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A 76-year-old Japanese man was admitted to our hospital with chills and fever. Computed tomography revealed a 10-cm cystic tumor with peripheral ring enhancement in the left lobe of the liver and several small low-density areas with early peripheral enhancement in both lobes. The large liver mass was diagnosed as a pyogenic abscess and treated with antibiotics. However, elevation of the tumor marker, PIVKA-II, raised the possibility of hepatocellular carcinoma. A fine-needle aspiration biopsy was performed, and malignant hepatic cells were identified. The patient underwent left hepatectomy. Histological analyses of the resected surgical specimen confirmed necrotic liver abscess and residual hepatocellular carcinoma with massive lymphoid cell infiltration. Immunohistochemical analyses revealed that the lymphoid cells were positive for CD3 and CD8. The PIVKA-II level returned to normal after surgery and the hepatic lesions disappeared within 10 months. These findings suggest that the liver abscess stimulated cancer immunity, resulting in the proliferation of cytotoxic T lymphocytes and, subsequently, tumor regression.

Background: Achieving clear visibility through a windshield is one of the crucial factors in manufacturing a safe and comfortable vehicle. The optic flow (OF) through the windshield has been reported to divert attention and could impair visibility. Although a growing number of behavioral and neuroimaging studies have assessed drivers' attention in various driving scenarios, there is still little evidence of a relationship between OF, windshield shape, and driver's attentional efficacy. The purpose of this research was to examine this relationship. Methods: First, we quantified the OF across the windshield in a simulated driving scenario with either of two types of the windshield (a tilted or vertical pillar) at different speeds (60 km/h or 160 km/h) and found more upward OF along the tilted pillar than along the vertical pillar. Therefore, we hypothesized that the predominance of upward OF around the windshield along a tilted pillar could distract a driver and that we could observe the corresponding neural activity. Magnetic resonance scans were then obtained while the subjects performed a visual detection task while watching the driving scene used in the OF analysis. The subjects were required to press a button as rapidly as possible when a target appeared at one of five positions (leftmost, left, center, right, and rightmost). Results: We found that the reaction time (RT) on exposure to a tilted pillar was longer than that on exposure to a vertical pillar in the leftmost and rightmost conditions. Furthermore, there was more brain activity in the precuneus when the pillar was tilted than when it was vertical in the rightmost condition near the pillar. In a separate analysis, activation in the precuneus was found to reflect relative changes in the amount of upward OF when the target was at the rightmost position. Conclusions: Overall, these observations suggest that activation in the precuneus may reflect extraneous cognitive load driven by upward OF along the pillar and could distract visual attention. The findings of this study highlight the value of a cognitive neuroscientific approach to research and development in the motor vehicle manufacturing industry.

In this study, air conditioning system with two-phase rear door heat exchanger utilizing vapor compressor cycle for data center application has been developed. As rear door heat exchanger is directly installed at rack's rear side, thereby, allowing heat reception at higher temperature and larger heat exchanging surface area per unit heat load as compared to room air conditioning system. As a unique feature, low-pressure refrigerant (Saturated pressure 0.1 MPaA at 35°C) having low global warming potential ( $\text{GWP}=400$ ) in contrast to high pressure one has been utilized, resulting in easier maintenance and safer operation. On the other hand, low-pressure refrigerant requires large diameter piping system because system performance is sensitive to pressure drop. This problem is solved by utilizing multiple smaller diameter pipes (19.05 mm) layout instead of single large pipe. COP evaluation of developed air conditioning system is performed at a live data center in Southern India (Yearly average outdoor temperature = 28°C). The developed air conditioning system achieved $\text{COP} =3.2$ as compared to $\text{COP}=1.6$ of installed room air conditioning system at the data center.

保健所の特定給食施設指導における健康危機管理の項目は,平成 20 年 10 月 10 日付け健習発第 1010001号通知「地域における行政栄養士による健康づくり及び栄養・食生活の改善の基本指針」により示された。これは,特定給食施設における利用者への食事提供は,絶やすことなく災害時でも喫食者に対して,安全・安心で,栄養バランスの摂れた給食を提供しなければならないことにある。特定給食施設は,平常時から災害に備えることはもとより,有事の際には施設間でお互いに支え合う体制整備も欠かすことはできない。いつ,どこで発生するかわからない災害に備えておくことは,多数の喫食者の食を預かる給食施設にとって必要不可欠なことである。現在,災害等の健康危機管理時に,保健所管理栄養士が地域のコーディネート役として,連携機能を強化した実践的な災害支援体制整備が求められていることから,静岡県浜松市における特定給食施設の災害対策の現状について検討を行った結果,地域や外部も参加した防災訓練や研修を行うためには,保健所管理栄養士のオーガナイズ機能の重要性がうかがえた。, Health Crisis management duties relating to specific food preparation and distribution facilities managed by Public Health Centres have been announced by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.According to these guidelines, nutritionally balanced meals should be safely provided, even in disastersituations. Therefore, such facilities should be prepared for disaster at all times and they should not neglect to ensure that they are able to provide help to each other in times of emergency. In this regard, after carrying outan assessment on the disaster preparation of some of these facilities in the city of Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture, results suggest that the organizational abilities of Registered Dietitians in Public Health Centresplay a very important role in disaster prevention training, which involves both regional and externalparticipants.

Feasibility of two-phase immersion cooling in a closed electronic device such as a microwave transmitter is experimentally investigated. Two-phase immersion cooling directly cools multiple heat sources with various shapes which enables simple and flexible thermal design by fulfilling the existing electronic device with a coolant. The challenge is to reduce internal thermal resistance from heat sources to the chassis surface by effective thermal diffusion induced by two-phase immersion. The study covers selection of coolant and effect of coolant filling ratio. Then heat dissipation performance by single and multiple heat sources as well as enhancement by two-phase immersion with conduction materials are experimentally tested. Leaf spring and coil spring, both made of phosphor bronze, are used as the conduction materials and compared with rigid copper block in two-phase immersion. Experiment setup contains a vertical heating plate and an outer wall with heatsink separated by a gap space. Thermal resistance of basic two-phase immersion and enhancement by conduction materials are compared to provide design guideline for two-phase immersion application in a closed device.

Cooling capability is measured for a two-phase (vapor-liquid) flow-cooling system in terms of its thermal resistance and cooling power. The performance is compared between systems with and without a pump that drives the flow of a dielectric working fluid with a low boiling point. The geometry of the boiling chamber is first examined for each flow configuration to ensure the best possible performance. The results show that using a pump does not always result in higher power consumption than that of a thermal siphon system and the driving force generated by the pump augments phase-change heat transfer thereby reducing the fan power to minimize the overall power consumption. The present results show that the flow-boiling system has a high cooling capability using a small amount of cooling power compared with the thermal siphon.

This work is motivated by the following two potential applications: 1) enhancing driving safety and 2) collecting traffic data in a large dynamic urban environment. A laser-scanner-based approach is proposed. The problem is formulated as a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) with object tracking and classification, where the focus is on managing a mixture of data from both dynamic and static objects in a highly dynamic environment. A trajectory-oriented closure is also proposed using the sporadically available global positioning system (GPS) measurements in urban areas to assist for global accuracy, particularly when the vehicle makes a noncyclical measurement in a large outdoor environment. Experiments are conducted using the data that were collected along a course near 4.5 km in a highly dynamic environment. Possibilities of the approaches toward the two potential applications are demonstrated, and avenues for future works are discussed.

With the recent development of cloud computing, the amount of information to be processed in data centers has increased in recent years, which promotes the construction of new data centers. Modular data center, which is often packaged in standard shipping formats, has been introduced to construct and deploy data centers more quickly and less expensively than conventional data centers. To conserve cooling costs in modular data centers, a hot aisle/cold aisle arrangement of the IT racks is employed by dividing the top of the racks using the partition. However, dividing the top of the racks increases the pressure loss of the server fans, leading to the increase of the server fan power. To examine the impact of this effect on annual cooling power, we perform simulations of power consumption in modular data center that introduces outside air and louvers on the top of the racks. By varying the opening of the louver as a function of the outside air temperature and rack power, an operation to minimize the power consumption of the outside air fans and server fans is performed. We find that total cooling power in case where the louver is operated so as to minimize the total cooling power can be reduced than that in case where the louver is fully closed by about 5% (10%) for 10kW (20kW) rack power. We discuss that the popular method for calculating energy efficiency in data centers, i.e. Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), defined by the ratio of total amount of energy used to the energy used in IT equipment, is probably incomplete metric. Therefore, we finally propose that a revised PUE that removes the server fan power from IT equipment energy, and it should be used to estimate the energy efficiency to avoid the wrong interpretation.

Two-dimensional chirality at naturally chiral gold single crystalline surfaces was detected and characterized using optical second harmonic generation (SHG) measurements. SHG rotational anisotropy (SH-RA) patterns at Au(643)S and Au(643)R surfaces were mirror symmetric to each other. Systematic SH-RA measurements at chiral Au(hkl) surfaces with the same step and kink structures but different (111) terrace widths showed a linear correlation between surface step density and SH-RA fitting parameters arising from defects. These results indicate that SH-RA measurements provide information not only on surface chirality but also on density of surface defects.

Compilation, evaluation and dissemination are essential pieces of work for the nuclear data activities. We, Japan charged particle data group, have researched the utility framework for the nuclear reaction data on the basis of recent progress of computer and network technologies. These technologies will be not only for the data dissemination but for the compilation and evaluation assistance among the many corresponding researchers of all over the world. In this paper, current progress of our research and development is shown.

A high association between type 2 diabetes mellitus and depressive illness has been reported. Insulin resistance during depressive illness might contribute to the linkage between depression and type 2 diabetes. To determine whether the genetic polymorphisms of the tyrosine hydroxylase ([TH] HUMTH01) and insulin (INS-VNTR) genes contribute to insulin resistance in depressive illness, we analyzed the association between the polymorphisms and insulin resistance in 41 Japanese patients with depressive disorder, 204 normal control subjects, 161 cohort subjects with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) and without depressive symptomatology, and 59 NGT subjects with depressive symptomatology. The depressive patients had a significantly lower insulin sensitivity index (SI) than the control subjects (P = .016). Depressive NGT subjects had a significantly higher homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) insulin resistance index [HOMA(R)] than the nondepressive NGT subjects (P < .0001). The depressive patients and NGT subjects had more HUMTH01 allele 7 (TH7) than the controls and nondepressive NGT subjects. SI was significantly lower in patients with the TH7/7 homozygote versus patients with the other genotypes and the controls. TH7 was associated with higher HOMA(R) as compared with the other alleles in the NGT subjects. Insulin resistance was associated with depressive disorders. The HUMTH01 and INS-VNTR were associated with insulin resistance and depressive symptoms.

A newly designed retrieval system of charged particle nuclear reaction data is developed on Meme media architecture. We designed the network-based (client-server) retrieval system. The server system is constructed on a UNIX workstation with a relational database, and the client system is constructed on Microsoft Windows PC using an IntelligentPad software package. The IntelligentPad is currently available as developing Meme media. We will develop the system to realize effective utilization of nuclear reaction data: I. “Re-production, Re-edit, Re-use”, II. “Circulation, Coordination and Evolution”, III. “Knowledge discovery”.

A newly designed retrieval system of charged-particle nuclear reaction data (CPND) is developed on the IntelligentPad architecture. NRDF (Nuclear Reaction Data File), which is a kind of CPND compilation, is applied as an example. The authors designed the network-based (client-server) retrieval system. The server system is constructed on a UNIX workstation with a relational database; the client system is built on a Microsoft Windows PC using an IntelligentPad software package. The system is called CONTIP, which is an abbreviation of ‘Creative, Cooperative and Cultural Objects for Nuclear data and Tools on IntelligentPad’. CONTIP will be developed to realise effective utilisation of nuclear reaction data: (i) reproduction, re-edit, reuse, (ii) circulation, coordination and evolution and (iii) knowledge discovery.

Increased oxidative stress induced by hyperglycemia may contribute to the pathogenesis of diabetic complications. Oxidative stress is known to increase the conversion of deoxyguanosine (dG) to 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) in DNA, which is linked to increased mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) deletions. We investigated mtDNA deletions and 8-OHdG in the muscle DNA of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) patients. mtDNA deletion of 4977 bp (delta mtDNA4977) and the content of 8-OHdG in the muscle DNA of the NIDDM patients were much higher than those of the control subjects. There was a significant correlation between delta mtDNA4977 and the 8-OHdG content (P < 0.0001). Both delta mtDNA4977 and the 8-OHdG content were also correlated with the duration of diabetes. Delta mtDNA4977 and the 8-OHdG content in muscle DNA increased in proportion to the severity of diabetic nephropathy and retinopathy. This is the first report that an increase in delta mtDNA4977 and 8-OHdG is proportional to the severity of diabetic complications. Oxidative mtDNA damage is speculated to contribute to the pathogenesis of diabetic complications though a defect in mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation or other mechanisms. 8-OHdG and delta mtDNA4977 are useful markers to evaluate oxidative mtDNA damage in the diabetic patients.

The characteristic clinical features of diabetes mellitus with mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) 3243(A-G) mutation are progressive insulin secretory defect, neurosensory deafness and maternal inheritance, referred to as maternally inherited diabetes mellitus and deafness (MIDD). A treatment for MIDD to improve insulin secretory defects and reduce deafness has not been established. The effects of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) treatment on insulin secretory response, hearing capacity and clinical symptoms of MIDD were investigated. 28 MIDD patients (CoQ10-DM), 7 mutant subjects with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), and 15 mutant subjects with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) were treated daily with oral administration of 150 mg of CoQ10 for 3 years. Insulin secretory response, blood lactate after exercise, hearing capacity and other laboratory examinations were investigated every year. In the same way we evaluated 16 MIDD patients (control-DM), 5 mutant IGT and 5 mutant NGT subjects in yearly examinations. The insulin secretory response assessed by glucagon-induced C-peptide secretion and 24 h urinary C-peptide excretion after 3 years in the CoQ10-DM group was significantly higher than that in the control-DM group. CoQ10 therapy prevented progressive hearing loss and improved blood lactate after exercise in the MIDD patients. CoQ10 treatment did not affect the diabetic complications or other clinical symptoms of MIDD patients. CoQ10 treatment did not affect the insulin secretory capacity of the mutant IGT and NGT subjects. There were no side effects during therapy. This is the first report demonstrating the therapeutic usefulness of CoQ10 on MIDD.

Preoperative endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) was performed in 272 patients with advanced gastric cancer who underwent gastrectomy between December 1986 and December 1993. We divided the subjects into two groups: group A consisted of patients whose stomachs were filled with water for the EUS examination (water-filling method: 1986.12–1992. 10) and group B of patients in whom EUS was performed with the water-filled balloon compression method (balloon-compression method) in addition to the water-filling method (1992.11–1993. 12). A comparative study of EUS diagnostic efficacy, as regards the depth of invasion, was made between group A and group B. The following results were obtained: 1) In group A, the depth of invasion of mass-forming type carcinoma was accurately diagnosed by EUS in 59.3% of patients with mp cancer, in 28.8% of those with ss cancer, in 78.8% of those with se cancer, and in 83.3% of those with si cancer. The accuracy rate in diagnosing the depth of invasion of wall-thickening type carcinoma was 46.2% in patients with mp cancer, 68.0% in those with ss cancer, 59.1% in those with se cancer, and 66.7% in those with si cancer. 2) In group B, the depth of invasion of mass-forming type carcinoma was accurately diagnosed by EUS in 70.6% of patients with mp cancer, in 68.4% of those with ss cancer, in 92.3% of those with se cancer, and in 100% of those with si cancer. The accuracy rate in diagnosing the depth of invasion of wall-thickening type carcinoma was 75.0% in patients with mp cancer, 72.7% in those with ss cancer, 76.5% in those with se cancer, and 100% in those with si cancer. 3) These results suggest that the diagnostic efficacy of EUS utilizing both the balloon-compression method and the water-filling method is greater, as regards the depth of advanced gastric cancer invasion, than EUS utilizing only the water-filling method.

Endoscopic biliary drainage (EBD) is usually performed after endoscopic sphincterotomy (EST). In some patients, however, EBD without EST, so-called nonEST-EBD, is also effective. Thirty-four patients treated from 1983 to the present, were investigated to estimate the usefulness, safety, and drawbacks of nonEST-EBD. First, the reasons for adopting nonEST-EBD were reviewed in each patient. The most common reason was to reduce jaundice so as to preserve the function of the papilla of Vater in patients with choledocholithiasis who were to undergo surgery. However, such patients were treated in the early period of the investigation, and most would have undergone EST just after endoscopic retrograde cholangiography (ERC), had they been treated more recently. The most important reason, at present, was, thus, to avoid bleeding in patients with general or local hemorrhagic diathesis, who accounted for 20.6% (7/34 of our subjects). Next, the effect of drainage was examined. Drainage in seven patients was judged to be excellent, while that in 15 patients was determined to be effective. In 10 patients without jaundice, nonEST-EBD was performed to prevent jaundice. Therefore, in 91.7% of patients (22/24), nonEST-EBD was considered to be useful. Changes in the serum amylase level were investigated to estimate the safety of nonEST-EBD. Twenty-seven patients with nonEST-EBD, in whom the serum amylase level was within normal limits before treatment, and 57 patients with EBD after EST were evaluated. No statistically significant difference was recognized between these two groups in the degree of serum amylase elevation after drainage. NonEST-EBD is concluded to be an effective and safe method of reducing jaundice, if appropriate patients are selected.

The design and implementation of WikiBOK, a Wiki-based body of knowledge (BOK) formulation-aid system, is investigated in this paper. In contrast to formulating a BOK for a matured discipline such as computer science, BOK formulation for a new discipline such as social informatics needs a “bottom-up” approach because academics in a new discipline cannot draw its entire figure par avance. Therefore, an open collaboration approach based on the collective intelligence concept seems promising. WikiBOK is under development as part of our project based on BOK+, which is a novel BOK formulation principle for new disciplines. It uses Semantic MediaWiki (SMW) to facilitate its fundamental functions. To support a rich graphical user interface for WikiBOKers, a a graph visualization software, Graphviz, is adopted. SMW is enhanced to work in conjunction with Graphviz. Because edit conflicts occur when WikiBOKers collaborate, a resolution principle is investigated to resolve BOK tree edit conflicts.

The locus of the vitamin D-binding protein (DBP; also known as group-specific component protein or Gc) gene, chromosome 4q12, has been reported to be associated with glucose metabolism in several ethnic groups, including Pima Indians. We have recently reported the association of the DBP genotype with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Japan. The aim of this study was to investigate whether genetic variations of DBP have any influence on glucose metabolism without secondary effects of hyperglycemia or diabetes mellitus using 82 Japanese with normal glucose tolerance. The variations of the DBP gene (Gc 1F, 1S, and 2) were determined by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Fasting plasma insulin concentration and homeostasis model assessment, an index of insulin resistance, were significantly different based on the DBP genotype (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05, respectively). The people with Gc 1S-2 (5.73 ± 2.57 μU/mL) and 1S-1S (5.30 ± 3.46 μU/mL) had significantly higher fasting plasma concentrations than those with 1F-1F (2.84 ± 1.67 μU/mL) (P < 0.01 and P < 0.03, respectively). There was no significant difference in plasma glucose concentration, body mass index, total cholesterol, triglyceride, and blood pressure. In conclusion, genetic variations of DBP are associated with insulin resistance in Japanese with normal glucose tolerance, which might contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes.

Motivated by two potential applications, i.e. enhancing driving safety and traffic data collection, a system has been developed using a single-layer horizontal laser scanner as the major sensor for both localization and perception of the surroundings in a large dynamic urban environment. This research focuses on a classification method, that given a stream of laser measurements, classify the moving object into either a person, a group of people, a bicycle or a car. In this research, a number of features are defined after examining the property of data appearance. A classification method is proposed after examining the likelihood measures between each pair of feature and class. Experimental results are presented, demonstrating that the algorithm has efficiency with respect to both driving safety and traffic data collection in highly dynamic environment.

This research is motivated by two potential applications - enhancing driving safety and collecting traffic data in a large dynamic urban environment. A laser scanner based approach is proposed, in which SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) is developed with moving object detection and tracking using a laser scanner for perception, using GPS to achieve global accuracy, and using yaw rate and wheel speed to diagnose pose errors. Experiments are conducted to collect data along a course (4.5 km) with a test-bed vehicle run in a highly dynamic environment. The algorithms are examined, possibilities with respect to the two potential applications are demonstrated, and future works are discussed.

In this research, we propose a method of SLAM in a dynamic large outdoor environment using a laser scanner. Focus are cast on solving two major problems: 1) achieving global accuracy especially in non-cyclical environment, 2) tackling a mixture of data from both dynamic and static objects. Algorithms are developed, where GPS data and control inputs are used to diagnose pose error and guide to achieve a global accuracy; Classification of laser points and objects are conducted not in an independent module but across the processing in a framework of SLAM with moving object detection and tracking. Experiments are conducted using the data from two test-bed vehicles, and performance of the algorithms are demonstrated.

Accumulating reports indicate a relationship between mitochondrial DNA mutation and impaired glucose-induced insulin secretion leading to a subtype of noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. DNA from a 45-yr-old Japanese woman with noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and muscle atrophy was isolated and studied for mitochondrial DNA mutations. We identified a mitochondrial DNA C-T heteroplasmic mutation at nucleotide position 3256. The mutation was located in the transfer ribonucleic acidLeu in a region conserved in evolution. Eight other members of her family were examined for the mutation. Six of them had the same mutation together with noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, and one teenage boy had the mutation and impaired glucose tolerance. The other family member who did not have this mutation had normal glucose tolerance. The enzyme activity of the mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation pathway in the muscle of the proband was measured. The enzyme activity was decreased in the proband, especiall...

In large classes, teachers find it difficult to care about the personality and ability of individual students. One of the ways to grasp the learning state of students is to conduct a number of short tests during every class. If a system can automatically give the appropriate instructions and teaching materials to individual students based on the test results of each student, students in the large classes will be able to obtain the same advantages as those that can be obtained in tutorial classes. We have developed automatic marking systems and have been able to conduct a number of short tests. In this paper, we discuss the development of an integrated e-learning system for realizing large classes that enhance students' academic motivation by recognizing each student's state of learning.

A newly designed retrieval system of nuclear reaction data is developed on the IntelligentPad architecture, which is called CONTIP. We designed the network‐base retrieval system. The relational database is constructed on the UNIX server and the retrieval interface is constructed on the Windows PC. We applied it for NRDF and Exfor compilations as an application example.

Aims/hypothesis. Augmented oxidative stress induced by hyperglycaemia possibly contributes to the pathogenesis of diabetic complications. Oxidative stress is known to increase the conversion of deoxyguanosine to 8-oxo, 2 ′-deoxyguanosine in DNA. To investigate the possible contribution of oxidative DNA damage to the pathogenesis of diabetic complications, we measured the content of 8-oxo, 2 ′-deoxyguanosine in the urine and the blood mononuclear cells of Type II (non-insulin-dependent) diabetic patients. Methods. We studied 53 Type II diabetic patients and 39 age-matched healthy control subjects. We assayed 8-oxo, 2 ′-deoxyguanosine by HPLC-electrochemical detection method. Results. The content of 8-oxo, 2 ′-deoxyguanosine in the urine and the mononuclear cells of the Type II diabetic patients was much higher than that of the control subjects. Urinary 8-oxo, 2 ′-deoxyguanosine excretion and the 8-oxo, 2 ′-deoxyguanosine content in the mononuclear cells from the diabetic patients with complications were higher than those from the diabetic patients without complications. Urinary excretion of 8-oxo, 2 ′-deoxyguanosine was significantly correlated with the 8-oxo, 2 ′-deoxyguanosine content in the mononuclear cells. The 8-oxo, 2 ′-deoxyguanosine content in the urine and mononuclear cells was correlated with the haemoglobin A1 c value. Conclusion/interpretation. This is the first report of a direct association between oxidative DNA damage and the complications of diabetes. The augmented oxidative DNA damage in diabetes is speculated to contribute to the pathogenesis of diabetic complications. [Diabetologia (1999) 42: 995–998]

OBJECTIVE To present a novel mitochondrial DNA mutation in a diabetic family RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The proband was a 64-year-old man. In the family, diabetes was maternally inherited. He had diabetes, cerebellar ataxia, cervical lipoma, hearing loss, olfactory dysfunction, ophthalmoplegia, and facial nerve bilateral palsy. On examination, early insulin secretion was blunted, and the M value on glucose clamp test was low. In muscle, ragged red fibers were not found. T-to-C mutation at position 3264 was detected in the proband (0.5% mutant DNAs in leukocyte and 30% in muscle), but was not detected in 201 normal individuals. RESULTS Heteroplasmy of mutation, maternal inheritance of diabetes, and symptoms related to mitochondrial dysfunction suggest the pathogenecity of this 3264 mutation. As for diabetes etiology, both impaired insulin secretion and decreased insulin sensitivity seem to be important. In phenotypic characteristics, the combination of cerebellar ataxia and lipoma is a symptom sometimes found in myoclonic epilepsy and ragged red fibers (MERRFs). Ophthamoplegia is a symptom of chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia (CPEO). These suggest that our proband had phenotypic overlap with MERRF and CPEO. Conversely, facial nerve bilateral palsy is a rare finding. The pictures that focused on his cranial nerves were thus unique, suggesting the heterogeneity of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)-related diabetes. CONCLUSIONS A novel 3264 mitochondrial DNA mutation in diabetes gives new insight to the etiology of mitochondrial diabetes. Its pathogenecity supports the belief that the tRNA(Leu)(UUR) gene is an etiological hot spot of mitochondrial diseases.

Computational algorithms being developed and used in scientific research processes have gone on increasing by rapid advance of computer technology and computational techniques. These algorithms have generally been distributed and it has not always been easy for general users to find the most suitable ones for their specific problem solving. In this paper, an approach toward integrated algorithm information system is presented. The system is intended to store the algorithm information to be used in a wide range of scientific fields, and to provide the information corresponding to requests of general users with various motivations. The algorithm information is represented in a conceptual framework consisting of three sets of attributes which are selected to describe essential features of the algorithm. The experimental system shows that the information retrieval method is effective not only for the dissemination of the algorithm information but also for its organization and maintenance. However, it is pointed out and discussed that some techniques in artificial intelligence researches should be required for more selective and critical searches using implicit information among algorithms.