Young children's conceptual factors of reading

The purpose of this study was to examine young children's understanding of the reading process. The subjects were 60 children whose ages ranged from three to five. The students were administered an open-ended interview to obtain their conceptions of reading. Using content analysis, their responses were categorized and frequency distributions were tallied. Since there was an unequal number of responses for each category, percentages for each category were computed using the total number of responses rather than the number of respondents. The results indicated that young children's immediate experiences had an impact on their conceptions of reading. Most of the young children's reading experiences consisted of reading pictures and listening to stories. Since most young children are not able to read, others read for them. The reading areas are also part of the child's experiences. Most of their reading experiences are in school, home and community.     

Binding cells of125I-iodoamphetamine in rat liver

We recently reported that transrectal or intestinal portal scintigraphy with¹²³I-iodoamphetamine (IMP) could be a useful method for the non-invasive and quantitative evaluation of the portosystemic shunt in portal hypertension, but what cells in the liver trap IMP has not been clarified. This study was aimed at elucidating whether IMP was extracted by parenchymal cells, sinusoidal endothelial cells, Kupffer cells or fat storing cells. Each type of liver cell was isolated from rats and cultured. The cells were incubated with¹²⁵I-IMP and the radioactivity of the lysate was determined. Nonspecific binding was assessed in the presence of an excess of unlabeled IMP, and specific binding was determined by subtracting the nonspecific from total binding. Specific binding observed in parenchymal cells, endothelial cells and Kupffer cells was 70.2 ± 0.4, 4.2 ± 1.4 and 2.3 ±0.8 pmol/well, respectively, but no specific binding was observed in fat storing cells. The binding in parenchymal cells was much higher than that in endothelial cells or Kupffer cells (p < 0.005). In addition, the binding to parenchymal cells reached equilibrium within 20 min and was not saturable over the concentration range tested (0.5–10 μM). These findings indicate that IMP is mostly extracted by parenchymal cells in the liver.     

Design and application of laser-disk for clinical pulmonary data base system using the personal computer

A database system is described for managing the information on pulmonary function test (PFT) measured by three different PFT devices. The data is transmitted into a personal computer, FM-11AD2+ (FUJITSU CO., LTD.) with a 20 MB hard disk and a 800 MB laser disk. Multitasking OS, OS-9/6809, is used to operate the software. PFT data of about 15,000 cases may be stored, which can be easily retrieved for research and discussions on a case study. Despite the present limitation of the processing speed and the capacity of the hard disk, this system is useful because it allows to provide reports readily.     

Enhancement of Nasal Salmon Calcitonin Absorption by Lauroylcarnitine Chloride in Rats

Purpose. We investigated optimum formulation characteristics in the nasal absorption of salmon calcitonin (sCT) by incorporation of acylcarnitines. Methods. Nasal sCT formulations were administered to anesthetized rats. Plasma calcium level was measured and pharmacological bioavailability (P.bioav) was calculated. Results. Nasal sCT absorption was significantly enhanced by carnitines with acyl groups of 12 or more carbon atoms. Enhancement by lauroylcarnitine chloride (LCC) was observed at its critical micelle concentration and reached a plateau at the concentration of 0.1%. Optimal absorption was achieved at a molar ratio of LCC to sCT of 5:1. Enhancement was not influenced by osmolarity and maximum enhancement was obtained at pHs 3.1 and 4.0. Conclusions. The 12-carbon LCC was the strongest enhancer among acylcarnitines. Micelle formation played a key role in this enhancement effect.     

Leser-Trélat sign with anaplastic ependymoma – an autopsy case

A 36-year-old Japanese male, who 7 years previously had been diagnosed as having an ependymoma in the left parietal region, had received surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. He later developed a rapid growth of multiple skin lesions on his back and extremities, which coincided with a regrowth of the tumor. Postmortem examination revealed that the ependymoma showed anaplastic transformation and necrosis; however, no malignancy was observed in the extracranial organs. The skin lesions were histologically diagnosed as seborrheic keratoses. We have, therefore, diagnosed the patient as having Leser-Trélat sign associated with anaplastic ependymoma. Received: 5 May 1996 / Revised, accepted: 15 July 1996