Interaction of two close quantized vortices in superfluid4He

The three-dimensional dynamics of two interacting quantized vortex filaments is studied. The equations of motion and the method of numerical calculation follow Schwarz. Whether two approaching filaments reconnect or not depends on their arrangement before approach. When a ring moves toward a line from a distance, only within a critical initial distance they can reconnect. The critical distance is minimized when their circulations are parallel at the closest place, while it increases as their circulations begin to deviate from being parallel. Hence the reconnection probability can be less than unity.     

Human body detection in wet snowpack by an FM-CW radar

An FM-CW radar system was applied to detect a human body buried in a very wet snowpack. This radar uses the L-band microwave frequency with a maximum output power of 100 mW, and utilizes digital signal processing techniques. Field experiments were carried out to detect and map a human body embedded at a depth of 125 cm in a natural snowpack. The radar is shown to have a potential ability to detect avalanche victims, indicating that it may become a tool for snow rescuer operations     

Chirality-antimicrobial relationship of quaternary ammonium cationics

Optically active and racemic quaternary ammonium cationics containing a chiral alkyl group, such as N,N-dimethyl-N-(1-phenylethyl)alkylammonium bromides were prepared and showed excellent antimicrobial properties against Gram positive and negative bacteria, with some exceptions, and against fungi. The influence of optical isomerism on their antimicrobial properties showed that the antimicrobial properties between racemic and optically active cationics were obscure. The order of activity of substituted alkyl groups was tetradecyl > dodecyl ° hexadecyl.     

A new fabrication technology for AlGaAs/GaAs HEMT LSIs using InGaAsnonalloyed ohmic contacts

The authors studied the nonalloyed ohmic characteristics of HEMTs (high electron mobility transistors). At high integration levels, nonalloyed ohmic contacts were found to have two advantages: an extremely short ohmic length with low parasitic source series resistance and direct connection between the source/drain and gate with the same metal. The propagation delay in a ring oscillator with a single-metal source/drain and gate formed simultaneously was 37 ps/gate (L _g=0.9 μm). The very short ohmic metal contacts and just three contact holes made it possible to reduce the memory cell area greatly. The cell is 21.5×21.5 μm², one of the smallest ever reported for a GaAs-based static RAM. Using smaller load HEMTs or resistor loads in the memory cell, combined with nonalloyed ohmic technology with quarter- or subquarter-micrometer-gate HEMTs it is possible to fabricate a very-high-speed LSI such as a 64-kb static RAM with a reasonable chip size     

Clinical implications of chromosomal abnormalities in 401 patients with myelodysplastic syndromes: a multicentric study in Japan

It is well known that cytogenetic analysis in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) provides information useful in determining their prognosis. Based on the chromosomal results obtained from 401 MDS patients by a multicentric study in Japan, we studied correlations between chromosomal findings and prognosis or leukemic transformation in MDS patients. Patients with complex aberrations (cytogenetic abnormalities at more than three chromosomes), of any subtype, had a poor prognosis; for example, > 60% of patients with refractory anemia (RA) showing complex aberrations died within one year, but only 11% of them developed leukemia. In patients with RA with ringed sideroblasts (RARS), > 70% of those with complex aberrations evolved into the leukemic phase and survived for less than one year, suggesting a biologic heterogeneity in RARS patients. By contrast, about 5% of patients with RA or RARS exhibiting chromosomal findings other than -7/7q-, +8, two aberrations, and complex aberrations, developed leukemia and had a favorable prognosis. Therefore, the presence of chromosome abnormalities alone in patients with RA or RARS is not a factor in predicting leukemic transformation or poor prognosis. In patients with refractory anemia with an excess of blasts (RAEB), the presence of chromosome aberrations at MDS diagnosis affected the occurrence of leukemic transformation (24% versus 43%), however, no particular difference was noted in patients with RAEB in transformation with regard to whether they had chromosome changes or not, and about 60% of them evolved into leukemia. The poor prognosis related to complex aberrations was consistently noted in all MDS subtypes or age-matched groups, indicating that this cytogenetic anomaly is an independent risk factor for a poor prognosis in MDS patients. The duration between MDS diagnosis and development of the leukemic phase and that between the latter and death were significantly shorter in patients with complex aberrations than those without this change. Although the clinical significance of certain chromosomal abnormalities differs among subtypes of MDS, a new scoring system for predicting prognosis by cytogenetic changes, in combination with hematologic parameters, was proposed.     

Stereoscopic synthesized brain-surface imaging with MR angiography for localization of a peripheral mycotic aneurysm: case report

A patient with subacute bacterial endocarditis and a peripheral mycotic aneurysm is presented. We used a combined multi-slice surface anatomy scanning (SAS) and contrast-enhanced MR angiography image to determine the exact location of the small lesion by applying a skin marker on the scalp and visualizing the relationship of the marker to the brain surface structures and to the lesion. This technique was useful for the removal of a small peripheral aneurysm using only a limited craniotomy.     

Effects of cytogenin on spontaneous arthritis in MRL/1 mice and on pristane-induced arthritis (PIA) in DBA/1J mice

Cytogenin, 8-hydroxy-3-hydroxymethyl-6-methoxyisocoumarin, has low cytotoxicity on murine and human tumour cells in vitro. It augments or suppresses phagocytosis of macrophages and lymphocyte proliferation. It has been reported that cytogenin has a potent inhibitory effect clinically on adjuvant arthritis in Lewis rats and on type II collagen-induced arthritis in DBA/1J mice. Our experimental findings provide evidence that cytogenin has beneficial effects on spontaneous polyarthritis in MRL/1 mice and pristane-induced arthritis in DBA/1J mice. The results suggest that the mode of the anti-arthritic action of cytogenin is different from those of NSAIDs; although the precise mode of action remains unclear, cytogenin may become an excellent therapeutic agent for rheumatoid arthritis.     

A software tool to support the reliability design and evaluation oftelecommunication networks

Highly reliable telecommunication networks require new technologies, such as the reliability specification, design, and evaluation method used at NTT. This paper describes the basic concepts of this method, and the ARDES-NET (Availability Reliability Design and Evaluation System for NETworks) software tool is used to support the reliability design and evaluation. ARDESNET has a user-friendly interface and can be easily put into practice