CD7 positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia successfully treated with high dose cytosine arabinoside and mitoxantrone: a case report

Primary Sjogren's syndrome (pSS) is a common autoimmune connective tissue disease in China yet without a universally accepted diagnostic criteria. In this study a new criteria was proposed and compared with other six sets of criteria. Fifty-five items in 112 pSS and 185 controls were evaluated. Results show the criteria we proposed contained one major and nine minor items. For the purpose of identifying patients in clinical studies, a major with at least three of the nine minor items or at least five of the minor items should be presented. The major item is anti-SSA/SSB(+) and the minors are, (1) dry eyes or dry mouth (> 3 months, persistently), (2) swollen salivary glands (recurrently or persistently), (3) rampant dental caries, (4) Schirmer test (< 5 mm in 5 min.) or corneal staining(+), (5) unstimulated salivary flow (< 0.03 ml/min) or abornal parotid sialography, (6) minor salivary gland biopsy (> or = 1 focus), (7) renal tubular acidosis, (8) hypergammaglobuminemia (gamma globulin > or = 30%) or hypergammaglobuminemic purpura, (9) RF > 1 : 20 or ANA > 1 : 20. Other connective tissure diseases, pre-existing lymphoma, AIDS, sarcoidosis, graft vs host disease must be excluded. The criteria we proposed had a high specificity of 98.2% and sensitivity of 94.1%.     

Beam test of the CsI(Tl) calorimeter for the BELLE detector at the KEK-B factory

We studied the performance of a prototype electromagnetic calorimeter for the BELLE detector at the KEK proton synchrotron for an energy range of 0.25–3.5 GeV. The prototype consisted of an array of 6 × 5 CsI(Tl) crystals with 30 cm length (16.2 radiation lengths) and about 6 cm × 6 cm cross section. The scintillation light of each CsI(Tl) crystal was read out by two large-area PIN photodiodes and charge-sensitive preamplifiers attached at the rear face of the crystal. We measured the energy and position resolution for electrons and the e/π separation for two sets of matrix configurations: one corresponded to the center and the other to the edge of the barrel calorimeter. The overall performance measured by the test proves that the prototype calorimeter is satisfactory for the use in the BELLE detector.     

X gene and precore region mutations in the hepatitis B virus genome in persons positive for antibody to hepatitis B e antigen: comparison between asymptomatic "healthy" carriers and patients with severe chronic active hepatitis

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) carriers with antibody to hepatitis e antigen comprise asymptomatic carriers (ASCs), who have low replication levels of HBV, and patients with chronic active hepatitis (CAH), who have high levels of viral replication. To investigate whether defects in the X protein might be responsible for this difference in the level of viral replication, nucleotide sequences of X and precore gene regions in serum HBV were analyzed in 19 ASCs and 9 CAH patients. All patients had a point mutation creating a stop codon in the precore region. Seventeen ASCs (87.3%) had identical mutations consisting of 4 noncontiguous 1-bp deletions or an 8-bp deletion, both of which truncate the normal X protein, whereas no CAH patient had an X gene mutation (P < .001). Thus, deletion of the X protein might be responsible for the low levels of viral replication in ASCs.     

A 286 mm2 256 Mb DRAM with ×32 both-ends DQ

This paper describes a 256 Mb DRAM chip architecture which provides up to ×32 wide organization. In order to minimize the die size, three new techniques: an exchangeable hierarchical data line structure, an irregular sense amp layout, and a split address bus with local redrive scheme in the both-ends DQ were introduced. A chip has been developed based on the architecture with 0.25 μm CMOS technology. The chip measures 13.25 mm×21.55 mm, which is the smallest 256 Mb DRAM ever reported. A row address strobe (RAS) access time of 26 ns was obtained under 2.8 V power supply and 85°C. In addition, a 100 MHz×32 page mode operation, namely 400 M byte/s data rate, in the standard extended data output (EDO) cycle has been successfully demonstrated     

An ESR study of the film formation steps of vapor deposition polymerization of polyamic acid

A film of polyamic acid is formed by vapor deposition polymerization of pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA) and 4,4′-diaminodiphenyl ether (ODA). We have taken ESR spectrum during the polymerization process and compared it with the ESR spectrum of films obtained from solution polymerization. In the intermediate polymers during vapor deposition polymerization, the amide bond (? CONH? ) is coplanar with the benzene ring and two protons in the PMDA molecule. This intermediate polymer has one unpaired electron that interacts with the two nitrogen nuclei equally. On the other hand, in the polymer obtained by solution polymerization, the amide bond and the benzene ring of PMDA are not coplanar. In this polymer, too, some of the molecules have an unpaired electron that seems to have almost no coupling with NH groups. These results imply that the polymer formation via vapor deposition proceeds through different intermediates and different molecular configurations from that via the solution process.     

A new type of arc plasma reactor with 12-phase alternating current discharge for synthesis of carbon nanotubes

A new type of arc plasma reactor with 12-phase alternating current (AC) discharge for synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is proposed. A couple of six discharge electrodes by which have mutually electrical connection between them to enlarge the high-temperature regions in the reactor are arranged to three-dimensional locations. A new method of CNTs fabrication by this reactor, which accomplishes to enlarge the suitable growth region in high purity and at high yield, was developed.     

Bias-stress-induced increase in parasitic resistance of InP-based InAlAs/InGaAs HEMTs

The reliability of InP-based HEMTs is studied, focussing on how it is affected by the doped layer material and gate recess structure. Bias-and-temperature stress tests reveal that fluorine-induced donor passivation in the recess region, formed adjacent to the gate electrode, causes the source resistance (R_s) to increase at large drain bias voltages. The increase in R_s can be prevented by using InP or InAlP as the carrier supply layer material instead of InAlAs. On the other hand, the increase in the drain resistance (R_d) does not depend on the material of the carrier supply layer, which suggests that a mechanism different from that in the case of R_s should be considered. It is also found that a deep gate recess suppresses the increase in R_d after long-term stressing.     

Development of a single loop EPR test method and its relation to grain boundary microchemistry for alloy 600

A single loop electrochemical potentiokinetic reactivation test method has been developed for alloy 600 that produces good passivation on all the surfaces, good etching during the reactivation scan and no appreciable pitting. It is able to quantify and discriminate between samples with a wide range of degree of sensitization. The Pa value correlates well with the minimum level of chromium in the depletion regions at the grain boundaries. It has been shown that the width of the attacked regions is much larger than the width of chromium depletion regions and it does not show any direct correlation with either depth or width or with a volume parameter of chromium depletion regions. It has been shown that the chromium carbides are not attacked during the test and that the intragranular regions attacked during the test are the sites of chromium carbides in the grain matrix. A modified Pa parameter is shown to be sensitive down to 7.5 wt% chromium in the depletion regions and indicates that the intragranular carbides have shallower depletion profiles than those at grain boundaries. Comparison of the results of the single loop and the double loop tests showed a good correlation.     

High density recording with perpendicular Co-Cr-Nb media and ring heads

Effective double layer structure was investigated by adding Nb to the sputtering source of Co-Cr thin film perpendicular magnetic recording tapes. The output from the tapes was measured with a ring head through to the short wavelength, λ50=0.19 μm (D50=267KFRPI).