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The current study examined the prevalence of intestinal parasites and genotypes of Giardia intestinalis in puppies from nine pet shops in east Japan. Fresh fecal samples from 1794 puppies (≦3 months old) were collected on one occasion. Giardia spp. was examined for specific coproantigen using ELISA kit (SNAP®Giardia, IDEXX Laboratories, Inc., USA). Other intestinal parasites were detected microscopically using the formalin-ethyl acetate sedimentation technique. Genotyping was determined for the random 29 stool samples identified as Giardia spp. positive using PCR and direct sequencing of the glutamate dehydrogenase (gdh) gene. Overall prevalence of protozoan Giardia spp. and Cystoisospora spp. revealed 23.4% and 11.3%, respectively. Prevalence of ascarids, Strongyloides spp. and hookworms were recorded 1.8%, 1.1% and 0.1%, respectively. Protozoan Giardia spp. and Cystoisospora spp., thus, represent important pathogens among pet shop puppies. All genotyped G. intestinalis isolates were belonged to assemblage C or D, identified as dog-specific genotypes. Zoonotic assemblage A and B were not demonstrated. The result suggests that the risk of zoonotic transmission of G. intestinalis from pet shops puppies to humans may be quite low in Japan.

The authors have studied the microwave properties of high-T/sub c/ superconducting EuBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub y/ (EBCO) films on MgO and YAlO/sub 3/ substrates with low dielectric constants ( in =10 and 16, respectively), and a low loss tangent (tan delta >

A maximal-flat-type bandpass filter using two TM/sub 01 delta /-mode dielectric resonators oriented axially in a high-T/sub c/ superconductor cylinder was designed with 3-dB bandwidth of 36 MHz at 11.958 GHz. For this filter an insertion loss below 0.1 dB and a frequency temperature coefficient of -2.7 ppm/K were realized in the range of 20 to 50 K. >

Coplanar two-port transmission line resonators were made using high-T/sub c/ superconducting EuBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub x/ film on an MgO substrate. The EuBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub x/ films were prepared by magnetron sputtering and patterned by photolithography and Ar ion milling. The resonator characteristics were measured as a junction of temperature and power. The highest unloaded Q value obtained was 12500 at 28 K and at 3.9 GHz, and the surface resistance of the film was estimated at about 40 mu Omega . No change in Q values was observed at input power level less than -20 dBm. >

A new method is proposed to evaluate the quality of pellet component. Unlike other methods which only rely on the binarized image to solve this problem, ours rely on both the binarized image for measuring and other features of the image. In this paper, first of all, a model is constructed. The size of the model depends on the designed requirement of dimension and its allowable tolerance. By using this model, the sizes of the component are inspected roughly. Then, we propose the backpropagation (BP) neural networks for evaluating the ring of central part based on the features of the tested component. Because there are measurement errors such as systematic and random errors, so the dimension of the component has to be measured several times. Finally, the final decision method is proposed. This method can evaluate the quality of pellet component more precisely than the traditional methods.

Carinal resection was performed in 10 cases of bronchogenic carcinoma during 12 year-period. The mean age of patients was 58 years, with a range of 42 to 68 years. There were 7 male and 3 female. The tumor was located on the right side in 7 cases, on the left side in 1 case on the carina in 2 cases. The histological examination showed squamous cell carcinoma in 5 cases, adenocarcinoma in 4 cases and adenoid cystic carcinoma in 1 case. The staging revealed T3N2 M0 Stage IIIA in 2 cases, T4N0M0 Stage IIIB in 1 case, T4N1M0 Stage IIIB in 1 case, T4N2M0 Stage IIIB in 5 cases and T4N3M0 Stage IIIB in 1 case. The surgical methods were as follows; sleeve pneumonectomy in 5 cases, wedge carinal resection with pulmonary resection in 3 cases (right sleeve upper lobectomy in 2 cases and right pneumonectomy in 1 case), carinal resection in 2 cases. The site of bronchial anastomosis was overlapped by thymus in 6 cases. The 30-day mortality rate in tracheo-carinal resection was 10% (one patient). Eight patients died and remaining 2 patients are still alive without any evidence of recurrence. 5-year survival rate was 36%. These outcomes were almost equal to those of surgical case in the same stage.

We examine the high-frequency surface resistance of sputtered EuBa2Cu3O7-x films on MgO, YAlO3, and Sapphire substrates having favorable dielectric properties. Surface resistance measurement is performed as a function of temperature by end-wall replacement in a 50 GHz gold-plated Invar host cavity. For films with good in-plane epitaxial alignment, low surface resistance values of less than 10 mΩ at 77 K are obtained, which is in the same range as that for a classical superconductor of Nb at the same reduced temperature (T/Tc) of 7.7 K. Microstructural study with a transmission electron micrography (TEM) indicates that a number of defects related with in-plane misorientation are observed for films having poor microwave properties.

Microwave surface resistance Rs of YBa2Cu3Oy ceramics with extremely different sized grains (~μm,~10μm, and ~mm) is measured using a TE011 cavity at 17GHz. Rs is also measured under a magnetic field (

The properties of ultra-oriented polyoxymethylene tubes produced by drawing under microwave heating have been assessed by mechanical testing, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray analysis, birefringence and differential scanning calorimetry. The highest Young's modulus of 58 GPa was obtained at room temperature (77 GPa at −150°C) at a draw ratio of 33. The maximum tensile strength was 1.7 GPa at a draw ratio of 26. The nonuniformity of Young's modulus in a radial direction has been compared with the nonuniformity of the birefringence and heat of fusion.

In the production of ultrahigh-modulus (45–60 GPa) polyoxymethylene (POM) by microwave heating drawing, ultradrawing to draw ratios over 20 causes formation of numerous voids and radicals. The volume fraction of the internal voids is proportional to the drawing-induced radical concentration. On the basis of the idea that the rupture of taut tie-molecules (TTM) is responsible for void and radical formation, the relationship between the fraction of tiemolecules that are taut and the fraction that are ruptured is discussed by assuming both a Takayanagi structure model and the normal distribution of the tie-molecule lengths. The results indicate that longer tie-molecules are successively converted to TTM's followed by ruptures of shorter TTM's in the ultradrawing process; a small variance in the tie-molecule length distribution is effective for increasing TTM's without void formation. The maximum value of the volume fraction of taut tie-molecules for highly oriented POM tubes is estimated to be about 0.5.

The drawing behaviour of a series of poly(oxymethylene) homopolymers with number-average molecular weight ( M n ) ranging from 38 000 to 66 000 has been studied at a feed speed of 0.06 m min−1 under microwave heating. Tubes with outer and inner diameter of 4 mm and 1 mm, respectively, were used for drawing experiments. The optimum tensile load and ambient temperature for high modulus increased with M n . The highest tensile modulus (54 GPa) and strength (1.6 GPa) were obtained for higher M n samples, although the attainable draw ratio decreased from 34 to 28 with increase of M n .

The influence of tensile load and precursor size on the drawing behaviour of polyoxymethylene tubes, with outer diameters of 3, 4 and 6 mm, has been studied at a feed speed of 6 cm min −1 under microwave heating. As the temperatures of sample portions are difficult to measure, tensile load is used as a corresponding parameter. It is shown that there is an optimum tensile load for a given tube diameter to achieve high modulus and high strength over all draw ratios. The optimum tensile load gives rise to uniform heating which is confirmed by differential scanning calorimetry. The attainable dynamic modulus decreased from 59 GPa to 51 GPa with increase in the precursor tube diameter from 3 to 6 mm.

We have employed an ultrasonic method to measure from −40 to 60°C the five independent elastic moduli C11, C13, C33, C44, and C66 of polyoxymethylene with draw ratio λ from 1 to 26 prepared by continuous drawing under microwave heating. The elastic moduli are controlled by three major factors: molecular orientation in the crystalline regions, fraction of noncrystalline taut tie molecules, and void content. The steep rise in the axial extensional modulus C33 and axial Young's modulus E0 with increasing draw ratio results from the alignment of chains in the crystalline blocks and an increase in the number of disordered taut tie molecules. Below the γ relaxation (located at 0°C at our measurement frequency of 10 MHz), these two factors also give rise to a slight decrease in the transverse extensional modulus C11, Young's modulus E90 and shear modulus C66. At high temperature where the amorphous regions have very low modulus, the stiffening effect of taut tie molecules becomes dominant, leading to an increase in all moduli as λ increases from 1 to 10. At higher λ the void fraction increases appreciably, causing small decreases in E90, C11, and C66 at all temperatures.

Dynamic mechanical measurements on highly oriented poly(oxymethylene) produced by microwave heat-drawing have been undertaken at four frequencies (3.5, 11, 35 and 110 Hz) over the temperature range from −150°C to the melting point. The dynamic modulus at 110 Hz reached a value of 85 GPa at −150°C for the most highly-oriented sample (draw ratio, 41). The α and γ absorptions are clearly discernible, even at the highest draw ratios. The γ absorption can be divided into two absorptions, i.e. a low-temperature component due to crystal defects and a high-temperature one due to amorphous regions.

A new technique is presented for growing YBa 2 Cu 3 O x single crystals by using multi-layered and sintered pellets, which consist of YBa 2 Cu 3 O x and a mixture of YBa 8 Cu 9 O y and YB 8 Cu 9 F w O z . Free-standing crystals are grown in cavities formed in the pellet. Superconducting transitions of as-grown crystals occur at 91.5 K with a width of 0.4 K. The growth processes are also discussed.

A tensile drawing process under dielectric heating has been developed for polyoxymethylene. The influence of ambient temperature, electric field strength, and strain rate on the maximum draw ratio and the tensile modulus has been examined. Tubes possessing tensile moduli up to 63GPa were produced by the new drawing technique. It is speculated that the achievement of such ultrahigh moduli is due to the fact that the stress by drawing is used effectively to orient the molecular chains in the noncrystalline regions and at defect regions within the crystal lamellae. This is because these regions are heated to higher temperatures than the crystalline regions during dielectric heating.