Troglitazone, an insulin sensitizer, increases forearm blood flow in humans

To test whether troglitazone, a thiazolidinedione insulin sensitizer, increases the peripheral blood flow, the changes in forearm blood flow (FBF) were evaluated by venous occlusion plethysmography in 11 lean healthy male volunteers (age range, 24 to 39 years) after a single oral dose of 200 mg of troglitazone. Forearm vascular resistance (FVR) was calculated from FBF and blood pressure. Two hours after the dose, FBF increased from 3.66+/-0.31 to 4.81+/-0.57 mL/100 mL/min (P < .01), and FVR decreased from 24.7+/-2.2 to 20.2+/-2.2 units (P < .01), whereas both these values did not change during the control recordings obtained without troglitazone. Blood pressure, blood glucose levels, and serum immunoreactive insulin levels did not change significantly during the observation period. Serum concentrations of nitrate ions decreased from 27.0+/-3.5 mmol/L to 23.1+/-2.7 mmol/L (P < .01) after the administration. These results suggest that troglitazone increases muscular blood flow through vasodilation induced by a mechanism other than the correction of hyperinsulinemia or the increase in nitric oxide. The present study provides the first evidence that troglitazone dilates the vasculature in humans.     

Testicular seminoma with human chorionic gonadotropin production

Testicular seminoma with elevated serum human chorionic gonadotropin level (hCG-positive seminoma) is regarded as more malignant than marker-negative seminoma, although its prognosis is still unclear. To clarify the malignant potential of seminoma with hCG production, the serum levels of the beta subunit of hCG (beta-hCG) and lactic acid dehydrogenase (LDH) were examined in 35 and 40 patients, respectively, and the immunohistochemical expression of beta-hCG examined in 45 tumors. The elevation of the LDH serum level correlated to the invasive status, metastatic status and poor outcome, while that of the serum beta-hCG level correlated only to the metastatic status. Immunohistochemical expression of beta-hCG was observed in syncytiotrophoblastic giant cells in 11 tumors and a few mononuclear seminoma cells in 36 tumors. Expression was not associated with the malignancy potential, except where the expression in mononuclear cells inversely correlated to the invasive status. These results suggest that most seminomas produce a slight amount of hCG; that an elevated hCG serum level indicates the presence of metastatic tumors and mainly reflects an increase in tumor volume but not in cellular malignancy potential; and that the LDH serum level, rather than hCG, is more useful as a prognostic indicator for patients with seminoma.     

A small-scale flame test for fire-resistance evaluation of rubber conveyor belts with fabric skeletons

Small-scale flame tests were conducted on samples of six different rubber conveyor belts with fabric skeletons for use in Japanese coal mines. Each sample was claimed to be ‘flame-resistant’ under the test condition prescribed in JIS K 6324-1977, but results show that there are problems in this kind of test. Every sample tested sustains flame continuously when the flame exposure time exceeds a certain value or ‘ignition time’. In addition, flame duration seems to depend on the flame-resistance of the fabric skeleton as well as on flame exposure time.     

A future satellite communications system using millimetre-wave bands and an on-board processor

This paper proposes the system concept of a personal satellite communications system that will be available in the first decade of the 21st century. Technologies of millimetre-wave bands and an onboard processor with baseband switching promise to meet the requirements of a personal communications system: portability, low-cost, and large capacity. Based on the prospects of these technologies, the most likely parameters for the future personal satellite communications system and the configuration of a suitable on-board processor are proposed. A trial model of such an on-board processor has been made. In this paper, details of the trial model on-board processor and its future developments are described.     

Intraindividual stability in the organization and patterning of behavior: Incorporating psychological situations into the idiographic analysis of personality.

In nomothetic analyses, the cross-situational consistency of individual differences in social behavior, assessed in vivo in a camp setting, depended on the similarity in the psychological features of situations. As predicted by the social-cognitive theory of personality, idiographic analyses revealed that individuals were characterized by stable profiles of if… then…, situation–behavior relationships that formed "behavioral signatures" of personality (e.g., he aggresses when warned by adults but complies when threatened by peers). Thus, the intraindividual organization of behavior variation across situations was enduring but discriminatively patterned, visible as distinctive profiles of situation–behavior relationships. Implications were examined for an idiographic reconceptualization of personality coherence and its behavioral expressions in relation to the psychological ingredients of situations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A 1-Gb DRAM for file applications

A time-shared offset-canceling sensing scheme, a defective word-line Hi-Z standby scheme, and a flexible multimacro architecture have been developed for 1-Gb DRAM. These circuit technologies have been applied to a 1-Gb DRAM for file applications employing 0.25 μm CMOS process technology, a diagonal bit-line cell, and a two-stage pipeline circuit technique. In this DRAM, a 30% chip size reduction and a 400-MB/s data transfer rate have been achieved. A 100% improvement in yield has been estimated by Monte-Carlo simulation. The 1-Gb DRAM die size is 936 mm². The cell size is 0.54 μm². The operating current is 58 mA at 2 V and 100 MHz     

Modeling of threshold‐voltage‐shift dependency on drain bias in amorphous‐silicon thin‐film transistors in active‐matrix organic light‐emitting‐diode displays

Abstract— A theoretical model to interpret appearances of the threshold voltage shift in hydrogenated amorphous‐silicon (a‐Si:H) thin‐film transistors (TFTs) is developed to better understand the instability of a‐Si:H TFTs for the driving transistors in active‐matrix organic light‐emitting‐diode (AMOLED) displays. This model assumes that the defect creation at channel in a‐Si:H is proportional to the carrier concentration, leading to the defect density varying along the channel depending on the bias conditions. The model interprets a threshold‐voltage‐shift dependency on the drain‐stress bias. The model predicts the threshold voltage shift stressed under a given gate bias applying the drain saturation voltage is 66% of that with zero drain bias, and it even goes down to 50–60% of that when stressed by applying twice the drain saturation voltage.