Semiconductor devices for optical communications in 1 micron band of wavelength

Crystal growth and the characteristics of semiconductor lasers and diodes for the long wavelength band used in optical communications are examined. It is concluded that to utilize the advantages of this band, it is necessary to have a large scale multiple wavelength communication, along with optical cumulative circuits and optical exchangers

Glomerulonefritis rápidamente progresiva asociada a ANCA en un paciente con nefropatía por IgA, reporte de caso

IgA nephropathy is the most common glomerulonephritis, in which less than 10% of patients have a rapid decline of renal function. The histological findings of this group resemble those of vasculitis, with presence of crescents and fibrinoid necrosis. The coexistence of IgA nephropathy and neutrophil anti-cytoplasmic antibodies is infrequent, and the pathogenic role of these antibodies in IgA nephropathy is unclear. Here we describe a case of a patient with IgA nephropathy, rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis and neutrophil positive anti-cytoplasmic antibodies, and literature review is presented.La nefropatía por IgA es la glomerulonefritis más frecuente, en la cual menos del 10% de los pacientes cursan con deterioro rápido de la función renal. Los hallazgos histológicos de este grupo semejan los de vasculitis, con presencia de semilunas y necrosis fibrinoide. La coexistencia de nefropatía por IgA y anticuerpos anticitoplasma de neutrófilo es infrecuente y no está claro el rol patogénico de estos anticuerpos en la nefropatía por IgA. A continuación, se describe un caso de un paciente con nefropatía por IgA, glomerulonefritis rápidamente progresiva y anticuerpos anticitoplasma de neutrófilo positivos y se realiza una revisión de la literatura referente al tema

Beitrag zum Problem über den Einflnss der Inhalation von mit CO(2) versetzter Luft auf verschiedene Symptome, die sicn bei Unterdruck einstellen

Im Jahre 1935 stellte Professor Dr. Oinuma mit seinem Kollegen bei der Besteigung des Fuji (3776 Meter uber dem Meeresspiegel) fest, dass die Inhalation von mit CO(2) versetzter Luft einen gunstigen Einfluss auf die Bergkrankheit ausubt. Wir stellten bezuglich dieses Punktes experimentelle Untersuchungen in der Unterdruckkammer unseres Laboratoriums an, unter Mithilfe unserer Kollegen als Versuchspersonen. Dabei wurden die Zusammensetzung und das Volumen der Expirationsluft, der Prozentsatz von O(2) und CO(2) der Alveolarluft (nach der Haldane'schen Methode), sowie auch die Gase im arteriellen Blut (nach der Slyke'schen Methode) gemessen. Die Resultate lassen sich folgendermassen zusammen fassen: 1) Bei allen Versuchspersonen tritt bei Unterdruck, infolge der Hyperventilation der Lunge, stets "Akapnie" ein, 2) Wird bei Unterdruck Luft eingeatmet, welcher CO(2) zugesetzt wurde, so nimmt die Atembewegung und der CO(2)- und der O(2)-gehalt der Expirationsluft und der Alveolarluft zu. Der respiratorische Quotient aber bleibt unverandert. Dies führt natürlich zu einer Zunahme des CO(2)- und O(2)-gehaltes im Blut. Diese Sauerstoffzunahme im Blut ubt demnach u. E. einen gunstigen Einfluss auf die verschiedenen Symptome aus, die unter vermindertem Luftdruck entstehen

Numerical investigation of thermodynamic effect on unsteady cavitation in cascade

In the present study, the thermodynamic effect on unsteady cavitation is investigated in cascade in water and liquid nitrogen at different freestream temperatures. Cavitation flowfield is simulated based on self-developed locally homogeneous model of a compressible gasliquid two-phase medium, which is available to treat unsteady cavitation. For calculation of thermodynamic effect on cavitation, simplified thermodynamic model for the locally homogenous medium is used where local saturated vapor pressure changes with depending on rate of heat transfer by evaporation and condensation. In the result of the numerical analysis, the difference of cavitating flowfields is reproduced numerically in water and liquid nitrogen at different freestream temperature concerning the cavity surface profile and distribution of the evaporation region. Also the thermodynamic effect on cavitation in water and liquid nitrogen is investigated by comparing the cavity volumes. Then, well known thermodynamic effect on cryogenic cavitation can be reproduced numerically in liquid nitrogen, where development of the cavity is suppressed according to increase of freestream temperature. On the other hand, the inverse thermodynamic effect, which is experimentally observed in single hydrofoil in water, is reproduced under the condition of unsteady cavitation in water in the present study.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/84272/1/CAV2009-final78.pd

Novel screening methods for the detection of Yersinia enterocolitica in infected blood used for transfusion : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Microbiology at Massey University

Between 1991-1996, 8 patients experienced rare life-threatening reactions that followed the transfusion of blood infected with Yersinia enterocolitica. The first reported case occurred in 1991 and was followed by seven others that directly caused or contributed to the death of 5 of 8 patients. Y. enterocolitica is a food and water borne infection of the gastrointestinal tract which in adults is often asymptomatic. An unknown number of those infected experience a period of self-limiting bacteraemia. The large volume of blood collected during donation phlebotomy may contain small numbers of bacteria that can increase in number during blood bank storage, producing potentially lethal levels of bacteria and toxin. Currently there are no reliable methods available to distinguish blood donations that present the greatest risk from those that present little risk. This thesis, reports on the evaluation of two techniques to prevent the transfusion of blood infected with Y. enterocolitica. The first, a molecular method, was used to amplify bacterial DNA in blood by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). A 425 bp product was amplified from DNA extractions of infected blood. Results showed that the technical complexities of the methodology, together with poor sensitivity and the need for large-scale donation sampling make PCR as applied for this purpose unattractive. An Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay was developed to detect current/recent infection with Y. enterocolitica in healthy blood donors. Polystyrene beads were coated with bacterial proteins to detect IgA antibody to Y. enterocolitica in human serum. The sera from donors of confirmed unit infections, paired sera from culture-proven Y. enterocolitica gastrointestinal tract infection and sera from volunteer blood donors were tested. Results showed that the sera of six bacteraemic blood donors tested contained elevated levels of IgA antibody. High rates of positivity (26/27), were detected in sera from culture-confirmed GIT infection and a rate of 4.04% seropositivity was found among 495 blood donors enrolled in a clinical trial. Results showed a strong correlation between IgA seropositivity, and recipient risk associated with the transfusion of blood heavily infected with Y. enterocolitica. The work demonstrated how the use of a simple screening test for recent infection, could be used to exclude high risk donations and improve the safety of blood transfusion in New Zealand

Isolated tau leptons in events with large missing transverse momentum at HERA

A search for events containing isolated tau leptons and large missing transverse momentum, not originating from the tau decay, has been performed with the ZEUS detector at the electron-proton collider HERA, using 130 pb^-1 of integrated luminosity. A search was made for isolated tracks coming from hadronic tau decays. Observables based on the internal jet structure were exploited to discriminate between tau decays and quark- or gluon-induced jets. Three tau candidates were found, while 0.40 +0.12 -0.13 were expected from Standard Model processes, such as charged current deep inelastic scattering and single W-boson production. To search for heavy-particle decays, a more restrictive selection was applied to isolate tau leptons produced together with a hadronic final state with high transverse momentum. Two candidate events survive, while 0.20 +-0.05 events are expected from Standard Model processes.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, accepted by Phys. Lett. B. Updated with minor changes to the text requested by the journal refere

Clonal analysis of a human antibody response. Quantitation of precursors of antibody-producing cells and generation and characterization of monoclonal IgM, IgG, and IgA to rabies virus.

We quantitated and characterized the changes in the human B cell repertoire, at the clonal level, before and after immunization with rabies virus. Moreover, we generated 10 monoclonal cell lines producing IgM, IgG, and IgA antibodies to the virus. We found that in healthy subjects, not previously exposed to the virus, nearly 2% of the circulating B lymphocytes were committed to the production of antibodies that bound the virus. These B cells expressed the surface CD5 molecule. The antibodies they produced were polyreactive IgM that displayed a relatively low affinity for the virus components (Kd, 1.0-2.4 x 10(-6) g/microliters). After immunization, different anti-virus (IgG and IgA) antibody-producing cells consistently appeared in the circulation and increased from less than 0.005% to greater than 10% of the total B cells committed to the production of IgG and IgA, respectively. Most of such B cells do not express CD5 and produce monoreactive antibodies of high affinity for rabies virus (Kd, 6.5 x 10(-9) to 1.2 x 10(-10) g/microliters). One of these IgG mAbs efficiently neutralized rabies virus in vitro and in vivo, as detailed elsewhere (Dietzschold, B., P. Casali, Y. Ueki, M. Gore, C. E. Rupprecht, A. L. Notkins, and H. Koprowski, manuscript submitted for publication). Hybridization experiments using probes specific for the different human V gene segment families revealed that cell precursors producing low affinity IgM binding to rabies virus utilized a restricted number of VH gene segments (i.e., only members of the VHIIIb subfamily), whereas cell precursors producing high affinity IgG and IgA to rabies virus utilized an assortment of different VH gene segments (i.e., members of the VHI, VHIII, VHIV, and VHVI families and VHIIIb subfamily). In conclusion, our studies show that EBV transformation in conjunction with limiting dilution technology and somatic cell hybridization techniques are useful methods for quantitating, at the B cell clonal level, the human antibody response to foreign Ags and for generating human mAbs of predetermined specificity and high affinity

Anticuerpos antifosfatidilserina en pacientes con síndrome antifosfolipido primario y en individuos sanos

Objective: To investigate the prevalence of IgM, IgG and IgA anti-phosphatidylserine (aPS) antibodies in patients with primary antiphospholipid syndrome (PAPS) and in healthy controls; to analyze sensitivity, and specificity of aPS antibodies for the diagnosis of APS and finally to assess associations between aPS antibodies with specific APS manifestations. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed in 36 female PAPS patients and in 200 blood donors. IgM, IgG, and IgA antiphosphatidylserine (aPS) antibodies were tested in PAPS patients and controls using an in house technique and a commercial kit. PAPS patients were also tested for lupus anticoagulant (LAC), IgM and IgG anticardiolipin (aCL) antibodies, and for anti-β2 glycoprotein I (anti-β2GPI) antibodies. Results: The prevalence of IgM, IgG, and IgA aPS antibodies in PAPS patients was as follows: 10.8-16.7%, 32.4-35.7%, and 16.1%, respectively. Although a relatively low sensitivity was found for aPS antibodies in PAPS, the specificity of IgM, IgG, and IgA aPS antibodies for PAPS was 94.7-98.9%, 95.3-96.3%, and 97.9%, respectively. All aPS isotypes were significantly associated with obstetric manifestations of APS. IgM aPS antibodies were associated with an increased risk of venous and arterial thrombosis. IgA aPS antibodies were associated with arterial thrombosis whereas IgG aPS antibodies were associated with an increased risk of venous thrombotic events. IgM and IgG aPS antibodies were frequently found in association with anti-β2GPI antibodies. Conclusions: The prevalence of aPS antibodies is low in PAPS but these antibodies are highly specific for PAPS and are associated with specific PAPS manifestations.Objetivo: Investigar la prevalencia de anticuerpos anti-fosfatidilserina (aFS) de tipo IgM, IgG e IgA en pacientes con síndrome antifosfolípido primario (SAFP) y en controles sanos; analizar la sensibilidad y la especificidad de los anticuerpos aFS para el diagnóstico de aFS y finalmente, evaluar las asociaciones entre los anticuerpos específicos aFS y las manifestaciones clínicas del SAF. Métodos: Estudio transversal de 36 pacientes mujeres con SAFP y 200 donantes de sangre. Se determinaron anticuerpos antifosfatidilserina de tipo IgM, IgG e IgA en pacientes y controles con SAFP utilizando una técnica propia y un kit comercial. A los pacientes com SAFP también se les determinó el anticoagulante lúpico (ACL), los anticuerpos anticardiolipina IgM e IgG (aCL), y los anticuerpos anti-β2 glucoproteína I (anti-β2GPI). Resultados: La prevalencia de los anticuerpos AFS IgM, IgG, IgA en pacientes con SAFP fue la siguiente: 10,8-16,7%, 32,4-35,7%, y 16,1%, respectivamente. Aunque se encontro una sensibilidad relativamente baja para los anticuerpos AFS en el SAFP, la especificidad de los anticuerpos AFS IgM, IgG, IgA para el SAFP fue 94,7-98,9%, 95,3-96,3% y 97,9%, respectivamente. Todos los isotipos de AFS se asociaron significativamente con las manifestaciones obstétricas. Los anticuerpos AFS IgM se asociaron con un riesgo aumentado de trombosis venosa y arterial. Los anticuerpos AFS IgA se asociaron con la trombosis arterial mientras que los anticuerpos AFS IgG se asociaron con un mayor riesgo de eventos trombóticos venosos. Los anticuerpos AFS IgM e IgG se encuentran con frecuencia em asociación con anticuerpos anti-β2GPI. Conclusiones: La prevalencia de anticuerpos AFS es baja en SAFS pero estos anticuerpos son altamente específicos para SAFP y se asocian con manifestaciones SAFP específicos