Portable Electrochemical Gas Sensing System with a Paper-Based Enzyme Electrode

An unconventional portable electrochemical gas sensor composed of a smartphone, a finger-sized sensing chip and a single use paper-based enzyme electrode was proposed to detect a particular target gaseous inclusion for self-breath-analysis with ease. This attempt allowed us to monitor our physical status immediately and continuously regardless of a time, place or person due to the improved convenience, immediacy, and affordability. The custom CMOS chip with the capability of performing an amperometric determination when the power voltage supplied from the earphone jack of a smartphone was designed as an analytical device. A disposable enzyme electrode was prepared simply from a chromatography paper and a commercial carbon pencil instead of the conventional indisposable material and complex manufacturing process. The quantification of ethanol in gaseous samples was demonstrated in range from 50 to 500ppm (V/V) in accord with concentrations in exhaled breath. The response current increased linearly with increasing vapor ethanol concentration

A stress-reduced passaging technique improves the viability of human pluripotent cells

Xeno-free culture systems have expanded the clinical and industrial application of human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs). However, reproducibility issues, often arising from variability during passaging steps, remain. Here, we describe an improved method for the subculture of human PSCs. The revised method significantly enhances the viability of human PSCs by lowering DNA damage and apoptosis, resulting in more efficient and reproducible downstream applications such as gene editing and directed differentiation. Furthermore, the method does not alter PSC characteristics after long-term culture and attenuates the growth advantage of abnormal subpopulations. This robust passaging method minimizes experimental error and reduces the rate of PSCs failing quality control of human PSC research and application

Miniature Space GPS Receiver by means of Automobile-Navigation Technology

Miniature space GPS receivers have been developed by means of automobile-navigation technology. We expanded the frequency sweep range in order to cover large Doppler shift on orbit. The GPS receiver was modified to output pseudorange data with accurate time tag. We tested the performance in low earth orbits by means of a GPS simulator. The range error caused by the receiver is measured to be 0.9 meter in RMS. Receiver was on-boarded on INDEX (“REIMEI”) satellite, which was launched in 2005. Cold start positioning was confirmed repeatedly to finish within 30 minutes on orbit. The orbit determination was performed to evaluate the random position error of GPS receiver by means of the residual error. The random error of GPS position is as large as 2 meter for PDDP=2.5 on orbit. The RMS value of range error is evaluated to be 0.6m from the flight data. These results on orbit are consistent with the simulation results in use of a GPS simulator. This miniature space GPS receiver is at present in commercial market

A case of placenta percreta with massive hemorrhage during cesarean section

We describe a case of a 39-year-old woman diagnosed with placenta percreta complicated by massive hemorrhage during a cesarean section. At 27 weeks of gestation, she underwent an emergency cesarean section under general anesthesia for vaginal bleeding and an intrauterine infection. Soon after delivery, a massive hemorrhage was encountered while attempting to separate the placenta percreta from the bladder wall. Although total abdominal hysterectomy and partial cystectomy were performed, massive hemorrhaging persisted. Bleeding was finally controlled following bilateral internal iliac artery embolization. We used a cell salvage device and a rapid infuser for hemodynamics stabilization. Total blood loss was 47,000 mL, and anesthesia time was 12 h and 47 min. The patient was discharged on the 32nd postoperative day without major complications. Placenta accreta can be associated with life-threatening hemorrhage and it is vital to plan accordingly preoperatively

Insulinoma with symptoms of suspected transient ischemic attack : A case report

We report the case of a６７-year-old woman who had symptoms suggestive of a transient ischemic attack（TIA）, such as lightheadedness and transient visual changes before meals for ４ months. She experienced altered consciousness before lunch and was taken to the emergency room２weeks ago. She had repeated hypoglycemia with a blood glucose level of ３１ mg/dL. Insulin secretion was not suppressed, with an immunoreactive insulin level of １４．０ μU/mL and connecting peptide immunoreactivity of １．８３ ng/mL for occasional blood glucose levels of ４９ mg/dL. Dynamic CT revealed a １７‐mm mass enhanced during the arterial phase in the pancreatic uncinate process, suggestive of a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor. A selective arterial secretagogue（calcium）injection test revealed the localization of insulinoma in the head of the pancreas. Therefore, pancreatoduodenectomy was performed. Hyperglycemia occurred after the surgery, and it was judged that the insulinoma was resected. This case showed TIA-like symptoms without signs of sympathetic overdrive associated with hypoglycemia. Thus, the diagnosis was delayed. Insulinoma may present with symptoms of neuroglycopenia but not autonomic activity due to hypoglycemia. Insulinoma should be distinguished in patients with unknown neurological symptoms since neuroglycopenia caused by insulinoma is diverse

Light intensity dependence of the action spectra of photocatalytic reactions with anatase titanium(IV) oxide

Light intensity dependence of action spectra of photocatalytic reactions was investigated using anatase single-phase titanium(IV) oxide powders as photocatalysts. The action spectra normalized at 350 nm were not changed in methanol dehydrogenation with the range of intensities of ca. 0.1–10 mW cm−2, while those for acetic acid decomposition were red-shifted with increase in light intensity. The apparent quantum yield of the former was almost independent of the irradiation intensity, but that of the latter was declined with increase in light intensity, the degree being considerably enhanced with the irradiation at shorter wavelength when the light intensity was higher than 2 mW cm−2. These can be explained by the difference in the utilization efficiency of photogenerated charge carriers

Implementation and Experimental Evaluation of On-Line Simulation Server for OSPF-TE

As the amount of traffic transfered on the Internet are increasing, dynamic Traffic Engineering (TE) becomes important to avoid link congestion. In Open Shortest Path Fast(OSPF)-based networks, link costs are statically set according to its long-term utilization for reducing traffic on some congested nodes, hence temporary performance degradation may occur due to short-term traffic fluctuation. For dynamic TE on OSPF-based networks, measurement of the utilization of links / nodes, inferring the set of link costs for improving transmission behavior and setting the cost set to routers are necessary and so-called On-Line Simulation (OLS) system can operate these functions autonomously and periodically. In this paper, we construct the server prototype in OLS system, and evaluate its scalability and control performance in our testbed network. Experimental results show that the server succeeds in providing low-cost network management and real-time control even if there is the large amount of traffic on the network. Furthermore, the total throughput over the network was greatly improved by the OLS.7th International Conference on Hybrid Intelligent Systems (HIS 2007), 17-19 Sept. 2007, Kaiserlautern, German