Intramolecular inhibition of human defensin HNP-1 by its propiece

We examined mechanisms that protect host defense cells from their cytotoxic effector molecules. Human neutrophil peptides (HNP) 1-3 are microbicidal and cytotoxic defensins, initially synthesized as 94-amino acid preproHNP(1-94), cotranslationally proteolyzed to proHNP(20-94), then converted by removal of the anionic propiece to mature HNP(65-94)(HNP-1 and -3) and HNP(66-94) (HNP-2). We hypothesized that during synthesis and subcellular sorting the anionic propiece inhibits the cytotoxicity of the cationic defensin. We expressed preproHNP-1 cDNA in recombinant baculovirus-infected insect cells that secreted the normally transient proHNP-1(20-94) into the medium. Cyanogen bromide cleaved proHNP-1(20-94) at the fortuitously located Met64 to yield mature recombinant HNP-1(65-94) and unlinked propiece. Recombinant and native HNP-1 purified from PMN were identical as judged by mass spectrometry, retention time in reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography, migration on acid-urea polyacrylamide gels, and reaction with a conformation-specific antibody. Recombinant and native HNP-1 had comparable microbicidal activity towards Listeria monocytogenes and were similarly potent in permeabilizing K562 leukemia cells, but proHNP-1(20-94) was virtually inactive in both assays. Addition of unlinked propiece (proHNP-1(20-64) with Met64-->homoserine) inhibited the bactericidal and cell-permeabilizing activity of mature HNP-1 in a dose-dependent manner. Linked, and to a lesser extent unlinked, propiece interfered with the binding of HNP-1 to target cells. The propiece thus acts as an efficient intramolecular inhibitor of defensin HNP-1 cytotoxicity.     

Optimum cycle redundancy-check codes with 16-bit redundancy

Optimal binary cyclic redundancy-check codes with 16 parity bits (CRC-16 codes) are presented and compared to those in existing standards for minimum-distance, undetected-error probability on binary symmetric channels (BSCs) and properness. The codes in several cases are seen to be superior at block lengths of practical interest when they are used on low-noise BSCs. The optimum minimum distance obtainable by some CRC-16 codes is determined for all block lengths. For several typical low-noise BSCs the minimum undetected error probability achievable with some CRC-16 codes is given for all block lengths     

Treatment of drug resistant scabies]

The theory that narcotic-induced protracted biological changes are responsible for relapse of opiate-reinforced behavior was examined in the rat. Groups of rats were conditioned to prefer a distinctive environment by pairing it with morphine doses from 1-200 mg/kg, and were retested for persistence of this preference after a 3-week abstinence period. They were then observed for protracted signs such as sensitivity to naloxone, tolerance to morphine analgesia, hyperaggression, or changes in endocrine activity. Acquisition and relapse of the preference, as well as long-term tolerance, were dose related. None of the purported protracted signs showed any consistent relationship to the tendency to relapse. However, relapse correlated significantly with original acquisition scores in all relapsing groups. The results suggest that original conditioning factors, rather than protracted changes, are responsible for the observed relapse.     

Hip fusion through an anterior approach with the use of a ventral plate

A new technique to achieve a reliable fusion of the hip joint through an anterior approach with use of a ventral low contact dynamic compression plate and a lateral 6.5 mm lag screw is presented in detail. The advantages of this technique are that the approach does not jeopardize the vascularity of the femoral head, that the fixation on the pelvic side uses the strong bone stock of the sciatic buttress, and that the hip abductor muscles and greater trochanter are preserved. The authors also present the indications and the results of their experience with 12 patients. The followup period averaged 24.8 months (range, 10-42 months). Ten patients (83%) achieved a solid fusion by radiologic and clinical criteria. Although a moderately symptomatic nonunion developed in 1 patient, another patient went on to a painful nonunion to whom another attempt for fusion has been recommended. According to the hip score of Merle d'Aubigné and Postel, the average figures for pain and ambulation increased from 3.2 points to 5.0 points and from 2.7 points to 4.5 points, respectively, after surgery. Six of the 12 patients regained the ability to work in their former jobs or in new occupations. Eight patients felt no or minor restrictions in doing their former sports activities. Patient satisfaction was high with a majority reporting minor discomfort mainly around the fused hip.     

On optimal design of multitier wireless cellular systems

We present a general cell-design methodology for the optimal design of a multitier wireless cellular network. Multitier networks are useful when there are a multitude of traffic types with drastically different parameters and/or different requirements, such as different mobility parameters or quality-of-service requirements. In such situations, it may be cost-effective to build a multitude of cellular infrastructures, each serving a particular traffic type. The network resources (e.g., the radio channels) are then partitioned among the multitude of tiers. In general terms, we are interested in quantifying the cost reduction due to the multitier network design, as opposed to a single-tier network. Our study is motivated by the expected proliferation of personal communication services, which will serve different mobility platforms and support multimedia applications through a newly deployed infrastructure based on the multitier approach     

Distributed Test Pattern Generation for Stuck-At Faults in Sequential Circuits

Automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) remains one of themost complex CAD tasks. Therefore, numerous methods were proposed tospeed up ATPG by using parallelism. In this paper, we focus onparallelizing ATPG for stuck-at faults in sequential circuits bycombining fault and search space parallelism. Fault parallelism isapplied to so-called easy-to-detect faults. The main task of thisapproach is to find a best-suited partitioning of the fault list,based on dependencies between faults. For hard-to-detect faultsleft by fault parallelism, search space partitioning is applied,integrating depth-first and breadth-first search. Since a smalltest set size is mandatory for a cheap test and fault parallelismincreases the number of test patterns, test set compaction is donein a post-processing phase. Results show that our approach is notonly capable of achieving potentially superlinear speedups, but alsoimproves test set quality. The parallel environment we use consistsof a network of 100 workstations connected via ethernet.     

Evaluation of the Random Token Protocol for High-Speed and Radio Networks

In high-speed communication networks, the ratio between the end-to-end propagation delay to packet transmission time is large, causing increased scheduling overhead in demand assignment protocols and increased collision probabilities in random access schemes. These lead to rapid degradation of the channel utilization in both channel access control approaches. In this paper, we present a "random token" oriented protocol where channel access is scheduled by random, implicit token passing leading to lower channel access control penalty. By optimally balancing the collision and scheduling penalties, the protocol allows the network to reach better performance than that obtained from random access schemes in networks with and without collision detection, without imposing additional system operational assumptions. Specifically, the random token protocol does not require knowledge of the number of stations, their identities, or synchronization in periods of silence. Therefore, the protocol is also suitable for high-speed networks with frequent reconfiguration and for mobile radio networks.