In DME, vitreous VEGF concentration correlates with mean foveal thickness measured on OCT. VEGF concentration was higher in premacular vitreous than in mid-vitreous and peripheral cortical vitreous, suggesting diffusion from the macular region to the periphery, and from the posterior to the anterior globe.

During the latter half of the first CPEA campaign (CPEA-I), X-band Doppler radar (XDR) observation was carried out from 10 April to 9 May 2004 in west Sumatera. In this paper, characteristics of precipitating systems and their relation to the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) are investigated based on the analysis of the XDR data.Significant diurnal variations of precipitation were observed both in the convectively inactive and active phases of MJO, in which the area of intense echoes with reflectivity greater than 40 dBZ attained a maximum around 16 LST, whereas the area of weaker echoes attained a maximum in the evening. However, while the area of weaker echoes showed significant drop in the evening (21 LST) in the inactive phase, such a drop occurred in the early morning in the active phase. During the convectively inactive phase from 10 to 22 April, the precipitation was caused by systems that formed within the observation area. Shallow convective cells appeared in the mountain range around midday, which subsequently developed into deep convective systems. These convective systems then migrated southwestward in many cases, but in some cases they were observed to split and then migrated both southwestward and northeastward. During the convectively active phase from 23 April to 6 May, much of the precipitation occurred associated with the development of pre-existing cloud systems within super cloud clusters (SCCs). While the precipitation area with weak to moderate reflectivity became considerably larger than that in the convectively inactive phase, the area and the top heights of intense echoes were generally suppressed. Environmental factors responsible for these modulations in precipitation are also discussed. The structure and evolution of precipitation systems were further investigated for some selected cases. The precipitation system observed on 17 April showed typical evolution during the convectively inactive phase, whereas the precipitation system on 11 April was observed to split into two systems that migrated southwestward and northeastward. The northeastward migrations of the precipitation systems occurred as a result of successive generation of new convective elements on the northeastern side of old ones. The precipitation systems observed on 23-24 April and 5-6 May occurred during passages of SCCs, and moved eastward associated with intrusions of low-level westerlies. These systems were composed of convective regions around the leading portions of the low-level westerlies, and stratiform regions behind. Analyses of reflectivity and Doppler velocity fields for the latter case suggested that the elevated orography in the west Sumatera temporarily blocked the eastward propagation of the system and the intrusion of the low-level westerly.

The inducible prostaglandin synthesis enzyme, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), is involved in bone resorption and osteoclastogenesis, and acts indirectly through prostaglandin E2 (PG E2) produced by osteoblastic cells. This study was undertaken to investigate whether celecoxib (a selective COX-2 inhibitor) has a direct effect on human osteoclast precursors to influence osteoclastogenesis in vitro. Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were cultured on glass coverslips and dentine slices with soluble receptor activator of NF-kB ligand (sRANKL) and macrophage colony stimulating factor (M-CSF). COX inhibitors including celecoxib were added to the cultures. Osteoclast formation was assessed as the number of tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP)-positive multinucleated cells (MNCs), and the functional evidence of lacunar resorption pits on dentine slices was assessed. Celecoxib and indomethacin inhibited osteoclast formation and the extent of lacunar resorption in a dose-dependent manner, but the effect of indomethacin was less than that of celecoxib. Mofezolac affected neither the number of TRAP-positive MNCs nor the extent of lacunar resorption pits. These results indicate that celecoxib influences not only osteoclast formation through osteoblastic cells but also acts directly on circulating osteoclast precursors to influence human osteoclast differentiation. The effect of celecoxib on osteoclast precursors may be related to the COX-2 signal pathway.

There is a diurnal cycle of systematic cloud migration over Sumatera Island, i.e., cloud systems developing in the mountainous area in the afternoon migrate westward and/or eastward for several hundreds of kilometers (about 500 km) from night to morning. The regional characteristics and internal structure of migratory cloud systems with a diurnal cycle over Sumatera Island during CPEA-I were examined using data from an X-band Doppler radar (XDR), a VHF wind profiler (Equatorial Atmosphere Radar (EAR)), rawinsondes, and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES9).During CPEA-I, the cloud system had a horizontal scale of several hundred kilometers and migrated both westward and eastward over nearly all of Sumatera Island except for the southernmost part. The cloud system migrated only westward over southernmost Sumatera Island during CPEA-I.From a case study on April 17 and 18, 2004, precipitation systems with horizontal scales of several tens of kilometers were observed in a cloud system by XDR, and they migrated in a direction similar to that of the cloud system at a speed of about 3 m s À1 , which roughly corresponded to the wind direction and speed in the lower troposphere. Convective precipitation was observed mainly in the forward region of the precipitation systems, and stratiform precipitation was observed in the rearward region. The convective precipitation successively generated new convective cells in front of old convective cells. These results suggest that the migratory mechanism of the precipitation systems is self-replication of convective cells and the advection of background wind in the lower troposphere.