Fetal lung growth after tracheal ligation is not solely a pressure phenomenon

We investigated cell proliferation and cell death in the olfactory epithelium (OE) of mice from birth to maturity using bromodeoxyuridine and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase nick end labeling. We show that cell death events and proliferative activity diminish concomitantly with age in the OE. Thus, the age-dependent and coordinate diminution in cell proliferative activity and cell death events may serve to maintain the thickness of the OE as mice mature and age.     

Alignment of fluorescent molecules vapour-deposited on to highly oriented PTFE substrates

The alignment of six fluorescent materials (p-terphenyl, p-quaterphenyl, p-quinquephenyl, diphenylstilbene, 1,4-bis(2-methylstyryl)benzene, and 1,4-bis-2-(5-phenyloxazolyl)benzene) grown from the vapour phase on to friction-deposited, highly oriented poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) films was studied. The dichroic ratio of the fluorescent films produced was determined by polarized spectroscopic fluorescence measurements, and the crystallographic orientation of these materials was determined by transmission electron microscopy. The measured dichroic ratios ranged from 1.7 for diphenylstilbene to 5.0 for the p-quaterphenyl film. Electron diffraction patterns revealed that five of the fluorescent materials grew epitaxially on the single crystal-like PTFE films, the fluorescent crystals adopting particular orientations with respect to the crystallographic planes of PTFE. On the other hand, crystals of 1,4-bis-2-(5-phenyloxazolyl) benzene aligned in a fibre pattern, apparently by a grapho-epitaxial mechanism.     

Undesirable sensory properties of the dried pea (Pisum sativum). The rôle of saponins

The rôle of saponins in the undesirable sensory properties of the dried pea P sativum is reported. The sensory properties of isolated soyasaponin I are defined and described as bitter, astringent and metallic. The distribution of saponin in various air-classified pea flour fractions shows that the protein-rich fraction may contain sufficient saponin to cause undesirable tastes.     

The late results of the surgical treatment of patients with a pathologically mobile kidney

Long-term (1-10 years) results of wandering kidney surgery were followed-up for 118 patients. The outcomes were found dependent on the duration of the disease, variety and severity of the lesion, age of the patients. The response appeared better in younger patients, in those with shorter duration of the disease and with unessential changes in the kidney. Recommendations are provided on the regimens, jobs, outpatient and inpatient follow-up for the subjects treated surgically for wandering kidney to reinforce the correction results achieved.     

Identification of an opioid kappa receptor subtype-selective N-substituent for (+)-(3R,4R)-dimethyl-4-(3-hydroxyphenyl)piperidine

A three-component library of compounds was prepared in parallel using multiple simultaneous solution-phase synthetic methodology. The compounds were biased toward opioid receptor antagonist activity by incorporating (+)-(3R,4R)-dimethyl-4-(3-hydroxyphenyl)piperidine (a potent, nonselective opioid pure antagonist) as one of the monomers. The other two monomers, which included N-substituted or unsubstituted Boc-protected amino acids and a range of substituted aryl carboxylic acids, were selected to add chemical diversity. Screening of these compounds in competitive binding experiments with the kappa opioid receptor selective ligand [3H]U69,593 led to the discovery of a novel kappa opioid receptor selective ligand, N-?(2'S)-[3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)propanamido]-3'-methylbutyl?-(3R, 4R)-dimethyl-4-(3-hydroxyphenyl)piperidine (8, RTI-5989-29). Additional structure-activity relationship studies suggested that 8 possesses lipophilic and hydrogen-bonding sites that are important to its opioid receptor potency and selectivity. These sites appear to exist predominantly within the kappa receptor since the selectivity arises from a 530-fold loss of affinity of 8 for the mu receptor and an 18-fold increase in affinity for the kappa receptor relative to the mu-selective ligand, (+)-N-[trans-4-phenyl-2-butenyl]-(3R, 4R)-dimethyl-4-(3-hydroxyphenyl)piperidine (5a). The degree of selectivity observed in the radioligand binding experiments was not observed in the functional assay. According to its ability to inhibit agonist stimulated binding of [35S]GTPgammaS at all three opioid receptors, compound 8 behaves as a mu/kappa opioid receptor pure antagonist with negligible affinity for the delta receptor.     

Testing cord blood human chorionic gonadotropin as a surrogate marker for early identification of human immunodeficiency virus-1 infection in children

We measured human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) in cord sera of 22 infants born to women infected with the human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1). hCG was also determined in cord sera from 173 infants born at a suburban hospital to HIV-1-seronegative women. The findings indicate that 16 (9%) of 173 HIV-1-seronegative samples had hCG levels greater than 90 IU/L (values were distributed as a Poisson curve). In contrast, 8 (36%) of the 22 infants born to HIV-1-infected women had hCG levels in excess of 90 IU/L, and 7 (88%) of these were shown to be HIV-infected. The remaining 14 infants born to HIV-1-infected women had low hCG levels, and 3 (21%) of the 14 had HIV infection. Mean follow-up time for HIV-uninfected infants was 17.5 months (range 9 months to 3 years). A statistically significant association between maternal-fetal HIV-1 transmission and hCG levels > or = 90 IU/L in cord sera was observed (p = 0.02). The difference between CD4 counts among mothers who transmitted HIV and those who did not was also statistically significant (p = 0.025). On the basis of this study's findings, we propose that cord blood hCG may serve as a surrogate marker for HIV-1 infection. Testing hCG levels in cord sera is an inexpensive and readily available screening test for early identification of infants at increased risk for getting HIV-1 from their mothers.     

Nebulizer-spray chamber apparatus and method for production of multi-component particle types and their use in affecting cellular responses

A particle generation apparatus and methodology is described for its application to prepare heterogeneous particles of defined chemical composition and their subsequent delivery to human lung cell cultures. A concentric type nebulizer was used together with a single pass spray chamber that was operated at two different temperature settings, either room temperature or to produce intact particles, at nonuniform temperature with the central axis measuring 54°C. Silica (SiO₂) particles in the micrometer size range were produced from the aggregation of nanoparticles. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, a well-characterized cytokine, was incorporated as a secondary soluble component within host silica particles for application as a proof-of-concept heterogeneous particle type. The overall particle deposition and wetting efficiency into media was 2.0 ± 0.4%, and the average size of particles that impacted and sank in the growth medium was 3.4 µm. The particle dose, reported as particle-to-cell ratio, spanned 0.1 to ～2.5. Co-cultures of A549 and differentiated human monocytic cells (THP-1*) exposed to silica particles caused IL-6 upregulation, but not IL-8. For the silica plus TNF-α particle type, ICAM-1 signal increased in A549 mono-cultures as the particle-to-cell ratio increased, yet an estimated 90% of the TNF-α was denatured or possibly bound to the silica particle host, and was therefore bio-unavailable. Method quantitation using particles having two different chemical compositions has been described, illustrating capability for subsequent systematic investigation of the role of particles having different chemical composition in the human health aspects of the particulate air pollution issue.

Copyright © 2016 American Association for Aerosol Research     

Fast string matching for multiple searches

We present a string matching or pattern matching method which is especially useful when a single block of text must be searched repeatedly for different patterns. The method combines linking the text according to digrams, searching on the least‐frequent digram, and probing selected characters as a preliminary filter before full pattern comparison. Tests on real alphabetic data show that the number of character comparisons may be decreased by two orders of magnitude compared with Knuth–Morris–Pratt and similar searching, but with an initialization overhead comparable to five to ten conventional searches. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.