Interleukin 2 activation of natural killer cells rapidly induces the expression and phosphorylation of the Leu-23 activation antigen.

IL-2 potentiates both growth and cytotoxic function of T lymphocytes and NK cells. Resting peripheral blood NK cells can respond directly to rIL-2, without requirement for accessory cells or cofactors, and enhanced cytotoxicity can be measured within a few hours after exposure to this lymphokine. In this study, we describe an activation antigen, Leu-23, that is rapidly induced and phosphorylated after IL-2 stimulation of NK cells and a subset of low buoyant density T lymphocytes. Previously, it has been uncertain whether all NK cells or only a subset are responsive to IL-2. Since within 18 h after exposure to IL-2, essentially all NK cells express Leu-23, these findings indicate that all peripheral blood NK cells are responsive to stimulation by IL-2. The Leu-23 antigen is a disulfide-bonded homodimer, composed of 24-kD protein subunits with two N-linked oligosaccharides. Appearance of this glycoprotein on NK cells is IL-2 dependent and closely parallels IL-2-induced cytotoxicity against NK-resistant solid tumor cell targets

Presentation modality influences behavioral measures of alerting, orienting, and executive control

The Attention Network Test (ANT) uses visual stimuli to separately assess the attentional skills of alerting (improved performance following a warning cue), spatial orienting (an additional benefit when the warning cue also cues target location), and executive control (impaired performance when a target stimulus contains conflicting information). This study contrasted performance on auditory and visual versions of the ANT to determine whether the measures it obtains are influenced by presentation modality. Forty healthy volunteers completed both auditory and visual tests. Reaction-time measures of executive control were of a similar magnitude and significantly correlated, suggesting that executive control might be a supramodal resource. Measures of alerting were also comparable across tasks. In contrast, spatial-orienting benefits were obtained only in the visual task. Auditory spatial cues did not improve response times to auditory targets presented at the cued location. The different spatial-orienting measures could reflect either separate orienting resources for each perceptual modality, or an interaction between a supramodal orienting resource and modality-specific perceptual processing

Vibrational relaxation measurements in CO2 USING an induced fluorescence technique

Vibrational relaxation measurements in carbon dioxide using induced infrared fluorescence techniqu

Correlation study of finite element analysis

A study was conducted to investigate and prove the correlation between the NASTRAN predicted stresses and those measured on an actual structure. NASTRAN is a general purpose digital computer program for the analysis of large complex structures. A real airframe, which had logged several thousand hours flying time, was obtained, instrumented, and loaded to obtain the measured strains

First hospital outbreak of the globally emerging Candida auris in a European hospital

Background: Candida auris is a globally emerging multidrug resistant fungal pathogen causing nosocomial transmission. We report an ongoing outbreak of C. auris in a London cardio-thoracic center between April 2015 and July 2016. This is the first report of C. auris in Europe and the largest outbreak so far. We describe the identification, investigation and implementation of control measures. Methods: Data on C. auris case demographics, environmental screening, implementation of infection prevention/control measures, and antifungal susceptibility of patient isolates were prospectively recorded then analysed retrospectively. Speciation of C. auris was performed by MALDI-TOF and typing of outbreak isolates performed by amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). Results: This report describes an ongoing outbreak of 50 C. auris cases over the first 16 month (April 2015 to July 2016) within a single Hospital Trust in London. A total of 44 % (n = 22/50) patients developed possible or proven C. auris infection with a candidaemia rate of 18 % (n = 9/50). Environmental sampling showed persistent presence of the yeast around bed space areas. Implementation of strict infection and prevention control measures included: isolation of cases and their contacts, wearing of personal protective clothing by health care workers, screening of patients on affected wards, skin decontamination with chlorhexidine, environmental cleaning with chorine based reagents and hydrogen peroxide vapour. Genotyping with AFLP demonstrated that C. auris isolates from the same geographic region clustered. Conclusion: This ongoing outbreak with genotypically closely related C. auris highlights the importance of appropriate species identification and rapid detection of cases in order to contain hospital acquired transmission

A blocking ELISA for the detection of specific antibodies to bovine respiratory syncytial virus

A blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has been adapted to detect specific antibodies in bovine sera to respiratory syncytial virus using a horseradish peroxidase-labeled monclonal antibody to the fusion protein of the virus. This assay plus an indirect blocking ELISA and indirect ELISA were used to detect antibodies to the bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV) in 159 field-origin bovine sera. Results of these assays were compared with serum antibody titers measured by the serum neutralization (SN) test. Over a 56-day period, the mean neutralization titers and the mean delta absorbance values for the blocking ELISA, on the same sera, showed similar declines. However, the calculated correlation coefficients between mean SN titer and mean absorbance value for the blocking ELISA of the individual sera ranged from -0.2 to -0.5 depending on the source of sera. Similar values were obtained whether using crude or purified viral antigen in the assays. Corresponding calculated correlation coefficients were generally higher for the indirect blocking ELISA or indirect ELISA than for the blocking ELISA. The blocking ELISA was between 70 and 64% as sensitive as the serum neutralization test with a specificity of 100 or 90% using the crude and purified viral antigen, respectively. The indirect blocking ELISA and indirect ELISA had similar calculated sensitivities and specificities. The blocking ELISA was faster to run than either of the other ELISA’s or the neutralization test. Further, nonspecific background absorbance was obviated because the blocking ELISA detects antibodies to 1 specific viral protein, the fusion protein. These studies suggest that the blocking ELISA should be useful as a serological test for BRSV antibodies

Electrode level Monte Carlo model of radiation damage effects on astronomical CCDs

Current optical space telescopes rely upon silicon Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs) to detect and image the incoming photons. The performance of a CCD detector depends on its ability to transfer electrons through the silicon efficiently, so that the signal from every pixel may be read out through a single amplifier. This process of electron transfer is highly susceptible to the effects of solar proton damage (or non-ionizing radiation damage). This is because charged particles passing through the CCD displace silicon atoms, introducing energy levels into the semi-conductor bandgap which act as localized electron traps. The reduction in Charge Transfer Efficiency (CTE) leads to signal loss and image smearing. The European Space Agency's astrometric Gaia mission will make extensive use of CCDs to create the most complete and accurate stereoscopic map to date of the Milky Way. In the context of the Gaia mission CTE is referred to with the complementary quantity Charge Transfer Inefficiency (CTI = 1-CTE). CTI is an extremely important issue that threatens Gaia's performances. We present here a detailed Monte Carlo model which has been developed to simulate the operation of a damaged CCD at the pixel electrode level. This model implements a new approach to both the charge density distribution within a pixel and the charge capture and release probabilities, which allows the reproduction of CTI effects on a variety of measurements for a large signal level range in particular for signals of the order of a few electrons. A running version of the model as well as a brief documentation and a few examples are readily available at http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~prodhomme/cemga.php as part of the CEMGA java package (CTI Effects Models for Gaia).Comment: Accepted by MNRAS on 13 February 2011. 15 pages, 7 figures and 5 table