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Development of the control and communication system for the plasma heating unit of Large Helical Device (LHD: an experimental machine for fusion science) has been continued. The system is composed of a distributed and concurrent client/server system by the use of several UNIX workstations, and its sub-systems are controlled by PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), VME (Versa Module Europe). Almost all of its control system are connected via Ethernet with IEEE802.3. Man-machine interface system and hardware/software of the control system have been completed.

We have previously reported that ovalbumin (OVA) coupled with liposome via glutaraldehyde (GA) induced OVA-specific- and IgE-selective unresponsiveness in mice.In this study, OVA-liposome conjugates were made using four different coupling protocols: via GA, N-(6-maleimidocaproyloxy) succinimide (EMCS), disuccinimidyl suberate (DSS) and N-succimidyl-3(2-pyridyldithio)propionate (SPDP) and the induction of antigen-specific IgG and IgE antibody production was investigated for each. In addition, antigen-specific cytokine production by spleen cells of mice immunized either with OVA-liposome or with OVA adsorbed with aluminum hydroxide was investigated.OVA-liposome conjugates coupled via GA or DSS did not induce anti-OVA IgE antibody production but induced substantial anti-OVA IgG antibody production. On the other hand, the induction of anti-OVA IgE unresponsiveness by OVA-liposome conjugates coupled via EMCS or SPDP was incomplete. The amount of interleukin 4 (IL-4) produced by spleen cells stimulated in vitro with OVA correlated well with anti-OVA IgE antibody production in donor mice. However, the production of no other cytokine, i.e., IL-2, IL-5, IL-10 or interferon-gamma, was correlated with in vivo IgE antibody production.OVA-liposome coupled via GA or DSS induced complete suppression of anti-OVA IgE production. The results in this study further suggest that the regulation of IgE antibody production does not necessarily correlate with so-called Th1 cytokine production.

Large Helical Device (LHD) has been started its operation from the end of March 1998. Second harmonic electron cyclotron heating (ECH) is used as a plasma production and heating. Three gyrotrons have been used at the frequency range of 84 GHz as power sources. Up to 420 kW power with the pulse length of 0.5 sec has been injected in LHD via long distance corrugated waveguide transmission system. The antenna system composed of four mirrors for each line focuses the microwave beam with the 15 mm in 1/e waist radius on the midplane of LHD in the radial direction that enables the local power deposition. The maximum stored energy with using only second harmonic ECH recorded so far is 36 kJ at the averaged density of ne,ave=1.5×1019 m−3. The maximum central electron temperature Te0=2 keV is achieved at ne,ave=3×1018 m−3. Power modulation experiments are carried out mainly to estimate the power deposition profile using ECE radiometer. The initial ICRF heating experiment was also carried out using a pair of loop a...

Abstact The dinuclear Ni(II) complex [TPANi(II)(μ-0H) 2 Ni(II)TPA](ClO 4 ) 2 (TPA = tris(pyridylmethyl)amine) (2) can react with atmospheric CO 2 readily, and forms corresponding μ-carbonate complex, [TPANi(II)(μ-CO 3 )Ni(II)TPA](ClO 4 ) 2 (3).

PyNPase activity, MMPs activity and serum IAP values were measured in tumor tissues from colorectal cancer patients who had been divided into two groups, one given preoperative 5'-DFUR and the controls. PyNPase activity of the preoperative administration group was approximately equivalent to that of the controls. In the control group, correlations were assessed between PyNPase activity and activities of MMP1 and MMP3. To assess the effect of 5'-DFUR on the activity of MMPs, we divided patients into two groups, a high and a low PyNPase activity group. Although there was no correlation with MMPs activity of the preoperative administration group and the control group in the low PyNPase activity group, the activities of MMP1 and MMP9 of the control group were significantly higher in the high PyNPase activity group. Moreover, the serum IAP value of the administration group was significantly lower than that of the control group. These results indicated that PyNPase activity was thus suggested to be somehow related to MMPs activity and serum IAP values.

We report a rare case of double cystic duct in a 74-year-old woman. The patient complained of mild epigastric discomfort, and several stones were discovered by ultrasonography and computed tomography. Any anomalies of the biliary tract were undetectable in the preoperative examinations without direct cholangiography. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy was performed. After clipping the cystic duct close to the gallbladder, as usual, serial intraoperative cholangiography was performed and unexpectedly showed the inflow of contrast medium into the gallbladder via another cystic duct arising from the right hepatic duct, thus revealing one gallbladder and two cystic ducts, one of which joined the common hepatic duct and the other the right hepatic duct. There was only one cystic artery that arose from the right hepatic artery and accompanied the primary cystic duct to be distributed to the gallbladder. The existence of contrast medium in the resected specimen was confirmed by radiography. No complications occurred during or after laparoscopic cholecystectomy. This is the first report of double cystic duct found in laparoscopic cholecystectomy. We recommend routine preoperative or intraoperative cholangiography.

We report herein a patient with K-ras point mutation at codon 12 that had been detected in pure pancreatic juice (PPJ) obtained 3 yr and 6 months before he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer (PC). In this 73-yr-old man, PC was diagnosed by ERCP, which showed obstruction of the main pancreatic duct (MPD) at the borderline area between the body and tail of the pancreas. Distal pancreatosplenectomy was performed, and an advanced PC at the tail of the pancreas with a few metastatic nodules in the liver was confirmed. Retrospectively, a K-ras point mutation at codon 12 from GGT (glycine) to GAT (aspartic acid) was detected in the PPJ collected endoscopically 3 yr and 6 months earlier, as well as in the PPJ when PC was diagnosed and in the resected tumor tissue. Reevaluation of pancreatography from the ERCP performed at that time revealed a very mild stenotic lesion of the MPD, speculated to be a PC at a very early stage, at the body-tail border, but it was difficult to diagnose this lesion as a PC, based only on this morphological study. Accordingly, we believe that this is an interesting and valuable clinical case, indicating that K-ras mutation can precede clinical evidence, and its determination in PPJ could be a useful genetic test calling for a careful and extensive clinical investigation for early detection of PC.

A 90-degree miter bend with movable circular corrugated waveguide is designed for the purpose of outdoor use. The waveguide can slide in the circular smooth waveguide arm joined together with the bend. An analysis based on the superposition of plane wave, mode matching and phase correction is carried out. The result shows that the content of HE 11 mode in the output corrugated waveguide is more than 99%. To calculate radiation pattern on a plane which is non-parallel with the aperture the new method is developed. By using the reflectometry with wavepacket propagation, it is confirmed experimentally that an attenuation constant of HE 11 in the corrugated waveguide with 88.9mm in diameter is less than 2 db/km as expected from the theory.

Collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostic requires a strong probing beam to diagnose a bulk and fast ion distribution function in fusion plasmas. A mega-watt gyrotron for electron cyclotron resonance heating is used as a probing beam in the large helical device. Spurious mode oscillations are often observed during the turning on/off phase of the modulation. The frequency spectra of the 77-GHz gyrotron output power have been measured, and then one of the spurious modes, which interferes with the CTS receiver system, is identified as the TE(17,6) mode at the frequency of 74.7 GHz. The mode competition calculation indicates that the increase of the magnetic field strength at the gyrotron resonator can avoid such a spurious mode and excite only the main TE(18,6) mode. The spurious radiation at the 74.7 GHz is experimentally demonstrated to be suppressed in the stronger magnetic field than that optimized for the high-power operation.

Frequency measurements at 74-80GHz were conducted for the identification and suppression of spurious modes from the 77-GHz gyrotron, which was originally introduced as a power source for electron cyclotron resonance heating and is now also used as a probe beam for the collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostic. The spurious modes are excited as the gyrotron output power is turned on and off by controlling the anode voltage. These modes are harmful for the CTS diagnostic, even though their power is less than approximately 50 dB below than that of the main mode. The measured frequency of one of the spurious modes is approximately 74.7GHz. The cavity structure, starting current calculation, and mode competition calculation suggest that the spurious mode is the TE17,6 mode. The result is important for optimizing the gyrotron operation as a CTS probe beam and suppressing or minimizing the spurious mode excitation. © 2012 The Japan Society of Plasma Science and Nuclear Fusion Research.

Catalysis by lanthanide phosphates (LnPs) were studied. Only LaPO4 and CePO4 are effective catalysts in various LnPs for oxidative dehydrogenation of iso-butane. Using a iso-butane rich reactant gas mixture, the selectivity of iso-butene showed 79-86% at 450-550°C. LnPs have no adsorbed oxygen species and the surface lattice oxygen reacted with hydrogen at >200°C. The activity of the lattice oxygen not affected the catalytic activity. A linear relationship has observed between the acid amount and the catalytic activity of the catalysts. This suggests that acidic sites of intermediate strength play a key role in the oxidative dehydrogenation of iso-butane.

The transition of a radial electric field from a negative to a positive value is observed in the compact helical system when the electron loss is sufficiently enhanced by the superposition of the off-axis second harmonic electron cyclotron heating on the neutral beam heated plasmas. Existence of the threshold for the enhanced particle flux required to cause the transition is experimentally certified. The observed threshold is compared with a theoretical prediction.

Mice were vaccinated with recombinant vaccinia virus (rVac) expressing the glycoprotein (G), nucleoprotein (N), phosphoprotein (NS) or matrix protein (M) of rabies virus and their resistance to peripheral lethal infection with street rabies virus was examined. Mice vaccinated with rVac-G or rVac-N developed strong antibody responses to the corresponding proteins and essentially all mice survived challenge infection. Mice vaccinated with rVac-NS or rVac-M developed only a slight antibody response, however, a significant protection (59%) was observed in the rVac-NS-vaccinated mice, whereas rVac-M-vaccinated mice were not protected. No anti-G antibodies were detected in the sera of mice which had been vaccinated with rVac-N or rVac-NS and survived challenge infection. Passive transfer of anti-N monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) recognizing an epitope located on amino acids 1–224 of the protein prior to challenge resulted in significant protection, although the protection was not complete even with a high amount of antibodies. In contrast, none of the mice given MAbs recognizing an epitope of amino acids 247–415 or F(ab′)2 fragments from a protective MAb IgG were protected. Administration of anti-CD 8 MAb to rVac-N-vaccinated mice showed no significant effect on protection. Our observations suggest that a considerable part of the protection achieved by the vaccination with rVac-N can be ascribed to the intact anti-N antibodies recognizing an epitope located on amino acids 1–224 of the protein.

ICRF heating on the Large Helical Device features high power(up to 9MW) with steady state operation (30min.). We have researched feedback control impedance matching systems with two stub tuners for this device. The preferable method for following changes in plasma loading resistance has been found to be by shifting only one of the stub tuners. In this case the reflected power can be reduced to less than 0.5% for wide range of electrical resistances, 1.0 to 5.6Ω. We also successfully tested frequency feedback control of matching with a long line stub tuner or a twin stub tuner. The twin stub tuner is newly invented to simplify frequency feedback control system. A response time of 1ms has been demonstrated for this system using the twin stubtuner. During tests with a time varying electric resistance, 2 to 6Ω, the frequency always tracked the value that minimized the reflected power to less than 0.2%.

A new method is proposed to analyze the mode content of high power electromagnetic waves that are propagating through corrugated waveguides in the electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECH) systems for nuclear fusion devices. The method was applied to the 168 GHz transmission line of the ECH system in the Large Helical Device (LHD) to evaluate the waveguide alignment. The mode content of the propagating waves could be accurately analyzed using this method. Furthermore, the wave field in the waveguide was reconstructed using the mode content information obtained for each mode.

We reported on a 35 year-old patient suffering from ALL with multiple liver abscesses (Journal of Kyusyu Hematological Society, Vol. 31, No. 34, Dec., 1983). He experienced six years of complete hematological remission from 1983 to 1989, with low fever, positive CRP, polyclonal gamma-globulinemia and elevated alkaline phosphatase. A relapse occurred in June of 1989. A subsequent biopsy revealed fibrosis of the liver attributed to inflammation. At present, he has returned to the complete remission stage with no exacerbation of the liver abscesses.

The polarization state of a wave is an important factor in electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) and current drive (ECCD), for it strongly affects the propagation and absorption of the wave in the plasma. A real-time monitor of the polarization of the EC beam has been developed for use in ECRH/ECCD experiments in large helical device (LHD). Two orthogonal components of the wave field are measured in one of the miter-bends by use of a specially designed coupler and a waveguide circuit with a 0°–90° phase switch to deduce the polarization parameters: the polarization angle α and the ellipticity β. Since fast-response pin diodes are used for the switches, the polarization is determined every 3 ms, facilitating real time acquisition of the polarization. This article reports on the design and the principle of this monitor as well as on the algorithm used to calculate α and β. This article also reports on the method of calibration, for the accuracy of this measurement depends on it. Finally, a comparison ...

Extremely abrupt and highly sensitive all-optical inverter characteristics were brought about in a fairly simple manner with a modelocked laser diode of dual optical modes employed. In addition to the excellent static characteristics, a 155 Mbit/s inverter action was confirmed in a preliminary dynamic experiment.

A new technique for local magnetic field measurement in a bumpy torus NBT‐1M (which is a magnetic plasma confinement device) has been developed using a rapid‐frequency‐scan (RAFS) laser system combined with sodium atomic beam probing. The RAFS laser beam excites the sodium D1 transition in the plasma cavity, and the Zeeman pattern is determined with laser fluorescence spectroscopy in a single laser shot. From the Zeeman splitting, the transient magnetic field distribution in the plasma, produced by electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECH), is measured with an accuracy of ±3.2%, a spatial resolution of 5 mm, and a temporal resolution of 5 μs.

The reaction mechanism of propylene oxidation to acetone over SnO 2 MoO 3 catalyst has been investigated in terms of the kinetics at 130 °C. Isopropyl alcohol (IPA) showed the behavior of an intermediate product. The selectivity to IPA approached 100% in the very beginning of the oxidation. Thus it was confirmed that acetone formation proceeds first through hydration to IPA, followed by oxidative dehydrogenation. The kinetics of the propylene oxidation disclosed a significant retardation by ketone. Comparison of the rates for hydration of propylene, dehydration of IPA, and oxidative dehydrogenation of IPA suggested that there is no single rate-determining step in the formation of acetone from propylene.

The amount of acidic sites of a series of SnO 2 MoO 3 binary oxides was determined by n -butylamine titration and correlated to the catalytic activity to form acetone in the oxidation of propylene. It was found that the catalytic activity increases linearly with the surface concentration of acidic sites which are formed by the combination of stannic oxide and molybdenum trioxide. The same relation holds for other transition metal oxides combined with molybdenum trioxide which are also active for acetone formation. The role of the acidic sites is to promote the hydration of the olefin which is the first step of acetone formation.

The in vivo immunoregulating activity and the hypercalcemic action of 4 synthetic analogues of vitamin D3 with an oxygen atom in the side chain were compared with those of 1 alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 [1 alpha,25(OH)2D3] in mice. Oral administration of these vitamin D3 compounds augmented the primary immune response, induced by immunization with a suboptimal number of sheep erythrocytes, without inducing hypercalcemia. The order of the in vivo potency to induce the immune response was 22-oxa-1 alpha,25(OH)2D3 greater than 1 alpha,25(OH)2D3 not equal to 20-oxa-1 alpha,25(OH)2D3 not equal to 22-oxa-1 alpha(OH)D3 greater than 1 alpha(OH)D3 not equal to 20-oxa-1 alpha(OH)D3. 22-Oxa-1 alpha,25(OH)2D3 was about 50 times more potent than 1 alpha,25(OH)2D3 in inducing the in vivo primary immune response, but the former was only 1/100 as active as the latter in inducing hypercalcemia. These results suggest that the immunoregulating activity of vitamin D compounds can be separated structurally from their hypercalcemic action in vivo.

The electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECH) system in the Large Helical Device consists of nine gyrotrons: two that are 82.7 GHz, 0.45 MW, and 2 s; two that are 84 GHz, 0.8 MW, and 3 s; one that...