Tumor necrosis factor alpha interferes with the cell cycle of normal and papillomavirus-immortalized human keratinocytes

We have shown that normal and human papillomavirus (HPV) type 16 immortalized human foreskin keratinocytes are growth inhibited by tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), whereas HPV-18- and SV40-immortalized keratinocytes are resistant to this cytokine (1). In this report, we investigated the expression of mitotic regulatory proteins, such as cyclin A, cyclin B, and p34cdc2. After exposure to TNF-alpha, normal and HPV-16-immortalized cells exhibited a dramatic decrease in the expression of these proteins. In contrast, no alteration in the levels of these proteins was observed after treatment of the resistant cell lines, as well as two HPV-positive cervical carcinoma cell lines. Expression of cyclin E does not seem to be modulated by TNF-alpha in any of the cells tested. On the other hand, cyclin D1, expression is slightly increased in normal keratinocytes and in the HPV-16-immortalized cells, whereas no alteration was observed in the HPV-18-transfected cells. The phosphorylation state of pRb correlated with cell growth; sensitive cells, which accumulate in G0-G1, after exposure to TNF-alpha, exhibited an accumulation of hypophosphorylated pRb, whereas no effect on pRb phosphorylation was observed for HPV-18-immortalized cells. These results clearly correlate with TNF-alpha-induced growth arrest in G0-G1.     

Space-dependent color gamut mapping: a variational approach.

Gamut mapping deals with the need to adjust a color image to fit into the constrained color gamut of a given rendering medium. A typical use for this tool is the reproduction of a color image prior to its printing, such that it exploits best the given printer/medium color gamut, namely the colors the printer can produce on the given medium. Most of the classical gamut mapping methods involve a pixel-by-pixel mapping and ignore the spatial color configuration. Recently proposed spatial-dependent approaches for gamut mapping are either based on heuristic assumptions or involve a high computational cost. In this paper, we present a new variational approach for space-dependent gamut mapping. Our treatment starts with the presentation of a new measure for the problem, closely related to a recent measure proposed for Retinex. We also link our method to recent measures that attempt to couple spectral and spatial perceptual measures. It is shown that the gamut mapping problem leads to a quadratic programming formulation, guaranteed to have a unique solution if the gamut of the target device is convex. An efficient numerical solution is proposed with promising results.     

Introduction of a nonlinearity measure for principal component models

Although principal component analysis (PCA) is an important tool in standard multivariate data analysis, little interest has been devoted to assessing whether the underlying relationship within a given variable set can be described by a linear PCA model or whether nonlinear PCA must be utilized. This paper addresses this deficiency by introducing a nonlinearity measure for principal component models. The measure is based on the following two principles: (i) the range of recorded process operation is divided into smaller regions; and (ii) accuracy bounds are determined for the sum of the discarded eigenvalues. If this sum is within the accuracy bounds for each region, the process is assumed to be linear and vice versa. This procedure is automated through the use of cross-validation. Finally, the paper shows the utility of the new nonlinearity measure using two simulation studies and with data from an industrial melter process.     

Fuzzy coding of genetic algorithms

A new chromosome encoding method, named fuzzy coding, is proposed for representing real number parameters in a genetic algorithm. Fuzzy coding provides the value of a parameter on the basis of the optimum number of selected fuzzy sets and their effectiveness in terms of degree of membership. Thus, it represents the knowledge associated with each parameter and is an indirect method of encoding compared with alternatives, where the parameters are directly represented in the encoding. Fuzzy coding is described and compared with conventional binary coding, gray coding, and floating-point coding. Two test examples, along with neural identification of a nonlinear pH process from experimental data, are studied. It is shown that fuzzy coding is better than the conventional methods and is effective for parameter optimization in problems where the search space is complicated.     

Maternal age and congenital cytomegalovirus infection: screening of two diverse newborn populations, 1980-1990

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the leading cause of congenital viral infection in the United States. To prevent damaging congenital CMV infections, it is necessary to have accurate population estimates of prevalence and to identify maternal factors associated with an elevated risk of congenital infection in the newborn. From 1980 through 1990, 17,163 offspring of predominantly low-income nonwhite women who delivered at a public hospital and 9892 newborns of predominantly mid- to upper-income white women who delivered at a private hospital were screened for congenital CMV infection. Women < 20 years old (adjusted prevalence odds ratio [POR], 4.8; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.6-8.9) at the public hospital and all nonwhite women (adjusted POR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.1-2.2) had an increased risk of delivering an infected newborn. Newborns of adolescent women in both populations had the highest prevalence of clinically apparent infection. Offspring of nonwhite low-income adolescents are at greatest risk for congenital CMV infection and more damaging sequelae.     

Predicting compliance with annual follow-up evaluations in persons with spinal cord injury

In this study a representative sample of German acute care hospitals is used to describe the effects of dementia within acute care hospitals. Data from hospital patients above age 60 with the diagnosis dementia (ICD 290, 293, 294 and 310), collected over an observation period of 12 years, are compared with nondemented hospital patients at the same ages. The differences in the average length of stay between demented and nondemented patients are only relatively small in German acute care hospitals. The degree of multimorbidity is higher and hospital infections are more frequent for demented patients. The main differences occur with mortality: demented inpatients of both sexes experience a hospital mortality which is about twice as high as for nondemented patients at the same ages.     

Complete nucleotide sequence of HTLV-II isolate NRA: comparison of envelope sequence variation of HTLV-II isolates from U.S. blood donors and U.S. and Italian i.v. drug users

Seven cardiac electrophysiology stimulators from four manufacturers (Biotronik, Bloom, Digitimer and Medtronic) in common current use are reviewed. The stimulators differ in the features provided and the design adopted to achieve these features. The number of output channels ranges from one to four, the number of extra-stimuli available ranges from two to six, and these can be delivered as a variety of sequences. Some of the stimulators (Digitimer and Bloom) are modular while others (Biotronik and Medtronic 532 series) are of an integrated design comprising a single physical unit. The design of the Medtronic EP-2 has both integrated and modular characteristics. The features of the stimulators associated with input, output, control and the user interface are specifically reviewed. The features are also compared against the published recommendations of the American Heart Association. In addition, a summary of stimulator user comments from a number of electrophysiology centres is presented. All of the stimulators fulfil, or are close to fulfilling, basic electrophysiological requirements, but some provide more complex facilities such as would be required by specialist centres.     

Immunity and depression: insomnia, retardation, and reduction of natural killer cell activity

The contribution of chloride to the haemodynamic changes of salt-dependent deoxycorticosterone (DOC) hypertension was studied in young Wistar rats subjected to dietary loading with sodium chloride (NaCl) or sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3). Mean arterial pressure (MAP), cardiac output, systemic resistance (TPR) and arterial rigidity (estimated from pulse pressure/stroke volume ratio, PP/SV) were determined in conscious chronically cannulated rats. DOC-induced increase of MAP and TPR appeared earlier in NaCl-loaded than in NaHCO3-loaded rats. After 4-6 weeks of hypertensive treatment MAP, TPR and PP/SV ratio were higher in DOC-treated rats fed NaCl diet than in those fed NaHCO3 diet. In contrast, after a long-term hypertensive regimen (lasting for 7-9 weeks) there was no significant difference in either MAP or TPR between rats loaded with NaCl or NaHCO3. On the other hand, DOC hypertension induced by a long-term feeding of NaHCO3 diet was not associated with an increase of arterial rigidity which was characteristic for DOC-NaCl hypertensive rats. Thus, a sufficiently long selective dietary sodium loading is capable to increase the systemic resistance but not to alter the arterial rigidity. This was also confirmed by a comparison of blood pressure-matched DOC hypertensive rats fed NaCl or NaHCO3 diets. These animals did not differ in the degree of systemic resistance elevation but the arterial rigidity was increased only in NaCl-loaded rats.     

Moisture migration in idealized bilayer systems: relationships among water-associated properties, structure, and texture

The effects of composition and thermal treatment on the water sorption and diffusional properties of idealized protein gels arranged in bilayer configurations were determined; these water binding/migration properties were related to the mechanical characteristics of the gels. Samples were prepared from whey protein concentrate (WPC), they consisted of water:WPC ratios of 1.5 to 5.67, and were thermally set for 20–60 min. Moisture migration rates from samples interfaced with filters were determined, as were moisture sorption capacities of samples immersed in water. The physical properties of the gels were assessed by uniaxial compression and microscopy. Results showed that gel strength and consequent extent of protein interaction—as affected by thermal treatment—controlled the ability of the gel structure to absorb water. Sorption was exponentially correlated with gel modulus and linearly correlated with a function of protein content, heating time, and immersion time. Rates of diffusion from interfaced gels were dependent solely on water content. It was concluded that the degree of protein interaction, whether influenced by concentration or thermal treatment, affected network extensibility and thus the capacity of the gels to act as receptors of moisture. Results have implications for the functionality of shelf-stable sandwiches and other multicomponent foods.