Adults of three age groups (18–27, 39–45, and 59–66 years) performed an auditory duration discrimination task with short (200 ms) or long (400 ms) sinusoidal tones. Performance was highly accurate and reaction times were on the same level in all groups, indicating no differences in auditory duration processing. Task irrelevant rare changes of the frequency of the stimuli were introduced to check whether the subjects, firstly, were distracted by changes in the environment while focusing on the task relevant information (indicated by prolonged responses), and, secondly, could re-focus on the relevant task after distraction. The results show that a distraction effect is present in all groups. Importantly, the 59–66 years group showed a behavioral distraction effect nearly twice as high as the other groups. The event-related brain potentials (ERPs) show mismatch negativity (MMN), P3a, and reorienting negativity (RON) elicited by deviants which are present in all groups. Aging effects on these ERP components were observable in all three components but a revealed a weak significant effect for the MMN only. Taken together, the behavioral and ERP results suggest that the function of balancing the processing of task irrelevant changes in the stimulation while focusing on task relevant information is effective during adulthood until the 7th decade of life.

Organs from donors after cardiac death (DCD) are being increasingly utilized. Prior reports of DCD kidney transplantation involve the use of prednisone-based immunosuppression. We report our experience with early corticosteroid withdrawal (ECSW). Data on 63 DCD kidney transplants performed between 2002 and 2007 were analyzed. We compared outcomes in 28 recipients maintained on long-term corticosteroids (LTCSs) with 35 recipients that underwent ECSW. DGF occurred in 49% of patients on ECSW and 46% on LTCS (p=0.8). There was no difference between groups for serum creatinine or estimated GFR between 1 and 36 months posttransplant. Acute rejection rates at 1 year were 11.4% and 21.4% for the ECSW and LTCS group (p=0.2). Graft survival at 1 and 3 years was 94% and 91% for the ECSW group versus 82% and 78% for the LTCS group (p>or=0.1). Death censored graft survival was significantly better at last follow-up for the ECSW group (p=0.02). Multivariate analysis revealed no correlation between the use of corticosteroids and survival outcomes. In conclusion, ECSW can be used successfully in DCD kidney transplantation with no worse outcomes in DGF, rejection, graft loss or the combined outcome of death and graft loss compared to patients receiving LTCS.

The use of living donors for kidney transplantation in the United States is common, and long-term studies have demonstrated the safety of donation by young, healthy individuals. However, transplant programs have little data to guide them in deciding which donors are unacceptable, and which characteristics are associated with kidney disease or poor psychosocial outcomes after donation. To document current practices in evaluating potential donors, we surveyed all US kidney transplant programs. Compared to a survey 12 years ago, medical criteria for donation are more inclusive in several areas. All responding programs now accept living unrelated donors. Most programs no longer have an upper age limit to be eligible. Programs are now more likely to accept donors with treated hypertension, or a history of kidney stones, provided that certain additional criteria are met. In contrast, medical criteria for donation are more restrictive in other areas, such as younger donor age and low creatinine clearance. Overall, significant variability remains among transplant programs in the criteria used to evaluate donors. These findings highlight the need for more data on long-term outcomes in various types of donors with potential morbidities related to donation.

PNF following liver transplantation (LT) is an infrequent but life-threatening complication. Liver allocation under MELD is based upon recipient severity of illness, a known risk factor for the occurrence of PNF. The incidence of PNF since the application of MELD has not previously been reported. The SRTR database was studied since inception of MELD until September 2004 for all adult recipients of deceased donor LT. PNF was defined as graft loss or death within 14 days of LT secondary to PNF or without defined cause. A total of 10545 transplants met inclusion criteria and PNF occurred in 613 (5.81%) of recipients. Univariate analysis demonstrated donor age, serum creatinine >1.5 mg/mL, hypertension and CVA as risk factors for PNF. Recipient factors included life support, mechanical ventilation, use of inotropes, hemodialysis, initial status 1 and use of a shared transplant. In the multivariate model only donor age and recipient serum creatinine, bilirubin, on life support and status 1 at transplant were significant risk factors for PNF. In this analysis of PNF in the MELD era the incidence of PNF does not appear to have increased from prior reports. Risk factors for PNF are related to donor age and severity of recipient illness.

We conducted a survey of 132 US kidney transplant programs to examine how they evaluate and select potential living kidney donors, focusing on donor-recipient relationships, psychosocial criteria, and consent processes. There is heterogeneity in donor-recipient relationships that are considered acceptable, although most programs (70%) will not consider publicly solicited donors. Most programs (75%) require a psychosocial evaluation for all potential living donors. Most programs agree that knowledge of financial reward (90%), active substance abuse (86%), and active mental health problems (76%) are absolute contraindications to donation. However, there is greater variability in how other psychosocial issues are considered in the selection process. Consent processes are highly variable across programs: donor and recipient consent for the donor evaluation is presumed in 57% and 76% of programs, respectively. The use of 13 different informed consent elements varied from 65% (alternative donation procedures) to 86% (description of evaluation, surgery and recuperative period) of programs. Forty-three percent use a 'cooling off' period. Findings demonstrate high variability in current practice regarding acceptable donor-recipient relationships, psychosocial criteria, and consent processes. Whether greater consensus should be reached on these donor evaluation practices, especially in the context of more expansive use of living donor kidney transplantation, is discussed.

Post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLD) are a life-threatening complication of immunosuppressive therapy. Retransplantation of survivors remains controversial. The Organ Procurement and Transplant Network/United Network for Organ Sharing database was reviewed for individuals who developed PTLD and underwent retransplant from 1987 through 2004. Sixty-nine retransplants have been performed: 27 kidney, 22 liver, 9 lung, 6 heart, 4 intestine and 1 pancreas. At first transplant, most subjects (63.8%) were <17 years of age and was similar at retransplant with 50.7% less than 17 years. Time from transplant to PTLD was <1 year in 33.3%, 1-3 years in 21.7%, 3-5 years in 21.7%, 5-10 years in 21.7% and >10 years in 1.4%. Time from PTLD to retransplant was <1 year in 24.6%, 1-3 years in 37.7%, 3-5 years in 17.4% and 5-10 years in 20.3%. Induction agents were used in 21.7% of first and 47.8% of retransplants. Immunosuppression for first transplant was cyclosporine (CSA) in 55.1%, tacrolimus (TAC) in 27.5% versus CSA in 26.1%, TAC in 66.7% of retransplants. At last follow-up, patient and graft survival are 85.5% and 73.9%, respectively. Most subjects retransplanted after PTLD are <17 years on TAC-based immunosuppression. Patient/graft survival is excellent and retransplantation in PTLD subjects should be considered acceptable.

BACKGROUND:The role of advanced age live donors remains controversial because of decline in glomerular filtration rate and perceived increased risks of perioperative complications.METHODS:A retrospective review of all live donor transplants performed from January 2000 to December 2003.RESULTS:Seventy-eight live donor transplants were performed during the period of review, 47 (60.3%) female and 31 (39.7%) male. Twenty-two (28.2%) of the donors were >50 yr old, 15 (68%) female and seven (32%) male. Living related donation was performed in 56 (74.4%) and unrelated in 20 (35.6%). Laparoscopic nephrectomy was performed in 29 (37.2%) and open nephrectomy in 49 (62.8%). More donors >50 underwent laparoscopic nephrectomy, 13 of 22 (59.1%) vs. 16 of 56 (28.6%). Overall patient and graft survival at 1 yr are 97 and 97%. One-year patient and graft survival is 100% vs. 96% and 100% vs. 96% in the older vs. young donors. Rejection occurred in nine of 78 (11.5%), but was not different between groups. Older donors had a reduced creatinine clearance 107.5 +/- 3.4 vs. 124.2 +/- 3.1 mL/min (p = 0.002) and a reduced clearance normalized for body surface area 60.6 +/- 3.6 mL/(min m2) vs. 70.2 +/- 2.6 mL/(min m2) (p = 0.045). Recipient serum creatinine was higher on postoperative day 1 in the older donor group 5.4 mg/dL vs. 4.4 mg/dL (p = 0.009). There was no difference in recipient serum creatinine at postoperative day 7, 30, 90, 180, 365 and 730. Donor serum creatinine was not different between groups on postoperative days 1, 7 and 30 but was higher in group 1 vs. group 2 on postoperative day 365, 1.26 +/- 0.26 mg/dL vs. 1.01 +/- 0.18 mg/dL (p = 0.020).CONCLUSIONS:Despite a reduced initial creatinine clearance, renal function is comparable in recipients of both young and old donor kidneys. Older donors had a slightly reduced serum creatinine 1 yr post-donation that warrants additional follow-up to determine if the observations continue. The introduction of laparoscopic nephrectomy may provide additional incentive for older donors to present for live donor nephrectomy.

This paper reviews the current status of laser fuse processing and discusses the challenges ahead. Various processing parameters are discussed including laser wavelengths, laser pulse duration and shaping, laser beam polarization, laser beam positioning accuracy, and thermal effect, and their impacts on fuse size limitation. We also examine the interrelationships among these parameters. Experiments and evaluations have been conducted, including the use of new laser sources and processing techniques, improved optical system, and beam positioning system. The results, together with several potential solutions for the next generation of laser memory repair system, are presented. Introduction Laser fuse processing has been widely used in semiconductor memory repair. DRAMs, and memories in general, are quite susceptible to process defects. Redundant elements are switched in to replace the defected elements by means of laser blown fuses, thus, enhancing the effective yield. Memory technology has progressed at a rapid pace since the invention of the one-transistor/one-capacitor DRAM cell in the late 1960s. In recent years, there has been a shift from a technology generation strategy (4 Mb/0.7 µm, 16 Mb/0.5 µm, etc.) to a shrink strategy (64 Mb/0.35 µm/0.25 µm/0.2 µm, etc.) with shorter development cycles. The fuse pitch for 0.14-µm node technology is 2.8 µm or less depending on the materials used. As the industry moves to 0.09-µm node technology and beyond, smaller fuse dimensions are expected. The fuse pitch will be less than what the current laser systems are capable of, which is 2 microns or less. This puts significant challenges to the equipment manufacturers. The capability of laser processing of finer pitch fuses has become the bottleneck to further miniaturization of redundant fuses and one of the major considerations in memory fuse design. We will first review the current status of laser processing of memory links. Solutions for effective processing of aluminum and copper links are developed and presented here. Finally, future direction for fine pitch memory link processing is discussed

Johnson, Scott R.1; Whiting, James F.1; Kelly, Beau1; Hanto, Douglas W.1 Author Information

Muon-spin rotation (mu SR) and torque magnetometry have been used to probe the anisotropy of an untwinned single crystal of YBa2Cu3O7-delta. The absence of twin planes allows the ratios of all three principal components of the superconducting effective mass tensor to be determined. The values for the in-plane anisotropy are in good agreement with values obtained by other techniques. The out-of-plane anisotropies as measured by mu SR are also found to be in good agreement with other microscopic measurements, but somewhat lower than those resulting from torque measurements on this and other crystals.

The originally published correlation coefficients between measured branching ratios are incorrect.

We propose to measure hadronic particle production with excellent particle identificationusing primary and secondary beams from the Main Injector. The goals of theexperiment are: to verify a general scaling law of hadronic fragmentation; to measureparticle production off NuMI targets using 120 GeV/c protons with sufficient accuracyto predict the NuMI neutrino spectrum; and to collect a comprehensive data set thatwould have a profound impact on related physics issues, such as...