When we see a person's face, we can easily recognize their species, individual identity and emotional state. How does the brain represent such complex information? A substantial number of neurons in the macaque temporal cortex respond to faces. However, the neuronal mechanisms underlying the processing of complex information are not yet clear. Here we recorded the activity of single neurons in the temporal cortex of macaque monkeys while presenting visual stimuli consisting of geometric shapes, and monkey and human faces with various expressions. Information theory was used to investigate how well the neuronal responses could categorize the stimuli. We found that single neurons conveyed two different scales of facial information in their firing patterns, starting at different latencies. Global information, categorizing stimuli as monkey faces, human faces or shapes, was conveyed in the earliest part of the responses. Fine information about identity or expression was conveyed later, beginning on average 51 ms after global information. We speculate that global information could be used as a 'header' to prepare destination areas for receiving more detailed information.

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Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), optical microscopy, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to examine the thermal behavior, crystal structure, and crystal morphology of rice bran wax (RBX) in bulk and oil-wax mixtures, and to compare them with those of carnauba wax (CRX) and candellila wax (CLX). The RBX employed in the present study was separated from rice bran oil by winterization, filtration, refinement, bleaching, and deodorization. The RBX crystals melted in the bulk state at 77-79°C with DH melting = 190.5 J/g, which is quite large compared with CLX (129 J/g) and CRX (137.6 J/g). XRD data of the RBX crystals revealed O \ subcell packing and a long spacing value of 6.9 nm. Thin long needle-shaped crystals were observed in the mixtures of RBX and liquid oils [olive oil and salad oil (canola:soy bean oil = 50:50)]; therefore, the dispersion of RBX crystals in these liquid oils was much finer than that of CRX and CLX crystals. Organogels formed when the mixture of every plant wax and liquid oil was melted at elevated temperature and cooled to ambient temperature. However, the mixture of RBX and olive oil at a concentration ratio of 1:99 wt.% formed an organogel at 20°C, whereas the lowest concentration necessary for CRX to form an organogel in olive oil was 4 wt.% and that for CLX was 2 wt.%. Observation of the rate of gel formation using DSC and viscosity measurements indicated that the gel structure formed soon after RBX crystallized, whereas a time delay was observed between the organogel formation and wax crystallization of CRX and CLX. These results demonstrate RBX's good organogel-forming properties, mostly because of its fine dispersion of long needle like crystals in liquid oil phases.

To reliably estimate the prognoses of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), both liver function and tumorrelated factors should be accounted for. However, there are few worldwide staging systems that assess prognostic value in the context of selecting individual patients for randomized stratification in therapeutic and clinical trials. We investigated the value of known prognostic systems and verified the usefulness of the new scoring system proposed by the Cancer of the Liver Italian Program (CLIP), as determined from 662 Japanese patients. A retrospective analysis of the HCC diagnoses at 4 Japanese institutions from 1990 and 1998 was performed. Overall survival was the only end point used in the analysis. Discriminatory ability and predictive power of the CLIP score were compared with those of Okuda stage and AJCC TNM stage. Compared with the Okuda and AJCC staging systems, the CLIP score's enhanced discriminatory capacity, which was tested by the linear trend test and Harrels' c-index, revealed a class of patients with an impressively more favorable prognosis and another class with a relatively shorter life expectancy. Moreover, the likelihood ratio test showed that the CLIP score had additional homogeneity of survival within each score above that of the Okuda stage or the AJCC stage. This was true for 3 subgroups of patients who received surgery, transcatheter arterial chemoembolizations, and percutaneous ethanol injections. Collectively, these findings indicate that the CLIP score has the highest stratification ability with regard to prognosis in patients with HCC. The CLIP score could be used internationally to stratify randomization groups in therapeutic and clinical trials. (HEPATOLOGY 2001; 34:529-534.) Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a relatively common malignant tumor worldwide, accounting for almost one million deaths annually. In the past 2 decades, some newly developed therapeutic options have been applied with varying degrees of success (i.e., liver resection and transplantation, transcatheter arterial chemoembolization [TACE], and percutaneous ethanol injection [PEI]). To reliably estimate the prognoses of patients with HCC, both liver function and tumor-related factors should be accounted for 1-3 ; however, there are few data collection systems that include both. 4 In fact, the well-known UICC and AJCC staging (TNM) criteria do not define the relative prognostic weight of variables, in terms of residual liver function. 5 Although several studies have examined predictive factors for prognosis in relation to treatment, 1,6-16 most of these have been performed in Asian institutions. Accordingly, these facilities and patient populations possess early detection plans, risk factors for primary liver cancer, a high proportion of expanding tumors, and differing rates of resectability, respectively, with regard to those in Western countries. 2,9,12

Alcohols in the homologous series of nalcohols increase in central nervous system depressant potency with increasing chain length until a ''cutoff'' is reached, after which further increases in molecular size no longer increase alcohol potency. A similar phenomenon has been observed in the regulation of ligand-gated ion channels by alcohols. Different ligand-gated ion channels exhibit radically different cutoff points, suggesting the existence of discrete alcohol binding pockets of variable size on these membrane proteins. The identification of amino acid residues that determine the alcohol cutoff may, therefore, provide information about the location of alcohol binding sites. Alcohol regulation of the glycine receptor is critically dependent on specific amino acid residues in transmembrane domains 2 and 3 of the ␣ subunit. We now demonstrate that these residues in the glycine ␣1 and the ␥-aminobutyric acid 1 receptors also control alcohol cutoff. By mutation of Ser-267 to Gln, it was possible to decrease the cutoff in the glycine ␣1 receptor, whereas mutation of Ile-307 and͞or Trp-328 in the ␥-aminobutyric acid 1 receptor to smaller residues increased the cutoff. These results support the existence of alcohol binding pockets in these membrane proteins and suggest that the amino acid residues present at these positions can control the size of the alcohol binding cavity.