Quality assurance program guidelines for application to and use by manufacturers of rail/guideway vehicles, buses, automatic train control systems, and their major subsystems

Guidelines are presented for a quality assurance system to be implemented by the manufacturer in support of designing, developing, fabricating, assembling, inspecting, testing, handling, and delivery of equipment being procured for use in public urban mass transit systems. The guidelines apply to this equipment when being procured for: (1) use in revenue service; (2) demonstration of systems that will be revenue producing or used by the public; (3) use as a prototype for follow-on operational/revenue producing equipment procurements; and (4) qualification tests

Computational theory of line drawing interpretation

The recovery of the three dimensional structure of visible surfaces depicted in an image by emphasizing the role of geometric cues present in line drawings, was studied. Three key components are line classification, line interpretation, and surface interpolation. A model for three dimensional line interpretation and surface orientation was refined and a theory for the recovery of surface shape from surface marking geometry was developed. A new approach to the classification of edges was developed and implemented signatures were deduced for each of several edge types, expressed in terms of correlational properties of the image intensities in the vicinity of the edge. A computer program was developed that evaluates image edges as compared with these prototype signatures

Induction of heat shock protein expression in cervical epithelial cells by human semen.

OBJECTIVE: The 70kD heat shock protein (Hsp70), induced when cells are subjected to environmental stress, prevents the denaturation and incorrect folding of polypeptides and may expedite replication and transmission of DNA and RNA viruses. We analyzed whether messenger RNA (mRNA) for Hsp70 was expressed following exposure of a cultured human cervical cell line (HeLa cells) to human semen or in cervical cells from sexually active women. STUDY DESIGN: HeLa cells were co-cultured with a 1:50 dilution of semen from four men or with purified spermatozoa or cell-free seminal fluid. Endocervical swabs were acquired at mid-cycle from 53 women. Heat shock protein 70 mRNA was detected by a reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction utilizing specific primer pairs and analysis on agarose gels. In cervical cells Hsp70 mRNA was measured identically followed by hybridization with an Hsp70-specific internal probe and detection by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Cervical immunoglobulin A (IgA) antibodies to the human Hsp70 were determined by ELISA. RESULTS: HeLa cell-semen co-culture resulted in the induction of Hsp70 mRNA. In addition, cell-free seminal plasma and motile sperm incubated individually with HeLa cells also induced this mRNA. Heat shock protein 70 mRNA was detected in 28 (52.8%) of 53 endocervical samples obtained from women at various time points following intercourse. The percentage of samples expressing this mRNA was 37.5% at less than 10 hours, 64.3% at 10 hours, 70% at 11 hours, and between 36% and 50% at later times after semen exposure. The detection of cervical IgA antibodies to the Hsp70 was highly associated with Hsp70 gene transcription. CONCLUSION: Human semen induces transcription of Hsp70 in cervical epithelial cells

Functional Maps Representation on Product Manifolds

We consider the tasks of representing, analyzing and manipulating maps between shapes. We model maps as densities over the product manifold of the input shapes; these densities can be treated as scalar functions and therefore are manipulable using the language of signal processing on manifolds. Being a manifold itself, the product space endows the set of maps with a geometry of its own, which we exploit to define map operations in the spectral domain; we also derive relationships with other existing representations (soft maps and functional maps). To apply these ideas in practice, we discretize product manifolds and their Laplace--Beltrami operators, and we introduce localized spectral analysis of the product manifold as a novel tool for map processing. Our framework applies to maps defined between and across 2D and 3D shapes without requiring special adjustment, and it can be implemented efficiently with simple operations on sparse matrices.Comment: Accepted to Computer Graphics Foru

Detection of the human 70-kD and 60-kD heat shock proteins in the vagina: relation to microbial flora, vaginal pH, and method of contraception.

The expression of the 60-kD and 70-kD heat shock proteins (hsp60 and hsp70) in the vaginas of 43 asymptomatic women of reproductive age with or without a history of recurrent vulvovaginitis (RVV) were compared. Vaginal wash samples were obtained and assayed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for human hsp60 and hsp70. Heat shock protein 70 was not detected in any of the 19 women with no history of RVV, and hsp60 was present in only one woman in this group. In contrast, in the RVV group, 11 (45.8%) were hsp60-positive and eight (33.3%) were hsp70-positive. The presence of either heat shock protein in the vagina was associated with an elevated vaginal pH (>4.5). Bacterial vaginosis or Candida was identified in some of the asymptomatic subjects; their occurrence was significantly higher in women with vaginal hsp70 than in women with no heat shock proteins. Oral contraceptives were used by 35.7% of subjects who were negative for vaginal heat shock proteins, as opposed to only 12.5% of women who were positive for hsp70 and 8.3% who were positive for hsp60. Expression of heat shock proteins in the vagina may indicate an altered vaginal environment and a susceptibility to vulvovaginal symptoms

A medium throughput rodent model of relapse from addiction with behavioral and pharmacological specificity

One of most formidable problems in the treatment of addiction is the high rate of relapse. The discovery of medicines to help mitigate relapse are aided by animal models that currently involve weeks of training and require surgical preparations and drug delivery devices. The present set of experiments was initiated to investigate a rapid 8-day screening method that utilizes food instead of intravenous drug administration. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were trained in a reinstatement paradigm in which every lever press produced a 45 mg food pellet concurrently paired with a light and tone. Behavior was subsequently extinguished with lever responses producing neither food nor food-associated stimuli. Reinstatement of responding was evaluated under conditions in which the first three responses of every 5 min time bin produced a food pellet along with food-associated stimuli. The mGlu5 receptor antagonists MPEP and MTEP produced a significant reduction in reinstatement while failing to alter responding where every response produced food. The cannabinoid CB1 receptor antagonist rimonabant and the mGlu2/3 receptor agonist LY379268 also selectively reduced reinstatement. Other compounds including clozapine, d-amphetamine, chlordiazepoxide, ABT-431, naltrexone and citalopram were without effect. The results suggest that relapse-like behavioral effects can be extended to non-pharmacological reinforcers. Drug effects demonstrated both behavioral and pharmacological specificity. The present experimental design thus allows for efficient and rapid assessment of the effects of drugs that might be useful in the treatment of addiction-associated relapse

Detection of Trichomonas vaginalis Using the Polymerase Chain Reaction in Pregnant and Non-Pregnant Women

Objective: Trichomonas vaginalis vaginal infections are often both asymptomatic and difficult to detect by current methods. We evaluated the ability of a newly developed polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay to identify T. vaginalis in vaginal samples from pregnant and non-pregnant women

Chlamydia trachomatis Infection, Immunity, and Pregnancy Outcome

Chlamydia trachomatis can ascend from the cervix to the fallopian tubes and survive for long periods of time without causing symptoms. The immune response to infection clears the extracellular organisms but leads to development of a persistent intracellular infection. Repeated cycles of productive infection and persistence eventually induce tubal occlusion and infertility. Persistently infected cells continue to synthesize the chlamydial 60 kD heat shock protein (hsp60). Immunity to conserved regions of hsp60 may result in autoimmunity to human hsp60. Expression of hsp60 by the embryo and decidua during early pregnancy may reactivate hsp60-sensitized lymphocytes, disturb pregnancy-induced immune regulatory mechanisms, and lead to immune rejection of the embryo. Due to this mechanism women with tubal infertility who are sensitized to the human hsp60 may have a decreased probability of successful outcome after undergoing in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer

Unfolding the Hierarchy of Voids

We present a framework for the hierarchical identification and characterization of voids based on the Watershed Void Finder. The Hierarchical Void Finder is based on a generalization of the scale space of a density field invoked in order to trace the hierarchical nature and structure of cosmological voids. At each level of the hierarchy, the watershed transform is used to identify the voids at that particular scale. By identifying the overlapping regions between watershed basins in adjacent levels, the hierarchical void tree is constructed. Applications on a hierarchical Voronoi model and on a set of cosmological simulations illustrate its potential.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Differentiation Between Women With Vulvovaginal Symptoms Who are Positive or Negative for Candida Species by Culture

Objective: To investigate whether clinical criteria could differentiate between women with vulvovaginitis who were culture positive or negative for vaginal Candida species. Methods: Vulvovaginal specimens were obtained from 501 women with a vaginal discharge and/or pruritis. Clinical information and wet mount microscopy findings were obtained. All specimens were sent to a central laboratory for species identification. Results: A positive culture for Candida species was obtained from 364 (72.7%) of the specimens. C. albicans was identified in 86.4% of the positive cultures, followed by C. glabrata in 4.5%, C. parapsilosis in 3.9%, C. tropicalis in 2.7% and other Candida species in 1.4%.Women with a positive Candida culture had an increased utilization of oral contraceptives (26.1% vs. 16.8%, p = 0.02) and antibiotics (8.2% vs. 0.7%, p = 0.001), and were more likely to be pregnant (9.1% vs. 3.6%, p = 0.04) than the culture-negative women. Dyspareunia was more frequent in women without Candida (38.0% vs. 28.3%, p = 0.03) while vaginal erythema (p = 0.01) was more common in women with a positive Candida culture. Conclusions: Although quantitative differences were observed, the presence of vaginal Candida vulvovaginitis cannot be definitively identified by clinical criteria