The tumours in this series belong to a distinct category of thymic epithelial tumours and each of the above groups may constitute a spectrum in the continuum of cytological atypia. The aetiological relationship of EBV with these tumours could not be proved. The lymphoid B-cell hyperplasia may result from a host immune response and may suggest a favourable clinical course of this type of tumour.

SYNOPSISThe coil-helix transition has been studied for alkali metal salts of poly (L-glutamic acid) ( P L G ) , i.e., PLGLi, -Na, -K, and -Cs, in aqueous organic solvent systems. Dependence of the transition on the solvent composition has been qualitatively discussed in terms of the solvent dielectric constant D , Gutmann's acceptor number AN, and water activity G . The helix formation induced by addition of alkali chlorides has also been studied. The sharpness of the transition has been interpreted as a measure of reduction of electrostatic energy of helical PLG through contact ion-pair formation between a counterion and carboxyl anion.I NTRO DUCT10 N Conformational transitions of charged polypeptides such as poly (L-glutamic acid) ( P L G ) and poly ( Llysine) ( P L L ) in aqueous solutions have been extensively studied as model systems of protein folding and unf01ding.l-l~ It has been well known that addition of organic solvents with low dielectric constants to the polypeptide systems enhances stability of the a-helix conformation. As possible causes for the stabilization, unionized side-chain-side-chain interaction as well as hydrogen bonding between peptides have been suggested, although contribution of counterion binding, especially for fully charged polypeptides, has attracted much less attention. We have studied the coil-helix transition of alkali salts of PLG in aqueous alcohols. 16 We have found that smaller counterions ( N a + and Lif ) stabilize the ahelix conformation rather than larger ones (K' and Cs' ) and that the specificity is observed in the presence of a small amount of alkali, which was added to suppress the protonation of the charged groups by the protic solvents. Although the coil-helix transition of PLG salts in aqueous organic solvents have also been studied by Daoust et al.I7 and others,[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] the transition behaviors observed in these studies seem to reflect not only counterion specificity but also the contribution of protonation by protic solvents.In the present study, we have performed CD measurements on alkali salts of PLG in aqueous alcohols (MeOH, EtOH, 2-PrOH, t-BuOH) and aqueous dioxane, which contain small amount of alkali hydroxides. We have investigated dependencies of the helix content on the counterion species, on the solvent composition, and on salt concentration. We aim at elucidation of the mechanism of these dependencies. In the following, we consider, in advance, possible factors that influence the coil-helix transition of charged polypeptides in aqueous organic solvents.It is apparent that many factors concert, compete, and counterbalance for the helix formation in such mixed solvent systems. These are, however, classified into two groups: one influences the transition through the intramolecular hydrogen bond of polypeptides, i.e., modulation of strength of the hydrogen bond and solvation of the peptide groups. The other controls the transition through the electrostatic interaction between polymer charges. Addition of organi...

Visually induced illusions of self-motion are often referred to as vection. This article developed and tested a model of responding to visually induced vection. We first constructed a mathematical model based on well-documented characteristics of vection and human behavioral responses to this illusion. We then conducted 10,000 virtual trial simulations using this Oscillating Potential Vection Model (OPVM). OPVM was used to generate simulated vection onset, duration, and magnitude responses for each of these trials. Finally, we compared the properties of OPVM’s simulated vection responses with real responses obtained in seven different laboratory-based vection experiments. The OPVM output was found to compare favorably with the empirically obtained vection data.

SUMMARYIn order to investigate the validity of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibition with captopril as a screening test for primary aldosteronism (PA), 50mg of captopril were administered orally to 7 patients with PA, 17 with essential hypertension (EH), 5 with renovascular hypertension (RVH), 2 with renoparenchymal hypertension (RH) and 8 normal volunteers.The plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC) was suppressed to less than 15ng/dl in all of the EH, RVH and RH patients and normal subjects 90 min after administration of captopril, but not suppressed in 6 of 7 patients with PA. In addition, the plasma renin activity (PRA) was increased to greater than 1ng/ml/h in 10 of 17 patients with EH and in all with RVH, RH and the normal controls, but to less than that in 6 of 7 PA and the remaining EH patients. The PAC to PRA ratio after captopril was greater than 20 in all patients with PA, while it remained below 20 in EH, RVH and RH patients and normal controls.From these results, we conclude that the PAC to PRA ratio in the captopril administration test is a simple and useful tool to detect PA in hypertensive patients. In addition, the test has a great advantage in that it can be safely applied to outpatients with relatively severe hypertension. Additional Indexing Words: Primary aldosteronismAldosterone to renin ratio Captopril

The world's largest peta watt (PW) laser LFEX, which delivers energy up to 2 kJ in a 1.5 ps pulse, has been constructed beside the GEKKO XII laser at the Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University. The GEKKO-LFEX laser facility enables the creation of materials having high-energy-density which do not exist naturally on the Earth and have an energy density comparable to that of stars. High-energy-density plasma is a source of safe, secure, environmentally sustainable fusion energy. Direct-drive fast-ignition laser fusion has been intensively studied at this facility under the auspices of the Fast Ignition Realization Experiment (FIREX) project.In this paper, we describe improvement of the LFEX laser and investigations of advanced target design to increase the energy coupling efficiency of the fast-ignition scheme. The pedestal of the LFEX pulse, which produces a long preformed plasma and results in the generation of electrons too energetic to heat the fuel core, was reduced by introducing an amplified optical parametric fluorescence quencher and saturable absorbers in the front-end system of the LFEX laser. Since fast electrons are scattered and stopped by the strong electric field of highly ionized high-Z (i.e. gold) ions, a low-Z cone was studied for reducing the energy loss of fast electrons in the cone tip region. A diamond-like carbon cone was fabricated for the fast-ignition experiment. An external magnetic field, which is demonstrated to be generated by a laser-driven capacitor-coil target, will be applied to the compression of the fuel capsule to form a strong magnetic field to guide the fast electrons to the fuel core. In addition, the facility offers a powerful means to test and validate astronomical models and computations in the laboratory. As well as demonstrating the ability to recreate extreme astronomical conditions by the facilities, our theoretical description of the laboratory experiment was compared with the generally accepted explanation for astronomical observations.