Recovery of gut-associated lymphoid tissue and upper respiratory tract immunity after parenteral nutrition

OBJECTIVE: The authors characterize the recovery of parenteral nutrition-induced changes in gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) and upper respiratory tract immunity with enteral nutrition and provide further information defining the effects of enteral feeding on mucosal immunity. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: The small intestine plays a prominent role in development and maintenance of mucosal immunity, both intestinal and extraintestinal, primarily through immunoglobulin A (IgA)-mediated mechanisms. Prior research has shown that mice fed total parenteral nutrition (TPN) have reduced GALT T and B cells, the cells responsible for IgA production, as well as impaired upper respiratory tract immunity to viral challenge of previously immunized animals. The recovery of TPN-induced changes in GALT and upper respiratory tract immunity after enteral refeeding is studied. METHODS: Male institute of Cancer Research mice received 5 days of TPN followed by 0 to 4 days of chow. Small intestinal GALT was characterized by flow cytometry. In a second experiment, animals were immunized intranasally with moused-adapted influenza virus. Three weeks later, one group received a 5-day course of TPN followed by enteral refeeding for 5 days. A second group received TPN alone. Both groups were challenged with intranasal virus and killed 40 hours postchallenge to determine viral shedding from the upper respiratory tract. RESULTS: Animals fed TPN only had significantly fewer GALT lymphocytes compared with those chow-fed control subjects. Peyer's patch counts increased after a single day of refeeding, returning to normal levels by 48 hours. Lamina propria counts remained significantly depressed after 24 hours of refeeding, but also returned to normal after 48 hours of refeeding. The T-cell and B-cell populations mimicked total cell patterns. Lamina propria CD4+/CD8+ ratio returned to normal only after 72 hours of refeeding. None of the 9 animals refed enterally for 5 days were positive for viral shedding, compared with 8 of 12 matched TPN-fed animals. CONCLUSIONS: Enteral refeeding after TPN is associated with rapid repletion of GALT cellularity, initially within Peyer's patches and subsequently within the lamina propria. Refeeding corrects the impairment of IgA-mediated upper respiratory tract antiviral immunity occurring with TPN administration. This work further enhances the authors' knowledge of the underlying immunologic differences influenced by routes of nutrition.     

Transient behavior of subthreshold characteristics of fullydepleted SOI MOSFETs

It has been found that the subthreshold currents of fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (SOI) MOSFETs show a transient behavior under certain front-gate and back-gate voltage conditions. The cause of this anomaly is explained, and applications for the phenomenon are pointed out. Particularly, a simple way to measure the silicon film thickness is suggested     

A mixed-signal RAM decision-feedback equalizer for disk drives

A mixed-signal RAM decision-feedback equalizer (DFE) that operates at 90 Mb/s is described. In the analog domain, the DFE subtracts intersymbol interference caused by the past four outputs. The equalized signal is fed into a nonuniform flash analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to produce the decision output and error signal used to adapt the RAM contents in the digital domain. With a 5 V supply voltage, the power dissipation is 260 mW during steady-state operation. The active area is 4.5 mm² in a 1 μm CMOS process     

CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION OF SILICON ONTO IRON AND STEEL SUBSTRATES: OXIDATION AND CORROSION PROPERTIES OF COATED MATERIALS

The influence of the gaseous phase composition (SiH₄ or SiCI₄ diluted with argon or hydrogen), used for chemical vapor deposition of silicon onto two different substrates (pure iron or low chromium mild steel) is investigated. Depending on the chosen process, two types of coatings are developed: either a very adherent, non-porous solid solution containing up to 6 to 7 wt. % Si, or a Fe₃Si iron silicide (14.35 wt. %). This solid solution coating considerably improves the oxidation resistance properties of steels at temperatures up to 800° C. This beneficial effect was not observed on the corrosion behavior of treated samples in sulfuric acid solutions. In contrast, the Fe₃Si iron silicide has the same outstanding corrosion resistance that the silicon-rich cast alloys have in very severe environments such as boiling concentrated sulfuric acid. But this remarkable behavior is certainly limited in other mediums by the open porosity of the coating, inherent to the chemical vapor process.     

Analytic physics-based expressions for the empirical parameters ofthe Statz-Pucel MESFET model

The authors present a novel approach to the evaluation of the DC parameters of a semiempirical MESFET model: starting from the analytical expression of the drain current derived from a previously proposed physics-based model, they provide a method to calculate the empirical DC parameters of the so-called Raytheon model. The comparison between computed and measured DC characteristics is quite satisfactory on GaAs microwave FETs of 1 μm or more gate length. By adding to the results obtained in this work an adequate model of the stray capacitances, the circuit performance can be optimized using the technological characteristics of active devices     

Filtration drying kinetics of gas-permeable articles

The drying process under conditions of filtration of a drying agent through a porous structure of a moist article is considered. The existence of three dehydration stages is established: 1) mechanical displacement of water; 2) elimination of moisture in the form of a gas-liquid emulsion; 3) drying. A kinetics equation is derived for each stage. Combination of all the three stages provides a high rate of the total process exceeding the drying rate by tens of times when flowing around an object as a unit.L'vov Polytechnic Institute. Translated from Inzhenerno-fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 63, No. 6, pp. 708–713, December, 1992.     

Muon spin relaxation study of amorphous Hf2Co

Muon spin relaxation measurements were carried out in zero magnetic field on amorphous Hf₂Co. The results obtained and comparison with the behaviour of the muon in crystalline Hf₂Co (A. Baudry, P. Boyer, L.P. Ferreira, S.W. Harris, S. Miraglia and L. Pontonnier, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter, 4 (1992) 5025) indicate that muons occupy interstitial sites without Co atoms in first-neighbour positions and diffuse through those sites, suggesting the existence of some degree of short-range order in the amorphous structure. Muon diffusion cannot be described by a single thermally activated process and is faster in the amorphous alloy than in the crystalline alloy.     

TiNi shape memory alloys prepared by normal sintering

This paper covers the use of conventional press and sinter of titanium and nickel equiatomic blends, involving transient liquid phases. A notable development has been the fabrication of homogeneous compacts from the elemental powders. Results indicate that employment of a double-stage sintering cycle is effective to sustain the geometrical integrity of the sintered sample. The TiNi alloy prepared in this manner exhibits a recovery strain of 4.6% by generating a restoring stress of 230 MPa, with a martensitic transformation point M_s of 34 °C.