Transcutaneous measurement and spectrum analysis of heart wallvibrations

For the noninvasive diagnosis of heart disease based on the acoustic and elastic characteristics of the heart muscle, it is necessary to transcutaneously measure small vibration signals, including components with an amplitude of less than 100 μm, from various parts of the heart wall continuously for periods of more than several heartbeats in a wide frequency range up to 1 kHz. Such measurement, however, has not been realized by any ultrasonic diagnostic methods or systems to date. By introducing the constraint least-square approach, this paper proposes a new method for accurately tracking the movement of the heart wall based on both the phase and magnitude of the demodulated signal to determine the instantaneous position of the object so that the vibration velocity of the moving object can be accurately estimated. By this method, small vibrations of the heart wall with small amplitudes less than 100 μm on the motion resulting from a heartbeat with large amplitude of 10 mm can be successfully detected with sufficient reproducibility in the frequency range up to several hundred Hertz continuously for periods of about 10 heartbeats. The resultant small vibration is analyzed not only in the time domain, but also in the frequency domain. As confirmed by the preliminary experiments herein reported, the new method offers potential for research in acoustical diagnosis of heart disease     

Analysis of XANES for identification of highly dispersed transition metal oxides on supports

XANES of vanadium and niobium oxide on silica or alumina have been analyzed quantitatively by a deconvolution technique. Based on the results for reference compounds, local structures of supported vanadium and niobium species were identified. The composition was estimated from difference spectra for the samples which consisted of two kinds of species.     

High-frequency ultrasonic cleaning tank utilizing oblique incidence

Transmission characteristics of a double-structured tank, used for high-frequency (1 MHz range) ultrasonic cleaning of semiconductor wafers and substrates, were improved by utilizing oblique incidence of ultrasonic waves. As the sound transmittivity through a plate in water varies with the angle of incidence, the bottom of the Pyrex glass inner container was slanted at the angle where strong transmission occurred. In the slant-bottom container, an intensive and uniform sound pressure distribution was measured with a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) hydrophone probe. In comparison with the conventional horizontal-bottom container, it was shown that the distributions as well as amplitude of sound pressure were remarkably improved by slanting the bottom of the inner container at the proper angle     

Athletes as health testing examinees

AIMS AND BACKGROUND: The usefulness of monoclonal antibodies that recognize markers of neoplastic lesions in complementing conventional cytology was evaluated by the avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex, indirect immunoperoxidase technique. METHODS: In order to enhance the sensitivity of the traditional method, a pool of seven combined monoclonal antibodies (Pool C7), which reacts specifically with cells of epithelial origin and is able to distinguish between mesothelial and malignant cells, was tested on cytologic smears of 262 serous effusions. The effusions were benign or neoplastic, mainly from breast, ovary and lung cancers. RESULTS: Immunocytochemical method showed an 100% specificity and 100% of predictivity whereas the sensitivity was 98%, 96% and 95% for breast ovarian and lung carcinomas, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrated that the pool when used together with conventional methods, is useful in analysis of serous effusions in diagnostic investigations.     

Expression of recombinant human thyrotropin receptor in myeloma cells

Starting with a previously isolated cDNA for human thyrotropin receptor (TSHR), we established a transformed myeloma cell line, SP56, which expresses human TSHR on its cell surface. Binding analysis showed that SP56 bears 1.1 x 10(5) TSHR per cell with a Kd of 2.2 x 10(-10) M. Using the purified cellular membrane, we established a TSH binding inhibition immunoglobulin (TBII) assay for autoantibodies against TSHR. We compared it with the TBII assay utilizing porcine thyroid membranes expressing porcine TSHR, which has been widely used for TBII assay, by using 96 serum samples from patients with autoimmune thyroid disease and normal individuals. Our TBII assay was more sensitive than the one using porcine TSHR: of 38 sera of patients which were judged negative for autoantibodies to TSHR (TBII value below 10%) by the latter assay, 28 were positive (above 20%) in our assay. By using a perfusion culture system, we obtained as many as 3 x 10(10) SP56 cells, from which 3,450 mg protein of the membrane could be purified; this is sufficient for 15,000 assays. The results indicate that the membrane of the myeloma cell line SP56 is more suitable for use in the TBII assay than the porcine thyroid membrane, in terms of sensitivity to autoantibodies against TSHR in human sera.     

Microdefocusing method for measuring acoustic properties using acoustic microscope

Many papers have been reporting on measuring acoustic properties of materials by acoustic microscopy. In a conventional method of V (z) curve analysis, the phase velocity and the propagation attenuation of a leaky surface acoustic wave (LSAW) are determined from the interference period Deltaz and the slope of the V(z) curve, respectively. For this method it is necessary to measure the V(z) curve for a period several times as long as the interference period Deltaz. Therefore, it is difficult to measure the acoustic properties of a sample with high resolution by the method. In order to overcome these problems, a method called the microdefocusing method is proposed. The method determines the acoustic properties of a sample by analyzing V (z) values measured in the microdefocusing region within an interference period Deltaz near a focal plane. An ultrasonic transducer called the butterfly transducer is proposed to be applied to this microdefocusing method and a digital signal processing procedure is developed to analyze the output of the ultrasonic transducer. Basic experiments are performed to confirm the principles of the new method.     

Striped‐pattern deterioration and morphological analysis of injection moldings comprising polypropylene/ethylene α‐olefin rubber blends. I. Influence of ultraviolet irradiation

Unique deterioration with a periodical striped pattern on the injection moldings of polypropylene/rubber blends is reported. After exposure to ultraviolet irradiation with a sunshine fade meter, striped patterns appeared on the injection moldings along the flow direction of the molten resin during the filling process of injection molding, even though the initial specimen showed no sign of any stripe pattern on its surface. The stripe was carefully observed with ultrasonic echo imaging, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. As a result, a number of microvoids were observed inside the injected body at a depth of 50–100 μm from the surface. It became clear that the difference in the number of voids along the flow direction formed the stripe pattern. Surprisingly, these voids occurred in domains comprising a rubber phase. The distribution of voids in depth indicated the existence of a trace of a snakelike flow caused inside the injected body during the injection‐molding process. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2007     

Plasma developable photoresist containing electronic excitation energy quenching system

A dry developable negative working resist composition comprised of poly(methyl isopropenyl ketone) (PMIPK) and 4-methyl-2,6-di(4′-azido-benzylidene) cyclohexanone-1 was examined. The main photochemical product formed in the resist pattern was found to be a secondary amine which crosslinks PMIPK. Post-annealing forms a hydrogen-bonded product which shows a powerful electronic excitation energy quenching effect. The quencher is more powerful than the aromatic compound arising from the azide by post-annealing only. The residual resist thickness of the negative pattern is about 80 percent of the initial thickness of the coating in spite of all the azide compound remaining in the resist coating. The obtained dry developed resist pattern has a high dry etch resistance. Etchings of Si and SiO₂ were performed by plasma and reactive ion etching, respectively.     

Compact cryogenic system with mechanical cryocoolers for antihydrogen synthesis

We have developed a compact cryogenic system which cools a vacuum chamber housing multi-ring trap electrodes (MRTs) of an antihydrogen synthesis trap using mechanical cryocoolers to achieve background pressure less than 10(-12) Torr. The vacuum chamber and the cryocoolers are thermally connected by copper strips of 99.9999% in purity. All components are installed within a diametric gap between the MRT of phi108 mm and a magnet bore of phi160 mm. An adjusting mechanism is prepared to align the MRT axis to the magnet axis. The vacuum chamber was successfully cooled down to 4.0 K after 14 h of cooling with heat load of 0.8 W.