Prostate specific antigen doubling time in prostate cancer before treatment and in refractory status]

Prostate-specific antigen(PSA) increases exponentially in prostate cancer patients before treatment and in refractory status. PSA increases in 68-86% of prostate cancer patients before treatment, and that of the remaining 14-32% of the patients is stable. Those patients with a higher pre-treatment PSA level are more likely to have a shorter PSA-doubling time(PSA-DT). The relationship between pre-treatment stage, grade and PSA-DT is controversial. PSA-DT in biochemical failure patients predicts the risk of clinical recurrence. PSA-DT was correlated well with time to clinical recurrence after biochemical failure. Distant recurrence was associated with short PSA-DT. Higher clinical stage and lower differentiation before treatment correlated with shorter PSA-DT in recurrent cancer patients. PSA-DT is an important parameter for judging malignant potential of each cancer.     

Human erythrocyte bisphosphoglycerate mutase: inactivation by glycation in vivo and in vitro

2,3-Bisphosphoglycerate mutase (BPGM) [EC 5.4.2.4] is a multifunctional enzyme that catalyzes both the synthesis and the degradation of 2,3-diphosphoglycerate (2,3-DPG) and contains three types of activities in that it functions as a 2,3-DPG synthetase, a phosphoglycerate mutase and a 2,3-DPG phosphatase. In humans, BPGM occurs only in erythrocytes and plays a pivotal role in the dissociation of oxygen from hemoglobin via 2,3-DPG. The present study shows that the specific activity of BPGM in erythrocytes of diabetic patients is decreased, compared to normal controls as judged by 2,3-DPG synthetase activity and immunoreactive contents. To understand the mechanism by which the enzyme is inactivated, the enzyme was purified from pooled erythrocytes from diabetic patients and subjected to a boronate affinity column. The flow through fraction was active while the bound fraction was completely inactive. The bound fraction was reactive to an anti-hexitollysine antibody, indicating that the enzyme had undergone glycation and inactivation. The primary glycated site of the enzyme was found to be Lys158 as judged by amino acid sequencing and the reactivity with an anti-hexitollysine IgG, after reverse-phase HPLC of the lysyl-endopeptidase-digested peptides. Extensive glycation of recombinant BPGM in vitro indicated that the glycation sites were Lys2, Lys4, Lys17, Lys42, Lys158, and Lys196. From these results, the loss of enzymatic activity appears to be due to the glycation of Lys158 which may be located in the vicinity of the substrate binding site.     

Peripheral primitive neuroectodermal tumor in parietal pleura]

A 19-year-old woman was admitted to Kushiro city general hospital due to chest pain and dyspnea. Chest radiographs and computed tomographic scan showed a large intrathoracic mass adjacent to the pleura. Angiographs disclosed feeding veins of the tumor arising from lateral thoracic artery. Fine-needle aspiration cytology of the tumor revealed small round cells with a large nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio. Immunocytochemical study demonstrated that the tumor cells were positive for neuron-specific enolase and MIC 2 gene product. The diagnosis was primitive neuroectodermal tumor of the parietal pleura (also known as Askin tumor). Chemotherapy combined with peripheral blood stem cell transplantation reduced the size of the tumor significantly. However, multiple bone metastasis recurred, and the patient died 35 months after the start of therapy.     

Development of poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogel for waste water cleaning. II. Treatment of N,N-dimethylformamide in waste water with poly(vinyl alcohol) gel with immobilized microorganisms

The activated sludge that had been sufficiently cultivated with DMF-containing waste water was entrapped and immobilized in spherical poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogel particles. Features of numbers and distribution of bacteria in the resultant PVA gel were estimated. The DMF-decomposing bacteria named Bacillus cereus D-1 was isolated. Several morphological and physiological responses of the bacteria were revealed. Spherical PVA gel with the DMF-decomposing bacteria prepared through of freezing and thawing was tested for treatment of DMF-containing effluent. Test results have shown the ability of stable operation and maintenance at the same capacity of 1 kg/m³/day by both a basic study and a bench plant test. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The high-speed limit of FM response in semiconductor lasers

The high-speed frequency modulation (FM) response has been investigated through rate equation analysis. The intrinsic limit of FM response has been found to be given by the product of FM efficiency, η_FM, and the FM bandwidth, B. This relation shows that a wide FM bandwidth means a small FM efficiency. Although the FM efficiency changes with the differential gain or the nonlinear gain coefficient, η_FMB is almost constant. The value of η _FMB was about 5 GHz²/mA for 1.5-μm InGaAsP/InP lasers with 300-μm cavity length. This limit has been confirmed experimentally     

A role of lysine-43 in the inactivation of rat prorenin

1. Lysine-43 (Lys43) in the prosegment region was located within 3 x 10(-1) of catalytic sites, Asp81 and Asp266, in a stereo structure model of rat prorenin. 2. A mutant prorenin, Lys43Leu, was produced to elucidate a role of Lys43 in the inactivation of prorenin. Lys43Leu as well as the wild type were inactive at a neutral pH, and activated at an acidic pH. Its acid-activation speed was three times higher than that of the wild type. The mutant prorenin was more labile than the wild type at 55 degrees C and a neutral pH. 3. These results indicate that Lys43 forms ionic bonds with Asp81 and Asp266 to inactivate and stabilize prorenin.     

Nonlinear analysis of concrete cylinder structures under hydrostatic loading

The paper reports the recent results of four aspects of nonlinear analysis of concrete cylinder structures under hydrostatic loading—(1) further development of concrete constitutive relationships based on a plasticity formulation; (2) kinematics of failure mode for crushing and cracking concrete; (3) implementing the results in the form of a subroutine suitable for incorporation in a large finite-element analysis computer code (NONSAP program); and (4) studying the behaviour and strength of concrete cylindrical shell structures under hydrostatic pressure.The computer model developed includes the nonlinear displacement and material behaviour which is capable of performing parametric studies on the influence of geometric imperfections, variable restrained end supports, nonlinear nature of stress-strain-fracture response, and the non-conservative nature of hydrostatic loading. Using this computer model, comparisons have been made with the results of tests on actual cylinders, providing the needed confirmation of the validity of the model.     

Mössbauer effect of Al-Fe-Si intermetallic compounds

Mössbauer spectra were obtained for α and β-Al-Fe-Si intermetallic compounds, which are usually detected as precipitates in commercial grade Al metals. The samples were prepared by two methods, electrolytic extraction of precipitates from Al ingots and direct melting of appropriate amounts of raw materials. By the latter method, pure compounds have been obtained, whose spectra can be used as the standard spectra of these compounds to analyze the Mössbauer spectra of Al alloys.     

A Binomial Error Model with a Truncated Latent Distribution and its Application

Behaviormetrika - A binomial error model which has a truncated beta distribution as its latent trait distribution is proposed for the analysis of test scores. This model can be used when the...