Complete neurological recovery of an adult patient with type II citrullinemia after living related partial liver transplantation

Type II citrullinemia is an adult-onset hepatocerebral disease caused by a deficiency of argininosuccinate synthetase in liver. A 25-year-old Japanese man suddenly developed encephalopathy, showing disorientation and flapping tremor. Plasma concentrations of ammonia and citrulline were extremely high, and hepatic argininosuccinate synthetase activity was deficient. The patient's condition deteriorated rapidly in spite of intensive medications. Therefore, we performed a partial liver transplantation using a graft obtained from his healthy 61-year-old father. After surgery, his neurological symptoms soon disappeared and plasma levels of ammonia and citrulline were normalized within 3 months after operation. Type II citrullinemia is one fulminant form of various liver-based metabolic diseases, and immediate liver transplantation is necessary to rescue patients with this disease. As liver transplantation from cadaveric donor is still not possible in Japan, it seems justifiable to use living related partial liver transplantation for our patient.     

LES analysis of flow and turbulent mixing in an unsteady jet

The flow and mixing process of unsteady jets are fundamentally analyzed by large eddy simulations. The effects of nozzle velocity and turbulence intensity on the turbulent eddy structure and mixing process between the nozzle fluid and ambient fluid were investigated. The results show that a toroidal‐shaped vortex, which emerges around the jet tip, primarily accelerates the entraining flow. Also, increasing the turbulence intensity in the nozzle encourages mixing in the jet without changing the jet‐contour. Furthermore, when the rise‐up time of the initial nozzle velocity is elongated, turbulent mixing is suppressed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 36(5): 303–313, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20158     

Hepatic failure in a case of multiple myeloma-associated amyloidosis (kappa-AL)

We report a case of kappa-AL amyloidosis which rapidly developed hepatic failure in a 79-year-old Japanese female who was admitted to our hospital because of abdominal distension and loss of appetite. Laboratory examination revealed a marked deterioration of liver function with cholestasis and monoclonal gammapathy. At the time that the diagnosis of IgG-kappa type multiple myeloma was made, jaundice was advanced, with continuous gastrointestinal bleeding. The patient died of hepatic failure 2 weeks after admission. Needle biopsy of the liver revealed a diffuse, massive deposition of amyloid protein.     

Measurement of nonuniform sintering shrinkage of functionally gradient material by digital image processing

A noncontact measuring system using a digital image analysis has been devised for the two-dimensional deformation of a powder compact during sintering, which is applicable to nonuniform shrinkages of graded compacts as well as complex-shape compacts prepared by metal injection molding. This article roughly introduces the system and describes an example of the measurement of two-dimensional sintering shrinkage of a metal/ceramic multilayer compact of the material combination of stainless steel (SUS304) and partially stabilized zirconia (PSZ). The measurement involves the edge enhancement of input images, the reading of the intensities of each pixel (picture element), and the determinations of the outline of a specimen and the distribution of diameter changes. It has been confirmed that thermal expansion and nonuniform deformation during sintering can be measured two dimensionally. In comparison with measurement by a conventional dilatometry, this method has enough accuracy for measuring sintering shrinkage in the temperature range from room temperature to 1573 K.     

Different models of hardness evolution in ultrafine-grained materials processed by high-pressure torsion

High-pressure torsion (HPT) is an attractive processing method in severe plastic deformation techniques involving the application of high compressive pressure with concurrent torsional straining. Excellent grain refinement is anticipated when using this technique to average grain sizes of the submicrometer or even nanometer ranges. Because of the significant microstructural changes during processing, there are numerous reports showing evolution in local hardness toward homogeneity throughout a disk diameter with increasing numbers of revolutions. The achieved hardness after HPT is mostly much higher than that in the as-received condition because of exceptional grain refinement although there are a limited number of metals and alloys showing softening or weakening after HPT processing. This paper was initiated to review recent discoveries in the experimental results on hardness evolution toward homogeneity during HPT processing and discuss the different models of hardness developments with respect to imposed equivalent strain by HPT processing for a range of metals and alloys. Moreover, recent results of hardness homogeneity and heterogeneity through thicknesses of the processed disks are discussed toward a complete understanding of hardness evolution in the UFG metals processed by HPT.     

Intermolecular Interaction of [60]Fullerene with Tröger's Base Analogues

Tröger's base (TB, 1) and its analogues were synthesized and were subject to the titration experiments to evaluate their ability of supramolecular complexation with C₆₀. Results demonstrate clearly that the fluorene-based TB analogue (2) and the bioctylfluorene-based TB analogue (3) show 1:1 binding with C₆₀ to form the corresponding complexes while TB 1 does not. Titration experiments exhibited that the association constant (K_ass) of 3/C₆₀ (48.1 ± 7.9 M ^?1) was larger than that of 2/C₆₀ (13.7 ± 1.4 M ^?1)_. The formation of the 1:1 binding complexes 2/C₆₀ and 3/C₆₀ was also confirmed by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Theoretical calculations suggest that 2 and 3 have appropriate cavities to embrace C₆₀. These findings indicate that not only the π/π interaction between the fluorene moieties and the C₆₀ surface but also the CH/π interaction between the octyl groups and the C₆₀ surface serve efficiently in the supramolecular complexation with C₆₀.     

Strain-mediated phase control and electrolyte-gating of electron-doped manganites

A prototype Mott transistor, the electric double layer transistor with a strained CaMnO(3) thin film, is fabricated. As predicted by the strain phase diagram of electron-doped manganite films, the device with the compressively strained CaMnO(3) exhibits an immense conductivity modulation upon applying a tiny gate voltage of 2 V.