Hydrogen production through dry reforming of biogas using a porous electrochemical cell: Effects of a cobalt catalyst in the electrode and mixing of air with biogas

This paper reports the performance of porous Gd-doped ceria (GDC) electrochemical cells with Co metal in both electrodes (cell No. 1) and with Ni metal in the cathode and Co metal in the anode (cell No. 2) for CO₂ decomposition, CH₄ decomposition, and the dry reforming reaction of a biogas with CO₂ gas (CH₄ + CO₂ → 2H₂ + 2CO) or with O₂ gas in air (3CH₄ +?1.875CO₂ +?1.314O₂ → 6H₂ +?4.875CO +?0.7515O₂). GDC cell No. 1 produced H₂ gas at formation rates of 0.055 and 0.33?mL-H₂/(min?m²-electrode) per 1?mL-supplied gas/(min?m²-electrode) at 600?°C and 800?°C, respectively, by the reforming of the biogas with CO₂ gas. Similarly, cell No. 2 produced H₂ gas at formation rates of 0.40?mL-H₂/(min?m²) per 1?mL-supplied gas/(min?m²) at 800?°C from a mixture of biogas and CO₂ gas. The dry reforming of a real biogas with CO₂ or O₂ gas at 800?°C proceeded thermodynamically over the Co or Ni metal catalyst in the cathode of the porous GDC cell. Faraday's law controlled the dry reforming rate of the biogas at 600?°C in cell No. 2. This paper also clarifies the influence of carbon deposition, which originates from CH₄ pyrolysis (CH₄ → C + 2H₂) and disproportionation of CO gas (2CO → C + CO₂), on the cell performance during dry reforming. The dry reforming of a biogas with O₂ molecules from air exhibits high durability because of the oxidation of the deposited carbon by supplied air.     

A redundant multivalued logic for a 10-Gb/s CMOS demultiplexer IC

A redundant multivalued logic is proposed for high-speed communication ICs. In this logic, serial binary data are received and converted into parallel redundant multivalued data. Then they are restored into parallel binary data. Because of the multivalued data conversion, this logic makes it possible to achieve higher operating speeds than that of a conventional binary logic. Using this logic, a 1:4 demultiplexer (DEMUX, serial-parallel converter) IC was fabricated using a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process. The IC achieved an operating speed of 10 Gb/s with a supply voltage of only 1.3 V and with power consumption of 38 mW. This logic may achieve CMOS communication ICs with an operating speed several times greater than 10 Gb/s.     

An optically clocked transistor array with dual serial-to-parallel and parallel-to-serial conversion capability for optical label swapping

We propose an optically clocked transistor array optoelectronic integrated circuit (OEIC) for both serial-to-parallel and parallel-to-serial conversion (demux/mux), enabling an interface between high-speed asynchronous burst optical labels and CMOS circuitry for optical label swapping. Dual functionality of the OEIC reduces size, power, and cost of the optical label swapper. The capability for greater than 20-Gb/s conversion operation is demonstrated.     

Aminoglycosides prevent and dissociate the aggregation of platelets in patients with EDTA-dependent pseudothrombocytopenia

Although EDTA-dependent pseudothrombocytopenia (EDTA-PTCP) is of practical importance because failure to recognize this clinical entity may result in misdiagnosis and subsequent mismanagement of the patients, the pathophysiological nature of EDTA-PTCP remains unknown. To develop an effective way to evaluate the platelet counts in patients with EDTA-PTCP, we introduced aminoglycosides-supplemented anticoagulating agents. When kanamycin was pre-supplemented with EDTA for anticoagulating blood samples from EDTA-PTCP patients there was no significant change in the platelet counts and the morphology of blood cells after 150 min of incubation at room temperature. Furthermore, when kanamycin was added to EDTA-anticoagulated blood samples from EDTA-PTCP patients within 30 min after blood withdrawal, rapid dissociation of platelets without apparent morphological changes of blood cells was observed, and complete blood cell counts as well as the histogram patterns were almost the same as those examined immediately after blood sampling. The dissociation of aggregated platelets was also detected when other antibiotics were used, although it was associated with some extent of morphological changes of blood cells. These findings indicate that the supplementation of aminoglycosides either before or after blood sampling is a useful method for the diagnosis EDTA-PTCP and for the evaluation of platelet counts in patients with EDTA-PTCP.     

Microbial sensor for preliminary screening of mutagens utilizing a phage induction test

For the preliminary screening of mutagens, a novel microbial sensor system was developed utilizing a phage induction test. Escherichia coli lysogenic strain GY5027 and nonlysogenic strain GY5026 were used in this study. The number of living cells was determined by measuring the respiration of cells immobilized onto an oxygen electrode. The injection of a mutagen, such as AF-2 and MNNG, caused the phage induction in the lysogenic strain, resulting in the decreased respiration of only the lysogenic strain immobilized onto the oxygen electrode but not of nonlysogenic strain. The rate of current increase correlated well with the concentration of mutagens. The sensor responses to the antibiotics and bactericides were definitely different from those of mutagens. Therefore, utilization of this microbial sensor system makes possible the estimation of a substrate's mutagenicity.     

Phase behavior in liquid crystallization for diblock copolymers consisting of rubbery amorphous and side-chain liquid crystalline components

Phase behavior in liquid crystallization was studied for a series of liquid crystalline (LC) diblock copolymers consisting of rubbery amorphous and side-chain liquid crystalline components, poly(n-butyl acrylate) (PBA) and poly[11-(4′-cyanophenyl-4″-phenoxy)undecyl acrylate] (PLC), respectively, using a time-resolved small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) techniques, DSC and polarized optical microscopy (POM). The block copolymers used had three kinds of copolymer compositions, 44, 20 and 15 wt% of PLC compositions (BLC44, BLC20 and BLC15, respectively). BLC44 showed a smectic liquid crystalline structure. In the process of liquid crystallization for BLC44, the SAXS peak due to the microphase separation structure existing before liquid crystallization was changed continuously to be at a smaller angular side, and at almost the same time, a new peak appeared at a further smaller angular side and developed. The former peak disappeared with the development of liquid crystallization. The behavior of these SAXS peaks suggests that the microphase separation structure was changed discretely at the transition from isotropic to smectic and that two phases coexist in the early stage of the liquid crystallization. The coexistence of two peaks in the early stage of the liquid crystallization corresponded to the POM observation. In the isotropization process, coexistence of two phases was not observed. For BLC20 exhibiting a cylindrical structure in both isotropic and liquid crystalline states, the liquid crystalline structure was not smectic but probably nematic, and the spacing was changed continuously in liquid crystallization. No liquid crystallization was observed in SAXS, POM and DSC for BLC15. The orientation of smectic layers within lamellar domains was investigated using 2D-SAXS images. The smectic layer was aligned perpendicularly to the lamellar interface.     

Acetazolamide challenge and technetium-99m-ECD versus iodine-123-IMP SPECT in chronic occlusive cerebrovascular disease

We compared the acetazolamide challenge test using 99mTc-ECD SPECT and 123I-IMP SPECT images in patients with chronic occlusive cerebrovascular disease. We also evaluated the usefulness of linearization correction for acetazolamide challenge test of 99mTc-ECD SPECT. METHODS: Twenty patients with unilateral chronic occlusive cerebrovascular disease (10 patients had middle cerebral arterial lesion and 10 had internal carotid lesion) were included in the study. Split-dose (a dose fractioning was 1:2), and sequential SPECT technique was used for 99mTc-ECD SPECT studies while only acetazolamide challenge test studies for 123I-IMP SPECT were performed. Permeability surface area product model (PS model) and back-diffusion model (Lassen's correction) were used for linearization correction of acetazolamide challenge with 99mTc-ECD SPECT. RESULTS: Six of 16 patients with reduced vasodilatory capacity in 123I-IMP SPECT were underestimated by 99mTc-ECD SPECT acetazolamide challenge test. Relative ECD uptake normalized by cerebellar uptake compared with IMP uptake showed a nonlinear relationship, indicating relatively less uptake in high flow range. The underestimations of limited vasodilatory capacity observed in 99mTc-ECD SPECT without linearization correction was modified by linearization algorithm. However, the effect of correction based on PS model was superior than that of Lassen's correction. The corrected 99mTc-ECD uptake ratio, based on PS model, and IMP uptake ratio demonstrated a better linear relationship than that of Lassen's correction. CONCLUSION: Technetium-99m ECD SPECT corrected based on the PS model is a better method of linearization for evaluating cerebrovascular reserve using acetazolamide challenge.     

Hair analysis for drugs of abuse. VI. The excretion of methoxyphenamine and methamphetamine into beards of human subjects

The excretion of methoxyphenamine (MOP) and methamphetamine (MA) into beards has been studied. Six healthy male subjects orally took 50 mg of MOP at a single dose and 7 doses for a successive 7 days. Their beard hairs were collected by an electric shaver every morning until MOP disappeared from the beard. After washing with 0.1% SDS, the beard samples were extracted with methanol-5 N HCl (20:1) under ultra-sonication for 1 h and the solution was kept overnight. MOP in the extract was determined by GC/MS using deuterium labelled MOP as an internal standard after trifluoroacetyl-derivatization. The drug concentrations in beard and the reproducibility of analysis were compared with the three procedures, unwashed, 0.1% SDS (wash I) and the additional ethanol (wash II) wash. The drug concentration in beard after SDS wash was 0.5-2.5 ng/mg lower than that in unwashed beard during the first 5-6 days. The drug concentration in beard after ethanol wash was much lower than that in the unwashed beard. The drug excreted into beard was detected 10 approximately 12 days for a single dose and 12-14 days for 7 doses after the last dosage at the cut off level of 1 ng/mg. On the contrary, the drug excreted in urine was not detected after more than 3 days after use. O-Desmethyl MOP, a major metabolite of MOP, was also detected in beard. The procedures were applied to the detection of MA in beard of MA abusers. It was realized that a beard sample was more useful than a urine sample assuming a longer detection.     

Hepatoblastoma in an adult associated with c-met proto-oncogene imbalance

A rare case of hepatoblastoma in a 61-year-old Japanese housewife is described. This liver tumor mainly consisted of two tissue components: embryonal hepatocytes and primitive mesenchymal tissue. Fetal hepatocytes with alpha-fetoprotein production, gland formation, cartilage and osteoid were also found in a small portion. Molecular analysis by slot blot method revealed increased copy numbers of c-met and K-sam proto-oncogenes and cyclin D1 genes. These findings suggest that alterations of these oncogenes might play a role in the development of adult hepatoblastoma.     

Small increase of CR1 and CR3 by C5a-receptors on polymorphonuclear leukocytes in systemic lupus erythematosus

One of the anaphylatoxins, C5a, is known to increase the expression of the complement receptors, CR1 and CR3, on PMNs which play important roles in the phagocytosis. We measured the expression of these receptors before and after the stimulation with C5a and C5a-receptors (C5aR) on PMNs in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). PMNs from 16 patients and 11 normal controls were tested. All the patients with SLE were administered with prednisolone orally and were in the inactive stage. The CR1 expression in SLE was significantly weak (p < 0.01) before and after stimulation with 4.55 nM (50 micrograms/ml) of C5a. There was no significant difference of CR3 expression before stimulation. However, after the stimulation with C5a, the increase of CR3 on PMNs from SLE was significantly small (p < 0.01). C5aR on PMNs showed no difference between the two groups. However, the expression of C5aR was significantly suppressed in patients treated with a high dosage of prednisolone (> = 10 mg/day) compared to those with a low dosage of prednisolone (< 10 mg/day). There was no significant difference of CR1 and CR3 expression between these groups. It is concluded that the increase of CR1 and CR3 on PMNs by C5a in small in SLE, of which impaired increase is not due to C5aR on PMNs, and that the expression of C5aR is suppressed by prednisolone.