Significant reduction of medical costs by differentiation therapy with all-trans retinoic acid during remission induction of newly diagnosed patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia. The Japan Adult Leukemia Study Group

OBJECTIVE: For resuscitation of hemorrhagic hypovolemia, we compared the effectiveness of (1) isotonic lactated Ringer's solution (LRS), (2) 2400 mOsm of 7.5% NaCl:6% dextran 70 (HSD), and (3) 2400 mOsm of 7.9% sodium acetate:1.9% NaCl:6% dextran 70 (HAD). DESIGN: In six randomized, blinded experiments for each solution, conscious instrumented adult sheep were hemorrhaged by removing approximately 1.8 L (42 +/- 3 mL/kg) of blood, while maintaining the mean arterial pressure (MAP) at 50 mm Hg for 2 hours. METHODS: Test solutions were infused as needed to restore the cardiac index to baseline. RESULTS: Volume requirements with HAD (236 +/- 29 mL) and HSD (244 +/- 39 mL) were significantly less (p < 0.05) than LRS (3463 +/- 234 mL). Mean arterial pressure was normalized with HSD and LRS, but not with HAD, which resulted in MAPs of 20 to 25 mm Hg less than baseline resulting from a reduced peripheral resistance. Oxygen delivery, however, was significantly higher with HAD during the resuscitation period. Acid-base balance (pH) and oxygen consumption were normalized within 5 minutes of infusion only with HAD. CONCLUSIONS: Small-volume infusion with HAD resulting in "high-flow-low-pressure" resuscitation may offer unique hemodynamic and metabolic advantages for the initial treatment of hemorrhage from trauma.     

Surface Effects of 4He Coating on the Viscosity and the Slip Length of Normal and Superfluid 3He

We have measured the viscosity, , and the slip length, , of normal and superfluid ³ He using a torsional oscillator with a thick sample space. We coated the oscillating surface with 2.5 layers of ⁴ He film to study how the ⁴ He thin film changes the scattering mechanism of ³ He quasiparticles at the cell wall at 5 bar and 21 bar. In the normal phase, the temperature dependence of the viscosity was changed a little by the ⁴ He film at 21 bar but no change was observed at 5 bar. The slip length was enhanced by ⁴ He coating at 5 bar. This enhancement indicates the increase of specularity of ³ He quasiparticles scattering at the oscillating surface. On the other hand, a reduction of the slip length was observed at 21 bar. In the superfluid phase, the temperature dependence of supports the existence of Andreev reflection even with ⁴ He film on the surface at 5 bar and 21 bar.     

Activated carbon nanofiber produced from electrospun polyacrylonitrile nanofiber as a highly efficient formaldehyde adsorbent

Electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-based nanofiber with a uniform diameter of ca. 800 nm was carbonized and steam-activated to produce activated carbon nanofiber with tailored microporosity and abundant nitrogen-containing functional groups as highly efficient adsorption sites. A remarkable amount of formaldehyde, a typical indoor pollutant, was adsorbed onto the pore surface of the PAN-based activated carbon nanofibers even at a low concentration (ca. 11 ppm), demonstrating more than twice as long as breakthrough time of formaldehyde adsorption as compared to conventional activated carbon fibers of larger fiber diameter. The tailored shallow microporosity was considered to afford the preferential adsorption of formaldehyde also in a humid environment.     

Limiting Partition Coefficient in Progressive Freeze-concentration

ABSTRACT: In the progressive freeze-concentration, limiting partition coefficient, K₀ , is a very important process parameter, which corresponds to the partition coefficient of a solute between the ice and liquid phase assuming the infinitesimal ice growth rate and/or the infinite mass-transfer rate at the ice-liquid interface. K₀ was determined for glucose and various electrolytes in the single-component and multi-component systems. K₀ was dependent both on the concentration and the type of solute. In the single-component system, osmotic pressure was proved to be the major determinant of K₀ . In the multi-component system, K₀ for a solute was affected by the coexisting solute through the osmotic pressure of the total system. K₀ was also dependent on viscosity when the change in the osmotic pressure was limited but the change in the viscosity was considerable because of the coexisting solute.     

Subglottic jet ventilation for pediatric microlaryngosurgery: a case report

T-lymphocyte subsets were studied in two patient groups: (1) 50 patients with homozygous sickle cell anaemia (SCA) (mean age 12 (range 3-32) years old) in good health at the time of the study who showed no infectious complication. (2) 50 patients (mean age 13 (range 4-29) years old) with normal haemoglobin rate. The global response revealed a significant increase in levels of CD3+ (P=0.04) and CD8+ (P=0.04) cells when compared with the control group, there was no significant difference in levels of CD4+ cells (P=0.05) between the two groups. However, there was a relationship between T-cell subpopulation levels and spleen status. The average values of T-cell subsets (CD4+ and CD8+) in patients with SCA-induced splenic defects (asplenic, splenomegaly or splenectomized patients) were significantly reduced when compared to SCA patients with normal spleens and the control groups. These data show that T-cell activity was reduced in patients with splenic defects. A correlation between splenic status and a perturbed host defence system in patients with SCA suggests that monitoring T-cell subsets might have prognostic value in the course of sickle cell disease.     

A new erasing and row decoding scheme for low supply voltageoperation 16-Mb/64-Mb flash memories

To improve the performance of high-density flash memories, several circuit technologies have been developed. A word-line boost and clamp scheme realizes low supply voltage read operations. A flash programming scheme utilizing Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) tunneling for programming before erasure and a negative gate biased erasing scheme accomplish low-power, high-speed, and 5-V-only erase operations. The chip size penalty is estimated to be only 3% for the 16-Mb flash memories     

Novel screening system for protein-protein interactions by bimolecular fluorescence complementation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

For high-throughput screening of protein-protein interactions, we have developed a novel yeast screening system using Bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC). Two yeast plasmids, in which genes of heterodimerized peptides LZA and LZB were each fused with those of non-fluorescent half fragments of Kusabira-Green mutant (mKG2), were transformed into a- and α-type yeast, respectively. Mating of them gave a library, which was screened by following green fluorescence resulted from LZA-LZB interaction. The method showed potential ability to detect the positive clones from a model library, in which green-fluorescent and non-fluorescent yeast was mixed in a ratio of 1:675.