Making your own Automatic Test Equipment has never been easier

<正>Using Planet ATE's SOC "all-in-one" pin electronics solutions it is easy to make your own tester, ATE or to modify load boards for more advanced test capabilities.     

Metabolic balance studies in premature infants

Many investigators over the past three decades have successfully conducted traditional metabolic balance studies in efforts to determine the retention rates of key nutrients important to the optimal growth of preterm infants. Differences in methodologies discussed in this review may explain the inconsistent results of balance studies reported for some nutrients, particularly calcium. These methodologic differences include (1) variability in nutrient intake and nutritional course prior to the balance period, (2) differences in the method of stool collection (with and without markers), (3) use of single versus repeated balance periods, and (4) different durations of balance periods. The data presented here suggest that the variability of net fat absorptions among VLBW infants was decreased when an acclimation period of nutrient intake supportive of growth was provided prior to a metabolic balance study. In addition, the use of markers affected the estimates of net calcium absorption but not fat absorption. Additional factors that may influence net calcium absorption and methods for the estimation of calcium absorption in VLBW infants warrant further investigation. This review describes the methods of specimen collection for metabolic balance studies in VLBW preterm infants that demonstrated reproducible data. The recent application of stable isotope methodology to metabolic balance studies can be extremely advantageous in identifying the rates of nutrient absorption versus endogenous secretion in the GI tract.     

BCL-2 overexpression attenuates cortical cell loss after traumatic brain injury in transgenic mice

The proto-oncogene, BCL-2, has been suggested to participate in cell survival during development of, and after injury to, the CNS. Transgenic (TG) mice overexpressing human Bcl-2 (n = 21) and their wild-type (WT) littermates (n = 18) were subjected to lateral controlled cortical impact brain injury. Lateral controlled cortical impact brain injury resulted in the formation of a contusion in the injured cortex at 2 days, which developed into a well-defined cavity by 7 days in both WT and TG mice. At 7 days after injury, brain-injured TG mice had a significantly reduced cortical lesion (volume = 1.99 mm3) compared with that of the injured WT mice (volume = 5.1 mm3, P < 0.01). In contrast, overexpression of BCL-2 did not affect the extent of hippocampal cell death after lateral controlled cortical impact brain injury. Analysis of motor function revealed that both brain-injured WT and TG mice exhibited significant right-sided deficits at 2 and 7 days after injury (P < 0.05 compared with the uninjured controls). Although composite neuroscores (sum of scores from forelimb and hind limb flexion, lateral pulsion, and inclined plane tests) were not different between WT and TG brain-injured mice, TG mice had a slightly but significantly reduced deficit in the inclined plane test (P < 0.05 compared to the WT mice). These data suggest that the cell death regulatory gene, BCL-2, may play a protective role in the pathophysiology of traumatic brain injury.     

Immunological regulation of Angiostrongylus cantonensis infections in rats: modulation of population density and enhanced parasite growth following one or two superimposed infections

Rats acquired a degree of protective immunity to reinfection with Angiostrongylus cantonensis after a single infection with 50 infective larvae. Infected rats resisted the establishment of most challenging larvae and protective immunity increased with subsequent reinfections. Part of the primary infection was lost after a superimposed second and also following a superimposed third infection, but the total size of the concurrent adult worm populations remained the same as that from a primary infection. Worms surviving from the primary infection showed enhanced growth after each reinfection but their fecundity was impaired.