Passing of gallstones via the urethra: a complication of laparoscopic cholecystectomy

The phenotype of high K (HK) red blood cells, which is an autosomal recessive, was found in dog groups from 10 of 13 breeds or populations in Japan. The incidence of HK was 26 to 38% in the San'in-Shiba, Shinshu-Shiba and Akita breeds, and the gene frequencies of HK ranged from 0.513 to 0.612. The highest incidence (42%) was found in the Jindo breed from Korea, and the gene frequency was 0.652. Two other groups from Korea also possessed this HK variation. However, although HK cells were not found in dogs from Taiwan, Indonesia, Mongolia and Sakhalin, Russia, the HK phenotype is clearly distributed now throughout Japan and Korea.     

The need for style systems in ODA

Many advanced document systems provide a formatting mechanism called ‘style sheets’ Style sheets provide a great deal of flexibility in describing a document's format, and allow easy maintenance of different house styles for a collection of documents. In this paper, we describe the basics of general style sheet systems, argue that successful document interchange must include the exchange of style sheet information, and evaluate ODA's style mechanism against this requirement.     

The mini bottle brush--a new fastening device in cancellous bone

We examined the associations between cerebral infarction (CI), asymptomatic arteriosclerosis obliterans (ASO), and known risk factors for these diseases. The subjects were 67 elderly patients (11 men and 56 women, mean +/- SD age of 79.6 +/- 8.5 years). in 44 patients CI was diagnosed by CT scan; 23 were classified as having cortical infarction and 21 as having lacunar infarction. In 41 patients asymptomatic ASO was diagnosed by an ankle-pressure index (API) of less than 0.9. To identify risk factors for these diseases, we examined the association among these diseases and hypertension (blood pressure > or = 140/90 mmHg), hypercholesterolemia (total cholesterol concentration > or = 220 mg/dl), hypertriglyceridemia (triglyceride concentration > or = 150 mg/dl), low HDL-cholesterolemia (HDL-C concentration < 40 mg/dl), high LDL-cholesterolemia (LDL-C concentration > or = 150 mg/dl), and glucose intolerance (fasting blood sugar concentration > or = 110 mg/dl). The incidence of asymptomatic ASO in the subjects with CI was significantly higher than that in the subjects without CI (chi 2 test; p < 0.05, odds ratio 6.4), including cortical infarction (p < 0.05, odds ratio 8.9) and lacunar infarction (p < 0.05, odds ratio 3.8). Patients with lacunar infarction were more likely to have hypertension than were controls (p < 0.05). Cortical infarction was not associated with these risk factors. Both low HDL-C and high LDL-G were more common in patients with asymptomatic ASO than patients without asymptomatic ASO (p < 0.05). These results indicate that CI and asymptomatic ASO are strongly associated in the elderly, especially in subjects with cortical infarction, and that aging itself contributes to cortical infarction.     

The Volvo Uddevalla Plant

Volvos plants at Kalmar and, more recently at Uddevalla, have become noted throughout the world for their sociotechnical design and high levels of performance, breaking with mass production norms. Hence the statement from Volvo that both plants are to be closed, in order to meet the competitive threat from Japan, has come as a shock and a disappointment to those who saw them as embodying a viable alternative to lean production. This paper makes the case that Uddevalla had a productive and commercial potential unmatched elsewhere in the Volvo group, and that the decision to close the plant must have been taken on other grounds.     

Postoperative analgesia. Simple methods for improvements exist

An improved, combined staining method for myofibrillar ATPase (m-ATPase) and for acetylcholinesterase activity is described. This method allows the observations, on the same slide, of the classical histochemical m-ATPase profile following the Brooke and Kaiser technique and the neuromuscular junction morphology. Thus the pattern of innervation, nerve ending structure and number of nerve endings along the fibres is shown simultaneously for the basic differentiation between slow and fast fibres. The use of acidic and alkaline preincubation allows better visualization of endplate morphology and avoids the masking effect of a positive m-ATPase reaction. The technique has been validated on skeletal muscles from avian and mammalian species.     

Consolidation of Long-Term Memory: Evidence and Alternatives.

Memory loss in retrograde amnesia has long been held to be larger for recent periods than for remote periods, a pattern usually referred to as the Ribot gradient. One explanation for this gradient is consolidation of long-term memories. Several computational models of such a process have shown how consolidation can explain characteristics of amnesia, but they have not elucidated how consolidation must be envisaged. Here findings are reviewed that shed light on how consolidation may be implemented in the brain. Moreover, consolidation is contrasted with alternative theories of the Ribot gradient. Consolidation theory, multiple trace theory, and semantization can all handle some findings well but not others. Conclusive evidence for or against consolidation thus remains to be found. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

THE REACTIVITY AND DURABILITY OF ZINC FERRITE HIGH TEMPERATURE DESULFURIZATION SORBENTS

Cylindrical pellets of zinc ferrite high temperature desulfurization sorbent have been prepared using a number of formulation recipes and induration conditions. Physical and structural properties of the resultant sorbents were measured, and reactivity and durability screening tests were carried out using a single pellet electrobalance reactor. The formulation variables studied were ZnO to Fe₂O₃ ratio, Fe₂O₃ source, and the addition of inorganic (bentonite) and organic (methocel) binders to the sorbents. Pellet induration conditions ranged from 0.25 hours at 815^°C to 4.0 hours at 1038°C. Stronger pellets having greater attrition resistance resulted when 5% bentonite was added to the formulation recipe and when the pellets were indurated at high temperature for extended times. In contrast, bentonite content was not a significant factor in determining sorbent reactivity and durability, both of which were improved by mild induration conditions. Sorbent regeneration temperature was found to be an important factor in improving reaction durability, as was the addition of 0.5% methocel to the formulation recipe. Pellets containing catalyst-grade Fe₂O₃ were more reactive than those containing pigment-grade Fe₂O₃. This effect, however, was less important than the effect of induration conditions.     

Systematic modeling and model handling for manpower planning systems

The primary purpose of this paper is to show an efficient way of handling models and model data in a decision support system, in which it is usual to consider several variants of a model. The model data primarily consist of model-defining data, but the same approach may be used for the generated results as well. By efficient handling is meant the handling by the computer as well as by the user. For the user it is particularly important that new models can be conveniently defined as variants of existing models. The approach is introduced within the context of a decision support system for manpower planning based on Markov models. In the mean time the same approach has been used for the implementation of other decision support systems and has been found to be more generally applicable.     

Cell signaling by the type IV pili of pathogenic Neisseria

Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Neisseria meningitidis are Gram-negative bacterial pathogens that infect human mucosal epithelia. Type IV pilus-mediated adherence of these bacteria is a crucial early event for establishment of infection. In this work, we show that the type IV pili transduce a signal into the eucaryotic host cell. Purified adherent pili, but not pili from a low binding mutant, trigger an increase in the cytosolic free calcium ([Ca2+]i) in target epithelial cells, a signal known to control many cellular responses. The [Ca2+]i increase was blocked by antibodies against CD46, a putative pilus receptor, suggesting a role for this protein in signal transduction. Pilus-mediated attachment was inhibited by depletion of host cell intracellular Ca2+ stores but not by removal of extracellular Ca2+. Further, kinase inhibition studies showed that pilus-mediated adherence is dependent on casein kinase II. In summary, these data reveal a novel function of the type IV pili, namely induction of signal transduction pathways in host cells.