss under -0.4 dB, and isolation greater than -45 dB. This MEMS switch technology has significantly better RF characteristics than conventional PIN diodes or field effect transistor (FET) switches and consumes less power. The RF MEMS switch chip has been integrated with a high voltage charge pump plus control logic chips into a single package to accommodate the low voltage requirements in portable wireless applications. This paper discusses the package assembly process and critical parameters for integration of MEMS devices and bi-complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) control integrated circuit (IC) into a single package.     

Structure, conformations, and repair of DNA adducts from dibenzo[a, l]pyrene: 32P-postlabeling and fluorescence studies

The nature of stable DNA adducts derived from the very potent carcinogen dibenzo[a,l]pyrene (DB[a,l]P) in the presence of rat liver microsomes in vitro and in mouse skin in vivo has been studied using 32P-postlabeling and laser-based fluorescence techniques. Analysis of DB[a,l]P-DNA adducts via 32P-postlabeling has been obtained by comparison of the adduct patterns to those obtained from reactions of synthetic (+/-)-anti-, (+)-anti-, (-)-anti-, and (+/-)-syn-DB[a,l]P-11,12-diol 13,14-epoxide (DB[a,l]PDE) with single nucleotides and calf thymus DNA. anti-DB[a,l]PDE-dA adducts derived from the (-)-enantiomer are the major adducts formed in calf thymus DNA and in mouse skin DNA. The ratio of deoxyadenosine to deoxyguanosine modification is approximately 2:1 in mouse skin exposed to DB[a,l]P; activation by rat liver microsomes leads to a similar profile of adducts but with two additional spots. The conformations of DB[a,l]P adducts in native DNA, as well as the possibility of conformation-dependent repair, have been explored by low-temperature fluorescence spectroscopy. These studies have been performed using polynucleotides and calf thymus DNA reacted in vitro with DB[a,l]PDE and native DNA from mouse epidermis exposed to DB[a, l]P. The results show that adducts are heterogeneous, possess different structures, and adopt different conformations. External, external but base-stacked and intercalated adduct conformations are observed in calf thymus DNA and in mouse skin DNA samples. Differences in adduct repair rates are also revealed; namely, the analysis of mouse skin DNA samples obtained at 24 and 48 h after exposure to DB[a,l]P clearly shows that external adducts are repaired more efficiently than intercalated adducts. These results, taken together with those for B[a]P-DNA adducts [Suh et al. (1995) Carcinogenesis 16, 2561-2569], indicate that the repair of DNA damage resulting from PAH diol epoxides is conformation-dependent.     

Radiation sensitivity of buried oxides

Capacitance-voltage (C-V) techniques have been used to examine the 10-keV x-ray radiation sensitivity of buried oxides that are created by the implantation of oxygen into silicon. Buried oxide to substrate interfaces have been studied by using samples implanted with different oxygen implant doses from a 100 mA-class implanter. Fiatband voltage (Vfb) shift for the buried oxide to the substrate interface has been used to monitor charge buildup as a function of radiation dose and applied electrical bias. The Vfb shift of the buried oxides indicate a oxide trapping behavior that is different than that of thermal oxides.