Abstract: This disclosure relates to the general diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune diseases with materials identified in assays based upon the finding herein that such diseases manifest by elevated numbers of type l K.sup.+ channels in abnormal CD4.sup.- CD8.sup.- T cells.

Abstract: X-ray dispersive elements comprise a stacked array of layer pairs of boron nitride and either nickel, tungsten, chromium, vanadium, iron, manganese, cobalt and combinations thereof. The boron nitride is preferably deposited through a planar magnetron sputtering process.

Abstract: An energy apparatus for supplying breathable gas in an aircraft has a source of pressurized breathable gas and a feed pipe for feeding gas to the feed regulators of individual emergency equipments. The apparatus includes a test system for checking proper operation without consuming pressurized gas. The system includes an atmospheric air compressor having its outlet in communication with the feed pipe via a two-positioned selector constituted so that at rest it connects the source (generally oxygen under pressure) to the pipe and separates the pipe from the compressor, and when in a position to which it is brought on receiving compressed gas from the compressor, it separates the pipe from the supply.

Abstract: A method for determining the pattern of nonrandom codon pair usage of an organism, comprising the steps of obtaining nucleotide sequence data for the organism, determining from the data the number of codons represented in at least a portion of the sequence and the frequency of usage of at least some codons in the portion, determining from the frequency the expected number of occurrences of at least some codon pairs, if they are paired in a random manner, and comparing the expected number with the actual number of occurrences to determine relative codon pairing preferences. The codon pairings of organisms are highly nonrandom, and differ from organism to organism. This information is used to construct and express altered or synthetic genes having desired levels of translational efficiency, to determine which regions in a genome are protein coding regions, to introduce translational pause sites into heterologous genes, and to ascertain relationship or ancestral origin of nucleotide sequences.