LOX/LH2 propulsion system for launch vehicle upper stage, test results

The test results of small LOX/LH2 engines for two propulsion systems, a pump fed system and a pressure fed system are reported. The pump fed system has the advantages of higher performances and higher mass fraction. The pressure fed system has the advantages of higher reliability and relative simplicity. Adoption of these cryogenic propulsion systems for upper stage of launch vehicle increases the payload capability with low cost. The 1,000 kg thrust class engine was selected for this cryogenic stage. A thrust chamber assembly for the pressure fed propulsion system was tested. It is indicated that it has good performance to meet system requirements

Different responses to two types of 5-fluorouracil prodrugs in combination with interferon-alpha in pulmonary metastases of renal cell carcinoma: a case report

A 66-year-old Japanese man with pulmonary metastases of renal cell carcinoma found 8 months after radical nephrectomy was treated with interferon-alpha and tegafur-uracil. Since it failed to achieve tumor responses resulting in progression, he was given interferon-alpha and capecitabine. After 2 courses of combination therapy with IFN-alpha and capecitabine, significant tumor responses were obtained; two out of four pulmonary metastatic sites disappeared completely, one site showed over 50% decrease in size, and the remaining one site did no change in size. The regimen was well tolerated and toxicity observed was World Health Organization grade 1 anorexia. His disease status was maintained as stable disease by the repeated treatment with interferon-alpha and capecitabine for 17 months after tumor responses were obtained. However, tumor progression was observed thereafter. He is at present under treatment with sorafenib. This is the first case report of metastatic renal cell carcinoma, which showed different responses to two types of 5-fluorouracil prodrugs in combination with interferon-alpha, suggesting the biochemical modulation of capecitabine by interferon-alpha as a possible mechanism underlying the antitumor effect of the combination of interferon-alpha and capecitabine at the clinical setting. Present case also suggests that a combination of tumor-selective capecitabine with interferon-alpha is a potentially useful therapeutic option in metastatic renal cell carcinoma

Japan's security policy and the ASEAN Regional Forum: The search for multilateral security in the Asia Pacific.

This thesis explores changes in Japan's conception of and policy toward security multilateralism in the Asia-Pacific region after the end of the Cold War with special reference to the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). To understand the complex processes behind the changes in and formation of these perceptions, this study develops an eclectic analysis, which draws on the insights of various theoretical models in International Relations (IR). Based on a persistent analysis of Japan's diplomacy in security institution building over the decade, this study goes on not only to illuminate the problems and the direction of Japan's post-Cold War security policy but also to provide an empirical basis for examining the validity of three theoretical perspectives on the role and efficacies of security institutions, namely realism, neoliberal institutionalism and constructivism. This thesis makes the observation that notwithstanding strong multilateral impulses arising in Japanese policy thinking in the early 1990s, Japan's enthusiasm for regional security multilateralism has dwindled since the late 1990s. It argues that this has been mainly due to Japan's disappointing experiences in the ARF, evinced by abortive efforts to promote cooperative security measures and the failings of multilateral security diplomacy in addressing Japan's security concerns. Japan's enthusiasm for regional security multilateralism has been further diluted by a number of domestic and international constraints on the ARF policy. Combined with perceived limitations of the effectiveness of the ARF, these factors have made Japanese policymakers more inclined to devote their energies to the military dimension of the nation's security policy, in particular its defence cooperation with the USA. Consequently, Japanese conceptions of the ARF have been shifted from an optimistic liberal to a more pessimistic realist perspective, from which it can at best be seen to contribute to making the existing bilateral alliance arrangements in the region work more smoothly