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The improvement of an mc-Si solar cell through reverse bias and high temperature (BT) aging was investigated using laser beam-induced current (LBIC) and electroluminescence (EL) techniques. We demonstrated that the dark current of the cell decreased with increasing aging time, which led to an increase in the maximum power after BT aging. The improvement in the maximum power was presumed to be due to a reduction in the shunt current in the equivalent circuit model, and we found that the recombination centers in the vicinity of the surface decreased with BT aging. Applying a reverse bias and a high temperature successfully improved the solar cells.

ABSTRACTThe effects of the chemical composition and heat treatment on the creep properties of Grade 91 steel base metal and welded joint were investigated by conducting creep tests on materials whose Al, Cr, and Ni contents were systematically varied or the normalising and tempering temperatures were varied.  The effect of the chemical composition on the creep strength was similar for the base metal and the welded joint. That is, the creep strength decreased with increasing Al content, whereas the Ni content had little effect on the creep strength. Regarding the effect of heat treatment, the creep strength increased with increasing normalising temperature and decreasing tempering temperature for the base metal and the welded joint. The comparison of the test results of the welded joints with those of the base metals revealed a positive correlation between the creep strength of the base metals and that of the welded joints.

Cardiovascular surgery is a highly invasive intervention that is often performed in elderly patients at risks of complications because of malnutrition and reduced immunity. This study investigated nutritional factors that affected length of hospital stay in patients undergoing cardiovascular surgery. Among 68 patients who underwent surgery at the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery of Gifu Municipal Hospital between April 2013 and March 2015, 55 with complete data were included in the analysis. Data on serum albumin (ALB), transferrin (Tf), pre-albumin (PA) and retinol binding protein (RBP) levels were collected. The median length of hospital stay was 29 days (stays of ≥30 days were considered long-term hospitalization). Multivariate analysis (multiple logistic regression) included age (≥ 65 years), sex (female), and ALB (≤ 3.0 g/dL), Tf (≤ 150.0 mg/dL), PA (≤ 10.0 mg/dL) and RBP (≤ 1.5 mg/dL) levels. ALB [odds ratio (OR) 10.37, 95% CI (confidence interval): 1.185–90.80,P= 0.035] and Tf [OR 4.743, 95% CI: 1.375–16.36,P= 0.014] were significantly associated with length of hospital stay. Nutritional management of patients and careful monitoring of ALB and Tf levels can shorten length of hospital stay in patients undergoing cardiovascular surgery.

The mercury release behavior in bituminous coals, and the partitioning rate of mercury in solids and gaseous in flue gases have measured to develop technologies for evaluating the partitioning of mercury in coal combustion process and develop in-situ adsorption and removal technologies using three kinds of experiment equipments - a thermo-balance, a drop-tube furnace (DTF), a bench-scale pulverized coal combustion fumace. The results showed that about 20 to 60% of the mercury in coal was released between 573 K and 673 K, which was the range of temperature in which the release of the volatile matter of coal began. And more than 90% of the mercury was released at 773 K, the temperature at which the release of the volatile matter was completed. The rate of mercury partitioned into bottom ash in a bench-scale pulverized coal combustion furnace was the smallest irrespective of the type of coal. The rate of mercury partitioned into cyclone ash was also low for all types of coal with values generally below 10%. The rest of the mercury was partitioned into mercury in gaseous form, but the rate partitioned into dust, oxidized mercury and elemental mercury varied slightly depending on the flue gas temperature and the type of coal.

The carbon monoxide dehydrogenase/acetyl-CoA synthase (CODH/ACS) from Methanosarcina thermophila is part of a five-subunit complex consisting of alpha, beta, gamma, delta, and epsilon subunits. The multienzyme complex catalyzes the reversible oxidation of CO to CO(2), transfer of the methyl group of acetyl-CoA to tetrahydromethanopterin (H(4)MPT), and acetyl-CoA synthesis from CO, CoA, and methyl-H(4)MPT. The alpha and epsilon subunits are required for CO oxidation. The gamma and delta subunits constitute a corrinoid iron-sulfur protein that is involved in the transmethylation reaction. This work focuses on the beta subunit. The isolated beta subunit contains significant amounts of nickel. When proteases truncate the beta subunit, causing the CODH/ACS complex to dissociate, the amount of intact beta subunit correlates directly with the EPR signal intensity of Cluster A and the activity of the CO/acetyl-CoA exchange reaction. Our results strongly indicate that the beta subunit harbors Cluster A, a NiFeS cluster, that is the active site of acetyl-CoA cleavage and assembly. Although the beta subunit is necessary, it is not sufficient for acetyl-CoA synthesis; interactions between the CODH and the ACS subunits are required for cleavage or synthesis of the C-C bond of acetyl-CoA. We propose that these interactions include intramolecular electron transfer reactions between the CODH and ACS subunits.

The fabrication and characterization of a strain-controlled SiGe/Ge MODFET is described in detail. The heterostructure consisting of p-Si/sub 0.5/Ge/sub 0.5//Ge/Si/sub 1-xs/Ge/sub xs/ was grown by molecular beam epitaxy, and to enlarge the valence-band discontinuity, the strain in the p-Si/sub 0.5/Ge/sub 0.5//Ge layers was controlled by changing the composition of the relaxed Si/sub 1-xs/Ge/sub xs/ layer. A maximum hole mobility of about 9000 cm/sup 2//Vs was obtained at temperatures near 77 K. Some remaining problems, that muse be solved in order to make high performance MODFET's operating at room temperature, are also discussed.<>

The role of brain glutathione metabolism in hypertensive animals was studied. In spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) from prehypertension to established hypertension, the content of oxidized glutathione (GSSG) and the ratio of GSSG to GSH in the hypothalamus were significantly (p < 0.05) higher than those in age -matched normotensive Wistar Kyoto rats (WKY). Hypothalamic glutathione reductase (GR) activities in prehypertensive and established hypertensive SHR were significantly (p< 0.05) lower than those in WKY. DOCA-salt hypertensive rats (DSR) also had a significantly (p < 0.05) higher content of GSSG and GSSG/GSH ratio and a significantly (p <0.05) lower GR activity in the hypothalamus than the normotensive control. There were no significant differences in these values in the brain stem between hypertensive and normotensive rats. These results suggest that the increased GSSG/GSH ratio due to reduced activity of GR in the hypothalamus may have an important role in the development of hypertension in SHR and BSR.

This paper describes the effect of evaporation during laser welding, especially its effect on keyhole formation. In order to investigate the evaporation, a numerical model of evaporation at the molten pool surface of laser welding was developed. The effect of evaporation during laser welding was numerically analysed by the model and the numerical result compared with experiments. This paper may be summarised as follows:It is made clear by the numerical results that the molten pool geometry in laser welding is markedly affected by the evaporation process. Numerical results show that evaporation of the molten pool surface produces a recoil pressure and a keyhole is formed as a result. A calculated critical condition for keyhole formation has been compared with experiments and a satisfactory result has been obtained.

In an open clinical study, the efficacy and safety of carvedilol was investigated in 26 severely hypertensive patients controlled inadequately on a diuretic [diastolic blood pressure (DBP) > 120 mm Hg at first visit and >110 mm Hg following more than 1 week administration of a diuretic]. Following diuretic treatment all patients were initially administered 5 mg of carvedilol once daily. The dose was gradually increased to 10 mg and 20 mg until DBP was reduced below 100 mm Hg or until it was reduced by at least 10 mm Hg. Antihypertensive activity of carvedilol (5 mg) was sufficient in only three cases, but after 4 weeks (inpatients) or 8 weeks (outpatients) administration of carvedilol (10 mg or 20 mg), DBP/systolic blood pressure was significantly reduced from 176 ± 6/117 ± 3 to 145 ± 3/94 ± 2 mm Hg (p < 0.001) in all patients. Overall, a sufficient antihypertensive effect was observed in 80 of the patients. Heart rate was significantly decreased from 76 ± 2 to 67 ± 2 beats/min, but no patient experienced bradycardia. Carvedilol was generally well tolerated. These findings suggest that 10–20 mg of carvedilol once daily, in combination with a diuretic, is an effective and safe treatment for patients with severe hypertension.

Dipeptide and tripeptide derivatives containing a statine residue were synthesized as human renin inhibitors. ES-305. his(I-naphthyl)methyl acetyl-histidyl-statine-2(S)-methylbutylamide, was found to he a highly potent human renin inhibitor that is species-specific and enzyme-specific. The replacement of the methylhutylamide of ES-305 with the Ieucyl-lysinol (ES-1005) showed similar high potency against human renin (kivalue of 2.4 x 10-9M) and monkey renin (Kivalue of 7.9 x 10-9M) as ES-305. ES-1005 competitively inhibited human renin. The compound was about one order of magnitude less potent against pig. dog, and rahhit renins. It had moderate inhibitory potencies against cathepsin D and pepsin (ICof cathepsin D) and pepsin of 1.6 x 10-6and 8.0 x 10-6, M, respectively). ES-1005, a newly synthesized tripeptide derivative containing statine, is a highly potent inhibitor of not only primate renin hut also a wide variety of nonprimate renins.

Luminal concentration of glucose determined by a specific enzymatic method was about 50 mM after meal in rat jejunum. The diffusive pathway was suggested to have an important role in intestinal absorption of glucose.

A reduced coronary flow reserve (CFR) is reported to be present already even in early stage of hypertension without left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis whether LV geometric change (concentric remodeling) may be responsible for an impairment of CFR in uncomplicated hypertension with normal LV mass. From untreated patients with essential hypertension and normal LV mass (=115 g/m2) on echocardiography, we selected sex- and age-matched two groups determined by relative wall thickness (RWT); patients with normal LV geometry (RWT < 0.45, n = 30), patients with concentric remodeling (RWT = 0.45, n = 7). All patients underwent treadmill electrocardiography and/or coronary angiography to exclude coronary artery diseases. We assessed the washout rate (WR) obtained from intravenous dipyridamole thallium myocardial images (at 5 min and 240 min after dipyridamole and subsequent thallium injection) as a noninvasive marker of CFR. The following variables were evaluated between the two groups; WR, blood pressure (BP) level (office BP and 24-h ambulatory BP), LV fractional shortening determined by echocardiography, total cholesterol level and fasting glucose level. The WR was significantly decreased in patients with concentric remodeling than in those with normal LV geometry (33.1 ± 6.8 vs 40.2 ± 11.2%, P = 0.03). There were no significant differences in BP level, LV fractional shortening, total cholesterol level and fasting glucose level between these two groups. These findings indicate that a change of LV geometry from normal LV geometry to concentric remodeling may be associated strongly with the reduction in CFR in uncomplicated essential hypertension with normal LV mass.

Arteriolosclerosis is an important vascular change induced by hypertension. Blood flow of kidney and perforating artery area in the brain in essential hypertensive patients are determined by the severity of arteriolosclerosis in each region. The aim of the study was to evaluate relation of effective renal plasma flow (ERPF) and regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) including basal ganglia as perforating artery region in essential hypertension using renography and brain SPECT imaging. The study subjects were 28 essential hypertensive patients (56.2 ± 10.5 years, M/F = 16/12). ERPF was determined by dynamic renal scintigraphy by clearance method using 99mTc-mercapto acetyl triglycine. The rCBF was quantitatively measured by N-isopropyl-p-[123I]iodoamphetamine autoradiography method. Regions of interest on rCBF images were set in the frontal, temporal, parietal, occipital cortex, the basal ganglia and the cerebellum. The rCBF in the frontal, temporal, parietal, occipital cortexes and the cerebellum were not correlated to ERPE However, the rCBF in the basal ganglia is significantly correlated to ERPF (r = 0.38, p < 0.05). We conclude that hypertensive arteriolosclerosis at the kidney and at perforating artery region in the brain develops in parallel.