Many sorting algorithms have been studied in the past, but there are only a few algorithms that can effectively exploit both SIMD instructions and threadlevel parallelism. In this paper, we propose a new parallel sorting algorithm, called Aligned-Access sort (AA-sort), for shared-memory multi processors. The AA-sort algorithm takes advantage of SIMD instructions. The key to high performance is eliminating unaligned memory accesses that would reduce the effectiveness of SIMD instructions. We implemented and evaluated the AA-sort on PowerPC ® 970MP and Cell Broadband Engine TM . In summary, a sequential version of the AA-sort using SIMD instructions outperformed IBM's optimized sequential sorting library by 1.8 times and GPUTeraSort using SIMD instructions by 3.3 times on PowerPC 970MP when sorting 32 M of random 32-bit integers. Furthermore, a parallel version of AA-sort demonstrated better scalability with increasing numbers of cores than a parallel version of GPUTeraSort on both platforms.

Patients with chronic hepatitis C infection show a gradual progression of fibrosis to liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We studied whether the progression of liver fibrosis differed among Japanese subjects who were infected with different hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes. In 527 patients we examined whether there was a relationship between gender, age, history of blood transfusion, interval between date of blood transfusion and date of liver biopsy or date of diagnosis of HCC, serum alanine aminotransferase level, platelet count or HCV genotype, with the extent of liver fibrosis, classified into four stages (F1-F4). Moreover, we compared the mean rate of liver fibrosis progression per year in patients with each HCV genotype. Patients who had a higher fibrosis score tended to be older, have a lower platelet count and a longer interval since blood transfusion than those who had a lower fibrosis score. The mean rate of liver fibrosis progression was 0.12 +/- 0.15 stages per year after the blood transfusion. However, the progression rate of liver fibrosis in patients who had received a blood transfusion when they were > or = 30 years of age was 0.19 +/- 0.22, while the progression rate of liver fibrosis in the patients who had received a blood transfusion when they were < 30 years was 0.09 +/- 0.09. In conclusion, chronic hepatitis C is a progressive disease, and patients with genotype 1b, 2a and 2b have a similar rate of progression of liver fibrosis. Particular attention should be paid to patients who are infected with HCV when > or = 30 years of age, because intrahepatic fibrosis rapidly progresses in these patients.

The present investigation attempted to determine the exact prevalence of hepatitis D virus (HDV) infection among inhabitants of Miyako Island (a remote island in the Okinawa Prefecture) and the molecular characteristics of the HDV genome that was isolated. Among the 4728 inhabitants, 375 (7.9%) were hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positive. Antibody to HDV (anti-HDV) was present in 32 (8. 5%) of these 375 subjects, and liver function tests were normal in most subjects. The presence of HDV RNA was analysed by nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Thirteen out of the 32 anti-HDV antibody-positive subjects were HDV RNA positive. Thus, 3.5% of HBsAg-positive subjects on Miyako Island were HDV RNA positive. Among the HDV RNA-positive subjects, liver function tests were within normal limits or were mildly abnormal. Nucleotide sequence analysis revealed that the HDV genomes on Miyako Island were similar to the Japanese and Taiwan isolates of HDV genotype II. Taiwan is geographically close to Miyako Island. Even though the races are different, a geographical factor was revealed to be significant with regard to HDV infection, which was spread in a closed environment.

Objective  To determine the cellular expression of Fas, Fas ligand and interleukin‐1β converting enzyme (ICE) in prostatic cancer. Patients and methods  Specimens of prostate were obtained from 21 patients (mean age 66 years, sd 5) undergoing radical prostatectomy for prostatic cancer. Nine of the 21 patients had received endocrine therapy before surgery. Specimens were also obtained from 10 patients with benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) and during autopsy from 10 patients who had died from hormone‐unresponsive prostate cancer. Paraffin‐embedded sections were cut from the specimens and stained immunohistochemically to detect Fas, Fas ligand and ICE. Results  Fas was expressed in all 21 of the cancer specimens while Fas ligand was detected in none and ICE was expressed in 11. The difference between the expression of Fas and ICE was significant (P<0.001). ICE was expressed in nine of 12 patients who were untreated before surgery and in two of nine treated with endocrine therapy (P<0.05). Fas expression was detected in the specimens from all 10 patients with BPH and in all 10 autopsy specimens; the expression tended to be more marked than that in specimens from total prostatectomy (P<0.1). Conclusion  The expression of ICE was weaker than that of Fas in the total prostatectomy specimens, suggesting a possible interruption of the apoptotic signalling pathway. Prostates with BPH and hormone‐unresponsive cancer therefore showed no appreciable change in Fas expression when compared with total prostatectomy samples.

In the human urethra, phenylephrine-induced contractions were mediated through alpha1L-adrenoceptors and not through alpha1A-adrenoceptors. Contractions of the human urethra induced by NS-49 were also mediated mainly through alpha1L-adrenoceptors, with high potency and moderate efficacy. NS-49 may therefore be useful for the treatment of urinary stress incontinence, with minimal side-effects because it has subtype selectivity.