Liver fibrosis

Surfactant abnormalities may contribute to the impairment of gas exchange observed in Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. Analysis of rat bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) lipid extracts from normal controls, steroid controls, trimethaprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX) controls, TMP-SMX/P. carinii pneumonia controls, and P. carinii pneumonia animals reveal similar total phospholipid and total protein levels. However, there was a marked reduction in phosphatidylglycerol (PG) from the BAL of P. carinii pneumonia rats as compared with control animals, with a decrease from 4.91 +/- 1.29 nmol/mg protein to 0.46 +/- 0.57 nmol/mg protein (p<0.05) and a decrease, as a percent of total phospholipids, from 7.7% +/- 0.88% to 0.91% +/- 0.59% (p<0.001). Furthermore, in vitro surface activities of BAL lipid extracts from control and P. carinii pneumonia rats revealed minimum surface tension increases from 9.38 +/- 1.71 mN/m in controls to 16.36 +/- 0.83 mN/m in P. carinii pneumonia rats (p<0.05) and likewise maximum surface tension increases from 22.14 +/- 4.34 mN/m to 38.57 +/- 2.07 mN/m (p<0.01). Of interest, the surface activity of PG-deficient P. carinii pneumonia BAL lipid extracts is completely restored to that of normal controls by the addition of exogenous PG. These findings suggest that a functionally abnormal surfactant occurs in P. carinii pneumonia and that this may account, in part, for the impairment of gas exchange observed in this disorder.     

MiR-10a in Pancreatic Juice as a Biomarker for Invasive Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasm by miRNA Sequencing

New biomarkers are needed to further stratify the risk of malignancy in intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN). Although microRNAs (miRNAs) are expected to be stable biomarkers, they can vary owing to a lack of definite internal controls. To identify universal biomarkers for invasive IPMN, we performed miRNA sequencing using tumor-normal paired samples. A total of 19 resected tissues and 13 pancreatic juice samples from 32 IPMN patients were analyzed for miRNA expression by next-generation sequencing with a two-step normalization of miRNA sequence data. The miRNAs involved in IPMN associated with invasive carcinoma were identified from this tissue analysis and further verified with the pancreatic juice samples. From the tumor-normal paired tissue analysis of the expression levels of 2792 miRNAs, 20 upregulated and 17 downregulated miRNAs were identified. In IPMN associated with invasive carcinoma (INV), miR-10a-5p and miR-221-3p were upregulated and miR-148a-3p was downregulated when compared with noninvasive IPMN. When these findings were further validated with pancreatic juice samples, miR-10a-5p was found to be elevated in INV (p = 0.002). Therefore, three differentially expressed miRNAs were identified in tissues with INV, and the expression of miR-10a-5p was also elevated in pancreatic juice samples with INV. MiR-10a-5p is a promising additional biomarker for invasive IPMN.     

Multi-contact vertical ladder climbing with an HRP-2 humanoid

We describe the research and the integration methods we developed to make the HRP-2 humanoid robot climb vertical industrial-norm ladders. We use our multi-contact planner and multi-objective closed-loop control formulated as a QP (quadratic program). First, a set of contacts to climb the ladder is planned off-line (automatically or by the user). These contacts are provided as an input for a finite state machine. The latter builds supplementary tasks that account for geometric uncertainties and specific grasps procedures to be added to the QP controller. The latter provides instant desired states in terms of joint accelerations and contact forces to be tracked by the embedded low-level motor controllers. Our trials revealed that hardware changes are necessary, and parts of software must be made more robust. Yet, we confirmed that HRP-2 has the kinematic and power capabilities to climb real industrial ladders, such as those found in nuclear power plants and large scale manufacturing factories (e.g. aircraft, shipyard) and construction sites.     

实施科技创新进一步提高农机推广工作水平

农业机械化是农业现代化的重要内容.在实现农业现代化的过程中,如何认识农业机械化的地位和作用,如何认识农机化技术推广工作的必要性和重要性,如何找准农机推广工作的切入点,充分发挥农机化技术的作用,针对这些问题,我们从近年来农机推广工作的实际出发,通过学习邓小平理论和党的十六大文件,做了认真的思考和总结.     

How to Observe Quantum Fieldsand Recover Them From Observational Data? — Takesaki Duality as a Micro-Macro Duality

On the basis of the mathematical notion of “micro-macro duality” for understanding mutual relations between microsopic quantum systems (micro) and their macroscopic manifestations (macro) in terms of the notion of sectors and order parameters, a general mathematical scheme is proposed for detecting the state-structure inside of a sector through measurement processes of a maximal abelian subalgebra of the algebra of observables. For this purpose, the Kac-Takesaki operators controlling group duality play essential roles, which naturally leads to the composite system of the observed system and the measuring system formulated by a crossed product. This construction of composite systems will be shown to make it possible for the micro to be reconstructed from its observational data as macro in the light of the Takesaki duality for crossed products.     

Application of a chromium‐free photoresist to CRT screen processing

In 1998, Toyo Gosei Co. published a paper on the development of a new water‐soluble photopolymer of high sensitivity, PVA‐ARBB. In close co‐operation with LG. Philips Displays, the new material was further developed to be applicable in patterning the phosphor layer of a CRT screen. The new material shows about 3 times higher light sensitivity, gives 4–5% higher luminance, has no dark reaction, and is chromium‐free. It is the first chromium‐free photoresist used for phosphor patterning in CRT mass production. A comparison is presented between the conventional resist and the new resist. A survey is given of the most important process conditions.     

STEAM DRYING OF SINTERED SPHERES OF GLASS BEADS

ABSTRACT

Superheated steam drying of sintered spheres of glass beads with different diameters is investigated to reveal the effects of the gravitational force on drying rates. In a previous study, the drying rate curves of small samples with coarse glass beads in which the frictional resistance to flow of water and the effect of the gravitational force are negligible, were predicted by an evaporation zone model.In the present investigation, the drying rate curves of sintered spheres of glass beads with diameters ranging from 1.53×10^-2m to 4.99×lO^-2m are experimentally and theoretically obtained, and also the capillary pressure curves are measured by use of Haines' apparatus. The drying rate curves of large samples in which the effect of the gravitational force can not be negligible, are compared with those for small samples and the difference among these curves is discussed in terms of the moisture distributions which are estimated from the evaporation zone model with the observed capillary pressure curves.     

Effect of Alumina Addition on the Tetragonal-to-Monoclinic Phase Transformation in Zirconia–3 mol% Yttria

The tetragonal-to-monoclinic martensitic phase transformation in ZrO–3 mol% Y₂O₃ (PSZ) containing 0 to 12 wt% Al₂O₃ was investigated by dilatometry, XRD, and SEM-EDS methods. The propagation of the transformation into the specimen interiors was suppressed by the addition of Al₂O₃. The grain size was independent of the addition of Al₂O₃. Both Y₂O₃ and Al₂O₃ segregated at grain boundaries. From this segregation behavior, it was suggested that a certain compound or phase of Y₂O₃–Al₂O₃ could be formed at grain boundaries, which would presumably prevent the propagation of the transformation into interiors of PSZ-containing Al₂O₃.     

Flow characteristics of a small moving bed downcomer with an orifice under negative pressure gradient

Behaviour of gas-solid mixtures in a small moving bed downcomer operating under negative pressure gradient has been investigated experimentally, because flow characteristics in a downcomer are important factors in powder handling processes, such as a multi-stage spouted bed or a circulating fluidized bed. In this study, a small downcomer in which the moving bed height could be controlled was employed with the intention of using a downcomer as a connecting tube in a multi-stage spouted bed. Based on experimental observation, the moving bed flow changed from smooth flow (Region(I)) to slip-stick flow (Region(II)) and then changed from slip-stick flow to intermittent flow (Regime(III)), as the gas pressure gradient in the downcomer was increased. In this study, the critical point for steady-state (Region(I)) operation was also examined experimentally and theoretically, by using eight kinds of solid particles (Geldart B, D and A powders) and six different orifice sizes which were used to restrict solids flow at the base of the downcomer. As a result, a correlation of solids flow rate in the stable moving bed downcomer under negative pressure gradient was derived and the critical point between stable and unstable flow was explained by the proposed model.