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Pluronics (e.g. F127 and L64) are linear triblock copolymers capable of loading hydrophobic moieties within the core of aggregates via micro-phase separation. We demonstrate semi-interpenetrating network formation of organicinorganic hybrid composites consist of quantum rod (QR) firmly encapsulated by F127. The stabilized nanoobjects are stable for a long period. Furthermore, we report that QR-IPN is promising material applicable in fluorescent cell-imaging with guaranteed biocompatibility.

This study demonstrates that it is possible to fabricate a fiber grating external cavity laser (FGECL) module with a low cost while still maintaining a good performance by using a low-cost AR-coated (5times10 -3) laser and a tapered hyperbolic-end fiber (THEF) microlens

A transcutaneous charger for the fully implantable middle ear hearing device (F-IMEHD), which can monitor the charging level of battery, has been designed and implemented. In order to recharge the battery of F-IMEHD, the electromagnetic coupling between primary coil at outer body and secondary coil at inner body has been used. Considering the implant condition of the F-IMEHD, the primary coil and the secondary coil have been designed. Using the resonance of LC tank circuit at each coil, transmission efficiency was increased. Since the primary and the secondary coil are magnetically coupled, the current variation of the primary coil is related with the impedance of internal resonant circuit. Using the principle mentioned above, the implanted module could transmit outward the information about charging state of battery or coupling between two coils by the changing internal impedance. As in the demonstrated results of experiment, the implemented charger has supplied the sufficient operating voltage for the implanted battery within about 10 mm distance. And also, it has been confirmed that the implanted module can transmit information outward by control of internal impedance.

In this report, we investigate the change of magnetic property in spin valve devices for various nitrogen concentrations of Ta underlayer. Spin valve samples were deposited on, SiO/sub 2/ substrate by using DC magnetron sputtering system with 2 inch 8 targets. The substrates were-P doped (100) Si wafers with resistivities of 5-6 /spl Omega/-cm 2000 /spl Aring/-thick; thermal oxide was deposited for prohibiting the shunting current effect and the spin valve samples with sample size of 1 inch /spl times/ 1 inch were deposited with linewidth of 200 /spl mu/m and 500 /spl mu/m, respectively. The spin valve structure is Si/SiO/sub 2//Ta(Ta-N)/NiFe/CoFe/Cu/CoFe/FeMn/Ta. Base pressure was less than 2.0 /spl times/ 10/sup -7/ Torr and TaN thin film were deposited with various N/sub 2/ gas flow between 0 and 12 sccm. To obtain the magnetic anisotropy, we apply 600 Oe magnetic field for substrate surrounding. The XRD pattern of the Ta thin film with various gas flow was taken, as well as the resistivity and rms roughness as functions of gas flow ratios.

Recently, fully-implantable middle ear hearing devices (F-IMEHD) to enhance the hearing ability of auditory impaired persons have been developed in several countries. The implantable hearing device requires an external controller and a non-invasive power transmitter for recharging an internal battery of the device. This study shows the implementation of an inductively coupled control unit to be able to recharge the battery and transmit a control signal to the implanted device by designing the structure of coupled antennas and the data protocol using an on-off keying modulation. The implemented control unit has the advantages that it makes the implanted device reduce the power consumption and increase a recharging interval by externally supplying the power of a control signal receiver instead of using an internal battery. Through the experimental results, it has been verified that the implemented control unit has the performance of transmitting power and control signal to a F-IMEHD.

A gene, phoI, coding for a phosphatase from Enterobacter sp. 4 was cloned in Escherichia coli and sequenced. Analysis of the sequence revealed one open reading frame (ORF) that encodes a 269-amino acid protein with a calculated molecular mass of 29 kDa. PhoI belongs to family B acid phosphatase and exhibits 49.4% identity and 62.4% homology to the hel gene from Heamophilus influenzae, which encoded an outer membrane protein (P4). The optimum pH and temperature for phosphatase activity were pH 5.5 and 40 degrees C, respectively. Its specific activity on rho-nitrophenyl phosphatate was 70 U/mg at pH 5.5 and 40 degrees C. Enzyme activity was inhibited by Al3+, EDTA, and DTT, but fivefold activated by Cu2+ ion (350 U/mg). PhoI showed a strong synergistic effect when used with a purified E. coli phytase, AppA, to estimate combination effects.

This work investigates electromigration resistance of three solder bump compositions, i.e. Sn63Pb37, SnPbCu, and SnPbNi. FCBGA with Cu-doped SnPb interconnects are observed to have 3.5-fold improvement in characteristic life (t63) than that of FCBGA using eutectic SnPb solder. On the other hand, significant reliability degradation (55%) is obtained when employing Ni-doped SnPb solder.

Insig-1 and Insig-2 are membrane proteins of the endoplasmic reticulum that regulate lipid metabolism by the following two actions: 1) sterol-induced binding to 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase, an action that leads to ubiquitination and degradation of the enzyme; and 2) sterol-induced binding to SREBP cleavage-activating protein, an action that blocks the proteolytic processing of sterol regulatory element-binding proteins (SREBPs), membrane-bound transcription factors that enhance the synthesis of cholesterol and fatty acids. Here we report the isolation of a new mutant line of Chinese hamster ovary cells, designated SRD-14, in which Insig-1 mRNA and protein are not produced due to a partial deletion of the INSIG-1 gene. The SRD-14 cells were produced by gamma-irradiation, followed by selection with the 1,1-bisphosphonate ester SR-12813, which mimics sterols in accelerating reductase degradation but does not block SREBP processing. SRD-14 cells fail to respond to sterols by promoting reductase ubiquitination and degradation. The rate at which sterols suppress SREBP processing is significantly slower in SRD-14 cells than wild type CHO-7 cells. Sterol regulation of reductase degradation and SREBP processing is restored when SRD-14 cells are transfected with expression plasmids encoding either Insig-1 or Insig-2. These results provide formal genetic proof for the essential role of Insig-1 in feedback control of lipid synthesis in cultured cells.

Effects of substrate metallization, i.e. Ni/Au vs. Cu-OSP, are studied to characterize the electromigration resistance of under-bump-metallization (UBM) and solder bumps of a flip-chip package under high temperature operation life test (HTOL). UBM is a thin film Al/Ni (V)/Cu metal stack of 1.5 /spl mu/m; while bump material consists of eutectic Sn/Pb solder. Current densities of 5,000 A/cm/sup 2/ and ambient temperatures of 125 to 150 C are applied as conditions of current and thermal stressing. It is observed that flip-chip packages with Cu-OSP substrates are having 13-fold improvement in Mean-Time-To-Failure (MTTF) than that of packages using Ni/Au as substrate surface finishes. Both Ni and Au influence the consumption and electromigration of UBM; therefore accelerate solder bump damage. Measured resistance increase is from bumps with electrical current flowing upward into UBM/bump interface (cathode), while bumps having opposite current polarity cause only minor resistance change. The identified failure sites and modes from aforementioned high resistance bumps reveal structural damages at the region of UBM and UBM/bump interface in forms of solder cracking or delamination. Effects of substrate metallization, current polarity, and crowding are key factors to electromigration behavior of flip-chip interconnect.

An external cavity traveling-wave semiconductor ring laser with narrow linewidth is used as a light source for research in frequency domain reflectometry. The optical frequency of the laser is linearly chirped by an intra-cavity phase modulator. The time-delayed reflection signal is mixed with a reference signal to produce a microwave frequency that indicates the position of the reflection. For optical fiber measurement, a spatial resolution of 30 m and a one-way dynamic range of 28 dB for Rayleigh backscattered light have been achieved. >

The volcanic terrain in and around Villa Alota and Cerro Caquella is unique in several aspects: very dry desert like surface features with almost no vegetation, well preserved volcanic flows and tuff deposits, and extensive evaporite lakes between volcanoes. In many aspects, it is an ideal place for investigating backscattering effects of various types of volcanic flows and eruptives. Several scenes of RADARSAT standard mode image data were acquired over the study area as a part of GlobeSAR 2 program. As the first step of detailed investigation, field work was carried out and also digital elevation model (DEM) was generated using RADARSAT data. Preliminary investigation indicate that the DEM generated using RADARSAT was very useful for collapsed caldera and associated small active volcanoes. Detailed calculation of /spl sigma//sup 0/ and scattering model study is in progress.

The mesoporous anodic alumina(AA) membrane with highly ordered arrays of uniform nanohole was prepared by anodic oxidation process in an aqueous solution of sulfuric acid at 20 C. Morphology, pore size, pore size distribution and thickness for mesoporous AA membrane was examined with several anodizing conditions; reaction temperature, current density, electrolyte concentration, amount of additive, etc. The pore density in the array was approximately 3.5-5.8 X 1014 m-2 with pore diameter and membrane thickness of approximately 25-35 nm and 50 m.

Asymmetric 8-PSK with embedded BPSK for unequal error protection has been investigated theoretically. The BER performance is calculated and compared with that of symmetric MPSK with the same bandwidth efficiency. The results indicate that the asymmetric modulation scheme can be considered as a potential candidate for the transmission of two bit-streams with unequal error protection requirement.

Consecutively lost cells (cell gaps) have significant impact on the quality of service provided by virtual circuits. In systems that use leaky-bucket like admission schemes the cell gap size can be controlled by controlling the number of cells that are marked for preferential discarding when bandwidth violations occur. In this paper we propose to improve cell gap performance by minimizing or maximizing the average number of consecutively marked violation cells created by generalized leaky buckets. We identify cell marking policies that minimize or maximize this average "virtual cell gap", and we present simulation results demonstrating the policies' effectiveness.

Packet loss probability alone does not provide a complete characterization of the quality of a network's real-time packet sessions. Additional performance measures such as the average consecutive packet loss (the so called "average packet gap") must be considered. The authors propose to improve the packet gap performance of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) sessions by minimizing the average packet gap present in the network's buffers. They introduce a simple packet dropping policy that, in steady state, minimizes: (i) the average packet gap, and (ii) the average packet buffering delay, when this delay can be reduced without increasing the average packet gap, or packet loss probability.

Reachability analysis (RA) is the most popular protocol verification technique as it can verify a number of protocol properties, like deadlock freeness, livelock freeness and boundedness; and it can be easily automated. However, it is also very well-known that the state space explosion problem of RA limits its use in complex situations. The usefulness of existing verification tools in verifying complex protocols are very much pushed back by this problem. Various approaches have been proposed to tackle the problem; one of them is the partitioning method. So far, there has been very rare or possibly no report on how these methods can be implemented. This paper describes the implementation of the partitioning method into a proven computer-aided verification tool, PROTEAN, in order to address the state space explosion problem. >

This paper presents development of an intelligent algorithm to understand relationships between process parameters and bead height, and to predict process parameters on bead height through a neural network and multiple regression methods for robotic multi-pass welding process. Using a series of robotic arc welding, additional multi-pass butt welds were carried out in order to verify the performance of the neural network estimator and multiple regression methods as well as to select the most suitable model. The results show that not only the proposed models can predict the bead height with reasonable accuracy and guarantee the uniform weld quality, but also a neural network model could be better than the empirical models (linear and curvilinear equations).

We derive a closed-form expression for the average delay that surviving cells experience in ATM buffers when cells are dropped to avoid overflow or to control buffer occupancy. The expression, which depends on the cell arrival rate, the cell dropping rate, and the average time dropped cells spend in the buffer prior to dropping, follows from a variant of Little's law that we show to hold for lossy queues using a virtual buffer model that explicitly accounts for the effects of cell dropping. To illustrate the expression's utility we use it to prove that policies that drop cells closest to the head of the buffer incur the smallest average surviving cell delays. No explicit knowledge of the arrival process is required obtain these results. Only stationarity and ergodicity of the queueing processes are assumed.

A novel concept surface micromachined silicon accelerometer which has a stiffness tuning capability to improve the sensor resolution is developed. The stiffness of the sensor structure is reduced by providing an electrostatic negative stiffness. By adopting the stiffness tuning, the initially stiff structure guarantees the stability of the fabrication and the reduced stiffness only along the sensing direction produces the improved resolution. In particular, one of the improved structure of this accelerometer is a branched comb-finger that senses the relative position between the mass and the electrode itself. Maintaining the same capacitance variation, it is able to achieve a larger initial gap between the mass and the electrode which fences the clash problem. The accelerometer has an active size of 650/spl times/530 /spl mu/m/sup 2/, a thickness of polysilicon structure of 7 /spl mu/m, and a proof mass of about 1 /spl mu/g. Experimental results shows that the equivalent noise level of the accelerometer is improved by 30 dB through the stiffness tuning. The accelerometer has a bandwidth of 350 Hz, a linearity of 0.3% FS, and a sensing range of 50 g.

This paper presents an algorithm for planning the motions of a sensor and a manipulator that are kinematically connected. Humanoid robots or other service robots have a vision system and one or two arms, and they are usually mounted on a single body. Given a task to be performed, the robot needs to plan a short, collision-free motion for the arm while placing the camera for optimal viewing conditions so the task progress can be monitored. Since they are kinematically connected, motion of the camera affects the motion of the arm, or the arm may block the view of the camera. Our algorithm plans the body posture, camera motion and the manipulator motion that allows occlusion-free viewing of a target point and placement of the hand at a target hand location. It uses robot's kinematic redundancy to avoid collisions and occlusion of the view point. Since the ensemble of the camera actuator and the manipulator has many joints, the search is performed in the world space rather than in the high-dimensional joint space. The global nature of our search algorithm enables finding a solution in most practical cases.

Contrary to telephony networks where point-to-point voice traffic is prevalent, a future B-ISDN is expected to support increasing multicast and broadcast applications. For the successful deployment of the B-ISDN, a customer access network must have flexible multicast and broadcast capabilities in addition to a high speed data transfer capability. The paper proposes flexible multicast and broadcast mechanisms for B-NT (broadband network terminator) which will be used as a broadband customer access network. After briefly describing the dual ring based architecture of B-NT, the authors present novel multicast and broadcast schemes of B-NT which can utilize the bandwidth of a ring efficiently. Using an analytic model developed for the evaluation of B-NT, they investigate the performance of B-NT with an asymmetric traffic pattern as well as with a symmetric traffic pattern. The performance results indicate that the multicast schemes can significantly increase the throughput of the ring-based customer access network.

Background Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a major cause of mortality in connective tissue disease (CTD). Objectives The survival rates and mortality-predictive factors of a nationwide registry of Korean patients with CTD-PAH were determined. Methods Patients with CTD-PAH were enrolled between April 2008 and December 2012. Hemodynamic parameters and clinical data (WHO-functional class [FC], organ involvement, laboratory tests, and treatment agents) were recorded. Survival rates were calculated by using the Kaplan–Meier method. Mortality-associated factors were examined by Cox proportional hazards regression analysis. Results In total, 174 incident PAH cases (61 with systemic lupus erythematosus, 50 with systemic sclerosis, 10 with mixed CTD, 22 with rheumatoid arthritis [RA], and 31 with other CTDs) were diagnosed by right heart catheterisation or Doppler echocardiography. Of these, 25 (14%) died during the 3.8±2.7 year follow-up period after PAH diagnosis. The 1 and 3 year survival rates were 90.7% and 87.3%, respectively. Compared to the other CTD-PAHs, RA-PAH had the lowest survival rates (56% 3 year survival; p =0.022). Multiple regression analysis revealed that low DLCO, pleural effusion, and diabetes mellitus were poor prognostic factors ( p =0.008, 0.04, and 0.009, respectively). Anti-UI-RNP antibody positivity was protective ( p =0.022). In patients with WHO-FC III/IV, patients who received vasodilators had lower mortality than those who did not ( p =0.038). Conclusions In Korean patients with CTD-PAH, the 3 year survival rate was 87%. Low DLCO, pleural effusion, and DM were independent poor prognostic factors. Anti-UI-RNP antibody was protective. Prompt PAH-specific vasodilator therapy may improve the survival of patients with severe CTD-PAH. Disclosure of Interest None declared DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.1271

This paper describes the cumulative deposition of fallout Pu in soil and lichen at the present time and gives the characteristics of fallout Pu deposits in the soil. In the forest soil the accumulated depositions of 239,240Pu were estimated to be in the range of 34.0 to 101.2 Bq m-2 with an average value of 65.3 ± 21.6 Bq m-2. The average inventory of 239,240Pu in the forest was calculated to be twice that in the hills. Also, the deposited activities of 239,240Pu in cultivated soft were significantly lower than those in the hills or forest. However, the cumulative depositions of fallout Pu in the volcanic ash soft on Cheju Island were much higher than those in the forest and hill softs. The measured activity concentrations of Pu isotopes in lichens and mosses showed large variations due to characteristics of the species and the life-span of lichen and moss colonies. From depth profiles, it was found that most of the fallout Pu has been accumulated in the upper 10 cm layer of soft. Except for a few cases, the concentration of 239,240Pu in soft tended to decrease exponentially with increasing soil depth. Among parameters affecting the cumulative deposition of fallout Pu, organic substances and rainfall play an important role in the retention and relative mobility of fallout Pu in the soft. However, pH showed a weak correlation with the deposition of fallout Pu in the soil. From sequential leaching experiments, 239,240Pu was found to be associated predominantly with the “organic” and “oxy-hydroxy” fractions. Both the activity ratios of 238Pu/239,240Pu and 241Pu/239,240Pu in softs, lichens and mosses and the atomic ratios of 240Pu/239Pu in softs are close to those observed in the cumulative deposits of global fallout from nuclear weapons testings.

SummaryInflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is characterized by a chronic relapsing intestinal inflammation, typically starting in early adulthood. IBD is subdivided into two subtypes, on the basis of clinical and histologic features: Crohn disease and ulcerative colitis (UC). Previous genomewide searches identified regions harboring susceptibility loci on chromosomes 1, 3, 4, 7, 12, and 16. To expand our understanding of the genetic risk profile, we performed a 9-cM genomewide search for susceptibility loci in 268 families containing 353 affected sibling pairs. Previous linkages on chromosomes 12 and 16 were replicated, and the chromosome 4 linkage was extended in this sample. New suggestive evidence for autosomal linkages was observed on chromosomes 1, 6, 10, and 22, with LOD scores of 2.08, 2.07, 2.30, and 1.52, respectively. A maximum LOD score of 1.76 was observed on the X chromosome, for UC, which is consistent with the clinical association of IBD with Ullrich-Turner syndrome. The linkage finding on chromosome 6p is of interest, given the possible contribution of human leukocyte antigen and tumor necrosis–factor genes in IBD. This genomewide linkage scan, done with a large family cohort, has confirmed three previous IBD linkages and has provided evidence for five additional regions that may harbor IBD predisposition genes.

Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) of unknown aetiology which are characterised by chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. Epidemiological studies suggest the presence of a genetic component in the aetiology of both CD and UC. A susceptibility gene for Crohn's disease has recently been mapped to the pericentromeric region of chromosome 16 (IBD1), and this finding has been replicated in two subsequent studies. Although CD and UC are distinct clinical entities, the fact that both disorders occur in a significant proportion of families with multiple cases of IBD suggests that overlapping sets of susceptibility genes may be involved. We have addressed this question for IBD1 by typing eight microsatellite markers from the locus in 70 kindreds affected with either UC only or with both UC and CD and analysing the data for linkage by both non-parametric and parametric methods. Evidence for linkage was detected in families affected with only UC, with a mean proportion of 0.70 affected sib pairs sharing alleles identical by descent at D16S3136 (p=0.01), and a peak non-parametric linkage score of 2.02 at D16S3120 with the GENEHUNTER program (p=0.02). The estimated sib relative risk attributable to IBD1 in these families was 1.46. Surprisingly, no evidence of linkage was detected in the families affected with both UC and CD (p>0.2). The data suggest that IBD1 may also contribute to susceptibility to ulcerative colitis, and that it is likely to be located in the 12 cM interval between D16S419 and D16S409.

The roles of oxygen in selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of nitric oxide with propane were studied for Co/ZSM-5 catalysts with different cobalt loadings. The catalytic activities in the NO+C 3 H 8 +O 2 , NO+O 2 , and C 3 H 8 +O 2 reactions were compared in conjunction with catalyst characterization by TPD of NO and TPR. The data obtained reveals multiple roles of oxygen that depend on the structure of the catalyst. It was found that for the catalysts containing cobalt oxide species NO 2 formation plays important role in the SCR of NO. The catalysts that contain only isolated Co 2+ ions were found to be inactive in NO 2 formation. Nevertheless, these catalysts also exhibit relatively high NO x conversion albeit at higher temperature, and their SCR activity was found to be strongly promoted by oxygen. TPD of NO adsorbed on the catalyst precovered with oxygen indicates that oxygen preadsorption decreases the strength of NO adsorption, thus improving the activity.

Background In humans, NSAIDs appear to slow bone loss in periodontal disease by inhibiting synthesis of prostaglandins, known stimulators of osteoclastic resorption. This suggest a possible clinical application for NSAIDs in prevention of bone loss Objectives To investigate the bisphosphonate effects on bone mineral density and T-score in NSAIDs used Patients, compared to COX-2 inhibitor used group Methods Between January 2005 and September 2011, 319 women and 104 men were enrolled who were osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis(taken below prednisolone 5mg) with osteoporosis, treated with NSAIDs or COX-2 inhibitors. The subjects were taken bisphosphonate and bone mineral density was measured by Dual-emission absorptiometry every one year. We observed the difference of bone mineral density, T-Score in NSAIDs and COX-2 used groups, spacing 2 years Results The efficacy of bisphosphonate on bone mineral density and T-Score was better in NSAIDs group than COX-2 inhibitors group (P Conclusions In our single center study, we observed the combination bisphosphonate with NSAIDs was better response in osteoporosis treatment than COX-2 inhibitors. Further multicenter studies are needed to confirm our results References Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, Volume 13, Number 12, 1998 Osteoporos Int (2006) 17:1410–1419 Disclosure of Interest None Declared

Background Methotrexate (MTX) was the corner stone treatment of rheumatoid arhtirits. So for long time, MTX was used in rheumatoid arhtirits treatment with other Immunosuppressive drug. There were many hypothesis in mechanism of MTX on RA treatments, but accurate mechanism of MTX was not known Objectives To investigate the apoptotic mechanism of MTX in synoviocyte of rhuematoid arhtirits Methods Synovial cells were cultured from synovial fluid of Rhuematoid arhtirits (RA) patients and Osteoarhtirtis (OA) patients. In each group, the subculture was conducted for 5-6 passages and synovioctes was treated with 300μM 500μM MTX directly. In 400μM The cell viability was observed and apoptosis of synoviocyte was measured by flow cytometry Results MTX treated synovial cell death was higher RA than OA in 300μM 500μM MTX, In 400μM MTX, high Sub-G1 pick was observed and continued to 24 hours in RA synoviocytes Conclusions Apoptosis was the one of MTX mechasnism in RA treatment and RA synoviocytes apoptosis may be one of tool for RA treatment in the future References Determinants of Red Blood Cell Methotrexate Polyglutamate Concentrations in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Receiving Long-Term Methotrexate Treatment Lisa K. Stamp, John L. O’Donnell, Peter T. Chapman, Mei Zhang, Christopher Frampton, Jill James, Murray L. Barclay. Arthritis & Rheumatism Vol. 60, No. 8, August 2009, pp 2248–2256. Disclosure of Interest None Declared

Background Systemic sclerosis (SSc) may lead to pulmonary artery hypertension. Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), a marker of cardiac failure, is a diagnostic marker of early pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in patients with SSc. Obesity promotes a relative BNP deficiency because insulin resistance is associated with lower BNP level. So our aim was to analyzed affection of the body mass index (BMI) in level of BNP in screening for PAH in SSc Objectives To analyzed affection of BMI in level of BNP in screening for PAH in SSc Methods Between January 2010 and september 2011, outpatients referred to our unit and satisfying LeRoy criteria for SSc were assessed for PAH. Doppler echocardiography, BNP measurement, and BMI measurement were done concomitantly for a complete clinical, instrumental, and biochemical evaluation. Right-heart catheterization was carried out in cases of PAH Results Twenty-nine patients were enrolled (23 women, 6 men; 4 limited SSc, 25 diffuse SSc); precapillary PAH was found in 2 patients (0 limited SSc, 2 diffuse SSc). All subjects were divided into three group: Group A, BMI 30 (n=1). Group A: increased with BNP. while BNP decreased in group C. The estimated PAP correlated with BNP (R =0.3; 95% CI 0.14–0.44) but not with BMI (R =0.7, 95% CI 0.14–1.45). BNP (p=0.032) and creatinine (p=0.049) were independent predictors of PAH, while BMI was not (p=0.50). Conclusions In our single-center study, Low BMI was correlation with high BNP in SSC. So BMI affected the level of BNP in PAH of SSC. References Prevalence of Exercise Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension in Scleroderma. Jose Luis Callejas-Rubio, Eduardo Moreno-Escobar, Pilar Martin de la Fuente, Lourdes Lόpez Perez, Raquel Rios Fernandez, Daniel Sanchez-Cano, Jose Pomares Mora, Norberto Ortego-Centeno, July 15 2008; J Rheumatol 2008;35:1812–6. Disclosure of Interest None Declared

Background NK cellare approximately 10–15% of circulating lymphocytes and 5% of lymphocytes in lymphoid tissue and a subset of NK cells has been detected in the synovial fluid (SF) from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients recently. The best characterised NK cell activating receptor is NKG2D, is expressed on all human NK cells and the ligands for NKG2D are not expressed on normal, healthy tissue, but are in induced under conditions of cellular stress such as inflammation and malignant transformation Objectives To investigated expression of NKG2D ligands in synovial cell of rhuematoid arhtirits Methods Synovial cell was cultured from SF of RA patients. The subculture was conducted for 5-6 passages and the PCR was done for detection of NKG2D ligands. To evaluated NKG2D ligands in inflammatory RA synoviocytes, TNF-α were treated Results Five NKG2D ligands (MICA, MICB, ULPB1, ULBP2, ULBP3) were expressed in both RA synoviocytes and inflammatory RA synoviocytes Conclusions RA synoviocytes had NKG2D ligands, so NKG2D receptors in NK cell were associated with pathogenesis of RA. The blocking of NKG2D ligands was the one of method in RA treatment References Emerging role for NK cells in the pathogenesis of inflammatory arthropathies, Paola Conigliaro, Rossana Scrivo, Guido Valesini, Roberto Perricone. Autoimmunity Reviews 10 (2011) 577–581 Disclosure of Interest None Declared

Purpose/Objective(s): PCI is associated with a survival advantage in both limited (LD) and extensive disease (ED) SCLC. This retrospective population-based study aims to determine the percentage of patients developing cranial metastasis (CM) following PCI, the median time from diagnosis to CM and the median survival post CM. Treatment patterns will be examined to establish guidelines for the treatment of post PCI CM.