Cora valveless pulsatile rotary pump: new design and control

For decades, research for developing a totally implantable artificial ventricle has been carried on. For 4 to 5 years, two devices have been investigated clinically. For many years, we have studied a rotary (but not centrifugal) pump that furnishes pulsatile flow without a valve and does not need external venting or a compliance chamber. It is a hypocycloidal pump based on the principle of the Maillard-Wankel rotary compressor. Currently made of titanium, it is activated by an electrical brushless direct-current motor. The motor-pump unit is totally sealed and implantable, without noise or vibration. This pump was implanted as a left ventricular assist device in calves. The midterm experiments showed good hemodynamic function. The hemolysis was low, but serious problems were encountered: blood components collecting on the gear mechanism inside the rotor jammed the pump. We therefore redesigned the pump to seal the gear mechanism. We used a double system to seal the open end of the rotor cavity with components polished to superfine optical quality. In addition, we developed a control system based on the study of the predicted shape of the motor current. The new design is now underway. We hope to start chronic experiments again in a few months. If the problem of sealing the bearing could be solved, the Cora ventricle could be used as permanent totally implantable left ventricular assist device.     

Immigrants and health: unemployment and health-risks of labour migrants in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1984-1992

This article presents a longitudinal study of employment, unemployment and health of migrant workers in Germany. The analyses were conducted with longitudinal samples of the waves 1-6 (1984-1989) and the waves 6-9 (1989-1992) of the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). German and migrant workers did not respect to their health satisfaction but unemployed foreign workers were quite less satisfied with their health than unemployed Germans. This corresponded with a high percentage of foreign unemployed (30-50%) who felt chronically ill. A further examination of two (dichotomously formulated) principal investigation hypotheses could not show that the data support the explanation that the poorer health of unemployed migrants was caused by the unemployment situation. The results are interpreted in the way that the unemployed migrants' poorer health can be explained with (health) selection processes in the labour market.     

Jitter reduction through feedback for picosecond pulsed InGaAsPlasers

Following a comparison of picosecond-pulse generation techniques, feedback schemes are reported for the generation of picosecond pulse trains with improved jitter for both multicontact and conventional single-contact InGaAsP-InP lasers. Subpicosecond jitter is achieved for Q-switched laser sources using a novel optoelectronic feedback scheme. The use of resonant electrical feedback is shown to improve the timing jitter of gain-switched pulses by up to six times. Pulse-to-pulse timing jitter as low as 250 fs is demonstrated for a hybrid of optical and electrical feedback schemes. Limits for timing jitter in diode lasers are established for optoelectronic, electrical, and optical feedback schemes, and the key picosecond pulse generation schemes are compared in terms of timing jitter for the first time     

Gildes model studies of aqueous chemistry. III. Initial SO2-induced atmospheric corrosion of copper

The GILDES computer model, incorporating Stumm's concept of proton- and ligand-promoted dissolution, has been used to simulate the exposure of copper at room temperature to 210 ppb sulfur dioxide and 80% relative humidity. The agreement is good between the calculations and laboratory exposures performed under these exposure conditions. Surface reactions are relatively more important at lower relative humidities and the dominant corrosion products formed are solid state Cu₂SO₃, CuSO₃ and Cu₂U. Free-radical redox processes are important participants and control the relative distribution of Cu(I)- and Cu(H)-containing corrosion products.     

Low-power digital filtering using approximate processing

We present an algorithmic approach to the design of low-power frequency-selective digital filters based on the concepts of adaptive filtering and approximate processing. The proposed approach uses a feedback mechanism in conjunction with well-known implementation structures for finite impulse response (FIR) and infinite impulse response (IIR) digital filters. Our algorithm is designed to reduce the total switched capacitance by dynamically varying the filter order based on signal statistics. A factor of 10 reduction in power consumption over fixed-order filters is demonstrated for the filtering of speech signals     

Evaluation of advanced fuzzy logic PSS on analog network simulatorand actual installation on hydro generators

This paper presents the experimental evaluation of an advanced fuzzy logic PSS on the analog network simulator at the Research Laboratory of Kyushu Electric Power Co., Inc. The proposed power system stabilizer (PSS) is set up by using a personal computer with A/D and D/A conversion interfaces. The personal computer based PSS was set on the analog network simulator to evaluate the effectiveness of the advanced fuzzy logic control scheme, and to provide sufficient data for the actual installation of the proposed PSS on hydro-units in the Kyushu Electric Power System. This paper also describes the actual installation of the proposed PSS on hydro-units in the Kyushu Electric Power System for the long term evaluation of the proposed PSS using its prototypes     

Silicon-substrate microelectrode arrays for parallel recording ofneural activity in peripheral and cranial nerves

A new process for the fabrication of regeneration microelectrode arrays for peripheral and cranial nerve applications is presented. This type of array is implanted between the severed ends of nerves, the axons of which regenerate through via holes in the silicon and are thereafter held fixed with respect to the microelectrodes. The process described is designed for compatibility with industry-standard CMOS or BiCMOS processes (it does not involve high-temperature process steps nor heavily-doped etch-stop layers), and provides a thin membrane for the via holes, surrounded by a thick silicon supporting rim. Many basic questions remain regarding the optimum via hole and microelectrode geometries in terms of both biological and electrical performance of the implants, and therefore passive versions were fabricated as tools for addressing these issues in on-going work. Versions of the devices were implanted in the rat peroneal nerve and in the frog auditory nerve. In both cases, regeneration was verified histologically and it was observed that the regenerated nerves had reorganized into microfascicles containing both myelinated and unmyelinated axons and corresponding to the grid pattern of the via holes. These microelectrode arrays were shown to allow the recording of action potential signals in both the peripheral and cranial nerve settings, from several microelectrodes in parallel     

Forensic toxicological application of TOXI-LAB screening for biological specimens in autopsy cases and emergency cares

Using the TOXI-LAB drug detection system, emergency toxicological screening was performed in autopsy cases and emergency cares. In 280 autopsy cases (male 182 cases 65%, female 98 cases 35%), drug positive cases were 28 cases of male (15%) and 24 cases of female (24%). The age groups which showed higher rate of drug positive cases were 10s-40s in male (approximately 20%) and 20s in female (67%). In the 238 cases of emergency care (male 129 cases 54%, female 104 cases 44%, unknown 5 cases 2%), drugs were positive in 29 cases of male (22%) and 32 cases of female (30%). The age groups which showed relatively higher rate of drug positive cases were 40s in male (64%), 20s (71%) and 30s (89%) in female. Forty-four different kinds of drugs were detected in TOXI-LAB positive cases, in which the psychotropic drugs and the sedative-hypnotic drugs amounted to approximately 70%. Methamphetamine and amphetamine, which were the main abused drugs showing a socially important problem, were detected in total 15 cases. TOXI-LAB was based on thin-layer chromatography (TLC); however, from the extraction to development, coloration and detection have been accelerated (about 50 min) and simplified. In order to perform the forensic toxicological practice in Japan, it becomes more useful that TOXI-LAB is used in autopsy cases and emergency cares, if the drugs, which have caused poisoning cares in Japan, are added to TOXI-LAB. The present study describes the advantage and problem of TOXI-LAB drug detection system through demonstrating the practical cases of autopsy cases and emergency cares.