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A pair of electrodes for an ion drag pump were coated with a gel. The gel was silicone swollen by xylene. The working fluid was also xylene. Voltage applications to the gel-coated electrodes caused the fluid to flow. The flow velocity was comparable to that obtained using untreated electrodes. Thus, we found that the gel coat did not prevent the electrohydrodynamic flow by the ion-dragging effect. The waterproof ability of the coating was also examined. The gel successfully repelled water and showed no significant increase in the current during the voltage application. Index Terms--Ion drag pump, gel-coated electrodes, xylene, electrohydrodynamic, flow velocity.

We demonstrated a new type of electrohydrodynamic (EHD) pump that had a pair of electrodes placed inside a gel (poly(vinyl alcohol) swollen by dimethyl sulfoxide). The fluid (decahydronaphthalene) was in contact with the gel surface. During a voltage application to the electrodes, the EHD flow of dimethyl sulfoxide inside the gel caused the flow of the fluid outside the gel. An advantage of this pumping technique is that one can dissolve some chemicals in the fluid without the fear of their electrochemical decomposition because the electrodes inside the gel are not in contact with the fluid. Index Terms--Electrohydrodynamics pump, micropump, microfluid system.

Multivariate skewness and kurtosis were defined by Mardia. However, the distribution of multivariate normality test statistics based on skewness and kurtosis is only obtainable for large samples. In this paper, we propose a normalizing transformation statistic for Mardia's multivariate kurtosis. The accuracy of the normal approximation of this statistic, i.e. its expectation, variance, skewness, kurtosis, sample error Type I, and power for chosen alternative distributions, was investigated by Monte Carlo simulations for given sizes and dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is a disease characterized by expression of Promyelocytic Leukemia-Retinoic Acid Receptor α ( PML-RAR α) chimeric mRNA. Although APL is curable, early death due to hemorrhage is a major problem. Here, we report the development of a simple and rapid diagnostic method for APL based on reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP)., Methods: An RT-LAMP primer set was designed to detect three types of PML-RAR α mRNA in a single reaction. Serial dilutions of plasmid DNA containing bcr1, bcr2, or bcr3 PML-RAR α sequences and RNA extracted from bone marrow aspirates of 6 patients with APL were used to compare the results of RT-LAMP and nested PCR assays., Results: Plasmid DNA was amplified by RT-LAMP, for which the reaction time was > 4 h shorter and the lower detection limit was higher than for nested RT-PCR. Six of 7 samples tested positive by both methods., Conclusion: We developed an RT-LAMP assay for simple and rapid PML-RAR α mRNA detection that may be clinically useful for point-of-care testing and APL diagnosis.

The ability to fix the eyes on a target, visual fixation, is important for the maintenance of equilibrium. The visual suppression (VS) test is one method of measuring the function of visual fixation. The test records caloric nystagmus by electrooculography, and the maximum slow phase velocity of caloric nystagmus in darkness is compared with the slow phase velocity in light with eyes fixed. Lesions of the cerebellum, brain stem, and cerebrum cause abnormalities of VS. We report a patient whose VS became a clue in the diagnosis of a disorder of the central nervous system. A 54-year-old man complained of dizziness, which gradually increased in frequency over 5 months. He visited several clinics, where vestibular neutritis and cervical spondylosis were suspected and treated without improvement. Although a pure-tone auditory test revealed bilateral normal hearing, a caloric test showed a weak response and VS was lost with augmentation of caloric nystagmus in light on both sides. Both eye tracking and optokinetic nystagmus tests were abnormal. Although magnetic resonance imaging showed no abnormalities, single photon emission computed tomography revealed decreased blood flow in the parietal area. VS of caloric nystagmus towards the side of a lesion is reduced or abolished after unilateral flocculus damage, and is abolished bilaterally after bilateral flocculus damage. In the case of a parietal lobe or pontine lesion, VS is strongly abolished, and even augmentation of caloric nystagmus may be observed. In the present case, the patient was diagnosed with multiple-system atrophy after onset of dizziness.