Antitumor gene therapy using suicide genes]

Successful autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT) and peripheral blood stem cell transplantation depend on safe hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) cryopreservation and storage. Several successful methods for cryopreservation and storage have been established and are commonly used all over the world. However, little is known about the effects of long-term cryopreservation on the capacity to sustain a complete immunohematopoietic engraftment. Several authors have investigated stem cell viability after cryopreservation and storage for more than 5 years and reported preclinical good viabilities in terms of dye-exclusion or colony-forming capability in vitro. Only two studies using BM cryopreserved for more than 5 years for transplantation are reported, but they did not provide proof of trilineage engraftment. In February 1997 at our institution, a patient with relapsed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma underwent ABMT with BM harvested in February 1990. He achieved a granulocyte count > 500 x 10(6)/L on day 21 and a self-supporting platelet count > 20 x 10(9)/L on day 30. After day 29, his hemoglobin level was satisfactory without need of transfusion support. This successful trilineage engraftment with cryopreserved BM that had been stored for 7 years suggests that HSC are able to maintain their capability to reconstitute hematopoiesis for a long time.     

New metabolites from the sponge Spongia agaricina

Four cattle had chronic diarrhea and had lost weight but were not anorectic or dehydrated. A diagnosis of eosinophillic enteritis was made on the basis of a combination of clinical and histopathologic findings and exclusion of other diseases. Eosinophilia and hypoalbuminemia were not detected in CBC analyses. Gross and histologic examination of the small intestine revealed edema, diffuse eosinophilic inflammation (> 20 eosinophils/HPF [400 x]), and regional lymphadenopathy. A causative agent was not identified in any of the cattle. Treatment consisting of a 1-month course of systemically administered corticosteroids was attempted in 2 cattle and was apparently successful in both. Diagnostic criteria for eosinophilic enteritis have not been established for cattle and, therefore, the diagnosis was subjective. This disease resembled paratuberculosis (Johne's disease) in clinical appearance but was distinguished on the basis of a lack of a contagious etiologic agent and differences in histologic appearance.     

Practical oscillation-based test of integrated filters

Oscillation-based test (OBT) techniques show promise in detecting faults in mixed-signal circuits and require little modification. to the circuit under test. Comparing both the oscillation's amplitude and frequency yields acceptable test quality. OBT seems especially appealing for filters but requires adaptation to handle monolithic circuits or the analog-core-based design of complex mixed-signal ICs.     

Testing mixed-signal cores: a practical oscillation-based test in an analog macrocell

A formal set of design decisions can aid in using oscillation-based test (OBT) for analog subsystems in SoCs. The goal is to offer designers testing options that do not have significant area overhead, performance degradation, or test time. This work shows that OBT is a potential candidate for IP providers to use in combination with functional test techniques. We have shown how to modify the basic concept of OBT to come up with a practical method. Using our approach, designers can use OBT to pave the way for future developments in SoC testing, and it is simple to extend this idea to BIST.     

On the Spectroscopically Determined Potential Energy Surfaces for the Electronic Ground States of NO2 and H2O

Previous spectroscopically determined potentials for both H216O and NO2 are discussed. It is shown that a recent H216O potential energy surface due to D. Xie and G. Yan (1996. Chem. Phys. Lett. 248, 409), which was determined by fits to vibrational term values alone and was claimed to be more accurate than other published spectroscopically determined potentials for this system, actually gives unacceptably poor results for rotationally excited water. Reasons for this failure are discussed and the dangers of relying on vibrational term values alone are emphasized. Previous spectroscopic potentials for ground state NO2 are all found to have problems with unphysical minima ("holes"). Starting from the potential energy surface for the ground (&Xtilde;2A1) electronic state of NO2 constructed by S. A. Tashkun and P. Jensen (1994. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 165, 173) using the approximate MORBID approach a suitable starting point for fits using an exact kinetic energy operator approach was constructed. Least-squares fits to 17 potential parameters gives a potential which reproduces 173 vibrational term values with a standard deviation of only 2.8 cm-1 in the low-energy region (<10 000 cm-1). For many even levels below, and all levels above, approximately 10 000 cm-1 the first excited electronic state (Ã2B2) perturbs the vibrational energy levels of the ground state. We were unable to fit these levels. Tests show that the resulting effective potential surface has no problems with unphysical holes and gives a reasonable representation of the rotational structure of the low-lying vibrational states of NO2. Copyright 1997 Academic Press. Copyright 1997Academic Press     

Influence of pressure and crystallization rate on the surface microhardness of high-density polyethylene

The indentation microhardnessMH of high-density polyethylene crystallized at different pressuresp and crystallization rates _c has been investigated. The results confirm thatMH is an increasing function of lamellar thickness and therefore of density. The rate of increase depends on the crystallization conditionsp and _c. Crystallization at high pressure leads toMH values considerably higher than those of samples prepared under atmospheric pressure. The results are discussed in terms of compressed amorphous regions contributing to an elastic release after removal of the indenter. For samples crystallized under different pressures the hardness value turns out to be nearly independent of the elastic modulusE. For samples crystallized at different rates _c there is a steady decrease of microhardness with increasing _c (decrease of lamellar thickness) but no simple relationship withE. With higher rates _c the appearance of strained tie molecules provokes a rapid increase ofE whileMH decreases further because the crystals become smaller.     

Structural changes of injection molded starch during heat treatment in water atmosphere: Simultaneous wide and small‐angle X‐ray scattering study

Native starches with wide varying amylose content were processed by injection molding. The injection‐molded materials were conditioned in water for 20 days and sealed in glass capillaries. Simultaneous wide‐ and small‐angle X‐ray scattering (WAXS and SAXS, respectively) were recorded during thermal heating using a synchrotron source. Crystallinity, SAXS invariant, Q, and long period, L, were measured as a function of heating temperature. The injection‐molding process provokes a destruction of the crystal forms A (cereal starch) and B (tubercle starch) but favors a development of the crystal form V_h. After wet conditioning, WAXS of the injection‐molded samples shows again the appearance of the crystal forms A or B, and crystallinity reaches values similar or larger than those of native starch. A constant heating rate (5°C/min) was particularly used for a comparison of potato and corn starch with a similar amylose content. While the crystallinity associated to forms A and B slowly decreases below 55°C and then rapidly decreases until its disappearance at 85–90°C, the invariant shows a maximum around 40°C and rapidly decreases thereafter. The total nanostructure disappearance occurs at temperatures about 10°C higher for the case of potato starch. In addition, a recovery of the WAXS and SAXS maxima during the subsequent cooling process before reaching room temperature was observed only for potato starch. Analysis of WAXS and SAXS for the rest of the starch materials reveals clear differences in the structural parameters of the samples that cannot be easily explained solely on the basis of the amylose content. Thus, for Cerestar and Roquette, it is noteworthy that there was a continuous decrease of L until its total disappearance as well as the persistence of crystallinity (form B), presumably stabilized by the presence of the V_h structure (12–15%). Real‐time crystallization experiments on two amorphous injection molded samples, waxy maize (free amylose starch) and potato starch, are also discussed. It is shown that the absence of amylose delays the recrystallization of amylopectine during the experiment. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 93: 301–309, 2004