The effects of spermine (SPM) on the production of Th1 and Th2 cytokines using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) derived from cedar pollinosis subjects were investigated. Th2 cytokines produced by PBMCs stimulated by 10 microM SPM was significantly lower than that in the controls. These findings indicate that blood SPM is an important factor in the Th1/Th2 balance.

spm (Sand Pile Model) is a simple discrete dynamical system used in physics to represent granular objects. It is deeply related to integer partitions, and many other combinatorics problems, such as tilings or rewriting systems. The evolution of the system started with n stacked grains generates a lattice, denoted by SPM(n). We study here the structure of this lattice. We first explain how it ca...

The Silicon Photomultiplier (SPM) offers sensitivity comparable to conventional photomultipliers with the added advantage of small size, low operating voltages, and robust tolerance to excess/ambient light. A Peltier cooled SPM running at -30°C was used in conjunction with wideband electronics and a 17-inch Astrograph to collect photometric data without a reference star. High speed photometric ...

Heritable epigenetic inactivation of the maize Suppressor-mutator (Spm) transposon is associated with promoter methylation, and its reversal is mediated by the transposon-encoded TnpA protein. We have developed an assay that permits demethylation of the Spm sequence to be controlled by inducing the expression of TnpA in plant cells. Using this assay, we show that demethylation is a rapid, activ...

Antigenic proteins of brain synaptic plasma membranes (SPM) and postsynaptic densities (PSD) were characterized using antisera raised against SPM. Immunostaining of brain sections showed that the antigens were restricted to synapses, and electron microscopy revealed staining at both presynaptic terminals and PSDs. In primary brain cell cultures the antisera were also neuron-specific but the ant...

Recent efforts to achieve global standardization of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) including noncontact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM), especially through the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and related research, are surveyed. Since the unification of terminology for SPM is a prerequisite for standardization, it should have the first priority, followed by the unification...

The effects of soluble and aggregated amyloid beta-peptide (Abeta) on cortical synaptic plasma membrane (SPM) structure were examined using small angle x-ray diffraction and fluorescence spectroscopy approaches. Electron density profiles generated from the x-ray diffraction data demonstrated that soluble and aggregated Abeta1-40 peptides associated with distinct regions of the SPM. The width of...

We report three extremely rare cases of Streptococcus pneumoniae meningoencephalitis (SPM) after trans-sphenoidal surgery (TSS). Between 2004 and 2010, we experienced three cases of severe SPM after surgery out of 1,965 patients undergoing TSS (0.15%). The three cases included a 4-year-old boy with a large cystic craniopharyngioma, a 40-year-old man with a non-functioning pituitary adenoma, and...

XSLT is an increasingly popular language for processing XML data. It is widely supported by application platform software. However, little optimization effort has been made inside the current XSLT processing engines. Evaluating a very simple XSLT program on a large XML document with a simple schema may result in extensive usage of memory. In this paper, we present a novel notion of Streaming Pr...

A mitogenic substance on murine lymphocytes was detected in the culture supernate of Streptococcus pyogenes type 12 strain. This substance had a molecular weight of 28,000 and pI 9.2, and was designated as S. pyogenes mitogen (SPM). The proliferative response of C3H/HeN spleen cells began at 1 ng ml-1 and reached a maximal response at 100 ng ml-1 of SPM for 4 days culture. Anti-Thy 1.2 mAb and ...