Acute renal failure in renal allograft recipients and patients with native kidneys

Techniques for the separation/concentration of micro-organisms from background food matrices can be applied to increase the speed of analysis and ease of isolation and detection of target micro-organisms. One recent example of such a technique is the immunomagnetic separation (IMS) procedure that has been used for the separation of specific micro-organisms from foods. This paper describes the use of a novel biosorbent consisting of a Salmonella-specific bacteriophage (phage) immobilized to a solid phase that was used for the separation and concentration of Salmonella from food materials. This work has shown that a Salmonella-specific phage-based biosorbent could remove Salmonella from culture fluid and separate Salmonella from suspensions of other Enterobacteriaceae. The ease of production of phage, high affinity of phage-cell interaction and the ability of phage to infect host cells in heterogeneous environments indicates the potential of such a biosorbent as the basis for a reliable separation system in food microbiological analysis.     

EL displays for automotive applications

Abstract— This paper presents an overview of the display requirements for automotive applications and introduces alternating‐current thin‐film electroluminesent (ACTFEL) displays for automobiles. An ACTFEL has advantages over other displays under sunlight and low temperature conditions. Several automotive applications for transparent and multicolor EL displays are introduced in this paper.     

Remote detection of heated ethanol plumes by airborne passive Fourier transform infrared spectrometry

Methodology is developed for the automated detection of heated plumes of ethanol vapor with airborne passive Fourier transform infrared spectrometry. Positioned in a fixed-wing aircraft in a downward-looking mode, the spectrometer is used to detect ground sources of ethanol vapor from an altitude of 2000-3000 ft. Challenges to the use of this approach for the routine detection of chemical plumes include (1) the presence of a constantly changing background radiance as the aircraft flies, (2) the cost and complexity of collecting the data needed to train the classification algorithms used in implementing the plume detection, and (3) the need for rapid interferogram scans to minimize the ground area viewed per scan. To address these challenges, this work couples a novel ground-based data collection and training protocol with the use of signal processing and pattern recognition methods based on short sections of the interferogram data collected by the spectrometer. In the data collection, heated plumes of ethanol vapor are released from a portable emission stack and viewed by the spectrometer from ground level against a synthetic background designed to simulate a terrestrial radiance source. Classifiers trained with these data are subsequently tested with airborne data collected over a period of 2.5 years. Two classifier architectures are compared in this work: support vector machines (SVM) and piecewise linear discriminant analysis (PLDA). When applied to the airborne test data, the SVM classifiers perform best, failing to detect ethanol in only 8% of the cases in which it is present. False detections occur at a rate of less than 0.5%. The classifier performs well in spite of differences between the backgrounds associated with the ground-based and airborne data collections and the instrumental drift arising from the long time span of the data collection. Further improvements in classification performance are judged to require increased sophistication in the ground-based data collection in order to provide a better match to the infrared backgrounds observed from the air.     

PEG Modification Effect of Silica on the Suzuki–Miyaura Coupling Reaction Using Silica-immobilized Palladium Catalysts

Abstract  

The Pd phosphine complex catalysts immobilized onto polyethylene glycol (PEG)-modified silica were prepared in order to clarify the effect of the PEG modification on the Suzuki–Miyaura coupling reaction in organic solvents. For the reaction of ethyl p-bromobenzoate and phenylboronic acid in the presence of potassium carbonate in toluene, the PEG-modified silica-immobilized Pd catalysts exhibited much higher activities than the catalysts without PEG modification.     

Improving bioactivity and durability of yttria-stabilized zirconia

Because of its excellent mechanical properties, yttria-stabilized zirconia is currently used as an orthopedic and dental material. In this study, we have improved the bioactivity of yttria-stabilized zirconia by a combination of electrical polarization and chemical treatment. The phase transformation from tetragonal to monoclinic ZrO₂ after alkaline treatment was inhibited on positively charged yttria-stabilized zirconia surfaces compared with negatively charged and conventional surfaces. During polarization, some oxide ions move from the positively charged surface to the negatively charged surface, leading to an increase in oxygen vacancies on the positive surface and hence greater formation of Zr–OH when this surface was exposed to alkaline solution. This then reduced the water adsorption at this surface and consequently reduced the rate of cleavage of Zr–O–Zr bonds. The bioactivity was assessed by immersing the samples in simulated body fluid and evaluating the growth of apatite on the surfaces. The combination of polarization and alkaline treatment increased the bioactivity in vitro.     

A close correlation in the expression patterns of Af-6 and Usp9x in Sertoli and granulosa cells of mouse testis and ovary

Usp9x, an X-linked deubiquitylating enzyme, is stage dependently expressed in the supporting cells (i.e. Sertoli cells and granulosa cells) and germ cells during mouse gametogenesis. Af-6, a cell junction protein, has been identified as a substrate of Usp9x, suggesting a possible association between Usp9x and Af-6 in spermatogenesis and oogenesis. In this study, we examined the expression pattern of Af-6 and Usp9x and their intracellular localization in testes and ovaries of mice treated with or without pregnant mare serum gonadotropin (PMSG), an FSH-like hormone. In both testes and ovaries, Af-6 expression was predominantly observed in supporting cells, as well as in steroidogenic cells, but not in any germ cells. In Sertoli cells, Af-6 was continuously expressed throughout postnatal and adult stages, where both Af-6 and Usp9x were enriched at the sites of Sertoli-Sertoli and Sertoli-spermatid junctions especially at stages XI-VI. In the granulosa cells, Af-6, as well as Usp9x, was highly expressed in primordial and primary follicles, but its expression rapidly decreased after the late-secondary follicle stage. Interestingly, in PMSG-treated mice, the expression levels of Af-6 and Usp9x were synchronously enhanced, slightly in Sertoli cells and strongly in granulosa cells of the late-secondary and Graafian follicles. Such closely correlated expression patterns between Af-6 and Usp9x clearly suggest that Af-6 may be deubiquitylated by Usp9x in both Sertoli and granulosa cells. It further suggests that the post-translational regulation of Af-6 by Usp9x may be one potential pathway to control the cell adhesion dynamics in mammalian gametogenesis.     

Post-test analysis of a 1:10-scale top slab model of ABWR/RCCV subjected to internal pressure

Construction of the first Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) in Japan employing a reinforced concrete containment vessel (RCCV) was started in 1991. As RCCV itself is the first structure of its kind in Japan, thorough verification tests have been performed. This paper presents the results of simulation analysis of the Top Slab partial model of the RCCV subjected to internal pressure beyond design load. The Top Slab portion is complicated, being composed of a flat Top Slab, cylindrical wall and fuel pool girders, that its simulation analysis requires the evaluation of nonlinear structural behavior of reinforced concrete members due to membrane, bending and shear forces. This paper reports that Finite Element analysis with 3-D solid elements has given a good quantitative agreement between experimental and analysis results with respect to deformation, failure load and each nonlinear behavior.     

Pharmacological properties of YM461, a new orally active platelet-activating factor antagonist

The antagonistic effect of YM461 [1-(3-phenylpropyl)-4-[2-(3-pyridyl)thiazolidin-4-ylcarbonyl]piperazine fumarate] against platelet-activating factor (PAF) was examined in severalin vitro andin vivo systems. We found that YM461 inhibited [³H]PAF binding to rabbit platelet membranes with a pK_i value of 8.90. YM461 inhibited PAF induced rabbit and human platelet aggregation with pA₂ values of 7.52 and 7.29, respectively; the slopes of the Schild plots were 1.07 and 1.01, respectively. However, YM461 at 10⁻⁴M did not affect rabbit and human platelet aggregation induced by ADP, collagen, arachidonic acid or epinephrine. YM461 inhibited PAF induced death in mice with an ED₅₀ (50% effective dose) value of 0.35 mg/kgp.o. YM461 at doses above 0.3 mg/kgi.v. inhibited PAF induced hypotension in rats. YM461 showed a dose-dependent inhibition of PAF induced hemoconcentration in rats with ED₅₀ values of 0.15 and 0.21 mg/kgp.o., respectively, at 0.5 and 1 hr after oral administration. The anti-PAF effect of YM461 persisted more than 6 hr after 3 mg/kgp.o. in rats. YM461 inhibited the bronchoconstriction induced by PAF with an ED₅₀ value of 1.2 mg/kgp.o. in anesthetized guinea pigs. Furthermore, the compound at doses above 3 mg/kgp.o. significantly inhibited antigen-induced anaphylactic asthma in conscious guinea pigs pretreated with mepyramine and propranolol. These results indicate that YM461 is a selective, potent and orally active PAF antagonist. Based on a paper presented at the Third International Conference on Platelet-Activating Factor and Structurally Related Alkyl Ether Lipids, Tokyo, Japan, May 1989.     

Compact ellipsometer employing a static polarimeter module with arrayed polarizer and wave-plate elements

A portable ellipsometer with a compact static polarimeter using an arrayed polarizer, an arrayed wave plate, and a CCD image sensor is developed. A high level of repeatability at a measurement speed of 0.3 s is demonstrated by measurement of SiO(2) films ranging from 2 to 300 nm in thickness deposited on an Si wafer. There is the potential to realize an ultracompact ellipsometer module by integrating the optical source and receiver, suitable for deployment in a variety of manufacturing equipment and measurement instruments.