Different Subpopulations of Developing Thymocytes are Associated with Adherent (Macrophage) or Nonadherent (Dendritic) Thymic Rosettes

Thymic rosettes (ROS), structures consisting of thymic lymphoid cells attached to a central stromal cell, were isolated from mouse thymus by collagenase digestion and unit-gravity elutriation. The ROS were then separated into those where the stromal cells were either macrophage-like (M-ROS) or dendritic cell-like (D-ROS), on the basis of the differences in adherence properties or in the level of MAC-1 surface antigen. The ROS were then dissociated and the thymocyte content analyzed by immunofluorescent staining and flow cytometry. M-ROS and D-ROS differed in thymocyte composition, although the major component of both was the CD4+CD8+ cortical thymocyte. D-ROS were enriched in thymocytes expressing high levels of surface T-cell antigen receptor (TcR) and the associated CD3 complex, and these included both CD4+CD8+CD3++ and CD4-CD8+CD3++ mature thymocytes. M-ROS were enriched in CD4-CD8- thymocytes and had a reduced content of thymocytes expressing high TcR-CD3 levels; they nevertheless contained some mature thymocytes, but only of the CD4+CD8-CD3++ category. Several lines of evidence indicated that the mature thymocytes in ROS were cells recently formed in the cortex, and were not from the medullary pool. ROSassociated mature thymocytes expressed lower levels of H-2K than free, mature thymocytes. The CD4+CD8+CD3++ subpopulation, believed to be a developmental intermediate between cortical thymocytes and mature T cells, was present in both ROS populations. Further, late intermediates leading to both mature T-cell categories were evident in D-ROS, but only those leading to CD4+CD8-CD3++ T cells were evident in M-ROS. The results are compatible with a role for ROS in TcR-specificity selection and in the final maturation steps in the thymic cortex

A proposal for multi-tens of GW fully coherent femtosecond soft X-ray lasers

X-ray free-electron lasers1,2 delivering up to 131013 coherent photons in femtosecond pulses are bringing about a revolution in X-ray science3?5. However, some plasma-based soft X-ray lasers6 are attractive because they spontaneously emit an even higher number of photons (131015), but these are emitted in incoherent and long (hundreds of picoseconds) pulses7 as a consequence of the amplification of stochastic incoherent self-emission. Previous experimental attempts to seed such amplifiers with coherent femtosecond soft X-rays resulted in as yet unexplained weak amplification of the seed and strong amplification of incoherent spontaneous emission8. Using a time-dependent Maxwell?Bloch model describing the amplification of both coherent and incoherent soft X-rays in plasma, we explain the observed inefficiency and propose a new amplification scheme based on the seeding of stretched high harmonics using a transposition of chirped pulse amplification to soft X-rays. This scheme is able to deliver 531014 fully coherent soft X-ray photons in 200 fs pulses and with a peak power of 20 GW

Book Reviews

Book Reviews -- The John Randolph Tucker Lectures--1953-1956 Lexington, Virginia School of Law, Washington and Lee University, 1957. Pp. 208. reviewer: Paul Carrington ================================= Desegregation and the Law By Albert P. Blaustein and Clarence Clyde Ferguson, Jr. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press,1957. Pp. xiv, 332. reviewer: J. Allen Smith ================================= The Federal Tort Claims Act By William B. Wright Forward by Emile Z. Berman New York: Central Book Co., 1957. Pp. 248. reviewer: Stanley D. Ros

X-ray laser pulses at the Fourier transform limit

The temporal output of a Ni-like Ag x-ray laser of wavelength 13.9 nm has been recorded using a streak camera with ultrashort (700 fs) temporal resolution. We present a model to calculate the degree of coherence and Fourier transform limit of x-ray laser pulses produced by amplified spontaneous emission and relate the results from the model to previous interferometric measurements of the coherence length of the same Ni-like Ag x-ray laser and our measured duration of temporal output. Our modeling shows that the interferometer and streak camera results are consistent and close to the Fourier transform limit at longer gain medium lengths

Noise in (double) relaxation oscillation SQUIDs

We have modelled the effect of two intrinsic noise sources on the flux noise spectral density of (Double) Relaxation Oscillation SQUIDs ((D)ROSs) based on hysteretic Josephson tunnel junctions. An important noise source is the spread in the critical current of the SQUID due to thermal fluctuations. Critical current noise mainly determines the noise on the average output voltage of DROSs with high flux to voltage transfer. A second noise source is the spread in the relaxation frequency due to the random interaction between the Josephson oscillations and the relaxation oscillations during switching to the zero-voltage state. This effect can dominate the voltage noise of a ROS

Raising the Datagram API to Support Transport Protocol Evolution

Some application developers can wield huge resources to build new transport protocols, for these developers the present UDP Socket API is perfectly fine. They have access to large test beds and sophisticated tools. Many developers do not have these resources. This paper presents a new high-level Datagram API that is for everyone else, this has an advantage of offering a clear evolutionary path to support new requirements. This new API is needed to move forward the base of the system, allowing developers with limited resources to evolve their applications while accessing new network services