Bioelectrical impedance analysis of body composition in patients with pulmonary emphysema

In this study we utilized bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) to compare the body composition of 36 stable pulmonary emphysema (PE) patients with 19 healthy controls. We compared the PE patients and healthy controls in terms of fat-free mass (FFM) and body fat (BF) as percentages of ideal body weight (FFM/IBW, BF/IBW). FFM/IBW and BF/IBW were significantly lower in the PE patients than in the controls (75.0 +/- 9.8% vs. 85.2 +/- 7.3%, p < 0.001 and 11.8 +/- 6.4% vs. 16.7 +/- 7.7%, p < 0.05, respectively). We divided the PE patients into two subgroups according to FFM, then investigated the relationships between FFM and skeletal muscle strength, and between FFM and respiratory muscle strength. In patients with reduced FFM (FFM < 43.5 kg) grip strength as an index of skeletal muscle strength was significantly lower than in patients without reduced FFM (FFM > or = 43.5 kg) (25.7 +/- 7.8 kg vs. 36.2 +/- 7.2 kg, p < 0.005). As indexes of respiratory muscle strength, maximal expiratory pressure (PEmax) and maximal inspiratory pressure (PImax) were lower in the patients with reduced of FFM, but not to a statistically significant degree (49.6 +/- 20.8 cm H2O vs. 58.7 +/- 23.9 cm H2O and 40.5 +/- 19.2 cm H2O vs. 50.2 +/- 22.1 cm H2O, respectively). In the PE patients, FFM correlated closely with vital capacity (r = 0.528, p < 0.001), forced vital capacity (FVC) (r = 0.531, p < 0.001), FEV1.0 (r = 0.554, p < 0.001), FEV1.0/FVC (r = 0.467, p < 0.005), RV/TLC (r = -0.395, p < 0.05), DLco (r = 0.770, p < 0.001), and DLco/VA (r = 0.622, p < 0.001). However no correlation was observed between BF and any of the measures of lung function. The findings of our study suggest that FFM correlates with skeletal muscle strength, respiratory muscle strength and some measures of lung function in patients with PE, and that assessments of body composition are valuable to their clinical management.     

A case of biliary cystadenoma with obstructive jaundice

Biliary cystadenoma is a rare cause of obstructive jaundice. We report a case of a 78-year-old Japanese man with biliary cystadenoma presenting repetitive abdominal pain and jaundice. Ultrasound sonography revealed a hyperechoic mass in the left lateral lobe of the liver. Histological examination revealed a biliary cystadenoma. Intracystic hemorrhage was assumed to be the cause of obstruction of the bile ducts.     

Change in fine structure of nylon 6 gut yarn in twisting,annealing, and untwisting processes. I. Observation by WAXD,SAXD, and EM

To obtain information on the change in fine structure of nylon 6 taking place during practical false-twisting processes, the manner of change in the three elemental processes, i.e., twisting, annealing, and untwisting, was studied. For simplicity, nylon 6 gut yarn was used instead of multifilament yarn. Wide- and small-angle x-ray diffraction (WAXD and SAXD) together with electron microscopy (EM) were used here. The degree of molecular orientation in the crystalline region of the twisted yarn gradually decreases with increase of the twist number (TN) in the region of TN ? 100. The long spacing, determined by SAXD, of the twisted yarn increases with increases in TN. The increase in long spacing cannot be interpreted only by macroscopic strain or elongation of the yarn in the twisting process. This difference seems to arise from the contribution of the decrease of lateral size of lamellae to the average long spacing; therefore the increase in long spacing should be attributed to the elongation of the amorphous region, deduced from the crystallinity measured by WAXD and the long spacing diffraction. The angle between the streak line on the surface of twisted yarn observed by EM and the fiber axis agrees well with the twist angle of the yarn. The crystal lamellae are stacked normal to the streak line at the initial stage, i.e., at a low value of TN, but they begin to deviate from the normal direction with increase in TN, accompanied by their partial destruction. Based on SAXD and density measurements, the internal strain of yarn annealed after twisting is fully relaxed. When the yarn is untwisted after twisting and annealing, the crystal orientation recovers gradually to that of the untreated yarn. The chain axis within the lamellae in the center region of the yarn becomes nearly parallel to the fiber axis, but the chain axis in the outer region does not.     

Two-dimensional multiarray formation of hepatocyte spheroids on a microfabricated PEG-brush surface

A two-dimensional microarray of ten thousand (100 x 100) hepatocyte heterospheroids, underlaid with endothelial cells, was successfully constructed with 100 microm spacing in an active area of 20 x 20 mm on microfabricated glass substrates that were coated with poly(ethylene glycol) brushes. Cocultivation of hepatocytes with endothelial cells was essential to stabilize hepatocyte viability and liver-specific functions, allowing us to obtain hepatocyte spheroids with a diameter of 100 microm, functioning as a miniaturized liver to secret albumin for at least one month. The most important feature of this study is that these substrates are defined to provide an unprecedented control of substrate properties for modulating cell behavior, employing both surface engineering and synthetic polymer chemistry. The spheroid array constructed here is highly useful as a platform of tissue and cell-based biosensors and detects a wide variety of clinically, pharmacologically, and toxicologically active compounds through a cellular physiological response.     

Evaluation of method for simultaneous determination of pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables by collaborative study

A collaborative study involving 8 laboratories was conducted to evaluate a method for the simultaneous determination of pesticide residues in 6 types of fruits and vegetables (spinach, tomato, apple, radish, cabbage and carrot). The method of analysis was the same as reported by Kakimoto et al. in 2003. One hundred and thirty-nine pesticides were spiked by each of 8 laboratories at levels of 0.1 microg/g (pesticides analyzed by GC/MS) or 0.5 microg/g (pesticides analyzed by HPLC) into the 6 kinds of samples. Statistical analysis showed that 111 pesticides could be analyzed with practical precision by this method. For screening purposes, the method could analyze 118 pesticides. The median values of the limits of detection were 0.001-0.041 microg/g. The calibration curves were linear in the range of 0.5-5 microg/mL for most pesticides with median correlation coefficients of 0.983-1.000.     

A dispatching method for automated guided vehicles by using a bidding concept

A dispatching method is suggested for automated guided vehicles by using an auction algorithm. The dispatching method in this study is different from traditional dispatching rules in that it looks into the future for an efficient assignment of delivery tasks to vehicles and also in that multiple tasks are matched with multiple vehicles. The dispatching method in this study is distributed in the sense that the dispatching decisions are made through communication among related vehicles and machines. The theoretical rationale behind the distributed dispatching method is also discussed. Through a simulation study, the performance of the method is compared with that of a popular dispatching rule. RID="*" ID="*" The research was financially supported by the Sasakawa Scientific Research Grant from The Japan Science Society. The original version of the simulation program is provided by Professor Jae Yeon Kim at Dong Yang University, Korea. Correspondence to: J. K. Lim     

All-optical wavelength conversion in a GaInAsP/InP optical gate loaded with a Bragg reflector

All-optical wavelength conversion employing a GaInAsP/InP nonlinear distributed-feedback waveguide switch is investigated. The device has the advantages of simple structure, compactness, polarity-noninverted operation, and feasibility of integration with other photonic devices such as semiconductor optical amplifier and modulators. We show that the device exhibits constant conversion efficiency around -9.2 dB in a signal-wavelength range of 1530-1560 nm. Furthermore, this device can potentially be made polarization independent.     

Inverse scattering for a three-dimensional object in the time domain

An iterative inverse-scattering approach to reconstruction of electrical parameter distributions of a three-dimensional object by using time-domain field data is presented. The approach is the extension of the forward-backward time-stepping algorithm previously proposed for a two-dimensional object. Numerical examples of simulation data are given to assess the effectiveness of the proposed approach.