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Objective. To examine the expression and regulation of chemotactic factor, macrophage inflammatory protein-1α (MIP-1α) by fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS), monocytes and polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) isolated from the synovial fluid (SF) of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.
Methods. Monocytes or PMN obtained from RA SF were co-cultured with unstimulated semiconfluent RA FLS. Culture supernatants were assayed for MIP-1α by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The expression of MIP-1α mRNA and protein was also determined by Northern blot analyss and immunohistochemistry respectively.
Results. Interaction of activated leucocytes with FLS synergistically increased MIP-1α expression and secretion via a mechanism mediated by β₂-integrin/ intercellular adhesion molecule 1.
Conclusion. MIP-1α expression within inflamed joints appears to be regulated not only by inflammatory cytokines but also by the physical interaction of activated leucocytes and FLS, and plays a crucial role in the progression and maintenance of RA synovitis.

Abstract: Various factors were assessed in terms of their contribution to arthralgia in a rheumatoid arthritis patient. Eighty-two outpatients (62 women and 20 men) with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were examined with respect to the subjective degree of arthralgia, age, disease duration, dysfunction, steroid dose, steroid period, depression, anxiety, extroversion, neurotic disorder, and number of caretakers. The results were explained on the basis of stepwise regression analysis and psychological and clinical data. We analyzed results of a correlation coefficient test on the mutual relationship between variables. Stepwise regression analysis was performed to assess factors of arthralgia in terms of "depression," "mean activity," "morning stiffness," and "steroid dose." Depression is a factor of arthralgia as shown in this study, but it is clear that other factors are also involved. Anxiety was a factor distinct from the activity of RA. The factor contributing most to arthralgia was found to be depression, whereas anxiety had no effect.

The energy spectrum of cosmic-ray antiprotons (p̄'s) has been measured by BESS successively in 1993, 1995, 1997 and 1998. In total, 848 p̄'s were clearly identified in energy range 0.18–4.20 GeV. From these successive measurements of the p̄spectrum at various solar activity, we discuss about the effect of the solar modulation and the origin of cosmic-ray p̄'s. The p̄/pratios showed no distinctive year-to-year variation during the positive Sun's polarity phase.

Solar battery arrays of spacecrafts have low frequency vibrational bevaviors due to the flexibility, which comes from the stringent limitation of the weight of launched rockets. The basic problem dealt with here is how to estimate and control the vibrational modes of flexible booms of the arrays in a reliable way even in large angle attitude maneuvers. During long mission periods, there might be some faults of sensors, hardwares and others i n the whole system, and so the system must have some properties of fault tolerancy. This paper describes the following aspects:1)A proposed mode estimation method, which makes use of differential outputs of instrument solar cells, gives good estimation of the vibrational modes.2)Even static output maximization control in a desired direction cannot work stably without flexibility control, based on the mode estimation.3)The boom is controlled and implemented as a distributed parameter system by microprocessors. The dynamic control based on the feedback control theory can give good results to suppress the vibration of the arrays even in large angle attitude maneuvers.4)The control system has fault tolerant properties, such as dual micrpprocessor controlled systems with independent fault self-diagnostic softwares, and can degrade itself as faults go into the worse.

A steering law is proposed for a pyramid type configuration single gimbal Control Moment Gyro system for attitude control of spacecrafts. Pyramid type CMG systems have the serious problem of complicated singular states. For the steering law, a function (gain) is introduced to the system. Gistribution of the gain, escapability from singular states, and symmetric characteristics of the system are discussed. The proposed steering law maximizes the gain of the system and avoids singular states by referring to the table which is obtained by off-line calculation and reduced to reasonably small size by using symmetric characteristics of the system.

We have studied the low-energy antiprotons in the cosmic rays by utilizing data obtained by the Balloon-borne Experiment with a Superconducting magnetic rigidity Spectrometer (BESS) flown in 1993 July from Lynn Lake, Manitoba, Canada. A detailed description of the event selection criteria and background corrections is given. Seven antiprotons are found that give an antiproton flux of 6.4+ 5.5?3.5× 10-3(m2sr s GeV)-1and an antiproton/proton ratio of 5.2+ 4.4?2.8× 10-6in the 200-600 MeV energy range. These results are consistent with a secondary origin of low-energy cosmic-ray antiprotons within our uncertainties, but they still require the precise measurement of the spectrum shape below 500 MeV to clarify exactly the model of particle propagation and possible contributions from exotic sources.

A new magnetic transducer has been developed for use in the measurement of mechanical displacement. Experiments suggest that the transducer could be used for various purposes: for instance, readout information from magnetic drums or disks of computers, nondestructive readout from thin-film memories, magnetic pattern recognition, and an unconventional flux sensor. The transducer is composed of flux-sensitive magnetic heads which are fabricated from a sheet of ferromagnetic thin film by photoetching process. By using the etching process, a large number of heads are produced simultaneously, and the heads are operated in a group. The characteristics, performances, and an application of grouped magnetic heads are described in this paper.

The thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) are physical mixtures of polymers. Impact absorbing materials in sports equipment are one of the expected applications of TPEs due to good process ability and less-smell. For examples, face guards, head-gears and protectors are expected to be applied. In this paper, static and dynamic mechanical properties of TPEs were investigated to expand the applicability of TPEs to the impact absorbing material for the sports equipment. In this study, TPEs developed by the Kuraray Plastics Co., Ltd. were applied for static and dynamic tests. To investigate the static mechanical properties of TPEs, the uniaxial tensile loading tests were conducted. The nonlinear viscoelasticity considering damage were applied to representation of the experimental results. The FEM analysis showed good applicability to static mechanical properties including damage which was excited by the maximum deformation. TPE. To investigate the dynamic mechanical properties of TPEs, a drop weight impact testing machine was developed. Impact absorbing properties of TPEs were evaluated by the impact force and impact time with baseball weight.

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