None of us is as smart as all of us [creative collaborations]

The authors discusses the success of creative collaborations. They consider the importance of strong leadership. The groups studied were as disparate as the Walt Disney studio, which invented the animated feature, and the Manhattan Project, which gave the world the first atomic bomb. They included both Lockheed Skunk Works, which pioneered the stealth technology deployed so dramatically in the Persian Gulf War, and Black Mountain College, a tiny, ground-breaking arts school that flourished for a time in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains     

Si/GexSi1-x heterojunction bipolartransistors with the GexSi1-x base formed by Geion implantation in Si

We have fabricated n-p-n, Si/Ge₂Si_1-x heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) with the Ge_xSi_1-x base formed by high-dose Ge implantation followed by solid phase epitaxy. The fabrication technology is a standard self-aligned, double polysilicon process scheme for Si with the addition of the high-dose Ge implantation. The transistors are characterized by a 60 mn-wide neutral base with a Ge concentration peak of ≈8 at.% at the base-collector junction. The HBTs show good electrical characteristics and compared to Si homojunction transistors show lower base resistance, larger values of current gain, and a lower emitter-to-collector transit time     

The use of the BiPAP biphasic positive airway pressure system in acute spinal cord injury

Transurethral electrovaporization of the prostate (TVP) is a new minimally invasive procedure for treatment of enlargement of prostate. Between April 1996 and September 1997, TVP was carried out in 109 cases with symptoms of lower urinary tract obstruction. A Stortz spike electrode and a Stortz vapor cutting electrode were used for vaporization electrodes. Efficacy parameters evaluated included International Prostate Symptom Score, peak uroflow and postvoid residual volume. By September 1997, 32 cases (spike electrode) and 33 cases (vapor cutting electrode) could be followed up and evaluated. They have shown both subjective and objective voiding improvement. The improvements in subjective symptom scores and objective voiding parameters were not significantly different between the two electrode groups. Early complications included urinary retention, intraoperative burn, stress incontinence, blood transfusion and postoperative hemorrhage. Late complications included urethral stricture, bladder neck contracture and bladder stone. TVP was found to have several advantages, particularly minimal bleeding and the low incidence of postoperative morbidity. The technique is simple and symptoms improve at an early stage following surgery. This study demonstrates that TVP is a safe and effective modality for treatment of BPH. However, long-term studies with larger numbers of patients are needed.     

Frequent loss of heterozygosity and three critical regions on the short arm of chromosome 8 in ovarian adenocarcinomas

BACKGROUND: Familial arteriolar tortuosity is an autosomal dominant disorder affecting the retinal arterioles. OBJECTIVES: To report a pedigree with this disorder and describe a systemic workup to determine whether this vascular abnormality is limited to the eye. RESULTS: A 58-year-old woman referred for retinal hemorrhages was found to have retinal arteriolar tortuosity of both eyes, especially in the macular area. Her 63-year-old brother had a history of retinal hemmorhages beginning at age 18 years and had similar fundoscopic examination findings. The proband had an extensive systemic workup, including magnetic resonance imaging, and cardiac and renal angiography, that failed to demonstrate any other sequelae of this inherited ocular syndrome. However, each member of the family expressing this phenotype did have hypertension. CONCLUSION: Inherited retinal arteriolar tortuosity is an autosomal dominant disorder limited to the eye, at least in this pedigree, within the sensitivity of the systemic workup we used.     

Automatic recognition of intermodulation beat products in cabletelevision pictures

It was found previously (Ward and Zhang 1992) that the two-dimensional Fourier transform of a picture impaired by intermodulation beat products contains distinguishable pulses. Each product results in four pulses with special characteristics. The authors further analyze and study the intrinsic properties of these pulses. Based on these properties a method is designed which can detect these pulses, even if the picture is also impaired by snow as long as the intermodulation impairment is visible to the human eyes     

Physicochemical properties correlated with drug resistance and the reversal of drug resistance in Plasmodium falciparum

At high molar excess, verapamil can selectively increase the accumulation and cytotoxicity of structurally dissimilar natural product drugs in many multidrug-resistant tumor cell lines. Such concentrations of verapamil are also capable of increasing the accumulation and activity of chloroquine in chloroquine-resistant strains of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Despite such similarities, it is not clear why chloroquine-resistant P. falciparum is often susceptible to closely related compounds such as amodiaquine, whereas cancer cells are cross-resistant to many structurally unrelated drugs. For 13 aminoquinoline and aminoacridine compounds, relative drug resistance was negatively correlated with lipid solubility at physiological pH (r2 = 0.90, p < 0.0001). The ability of verapamil (5 microM) to reverse drug resistance was also negatively correlated with lipid solubility (r2 = 0.88, p < 0.0001). Furthermore, molar refractivity was weakly correlated with relative drug resistance (r2 = 0.46, p < 0.05) and reversal of drug resistance (r2 = 0.52, p < 0.005). Verapamil increases chloroquine accumulation by resistant parasites, a mechanism suggested to account for its selective chemosensitization effect. We show that the initial rate of chloroquine accumulation by resistant parasites is increased by verapamil. This effect of verapamil is abolished when deoxy-glucose is substituted for glucose. Therefore, verapamil produces an energy-dependent increase in the permeability of resistant parasites to chloroquine. For a panel of four chloroquine-resistant and two chloroquine-susceptible isolates, the effect of verapamil on the accumulation of chloroquine and monodesethyl amodiaquine was found to be correlated (r2 = 0.96, p < 0.001). Verapamil chemosensitization was also correlated for the two drugs (r2 = 0.92, p < 0.005), suggesting a common mechanism. In summary, the degree of drug resistance and the extent of verapamil chemosensitization for a particular drug seem to be dependent on general physical features such as lipid solubility and molar refractivity rather than on closely defined structural parameters. These studies provide insight into this important resistance mechanism of malaria parasites and may provide direction for the development of new drugs that are effective against resistant parasites.     

The hot compaction of high modulus melt-spun polyethylene fibres

The production of solid section highly oriented polyethylene by compaction of melt-spun polyethylene fibres is described. Differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy have been used to determine the structure of the compacted polymer. The essential feature of the process is shown to be selective surface melting of the fibres to form a polyethylene/polyethylene composite of very high integrity, yet maintaining a very high proportion of the strength and stiffness of the fibres.     

The contribution of classical (beta1/2-) and atypical beta-adrenoceptors to the stimulation of human white adipocyte lipolysis and right atrial appendage contraction by novel beta3-adrenoceptor agonists of differing selectivities

The role of beta3- and other putative atypical beta-adrenoceptors in human white adipocytes and right atrial appendage has been investigated using CGP 12177 and novel phenylethanolamine and aryloxypropanolamine beta3-adrenoceptor (beta3AR) agonists with varying intrinsic activities and selectivities for human cloned betaAR subtypes. The ability to demonstrate beta1/2AR antagonist-insensitive (beta3 or other atypical betaAR-mediated) responses to CGP 12177 was critically dependent on the albumin batch used to prepare and incubate the adipocytes. Four aryloxypropanolamine selective beta3AR agonists (SB-226552, SB-229432, SB-236923, SB-246982) consistently elicited beta1/2AR antagonist-insensitive lipolysis. However, a phenylethanolamine (SB-220646) that was a selective full beta3AR agonist elicited full lipolytic and inotropic responses that were sensitive to beta1/2AR antagonism, despite it having very low efficacies at cloned beta1- and beta2ARs. A component of the response to another phenylethanolamine selective beta3AR agonist (SB-215691) was insensitive to beta1/2AR antagonism in some experiments. Because no [corrected] novel aryloxypropanolamine had a beta1/2AR antagonist-insensitive inotropic effect, these results establish more firmly that beta3ARs mediate lipolysis in human white adipocytes, and suggest that putative 'beta4ARs' mediate inotropic responses to CGP 12177. The results also illustrate the difficulty of predicting from studies on cloned betaARs which betaARs will mediate responses to agonists in tissues that have a high number of beta1- and beta2ARs or a low number of beta3ARs.     

ATMOSPHERIC DRYING MODEL FOR PARTICULATE MATERIAL

This paper evaluates the atmospheric drying of particulate material, such as coir dust or milled peat. in flat beds ( spreads). A mathematical model is presented that defines the relationship between the optimum yield of product and the prevailing weather conditions. A method is presented that enables the production manager to establish the optimum crop yield for a given drying cycle. When applied to milled peat. this method has shown a yield increase in excess of 10%.