Successful hormonal treatment of pulmonary parenchymal endometriosis

OBJECTIVE: Tobacco use and other behavioral factors are associated with chronic back pain. Anecdotes suggest excess caffeine use may also be associated with chronic back pain. We compared caffeine consumption by chronic back pain patients with caffeine consumption by controls. DESIGN: Retrospective case-control study. SETTING: A multispecialty outpatient facility. PATIENTS: Sixty new, consecutive patients with chronic back pain compared to 60 new, consecutive patients without chronic back pain. INTERVENTION: Patients were prospectively asked to complete an intake questionnaire. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Daily caffeine consumption was estimated by analyzing the intake questionnaire. Differences between groups were analyzed by both normal and nonparametric statistics. RESULTS: Consumption of caffeine by patients with chronic back pain averaged 392.4 mg/day. Controls consumed 149.8 mg/ day, a significant difference (p = .0001). Men consumed 86% more caffeine per day than women (p = .02). Age and caffeine consumption showed little correlation (r = .126). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with chronic back pain consume over twice as much caffeine as patients without chronic back pain. Confounding variables and possible mechanisms associating caffeine with chronic back pain are discussed.     

Growth inhibition of K-ras-expressing tumours by a new vinca alkaloid, conophylline, in nude mice

Conophylline, a new vinca alkaloid isolated from the plant Ervatamia microphylla induced normal flat morphology in K-ras-NRK and K-ras-NIH cell lines, and lowered the increased uptake of 2-deoxyglucose in K-ras-NRK cells. Conophylline inhibited the growth of K-ras-NRK cells, but this inhibition was reversible. The alkaloid also inhibited the growth of K-ras-NRK and K-ras-NIH3T3 tumours transplanted into nude mice. On the other hand, it showed no effect on survival of the mice loaded with L1210 leukaemia. Thus, conophylline is a new antitumour vinca alkaloid that induced normal phenotypes in ras-expressing cells.     

Adolescents with developmental psychopathology in adulthood

We conducted a comparative study of the outcomes at 7 years and at 17 years after initial diagnosis of 77 cases of adolescent developmental psychopathology. The results suggest that the prognosis of adolescent developmental psychopathology could be derived at 5-6 years after commencement of medical treatment. The parent-child relationships during infancy to adolescence, considered to affect the long-term prognosis of adolescent developmental psychopathology, was studied. It is believed that the emotional bond between parents and children in early to middle childhood are vital which seems to affect their relationships during pre-adolescence to early adolescence and to the development of adolescent turmoil. It can be considered vital that the development of the infantile provocative state during preadolescence to early adolescence should progress to a more mature ability to negotiate and which forms the core of adolescent turmoil. The function of the latter will bring better results to adolescent developmental psychopathologies.     

Receptors for Helix pomatia agglutinin on normal and neoplastic lymphocytes -- a histochemical study using paraffin embedded tissue sections

In order to investigate the distribution and significance of receptors for Helix pomatia agglutinin (HPA), paraffin sections from several reactive and 70 neoplastic lymphoid tissues were utilized for a histochemical study after neuraminidase treatment. Lymphocytes in the germinal center and thymic cortex were mostly negative for the receptors, while most of the lymphocytes in the thymus-dependent area, some of those in the primary follicle or in the marginal zone and most of the plasma cells in the medulla possessed the receptors on their surfaces. Nodular lymphomas, thymomas, and diffuse lymphoblastic lymphomas were mostly negative in contrast to the positive reaction in diffuse poorly differentiated lymphomas of B-cell type and plasmocytomas. Diffuse histiocytic lymphomas and diffuse mixed lymphocytic and histiocytic lymphomas occasionally possessed the receptors, irrespective of their immunological markers. Hodgkin's cells were negative on their surface, but were occasionally positive in their cytoplasms ans seen in case of histiocytes. From these results, HPA receptors could be neither T-cell nor B-cell differentiation marker. The possibility that HPA-receptor-negative lymphocytes may hav a quick turn-over rate or a short life span is also discussed.     

LD Redundancy System Using Polarization Components for a Submarine Optical Transmission System

An LD redundancy system having one cold standby laser diode is proposed to improve reliability in submarine optical transmission systems. This system makes use of the intrinsic laser polarization and consists of two LD modules and a polarization coupler connected by polarization maintaining (PANDA) fibers. The optical power insertion loss of this LD redundant system is 5.5 dB, including coupling loss between the laser diode and PANDA fiber. This LD redundant system will be applied in submarine optical repeaters.     

Formation and Crystallization in the Yttrium Aluminosilicate Glasses Containing Zinc Oxide

Formation of yttrium aluminosilicate glasses containing zinc oxide from batches melted at 1550°C was investigated. Densities, thermal expansion coefficients, and Vickers hardnesses were measured for some glasses. In a specific compositional region, crystals with a convex and pyramidal habit were observed on the glass surface. The crystal was identified as ZnAl₂O₄ (gahnite) which has a Moh's hardness number of ∼8.     

Experimental analysis of a new flexible neck model for low-speed rear-end collisions

Whiplash injuries occur frequently in rear-end automobile accidents even at low-speed. The hybrid III dummy has been used for various tests in order to investigate the mechanism of whiplash injuries. However, since this dummy neck is too rigid for low-speed collisions, we developed a new flexible neck model for low-speed rear-end collisions. Each component of this new flexible neck model is made of polymers with material properties close to those of the human body. Sled tests were conducted to measure the displacements of cervical vertebrae of the new flexible neck model at 11 km/h. The figures of s-shape and shear displacement in the plane of the intervertebral disks were observed, and it was recognized that shear displacement resulted from the inconsistency of motion between the head and neck. The regions of shear displacement agreed well with the statistics of the critical regions where whiplash injuries have frequently occurred. It is assumed that shear displacement is one of the causes of the mechanism of whiplash injuries.     

Ultra-steep cut-off double mode SAW filter and its application to a PCS duplexer

This paper describes the double mode surface acoustic wave (DMS) filter design techniques for achieving the ultra-steep cut-off characteristics and low insertion loss required for the Rx filter in the personal communications services (PCS) duplexer. Simulations demonstrate that the optimal combination of the additional common ground inductance Lg and the coupling capacitance Cc between the input and output terminals of the DMS filters drastically enhances the skirt steepness and attenuation for the lower frequency side of the passband. Based on this result, we propose a novel DMS filter structure that utilizes the parasitic reactance generated in bonding wires and interdigital transducer (IDT) busbars as Lg and Ce, respectively. Because the proposed structure does not need any additional reactance component, the filter size can be small. Moreover, we propose a compact multiple-connection configuration for low insertion loss. Applying these technologies to the Rx filter, we successfully develop a PCS SAW duplexer.