The effects of thalidomide on in vitro interleukin 2 (IL-2) production and thymidine uptake by human peripheral blood lymphocytes or rat splenocytes were investigated. Phytohaemagglutinin-stimulated human lymphocytes were incubated in the presence of thalidomide added at culture initiation. No immunosuppressive effect of thalidomide was observed in these experiments. Primary human mixed lymphocyte

A modification in Ross operation is described in which the free-standing pulmonary autograft root is suspended in a Dacron prosthetic vascular jacket with a view to prevent dilatation of the neo-aortic root. In a group of 13 patients operated consecutively using this technique, there was no significant increase in the diameters of the neo-aortic root after a mean 16-month follow-up. Aortic valve f

BACKGROUND: Many cases of hereditary breast cancer are due to mutations in either the BRCA1 or the BRCA2 gene. The histopathological changes in these cancers are often characteristic of the mutant gene. We hypothesized that the genes expressed by these two types of tumors are also distinctive, perhaps allowing us to identify cases of hereditary breast cancer on the basis of gene-expression profile

The purpose of this paper is to explore and describe the costs and process of implementing RFID technology to manage and control the rotation of returnable transport items. Due to the novelty of using RFID in logistics and supply chain management, in-depth case studies were conducted at two global firms in the retail industry to investigate how and why organisations implement and assess RFID techn

Metabolic flux analysis indicated that the heterofermentative Lactobacillus reuteri strain ATCC 55730 uses both the Embden-Meyerhof pathway (EMP) and phosphoketolase pathway (PKP) when glucose or sucrose is converted into the three-carbon intermediate stage of glycolysis. In all cases studied, the main flux is through the PKP, while the EMP is used as a shunt. In the exponential growth phase, 70%,

A mathematical model for the hindered diffusion and competitive adsorption of two proteins in an agarose gel has been developed. In a simulation program the model has been used to study the competing and displacement effects on a single bead for lysozyme and bovine serum albumin (BSA) bound to the ligand Cibacron Blue in agarose gel. The model takes into account hindered diffusion described by the

It has been reported in earlier in vitro studies that soft tissue trauma and endotoxin-induced shock causes pulmonary platelet trapping (PPT). This paper describes a noninvasive in vivo technique for dynamic studies of PPT in rabbits. Autologous platelets were labeled with 111In and reinfused into the animals. The following day, the rabbits were anesthetized and placed in a supine position under a

Acute otitis media (AOM) is the most common reason for outpatient antimicrobial therapy today. With increasing problems with antibiotic resistance, a more restrictive use of antibiotics has been advocated for both single and recurrent episodes. The arguments advanced have been immunological as well as ecological. To study the effects of a 5 day course of amoxicillin on recurrent AOM caused by non-

OBJECTIVES: The intestinal brush border enzymes alkaline sphingomyelinase (alk-SMase) and neutral ceramidase (CDase) digest milk sphingomyelin in suckling neonates. In addition, alk-SMase, CDase, and acid sphingomyelinase (acid-SMase) have been implicated in sphingolipid signaling, which exhibits abnormalities in cystic fibrosis (CF). In this study, we tested the hypothesis that the expression of

The smooth muscle cells in the vascular wall are constantly exposed to distending forces from the intraluminal pressure. A rise in blood pressure triggers growth of the vessel wall, which is characterized primarily by hypertrophy of smooth muscle cells with maintained differentiation in a contractile phenotype. Growth factor stimulation of dissociated smooth muscle cells, on the other hand, causes

RATIONALE: Interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) is of central interest in the study of tuberculosis. A number of single-gene mutations have been identified in the IFN-gamma signaling pathway that predispose to severe mycobacterial disease, but the relevance of polymorphism within these genes to the common phenotype of tuberculosis remains unclear. METHODS: A total of 1,301 individuals were included in a l

Periodically forced oscillators are among the simplest dynamical systems capable to display chaos. They can be described by the variables position and velocity, together with the phase of the force. Their phase-space corresponds therefore to R-2 x S-1. The organization of the periodic orbits can be displayed with braids having only positive crossings. Topological characterization of dynamical syst

Copolymerization of 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid (AMPS) and N-tert-butylacryl-amide has been carried out in methanol at 60degreesC using AIBN as initiator. Both IR and H-1 NMR spectroscopy indicated that monomer conversions exceeding 95% were reached in the copolymerizations. Copolymers containing more or equal to approximate to 15 mol-% AMPS were soluble in water and had an amphip