Advanced Dry Low N0x Combustor for Mitsubishi G Glass Gas Turbines

ABSTRACT Design features and verification results for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' (MHI) latest gas Dry Low NOx (DLN) combustor technology for 1500ºC G-class gas turbines is presented. Key design improvements include: A) Inlet aerodynamics: CFD based design air inlet for improved flow uniformity into the pre-mixers. B) Fuel/air mixing: integrated fuel injector and swirler to decrease local flame hot-spots and reduce NOx while preventing flashback. C) Combustor aerodynamics: redesigned flame holding baffle and combustor outer wall to achieve better flame stability and NOx reduction. D) Acoustic resonator: two acoustic resonators, one in the liner to prevent high frequency combustion dynamics and the other in the bypass valve for low frequency dynamics. Tests were conducted to verify the new DLN combustor by installing it in a M501G1 gas turbine at MHI's T-Point combined cycle power plant, with more than 1500 special measurements. Following the preliminary verification period the combustor was installed at the same plant for long-term operation. The results demonstrate the following capabilities: A) Less than 15ppm NOx operation with turn down to 60% load. B) Stable combustion dynamics at all load levels. C) High combustor ignition reliability. D) Suitable for daily start and stop (DSS) operation. E) Good reliability and durability. F) Retrofitable to existing 501G and 701G gas turbines

Preventive effects of metallothionein against DNA and lipid metabolic damages in dyslipidemic mice under repeated mild stress

The effects of repeated mild stress on DNA and lipid metabolic damages in multiple organs of dyslipidemic mice, and the preventive role of metallothionein (MT) were investigated. Female adult wild-type and MT-null mice fed high-fat diet (HFD) or standard diet (STD) were repeatedly subjected to fasting or restraint for three weeks. The liver, pancreas, spleen, bone marrow and serum samples were taken for evaluating DNA damage, MT, glutathione (GSH), corticosterone, carnitine and adiponectin. Body weights of restraint groups were reduced with the intensity of stress increased, even if the energy intakes were higher than those of STD group. Hepatic GSH levels were reduced in HFD control group and were further reduced in stress groups, especially in restraint groups, while the hepatic MT and serum corticosterone levels were increased in concert with the intensity of stress. Cellular DNA damages were generally increased by the restraint stress, especially in MT-null mice. Hepatic carnitine levels of MT-null mice were markedly lower than those of wild-type mice. The data suggest that MT plays a preventive role by acting as an antioxidant in corporation with GSH decreased by repeated stress and that MT may be an essential factor for inducing carnitine under the stress

Potential Activity of Amrubicin as a Salvage Therapy for Merkel Cell Carcinoma

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare neuroendocrine carcinoma of the skin with an aggressive clinical course. Although anthracycline- and platinum-based regimens are empirically used as first-line treatments for metastatic or unresectable cases, no salvage therapy has been established. A 73-year-old man with platinum-refractory recurrent MCC was treated with amrubicin. The symptoms improved soon, and a partial response was achieved. A total of nine cycles of amrubicin were administered in nine months with manageable adverse events until disease progression was finally observed. The present findings suggest the potential of amrubicin monotherapy as a second-line therapy for patients with advanced/recurrent MCC

Japanese Lung Cancer Society Guidelines for Stage IV NSCLC With EGFR Mutations

Patients with NSCLC in East Asia, including Japan, frequently contain EGFR mutations. In 2018, we published the latest full clinical practice guidelines on the basis of those provided by the Japanese Lung Cancer Society Guidelines Committee. The purpose of this study was to update those recommendations, especially for the treatment of metastatic or recurrent EGFR-mutated NSCLC. We conducted a literature search of systematic reviews of randomized controlled and nonrandomized trials published between 2018 and 2019 that multiple physicians had reviewed independently. On the basis of those studies and the advice from the Japanese Society of Lung Cancer Expert Panel, we developed updated guidelines according to the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation system. We also evaluated the benefits of overall and progression-free survival, end points, toxicities, and patients’ reported outcomes. For patients with NSCLC harboring EGFR-activating mutations, the use of EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR TKIs), especially osimertinib, had the best recommendation as to first-line treatment. We also recommended the combination of EGFR TKI with other agents (platinum-based chemotherapy or antiangiogenic agents); however, it can lead to toxicity. In the presence of EGFR uncommon mutations, except for an exon 20 insertion, we also recommended the EGFR TKI treatment. However, we could not provide recommendations for the treatment of EGFR mutations with immune checkpoint inhibitors, including monotherapy, and its combination with cytotoxic chemotherapy, because of the limited evidence present in the literature. The 2020 Japanese Lung Cancer Society Guidelines can help community-based physicians to determine the most appropriate treatments and adequately provide medical care to their patients

Speech Recognition For a Distant Moving Speaker Based on HMM Composition And Separation

ICASSP2000: IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, June 5-9, 2000, Istanbul, Turkey.This paper describes a hands-free speech recognition method based on HMM composition and separation for speech contaminated not only by additive noise but also by an acoustic transfer function. The method realizes an improved user interface such that a user is not encumbered by microphone equipment in noisy and reverberant environments. In this approach, an attempt is made to model acoustic transfer functions by means of an ergodic HMM. The states of this HMM correspond to different positions of the sound source. It can represent the positions of the sound sources, even if the speaker moves. The HMM parameters of the acoustic transfer function are estimated by HMM separation. The method is obtained through the reverse of the process of HMM composition, where the model parameters are estimated by maximizing the likelihood of adaptation data uttered from an unknown position. Therefore, measurement of impulse responses is not required. In this paper, we record the speech of a distant moving speaker in real environments. The results of experiments for the speech of a distant moving speaker clarified the effectiveness of HMM composition and separatio

Noise and Room Acoustics Distorted Speech Recognition by HMM Composition

ICASSP1996: IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, & Signal Processing, May 7-10, 1996, Atlanta, GA, US.This paper presents a robust speech recognition method based on the HMM composition for the noisy room acoustics distorted speech. The method realizes an improved user interface such as the user is not encumbered by microphone equipment. The proposed HMM composition is obtained by naturally extending the HMM composition method of an additive noise to that of the convolutional room acoustics distortion. The HMM composition is conducted by 2 steps: (1) composition of HMMs of a speech and acoustical transfer function in the cepstrum domain, and (2) composition of distorted speech and noise HMMs in the linear spectral domain. The speaker dependent/independent word recognition experiments are carried out using the speech database contaminated by the additive noise and convolutional room acoustics distortion. The evaluation experiments are also conducted for unknown testing sound source positions. These results clarified the effectiveness of the proposed metho