Susceptibilities of bacteria isolated from patients with lower respiratory infectious diseases to antibiotics (1996)

The bacteria isolated from the patients with lower respiratory tract infections were collected by institutions located throughout Japan, since 1981. Ikemoto et al. have been investigating susceptibilities of these isolates to various antibacterial agents and antibiotics, and characteristics of the patients and isolates from them each year. Results obtained from these investigations are discussed. In 16 institutions around the entire Japan, 557 strains of presumably etiological bacteria were isolated mainly from the sputa of 449 patients with lower respiratory tract infections during the period from October 1996 to September 1997. MICs of various antibacterial agents and antibiotics were determined against 98 strains of Staphylococcus aureus, 93 strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae, 84 strains of Haemophilus influenzae, 84 strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (non-mucoid strains), 17 strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (mucoid strains), 31 strains of Moraxella subgenus Branhamella catarrhalis, 21 strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae etc., and the drug susceptibilities of these strains were assessed except for those strains that died during transportation. 1) S. aureus S. aureus strains for which MICs of oxacillin (MPIPC) were higher than 4 micrograms/ml (methicillin-resistant S. aureus) accounted for 67.3%. The frequency of the drug resistant bacteria increased comparing to the previous year's 52.7%. Arbekacin (ABK) and vancomycin (VCM) showed the highest activities against both S. aureus and MRSA with MIC80s of 1 microgram/ml. 2) S. pneumoniae Imipenem (IPM) and panipenem (PAPM) of carbapenems showed the most potent activities with MIC80s of 0.063 microgram/ml. Faropenem (FRPM) showed the next potent activity with MIC80 of 0.125 microgram/ml. The other drugs except erythromycin (EM), clindamycin (CLDM) and tetracycline (TC) were active against S. pneumoniae tested with MIC80s of 8 micrograms/ml or below. 3) H. influenzae The activities of all drugs were potent against H. influenzae tested with MIC80s of 4 micrograms/ml or below. Cefotiam (CTM), cefmenoxime (CMX), cefditoren (CDTR) and ofloxacin (OFLX) showed the most potent activities with MIC80s of 0.063 microgram/ml. 4) P. aeruginosa (mucoid strains) Tobramycin (TOB) showed the most potent activity against P. aeruginosa (mucoid strains) with MIC80 of 1 microgram/ml. Ceftazidime (CAZ), cefsulodin (CFS), IPM, gentamicin (GM), ABK and ciprofloxacin (CPFX) showed the next potent activities, with MIC80s of 2 micrograms/ml. The MIC80s of the other drugs ranged from 4 micrograms/ml to 16 micrograms/ml. 5) P. aeruginosa (non-mucoid strains) TOB and CPFX showed the most potent activities against P. aeruginosa (non-mucoid strains) with MIC80s of 1 microgram/ml. The MIC80s of piperacillin (PIPC) and cefoperazone (CPZ) were 16 micrograms/ml in 1995, and they were 64 micrograms/ml in 1996. 6) K. pneumoniae All drugs except ampicillin (ABPC) were active against K. pneumoniae. CMX, cefpirome (CPR), cefozopran (CZOP) and carumonam (CRMN) showed the most potent activities against K. pneumoniae with MIC80s of 0.125 microgram/ml. The MIC80s of the other drugs ranged from 0.25 microgram/ml to 2 micrograms/ml. 7) M.(B) catarrhalis Against M.(B.) catarrhalis, all drugs showed good activities with MICs of 4 micrograms/ml or below. IPM and minocycline (MINO) showed the most potent activities with MICs of 0.063 microgram/ml. Also, we investigated year to year changes in the characteristics of patients, their respiratory infectious diseases, and the etiology. Patients' backgrounds were examined for 557 isolates from 449 cases. The examination of age distribution indicated that the proportion of patients with ages over 60 years was 71.0% of all the patients showing a slight increase over that in 1994. Proportions of diagnosed diseases were as follows: Bacterial pneumonia and chronic bronchitis were the most frequent with 35.9% and 30.3% respectively. They were followed by bronchiectasis with a proportion of 10.     

Kinetics of removal of bismuth and lead from molten copper alloys in vacuum induction melting

An investigation was made of the rates of removal of bismuth and lead from molten copper alloys stirred differently under vacuum at 1403 K. The heating conditions, which corresponded to highest, intermediate, and lowest stirring, were referred to as HC-A, HC-B, and HC-C, respectively. The rates of removal were described by a first-order rate equation involving the final concentration of the impurity. The overall mass-transfer coefficient for bismuth or lead (i),K _i, was determined, and it was found that K_i(HC-A) > K_i(HC-B) but K_i(HC-B) < K_i(HC-C) in Cu-Bi, Cu-Pb, and Cu-Bi-Pb alloys. In general, it was found that K_i(Cu-Bi-Pb) > K_i(Cu-Bi) or K_i(Cu-Pb). Oxygen reducedK _i more than sulfur. The reducing effect of oxygen and sulfur was weakened when stirring rate increased. In vacuum melting of Cu-Bi-Pb-O and Cu-Bi-Pb-S alloys under HC-C,K _i tended to decrease with increasing oxygen and sulfur concentrations. The loss of copper indicated that the rates were determined by liquid-phase mass-transfer and evaporation. The liquid-phase mass-transfer coefficient,K _L, was calculated, and it was found thatK _L(UC- A) > K_L(HC-B) but K_L(HC-B) < K_L(HC-C). The last relation was contrary to current theoretical prediction. A new model was assumed to account for this fact. The observed relative volatility coefficients of bismuth and lead were much smaller than their respective theoretical coefficients. Oxygen and sulfur adsorbed on the surface of the melt were considered to be close to equilibrium with their respective bulk concentrations, and their effects on the evaporation mass-transfer coefficients for bismuth and lead were estimated to be fairly small. This result means that the observed reduction ofK _i is due mostly to the decrease inK _L and made possible the calculation ofK _L. Oxygen decreasedK _L more than sulfur. In vacuum melting of Cu-Bi-Pb-O and Cu-Bi-Pb-S alloys under HC-C,K _L decreased linearly with increasing oxygen or sulfur concentration. The final concentrations of bismuth and lead in these alloys under HC-C tended to increase with increasing oxygen and sulfur concentrations and tended to decrease with increasingK _i andK _L.     

A 400 K-transistor CMOS sea-of-gates array with continuous track allocation

A 0.8- mu m CMOS sea-of-gates (SOG) array with first-level wiring channels perpendicular to transistor rows and 40 0K transistors is integrated on a 6*7-mm/sup 2/ chip. Implementation of a 64-bit multiplier shows 60-percent gate utilization and density of 1410 G/mm/sup 2/. The wiring length of the multiplier is 70 percent of that in a conventional SOG.<>     

Soft error susceptibility mapping of DRAMs using a high-energy nuclear microprobe

Soft errors in 16 Mbit dynamic random access memories (DRAMs) have been investigated using proton microprobes at 400 keV with a spot size of 1 × 1 μm². The newly developed susceptibility mapping can reveal the correlation between the particle hit-position position and the susceptibility to soft errors in a DRAM. The cell-mode soft-errors were found to take place by the incidence of ions within 6 μm around a monitored cell. These errors would be induced by minority carrier diffusion in a lateral direction. This result manifests the possibility of multiple-bit errors by the incidence of an energetic particle.     

Model predictive control with adaptive disturbance prediction and its application to fatty acid distillation column control

This paper describes the results of a joint university-industry study to control a fatty acid distillation sequence, which is plagued with severe disturbance problems. In order to solve the disturbance problem, a model predictive control algorithm is modified in terms of disturbance prediction. Assuming that the dynamics of the unmeasured disturbances is generated by an auto-regressive form, the dynamics of the disturbance can be adaptively identified by using time series data of prediction errors and inputs. Using an identified disturbance model with a process model, future outputs are predicted. Control actions are determined so that the predicted output is as close to the target value as possible. This modified model predictive control aglorithm is applied to a ratio control scheme for three distillation columns. The control system developed has been in use sucessfully for more than six years to produce commercial products.     

Acute or chronic exercise alters angiotensin II-induced contraction of rat aorta

Chronic exercise substantially shifted the dose-response curve for angiotensin II (ANG II)-induced contractions to the right with increases in the EC50 value in both endothelium-intact and endothelium-denuded aortae. An acute endurance exercise also caused a 3-fold increase in the EC50 value in both endothelium-intact and endothelium-denuded aortae from sedentary control rats. Whereas, no substantial increase in the EC50 value was observed in trained rats after an acute endurance exercise. Thus, chronic exercise attenuates ANG II receptor-mediated contraction of rat aortae. An acute exercise also caused the reduced responses to ANG II in sedentary control rats but not in chronically exercise-trained rats.