Expression of PDGF and PDGF receptor mRNA in glomeruli in IgA nephropathy

Infiltration by lymphoid cells is a common feature of many human tumors, including breast carcinomas, and the degree of infiltration has been suggested to be a measure of the host immune response. Our analyses in a series of 1919 cases of primary ductal and lobular infiltrating breast carcinomas from women with a long-term follow-up revealed: (a) a 16-17% frequency of infiltrated tumors independent of the patient's age at diagnosis; and (b) a strong positive correlation between survival rates and the presence of lymphocytes at the tumor site in patients less than 40 years of age (P = 0.0002) but no association with prognosis in patients 40 years of age or older. Multivariate analysis indicated that lymphoid infiltration is independent of other conventional prognostic factors such as nodal status and tumor size in predicting survival. Thus, a possible immune response against the tumor seems to be relevant only in women with early-onset tumors. Because the immune system is functionally maximum in younger years, declining with age, this finding might reflect a difference in the efficiency of the immune system. Alternatively, the biology of these tumors might differ, leading to a difference in immuno-genicity.     

Tropospheric scintillation in the 14/11-GHz bands on Earth-spacepaths with low elevation angles

Radio waves with frequencies above 10 GHz at low-elevation-angle paths are significantly affected not only by rain but also by atmospheric irregularities in the troposphere. The tropospheric scintillation due to irregularities of the refractive index in the troposphere is investigated using 14/11-GHz low-elevation measurements made during 1983 at Yamaguchi, Japan. The diurnal and seasonal variations, frequency dependence derived from a comparison of the 11- and 14-GHz signals, and elevation-angle dependence of the scintillation data are presented. A comparison between the propagation data and ground-level meteorological measurements indicated a high correlation between the scintillation characteristics and the water vapor contribution to the radio refractive index inferred from local humidity and temperature data. This suggests a method for predicting the severity of scintillation fading using local measurements of meteorological parameters     

Test research in Japan

Surveys recent research activities in test technology for computers, focusing on the results of university researchers. They cover test-pattern generation, fault simulation, design for testability, built-in self-test, and self-checking     

A FISH study of chromosome fusion in the ICF syndrome: involvement of paracentric heterochromatin but not of the centromeres themselves

We have used double fluorescence in situ hybridisation to study the involvement of centromeres and paracentromeric heterochromatin in the chromosome abnormalities seen in the ICF syndrome. To detect centromeres, we used a probe which labelled alphoid satellite DNA, and for the paracentromeric heterochromatin a probe for classical satellite II. Our results show that it is always the paracentromeric heterochromatin of the relevant chromosomes that becomes decondensed in this syndrome and which fuses to produce multiradial configurations. However, the centromeric regions, identified by their content of alphoid satellite DNA, appear never to become decondensed and always remain outside the regions of chromosome fusion in the multiradials.     

Stimulating effect of xanthene dyes on immunoglobulin produced in vitro by rat spleen lymphocytes

The effects of food additives on immunoglobulin produced in rat splenic lymphocytes were examined. The xanthene dye, Rose Bengal, enhanced IgE production, while inhibiting the production of IgG and IgM, at 50 microM. Among the xanthene dyes, Rose Bengal having 4 iodine and 4 chlorine atoms exerted the highest Ig production-regulating activity in splenocytes, and dihalogenated fluorescein, a diiodo compound, exerted similar activity, while the dichloro and dibromo compounds did not. These results suggest that halogen atoms, especially the iodine atom, in xanthene dyes play an important role in regulation of Ig production.     

Management of childhood splenic trauma--the Jos experience

We studied retrospectively 22 children who were managed for splenic injuries at Jos University Teaching Hospital between September 1988 and October 1995. Sixteen were males and six were females (M:F = 2.7:1) with their ages between five and 15 years and a mean of 10.3 years. Eleven were knocked down by vehicles while crossing the freeway, playing or hawking goods; seven fell from slippery mango trees after a downpour of rain while two were passengers in a vehicle that was involved in a head-on collision and another two were kicked in the abdomen as a result of assault. All had surgery. Four sustained Uphadhyaya and Simpson's Type 1 injuries while six sustained Type IV injuries. Twelve had total splenectomy, seven had total splenectomy with heterotopic autotransplantation of splenic wafers while three had splenorrhaphy augmented with omentoplasty. An average of 1.5 units of blood per patient were transfused. There was only one death. Considering that the majority (18) of these children sustained their splenic injuries while crossing the freeway (playing or hawking goods) and from falls from mango trees after the rains, we believe that there are preventable causes. Mandatory primary and junior secondary school education as well as legislature against child labour will help keep these children safe out of harm's way and thus drastically reduce the incidence of childhood splenic injuries in our environment.     

Low superoxide dismutase activity in schizophrenic patients with tardive dyskinesia

BACKGROUND: Tardive dyskinesia (TD) is a therapy-resistant adverse effect of neuroleptics. Although the exact pathophysiology of TD is unknown, oxygen radicals have been speculated to play a role in TD based on several lines of evidence. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is a key enzyme which scavenges oxygen radicals. The authors investigated the association between erythrocyte SOD activity and TD. METHODS: Erythrocyte SOD activities were measured, blinded as to the presence or absence of TD. In 30 patients with schizophrenia who had been on typical neuroleptics for more than 10 years. TD severity was independently assessed, using the abnormal involuntary movement scale (AIMS), by two raters. RESULTS: There was a significant decrease in erythrocyte SOD activity in the definite TD group (N = 10) as compared with the no TD (N = 8) and questionable TD (N = 12) groups. Erythrocyte Cu,Zn-SOD activities correlated with AIMS scores. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with TD had low SOD activities as compared to those without TD. As a causal link between SOD activity and TD was not established in this study, larger prospective studies are warranted to determine whether patients with low SOD activity are susceptible to neuroleptic-induced TD.     

Permanent sextupole magnets

Compact but very strong sextupole permanent magnets have been assembled for use in a newly developed cold atomic beam polarized ion source. The sextupole magnetic field characteristics have been found to be satisfactory.