There is at present considerable confusion with respect to ethical guidelines that should govern the behavior of society and the physician confronted by problems resulting from recent attainments of medicine and science The use of life supporting devices raises the problem of determining when death has occurred and what is proper ethical procedure in dealing with the deficient half life caused by "Brain Death". Some guidance is obtained from a consideration of the nature of life, the nature of death, the nature of man and the essence lost in death of man. A parallel consideration of the nature of ethics, the bases of ethics and of ethical decision can be helpful. An individual may have ideals which control behavior, even elevate ethical standards; others entertain concepts that destroy social ethics. Ethics control and direct social interactions; ethics determine the quality of social behavior-ethics are established by societies not by individuals. Numerous commissions have endeavored to define the requirements of physicians for diagnosing brain death and for appropriate subsequent actions. The rationales presented, however, are not invariably accepted by lay society. The problem is created by numerous trends. Among them are the "rightest" movement which, though possessing many virtues, has its excesses such as expressed in the "right to life movement". These have not been beneficial and have necessitated "right to death movements". Opposition is also due to the fact that society's concepts of the medical profession have changed. The practice of organ transplantation has created problems. Finally, the concept of death as other than evil is no longer generally accepted. As more biological manipulations are possible ever more difficult ethical problems will arise. It is a certainty, however, that when brain death has occurred life of man and that of the individual has ended. Although others might not agree, our ethic requires us to use life assist techniques to preserve the vegetative man, the individual who can still breathe spontaneously though lacking consciousness and behavioral ability. All the codes of medical ethics state that a physician shall not kill-this does not mean he cannot permit the terminal phases of death when the essence of human life is lost. A major question is the ethical responsibility of one society toward another. Can an affluent society squander its resources in the preservation of ineffectual life in the body after "brain death"when others are without the medical assistance which would permit total living?

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The phytosociological study on vegetation was done in northwestern Kitakyushu City and its vicinities. Kitakyushu City is located in the northern region of Fukuoka Prefecture. The following 13 associations or communities were identified and described. Natural forests were as follows; (1) Euonymo-Pittosporetum tobirae, (2) Cyrtomio-Litseetum japonicae, (3) Aphananthe aspera Community, (4) Arisaemeto ringentis-Machiletum (Perseetum) thunbergii, (5) Symploco glaucae-Castanopsietum sieboldii, (6) Carpinus tschonoskii-Castanopsis cuspidata var. sieboldii Community, (7)Distylio-Cyclobalanopsietum, (8) Skimmio-Quercetum acutae. Substitutional forests and afforestations were (9) Castanopsis coppice forest, (10) Pinus thunbergii afforestation, (13) Phyllostachys heterocycla var. pubescens afforestation. The number of character species in some associations we studied was fewer than the same ones found in Nagasaki Prefecture, western Kyushu. The standing vegetation map was drawn on the scale of 1:50,000. Small natural forests were remained on particular sites. Secondary forests and afforestations of Cryptomeria japonica and Chamaecyparis obtusa were distributed widely on hills and mountains. The ranges of forests have been contracted by the expansion of urban districts and orchards. Urban and industrial areas were the most predominant landscapes in the study area.

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In connection with the possible overwintering of Japanese B encephalitis virus in mosquitoes, some experiments were carried out to examine the effect of temperature, day-length and blood feeding on the survival of the overwintering population of the mosquito, Culex pipiens pallens. No significant difference was observed in the survival rate between the blood-fed and unfed groups under a higher temperature (24℃) and longer day-length (L:D 14:10). Under a lower temperature (16℃) and shorter day-length (L:D 10:14), blood-fed mosquitoes survived twice as long as those under a higher temperature and longer day-length condition. Based on the analysis of wing-length distribution, it was clarified that the blood-fed mosquitoes were a uniform longer-winged group and that most of the shorter-winged mosquitoes were included in the unfed group. Judging from such lower blood-feeding activity of the shorter-winged mosquitoes, their survival rate is suggested to be low during or after overwintering.

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The heterogeneity of immunoreactive Prolactin (IR-PRL) in serum of pregnant women and patients with pituitary adenoma were studied by Sephadex G-100 gel chromatography. The major IR-PRL peaks in serum of pregnant women were eluted at the position corresponding to that of ¹²⁵I-PRL and the small amount of IR-PRL peaks were eluted near the void volume (peak 1) and between the void volume and ¹²⁵I-PRL (peak 2 ). On the other hand, the proportion of peak 1 and peak 2 to total immunoreactivity was significantly increased in serum of patients with pituitary adenoma compared to those in serum of pregnant women. The rechromatographic studies under conditions of protein denaturation and sulfide cleavage on Sepharose CL-6B column revealed that the peak 1 of the pregnant women and patients with pituitary adenoma were eluted at the position between ¹²⁵I-AFP and ovalbumine and the molecular weight was estimated to be about 54,000. This macromolecular PRL was also bound specifically to Sepharose coupled with anti-PRL, indicating that this macromolecule contained a sequence of PRL in its structure.

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Radiographic features of 50 breast cancers were evaluated in comparison with 83 benign lesions and the diagnostic accuracy is discussed. Most of the usual primary and secondary findings of cancer such as spicula formation, microcalcifications, skin, thickening and nipple retraction were present in these 50 cancer lesions and all of them were recognized in the benign lesions as well, although less frequently. Because breast parenchyma was dense in 81% of the cases evaluated, and mostly due to moderate to severe dysplasia, the diagnosis of the breast lesions was difficult. Therefore, we must be cautious in calling a lesion benign. The radiographic detectability of cancer was 94%, and the diagnostic accuracy was 72%, which are comparable to the results reported from other places.

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Clinical cases of sensory neuropathy produced by a megadose of vitamin B₆ have been reported in English literatures. We investigated the ordinary daily dosage and maximal dose of vitamin B₆ widely adopted in Japan, and the amount of vitamin B₆, per unit (per tablet, capsule or ampule) available in our medical practice. We concluded that in Japan it is very rare to administer such a large dose of vitamin B₆ that produced sensory neuropathy described in the literatures. In our experimental study, Sprague-Dawley rats were intraperitoneally given a total amount of 14,000 mg/kg of body weight of pyridoxine hydrochloride in ten separate doses. They developed an ataxic gait. The occurrence of the degeneration of nerve cell bodies and peripheral axons of lumbar primary sensory neurons were histologically demonstrated. Although in Japan no clinical cases of neuropathy produced by a megadose of vitamin B₆ have been reported to our knowledge, it is necessary to be aware of the possible occurrence of such neuropathy among patients with polyneuropathy of unknown etiology or who have been receiving vitamin B₆ for a long time.

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Two methods for the evaluation of air contaminant in a work environment are personal sampling to measure the exposure concentration for the evaluation of the exposure level to workers and area sampling that measures the environmental concentration for the evaluation of the clean level in the work environment. The aim of these samplings is different but they are used to measure the concentration in the same work environment. It is important to understand the difference between the exposure concentration and the environmental one in the same work environment. In this report, the relationship between the exposure concentration and the environmental one is investigated by using previous reported data. The difference between the exposure concentration and the environmental one is very large for all data, but the exposure concentrations agree well with the environmental ones when the both concentrations were measured by the same apparatus in some work environments.

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In the nuclear energy industry, plants are located far from urban areas and the working environments are generally separate from each other for radiation protection purposes. A health check on radiation workers in the nuclear energy industry was carried out using the Cornell Medical Index questionnaire. As a control study, radiation and non-radiation workers in the other working fields were investigated in the same manner. The results showed that the health status of radiation workers in the nuclear energy industry is similar to that of the workers in other working fields.

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A forty-year-old woman noticed a mass in her right breast. In April, 1984, a radical mastectomy was performed and the specimen was subjected to histopathological and ultrastructural study. The well-localized tumor revealed atypical spindle cell nests in the desmoplastic stroma. Based upon a squamous differentiation of the cancer cell nests, the tumor was diagnosed as spindle cell carcinoma. The histogenesis and prognosis of this rare tumor are discussed and the myoepithelial origin is suggested.

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A case of precancerous hair follicle tumor of a 60-year-old woman is reported. The tumor was detected in the large pudendal lip of an ATL-suspected patient. Microscopic findings showed that the tumor was a hair follicle tumor of low malignancy, such as a "malignant trichilemmoma", or "follicular Bowen's disease". Histogenesis and pathogenesis of this tumor are discussed including the relationships to ATL and "Trichilemmal horn".

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Data files can be organized in a variety of ways. Usually, input data files are assumed to be rectangular, and case-ordered. In research it is necessary to adapt original data sets to this structure. This paper is concerned with this structual data inquiry.

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