Studies on bacillary dysentery cases of overseas travellers--during 1979 to 1995

A total of 36,780,440 overseas travellers during 1979-1995 (17 years) were quarantined at Osaka and Kansai Airport Quarantine Station, 84,777 travellers reported themselves suffer from diarrhoea. Stools from 29,587 persons were bacteriologically examined. Various enteropathogenic bacteria were isolated from 9,766 (33.0%) patients of the stools examined. Isolated species were as follows: Plesiomonas shigelloides (3,234 cases); Salmonella spp. (2,236 cases); enterotoxgenic Escherichia coli (1,621 cases); Vibrio parahaemolyticus (1,959 cases); and Shigella spp. (1,242 cases). 1,278 different Shigella strains were isolated from 1,242 cases who were thus diagnosed as bacillary dysentery patients. The suspected regions or countries for infection of these cases were analysed. The serovars and antibiotic-sensitivities of the isolated strains were examined. Colicine typing of S. sonnei strains were also done. The results can be summarized as follows. 1) The most cases (53.4%) were infected in India. 2) The percentage distribution of sub-species of the strains was as follows; S. sonnei (57.8%), S flexneri (29.8%), S. boydii (8.4%), and S. dysenteriae (4.0%), respectively. 3) The major colicine type of S. sonnei strains were type 6 and 0. 4) The percentage of Antibiotic-resistant strains of each sub-species was S. dysenteriae (92.2%), S. sonnei (89.4%), S. flexneri (87.1%), and S. boydii (84.9%), respectively. The percentage of Antibiotic-resistant strains of S. flexneri were increased annually.     

Bottom-gate poly-Si thin film transistors using XeCl excimer laserannealing and ion doping techniques

High mobility bottom-gate poly-Si thin film transistors (TFTs) have been successfully fabricated on a hard glass substrate using XeCl excimer laser annealing and ion doping techniques. The authors used an a-Si:H film which is deposited by a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) as a precursor film, and then they crystallized the a-Si film by XeCl excimer laser annealing. The maximum field effect mobility and grain size obtained were 200 cm²/V-s (n-channel), and 250 nm, respectively. The poly-Si TFTs showed excellent transfer characteristics, and an ON/OFF current ratio of over 10⁶ was obtained. Successful control of the threshold voltage within 4 V using an ion doping technique is also demonstrated     

Effect of tamoxifen on serum lipid metabolism

The effect of tamoxifen, an antiestrogenic agent, on lipid metabolism was studied in postmenopausal patients with breast cancer who received the drug for postoperative adjuvant treatment following mastectomy. To measure total cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations, fasting blood samples were collected before and 2 months after the initiation of tamoxifen therapy from 16 patients who satisfied the study criteria. All patients were normolipidemic before tamoxifen was administered. Control samples were obtained from hypertriglyceridemia patients who were free from breast cancer. Marked hypertriglyceridemia was observed in 3 of 16 patients after tamoxifen treatment. The activity of lipoprotein lipase and hepatic triglyceride lipase, the key enzymes of triglyceride metabolism, decreased significantly in all of 16 patients as a result of tamoxifen treatment (P = 0.008 and P = 0.007, respectively). However, the mean mass of lipoprotein lipase significantly increased (P = 0.011) after tamoxifen treatment. We therefore conclude that tamoxifen might increase inactive lipoprotein lipase. Because marked hyperlipidemia is a potent risk factor for life-threatening acute pancreatitis and arteriosclerosis, plasma lipid levels should be tested periodically during tamoxifen treatment, even if the patients are normolipidemic during the pretreatment stage.     

Resveratrol as a new type of DNA-cleaving agent

The first demonstration of DNA cleavage by resveratrol '3,5,4'-trihydroxy-trans-stilbene' is presented. Resveratrol mediated relaxation of pBR322 at micromolar concentrations in the presence of Cu2+. Evidence is provided that resveratrol is capable of binding to DNA, and that the Cu(2+)-dependent DNA damage is more likely caused by a copper-peroxide complex rather than by a freely diffusible oxygen species.     

A tree structure of automata for selective image scanning and its implementation

We propose a novel signal scanning method using a tree structure of automata. This method has a kind of image compression capability, about 1/6–1/20 for samples images, by skipping the scan of non-active elements with a selectively activated signal path only to active elements. We also demonstrate the effect of data compression for some examples and an implementation of tree structure on a VLSI chip.     

Concomitant cardiac and pulmonary operation, the profits of not using cardio-pulmonary bypass

We performed off pump CABG (coronary artery bypass grafting) and right upper lobectomy with R2a lymph nodes dissection on the patient suffered from both lung cancer in the right S1 and stenotic lesion in the left anterior descending artery. Because the coronary lesion was long-segmented one, it was not suitable for percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty. To perform absolutely curative operation for the lung cancer, CABG was undergone simultaneously under off pump condition. It is generally feared that the cardiovascular surgery under CPB may have adverse effect for the patient with malignant lesion. Off pump CABG is expected to avoid such disadvantage of CPB, and thought to be suitable method for such a patient as we present above.     

Effects of cigarette smoking on electrodermal orienting reflexes to stimulus change and stimulus significance

Skin conductance responses (SCRs) evoked by novel, signal, and frequent tone stimuli were measured in 20 male heavy smokers and 10 male nonsmokers over two sessions. All smokers abstained from smoking for 12 hr prior to each session. Half of the smokers smoked a cigarette of their preferred brand prior to SCR measurement in the first session, whereas the remaining smokers smoked in the second session. Nonsmokers did not smoke. Results combined across the two sessions indicated that abstinence was associated with selective depression of SCRs to the novel tone. Separate analyses of results from each session revealed that, in the second session, SCRs to both novel and signal tones were depressed in abstinent smokers, partially replicating previous findings. By contrast, first session results showed no significant effects of smoking or abstinence. Results were interpreted in terms of nicotine's effects on nonspecific arousal, with some reservations.