Two patients with rapidly developing shock, multisystem organ failure, and destructive soft-tissue infection caused by groups G and C streptococci are described. Both patients died rapidly despite aggressive treatment. The clinical characteristics cannot be distinguished from those of toxic shock-like syndrome, but Streptococcus pyogenes was not recovered. These strains did not produce any previously identified type of streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxins. These findings suggest that toxic shock-like syndrome can be caused not only by group A but also groups G and C streptococci. The causative strains of toxic shock-like syndrome may have something in common with unknown virulent factors for this syndrome.

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Vibration manipulation function (VMF) is applied as a linear-piecewise feedforward function to suppress residual vibration of a hoisting load in a one-dimensional overhead travelling crane. The system is modeled as a pendulum of a one-degree-of-freedom (1DOF) oscillator with enforced acceleration of a trolley. When an initial swing angle of the wire of the crane is small, residual vibration of the load can be vanished by this method in one natural period of the oscillator. On the contrary, in case of a large initial angle, certain amount of residual vibration remains because of the nonlinearity of the pendulum. However, it can be eliminated with repeated enforce accelerations of the trolley under VMF in every natural period. Moreover, in case of the existence of external noises and errors, the intermittent repeated accelerations can remove residual vibration with sampleddata feedback control in every natural period. Some examples of numerical simulations and experimental results are shown to validate the abilities of VMF in the crane operation. Residual vibration of the load can be suppressed in any time of the crane work, as far as the trolley travels in constant speed including static position, i.e. in any inertial frame, at the beginning of each operation. This feedforward function could be used for an automatic crane machine with or without the sampled-data feedback control. Since the function is an analytic solution of an intrinsic repowering operation, it can also be used in tutoring software for operator's training.

Posturographyis not a clearly defined examination. Recently a number of parameters can be obtained in stabilometry by means of computers.To evaluate each parameter and to decide its normal range, subject's age must be considered. The age-related factors found in stabilometry were studied in terms of both multiple regression analysis and cluster analysis. The parameters used in this study were as follows : the area of an ellipse for rejection and of the figure displayed on an X-Y recorder, the maximum width on both the X axis (left and right direction) and the Y axis (anterior and posterior direction), the total length and the sum of excursion in each direction, the root mean square, the velocity, the accerelation, and the averaged frequency of body sway in both X and Y directions.One hundred normal subjects, aged from the second to sixth decade, including 10 males and 10 females in each decade, were tested. Each subject was asked to stand on a platform in Romberg's position for 60 seconds with both eyes open and closed. The significant parameters to predict age, which were determined by multiple regression analysis, were as follows (P<0.05) : the averaged frequency in the Y direction with eyes closed, the maximum width in the X direction with eyes open, the area of the ellipse for rejection and of the figure with eyes closed, the maximum width in the Y direction and the area of the ellipse and the velocity in the X direction with eyes open. All test subjects were successfully classified into two groups by cluster analysis. One was the younger group aged less than 40 years and the other was the older group not younger than 40-year-old.However, the difference between with eyes open and with eyes closed was not significant (P<0. 01)as regards the parameters of root mean square and averaged frequency in both sexes and at every decade. The difference between both sexes was supposed to be significant in the Y direction in the younger group and in the X direction in the older one.

A pattern of a figure which is displayed by an X-Y recorder or by a polygraph in stabilometry may present several qualitative facts about the standing ability of a test-subject.The purpose of this study was to make a quantitative evaluation of the body stability in both normal and ataxic patients who were standing erect. The technique utilised was pattern-recognition, composed of prinpal component analysis and discriminant analysis. On the contrary, the significant parameters used to classify the other five groups were as follows (P<0. 05) : the length of excursion,