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With the increase in the number of Personal Computers in offices and factories, a demand has been created to connect these independent units in a network and to share not only data but also expensive peripheral equipments.On the other hand, local area network technology has become an active area of research and development during the last few years.

We investigate the correspondence between operator monotone functions and Stieltjes functions. Then we shall prove that the class of nonnegative operator monotone functions is closed under certain operations, and applying those we decide the case when some binary operations become operator means.

As part of the population study in Hisayama, frequency and type of renal disease was studied. The materials consisted of 270 autopsy cases, 81.2% of total deaths occurring during the period of 10 yr from 1961 to 1971 among 1621 subjects, covering approximately 90% of the total population aged 40 and over at entry. According to standardized criteria for the estimation of renal vascular changes, nephrosclerosis was observed with the highest frequency (34.1%), followed by interstitial nephritis (4.8%), renal infarcts (4.4%) and diabetic nephrosclerosis (3.7%) of total autopsy cases. No case was found to have glomerulonephritis or malignant nephrosclerosis. Death is directly attributed to renal disease in 2.2% of the cases. Glomerular scarring became prominent with increasing age accompanying a reduction in kidney weight, and was more marked in hypertensive than normotensive subjects at each decade of age. Arteriolar nephrosclerosis developed with high frequency (70.5%) in diastolic hypertensive persons aged below 70 and 50.0% in those aged over 70. Arterial nephrosclerosis was in general less frequently found than arteriolar nephrosclerosis except for the cases aged over 70. In 35 autopsies with diabetes mellitus, diabetic glomerular lesions (nodular or diffuse form) were frequently found (28.6%), although most of them had only slight abnormality in glucose tolerance test. Glomerular scarring and arteriolar hyalinization, however, were almost uniformly found in diabetic kidneys.

Fibrin glue was clinically applied to the excised wound in 10 extensively burned patients, and its haemostatic and fixation effects on the isolated skin transplants were investigated. The following advantages resulted from the application of the fibrin glue: The haemostatic procedures and fixation of the isolated skin transplants were simplified. The quick and efficient haemostatic procedures considerably reduced the blood transfusion volume during and after the surgical procedures, by achieving a notable reduction in blood loss. Based on the above merits, the operation time was reduced and, eventually, the surgical stress might be alleviated. Satisfactory haemostatic effects were attained particularly in the limbs without supplemental haemostatic aids, leading us to conclude that the application of fibrin glue to the excised wound in burns is very useful.

Intravenous administration of bromoethylamine hydrobromide (BEA) has been shown to induce papillary necrosis of the kidney. We used this model to clarify the role of the medullary structure in acid-base homeostasis. BEA (25 mg) or vehicle was injected to male Sprague-Dawley rats. Blood specimens and 24 hr urine were collected once a week totaling 4 weeks. Blood bicarbonate significantly decreased in BEA treated rats with no change in plasma creatinine or creatinine clearance at 3 and 4 weeks, we noted that these parameters did not change in control rats. Administration of 1 M NH4Cl solution (1 ml/100 g) into the peritoneal space resulted in a significant reduction in urine pH by 0.41 +/- 0.05 in control rats, whereas it did not induce any change in BEA treated rats. Ammonia excretion rates were significantly lower in BEA treated rats than in control rats. Histological examination showed that in BEA treated rats there was necrosis of epithelial cells of papillary collecting ducts at 1 week. Observation showed they recovered at 4 weeks with only mild interstitial edema and slight dilatation of collecting ducts. The present results suggested that tissue damages in the papillary structure caused metabolic acidosis due to a decreased renal acidification.

The growth and source-depletion characteristics of ZnTe were investigated by the horizontal open-tube method using H2 carrier gas. The system consists of vapor-etching, supersaturation gas (preferential growth), nucleation and reactor-wall deposition regions from the source-zone downstream. The preferential growth region widens owing to the decrease in the nucleation temperature along with the decrease in the temperature gradient near the source-zone or the flow rate. This region gives smooth, flat epi-layers and can be described by a quasi-equilibrium model. On the other hand, the reactor-wall deposition characteristics can be expressed by a complete equilibrium model if a substrate is set at a position far enough from the critical-nucleation position. Thermodynamic analysis of the laminar and diffusion flows gives good agreement with the experimental results.

The vapor-phase epitaxy of ZnTe was carried out in H2, Ar and I2 gas ambients by the horizontal open-tube method. The depletion rate of the ZnTe source and the growth rate on (110), (111)A and (111)B ZnTe substrates are described here as functions of the carrier gas flow rates, and the molar ratios of I2 to H2 and of Ar to H2. The values of the depletion rate and the growth rate decreased in the following order: ZnTe–H2–I2≃ZnTe–H2>ZnTe–Ar and ZnTe–H2–I2\gtrsimZnTe–H2>ZnTe–Ar system, e.g., the depletion rates were 3.0, 3.0 and 2.4 mg/min, and the growth rates were 0.30, 0.24 and 0.18 µm/min respectively, when the source temperature was kept at 923°C, the substrate temperature at 862°C and the carrier flow rate at 100 ml/min. The surface pattern of the epitaxial layer was strongly influenced by the growth temperature and the surface orientation.

Introduction Osteoarthritis (OA) is a whole joint disease, and characterized by progressive degradation of articular cartilage, synovial hyperplasia, bone remodeling and angiogenesis in various joint tissues. Exosomes are a type of microvesicles (MVs) that may play a role in tissue-tissue and cell-cell communication in homeostasis and diseases. We hypothesized that exosomes function in a novel regulatory network that contributes to OA pathogenesis and examined the function of exosomes in communication among joint tissue cells. Methods Human synovial fibroblasts (SFB) and articular chondrocytes were obtained from normal knee joints. Exosomes isolated from conditioned medium of SFB were analyzed for size, numbers, markers and function. Normal articular chondrocytes were treated with exosomes from SFB, and Interleukin-1β (IL-1β) stimulated SFB. OA-related genes expression was quantified using real-time PCR. To analyze exosome effects on cartilage tissue, we performed glycosaminoglycan release assay. Angiogenic activity of these exosomes was tested in migration and tube formation assays. Cytokines and miRNAs in exosomes were analyzed by Bio-Plex multiplex assay and NanoString analysis. Results Exosomes from IL-1β stimulated SFB significantly up-regulated MMP-13 and ADAMTS-5 expression in articular chondrocytes, and down-regulated COL2A1 and ACAN compared with SFB derived exosomes. Migration and tube formation activity were significantly higher in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) treated with the exosomes from IL-1β stimulated SFB, which also induced significantly more proteoglycan release from cartilage explants. Inflammatory cytokines, IL-6, MMP-3 and VEGF in exosomes were only detectable at low level. IL-1β, TNFα MMP-9 and MMP-13 were not detectable in exosomes. NanoString analysis showed that levels of 50 miRNAs were differentially expressed in exosomes from IL-1β stimulated SFB compared to non-stimulated SFB. Conclusions Exosomes from IL-1β stimulated SFB induce OA-like changes both in vitro and in ex vivo models. Exosomes represent a novel mechanism by which pathogenic signals are communicated among different cell types in OA-affected joints.