Intrauterine transfusions influence fetal leukocyte counts and subsets

Histamine is an important mediator in allergic reactions, gastric acid secretions, and neurotransmission in the central nervous system. Basophils and mast cells are the main sources of histamine, which is formed from L-histidine by histidine decarboxylase (HDC). However, the regulatory mechanism of HDC in these cells remains unclear. We examined the regulation of HDC activity and gene expression using a unique human mast cell line, HMC-1, after stimulation with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) or ionomycin. HDC activity was increased from 52.1+/-0.4 (mean+/-standard deviation) to 154+/-6.9, or 105.6+/-6.2 pmol/min/mg protein (n = 3), 4 hours after stimulation with PMA (10 ng/mL) or ionomycin (10[-6] M). Although actinomycin D had no effect on this increase, cycloheximide completely inhibited the increase caused by these stimuli. The population of HMC-1 cells containing HDC protein was increased after stimulation with either PMA or ionomycin as evaluated by immunocytochemical analysis with anti-HDC antibody as a marker. HMC-1 constitutively expressed HDC mRNA, and its level was not increased with these stimuli. These results suggest that the increase of HDC activity in HMC-1 induced by PMA or ionomycin is regulated at the translational level.     

Dielectric barrier discharge treatments at atmospheric pressure for wood surface modification

In this research, the effect of dielectric barrier discharge on mechanically manufactured (sawn, planed or polished) wood surfaces is investigated. The experiments have shown that the best hydrophilia is obtained with a cold plasma discharge in air under atmospheric pressure. Other gases such as helium, nitrogen, and argon have been tested, too. Changes of the wood surface properties were determined by absorption of water and contact angle measurements. As a result of a 1 to 20 seconds long exposure to plasma, wood surfaces became hydrophilic. The absorption of water in wood can be changed up to 22 times higher after plasma treatment in air for 20 seconds duration. The fracture strength of glued wood has been increased by 68% after this plasma pretreatment. Using plasma treatment in methane or acetylene wood surfaces are changed to hydrophobic properties. After plasma treatment for 1 min. in a Ar:CH₄=80:20 gas mixture under atmospheric pressure, the absorption of water in wood is 32 times lower than without plasma treatment. As mentioned before, plasma treatment can produce hydrophobic and hydrophilic wood surfaces. But a good homogeneity of the gas discharge is necessary for the plasma treatment of wood. Zusammenfassung Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit werden die Auswirkungen der dielektrisch behinderten Entladung bei Atmosphärendruck auf mechanisch bearbeitete Holzoberflächen (gesägt, gehobelt oder geschliffen) untersucht. Die Experimente haben gezeigt, dass die höchste Hydrophilität bei einem in Luftatmosphäre gezündetem Plasma erreicht wird. Es werden auch andere Gase verwendet, wie z.B. Helium, Stickstoff und Argon. Zur Untersuchung der veränderten mechanischen und energetischen Eigenschaften der Holzoberflächen werden der Tropfen-Versuch und die Kontaktwinkelmessung verwendet. Durch eine 1 bis 20 Sekunden lange Plasmabehandlung können die Oberflächen hydrophil gestaltet werden. So kann die Eindringzeit von Wasser um Faktor 22 gesteigert werden durch eine 20 Sekunden lange Plasmabehandlung in Umgebungsluft. Die Bruchfestigkeit von Leimholz wird durch die gleiche Plasmavorbehandlung um 68% gesteigert. Werden als Plasmabehandlungsgas Methan oder Acetylen eingesetzt, so wird die Holzoberfläche hydrophob. Durch eine 60 Sekunden lange Plasmabehandlung in einem Ar:CH₄=80:20 Gasgemisch bei Atmosphärendruck wird die Eindringszeit von Wasser um den Faktor 32 gesenkt. Mit Hilfe der Plasmabehandlung können also sowohl hydrophobe als auch hydrophile Holzoberflächen erzeugt werden. Jedoch wird für die Plasmabehandlung von Holz eine sehr homogene Gasentladung benötigt.     

CHOP vs. ProMACE-CytaBOM in the treatment of aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphomas: long-term results of a multicenter randomized trial.(PETHEMA: Spanish Cooperative Group for the Study of Hematological Malignancies Treatment, Spanish Society of Hematology)

From May 1985 to May 1989, 175 patients with previously untreated aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma were randomized to receive CHOP or ProMACE-CytaBOM. Eligibility criteria included follicular large-cell diffuse small cleaved-cell, diffuse mixed, diffuse large-cell and immunoblastic lymphoma with an Ann Arbor stage II, III or IV. One hundred and forty-eight patients were evaluable. There were no significant differences between the 2 treatments in response rate (83.5% [57.5% CR] for CHOP vs. 88% [62% CR] for ProMACE-CytaBOM), time to treatment failure (29% vs. 31% at 5 yr), or overall survival (42% in both groups at 5 yr). Furthermore, there were no significant differences between the 2 regimens when response rates and outcome were analyzed for different prognostic subgroups. Toxicity was not significantly different between the 2 regimens, although only 1 patient died as result of treatment-related toxicity in the CHOP arm compared to 6 patient in the ProMACE-CytaBOM group (p = 0.126). In conclusion, in this study ProMACE-CytaBOM has not proved to be superior to CHOP in aggressive lymphomas. This trial gives support to the notion that CHOP still is the standard chemotherapy for aggressive lymphomas, and that new treatment approaches for these lymphomas should be compared to CHOP.     

The Influence of Medium on Low-Voltage Circuit Breaker Arcs

This paper mainly focuses on the influence of three kinds of media： air, air-10%PA （Nylon） and air-10% POM （polyoxymethylene） on low-voltage circuit breaker arcs. A threedimensional （3-D） model of arc motioa under the effect of external magnetic field is built based on magnetohydrodynamics （MHD） equations. By adopting the commercial computational fluid dynamics （CFD） package based on the control-volume method, the above MHD equations are solved. For the media of air-10%PA and air-10%POM, the distributions of stationary temperature and electrical potential and the transient motion processes are compared with those of air arc. The research shows that both air-10%PA and air -10% POM can cool the arc plasma and the former is more effective. Both of them can increase the stationary voltage as well. Moreover, the presence of the two mixtures can accelerate the arc motion toward the quenching area and ensures the arc quenched in time.     

Second-order shape derivatives along normal trajectories,governed by Hamilton-Jacobi equations

In this paper we introduce a new variant of shape differentiation which is adapted to the deformation of shapes along their normal direction. This is typically the case in the level-set method for shape optimization where the shape evolves with a normal velocity. As all other variants of the original Hadamard method of shape differentiation, our approach yields the same first order derivative. However, the Hessian or second-order derivative is different and somehow simpler since only normal movements are allowed. The applications of this new Hessian formula are twofold. First, it leads to a novel extension method for the normal velocity, used in the Hamilton-Jacobi equation of front propagation. Second, as could be expected, it is at the basis of a Newton optimization algorithm which is conceptually simpler since no tangential displacements have to be considered. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the potentiality of these two applications. The key technical tool for our approach is the method of bicharacteristics for solving Hamilton-Jacobi equations. Our new idea is to differentiate the shape along these bicharacteristics (a system of two ordinary differential equations).     

Motion of points and lines in the uncalibrated case

In the present paper we address the problem of computing structure and motion, given a set point and/or line correspondences, in a monocular image sequence, when the camera is not calibrated.Considering point correspondences first, we analyse how to parameterize the retinal correspondences, in function of the chosen geometry: Euclidean, affine or projective geometry. The simplest of these parameterizations is called the FQs-representation and is a composite projective representation. The main result is that considering N+1 views in such a monocular image sequence, the retinal correspondences are parameterized by 11 N–4 parameters in the general projective case. Moreover, 3 other parameters are required to work in the affine case and 5 additional parameters in the Euclidean case. These 8 parameters are calibration parameters and must be calculated considering at least 8 external informations or constraints. The method being constructive, all these representations are made explicit.Then, considering line correspondences, we show how the the same parameterizations can be used when we analyse the motion of lines, in the uncalibrated case. The case of three views is extensively studied and a geometrical interpretation is proposed, introducing the notion of trifocal geometry which generalizes the well known epipolar geometry. It is also discussed how to introduce line correspondences, in a framework based on point correspondences, using the same equations.Finally, considering the F Qs-representation, one implementation is proposed as a motion module, taking retinal correspondences as input, and providing and estimation of the 11 N–4 retinal motion parameters. As discussed in this paper, this module can also estimate the 3D depth of the points up to an affine and projective transformation, defined by the 8 parameters identified in the first section. Experimental results are provided.     

A comparison of the tribological behaviour of steel/steel, steel/DLC and DLC/DLC contacts when lubricated with mineral and biodegradable oils

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings, which can nowadays be applied to many highly loaded mechanical components, sometimes need to operate under lubricated conditions. It is reasonable to expect that in steel/DLC contacts, at least the steel counter body will behave according to conventional lubrication mechanisms and will interact with lubricants and additives in the contact. However, in DLC/DLC contacts, such mechanisms are still unclear. For example, the “inertness” of DLC coatings raises several questions about whether they are able to provide real boundary “lubrication” or whether they are just a “passive” member in these contacts. On the other hand, biodegradable oils, in particular vegetable base oils, possess a good lubricating ability, often much better than mineral or conventional synthetic oils as a result of the large amount of un-saturated and polar components that can promote the lubricity of DLC coatings. Accordingly, in this study, we present the results of experiments under severe boundary-lubrication conditions during reciprocating sliding. We look at the effect of the type of mating surfaces - steel/DLC, DLC/DLC and steel/steel - and the type of oil on the tribological performance of DLC coatings. We compare the wear and friction behaviours of two types of DLC coatings, i.e., a “pure” non-doped a-C:H DLC coating (denoted as a-DLC) and a WC-containing multilayer coating (denoted as W-DLC) tested with a mineral oil and a biodegradable vegetable oil. These oils, which have very different chemical compositions, were used as base oils and also with mild AW and strong EP additives. Among other things, the results confirm the following: (1) coating/coating lubricated contacts can resemble metal-lubrication mechanisms; (2) additives reduce wear in coating/coating contacts by up to 80%; (3) better wear and friction performance are obtained with oils that contain large amounts of polar and un-saturated molecules; (4) a coating/coating combination generally results in less wear than a steel/coating combination.     

Increasing the water uptake of wood veneers through plasma treatment at atmospheric pressure

In order to provide a database which documents the influence of plasma treatment on water uptake of wood veneers, veneers of 27 wood species underwent immersion tests in untreated and plasma-treated states. Plasma treatment was executed using an air driven dielectric barrier discharge at atmospheric pressure. The results showed that plasma treatment led to significantly improved water uptake for most of the wood species, but some wood species remained unaffected after plasma treatment.     

Hydrothermal purification and enrichment of Chilean copper concentrates. Part 2: The behavior of the bulk concentrates

The hydrothermal treatment of Chilean Codelco-type copper concentrates with copper sulfate solutions was investigated as a mean of removal of impurities and subsequent increase of the copper assay. The behavior of the mineral phases (digenite, chalcopyrite, covellite, bornite, pyrite and sphalerite) was similar to those obtained in previous works from pure mineral samples. An almost complete transformation of bornite, chalcopirite, covellite and sphalerite into Cu_2 ? xS phases was obtained at 225 °C–240 °C. The highest degree of elimination (around 80%) of impurities was in Zn, Cd, Tl and Bi. An intermediate elimination (40–70%) was achieved for Pb and Te, with only moderate elimination (20–40%) of Mo, Hg, Sb and As. Temperature was the variable having the greatest influence on the elimination of the impurities. A concentrate containing 33% Cu, 33% S, 22% Fe and 2% Zn was converted to a highly enriched concentrate containing 70% Cu, 19% S and 3% Fe. The advantages of a concentrate of this type would include: (1) raising by more than twice the smelting capacity due to the high copper content, (2) generation of a minimum amount of slag, (3) reduction by almost 50% in sulfur emissions, (4) substantial reduction of wastes containing hazardous metals and, finally (5), retention of the option to hydrometallurgical copper recovery since the neo-formed Cu_2 ? xS phases are more reactive than chalcopyrite to the chemical or biochemical leaching.     

Facilitating GL13K Peptide Grafting on Polyetheretherketone via 1-Ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide: Surface Properties and Antibacterial Activity

In the present work, the antimicrobial peptide (AMP) of GL13K was successfully coated onto a polyetheretherketone (PEEK) substrate to investigate its antibacterial activities against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) bacteria. To improve the coating efficiency, 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide (EDC) was mixed with a GL13K solution and coated on the PEEK surface for comparison. Both energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) data confirmed 30% greater peptide coating on PEEK/GL13K-EDC than PEEK without EDC treatment. The GL13K graft levels are depicted in the micrograms per square centimeter range. The PEEK/GL13K-EDC sample showed a smoother and lower roughness (Rq of 0.530 µm) than the PEEK/GL13K (0.634 µm) and PEEK (0.697 µm) samples. The surface of the PEEK/GL13K-EDC was more hydrophilic (with a water contact angle of 24°) than the PEEK/GL13K (40°) and pure PEEK (89°) samples. The pure PEEK disc did not exhibit any inhibition zone against S. aureus. After peptide coating, the samples demonstrated significant zones of inhibition: 28 mm and 25 mm for the PEEK/GL13K-EDC and PEEK/GL13K samples, respectively. The bacteria-challenged PEEK sample showed numerous bacteria clusters, whereas PEEK/GL13K contained a little bacteria and PEEK/GL13K-EDC had no bacterial attachment. The results confirm that the GL13K peptide coating was able to induce antibacterial and biofilm-inhibitory effects. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of successful GL13K peptide grafting on a PEEK substrate via EDC coupling. The present work illustrates a facile and promising coating technique for a polymeric surface to provide bactericidal activity and biofilm resistance to medical implantable devices.