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The MSX standard and its acceptance in the United States are compared. It promotes software compatibility and protection. It is more costly for software since it is cartridge-oriented. It will produce some stability in the low-end computer market. Its graphics, while superior, will be difficult to learn.

Presents several letters to the editor on various topics. Comments given by a reader on the article "Remember the Alimony"; Opinions of a reader on target pistols and the problems including killings made mistakenly because of the pistols; Views of a reader on the article "Blowing Away the Ceiling Fan Myths."

• During a six-year period ending December 1979, a retrospective study of 252 carotid endarterectomies in 211 patients was undertaken to review morbidity and mortality, and factors related to them. For purposes of the study, patients were categorized into asymptomatic and symptomatic groups. Indications for operation were internal carotid artery stenosis that occluded 50% or more of the vessel, an ulcerated plaque proved by angiography, or both. There were no postoperative deaths or neurological complications in the asymptomatic group. In the symptomatic group, there was an overall postoperative mortality of 2% and a stroke rate of 2%. All postoperative CNS deaths and strokes occurred in patients in whom there was difficulty in controlling blood pressure postoperatively. We conclude that with regard to carotid endarterectomy for treatment of extracranial occlusive disease (1) there is an acceptable morbidity and mortality in the symptomatic patient, (2) in the asymptomatic patient the procedure is associated with minimal complications, and (3) strict control of blood pressure in the immediate postoperative period is a critical factor in preventing neurological morbidity and mortality.(Arch Surg 1981;116:409-412)

A survey of senior marketing executives found 15 issues of broad importance to business that must be better understood. The use of market information, brand equity management, becoming market-driven, new product development, and service quality management rank among the top concerns for the 1990s. Addressing social issues, understanding distribution channels, building service relationships with customers, and more complete knowledge of pricing and promotion dynamics also rate high as major priorities. Complex, messy, and always changing, many of those imperatives transcend the traditional boundaries of marketing and require concurrent attention from other functions of a company, such as production, R&D, and finance. INSET: Selecting topics and setting priorities.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It seems time to draw to the attention of medical men a subject which has been discussed usually by ophthalmologists, and often too only in relatively inaccessible society transactions. We have been able to find only twenty-six cases reported so far.REPORT OF A TWENTY-SEVENTH CASEMrs. R. was 50 years and 9 months old when the onset of diabetes was announced by blurred vision; this, with subsequent urinary incontinence, caused examination and diagnosis a month later. Almost exactly a year afterward, she came under Dr. Joslin's care. The twenty-four-hour urine then contained 85 gm. of sugar, and diacetic acid was + + +; the alveolar carbon dioxid was 31 mm.; the blood before breakfast showed creamy plasma, with 5.12 per cent, fat (Bloor) and sugar 0.31 per cent.; the net weight was 30 kg., 46 per cent, below her maximum of 113 pounds (51 kg.) three months before the onset of symptoms.

CONSTANCY OF AN ADULT'S BODY WEIGHT Body weight during adult life is constant to a noteworthy degree, notwithstanding the fluctuations which occur during physical exercise and the variations in the diet.1 As yet few people follow the regimen of the person who has been treated for diabetes, who weighs or tries to estimate carefully the portions of food taken, even though the country does show signs of becoming calorie conscious. Man normally eats what he wants, and as much as he wants if he can get it. Nevertheless, it is more than common to hear such expressions as, "I have hardly gained or lost a pound in the last fifteen years," or, what is slightly more an exact self-observation, "I have gained only a little and that very slowly." This fair constancy of the individual is in contrast with the wide variations in weight shown by the different men and

Diabetes is well known to exert an important influence on the central nervous system. Kraus1 recently summarized the more common neurologic lesions, and the psychoses occasionally associated with diabetes have been the subject of numerous studies.The diabetic patient, on his own part, complains of loss of memory and of poor ability to concentrate the attention. So far as we are aware, there are no objective data which either substantiate or contradict this clinical picture in reference to attention and memory. We have undertaken to gain some light as to the extent of the impairment if such exists, comparing diabetic patients as a group with controls who are of about the same mental status. METHOD At the New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston, Dr. E. P. Joslin has for some years conducted twice a week a patients' class in diabetic hygiene. We took advantage of meetings of this class which