Inhibition of caspase-1 prolongs survival of mice infected with rabies virus

Rabies virus infects almost all mammals resulting in lethal disease. To date there is no treatment available for symptomatic rabies and there is an urgent need to develop treatment strategies that would prolong survival, thereby providing a window of opportunity for the host to mount a protective immune response. We hypothesized that both virus and excessive immune response contribute to disease and that interfering with both is necessary to prevent lethal disease. Here, we have inhibited the pro-inflammatory response associated with pyroptosis and showed that inhibition of CASP-1 had a beneficial effect on survival time. Our results confirm that some inflammatory responses may be involved in the pathogenesis of severe disease and the results suggest that effective intervention includes inhibition of virus and host response

Cercopagis pengoi (Cladocera) conquered the southern Baltic Sea

The Ponto-Caspian cladocera Cercopagis pengoi invaded the Baltic Sea in 1992. For the first time it was recorded in the Gulf of Riga and three years later it appeared in the Gulf of Finland. In the summer of 1999 it had been also found in huge numbers in shallow areas (0.5 - 10 m) of the Gulf of Gdańsk

Application of programmable logic devices for acquisition of ECG signal with pacemaker pulses

The paper describes implementation of a new technology of digital systems design in case of medical measurement interface of IMPULS system used for acquisition of ECG signal from pacemaker patients. Similarly as in other applications, the processor circuit is a base of digital system, however - regarding large number of performed tasks - it is assisted by additional peripheral logic circuits. At the beginning, there were used standard elements (logic gates, counters, registers, etc.), however a growing complexity of beyond processor operations encouraged designers to apply the programmable circuits. The paper presents the stages of digital system development that has been implemented in medical measurement interface. It is the excellent example of possibility to integrate several standard elements in one integrated circuit

Bending loss in optical waveguides for nonplanar laser array applications

The optical transmission loss in dielectric waveguide bends is investigated using the finite-difference time-domain approach. An absorbing boundary condition, applied to reduce the size of the mesh, is proven to work very well for the waveguide structure. The desired modes are excited using the solution of a one-dimensional waveguide structure. The bending loss is then obtained using the methods of overlap integral and least-square fit. The structures of multiple-bend waveguides are analyzed. It is shown that the coupling between neighboring bends leads to direct transmission to the waveguide section on the aligned plane in addition to the transmission through the zigzag path. The bending loss in nonplanar laser arrays is investigated in detail. The possibility of having a shallow groove depth laser array is then discussed. Lateral lasing is prohibited by the radiation loss due to the bend. It is observed that the optical coupling between neighboring emitters is enhanced by the shallow groove depth, implying that phase-locked array modes can be obtained.link_to_subscribed_fulltex