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Fourteen adult patients with haematological malignancies (eight non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, one multiple myeloma, one chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, two acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and two acute myeloid leukaemia) developed acute interstitial pneumonitis (IP) during the course of chemotherapy. All patients manifested high fever over 38 degrees C, bilateral diffuse pulmonary interstitial infiltrates in the chest radiograph and severe hypoxia without hypercapnia in the arterial blood gas analysis. Pathogenic microorganisms were not detected in repeated examinations in any patient. Chemotherapy given included various anti-neoplastic drugs. Five patients had received granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) for chemotherapy-induced leucopenia. The onset was associated with an increase of leucocytes in 10 patients. All patients were treated with high dose steroid hormone and broad spectrum antibiotics with or without anti-fungal agents, and three required mechanical ventilation. Eleven patients quickly recovered from these situations, whereas three died. Autopsies were done in two patients and disclosed pneumocystis carinii (PC) pneumonitis in one and non-specific pulmonary congestive oedema and fibrosis in the other. In conclusion, IP of unknown cause could develop in patients with various haematological malignancies especially at the recovery phase of chemotherapy-induced leucopenia irrespective of the previous G-CSF administration. High dose steroid hormone should be used as therapy for such patients as soon as possible after exclusion of an infective aetiology.

This paper deals with a simple and reliable technique for simultaneous measurement of velocity and temperature in high-temperature turbulent flows, including combustion. The technique is based on the combination of laser Doppler velocimetry and a digitally compensated fine-wire thermocouple. For temperature measurement, a two-thermocouple probe with a fine cold wire [Tagawa et al. (1998) Rev Sci Instrum 69: 3370–3378] is used, which enables in situ measurement of thermocouple time constants and accurate compensation of the thermocouple response. When tested in a turbulent wake behind a heated cylinder, the technique proves to be highly reliable and effective for investigating heat transport processes in various non-isothermal turbulent flows.

A case of a periosteal chondroma occuring in the great toe is reported. A 17-year-old man presented with a nail deformity progressing over a 3-year period. Plain radiographs showed only cortical irregularity of the phalanx. The diagnosis was aided by computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging which revealed a juxtacortical mass measuring 10 × 10 mm without intramedullary extension.

We examined red cell fragmentation syndrome (RCFS) induced by mitomycin C (MMC) (13 patients), by thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) (17 patients), and by disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) (15 patients). Plasma cytokine levels were increased in the TTP and DIC patients, but not in those whose RCFS was induced by MMC, suggesting that the activation of the immune system plays an important role in the pathogenesis of RCFS due to TTP and DIC but did not in RCFS due to MMC. Plasma thrombomodulin, tissue type plasminogen activator, and plasminogen activator inhibitor-I levels were increased in all RCFS patients, suggesting that RCFS, whether MMC induced, or due to TTP or DIC, might be associated with vascular endothelial cell injury. In TTP, von Willebrand factor (vWF) antigen and high molecular weight vWF multimer levels were reduced, possibly as a result of microthrombus consumption. The hemostatic data in this study showed that the TTP patients were in a hypercoagulable state without hyperfibrinolysis, and that DIC patients were in both a hypercoagulable and a hyperfibrinolytic state, whereas hemostatic abnormalities were slight in patients with MMC induced RCFS. These findings suggest that vascular endothelial cell injuries might be associated with RCFS, and that those injuries in MMC-induced RCFS might not be related to microthrombi or an activated immune system.

Plasma thrombin-antithrombin 111 complex (TAT), FDP-D-dimer, activated protein C (APC)-protein C inhibitor (PCI) complex, and tissue type plasminogen activator (t-PA), PA inhibitor-1 (PAI-I) were significantly increased in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) at onset. These patients exhibited a hypercoagulable state and protein C activation at onset. The plasma PCI level at onset of AMI was within the normal range, but was significantly decreased after percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). After PTCA, plasma t-PA, FDP-D-dimer, and plasmin-a,-plasmin inhibitor were increased but APC-PCI complex and TAT were not. The decrease in PCI after PTCA may have been caused by the activation of fibrinolysis. PCI may play an important role in the inhibition of fibrinolysis in stimulated or damaged endothelial cells. These findings suggest that the protein C pathway plays an important role in the onset of AMI and after PTCA. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

SummaryWe examined 395 patients with disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) divided into two groups: non-leukemic and leukemic. In 58% of the patients as a whole, treatment of DIC resulted in complete or partial remission, while exacerbation and death occurred in 31%. The efficacy of DIC treatment in the non-leukemic group was less than that in the leukemic group, indicating that the outcome of DIC depended, in part, on the underlying disease. We examined hemostatic indicators in relation to DIC score: prothrombin time (PT) ratio, FDP, platelet count, and fibrinogen levels were found to be important indicators for the diagnosis of DIC, but not for Pre-DIC. Plasma levels of fibrin-D-dimer, thrombin-antithrombin complex (TAT), and plasmin- plasmin inhibitor complex (PPIC) were significantly increased in pre-DIC. The efficacy of treatment in relation to the DIC score when the treatment was begun showed that greater efficacy was achieved in pre-DIC than in DIC patients. The outcome was poorer with increasing DIC score, suggesting that early diagnosis and early treatment are important. On examining the relationship between outcome and hemostatic indicators, we found that the PT ratio and the levels of antithrombin, plasminogen, PPIC, the PPIC/TAT ratio, and thrombomodulin were related to outcome, suggesting that very high consumption of blood coagulation factors, liver dysfunction, hypofibrinolysis, or organ failure caused a poor outcome. Although the outcome in DIC patients may not depend substantially on plasma levels of TAT and fibrin-D- dimer, we can use these indicators to treat DIC patients at an early stage.

Plasma levels of the vascular endothelial cell markers, thrombomodulin (TM), plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), tissue type plasminogen activator (t-PA), and von Willebrand factor (vWF) were measured in 55 patients on maintenance haemodialysis (HD). TM, PAI-1 and vWF antigen levels were significantly increased in patients before HD, but t-PA antigen was not Compared with levels before HD, t-PA and vWF antigens were significantly increased 1 h after HD and at the end of HD. TM antigen was significantly increased 1 h after HD, and plasma PAI-1 antigen was decreased at the end of HD. TM and vWF antigen levels were negatively correlated with the time (years) on HD. It is concluded that HD may cause endothelial cell damage and that the increases in plasma TM, PAI-1 and vWF levels before HD, and the decrease in the release of TM and vWF antigens from vascular endothelial cells, might be caused by vascular endothelial cell damage from long-term HD.

CFD simulations of crossflows around a 2-D circular cyliner and the resulting vortex shedding from the cylinder are conducted in the present study. The capability of the CFD solver for vortex shedding simulation from a circular cylinder is validated in terms of the induced drag and lifting forces and associated Strouhal numbers computations. The validations are done for uniform horizontal fluid flows at various Reynolds numbers in the range 10 to the 3rd to 5x10 to the 5th. Crossflows around the circular cylinder beneath a free surface are also simulated in order to investigate the characteristics of the interaction between vortex shedding and a free surface at Reynolds number 5x10 to the 5th. The influence of the presence of the free surface on the vortex shedding due to the cylinder is discussed., 22nd Conference on Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering, 8-13 June 2003, Cancun, Mexico

We propose a novel information integration architecture for a man-machine interface and a new CSCW system called open cooperative work space (OCoWS) for its implementation. The architecture gives system users the advantage of a cooperative work space, in the style of an ordinary meeting by means of human sensing techniques as the system input interface and the integration of their results in several levels. As a result, users can dedicate themselves to mutual understanding among meeting members with no awareness of direction to the CSCW system.

The paper describes the design policy and prototype data collection of RWC (Real World Computing Program) multimodal database. The database is intended for research and development on the integration of spoken language and visual information for human computer interactions. The interactions are supposed to use image recognition, image synthesis, speech recognition, and speech synthesis. Visual information also includes non-verbal communication such as interactions using hand gestures and facial expressions between human and a human-like CG (computer graphics) agent with a face and hands. Based on the experiments of interactions with these modes, specifications of the database are discussed from the viewpoint of controlling the variability and cost for the collection.

Research on recurrent neural networks using evolutionary algorithms has begun with the aim of reducing the workload of network designers. Nevertheless, there have so far been no examples of studies of the non-periodic time series problem for which the recurrent neural networks are needed. We treat the synthesis of recurrent neural networks for the study of chaos dynamics using previously proposed two-dimensional genetic algorithms (2-D GAs). The 2D genetic algorithms are an extension of genetic programming to the synthesis of neural networks. The Lorenz orbit used as the training signal is normally a non-periodic orbit that undergoes continuous chaotic change. Accordingly, a recurrent neural network synthesized by a 2D GA is normally in the learning process. It is demonstrated that the output of a recurrent neural network that has a learning process synthesized by a 2D GA represents changes from a fixed point to a limit cycle and then changes again to the Lorenz attractor. That is to say, it is demonstrated that the hidden order of chaos dynamics can be learned. In future work we plan to perform experiments using more complex problems to verify the adaptability of neural networks synthesized with 2D GA.

Rutherford cable with a current capacity of 3.5kA at 4.2K in self field was fabricated using round Bi2Sr2CaCu2Ox(Bi-2212) silver-sheathed multifilament wires. The cable consisted of 19 strands with about 300 filaments per strand. Each strand extracted before heat treatment carried 210A, and no degradation was observed after cabling. The Ic value of 3.5kA which was 88% of the estimated value was achieved in the cable by introducing a ceramic layer between the Bi-2212 superconducting wires and the Ni-alloy core used for mechanical support. This ceramic barrier layer was effective in preventing poisoning of the superconducting filaments by elements present in the core.

In recent years, the quality of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) tapes has been improving rapidly, becoming available in sufficient quantity and length, and can be applied to devices for power systems and industrial applications. Therefore, we are carrying out a feasibility study on the application of HTS coil to a medical accelerator system for particle cancer therapy, and designing a new HTS cyclotron that is to be compact, highly efficient, is able to extract high-energy beam and consume less power. In this paper, we report our effort to develop a conceptual magnetic design of a “next generation HTS cyclotron” using high-temperature superconducting technology.

Plasma activated factor VIIa (FVIIa) levels were measured in various diseases using mutant tissue factor (TF). FVIIa levels in thrombotic patients and patients with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura were significantly higher than those in healthy control subjects. The plasma FVIIa levels in thrombotic patients treated with warfarin were similar to those of control subjects. The plasma FVIIa levels in pregnant women and patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, infection or malignancies were high. However, the levels in patients with disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) were not significantly increased. DIC patients are in a severe hypercoagulable state, and exhibit severe consumption of coagulation factors. The slightly increased FVIIa level in the DIC patients observed is probably considered to be caused by consumption of coagulation factors. The plasma FVIIa level was poorly correlated with other hemostatic parameters except for protein C in our analysis of all cases. In the analysis of DIC and thrombotic patients treated without warfarin, the plasma FVIIa level was negatively correlated with TF antigen. Plasma FVIIa levels might reflect hypercoagulability in thrombotic diseases, and a normalized FVIIa level in patients with thrombotic diseases should be considered to be associated with DIC.

We have been developing a localization method for an autonomous robot without using any prior knowledge or assumptions about the environment. The method is general and robust and can be used in real world robot tasks. With a map description based on a reduced image sequence, we detect a frame sequence in the map which matches an input frame sequence, by means of reference interval-free continuous dynamic programming (RIFCDP). The method can cope with changes in the robot's speed because RIFCDP can spot arbitrary frame sequences by nonlinear matching. In this paper, we show a real-time localization system, and we illustrate the effectiveness of our method in the real world by some evaluation experiments.

A termination for 77 kV-class high Tc superconducting power cables was designed and fabricated. The termination is insulated with SF/sub 6/ gas, nitrogen gas and liquid nitrogen and is cooled with liquid nitrogen. The current lead has a cross sectional area altered along its axis in order to decrease the heat inlet and to prevent SF/sub 6/ gas from liquefying. The current lead is insulated with ethylene-propylene rubber (EPR) because it passes through nitrogen gas which has low dielectric strength in comparison with liquid nitrogen and SF/sub 6/ gas. 200 A AC current and 70 kV AC voltage to ground were successfully applied simultaneously for 40 hours in total. The measured heat loss of the termination, 19 W, is in good agreement with the calculated value. As the next step, the applied voltage was increased and the termination was confirmed to withstand the voltage up to 120 kV AC and 400 kV Imp to ground.

A superconducting model cable was designed and fabricated. The cable consisted of conductor, electric insulation, thermal insulation, LN2 paths for cooling, and corrugated aluminum sheath with PVC layer. The conductor was divided into ten segments in order to improve flexibility. Laminated Bi-2223 Ag sheathed tapes were put in grooves of the segments. The thermal insulation layer using super-insulation was evacuated during the evaluation of the cable. Critical current of the cable was 1.2 kA at 77K, and did not change before and after the cable fabrication and by the heat cycles.

A non-destructive evaluation (NDE) system for material damages of metals has been developed. The system enables very low magnetic field measurements by using a SQUID magnetometry system in a high-Tc superconducting shield. The shield has large internal dimensions of D0.87 m × L2.4 m, so that large specimen of up to 50 cm × 10 cm can be inspected. Size and location of magnetization from various material damages were contact less estimated with a Nb-based multi-channel SQUID magnetometer system which was placed directly in the shield.

We investigated hemostatic abnormalities in 37 patients with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) (PE patients) and in 40 patients with DVT without PE (DVT patients). Plasma fibrinogen, thrombin-antithrombin complex (TAT), plasmin-plasmin inhibitor complex, fibrin-D-dimer, activated protein C (APC)-protein C inhibitor (PCI) complex, von Willebrand factor (vWf), tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA), PA inhibitor-I (PAI-1), and thrombomodulin levels in both PE and DVT patients were significantly increased compared with normal volunteers. Plasma APC-PCI complex, PAI-1, and vWf levels in PE patients were significantly higher than those in DVT patients without PE. These findings indicate that PE patients are more hypercoagulable and hypofibrinolytic than DVT patients. Plasma TAT, APC-PCI complex, PAI-1, and vWf levels were the most sensitive indicators for PE. In these patients, increases in TAT and APC-PCI complex suggest DVT and increased PAI-1 and vWf suggest the risk of onset of PE.

SummaryWe measured plasma levels of tissue factor (TF) and tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) in patients with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) and disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) to examine the relationship between TFPI and vascular endothelial cell injury. TF antigen was detected in the plasma of healthy volunteers, and the levels were significantly increased in the patients with DIC, but decreased slightly in those with TTP. Plasma TFPI levels were significantly decreased in patients with TTP compared with those in healthy volunteers. The concentration of plasma thrombomodulin (TM) antigen was significantly higher in those with TTP than in normal volunteers. One month after treatment, TTP patients showed a significant decrease in plasma TM levels, and a significant increase, in plasma TFPI levels, but plasma levels of TF antigen were not significantly increased. As plasma TFPI/TF ratio was significantly increased after treatment, the hypercoagulable state was therefore improved after treatment. There was no significant difference in plasma TF and TFPI levels between those who achieved complete remission (CR) and those who died. However, plasma TM levels were significantly higher in those who died than in those who achieved CR. Plasma TFPI levels might reflect injury of vascular endothelial cells as do plasma TM levels, and decreased plasma TFPI/TF ratio and vascular endothelial cell injuries might play causative roles in TTP.

A SQUID magnetometry system using high Tc superconducting technology is developed to open up its applicability to nondestructive evaliation(NDE) on material damages of metals. And damages of austenitic stainless steels by plastic strain are successfully detected.

Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) infection is considered to contribute to the risk of malignancies other than adult T-cell leukemia. We report a 64-year-old male HTLV-1 carrier who developed quadruple malignancies such as cancer of the urinary bladder, skin, larynx and liver.