A case report on surgery for chylothorax after anterior spinal fusion: usefulness and effectiveness of intraoperative milk administration and postoperative OK-432 administration]

After having reported preliminary results of soft system stabilization according to Graf in a series of 27 patients with degenerative disc disease of the lumbar spine in early 1995 the authors report long term clinical and radiological results of this patient series (n = 25). At a mean period of postoperative observation of 50 months excellent, good, satisfactory, moderate and poor results were obtained in 62, 9%, 11, 1% and 11, 1%, 7, 4% and 7, 4% of the patients, respectively. The well-known phenomenon of loss of disc height at the level of posterolateral fusion and instrumentation as well as overcharge of adjacent segments were not observed after soft system stabilization. Regional as well as global lumbar lordosis were maintained and, although statistically not significant, an increase of intervertebral distance was observed in adjacent segments in flexion of the lumbar spine. These phenomena might represent pressurization of instrumented as well as adjacent discs after the insertion of ligament prostheses. It is the impression of the authors, that the Graf technique leads to good surgical results in degenerative disc disease with destabilization of lumbar motion segment(s) if the following criteria are strictly respected: 1. No or only mild arthrotic changes of the facet joints 2. Preferably minor disc degeneration/only mild loss of intervertebral distance. 3. Well trained low back muscles and 4. A clear-cut, repeatedly demonstrated pain-relief on trial anaesthesia of the corresponding articular nerves and while wearing a probatory jacket.     

Surgical analysis for metastatic lung tumor from renal cell carcinoma

Metastatic lung tumor from renal cell carcinoma were studied in 29 cases. Eighteen patients were treated surgically, 11 were treated non-surgically. The overall 5-year survival rate with the patients of pulmonary resection was 53.5%, and that with those of conservative therapy was 0%, and this difference is statistically significant (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference in any characteristics such as sex, age, stage, grade, disease free interval, metastatic pattern and combination with or without interferon therapy. There was no significant difference in surgically treated patients with pulmonary metastasis in terms of any factors such as age, sex, stage, grade, disease free interval, pulmonary metastasis pattern, metastatic number, surgical procedure, combination with or without interferon therapy statistically. Analysis for the surgically treated patients with pulmonary metastasis from renal cell carcinoma shows no significant difference in prognosis with any characteristics. This result shows efficacy of surgery even if for the patients with synchronous bilateral multiple pulmonary metastasis from renal cell carcinoma.     

Design for Testability for Complete Test Coverage

Some design-for-testability techniques, such as level-sensitive scan design, scan path, and scan/set, reduce test pattern generation of sequential circuits to that of combinational circuits by enhancing the controllability and/or observability of all the memory elements. However, even for combinational circuits, 100 percent test coverage of large-scale circuits is generally very difficult to achieve. This article presents DFT methods aimed at achieving total coverage. Two methods are compared: One, based on testability analysis, involves the addition of test points to improve testability before test pattern generation. The other method employs a test pattern generation algorithm (the FAN algorithm). Results show that 100 percent coverage within the allowed limits is difficult with the former approach. The latter, however, enables us to generate a test pattern for any detectable fault within the allowed time limits, and 100 percent test coverage is possible.     

JAXA-GCF project - high-quality protein crystals grown under microgravity environment for better understanding of protein structure

Since 2003, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA, former NASDA) has been conducting a project on a semi-annual basis (JAXA-GCF) to obtain high-quality protein crystals in the microgravity environment using the Russian transportation system. For this project, protein samples were mostly provided by Japanese users for whom JAXA provided technical and clerical support for crystallization experiments in microgravity. For the project, JAXA has constructed a user-friendly support service for microgravity experiments and provided regular and frequent flight opportunities. To simplify and improve technological matters, JAXA devised a gel-tube method crystallization device, which is effective both in space and on ground, based on the counter-diffusion technique. JAXA also provided ground-based techniques for efficient preliminary optimization of crystallization conditions using a 1-dimensional simulation and for harvesting and cryoprotecting crystals before X-ray diffraction experiments. These improvements have significantly increased the success rate of obtaining useful results. In conclusion, JAXA has developed technologies for growing, in microgravity, high-quality protein crystals, which may diffract up to atomic resolution, for a better understanding of 3-dimensional protein structures through X-ray diffraction experiments.     

Diffusion coefficient of the protein in various crystallization solutions: The key to growing high-quality crystals in space

The diffusion coefficients of lysozyme and alpha-amylase were measured in the various polyethylene glycol (PEG) solutions. Obtained diffusion coefficients were studied with the viscosity coefficient of the solution. It was found that the diffusion process of the protein was suppressed with a factor of v^γ, where ν is a relative viscosity coefficient of the PEG solution. The value of γ is ?0.64 at PEG1500 for both proteins. The value increased to ?0.48 at PEG8000 for lysozyme, while decreased to ?0.72 for alpha-amylase. The equation of an approximate diffusion coefficient at certain PEG molecular weight and concentration was roughly obtained.     

Fabrication of Ferroelectric Photonic Crystals

ABSTRACT

Ferroelectric photonic crystals consisted of a PLZT matrix and 800 nm-pitch air-holes with a diameter of 560 nm were successfully fabricated by the electron-beam-induced patterning process. Hexagonal holes inscribed to the circles with a diameter of 400 nm in a precursor matrix changed to circular holes with a diameter of 560 nm after heat-treatment due to shrinkage of the matrix. The optical properties of CSD-derived PLZT films were also evaluated. The PLZT films showed the refractive index of 2.3 and the Kerr constant of 0.4 × 10^{? 16} m²/V². Therefore, it is expected that an applied voltage of 9.7 V to 1 μ m-thick PLZT photonic crystals induces 1%-decrease in refractive index and 40°-swinging of light with a wavelength of 1.55 μ m.