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In our previous study, we reported the therapeutic potential of Bifidobacterium breve A1 in preventing cognitive impairment in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease and participants with mild cognitive impairment; we suggested that probiotic supplementation is an effective therapeutic strategy for managing cognitive function. Accordingly, we conducted a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to assess whether 12-week B. breve A1 supplementation could affect the cognitive function of elderly subjects with memory complaints. We assessed cognitive function using the Japanese version of the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) at baseline and after 12 weeks of probiotic supplementation. A total of 121 participants were randomised and received B. breve A1 capsules or placebo daily for 12 weeks; of these, 117 participants completed the study. At 12 weeks, neuropsychological test scores significantly increased in both groups; no significant intergroup difference was observed in terms of changes in scores from the baseline scores. However, a stratified analysis revealed a significant difference between B. breve A1 and placebo groups in terms of the subscale ‘immediate memory’ of RBANS and MMSE total score in the subjects with low RBANS total score at baseline. No significant differences in terms of blood parameters between the groups or adverse effects caused by B. breve A1 intervention were observed. The results of the present study suggest the safety of B. breve A1 supplementation and its potential in maintaining cognitive function in elderly subjects with memory complaints. However, future large-scale studies on individuals with impaired cognitive function are required to validate the present findings.

In our previous study, we reported the therapeutic potential of

Clinical application of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) induced in vitro is extensively used for the treatment of viral infection and malignant diseases. We produced anti H-2d CTL in vitro from C57BL/6 (B6) splenocytes presensitized with (B6 × DBA/2) F1 (BDF1) splenocytes to establish a model system of CTL therapy. The specificity and cytotoxic activity were high enough (E/T ratio 1:1 = 38.8%) to induce graft versus host reaction. Though the total number of B6 splenocytes decreased by 0.27 during the 4 days of culture, the number of CD8+ lymphocytes increased 1.3-fold. When more than 5 × 106 cells of H-2d -reactive CTL were transplanted into BDF1 mice, mice died within 2 days postinduction. This lethal effect was not seen in the mice induced with ConA-stimulated T cells. Histological examination of the lungs and liver revealed massive infiltration of neutrophils in alveoli and the necrosis of hepatocytes. Therefore, this protocol was shown to be effective to produce alloantigen-specific CTLs and applicable to in vitro manipulation such as retrovirus-mediated gene transfer.

The short range structure of molten NaHSO4(I) and KHSO4(II) was estimated by X-ray diffraction. The polyatomic anion, HSO4 -, in both molten salts was found to have a distorted tetrahedral structure in which the bond lengths of S-O and S-OH were 1.45 Å and 1.53 Å in (I) and 1.46 Å and 1.56 Å in (II), respectively. The coordination number of the Na+ or K+ around the HSO4 - was evaluated to be about unity. The semi-empirical molecular orbital calculations by the MNDO-MOPAC method were applied to the determination of the intraionic structure of the H S 0 4 and the bond lengths of S-O and S -OH were computed to be 1.528 Å and 1.666 Å, respectively, supporting qualitatively that the HSO4 - forms a rather distorted tetrahedron.

Purpose:Red blood cells added MAP as a additive solution (RC-MAP), developed by the Japanese Red Cross Society, is reported to be superior to the conventional CRC in that the good quality of red blood cells can be preserved for a long term. Another advantage is that the removal of huffy coat serves to alleviate transfusion-induced adverse reactions. We used RC-MAP (preserved 10-12 days after collection) and FFP (obtained from the same donors) in a total of 10 cases requiring cardiac surgery (3 for ASD, 1 for VSD+RSV, 1 fort AVR, 1 for MVR and 4 for AC bypass) from the start of extracorporeal circulation to postoperative management. This report describes the clinical courses in these cases.Results:The mean time of extracorporeal circulation was 112.5±71.3min. The volume of bleeding from the postoperative drain ranged from 4.6 to 20ml/kg except 35ml/kg in the AVR case, showing little difference from that in the cases of blood component and fresh whole blood transfusion. Fibrinogen and prothrombin time were within the normal ranges. Free Hb and BUN returned to the normal in a short time. Renal disturbance was not found in any case. The red blood cells of RC-MAP filled in the artificial heart-lung apparatus were lableled with Cr51. The half life proved to be about 26 days with little difference from that in the cases of fresh whole blood transfusion.The time of extracorporeal circulation was longer in one of the four AC bypass cases and the AVR case than in others. The total volume of RC-MAP used throughout the course was accordingly larger in these cases. This suggested that some appropriate measures should be taken for such cases, because hypoproteinemia and relative shortage of coagulation factors might arise from MAP-induced hyperhemodilution. With this in mind, we decreased MAP content in RC-MAP immediately before use for the cases treated after the above two cases. This measure could bring a good result.

The Tapestry experimental mail system developed at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center is predicated on the belief that information filtering can be more effective when humans are involved in the filtering process. Tapestry was designed to support both content-based filtering and collaborative filtering, which entails people collaborating to help each other perform filtering by recording their reactions to documents they read. The reactions are called annotations; they can be accessed by other people’s filters. Tapestry is intended to handle any incoming stream of electronic documents and serves both as a mail filter and repository; its components are the indexer, document store, annotation store, filterer, little box, remailer, appraiser and reader/browser. Tapestry’s client/server architecture, its various components, and the Tapestry query language are described.

Background : Some of the major blood group antigens are on lipids and proteins of the red cell membrane. Incubation of intact red cells with liposomes containing specially designed artificial lipids has been shown to result in the extraction of membrane proteins by the liposomes. The extraction of blood group structures and the retention of their antigenicity have not been reported. Study Design and Methods : After the incubation of red cells with liposomes, the extraction of the antigens from human red cells by liposomes was examined by evaluation of the agglutination of the liposomes by respective antisera. Results : Agglutination specific to the A and B blood group antigens was seen, which indicated that the antigenicity of the blood group antigens was retained even after the extraction by the liposomes. The presence of an artificial boundary lipid, 1,2-dimyristamido-1,2-deoxyphosphatidylcholine, in the liposome was crucial to the efficient extraction of the and B antigens. On the other hand, the extraction of D, M, N, and P 1 was not always detectable by agglutination. Conclusion : The A and B blood group antigens were directly extracted from red cells by liposomes without loss of antigenicity.

We conducted a multi-center phase I/II trial of nonmyeloablative stem cell transplantation for patients with hematologic malignancies. The aim of this trial was to assess the safety and feasibility of this treatment modality for older or younger patients with significant organ dysfunction, who could not be treated with conventional high dose chemoradiotherapy. Twelve patients were treated with a conditioning regimen consisting of fludarabine and cyclophosphamide, followed by peripheral blood stem cell transplantation from human leukocyte antigen (HLA) identical siblings. Nonhematologic toxicities were mild. Median time to absolute neutrophils above 0.5 x 10(9)/l, 1.0 x 10(9)/l and platelets above 50 x 10(9)/l were 8, 10 and 12 days, respectively. Donor dominant hematopoiesis was achieved in all patients, with or without donor leukocyte infusion. The cumulative incidence of acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) was 75 and 56%, respectively. Only one patient experienced early death within 100 days, caused by acute GVHD complicated by fungal infection. All patients except one achieved complete remission. With a median follow-up of 330 days, expected progression-free survival is 75%. Overall survival is 76%. Our study confirms that nonmyeloablative stem cell transplantation with cyclophosphamide and fludarabine conditioning is a safe and promising treatment for elderly patients with hematologic malignancies. A further study in large-scale setting is warranted.

The authors introduce an expert system for supporting the operation of a primary substation which plays an important role in an electric power system. The system provides the substation operators with the results of diagnosis and necessary guidance. The system is provided with an event-driven reasoning system which flexibly changes the flow of reasoning in response to the events or changes in the state of the electric power system. To realize this event-driven reasoning, the system is composed of multiple inference modules centered around a blackboard. To verify the operation of the expert system on a real-time basis, a prototype of the expert system was connected with a simulator which simulates a power system and its faults. >

The possibility of introducing a multimode (MM) optical fiber into an interferometry system was investigated. The interferometry pattern can be observed when the MM fiber is used, although some image degradation occurs. However, in the case of the MM fiber, the speckle pattern duplicates itself on the interferometry image, and this change can damage the interferometry image. Based on the experiment presented, it was found that the speckle pattern is very sensitive to fiber movement. >

Recently, superior anti-contamination insulators based on the wetting characteristics, such as, polymer and room temperature vulcanized silicone rubber coated insulators having superior hydrophobicity, and semiconducting glaze insulators having drying effect by leakage current in the glaze, have been developed. However, such superior performances of these insulators can not be always expected. Hydrophobicity of silicone rubber and drying effect of semiconducting glaze may not be fully effective under some wetting conditions. In order to establish application and maintenance guidelines for these insulators, we investigated the netting characteristics of these new insulators comparing with standard porcelain insulators both in artificial fog chamber and in outdoor field. We could confirm the effects of relative humidity on the deliquescence/absorption of water vapor in air by salt deposited on actual insulator surface.

This study used modal analysis to evaluate the vibratory properties of cast obturator prostheses fitted with soft lining material. Three types of buccal flange bulbs were prepared: a resin (R) type; a 2 mm-thickness relined (RM) type; and a type fully relined with MOLTENO, (M) type. A vibration generator excited the obturator, while a Laser-Doppler Vibrometer detected the vibrations at specified measurement points. Both the excitation and response signals were sent to an FFT analyzer, which calculated the frequency response functions. Then, using DAMPCAL simulation software, the decay rates and the maximum amplitudes of rest and clasp parts were calculated. Statistical analysis was performed by means of one-way ANOVA with Fisher's PLSD test. The results indicated that for impacts simulated on both the defective and non-defective sides, the R type showed a significantly higher decay rate than did the other samples (p0.0001). When impacts were directed at the non-defective side, the R and M types showed significantly smaller maximum amplitude values than did the RM type (p0.0001). Only the M type, however, showed significantly smaller values when impacts were directed at the defective side (p0.0001).

The aim of this study was to analyze the vibratory characteristics in the maxillary dentition of 4 cleft lip and palate (CLP) patients before and after bone grafting. First, the central incisor on the noncleft side was impacted with an impact hammer, and the responses were received using an acceleration sensor from the teeth between the upper first molars on both sides. The transfer functions were then obtained from each measurement point using a fast Fourier transform analyzer. Finally, a computer analysis and simulation were performed based on the measured transfer functions to obtain the natural frequency, modal shape, decay rate (DR) and maximum displacement (MDP). Before bone grafting, distinct phase differences between the major and minor dental arches (MDA and mDA) were observed in the modal shapes. After surgery, however, both the MDA and mDA vibrated in phase. These results were identical in all subjects. The MDPs of the central incisors conspicuously decreased after bone grafting in 3 subjects. From the standpoint of vibratory characteristics, this study indicated that bone grafting had a favorable effect on prosthodontic treatment using a fixed prosthesis across the cleft in CLP patients.

Obturator prostheses have been extensively used in the functional rehabilitation of maxillectomy patients. The purpose of this study was to evaluate in vitro the vibration movements of three types of obturator prostheses. Three types of bulbs were used: the solid type, the buccal flange type, and the hollow type. Modal analysis was performed to identify the better form. The three types of obturator prostheses were excited by a shaker, and the frequency response functions were recorded on an FFT analyzer to identify their modal shapes. In addition, transient response simulations were carried out, and decay rates of the resultant transient response waves were compared to evaluate the energy absorption after the obturator prosthesis had experienced an impact. The results showed that the modal shapes were closely similar, while the amplitudes at the rests and clasps of the hollow type bulb were the smallest. In the transient response simulation, the decay rates of the hollow type were significantly the highest (p0.01). In this study, modal analysis demonstrated that the hollow type obturator prosthesis showed the steepest vibration decay slope, indicating that it might be the best among the three types of bulbs for use in clinical treatments.

A 21-year-old male complained of persisting erection. A urethral balloon catheter had been for 3 weeks after indwelt urethral injury by a skateboard, and he was hospitalized because of penile erection persisting after removing the catheter. High flow priapism was suspected by intracavernous blood gas study and color Doppler ultrasound study. Selective internal pudendal arteriography revealed a leakage of contrast medium at the base of penis. He was treated with selective embolization of bilateral internal genital arteries using gelatin sponges and achieved detumescence. Normal potency was evident 3 months later by examining nocturnal penile tumescence.

Lactobacillus plantarum phage phi gle has two consecutive cell lysis genes hol-lys (Oki et al., 1996b). In the present study, functional and structural properties of the hol protein (Hol) were characterized in Escherichia coli. Electron microscopic examinations showed that hol under plac in E. coli XL1-Blue injured the inner membrane to yield empty ghost cells with the bulk of the cell wall undisturbed. Northern blot analysis indicated that hol-lys genes under plac were co-transcribed, although the amount of hol transcript was larger than that of lys, ceasing via an apparently rho-independent terminator just downstream of hol. However, deletion and/or fusion experiments suggested that: (1) the N-terminal half of phi gle Hol composed of three putative transmembrane domains may be responsible for interaction with membrane; (2) the N-terminal end (five amino acids) seems nonessential; and (3) the C-terminal half containing charged amino acids appears to be involved in proper hol function. These results suggest that phi gle Hol is a member of the lambdoid holin family, but divergent in several properties from lambda holin.