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A total of 2,750 strains of beta-hemolytic streptococci was isolated from 10, 510 throat swabs collected from school children in the Taipei area. Most of them were classified as group A (61%) and group G (34%), and about 5% belonged to other groups or unclassified strains. 1, 772 strains of beta-hemolytic streptococci isolated from healthy school children, and 69 strains from sick school children were grouped by the Lancefield precipitin test, fluorescent antibody technique and/or bacitracin paper disk method. A satisfactory correlation (over 90%) was obtained by the latter 2 methods, when compared with the results of the Lancefield technique. The occurrance of false negative or false positive was only 1 or 5%, respectively.

A cellulose-decomposing bacterium has been isolated from soil and identified as a member of the genus Cellulomonas. Rice straw which was delignified with 1% (w/w) sodium hydroxide, then treated with 60% (v/v) phosphoric acid to increase the swelling capacity, could be used effectively by cellulase of Cellulomonas. The effects of other conditions such as pH, nitrogen source, substrate concentration and incubation time on the production of filter paper and endoglucanase activity were studied. Maximum production of endoglucanase and filter paper activity occurred at 28 degrees C in 7 days, in the presence of 1% treated rice straw as substrate at an initial pH of 3.0 when NaNO3 was used as source of nitrogen. Under these conditions, cellulolytic activity of culture filtrates appears to be very close to that for Trichoderma reesei grown in the same substrate.

The Ancient Chinese initial ɤ -... occurs only before the finals of divisions I, II, and IV, while the initials g-...and j-... both only occur before division III finals. Theoretically speaking, the initials ɤ - and g- or j- are in complementary distribution. It is equally reasonable to reconstruct ɤ - with either g- or j- as one phoneme in Archaic Chinese. In 1971, Dr. Li Fang Kuei discovered that Anc. j- mostly occurred before ho-k'ou finals while g- occurred before k'ai-k'ou finals. He relegated Ancientɤ -, g- and j- to one Archaic phoneme *g-, and set up the following rules of change: Arch. *g + -j- finals > Anc. gj-... Arch. *g + non -j- finals > Anc. ɤ -... Arch. *gw + -j- finals > Anc. jw-... Arch. *gw + j + i > Anc. gjw-... Arch. *gw + non -j- finals > Anc. ɤ w-... For reasons stated elsewhere, I (Ting 1977-78) revised the rules as follows: *g +j > gj-... (...) *gw +j > gju-... (...) *ɤ +j> j-... (... ) *ɤw +j > ju-... (...) *ɤ + non-j finals > ɤ -...- (...) *ɤ w + non-j finals > ɤ u- ... (... ) One problem with this scheme would be why the common initials g- and gw- only occur before -j- finals. In the present paper I will present evidence from the Min dialects to support this proposal. There is a group of Ancient ɤ -words pronounced with initial k- which co-occur with tones in the Yang category in Colloquial Min. (Cf. p.3). This group differs from the other initial k- words which have tones in Yin category. It is natural to reconstruct voiced initials *g and *gw for this group in Colloquial Min as well as in Archaic Chinese. This reconstruction would make Archaic Chinese *g and *gw become well distributed phonemes. Therefore, the following two rules may be added to those I proposed before: *g + non-j finals >ɤ - (...) *gw + non-j finals >ɤ u- (...) I have checked the Hsieh-sheng relations of these *g- and *gw- words, and discovered nothing special. (Cf. p.4). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social economic transitions during the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties helped to increase the activities of secret societies or underground organizations of the lower classes. With regard to the diversities of their living environments, patterns of organizations, and leading doctrines, these societies can be divided into secret religions and secret sects. The Red Gang has long been believed to be one of the secret sects in southern China, a by-name of the Tien-ti Sect, and the orthodox of Ko-lao Sect. Nevertheless, the extant files of the Ch'ing dynasty show that the Red Gang was a secret gect developing from the Lo Sect, a secret religion in northern China. Most of the dockers working on the barges transporting grain among the provinces crossed by the Great Canal were converted to Lo Sect. The Grain-Barge Gang was the predecessor of the Red Gang, which was named as "Gang" after the former. Localism of the dockers who came from different places as well as incompatibility among those who were converted at different times resulted in conflicts between the old gang and the new gang which sometimes led to catastrophic fighting with arms. This paper consists of six sections. The introduction briefly surveys the extant files of the Ch'ing dynasty, touching the history of the Red Gang. The following sections are discussions on different legends of the Red Gang's origin, the relationship between the Red Gang and Lo Sect, the formation of the Red Gang, and regulations of the Ch'ing government made to guard against the dockers. No anti-Manchurian ideology is emphasized in this study because the Red Gang was nothing more than a fighting group of the dockers who believed in Lo Sect. The leader of the gang passed his orders with red chopsticks in the assembly during which all the members stood together. For the sake of identification, their waists were tied with red bands and their faces painted red. As the emblem of this gang, red also gave it its name. A knowledge of the origin and development of the Red Gang would help reestablish the authentic history of secret societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to compare the clinical efficacy of 4 types China made IUDs, this paper reported the study of a total of 1227 cases who, from January 1973 to June 1975, had used 1 of the 4 types of IUDs -- the stainless steel ring, metallic plastic mixed ring, metallic and silastic copper-shaped devices. The study was not a random allocation but was done, 1 type by 1, during the period. Life table method and logrank test were used to calculate and analyze the different events among these 4 types. 1147 cases were followed up for more than 5 years. The 5-year followup rate was 93.48%. Patients using these 4 types were comparable among themselves since the distribution of their age, gravida, para, and time of insertion were the same or quite similar. Study results were as follows: the cumulative pregnancy rates of the 2 copper V-shaped IUDs were significantly lower than that of the steel and mixed ring (p0.01); the cumulative expulsion rate of the steel ring was comparatively high, but there was no statistical difference compared with the others; bleeding was the main cause of medical removals; there was a higher cumulative medical removal rate of the V-shaped than that of the ring-shaped and also a significant difference between them (p0.01). However, at every year, the year-cumulative continuation rates were similar despite the difference of the events of discontinuation rates. The fact that 51.72-62.29% of the subjects continued to wear these IUDs indicated that the efficacy of the 4 types of IUDs was satisfactory even after a 5-year course.

The decline in mortality in Taiwan since World War II is analyzed using life tables. "Special features of the research include (1) a phase-of-life-specific, rather than an age-specific, analysis of mortality, and (2) the use of measures based upon person-years of life in phase intervals, rather than survival rates or expectation of life at given ages. The empirical results suggest that the mortality decline can be described as a two-stage process: an initial stage of substantial improvement in life expectancy between 1950 and 1965, and a final stage of slow gain in life expectancy since 1965." Age and sex variations in mortality and differing rates of mortality decline are noted. Implications of increased longevity for economic and social programs are also considered. (summary in ENG), (excerpt)