Lymphocytes' cytotoxicity towards cells of human lymphoblastoid lines in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus

A research study and discussion of antiinterferon immunoglobulin in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus, and its possible value in the treatment of allergic diseases, autoimmune diseases and other diseases where it is presumed there may be an autoimmune genesis.     

An Introduction to Engineering Through an Integrated Reverse Engineering and Design Graphics Project

This paper discusses a new freshman course that merges previous topics in the “Introduction to Mechanical Engineering” and “Engineering Design Graphics” courses into a single integrated teaching effort. The main objective of the new course is to introduce students to mechanical engineering education and practice through lectures and laboratory experiences. A major effort in the course is devoted to a reverse engineering team project. The students are divided into four‐member teams and are instructed to select a simple mechanical assembly for dissection. They study and disassemble their object into basic constituent components, documenting this process with freehand sketches and notes. They use these sketches and other measured dimensions to construct 3‐D solid computer models of each major component. The teams then obtain .STL files of the solid models, which are used to make rapid physical prototypes of their parts. The teams conclude their project activities by generating engineering drawings directly from the 3‐D geometric data base. All of these efforts are integrated, documented, and submitted to the instructor as a final team project report.     

Intermodulation distortion in a multiple-quantum-well semiconductor optical amplifier

The measurement of intermodulation distortion (IMD) induced by carrier-density modulation in a multiple-quantum-well (MQW) semiconductor amplifier is reported. The results show that MQW amplifiers have 15 dB less IMD than conventional buried-heterostructure semiconductor amplifiers. The IMD is dependent on the output power of the amplifiers, which confirms that the carrier-density modulation is the dominant nonlinear mechanism in MQW amplifiers. In addition, the results show that, unlike conventional buried-heterostructure amplifiers, MQW amplifiers have at least two time constants (200-250 ps and <10 ps) for the gain recovery process.<>     

Digital rights management system with user privacy,usage transparency,and superdistribution support

In the modern world, digital content has been massively produced, distributed, and consumed by human beings; consequently, how to protect the rights and benefits of content consumers, producers, and distributors has become a crucial issue. One promising solution is to design a full‐fledged digital rights management (DRM) system. In this study we introduce a new design on the digital rights management system providing user privacy, usage transparency, and superdistribution. A comprehensive set of DRM processing functions and corresponding mechanisms are developed in our system to support various business process requirements. Superdistribution support is embedded in our system design. A prototype is implemented to verify our system design. To protect consumer privacy, a temporary identity is generated for each consumer using the KryptoKnight protocol. Elliptic curve cryptography‐based encryption scheme is adopted for messages transmitted among servers and client over an unsecure communication channel. For usage transparency, a user‐friendly DRM client package (software) is introduced in the proposed DRM system to achieve content protection and support user convenience in usage.Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamic and CW linewidth measurements of 1.55-μm InGaAs-InGaAsPmultiquantum well distributed feedback lasers

Measurement of the CW linewidth and frequency chirp as functions of modulation data rate and bias level for 1.55-μm InGaAsP multiquantum-well distributed feedback lasers grown by low-pressure MOCVD are presented. The results show that the CW linewidth of asymmetric facet-coated multiquantum-well DFB lasers can be as low as 2.0 MHz at 13.5 mW output power. The frequency chirp increases with modulation data rate and is significantly larger if the laser off-state is below threshold than if it is above threshold. The 20 dB down chirp widths are in the range of 1.9-5 Å for 40 mA peak-to-peak modulation current at 10 Gb/s under above-threshold bias     

Iron-chelating therapy and the treatment of thalassemia

Iron-chelating therapy with deferoxamine in patients with thalassemia major has dramatically altered the prognosis of this previously fatal disease. The successes achieved with deferoxamine, as well as the limitations of this treatment, have stimulated the design of alternative strategies of iron-chelating therapy, including orally active iron chelators. The development of the most promising of these, deferiprone, has progressed rapidly over the last 5 years; data from several trials have provided direct and supportive evidence for its short-term efficacy. At the same time, the toxicity of this agent mandates a careful evaluation of the balance between risk and benefit of deferiprone in patients with thalassemia, in most of whom long-term deferoxamine is safe and efficacious therapy.     

Bacterial survival, lymph node pathology, and serological responses of bison (Bison bison) vaccinated with Brucella abortus strain RB51 or strain 19

From August 1993 to June 1994, 3 month-old bison (Bison bison) were vaccinated with Brucella abortus strain RB51 (SRB51, n = 6), strain 19 (S19, n = 3), or with saline (n = 1) and serologic responses and persistence of vaccine strains within lymph nodes were monitored. Bison vaccinated with S19 had granulomatous lymphadenitis and greater peak numbers of B. abortus than those vaccinated with SRB51. Bison vaccinated with RB51 had similar histological lesions and B. abortus were still present in lymph nodes at 16 weeks. Although antibodies against RB51 were produced, standard tube agglutination test responses of RB51-vaccinates remained negative. The histological lesions of B. abortus infections in bison were similar to those observed in cattle, but bison did not clear SRB51 as rapidly as cattle.     

Cloning, characterization and construction of htrA and htrA-like mutants of Brucella abortus and their survival in BALB/c mice

A genomic library of Brucella abortus S2308 was screened for expression of recombinant proteins recognized by sera from mice and from cattle infected with B. abortus. A positive clone, BA1, expressing a 50 kDa peptide was recognized by both sera. Plasmid pBA1, isolated from BA1, was shown by restriction enzyme digestion to possess a 1.9 kb insert. The nucleotide sequence of the pBA1 insert revealed an open reading frame with of 1539 bases with a coding capacity of 513 amino acids and a predicted molecular weight of 50,992. The predicted amino acid sequence showed 37% identity to E. coli HtrA, a temperature inducible serine protease. A second B. abortus htrA gene, designated htrA-like, was identified on a different cloned fragment that also encoded B. abortus recA. The nucleotide sequence of the htrA-like gene revealed an open reading frame of 1422 nucleotides with a coding capacity of 474 amino acids and a predicted molecular weight of 50,155. The deduced amino acid sequence of the htrA-like gene showed 42% and 36% identity with B. abortus and E. coli HtrAs respectively. Western blotting of E. coli lysate containing the htrA-like gene was not recognized by sera from B. abortus-infected cattle or mice. B. abortus htrA but not htrA-like relieved the temperature sensitive phenotype and permitted growth of an E. coli htrA mutant at 42 degrees C. B. abortus htrA and htrA-like mutants were constructed and their survival and growth in BALB/c mice was compared to the parental strain S2308.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)