Disposition of diadenosine 5',5"'-P1,P4-tetraphosphate (Ap4A) in rats

The disposition of diadenosine 5'5"'-P1,P4-tetraphosphate (Ap4A), an endogenous dinucleotide, was investigated in rats. The degradation of Ap4A in rat plasma was very rapid and could be explained by a Michaelis-Menten equation: Km and Vmax values were 1.69 micrograms/ml and 4.32 micrograms/min/ml, respectively. Ap4A was degraded in rat plasma to ATP and AMP, but not to 2 ADP molecules, and these nucleotides were further degraded through adenosine. The degradations kinetics were examined. After intravenous bolus injection, Ap4A in plasma declined rapidly and the rate of elimination was dose-dependent: the biological half-life was about 3s at the dose of 1 mg/kg and was longer at 3 mg/kg. When Ap4A was administered by intravenous infusion (0.5 or 1.0 mg/kg/min), the plasma level rapidly reached a steady-state, which then rapidly declined after stopping the infusion.     

Broadband Tuning of a Continuous-Wave, Doubly Resonant, Lithium Triborate Optical Parametric Oscillator from 791 to 1620 nm

We report the use of extreme broadband, high reflectivity >99.5%, optical parametric oscillator (OPO) cavity mirrors. A continuous-wave, doubly resonant, OPO demonstrated tuning over a range of 791-1620 nm with a single mirror set. Wavelength tuning was performed by temperature tuning the nonlinear material of lithium triborate. Narrow linewidth oscillation was confirmed throughout the tuning range, and threshold pump power increased gradually from 50 mW near the degeneracy to 800 mW at the tuning band edge in a double-pass pumping configuration.     

Geometrical analysis and design of a motion transmitting element for mobile vehicles

The range of speed or torque of motors is limited to some degree. Industrial vehicles working in factories are required to output a large force when they carry loads, and also to move with high velocity when they move to their destination. However, it is impossible to realize both those requirements if a conventional reduction device is used. Velocity variation devices using gears are widely used to change the velocity ratio between the input and output shafts. However, the motion transmission from the input shaft to the output shaft is interrupted during the velocity ratio variation process. In order to solve this problem, a velocity variation method that can transmit motion continuously is proposed, in which a motion transmitting element is used. In this report, a motion transmitting element using the geometrical analysis method is proposed, a method of expressing the curve using dispersed points is proposed, and a method of calculating the inclination and the distances along the curve is developed. Based on the proposed methods, the geometrical form of the transmitting element is analyzed.     

New pixel driving circuit using self‐discharging compensation method for high‐resolution OLED micro displays on a silicon backplane

A new 4T2C pixel circuit formed on a silicon substrate is proposed to realize a high‐resolution 7.8‐μm pixel pitch AMOLED microdisplay. In order to achieve high luminance uniformity, the pixel circuit compensates its Vth variation of the MOSFET for the driving transistor internally by using self‐discharging method. Also presented are 0.5‐in Quad‐VGA and 1.25‐in wide Quad‐XGA microdisplays with the proposed pixel circuit.     

Effects of hematocrit variations on cerebral blood flow and oxygen transport in ischemic cerebrovascular disease

The contribution of hematocrit (Ht) changes on cerebral blood flow (CBF) and brain oxygenation in ischemic cerebrovascular disease is still controversial. In the present study, effects of Ht variations of CBF and oxygen delivery were investigated in patients with ischemic cerebrovascular disease. CBF was measured by the Xe-133 intracarotid injection method in 27 patients, whose diagnoses included completed stroke, reversible ischemic neurological deficit, and transient ischemic attack. Ht values in the patients ranged from 31 to 53%. There was a significant inverse correlation between CBF and Ht in these Ht ranges. Oxygen delivery, i.e., the product of arterial oxygen content and CBF, increased with Ht elevation and reached the maximum level in the Ht range of 40-45% and then declined. The CBF-Ht and oxygen transport-Ht relations observed in our study were similar to those in the glass-tube model studies by other workers rather than to those in intact animal experiments. From these results, it is conceivable that in ischemic cerebrovascular disease, the vasomotor adjustment was impaired in such a manner that the relations among Ht, CBF, and oxygen delivery were different from those in healthy subjects. Further, an "optimal hematocrit" for brain oxygenation was also discussed.     

Surface modification of biodegradable plastics by ion beams

Biodegradable plastics can be used as conventional plastics, while on disposal they decompose to water and carbon dioxide by microorganisms existing in natural environment. Products using biodegradable plastics have recently been developed in many companies pursuing ecology. In this study, surface modification of biodegradable plastics was carried out by inert ion beams for improvement of photo deterioration under an ultraviolet ray. The hardness of biodegradable plastics tended generally to decrease with irradiation of an ultraviolet ray. In this method, the hardness of ion-bombarded biodegradable plastics was kept at an initial value under an ultraviolet ray, because the modified layer by ion bombardment intercepted an ultraviolet ray. The hardness of He⁺ ion-bombarded biodegradable plastics showed larger value than that of Ar⁺ ion bombardment. He⁺ ion bombardment at ion energy of 10 keV produced the suitable property with both of high transmittance of a visible ray and high interception of an ultraviolet ray in a surface layer of biodegradable plastics.     

Recursive estimation methods for discrete systems

In system identification, the error evolution is composed of two decoupled parts: one is the identifying information on the current estimation residual, while the other is past arithmetic errors. Previous recursive algorithms only considered how to update current prediction errors. Up to now, research has mostly been based on recursive least-squares (RLS) methods. In this note, a general recursive identification method is proposed for discrete systems. Using this new algorithm, a recursive empirical frequency-domain optimal parameter (REFOP) estimate is established. The REFOP method has the advantage of resisting disturbance noise. Some simulations are included to illustrate the new method's reliability.     

A Knowledge Discovery System with Support for Model Selection and Visualization

The process of knowledge discovery in databases consists of several steps that are iterative and interactive. In each application, to go through this process the user has to exploit different algorithms and their settings that usually yield multiple models. Model selection, that is, the selection of appropriate models or algorithms to achieve such models, requires meta-knowledge of algorithm/model and model performance metrics. Therefore, model selection is usually a difficult task for the user. We believe that simplifying the process of model selection for the user is crucial to the success of real-life knowledge discovery activities. As opposed to most related work that aims to automate model selection, in our view model selection is a semiautomatic process, requiring an effective collaboration between the user and the discovery system. For such a collaboration, our solution is to give the user the ability to try various alternatives and to compare competing models quantitatively by performance metrics, and qualitatively by effective visualization. This paper presents our research on model selection and visualization in the development of a knowledge discovery system called D2MS. The paper addresses the motivation of model selection in knowledge discovery and related work, gives an overview of D2MS, and describes its solution to model selection and visualization. It then presents the usefulness of D2MS model selection in two case studies of discovering medical knowledge in hospital data—on meningitis and stomach cancer—using three data mining methods of decision trees, conceptual clustering, and rule induction.     

Dimethyl Fumarate Induces Apoptosis via Inhibition of NF-κB and Enhances the Effect of Paclitaxel and Adriamycin in Human TNBC Cells

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has the poorest prognosis of all breast cancer subtypes. Recently, the activation of NF-κB, which is involved in the growth and survival of malignant tumors, has been demonstrated in TNBC, suggesting that NF-κB may serve as a new therapeutic target. In the present study, we examined whether dimethyl fumarate (DMF), an NF-κB inhibitor, induces apoptosis in TNBC cells and enhances the apoptosis-inducing effect of paclitaxel and adriamycin. Cell survival was analyzed by the trypan blue assay and apoptosis assay. Protein detection was examined by immunoblotting. The activation of NF-κB p65 was correlated with poor prognosis in patients with TNBC. DMF induced apoptosis in MDA-MB-231 and BT-549 cells at concentrations that were non-cytotoxic to the normal mammary cell line MCF-10A. Furthermore, DMF inhibited NF-κB nuclear translocation and Survivin, XIAP, Bcl-xL, and Bcl-2 expression in MDA-MB-231 and BT-549 cells. Moreover, DMF enhanced the apoptosis-inducing effect of paclitaxel and adriamycin in MDA-MB-231 cells. These findings suggest that DMF may be an effective therapeutic agent for the treatment of TNBC, in which NF-κB is constitutively active. DMF may also be useful as an adjuvant therapy to conventional anticancer drugs.     

The viscoelastic properties of soybean curd (tofu) as affected by soymilk concentration and type of coagulant

The viscoelastic properties of different types of tofu were investigated. Soymilk concentrations were 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9%. Coagulants used were 30 mm CaSO₄ or 30 mm glucono‐delta‐lactone (GDL). As the concentration of soymilk was increased viscosity and handling difficulties increased. A high concentration of soymilk in tofu gave a high break stress and produced hard tofu. The four‐element Burgers model fitted the creep behaviour and both viscous and elastic parameters could be acquired from model analysis, reflecting changes in elasticity and viscosity of tofu. The constant viscous parameter in the model increased with increasing soymilk concentration. The viscous parameters of viscoelastic materials like tofu gel, obtained from small deformation tests, seemed to correlate, to some extent, with the break stress obtained from large deformation tests. For hard tofu production increasing the soymilk concentration within a certain range and the partial replacement of calcium sulphate coagulant by GDL could be effective options.