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Public choice theory offers a conceptually important means of examining policy decisions and their social and economic consequences in the field of natural resources. Through a public choice analysis of France's ambitious program to nuclearize its electrical industry by the year 2000, I examine the origins, merits and deficiencies of French nuclear policy. Public choice theory's major assumptions – that a policy's costs and benefits are a function of resource abundance and level of development and that a resource's management is shaped by its character and availability – are largely valid. However, the need to reconcile competing social values and to distribute policy benefits fairly may be insufficiently accounted for by current public choice approaches, a fact exemplified by French experience with nuclear power.

Mice were injected with adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and the glomerular lesion that was induced was studied by light and immunofluorescence microscopy. By light microscopy, kidneys from ACTH-treated mice showed typical ACTH-induced glomerular lesions. Immunofluorescence of kidneys from ACTH-treated mice revealed intense staining for IgG and IgM in the extraglomerular mesangium (EGM), in Bowman's space, and in the ascending thick limb of Henle near the macula densa. Staining for immunoglobulins was unchanged after treatment with acid buffer. Immunoreactivity for complement (C3) was confined largely to the EGM and Bowman's space. Staining for albumin was almost exclusively in Bowman's space or the peripheral glomerular tuft in discrete aggregates. The above patterns of IgG, IgM, C3 and albumin were seen in control mice, although much less frequently. The results show that in mice, treatment with ACTH results in the increased accumulation of plasma proteins in the juxtaglomerular apparatus (JGA). This effect may reflect a role for the JGA in the normal clearing of plasma proteins from the glomerulus and/or directly from the blood.

This paper describes the use of Histopaque (Hp) density gradient medium and its advantage for separating mononuclear cells (mnc) from rabbit blood. Hp solutions of density (d) = 1.083 g/ml, 1.119 g/ml and 1:1 mixture of these solutions (final d = 1.103 g/ml) were compared to Ficoll-Paque (Fp, d = 1.077 g/ml) and Lymphopaque (d = 1.086 g/ml). The average leukocyte recovery was: Fp = 26% and Lp = 17%, while that with Hp was: Hp d = 1.083: 41%; Hp d = 1.119: 43%; Hp d = 1.103: 57%. Optimum mnc recovery (76%) was obtained with Hp d = 1.103. Average mnc purity for the various media was: Fp = 88% mnc; Lp = 91%mnc; Hp d = 1.083: 94% mnc; Hp d = 1.119: 93%; Hp d = 1.103: 94% mnc. Contamination was mainly from basophils. Viability was greater than 95% in all cases. Thus, Hp density gradient media provide increased recoveries of mnc from rabbit blood compared to Fp and Lp, while purity is not affected. Rabbit mnc appear to be denser than human mnc, which are recovered in greater numbers using Fp.