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In civil engineering, it is crucial to reuse knowledge which has been accumulated through the experience of engineers, etc. For this purpose, it is necessary to establish a method for knowledge acquisition and a method for explicit representation of the acquired knowledge. This paper applies the genetic algorithm to the process of deriving a decision algorithm from instances by using rough sets, and proposes a method of deriving a simple and useful decision algorithm with a relatively small amount of computation. A decision algorithm is actually derived from the data on accident instances at actual construction sites, and the recognition rate and other performance measures are investigated by the k-fold cross validation method.

The association of body size, lifestyle, and medical conditions with renal cell cancer risk was examined among 161,126 Hawaii–Los Angeles Multiethnic Cohort participants (1993–2002). After 8.3 years of follow-up, 347 renal cell cancer cases (220 men, 127 women) were identified. Renal cell cancer risk increased with increasing body mass index in men (multivariate relative risk (RR) ¼ 1.06 per unit of body mass index, p ¼ 0.001) and women (RR ¼ 1.07, p < 0.0001). The relative risks associated with being obese compared with being lean were 1.76 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.20, 2.58) for men and 2.27 (95% CI: 1.37, 3.74) for women. Hypertension was associated with renal cell cancer (RRmen ¼ 1.42, 95% CI: 1.07, 1.87; RRwomen ¼ 1.58, 95% CI: 1.09, 2.28). Smoking was confirmed to be a risk factor for both sexes. Among women, diuretic use was associated with increased risk (RR ¼ 1.63, 95% CI: 1.04, 2.57), whereas physical activity was associated with reduced risk (ptrend ¼ 0.027). Alcohol consumption was inversely associated with risk for men (ptrend ¼ 0.045). Compared with nondrinkers, men who drank � 1 drinks/day had a 31% lower risk (95% CI: 0.49, 0.96). Results show that body mass index, smoking, and hypertension are risk factors for renal cell cancer in both sexes. body mass index; body size; carcinoma, renal cell; cohort studies; diuretics; hypertension; risk factors; smoking

To determine the relation between office intraocular pressure (IOP) and 24-hour IOP in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) treated with 3 kinds of antiglaucoma eye drops.Subjects were 42 patients with POAG (71 eyes). All were being treated with 3 different topical antiglaucoma eye drops (latanoprost, beta-blocker, and carbonic anhydrase inhibitor). Twenty-four-hour IOP values were obtained in the sitting position with a Goldmann applanation tonometer at 3-hour intervals.Maximum 24-hour IOP (mean+/-SD) was 19.76+/-5.65 mm Hg, minimum 24-hour IOP was 13.06+/-4.75 mm Hg, mean 24-hour IOP was 16.30+/-4.90 mm Hg, and 24-hour IOP fluctuation was 6.70+/-2.81 mm Hg. Office IOP was 16.23+/-4.58 mm Hg, and office IOP fluctuation was 2.75+/-1.68 mm Hg. There was no significant difference between office IOP and mean 24-hour IOP (P=0.93). There was no correlation between office IOP and 24-hour IOP fluctuation (r=0.15; P=0.25) or between office IOP fluctuation and 24-hour IOP fluctuation (r=0.19; P=0.17). Maximum 24-hour IOP occurred during office hours in 22 eyes (33.8%). The frequency of maximum 24-hour IOP occurring during office hours was significantly less than that of minimum 24-hour IOP (P0.001).In POAG patients treated with 3 kinds of antiglaucoma eye drops, office IOP was similar to mean 24-hour IOP. However, it was difficult to estimate 24-hour IOP fluctuation and maximum 24-hour IOP on the basis of office IOP.

Support vector machines (SVMs) are known to result in a quadratic programming problem, that requires a large computational complexity. To overcome this problem, the authors proposed two incremental SVMs from geometrical point of view in the previous study, both have a linear complexity with respect to the number of examples on average. One method was shown to produce the same solution as an SVM in a batch mode, but the other, which stores the set of support vectors, was known to have a larger generalization error. In this study, we derive learning curves of the latter method, assuming that the probability the set of support vectors is updated is proportional to the current margin and so is the decrease of the margin in the update, too. In the derivation, we employ the disc approximation which is to be justified yet, but the result agrees with the computer simulation

Divided emission correlation functions.Analytical results.The Raman state and the proper excited state.The spectral broadening mecanisms and the molecular pure dephasing mecanism.Non-Markovian effect:an analysis based on the stochastic model.

In this paper, we propose a learning-based demosaicing and a restoration error detection. A Vector Quantization (VQ)-based method is utilized for learning. We take advantage of a self-similarity in an image for a codebook generation in VQ. The mosaic image is interpolated via a traditional method, and applied scaling, blurring, phase-shifting and resampling are used to create a training data for the codebook. The characteristics of the training data are similar to those of an ideal image. Using such training data and approximation of an ideal codevector by a locally linear embedding (LLE)-based method increases the probability of finding a suitable codevector from the codebook. Even if we cannot find a good codevector in an ill-conditioned case, the error detection finds poorly estimated pixel values and replaces them with better restoration results by another demosaicing method.

Few studies have examined differences in endometrial cancer risk among ethnic groups in the United States. The authors assessed the extent to which known risk factors for endometrial cancer explain the racial/ethnic differences in risk among 46,933 postmenopausal African-American, Native-Hawaiian, Japanese-American, Latina, and White women recruited to the prospective Multiethnic Cohort Study in 1993–1996. During a 7.3-year follow up period, 321 incident endometrial cancer cases were identified among these women. Data on known/suspected risk factors were obtained from baseline questionnaires, and comparisons of endometrial cancer incidence across racial/ethnic groups were estimated using log-linear proportional hazard models. Later age at menopause, unopposed estrogen therapy use, and obesity were associated with increased risk, while increasing parity and increasing duration of oral contraceptive use were associated with decreased risk. The relative risks for endometrial cancer (vs. Whites) were 0.76 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.53, 1.08) for African Americans, 0.92 (95% CI: 0.58, 1.46) for Native Hawaiians, 0.61 (95% CI: 0.46, 0.83) for Japanese Americans, and 0.63 (95% CI: 0.46, 0.87) for Latinas. After adjustment for the risk factors, the relative risks were 0.68 (95% CI: 0.47, 0.98) for African Americans, 0.91 (95% CI: 0.56, 1.46) for Native Hawaiians, 0.74 (95% CI: 0.54, 1.01) for Japanese Americans, and 0.65 (95% CI: 0.47, 0.92) for Latinas. Results from this study show that the interethnic differences in endometrial cancer risk do not appear to be explained by differences in the distribution of known risk factors among women of different races/ethnicities. cohort studies; endometrial neoplasms; ethnic groups; risk factors

A substantial minority of intestinal metaplasia (IM)-associated stomach cancers express a gastric product-pepsinogen group II (PGII). The aim of this study was to examine PGII expression as it relates to IM and to tumour heterogeneity.The extent of IM was divided into four levels: none, minimal, moderate, extensive. Stomach specimens (N = 165) were stained for PGII and two tumour markers, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFr) and p53. PGII was more likely to be expressed with moderate or extensive IM than with minimal or no IM (P = 0.05). Cancers that expressed PGII were more likely to be of high stage than those that did not (P = 0.035). Of 25 cases that expressed all three markers (PGII, EGFr, p53), 20 (80%) had stage 3 or 4 disease, compared with 11 (37%) advanced cancers expressing none of the markers (P = 0.001). Cancers expressing one or two markers were between these extremes.PGII+ cancers in IM-associated gastric cancers may derive from residual gastric glands, or may arise from postinduction reversion to a gastric phenotype from intestinalized cells. This is supported by the more frequent association of PGII expression with the most extensive degrees of IM and its association with high-stage cancers that display heterogeneity in tumour marker expression.

Next-generation optical disc systems are attracting strong interest and further increases in their recording capacity and speed are required according to T. Nishihara et al. (2003) and T. Nakai et al. (2003). In order to achieve these increases, a high-power blue-violet laser diode is indispensable. On the other hand, the noise characteristic is also an important factor in blue-violet laser diodes for practical use because a high-level of noise raises the jitter level of the optical disc system. In this study, we have successfully fabricated blue-violet laser diodes with high power (100 mW) and low-noise (-130 dB/Hz @ 5 mW) characteristics.

Objective: To evaluate the ability of Moisture Checker for Mucus (MCM), a device which measures the weight percent of water content in the oral mucosal epithelium, for the diagnosis of dry mouth. Method: Forty-three consecutive patients seen at the Dry Mouth Clinic of Tsurumi University were divided into two groups by the diagnostic criteria of hyposalivation defined by the stimulated salivary flow rate ≤10 ml per 10 min. The MCM values in the buccal, tongue and labial mucosa in each group were compared. Results: The value of the normal salivation group was significantly higher when compared with that of the hyposalivation group both in the buccal and tongue mucosa, P = 0.01 and P = 0.046, respectively. Conclusion: Moisture Checker for Mucus has the potential to be a useful device in the screening of hyposalivation.

We have been investigated optical properties of precisely size-controlled GaAs thin films, where exciton motion is quantized and non-local interaction between excitons and photons should be considered. We observed an enhanced third-order nonlinear optical response for a 110 nm-thick GaAs film using degenerate four-wave mixing. The observed nonlinear response was 25 times larger than that of a 1 /spl mu/m-thick film. This result agrees with a theoretical proposal of enhanced nonlinear optical responses of exciton-polaritons in a thin film with a particular thickness. In this paper, we demonstrate, for the first time, optical switching using nonlinear optical responses of exciton-polaritons in a GaAs thin film.

SUMMARY The objective of this paper is to present a comparative performance evaluation of the representative medium-access control protocols in local area networks; Token-ring and CSMAICD. This paper defines a unit-period consisting of an access-time and the subsequent packet-transmission-time. By considering the beginning of this unit-period as the imbedded Markov point, 'his paper makes it possible to analyze the trans,iiission behavior of both medium-access control protocols under an identical analysis method, stochastically. Further, this paper shows some quantitative characteristics on typical local area network configurations and discusses them.

In this paper we present a simple approach for making a Schottky emitter with carbon nanotubes (CNT). A tungsten wire of 0.3 mm diameter was used as a heating filament. An iron rod of 0.3 mm diameter having a sharp tip was weld-bonded to the filament. By heating the filament to around 750/spl deg/C in a mixture of (C/sub 2/H/sub 2/+Ar), multi-wall CNT was grown at the Fe tip. Electron field emission and thermal-field emission properties of the fabricated Schottky emitter were measured at different temperatures. At room temperature, the field emission current well obeyed the Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) mechanism with threshold voltage of around 0.2 V//spl mu/m. At the temperature of higher than 780/spl deg/C, the thermal-field emission dominated and both field emission and thermal-field emission were very stable with very low fluctuation. Enhancement factor of 1.3 /spl times/ 10/sup 7/ m/sup -1/ and work function of 4.95 eV were evaluated for the grown CNT. The mentioned CNT-Schottky emitters for advanced electron beam instruments are expected.

We describe a 40-month-old male infant with renal failure, treated with peritoneal dialysis, who developed massive calcification of soft tissues including the heart and lungs with subsequent cardiopulmonary insufficiency. A diagnosis of Jeune syndrome was made. After starting peritoneal dialysis, the patient exhibited an intractable metabolic acidosis of unknown etiology necessitating treatment with intravenous or oral sodium bicarbonate. Myocardial calcification was first detected by 2-dimensional echocardiography performed 3 months after starting dialysis. The patient was not suitable for renal transplantation because of his cardiac dysfunction and died of cardiac and respiratory failure at the age of 6 years. Although the patient exhibited a variety of risk factors for ectopic calcification including hyperphosphatemia, hyperparathyroidism, high calcium-phosphate product and treatment with vitamin D, the early and massive soft tissue calcification may have been accelerated by correction of the metabolic acidosis. Therefore, the use of sodium bicarbonate may be involved in the etiology of the myocardial calcification.

To determine if serum triglyceride and glucose levels are associated with colorectal cancer, a prospective study among 7619 Japanese-American men was conducted. From 1968 to 1998, 376 colon and 124 rectal cancer incident cases were diagnosed. A strong positive association of alcohol intake and pack-years of cigarette smoking with colorectal cancer was observed. Body mass index and heart rate were also positively related to colon, but not to rectal cancer. In contrast, serum triglyceride did not predict the development of either colon or rectal cancer. There was a modest association of serum glucose in the highest quartile group with rectal cancer (relative risk = 1.33; 95% confidence interval, 0.79-2.26), but it was not statistically significant. This study did not find a strong positive association of serum triglyceride or glucose with colorectal cancer, but additional studies including other metabolic consequences associated with increased serum triglyceride and glucose may clarify the relationship.

We have developed GaN-based high-power blue-violet laser diodes with a small aspect ratio for beam divergence by optimizing the optical confinement in the active layer. A small aspect ratio of 1.3 and a high output power of 200 mW with kink-free operation have been achieved.

Controversy persists regarding the role of a low ratio of 2-hydroxyestone (2-OHE(1))/16alpha-hydroxyestrone (16alpha-OHE(1)) as a potential estrogen metabolism marker of increased risk for breast cancer. Most of the evidence has been provided by case-control studies, where tumor effects on hormone metabolism are not known. Studies in populations at various risk of breast cancer are not consistent, with some suggesting that levels of the ratio may be altered by changes in diet and exercise. We studied Asian American women participating as controls in a case-control study of breast cancer in which migration history--a composite of the subject's place of birth, type of residence in Asia (urban or rural), length of time living in the West, and grandparents' place of birth--was associated with a 6-fold risk gradient that paralleled the historical differences in incidence rates between the United States and Asian countries. This population offered the possibility to address whether the ratio of 2-OHE(1):16alpha-OHE(1) differs according to recognized breast cancer risk factors, including migration history. Overnight 12-hour urines were obtained from 368 premenopausal and 143 naturally postmenopausal women of Chinese, Japanese, or Filipino descent who donated urines between 1985 and 1988. The estrogen metabolites 2-OHE(1) and 16alpha-OHE(1) were measured with an ELISA kit and adjusted for creatinine levels. In each ethnic group, the ratio of 2-OHE(1):16alpha-OHE(1) was consistently lower in women born in the West than in those who had migrated from Asia. For premenopausal women, the ratio declined 20% due to lower levels of 2-OHE(1). Among postmenopausal women, the ratio was 23% lower in those born in the West, but no consistent patterns based on place of birth were observed for either 2-OHE(1) or 16alpha-OHE(1). The ratio did not vary with most recognized breast cancer risk factors, except for lower metabolite ratios in women with a younger age at first birth and more children, which runs contrary to the hypothesis, because both characteristics reduce breast cancer risk. Our study suggests that the ratio of 2-OHE(1):16alpha-OHE(1) may be a marker for lifestyle influences on estrogen metabolism associated with westernization.

This work presents the modeling of multi-quantum well (MQW) electroabsorption modulators (EAMs), in which photo-induced currents are implemented, and demonstrated. The performance of MQW EAMs is simulated when the incident light is highly intensive. Dependencies of EAM performance on the QW structure are also discussed.

Background. The objective was to investigate the association of Helicobacter pylori and serum pepsinogen (PG) levels with gastric adenocarcinoma. Methods. Serum obtained from 299 patients at the time of cancer diagnosis and from 336 population-based control subjects was tested for PG I, PG II, and antibodies to H. pylori and to CagA. Results. Subjects with low PG I levels or low PG I/II ratios were at increased risk for cardia and noncardia gastric cancer, whereas those with H. pylori or CagA seropositivity had an elevated risk for noncardia cancer only. Subjects seropositive for either H. pylori or CagA who had low PG I levels had the highest odds ratio (OR) (9.21 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 4.95-17.13]) for noncardia cancer, compared with subjects with neither factor. Elevated risks were also found among subjects with only 1 factor (OR, 5.40 [95% CI, 2.61-11.20] for low PG I level only; OR, 4.86 [95% CI, 5.90-8.13] for H. pylori or CagA seropositivity only). This pattern persisted when PG I/II ratio replaced PG I level and when CagA seropositivity alone replaced H. pylori immunoglobulin G or CagA seropositivity. Conclusions. The results suggest that persons with both H. pylori or CagA seropositivity and a low PG I level or PG I/II ratio are highly susceptible to development of noncardia gastric cancer.

In this case report we describe an 80-year-old man with sick sinus syndrome (SSS) who developed syncope attacks. The diagnosis of SSS was based on electrocardiographic evidence of markedly prolonged sinus arrests associated with syncope attacks while in hospital. The patient was given cilostazol, an anti-thrombotic agent that selectively inhibits cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase type 3, at a dose of 100 mg twice daily. The syncope attacks ceased, and an electrocardiogram obtained 1 week after the start of cilostazol administration showed no evidence of sinus arrest. The outcome of this case suggests that cilostazol may be useful in patients with syncope attacks due to SSS, although the long-term chronotropic effects of cilostazol need to be evaluated.

The effect of filler content and size to property of composite resin using high purity spherical silica particles on microwave curing was examined by mechanical means and electron microscope observation to develop microwave-curing composite resin inlay. Increasing filler content in three kinds of filler particles (0.45, 0.96 and 1.46 microm) resulted in increasing compressive strength, diametral tensile strength and knoop hardness and indicated the highest values at the operative mixing limit. The effect of particle size was that the mechanical property of the 0.96 microm filled resin was highest, followed by 1.46 microm and 0.45 microm on the same filler content. The 0.96 microm filled resin had about the same knoop hardness on both surfaces of the cured sample, which means that uniform polymerization occurred in the cured sample. With electron microscope observation, the bubbles of about 1.0 microm and the cracks between the fillers and the matrix were observed in each cured resin. This is caused by the excessive absorption of microwave energy in fillers and surface treatment materials of fillers. Therefore, improvement of the composition of filler and surface treatment material of filler are needed, which makes it harder to absorb the microwave energy.

Three monomers (Bis-GMA, UDMA, and TEGDMA) and five polymerization initiators (CQ, BPO, DMPT, DMAEMA, and ATU) commonly used in dental composite resins were tested for estrogenic activity using a reporter gene assay (yeast two-hybrid system) in vitro, and compared with bisphenol-A (BPA). Estrogenic activity was indicated by agonist and antagonist activity, with (+S9) and without (-S9) metabolic activation using rat liver cells. No estrogenic agonist activity was seen for each monomer and polymerization initiator in either the -S9 and +S9 tests in the concentration ranges examined in this study. On the other hand, estrogen antagonist activity was found with BPO and DMPT. BPO showed antagonist activity at a concentration of approximately 1800 nM with the -S9 test, but not with the +S9 test. With DMPT, antagonist activity was not seen with the -S9 test, but it was seen at a concentration of approximately 610 nM using the +S9 test. With BPA, the +S9 test indicated antagonist activity at a concentration of approximately 780 nM. The estrogen antagonist activities of DMPT and BPA appeared to be similar. CQ, DMAEMA, ATU, and the three monomers did not show antagonist activity as demonstrated by the -S9 or +S9 tests within the concentration range tested in this study.

Time series analysis is one of important issues in science, engineering, and so on. Up to the present statistical methods [T. Ozaki, et al. (1998)] such as AR model [T. Ozaki, et al. (1998)] and Kalman filter [S. Arimoto, (1985)] have been successfully applied, however, those statistical methods may have problems for solving highly nonlinear problems. An attempt is made to develop practical methods of nonlinear time series by introducing such soft computing techniques [L.A. Zadeh, (1965), (1973), (1993)] as chaos theory [K. Ito, (1993)], neural network [S. Chen, et al. (1989), M. Funabashi, (1992)], GMDH [A.G. Ivakhenemko, (1968), I. Hayashi, (1995)] and fuzzy modelling [(H.Nomura, et al. (1991), Y. Shi, et al. (1996)]. Using the earthquake input record obtained in Hyogo, the applicability and accuracy of the proposed methods are discussed with a comparison of those results

Hirschsprung disease (HSCR), a clinically complex syndrome often associated with a combination of mental retardation, microcephaly, and characteristic facial features, is genetically heterogeneous.1–10 Recently, mutations in ZFHX1B , which encodes Smad-interacting protein 1 (SIP1), were identified by our group11 and Cacheux et al 12 in patients with t(2;13)(q22;q22) and t(2;11)(q22.2;q21), respectively. These patients had clinical profiles consistent with a dominant form of the disease (Mowat-Wilson syndrome: MIM 235730).9,13 These and subsequent articles have demonstrated a link between patients with nonsense and frameshift mutations of the gene and the presence in these patients of the following clinical findings: profound mental retardation, delayed motor development, and specific facial features, including hypertelorism, a broad nasal bridge, strabismus, a pointed chin, prognathism, a nose with a prominent columella, and posteriorly rotated ears. Often associated with these features were microcephaly, epilepsy, congenital heart disease, HSCR, and midline defects such as agenesis or hypoplasia of the corpus callosum and hypospadias.13–19 This variety of clinical features is observed not only in patients with nonsense and frameshift mutations but also in patients harbouring deletions involving ZFHX1B at 2q22,9,11,15,20 including a previously reported isolated case.6 Thus, ZFHX1B clearly plays a critical role in the manifestation of clinical features of Mowat-Wilson syndrome. However, several points remain to be elucidated: (1) How broad are the clinical features in patients with ZFHX1B mutations and deletions? (2) What are the underlying molecular mechanisms by which the deletion of ZFHX1B at 2q22 affects the clinical phenotype? (3) What kind of clinical features might appear if the deletions were extended to include 2q23–q24.1? To address these questions, we have characterized the clinical features and underlying molecular basis of 27 cases with mutations or deletions in ZFHX1B , including 12 previously reported cases comprising …

To evaluate the association between abnormal ductus venosus (DV) at 11-14 weeks' gestation and chromosomal abnormalities, structural defects and fetal outcome.DV flow-velocity waveform (DV-FVW) and nuchal translucency thickness (NT) were prospectively evaluated in 1217 singleton pregnancies.The DV-FVW was abnormal in 84 fetuses, NT was above the 95th centile in 160 fetuses and both markers were observed in 41 fetuses. Chromosomal defects were diagnosed in 22 fetuses. The sensitivity, specificity and positive and negative predictive values for an abnormal karyotype were 86.4%, 86.9%, 11.9% and 99.7%, respectively, for an increased NT. These values were 68.2%, 96.9%, 31.3% and 99.3%, respectively, for DV-FVW abnormalities and 68.2%, 97.6%, 36.6% and 99.3%, respectively, when both markers were found simultaneously. Regarding structural defects, these values were 43.8%, 92.9%, 8.3% and 99.1% for an abnormal NT, 25.0%, 92.6%, 4.8% and 98.8% for DV-FVW abnormalities and 25.0%, 97.9%, 15.4% and 98.9% for both together. Considering those cases of unexplained fetal demise, the values were 44.4%, 85.9%, 5.0% and 98.9% for NT abnormalities, 22.2%, 92.6%, 4.8% and 98.6% for an abnormal DV-FVW and 22.2%, 98%, 15.4% and 98.7% for both. In cases with increased NT, the percentage of live births with normal karyotype and no major fetal structural defects decreased from 93.8% in normal DV-FVW fetuses to 77.3% in abnormal ones.DV assessment at 11-14 weeks' gestation is useful in screening for fetal chromosomal abnormalities and may help to reduce the false-positive rate when combined with NT measurement. Abnormal DV-FVW is also associated with an increase in adverse perinatal outcome in fetuses with enlarged NT. However, the value of DV-FVW assessment in cases with normal NT is unclear.

This paper proposes a novel method for transmitting JPEG2000 images in MC-DS-CDMA taking into account the codestream structure. In the conventional MC-DS-CDMA that transmits the serial-to-parallel converted codestream by turns, the JPEG2000 image is corrupted by bit errors of the important parts of the codestream. To solve this problem, we determine an order of priority of the JPEG2000's codestream and then transmit each codestream with different weights in order to reduce bit errors in the important parts. Also, some divided images of different weights are transmitted, and on the receiver the original image can be restored by filtering the divided images based on the determined weights.

Aiming at the reduction of therapist burden in rehabilitation exercises, the authors have developed a technology to make a 6-DOF manipulator be an assistive worker in rehabilitation exercises. The paper described some key issues for the system: (1) methods to estimate physical parameters were explained, (2) a method to implement the four kinds of kinesitherapy exercises.

Nowadays, public order has become worse, therefore a security system is necessary. We propose a home security system that can built by individuals. The proposed system is constructed by a general-purpose personal computer, cellular phone and the Internet. Therewith, the intruder's image can be acquired. E-mail for warning is sent to a user when the user is not at home.

To investigate the association of diet and other factors with gastric adenocarcinoma of the distal stomach.Three hundred cases and 446 population-based controls were interviewed with a quantitative, food frequency questionnaire, which listed over 250 foods. The questionnaire also included information on smoking history, alcohol intake, education, medical history, medication use, and a family history of cancer.Cigarette smoking, family history of gastric cancer and personal history of gastric ulcer were positively associated with gastric cancer, while education and past use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were inversely related to risk. The consumption of all vegetables, mainly dark green, light green, and yellow vegetables, reduced risk. Many of these vegetables contain beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E or folate, which were also inversely related to gastric cancer risk. When these nutrients were analyzed simultaneously, the inverse association was mainly with beta-carotene. The intake of processed meats and bacon was positively associated with gastric cancer risk, but primarily in men. When we simultaneously adjusted these meats for the intake of the different vegetables, the association was no longer significant.These findings provide additional support that the consumption of dark green and yellow vegetables are protective against adenocarcinoma of the distal stomach.

Studies of migrants, along with geographic and temporal variations in incidence, indicate that colorectal cancer is especially sensitive to changes in environmental factors, including, most importantly, diet. The goal of this research was to examine the changes in dietary practices that may be consistent with the changing incidence of colorectal cancer in the Los Angeles Mexican-American population. Cancer incidence and dietary intake data were available for over 35,000 Latinos of Mexican national origin currently participating in the prospective Multiethnic Cohort Study, representing the largest sample of Mexican-origin Latinos of any such study in the United States. The dataset is unique in that changes in cancer rates and in dietary behaviors across three generations could be examined. Most of the change in colorectal cancer rates occurred between the first and second generations, and, correspondingly, nearly all the dietary change also occurred between the first and second generations. Although some food traditions were retained by Mexican Americans, the dietary changes due to acculturation were significant and support an association between colorectal cancer risk and certain dietary components, notably, alcohol as a risk factor and nonstarch polysaccharides and vegetables as protective factors.

We have presented a mode-locked semiconductor laser that operates at a 40 GHz repetition rate and in a 1.55 /spl mu/m band. The mode-locked pulses have a nearly transform-limited time-bandwidth product of 0.38. The phase differences between oscillating modes were calculated and the results account for the transform-limited pulse generation. The reduction of phase difference was achieved by replacing a part of the gain region by passive waveguides in the cavity. The understanding and realization of such mode-locking operations will help us to make stable mode-locking semiconductor lasers that are applicable in long-haul optical communication systems.

Clinostat is an effective, ground-based tool which can be used to verify data from space flight, and to test hypotheses and experimental conditions for eventual space flights. Rotation in clinostat appears to mimic the microgravity environment by nulling the gravitational vector by continuous averaging. In the present study, we exposed osteoblast-like ROS 17/2.8 cells to a vector-averaged gravity environment in a clinostat and found that the cells undergo apoptotic death during the first 24 hr of clino-rotation. We suggest that apoptosis might be one of the mechanisms for reduced bone formation as observed in actual space flights.

An explicit representation of various dependence relationships in a program has many applications in software engineering. The System Dependence Net is a model to represent program dependences in a concurrent program which consists of multiple procedures. The paper explains how to generate a System Dependence Net for Ada 95 programs automatically.

We describe a new concept for policy based systems management (PSM) and propose its component functions. PSM aims to reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) while providing highly functional enterprise systems that include enterprise networks. Conventional enterprise systems have been managed manually by humans, and are not able to provide a highly functional service with low TCO. For this reason, the policy based networking (PBN) approach is gaining attention. This paper describes the PSM that extends PBN for total systems management and shows the effectiveness of PSM functions with an example of dynamic QoS configuration.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2012 in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, July 29 – August 2, 2012.

We treated a 66-year-old Japanese woman with metastasis from thyroid papillary adenocarcinoma to mediastinal lymph nodes that obstructed the airway by its extensions towards the tracheal carina. Since the patient suffered from severe dyspnea, an endotracheal intubation was inserted and endotracheal radiotherapy was done using a remote controlled afterloading system. The obstruction mass in the trachea almost disappeared and there has been no evidence of regrowth during a follow-up period fo more than 3 years. The patient's management is now detailed.

We propose a novel mesa geometry for the fabrication of nanostructures by molecular beam epitaxy. We have found that (110) and (1110) facets can be formed by GaAs growth on [001] oriented mesa structures. Smooth surface morphology and extremely low growth rate on the {110} facets are the advantages of using this mesa direction over the conventional [011]− and [011]-cleaved directions. The width of the mesa top (100) plane, which is limited by the {110} facets, can be narrowed to the nanometer scale by GaAs growth. Quantum wire like structures, as narrow as ∼30 nm with a thickness of ∼30 nm at its center, were successfully fabricated.

3 Caruso ML, Marzullo F: Jejunal adenocarcinoma in congenital heterotopic gastric mucosa. Clin Gastroenterol 10:92-94, 1988 4 Cohrs P: Nieberle and Cohrs: Textbook of the Special Pathological Anatomy of Domestic Animals, rev. ed., p. 334 [transl. Crawford R]. Pergamon, New York, NY, 1967 5 Fritz TE, Zeman RC, Noms WP: Studies on spontaneous disease and pathology in the experimental beagle colony. US AEC Argonne National Laboratory [JC: Wt6j: 283-284, 1967 6 Iwata H, Arai C, Koike Y , Hirouchi Y, Kobayashi K, Nomura Y , Enomoto M: Heterotopic gastric mucosa of the small intestine in laboratory Beagle dogs. Toxicol Pathol 18:373-379, 1990 7 Jernstrom P, Brewer LA 111: Primary adenocarcinoma of the mid-esophagus arising in ectopic gastric mucosa with associated hiatal hernia and reflux esophagitis (Dawson's syndrome). Cancer 26: 1343-1 348, 1970 8 Patnaik AK, Hurvitz Al, Johnson GF: Canine gastric adenocarcinoma. Vet Pathol 15600-607, 1978 9 Rest JR: Gastrointestinal anomalies in the dog-two case reports. Vet Rec 121:426-427, 1987 10 Willis RA: The Borderland of Embryology and Pathology, p. 315. Buttenvorth, London, England, 1958 1 1 WolK M: Heterotopic gastric epithelium in the rectum: a report of three new cases with a review of 87 cases of gastric heterotopia in the alimentary canal. Am J Clin Pathol 55604-6 16, 197 1