Multicellular and aggregative behaviour of Salmonella typhimurium strains is controlled by mutations in the agfD promoter

To investigate the biochemical requirements for in vivo L-DOPA production by cells genetically modified ex vivo in a rat model of Parkinson's disease (PD), rat syngeneic 9L gliosarcoma and primary Fischer dermal fibroblasts (FDFs) were transduced with retroviral vectors encoding the human tyrosine hydroxylase 2 (hTH2) and human GTP cyclohydrolase I (hGTPCHI) cDNAs. As GTPCHI is a rate-limiting enzyme in the pathway for synthesis of the essential TH cofactor, tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4), only hTH2 and GTPCHI cotransduced cultured cells produced L-DOPA in the absence of added BH4. As striatal BH4 levels in 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-lesioned rats are minimal, the effects of cotransduction with hTH2 and hGTPCHI on L-DOPA synthesis by striatal grafts of either 9L cells or FDFs in unilateral 6-OHDA-lesioned rats were tested. Microdialysis experiments showed that those subjects that received cells cotransduced with hTH2 and hGTPCHI produced significantly higher levels of L-DOPA than animals that received either hTH2 or untransduced cells. However, animals that received transduced FDF grafts showed a progressive loss of transgene expression until expression was undetectable 5 weeks after engraftment. In FDF-engrafted animals, no differential effect of hTH2 vs hTH2 + hGTPCHI transgene expression on apomorphine-induced rotation was observed. The differences in L-DOPA production found with cells transduced with hTH2 alone and those cotransduced with hTH2 and hGTPCHI show that BH4 is critical to the restoration of the capacity for L-DOPA production and that GTPCHI expression is an effective means of supplying BH4 in this rat model of PD.     

Direct dopamine D2-receptor-mediated modulation of arachidonic acid release in transfected CHO cells without the concomitant administration of a Ca2+-mobilizing agent

In CHO cells transfected with the rat dopamine D2 receptor (long isoform), administration of dopamine per se elicited a concentration-dependent increase in arachidonic acid (AA) release. The maximal effect was 197% of controls (EC50=25 nM). The partial D2 receptor agonist, (-)-(3-hydroxyphenyl)-N-n-propylpiperidine [(-)-3-PPP], also induced AA release, but with somewhat lower efficacy (maximal effect: 165%; EC50=91 nM). The AA-releasing effect of dopamine was counteracted by pertussis toxin, by the inhibitor of intracellular Ca2+ release, 8-(N N-diethylamino)octyl-3,4,5-trimethoxybenzoate (TMB-8), by excluding calcium from the medium, by the phospholipase A2 (PLA2) inhibitor, quinacrine, and by long-term pretreatment with the phorbol ester, 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA). In addition, it was antagonized by the D2 antagonists, raclopride and (-)-sulpiride--but not by (+)-sulpiride--and absent in sham-transfected CHO cells devoid of D2 receptors. The results obtained contrast to the previous notion that dopamine and other D2 receptor agonists require the concomitant administration of calcium-mobilizing agents such as ATP, ionophore A-23187 (calcimycin), thrombin, and TRH, to influence AA release from various cell lines.     

Identification of domains involved in superantigenicity of streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxin F (SpeF)

Coronary artery angioplasty or bypass is being performed for increasing numbers of patients in their seventh, eighth, ninth and even tenth decades of life. Because of the cost involved, justification for performing these procedures in the elderly has become a topic of daily discussion among those responsible for funding healthcare. Both silent and overt coronary artery disease (CAD) are more common in the population over 65 years of age. Because CAD in the elderly often presents in an atypical manner, diagnosis of the disease is frequently delayed. Partly because of the delayed diagnosis and partly because of cost considerations, coronary arterial bypass (CABG) is more often performed as an emergency procedure in the elderly with the results that both operative mortality and costs are increased over those observed in a younger population. Nevertheless, it is clear that performance of coronary revascularization procedures in the elderly can both prolong life and improve the quality of life beyond what can be achieved using alternative methods of treatment. Greater efforts directed toward detection of ischemic heart disease in the these patients and earlier, elective surgery could significantly reduce both the mortality and disability associated with CAD in the elderly.     

Determination of the molecular weight distribution of cellulose on calibrated gel columns

CMC samples obtained by gel filtration on a preparative scale were used to calibrate an agarose column. The relation between molecular weight and the peak elution volume for monodisperse samples were calculated as well as the relation between band broadening and the peak elution volume. In the calculations of the molecular weight distribution curves of the studied CMC samples, consideration was given to the variable band broadening by proper transformations of the experimental data, thus making it possible to obtain numerical solutions free from oscillations. The method admits a rapid determination of the molecular weight distribution of cellulose and related materials.     

Mass transport in a weakly stratified electrochemical cell

A study of natural convection in an electrochemical system with a Rayleigh number of the order 10¹⁰ is presented. Theoretical and experimental results for the unsteady behaviour of the concentration and velocity fields during electrolysis of an aqueous solution of a metal salt are given. The cell geometry is a vertical slot and the reaction kinetics is governed by a Butler-Volmer law. To reduce the effects of stratification, the flush mounted electrodes are located (symmetrically) in the middle parts of the vertical walls. It is demonstrated, both theoretically and experimentally, that a weak stratification develops after a short time, regardless of cell geometry, even in the central part of the cell. This stratification has a strong effect on the velocity field, which rapidly attains boundary layer character. Measured profiles of concentration and vertical velocity at and above the cathode are in good agreement with numerical predictions. For a constant cell voltage, numerical computations show that between the initial transient and the time when stronger stratification reaches the electrode area, the distribution of electric current is approximately steady.List of symbols a _i left hand side of equation system - b _i right hand side of equation system - c concentration (mol m^–3) - c dimensionless concentration - c _i concentration of species i' (mol m^–3) - c₀ initial cell concentration (300 mol m^–3) - c ₀ dimensionless initial cell concentration - c_wall concentration at electrode surface (mol m^–3) - dx increment solution vector in Newton's method - D _i diffusion coefficient of species i (m² s^–1) - D ₁ 0.38 × 10^–9 m² s^–1 - D ₂ 0.82 × 10^–9 m² s^–1 - D effective diffusion coefficient of the electrolyte (0.52 × 10^–9 m² s^–1) - _x unit vector in the vertical direction - _y unit vector in the horizontal direction - F Faraday's constant (96 487 A s mol^–1) - g acceleration of gravity (9.81 m s^–2) - i dummy referring to positive (i = 1) or negative (i = 2) ion - f current density (A m^–2) - f dimensionless current density - i₀ exchange current density (0.01 A m^–2) - J _ij Jacobian of system matrix - L length of electrode (0.03 m) - N _i transport flux density of ion i (mol m^–2 s^–1) - n unit normal vector - p pressure (Nm^–2) - p dimensionless pressure - R gas constant molar (8.31 J K^–1 mol^–1) - R _i residual of equation system - Ra Rayleigh number gL ³ c ₀/D (2.54 × 101¹⁰) - S _c Schmidt number /D (1730) - t time (s) - t dimensionless time - T temperature (293 K) - velocity vector (m s^–1) - dimensionless velocity vector - U characteristic velocity in the vertical direction - V _± potential of anode and cathode, respectively - x spatial coordinate in vertical direction (m) - x dimensionless spatial coordinate in vertical direction - x solution vector for c, and - y spatial coordinate in horizontal direction (m) - y dimensionless spatial coordinate in horizontal direction - z _i charge number of ion i Greek symbols symmetry factor of the electrode kinetics, 0.5 - volume expansion coefficient (1.24 × 10^–4 m³ mol^–1) - _s surface overpotential - constant in equation for the electric potential (–5.46) - _s diffusion layer thickness - scale of diffusion layer thickness - constant relating c/y to the Butler-Volmer law (0.00733) - kinematic viscosity (0.9 × 10^–6 m2 s^–1)     

Excluded volume effects in on‐ and off‐lattice reaction–diffusion models

Mathematical models are important tools to study the excluded volume effects on reaction–diffusion systems, which are known to play an important role inside living cells. Detailed microscopic simulations with off‐lattice Brownian dynamics become computationally expensive in crowded environments. In this study, the authors therefore investigate to which extent on‐lattice approximations, the so‐called cellular automata models, can be used to simulate reactions and diffusion in the presence of crowding molecules. They show that the diffusion is most severely slowed down in the off‐lattice model, since randomly distributed obstacles effectively exclude more volume than those ordered on an artificial grid. Crowded reaction rates can be both increased and decreased by the grid structure and it proves important to model the molecules with realistic sizes when excluded volume is taken into account. The grid artefacts increase with increasing crowder density and they conclude that the computationally more efficient on‐lattice simulations are accurate approximations only for low crowder densities.Inspec keywords: reaction‐diffusion systems, cellular biophysics, biodiffusion, Brownian motion, cellular automata, molecular biophysics, molecular configurationsOther keywords: crowder density, grid artefacts, grid structure, crowded reaction rates, artificial grid, randomly distributed obstacles, crowding molecules, cellular automata models, on‐lattice approximations, crowded environments, off‐lattice Brownian dynamics, detailed microscopic simulations, living cells, mathematical models, off‐lattice reaction‐diffusion models, on‐lattice reaction‐diffusion models, excluded volume effects     

Enhancing encoding capacity of combinational test stimulus decompressors

While scan-based compression is widely utilized in order to alleviate the test time and data volume problems,the overall compression level is dictated not only by the chain to channel ratio but also the ratio of encodable patterns.Aggressively increasing the number of scan chains in an effort to raise the compression levels may reduce the ratio of encodable patterns,degrading the overall compression level.In this paper,we present various methods to improve the ratio of encodable patterns.These methods are b...     

Managing requirements specifications for product lines - An approach and industry case study

Software product line development has emerged as a leading approach for software reuse. This paper describes an approach to manage natural-language requirements specifications in a software product line context. Variability in such product line specifications is modeled and managed using a feature model. The proposed approach has been introduced in the Swedish defense industry. We present a multiple-case study covering two different product lines with in total eight product instances. These were compared to experiences from previous projects in the organization employing clone-and-own reuse. We conclude that the proposed product line approach performs better than clone-and-own reuse of requirements specifications in this particular industrial context.     

Ride comfort optimization of a city bus

Ride comfort optimization of a city bus is considered in this article, using stiffness and related damping of the power unit mounts as design variables. The response of the bus, due to road irregularities, is calculated in the time domain by using a finite element (FE) model describing the complete vehicle. The body of the bus is condensed, using a substructuring technique, in order to reduce the simulation times. Operational deflection shapes (ODS) have been used to compare measured and calculated vibrations and some corrections of the FE model have been done. The response, i.e. acceleration, at three locations in the bus has been frequency-weighted according to the comfort standard ISO 2631:1997. The resulting root mean square (RMS) values of these responses are then used in the objective functions in the optimization procedure. The computational results show that it is possible to increase the ride comfort. However, the improvement of the ride comfort is probably too small to have a substantial subjective impact on the passenger in the bus. The results show that the objective function, regarding the overall ride comfort in the bus, has local optima. Received October 10, 1999