Products Liability in Sales Transactions

Products liability involves the vulnerability of a supplier of goods in a sales transaction to compensate for defects in the goods and for harm or injury resulting from those defects. The discussion of Japanese law which follows deals with the liability of manufacturers. It does not extend to liability of wholesalers and retailers, since there is no Japanese case authority in point. In the United States, manufacturer\u27s liability is involved in many of the cases and in much of the literature, but there is a vast amount of additional authority involving the liability of wholesalers and retailers. Because some of the theories of liability operate differently vis-h-vis these suppliers, some attention is given in the discussion to their vulnerability

A case of gastropericardial fistula of a gastric tube after esophagectomy: a case report and review

A 65-year-old man who had received an esophagectomy 10 years earlier was admitted to our hospital for right chest pain. Preoperative examinations showed pneumopericardium, a retrosternal gastric tube, and an active gastric tube ulcer. We diagnosed gastropericardial fistula of the gastric tube ulcer. Emergency surgery included lavage and drainage of the pericardial cavity and plombage of the rectus abdominis muscle flap to the posterior space of the gastric tube. Total parental nutrition and/or enteric nutrition were provided. Due to minor leakage from the ulcer, the patient could start oral intake on the postoperative 49th day, and was discharged from the hospital on the postoperative 86th day after physical rehabilitation. He has been free from complications for more than 33 months after surgery. Here, we review the literature and discuss the etiology and treatment of choice for this rare yet lethal complication in the follow-up after esophagectomy

Regulation of inositol phospholipid hydrolysis by extended treatment with angiotensin II in human aortic smooth muscle cells

Long-term stimuli of many systems leads to decreased cellular responsiveness, or desensitization. We characterized the desensitization of angiotensin II (Ang 11)-mediated inositol phospholipid (IP) hydrolysis in cultured human aortic smooth muscle cells (HASMC). Although it has been suggested that the desensitization induced by long-term Mg II exposure may result partially from down-regulation of Ang II receptor, this is not sufficient to explain fully desensitization in many systems. Post-receptor desensitization of IP hydrolysis may also result from phosphorylation or changes in protein levels of the effector enzyme, PLC-β. We identified the major PLC-β isoenzymes expressed by HASMC as PLC-β1 and PLC-β3. Ang II pretreatment reduced IP accumulation induced by Ang II (1μM) in a time-dependent manner. Phorbol ester-12-myristrate-13-acetate (PMA), a protein kinase C (PKC) activator, also reduced Ang II-stimulated IP accumulation. These results suggest that PKC activation may negatively regulate Ang II-stimulated IP signaling in HASMC, similar to rat cells. In addition, PKC also reduced IP accumulation stimulated by A1F₄⁻, directly activating the G protein. It suggests that the majority of PKC-induced desensitization of Ang II-stimulated IP signaling occurs downstream of the Ang II receptor in HASMC. However, both PLC-β1 and PLC-β3, expected candidates for PKC phosphorylation, were phosphorylated independently of PKC activation or inhibition, indicating that PKC might not be involved in direct phosphorylation of PLC-β1 and PLC-β3. Furthermore, PLC-β1, but not PLC-β3, was highly phosphorylated under basal conditions, suggesting that PLC-β1 and PLC-β3 may play different roles in IP signaling in HASMC

Fundamental Study on Temperature Dependence of Deposition Rate of Silicic Acid − 13270

ABSTRACT The dynamic behavior of the silicic acid is one of the key factors to estimate the condition of the repository system after the backfill. This study experimentally examined the temperature dependence of dynamic behavior of supersaturated silicic acid in the co-presence of solid phase, considering Na ions around the repository, and evaluated the deposition rate constant, k, of silicic acid by using the first-order reaction equation considering the specific surface area. The values of k were in the range of 1.0×10 -11 to 1.0×10 -9 m/s in the temperature range of 288 K to 323 K. The deposition rate became larger with increments of temperature under the Na ion free condition. Besides, in the case of Na ions 0.6 M, colloidal silicic acid decreased dramatically at a certain time. This means that the diameter of the colloidal silicic acid became larger than the pore size of filter (0.45 μm) due to bridging of colloidal silicic acid. Furthermore, this study estimated the range of altering area and the aperture of flow-path in various value of k corresponding to temperature by using advection-dispersion model. The concentration in the flow-path became lower with increments of temperature, and when the value of k is larger than 1.0×10 -11 m/s, the deposition range of supersaturated silicic acid was estimated to be less than 20 m around the repository. In addition, the deposition of supersaturated silicic acid led the decrement of flow-path aperture, which was remarkable under the condition of relatively high temperature. Such a clogging in flow paths is expected as a retardation effect of radionuclides

Stabilisation of tetragonal FeCo structure with high magnetic anisotropy by the addition of V and N elements

The development of magnetic materials with high saturation magnetization (M-s) and uniaxial magnetic anisotropy (K-u) is required for the realisation of high-performance permanent magnets capable of reducing the power consumption of motors and data storage devices. Although FeCo-based materials with the body-centred cubic structure (bcc) exhibit the highest M-s values among various transition metal alloys, their low K-u magnitudes makes them unsuitable for permanent magnets. Recent first-principles calculations and experimental studies revealed that the epitaxial FeCo thin films with the body-centred tetragonal (bct) structure and thicknesses of several nanometres exhibited K-u values of 10(6) J.m(-3) due to epitaxial stress, which required further stabilisation. In this work, the FeCo lattice stabilised via VN addition were characterised by high K-u magnitudes exceeding 10(6) J.m(-3). The obtained bct structure remained stable even for the films with thicknesses of 100 nm deposited on an amorphous substrate, suggesting its possible use in bulk systems

Numerical simulation of non-fickian diffusion and advection in a fractured porous aquifer

A computer program, which enables us the calculation of the non-Fickian diffusion in a fractured porous media, has been developed. The conventional mathematical model of solute transport in a rock is based on the Fick's law. In general, rock masses contain a number of preexisting fractures. In the fractured porous media, the conventional model tends to predict smaller solute travel distance than that in the actual transport process. In contrast, the non-Fickian diffusion model, which is described as a fractional advection-dispersion equation, can provide realistic representation of actual fluid flow in the heterogeneous media. We provide a numerical solution of the fractional advection-dispersion equation by using implicit-finite difference method. The numerical results obtained for one dimensional fractional advection-dispersion equation using the computer program was shown to be in a good agreement with the analytical solution. © 2007 American Institute of Physics