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We have succeeded in the easy preparation of optically active 1,2-diol monotosylates bearing an unsaturated substituent via enzymatic hydrolysis. Lipase PS quickly catalyzes the hydrolyses of 2-acetoxybut-3-enyl tosylate, which has a double bond, and 2-acetoxybut-3-ynyl tosylate, which has a triple bond, with excellent enantioselectivity to afford the corresponding optically active compounds. The reaction is also applicable to acetates with a longer chain, which has a double bond at the terminus. To demonstrate the applicability of this method, enantiomerically pure (R)-massoialactone, a natural coconut flavor, has been synthesized from racemic 2-acetoxypent-4-enyl tosylate in several steps. Furthermore, the enzyme can recognize the stereochemistry of olefins, and the (Z)-alkenyl structure is more suitable for the enantioselective hydrolysis than the (E)-isomer.

InAs/InAsSb ultrahigh-density (UHD)-quantum dots (QDs) with 1.0×1012 cm-2 were introduced into the GaAs solar cell with 500-µm-separated comb electrodes. Fill factor (FF) of GaAs cell and InAs/GaAs high-density QD cell drastically decreased with increasing quasi-sunlight concentration (QX). For UHD-QD cell, the degradation of FF was suppressed because of the lateral carrier transport through the UHD-QD layer. Open-circuit voltage increased logarithmically with the sunlight concentration. Power conversion efficiency (PCE) of UHD-QD cell increased with increasing QX and exceeded PCE of GaAs cell for QX of more than 4.

To improve the spatial resolution and contrast of 67Ga planar imaging, we used a low-energy collimator and two lower-energy windows with a triple-energy-window (TEW) scatter compensation method. The spatial resolution is better than with a medium-energy collimator, and the TEW method can correct for scattered photons and reduce the background counts. In a phantom study and a clinical study involving 44 patients, the images obtained by the proposed method were compared with the images obtained with a medium-energy collimator and three energy windows without scatter compensation (the conventional method). The spatial resolution and the counts were measured. Two nuclear medicine physicians interpreted the images and clinical usefulness was evaluated. The spatial resolution and contrast were improved by our proposed method. It enabled the detection of lesions in five locations in the clinical study. The counts were reduced but misreadings were not seen. We conclude that our proposed method shows a clinical advantage over the conventional method. It can be used easily and quickly with commercially available equipment and is useful in clinical practice.

An ambulatory acceleration monitor was developed and used to evaluate physical activity in the elderly. The ECG and accelerations at the wrist, waist, and ankle were recorded, and the heart rate and frequency and amplitude of accelerations per unit time were evaluated in both working and retired elderly women performing normal daily activities. The heart rate closely paralleled wrist acceleration. The behaviour patterns of the subjects could be differentiated by time interval signals and histogram distributions. This system appears to be an effective method of understanding and describing the characteristic activities of the elderly in a quantitative and objective fashion.

Cation-excess magnetite (Fe 3 O 4 − δ ) has been found to form by passing H 2 gas through magnetite powder at 300 ° C with its spinel structure retained. Cation-excess magnetite is a metastable phase in the transformation of magnetite into α-Fe. The lattice constant of the cation-excess magnetite was enlarged to a maximum value of 0.8407 nm, which is substantially larger than that of stoichiometric magnetite ( a 0 = 0.8396 nm). The formation mechanism of cation-excess magnetite in the spinel structure was studied using two specimens of magnetite crystals with (111) and (100) planes developed. They were referred to as (111)- and (100)-magnetite. The formation of α-Fe was decreased over the former, where wustite and cation-excess magnetite were formed while keeping the fcc arrangement of the oxide ions in the solid. On the other hand, α-Fe was more easily formed over the latter. It is considered that the cation excess state can appear when lattice oxygen is removed faster than the formation of Fe 2+ ions coming from Fe 3+ ions through the H 2 reduction and that the cation excess state is stabilized due to electron hopping between Fe 2+ and Fe 3+ ions in the B site of the spinel structure.

In order to study the relationship between the gelling characteristics and the physical properties of gelatin, five gelatin samples having different properties were prepared by ultrasonic wave irradiation of the original gelatin. The setting times of these modified gelatins were measured by means of the thermal sensor method. The empirical expression (1), which was previously obtained' from the setting time (t), the concentration of the gelatin solution (C) and the cooling temperature (T) was applied to study the gelling characteristics of gelatin.t = a-(T/C) + b (1)As a result of studying the relation between the coefficients a, b and the physical properties of the gelatins, it was found that the coefficient a depended on the percentage of high molecular components in the gelatin. It was clear that the viscosity of the modified gelatins irradiated with the ultrasonic wave influenced their gelling characteristics.

O2-release from carbon-bearing Ni(II) ferrite (CBNF) was studied with TG-MS and DSC. Release of lattice oxygen as O2 was found to take place at 200–300°C and was associated with an endothermic temperature peak. The proposed thermochemical reaction is O lat. (s) = V o (s) + ( 1 2 ) O 2 (g) , ΔH° = 424.5 kJ/mol , where O lat. (s) and V o (s) denote the lattice oxygen of CBNF and the oxygen-deficient site on the surface of the CBNF. At a temperature higher than 350°C, lattice oxygen was released as CO2 and was accompanied by a decrease of deposited carbon.

Skin thermal properties are difficult to measure in vivo in the steady state because there is a constant temperature gradient across the skin surface. However, measurement of skin thermal properties is postulated in quantitative evaluation for thermographic observation. In this study, imaging of the thermal inertia of the skin was attempted by thermographic measurements at a stepwise change in ambient radiation temperature achieved by quickly switching two hoods maintained at different temperatures. Using this technique, a total of 65 thermograms were sequentially recorded at intervals of 0.5 s beginning 2 s before the stepwise change. The image of skin thermal inertia was estimated by applying statistical curve fitting at each pixel of the thermograms. In addition, the emissivity and true temperature of the skin were also determined, together with thermal inertia, in a single measurement. Measurements were made at different sites on 10 subjects. The average values of thermal inertia of normal skin were scattered throughout a range from 1.4 x 10(3) to 2.1 x 10(3) W s1/2 m-2 K-1. Investigations of the relationship between skin blood flow and thermal inertia were also made by imaging thermal inertia when skin blood flow was changed by applying a vasodilator or vasoconstrictor on the skin surface. In a comparison with the data measured by laser Doppler flowmetry, the average slope of skin blood flow versus thermal inertia was 2.88 x 10(-4) V per W s1/2 m-2 K-1, and the thermal inertia of the skin with no blood flow was 1.03 x 10(3) W s1/2 m-2 K-1. The results also show an almost linear correlation between skin blood flow and thermal inertia in each individual, but inter-individual differences were also observed. The results suggest that skin blood flow distribution can be estimated by non-contact imaging of thermal inertia.

Imaging of skin thermal properties was attempted by successive thermographic measurements of the skin surface with a stepwise change in ambient radiation temperature. In order to produce the stepwise change in ambient radiation temperature, two hoods maintained at different temperatures, 20 degrees C and 60 degrees C, were mechanically switched. A total of 65 thermograms were taken from 2 s before to 32 s seconds after the hood switching. Images of skin emissivity, emissivity-corrected skin temperature and thermal inertia were obtained by least-squares fitting at each pixel of 64 thermograms. Measurements were performed on the forehead, cheek, forearm, palm and back of the hand of 10 healthy male subjects. Differences in emissivity between sites and subjects were insignificant. Significant differences were observed in thermal inertia values between sites. Great improvements in the imaging of thermal inertia have been achieved by applying least-squares fitting to 64 thermograms instead of by computations from only two thermograms as in the previous study. Non-contact measurement and visualization of skin thermal properties are significant advantages of this method.

An endothermic chemical system composed of pulverized iron-based oxide and carbon powder has been investigated by using the temperature swing method (TSM) at 700–800 °C. Ferrites of Zn, Mn, and Ni, and magnetite were studied. The magnetite showed the most promising result. In the TSM, magnetite as the working material was reduced to wustite and carbon was concurrently oxidized to CO in a flow of N2 at 800 °C; this process is referred to as an activation step of the metal oxide. In the reverse process, in a flow of CO2, the wustite was oxidized to magnetite and the injected CO2 was reduced to CO at 700 °C. The total amount of oxygen donated to carbon during the activation step was the same as that taken from the magnetite during the reduction step. In this system, the following net reaction is realized at temperatures of 700–800 °C: C + CO2 → 2CO. The process will therefore serve for the utilization of coal and other carbonaceous compounds at much lower temperatures than are employed in the traditional water-gas and producer-gas reactions.

A kernel PCA-based semantic feature estimation approach for similar image retrieval is presented in this paper. Utilizing database images previously annotated by keywords, the proposed method estimates unknown semantic features of a query image. First, our method performs semantic clustering of the database images and derives a new map from a nonlinear eigenspace of visual and semantic features in each cluster. This map accurately provides the semantic features for the images belonging to each cluster by using their visual features. Further, in order to select the optimal cluster including the query image, the proposed method monitors errors of the visual features caused by the semantic feature estimation process. Then, even if any semantics of the query image are unknown, its semantic features are successfully estimated by the optimal cluster. Experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed method for semantic image retrieval.

To achieve automatic needle puncturing for automatic blood sampling, we studied peak waveforms of the puncture forces developed during penetration of a blood vessel. Computer simulations of controlled needle puncture were performed using data from experiments on puncturing a rabbit's ear vein. Reproducible results of successive puncturing suggested that this simulation could be applied to the control of needles used for automatic blood sampling.

A non-contact method for the measurement of emissivity, and emissivity-corrected temperatures has been developed, where the ambient radiation-temperature is changed in a discontinuous way. When the ambient radiation-temperature is changed quickly, so that the surface temperature of the object can be assumed to be unchanged, the radiometer output before, and immediately after that change can be expressed as two simultaneous equations. The temperature and emissivity of the surface can be derived by solving these equations when the ambient radiation-temperatures are known. In previous studies, one or two hoods were used to provide the ambient radiation-temperature. However, there was a problem in controlling the ambient radiation-temperature. A new method is introduced where two reference plates coated with paints of different emissivities are placed in the field of view of the infrared camera. Eight simultaneous equations were derived from regions of the plates, and the ambient radiation-temperatures before and after the change were obtained by solving these equations. The validity of this method was confirmed by experiment. This method will eliminate the need to use hoods as in the previous report, and will simplify the equipment needed.

This paper describes operations and management based on the telecommunications management network (TMN) architecture for switching systems. We analyze the environment of operations and management as well as the requirements that must be met for highly advanced operations, and we propose an node operations system that can meet these requirements. This operations system is characterized by three features. The first is flow-through and cooperative operations, working with related operations systems, based on the TMN management layers. The second feature is TMN-based supervision and resource-information management, enabling the System to achieve more centralized management for large mulrivendor networks. And the third feature is a layered and platform-oriented architecture of the application software with object-oriented technology. This architecture consists of an operations-scenario object layer, a functional-element object layer, and a resource-information object layer: and each layer is divided into objects common to all the switches and objects characteristic of the managed switch. This architecture will make it easy to maintain the operations system software and to apply it to operations systems for different kinds of switching systems.

A noncontact method for the measurement of emissivity, thermal inertia and emissivity-corrected temperatures has been developed, in which the ambient radiation temperature is changed in a discontinuous manner. A hood incorporating a heater was used to provide the ambient radiation temperature. Otsuka et al showed that four simultaneous equations could be derived from two reference plates coated with paints of different emissivities by stepwise changing of the ambient radiation temperature. The ambient radiation temperatures before and after a change were obtained by solving these equations. However, there were difficulties in controlling the ambient radiation temperature. Although the heater in the hood was controlled by a servo controller, the temperature distribution of hood surface was not uniform in the system. To solve this problem, a new heater and new temperature controller were introduced. The heater incorporated in the hood was divided into four subheaters, with a new temperature controller for each subheater. The uniformity of the ambient radiation temperature was improved using this new system.

It was reported by Shamsuddin el al [1] that sweating from a sweat gland could be continuously recorded using a technique in which ion-free sucrose solution was perfused onto a small region of the skin, and the secreted sweat detected by the change in electrical conductivity. We have improved the technique of Shamsuddin et al., and have developed a system that can record sweating from up to four independent sweat glands simultaneously. Using the technique, we have observed differences in the sweat response of different sweat glands on the palms of 11 subjects subjected to applied physical or mental stresses. Simultaneous recordings from two or more sweat glands were obtained in all subjects, and in three subjects, sweating from four sweat glands was recorded repeatedly. In most observations, the sweat responses recorded from different sweat glands were different in amplitude and in waveform. However, similar sweat response patterns were occasionally observed. From this, we suspect that the sweat response depends on the nervous control of the sweat gland, and that sweat glands under the same nervous control exhibit quite similar sweat responses.

In maintaining the health of people, both elderly and younger, it can be useful to monitor their health status through their daily routines in their own home. This paper reports on the remote monitoring of the daily routine behaviors in an ordinary house. We attempted to monitor the daily behaviors of a subject, mainly in the kitchen and dining room. Several sensors were installed, including infrared sensors to detect human movement, magnetic switches to detect the opening and closing of doors, a carbon dioxide sensor to detect presence of the subject, and temperature sensors at the kitchen sink to detect cooking. A 31-year-old man who lived alone was monitored for about three months. The output of sensors was recorded on a personal computer and the data were transferred to another site by the Internet. Monitoring was performed fully automatically. As a result, several daily habits could be clearly identified. And a method of fully automatic data analysis was proposed and evaluated. Such monitoring can contribute to the maintenance of health.

It is highly desirable to reduce the need for medical services by maintaining the health of the population, and intensive monitoring of health parameters is likely to become necessary to attain this goal. A new concept of health monitoring is described, in which an individual's health parameters are automatically monitored at home without disturbing their daily activities. We review and show attempts at developing such monitoring techniques, which include monitoring during sleep, via the bathtub or toilet seat, daily activities and daily behaviors. These studies show that home health monitoring can be achieved with developed sensors and instruments. Also we show that monitoring daily behavior can be realized with only simple sensors and systems. To realize this concept, fully automated objective evaluations and/or analysis of data must be developed and large scale computational analysis is essential for those evaluations.

The authors proposed a model of cortical neural network structure based on the single-cell representation hypothesis and showed that the relation between surface area and thickness of the cortex can be explained consistently (T. Togawa and K. Otsuka, 1980). This study is an attempt of simulating dendritic structure of the neuron in the cortex assuming the total length of a dendrite is proportional to the number of synapses on it. Obtained dendritic structure was compared with the actual morphological structure in animals of different sizes. The apparent similarity of the actual and the simulated dendritic structures suggests the consistency of the proposed model.

To achieve automatic needle puncturing for automatic blood sampling, we attempted to detect blood flowing into the needle by measuring the electric impedance between the inside of the needle and the skin. The needle with electrode was set on a syringe with a force sensor, and used to puncture a rabbit's vein. Electric impedance suddenly decreased after a final peak of puncturing force. This result shows that the changes of electric impedance of the needle can be applied to control needle insertion for automatic blood sampling.

Monitoring of health condition during sleep using fully automated instrumentation was attempted. The reliability and validity of measurement during sleep and bed rest using bed temperature monitor that required no electrode and transducers to the subjects were investigated. The temperature changes were recorded from the temperature sensor sheet. The body movements and sleeping period were obtained. Body movement was identified from the derivative of the temperature profile in the bed. Overnight recordings of 14 elderly subjects included disabled and bed-ridden patients were monitored simultaneously with ECG recordings. Sleeping period could be clearly estimated from time courses of bed temperature. The continuous 5 days' recordings of 10 elderly men were made in the home. There were significant individual differences and measurement reliability for each measurement. These study indicated the potential use of the bed temperature monitor for characterizing sleep in the elderly.

For automatic blood sampling to occur, a needle must stop automatically once it is introduced to the blood vessel. Medical technologists can confirm, by the changes in puncturing force, the moment at which the tip of the needle enters the blood vessel. To achieve automatic blood sampling, the authors have attempted to measure the force required to puncture a blood vessel. A device with a force sensor installed inside was developed to measure the force acting on the needle. Experiments involving puncturing of the vena mediana cubiti of 10 volunteers and a rabbit ear vein were performed. A medical technologist was asked to puncture the vena mediana cubiti. In the rabbit experiments, the measuring device was set on an electric-driven linear stage, which was controlled by a personal computer. In the rabbit experiments, a typical peak was observed in the waveform of the puncturing force, and in the volunteer experiments, two typical peaks were observed. It was considered that just after the last peak appeared, the tip of the needle was inserted into the blood vessel. These results have shown that measuring the force at the time of puncturing a blood vessel will be applicable to achieving automatic blood sampling.

A small ion-free solution-perfusion chamber has been developed to continuously observe the single sweat gland activity (SSGA) at the skin surface by conductivity measurement. The chamber has a very small open space of 0.2 mm/sup 2/ at the bottom and has a transparent view field. Ag-electrodes were installed inside the chamber and by perfusing purified water through the chamber at a constant flow rate conductivity was measured before and just after washed out sweat. Single sweat pores were visualized by starch/iodine method and magnifying lens. SSGA was observed by attaching the chamber on single sweat pores at palm and finger tip skin surface when the subjects were sitting resting position and doing hand (non-experimental) grasping with a dynamometer. Different types of continuous SSGA were observed from sweat pores.

A linear increase in heart rate was achieved by an open-loop controlled protocol that increases walking speed logarithmically in the treadmill exercise test. These results are reproducible. Such results however, were not achieved by feedback control. This result suggests that open-loop control is the more appropriate protocol for achieving a predetermined heart rate change during exercise.

In application to home health monitoring, a fully automated biosignal data acquisition system was developed. The purpose of this system is measuring biosignals at home during daily life over the long term without any disturbance. In a preliminary study, biosignal data during bathing was attempted. ECG during bathing was automatically measured and stored in a home computer. Personal identification was also carried out when the number of family members was two or more. An experiment was performed in laboratory-based facilities and two healthy male subjects were examined. The results showed that the system was operated without any trouble and the two subjects were successfully identified.

Recently, early ambulation has been introduced to treat patients after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). In order to perform early rehabilitation, physical activity should be evaluated during not only exercise, but also bed rest. In this preliminary study, the body movement, as an index of physical activity, of AMI patients in the authors' coronary care unit was determined. Body movement was estimated using a bed temperature evaluation function, which correlated to increased heart rate. The total number of body movements increased day by day. This method could be used as an index of physical activity of AMI patients during bed rest to guide early rehabilitation.

An ambulatory acceleration monitor has been developed, and physical activity was evaluated in the elderly. The ECG, and accelerations at the wrist, waist and ankle were measured. The heart rate and the frequency and amplitude of acceleration per unit time were calculated and evaluated. Both working and retired elderly performed daily activities. The heart rate closely paralleled wrist acceleration. Behavior could be differentiated by the time domain signals. This system may be effective for understanding and describing the characteristic behavior of the elderly quantitatively and objectively.

A neural model based on the local coding hypothesis was proposed-a group of neurons, called cognitive neurons, and a barrier, called the exclusive connection, and it was shown that consciousness and related mental processes can be explained consistently.

The purpose of this study was to estimate skin thermal inertia by successive thermographic measurements of the skin surface at a stepwise change in ambient radiation temperature. Two hoods maintained at different temperatures were mechanically switched to provide the stepwise change. A total of 65 thermograms were taken from 2 seconds before to 32 seconds after the hood switching. The skin thermal inertia was derived by applying a statistical curve fitting to successively measured thermograms, and images of skin emissivity and emissivity-corrected skin temperature could be obtained in a single measurement. Measurements were performed on the forehead, cheek, forearm, palm and back of the hand of 10 healthy male subjects, and the skin thermal inertia was scattered through a range of 1400/spl sim/2100 [Ws/sup 1/2/m/sup -2/K/sup -1/].

In order to make elderly people safe and healthy, a monitoring system installed at home was built and evaluated in ordinary house. As a preliminary study, the authors attempted to monitor daily behavior of subjects in the kitchen and dining room because nutrition will be essential to keep health. Many sensors were installed such as infrared sensors to detect human movement, magnetic switches to detect opening and closing doors, a carbon dioxide sensor to detect presence of the subject, temperature sensors at the kitchen sink to detect cooking. Three subjects (22 years female, 30 years male, and 76 years male) who live alone were monitored for a month each. Output of sensors were sampled and stored in a computer. Monitoring was performed automatically so that no manual operation to the instruments was applied during whole period of monitoring. As a result, habits of daily activities could be clearly identified. For example, difference between behavioral pattern in a weekday and that in a holiday was obvious. It was also found that presence and absence of the subject in a room can be identified by a carbon dioxide sensor. By using many sensors, reliable information about daily activities can be obtained even malfunctioning of some sensor occurs occasionally.

It is highly desirable to reduce the need for medical services by maintaining the health of the population Intensive monitoring of health parameters is likely to become a necessary means for attaining good health. A new concept of health monitoring is proposed, by which health parameters are automatically monitored at home without disturbing daily activities. The authors review the numerous attempts at developing home health monitoring techniques, which include monitoring during sleep, or via the bathtub or toilet seat, as well as during daily activities. The studies show that home health monitoring can be achieved even with simple sensors and instruments. There are also many possible applications for advanced technologies. Potential future technologies for home health monitoring include automatic blood pressure measurement via the toilet seat, automatic blood sampling with a device mimicking a mosquito, and artificial noses for detecting smells.

Due to the general aging of society, increasing national medical expenditures are becoming a serious problem. It is thus highly desirable to reduce the need for medical services by maintaining the population in good health. Intensive monitoring of health parameters will become a necessary means for attaining good health at all times. Technology for health monitoring, however, is only recently being developed. A concept of home health monitoring is proposed by which health parameters are automatically monitored at home without disturbing daily activities. There are many attempts being made to realize this concept. This article reviews these attempts at developing home health monitoring techniques, which include monitoring during sleep, via the bath tub or toilet seat, as well as during daily activities. Preliminary studies show that home health monitoring can be achieved even by means of simple sensors and instruments. There are also many possible applications for advanced technologies. Potential future technologies for home health monitoring include automatic blood pressure measurement via the toilet seat, automatic blood sampling with a device mimicking a mosquito, and artificial noses for detecting smells.

Bowel perforation in patients with primary malignant lymphoma usually occurs at the site of tumor. A 78 year-old man underwent chemotherapy for malignant lymphoma. He presented with abdominal pain. An emergency operation was performed under a diagnosis of panperitonitis. At laparotomy, an anal-side perforation approximately 20 cm from the Treiz ligament was observed. Drainage and partial resection of the jejunum was performed. Histopathologic examination demonstrated that there was no characteristic finding of malignant lymphoma around the perforation site in the case. Perforation of the small intestine is one of the most critical complications during the chemotherapy for malignant lymphoma. In cases of chemotherapy for malignant lymphoma, especially systemic administration, we should keep in mind the possibility of perforation of the small intestine. Fortunately, emergency surgery saved the patient presented in this report. Early diagnosis and treatment are important to improve prognosis of bowel perforation in patients with primary malignant lymphoma.

A retrospective analysis of 628 cases of early gastric cancer was performed to evaluate prognostic significance of extensive lymph node dissection.The patients were assigned to either D0/D1 (n=177) group or D2/D3 group (n=451) according to the extent of lymph node dissection and the survival of the two groups was compared.The survival rate of D2/D3 group was significantly higher than D0/D1 group in the case of both including and excluding unrelated cause of death (p0.0001 and p0.005, respectively).Though early gastric cancer is excellent prognostic disease, very few numbers of patients with recurrence really remain. Our data show extensive lymph node dissection was effective to prolong the survival of patients with early gastric cancer.

Extensive gastrectomy, defined as gastrectomy with complete omentectomy and extended lymphadenectomy, improves the survival of gastric cancer patients with peritoneal metastases, even though peritoneal metastasis is considered the end-stage of cancer. MMC-CH, a new dosage formulation of mitomycin C, extended the survival of rabbits with peritoneal carcinomatosis as compared to aqueous mitomycin C.We retrospectively reviewed 114 patients who underwent gastrectomy for gastric cancer with peritoneal metastases.Six patients survived for more than 5 years after the therapy out of 63 patients treated with MMC-CH therapy and extensive gastrectomy for gastric cancer with P1, i.e., metastases to the adjacent peritoneum but no metastasis to the distant peritoneum, or P2, i.e., a few metastases to the distant peritoneum. However, there were no 5-year survivors in patients with P3, i.e., numerous metastases to the distant peritoneum, or in patients treated with incomplete omentectomy, limited lymphadenectomy and no MMC-CH therapy.The results imply that gastric cancer patients with P1 or P2 have a possible chance to survive more than 5 years when treated with MMC-CH therapy and extensive gastrectomy.

Among nucleomedical examinations for cancer, tumor imaging using 201Tl chloride and 67Ga citrate can be easily performed at almost any hospital. However, the planar images usually obtained are not sufficient to detect small tumorous lesions. For more accurate detection, tomographic images particularly single photon emission CT (SPECT) is necessary. SPECT is also indispensable in cancer diagnosis. Whether 201Tl SPECT or 67Ga SPECT is chosen depends upon tumor localization, histological type, and the final purpose of the study. 201Tl accumulates in almost all tumors, but it is not suitable for detection of abdominal lesions, because there is much physiological accumulation in the small intestine and kidney. In contrast, 67Ga does not always accumulate in adenocarcinomas. 201Tl SPECT and 67Ga SPECT are more useful in the functional imaging of cancer than is morphological tumor diagnosis. Both methods are useful in monitoring treatment effectiveness, detecting recurrent lesions after surgery and radiotherapy, and predicting the grade of malignancy of the tumor. Tumor SPECT using 201Tl chloride and/or 67Ga citrate provides clinically useful information not obtained by morphological tumor diagnosis only.

Endoscopic incision or balloon dilatation is common therapy for cicatricial anastomotic strictures after gastrointestinal surgery. These therapies are not always effective.There were 6 patients who failed either endoscopic incision or balloon dilatation alone and who underwent a combination of the two therapies. Two or three small radial incisions were made in the scar of the stricture with the endoscopic electrocautery under direct vision with fiberscopy. Then, the incisions were split bluntly and the stenosis was dilated over 15-20 minutes with balloon-dilator. This procedure was performed once or twice at a 2-week interval.In 5 of the 6 patients, the stenosis was improved in subjective criteria and objective symptoms. In the last patient, only objective improvement was noted. There were no complications.Endoscopic incision plus balloon dilatation is an effective and safe treatment for cicatricial anastomotic strictures which have failed either therapy alone.

The omentum is the site where peritoneal metastases occur most frequently. It has not been shown whether complete resection of the omenta during gastrectomy improves the survival of gastric cancer patients with macroscopic peritoneal metastases.We retrospectively analyzed 126 patients who underwent gastrectomies for gastric cancer with peritoneal metastases but without hematogenous metastases. The 126 patients were stratified according to their grade of peritoneal metastases into three groups: the P1 patients (patients with peritoneal metastases in the adjacent peritoneum but not in the distant peritoneum); the P2 patients (patients with a few peritoneal metastases in the distant peritoneum); and the P3 patients (patients with many metastases in the distant peritoneum). In each group, the survival and clinicopathological characteristics were compared between patients treated by complete resection of the greater omentum and the lesser omentum plus extensive lymphadenectomy during gastrectomy, versus patients treated by incomplete resection of the omenta and non-extensive lymphadenectomy during gastrectomy.Complete omentectomy and extensive lymphadenectomy during gastrectomy improved survival significantly only in the P1 patients. Other clinicopathological characteristics did not differ between them.Complete omentectomy and extensive lymphadenectomy is recommended in patients with peritoneal metastases in the adjacent peritoneum but not in the distant peritoneum.

Cerebral blood flow (CBF) was quantitatively measured in 6 healthy young volunteers based on "super-early" acquisition of N-isopropyl-p-[123I]iodoamphetamine (IMP) brain SPECT obtained 4-6 min after IMP injection with a three-head rotating gamma camera and the microsphere (MS) model. The ratio of radioactivity (count/pixel/min) in the conventional early SPECT image (taken 25-55 min after IMP injection) to that in the "super-early" image for each brain region negatively correlated with regional CBF value obtained with the "super-early" MS method. This indicates that wash-out of IMP from the regions with higher CBF is faster than that from the regions with lower CBF and that CBF values are underestimated with the conventional MS method in regions with higher CBF. Regional CBF was quantitatively measured with the "super-early" MS method and the ARG method, a recently developed method based on two-compartment model. The mean cortical CBF was 52.5 +/- 7.0 (ml/100 g/min, mean +/- SD) with the "super-early" MS method and 47.5 +/- 3.3 with the ARG method. The CBF values obtained with the "super-early" MS method agreed with those previously reported with positron emission tomography. Since the MS method is theoretically the simplest model, the "super-early" MS method can be applied various disorders of the central nervous system where the behavior of IMP is not fully understood.

The aim of this study was to provide adequate home health monitoring for the elderly at home using fully automated signal measurement with personal identification to support daily health care and to improve quality of life. We attempted to develop a home health monitoring system that did not provide any restrictions during sleep, bathing and excretion. A new room including bath and toilet was constructed. The system consisted of monitoring devices and a computer terminal for collecting data. The data were automatically obtained from monitoring devices situated at the bed, bath and toilet and were transferred to a data terminal and stored for further analysis. Where subjects live with their spouse or family, personal identification is required to store data individually. For the bathtub data, personal identification was performed using ECG data. Sampled data were reduced by wavelet transform and distinguished by a neural network. The data acquisition system is now underway and data are being extensively collected.

A new dosage formulation consisting of anticancer drugs bound to carbon particles was developed for treating cancers of the upper digestive tract, and is designed to distribute higher levels of anticancer drug to the regional lymph nodes and at the injection site, as compared to a drug in aqueous solution form. Thirteen patients with histologically proven carcinoma (8 with superficial esophageal cancer and 5 with early or proper muscle layer-infiltrating gastric cancer), in whom surgical treatment was contraindicated, received intra- and peritumoral injection of the new dosage formulation (total dose of 35-100 mg of peplomycin or 250-500 mg of methotrexate) guided by esophago- or gastro-fiberscope. Eleven of these 13 patients are currently alive, 12-64 months after therapy, or they died without evidence of recurrence 12-98 months after the treatment. One patient has remained cancer-free for 37 months after a second course of the therapy given to treat a recurrence found 26 months after the first treatment. Another patient has a recurrent tumor 9 months after the therapy and is now going to undergo a second course of treatment. Side effects were not severe and well-tolerable.

A new dosage formulation (ACR-CH), composed of aclarubicin (ACR) bound to fine activated carbon particles, has been developed for the treatment of lymph node metastases in breast cancer. ACR-CH is designed to (a) adsorb a great amount of aclarubicin and desorb in a free state; (b) distribute a greater amount of ACR for a longer period of time selectively to the regional lymph nodes; (c) be decreased in the systemic toxicity; and (d) enhance its therapeutic effect on lymph node metastases. In this clinical trial in 20 patients with breast cancer, ACR-CH was injected intra- and peritumorally just before operation for breast cancer, and we examined the extent of blackened nodes produced by ACR-CH. ACR-CH blackened about 70% of the axillary lymph nodes with cancer metastasis as well as the nodes without metastasis. In conclusion, ACR-CH will be useful for dissection of lymph nodes by visualizing the nodes during operation for breast cancer.

An unconstrained electrocardiograph (ECG) and heart-rate monitor was designed to record ECG measurements in the bathtub. The apparatus consists of analog and digital parts. In the analog part, electrocardiographic signals obtained from electrodes placed inside the bathtub were amplified approximately 4,000 times. The electrodes were made of stainless steel and were 104 x 74 x 0.5 mm in size, including the absorbent sponge covers. Each electrode fitted into a plastic case 110 x 79 x 23 mm in size. Working electrodes were placed 20 cm from the bottom of the long bathtub wall, close to the position of the immersed trunk, and a reference electrode was placed 5 cm from the bottom of the side wall close to the toe position. In the digital part of the system the heart rate was calculated from the R-R interval of each ECG pulse and the calculated data were stored in a random-access memory. These stored data were transferred to a personal computer through an RS 232C interface and analyzed. The heart rates obtained from the bathtub ECG agreed with those obtained from a body-surface ECG. During measurements in bathwater with various concentrations of sodium chloride, the amplitude of the electrocardiographic waveform decreased as the electrical conductivity increased. The frequency characteristics of the bathtub ECG varied with the bathtub dimensions and the electrical conductivity of the water. Using this apparatus, heart-rate measurements can be obtained easily and noninvasively, but interpretation of the ECG signal requires great care. This monitor could be used as a home health heart-rate monitor.

Fifteen-four studies of 201T1 brain tumor SPECT were independently interpreted by 9 nuclear medicine physicians with and without reference magnetic resonance images in 2 separate sessions to define an effect of referring images, and inter-observer variations. The physicians were requested to detect foci of abnormal deposits, and to discriminate whether they were malignant or not according to 5-grade scaling of subjective diagnostic confidence. Receiver-operating characteristics (ROC) analysis was performed. Mean sensitivity for presence of lesions (SEP), and sensitivity and specificity for malignancy of 201T1 SPECT were 84, and 53 and 55%, which were changed to 94, and 74 and 55% after referring to the MR images. The SFP was significantly improved (p0.05), but sensitivity and specificity for malignancy, assessed by areas under the ROC curves, were not significantly improved. Inter-observer variation of the SFP was significantly reduced with addition of the referring MR images. Cerebral lobar localization of lesions by SPECT showed great inter-observer variations (true localization ranged from 30 to 68.4%). It is concluded that 201T1 brain tumor SPECT has moderate sensitivity and specificity for malignancy, which is not improved by addition of anatomical reference images, that additional MR images reduce inter-observer variation of confidence on lesion presence, and that SPECT localization of lesions has great inter-observer variations.

Thallium-201 brain SPECT was performed on 20 patients with brain metastases of lung cancer using a three-head rotating gamma camera and the effect of tumor size on tumor detectability and tumor to normal brain thallium uptake ratio (T/N ratio) was studied. Among 71 metastatic lesions, only 9 (22.5%) of 40 lesions of 13 mm diameter or below and 31 (100%) of 31 lesions of 14 mm diameter or above could be detected in this study. There was a significant correlation between T/N ratio and tumor size (r = 0.75, p0.001). The greater the metastatic lesion, the higher the T/N ratio. Even among the tumors in a single patient with multiple brain metastases, there was a significant linear correlation between tumor size and T/N ratio (r = 0.96, p0.01). In this patient, T/N ratio varied by the tumor size and these differences in T/N ratios were thought to be based on the partial volume effect. However, T/N.d which was a parameter corrected by tumor diameter (d) showed a constant value regardless of tumor size. The present results showed that T/N ratio, which was usually believed to quantitate the malignancy grade of brain tumor, was affected by tumor size and that more accurate parameter could be obtained by the correction of T/N ratio by tumor size.

An oxygendeficient magnetite (Fe3O4–8) has been found to exist in the range of (02-reduction of magnetite to αFe at 300°C. The formation of the oxygendeficient magnetite was studied kinetically. In the temperature range of 250 350°C, the rate constants, k1, and k2, were determined for the forward and reverse reactions, respectively. The rate of formation of the oxygendeficient magnetite depended on the partial pressure of H2 gas. The rate constant, k1, was 109.58 at 300°C and the reaction order was 1.11 with respect to the partial pressure of H2 gas. The rate of reverse reaction depended on the partial pressure H2O gas and the oxygen deficiency of magnetite, Δ. The rate constant of the reverse reaction, k2, was 10−2.54 at 300°C, and the reaction orders were 0.45 and 0.99 with respect to the partial pressure of H2O gas and the Δ value respectively. The activation energies for the forward and reverse reactions were determined to be 63.8 kJ.mol−1 and 25.5 kJ.mol−1 from the Arrhenius' equation.

An oxygen-deficient magnetite (Fe3O4–8) has been found to form by passing H2 gas through magnetite powder at 300°C with its spinel structure retained. The oxygen-deficient magnetite is a metastable phase in the transformation of magnetite into α-Fe. The lattice constant of the oxygen-deficient magnetite enlarged to 0.8407nm in the maximum value which is substantially larger than that of the stoichiometric magnetite (a0=0.8396nm). The formation mechanism of the oxygen-deficient magnetite was studied at 300°C using two specimens of magnetite powders with developed orientations on the (111) and (100) planes. These are referred to as (111)- and (100)-magnetite, respectively. The formation of α-Fe was suppressed over the crystal of (111)-magnetite, where wUstite and oxygen-deficient magnetite were formed while keeping the f.c.c. arrangement of the oxygen ions in the solid. On the other hand, over the (100)-magnetite, the formation of a-Fe was enhanced. It is considered that, on the (111)- magnetite, the Fe2+ ion formed by H2-reduction on the surface can move into interstices of the f.c.c. lattice of bulk to form the oxygen deficient state. This will come from the fact that the Fe2+ ion on the surface is so strongly supported with three Fe-O bondings that the Fe2+ ions cannot readily diffuse on the surface when the surface oxygen ions are removed on the (111)- magnetite.

We evaluated 10 patients with hepatobiliary carcinoma, using thallium(TI)-technetium(Tc) subtraction SPECT to assess its usefulness in the diagnosis of this condition. All ten patients (100%) had positive findings on Tl-Tc subtraction SPECT. Three of them underwent Tl-Tc subtraction SPECT after radiotherapy and chemotherapy. A significant decrease in Tl uptake was observed in all patients. Tl-Tc subtraction SPECT appears to be a sensitive method for detecting hepatobiliary carcinomas and measuring the effect after radiotherapy and chemotherapy.