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Although the afterglow observations in HETE‐2 and Swift era have revealed a lot of afterglow properties of gamma‐ray bursts (GRBs), we still have poor understanding of the prompt gamma‐ray emission, such as the emission mechanism of the prompt emission and differences between short and long duration GRBs. We have observed many prompt emission of GRBs by Suzaku Wide‐band All‐sky Monitor in wide energy range of 50–5000 keV, with very large effective area of 400 cm2 even at 1 MeV. Furthermore, a combination of the Suzaku/WAM and Swift data provides us not only wider energy range of 15–5000 keV but also redshift information even for some short GRBs. Thanks to these information, we can firstly investigate an intrinsic correlation for short GRBs like Epeak−Liso relation, and we can derive the same type of relation for time‐resolved spectra of long GRBs in finer time‐scale with higher statistics than ever before. These results could be used to discuss the differences between short and long GRBs, and our time‐res...

Microlocalization of mRNA coding for the guanylyl cyclase-coupled atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) receptor was carried out in the rat kidney. We used a combination of reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in individual microdissected renal tubule segments, glomeruli, and vasa recta bundles. Relative quantitation of the resulting amplified cDNA utilized densitometry of autoradiograms from Southern blots probed with a specific 32P-labeled probe. Among renal tubule segments, the largest signal was found in the terminal inner medullary collecting duct (IMCD). Slightly smaller signals were found in the initial IMCD and in loop of Henle segments from the inner medulla. Readily detectable signals were also seen in the following segments (in descending order): cortical collecting duct, proximal convoluted tubule, medullary thick ascending limb, cortical thick ascending limb, distal convoluted tubule, and outer medullary collecting duct. Large signals were also detected in glomeruli and in vasa recta bundles from the inner stripe of the outer medulla. Based on these results, we conclude that 1) renal microlocalization of specific mRNAs coding for hormone receptors is feasible through application of the RT-PCR procedure in microdissected renal tubules and vascular elements, and 2) the gene for the guanylyl cyclase-coupled ANF receptor is broadly expressed along the nephron, raising the possibility that multiple sites of ANF action are present.

Laboratorio Fleury is a reference clinical laboratory performing more than 1,200 different laboratory tests, with a workload of 3.5 million tests in 1998. With 60% of this workload directed to our clinical chemistry section, we started a project three years ago to evaluate the possibility of an automation system to fulfill our needs of quality, increased productivity, and as a base for further increases in workload. A workforce was assembled, and after detailed studies of our necessities and possibilities as well as an extensive program of visits and contacts in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, a final solution was settled.The system is being manufactured by IDS, Japan, and will be delivered by April 1999. It includes an inlet unit, an error lane, a decapper, a waiting line, a retrieve unit, a sorting table, a recapper unit, and an outlet unit. One of the main characteristics of our system is that it can be easily upgraded in order to receive more machines and/or more samples. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Lab Robotics and Automation 11: 335–337, 1999

AlGaN/GaN Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) using a low-temperature- (LT-) GaN cap layer to provide edge termination, thus increasing the breakdown voltage and suppressing current collapse, were developed and fabricated on cost-effective, 100-mm-diameter Si (111) substrates. The SBDs fabricated with the LT-GaN/AlGaN/GaN heterostructure had a reverse leakage current three orders lower than that of conventional AlGaN/GaN SBDs and a high breakdown voltage of 1000 V. The effect of the LT-GaN cap layer on current collapse in the fabricated SBDs was also studied. Even under a pulse-mode bias stress of -200 V, no significant current collapse was observed.

We treat not only macro ions as charged colloids but also small ions as counter ions dispersed in a solvent by Brownian‐dynamics simulation. The size and charge of particles are changed, while the other parameters are fixed. We compare the simulation results with theoretical results by Tokuyama [Physca A 352 (2005) 252–264]. The results are in good agreements with the theory. Thus, it is shown that the short‐time self‐diffusion coefficient is decreased as the radius is increased.

Over 22,000 cases of ovarian cancer were diagnosed in 2007 in the United States, but only a fraction of them can be attributed to mutations in highly penetrant genes such as BRCA1. To determine whether low-penetrance genetic variants contribute to ovarian cancer risk, we genotyped 1,536 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in several candidate gene pathways in 848 epithelial ovarian cancer cases and 798 controls in the North Carolina Ovarian Cancer Study (NCO) using a customized Illumina array. The inflammation gene interleukin-18 (IL18) showed the strongest evidence for association with epithelial ovarian cancer in a gene-by-gene analysis (P = 0.002) with a

Anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) are thought to be magnetars, which are neutron stars with ultra strong magnetic field of $10^{14}$-- $10^{15}$ G. Their energy spectra below $\sim$10 keV are modeled well by two components consisting of a blackbody (BB) ($\sim$0.4 keV) and rather steep power-law (POW) function (photon index $\sim$2-4). Kuiper et al.(2004) discovered hard X-ray component above $\sim$10 keV from some AXPs. Here, we present the Suzaku observation of the AXP 1E 1841-045 at the center of supernova remnant Kes 73. By this observation, we could analyze the spectrum from 0.4 to 50 keV at the same time. Then, we could test whether the spectral model above was valid or not in this wide energy range. We found that there were residual in the spectral fits when fit by the model of BB + POW. Fits were improved by adding another BB or POW component. But the meaning of each component became ambiguous in the phase-resolved spectroscopy. Alternatively we found that NPEX model fit well for both phase-averaged spectrum and phase-resolved spectra. In this case, the photon indices were constant during all phase, and spectral variation seemed to be very clear. This fact suggests somewhat fundamental meaning for the emission from magnetars., Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the "40 Years of Pulsars: Millisecond Pulsars, Magnetars and More" conference, held 12-17 August 2007, in Montreal QC (AIP, in press, eds: C. Bassa, Z. Wang, A. Cumming, V. Kaspi)

We report on the observational results of GRBs by the Suzaku Wide‐band All‐sky Monitor (WAM) in these two years since the Suzaku launch. Using the WAM data, we can investigate the spectral properties of the prompt emission of GRBs with a wider energy band and the highest sensitivity than any previous GRB missions. We found that the spectral properties between short and long GRBs, such as the spectral parameter distribution, the hardness ratio, the spectral lag, and the total emitting energy are clearly different even in the MeV energy band. This result implies that different progenitors or different bulk Lorentz factors of the ejecta are likely causes for the difference between these two classes.We also found that there is a strong correlation between the peak energy and the isotropic equivalent luminosity of the time‐resolved spectra of the bright long GRB 061007, and found that this correlation can be separated well between rising and decay phase of each pulse. This indicates that the physical condition...

The mechanism of transepithelial NaCl transport was investigated in isolated perfused cortical collecting ducts from the kidneys of deoxycorticosterone-treated rats. In the presence of vasopressin, hydrochlorothiazide (0.1 mM) markedly reduced the net rate of Na absorption, Cl absorption, and active fluid absorption but did not significantly change the transepithelial voltage. Similarly, in the absence of vasopressin, hydrochlorothiazide decreased the rate of sodium absorption by 50% without affecting transepithelial voltage. Amiloride (30 microM) completely eliminated the lumen-negative voltage but decreased net sodium absorption only by approximately 50%. In the presence of amiloride, chloride absorption occurred against an electrochemical gradient for chloride, indicating that there was active chloride absorption. Bumetanide (0.1 mM) did not affect chloride absorption or spontaneous fluid absorption in the presence of vasopressin. The combination of amiloride and hydrochlorothiazide inhibited net sodium absorption by a greater extent than did either agent alone. These results demonstrate the presence of the following two parallel sodium transport pathways in cortical collecting ducts from mineralocorticoid-replete rats: 1) an electrogenic pathway blocked by amiloride, which presumably involves an apical sodium channel, and 2) a thiazide-inhibitable electroneutral pathway, which presumably utilizes apical Na-Cl cotransport and mediates secondary active transport of chloride.

The enhancement of resistance by i.p. administration of murine rTNF-alpha into mice against i.p. challenge with virulent Salmonella typhimurium was studied. Administration of TNF-alpha (5 x 10(4) U/mouse) into mice at 6 or 12 h before the challenge with S. typhimurium organisms enhanced the bactericidal capacity in the peritoneal cavities of the mice. The diminution of the infecting organism in the peritoneal cavities of the TNF-alpha-treated mice was not due to the systemic spread of the organism inasmuch as few organism were recovered from other areas such as the spleen and liver. The TNF-alpha treatment effected a slight increase of neutrophils in the peritoneal cavity, but did not effect an increase of macrophages, including Ia-bearing macrophages. The survival rate of mice infected with Salmonella was improved by the i.p. injection of TNF-alpha before infection. Co-administration of smaller doses of TNF-alpha (5 x 10(3) U) and murine rIFN-gamma (10(2) U) at 6 h before the challenge also effectively enhanced bactericidal activity and protectivity. The cooperative effect of TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma was only seen when these recombinant cytokines were injected together at the proper time before the challenge. Injection of rabbit anti-TNF-alpha serum abolished the effects of TNF-alpha and the cooperative effect of TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma. Furthermore, the serum could abolish the cooperative effect of IFN-gamma and LPS on bactericidal activity, suggesting participation of LPS-induced TNF-alpha in the cooperation.

The ability of recombinant murine (rMu) interferon (IFN) -γ to activate anti- Salmonella -activity in normal mice and beige mutant ( bg / bg ) mice with Chediak-Higashi syndrome (CHS) was examined. Previous intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of rMuIFN-γ (10 4 U per mouse) significantly hindered the bacterial growth in the peritoneal cavities, spleens and livers of the mice after the i.p. infection with Salmonella enteritidis No. 11 strain. It was also effective on the beige mice that have phagocytic cells with a genetically impaired bactericidal function, suggesting that IFN-γ activates the pathway irrelevant to the beige mutation. The effect was the maximum, when IFN-γ was given 6 h before the challenge. The effect seemed to be due to the augmentation of bactericidal capacity rather than the prevention of systemic spread of bacteria. Recombinant human IFN-αA/D (10 2 –10 6 U per mouse), which produced effects identical to those of murine IFN-β, did not show such a bactericidal effect. Bactericidal activity enhancement was also seen in mice that had been injected with a small amount of rMuIFN-γ (10 2 U) and bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (10 ng) together at 6 h before the challenge, although the IFN-γ or LPS alone at these doses produced very little if any effect. Bactericidal effect enhancement was seen in mice that had been injected with IFN-γ at 6 h and LPS at 3 h before the challenge, while it could be hardly seen in mice injected with them in a reversed order. The simultaneous injections of rMuIFN-γ and LPS at 6 h in advance could confer a good protection against the infection with the S. tryphimurium LT2 strain.

Counting of passing people in passage or corridor is considered important for security or various investigations. This paper proposes a method for automatic counting of moving people with the different movement ways in the horizontal view. Each gravitational center of motion detection blocks is plotted in the plotting space, and the movement of people can be detected by Hough Transform without motion tracking. The intercept and the slope of a detected line represent the starting time when a person came into the scene and the moving speed of the target. The movement ways also can be recognized by using the difference of moving speed of detected persons. The experimental results showed that reliable detection and counting of passing people were realized by the proposed method.

We studied whether delivering postoperative analgesia, using a patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA) device was effective and safe in elderly patients. We enrolled 40 patients aged65 years (elderly group) and 40 patients aged 20-64 years (young group) scheduled for elective major abdominal surgery. PCEA infusion was started following completion of surgery. Mean (SD) fentanyl consumption (10.7 (3.7) compared with 10.5 (2.7) microg.kg(-1), p = 0.76) and number of times patients pressed the bolus switch (32 (36) compared with 44 (38), p = 0.16) during the first 24 h postoperatively were similar in the two groups. Pain scores, which were similar in both groups at rest, were significantly lower in the elderly on coughing (at 24 h, p0.05). In addition, average pain scores were similar at the time of PCEA bolus demands in the two groups. Elderly and young adult patients therefore required similar amounts of patient-controlled epidural fentanyl to produce satisfactory pain relief.

The wide‐band all‐sky monitor (WAM) onboard Suzaku has the largest effective area in 300–5000 keV, and thus very powerful to constrain the E peak and high energy tail of gamma‐ray burst prompt emission. Collaboration with GLAST will give us high‐quality data of gamma‐ray prompt emissions to probe and resolve the emission mechanism and central engine of gamma‐ray bursts. Here we report initial results of the WAM and address on the collaboration with GLAST.

Utilization of proprietary wafer map data has yet been prevalent and forcing us to spend huge amount of cost and time on system development for outsource fabrication factory data transmission. We have developed the system that is able to centralized control of wafer map data by the SEMI compliant DB to reduce development cost and time. It has also been contributing to reduce yield decline and production delay caused by map data related malfunctions.

The hard X-ray detector (HXD-II) is one of the scientific payloads onboard Suzaku, the 5th Japanese cosmic X-ray satellite. After the launch in July 2005, all the HXD-II components, including the sensors and analog/digital electronics, have been working normally. In order to archive the maximum performance of the HXD-II, especially the GSO/BGO well-type phoswich counters, extensive in-orbit qualification and calibration have been carried out utilizing the data acquired in early operations. Major items of these efforts include; to estimate the circuit dead time, calibrate energy scale, optimize the event selection criteria for background reduction, study the background, and examine the detector response. As a result of these in-orbit calibrations, the HXD-II background in the 10-600 keV range has been successfully lowered to (0.5-5.0) x 10 -4 cs -1 keV -1 cm -2 This the lowest among the background ever achieved in orbit by cosmic hard x-ray detectors.

Vulvar cancer is an uncommon but devastating disease. In addition to radical vulvectomy, most patients require inguinofemoral lymphadenectomy, which often results in wound infection, wound breakdown, and chronic lymphedema. In the past, the gold standard for early lesions was radical vulvectomy with complete bilateral inguinal-femoral lymphadenectomy. This resulted in a low rate of recurrence but devastating disfigurement and high complication rates. Because only approximately 20% of patients with vulvar cancer have positive lymph nodes upon presentation, the traditional approach of inguinal-femoral lymphadenectomy for all patients resulted in many patients undergoing a morbid procedure without any real benefit. Sentinel node dissection, by removing only the nodes with the highest risk of containing metastases, offers a much less morbid alternative. In addition, because only one or two lymph nodes are removed, these can be subjected to a more thorough histopathologic analysis than conventional complete lymphadenectomy. This involves serial sectioning and immunohistochemical staining for cytokeratin antigen. Very small metastases, termed micrometastases, can be detected in this fashion. Therefore, sentinel node dissection with serial sectioning and immunohistochemical staining potentially offers a more accurate assessment of the regional nodes with less morbidity. Patients with positive sentinel nodes may then undergo additional therapy. Patients with negative sentinel nodes are theoretically at very low risk for metastases and should not require any additional treatment.

A 69-year-old man with left chest and back pain was found to have an osteolytic mass (4.2 x 3.8 cm) in the left 8th rib by chest X-ray and computed tomography (CT) in August 2003. There were no abnormal findings in the abdomen, lung, mediastinum or bone except the left 8th rib. Although the spontaneous disappearance of pleural effusion and the elevated CRP suggested the possibility of myelitis, the malignancy of the rib could not be ruled out, and the surgery was performed in September 2003. The mass was resected en bloc together with the involved 8th rib. The histological diagnosis was primary non-Hodgkin lymphoma (diffuse, medium-sized to large B-cell lymphoma).

An asymptomatic 69-year-old man was admitted to our hospital for an abnormal shadow on the chest X-ray of a medical examination. He had undergone an operation for a hemangioma in the neck (incomplete resection) 39 years before admission. Computed tomography (CT) of the neck and chest revealed an giant cystic mass in the neck extended into the mediastinum, severe deviation of the trachea to the right and fluid collection in the mediastinum. It was considered to be a giant hemangioma with mediastinal hemorrhage by the rupture of the tumor. After the large afferent and efferent vessels were identified by angiography and venography, we performed the resection of the tumor. Pathological examination confirmed the diagnosis of arteriovenous hemangioma.

We constructed a Monte-Carlo simulator framework for the radiation environment of Astro-E2, the Japanese 5th X-ray astronomy satellite. We used Geant4 as the simulator engine, and embedded it into the analysis framework derived from what has been used for other Astro-E2 software development. The entire architecture is designed to make the learning cost of the framework programming as low as possible for not only end users but developers, and we implemented some software mechanisms to register Geant4 components such as physics processes and geometry builder into the framework without using the Geant4's run manager explicitly.

The hard X-ray detector (HXD-II) onboard Astro-E2 consists of the main detector which has its energy range from 10 to 600 keV and the active shield detector for background reduction. This shield detector (anti detector) is designed to not only for the background reduction but also for the soft gamma-ray all sky monitor of gamma-ray bursts (GRB) and black hole binaries. The asymmetric shape and large size of BGO scintillators for the anti counter make the gamma-ray response very complicated, and thus we need the careful calibration before the launch. We then performed preflight calibrations of HXD-II in 2003-2004. For the anti detector, we measured the pulse height spectra and stopping power of the unit detector before integration by exposing it to the collimated gamma-ray. After integration of HXD-II, we measured the pulse height spectra and stopping power of the anti detector by irradiating the gamma-ray source from various directions. Furthermore, we performed the same measurement after placing the HXD-II detector on the Astro-E2 spacecraft. Taking into account these experimental results, we construct the gamma-ray response by the Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation. The response developed in this work was found to reproduce the experimental spectra and the count distributions of each unit counter with 10-20% accuracy.

A 69-year-old male was admitted to our hospital for hemoptysis and dyspnea. Because of his deteriorating respiratory distress, he was intubated and controlled by respirator for 3 days. He was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma of the lung by the sputum examination and chest computed tomography (CT) revealed an infiltration shadow in the peripheral superior ventral segment (S3) of the right upper lobe. He underwent right upper lobectomy with video-assisted thoracic surgery. Microscopic findings of the resected specimen measuring 10 x 10 x 7 cm revealed mucin-producing bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (BAC) with metastases in lymph nodes and the same lobe (S2b). We reported a rare case of BAC with hemoptysis.

A 57-year-old woman, who had undergone hysterectomy for uterine leiomyosarcoma 8 years ago, was admitted to our hospital for pulmonary tumors on chest X-ray. Two tumors were recognized on each side at left and right lung field by computed tomography (CT). Two-staged tumor resection was performed by left thoracotomy and by video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) in the right. The histologic findings showed that those tumors were metastases of uterine leiomyosarcoma. This case suggests that the long term follow-up is necessary in the case of uterine leiomyosarcoma after operation.

We investigated self-organized GaN nanotips for the cold cathode application, which was fabricated by reactive ion etching (RIE). The density of the nanotips fabricated by RIE was approximately 2 /spl times/ 10 cm/sup -2/. Its height was approximately 200 nm. It is observed that the distribution of the nanotips fabricated on epitaxial lateral over growth (ELO) GaN is uniform in spite of window and mask region on ELO GaN surface. This fact supports that the formation mechanism of nanotips is attributed to a masking effect of nanometer-scale SiO/sub 2/ masks not to the threading dislocations in the GaN layer. Field emission from the GaN nanotips was observed. The current I was 1 /spl mu/A at 900 V. The field enhancement factor /spl beta/d, which is related to the top structure of the emitter and is the product of the field conversion factor /spl beta/ and the sample-anode gap d, was estimated to be 460 from the Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) plot.

Self-organized GaN nanotips, which were nanoscale tip-shaped pillar structure, were fabricated by reactive ion etching using chlorine plasma. It has been found that the structure has a two-dimensional isotropic distribution with broadband periodicity of subwavelength from the ultraviolet (UV) to the visible (VIS) region by Fourier transform analysis. The nanotips exhibited a diameter of approximately 20 nm, a most frequent periodicity of 96 nm and a height of approximately 200 nm on the GaN surface. The reflectance of the nanotip surface was significantly suppressed to less than 0.01 compared with 0.3 of the smooth surface in UV region. The transmittance was also improved approximately 12% at longer wavelength than the band edge (/spl sim/365 nm). We have found that the nanotip surface provides antireflection and enhanced transmission effects from the UV to the VIS region (300 nm to 900 nm). These excellent antireflective-properties of the self-organized GaN nanotips are expected to improve the performances of light-emitting and photo-detective devices.

Brownian‐dynamics simulations without the hydrodynamic interactions between particles are performed to investigate two‐dimensional dilute suspensions of magnetic colloidal particles under a static magnetic field. From the detailed analyses of the numerical results, we obtain the phase diagram for the magnitude of magnetic potential J and the area fraction σ. The results also suggests that the phase transition line is determined only by the value of the parameter Γ(= Jσ32), where Γ ≃ 68 at the melting point.

Neurons with high-frequency discharge (hyperactive neuron) were recorded in the thalamus of chronic pain patients. We created a chronic pain rat model, and recorded the discharge of high-frequency neurons by using a microelectrode in the thalamic area. The character of these high-frequency discharge neurons was assessed. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) was done in 9 patients, and motor cortical stimulation (MCS) in 2. Prior to implantation of the stimulation electrodes, extracellular unitary activity was recorded and local microstimulation was done by the same microelectrode. From the ventrocaudal (Vc) nucleus of the chronic pain patients, hyperactive neurons were recorded. There were three types of discharge patterns in interval histograms. Some hyperactive neurons showed firing suppression for a short time period by intravenous administration of phenytoin and calcium antagonist (Nicardipine). In animal experiments, unilateral dorsal root sectioning from C5 to Th1 were made in male Wistar rats according to the method of Lombard et al. (1979). A few months after the operation, hyperactive neurons were recorded from the thalamic nuclei and lemniscus medialis. The firing patterns and distribution of hyperactive neurons were very similar to those of humans. Sensorimotor cortical electrical stimulation showed a reduction of firing in the hyperactive neurons. Iontophoretical application of glutamate yielded an increase in firing. In contrast, GABA and NMDA antagonist MK-801 revealed remarkable firing suppression. These results suggest that hyperactive neurons may correlate with the glutamatergic, especially NMDA and GABAergic receptor or fibers.

For pt.1 see J. Soc. Naval Architects Japan, vol.188 (2000). In the previous paper, it was shown that not only the position of a bottom transponder but also the underwater acoustic velocity distribution can be determined, if the position of surface transponders and ranges between the surface and bottom transponders are known. In the present paper, the theory is extended to include the effects of current The basic nonlinear equations are obtained by a variational principle. Some two-dimensional numerical calculations are conducted, and the convergence of the iteration calculations is verified. The numerical results show that the effects of current can be obtained by the present method and can't be neglected for precise positioning.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the feasibility research on an oscillating fin propulsion control system as a vehicle actuator. The system was designed and constructed in order to be combined with ship models. Tank cruising tests were conducted to confirm the system's feasibility. As a result, several advantages were found. The effectiveness of a neural network was successfully proven for an advanced control system. >

In excavating tunnels for subways and power cables, shield tunneling machines are used. The paper presents an automatic detection system which detects anomalous objects to prevent the cutters of the machines from being damaged and also to avoid the construction delay caused by the accident. The detection system utilizes one transmitter and several receiving transducers (both sonic) located on the cutter plane and makes use of the modeling of the electric-sonic-electric transmission system in order to realize a high-accurate detection and characterization of the anomalous objects. >

A position keeping control system of a floating offshore oil platform is studied for higher operation efficiency under environmental conditions. An algorithm for the system is constructed by using modified nonlinear programming theory based on the mixed penalty method and the quasi-Newton method, because a floating offshore platform has nonlinear characteristics of motion and has constraints of thrusters. The proposed algorithm is applied to the optimal thruster force determination of a semisubmersible floating offshore platform. >

A nine-channel SQUID magnetometer system is developed to detect weak magnetic fields generated by fetal cardiac activity. The nine 20-mm-diameter axial first-order gradiometers are mounted at intervals of 30 mm. A baseline length of 60 mm is applied to the pickup coil to measure the weak magnetic field from a fetal heart in a deep position. The SQUID is operated with a flux-locked loop (FLL) circuit and the FLL output is recorded at 1 kHz by a computer. Fetal magneto-cardiograms (FMCG) were measured for 109 fetuses of 20 to 39 weeks' gestation. In most cases, maternal MCG interference was negligible. R-wave peaks were detected in 81% of all subjects. The results of FMCG measurements and Fourier analysis of fetal the R-R interval are shown in this paper.

A gate over driving CMOS (GO-CMOS) architecture for 100MHz operation at a 0.5V Vdd has been proposed. GO-CMOS manages power delivery to the transistors as follows: (1) instead of using a Vt of -0.1V or less for all transistors, the power supply voltage is boosted for logic circuitry with a small load capacitance, (2) the gate voltage of the driver transistors is boosted to drive the heavily-loaded output nodes. Power is supplied to the driver transistors directly from the external supply to avoid stressing the embedded charge pump circuit. This architecture is used because the measured leakage current using Vt of -0.1V or less is over 10-times that of a GO-CMOS circuit even considering that the boosting efficiency is only 36%. To verify GO-CMOS, a 96kb SRAM test chip used GO-CMOS circuits.

Characteristics of a newly designed input coupler are presented. The coupler was designed for a 500 MHz damped cavity to be installed in the high-brilliant VUV and soft X-ray synchrotron radiation ring planned at ISSP and in the Photon Factory storage ring with a high brilliant configuration. The design study of the coupler has been done mainly using the computer code, High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS, HP85180A), which can calculate the S-parameters of high frequency structures.

A high quality acoustic subband echo canceller is developed based on a dual-filter structure and the fast recursive least squares (FRLS) algorithm. Methods for overcoming the instability problem of the FRLS algorithm and implementing it using the 32-bit fixed-point arithmetic are presented. A new tap-weight transfer method, which assures double talk detection, is proposed. Computer simulations demonstrate that fast convergence and fast tracking are achieved in an acoustic subband echo canceller using 32 subbands and a total of 4000-tap FIR filter for a 250 ms echo path. The combined use of the FRLS algorithm in the lowest eight frequency bands and the normalized least mean square (NLMS) algorithm in the rest of the frequency bands increases convergence rate for speech signals by five to ten times, and the echo return loss enhancement (ERLE) by more than 10 dB over those of using only the NLMS algorithm.

Chromosomal passenger proteins associate with chromosomes early in mitosis and transfer to the spindle at ana/telophase. Recent results show that aurora B/AIM-1 (aurora and Ipl1-like midbody-associated protein kinase), which is responsible for mitotic histone H3 phosphorylation, INCENP (Inner Centromere protein) and Survivin/BIR are in a macromolecular complex as novel chromosomal passenger proteins. Aurora B/AIM-1 can bind to Survivin and the C-terminal region of INCENP, respectively, and colocalizes with both proteins to the centromeres, midzone and midbody. Disruption of either aurora B/AIM-1 or INCENP function leads to sever defects in chromosome segregation and cytokinesis. Moreover, the formation of the central spindle through anaphase to cytokinesis is also disrupted severely. These data suggest that chromosomal passenger complex is required for proper chromosome segregation by phosphorylating histone H3, and cytokinesis by ensuring the correct assembly of the midzone and midbody microtubule. Chromosomal passenger protein complex may couple chromosome segregation with cytokinesis.

Anti-Nak(a), a platelet-specific antibody, occasionally causes platelet-transfusion refractoriness (PTR) together with human leucocyte antigen (HLA) antibodies. Anti-Nak(a) usually appears after frequent platelet transfusions or pregnancy. We report the first case of PTR caused by anti-Nak(a) alone.A 19-year-old male patient with testicular tumour showed PTR when receiving his first transfusion of platelets. Screening for platelet antigens and platelet antibodies revealed that he had type I CD36 (Nak(a)) deficiency and that anti-Nak(a), but not anti-HLA, was present before he received his first transfusion.The transfusion of Nak(a)-negative, but HLA non-selected, platelets was effective in raising the platelet count.Clinically significant Nak(a) antibody was present as naturally occurring antibody in a platelet glycoprotein IV (CD36)-negative non-transfused male patient.

Congenital sensory neuropathy with anhydrosis is a rare disorder characterized by insensitivity to pain with normal tactile perception, self-mutilation, anhydrosis, recurrent unexplained fever, mental retardation and variable autonomic abnormality. We managed a 14-year-old boy with this syndrome who underwent repair of right femur fracture. Anesthesia was induced with propofol and ketamine. Adequate depth of anesthesia was carefully controlled by processed electroencephalogram, and core body temperature was maintained at 37.0 degrees C during the surgery. The patient was well sedated, and nausea and vomiting were not noted postoperatively. Use of droperidol and propofol may be beneficial for anesthetic management of this syndrome, because droperidol exerts residual hypnotic effect postoperatively, and both drugs have antiemetic property.

Experimental studies in rats have demonstrated an association between focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) and growth hormone, but patients with FSGS complicating acromegaly are very rare. In this report we present a case of FSGS associated with acromegaly. With a long history of soft tissue swelling of hands and feet, elevated plasma growth hormone levels and other biochemical abnormalities, a 53-year old male had suffered from acromegaly for over 15 years. He had moderate proteinuria for 6 years, but never evidenced nephrotic syndrome. A renal biopsy specimen revealed FSGS and glomerular hypertrophy. Trans-sphenoidal surgical removal of the pituitary adenoma resulted in the normalization of elevated growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor I levels, but proteinuria continued. This case suggests that the overproduction of growth hormone may participate, at least in part, in the development of human FSGS. It is possible that once FSGS is present in an acromegalic patient, cessation of GH overproduction may not be enough to reverse it.

The interaction between bovine tendon collagen and a series of homologous alcohols were investigated using a differential scanning calorimetry. For all alcoholic substances, as well as 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA), the concentration dependence of the denaturation temperature of collagen was observed, which showed a minimum at 30%. Clearly there are two opposing actions on the stabilization of the collagen structure; destabilization dominates over stabilization at lower concentrations, and vice versa at higher concentrations. The concentration dependence became greater for longer chain alcohols, while it was suppressed by the increased number of OH groups. The chain length-dependent surface tension may be related, which controls the permeation of the additives through the collagen fibers. Overall hydrophobicity, indicated by the hydrophile-lipophile balance (HLB) numbers, suggests the importance of the hydrophobic effect in the interaction of collagen and alcoholic substances, including adhesive monomers such as HEMA.

We have developed an iso-integral mapping technique that uses magneto-cardiogram (MCG) data to obtain a map as projected total current image on the torso from the heart. We have also investigated the applicability of iso-integral mapping to the diagnosis of ischemic heart disease. We simulated and measured the characteristics of two types of iso-integral maps: one using tangential (Bxy) components, and one using the normal component (Bz). Each vector component was measured by two types of superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) system to determine the tangential and normal components. The tangential component of the magnetic field appeared to be equivalent to the current image in the myocardium projected on the observing plane, and we were able to obtain a projected total current image by integration of the tangential components during the depolarization and repolarization processes. And we found that the iso-integral maps of normal hearts showed similar pattern in both processes; however, those of ischemic hearts showed different patterns.

The quantitative structure-activity relationship of the antibacterial activity of eighteen fluoronaphthyridines against nine species of bacteria was analyzed by the Free-Wilson method. A new indicator variable, which designates the species of bacteria, was useful in predicting the antibacterial activity against the various microbes.

Microtubule organization and chromatin configurations in rabbit eggs after in vivo rabbit fertilization and after intracytoplasmic injection with human sperm were characterized. In unfertilized eggs, an anastral barrel-shaped meiotic spindle, oriented radially to the cortex, was observed. After rabbit sperm incorporation, microtubules were organized into a radial aster from the sperm head, and cytoplasmic microtubules were organized around the male and female pronuclei. The microtubules extending from the decondensed sperm head participated in pronuclear migration, and organization around the female pronucleus may also be important for pronuclear centration. Support for these observations was found in parthenogenetically activated eggs, in which microtubule arrays were organized around the single female pronucleus that formed after artificial activation. These observations support a biparental centrosomal contribution during rabbit fertilization as opposed to a strictly paternal inheritance pattern suggested from previous studies. In rabbit eggs that received injected human donor sperm, an astral array of microtubules radiated from the sperm neck and enlarged as the sperm head underwent pronuclear decondensation. gamma-Tubulin was observed in the center of the sperm aster. We conclude that the rabbit egg exhibits a blended centrosomal contribution necessary for completion of fertilization and that the rabbit egg may be a novel animal model for assessing centrosomal function in human sperm and spermatogenic cells following intracytoplasmic injection.

Airway prostheses provide an excellent method for providing relief for patients with malignant or benign stenoses. Two types of prostheses are currently available: rigid silicone stents and metallic expandable stents. Silicone stents have been proven to be well tolerated, nonreactive, and easily removable during several decades of clinical application. However, they impair the drainage of sputum because of interrupted ciliary movement. Subsequently, retained secretions within the stent lumen can be obstructive. In addition, dislodgment frequently occurs because of their rigidity. The advantages of metallic expandable stents are as follows: 1) they can be inserted under local anesthesia with relative simplicity: 2) they do not impair the drainage of sputum: 3) ventilation is usually possible even if the metallic mesh stent covers another bronchus: and 4) their flexibility allows them to bend and conform better than rigid stents to tortuous airway stenoses. The disadvantages of metallic stents are: 1) tumor or granulation ingrowth can occur because of their porosity: 2) removal is difficult: and 3) there is limited experience with their use because they have only recently been employed for airway stenoses.