Decision by the Principle Board of the Polish Allergy Society

A review of isolates of Neisseria meningitidis and other laboratory evidence of meningococcal infection was carried out for the period 1990-1995. Thirty-three patients with evidence of meningococcal disease were identified over the six year period. Group B organisms were the most commonly identified, but an increase in Group C has occurred and is almost equal in number. Data from clinical, laboratory and public health sources should be centralized in a National Surveillance Centre.     

A PC program for diagnosing abnormal growth, growth velocity and acceleration from longitudinal observations

A human fibroblastic cell line transformed by the SV40-T antigen sequence and continuously cultured for 7 months displayed large periodic variations in cell proliferation. This contrasted with other characteristics of this cell line that remained constant: mosaic cell shape, absence of cell contact inhibition, and predominance of a hypodiploid population. Similar fluctuations in proliferative capacity were also found during the long-term growth of a transformed but nonimmortalized human fibroblastic line prior to senescence, and in the established hamster fibroblastic Nil cell line. This growth pattern suggests a recurrent stimulation of growth in these three transformed cell lines. The proliferation pattern from cultured transformed cells may thus be complex and requires further investigation. These variations presumably influence major cell functions. This observation has important implications for the analysis of data from such cell lines.     

Natural convective flow between an array of vertical cylinders

The natural-convectioe flow of a viscous and heat-conducting fluid in systems of cylinders, arranged vertically in regular patterns, is studied. The aim of the study is to determine the conditions of stability of the fluid when heated from below and cooled from above. In particular, the influence of geometry and thermal properties of the system on the free stationary convection are studied. A new way of calculating the free convection threshold is proposed. The final results are analytical formulas for determining the critical Rayleigh numbers for the studied forms of flow and graphs, showing the dependency of these numbers on the geometrical parameters of arrays.     

A GAUSS program for computing the Foulkes-Davis tracking index for polynomial growth curves

Sixty-five patients initially seropositive for IgM anti-phenolic glycolipid-I (PGL-I) antibodies were tested for antibody levels to PGL-I, lipoarabinomannan (LAM), and the 35-kDa protein of Mycobacterium leprae at regular intervals for up to 30 months following the commencement of multidrug therapy (MDT). There was a steady decline in IgM anti-PGL-I and anti-35-kDa antibody levels to a mean of 17% and 14%, respectively, of the starting level at 24 months. The development of type 1 and type 2 reactions or the presence of drug-resistant organisms in a small number of patients had no significant influence on the changes in antibody level. The rate of decline was similar in different disease categories, but a higher proportion of lepromatous patients remained seropositive at the end of 2 years of treatment than borderline tuberculoid patients. By contrast, the mean IgG anti-LAM antibody levels remained stable or increased. Again the occurrence of type 1 or type 2 reactions had no significant effect on antibody level over 2 years. Falls in the IgM anti-PGL-I antibody levels mirrored the falls in the bacterial index in individual patients and provide an additional parameter for monitoring the response to chemotherapy.     

Efficient computer implementation of the renormalized coupled-cluster methods: The R-CCSD[T], R-CCSD(T), CR-CCSD[T], and CR-CCSD(T) approaches

The recently proposed renormalized (R) and completely renormalized (CR) coupled-cluster (CC) methods of the CCSD[T] and CCSD(T) types have been implemented using recursively generated intermediates and fast matrix multiplication routines. The details of this implementation, including the complete set of equations that have been used in writing efficient computer codes, memory requirements, and typical CPU timings, are discussed. The R-CCSD[T], R-CCSD(T), CR-CCSD[T], and CR-CCSD(T) computer codes and similar codes for the standard CC methods, including the LCCD, CCD, CCSD, CCSD[T], and CCSD(T) approaches, have been incorporated into the gamess package. Information about the main features of this new set of CC programs is provided.     

Controversy: Mechanical fatigue or hardening of rocks after their excavation

It is pointed out that strength value of rock samples changes with time after sample excavation from a quarry. Three main stages of strength variability with time are distinguished: 1-the stage of hardening connected with increase in the compression strength; 2-stage of equilibrium of the antagonistic processes: hardening and mechanical fatigue; 3-stage of manifestation of mechanical fatigue. Mechanical fatigue is favorable to the manifestation latent weakness surface to new crack formation and at last to total disintegration in rock samples.     

Impedance analysis of a phosphatidylcholine-phosphatidylethanolamine system in bilayer lipid membranes

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was used for the study of two-component lipid membranes. Phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) were to be investigated, because of their presence in biological membranes. Capacitance values of pure components are 0.62 and 0.32 μF cm⁻², respectively. The 1:1 complex was formed during formation of the PC-PE lipid membrane. Formation of the complex can explain the deviation from the additivity rule. This equilibrium was described by mathematical equations and was further verified experimentally. Adequate equations let us calculate such parameters as: capacitance of the complex molecule, area occupied by the complex molecule as well as the stability constant of the complex.     

Changes in the respiratory system of patients with rheumatoid arthritis--personal observations

13 patients with RA admitted to our Institute with symptoms of respiratory involvement were described. Taking under consideration pulmonary function tests, radiological findings and histological examinations, we recognised 7 cases with interstitial lung disease, 3 cases with recurrent respiratory infection with bronchiectasis, 1 case with pleuritis, 1 with Caplan's syndrome and 1 with alveolar haemorrhage. The role of RF, and treatment with gold in the development of interstitial lung disease, as well as character of physiologic abnormalities concerning the small airways and its potential connection with bronchiolitis were discussed.