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Occupational exposure of radiation workers, including nurses, is an important issue that should always be considered. However, there are limited reports on external exposure of nurses working in nuclear medicine investigated using a personal dosimeter with a trend function. We investigated the relationship between the personal dose equivalent and behavior of nurses in nuclear medicine using a personal dosimeter with a trend function. It was found that the external exposure of nurses was high when they cleaned hospital rooms where patients who received radiopharmaceutical drugs were admitted. However, none of the nurses surveyed exceeded 3μ. Visualization of the contamination in the hospital room showed that the area around the sink and trash can was particularly contaminated. Hence, nurses need to be more careful when cleaning. Although it is unlikely that the nurses surveyed will be affected by external exposure, data in this report is valuable for nurses at medical institutions to consider work hours and personnel strategies.

Human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2) is a potential driver oncogene. Although HER2-targeted precision therapy has been tested in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the demographic characteristics of HER2-positive NSCLC have not been systematically defined.

Grinding fluid & cutting oil are contained various chemicals. Waste fluid treatment causes huge disposal cost and heavy environmental load. This investigation proposes the electric rust preventive machining method system that water is used as machining fluid. However, there are various problems for this practical use. In this paper, using and re-using of machining water are considered. Water quality is different in various foreign regions for containing impurity ingredient varying with each area. Correspond to water difference, water purification and deionization is examined in developed machining water refine recycle system experimentally. Synthesized water that is likened to hard water is composed from refined water (pure water which is made by water recycle system). And, it is confirmed that synthesized water is refined to deionize by water recycle system. Moreover, 12.25L/min refined water is achieved. In addition, it is indicated that electric rust prevention is possible by refined water at least 1hour. However, high voltage and device twist is necessary.

For low environmental load and decreasing waste fluid disposal cost, the electric rust preventive machining method that uses only water as machining fluid has been developed. However, there are several problems for this practical use. In this investigation, for using this method in various regions of the world, reset and synthesis of water quality that is different in regions for containing impurity ingredient and water hardness is examined. At first, water is deionized and purified with water refine recycle system. Afterward, synthesized water is reproduced. Hardness and conductivity is adjusted in water by addition of very small amount of natural hardness ingredient CaSO4. Consequently, even if water is different, constant quality of the water can be always secured anywhere in world. Furthermore, electric rust prevention is achieved 3hours with adjusted 100S/cm synthesized water. However, adhesion derived from anode is appeared in workpiece 2hours. It is possible that the electric rust preventive machining can be carried out stability anywhere in world.

Several recent studies have investigated the dynamics of cold atoms in optical lattices subject to ac forcing; the theoretically predicted renormalization of the tunneling amplitudes has been verified experimentally. Recent observations include global motion of the atom cloud, such as giant "super-Bloch oscillations" (SBOs). We show that, in order to understand unexplained features of SBOs, in addition to the renormalization of the tunneling, a new and important phase correction must be included. For fermionic systems with strong attractive interactions, one may engineer different types of collisions and recollisions between bound-pairs and unpaired atoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractIt is known that hydrogen isotope molecules can be adsorbed easily onto synthetic zeolite 4A, 5A, and 13X at the liquid-nitrogen temperature of 77.4 K. We show here that hydrogen and deuterium are not adsorptive onto zeolite 3A at the same temperature. This phenomenon is explained by assuming the molecular sieve function in zeolite-3A-crystalline lattice structure. From a series of pseudo-isobaric experiments, it is also shown that the sieving phenomenon appears in a range above 77.4 K. This behavior is interpreted as resulting on the dependence of sieve’s mesh size on temperature, where the sieving effect is considered to appear at a certain temperature. In this interpretation, an isotopic difference between hydrogen and deuterium is suggested to exist in the sieving effect appearance temperatures. This is endorsed in the result of pseudo-isobaric experiments. This temperature deference is very significant because that indicates the possibility of an effective method of hydrogen isotope separation. This possibility is verified through an experimental series of adsorption-desorption with a mixture of H2and D2, where the gas samples adsorbed through the sieve operated at intentionally selected temperatures are isolated and then analyzed. The result demonstrates remarkable values of isotope separation factor.

Previous study revealed that the swarm-founding wasp Polybia paulista is accurately able to distinguish nestmates from non-nestmates in the summer. However, the risk of accepting alien intruders is considered to be low in winter colonies, and additionally brood production is limited in 30- 40% of colonies during the winter in this species. Thus, it is expected that colonies might lower their acceptance threshold and accept some conspecific wasps from alien colonies in winter. We conducted field experiments to examine tolerance of conspecific (nestmate and non-nestmate) females in winter. In contrast to our prediction, our colonies did not accept any individuals from alien colonies. We suggest that P. paulista exhibits the colony-specific acceptance threshold in winter, and colonies that produced brood in their nests may have raised the acceptance threshold even if the risk of accepting alien intruders is low in winter.

We report the 1000 mW single mode operation of a planar blue-violet laser diode with inner stripe waveguide. Kink-free output surpassed 400 mW (CW) and 600 mW (50 ns pulsed, duty 50%) at temperatures up to 90 °C. Precise optical field design for narrow stripe waveguide as well as damage-free stripe formation was a key to achieving watt class output. By utilizing buried AlN as optical and current confinement layers, a damage-free inner stripe as narrow as 1.0 μm wide was successfully fabricated. Planar inner stripe structure also has the advantage of a small increase in the electrical resistance for such a narrow stripe, which is favorable for high power operations. The results here indicate the potential of this planar blue-violet laser diode for high power applications as the next generation of optical disc systems. (© 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Improvements in efficiency of a fuel-cell-powered vehicle have been studied using water electrolysis as the energy storage mechanism. Three methods are proposed for this purpose: 1. The reformer and fuel cell are divided into two or more units, and the maximum output of each unit is set to be small, which reduces the partial load operation, 2. all the fuel cell units are operated above the low efficiency partial load condition and excess electricity is supplied to another fuel cell unit to generate hydrogen and oxygen by water electrolysis, and these gases are compressed and stored, and arbitrary fuel cell units are supplied and they generate electricity, 3. deceleration periods perform water electrolysis of the fuel cell units using the electric power generated by the drive motor, and both gases are compressed and they store in each cylinder. The LA4 cycle (EPA urban dynamometer schedule) was introduced for the vehicle operation. The energy saving effects of the abovementioned methods were studied and were shown to increase the energy efficiency by 1.23 to 1.72 times compared to that for the conventional method.

AbstractFast neutral generation by charge exchange reaction in inertial electrostatic confinement plasmas is studied by solving the Poisson equation and the Boltzmann equation for fast neutrals. Fusion reactions carried by the charge exchange fast neutrals become appreciable compared with ion-background fusion reaction. It is shown that the fusion reaction between fast neutral and background gas is sensitively affected by experimental parameters (grid voltage, background gas pressure) and ion distribution function.

Clinic blood pressure (CBP) is generally used for diagnosis and treatment monitoring in hypertension, but target organ damage correlates more closely with home blood pressure (HBP). Eliminating the clinic-home blood pressure difference (CHBPD) would make conventional CBP a more accurate alternative to HBP. This prospective, randomized, open trial compared the effect of a once-daily versus a twice-daily regimen of anti-hypertensive therapy on CHBPD. After a 2-week wash-out period, 85 confirmed stage 1 hypertensive patients were randomized to receive 2 mg tri-chlormethiazide daily in one (40 subjects) or two (45 subjects) daily doses for 3 weeks. CBP and HBP measurements were taken during the third week of treatment and the CHBPD calculated. After treatment, the systolic and diastolic CHBPD values were significantly greater in the once-daily regimen than in the twice-daily regimen. Conventional CBP should not be used as an alternative to HBP for evaluating prognosis and monitoring anti-hypertensive therapy when using a once-daily regimen.

Temperature dependency of radiophotoluminescence glass dosimeter sensitivity was examined by irradiation of the dosimeter elements in an artificial climate experiment chamber. Two laboratories (A and B) independently measured the radiation dose of the elements irradiated simultaneously. The dosimeter elements were irradiated by y-rays from a combined source of 137Cs (3.3 MBq) and 60Co (1.9 MBq) at four different temperature levels; -10°C, 0°C, 20°C and 30°C. Statistically significant decrease of the sensitivity at low temperature was observed by both laboratories, however, declining rates of the sensitivity with temperature were different for each. Average decrease rates were 0.047±0.025% deg”1and 0.091±0.033% deg”1for laboratories A and B, respectively. The maximum declining rate of 0.052% deg”1and 0.17% deg”1were observed by A and B, respectively. The reason for this discrepancy between the two laboratories was unknown, and further study is required to elucidate this problem.

We have investigated the spin state of the one-dimensional edge-sharing chain system Ca2+xY2−xCu5O10with 0≤x≤1.667 by means of the magnetic susceptibility and specific heat measurements, using the large-size single-crystals. It has been found that the magnetic ground state is an antiferromagnetically ordered state for 0≤x≤1.0, while a spin-gap state seems to be formed for x≥1.5. Accordingly, it appears that the quantum critical point is located between x=1.0 and 1.5 in Ca2+xY2−xCu5O10.

Abstract. We examined the pathology findings of the cardiac conduction system in 42 human autopsies who were considered to have died an accidental death. Abnormalities in serial sections of the conduction system were found in seven and of these three had an accessory pathway in the conduction system. In one of these there was mild Ebstein's anomaly (ME), two had fibromuscular dysplasia of the atrioventricular node artery with mitral valve prolapse, and two others had abnormal routes showing fragmentation of the bundle of His with ME. A full investigation of the cardiac conduction system can therefore be useful for determining the precise cause in cases of accidental death.

We have measured X-rays and neutrons associated with the muon catalyzed t–t fusion process at the RIKEN-RAL Muon facility. In the X-ray measurement, we observed Kαand KβX-rays originating from the muon sticking process in muon catalyzed t–t fusion, and obtained the KαX-ray yield and the Kβ/Kαintensity ratio. An average recoil energy of the (μ−α) atoms in a solid T2medium was determined from the observed Doppler broadening width of the KαX-ray line. The obtained t–t fusion neutron has shown an exponential time spectrum with a single component and a continuous energy spectrum with a maximum energy of 9 MeV. We have determined the t–t fusion neutron yield, the t–t fusion cycling rate and the muon sticking probability from the neutron data. The obtained maximum neutron energy is a very peculiar value from the view point of the reaction Qvalue (11.33 MeV) with the three-particle decay mode at the exit channel: t+ t→ α + n+ n+ Q. The obtained neutron energy distribution was analyzed by a simple model with two neutron energy components; reasonable agreement has been obtained, suggesting a strong (n–α) correlation in the exit channel of the t–t muon catalyzed fusion reaction.

A systematic study on muon catalyzed fusion (μCF) was conducted in solid deuterium and tritium (D–T) mixture. A variety of experimental conditions were investigated, i.e., tritium concentrations from 20 to 70%, temperatures from 5 to 16 K. A preliminary analysis result suggests a steep decrease in the dtμ-molecule formation rate with decreasing temperature, and also an increase in the probability for a muon reactivation after an α-sticking phenomenon.

Precise measurements of the absolute yields and the disappearance rates were carried out for both the X-rays from the (αμ)+ion formed by muon to alpha sticking after the muon catalyzed fusion and for the fusion neutrons from 3He-free liquid and solid D/T mixtures. While the αμ X-ray yield does not contradict the values predicted by the atomic-process theories, the effective sticking probability (ωs) obtained by neutron measurement is much smaller than that from any of the calculations published so far, suggesting, e.g., enhanced reactivation.

Nest material, nitrogen and amino acid composition of nests were examined in a New World swarm-founding polistine wasp, Polybia paulista. This wasp used minute vegetable chips, which were a dominant material, plant hairs, and mud and/or inorganic particles as nest building materials. A SEM observation and nitrogen and amino acid contents indicated that the amount of oral secretion used for construction and maintenance of the nests was quite small, compared with that used in Polistes nests. Such a small amount of oral secretion used for nest building is considered to be associated with their social organization (division of labor) and nest material. This study hypothesized that the amounts of oral secretion used for nest building are determined by an interaction among social organization, nest material and environmental factors, such as precipitation.Twenty-four amino acids were detected from protein in the nests of P. paulista, of which serine, glycine, alanine, valine, proline, aspartic acid and glutamic acid were major components. Amino acid composition of the protein in the nests of P. paulista differed distinctly from those of other so far known polistine and vespine wasps. The present result supports the view that amino acid composition of the protein in nests reflects phylogenetical relationships among wasps.

Abstract: The concentrations of ethanol in peripheral blood, subdural hematomas and various regions of the brain were determined 1, 2, 4, and 6 h after the induction of a hemorrhage into a subdural space in the right temple of rabbits. The concentrations were compared to cases of intravenous administration of ethanol-free i.v. fluid. Concentrations of ethanol in the subdural hematomas gradually decreased to correspond to those in the peripheral blood. The influence of an intravenous infusion of ethanol-free i.v. fluid was not observed. Concentrations in the brain of the right temporal, parietal and frontal lobes were high and those in the right temporal lobe were maintained during the 6 h of our experiment. Therefore, to determine if a human victim was under the influence of ethanol at the time of injury, we recommend that brain concentrations of ethanol be determined. This is apparently the first study to confirm that the estimation of ethanol in the brain provides a more accurate determination of how much ethanol had been ingested.

Copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) and merocyanine (MC) dyes show p-type semiconducting properties and have different absorption peaks in the visible spectral range. We fabricated new organic color sensors with the static induction transistor (SIT) structure using these dyes and investigated their photoelectric properties. The photocurrent from the source to the drain electrodes is controlled by the gate voltage and the pinch-off gate voltage is changed drastically by illumination. These phenomena can be explained in terms of the field-dependent and wavelength-dependent quantum efficiency in an organic SIT.