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CT-based computations of fractional flow reserve (FFR) have been widely utilized for evaluating functional severity of a coronary artery stenosis. Whilst this approach has been successful clinically, assumptions involved in the analysis still need to be investigated for further improvement in predictive accuracy. To better understand the sensitivity of computational FFRs on outflow boundary condition – typically reflecting patient's own physiology only through anatomical features – FFR computations for 10 patients with different degree of stenosis was conducted. The computations were based on 3D anatomical model reconstructed from CT images and patient-specific in/outflow boundary conditions (BC). Two outflow BCs were considered: (1) conventional morphology-based and (2) PET perfusion-based conditions. The results showed that the FFRs derived from the two boundary conditions agree in general. It was also found that the FFRs computed with the morphology-based BC tend to estimate higher functional severity, especially in patients with reduced vasodilatory response under hyperaemia – an essential physiological condition in FFR measurement. Further investigation was made by varying hyperaemic resistances (30%-90% of the baseline) in the morphology-based BC. The variation of FFR for the varied resistances was narrow for patients with mild stenosis and wider for those who have severe stenosis. This latter approach confirmed that variability of FFR due to outflow condition tends to come from overestimation of vasodilatory response, especially those who have abnormal myocardial perfusion. The results suggest that outflow conditions that are more representative of each patient could be an effective way to improve CT-based FFR computation.

Introduction: Obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are growing health concerns. A ten-fold increase of T2DM was noted in the Hong Kong paediatric population from 1997 to 2007. T2DM is often asymptomatic at presentation, but complications can emerge rapidly, especially in youngsters. Experience in Japan, Korea and Taiwan suggests that urine glucose screening is a practical and non-invasive screening tool for identification of T2DM. The Hong Kong Student Health Service (SHS) offers yearly health checks for students and is a good platform for screening of T2DM since attendance rate is over 90% for primary school students and over 70% for secondary school students. Method: In 2005, SHS and the Hong Kong Paediatric Society formulated a protocol on urine glucose screening for early diagnosis of T2DM in students with obesity. Students between the ages of 10–18 years old with age- and sex- specific body mass index (BMI) >97th percentile were recruited. Those screened positive for glycosuria were referred to paediatric departments for workup under a standardized protocol, whilst those who screened positive for both glucose and ketones were referred to the emergency departments. Students enrolled from school year 2005–2006 to 2017–2018 were included. Demographic data, clinical presentation, investigatory results and co-morbidities were captured using a structured reply letter. Results: A total of 219,276 eligible students attended SHS in the years specified and 216,528 students (99%) completed urine glucose screening. 381 (0.18%) students were tested positive for urine glucose; 18 (4.7%) had concomitant urine ketones. In total 120 students had T2DM, 41 had pre-diabetes [impaired fasting glucose and /or impaired glucose tolerance] and 126 turned out normal. 43 students defaulted the referrals and 51 students had known diabetes. 21 students (17.5%) were started on insulin therapy upon diagnosis. A significant proportion of students with T2DM had co-morbidities including raised alanine amino-transferase (57%), hypercholesterolaemia (59%), and hypertension (13%). Five students (4.2%) had microalbuminuria at presentation. Of those with ketonuria, two students had serum glucose of over 20mmol/L and required fluid resuscitation ± insulin infusion in high dependency unit. Conclusion: Our pick up rate for T2DM from students with obesity aged 10–18 years using urine glucose is 0.05% (120/216,528). According to the Hong Kong Childhood Diabetes Registry, the crude incidence of T2DM for this age group was 6.16 /100,000/year over the study period, which equates to 506 new cases of T2DM. Thus 24% of the new T2DM cases were diagnosed by this program and many had associated co-morbidities at diagnosis. Our study shows that urine glucose testing is an inexpensive and simple test that allows for early diagnosis and treatment of T2DM in the primary care setting in this at risk population.

The motorcycle suspension system is one of the crucial components. It helps to support the motorcycle’s weight, isolate the vibration level caused by road imperfection, and keep the wheel in contact with the road surface. Therefore, the performance of suspension system needs to be enhanced to ensure the ride comfort and safety of riders. Coil spring is one of the essential parts of motorcycle suspension system. In this study, two different materials of coil spring are being focused include steel alloy and carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP). The geometry of the coil spring is the existing design in the market. The static structural analyses are carried out to determine the directional deformation of y-axis, equivalent stress and equivalent elastic stress analysis of the corresponding coil spring material. The obtained results are discussed. It is found that the steel coil spring has better performance for the existing coil spring design. The directional deformation, equivalent stress and equivalent elastic strain of steel coil spring are considered at the lower side, which is 0.029357mm, 2003MPa and 0.010051mm/mm respectively. In this study, it is observed that the number of turns of coil spring should be increased to enhance the performance of CFRP coil spring.

Ion beam bombardment is a useful surface modification method in tailoring the microstructure and magnetic properties of ferromagnetic thin films. In this paper, Co thin films were bombarded by Ar+ ion beam with oxygen and then capped with Al (to prevent oxidation). The oxygen content was altered from 0 to 41% to investigate the ion-beam bombardment effect. An oxide layer containing Al2O3, Co3O4 and CoO was formed after the ion-beam bombardment with oxygen, as characterized by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, selected area electron diffraction, and x-ray diffraction. Enhanced coercivities (Hc's) (from 4.14kA/m to 7.96kA/m) and loop squareness (Mr/Ms. from 0.5 to 0.8) was induced by pure Ar+ ion-beam bombardment that resulted in domain wall pinning due to bombardment-induced defects and Co spin reordering. Hc exhibited a strong dependence on the oxygen content in the ion beam, due to the nature of the cobalt oxide formation. Field cooling to 180K resulted in increased squareness (Mr/Ms.=0.9) and reduced Hc. The low-field magnetization measured during zero field and field cooling to further investigate the exchange bias magnetism identified an irreversibility temperature at 320K in a film treated by ion-beam bombardment with an O2/Ar ratio of 21%. Display Omitted Ion-beam sputtered Co layers were bombarded by ion beam with O2 and capped with Al.Ar+ ion-beam bombardment resulted in Co grain reorientation and enhanced coercivity.Ion-beam bombardment with O2 formed an oxide layer containing CoO, Co3O4 and Al2O3.Magnetic coercivity strongly relied on temperature and O2 content in the ion beam.Irreversibility temperature of 320K indicates CoO transition to antiferromagnetic.

The occurrence of typhoon Herb in 1996 caused massive landslides in the Shenmu area of Taiwan. Many people died and stream and river beds were covered by meters of debris. Debris flows almost always take place in the Shenmu area during the flood season, especially in the catchment areas around Tsushui river and Aiyuzih river. Anthropogenic and natural factors that cause debris flow occurrences are complex and numerous. The precise conditions of initiation are difficult to be identified, but three factors are generally considered to be the most important ones, i.e. rainfall characteristics, geologic conditions and topography. This study proposes a simple and feasible process that combines remote sensing technology and multi-stage high-precision DTMs from aerial orthoimages and airborne LiDAR with field surveys to establish a connection between three major occurrence factors that trigger debris flows in the Shenmu area.

INTRODUCTION In all cases of suspected child abuse, accurate risk assessment is vital to guide further management. This study examined the relationship between risk factors in a risk assessment matrix and child abuse case conference outcomes. METHODS Records of all children hospitalised at United Christian Hospital in Hong Kong for suspected child abuse from January 2012 to December 2014 were reviewed. Outcomes of the hospital abuse work-up as concluded in the Multi-Disciplinary Case Conference were categorised as 'established', 'high risk', or 'not established'. All cases of 'established' and 'high risk' were included in the positive case conference outcome group and all cases of 'not established' formed the comparison group. On the other hand, using the Risk Assessment Matrix developed by the California State University, Fresno in 1990, each case was allotted a matrix score of low, intermediate, or high risk in each of 15 matrix domains, and an aggregate matrix score was derived. The effect of individual matrix domain on case conference outcome was analysed. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to examine the relationship between case conference outcome and aggregate matrix score. RESULTS In this study, 265 children suspected of being abused were included, with 198 in the positive case conference outcome group and 67 in the comparison group. Three matrix domains (severity and frequency of abuse, location of injuries, and strength of family support systems) were significantly associated with case conference outcome. An aggregate cut-off score of 23 yielded a sensitivity of 91.4% and specificity of 38.2% in relation to outcome of abuse categorisation. CONCLUSIONS Risk assessment should be performed when handling suspected child abuse cases. A high aggregate score should arouse suspicion in all disciplines managing child abuse cases.

The feasibility of a 3D IC integration SiP has been demonstrated in this investigation. The heart of this SiP is a TSV (through-silicon via) interposer with an RDL (redistribution layer) on both sides, IPD (integrated passive devices), and SS (stress sensors). This interposer is used to support (with microbumps) a stack of four memory chips with TSVs, one thermal chip with heater and one mechanical chip with SS, and is then overmolded on its top side for pick and place purposes. The interposer's bottom side is attached to an organic substrate (with ordinary lead-free solder bumps), which is lead-free solder-balled on a PCB (printed circuit board). Key enabling technologies such as TSV etching, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), thin-wafer handling, thermal management, and microbumping, assembly, and reliability are highlighted.

In this study, the wafer bumping and characterization of fine-pitch lead-free solder microbumps on 300mm wafer for 3D IC integration are investigated. Emphasis is placed on the Cu-plating solutions (conformal and bottom-up). Also, the amount of Cu and solder (Sn) volumes is examined. Furthermore, characterizations such as shearing test and aging of the microbumps are provided and cross sections/SEM images of the microbumps before and after test are discussed. Finally, the process windows of applying the conventional electroplating wafer bumping method of the ordinary solder bumps to the microbumps are also presented.

The main objective of this study is to improve the quality of injection-molded lenses with the implementation of DMAIC procedures based on the Six Sigma approach. At first, critical-to-quality factors (CTQ) are determined according to customer requirements for quality. The causal factors for the lens properties are identified within the processing window being tested. Adopted for the analysis procedures, the Taguchi design-of-experiment method (DOE) is employed for screening pertinent process parameters in the injection process. After completing the DOE procedures, confirmation experiments are conducted with selected combinations of factors and levels. The experimental results show substantial improvement for the profile accuracy on molded lenses. As a further step, an optimal set of factors and levels are taken during the mass-production processing conditions. In conclusion, the Six Sigma approach can effectively improve the upper process capability index CPU from 0.57 to 1.75, i.e., 0.07 defects per million, without an upgrade of production equipment or an increase of production costs.

Glass interposer is introduced as an alternative to silicon interposer for 3D integration due to the attractive advantages such as excellent electrical isolation, extremely low insertion loss, adjustable coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), and most importantly low cost potential with the capability of large panel size fabrication. In this study, a novel scheme is proposed to fabricate glass interposer more cost-effectively. Thin glass with through-glass via (TGV) is adopted directly for interposer fabrication, which makes double-side traces and interconnect with panel-compatible laminated temporary bond and laser de-bond technologies. 100μm thickness, 200mm by 200mm small panel size glass interposer is successfully process integrated and demonstrated with the novel scheme. It provides a realizable low cost and panel-level fabricated glass interposer solution for 3D integration applications.

Microstructure changes of ZrN films deposited onto Si substrates by unbalanced magnetron sputtering were investigated over temperatures of 200–1100 °C in vacuum. The microstructure and morphology of the films were investigated by means of X-ray diffraction and field-emission scanning electron microscopy. The residual stress was determined using a laser scanning curvature measurement method. Neither color change nor oxides could be discerned over the whole investigated temperature. Scarce round micro-blisters, due to the increase of residual compressive stress in the films, were found above 400 °C. The texture coefficient, lattice parameter, and average strain of the films varied with annealing temperature. The measured residual stresses reached a minimum, i.e., − 7.0 GPa at 400 °C. Subsequently, the stress relaxed with temperature and became tensile at 1000 °C. Additionally, the Young's Modulus of the films could be obtained from the residual stress and average strain relation. The evaluated value was 380 ± 70 GPa, which is comparable to those reported from the literature; nevertheless, this technique is nondestructive and much simpler.

Silicon nitride (SiN x ) films deposited on flexible polyethersulfone (PES) substrates by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) have been investigated for water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) and oxygen transmission rate (OTR) barrier applications. Details of the NH 3 /SiH 4 flow ratio and chamber pressure effects on the SiN x /PES properties in terms of chemical bonding, transmittance, refractive index, deposition rate, adhesion, roughness, OTR and WVTR were investigated. When the NH 3 /SiH 4 flow ratio increased from 1.43 to 10, evident variations in refractive index and transmittance of the SiN x /PES samples were observed. Moreover, as the chamber pressure increases from 26.7 to 133.4 Pa, the deposition rate, adhesion and roughness increase while no evident variations in WVTR and OTR were observed. Under optimum conditions, the WVTR and OTR of 100-nm-thick SiN x barrier coating on PES at 150 °C decreased to a value of near 0.01 g/m 2 /day and 0.01 cm 3 /m 2 /day, respectively. This indicates that the SiN x barrier on PES has high potential for flexible display applications.

Silicon oxide (SiOx) films deposited on flexible polyethersulfone (PES) substrates by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PEVCD) have been investigated for transparent barrier applications. Although the water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) of PES (∼28 g/m2/day; thickness: 200 μm) is higher than that of the polyethylene terephthalate (PET; ∼16 g/m2/day; thickness: 188 μm), the PES substrate can withstand process temperatures of up to 180 °C, providing more flexibility in the design of device processing. Details of the substrate-temperature and film-thickness effects on the SiOx/PES properties in terms of transmittance, refractive index, deposition rate, adhesion, roughness, and WVTR were described. When the substrate temperature increased from 80 to 170 °C, the deposition rate, adhesion, and roughness values were found to increase while the WVTR decreased to a value of near 0.3 g/m2/day at 150 °C. With increasing the oxide thickness from 50 to 500 nm, the surface roughness increased from 2.71 to 5.84 nm. A lower WVTR value can be achieved under a barrier thickness of 200 nm. Further improvement was carried out by depositing a 100-nm-thick SiOx film on both sides of the PES substrate, which resulted in a minimum WVTR of 0.1 g/m2/day. The double-sided coatings on PES could balance the stress and greatly improve the WVTR data.

We investigated the characterization of silicon oxide (SiO2) films on polyethersulfone (PES) substrates by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition for transparent barrier applications. The film properties, such as deposition rate, etch rate, roughness, and water vapor transmission rate (WVTR), were found to increase as the plasma power increased from 10 to 120 W. As the pressure of chamber increases from 75 to 375 mbar, the deposition rate, etch rate, and roughness increase while the WVTR decreases. Under optimum conditions, the WVTR for PES can be reduced from a level of 50 g/m2/day (bare substrate) to 0.31 g/m2/day after application of a 100-nm-thick SiO2 coating at 150 °C. A more efficient way to improve permeation of PES was carried out by using a double-side coating of a 100-nm-thick SiO2 film. It was found that the WVTR can be reduced to a level of 0.1 g/m2/day. The double-side coating on PES could contribute to the lower stress of oxide film, which greatly improves the WVTR data. These results indicate that the SiO2/PES barrier coatings have high potential for flexible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) applications.

The degradation of CrN films was investigated over temperatures of 400–1200 °C in air, nitrogen, and forming gas (N2/H2=9) by analyzing changes in color and appearance, as well as microstructures. The degradation mainly included color changes and cracks occurring on the film surface. The color change resulting from low-temperature/short-time annealing was due to the formation of an additional Cr2N phase, as well as a thin oxide overlayer. The color change appearing at higher temperatures/longer times stemmed from the formation of a thicker Cr2O3 layer, whose content depended on the pN2/pO2 ratio in the atmosphere. The driving force of the oxidation was the Gibbs free-energy change for CrN and Cr2O3. Cracks that showed up at relatively high temperatures were attributed to the large thermal mismatch between the CrN film and Cr2O3 overlayer. The thermal stresses were calculated and discussed. The degradation diagrams were generated based on the above analyzed results.

In this article we study the return transmission among stock markets in Greater China – Mainland China (Shanghai, Shenzhen), Hong Kong and Taiwan – a region which has been enjoying tremendous growth and expansion in the economies and capital markets in the last decade. Using a multiple time series approach we identify explicitly the lead–lag interaction among these markets. The estimation results show that significant multivariate structures are present. These structures can reduce the residual standard error and improve the fit over the univariate models.

De novo antimicrobial peptides with the sequences: (KLAKKLA)n, (KLAKLAK)n (where n = 1,2,3), (KALKALK)3, (KLGKKLG)n, and (KAAKKAA)n (where n = 2,3), were prepared as the C-terminus amides. These peptides were designed to be perfectly amphipathic in helical conformations. Peptide antibacterial activity was tested against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus. Peptide cytotoxicity was tested against human erythrocytes and 3T3 mouse fibroblasts. The 3T3 cell testing was a much more sensitive test of cytotoxicity. The peptides were much less lytic toward human erythrocytes than 3T3 cells. Peptide secondary structure in aqueous solution, sodium dodecylsulfate micelles, and phospholipid vesicles was estimated using circular dichroism spectroscopy. The leucine/alanine-containing 21-mers were bacteriostatic at 3-8 microM and cytotoxic to 3T3 cells at about 10 microM concentrations. The leucine/alanine- or leucine/glycine-containing 14-mers and the leucine/glycine 21-mer were bacteriostatic at 6-22 microM but had much lower cytotoxicity toward 3T3 cells and higher selectivities than the natural antimicrobial peptides magainin 2 amide and cecropin B amide. The 7-mer peptides are devoid of biological activity and of secondary structure in membrane mimetic environments. The 14-mer peptides and the glycine-containing 21-mer show modest levels of helicity in model membranes. The leucine/alanine-containing 21-mer peptides have substantial helicity in model membranes. The propensity to alpha-helical conformation of the peptides in amphipathic media is proportional to their 3T3 cell cytotoxicity.

Edible: By grafting natural peptide antagonists onto the cyclotide kalata B1, orally active peptides were engineered, which are potentially useful therapeutics for the treatment of inflammatory pain. For example, the entire loop 6 of kalata B1 was replaced with the peptidic bradykinin B1 receptor antagonist DALK (red in scheme) to obtain the cyclic bradykinin antagonist ckb-kal.

The physiological alpha-oxoaldehyde methylglyoxal binds and modifies arginine, lysine, and cysteine residues in proteins. The kinetics and mechanism of these reactions were investigated with N alpha-acetylamino acids and bovine serum albumin at pH 7.4 and 37 degrees C. The reaction of methylglyoxal with N alpha-acetylarginine involved the initial reversible formation of glycosylamine and 4,5-dihydroxy-5-methylimidazolidine derivatives, with further slow irreversible conversion to an imidazolone, N alpha-acetyl-N delta- (5-methyl-4-imidazolon-2-yl)ornithine. The imidazolone was fluorescent with an excitation lambda max value of 320 nm and an emission lambda max value of 398 nm. Methylglyoxal reacted reversibly with N alpha-acetyllysine to form glycosylamine and bisglycosylamine derivatives. Further reaction of these glycosylamines occurred to form brown, fluorescent oligomers that were not characterized. Methylglyoxal reacted rapidly and reversibly with N alpha-acetylcysteine to form the hemithioacetal adduct. The reaction of methylglyoxal with bovine serum albumin (BSA) at pH 7.4 and 37 degrees C involved the reversible and irreversible formation of methylglyoxal-BSA adducts. Irreversible modification of BSA occurred mainly on arginine residues to form imidazolone. The formation of methylglyoxal-modified proteins involves glycoxidation leading to advanced glycation end product-like fluorescence. It is expected to be increased in diabetes mellitus and may be linked to the development of diabetic complications.

Increased formation of methylglyoxal in clinical diabetes mellitus and metabolism by the glyoxalase system has been linked to the development of clinical complications of diabetes: retinopathy, neuropathy and nephropathy. Aminoguanidine has been proposed as a prophylactic agent for preventive therapy of diabetic complications. Methylglyoxal reacted with aminoguanidine under physiological conditions to form two isomeric triazines, 3-amino-5-methyl-1,2,4-triazine and 3-amino-6-methyl-1,2,4-triazine. The mean second order rate constant for the reaction of methylglyoxal with aminoguanidine, kMG.AG = 0.39 +/- 0.06 M-1 sec-1 at pH 7.4 and 37 degrees. Under these conditions, no methylglyoxal bisguanylhydrazone was detected. Aminoguanidine prevented the irreversible modification of human plasma protein by a physiological concentration of methylglyoxal (1 microM); the median inhibitory concentration IC50 value of aminoguanidine was 203 +/- 16 microM (N = 28). The scavenging of methylglyoxal by aminoguanidine may contribute to the beneficial effects of aminoguanidine in the prevention of vascular pathogenesis in diabetes.

The activities of glyoxalase I and glyoxalase II and the concentration of methylglyoxal were determined in 26 human lenses. The activity of glyoxalase I (mean ± S.D.) was 15·62 ± 3·90 U (g wet weight) -1 and the activity of glyoxalase II was 0·189 ± 0·087 U (g wet weight) -1 ( n = 26). The concentration of methylglyoxal of the human lenses was 1·78 ± 0·84 nmol (g wet weight) -1 ( n = 26). There was a significant negative correlation of both the activity of glyoxalase I and the activity of glyoxalase II with subject age but no correlation of methylglyoxal concentration with subject age. The concentration of methylglyoxal in the lenses was ∼ 20-fold higher than in blood samples from normal human subjects. Given the previously reported decrease in the concentration of reduced glutathione in the human lens with age, there is expected to be a marked decrease in in situ activity of glyoxalase I and concomitant susceptibility of human lens proteins to modification by methylglyoxal with age. The metabolism of methylglyoxal and the formation of methylglyoxal-modified proteins may be linked to the development of senile and diabetic cataract.

Glyoxalase II was purified from human red blood cells. The purification factor was 83,300 and the yield was 24% or 1.7 micrograms/ml red blood cells. The purified protein was a monomer with a molecular mass of 29,200 Da and an isoelectric point of 8.3. The rate of hydrolysis of S-D-lactoylglutathione to reduced glutathione and D-lactate, catalysed by glyoxalase II, followed Michaelis-Menten kinetics where the Km and kcat values were 146 +/- 9 microM and 727 +/- 16 s-1, respectively in 50 mM Tris/HCl, pH 7.4 at 37 degrees C. Other S-2-hydroxyacylglutathione derivatives were also acceptable substrates. S-p-Nitrobenzoxycarbonylglutathione was a potent competitive inhibitor of glyoxalase II with a Ki value of 1.20 +/- 0.21 microM, and the hemithioacetal formed non-enzymically from the reaction of methylglyoxal with reduced glutathione was a weak competitive inhibitor with a Ki value of 834 +/- 98 microM.

Diethyl esters of the glutathione S-conjugate S-p-bromobenzylglutathione, an inhibitor of glyoxalase I, and S-p-nitrobenzoxycarbonylglutathione, an inhibitor of glyoxalase II, induced growth arrest and toxicity in human leukaemia 60 cells in culture. The median growth inhibitory concentration IC50 values were 8.3 microM (95% C.I. 7.0-9.9 microM) for S-p-bromobenzylglutathione diethyl ester and 56 microM (95% C.I. 36-86 microM) for p-nitrobenzoxycarbonylglutathione. Monoethyl ester and unesterified derivatives were inactive. The diethyl ester derivatives were also toxic to mature human neutrophils under the same culture conditions where the respective median toxic concentration IC50 values were 39.7 (95% C.I. 35.4-44.5 microM) and 127 (95% C.I. 123-132 microM) microM. Diester derivatives may be of future interest in studying the cytotoxicity of glutathione S-conjugates and for the development of cytotoxic anti-tumour agents.

Oxygen ester analogues of S-D-lactoylglutathione, γ-L-glutamyl-O-acyl-L-serylglycine derivatives, were synthesised and evaluated as inhibitors of glyoxalase II. They were competitive inhibitors where the inhibition constant Ki, decreased with increase in acyl chain length. γ-L-Glutamyl-O-acyl-L-serylglycine derivatives also inhibit glyoxalase I. These compounds provide a novel route to glyoxalase II inhibitors for cancer chemotherapy.

Publisher Summary Catalytically disabled forms of enzymes have been used as carbohydrate recognition and detection systems. Such mutated enzymes have been developed for detection of bacterial infections and fungal infections. Such enzymes have low turnover number rendering them “catalytically inactive” in the time frame of the observation event. Therefore endoglycosidases employed as fungal or bacterial detection systems in a “catalytically inactive mode,” utilize only their binding specificity. The use of cell wall polymer degradative enzymes as targeted diagnostic agents has several advantages such as high specificity for the target polymer, high avidity, much more economical than antibodies, and no nonspecific binding in human tissues. Catalytically inactive enzymes constitute a new class of capture/label reagents useful in the several types of assays, including slide-based stains, fluorescence, ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay), dipsticks, latex agglutination assays, skin disclosure stains (skin, nail fungi, onchyomycosis), flow cytometry (for bacteria or yeast forms of fungi), and surface plasmon resonance.

This paper describes work on the development of a scheme for implementation of low power high performance Digital Signal Processing intensive AMBA based System-On-Chip platforms. The scheme is based on a novel interfacing scheme which utilises the bus hierarchy within AMBA in order to allow single and multiple high performance DSP Intellectual Property cores to be integrated into the SoC platform. The paper describes the overall AMBA SoC architecture, the integration scheme, and an SoC generic wrapper which allows multiple low power high performance DSPs to be connected to the platform. Initial results are provided with a low power FIR filter core demonstrating impact of power on various sections of the platform.

Virus-associated hemophagocytic syndrome (VAHS) is a non-neoplastic, generalized histiocytic proliferation with prominent hemophagocytosis associated with a systemic viral infection. Although Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is one candidate virus for this association, thorough serologic and molecular biologic studies to determine the presence of the viral infection have been lacking in many reports. Whereas elevated liver function tests are common findings in patients with VAHS, exudative ascites and abdominal lymphadenopathy are rare. We describe a case of EBV-AHS masquerading as lymphoma in which treatment with intravenous immunoglobulins was associated with complete clinical remission at 2 years and 6 months after the onset. Regardless of the exact mechanism responsible for ascites formation in VAHS, this case adds support to the possible involvement of EBV in patients with abdominal lymphadenopathy and ascites.