A case report: multiple liver metastasis of gastric cancer responding to intraarterial infusion of MTX and 5-FU

In a 63-year-old male patient with gastric cancer having multiple liver metastases, the metastatic lesions responded well to postoperative staggered intraarterial infusion therapy with MTX and 5-FU. The intraarterial infusion therapy was administered once a week. A total of 5 courses of this therapy produced marked regression of liver metastases and remarkable necrosis. The effect was thus rated as PR. The patient is healthy and has been successfully rehabilitated. His dose is oral 5-FU (200 mg x 2).     

Cytokines affecting survival and differentiation of an astrocyte progenitor cell line

The effects of various cytokines on survival and differentiation of an astrocyte progenitor cell line (AP-16) were examined. Epidermal growth factor (EGF) deprivation caused death of AP-16 cells by apoptosis. Transforming growth factor-alpha (TGF-alpha) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) prevented the apoptosis occurring in the absence of EGF. Leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) induced glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and decreased A2B5 antigen in AP-16 cells, indicating that these cytokines induced AP-16 cells to differentiate into astrocytes.     

Clinical implications of chromosomal abnormalities in 401 patients with myelodysplastic syndromes: a multicentric study in Japan

It is well known that cytogenetic analysis in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) provides information useful in determining their prognosis. Based on the chromosomal results obtained from 401 MDS patients by a multicentric study in Japan, we studied correlations between chromosomal findings and prognosis or leukemic transformation in MDS patients. Patients with complex aberrations (cytogenetic abnormalities at more than three chromosomes), of any subtype, had a poor prognosis; for example, > 60% of patients with refractory anemia (RA) showing complex aberrations died within one year, but only 11% of them developed leukemia. In patients with RA with ringed sideroblasts (RARS), > 70% of those with complex aberrations evolved into the leukemic phase and survived for less than one year, suggesting a biologic heterogeneity in RARS patients. By contrast, about 5% of patients with RA or RARS exhibiting chromosomal findings other than -7/7q-, +8, two aberrations, and complex aberrations, developed leukemia and had a favorable prognosis. Therefore, the presence of chromosome abnormalities alone in patients with RA or RARS is not a factor in predicting leukemic transformation or poor prognosis. In patients with refractory anemia with an excess of blasts (RAEB), the presence of chromosome aberrations at MDS diagnosis affected the occurrence of leukemic transformation (24% versus 43%), however, no particular difference was noted in patients with RAEB in transformation with regard to whether they had chromosome changes or not, and about 60% of them evolved into leukemia. The poor prognosis related to complex aberrations was consistently noted in all MDS subtypes or age-matched groups, indicating that this cytogenetic anomaly is an independent risk factor for a poor prognosis in MDS patients. The duration between MDS diagnosis and development of the leukemic phase and that between the latter and death were significantly shorter in patients with complex aberrations than those without this change. Although the clinical significance of certain chromosomal abnormalities differs among subtypes of MDS, a new scoring system for predicting prognosis by cytogenetic changes, in combination with hematologic parameters, was proposed.     

A 220-MHz pipelined 16-Mb BiCMOS SRAM with PLL proportionalself-timing generator

This 512 Kw×8 b×3 way synchronous BiCMOS SRAM uses a 2-stage wave-pipeline scheme, a PLL self-timing generator and a 0.4-μm BiCMOS process to achieve 220 MHz fully-random read/write operations with a GTL I/O interface. Newly developed circuit technologies include: 1) a zig-zag double word-line scheme, 2) a centered bit-line load layout scheme, and 3) a phase-locked-loop (PLL) with a multistage-tapped ring oscillator which generates a clock cycle proportional pulse (CCPP) and a clock edge lookahead pulse (CELP)     

66/77-kV C-GIS using composite insulation in SF6 gas

A second-generation model of cubicletype gas-insulated switchgear (C-GIS) with composite insulation incorporating SF₆ gas has been developed. The design does not require a gas process in field assembly; it has high reliability and its installation is more rapid; and a further reduction in size is achieved. The design principles are described in detail.     

Development of cable fault location method using fiber optic distributed temperature sensor

When ground-fault problems occur on a cable line, immediate fault location and restoration are required. Therefore, various new methods to locate the fault point instantaneously have been investigated to replace such conventional methods as the Murray loop method and the pulse radar method [1]. These methods require a long time to locate the fault point. One possible fault location method is to sense the temperature rise following a ground fault using a fiber optic distributed temperature sensor. Application of this method was found feasible through sensing the temperature rise at a ground-fault test using a thermocouple as a temperature sensor with test cables [4]. A power/optical composite cable was prepared experimentally and after verifying its thermal mechanical performance, the temperature rise at an incidence of a fault was determined and the anticipated performance was demonstrated in a ground-fault test. This article describes the outline of the test.     

Decoder Initializing Technique for Improving Frame-Erasure Resilience of a CELP Speech Codec

The authors present and evaluate a technique for synchronizing the internal states of a code-excited-linear-prediction (CELP) encoder and decoder after the occurrence of frame erasure. The designed technique, called ldquoduplicated transmission (DT),rdquo uses some redundant information for realizing synchronization. The encoder performs encoding processes twice and sends two codes for each frame. One code is encoded by an encoder that is initialized. The code is used in cases where the previous frame is erased. An onset detector is combined with the DT technique to select the frames to which the DT should be applied. Subjective test results suggest that, by introducing DT selectively, the number of DT frames is reducible by about 80% without degrading the subjective quality. Results demonstrate that synchronization of the internal states is effective in cases of erasure of onset. The DT technique requires no additional algorithmic delay. For that reason, it would a better choice for particular applications for which the delay has a significant impact.     

Effect of 8 MeV electron irradiation on electrical properties of CuInSe2 thin films

Radiation damages due to 8 MeV electron irradiation in electrical properties of CuInSe₂ thin films have been investigated. The n-type CuInSe₂ films in which the carrier concentration was about 3×10¹⁶ cm⁻³, were epitaxially grown on a GaAs(0 0 1) substrate by RF diode sputtering. No significant change in the electrical properties was observed under the electron fluence <3×10¹⁶ e cm⁻². As the electron fluence exceeded 10¹⁷ e cm⁻², both the carrier concentration and Hall mobility slightly decreased. The carrier removal rate was estimated to be about 0.8 cm⁻¹, which is slightly lower than that of III–V compound materials.