Inflammatory process is involved in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy. In this article, we show that cholecystokinin (CCK) is expressed in the kidney and exerts renoprotective effects through its anti-inflammatory actions. DNA microarray showed that CCK was upregulated in the kidney of diabetic wild-type (WT) mice but not in diabetic intracellular adhesion molecule-1 knockout mice. We in...

With today’s technology embracing ever-smaller chip components, array packages with hidden solder joints, and numerous components on both sides of the printed circuit board assembly (PCBA), manual visual inspection is running out of steam to adequately address these challenges. AOI (automatic optical inspection) and/or AXI (automatic X-ray inspection) are starting to be used at a majority of to...

Extending some recent theorems of Klee and Larman, we prove rather sharp results about the diameter of a random graph. Among others we show that if d = d(n) > 3 and m = m(n) satisfy (log n)/d 3 log log n -> oo, 2rf_Imd'/'nd+x log n -» oo and dd~2md~l/nd — log n -» -oo then almost every graph with n labelled vertices and m edges has diameter d. About twenty years ago Erdös [7], [8] used random g...

Diabetes has been associated not only with subtle cognitive deficits in mental speed and flexibility (1,2) but also with an increased risk for development of significant disruption in cognitive function in the form of dementia (3). In order to prevent subtle cognitive sequelae and potentially reduce the burden of dementia on an aging world population (4), a better understanding of the pathophys...

Light patterned dielectrophoresis or optoelectronic tweezers (OET) has been proved to be an effective micromanipulation technology for cell separation, cell sorting and control of cell interactions. Apart from being useful for cell biology experiments, the capability of moving small objects accurately also makes OET an attractive technology for other micromanipulation applications. In particula...

The solder joint reliability of ceramic chip resistors assembled to laminate substrates has been a long time concern for systems exposed to harsh environments such as those found in automotive and aerospace applications. This is due to a combination of the extreme temperature excursions experienced by the assemblies along with the large coefficient of thermal expansion mismatches between the al...

The novel application of a digital speckle correlation method (DSCM) was demonstrated for the in-situ and nondestructive detection of cracks in small objects such as multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCs) in surface mount printed circuit assemblies. A combined DSCM and double lens optical arrangements was employed for the measurement of minute surface deformations in ~ C S . An improved cross alg...

Individuals change their behavior during an epidemic in response to whether they and/or those they interact with are healthy or sick. Healthy individuals are concerned about contracting a disease from their sick contacts and may utilize protective measures. Sick individuals may be concerned with spreading the disease to their healthy contacts and adopt preemptive measures. Yet, in practice both...

As the drive toward higher performance data storage devices continues, flex assemblies used in these products have become more complex. An example is using flip chip technology to attach the pre-amplifier IC to the flex cable, referred to as Flip Chip on Flex or FCOF. The ever-increasing requirement for performance has translated into high demand for such assemblies, thereby fueling the need fo...