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Herein, a practical synthesis of the macaranoyl group contained in ellagitannins, i.e., a C–O digallate structure with a tetra-ortho-substituted diaryl ether bond, is described. The methodology involved an oxa-Michael addition/elimination reaction between a brominated ortho-quinone monoketal and a phenol with a hexahydroxydiphenoyl moiety in the presence of 18-crown-6 under dark conditions, followed by reductive aromatization. The existence of rotamers originating from the constructed ether moiety is discussed as well.

Faslpr(lpr) and Faslprcg(lprcg) are allelic mutations of the Fasgene that is involved in apoptosis or programmed cell death. Lprgreatly reduces the expression of functional Fas and lprcgexpresses the death domain-disabled, non-functional Fas on the cell surface. C3H/HeJ mice congenic for lprcg(C3H-lprcg) were established and compared with C3H/HeJ-lpr/lpr(C3H-lpr) mice for their immunological and pathological features. Lymphadenopathy, splenomegaly, development of CD4-CD8-B220+or double-negative (DN) T cells, renal pathology, and lymphoid cell infiltration in the lung and liver were not significantly different between C3H-lprcgand C3H-lprmice. Noticeably, however, the production of serum immunoglobulin, autoantibodies against double-strand DNA and serum immune complexes were significantly lower in C3H-lprcgthan in C3H-lprmice. The results indicate that the death signal through the death domain of Fas is responsible for lymphoproliferation due to the accumulation of DN T cells and suggest that the region of Fas outside the death domain may be involved in autoantibody production. The newly-developed congenic C3H-lprcgmice will provide a powerful tool for research into the function of Fas apart from apoptosis.

Background:High levels of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (u-PA) weredemonstrated in gastric carcinomas along with inhibitors of plasminogen activators (PAI-1 and PAI-2). They may influence the ability to invade and metastasize and therefore be of importance to the risk of recurrence of stomach neoplasms after curative operation. This also appears to be the case for p53 mutations and p53 protein overexpression.Methods:Six patients, all differentiated cancer cases who developed recurrent disease 5–10 years after curative operations for early gastric cancers (recurrence group), were studied in comparison with 49 patients who had no recurrence more than 10 years after similar surgery (control group). The expression of u-PA, PAI-1, PAI-2 and p53 was compared immunohistochemically in the recurrence and control groups.Results:The expression of PAI-2 was significantly more frequent in the recurrence group, being found in five (83.3%) patients vs eight (16.3%) in the control group. p53 was expressed in five (83.3%) patients in the recurrence group and in 15 (30.6%) in the control group; the rate was again significantly higher in the former.Conclusion:The results suggest that PAI-2 and p53 expressed in differentiated early gastric cancers are possible indices of the risk of recurrence.

A total of 11,777 Escherichia colistrains were isolated from 90 chickens, 103 piglets, 96 calves, and 104 children in 1979 in Gunma Prefecture and tested for drug resistance and the presence of conjugative R plasmids. The percentages of individuals that excreted drug‐resistant strains were: chickens, 100%; piglets, 99%; calves, 100%; and children, 64%. The frequency of isolation of drug‐resistant strains among the total isolates was: chickens, 98%; piglets, 93%; calves, 94%; and children, 41%. Frequency of isolation of R plasmids among the strains tested was: chickens, 48%; piglets, 33%; calves, 38%; and children, 10%.

Shigellastrains isolated in Japan between 1971 and 1979 were surveyed for drug resistance and distribution of R plasmids. Of 2,510 strains, 89.3% were resistant to either one or various combinations of four drugs, tetracycline, chloramphenicol, streptomycin, and sulfanilamide. About 66% of the Shigellaisolates were quadruply resistant. The frequency of isolation of R plasmids from quadruply resistant Shigellastrains was the highest when compared with other strains resistant to various combinations of the four drugs. The conjugal transferability of 204 quadruply resistant strains isolated between 1977 and 1979 was tested by various mixed‐culture methods. Among the total strains examined, 70.6% carried transferable resistance when tested by the conventional broth culture method, 90.2% transferred their resistance when, in addition the replica‐plating methcd was used and 97.5% could transfer their resistance when the membrane filter method was also used. Although the remaining five strains could not transfer their resistance by any of the mixed culture methods, the drug resistance of four of the five strains was mobilized by the concomitant presence of F‐tetor T‐kanplasmid.

In 1978, 1,021 Escherichia colistrains were isolated from 105 field broilers (F) and 1,058 strains from 106 broilers in a zootechnical experiment station (Z), and their drug‐resistance patterns and the presence of conjugative R plasmids were compared. The resistance markers examined were tetracycline (TC), chloramphenicol (CM), streptomycin (SM), sulfonamides (SA), kanamycin (KM), and ampicillin (APC). The populations of individuals that excreted resistant strains were 100% in F and 58% in Z. Frequencies of isolation of drug‐resistant strains among the total isolates were 93% in F and 36% in Z, indicating that the resistant strains are a rather high proportion of the intestinal flora in F but are slightly less prevalent in Z. The resistance pattern to (TC.SM.SA.KM) was seen at the highest frequency in both groups. Conjugative R plasmids were demonstrated more frequently in field broilers (F). The results reflect the wide use of antibiotics in the livestock industry, resulting in the appearance of drug‐resistant strains mostly due to the presence of R plasmids.

During a period from 1978 to 1989, 413 Staphylococcus aureusstrains were isolated at 27 different geographical regions in Hungary; they exhibited an inducible resistance to the 14‐membered macrolides and streptogramin type B antibiotics, but not to the 16‐membered macrolides and lincosamides: this resistance is referred to as PMS resistance phenotype. The isolates were mostly associated with patients suffering from staphylococcal diseases and with hygienic screenings in hospitals and closed communities. They were rarely isolated from food‐poisoning cases, food hygienic screenings, or animal sources. Strains with PMS resistance phenotype were resistant to penicillin (99.0%), tetracycline (78.7%), and chloramphenicol (63.0%); however, they were susceptible to oxacillin. Most of them (94.2%) belonged to the phage type 52‐complex. The determinant for PMS phenotype was located on plasmids, which also encoded beta‐lactamase production and cadmium ion resistance, but not arsenate resistance. Three types of plasmid with molecular size of 50 kilobases (kb), 23.8 kb, and 16.8 kb. were found among the strains with PMS resistance phenotype. and the 50 kb and 23.8 kb plasmids also encoded mercury resistance. The 16.8 kb and 23.8 kb plasmids belonged to incompatibility group 1.

The physical characteristics of a mutant, RM201-2, capable of conferring high and stable ampicillion resistance was analyzed. The RM201-2and its parent R-factor deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) could be isolated as an extrachromosomal and covalently closed circular form. Their buoyant densities were both 1.712 g/cm3, and their molecular weights were about 82 × 106and 64 × 106, respectively, when measured by CsCl and sucrose density gradient analyses. The contour lengths by electron microscopy were 35.9 ± 0.6 and 31.0 ± 0.6 μm, respectively. By using the extracted R-factor DNA, the mutant and parent characters were transformable to another Escherichia colistrain. The mutant R factor showed an increased amount of DNA even after conjugal transfer to Proteus. An increase in the size of R-factor DNA was thus considered to be the cause of the high level of ampicillin resistance.

Various mutants of an Escherichia coliK-12 strain were prepared, in which a chloramphenicol (CM) resistance gene (cml) derived from an R factor, R100-1, was integrated into the chromosome. The CM acetyltransferase (CATase) activity of these strains and the strain carrying R100-1 were determined during exponential growth with the following results. (i) The CATase activity varied, depending upon the site of integration of the cmlgene on the chromosome. Activity was found to be higher when the cmlgene was integrated nearer the replication origin of the chromosome, the total enzyme activity found was the sum of activities coded by each gene separately. (iii) When the cmlgene was in a cytoplasmic state on an R factor, R100-1, the expressed enzyme activity was four-to eightfold higher than that in the chromosomal state, suggesting the existence of about four to eight copies of R factor per chromosome. The CATase activity returned to the level of that expressed by R100-1 when the chromosomal cmlgene was detached and picked up by an R factor.

Out of 32 R plasmids isolated from Proteusstrains, 17 were found to be temperature sensitive with respect to inheritance in E. colicells. They were fi–and classified into incompatibility group T or V. Cells carrying T group Rms273 plasmid were temperature sensitive with respect to growth and conjugal transfer in both E. coliand Proteus. The V group YOR‐10 plasmid was stable in Proteuseven at 42 C. However, the loss frequency of YOR‐10 plasmid in E. colireached 100% after 4 hr of incubation at 42 C, in spite of stable inheritance at 25 C. Conjugal transfer of the YOR‐10 plasmid in E. coliwas also strongly inhibited at 42 C. It has been concluded that instability of V group R plasmids in E. coliis due to their thermosensitive inheritance in the progeny cells at high temperatures.

Rms 201–12 and Rms 201–46 are R mutants with increased copy number, and are derived from a conjugative plasmid Rms 201 that encodes resistance to five drugs, ampicillin (Ape), tetracycline (Tc), chloramphenicol (Cm), streptomycin (Sm), and sulfonamides (Sa). The mutants expressed increased levels of resistance to Ape, Sm, and Cm, and a decreased level of resistance to Tc than those of the parent Rms 201 plasmid.

A nonconjugative R plasmid, rMS3, whose molecular weight was 2.4 × 107daltons, possessed a kanamycin resistance gene and was thermosensitive in its maintenance in Escherichia colistrains. We mobilized rMS3 with a conjugative R plasmid, R100 or T‐tet, and obtained cointegrates carrying all the parental resistance markers. Various markers of the cointegrates were frequently deleted by P1 transduction and the deletion patterns among the different cointegrates were differed from each other. The cointegrates were thermoresistant, but the thermosensitive replicon could be segregated from the thermoresistant cointegrate by deletion. Some cointegrates between rMS3 and T‐tetshowed a derepressed state of transferability because of the integration of rMS3 into the regulator gene of the transfer loci. The genome size of the cointegrate so far tested was the sum of the sizes of the parental plasmids, indicating that the whole genome of rMS3 could integrate into various sites of the conjugative plasmids R100 and T‐tet.

Most of nonconjugative streptomycin (Sm)‐ and sulfanilamide (Su)‐resistance of clinical isolates belonging to various species of Enterobacteriaceae and Pseudomonaswere encoded by an Inc Q plasmid, molecular size of which was 5.5 Md. The SmSu plasmids were efficiently mobilized by Inc P plasmids between E. colistrains. Inc I group and Inc F group plasmids could mobilize the Inc Q plasmids at lower efficiencies. The Inc Q plasmid was also mobilized to various species of Enterobacteriaceae at high frequencies without accompanying the conjugative Inc P plasmid; as a result, most of the SmSu‐resistant transconjugants were nontransferable. The above results may explain the wide distribution of nonconjugative SmSu strains among clinical isolates.

A total of 152 coagulase‐negative staphylococcal strains were isolated from clinical samples of 14 patients hospitalized after bone‐marrow transplantation in a specialized hospital ward in Hungary, during an 18‐month period between 1987 and 1989. Two species, Staphylococcus epidermidisand Staphylococcus haemolyticus, predominated (each, 45%). Using Pulverer and co‐workers' phage set for typing, 68% of the isolates were typable; 16 phage patterns were observed. A characteristic long pattern with phages Ph10/Ph13/Ph15/U4/U15/U16/U20/U33/U46 appeared only in S. epidermidis, among 5 of 11 colonized patients (8.5% of all strains). Single lysis with phage Phl3 was observed in 7 of the 14 patients (49% of all strains), in species S. capitis, S. epidermidis, S. haemolyticus, S. hominis, and S. warneri. In S. haemolyticus, non‐typable strains predominated (66%); this character occurred only in 2% among other species. The strains colonizing the immunocompromised patients differed from each other in phage pattern, antibiotic resistance pattern, and/or slime production. No hospital infection was suggested. On the other hand, high incidence of two well‐definable phage patterns raises some relationship between phage receptors or some regulatory systems in phage multiplication and factors responsible for special colonization as common surface properties.

A mutant temperature-sensitive for R-plasmid replication, Rms201ts14, was isolated from composite plasmid Rms201 after mutagenesis of P1 transducing lysate with 100 mM hydroxylamine for 40 h at 37°C. When Escherichia coliML1410(Rms201ts14)+was grown at temperatures between 40 and 42°C in L broth, antibiotic-sensitive cells were segregated. When the incubation temperature of ML1410(Rms201ts14)+in L-broth was shifted to 42 from 30°C, the increase in the number of antibiotic-resistant cells ceased 90 min after the temperature shift. However, the total number of cells continuously increased, and only 3% of the cells retained the plasmid at 5 h after the temperature shift to 42°C. At 30°C the amounts of covalently closed circular deoxyribonucleic acid per chromosome of Rms201ts14 and Rms201 were 3.8 and 6.3%, respectively. Incorporation of radioactive thymidine into the covalently closed circular deoxyribonucleic acid of Rms201ts14 did not take place at 42°C, whereas radioactive thymidine was incorporated into the covalently closed circular deoxyribonucleic acid of Rms201 at a rate of 4%/chromosome even at 42°C. The synthesis of plasmid covalently closed circular deoxyribonucleic acid in a cell harboring Rms201ts14 was almost completely blocked at 42°C. These results indicated that the gene(s) responsible for plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid replication was affected in the mutant Rms201ts14. Temperature-sensitive miniplasmid pMSts214, which has a molecular weight of 5.3 × 106and encodes ampicillin resistance, was isolated from Rms201ts14. Similarly, miniplasmid pMS201, which encodes single ampicillin resistance, was isolated from its parent, Rms201, and its molecular weight was 4.7 × 106. These results indicate that the gene(s) causing temperature sensitivity for replication of Rms201 resides on the miniplasmid.

Many isolates belonging to the Enterobacteriaceaewere collected in 1965 from the inpatients at geographically scattered hospitals in Japan. Among 2,650 Shigellastrains examined, 58.4% were found to be drug-resistant; 95.0% of these resistant strains were multiply resistant. Among 434 resistant strains examined, 81% carried R factors that were transferable by cell-to-cell contact. Of 160 isolates of other enteric bacteria, drug-resistant strains included 84.2% of the Escherichia coli, 93.0% of the Klebsiella, and 90.0% of the Proteuscultures. Among these resistant strains, 70.3% of the E. coli, 66.7% of the Klebsiella, and 52.0% of the Proteuswere multiply resistant. Of these resistant strains, 84.0% of the E. coli, 88.0% of the Klebsiella, and 50.0% of the Proteusstrains carried R factors. These results indicate that R factors are widespread among gram-negative bacteria of clinical significance.

Hashimoto, Hajime(Osaka University, Osaka, Japan), and Yukinori Hirota. Gene recombination and segregation of resistance factor R in Escherichia coli. J. Bacteriol. 91:51–62. 1966.—Independent chloramphenicol-sensitive (CMs) mutants of the drug-resistance factor R were isolated. Introduction of two different R factor CMsmutants into a single bacterium, by conjugation or transduction, gave chloramphenicol-resistant (CMr) colonies when such strains were plated on a medium containing chloramphenicol (Cm). These CMrcolonies resulted from recombination between two R factors contained within the same cell. Most of the CMrcolonies were heterogeneous, and segregation of drug-resistance markers was observed among the progeny. Segregated bacteria which still carried the recombinant R factor were stable for resistance to Cm as well as for other markers of R. All the markers of recombinant R factors were cotransducible with high coincidence and at the same frequency as wild-type R. Sensitive mutants of R which had lost all the resistance markers of the R factor were found also. A mutation of R, referred to as SMA, which was sensitive to streptomycin and sulfanilamide, was capable of reverting to resistance to both of these drugs simultaneously. The sensitive alleles for SMA, CM, and TC were shown to be recessive to the resistance alleles. Mutants of R having multisite mutations or deletions in the CM gene were isolated and used to analyze the pattern of linked segregation of unselected markers of the recombinant R factor. The drug resistance factor R was shown to have two linkage groups, CM—SMA and TC—m.

Mitsuhashi, Susumu(Gunma University, Maebashi, Japan), Kenji Harada, Hajime Hashimoto, Mitsuo Kameda, and Mitsue Suzuki. Combination of two types of transmissible drug-resistance factors in a host bacterium. J. Bacteriol. 84:9–16. 1962.—When two types of R factor, R(TC) and R (CM.SM.SA), or R(TC) and R (CM), were brought together in a host bacterium by superinfection with both factors, loss of either one or both factors was found. In the imperfectly stable existence of both factors in a host bacterium, both factors were transmitted separately by conjugation. As the result of interaction between the two types of R factor present in a host bacterium, recombinant factors were formed, R25(TC.CM.SM.SA) and R31(CM.TC). The recombinant factors were able to transfer their resistance by conjugation. They were also transduced as one unit into Escherichia coliK12 by Plke phage in the same fashion as the original R11(TC.CM.SM.SA) and R14(CM.TC) factors independently isolated from dysenteric patients.

When strains harboring R factor and showing ampicillin (APC) resistance were inoculated on plates containing various concentrations of APC, mutants carrying various levels of APC resistance occurred at high frequencies. Increases in the level of APC resistance were due to a quantitative increase in the formation of penicillinase. By conjugation experiments and transduction analysis, the mutation was found to affect the gene (amp) governing APC resistance on the R factor. The R-factor mutants carrying high and stable APC resistance were conjugally transferred at the same frequency as their parent R factors, and the level of their resistance to drugs other than APC was not distinct from that conferred by their parents. Such R-factor mutants could easily be obtained from wild-type R factors carrying low APC resistance. The hypersynthesis of penicillinase by such R-factor mutants was considered to be due to the replication of the ampgene on the R factor at hyper-rates and the integration of multiple copies of the ampgene (amp-hyper) in the R-factor genome.

Escherichia colistrains isolated from 151 swine and 108 fowl, which were kept at the Animal Health Center, Maebashi, Japan, were surveyed for drug resistance and distribution of R factors. All of the swine and 38% of the fowl excreted E. colistrains resistant to tetracycline, chloramphenicol, streptomycin, and sulfanilamide, or certain combinations thereof. Among 278 resistant cultures isolated from swine, 13% were found to be resistant to one antibiotic, whereas 87% were resistant to more than one antibiotic. Among these resistant strains, 40% carried R factors which were transferable by the usual conjugal process. The resistance patterns of these R factors included 36% which were singly resistant and 64% which were multiply resistant. Among 54 resistant cultures isolated from fowl, 24% were singly resistant and 76% were multiply resistant. Of the resistant strains from fowl, 22% carried R factors. The resistance patterns of R factors included 50% of the singly resistant type and 50% which were multiply resistant. In spite of feeding with dairy products containing only tetracycline, a high incidence of multiple resistance was observed in the E. colistrains and the R factors isolated from these animals.

Hashimoto, Hajime(Gunma University, Maebashi, Japan), and Susumu Mitsuhashi. Drug resistance of enteric bacteria. VII. Recombination of R factors with tetracycline-sensitive mutants. J. Bacteriol. 92:1351–1356. 1966.—The transmissible drug-resistance factor R is able to confer resistance to tetracycline (TC), chloramphenicol (CM), streptomycin (SM), and sulfonamide (SA) on a host bacterium when infected by cell-to-cell contact. Tetracycline-sensitive mutants were isolated from either CM- or SM-sensitive mutants of an R factor. Among 30 mutants isolated, 10 were point mutants which could recombine with each other, forming recombinant R factors able to grow on plates containing 50 μg/ml of TC. The recombination frequency of TC-resistant recombinants was 10−2to 10−3in bacterial cells carrying two types of TC-sensitive R factors by superinfection with both factors. Segregational patterns of the various markers on the R factor, i.e., chl, str, sul, and m, the locus determining R mating, and their linkage order, were investigated among TC-resistant recombinants of the R factor. When TC was used as the selective drug, the tetlocus mapped on the R factor as an end marker. In view of the fact that these results are inconsistent with the linkage order of various markers reported previously, a circular genetic structure for the R factor which includes five tet-sand three chl-sloci is presented.

Mitsuhashi, Susumu(Gunma University, Maebashi, Japan), Hajime Hashimoto, Megumi Kono, and Masato Morimura. Drug resistance of staphylococci. II. Joint elimination and joint transduction of the determinants of penicillinase production and resistance to macrolide antibiotics. J. Bacteriol. 89:988–992. 1965.—Strains of Staphylococcus aureus, which show high resistance to macrolide antibiotics (erythromycin, oleandomycin, leucomycin, and spiramycin) and the capacity to produce penicillinase, have been isolated from clinical sources. The determinants of penicillinase production (PCase+) and resistance to macrolide antibiotics (MACr) of these strains were irreversibly eliminated by treatment with acridine or with ultraviolet light. Among the 18 strains tested, PCase+and MACrwere eliminated from all strains except one, which lost only PCase+but not MACr. The characters PCase+and MACrwere jointly transduced with the aid of phage lysates, obtained from the resistant donors by ultraviolet irradiation, into staphylococcal strains sensitive to PC and MAC. Segregation of PCase+and MACrwas rarely observed after transduction. From these results, it is suggested that the determinants of both PCase+and MACrof staphylococci are located close together on a single genetic element, i.e., a plasmid (or episome), which exists extrachromosomally.

Mitsuhashi, Susumu(Gunma University, Maebashi, Japan), Hiroshi Oshima, Umeko Kawaharada, and Hajime Hashimoto. Drug resistance of staphylococci. I. Transduction of tetracycline resistance with phage lysates obtained from multiply resistant staphylococci. J. Bacteriol. 89:967–976. 1965.—Tetracycline resistance was found to be transduced with phage lysates obtained from multiply resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureusof human origin. With various combinations of multiply resistant donors and tetracycline (TC)-sensitive recipients, almost all of the strains were found to be competent donors. A greater percentage of group 1 staphylococci were competent recipients. Most of the TC+transductants were not lysogenic for the transducing phage and were unable to transduce TC resistance with their own phage lysates obtained by ultraviolet irradiation. However, the TC+transductants, lysogenized with transducing phage, were capable of transducing TC resistance, and some of the lysogenizations were accompanied by changes in phage type. These results suggest that the emergence of the multiply resistant staphylococci (consistently resistant to TC) can be accounted for by transduction among various strains accompanied sometimes by changes in phage typing pattern after lysogenization, and by selection through extensive use of antibiotics and chemotherapeutic agents.

SEVERAL investigators have reported culturing two and four-celled mammalian ova to the blastocyst stage1–5. Although successful in vitro cultivation of eggs from the single cell to the blastocyst stage has been achieved in the mouse6–8, few satisfactory methods have been devised for the culture of the ova, at this stage, of other mammalian species, apart from some experiments with human oocytes9–10. We now wish to report a higher rate of success with one-celled rabbit ova cultivated in vitro to the blastocyst stage, using a nutrient solution composed of several known synthetic media.

A genetic analysis of resistance to tetracycline (TC), streptomycin (SM), sulfanilamide (SA), and penicillin G was carried out through transduction with phage lysates obtained from a multiply resistant strain of Staphylococcus aureusby ultraviolet irradiation. All transductants acquired resistance to both TC and SA, even when singly selected for either SA or TC resistance. The locus responsible for TC resistance could not be separated genetically from that for SA resistance. On the other hand, in transduction of SM resistance, about 30% of the transductants jointly acquired resistance to both TC and SA. These observations suggest that the loci governing resistance to TC, SA, and SM exist close together on a single genetic unit, this probably being the chromosome.

Dynamic behavior of initially sessile droplets of oleic acid with sodium oleate was investigated in an aqueous buffer solution. The interface of droplet highly fluctuated at pH 9.0 and concomitantly grew a multilayered structure inside of the droplet. Volume change of the droplet suggested the existence of three independent mass-transport processes. This phenomenon was observed under specific conditions of pH and oil composition.

CAPACITATION of hamster1,2and mouse3sperms in vitro has been achieved in the presence of, or after treatment by, follicular fluid. In vitro fertilization of mouse eggs by epididymal sperms4,5can take place in a synthetic medium without follicular fluid. These findings indicate that the current concept of capacitation should be modified. Confirmation of the results might be found in rabbit ova and sperms, because the capacitation of rabbit sperms is generally accepted as necessary for fertilization.

ALTHOUGH mammalian embryos have been cultured successfully in a recirculating medium continuously recharged with gas1–4, our attempts at rabbit blastocyst culture in such a system were not always as satisfactory as anticipated4. The blastocystic membrane usually ruptured, followed by collapse of the whole embryo within two to three days. One explanation was that the embryonic disk was pressed against the wall of the culture chamber because of its own buoyance, and therefore designed a new system in which recirculation was achieved by a convection current induced by point heating from a cautery (Fig. 1).

The motility changes in growing bacteria in a culture medium were observed with a dynamic light-scattering technique used to analyse the frequency spectrum of the scattered light intensity. Two typical enterobacteriaceae, E. coiland P. morganii, were examined, and the change in the velocity distribution of the bacteria with time was analysed using the observed spectrum. The distribution pattern was found to change from a Gaussian-type to a Saclay-type with time, and the mean speed of the bacteria had a maximum value at around the turning point of the growth curve.

A dynamic texture image processing technique is developed. A moving texture is sampled every 0.42 s and a time series of 128 dynamic frames is obtained. Each frame is constructured by 32×32 pixcels with 64 gray scale levels of brightness. From the time course of each pixcel's brightness, a correlation time and a variance are calculated; then a "correlation image" and "variance image" of the moving texture are constructed. This technique is applied to the analysis of dissipative structures in the electrohydrodynamic instability of nematic liquid crystal. Interesting information about dynamic behavior is obtained.

A flexible velocimetry based on dynamic image processing is proposed. Through an analogy of spatial filter technique and laser Doppler velocimetry, a raw dynamic scene is transformed to a scene superposed with a sinusoidal spatial pattern of gray-levels. Using temporal change of accumulated gray value of each frame, we can evaluate velocity information of moving particles by spectral analysis. The validity and usefulness of the velocimetry are confirmed using artificial images created by computer simulation. The effectiveness of the maximum entropy method in the spectral analysis is also emphasized.

Ramo's theorem is generalized for the current statically induced in neighboring conductors by a specified movement of a charge carrier to include the higher frequency domain. As an example of application of the generalized theory, the current associated with carriers generated in a rectangular semiconducting material is computed. When taking the velocity difference between electrons and holes into account, the current normalized at low frequencies due to spatially uniform generation of carrier pairs in an intrinsic semiconductor is formulated as follows: I(?)=?n=1,k(n/??)2[(1+ j??/n)exp (- j??/n)-1], where k(>1) is the ratio of the electron velocity to the hole velocity, ? is the angular frequency, and ? is the transit time for a hole traversing through the device.

An analytical approach based on digital image processing is proposed for measuring the size distribution of circular particles. From an analogy with the light diffraction pattern of a circular aperture, a reduced spectrum of the particles' image can be obtained using a two-dimensional fast Fourier transformation. The reduced spectrum, which is equivalent to the diffraction pattern, is analyzed using the theory of inverse light scattering to evaluate the size distribution of the particles. The usefulness of this method is confirmed not only in binary images but also in gray-scale images created by computer simulation.

A new dynamic image processing technique is applied to the measurement of the velocity of a vortex flow. Velocity-field of the vortex (i.e., the spatial distribution of speed and that of moving direction) is measured and visualized by pixel-based analysis calculating the mutual-correlation functions among temporal brightness changes at each pixel. It is shown that the dependence of the measured local speed Von the distance from the center of the vortex ris approximately V\varpropto(1/r), consistent with the results of pioneers in the field.

A new dynamic image-processing technique is proposed for the analysis of particle movement. On the basis of the time correlation analysis, three processed images termed "standard deviation image", "autocorrelation image" and "mutual-correlation image" are constructed for measuring the information about the particle movement. A rectilinear motion and a vortex motion of crowded particles are described as examples of dynamic images. It is demonstrated that the locus, speed and direction of moving particles at a given site can be estimated from the three processed images.

The 2.2-kilobase DNA fragment that can complement the nfxB mutation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO was cloned from chromosomal DNA of P. aeruginosa PAO1. The nfxB mutants show an increase in resistance to quinolones and hypersusceptibility to β-lactam and aminoglycoside antibiotics. In the mutants, a 54 kDa outer membrane protein newly appeared. The phenotype was restored to the wild-type by transformation with plasmid carrying the 2.2-kb DNA fragment.