Observation of Mode Patterns for High Purity Mode Operation in the Submillimeter Wave Gyrotron FU VA

Operation tests of a cavity designed for high purity mode operation of the submillimeter wave gyrotron FU VA has been carried out successfully. The observed emission patterns of several cavity modes appear very pure and are compared with calculated results. High purity mode operation has the advantage of making the conversion to Gaussian-like beams more efficient.     

Multiresidue determination of quinolones in animal and fishery products by HPLC

A simple and rapid multiresidue method was developed for the determination of twelve quinolones (ciprofloxacin, danofloxacin, difloxacin, enrofloxacin, flumequine, marbofloxacin, nalidixic acid, norfloxacin, ofloxacin, orbifloxacin, oxolinic acid and sarafloxacin) in muscle, liver, chicken eggs, milk, prawn and rainbow trout.The quinolones were extracted from a sample with acetonitrile-water (95 : 5). A fifth part of the filtered extract was diluted with water to keep the acetonitrile ratio at ca. 60%, and passed through a C18 mini-column. The eluate was evaporated to dryness, and the residues were dissolved in methanol-water (30 : 70) for HPLC analysis.The quinolones were separated on a Inertsil ODS-3V column (4.6 mm i.d.x250 mm) with a gradient system of 0.1% phosphoric acid-acetonitrile as the mobile phase, with fluorescence detection.No interfering peak was found on the chromatograms of animal and fishery products, except for milk. The recoveries of the quinolones were over 60% from the animal and fishery products fortified at 0.1 microg/g, and the quantification limits of the quinolones were 0.005 microg/g. This proposed method was found to be effective and suitable for the screening of the quinolones in animal and fishery products.     

Does mixed venous desaturation during a bed bath indicate cardiopulmonary decompensation in postoperative cardiac patients?]

The bed bath procedure consists of cleansing patients' body, passive position change, changing gown and making a bed. During the procedure, mixed venous desaturation was observed consistently in postoperative cardiac patients. We investigated the cause of the phenomenon in 22 patients undergoing cardiac surgery in their first postoperative day. The patients were breathing oxygen-enriched air via a Venturi mask. Cardiac index (CI), transluminal SvO2, arterial blood gas, Hb, DO2, VO2, FIO2, A-aDO2 and Qp/Qs were measured before and during the bed bath, while the patients were in the supine and left lateral position, respectively. Mean 8.5 +/- 1.5 minutes were required to complete the bed bath. During the bed bath, SvO2 decreased from 71 +/- 7% to 59 +/- 9% (P < 0.001), and returned to the baseline 6.5 +/- 7.4 minutes after the completion of the bed bath. VO2 increased markedly from 128 +/- 27 to 194 +/- 47 ml.min-1.m-2 (P < 0.001), while DO2 increased slightly from 480 +/- 91 to 513 +/- 110 ml.min-1.m-2 (P < 0.05). Among the determinants of DO2, CI increased slightly from 3.3 +/- 0.6 to 3.6 +/- 0.8 l.min-1.m-2, Hb remained unchanged and SaO2 decreased from 98.5 +/- 0.8 to 98.0 +/- 1.1%. FIO2 also decreased, while A-aDO2 and Qp/Qs remained unchanged. There was a negative correlation between VO2 change and SvO2 change, but no correlation between DO2 change and SvO2 change. There was a positive correlation between SaO2 change and SvO2 change, as well as between FIO2 change and SaO2 change. Therefore, the major cause of mixed venous desaturation was not the decreased DO2 or cardiopulmonary decompensation but the increased VO2 due to increased activity of the skeletal muscles. However, the decrease in SaO2 due to markedly increased O2 demand and the limited increase in CI might partially contribute to the marked decline in SvO2 through the limited increase in DO2.     

Structure-activity relationships of non-peptide vasopressin V1a antagonists: 1-(1-multi-substituted benzoyl 4-piperidyl)-3,4-dihydro-2(1H)-quinolinones

During our systematic studies on the arginine vasopressin receptor V1a-antagonistic activity of 1-(1-benzoyl substituted 4-piperidyl)-3,4-dihydro-2(1H)-quinolinones, we found a general substituent effect on the benzene ring. Hydrogen-bonding ability at the ortho position was especially important for enhancement of the affinity of multi-substituted analogs. Details of the syntheses and structure-activity relationships for this series are presented.     

Successful treatment by direct hemoperfusion of coma possibly resulting from mitochondrial dysfunction in acute valproate intoxication

PURPOSE: We evaluated the efficacy of direct hemoperfusion (DHP) for treatment of acute valproate (VPA) intoxication and speculate on the biochemical perturbations that suggest a mechanism of coma induced by VPA overdose. PATIENT AND METHODS: The comatose patient was hospitalized approximately 6 h after ingesting 18 g VPA. DHP, with 200 g activated charcoal, was performed for 6 h. The plasma concentrations of VPA and Glasgow coma scale scores after admission were estimated. Before and after DHP, urine samples were tested in serial fashion for VPA metabolites, organic acids, and acyl carnitine esters of fatty acids. RESULTS: Plasma VPA was efficiently adsorbed on activated charcoal. The patient's plasma concentration of VPA decreased from 471 microg/ml (2,830 microM) to 45 microg/ml (270 microM), at which point the patient became alert. The half-life (t1/2) of VPA was calculated as 4.4 h before DHP and as 1.8 h during DHP. Before DHP, lactate and VPA-glucuronide markedly increased in urine samples, but beta-keto-VPA, a major mitochondrial metabolite, was not detected. Urinary excretion of carnitine esters of medium chain (C8-C10) dicarboxylic acids was increased. After DHP, lactate and VPA-glucuronide decreased, but a significant amount of beta-keto-VPA was demonstrated. Carnitine esters of medium chain dicarboxylic acids were decreased. CONCLUSIONS: DHP with activated charcoal was effective treatment for the patient with acute VPA intoxication and coma. The onset of coma may have been related to inhibition of beta-oxidation in the mitochondria, which was reversible by elimination of plasma VPA by DHP.     

In situ spectral calibration method for the impurity influx monitor (divertor) for ITER using angled physical contact fibers

The in situ calibration method for the impurity influx monitor (divertor) is experimentally examined. The total reflectance of the optical path from the focal point of the Cassegrain telescope to the first mirror is derived using a micro retroreflector array. An optical fiber with angled physical contact (APC) connectors reduces the return edge reflection. APC fibers and a multimode coupler increase the signal-to-noise ratio by about one order compared to that of triple-branched fibers and enable measurement of the wavelength dependence of the total reflectance of the optical system even after potential deterioration of mirror surfaces reduces reflectance.     

Equilibrium of one-pot polymerization of polyimide

One-pot polymerization of polyimide from 3,3′,4,4′-biphenyl tetracarboxylic dianhydride (BPDA) and 4,4′-oxydianiline (ODA) was examined. The equilibrium in the polyimide with water was examined in detail in p-chlorophenol solution during the polymerization. The equilibrium constant was expressed by log K = 1.50 + 1433 (1/T). The polymerization reaction is exothermic. The molecular weight increased with decrease of temperature. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Isolation of hesperidin from peels of thinned Citrus unshiu fruits by microwave-assisted extraction

Simultaneous extraction by microwave-irradiation and crystallisation were performed in the same pot of solvent of 70% (v/v) aqueous ethanol for isolation of hesperidin from thinned immature fruit peels of Citrus unshiu as refining of Citrus waste biomass. The hesperidin content in immature fruits peels was about 3.2-fold higher than that of mature fruit. After microwave-assisted extraction (MAE), the yield of hesperidin reached 58.6 mg/g, which was comparable to the amount obtained after extraction using DMSO:methanol (1:1, v/v) as a solvent for 30 min at room temperature. Heating temperature and time for isolation of hesperidin crystallites were optimised as 140 °C and 8 min by using response surface methodology. Under this optimal condition, 86.8% (47.7 mg/g) of total hesperidin was isolable by MAE and low-temperature storage (5 °C, 24 h).     

Effect of direct ovarian injection of vascular endothelial growth factor gene fragments on follicular development in immature female rats

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in granulosa cells is associated with the thecal vasculature growth during ovarian follicular development. We hypothesized that injection of VEGF gene fragments directly into the rat ovary would induce production of a large number of ovulatory follicles and that these follicles would ovulate. To test this hypothesis, we treated immature female rats with combinations of hormones and VEGF gene fragments. The animals were divided into two groups: one group received solution containing transfection reagents as a control (n = 5), while the other group received direct ovarian injection of VEGF gene fragments at 19 (n = 5), 21 (n = 5), 23 (n = 5), or 25 (n = 5) days after birth followed by i.p. administration of 20 IU equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG) at the age of 26 days. Forty-eight hours after eCG injection, animals were given 20 IU human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) i.p. and then the oocytes in both groups were counted. The maximum number of ovulated oocytes was obtained when the VEGF gene fragments were injected into the rat ovary at 21 days after birth. Histological examination revealed that the injection of VEGF gene fragments markedly increased the vascular density around the preovulatory follicles and also the number of these follicles. Our data provide the first reported evidence that most ovulatory follicles generated by injection of VEGF gene fragments are able to ovulate upon hCG treatment. These results demonstrate that injection of VEGF gene fragments directly into the ovary stimulates the development of antral follicles by inducing the formation of thecal vasculature in immature female rats.     

Phase separation and dewetting in polystyrene/poly(vinyl methyl ether) blend thin films in a wide thickness range

Phase separation and dewetting processes of blend thin films of polystyrene (PS) and poly(vinyl methyl ether) (PVME) in two phase region have been studied in a wide film thickness range from 65 μm to 42 nm (∼2.5R_g, R_g being radius of gyration of a polymer) using optical microscope (OM), atomic force microscope (AFM) and small-angle light scattering (LS). It was found that both phase separation and dewetting processes depend on the film thickness and were classified into four thickness regions. In the first region above ∼15 μm the spinodal decomposition (SD) type phase separation occurs in a similar manner to bulk and no dewetting is observed. This region can be regarded as bulk. In the second region between ∼15 and ∼1 μm, the SD type phase separation proceeds in the early stage while the characteristic wavelength of the SD decreases with the film thickness. In the late stage dewetting is induced by the phase separation. In the third region between ∼1 μm and ∼200 nm the dewetting is observed even in the early stage. The dewetting morphology is very irregular and no definite characteristic wavelength is observed. It is expected that the irregular morphology is induced by mixing up the characteristic wavelengths of the phase separation and the dewetting. In the fourth region below ∼200 nm the dewetting occurs after a long incubation time with a characteristic wavelength, which decreases with the film thickness. It is considered that the layered structure is formed in the thin film during the incubation period and triggers the dewetting through the capillary fluctuation mechanism or the composition fluctuation one.