Three-dimensional motion of the upper cervical spine in rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis frequently contributes to instability of the upper cervical spine. Rotational instability of the upper cervical spine was evaluated in rheumatoid arthritis patients using biplanar x-ray photogrammetry. Three-dimensional cervical motion and the instantaneous axis of rotation of the atlas relative to the axis were evaluated in normal and rheumatoid arthritis patients during axial rotation in the horizontal plane. Anterior atlantoaxial subluxation did not increase during axial head rotation in either the atlantoaxial subluxation or the vertical subluxation groups, while the instantaneous axes of rotation were distributed posteriorly in the dens in the RA-normal group, but were widely scattered in the atlantoaxial subluxation group.     

Fine structure of transverse tubules and the sarcoplasmic reticulum at the myotendinous junction of stretched muscle fibers of the rat

The transverse (T) tubules and the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) at the myotendinous junction of stretched rat skeletal muscle were examined by conventional and intermediate voltage electron microscopy. Stretching induced a large cytoplasmic space devoid of myofibrils at the ends of lengthening fibers. In this space, irregularly running tubular elements were seen. They were connected both with subsarcolemmal caveolae and with T tubules traversing to the A-I junctional level of the preexisting myofibrils. The SR was arranged at regular intervals which were narrower than those of the adult sarcomere. This orderly spacing of the SR seems to indicate that they may play some role(s) in myofibril assembly and/or T tubule arrangement.     

Micro-computerized tomographic observation of the spinning apparatus in Bombyx mori silkworms

Silkworms and spiders have evolved complex spinning apparatus thought to use highly controlled conditions to optimize protein folding and crystallization to provide a tough fiber. Accordingly, the structure and function of the natural spinning apparatus has been studied with great attention as an interesting piece of biological engineering with potential for mimicry in an industrial process. However it is still not well understood. Here we used Micro-Computerized Tomographic equipment (mCT) to visualize the three-dimensional structure of the spinning apparatus in Bombyx mori silkworms. Multidirectional tomograms obtained by X-ray radioscopy provided valuable information on the detailed arrangement of each muscle of the silk press. It is suggested that the duct in the silk press part plays a part as an extrusion die whose cross-sectional area can be controlled by muscles to optimize applied stresses in the partially gelled silk within its lumen.     

Breast carcinoma with myeloid metaplasia--a case report

A 49 year-old female had been suffering from primary myelofibrosis since February 1987 without receiving any treatment. In 1994, a breast mass was detected. Breast tumor biopsy revealed tubular carcinoma with intraductal components and multinucleated giant cells in the loose and myxoid stroma. The giant cells were thought to be megakaryocytes because both Factor VIII and platelet glycoprotein GP IIIa were detected in their cytoplasm. While additional mastectomy specimens and the axillary lymph nodes also revealed prominent myeloid metaplasia, there was no proliferation of the cancer cells. Granulocytic series stained for chloroacetate esterase and very few erythrocytic series were observed. This is the first case in which breast carcinoma and myeloid metaplasia coexisted in the same breast tumor.     

Adsorption of urea,creatinine, and uric acid from three solution types using spherical activated carbon and its recyclability

In this paper, we propose that the urinary toxins from the wastewater be adsorbed on an adsorbent such as spherical activated carbon and the latter be regenerated by subjecting it to high temperatures to recycle activated carbon and also to recycle the water used in dialysis. We studied the adsorption of artificial waste dialysate, which is a mixed solution of urea, creatinine, and uric acid, and the separate solutions for each of these and found that their extents of adsorption onto the spherical activated carbon material were nearly identical. The amount of adsorption was approximately 1.4 mg·g^-1 for urea, 18 mg·g^-1 for creatinine, and 20 mg·g^-1 for uric acid. The urea, creatinine, and uric acid adsorbed onto the spherical activated carbon decomposed on heat treatment at 500℃, and the adsorption capacity of the spherical activated carbon was regenerated. Our study successfully demonstrated that the spherical activated carbon can be recycled in the waste dialysate treatment process.     

Polymerization of methyl methacrylate by tri-n-butylborane in the presence of amino acid esters

The polymerization of methyl methacrylate by tri-n-butylborane in the presence of amino acid esters was investigated. The binary systems of tri-n-butylborane and amino esters were found to be more effective for initiating the polymerization than tri-n-butylborane alone. Co-catalytic effects of amino acid esters were in the order: tyrosinate > glutamate > aspartate ? phenyl alaninate > serinate > glycinate. The rate of polymerization in a mixture of dimethylsulphoxide and toluene was proportional to the square root of the concentration of the initiator system, to the monomer concentration, and to the concentration of dimethylsulphoxide in the solvent. The overall energy of activation was estimated to be 4.6 kcal/mol for the tri-n-butylborane/methyl tyrosinate system. Copolymerization curves gave a typical free-radical character.     

Magnetization Reversal by Electrical Spin Injection in Ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)As-Based Magnetic Tunnel Junctions

We report current-induced magnetization reversal in a ferromagnetic semiconductor-based magnetic tunnel junction (Ga,Mn)As/AlAs/(Ga,Mn)As prepared by molecular beam epitaxy on a p-GaAs(001) substrate. A change in magneto-resistance that is asymmetric with respect to the current direction is found with the excitation current of 10⁶ A/cm². Contributions of both unpolarized and spin-polarized components are examined, and we conclude that the partial magnetization reversal occurs in the (Ga,Mn)As layer having smaller magnetization with the spin-polarized tunneling current of 10⁵ A/cm².     

A Technique to Eliminate Redundant Inter-Processor Communication on Parallelizing Compiler TINPAR

Optimizing inter-processor (PE) communication is crucial for parallelizing compilers for message-passing parallel machines to achieve high performance. In this paper, we propose a technique to eliminate redundant inter-PE messages. This technique utilizes data-flow analysis to find a definition point that corresponds to a use point where the definition and the use occur in different PEs. If several read accesses occurred in the same PE use the data defined at the same definition point in another PE, redundant inter-PE messages are eliminated as follows: only one inter-PE communication is performed for the earliest read access and the previously received data are used for the following read. In order to guarantee the consistency of the data, a valid flag and a sent flag are provided for each chunk of received data. The control of these flags is equivalent to the coherence control by the self invalidation on a compiler aided cache coherence scheme.