Postoperative epidural fentanyl administration in patients for hysterectomy with para-aortic lymph node resection

Endurance training has long been known to improve the individual's resistance to exercise-induced hypoglycemia. Traditionally attributed to a reduction in glucose uptake subsequent to enhanced fat oxidation, this issue has only recently been directly addressed. This paper briefly reviews the evidence for reduced glucose uptake versus enhanced glucose production in the improved hypoglycemic resistance following training. While whole body glucose removal and production may be reduced following training, this has only been demonstrated under exercising conditions in which glycemia demonstrates little deviation from rest. Under exercise conditions where untrained animals demonstrate substantial reductions in blood glucose, training enhanced hypoglycemic resistance has been shown to result entirely from enhanced glucose production via gluconeogenesis. Using the in situ perfused liver preparation, the authors have provided direct evidence for a training enhanced hepatic gluconeogenic capacity. The site of adaptation within the gluconeogenic pathway has now been constrained to below the level of the triose phosphates. Lack of evidence for suppressed skeletal muscle glucose uptake following training, a uniform observation for humans and rats, is also discussed. It is concluded that the improved hepatic gluconeogenic capacity of endurance trained individuals, at least in rats, is critical to their demonstrated resistance to exercise-induced hypoglycemia.     

A 1.5 V, 4.1 mW dual-channel audio delta-sigma D/A converter

The paper describes a stereo digital-to-analog converter intended for portable digital-audio which operates at 1.5 V and consumes only 4.1 mW. A 15-level quantization, third-order delta-sigma was employed to reduce digital operation speed, relax out-of-band filtering requirements, and enhance immunity to clock jitter. The use of direct charge transfer switched-capacitor technique in the multibit reconstruction DAC reduces kT/C noise and element mismatch without increase of power dissipation. The data weighted averaging algorithm suppresses nonlinearity caused by capacitor mismatch by first-order noise-shaping, thereby making mismatch-induced noise negligible. The stereo audio DAC achieves 90 dB dynamic range and 81 dB peak signal-to-noise-plus-distortion ratio over a 20 kHz passband. The 5.3 mm ² chip is fabricated in a 0.6 μm CMOS technology which includes low-threshold devices     

Thermal and mechanical stability of soldering QFP with Sn-Bi-Ag lead-free alloy

Thermal stability of the circuit boards with a quad flat package (QFP) soldered with Sn-58wt%Bi-(0, 0.5 and 1.0) wt% Ag and their microstructural features were evaluated. The addition of 1.0 wt% Ag causes the formation of large primary Ag/sub 3/Sn precipitates in the solder while no primary Ag/sub 3/Sn is found in Sn-57Bi-0.5Ag. Thermo-Calc calculation indicates that the lowest limit content for the formation of primary Ag/sub 3/Sn is about 0.8 wt%. Heat-exposure below 100/spl deg/C has no serious degradation on the joint structure for all solders. Heat-exposure at 125/spl deg/C caused serious degradation in joint strength for all alloys. The contamination of Pb from Sn-Pb surface plating on the components reduces the interface tolerance by forming ternary Sn-Pb-Bi phase melting at low temperature. Thermal fatigue between -20 and 80/spl deg/C does not have any significant influence on joint structure.     

Lack of evidence for the transmission of JC polyomavirus between human populations

Human polyomavirus JC virus (JCV), the causative agent of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, is ubiquitous in humans, infecting children asymptomatically then persisting in renal tissue. Since JCV DNA can readily be detected from urine, it should be a useful tool with which to study the mode of virus transmission in humans. Based on this notion, we examined the extent to which JCV was transmitted from the American to Japanese populations in Okinawa Island, Japan. (A population of about 50 000 American soldiers and families have been stationed in Okinawa since 1945.) Four JCV types (A to D) were identified in American populations in U.S.A., whereas only type B was prevalent in elder Japanese in Okinawa who had reached adulthood by 1945. Thus, types A, C, and D served as indicators of the transmission of JCV from American to Japanese populations. We then examined whether types A, C, and D were detectable in Japanese in Okinawa aged 30-50 years who may have been in contact with Americans during childhood. However, all the 125 isolates from the younger Japanese population were type B without exception. From this finding, we concluded that JCV is rarely transmitted between human populations.     

Performance of ternary PtRuRh/C electrocatalyst with varying Pt:Ru:Rh ratio for methanol electro-oxidation

Highly dispersed ternary PtRuRh/C anode catalysts for direct methanol fuel cells were prepared with various contents and their electro-catalytic activities towards methanol oxidation at 25 °C and 60 °C were examined to investigate the influence of the catalyst composition. Electrocatalysts were prepared by a co-impregnation method using ethanolic solutions of metal precursors and carbon black followed by pyrolysis under reducing conditions. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that the fcc peaks shifted to higher diffraction angles with increasing Rh content, indicating the alloying of Rh into the fcc structure. In terms of the mass specific current density, the activity towards methanol oxidation differed significantly depending on the catalysts composition and cell temperature. The catalyst prepared at a ratio of Pt:Ru:Rh = 1:1:2 exhibited the highest activity at 60 °C of 155 A (g-Pt)⁻¹ at 0.5 V vs. RHE.     

Monoclonal antibodies against pig ovarian follicular granulosa cells induce apoptotic cell death in cultured granulosa cells

Two monoclonal antibodies capable of inducing granulosa cell apoptosis were produced against granulosa cells prepared from antral follicles of pig ovaries. The healthy follicles, 4-5 mm in diameter, were dissected from the ovaries of gilts, and then granulosa cells were isolated. BALB/c female mice were immunized with the isolated granulosa cells. Antibodies against the granulosa cells were detected by immunofluorescent staining using frozen ovarian sections. The isolated spleen cells prepared from immunized mice producing antibodies against the granulosa cells were fused with Sp2/O-Ag 14 mouse myeloma cells by standard hybridization techniques. Two hybridoma clones, PFG-1 and PFG-2, which produced specific IgM antibodies against granulosa cells were selected. Western blotting analysis revealed that PFG-1 and PFG-2 antibodies specifically recognized cell-membrane proteins with molecular weights of 55 and 70 kD and isoelectric points of 5.9 and 5.4, respectively. The monoclonal antibodies immunohistochemically reacted with granulosa cells of healthy follicles. When the isolated granulosa cells prepared from healthy follicles were cultured in medium containing 0.1 or 10 micrograms/m/PFG-1 or PFG-2 antibodies, respectively, the cells underwent apoptosis as determined by nuclear morphology, DNA electrophoresis and flow cytometric analysis. In conclusion, these two monoclonal antibodies against granulosa cells have cell-killing activity in cultured granulosa cells.     

Effect of green tea rich in gamma-aminobutyric acid on blood pressure of Dahl salt-sensitive rats

A method of reducing the amount of data required to reconstruct an image is described. In this scheme, fully sampled low spatial frequency data are acquired up to a given cutoff frequency and above this point, only alternate lines are sampled. Two images are produced, one of low definition and one of high definition but aliased. The proposed algorithm unwraps the aliased data, which are then used to enhance the low pass image, yielding a best estimate of the true image. The reduced sampling technique is shown to afford biological images that are almost indistinguishable from those obtained from a complete data set.