Search

Rickettsiae are obligate intracellular bacteria that have small genomes as a result of reductive evolution. Many Rickettsia species of the spotted fever group (SFG) cause tick-borne diseases known as "spotted fevers". The life cycle of SFG rickettsiae is closely associated with that of the tick, which is generally thought to act as a bacterial vector and reservoir that maintains the bacterium through transstadial and transovarial transmission. Each SFG member is thought to have adapted to a specific tick species, thus restricting the bacterial distribution to a relatively limited geographic region. These unique features of SFG rickettsiae allow investigation of how the genomes of such biologically and ecologically specialized bacteria evolve after genome reduction and the types of population structures that are generated. Here, we performed a nationwide, high-resolution phylogenetic analysis of Rickettsia japonica, an etiological agent of Japanese spotted fever that is distributed in Japan and Korea. The comparison of complete or nearly complete sequences obtained from 31 R. japonica strains isolated from various sources in Japan over the past 30 years demonstrated an extremely low level of genomic diversity. In particular, only 34 single nucleotide polymorphisms were identified among the 27 strains of the major lineage containing all clinical isolates and tick isolates from the three tick species. Our data provide novel insights into the biology and genome evolution of R. japonica, including the possibilities of recent clonal expansion and a long generation time in nature due to the long dormant phase associated with tick life cycles.

Tsutsugamushi disease and Japanese spotted fever are representative rickettsioses in Japan, and are caused by infection with Orientia tsutsugamushi and Rickettsia japonica, respectively. For molecular-based diagnosis, conventional PCR assays, which independently amplify respective rickettsial DNA, are usually used; however, this approach is time-consuming. Here, we describe a new duplex real-time PCR assay for the simultaneous detection of O. tsutsugamushi and spotted fever group rickettsiae, and its evaluation using several PCR conditions in 6 public health laboratories. The detection limit of the assay was estimated to be 102 copies and the sensitivity was almost identical to that of 3 conventional PCR methods. A total of 317 febrile patients were selected as clinically suspected or confirmed cases of rickettsioses. The detection efficiency of this assay for O. tsutsugamushi from blood or skin (eschar) specimens appeared to be almost the same as that of the conventional PCR method, even when performed in different laboratories, whereas the efficiency for spotted fever group rickettsiae tended to be higher than that of the 2 traditional double PCR assays. Our duplex real-time PCR is thus a powerful tool for the rapid diagnosis of rickettsioses, especially at the acute stage of infection.

Background Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is a tick-borne acute infectious disease caused by the SFTS virus (SFTSV). SFTS has been reported in China, South Korea, and Japan as a novel Bunyavirus. Although several molecular epidemiology and phylogenetic studies have been performed, the information obtained was limited, because the analyses included no or only a small number of SFTSV strains from Japan. Methods The nucleotide sequences of 75 SFTSV samples in Japan were newly determined directly from the patients' serum samples. In addition, the sequences of 7 strains isolated in vitro were determined and compared with those in the patients' serum samples. More than 90 strains that were identified in China, 1 strain in South Korea, and 50 strains in Japan were phylogenetically analyzed. Results The viruses were clustered into 2 clades, which were consistent with the geographic distribution. Three strains identified in Japan were clustered in the Chinese clade, and 4 strains identified in China and 26 in South Korea were clustered in the Japanese clade. Conclusions Two clades of SFTSV may have evolved separately over time. On rare occasions, the viruses were transmitted overseas to the region in which viruses of the other clade were prevalent.

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging infectious disease with a high case fatality risk and is caused by the SFTS virus (SFTSV). A retrospective study conducted after the first identification of an SFTS patient in Japan revealed that SFTS is endemic to the region, and the virus exists indigenously in Japan. Since the nucleotide sequence of Japanese SFTSV strains contains considerable differences compared with that of Chinese strains, there is an urgent need to establish a sensitive and specific method capable of detecting the Chinese and Japanese strains of SFTSV. A conventional one-step reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) (cvPCR) method and a quantitative one-step RT-PCR (qPCR) method were developed to detect the SFTSV genome. Both cvPCR and qPCR detected a Chinese SFTSV strain. Forty-one of 108 Japanese patients suspected of having SFTS showed a positive reaction by cvPCR. The results from the samples of 108 Japanese patients determined by the qPCR method were in almost complete agreement with those determined by cvPCR. The analyses of the viral copy number level in the patient blood samples at the acute phase determined by qPCR in association with the patient outcome confirmed that the SFTSV RNA load in the blood of the nonsurviving patients was significantly higher than that of the surviving patients. Therefore, the cvPCR and qPCR methods developed in this study can provide a powerful means for diagnosing SFTS. In addition, the detection of the SFTSV genome level by qPCR in the blood of the patients at the acute phase may serve as an indicator to predict the outcome of SFTS.

Ginsenoside Rg3 is a natural active ingredient that is extracted from Korean red ginseng root. It elevates the therapeutic effect of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, but previous studies found that the application of Rg3 is heavily limited by its low bioavailability and poor absorption via oral administration. To overcome these problems, Rg3-loaded PEG-PLGA-NPs (Rg3-NPs) were prepared by the modified spontaneous emulsification solvent diffusion (SESD) method, and the physicochemical characteristics of Rg3-NPs were investigated. We treated primary glioblastoma with 50 mM Rg3-NPs for 48h. We then used gene expression arrays (Illumina) for genome-wide expression analysis and validated the results for genes of interest by means of real-time PCR. Functional annotations were then performed using the DAVID and KEGG online tools. The results showed that the Rg3-NPs are slick and uniform, the average diameter of the nanoparticles is 75-90 nm, and their entrapment efficiency is 89.7+1.7%. MTT showed that the growth of cells can be significantly inhibited by Rg3-NPs in a dose-dependent manner. FCM testing showed Rg3-NPs can be released from the conjugate nanoparticle and react with the genes in the cell nuclei, causing changes in the gene molecules. We also found that cancer cells treated with Rg3-NPs undergo cell-cycle arrest at different checkpoints. This arrest was associated with a decrease in the mRNA levels of core regulatory genes BUB1, CDC20, TTK, and CENPE, as determined by microarray analysis and verified by real-time PCR. Furthermore, Rg3-NPs induced the expression of the apoptotic and antimigratory protein p53 in cell lines. The results of the present study, together with the results of earlier studies, show that Rg3-NPs target genes involved in theprogressionoftheM-phaseofthecellcycle.Itisassociatedwithseveralimportant pathways, which include apoptosis (p53). Rg3-NPs may be a potent cell-cycle regulation drug targeting the M-phase in glioblastoma cell lines.

High-grade glioma is the most common brain tumor in adults, and the prognosis for patients diagnosed with this type of cancer is still poor. The biological behavior of the tumors is correlated to t ...

Significant elastic anisotropy of olivine single crystal is well known. The velocity of P waves has a maximum in the direction of crystallographic a-axis (identical to optical-acoustic Z-axis). It is also known that dunite and peridotite which are found at the central core of an orogenic zone have a strong tendency to preferred orientation of olivine. The preferred orientation of olivine and elastic anisotropy of dunite in the tectonic zone of Japan are measured optically and acoustically. The latter is carried out using the ultrasonic wave at high pressures. The direction dependence of P wave velocity is expressed by V, = a + b cos2 8, where the direction of 8 = 0 is found to be nearly equal to the direction of lineation which coincides statistically with the direction of a-axis concentration. Recently the existence of anisotropy of the uppermoFt mantle came to be convincing by analysing the results of seismic refraction profiles at the ocean bottom. The P wave velocity can be expressed empirically as V, = a + b cos2 8 where 0 is the azimuth to the perpendicular to the ridge direction. Here the observed seismic anisotropy is attributed to the regional preferred orientation of constituent minerals of rocks composing the upper mantle. The mechanism to produce preferred orientation is known to be either a recrystallization due to elastic anisotropy of minerals or a non-elastic effect such as gliding. In olivine the translation gliding in (010) plane is known. However, it does not seem that such a pure translation gliding can give rise to the significant preferred lattice orientation under stress. Let the preferred orientation of olivine aggregates be due to recrystallization. The stable mineral orientation is specified by the minimum condition of a certain thermodynamic function 4. It must be consistent with the stress and strain continuities at the grain boundary. According to our theory (1) and (2) 4 is represented by a sum of: (a) A function dependent upon a grain shape (interface configuration between grains) (first order). It plays a significant role in mineral orientation of tectonite. However, it is insensitive to the elastic anisotropy. (b) A linear function of deviatric stress component (second order). (c) A quadratic function of stress component (second order). Terms (b) and (c) are related to the stored energy and potential due to deformation and are dependent upon the stress-strain relation, while (a) is independent of stressstrain relation. The expression of C#J is shown in Table 1. Under high hydrostatic pressures greater than lOkb, term (b) becomes predominant. In the actual mineral aggregates, the grain boundary is not a plane, and the surface integral expression of 4 is necessary. To find the condition C#J = min the variational problem for the relative angle between the axis of anisotropy and the axis of external

This paper describes the design and implementation of the massively parallel processor based on the matrix architecture which is suitable for portable multimedia applications. The proposed architecture in this paper achieves the high performance of 40 GOPS in the case of consecutive fixed-point 16-bit additions at 200MHz clock frequency and the small power dissipation of 250mW. In addition, 1Mbit SRAM for data registers and 2048 2-bit-grained processing elements connected by a flexible switching network are integrated in the small area of 3.1 mm 2 in 90nm CMOS low standby technology. These design techniques and architectures described in this paper are attractive for realizing area-efficient, energy-efficient, and high-performance multimedia processors

Summary An analysis is made of the energy input from the upper mantle to the crust since Palaeozoic times under the Japanese islands. It is argued that significant changes in this rate have occurred. These changes in energy input are interpreted in terms of unsteady mantle convection. The effect of the C layer on convection is discussed. The upper mantle is a source of both energy and materials for the development of the crust. Therefore analysis of geological phenomena (tectogenesis) from the thermodynamical point of view is useful to understand the present state and evolutionary path of the upper mantle. The energy analysis is carried out for the formation process of the Japan Islands. It is concluded that the rate of energy supply from the upper mantle during the late Palaeozoic to the late Mesozoic (first active period) is 0.8-1.6fical/cmzs in excess of the normal (stationary) flow. During the Miocene (another significant active period) energy supply reached several pcai/cmzs (4). The latter activation has been continuing up to the present. The above abnormal (unsteady) energy supply is realized only by enthalpy transfer. The activation of upper mantle might be possible either by the ,thermal convection or by two phase convection, of which the latter corresponds to a local generation of magmas. Two possible types of activation are compared with concept of the thermodynamical engine (3). A study of thermodynamical coupling of the mantle and crust is carried out by a method of numerical experiment. As an example the unsteady mantle convection in Newtonian viscous fluid is discussed in relation to the thermal and mechanical response to the crust. The thermal convection is assumed to be generated locally by the horizontal temperature gradient within the mantle. Considering the time scale of actual geological phenomena the effective viscosity of the upper mantle is estimated as 1021-1022 P. The maximum speed reaches an order of cm/year. A sequence of epiorogenic volcanism and the following plutonism is obtained (5). In many cases the activation of the upper mantle took place at the ocean-continent boundary. For the activation of the mantle in a specified region there exists two types of possibility. The first is that the upper mantle was already inhomogeneous and the geological processes are regarded as the reflection of the mantle inhomogeneity. However, the thermal stress due to heat source inhomogeneities is shown to be insufficient to generate the mantle differentiation. The second possibility is the information transfer of surface inhomogeneities into the deeper part. The generation of thermal convection described above is a possible mechanism. When the heat flow through the Moho is unsteady, the thermal state of the crust also becomes unsteady. In addition, variation of crustal thickness due to orogenism and sedimentation-erosion, redistribution of radiogenic heat source, and the progress of regional metamorphism affect the thermal state of the crust. Secular variation of

The evaluation of unit cell neutronic parameters and lifetime for some innovant reactors without on sit-refuling will be held in this work. the behavior of some small and medium reactors without on site refueling with triso and cermet fuel. For the FBNR long life except we propose to change the enrichment of the Cermet MFE to 9%. For the AFPR reactor we can see that the use of the Cermet MFE can extend the life of this reactor but to maintain the same life period for AFPR-SC we most use burnup poison to have the same slope for Kinf (Burnup). PFPWR50 cell behaves almost in same way using both fuels Cermet and TRISO. So we can conclude that PFPWR50 reactor, with CERMET Fuel, is kept among the long cycle reactors and with the new configuration we avoid subcriticality at the beginning of cycle. The evaluation of unit cell neutronic parameters reveals a good agreement with the goal of BWR-PB concept. It is found out that the Triso fuel assembly lifetime can be extended for a reasonably long period without being refueled, approximately up to 48GWd/t burnup. Using coated particles fuels with the Cermet composition can be more extended the fuel assembly life time, approximately 52 GWd/t., {"references":["K. Okumura, K. Kaneko, K. Tsuchihashi. \"SRAC95; General purpose\nneutronics code system\" (1996).","R. Sanchez and Al. \"Apollo- II:A User-Oriented, Portable, Modular\nCode for Multigroup Transport Assembly Calculations\" Proc. Int. Top.\nMtg. Advances in Reactor Physics, Mathematics and Computation,\nParis, France, April 27-30 (1987).","Georgi V. Tsiklauri, Frank A. Garner, Thomas E. Shea, George H.\nMeriwether, Alan E. Waltar, Winston W. Little, Jr. Darrell F. Newman,\nRonald P. Omberg, Robert J. Talbert, Brian W. Smith \"Long life Small\nNuclear Reactor Without Open-Vessel Re-Fueling\" March (2005).","Evgeny Grishanin, \"Concept of a lifetime-core particle-bedded 300Mwe\nboiling water reactor (BWR-PB)\" (2005).","Farhang Sefidvash, \"Conceptual Design of the Fixed Bed Nuclear\nReactor (FBNR) Concept\" (2005).","Izuho Tanihira, Yoichiro Shimazu, \"Extending the Life of PWR with\nCoated Particle Fuel By Using Thorium and Plutonium\" Proc.\nGlobal2005 (Oct 9-13, Tsukuba, Japan (2005)).."]}

A terabit/second hierarchically multiplexing photonic asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switch network architecture, called Terahipas, is proposed. It combines the advantages of photonics (a large bandwidth for transport of cells) and electronics (advanced logical functions for controlling, processing, and routing). It uses a hierarchical photonic multiplexing structure in which several tens of channels with a relatively low bit rate, say 2.4 Gb/s, are first time-multiplexed on an optical highway by shrinking the interval between optical pulses, then a number of optical highways are wavelength-multiplexed (or space-division multiplexed). As a result, the switch capacity can be expanded from the order of 100 Gb/s to the order of 10 Tb/s in a modular fashion. A new implementation scheme for cell buffering is used for eliminating the bottleneck when receiving and storing concurrent optical cells at bit rates as high as 100 Gb/s. This new architecture can serve as the basis of a modular, expandable, high-performance ATM switching system for future broad band integrated service digital networks (B-ISDN's). >

A CISC CPU chip for the business computer is described. It contains an integer unit (IU), a double-precision floating-point unit (FPU), an address generation unit (AGU), and a Harvard-style memory unit with cache. The memory includes two independent memory management units (DMMU and IMMU), an 8-kB D-cache, a 32-B store buffer (SB), and a bus-controller unit (BCU). An on-chip PLL (phase-locked loop) synchronizes external and internal clock edges with a skew of 1-ns. The chip is fabricated in a 0.8- mu m CMOS double-polysilicon double-metal technology. A 77- mu m/sup 2/ SRAM (static random-access memory) cell uses a high resistance load formed by the second polysilicon layer. The 16.3-mm*12.7-mm chip contains 1.71-M transistors. In 40-MHz operation, power consumption is 6 W with a 5-V supply. The design is verified by simulations at several levels, using a microsimulator for evaluating parallelism of a large horizontal microprogram. >

肛門管癌は比較的稀な疾患であるとともに,特徴的な臨床症状はない.このため早期発見に難渋することがある。今回,肛門周囲膿瘍を契機として発見された症例を経験した.そこで早期発見への注意を含め報告する.症例は62歳,男性.肛門痛を主訴として受診.肛門周囲膿瘍の切開排膿後,痔瘻根治手術を施行したが,手術創の治癒が不良であった.約1年6カ月後手術創に硬結を触知し,生検で粘液癌と診断されたため,腹会陰式直腸切断術を行なった.手術所見を含めた摘出標本の肉眼的,病理学的診断は, P, 5型, A1, N0, H0, P0, Stage IIで,間質に著明な粘液貯留と印環細胞の浮遊を伴う粘液癌であった.本症例のような粘液産生肛門管癌は肛門周囲膿瘍の形で発見されることがあり注意が必要である.

An ultrafast photonic asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) (ULPHA) switch based on a time-division broadcast-and-select network with optical output buffers is presented. The ULPHA switch has an ultra-high throughput and excellent traffic characteristics, since it utilizes ultrashort optical pulses for cell signals and avoids cell contentions by novel optical output buffers. Feasibility studies show that an 80*80 ULPHA switch with 1-Gb/s input/output is possible by applying the present technology, and that more than 1 Tb/s is possible by making a three-stage network using such switches. As an experimental demonstration, 4-bit 40-Gb/s optical cells were generated and certain cells were selected at an output on a self-routing basis. With its high throughput and excellent traffic considerations, the ULPHA switch is a strong candidate for a future large-capacity optical switching node. >

We have studied the prevalence of the subgenus F adenoviruses and the molecular characteristics of adenovirus type 41 in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, as a limited area during the period of 1997–2004. Subgenus F adenoviruses were detected in 30 (3.4%) of 892 fecal specimens by enzyme immunoassay (EIA), and 80.0% (24 of 30) of positive patients were

The matrix processing engine (MTX) is a massively parallel processor based on the matrix architecture. 40GOPS (16b additions) is achieved at 200MHz clock frequency and 250mW power dissipation. 2048 ALUs and 1Mb SRAM connected by a flexible switching network are integrated in 3.1mm2 using a 90nm CMOS process

The architecture and capability of a 32-bit VLSI Signal Processor (mSP32) are described in this paper. This processor can treat 16-bit integer, 32-bit integer and IEEE-format 32-bit floating point number. The instruction is 16-bit vertical type. It is simple and easy to understand. This processor is useful for digital signal processing, such as FFT or digital filtering. And this processor is available for numeric operation processor, too, as its floating point format is based on a IEEE-standard.

This paper describes the microarchitecture of the 32-bit superscalar microprocessor GMICRO/400 with simple prejump mechanisms and its performance evaluation. GMICR0/400 has six stages of instruction execution pipeline and implements a dynamic branch prediction scheme, executing jump instructions in early stages. For dynamic branch predictions, GMICR0/400 contains a 1-Kbit table which holds a single history bit for each conditional branch instruction. For dynamic return-address predictions, it contains a 16-entry stack, which holds copies of return addresses of return-from-subroutine instructions. Prediction accuracies of the branch history table and the return-address stack are 81.7% and 99.6% for the SPECCINT92 respectively, and achieve a speed-up of 1.27. This performance is 95% of that of an ideal model, with a much more complex prejump mechanism and perfect accuracies.

A photonic ATM backbone network that uses package-multiplexing is proposed to transfer ATM cells over ultra-high-speed trunk lines. The large-capacity lines that will be required to support broad-band services in the 21st century will have difficulty handling signals of more than 10 Gbps with electrical ATM switching systems because of size and power consumption constraints. A practical alternative that uses current technology is a photonic switching system that combines optical switches and electrical control circuits. The bottleneck in such a system would be the header processing capability of the electrical circuits. This proposed network first packs several cells into large packets called "packages" and then transfers the packages over ultra-high-speed optical lines. This photonic ATM backbone network will make it possible to build flexible and efficient cell transport networks. >

An optical wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) subscriber network architecture and an economical introduction scenario for B-ISDN services are proposed. B-ISDN services are integrated into an optical WDM subscriber network by using a different wavelength for each service. Key technologies for each of the introduction scenario's five stages are described, and some preliminary results obtained with them are presented. >

A description is presented of the hardware implementation and a design example is given of an ultrafast photonic asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) (ULPHA) switch. Experimental results are presented of the generation and the self-routing switching of ultrafast optical cells. For hardware implementation, new cell coder and buffer configurations are proposed, and for the design example, it is shown that this switch can achieve 102 Gb/s throughput. In addition, the generation of 16 bit, 20 Gb/s optical cells and a demonstration of 4 bit, 20 Gb/s cell selection using a wavelength multiplexing technique are presented. >

An 82-year-old woman was admitted to the Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Yamanashi Medical University to try to identify the origin of a liver metastatic tumor. CT examination revealed a small tumor located adjacent to the uterine cervix in a cul-de-sac. With biopsy using MR, it was clearly shown histologically that the origin of the tumor was the ovary. Systemic chemotherapy with paclitaxel and carboplatin was selected as the most reasonable treatment for this case because of the patient's age. After 6 courses of this chemotherapy, the tumor in the cul-de-sac disappeared and the tumor in the liver decreased markedly. Furthermore, no severe side effects were seen during this treatment. This result indicated that systemic chemotherapy with paclitaxel and carboplatin is effective and safe in cases of advanced ovarian cancer.

The aim of this study was to investigate the safety and long-term effects on serum lipid levels of low-dose simvastatin, an inhibitor of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase, in Japanese patients with moderate primary hypercholesterolemia. We assigned 201 patients (68 men and 133 women; mean +/- SD age, 61.3 +/- 10.2 years) with serum total cholesterol levelsor = 220 mg/dL to receive simvastatin 5 mg each evening; the treatment period was 1 year. Serum total cholesterol, triglycerides, and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels decreased significantly in response to simvastatin therapy, and the changes were maintained throughout the treatment period. Mean total cholesterol decreased from 269.9 +/- 35.4 mg/dL to 215.2 +/- 34.5 mg/dL (20.3%), triglycerides decreased from 183.0 +/- 110.2 mg/dL to 155.5 +/- 88.5 mg/dL (15.0%), and LDL cholesterol decreased from 180.0 +/- 33.1 mg/dL to 130.1 +/- 35.1 mg/dL (27.7%). Total cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL cholesterol tended to decline when the pretreatment values were higher; the critical values and the bidirectional changes of the serum lipid levels were 188.1, 109.5, and 91.6 mg/dL, respectively. Although the serum level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol did not change significantly, it tended to increase more when the pretreatment values were lower; the "critical value" was 70 mg/dL. Nine patients experienced mild adverse events, but none discontinued simvastatin during the 12-month treatment period. We found that low-dose simvastatin therapy is effective in achieving long-term decreases in serum lipid levels and is well tolerated by patients with moderate hypercholesterolemia. Simvastatin therapy may result in normalization of serum lipid levels.

The conversion of the closed circular double stranded supercoiled DNA (pBR322) to the nicked circular form and linear form was used to investigate DNA nicking induced by the reactions of Cu(II) complexes with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). As a result, the dose-response curve for the CuII(en) (en:ethylenediamine) mediated H2O2 dependent DNA nicking was observed. For a fixed concentration of CuII(en)2 (1 mM), the concentration of H2O2 producing a maximum extent of DNA nicking was 100 mM. On the other hand, for a fixed concentration of H2O2 (100 mM), the concentration of CuII(en)2 was 1 mM. That is, when the concentration ratio of H2O2 to CuII(en)2 was 100, a maximum extent of DNA nicking was observed. This result is a good accordance with that observed by thiobarbituric acid (TBA) and ESR-spin trapping methods. This result gives first experimental evidence that Cu(II) complex did cause the DNA damage in the presence of H2O2. On the other hand, CuII(edta) (edta: ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) did not cause the DNA strand breaks with the reaction of H2O2, but it was activated by addition of the biological reductant such as ascorbic acid in the presence of H2O2 to cause the DNA strand breaks.

Mature beagle bitches were injected with exogenous gonadotrophins to induce superovulation. Preovulatory oocytes were collected at 72 h after intravenous injection of human chorionic gonadotrophin and cultured for 72 h in a modified Krebs-Ringer bicarbonate solution containing 10% fetal calf serum and 30 mg gentamicin sulfate l-1. Control oocytes were collected from ovaries of anoestrous bitches and cultured for 72 h. All oocytes were at the germinal vesicle stage when collected. At 72 h of culture, a significantly larger population (31.9%) of preovulatory oocytes reached metaphase II, compared with the control group (12.1%). Ejaculated beagle spermatozoa were washed and preincubated for 4 h, then capacitated spermatozoa were added to the oocytes. The kinetics of sperm penetration into the ooplasm did not differ between the two groups of oocytes, but the development of male and female pronuclei was observed more frequently in oocytes collected from preovulatory follicles. These results suggest that preovulatory maturation is required for the normal development of canine oocytes, although they are ovulated at the germinal vesicle stage.

This study was conducted to determine what factors are related to falls, conditions contributing to falls and the associated injuries. Subjects who had lived in 3 institutions for the elderly in the western region of Shizuoka Prefecture were chosen. Subjects (n = 181) had an average age of 76.4 +/- 7.8 years, and all were interviewed regardless of their history of falls. For those who had experienced falls further interviews were conducted. The following results were obtained: 1) There were 64 subjects (35.4% of the subjects) who had experienced falls, some having experienced multiple falls (for a total count of 89 falls). 2) The frequency of falls of differed by sex or age was significantly. The frequency of females was significantly higher than that of males. The frequency for those in their 70's was lower than in other age groups. 3) At the time of experiencing falls the majority of subjects had hypertension, eye symptoms, insomnia, paralysis, functional restrictions, were going up or down stairs, working, and had difficulty reading characters in newspapers, had experiences of stumbling or need of medical attention within for the past 2 years. Results of this study showed that, while the use of tranquilizers or hypnotics were not statistically significant, they were closely connected to and increase in falls among the aged. 4) In the causes of falls, intrinsic factors figured in 34 (34.0%) cases, and the extrinsic factors in 66 (66.0%). 5) Both falls and fall-caused external injuries were higher among females than males. Furthermore, female subjects mainly suffered contusions and fractures while male subjects mainly suffered abrasions.

Preovulatory oocytes were collected from ovaries of beagle bitches that had received superovulatory treatment. They were cultured in a modified Krebs-Ringer bicarbonate solution containing 10% fetal calf serum and 30 mg/L gentamicin sulfate for up to 72 h. About 32% of oocytes reached metaphase II by 72 h of culture. When these in vitro-matured oocytes were inseminated with ejaculated beagle spermatozoa that had been preincubated for 4 h, sperm penetration of the zona pellucida started about 1 h after insemination, and both male and female pronuclei were seen in the ooplasm at 8 h after insemination. At 18-20 h after insemination, oocytes were transferred to Whitten's medium and cultured for 76-78 h. The first cleavage was observed at 48 h after insemination, and 15 of 45 oocytes developed to the 2-8-cell stage. These results demonstrate that in vitro-matured canine oocytes can be fertilized and develop to the 8-cell stage in vitro.

In order to determine what factors are related to falls and the effect on the aged, a study was conducted on subjects aged 60 years and over who had undergone preventive health examinations in the western region of Shizuoka Prefecture. Subjects (n = 305) had an average age of 64.4 +/- 3.8 years, and all were interviewed regardless of their history of falls. For the 66 cases who had experienced falls, further questions prepared in advance, were included. The following results were obtained: 1) There were 66 subjects (21.6% of the subjects) who had experienced falls with some experienced multiple falls for a total count of 91 falls. 2) The frequency of falls of female subjects was significantly higher than that of males. Further, with respect to the type of injuries suffered, in the case of many of the female subjects, these took the form of contusions. 3) The majority of subjects who experienced falls were engaged in farming and most of the falls were work-related. 4) Results of this study showed that, while not statistically significant, cerebrovascular diseases are closely connected to falls and increases the falls coefficient among the aged.

The aim of this study is to evaluate in vivo the effect of branched chain amino acid (BCAA). Experimentally, hepatic energy production and protein synthetic rate were measured in gastrectomized rat which was infused BCAA postoperatively. Clinically, following indices were examined in prospectively randomized patients who underwent abdominal operation and were administered with conventional total parenteral nutrition keeping Calorie/N ratio about 150, including nitrogen balance, urinary 3-methylhistidine, retinol binding protein, B lymphocyte percentage and lymphocyte blastogenesis by phytohemagglutinin. Furthermore, plasma BCAA with their keto-analog level, Factor XIII and opsonic activity were determined in another group of patients who received full strength load of BCAA immediately after subtotal or total gastrectomy, in a controlled prospective randomized double-blinded manner. Results obtained from above mentioned measurements exhibited significant improvement by the administration of BCAA. From these findings, it is suggested that BCAA sustains energy-protein metabolism, supports immunocompetence and promotes wound healing under moderately stressed condition where catabolic response is physiologically compensated.

A new ultrafast photonic packet switch is based on a time-division multiplexing distribution network with novel fiber optic output buffers for throughput control.

The authors describe photonic cell switching experiments using an optical input buffer. The buffer controls cell throughput to a switch module according to back-pressure signals from a switch controller. The buffer has a size of three cells consisting of two kinds of fibre delay line. The optical cells are switched to dual ports through the optical buffer. Buffering and switching experiments are performed for 2.5 Gbit/s 64 bit optical cells, and the bit error rate is measured.

A new bit-rate down convertor is proposed for detecting high-speed optical cells in an ultrafast photonic ATM switch. This converts high-speed optical cells into lower-speed cells with a minimal amount of hardware, while maintaining the correct sequence of optical pulses in each cell. The conversion of 23 Gbit/s 4 bit optical cells into 100 Mbit/s electrical signals, including bit-error-rate measurements, is demonstrated.

A novel cell multiplexer for generating time-multiplexed ultrafast optical cells for the photonic ATM cell switch is presented. This multiplexer mainly consists of speed convertors which can compress the intervals of ultrashort optical pulses according to the binary multiplicative principle and make ultrafast optical cells of any length with minimal hardware. Generation of a four-bit 40 Gbit/s optical cell by the speed convertor is demonstrated.

Optical routing control of 10 Gbit/s data through a tree-structured photonic switch is experimentally demonstrated. A binary route address within a header is optically processed to control the switch.