Structural gene for human membrane cofactor protein (MCP) of complement maps to within 100 kb of the 3' end of the C3b/C4b receptor gene

The structural gene for membrane cofactor protein (MCP), a widely distributed C3b/C4b binding regulatory glycoprotein of the complement system, has been mapped to the same locus as the structural genes for CR1, CR2, DAF, and C4bp. The order of the genes within an approximately 800-kb DNA fragment on the long arm of chromosome 1 is MCP-CR1-CR2-DAF-C4bp. Further, the MCP gene maps to within 100 kb of 3' end of the CR1 gene.

Phase-only filters with improved signal to noise ratio

We introduce the notion of optimal phase-only filters (OPOFs) that yield improved signal to noise ratios (SNRs). We illustrate the improvement in SNR resulting from the use of OPOFs with the help of several analytical examples and simulation results.

Purification of membranes and identification of phase-specific proteins of the dimorphic pathogenic fungus Histoplasma capsulatum

Plasma membrane vesicles from the yeast and mycelial phases of Histoplasma capsulatum have been purified and characterized. The method of purification involved differential centrifugation of ballistically fractured cells followed by sedimentation through discontinuous sucrose density gradient and equilibrium centrifugation. Purity of the preparation was assessed by electron microscopy. The protein composition of the membrane preparations from the yeast and mycelial phases of the fungus was analyzed by polyacrylamide gels. A comparison of the two morphologic phases revealed quantitative and qualitative differences in the expressions of several membrane-specific proteins. Physical differences in the appearance of the membranes were also observed by electron micrography of membrane preparations. Alteration in membrane fluidity may be one of the many causes for differences in the appearance of membrane vesicles in the two phases.

Constraint phase optimization in minimum variance synthetic discriminant functions

It is shown that proper selection of constraint phases in minimum variance synthetic discriminant functions can further reduce the output variance due to input noise. It is demonstrated with the help of examples that this reduction in variance can range from being negligible to being significant. The exact amount of reduction depends on the constraint magnitudes, training images, and the noise covariance matrix.

Minimum average correlation energy filters

The synthesis of a new category of spatial filters that produces sharp output correlation peaks with controlled peak values is considered. The sharp nature of the correlation peak is the major feature emphasized, since it facilitates target detection. Since these filters minimize the average correlation plane energy as the first step in filter synthesis, we refer to them as minimum average correlation energy filters. Experimental laboratory results from optical implementation of the filters are also presented and discussed.

Fast and efficient method for detection and estimation of proteins

A quick, simple, inexpensive and sensitive method is described to stain and quantitate proteins on nitrocellulose papers. The proteins may be spotted or transferred from polyacrylamide gels by Western blotting. The procedure involves non-radioactive iodination of the polypeptides by chloramine T and potassium iodide followed by detection of bound iodine with starch. The method is more sensitive and much quicker than Coomassie brilliant blue staining and may be used for quantitation or detection of proteins in unknown samples. Another major advantage of this procedure is that ionic or nonionic detergents, although at higher concentrations causing the sample to disperse more broadly in the membranes, do not affect the staining procedure. Further, this method may be used for detection of proteins bound to papers that have high affinity for proteins such as the Zeta probe membranes.

Cross-reacting human and rabbit antibodies to antigens of Histoplasma capsulatum, Candida albicans, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Using Western blots of electrophoretically separated antigens, we show that human antibodies react most frequently to antigens shared by three fungi (Histoplasma capsulatum, Candida albicans, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae). Reactivity to antigens specific for individual fungi was relatively uncommon. The pattern of reactivity could not distinguish infected patients from uninfected controls. Rabbits immunized with extracts of each fungus also produced antibodies to cross-reactive or shared antigens of the other two fungi. Furthermore, preimmune sera showed similar but lower reactivity with the same fungal antigens. We believe that the preimmunization antibodies, which probably resulted from earlier fungal colonization or inapparent infections, predisposed the immune responses elicited by the vaccinations. A similar mechanism likely explains the results with human sera.

Acoustooptic processor for adaptive radar noise environment characterization

A new 2-D acoustooptic processor that estimates the angular as well as spectral distributions of jammers in the far field of an adaptive phased array radar is described. The operating modes of the system are discussed together with the estimation accuracy achieved. Experimental results are presented to illustrate the operation of the processor, and different acoustooptic cell operating modes are discussed.

Sulfhydryl induced respiratory "shunt" pathways and their role in morphogenesis in the fungus, Histoplasma capsulatum

When the mycelial to yeast transition of the dimorphic fungus Histoplasma capsulatum is induced by a temperature shift from 25 to 37 degrees C, the activities of the cytochrome system and the alternate oxidase decrease in parallel over the first 24 to 40 h (stage 1 of the transition). The decrease in activity of the cytochrome system is correlated with extensive decreases in the amounts of cytochromes b, c, and aa3, assayed spectrophotometrically. After 40 h, the cells enter a dormant phase (stage 2 of the transition) and cysteine or other sulfhydryl-containing compounds are required to reactivate mitochondrial respiration. This reactivation is due to the establishment of shunt pathways which bypass blocked segments of the electron transport system. The "shunt" pathways operate normally in mycelia grown at 25 degrees C, but are shut down during the transition, possibly because of depletion of intracellular cysteine. The longstanding observation that cysteine is required to progress beyond the initial stages of the morphological transition may be due, at least in part, to the reactivation of these "shunt" pathways.

Fine delay estimation with time integrating correlators

The bias and variance of the delay estimation from a time integrating acoustooptic correlator are considered. A parabolic interpolation of the sampled correlation output is included. General expressions for the bias and variance are derived that include the effect of finite detector element area. Quantitative data are provided for the case of an exponential autocorrelation signal model as functions of various system, signal, and noise parameters. These results show that the estimate is biased. They also provide guidelines on the delay estimation variance obtainable from a given system and on the design of a system to achieve a desired estimation accuracy.

Acoustooptic matched filter correlator

The signal model used and the output SNR(0) measure chosen are shown to affect the performance of an acoustooptic time-integrating correlator. Nonuniform acoustic fields are also shown to affect the results, but these error sources can be overcome with a new hybrid time- and space-integrating acoustooptic matched filter correlator that we describe and for which initial simulation data are provided.

Efficient calculation of primary images from a set of images

A set of images is modeled as a stochastic process and Karhunen-Loeve expansion is applied to extract the feature images. Although the size of the correlation matrix for such a stochastic process is very large, we show the way to calculate the eigenvectors when the rank of the correlation matrix is not large. We also propose an iterative algorithm to calculate the eigenvectors which save computation time andc omputer storage requirements. This iterative algorithm gains its efficiency from the fact that only a significant set of eigenvectors are retained at any stage of iteration. Simulation results are also presented to verify these methods.

Eigenvector determination by iterative optical methods

Three power methods to compute the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a matrix on an iterative optical processor (IOP) are analyzed. Each is appropriate for a different eigenvalue and eigenvector application. When implementation on an IOP and the processing speed are considered, the second method is found to be preferable to others recently described.

Temperature- and cyclic nucleotide-induced phase transitions of Histoplasma capsulatum

The transition from yeast to mycelia of Histoplasma capsulatum could be accomplished by shifting the temperature of incubation from 37 to 25 degrees C. It was accompanied by many changes in cellular metabolism, including changes in respiration, intracellular cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cAMP) levels, and activities of two enzymes specific for the yeast phase, cystine reductase (EC 1.6.4.1) and cysteine oxidase (EC 1.13.11.20). Even at 37 degrees C, the yeast to mycelial transition could be induced by cAMP and agents which raise the intracellular levels of cAMP (theophylline, acetylsalicylic acid, prostaglandin E1, and nerve growth factor). During this morphogenesis the same pattern of changes occurred as in the temperature-induced transition. Therefore, these changes were not simply dependent on a shift in temperature, but rather were part of the process of the phase transition.

Acoustooptic spectral estimation: a statistical analysis

The power spectral density estimate obtained by an acoustooptic (AO) system is analyzed. We find that the variance of the estimate depends on the ratio T(2)/T(1), where T(1) is the aperture of the AO cell and T(2) is the integration time of the detector.

Comparison of the ribonucleic acid polymerases from both phases of Histoplasma capsulatum

The three ribonucleic acid (RNA) polymerases (ribonucleoside triphosphate RNA nucleotidyltransferases, EC 2.7.7.6) of the two phases (yeast and mycelial) of the dimorphic fungus Histoplasma capsulatum have been purified and characterized. The corresponding enzymes from the two phases differ in sensitivity to alpha-amanitin, ion and salt requirements, temperature sensitivity, and subunit structure. This is the first case in which such qualitative differences in RNA polymerases have been demonstrated in two growth states of the same organism.

Optical image plane correlator for ambiguity surface computation

An optical image plane correlator is described which computes the ambiguity function for passive, wideband, complex, and basebanded signals. Quadrature input modulation, single-sideband filtering, and a modified image plane correlator requiring no moving parts are used to achieve the required complex correlations. The scenario, theory, and design are provided together with experimental verification on LFM and Barkercoded waveforms as well as synthetic data.

Mechanism of the inhibition by RNA of the RNA polymerases of Histoplasma capsulatum

4 S RNA isolated from the dimorphic fungus Histoplasma capsulatum inhibited the DNA-dependent RNA polymerase activity of the yeast phase of this fungus. Inhibition was specific for initiation, and resulted from binding of the RNA to the enzyme. Among a variety of synthetic polynucleotides tested, only poly(G) and oligo(dG) were effective inhibitors, suggesting a role for guanines or guanine-rich sequences of RNA in the inhibition reaction.

Inhibition of Histoplasma capsulatum ribonucleic acid polymerases by homologous and heterologous ribonucleic acid

The ribonucleic acid (RNA) polymerases from the yeast phase of Histoplasma capsulatum are differentially sensitive to RNA isolated from the yeast and mycelial phases of this fungus and from Escherichia coli. Low-molecular-weight RNA from H. capsulatum was the most effective inhibitor.

Protective effects of amphotericin B against spontaneous and transplantable murine tumors

Two tumor systems were used to test prophylactic effects of amphotericin B (AmB). When 0.5 mg AmB was given ip every 2 weeks to AKR mice beginning at 8 weeks of age, the 50% tumor incidence for spontaneous lymphoma development was delayed 2-3 months. In the second tumor system, BALB/c mice received injections of either 20 or 50 mug AmB before receiving MOPC-315-C cells sc. The mice given the low dose of AmB demonstrated a decreased tumor incidence and a reduced tumor growth rate, when compared with controls. Opposite effects were found for the group administered the high dose; tumor incidence and rate of growth were increased.