T cell responsiveness correlates differentially with antibody isotype levels in clinical and asymptomatic filariasis

To establish the relationships among T and B cell responses, active infection, and clinical manifestations in lymphatic filariasis, filarial-specific lymphocyte proliferation, IgG antibody isotypes, and IgE levels were determined in an exposed population: 31 asymptomatic amicrofilaremics, 43 microfilaremics, 12 symptomatic amicrofilaremics, and 52 elephantiasis patients. Lymphocyte proliferation was higher in elephantiasis patients and asymptomatic amicrofilaremics than in microfilaremics (P < .004). A proportion of asymptomatic amicrofilaremics (32%), elephantiasis patients (37%), and symptomatic amicrofilaremics (58%) showed antigen-specific lymphocyte unresponsiveness, and lymphocyte proliferation to filarial antigens correlated negatively with specific IgG4 levels (rho = -0.315, P < .001). As elevated specific IgG4 is an indicator of active infection, it is argued that active infection may result in lymphocyte hyporesponsiveness irrespective of clinical category. Of those with elevated specific IgE levels and high T cell proliferative responses, 70% had elephantiasis, suggesting these factors have a role in pathology. However, the existence of a proportion of elephantiasis patients with low anti-filarial IgE and T cell unresponsiveness to filarial antigens suggests that elephantiasis can be caused by distinct processes.     

MobGeoSen: facilitating personal geosensor data collection and visualization using mobile phones

Mobile sensing and mapping applications are becoming more prevalent because sensing hardware is becoming more portable and more affordable. However, most of the hardware uses small numbers of fixed sensors that report and share multiple sets of environmental data which raises privacy concerns. Instead, these systems can be decentralized and managed by individuals in their public and private spaces. This paper describes a robust system called MobGeoSens which enables individuals to monitor their local environment (e.g. pollution and temperature) and their private spaces (e.g. activities and health) by using mobile phones in their day to day life. The MobGeoSen is a combination of software components that facilitates the phone’s internal sensing devices (e.g. microphone and camera) and external wireless sensors (e.g. data loggers and GPS receivers) for data collection. It also adds a new dimension of spatial localization to the data collection process and provides the user with both textual and spatial cartographic displays. While collecting the data, individuals can interactively add annotations and photos which are automatically added and integrated in the visualization file/log. This makes it easy to visualize the data, photos and annotations on a spatial and temporal visualization tool. In addition, the paper will present ways in which mobile phones can be used as noise sensors using an on-device microphone. Finally, we present our experiences with school children using the above mentioned system to measure their exposure to environmental pollution.

Real-time effective density monitor (DENSMO) for aerosol nanoparticle production

A new instrument, density monitor (DENSMO), for aerosol particle size distribution characterization and monitoring has been developed. DENSMO is operationally simple and capable of measuring the effective density as well as the aerodynamic and the mobility median diameters with a time resolution of 1 s, from unimodal particle size distributions. The characterization is performed with a zeroth order mobility analyzer in series with a low pressure impactor and a filter stage. The operation of DENSMO was investigated with sensitivity analysis and, based on the results, optimal operation parameters were determined. DENSMO was also compared, in lab test measurements, against a reference method with several particle materials with bulk densities from 0.92 to 10.5 g/cm³. The results show that the deviation from the reference method was less than 25% for suitable materials.

Copyright © 2016 American Association for Aerosol Research     

The changing scene in steel

In the past thirty years the United States has moved from a position where it dominated world steel production to where it is now only one of the major world steel producers. The interplay of technology, economics and world politics which has brought this about will be reviewed, with particular emphasis on important technological changes which have occurred in the last three decades. To illustrate how research, development and application interacted to bring about change, specific examples will be given in ore reduction, continuous casting and high-strength steel products. The Edward DeMille Campbell Memorial Lecture was established in 1926 as an annual lecture in memory of and in recognition of the outstanding scientific contributions to the metallurgical profession by a distinguished educator who was blind for all but two years of his professional life. It recognizes demonstrated ability in metallurgical science and engineering. H. W. PAXTON is Vice President-Research of the United States Steel Corporation. He received a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in 1947 and 1948 from the University of Manchester and his Ph.D. in 1952 from the University of Birmingham. In 1953 he became Assistant Professor of Metallurgical Engineering at Carnegie Institute of Technology, subsequently Carnegie-Mellon University, and became Head of the Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science and Director of the Metals Research Laboratory of Carnegie-Mellon in 1966. He was Visiting Professor in Metallurgy and Materials Science at Imperial College, London, in 1962–63 and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1970, and served two years as the first Director, Division of Materials Research, National Science Foundation 1971–1973. He was a consultant to industry from 1953 to 1974 and has authored many technical papers, primarily in the field of physical metallurgy. He also co-authored a book,Alloying Elements in Steel, with the late Dr. E. C. Bain. Dr. Paxton received the Bradley Stoughton Award for young teachers of metallurgy in 1960. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Directors of Industrial Research, and the Industrial Research Institute; Fellow of the American Society for Metals and The Metallurgical Society of AIME; Past President of TMS; Vice President of the American Institute of Mining Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers; Past Chairman of the General Research committee of the American Iron and Steel Institute, and was elected to membership of the National Academy of Engineering on April 3, 1978.     

Creep research on particleboard

Over the last fifteen years an extensive programme of work on quantifying and predicting creep behaviour of particleboard has been undertaken. This paper first sets out some of the philosophy underlying the selection of test methodology used, and then proceeds to summarise and highlight the principal results obtained under both steady- and unsteady-state environments. Very strong interactions were found in the analysis of variable influencing creep behaviour. The reasons for adopting rheological models as predictive tools are discussed and the merits of a 5-parameter model are illustrated. A 4-parameter model is used to obtain the relative proportions of the three components of creep deflection under different conditions: this procedure clearly demonstrates the significant role of the viscous component in determining creep deflection at high levels of stress and relative humidity.     

Reduced HIV-1 infectability of CD4+ lymphocytes from exposed-uninfected individuals: association with low expression of CCR5 and high production of beta-chemokines

Escherichia coli leader peptidase, an integral membrane protein, is responsible for the cleavage of the signal sequence of many exported proteins. Recent studies suggest that it is a novel serine protease that utilizes a serine-lysine catalytic dyad. In an effort to further understand the mechanism of this enzyme, an internally quenched fluorescent peptide substrate incorporating the leader peptidase cleavage site of maltose binding protein signal peptide, Y(NO2)-F-S-A-S-A-L-A-K-I-K(Abz) (anthraniloyl), was designed and synthesized. In the intact peptide, the fluorescence of the anthraniloyl group is quenched by the 3-nitrotyrosine. This quenched fluorescence is liberated upon cleavage of the peptide by the leader peptidase, resulting in increased fluorescence that could then be monitored fluorometrically. The designed substrate can be cleaved effectively by E. coli leader peptidase as detected by both HPLC and fluorescent spectroscopy. Mass spectra of cleavage products demonstrated that the cleavage occurs at the predicted site (A-K). The cleavage of the peptide substrate has a linear dependence on the enzyme concentration (0.1 to 1.9 microM) and the kcat/K(m) was calculated to be 71.1 M-1 s-1. These data are comparable with the unmodified peptide substrate. This report represents the first direct continuous assay based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer for E. coli leader peptidase.