Bitline GND sensing technique for low-voltage operation FeRAM

In this sensing technique, pMOS charge transfer maintains the bitline level near the GND when the plate line goes high. It gives 0.5-V higher readout voltages across the cell capacitors and enables a 0.4-V higher differential amplitude in a 512-cell per bitline structure compared with the conventional high-impedance bitline sensing technique. Using the shifted bias plate line layout, only eight cells and eight sense amplifiers per cell mat are activated, and simulations show 8.06 mW at 3 V and 5 MHz, which is about the same power consumption as the conventional device     

99Tcm-MAG3: a sensitive indicator for evaluating perfusion and rejection of renal transplants

Radionuclide renography has a role in evaluating perfusion of transplanted kidneys. In the course of rejection, cortical perfusion decreases before urinary excretion changes. Based on the facts that 99Tcm-MAG3 has different pharmacokinetics and shows a higher kidney-to-background count ratio than 99Tcm-DTPA, we postulated that 99Tcm-MAG3 was a sensitive and reproducible agent to measure cortical perfusion of transplanted kidneys. To clarify the feasibility of using 99Tcm-MAG3 to measure the cortical perfusion index (CPI), sequential renography was performed using 99Tcm-DTPA and 99Tcm-MAG3 in 14 patients with stable renal transplants, who had changes in serum creatinine concentration of less than 50% between the two studies. The CPI was calculated with 99Tcm-DTPA and 99Tcm-MAG3 and these were then compared and correlated with concurrent serum creatinine concentration. The CPI with 99Tcm-MAG3 was 1.43 times that with 99Tcm-DTPA in patients with changes in serum creatinine concentration equal to or less than 20%, and regression analysis revealed that the difference in CPI was larger in patients with more severely decreased renal perfusion than in patients with normal or mildly decreased renal perfusion. This preliminary study has indicated that the CPI with 99Tcm-MAG3 is a sensitive index for detecting changes in renal function, and thus is a feasible indicator of cortical perfusion when evaluating the rejection of transplanted kidneys.     

Accuracy of measurements of the quantized Hall resistivity by adirect current comparator type potentiometer: calibration using aJosephson potentiometer

The accuracy of measurements of the quantized Hall resistivity (QHR) by a direct-current-comparator (DCC)-type potentiometer is estimated based on a linearity calibration of the potentiometer using a Josephson potentiometer. The power coefficient contribution to the nonlinearity of the DCC potentiometer was found to be 0.15±0.02 p.p.m./(100 mV)² at 18.5±0.5°C in 1985 and 0.21±0.03 p.p.m./(100 mV)² at 20.5±0.5°C in 1988. The possibility of accurate measurements of the ratio QHR/R _STD with uncertainties less than 0.05 p.p.m. by the DCC potentiometer is discussed     

Preparation of yttrium-90-labeled human macroaggregated albumin for regional radiotherapy

Helicobacter pylori and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are two of the most common causes of peptic ulceration. The aim of this review is to assess the possible inter-relationships between Helicobacter pylori and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in the pathogenesis of gastric and duodenal erosions and ulcers, with the aim of assessing if the presence of Helicobacter pylori is likely to increase the likelihood of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug-related gastroduodenal symptoms and lesions, and if eradication of Helicobacter pylori may reduce or prevent non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug lesions. There appears to be more likelihood of dyspeptic symptoms in patients on long-term non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs when Helicobacter pylori is present. The balance of evidence also suggests that peptic ulcers and erosions in patients on long-term non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs may be more likely to occur in patients who are Helicobacter pylori positive compared to those who are Helicobacter pylori negative. Although Helicobacter pylori and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs both increase the risk of peptic ulcer bleeding, the risk does not appear to be additive. There is increasing evidence from prospective studies that eradication of Helicobacter pylori may reduce the incidence of ulcers in patients on non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. More prospective long-term studies are required. If Helicobacter pylori is confirmed to be a factor in this respect, it will aid in the targeting of patients at greatest risk of developing ulcers in patients on long-term non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Those at greatest risk are elderly patients, especially females, smokers, patients with a previous ulcer history, severe or debilitating arthritis or who have other chronic diseases. The addition of Helicobacter pylori to this list and its subsequent eradication may improve the outlook for these patients and help in the effective targeting of patients at greatest risk who are on long-term non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.     

The effect of ulinastatin on CFU-C colony formation in mouse myelocyte cultures

The mixture of 5'-guanylylimidodiphosphate (Gpp(NH)p)/EDTA/NaCl has been used to delineate low-affinity conditions for agonists binding to G-protein-linked receptors. The effects of this mixture on [3H]RX821002 (2-methoxyidazoxan) binding to alpha2-adrenoceptors were evaluated in different tissues. The density of alpha2-adrenoceptors in the presence of the mixture was 11, 78 and 60% higher in human cortex (predominant alpha2A), human caudate (alpha2A + alpha2C) and rat kidney (alpha2A + alpha2B), respectively, than in its absence. In rat kidney, masking of alpha2B-adrenoceptors by ARC239 (2-[2-[4-(o-methoxyphenyl)-piperazin-1-yl]-ethyl]-4,4-dimethyl-1,3 -(2H,4H)-isoquinolindione) (50 nM) or masking of alpha2A-adrenoceptors by BRL44408 (2-[2H-(1-methyl-1,3-dihydroisoindole)methyl]-4,5-dihydroimidaz ole) (100 nM) demonstrated that the increase was in the alpha2B-adrenoceptor but not in the alpha2A-adrenoceptor subtype.     

The hybrid boundary node method accelerated by fast multipole expansion technique for 3D potential problems

This paper presents a fast formulation of the hybrid boundary node method (Hybrid BNM) for solving problems governed by Laplace's equation in 3D. The preconditioned GMRES is employed for solving the resulting system of equations. At each iteration step of the GMRES, the matrix–vector multiplication is accelerated by the fast multipole method. Green's kernel function is expanded in terms of spherical harmonic series. An oct‐tree data structure is used to hierarchically subdivide the computational domain into well‐separated cells and to invoke the multipole expansion approximation. Formulations for the local and multipole expansions, and also conversion of multipole to local expansion are given. And a binary tree data structure is applied to accelerate the moving least square approximation on surfaces. All the formulations are implemented in a computer code written in C++. Numerical examples demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed approach. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Performance of the first Japanese large-scale facility for radon inhalation experiments with small animals

A radon test facility for small animals was developed in order to increase the statistical validity of differences of the biological response in various radon environments. This paper illustrates the performances of that facility, the first large-scale facility of its kind in Japan. The facility has a capability to conduct approximately 150 mouse-scale tests at the same time. The apparatus for exposing small animals to radon has six animal chamber groups with five independent cages each. Different radon concentrations in each animal chamber group are available. Because the first target of this study is to examine the in vivo behaviour of radon and its effects, the major functions to control radon and to eliminate thoron were examined experimentally. Additionally, radon progeny concentrations and their particle size distributions in the cages were also examined experimentally to be considered in future projects.     

Capacities of membrane lipids to accumulate neutral organic chemicals

Lipids have been considered as the predominant components for bioaccumulation of organic chemicals. However, differences in accumulation properties between different types of lipid (e.g., storage and membrane lipids) have rarely been considered. Moreover, in view of toxic effects on organisms, chemical accumulation specifically in biological membranes is of particular importance. In this review article, partition coefficients of 240 neutral organic compounds between liposomes (phospholipid membrane vesicles) and water (K(lipw)), reported in the literature or measured additionally for this work, were evaluated. Values of log K(lipw) and log K(ow) (octanol-water partition coefficients) differ by 0.4 on average. Polyparameter linear free energy relationships (PP-LFERs) can describe the log K(lipw) data even better (standard deviations = 0.28-0.31) than the log K(ow) model. Recent experimental data for highly hydrophobic compounds fit well to the PP-LFERs and do not indicate the existence of a previously postulated "hydrophobicity cutoff". Predictive approaches based only on the molecular structure (KOWWIN, SPARC, COSMOthermX, COSMOmic) were also evaluated for K(lipw) prediction. The PP-LFERs revealed that partition coefficients into membrane lipids can be two log units higher than those into storage lipids for H-bond donor compounds, suggesting that distinguishing between the two lipids is necessary to account for the bioaccumulation of these compounds, and that tissues rich in membrane lipids (e.g., kidneys, liver) instead of fat tissue can be the primary phase for accumulation.     

Polyparameter linear free energy models for polyacrylate fiber-water partition coefficients to evaluate the efficiency of solid-phase microextraction

The fiber-water partition coefficient, K(fw), is decisive for performance of solid-phase microextraction (SPME) techniques in organic chemical analyses. In this study, polyacrylate (PA)-coated fiber was evaluated for its K(fw) values toward diverse neutral organic compounds. Literature K(fw) data were thoroughly evaluated, and additional K(fw) values for 69 compounds were measured in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) solution at 37 °C. These K(fw) data, spanning over 6 orders of magnitude, were used to construct polyparameter linear free energy relationship (PP-LFER) models. The PP-LFER models fit well to the data with a standard deviation of 0.15-0.23 log units. Additional experiments indicated that the differences in temperature (25 vs 37 °C), electrolyte concentrations (pure water vs PBS), and conditioning methods (heat vs methanol) had only minor influences (<0.3 log units) on K(fw). Using the established PP-LFERs, the SPME extraction efficiency of PA coating toward compounds of differing polarity was evaluated in comparison to poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) coating. PA exhibited higher extraction capacities for H-bond donor compounds (e.g., phenols, anilines, amides, and many drugs and pesticides) with the estimated K(fw) values being 1-4 log units higher than those of PDMS. Also, PA was shown to be more efficient than PDMS for hydrophobic aromatic compounds.