Simultaneous cross-linking of CD6 and CD28 induces cell proliferation in resting T cells

In the present study, we showed that simultaneous ligation of the monoclonal antibodies (mAb) against CD6 and CD28 induces T-cell proliferation in purified resting T lymphocytes in the absence of T-cell receptor (TCR) occupancy. No cell proliferation was observed when the mAb were cross-linked alone or used simultaneously in the soluble form. T-cell proliferation mediated through CD6/CD28 is accompanied by the up-regulation of interleukin-2 (IL-2) mRNA and expression of IL-2 receptors on the cell surface. In the presence of IL-2-neutralizing mAb the proliferative response of the T cell induced through CD6/CD28 was inhibited dose dependently. Cross-linking mAb to CD6 and CD28 alone or together did not down-regulate the CD3/TCR complex. T-cell proliferation mediated through CD6/CD28 was only partially blocked by the immunosuppressive drug, cyclosporin A (CsA), whereas anti-CD28-induced T-cell proliferation in the presence of the phorbol ester, 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA), was unaffected. In sharp contrast T-cell proliferation mediated by anti-CD6 in the presence of TPA was efficiently blocked by CsA. In addition, two protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitors, GF 109203X and H-7 dose-dependently inhibited T-cell proliferation mediated through CD6/CD28, suggesting that PKC activation may be involved. Furthermore, there was a marked differential dose-dependent inhibitory effect of the PKC inhibitors on T-cell proliferation mediated by the co-ligation of anti-CD6 or anti-CD28 in the presence of anti-CD3, with the former being more sensitive to PKC inhibition. Taken collectively, our results suggest that T-cell activation can occur through an antigen-independent pathway by cross-linking the accessory molecules, CD6 and CD28, and that these two cell surface antigens may have distinct signalling pathways.     

More investigations of leakage and nonleakage conductor-backedcoplanar waveguide

Through rigorous full-wave analysis, the effective dielectric constant, normalized attenuation constant, characteristic impedance, and radiation pattern of two types of conductor-backed coplanar waveguides are obtained. The analytic results show that the leakage effect is not only controlled by the thickness and dielectric constant of the substrate but also by the slot width. The leakage power transforms to a radiation space wave and a surface wave, the transverse electric field diagrams in the substrate and the far-zone radiation pattern verify the leakage phenomenon. The first structure has the maximum radiation intensity in the endfire direction, while the second one which has more leaky waves radiates into the air, is better served as a radiating device. For both structures under the nonleakage condition, the characteristic impedance is sensitive to the change of the strip width but not the slot width. Using these properties, the nonleaky and leaky circuits can exist on the same circuit board by choosing appropriate circuit dimensions     

Flows in rectangular microchannels driven by capillary force and gravity

Capillary phenomena was studied and discussed by the scholars about 200 years ago, but the progress was slow due to the limited equipment and manufacture precision of the microchannel. In recent years, because of the rapid development of MEMS and micromachining, many applications of the capillary flow is widely developing in some modern processes, such as underfilling of flip chip, flow in microfluidic chip or biochip, and a variety of other fields.     

A compact LTCC branch-line coupler UsingModified-T equivalent-circuit modelfor transmission line

In this letter, a compact branch-line coupler is proposed by making good use of the three-dimensional layout capability of the low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) substrate. This branch-line coupler is accomplished by using lumped-inductors and lumped-capacitors to realize the modified-T equivalent-circuit model for the transmission line so that the circuit size may drastically be reduced. Specifically, a very compact LTCC branch-line coupler with a size of 0.079/spl lambda//spl times/0.0717/spl lambda/ is implemented and carefully examined, where /spl lambda/ is the wavelength of the multilayer structure at the operating frequency f/sub 0/.     

Dynamic RSVP protocol

RSVP is a resource reservation setup protocol that can be used by a host to request specific QoS for multicast multimedia flows on the Internet. Multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) architecture also needs RSVP. The fact that the resolutions of the display system used in different receiver nodes might have different, multi-resolution characteristics is supported in the MPEG-4 standard, and the EZW compression algorithm can cease decoding at any point in the bitstream. However, RSVP does not provide a more flexible mechanism. In this article we propose an extension of RSVP to provide the needed mechanism, coined dynamic RSVP (DRSVP), to dynamically adjust reserved resources on nodes without much effort. It provides different video resolutions to different receiver nodes with different needed reserved resources. Therefore, it does not waste precious Internet resources to transmit unnecessary multimedia packets.     

Effect of maturation on alpha-adrenoceptor activity in newborn piglet mesentery

To characterize the mesenteric alpha1- and alpha2-adrenoceptor populations in newborn piglets, an extracorporeal circuit was established to control intestinal blood flow in 0- to 2-day old and 10- to 14-day old animals. In both groups, alpha-adrenoceptor activation was first documented by observing dose-dependent increases in mesenteric perfusion pressure after intramesenteric arterial injection of alpha-adrenoceptor agonists. In the 10- to 14-day old piglets, mesenteric vasoconstrictor responses to alpha1-adrenoceptor agonists (methoxamine and norepinephrine) and an alpha2-adrenoceptor agonist (BHT-933) were each blunted (P < 0.05, analysis of variance) by peripheral intravenous injections of prazosin (an alpha1-adrenoceptor antagonist) and yohimbine (an alpha2-adrenoceptor antagonist), respectively. The mesenteric vasoconstrictor responses to those agonists were not significantly attenuated by prazosin or yohimbine in 0- to 2-day old animals, nor were they blunted by YM-12617 (alpha1-adrenoceptor antagonist) or idazoxan (alpha2-adrenoceptor antagonist)--compounds that are structurally unrelated to prazosin and yohimbine, respectively. In addition, mesenteric vasoconstrictor responses to other known vasoconstrictor agents--angiotensin II, neuropeptide Y, and a thromboxane A2 mimic (U-46619)--were not effected in either age group by prazosin or yohimbine, implying these agents act independently of alpha-adrenoceptor mechanisms. These data suggest that (1) there exists functional mesenteric alpha1- and alpha2-adrenoceptor-like activity in 10- to 14-day old piglets that, in 0- to 2-day old animals, is not specifically expressed; and (2) mesenteric alpha-adrenoceptor function becomes more selective as newborn piglets mature.     

A novel technique for profiling the lateral n- dopingconcentrations of submicron LDD MOS devices

This paper reports a simple I-V method for the first time to determine the lateral lightly-doped source/drain (S/D) profiles (n^- region) of LDD n-MOSFETs. One interesting result is the direct observation of the reverse-short-channel effect (RSCE). It is observed that S/D n^- doping profile is channel length dependent if reverse short-channel effect exists as a result of the interstitial imperfections caused by Oxide Enhanced Diffusion (OED) or S/D implant. Not only the lateral profiles for long-channel devices but also for short-channel devices can be determined. One other practical application of the present method for device drain engineering has been demonstrated with a LATID MOS device drain engineering work. It is convincible that the proposed method is well suited for the characterization and optimization of submicron and deep-submicron MOSFETs in the current ULSI technology     

Immunocytochemical evaluation of protein kinase C translocation to the inner nuclear matrix in 3T3 mouse fibroblasts after IGF-I treatment

The complex pathway which links the agonist-cell membrane receptor binding to the response at the genome level involves, among other elements, protein kinase C (PKC). Agonists acting at the cell membrane can affect an autonomous nuclear polyphosphoinositide signaling system inducing an activation of nuclear phosphoinositidase activity and a subsequent translocation of PKC to the nuclear region. The fine localization of PKC has been investigated by means of electron microscopy quantitative immunogold labeling in 3T3 mouse fibroblasts, mitogenically stimulated by IGF-I. The enzyme, which in untreated cells is present in the cytoplasm, except for the organelles, and in the nucleoplasm, after IGF-I treatment is reduced in the cytoplasm and almost doubled in the nucleus. The PKC isoform translocated to the nucleus is the alpha isozyme, which is found not only associated with the nuclear envelope but mainly with the interchromatin domains. By using in situ matrix preparations, PKC appears to be retained at the nuclear matrix level, both at the nuclear lamina and at the inner nuclear matrix, suggesting a direct involvement in the phosphorylation of nuclear proteins which are responsible for the regulation of DNA replication.     

Accurate quasi-TEM spectral domain analysis of single and multiplecoupled microstrip lines of arbitrary metallization thickness

The quasi-TEM spectral domain approach (SDA) is extended to rigorously and efficiently analyze single and multiple coupled microstrip lines of arbitrary metallization thickness. The charge distributions on both the horizontal and vertical conductor surfaces are modeled by global basis functions. This results in a relatively small matrix for accurate determination of the line parameters of coupled thick microstrips. A convergence study is performed for the results of a pair of coupled lines with crucial structural parameters to explore the conditions for obtaining reliable solutions using the technique. Results for thick microstrips are validated through comparison with those from available measurements and another theoretical technique. The soundness of the technique is further demonstrated by looking into the trend of the results obtained by a simplified model in which the structural parameters are pushed, step by step, to the numerical extremities. Variations of circuit parameters of a four-line coupled microstrip structure due to the change of finite metallization thickness are presented and discussed