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In this study, the authors comprehensively evaluated the traveling performance of a flexible pipe inspection robot (PI-RO) that can actively output both propulsion and traction forces. Household pipes must be frequently inspected for cracks and corrosion to ensure continuous provision of water and gas. As these pipes are essential for our everyday life, it is difficult to suspend their usage for long periods; hence, inspection should be conducted for short durations. In addition, inspecting entire pipelines using existing methods is challenging because the pipes are constructed over long distances and have complex structures. Therefore, we developed a flexible robot that can actively output propulsion and traction forces to inspect long-distance complex pipelines, such as household pipelines. Herein, we describe the flexible structural design of a PI-RO that inspects thin one-inch pipes (inner diameter of approximately 28 mm) typically present in household piping. We also evaluated the characteristics of each PI-RO unit. Finally, we confirmed that the PI-RO is not significantly affected by the traveling environment, such as long distances and complex small-diameter pipes, by conducting traveling experiments on small pipes (inner diameter 28 mm) and long-distance (up to approximately 11.7 m) complex pipes composed of horizontal, vertical, and 90° bend pipes.

The release of anthropogenic marine debris (AMD) is one of the major environmental challenges of our time. In this study, a topic model called latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) was used to infer the research topics about AMD to provide the whole picture of the research area. The results of the LDA showed that the AMD research topics are mostly applied topics and belong to interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary research areas. Furthermore, the analysis of the temporal trends of the topics showed that topics related to such as plastic pollution exhibit an upward trend, whereas those dealing with the spatiotemporal dynamics and distribution patterns of marine debris showed a downward trend. The analysis of topic distribution over countries showed that research is scarce in landlocked countries. The findings of this study can be used as a map for the area of AMD study by various stakeholders related to marine debris issues.

For a wireless communication system to work effectively without electromagnetic interference, the electromagnetic environment needs to be controlled. We experimentally investigated methods for controlling the electrical field strength and the delay spread so as to achieve communications without electromagnetic interference in selected regions for a 2.4-GHz-ISM-band wireless LAN system. Several indoor environments in which partitions with electromagnetic absorbing board were placed around desks were used. The transmission loss and delay spread were investigated experimentally, and the BER and throughput characteristics were measured. We found that the coverage of a wireless LAN could be controlled by using partitions with absorbing boards. We identified several requirements for controlling the coverage that should be useful in designing indoor wireless communication systems., 1999 International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility, May 17-21, 1999, Surugadai Memorial Hall, Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan

In telecommunication equipment rooms of telecom centers, recently the need of wireless applications is increasing because those are much efficient means for sensor network of sensing electric power and temperature distribution in order to use as EMS (Energy Management System), or gathering maintenance information of the equipment. This paper shows the study for establishing the operational guideline of wireless applications' use based on the international EMC standards such as ITU-T K.43, K.48, K.80, CISPR 24, 35 and the in-situ immunity measuring results of the 256 kinds of telecom equipment in testing use.

The VDSL service has been progressed because it allows high-speed Internet access to be achieved using copper premises cables. Although VDSL offers an inexpensive means of providing FTTH service, the link between the VDSL Transceiver Unit at the Optical Network Unit (VTU-O) and the VDSL Transceiver Unit - Remote Terminal (VTU-R) is influenced by electromagnetic interference induced into the premises cables. There are different types of premises cables in use in Japan such as a single-layer cable, twisted-pair cable, and a star-quad cable. The electrical characteristics of these cables are different (e.g., transmission loss, longitudinal conversion loss, and cross-talk) because they differ in composition. This paper describes the relationship between the electrical characteristics of premises cables and the immunity to interference of the link between the VTU-O and the VTU-R.

The influence of electromagnetic radiation from power-line communication (PLC) systems on various types of communication or broadcast services has been investigated. This paper describes experimental results of the influence of electromagnetic radiation from a PLC system on other communication services. The influence was evaluated by measuring the current induced in a communication cable close to a power-line cable. The evaluation involved measuring the induced current for different communication cable structures, different lengths over which the communication and power-line cable ran parallel, and different distances of separation between the cables. It was found that the induced current that occurs in the adjacent communication cable depends on the length over which the cables run parallel and the distance of separation, but does not depend on the structure of the communication cable. Furthermore, the minimum length of parallel cabling to result in saturation of the induced current, which depends on the output power of the PLC modems, was obtained experimentally.

The concept of the monogenic phase was applied to feature point matching for stereo pair images. This paper evaluated the process of feature point matching from finding feature point by the Harris corner detector, forming a correlation matrix in terms of the monogenic signal elements {p(x),q1(x).q2(x)}, then to the stage of the RANSAC inlier selection based on the fundamental matrix of epipolar geometry. The use of the monogenic phase has lead to nearly perfect matching confirmed by visual inspections.

Linear Predictive Coding (LPC) has been used to compress and encode speech signals for digital transmission at a low bit rate. LPC determines a FIR system that predicts a speech sample from the past samples by minimizing the squared error between the actual occurrence and the estimated. The coefficients of the FIR system are encoded and sent. At the receiving end, the inverse system called AR model is excited by a random signal to reproduce the encoded speech. The use of LPC can be extended to speech recognition since the FIR coefficients are the condensed information of a speech signal of typically 10ms -30ms. PARCOR parameter associated with LPC that represents a vocal tract model based on a lattice filter structure is considered for speech recognition. The use of FIR coefficients and the frequency response of AR model were previously investigated. [1] This paper reports the method to detect a limited number of phonemes from a continuous stream of speech. A system being developed slides a time window of 16 ms and calculates the PARCOR parameters continuously, feeding them to a classifier. A classifier is a supervised classifier that requires training. The classifier uses the Maximum Likelihood Decision Rule. The training uses TIMIT speech database, which contains the recordings of 630 speakers of 8 major dialects of American English. The classification results of some typical vowel and consonant phonemes segmented from the continuous speech are listed. The vowel and consonant correct classification rate are 65.22% and 93.51%. Overall, They indicate that the PARCOR parameters have the potential capability to characterize the phonemes.

This paper proposes a technique to detect scene changes in a video sequence by means of motion vectors as defined and embedded in the MPEG video codec. Moving objects in a video scene are detected by the MPEG like motion vector search algorithm. Macro-blocks associated with a motion vector are used as image segments that contain moving objects. Feature points defined in terms of salient corners are then determined by the the SUSAN principle of corner detection. The K-means clustering is applied to the obtained feature points. Some variants such as the centroid coordinates and average radius are useful indices that indicate the change of video scene. Preliminary results of scene change detection by this proposed method are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method.

This paper demonstrated the use of the neural network to track the motion of moving objects recorded in a sequence of video images. The motion vectors measured by the exhaustive search algorithm at the grids of a mesh set on an image were used as part of inputs to train the neural network. The coordinates of such pixels that exhibited a significant displacement relative to the overall image displacement caused by camera blurring, etc. were input along with pixel color data. Given the motion vector of an arbitrary pixel and color, the neural network determines if the pixel belongs to the moving object or not. The work intends to apply a neural network to estimate motion vectors to analyze the structure of the moving object and recognize the geometrical shape or structures from motion information, by means of the inverse problem referred to as "structure from motion" (SfM) problem.

The residual excited linear prediction (RELP) vocoder is a speech codec of good voice quality and a moderate bit rate of 9.6 Kbps for digital communication. However, the RELP does not positively utilize the parameterized speech information to identify speech contents and to determine what word was spoken. This paper proposes a method to classify the vowels in human speech by the RELP vocoder. The method analyzes the frequency response of the LPC filter whose parameters are obtained from a segment of the vowel contained in speech signal. Using the average vectors of frequency response with respect to each vowel sound, mutual Euclidian distances among the vowels were studied. Observed clear separation among the vowels suggests added capability of speech recognition to the RELP vocoder.

To test the hypothesis that non-lethal hypotonia will enhance ultrasound-induced cell killing in vitro and that the mechanism is mechanical in nature.Hypotonic RPMI medium (146 mOsm) was used to induce non-lethal osmotic swelling of human myelomonocytic leukaemia U937 cells. Hypotonia for 10 min was started just before exposure to 1 MHz ultrasound at 0.5 or 1.0 Wcm(-2) for 10 min, or 5 min before exposure to 2.0 Wcm(-2) for 1 min. Surviving intact cells were then determined by the trypan blue dye exclusion test immediately after treatment. After 6-h incubation of the treated cells, early apoptosis and secondary necrosis were measured using a flow cytometer. Intracellular free calcium ion imaging by Fura-2 fluorescence and cellular ion scanning using a secondary ion mass spectrometer were also performed.Enhancement of ultrasound-induced cell lysis was observed at all intensities, and most prominently at 2.0 Wcm(-2), while apoptosis induction was significantly enhanced at intensities of 0.5 and 1.0 Wcm(-2), but not at 2.0 Wcm(-2). The enhanced cell lysis is attributed to the increased susceptibility of the cells to mechanical damage. This is consistent with previous reports describing the effects of mechanical stresses on cell membranes. Cellular ion scanning images also suggest that hypotonia has an effect on the membrane damage-and-repair mechanism of the cells.The results support the hypothesis that non-lethal hypotonia can enhance ultrasound-induced cell killing. These findings also suggest the 'sonomechanical' nature of the effects on the cells.

A MELP (mixed excitation linear prediction) vocoder produces much improved voice quality compared with the traditional LPC vocoder. An LPC synthesis filter which mimics the vocal tract characteristics is excited with a mixture of pulse and noise instead of using either of them. This paper describes an implementation of the MELP vocoder which uses the lifting wavelet transform in place of the band-pass filter bank required for subband division in the synthesis and analysis of the MELP vocoder. A new method to generate an appropriate glottal waveform is also described. In addition, three kinds of fluctuations observed in the steady parts of voiced speech are incorporated to enhance the naturalness of synthesized speech. This MELP vocoder was realized on a DSP evaluation module to confirm the feasibility of real-time implementation.

This paper describes an implementation of MELP (mixed excitation linear prediction) vocoder. Subband division required for implementing the MELP vocoder was performed by the lifting wavelet transform. A new method to generate an appropriate glottal waveform was devised. In addition, three kinds of fluctuations observed in the steady parts of voiced speech were incorporated to enhance the naturalness of synthesized speech.

Middle-speed (1-to-2-Mbit/sec) 2.4-GHz-band wireless LAN systems are widely used throughout the world. As they occupy the same frequency range, electromagnetic interference will occur between them. We investigated interference characteristics between wireless LAN systems that use direct sequence (DS) and Frequency Hopping (FH). Experimental results showed that varying the modulation parameters changed the interference characteristics of the throughputs of wireless LAN systems. Calculated throughput characteristics for the interference agreed with experimental results. Calculating of the DS and FH system performance when Eb/N0=20 dB showed that the D/U ratio required for the FH system was smaller than those required for the DS systems. However, when the D/U ratio was above 8 dB, the throughputs of the DS systems were higher than that of those FH system. These results clarified the interference characteristics, and will be useful in the prediction of communications performance in environments where DS and FH systems are intermixed., 1999 International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility, May 17-21, 1999, Surugadai Memorial Hall, Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan

The author describes an approach to the problem of chemical-shift imaging using the short-time Fourier transform and the wavelet. When point sources of different chemical-shift values are measured with varying gradient field, these points travel along different loci in the instantaneous frequency vs. time diagram. Following the locus of a chemical-shift component of interest, the spatial distribution of the component can be observed with a varying degree of confidence. Taking an average over the profiles obtained at different gradient field intensities, the spatial profile solely due to a chemical-shift component can be reconstructed if each profile is scaled to the same bandwidth. >

The authors show that wavelet transforms can be used in an empirical way to improve edge-detected pictures. Specifically, the first derivative of a Gaussian distribution function is used as the wavelet for detecting edges. The wavelet transforms are calculated using integer scales instead of dyadic scales. This empirical approach is justified by comparing the method with an exact reconstruction process that uses wavelet transforms of the original image. The approach was demonstrated in an experiment that used a magnetic resonance image of a brain. >

Low bit-rate facial image coding for intended applications to video telephone is presented. The basic principle for this facial image coding is to use 2D image warping techniques in generating successive video frames from a stored master image. Setting global and local grids, the use of attractant/repellant masses, and bilinear mapping for painting a picture are described along with the necessary image analysis for parameter extraction.

Recovery of phase from magnitude or imaginary part from real part can be accomplished if a signal is well represented by a zero-padded double length data sequence. The zero-padded portion of such double length data can be thought of as a result of cancellation between two double length odd and even signals. Symmetry and anti-symmetry associated with the DFT of even data and odd data warrants the recovery of the phase. A method of deconvolution to reconstruct the original spectrum from zero padded double length data is also presented. This method of phase recovery is applied to an exponentially decaying wave consisting of several spectral components to demonstrate the validity of the method.

Wireless LANs in the 2.4-GHz ISM-band create a new electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) problem. We investigated the interference characteristics between such wireless LANs in the case of identical systems, systems with different technical parameters for modulation and demodulation, and using a Gaussian noise source as a disturbance source. Experimental results show that higher throughput is obtained when adjacent wireless LANs use different systems, and that interference characteristics can be evaluated experimentally using a Gaussian noise source. Calculated BER characteristics for the interference agree with experimental measurements, indicating that this calculation method can be used for the design of the wireless LAN network to avoid interference. It is possible to construct an efficient wireless LAN network by combining different wireless LAN systems., 1998 International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility, 24-28 August, 1998, Denver, CO, USA

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) has put forward a recommendation H.263 "Video Coding for Low Bitrate Communication". This recommendation specifies a coded representation that can be used for compressing the moving picture component of audiovisual services at low bitrates. The basic configuration of the video source coding algorithm is based on ITU-T recommendation H.261, but with some improvements and changes to improve performance and error recovery. We develop several methods to improve the encoding speed which is important for the applications such as real time videophone and video-conferencing. These methods focus on the basic encoder operations of motion compensation, discrete cosine transform (DCT) and bit rate control for facial images. Some experimental results using these methods are discussed.

A method of low bit-rate facial image coding specifically designed for the use in video telephone is presented. The basic principle for this facial image coding is to exploit the capabilities of 2D image warping techniques to generate the replica of sender's facial expression merely by deforming a master face image, which is sent once at the beginning of telephone call. Several parameters that describe facial expressions are monitored at the transmitter at the video frame rate of 30 frames/s, then transmitted to the receiver using the in-band data channel. Since transmission of actual image data happens once or when another image is required, the bit-rate is much lower than that required by ordinary video image transmission. A fast bilinear mapping method for warped images, a grid mesh set over the facial image, various warping algorithms to realize head movement and facial motions with respect to eyes and mouth are discussed. This paper also compares the presented low bit-rate facial image coding to its competing methods such as MPEG and the method using a 3D facial model.

This paper discusses the use of existing telephone lines to provide simultaneous voice and inband data communication over a single circuit. Traditionally, two separate lines have been required to provide simultaneous voice and data communications. Combining data transportation and voice communication on one telephone line can provide new services on the existing world wide telephone network.

This paper presents methods for face localization and facial feature extraction from a video image sequence to aid in constructing a 3D face model for animation, a newly added feature in MPEG-4. Face localization is achieved by using human skin color filtering in YCbCr subspace with other relevant facial information. The method of independent component analysis (ICA) is applied to the localized facial images to identify main facial components such as eyes and mouth in the video sequence.

Decision-feedback based equalization algorithms are rarely used in blind equalizations because they cannot converge for the "eye-closed" signals. In this paper, we develop a new decision-feedback based algorithm that is suitable for blind equalizations. Its stability and convergence properties are analyzed in the paper. Also, we propose a hybrid blind equalization scheme that combines the decision-feedback based algorithm and the CMA, which can take both advantages of them. Computer simulations with QAM signals have been carried out to test the performances of our new algorithms.

Before observing freeze-dried cryosections by ion microscopy, it is necessary to perform localization of the analysis site by light microscopy. The present study reports a rapid fixation-staining method for preparing freeze-dried or air-dried cryosections, wherein cryosections are observed after immersion in Carnoy-Lebrun fixative for 30 s and staining in undiluted Giemsa solution for 30 s. Cryostat sections of goldfish intestine and kidney tissue on the silicon wafer substratum were subsequently examined by SIMS. Positive cesium ion images showed a general histology of the intestinal villi with goblet cells. Their granules contained large amounts of sodium, magnesium, potassium and calcium on ion images. By contrast, iron, copper and CsFe ion images showed diffuse distribution throughout the sections.

We report here a case of acute necrotizing encephalopathy (ANE) showing brainstem hemorrhage. A 5-year-11-month-old boy with a history of febrile seizures was admitted to our hospital because of high fever and coma. Laboratory studies on admission demonstrated elevated serum transaminase and blood glucose. Brain CT was normal on admission, but 9 hours later, it showed low density areas in the bilateral thalamus, putamen, midbrain, pons and cerebellum. Brain MRI revealed abnormal short T1 and long T2 signals in the same areas. Despite promptly performed intensive care, massive brainstem hemorrhage occurred on the fourth day. EEG showed a suppression-burst pattern followed by a flat pattern on the sixth day. The patient died on the eighth day of multiple organ failure. This is the first case of massive brainstem hemorrhage that occurred in association with ANE.

Experimental bristle arrangements were applied to a conventional V-shaped bristle-design toothbrush in an effort to improve plaque removal efficacy in interproximal areas. A single-blind cross-over study was performed to evaluate the plaque removal efficacy of this new bristle arrangement by comparing it to either a more conventional V-shaped toothbrush or a flat-headed toothbrush. Plaque removal efficacy was determined by assessing the percentage of plaque score reduction following a single controlled brushing. The new toothbrush bristle arrangement had a significantly higher plaque removal percentage efficacy than both the V-shaped toothbrush (59.1% vs. 48.5%; p = 0.0092) and the flat-headed toothbrush (65.3% vs. 55.3%; p = 0.0260) in interproximal areas. These differences were also consistent with whole mouth comparisons. When the subjects were asked about their preferences for the three different bristle formats used in this study, there was no significant difference of opinion found. These findings indicated a superiority of the new toothbrush to the other two, more conventional toothbrush bristle styles on plaque removal efficacy with these study subjects, but no particular preference for bristle design.

Leptin is a fat cell-derived satiety factor that regulates food intake and energy expenditure. Its effects are mediated by interactions with the leptin receptor (Ob-R) that is alternatively spliced to encode at least five isoforms(a-e), which are distributed in a wide range of tissues including the hypothalamus. Ob-R is a member of cytokine receptors and involves the JAK-STAT signal transduction system. We found Ob-R mutations in Zucker fatty rats and obese Koletsky rats and demonstrated that Ob-R dysfunction brings around hyperphagia and obesity. However we and others have not found any Ob-R mutation in human obese subjects.

This report describes the transient development of inhibitors in two cases of hemophilia A. Case 1 was an 8-month-old boy who suffered from subcutaneous hematoma with extremely low level (1.5%) of plasma factor VIII activity (F VIII:C). He showed an inhibitor titer of 2.5 Bethesda units (BU)/ml when he suffered from measles at age 24 months with poor clinical response to factor VIII. This inhibitor elevated to 11.6 BU/ml at 29 months, but completely disappeared at 32 months. Case 2 was a 5-month-old boy who suffered from subcutaneous hematoma with extremely low level (1%) of plasma F VIII:C. At 8 months his inhibitor titer peaked at 19 BU/ml but subsequently declined to 11.5 BU/ml at 12 months and completely disappeared at 14 months. A review of the literature revealed that the median (range) titer of transient inhibitor initially developed at 2 (0.5-19) BU/ml on 225 (79-448) days, immediately peaked at 3.6 (0.5-60) BU/ml and disappeared by 665 (282-1140) days, suggesting that careful monitoring of F VIII inhibitors is required in the treatment of hemophilia A.

The prevalence of thyroid nodules and thyroid cancer was studied in the indigenous population residing on Ebeye Island, Kwajalein Atoll, in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. This island, centrally located in the nation, is home to about 25% of the nation's population, many who have migrated there from other atolls. The objective of the study was to obtain thyroid disease rate statistics on as much of the population as possible that was alive during the years of nuclear testing and to test the hypothesis that described a linearly decreasing prevalence of palpable nodules with increasing distance from the Bikini test site. 1,322 Marshallese born before 1965 were given a thyroid examination using neck palpation, fine needle aspiration biopsy, and high resolution ultrasound imaging. Approximately 40% of the total population living on this island who are at risk from exposure to radioactive fallout during the years 1946-1958 were screened. Of that group, 815 were alive at the time of the BRAVO test on 1 March 1954. Two hundred sixty-six people with thyroid nodules were found (32.6%): 132 were palpable nodules (16.2%), and 134 were nodules that could be diagnosed with ultrasound only (15.7%). Prevalence of palpable nodules was particularly high in men and women older than 60 y, in men who were 6 to 15 y of age at the time of the BRAVO test, and in women 1 to 10 y of age at the time of the BRAVO test. In 22 people, the clinical diagnosis was most likely cancer though histopathological evidence was only available from 11 operated cases. Of the 11 operated cases, 10 were cancer. Cancer prevalence was particularly high in those women born between 1944 and 1953 (7/220 = 3.2%), i.e., who were children during the early years of nuclear testing. The Ebeye data showed a marginally significant correlation between palpable nodule prevalence among women and distance to Bikini (r = -0.44, p = 0.06). This report summarizes the clinical findings of the thyroid examinations, the age distributions for nodular disease and cancer, and examines the relationship between prevalence of nodules and present day levels of 137Cs in the environment of each atoll.

The hospitals or residential institutions for patients with chronic neurological diseases have to provide the function of medical treatment and well living support. The living space should be made at home and familiar. It means 1. providing a small group life, 2. giving warm atmosphere, 3. providing living functions. Medical and living functions are necessary both in housing (hard phase) and in care given by staff (soft phase). For the QOL of children who are treated for their chronic disease in institutions, the next three conditions are important. 1. comfortable physical conditions, 2. human relations, 3. hope.

The relationship between parathyroid hormone (PTH) secretion and extracellular calcium (Ca) level is reciprocal causality. The equilibrium operating point determines basal PTH secretion rate and basal extracellular Ca level. We studied how this equilibrium was achieved in the subjects with decreased PTH secretion or decreased parathyroid glands number. Basal/maximum ratio of serum PTH, which reflects the basal secretory state of parathyroid glands, was increased in 9 hypoparathyroid patients treated with vitamin D3 (VD3) [7 patients with idiopathic hypopar-athyroidism (IHP), and two patients with postsurgical hypoparathyroidism] and in seven of nine parathyroid adenectomized patients. There was a negative correlation between the ratio and basal serum Ca level in the patients with IHP after VD3 treatment (r=0.7167, P

Total body and leg bone mineral densities (BMD) were measured in 42 severely handicapped children and adults using a dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) (LUNAR Radiation Corp., DPX). Despite the differences in motor ability and nursing history, about 95% of patients, except for 2 cases, were diagnosed as having osteopenia. The degree of osteopenia was dependent on the motor disabilities of their original disease. Therefore we should bear in mind a precaution and therapy from early period. Because BMD of the legs in females were less than -3 SD of the age-matched control values, we should be careful for a possible fracture of femur. Since X-ray hazard of DEXA for patients is considerable to be negligible, this will provide an effective means for quantifying bone mineral in severely handicapped patients.

We report MRI and MRS of the brain in a patient with Sjögren-Larsson syndrome (SLS) in whom fatty alcohol oxidoreductase (FAO) deficiency has been verified. MRI showed periventricular lesions, high intensity on T2-weighted and low intensity on T1-weighted images at trigones of the lateral ventricles. 1H-MRS of these lesions revealed high lipid and low N-acetyl aspartate peaks. We presume such lipids in periventricular lesions with high T2 signal may be pathognomonic of SLS.

We have developed 1H-chemical shift imaging (CSI) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) methods on a clinical MRI system, in which metabolic and functional information can be obtained from the brain. 31P- and 1H-CSI are in clinical use. Using 1H-CSI, the peaks of N-acetylaspartate (NAA), choline (Cho) and creatine (Cr) are clearly detected in multiple small voxels. In normal children, the ratio of NAA/Cho increased after birth in different manners in different parts of the brain. The peak of NAA decreased in some disorders with brain damage or neuronal immaturity. It has been shown recently that functional activation of the cortex can be visualized with MR imaging with a blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) effect. At an activated area, the ratio of deoxyhemoglobin to oxyhemoglobin decreased in the capillary and venous beds. Therefore, with a decrease of the effect of the T2 susceptibility from deoxyhemoglobin, the signal intensity of the activated area increased. CSI and FMRI have a unique possibility in the field of non-invasive brain analysis.

Parathyroid crisis occurring in primary hyperparathyroidism is characterized by extremely high circulating levels of parathyroid hormone and acute onset of severe hypercalcemia. We describe a 62-year-old woman with parathyroid crisis probably due to an intratumoral hemorrhage. Renal dysfunction reduced the effectiveness of preoperative management and continued to deteriorate for 5 days after parathyroidectomy. The normalization of serum calcium after parathyroidectomy delayed and it took 6 days. Maintenance of renal function is important for pre- and postoperative courses of the present case. The rapid decrease in serum parathyroid hormone after parathyroidectomy was followed by a rapid and transient (about fivefold) increase in serum alkaline phosphatase with peak value on the 10th postoperative day. This indicated that reversal phase from bone resorption (accelerated by parathyroid hormone) to bone formation lasted about 10 days under the conditions of the present case.

Alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS) is one of the soft tissue sarcomas characterized by metastasis early in the course of the disease, regardless of slow tumor growth. The ultimate clinical outcome is, therefore, very poor. To date, the efficacy of combination chemotherapy for this tumor has not been confirmed. We present a case of ASPS in an 8-year-old boy with bilateral pulmonary metastasis who received systemic combination chemotherapy (CPM/IFO/ACD/ADR/CD DP/VP-16 as induction, and VCR/ACD as maintenance therapy) for eleven months. The result showed that despite the prevention of tumor progression, such intensive chemotherapy could not cure the disease. Besides refinement of chemotherapy regimens, immunotherapy might be considered for ASPS.

A 9-year-old boy with chronic granulomatous disease was hospitalized on May, 1991, because of continued fever and pain in the right elbow. Increased bone intensity at the distal end of right humerus on x-ray and a 33 x 36 mm space-occupying lesion in the spleen on abdominal CT scan were recognized. Under a diagnosis of periosteitis and spleen abscess, intravenous infusion of rhG-CSF at a dose of 200 micrograms/m2/day was started in combination with antimicrobial therapy. Fever, tenderness, swelling in the right elbow and inflammatory indices improved three weeks after the institution of therapy. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) formation by neutrophil increased significantly, although intermittently, during the therapy. The spleen abscess had completely vanished on CT scan on February, 1992. The therapy was well tolerated and no significant side effects were observed. The use of rhG-CSF in combination with potent antibiotics is recommended for patients with serious infections in chronic granulomatous disease to avoid a fatal course.

Biophoton emission is the ultraweak light emission originating from almost all biological systems in various living states and considered to be an universal phenomenon occurring in nature. We have been studying the physiological role and biophysical properties of human biophoton emission, a new physiological information noninvasively detectable at human body surface. Characterizations of the spectral, spatial and temporal photon distributions and their correlations with other physiological and/or biochemical parameters, for example, have been carried out by using several kinds of ultrasensitive photon counting systems, including the filter-differential type biophoton spectrum analyzer and the two-dimensional biophoton imaging system, developed in our laboratory. Here we report examples of the first experimental results on the ultraweak biophoton emission measured at the surface of human hands under various conditions.

The cells binding and retaining immune complexes on their cell surface existed in rat lymph nodes with no germinal centers. This study attempted to clarify the relationship between the two types of cells, reticular cells and follicular dendritic cells (FDCs), in the rat lymph node at early stages of postnatal development by immuno-electron microscopy on anti-horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and HRP injected rat. On the 19th and 23rd day after birth, germinal centers were not yet constructed nor were typical FDCs visible. However, immune complex binding cells were observed on the 23rd day, and not on the 19th. HRP reactive materials (immune complexes) were localized between lymphocytes and large lucent cells, making meshworks. They were revealed by electron microscopy on the cell surface which invaginated into the cytoplasm. The HRP reactive cells extended their cytoplasmic processes and formed a connection by their processes. They were reticular cells which enclosed reticular fibers by their cytoplasmic processes or contacted with reticular fibers closely. The reticular cells may be precursors of the FDCs.

We tried to re-diagnose our 57 cases of thyroid follicular cancer between 1965 and 1988 in accordance with Histological Typing of Thyroid Tumours published by WHO in 1988. 1) The incidence of follicular cancer in differentiated cancers was decreased from 17.9% to 8.3% (26 cases). The number of widely invasive type and minimally invasive type was 13 cases equally. 2) Twenty four cases were diagnosed as papillary cancer. The reason was that 20 cases had a small focus of papillary structure, and other 4 cases had features of follicular variant type of papillary cancer. These 24 cases had good prognosis as our 262 cases of papillary cancer, in contrast to 26 cases of follicular cancer having worse prognosis. 3) The incidence of distant metastasis in follicular carcinoma was increased from 28.1% to 42.3%; 23.9% in minimally invasive type and 61.5% in widely invasive type, respectively. New WHO classification is acceptable according to this clinical study of our cases. We would have to treat more aggressively the patient diagnosed follicular cancer by WHO classification because of high incidence of distant metastasis.

A study of a novel nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) chemical-shift image reconstruction method with a high chemical-shift resolution achieved by the chirp z-transform (CZT) is presented. Phase encoding is used for the spatial coordinates x and y, and the frequency coordinate is reserved especially for the chemical shift. The Fourier transform (FT) image reconstruction algorithm, which forms the basis of the new CZT image reconstruction method, is introduced. The novel method, using the CZT instead of the FT to evaluate the chemical-shift spectrum at a much higher resolution, is studied. The chemical-shift resolutions, achieved by the FT and the CZT, are studied theoretically from the aspect of the peak height and the peak width of chemical-shift spectra. The chemical-shift spectra calculated at a selected point in the image plane, and the chemical shift-images reconstructed by this method, are shown for a simple phantom containing ethanol and methanol at different locations. The results obtained by this method and by the FT method are compared and discussed. The experimental results have shown that a chemical-shift as small as 39 Hz, relative to the proton resonance frequency of 21.34 MHz, can be resolved successfully by this method without improvements in magnetic field homogeneity. >