Clinical Experience of Laser Angioplasty for the Cardiovascular Disease

In recent years, lasers are being utilized in cardiovascular surgery. Since the 1980's we have investigated angioplasty using an Argon laser for patients with obstructive arterial diseases. This technique aims to open the obstructive arterial lumen. Based on the excellent results of experimental studies, the technique has been clinically applied. Laser angioplasty was carried out in 84 patients with stenotic or obstructive lesions occluding more than 75% of peripheral and coronary arteries angiographically. They consisted of 74 cases with intermittent claudication and 10 cases with angina pectoris. Laser angioplasty for the peripheral arterial disease was performed under local anesthesia in the inguinal region under angioscopic guidance. On the other hand, laser coronary angioplasty was simultaneously undertaken at the time of coronary artery bypass grafting for a patient with multiple coronary stenoses. The initial success rate by laser angioplasty for the peripheral artery was 91% in the stenotic lesions and 71% in the obstructive lesions. The cumulative patency rate was 94% in the stenotic lesions and 83% in the occlusive lesions. A follow-up study of 66 months was carried out for patients with clinical success, excluding the cases where an angiogram showed occlusion within 1 week after laser angioplasty. Consequently, excellent long-term results could be clinically obtained. Based on the satisfactory results in the peripheral artery, coronary laser angioplasty was employed in 10 patients with angina pectoris. There were no complications by laser. Thus, the feasibility of laser application was apparently confirmed and laser angioplasty might be recommended for patients with atherosclerotic changes, especially for small arteries

A Study on Water Quality of Ponds in Agricultural Villages, in Bangladesh

Death rate of infant in Bangladesh is higher among developing countries. It is said that children die from diarrhca and other water-related diseases. Then authors investigated the water quality in 116 ponds and a few of reivers in 2002 where people daily use water for washing foodstuffs, eating utensils, clothes and bathing. The followings are obtained. 1) Pond water is contaminated with organic matter, coliform group colonies and unsuitable for daily use. 2) As surgace water and rainwater are safer than groud water, it is expected to set up tanks storing rainwater, and to develop the apparatus purifying the contaminated surface water

A High Pressure Apparatus for Neutron Diffraction

A high pressure apparatus was developed for thermal neutron diffraction of time-of-flight method. The high pressure vessel was a piston-cylinder type, and Ti-Zr alloy was used as a material of the cylinder. The coherent scattering of neutron is suppressed in Ti-53wt% Zr alloy. The diffraction spectrum is formed of peaks from the specimen and a background, which corresponds to the energy distribution of the incident neutron. High pressure measurements were made in RbBr on the transformation between NaCl-type structure and CsCl-type to a pressure about 20 kb, and a good agreement was confirmed with former experiments

Investigation of automotive light blinking pattern conveying a driver's intention to yield

This paper proposes a method of conveying a driver’s intention to yield by blinking automotive lighting. Generally, headlight flashing indicates a driver’s intention to yield to another driver or pedestrians in Japan. However, this signaling method can have several meanings, including warning other drivers of road dangers such as crashed cars, or informing other drivers of the presence of a pedestrian. There is a possibility of a misunderstanding, increasing the risk of accidents. Therefore, we have investigated an effective method for facilitating communication in traffic. This study focuses on nonverbal communication in which blinking lights convey the driver’s intentions to others. In this study, visibility is not considered. Nine blinking patterns that changed the light colors, waveform, and blinking cycle were presented to fifteen healthy participants, and visual impressions were evaluated to identify the most suitable blinking patterns. These nine patterns indicate a driver’s intention to yield to pedestrians and other drivers. The results indicated that a blue-green blinking pattern in which luminance changes with a triangular wave pattern with a one-second cycle was best conveyed the intention to yield

Field Induced Transitions in Rare Earth Intermetallic Compounds RX and RX_2 (R=Er, Ho, Dy, Tb and Gd and X=Ag and Au)(Magnetism)

Rare earth intermetallic compounds RX and RX_2 ( R=Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho and Er : X=Ag and Au) are antiferromagnetic compounds with the CsCl-type crystal structure and the MoSi_2-type one, respectively. Magnetization process is investigated for these compounds under static magnetic fields up to 270 kOe and pulsed ones up to 300 kOe. The observed field induced transitions are reviewed together with their magnetic phase diagrams

New Particle Identification Approach with Convolutional Neural Networks in GAPS

The General Antiparticle Spectrometer (GAPS) is a balloon-borne experiment that aims to measure low-energy cosmic-ray antiparticles. GAPS has developed a new antiparticle identification technique based on exotic atom formation caused by incident particles, which is achieved by ten layers of Si(Li) detector tracker in GAPS. The conventional analysis uses the physical quantities of the reconstructed incident and secondary particles. In parallel with this, we have developed a complementary approach based on deep neural networks. This paper presents a new convolutional neural network (CNN) technique. A three-dimensional CNN takes energy depositions as three-dimensional inputs and learns to identify their positional/energy correlations. The combination of the physical quantities and the CNN technique is also investigated. The findings show that the new technique outperforms existing machine learning-based methods in particle identification.Comment: 7 pages, 10 figure

Sensitivity in vitro of Mycoplasma gallisepticum Isolated from Chickens and Eggs in 1969-1971 to Some Antibiotics

1969～71年に，わが国各地の成鶏および死ごもり卵から分離された85株のMycoplasma gallisepticum (MG)と参考菌株KP-13,1RF,SP-23GおよびTS-18Gの4株について,現在鶏のMG感染症の予防治療に用いられている主要抗生剤TC,SPMおよびTSとそれに加えてCPおよびSPCTに対するin vitroでの最小発育阻止濃度(MIC)を,液体培地希釈法(broth dilution method)により検討した。 その成績は,下記に示すとおりである。 1) TSについては,MICが0.1μg/ml以下を示す菌株が11%,また3～30μg/mlの範囲を示す菌株が約80%みられた。TSについてのMICの幅は<0．1～100μg/mlであった。2) SPMについては,MICが100μg/ml以上を示す菌株が62%,0.3～3μg/mlの範囲を示す菌株が28%みられた。そのMICの幅は0.3～100ug/ml以上であった。3)　SPCTについては,MIC10μg/mlを示す菌株が67%みられ・そのMICの幅は1～30μg/mlであった。4) TCについては,MIC1μg/mlを示す菌株が85%あり,MICの幅は0.3～3μg/mlであった。5) CPについては,MIC10～30μg/mlを示す菌株が91%あり，MICの幅は3～100μg/mlであった。6) 死ごもり卵由来MG株において,孵卵前に卵がTS液に浸漬された卵由来株と,同液非浸漬卵由来株の間には薬剤感受性の差は認められなかった。 以上の成績から,TSとSPMについてのMICは共に分散している事が知られ,それに対して他の薬剤のMICは,ある一定薬剤濃度を中心に比較的集中している事が知られた。 関東と九州というように菌株の分離地域の異なる菌群間で,TSとSPMのMICパターンに差異がみられ,前者は一定薬剤濃度に集中し,後者は広い範囲に分散する傾向がみられ,菌株の薬剤感受性に分離地域による若干の差異がみられた。 供試菌株のCP,TCおよびSPCTに対するMICは,1965年のNEWNHAMとCHU18)および1966年の松井ら12，13)の成績と比較すると,それらのMICは数倍増加していた。さらにTSとSPMについては,最近の数年間に一部の菌株では,約1,000～10,000倍の耐性化が認められた。一方,TCに対する耐性増加は10倍程度であった。A total of 85 strains of Mycoplasma gallisepticum isolated from chickens and pipped eggs in various regions in Japan, 1969-71 and some reference strains of M. gallisepticum were examined for sensitivity in vitro of 5 antibiotics commonly used. The sensitivity was determined by observation of the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC: µg/ml) in vitro of the antibiotics to the cultures by the broth dilution method. The following results were obtained. 1) No difference of the drug sensitivity was observed between the cultures isolated from pipped eggs with and without tylosin dipping before incubation. 2) The MICs of tylosin to the cultures ranged widely from < 0.1 to 100 µg/ml. The MICs of 3-30 µg/ml were observed into 80% of the cultures. 3) The MICs of spiramycin to the cultures ranged widely from 0.3 to 100 µg/ml. The MICs of 100 < µg/ml to 62% and of 0.3-3 µg/ml into 28% of the cultures were observed, respectively. 4) The MICs of spectinomycin to the cultures ranged from 1 to 30 µg/ml. The MIC of 10 µg/ml was observed into 67% of the cultures. 5) The MICs of tetracycline to the cultures ranged from 0.3 to 3 µg/ml. The MIC of 1 µg/ml was observed into 85% of the cultures. 6) The MICs of chloramphenicol ranged from 3 to 100 µg/ml. The MICs of 10-30 µg/ml were observed into 91% of the cultures. 7) Some localities of the cultures in the drug sensitivity and MIC pattern of the cultures were observed as being based upon the regions which the cultures originated from. According to the above mentioned results, the increased resistance approximately 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than the results reported by some workers12,18) several years before was confirmed in some cultures examined here to tylosin and spiramycin. However, such a remarkable increasing of resistance of the cultures was not observed to tetracycline.本研究の一部は，第78 回日本獣医学会(1974 年8月)で口頭発表したものである