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A series of rare earth oxides were investigated as catalysts in the ketonization of acetic acid. High selectivity to acetone over 99% was obtained by reacting acetic acid over rare earth oxides such as La 2 O 3 , CeO 2 , Pr 6 O 11 , and Nd 2 O 3 . Especially, Pr 6 O 11 showed the highest yield of 80% at 350 °C among the 14 rare earth oxides. The bulk structure of CeO 2 was stable during the ketonization, while the surface acetate species were observed over CeO 2 after ketonization. In contrast, the other active rare earth oxides such as La 2 O 3 , Pr 6 O 11 , and Nd 2 O 3 were mainly basic oxides due to the formation of bulk oxyacetate such as MO(AcO), where M is La, Pr, and Nd and AcO indicates CH 3 COO group, in the initial period of the reaction. In any case, the catalytic ketonization proceeds over the surface of the oxyacetates and CeO 2 . Catalytic cycle of the ketonization is composed of two steps: the decomposition of surface M 2 O(AcO) 4 to produce MO(AcO), acetone, and carbon dioxide and the regeneration of surface M 2 O(AcO) 4 by reacting MO(AcO) and acetic acid to produce water.

症例1は70歳，男性．回盲部切除術後7日目に腸閉塞発症．右腹部に硬い腫瘤を触れ，腹部CTでは腸間膜の肥厚と脂肪織の濃度上昇を認めた．イレウス管にて軽快しなかったため，術後30日目よりデキサメタゾン8mg/day投与を開始したところ著効を認め術後40日目に退院となった．症例2は72歳，男性．下行結腸切除術後7日目に腸閉塞発症．上部消化管造影検査にて小腸の蠕動不良と造影剤の通過不良を認めた．腹部正中に硬い腫瘤を触れ，腹部CTで腸間膜脂肪織の濃度上昇を認めた．胃管留置のみで徐々に症状軽快，術後37日目より経口摂取再開となり術後47日目に退院となった．術後の腸間膜脂肪織炎は術後早期の腸閉塞の原因となりうる疾患で，感染兆候がないこと，腹部に硬い腫瘤を触知することが特徴である．文献的には，男性の大腸癌手術後に多いが，その原因は不明である．術後早期の腸閉塞の原因として念頭に置くことで不要な手術を回避できる可能性がある．

We report a case of meningococcemia without meningitis, which is a rare infectious disease in Japan. A 32-year-old woman was referred to our hospital with fever and joint pain. Her clinical presentation and the results of laboratory examination on admission suggested viral infection. However, her condition rapidly progressed to septic shock with fulminans purpura. Blood culture grew Neisseria meningitidis. She received antimicrobial therapy and underwent localized therapy for skin lesions. Meningococcal infection should be considered in patients who have fever along with skin rash or petechiae even when there are no signs of meningitis. In this report, we also review case reports of meningococcemia without meningitis in Japan.

We report two cases of Paragonimus westermani infection in a Chinese family in Japan. A 41-year-old husband and his 40-year-old wife were infected with P. westermani after consuming a homemade Chinese traditional "Drunken Crab." They were a family with two children who had lived in Japan for 19 years. The crabs were Eriocheir japonica sent from the Kyusyu area that they had pickled at home with soy sauce and Chinese liquor for 5 days. Their children did not eat any of the crabs. One month after consuming the crabs, the husband came to our outpatient clinic with fever and chest pain and his wife also presented with a persistent cough. Both patients had a high peripheral blood eosinophil count (husband:18,900/μL, wife:10,600/μL) with pulmonary effusion, nodular shadow, and pneumothorax in chest X-ray findings. Paragonimiasis was suspected from the episode of consuming the crabs. No parasite eggs were seen in their sputum and stool samples. A multiple-dot ELISA was performed with the sera to screen for parasitic infections, but the result was only weakly positive for P. westermani antigen in the husband and a slightly positive reaction in the wife. The diagnosis of P. westermani was achieved with the double diffusion Ouchterlony method using P. westermani antigen and P. miyazakii antigen. Praziquantel administration for three days improved the symptoms in both patients. The Ouchterlony method proved useful in diagnosing paragonimiasis in these cases.

Rhodococcus equi, a bacterium present in soil, is a common cause of pneumonia in foals. This organism has been recognized as an opportunistic pathogen in humans, typically causing infection in immunocompromised hosts such as HIV-infected patients and organ transplant recipients. However, human infection with R. equi has not been reported in Japan except in a case involving a laboratory worker. We report the first human case of VapB-positive R. equi pneumonia, which involved an HIV-infected patient living in an urban area in Japan. The patient was treated successfully with 450 mg rifampicin and 600 mg tosufloxacin, even though his CD4+ lymphocyte count at the time of diagnosis was 10/microl. The patient's dogs were suspected in the epidemiology of this infection, but unfortunately we could not isolate the organism from canine-associated specimens in this case. R. equi infections in companion animals have been thought to be very rare, but they may be increasing in dogs. Therefore, further epidemiological research may clarify the prevalence of R. equi infection and the factors predisposing dogs to this infection.

We report a patient with leptospirosis caused by Leptospira borgpetersenii serovar Sejroe infection on Bali Island, Indonesia. This 33-year-old Japanese man had stayed at a resort hotel on the island from July 8 to July 13 2004. At the hotel, he swam in the pool, walked barefoot, and lied down in the grass. He developed a high fever and headache 7 days after completing his trip, and was admitted to our hospital on July 23. On admission he showed conjunctival suffusion and complained of myalgias. Laboratory findings included granulocytosis and elevated CRP. Plasmodium spp. were not found in blood smears, and no pathogenic bacteria were isolated from blood or fecal cultures. We diagnosed the patient as leptospirosis upon detection of slender coiled organisms with characteristic morphology by darkfield examination of blood sample. Minocycline 100 mg i.v.b.i.d. showed excellent efficacy. A microscopic agglutination test (MAT) during the convalescent stage demonstrated a significant increase in antibodies against L. borgpetersenii serovar Sejroe, confirming the diagnosis of leptospirosis. Despite occurrence of a pandemic of leptospirosis in certain Southeast Asian countries including Indonesia, information concerning pandemic disease is limited. In addition serovars of "imported" cases representing infection in pandemic areas differ widely from those in domestic cases. Adequate laboratory support therefore is crucial for accurate diagnosis of leptospirosis.

In this paper, we will discuss about the designing process and the motion characteristics of the spar type offshore wind turbines. When considering a spar type structure for offshore wind turbines, it is important to take a lot of elements into consideration which have not yet been considered in the case of oil and gas platforms. In this research, we used the following standards to conduct our tests. The limit of the heel angle was 5 degrees when the wind turbines are generating in the rated state. When designing the substructure for this research we have decided to go with a substructure that operates in depth of 100m or more. Following the conditions above we have designed the spar type offshore wind turbine used for this research. In order to compare the simulated result we have created a scale model and performed tank tests under various conditions. Also we observed unexpected motion characteristics in certain mooring arrangement. So we will touch these subjects in this paper.Copyright © 2013 by ASME

Syntheses of unsaturated alcohols in the vapor-phase catalytic dehydration of alkanediols over rare earth oxides are reviewed. CeO2 effectively catalyzes the dehydration of 1,3-butanediol to produce 3-buten-2-ol and trans-2-buten-1-ol. Heavy rare earth oxides such as Er2O3, Yb2O3, and Lu2O3 selectively catalyze the dehydration of 1,4-butanediol to produce 3-buten-1-ol. In the dehydration of 1,5-pentanediol, Yb2O3, Lu2O3, and Sc0.5Yb1.5O3 catalysts efficiently work to produce 4-penten-1-ol. The active and selective oxides are composed of large particles with well-crystallized fluorite or bixbyite structure. Small oxide particles with poor crystallinity decrease the selectivity to unsaturated alcohols because of their dehydrogenation ability. In the reactions of different alkanediols, the reactivity of alkanediol depends on the length between the OH groups as well as on the geometry of the catalyst surface, which is affected by the distance between rare earth cations. For example, over CeO2, the reactivity ...

Solventless Diels—Alder reactions between volatile dienes and several dienophiles are studied in a closed batch reactor under pressurized conditions and without using any catalyst.

A 39-year-old man presented a CD4 T cell count of 78/µL and HIV-RNA at 6.6 × 10(5) copies/mL at his first medical examination. After the 58th day, we initiated HBV-active antiretroviral therapy. Three months after the start of antiretroviral therapy, he was diagnosed with hepatic flare on the basis of elevated AST and ALT levels without detecting HBV-DNA. Although after continuing the medication his AST and ALT levels increased to 700 IU/L and 1,400 IU/L, respectively, he showed improvement following a natural course and was discharged from hospital after the 169th day. This is a case of hepatic flare likely caused by immune reconstitution associated with resolved HBV infection.

A 52-year-old male Japanese businessman with massive cerebral bleeding was transferred from India to Japan and was admitted to our hospital. Multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii was isolated from his sputum. The minimum inhibitory concentrations for this strain were as follows: imipenem, 64 μg/ml; meropenem, 32 μg/ml; ciprofloxacin, 16 μg/ml; amikacin, 16 μg/ml; aztreonam, 16 μg/ml; colistin

Objective The mortality rates for bacteremia due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa remain high. In our hospital, we performed retrospective analyses to determine risk factors for mortality among patients with bacteremia caused by P. aeruginosa. Materials and Methods This retrospective cohort study was conducted among adult patients with bacteremia due to P. aeruginosa at Jikei University Hospital. We analyzed factors, such as age, gender, underlying disease, initial antimicrobial treatment, and primary site of infection to determine which of these were predictive of mortality in patients with P. aeruginosa bacteremia. Results One hundred and thirty-four patients with P. aeruginosa bacteremia were identified between April 2003 and March 2010. The 30-day mortality rate among all patients with P. aeruginosa bacteremia was 20.9%. The most common underlying disease was leukemia (20.9%), and the most common primary site of infection was the urinary tract (24.6%). Seventy-one patients (65.7%) were treated with an appropriate initial antimicrobial regimen for P. aeruginosa bacteremia. However, these patients had similar 30-day mortality to that observed in patients not administered appropriate antibiotics. This study revealed that risk factors for the 30-day mortality were thrombocytopenia and polymicrobial P. aeruginosa bacteremia (p

Using an ultrashort pulse laser, photon energy of which is smaller than the band gap energy of silicon, machining of substances located at back of a silicon plate should be achievable. To realize this possibility, machining of a silicon substrate as well as machining of gold film on it was carried out using femtosecond laser pulses, wavelength of which lay between 1.5 to 2.5 μm. It is demonstrated that the rare surface of the silicon substrate and the gold film placed at the back of the silicon substrate can be machined with no detectable change on its front surface. Frequency adjustment of crystal oscillator sealed in a silicon package is tried and up-conversion of the frequency is achieved by removing small amount of thin gold film on the crystal with irradiation of 1.5 μm laser pulses through the silicon lid.

We report a rare case of toxoplasmic encephalitis in a non-AIDS patient A 62-year-old man undergoing hemodialysis for seven months and corticosteroid therapy for rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis and admitted for generalized convulsions was found in cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to have multiple ring-enhanced lesions. Antibodies against Toxoplasma gondii, and in Sabin-Feldman dye test were extremely high, yielding a diagnosis of toxoplasmic encephalitis. He was also diagnosed as having cytomegaloviral retinitis. Anti-HIV antibody was negative. Treatment with pyrimethamine and clindamycin was effective and intracerebral lesions disappeared. Physicians encounting a similar situation should consider toxoplasmic encephalitis as a differential diagnosis, even in non-HIV patients, and implement confirmational examination.

We report a patient with gnathostomiasis in whom a specific diagnosis of Gnathostoma spinigerum infestation was made morphologically upon removal of the worm. A 47-Year-old Japanese male on a business trip to Vietnam ate fried frog with a Vietnamese friend in January 2002, the friend was diagnosed with gnathostomiasis in June 2002. The patient noted swelling of the right leg with migration to the right arm, prompting him to our hospital in February 2003. Hematologic examination showed eosinophilia, and specific anti-gnathostome antibody was detected by a dot enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (Dot ELISA) in the serum. He was diagnosed as gnathostomiasis, and was given albendazole 400 mg b.i.d. On day 11 of therapy the patient removed a larval worm from the right palmar lesion by pinching with his nails. The worm was identified as G. spinigerum based on morphologic characteristics including number of hooklets on its head-bulb. When gnathostomiasis is suspected, albendazole should be administered before incision of the skin lesion.

Silica-supported silver exhibited high catalytic activity in the dehydration of glycerol: glycerol was dehydrated into hydroxyacetone with the selectivity higher than 86% at 91% conversion over Ag/...

Er2O3 nanorods were successfully prepared with hydrothermal treatment without using organic additives such as surfactant, fatty acid, or alcohol. Er2O3 nanorods were obtained under high temperature...

Comparaison des previsions theoriques avec les donnees experimentales pour les echantillons prepares en solution, ou l'effet gel est negligeable

Background Metastatic infections such as infective endocarditis and psoas abscess are serious complications of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia because failure to identify these infections may result in bacteremia relapse or poor prognosis. in the present study, we determined the predictive factors for metastatic infection due to methicillin-sensitive S. aureus bacteremia. Methods A retrospective cohort study was conducted among patients with methicillin-sensitive S. aureus bacteremia at the Jikei University Hospital between January 2008 and December 2012. Factors analyzed included the underlying disease, initial antimicrobial treatment and primary site of infection. Results During the 5-year study period, 73 patients met the inclusion criteria and were assessed. The most common primary site of bacteremia was catheter-related bloodstream infection (25/73 [34.2%]). Metastatic infection occurred in 14 of 73 patients (19.2%) (infective endocarditis [3], septic pulmonary abscess [3], spondylitis [4], psoas abscess [4], epidural abscess [3] and septic arthritis [1]). six patients had multiple metastatic infections. Multivariate analysis revealed that the predictive factors associated with the development of metastatic infection were a delay in appropriate antimicrobial treatment of > 48 hours, persistent fever for > 72 hours after starting antibiotic treatment and lowest C-reactive protein levels of > 3 mg/dL during 2 weeks after the onset of bacteremia. Conclusions This study demonstrated that additional diagnostic tests should be conducted to identify metastatic infection, particularly in patients with delayed antimicrobial treatment, persistent fever and persistently high C-reactive protein levels.