Morphological Studies of the Immune Response to Vasectomy

1. The morphological changes in the epididymis, testes, and spleen, were studied at seven postoperative periods (6 wks and 4, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 mos.) after unilateral (left) vasectomy or sham operation, in a series of 72 mature Albino rats

Theory of Spin Relaxation in Two-Electron Lateral Coupled Si/SiGe Quantum Dots

Highly accurate numerical results of phonon-induced two-electron spin relaxation in silicon double quantum dots are presented. The relaxation, enabled by spin-orbit coupling and the nuclei of $^{29}$Si (natural or purified abundance), are investigated for experimentally relevant parameters, the interdot coupling, the magnetic field magnitude and orientation, and the detuning. We calculate relaxation rates for zero and finite temperatures (100 mK), concluding that our findings for zero temperature remain qualitatively valid also for 100 mK. We confirm the same anisotropic switch of the axis of prolonged spin lifetime with varying detuning as recently predicted in GaAs. Conditions for possibly hyperfine-dominated relaxation are much more stringent in Si than in GaAs. For experimentally relevant regimes, the spin-orbit coupling, although weak, is the dominant contribution, yielding anisotropic relaxation rates of at least two order of magnitude lower than in GaAs.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure

Equine recurrent uveitis - A spontaneous horse model of uveitis

Equine recurrent uveitis (ERU) is an autoimmune disease that occurs with a high prevalence (10%) in horses. ERU represents the only reliable spontaneous model for human autoimmune uveitis. We already identified and characterized novel autoantigens (malate dehydrogenase, recoverin, CRALBP) by analyzing the autoantibody-binding pattern of horses affected by spontaneous recurrent uveitis (ERU) to the retinal proteome. CRALBP also seems to be relevant to human autoimmune uveitis. Proteomic screening of vitreous and retinal samples from ERU diseased cases in comparison to healthy controls has led to the identification of a series of differentially regulated proteins, which are functionally linked to the immune system and the maintenance of the blood-retinal barrier. Copyright (c) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel

Amnion cells engineering: A new perspective in fetal membrane healing after intrauterine surgery?

In this study we aimed to set up an in vitro culture of the rabbit amnion in order to support in vivo fetal membrane healing capacity following fetoscopy. Fetal membranes were collected from a mid- gestational rabbit, and cultured on collagen support material for 14 days. 34 rabbits at 22 - 23 days gestational age ( GA) underwent fetoscopy. The entry site was randomly allocated to 4 closure technique study groups: group I, human amnion membrane ( n = 23); group II, collagen foil ( n = 16); group III, collagen plug ( n = 19), and group IV, collagen plug with cultured amnion cells ( n = 19). In all groups membrane access sites were additionally sealed with fibrin sealant, and the myometrium was closed with sutures. Fetal survival, amnion membrane integrity, and the presence of amniotic fluid were evaluated at 30 days GA. Cultures showed good survival in the collagen support material. Increased cellularity, survival and proliferations were observed. The amnion at the access site resealed in 58 - 64% of cases in groups II - IV, but none of the tested techniques was significantly better than the other. Histological examination indirectly revealed the anatomic repair of the membranes, since no entrapment of the membranes could be demonstrated in the myometrial wound. Copyright (c) 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel

Metamorphic conditions in the Nilgiri Granulite Terrane and the adjacent Moyar and Bhavani Shear Zones: A reevaluation

Data were presented on pressure and temperature determinations from the Nilgiri Hills. About 70 samples were analyzed by probe and several calibrations of garnet-pyroxene thermometry and barometry applied. Most calibrations gave considerable scatter; however, a new calibration by Bhattacharya, Raith, Lal, and others, accounting for nonideality in both garnet and orthopyroxene, gave consistent results of 754 + or - 52 C and 9.2 + or - 0.7 kbar. On the regional scale, a pressure increase of 6.5 to 7 kbar in the SW to 11 kbar in the NE was related to block tilting. A continuous pressure gradient into the Moyar shear zone suggests that the zone is not a suture juxtaposing unrelated blocks

A multiobjective optimization approach to compute the efficient frontier in data envelopment analysis

Data envelopment analysis is a linear programming-based operations research technique for performance measurement of decision-making units. In this paper, we investigate data envelopment analysis from a multiobjective point of view to compute both the efficient extreme points and the efficient facets of the technology set simultaneously. We introduce a dual multiobjective linear programming formulation of data envelopment analysis in terms of input and output prices and propose a procedure based on objective space algorithms for multiobjective linear programmes to compute the efficient frontier. We show that using our algorithm, the efficient extreme points and facets of the technology set can be computed without solving any optimization problems. We conduct computational experiments to demonstrate that the algorithm can compute the efficient frontier within seconds to a few minutes of computation time for real-world data envelopment analysis instances. For large-scale artificial data sets, our algorithm is faster than computing the efficiency scores of all decision-making units via linear programming

Two-Dimensional Spectral Interferometry using the Carrier-Envelope Phase

Two- and multi-dimensional spectroscopy is used in physics and chemistry to obtain structural and dynamical information that would otherwise be invisible by the projection into a one-dimensional data set such as a single emission or absorption spectrum. Here, we introduce a qualitatively new two-dimensional spectroscopy method by employing the carrier-envelope phase (CEP). Instead of measuring spectral vs. spectral information, the combined application of spectral interferometry and CEP control allows the measurement of otherwise inseparable temporal events on an attosecond time scale. As a specific example, we apply this general method to the case of attosecond pulse train generation, where it allows to separate contributions of three different sub-cycle electron quantum paths within one and the same laser pulse, resulting in a better physical understanding and quantification of the transition region between cutoff and plateau harmonics. The CEP-dependent separation in time between two full-cycle spaced attosecond pulses was determined to modulate by (54 +/- 16) attoseconds