HBeAg-negative hepatitis B in a previously thalassemic patient during immunosuppressive therapy for chronic GVHD

We report the case of a 15-year-old previously thalassemic girl who, 15 months after allogeneic BMT, developed HBeAg-negative hepatitis B (variant with mu-1896). In the absence of another route of transmission, HBV reactivation is postulated. The time of emergence of the HBV variant (with mu-1896) is probably related to the development of anti-HBe immunity. This mutant strain is associated with fulminant hepatitis. The patient achieved complete remission and HBV eradication despite having moderate GVHD and receiving immunosuppressive therapy.     

Hypoxia-ischemia induces a rapid elevation of ubiquitin conjugate levels and ubiquitin immunoreactivity in the immature rat brain

Postnatal rats at 7 and 21 days of age were subjected to unilateral hypoxia-ischemia (H/I) by right carotid artery ligation followed by 1.5 to 2 hours of hypoxia (8% oxygen). Brains were frozen at specific intervals of recovery from 0 to 24 hours. Western blots of samples of right and left forebrain were immunodeveloped with a monoclonal antibody specific for ubiquitin, RHUb1. An elevation of ubiquitin conjugate levels in the right compared with the left forebrain of 7-day-old animals was detectable immediately following H/I and increased by close to 60% of control level within 1 hour of recovery. The conjugate immunoreactivity remained at this level for 6 hours but had declined to control levels by 24 hours of recovery. No such increase was observed in response to hypoxia alone. Similar changes were observed in samples from the 21-day-old rat brain. However, the elevation of ubiquitin conjugate levels was of slower onset and persisted longer than observed for the 7-day-old animals. Immunocytochemical studies of brain fixed by immersion in formaldehyde/acetone/methanol showed that ubiquitin-like immunoreactivity was increased in the right, but not left, cerebral cortex and hippocampus of animals subjected to H/I. The data suggest that elevated ubiquitination may represent a neuroprotective response to H/I.     

Design of a new axially-laminated interior permanent magnet motor

The design of a new type of axially-laminated interior permanent magnet motor drive showing an extremely wide constant-power speed range which exceeds 7.5:1 is described. The effect on the field-weakening performance of the number of poles, the pole-piece material, the rotor bolt holes, the airgap size, the rotor insulation ratio, and the magnet type are analyzed using analytical and finite-element techniques. A 7.5-kW synchronous reluctance and a 7.5-kW interior permanent magnet axially-laminated rotor were built for a commercial induction motor stator and experimental low-speed and field-weakening results are presented     

Mechanical properties of freely suspended semiconducting graphene-like layers based on MoS2

We fabricate freely suspended nanosheets of molybdenum disulphide (MoS₂) which are characterized by quantitative optical microscopy and high-resolution friction force microscopy. We study the elastic deformation of freely suspended nanosheets of MoS₂ using an atomic force microscope. The Young''s modulus and the initial pre-tension of the nanosheets are determined by performing a nanoscopic version of a bending test experiment. MoS₂ sheets show high elasticity and an extremely high Young''s modulus (0.30 TPa, 50% larger than steel). These results make them a potential alternative to graphene in applications requiring flexible semiconductor materials.PACS, 73.61.Le, other inorganic semiconductors, 68.65.Ac, multilayers, 62.20.de, elastic moduli, 81.40.Jj, elasticity and anelasticity, stress-strain relations.     

Novel KCND3 Variant Underlying Nonprogressive Congenital Ataxia or SCA19/22 Disrupt KV4.3 Protein Expression and K+ Currents with Variable Effects on Channel Properties

KCND3 encodes the voltage-gated potassium channel K_V4.3 that is highly expressed in the cerebellum, where it regulates dendritic excitability and calcium influx. Loss-of-function K_V4.3 mutations have been associated with dominant spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA19/22). By targeted NGS sequencing, we identified two novel KCND3 missense variants of the K_V4.3 channel: p.S347W identified in a patient with adult-onset pure cerebellar syndrome and p.W359G detected in a child with congenital nonprogressive ataxia. Neuroimaging showed mild cerebellar atrophy in both patients. We performed a two-electrode voltage-clamp recording of K_V4.3 currents in Xenopus oocytes: both the p.G345V (previously reported in a SCA19/22 family) and p.S347W mutants exhibited reduced peak currents by 50%, while no K+ current was detectable for the p.W359G mutant. We assessed the effect of the mutations on channel gating by measuring steady-state voltage-dependent activation and inactivation properties: no significant alterations were detected in p.G345V and p.S347W disease-associated variants, compared to controls. K_V4.3 expression studies in HEK293T cells showed 53% (p.G345V), 45% (p.S347W) and 75% (p.W359G) reductions in mutant protein levels compared with the wildtype. The present study broadens the spectrum of the known phenotypes and identifies additional variants for KCND3-related disorders, outlining the importance of SCA gene screening in early-onset and congenital ataxia.     

The Flood and Sediment Characteristics of the Lower Yellow River in China

Abstract

The Lower Yellow River is well known for its high sediment content and disastrous floods. For thousands of years, roaring floods have run through China's populated Northern Plain and caused countless damages. Understanding the basic characteristics of floods andsedimentation and their relationship is crucial to the development of a comprehensive flood protection plan for the Lower Yellow River By illustrating the erosion/deposition patterns under different flood and sediment inputs, this article explains these characteristics and discusses principles for controlling sediment distributions in this complex river system.     

NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF HEAT TRANSFER UNDER CONFINED IMPINGING TURBULENT SLOT JETS

This work numerically in vestigates confined impinging turbulent slot jets. Eight turbulence models, including one standard and seven low-Reynolds-number k-epsilon models, are employed and tested to predict the heat transfer performance of multiple impinging jets. Validation results indicate that the prediction by each turbulence model depends on grid distribution and numerical scheme used in spatial discretization. In addition, spent fluid exits are set between impinging jets to reduce the cross-flow effect in degradation of the heat transfer of downstream impinging jets. The overall heat transfer performance can be enhanced by proper spent fluid removal.     

Probability-Based Optimization of Inter-Sensing Duration and Power Control in Cognitive Radio

Probability-based strategies are proposed in this letter to determine the optimal inter-sensing duration and power control for cognitive radio (CR). With utilization of the statistics of licensed band occupancy, appropriate inter-sensing duration is determined to capture the recurrence of spectrum opportunity in time when the licensed signal is detected, or to achieve the maximum spectrum efficiency under a certain level of interference with licensed communication when the licensed signal is declared absent. Transmit power is varied dynamically according to the non-interfering probability at each sample so as to increase the transmission rate and decrease the interference power.     

Evaluation of current criteria in predicting the separation necessary to prevent seismic pounding between nonlinear hysteretic structural systems

This study evaluates the accuracy of four different criteria to calculate the separation necessary to prevent seismic pounding between nonlinear hysteretic structural systems. All of the criteria considered in this paper make use of the same basic equation of the Double Difference Combination rule, but they adopt different procedures to estimate the correlation between displacement responses of nonlinear hysteretic systems. The seismic excitation was modeled as a nonstationary random process, and adjacent structures were modeled as 5%-damped bilinear hysteretic SDOF systems having a 5% post-yielding stiffness ratio. Results obtained through Monte Carlo simulations indicate that none of the criteria evaluated in this study is completely satisfactory in the sense that none of them can consistently provide “exact” or “somewhat conservative” results.