Membrane separation of indigenous noroviruses from sewage sludge and treated wastewater.

In this study, feasibility of membrane separation for the removal of indigenous noroviruses (NVs) is evaluated. The indigenous NV gene was never detected from ultrafiltration (UF) permeates of sewage sludge and treated wastewater. Indigenous NV gene was also not detected from permeates of sewage sludge and treated wastewater by microfiltration (MF) with a pore size of 0.1 microm (MF0.1). Even though the pore size of MF (0.1 microm) was much larger than the diameter of virus particle (approximately 30-40nm), more than 4-log10 reduction value (LRV) at maximum was achieved by membrane separation with MF0.1. NV genes were often detected from permeates of sewage sludge and treated wastewater by MF with a pore size of 0.45 microm (MF0.45), although the maximum log10 reduction values were more than 3.59 for sewage sludge and more than 2.90 for treated wastewater. It is important to verify factors determining the removal efficiency of viruses with MF membranes.     

Long-term follow-up of a randomized post-induction therapy trial in acute myelogenous leukemia (a Southeastern Cancer Study Group trial)

A phase III clinical trial was designed to determine if more intensive induction and consolidation therapy for acute myeloblastic leukemia increases the remission rate and prolongs survival. A minor objective was to determine if the use of non-cross resistant drugs was more effective than the same drugs used for induction. Patients with untreated leukemia between the ages of 15 and 50 were given daunorubicin 45 mg/m2 for the first 3 days of a 10-day continuous infusion of cytosine arabinoside, initially at a dose of 2000 mg/m2 but reduced to 100 mg/m2 because of toxicity. Those under 36 achieving a complete remission and with an histocompatible donor were assigned to a transplant arm. The rest were randomized to receive one of three consolidation arms: A, cytosine arabinoside, 200 mg/m2 daily for 7 days and daunorubicin 45 mg/m2 daily for 3 days for three courses; B, one course as in Arm A followed by amsacrine, 120 mg/m2 daily for 5 days followed by a 5-day continuous infusion of azacytidine, 150 mg/m2/day; C, thioguanine and cytosine arabinoside, 100 mg/m2 every 12 h and daunorubicin 10 mg/m2 daily for 5 days for three courses followed by four maintenance courses of cytosine arabinoside, 100 mg/m2 daily for 5 days and daunorubicin, 45 mg/m2 for 2 days every 13 weeks. From 1981 to 1986, 398 eligible patients were enrolled and 219 achieved a complete remission. The initial induction dose of cytosine arabinoside was reduced after five of 29 patients exhibited fatal gastrointestinal toxicity. Only 11 patients were assigned to the transplant arm. There were no significant differences in the consolidation arms. The 5 year disease-free survivals were 38, 31 and 27% in arms A, B, and C respectively. Intensive consolidation therapy with the same or different drugs used in induction was as effective as lower dose consolidation followed by maintenance therapy.     

Intensive postremission chemotherapy in adults with acute myeloid leukemia. Cancer and Leukemia Group B

BACKGROUND: About 65 percent of previously untreated adults with primary acute myeloid leukemia (AML) enter complete remission when treated with cytarabine and an anthracycline. However, such responses are rarely durable when conventional postremission therapy is administered. Uncontrolled trials have suggested that intensive postremission therapy may prolong these complete remissions. METHODS: We treated 1088 adults with newly diagnosed AML with three days of daunorubicin and seven days of cytarabine and randomly assigned patients who had a complete remission to receive four courses of cytarabine at one of three doses: 100 mg per square meter of body-surface area per day for five days by continuous infusion, 400 mg per square meter per day for five days by continuous infusion, or 3 g per square meter in a 3-hour infusion every 12 hours (twice daily) on days 1, 3, and 5. All patients then received four courses of monthly maintenance treatment. RESULTS: Of the 693 patients who had a complete remission, 596 were randomly assigned to receive postremission cytarabine. After a median follow-up of 52 months, the disease-free survival rates in the three treatment groups were significantly different (P = 0.003). Relative to the 100-mg group, the hazard ratios were 0.67 for the 3-g group (95 percent confidence interval, 0.53 to 0.86) and 0.75 for the 400-mg group (95 percent confidence interval, 0.60 to 0.94). The probability of remaining in continuous complete remission after four years for patients 60 years of age or younger was 24 percent in the 100-mg group, 29 percent in the 400-mg group, and 44 percent in the 3-g group (P = 0.002). In contrast, for patients older than 60, the probability of remaining disease-free after four years was 16 percent or less in each of the three postremission cytarabine groups. CONCLUSIONS: These data support the concept of a dose-response effect for cytarabine in patients with AML who are 60 years of age or younger. The results with the high-dose schedule in this age group are comparable to those reported in similar patients who have undergone allogeneic bone marrow transplantation during a first remission.     

Effects of Annealing on Dielectric Loss and Microstructure of Aluminum Nitride Ceramics

The effect of annealing on tan δ and microstructures of aluminum nitride (AlN) ceramics were explored. Yttria was added as a sintering additive to AlN powders, and the powders were pressureless-sintered at 1900°C for 2 h in a nitrogen flow atmosphere. In succession to sintering, AlN samples were annealed at 720, 970 and 1210°C for 2 and 4 h. Very low tan δ values between 2.6 and 6.0 × 10⁻⁴ at 28 GHz were obtained when the AlN samples were annealed for 4 h at all the annealing temperatures.     

Structural development and mechanical properties on immiscible and miscible blends from isotactic polypropylene and ethylene-1-hexene copolymers under uniaxial drawing

Isotactic polypropylene and ethylene-1-hexene copolymers containing 32 and 57 mol% of 1-hexene copolymers blends (i-PP/EH32 and i-PP/EH57) were prepared by solution blending, precipitating followed by drying and hot pressing. The two blends were subject to investigation on structure and mechanical properties of these blends under uniaxial drawing. The i-PP/EH32 and i-PP/EH57 represented the immiscible and miscible blends, respectively. The tensile stresses and strains at breaking point of i-PP/EH57 were remarkably higher than those of i-PP/EH32 at room temperature. From wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) measurement, it was observed that the orientation of crystallites occurred early and then propagated gradually up to about drawing ratio 8 because chains of EH57 copolymer were incorporated into the amorphous regions between lamellae of i-PP. In the WAXD patterns of i-PP/EH57, the oriented spot reflections coexsisted with unoriented ring reflections up to draw ratio higher than in pure i-PP. On the other hand, the two-phase structure was observed from TEM and AFM in i-PP/EH32, and on the drawing, separation at the interface between two-phase was observed in i-PP/EH32 even at the low strain.     

Demonstration of 13.56-MHz class-E amplifier using a high-Voltage GaN power-HEMT

A 13.56-MHz class-E amplifier with a high-voltage GaN HEMT as the main switching device is demonstrated to show the possibility of using GaN HEMTs in high-frequency switching power applications such as RF power-supply applications. The 380-V/1.9-A GaN power HEMT was designed and fabricated for high-voltage power-electronics applications. The demonstrated circuit achieved the output power of 13.4 W and the power efficiency of 91% under a drain-peak voltage as high as 330 V. This result shows that high-voltage GaN devices are suitable for high-frequency switching applications under high dc input voltages of over 100 V.     

Effect of Platelet-Rich Plasma on M1/M2 Macrophage Polarization

Osteoarthritis of the knee (OAK) is a chronic degenerative disease and progresses with an imbalance of cytokines and macrophages in the joint. Studies regarding the use of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) as a point-of-care treatment for OAK have reported on its effect on tissue repair and suppression of inflammation but few have reported on its effect on macrophages and macrophage polarization. Based on our clinical experience with two types of PRP kits Cellaid Serum Collection Set P type kit (leukocyte-poor-PRP) and an Autologous Protein Solution kit (APS leukocyte-rich-PRP), we investigated the concentrations of humoral factors in PRPs prepared from the two kits and the effect of humoral factors on macrophage phenotypes. We found that the concentrations of cell components and humoral factors differed between PRPs purified using the two kits; APS had a higher concentration of M1 and M2 macrophage related factors. The addition of PRP supernatants to the culture media of monocyte-derived macrophages and M1 polarized macrophages revealed that PRPs suppressed M1 macrophage polarization and promoted M2 macrophage polarization. This research is the first to report the effect of PRPs purified using commercial kits on macrophage polarization.     

Present Status of the Nd:YAG Thomson Scattering System Development for Time Evolution Measurement of Plasma Profile on Heliotron J

A new high repetition rate Nd:YAG Thomson scattering system is developed for the Heliotron J helical device.A main purpose of installing the new system is the temporal evolution measurement of a plasma profile for improved confinement physics such as the edge transport barrier (H-mode) or the internal transport barrier of the helical plasma.The system has 25 spatial points with ～10mm resolution.Two high repetition Nd:YAG lasers (>550mJ@ 50Hz) realize the measurement of the time evolution of the plasma profile with ～10ms time intervals.Scattered light is collected by a large concave mirror (D=800 mm,f/2.25) with a solid angle of ～100 mstr and transferred to interference filter polychromators by optical fiber bundles in a staircase form.The signal is amplified by newly designed fast preamplifiers with DC and AC output,which reduces the low frequency background noise.The signals are digitized with a multi-event QDC,fast gated integrators.The data acquisition is performed by a VME-based system operated by the CINOS.     

Structure and Properties of Endosperm Starch and Water Soluble Polysaccharides from Sugary Mutant of Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Structure and properties of starch and water soluble polysaccharides (WSP) from sugary (su) endosperm of rice were examined. The su starch contained more amylose and had a somewhat higher ratio of the short chains to the long chains of amylopectin than normal starch. The WSP consisted of short α-1, 4-chains and their average degree of polymerization was 8.6 glucose units. Susceptibility of the su starch to crude Rh. glucoamylase was higher than that of the normal. The initial and final temperatures and heat of gelatinization of the su starch granules were much lower than those of the normal ones.     

Full‐color AMOLED with RGBW pixel pattern

Abstract— A full‐color AMOLED display with an RGBW color filter pattern has been fabricated. Displays with this format require about one‐half the power of analogous RGB displays. RGBW and RGB 2.16‐in.‐diagonal displays with average power consumptions of 180 and 340 mW, respectively, were characterized for a set of standard digital still camera images at a luminance of 100 cd/m². In both cases, a white‐emitting AMOLED was used as the light source, and standard LCD filters were used to provide the R, G, and B emission. The color gamuts of these displays were identical and the higher overall efficiency of the RGBW format results from two factors. First, a large fraction of a typical image is near neutral in color and can be reproduced using the white sub‐pixel. Second, the white sub‐pixel in an RGBW AMOLED display is highly efficient because of the absence of any color filter. The efficiency of these displays can be further enhanced by choosing a white emitter optimized to the target display white point (in this case D65). A two‐emission layer configuration based upon separate yellow and blue‐emitting regions is shown to be well suited for both the RGBW and RGB formats.