Angiographic no-reflow phenomenon strongly predicts long-term cardiac complications after AMI; these complications are possibly associated with LV remodeling.

A neural network model, called a "neocognitron," for a mechanism of visual pattern recognition was proposed earlier, and the result of computer simulation for a small-scale network was shown. A neocognitron with a larger-scale network is now simulated on a digital computer and is shown to have a great capability for visual pattern recognition: The neocognitron's ability to recognize handwritten Arabic numerals, even with considerable deformations in shape, is demonstrated. The neocognitron is a multilayered network consisting of a cascaded connection of many layers of cells. The information of the stimulus pattern given to the input layer is processed step by step in each stage of the multilayered network. A cell in a deeper layer generally has a tendency to respond selectively to a more complicated feature of the stimulus patterns and, at the same time, has a larger receptive field and is less sensitive to shifts in position of the stimulus patterns. Thus each cell of the deepest layer of the network responds selectively to a specific stimulus pattern and is not affected by the distortion in shape or the shift in position of the pattern. The synapses between the cells in the network are modifiable, and the neocognitron has a function of learning. A learning-with-a-teacher process is used to reinforce these modifiable synapses in the new model, instead of the learning-without-a-teacher process which was applied to the previous small-scale model.

Somatosensory signals from the facial skin and muscles of the vocal tract provide a rich source of sensory input in speech production. We show here that the somatosensory system is also involved in the perception of speech. We use a robotic device to create patterns of facial skin deformation that would normally accompany speech production. We find that when we stretch the facial skin while people listen to words, it alters the sounds they hear. The systematic perceptual variation we observe in conjunction with speech-like patterns of skin stretch indicates that somatosensory inputs affect the neural processing of speech sounds and shows the involvement of the somatosensory system in the perceptual processing in speech.multisensory integration ͉ speech production

A p-conjugated polymer-iridium complex containing the ligand in the main chain was synthesized by the Suzuki coupling method, and was applied to organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) as the emitter material. The polymer-iridium complex showed red photoluminescence and electroluminescence with the maximum external quantum efficiency of ca. 3% by using 4,4 0 -N,N 0dicarbazole-biphenyl and 2-(4-biphenylyl)-5-(4-tert-butyl-phenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole blended into the polymer emitter layer.

The present experiment was performed to identify endothelium-derived contracting factor produced by acetylcholine stimulation in the aorta of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and normotensive Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats. The rings of the thoracic aorta were obtained from age-matched SHR and WKY rats, and changes in isometric tension were recorded. The relaxant responses to acetylcholine in the aortic rings from SHR were significantly weaker than those from WKY rats. The relaxant responses to acetylcholine were significantly enhanced by pretreatment with a cyclooxygenase inhibitor (indomethacin) or thromboxane A 2 / prostaglandin H 2 receptor antagonist (ONO-3708) in aortic rings from both SHR and WKY rats. A thromboxane A 2 synthetase inhibitor (OKY-046) did not affect the acetylcholineinduced relaxation in the aortic rings from SHR or WKY rats. In the organ bath solution, after acetylcholine stimulation, prostaglandin E 2 and 6-keto-prostaglandin F la concentrations increased but not prostaglandin F 2a and thromboxane B 2 concentrations. Exogenous prostaglandin H 2 , a stable analogue of thromboxane A 2 , and prostaglandin F 2a induced contractions of the SHR rings at a lower concentration than prostaglandin E 2 , prostaglandin D 2 , and prostaglandin I 2 . These contractile responses to various prostaglandins were markedly inhibited by pretreatment with ONO-3708. A prostacyclin synthetase inhibitor did not affect the relaxant responses to acetylcholine in the SHR rings. These results show that endotheliumderived contracting factor is produced and released by acetylcholine stimulation not only in the aorta of SHR but also in those of WKY rats and suggest that prostaglandin H 2 , a precursor of the released prostaglandins, is a strong candidate for endothelium-derived contracting factor produced by acetylcholine stimulation. (Hypertension 1990;15:475-481) A ll blood vessels are lined by the endothelium, and the important role of an organic or functional abnormality of endothelial cells in the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of various diseases has attracted attention.In 1980, Furchgott et al 1 found that acetylcholine induced endothelium-dependent relaxation in the rabbit aorta. Since then, various substances have been reported to induce endothelium-dependent relaxation in most of the blood vessels in mammals. 23Several pharmacological observations have strongly suggested that there is more than one endothelium-