Racial variation of factor VII activity and antigen levels and their correlates in healthy Chinese and Indians at low and high risk for coronary artery disease

We examined the genotypes of ALDH2, ADH2, ADH3 and P-4502E1 loci of alcoholics and nonalcoholics. Also we compared the frequencies of the homozygous ALDH2*1/1 genotype and heterozygous ALDH2*1/2 genotypes in alcoholics. Our study reported differences in the allelic frequencies of ALDH2, ADH2 and ADH3 loci between alcoholics and nonalcoholics. For alcoholics, it was indicated that ADH2 and ADH3 plays an important role for alcoholism. For genotypes of P-4502E1, no significant difference was observed between alcoholics and nonalcoholics. Alcoholics with the heterozygous ALDH2*1/2 genotype had significantly higher frequency of the ADH2*1 than that of alcoholics with ALDH2*1/1 genotype. Concerning the alcoholics with the heterozygous ALDH2*1/2 genotype, we assumed that ADH2*1 plays a role for the development of alcoholism.     

Purification and characterization of thermophilic and alkalophilic tributyrin esterase fromBacillus strain A30-1 (ATCC 53841)

An extracellular esterase (EC 3.1.1.1) from a thermophilicBacillus A30-1 (ATCC 53841) was purified 139-fold to homogeneity by sodium chloride (6 M) treatment, ammonium sulfate fractionation (30–80%) and phenyl-Sepharose CL-6B column chromatography. The native enzyme was a single polypeptide chain with a molecular weight of about 65,000 and an isoelectric point at pH 4.8. The optimum pH for esterase activity was 9.0, and its pH stability range was 5.0–10.5. The optimum temperature for its activity was 60°C. The esterase had a half-life of 28 h at 50°C, 20 h at 60°C and 16 h at 65°C. It showed the highest activity on tributyrin, with little or no activity toward long-chain (12–20 carbon) fatty acid esters. The enzyme displayed K_m and K_cat values of 0.357 mM and 8365/min, respectively, for tributyrin hydrolysis at pH 9.0 and 60°C. Cyclodextrin (α, β, and γ), Ca²⁺, Co²⁺, Mg²⁺ and Mn²⁺ enhanced the esterase activity, and Zn²⁺ and Fe²⁺ acted as inhibitors of the enzyme activity. The enzyme activity was not affected by ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, p-chloromercuribenzoate andN-bromosuccinimide. This paper was presented in part at the 82nd Annual Meeting and Exposition of the American Oil Chemists’ Society, held May 12–15, 1991, in Chicago, Illinois.     

Growth of prepubertal children with inflammatory bowel disease

BACKGROUND: Growth retardation has been reported in children with chronic inflammatory bowel disease, especially in those with Crohn's disease. Most of these studies concern adolescent patients. METHODS: The growth of 47 prepubertal children (20 boys and 27 girls, mean age at diagnosis 7 years) with inflammatory bowel disease was studied at Tampere University Hospital, Department of Paediatrics. The mean height and height velocity standard deviation scores were calculated at diagnosis and, after that, yearly. The cumulative doses of oral and rectal prednisone per year were calculated. The severity of the disease was scored. The statistical analysis was carried out using the analysis of variance for repeated measurements. RESULTS: During the year preceding the diagnosis, children with inflammatory bowel disease had grown more slowly than their healthy peers. At diagnosis, they were slightly shorter as a group than are healthy children. During treatment and follow-up the mean height velocity of children with inflammatory bowel disease increased (change in the mean height velocity standard deviation scores from -0.84 to +1.08), normalizing the mean heights of these children compared with those of their healthy peers (change in the mean height standard deviation scores from -0.32 to +0.05). In the analysis of covariance, the poorest growth was seen in children with Crohn's disease, scored as severe, and the best growth in children with mild ulcerative colitis. No difference was seen in groups with or without prednisone treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Growth retardation is an important sign of chronic inflammatory bowel disease in prepubertal as well as adolescent children. During treatment, increasing growth velocity brings these children as a group to normal heights for age and sex.     

Protocol architecture for multimedia applications over ATM networks

At the data-link layer, ATM offers a number of features, such as high-bandwidth and per-session quality-of-service (QoS) guarantees, making it particularly attractive to multimedia applications. Unfortunately, many of these features are not visible to applications because of the inadequacies of existing higher-level protocol architectures. Although there is considerable effort underway to tune these protocols for ATM networks, we believe that a new ATM-specific protocol stack is essential to effectively exploit all the benefits of ATM. We describe the semantics of such a protocol stack, and discuss its advantages over traditional protocol architectures from the perspective of multimedia applications. The performance impact of the new protocol architecture is experimentally demonstrated on a video conferencing testbed built around IBM RS/6000's equipped with prototype hardware for video/audio processing, and connected via ATM links     

Some characteristics of ridge-trough waveguide

A single-ridged waveguide with a symmetrical longitudinal trough below the ridge, designated as a ridge-trough waveguide (RTW) has been recently proposed as a wafer probe. The authors have theoretically calculated the cutoff, bandwidth, and impedance characteristics of this modified single-ridged waveguide in two different configurations using the Ritz-Galerkin technique and different domain decompositions. The results indicate that a RTW can be a low impedance broad-band structure     

Adsorption of nickel by lignite

Process feasibility studies have been initiated to determine the possibilities of extracting metallic nickel by the lignite-adsorption route. Lignite proved to be a very effective adsorbent. Observations relating the adsorption of nickel by lignite to process variables are reported in this paper.     

Longitudinal shear properties of human compact bone and its constituents,and the associated failure mechanisms

Human compact bone specimens were tested in longitudinal shear at two different strain rates. The maximum stress and energy absorption capacities were 50.40±14.08 MN m^–2 and 20720±9310J m^–2 respectively for 14 embalmed specimens tested at a cross head speed of 2.1×10^–6 m sec^–1. The maximum stress was found to be 75% of the transverse shearing strength. Bone specimens were also tested after selectively dissolving the organic and mineral components. The results showed that the composite strength of bone was much higher than the summation of strengths of its organic and mineral phases. Fractographic examination of the fracture surfaces showed that debonding of the interfaces between the osteons and the surrounding bone matrix and between the osteonal lamellae were the main mechanisms of longitudinal shear failure.