It is reported that the levels of serum IAP and IS are useful parameters to evaluate the prognosis along with the clinical course of tumor bearing patients. Serum IAP and IS were examined in 149 ...patients with head and neck cancer. The level of serum IAP and IS increased in patients with not only advanced stages, but also poor prognosis. In general, the patients with death or recurrence had higher levels of serum IAP and IS than those with good prognosis. It is concluded that serum IAP and IS well reflect the immunological condition and clinical course of patients with cancer and may be one of the useful parameter for them.
We examined the properties of the current induced by palytoxin in single ventricular cells of rats. The current was measured by a whole cell voltage clamp method. When the cell was held at -75 mV, ...palytoxin induced a sustained inward current in a concentration-dependent manner (2-100 pmol/l). The time-course of the inward current paralleled that of the depolarization. At a holding potential of +50 mV, it caused an outward current. Palytoxin-induced current reversed at 0 mV and its current-voltage relation was almost linear at either negative or positive voltage. Substitution of external NaCl with choline-Cl suppressed the palytoxin-induced inward current but not the outward current, by shifting the reversal potential to levels more negative than -50 mV. A cardiac glycoside, cymarin (10 and 100 mumol/l) partially inhibited the palytoxin-induced current without changing the reversal potential, only when applied before palytoxin. Palytoxin decreased the nicardipine-sensitive Ca2+ current. These data suggest that palytoxin-induced inward current is carried by extracellular Na+ and the outward current is carried mainly by intracellular K+, and that the inward current is responsible for the toxin's depolarizing action. The antagonism by cysmarin indicates that the site of action of palytoxin is in the vicinity of the binding site of cardiac glycosides.
The Active Matrix VFDs (Vaccum Fluoresent Displays) has been developed with the unique phospher-on-chip method. Instead of the conventional multiplex with grid scanning, this AMVFD employs ...semiconductor chips for matrix addressing and for data storage. As a light source, phosphor is coated on the dotmatrix anodes formed on the surface of chip. To obtain better productivity and lower cost, we employed the existing CMOS technology and the tiling method with using economical smaller size chips. Specially this AMVFD can be manufactured by the existing VFD process for commercial production. This AMVFD features following advantages ; High brightness with low voltage static drive, lower power consumption and lower switching noise, space reduction and simple interfacing with incorporated memory and peripheral functions.
Efforts to develop practical expert systems have been mostly concentrated on how to implement experience-based machine learning successfully. Recently several active researches on machine learning ...have been undertaken from the viewpoints of knowledge base management. The aim of this study is to develop the Concrete Bridge Rating (Diagnosis) Expert System with machine learning employing the combination of neural network and bidirectional associative memories (BAM). Introduction, of machine learning into this system facilitates knowledge base refinement. By applying the system to an actual in-service bridge, it has been verified that employed machine learning method using results of questionnaire surveys on bridge experts is effective for the system.
Vacuum Fluorecent Display (VFD) has been used mainly in hand held and desktop equipments because of its limitation of display area . The largest size of VFD's glass envelope with current technology ...is 350mm length. Although 350mm type VFDs are largely used for wall mount type information boards, the size of display area Is not enough for indoor use public information system. To realize the requirements of size for public information displays , both structure and driving issue have been resolved. As a result, 500mm length VFD, which has two times larger display area compared with existing largest one, has been successfully developed. This paper describes the "World largest" 500mm length VFD and its characteristics.
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