EGFR blockade by tyrosine kinase inhibitor or monoclonal antibody inhibits growth, directs terminal differentiation and induces apoptosis in the human squamous cell carcinoma HN5

Xenotransplantation of human cells into immunodeficient mice has been used to develop models of human haemopoiesis and lymphoid cell function. However, the utility of existing mouse strains can be limited by shortened life-spans, spontaneous production of functional lymphocytes with ageing, and residual innate immunity leading to variable levels of engraftment. Mice with a deletion of the common cytokine receptor gamma chain (gamma c) gene have reduced numbers of peripheral T and B lymphocytes, and absent natural killer cell (NK) activity. A genetic cross with a recombinase activating gene 2 (RAG2)-deficient strain produced mice doubly homozygous for the gamma c and RAG2 null alleles (gamma c-/RAG2-). These mice have a stable phenotype characterized by the absence of all T lymphocyte. B lymphocyte and NK cell function. Injection of human B-lymphoblastoid cells resulted in earlier fatal metastatic lymphoproliferative disease than in NOD/LtSz-scid controls. This was particularly evident in animals injected intravenously, possibly because of residual NK activity in NOD/LtSz-scid mice. Levels of engraftment with peripheral-blood-derived human lymphocytes were also increased and associated with higher CD4/CD8 ratios. These findings demonstrate that this new strain of immunodeficient mice has significant advantages over existing strains for engraftment of human cells, and may be useful for study of adoptive immunotherapy and novel therapies for GvHD and HIV infection.     

A serial-link transceiver based on 8-GSamples/s A/D and D/Aconverters in 0.25-μm CMOS

This paper presents a transceiver that uses a 4-bit flash analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for the receiver and an 8-bit current-steering digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for the transmitter. The 8-GSamples/s converters are 8-way time interleaved. Digital compensation reduces the input offset of the ADC comparators to less than 0.6 LSB, improves the accuracy of the interleaved sampling clocks to within 10 ps, and reduces systematic coupling noise to less than 18 mV on the 800-mV signal swing. 1.1-nH bondwire inductors distribute the parasitic capacitances at the transceiver input and output, reducing attenuation by 10 dB at 4 GHz. Equalization algorithms using the converters compensate for the 1.5-GHz transceiver bandwidth to allow 8-GSamples/s multilevel data transmission     

A current self-limited protective device studied by LF-noise measurements

Electrical properties of composite carbon-epoxy material may lead to many applications in electronics systems, in particular as protective devices. Conduction mechanisms in such components are investigated on the basis of first order characteristics (I–V curves) and of excess low frequency noise measurements. The great influence of thermal effects on the electrical characteristics are highlighted by complementary studies using IR thermography. A first attempt is made to test the reliability of these devices and to determine the failure modes by the comparison of the excess noise before and after high stress cycles.