We report two patients with severe amicrobial pustular dermatosis with immunological abnormalities: a 63-year-old woman with a 30-year-history of discoid lupus erythematosus and sicca syndrome, and a 35-year-old woman with high levels of gamma-globulinemia and positive antinuclear antibodies. Both patients presented with crusty and eroded erythematous plaques studded with aseptic pustules on the back, face, and scalp. Histological examination showed acanthosis, neutrophilic exocytosis to the epidermis, and neutrophilic and lymphocytic infiltration with nuclear dust in the dermis. These patients were diagnosed as having "amicrobial pustulosis associated with autoimmune diseases". The eruptions improved with combination treatment of oral prednisolone with cyclosporin A or diaminodiphenylsulphone. Although the pathogenesis remains unclear, amicrobial pustular dermatosis might be one of the cutaneous complications in autoimmune diseases.
The antibacterial activities of 81 edible plants against the dental caries pathogen Streptococcus mutans were investigated. The fresh vegetative crude extracts were subjected to the paper disc method. Furthermore, in order to fractionate the active component, hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts from freeze-dried samples were also examined. Antibacterial activities were positive in 17 samples, including cinnamon and Japanese ginger. Among these, the stabilities of the active components against heat treatment or storage at 4 ℃ for one week were also investigated. Following these treatments, the activities of balsam pear and garlic extracts were lost, while the active components in ginger, Japanese ginger, clove and cinnamon appeared. Samples of the genus Zingiberaceae, including Japanese ginger and ginger, contained abundant and stable antibacterial components acting against S. mutans.
Topological constraints
in polyrotaxanes significantly affected
their glass transition dynamics. The effects of the constraints were
systematically studied using a series of different coverage glass-forming
polyrotaxanes consisting of a common polymer and threaded ring molecule
of varying ratios. Although their ratios were similar and hence exhibited
similar T
g values by differential thermal
analysis, mechanical relaxation was considerably prolonged with increasing
coverage. The relaxation became a two-step process: a faster step
at a common temperature near the T
g and
another which was prolonged by the coverage increase. Relaxation dynamics
analysis revealed that segment motions, which are cooperative translations
of different components, freeze at considerably higher temperatures
than the T
g with increasing coverage.
This suggests that although the rings are released from conventional
interactions at the T
g, their cooperative
translational motions are significantly constrained by the threading
polymers with increasing coverage.
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