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We investigated the influence of cisplatin on spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs) by measuring SOAEs, before and after cisplatin administration, in 18 ears of nine patients (one female and eight males) who had received chemotherapy with cisplatin for a brain tumor. No hearing loss was observed after cisplatin administration in eight ears. Before cisplatin administration SOAE was present in four out of these eight ears, and only mild frequency fluctuation was observed even after administration. In 10 ears, sensory neural hearing loss was observed after cisplatin administration. Before cisplatin administration SOAE was present in four out of these 10 ears, and SOAE decreased or disappeared in three ears after administration. In two ears, SOAE was not present before cisplatin administration, but newly appeared after administration. It was indicated that SOAE principally disappeared at the frequencies where the region of the outer hair cells responsible for the same frequencies was injured, but new SOAEs appeared at the frequencies where the region of the outer hair cells was not injured after cisplatin administration.

The effects of four dihydropyridine calcium antagonists (manidipine, benidipine, amlodipine and nitrendipine) on the plasma digoxin level and the renal hemodynamics were studied in both patients and conscious normotensive beagle dogs.In the clinical study, the combined administration of digoxin with calcium antagonists elevated, plasma digoxin levels compared with digoxin monotherapy, however, the difference was not significant. In dogs, the combined administration of digoxin with benidipine or nitrendipine resulted in a significantly higher plasma digoxin level after 8 and 24 hrs, respectively, but it did not affect the mean area under the plasma digoxin concentration time curve.In a renal hemodynamic study in dogs, the glomerular filtration rate was observed to decrease significantly following the combined administration with manidipine. Furthermore, the filtration fraction decreased significantly after the administration of manidipine and benidipine, but it did not affect the renal plasma flow. In addition, amlodipine slightly decreased the glomerular filtration rate. On the other hand, nitrendipine did not alter the renal hemodynamics.Since dihydropyridine calcium antagonists demonstrate different effects on renal hemodynamics during the combined administration of digoxin, administering the appropriate dosage of digoxin during combined therapy with calcium antagonists is therefore necessary to minimize the risk of digoxin toxicity.

Branchio-oto (BO) syndrome is complicated with congenital preauricular fistulae, branchial fistulae (cysts), and hearing loss (sensorineural, conductive or mixed). As well as branchio-oto-renal (BOR) syndrome, it is known to be an autosomal dominant hereditary disorder. Since mutations in the EYA1 gene have been identified in both BO and BOR syndromes, mutation screening of this gene has been drawing attention as a genetic test to diagnose BOR/BO syndromes. In this study, we genetically investigated the presence of EYA1 mutations in a BO syndrome family in which we observed congenital preauricular fistulae, branchial fistulae (cysts) and hearing loss in four generations. Whereas there was a variety of phenotype expressions in this family, all subjects tested had a nonsense mutation (R264X) in exon 8 of the EYA1 gene. The present report adds further examples to support the usefulness of molecular genetic testing for the diagnosis of patients with BO syndrome.

We report a case of profound unilateral sensorineural hearing loss with good response of otoacoustic emission. The patient was a 5-year-old boy, who was diagnosed to have unilateral hearing impairment on pure tone audiometry at the first visit. The affected ear showed the absence of auditory brainstem response; however, its transiently evoked otoacoutic emission and distortion product otoacoustic emission were considered to be normal. These findings indicated that the outer hair cell of cochlea was not impaired and that the impairment should be localized between inner hair cells, primary afferent fiber or its synapses, spiral ganglion of the cochlea and acoustic fiber, or at a combination of these areas. That is, evaluation of otoacoustic emission was useful in determining the region of impairment in sensorineural hearing loss. Further follow-up will be necessary to differentiate the present case from auditory neuropathy.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the ability of the OAE screener GSI 70 to evaluate of cochlea function in neonates, infants and adults. Distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) were measured using the GSI 70 DPOAE Analyzer and evaluated in 123 human ears between December 1999 and June 2000. We performed the following four general clinical tests to determine the reliability of the GSI 70: 1) comparison of DPOAE levels measured using the ILO 92 and the GSI 70 in 55 adult ears, 2) comparison of DPOAE levels measured using the GSI 70 and hearing levels in 55 adult ears, 3) comparison of DPOAE levels measured using the GSI 70 and ABR levels in 45 neonate and infant ears, and 4) evaluation of the utility of DPOAE measurements obtained using the GSI 70 in functional deafness cases. The following results were obtained: 1) DPOAE levels measured with the ILO 92 and the GSI 70 were closely correlated (correlation coefficient, 0.773 at 2 kHz and 0.813 at 4 kHz). 2) The sensitivity of the GSI 70 in adult ears confirmed to have normal hearing was 80% at 2 kHz and 100% at 4 kHz; the specificity of hearing-impaired ears was 94% at 2 kHz and 94% at 4 kHz. 3) The sensitivity of the GSI 70 in normal neonate and infant ears with normal hearing was 100% at 2 kHz and 100% at 4 kHz; the specificity of hearing-impaired neonate and infant ears was 97% at 2 kHz and 94% at 4 kHz. 4) All of the functionally deaf ears showed excellent DPOAE responses. Examinations using the GSI 70 DPOAE analyzer were very easy and fast. Also, the results were highly reliable, with the exception of one adult who was classified as having normal hearing in an out-of-scale hearing level at 2 kHz. We suggest that specific criteria be established for the clinical usage of the GSI 70 in performing objective hearing evaluations.

Human facil color can be applied to the display of virtual face image, emotional evaluation, individual identification, and remote health care. We already developed a method for emphasizing the individual characteristics in facial color based on a virtual face image using the HSV (hue, saturation, value) color space. To make virtual face images more natural and richer, the clarification of the relation between facial color and emotion would be expected. In this paper, we propose a synthetic method for the virtual face image based on the analysis of facial color in emotional change. First, the facial colors under the emotion of joy or anger are determined quantitatively by using the HSV color space. Secondly, we examined the relation between the facial color and the physiological index of facial skin temperature, which indicates the change of blood flux, in drinking for the emotion of joy. Also, we examined the relation between the change of facial color and that of skin temperature under the joy in laughing. Finally, on the basis of these results, we synthesized seven enhanced facial color images based on an average facial color image from 68 females, and evaluated the effectiveness of these images through sensory evaluation by paired comparison.

Time-resolved measurements of the negative ion density and of other plasma parameters in a pure hydrogen Tandem source have been effected using the laser photodetachment technique. The study was made for hydrogen filling pressures in the range 7–11 mTorr and an arc current of 120 A. We found a strong time variation in negative ion density was present during the discharge pulse (0.5 s). The maximum negative ion density was observed at the beginning of the pulse, at the lowest filling pressure studied, followed by a rapid decrease. An improvement of the current distribution during the pulse was obtained by increasing the filling pressure. The electron density is highest at 7 mTorr and stays almost constant during the pulse. The increase in filling pressure leads to electron density values lower by a factor of 4 which are constant during the discharge pulse. The highest relative negative ion density during the pulse is obtained at 9 mTorr. The time variation of the negative ion density does not follow that o...

The calcium channel blocker diltiazem (DTZ) is widely used alone or in combinationwith other drugs in the treatment of hypertention, angina pectoris and cardiac arrhythmias. Aprindine (AP) is a potent class I antiarrhythmic drug. The combination of antiarrhythmic agents, such as DTZ and AP, is often used when single drug therapy is ineffective or poorly tolerated. We previously reported on the drug interaction between DTZ and AP in beagle dogs and in patients with arrhythmia. DTZ is metabolized mainly in the liver, and the N-demethylated species (MA) is a major metabolite through the cytochrome P-450 isoform CYP3A. In the present study, therefore, we investigated the influence of AP on N-demethylation of DTZ using human liver microsomes.We showed that the N-demethylation of DTZ is inhibited by AP in a dose-dependent manner. Especially, at high concentrations of AP (200μM and 250 μM), the production of MA was reduced to 46.5 ± 5.7% and 31.9 ± 2.1% of the control value, respectively. Lineweaver-Burk plots showed that AP competitivery inhibited the N-demethylation of DTZ in hepatic microsomes with a Km value of 248.7μM.CYP3A is responsible for a major part of AP metabolism in the higher concentration range. This enzyme is present in the liver and the gut wall, therefore the gut wall seems to be an important metabolic site. These results suggested that the mechanism of interaction between DTZ and AP is competitive inhibition and it is dependent on intestinal CYP3A.

The natural color of five representative areas of the human face, the lip, brow, nose, left cheek and right cheek, is analyzed using the HSV(hue, saturation, value)color space that is fitted with human color sense.From the relationships among the HSV parameters for these areas, it is found that the hue of lip is not correlated with that of the other areas.This suggests that the hue of the lip in a virtual facial image can be treated independently from other facial colors.A virtual facial color image is synthesized using the average facial color in HSV color space determined from 64 males.On the basis of the difference in color of each pixel between the average facial image and the individual one, a method for emphasizing the individual characteristics in facial color is proposed.The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated through sensory evaluation by paired comparisons of enhanced virtual facial images.

The effect of glimepiride on metabolism of S-warfarin to 7-hydroxywarfarin was studied using human liver microsomes and recombinant cytochrome P450 2C9 microsomes (CYP2C9.1 and CYP2C9.3), and was compared with the results from the experiments using glibenclamide as an inhibitor. S-Warfarin 7-hydroxylation by recombinant CYP2C9.1 and CYP2C9.3 was inhibited by glimepiride competitively. The apparent K(i) value of glimepiride was lower at CYP2C9.3 than at CYP2C9.1. Glimepiride also inhibited 7-hydroxylation of S-warfarin in a competitive manner by microsomes from human liver which showed the genotypes of CYP2C9, as CYP2C9*1/*1 or CYP2C9*1/*3. The apparent K(i) value of glimepiride was lower than that of glibenclamide. These results may provide valuable information for optimizing the anticoagulant activity of warfarin when glimepiride is co-administered to patients.

Accelerated electrons, which would lead to high thermal load of grids, have been suppressed in a high-current large hydrogen negative ion source. An extraction grid, with apertures shaped as the secondary electrons generated on the grid aperture surface would be shielded against the acceleration electric field, works well to prevent the secondary electrons from leaking to the acceleration gap, compared with a straight aperture extraction grid. Although the strong magnetic field at the extraction grid also lowers the electron leakage downstream, the aperture shaping of the extraction grid is more effective for the suppression of the accelerated electrons. The acceleration efficiency, defined by the ratio of the negative-ion current to the acceleration drain current, is improved to around 85%. There remains the accelerated electrons generated in the negative ion neutralization by collision with the residual neutral molecules during the acceleration. The direct interception of the accelerated negative ions w...

A high-power large negative ion source has been operated for a long pulse duration. A three-grid single-stage accelerator is used, where the extraction grid is shaped so that the secondary electrons generated on the extraction grid would be prevented from leaking into the acceleration gap. A stable long-pulse arc discharge with an arc power of 100 kW has been obtained over 15 s by balancing an individual arc current flowing through each filament. The cesium-seeded operation is not influenced by a temperature rise over 100 °C of the plasma grid during the long-pulse arc discharge. As a result, 330 kW (91 keV–3.6 A) of the negative ion beam was produced stably for 10 s from an area of 25 cm×26 cm, where the current density was 21 mA/cm2 and the negative ion power density was 1.9 kW/cm2. The neutralization efficiency of accelerated negative ions has been measured including the residual positive and negative ion ratios by the water calorimetry of the beam dumps. The result agrees well with the calculation result.

A negative-ion-based neutral beam injection (NBI) system is planned for plasma heating of the Large Helical Device (LHD). We have developed a negative ion source, which is 1/3 the scale of the source for the NBI. A magnetic filter held was generated by external permanent magnets to lower the electron temperature in a large-area bucket plasma source (35 cm/spl times/62 cm) for efficient H/sup -/ production. We investigated the magnetic field configuration and found a low electron temperature high density plasma ( 15 A: 1/3 current of LHD ion source). Based on the results, we are designing a negative ion source for the LHD.

A novel emittance meter is developed using the pepper‐pot method. Kapton foils are used to detect intensity distributions of small beamlets at the ‘‘image’’ plane of the pepperpot. Emittance of H− beams for the neutral beam injector of the large helical device has been measured. The normalized emittance (95%) of a 6 mA H− beam with an emission current density of about 10 mA/cm2 is ∼0.59 mm mrad. The present system is simple, and it eliminates many complexities of the existing schemes.

The largest superconducting fusion machine, Large Helical Device (LHD), is now under construction in Japan and will begin operation in 1997. Design and construction of related R&D programs are now being carried out. The major radius of this machine is 3.9 m and the magnetic field on the plasma center is 3 T. The NbTi superconducting conductors are used in both helical coils and poloidal coils to produce this field. This will be upgraded in the second phase a using superfluid coil cooling technique. A negative ion source is being successfully developed for the NBI heating of LHD. This paper describes the present status and progress in its experimental planning and theoretical analysis on LHD, and the design and construction of LHD torus, heating, and diagnostics equipments.

A high speed gas pumping system is required to minimize the reionization loss of neutral beams in a neutral beam injector; until now the beam line design has made use of a condensation cryopump system. The system becomes more expensive as size increases and needs high maintenance and has a high operation cost. Instead of the cryocondensation pump a cryosorption pump is considered for the beam line. This paper describes the development of a high speed cryosorption pump for a neutral beam injector. A module test has been carried out to have a fundamental data base. A cryosorption pump with a pumping speed of about 300 m3 s−1 has been designed on the basis of the result of the module test and has been applied on the neutral beam injector of JIPP T-IIU Tokamak. In this paper, the design and the experimental results are discussed.

Recent studies have suggested that grapefruit juice increases the plasma concentration of a number of drugs, such as dihydropyridine calcium antagonists. However, very little is known about the interaction between grapefruit juice and nifedipine in Japanese. Here, the influence of grapefruit juice on the pharmacokinetics of two slow-release formulations of nifedipine [tablets (NFL) and fine granules (NFR)] were investigated in 15 healthy Japanese male volunteers. The following results were obtained: (1) The plasma level of nifedipine after oral administration of NFL or NFR with water showed a sustained plateau. Intake of 100% grapefruit juice with NFL did not affect the AUC of nifedipine. In contrast, the AUC was significantly altered by concomitant intake of 100% grapefruit juice with NFR.(2) When 30% grapefruit juice in distilled water was orally administered with NFR, there was no change in the pharmacokinetics of nifedipine compared to administration with water alone.(3) The effect of 100% grapefruit juice taken one hour before, one hour after, and at the time of NFR dosing was investigated. There were no significant differences in the pharmacokinetics of nifedipine when 100% grapefruit juice was taken one hour before or at the time of dosing. On the other hand, tmax was significantly increased when 100% grapefruit juice was taken one hour after dosing compared to that at the time of dosing. In conclusion, 100% grapefruit juice increases the plasma concentration of oral NFR in Japanese.

The effects of four dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers (nifedipine, nisoldipine, nitrendipine and manidipine) on the plasma digoxin level were studied in patients and the effects of nitrendipine and nisoldipine were compared in beagle dogs . In the clinical study, the mean plasma concentration of digoxin was significantly higher during combined administration with nitrendipine than with the other calcium channel blockers. In addition, the digoxin level was decreased by about 50% at one month after changing the calcium channel blocker from nitrendipine to nisoldipine. In dogs, combined administration with nitrendipine resulted in a significantly higher plasma digoxin level after 2 and 4 hrs and a significantly larger mean area under the plasma concentration time curvecompared with administration without nitrendipine (p

In this paper, we propose a method for lip extraction from face image by color image processing on the basis of the distribution of H and S parameters in HSV (hue, saturation, value) color space which shows a better fit with human color sense than RGB (red, green, blue) color space. Comparing the proposed method with the conventional lip extraction method using the signal ratio of G to R of RGB signals, on the basis of the defined lip extracting index, the effectiveness of the proposed method is quantitatively demonstrated. This quantification of face image by using HSV color space can be applied to the development of color data base of human face and virtual face image.

We report results of folded waveguide antenna experiments with high power, up to 1 MW, which include the dependence of plasma loading resistance on the plasma density and how much r.f. power can be delivered. We propose its application to the large helical device, which is a heliotron-torsatron device scheduled to produce its first plasma in 1998. The folded waveguide antenna launches an ion Bernstein wave to heat electrons via the Landau damping process. Preliminary experiments show a sharply defined wavenumber spectrum along the magnetic field line, which suggests core plasma electron heating. Direct electron heating is superior to fast wave minority heating because it avoids the orbit losses of deeply trapped high energy ions.

One megawatt CW (steady state operation) gyrotrons have been developed. The first gyrotron was the cavity mode output tube which demonstrated the one megawatt capability. The second tube is made by modifying the output mode to a Gaussian one by a built-in high efficiency quasi-optical mode converter. The designs, cold tests and preliminary test results are described.

A large negative hydrogen ion source with a rod-type magnetic filter was investigated for the construction of a neutral beam injection (NBI) system for the large helical device (LHD). A 1 3 - scale device was constructed and investigated. Three main phenomena are observed on seeding a small amount of cesium into the ion source. These are enhancement of the hydrogen negative ion (H−) current, a reduction in the electron beam extracted with the H− beam, and a decrease in the operating gas pressure. The enhancement factor of the H− current is 3–4, and a total H− current of 8.5 A is obtained from 20 × 40 extraction apertures 9 mm in diameter. This current corresponds to a current density of 17 mA cm−2. A multi-wall structure forming a lattice, called an egg-box cell, is installed between the magnetic filter rod and the plasma grid. The electron current with this cell is half as low as the electron current without the cell, but the H− current is hardly affected. This phenomenon is observed when cesium is seeded in the source chamber. The electron temperature and its density increase by a factor of 2 on strengthening the cusp field. Experiments to obtain a higher H− current density were carried out using the improved are plasma. A hydrogen negative ion current of 54 mA cm−2 was extracted from a restricted aperture of 36 extraction holes. The H− current was extracted from 20 × 40 full apertures of the ion source with strong cusp field. A total H− current of 10.4 A was obtained from these apertures. The optimum filling pressure is less than 1.0 Pa.

A design for a power supply system for the neutral beam injection (NBI) test stand of the large helical device (LHD) is presented. The acceleration power supply of −250 kV, 50 A is composed of three power supplies connected in series to deliver two intermediate outputs. It has a −40 kV power supply, a −90 kV power supply and a −120 kV power supply. A beamline and the major part of the power supply system for the NBI test stand were constructed in 1992. The −120 kV power supply was moved from Higashiyama to Toki in 1994. Another power supply of −40 kV will be added for −250 kV acceleration in the future. A brief outline of the control system of the NBI test stand is also presented.

The generation of an elliptical gaussian beam for an antenna for the large helical device is discussed. Numerical and experimental results on a square corrugated waveguide and parallel corrugated plates and its combination are described. It is shown that the parallel corrugated plates provide a good performance for the elliptical gaussian beam.

A volume-averaged equilibrium β value 〈βeq〉 of 2.14% is achieved in a compact helical system using two neutral beam lines with balanced injection and intense wall conditioning with Ti gettering. This value is the highest β value realized so far in helical systems. Reheat mode, where the stored energy increases after turn-off of a strong gas puff, is employed in the experiment. Discharge conditions are as follows: Bt = 0.61 T; beam power through the port, 1.1 MW (coinjection) and 0.8 MW (counterinjection); line-averaged electron density n e = 6.5 × 10 13 cm −3 . Amplitudes of magnetic fluctuations integrated over the frequency range from 3 kHz to 100 kHz become saturated at 〈βeq〉 higher than 1%. Dominant coherent modes are m n = 2 1 and 1 1 when 〈βeq〉 is lower and higher respectively than 1%. Dependence of the energy confinement time τE on n e (up to 8 × 1013 cm−3) and Bt (from 0.6 to 1.8T) is also studied in this high β experiment. When the density increases τE degrades compared with the LHD scaling; the density dependence exhibits Bohm-like behaviour. On the contrary, τE scales as Bt≈0.75, which is rather close to the LHD scaling (gyro-Bohm-like behaviour).

A design for a high power negative-ion-based neutral beam system for the large helical device (LHD) is described. A total power of 20 MW with a pulse length of 10 s is required for neutral beam injection in the LHD. The characteristic of this system is its rather low energy (125 keV for hydrogen) for the use of negative ions, so a large amount of negative ions is needed. The basic design of the beamline is based on the grounded gas neutralizer. A large expansion chamber between the ion source and the neutralizer, and additional ion dumps are needed for the use of negative ions. The beam acclerating power supplies are similar to those of the positive ion system because of the similar beam energy. Some additional power supply is needed for the production of negative ions. The construction of the neutral beam injector will start in 1995.

A 1 3 - scale source was designed on the basis of previous multi-cusp H− sources developed at the National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS). It has been developed for the negative-ion-based neutral beam injection system on the test stand in the large helical device (LHD). The ion source was immersed in a vacuum vessel, making the ion source simple and compact. A reduction in the stripping loss of H− ions is also expected. Three studies on the 1 3 - scale vacuum-immersed H− ion source (aiming at a 15 A × 125 kV beam) are described: design features for the vacuum-immersed source at high voltage, a Monte Carlo simulation for pumping gases in the accelerator to estimate the stripping loss of H− ions, and the experimental results of testing the plasma source and beam extraction and acceleration during beam conditioning. As a result of the simulation, the stripping loss was calculated to be about 26% for a reference design. A guiding principle for accelerator design was obtained from the viewpoint of enhanced pumping on transverse gas conductance and resulting reduction in the stripping loss. In experiments, a plasma density of more than 2.5 × 1012cm−3 was produced in the first chamber of the plasma source. During beam extraction, it was found that a beam-induced low density plasma (i.e. 105−107 cm−3) exists in the vacuum vessel. In order to produce a long pulse beam, this plasma must be shielded. Beam conditioning has been completed up to 1 A with beam energy of up to 85 keV for 0.1 s pulse duration. H− current scaling and engineering problems related to full scale performance are discussed.

For pulsed mode plasma experiments in the large helical device (LHD), high pulsive power has to be fed to the heating devices to produce currentless high-temperature and high-beta plasmas. The peak energizing power for these heating devices exceeds 200 MVA, and the energy consumed is 1000 MJ per 10 s pulse. To feed such enormous power, a motor generator (MG) system has been constructed and tested successfully. The MG is a vertical-shaft a.c. synchronous generator with nominal capacity 250 MVA. The maximum ejection energy is 1400 MJ per pulse at a repetition time of 5 min. The operational system is composed so as to deliver the power to various different loads, and the sequence is controlled voluntarily by operational computers near the load devices. The operational loss of the MG is reduced by using a computer network, so that an appropriate rotating speed and start time of acceleration of the MG are set automatically at every shot.

A large r.f. driven negative hydrogen ion source has been constructed. R.f. negative ion sources have the potential of continuous and efficient operation for next-step neutral beam injection systems. The developed r.f. negative ion source is large for this fusion application. The r.f. plasma generator is a metal-walled multi-cusp bucket source with tent magnetic filter and has dimensions of 30 × 30 cm2 cross-section and 19 cm depth. An internal induction coil is used as an r.f. antenna. The negative ion accelerator, which consists of three grids, produces nine beamlets with an energy of 60 keV. The r.f. power amplifier system generates 2 MH – 30 kW for 1 s. The r.f. plasma was produced successfully under impedance matching condition. An ion current density of 150 mA cm−2 was obtained and the electron temperature was high, 5–10 eV, in the antenna vicinity. In the chamber center which is the negative ion production region, the electron temperature is still high, more than 3 eV. As a result, a negative ion current was not detected at an extraction energy of 1.2 keV.

The pharmacokinetic interactions of diltiazem and the antiarrhythmic drugs aprindineand mexiletine were studied in beagle dogs and in patients with arrhythmia.In the animal experiments at 2 hours after diltiazem administration, the plasma concentration of aprindine was significantly higher than in dogs without diltiazem administration (p 0.05). Moreover, the peak plasma concentration of diltiazem at 2 hoursafter oral administration was approximately twice as high with the combination of aprindineand diltiazem compared to diltiazem alone (p

A high specific pumping cryopump system is designed for the neutral beam injector of the Large Helical Device (LHD NBI). The cryopump consists of several module panels that have the radiation shield of louver blind baffle structure. Two types of the louver blind baffle are designed, and both show the particle transparent efficiency over 50% according to the Monte Carlo simulation. This prediction was confirmed by test on the small model cryopump. The engineering models of these pumps, with a pumping speed of 450 m 3 /s each, are now under construction for the test stand of LHD NBI.

The effects of cisapride on the gastrointestinal contractile activity and pharmacokinetics of disopyramide were determined in beagle dogs and patients with arrhythmia. In the animal experiments, the gastric motor index was significantly decreased by i. v. administration of disopyramide in a dose-dependent fashion. The peak decrease of the motor index was observed within 5 min after i. v. injection of disopyramide ; the motor index then recovered gradually to the level present prior to drug administration. I. v. administration of cisapride (0.5 mg/kg) markedly increased gastrointestinal contractile activity following the decrease induced by disopyramide pretreatment (5 mg/kg, i. v.). In the clinical studies, the gastric emptying test was performed using the acetaminophen method. A significant correlation between plasma concentrations of disopyramide and gastric emptying time has been found (p

The pepper-pot method and two slit-and-collector type techniques are tested for their applicability to measure the emittance of low energy ion beams. The exposure of Kapton foil, used here as the detector in the pepper-pot method, has been found to show a nonlinear behavior of the image contrast with the local power density of He+ beam for energy less than 10 keV. Therefore, the emittance measurement with the pepper-pot method must be made with the calibration of the contrast of the Kapton film in advance. The measured values of emittance, obtained by the different diagnostic schemes, are similar. From the view point of the negative ion beam measurement, the pepper-pot type system using Kapton film and the multislit-and-Faraday-cup system are proved to be promising.

A filament-type helium ion source has been developed for the purpose of alpha particle diagnostics and as a test beam for electrostatic quadrupole transport experiments. We have obtained preliminary results of He+ beam current, ∼60 mA/cm2. The normalized brightness of this beam is ∼1010 A/(m rad)2. The normalized emittance (90%) measured by multislit faraday cup emittance meter is ∼0.6 mm mrad below 100 V, 10 A arc discharge. The effects of plasma parameters in the source on the beam emittance and on the beam perveance are discussed.

Toroidal plasma rotation driven not by the momentum input but by the electric field induced by loss of ions has been observed for plasmas heated by perpendicular neutral beam injection. The rotation is found to increase in the direction opposite to the plasma current when the plasma ions are heated by ion cyclotron resonance frequency waves. The rotation driven by the electric field is quantitatively consistent with that inferred from the ambipolarity of particle fluxes.

Thermal shock tests have been performed on W(Re)/Cu and Mo/Cu duplex structures with a particular emphasis on two failure modes: failure on the heated surface and failure near the bonding interface. The results indicate that failure of the duplex structure largely depends on the constraint of thermal strain on the heated surface and on the ductility changes of armour materials. Rapid debonding of the bonding interface may be attributed to the yielding of armour materials. This leads to a residual bending deformation when the armour cools down. Arguments are also presented in this paper on two parameter characterization of the failure of armour materials and on stress distribution near the free edge of the bonding interface.

The H-mode, an improved confinement regime, was attained recently in JIPP T-IIU high power heating experiments, in a limiter configuration without any shaping of the plasma cross-section. This H-mode is unusual because it was obtained with heating in the ion cyclotron range of frequencies (ICRF). It was also attained with combined ICRF and neutral beam injection (NBI) heating. The threshold power level obtained with ICRF alone is similar to or less than that obtained in the combined heating case. The dependence of the power threshold of the H-mode on various plasma parameters has been studied. It increases with the plasma current and is insensitive to the plasma density, and there is an optimum value of the toroidal field intensity. The power deposition profile for ICRF heating has been analysed with a ray tracing code and used to explain the observed dependence on the toroidal magnetic field. The paper also discusses a class of discharges with improved confinement observed in the same series of experiments. These discharges had a power level close to the H-mode threshold power and exhibited a marked improvement of confinement. They were, however, different from H-mode discharges in the time evolution of the profiles.

The influence of alpha-i-acid glycoprotein (AAG.) concentration on plasma protein binding of mexiletine and of disopyramide were investigated in patients with acute myocardial infarction and other heart disorders. The following results were obtained:(1) There was a linear relationship between the dose and plasma total concentration of mexiletine. There was no significant correlationship between the dose and plasma total concentration of disopyramide.(2) There was no significant correlationship between the concentration of AAG and free fraction of mexiletine, and negative correlation was observed between the concentration of AAG and free fraction of disopyramide.(3) No significant differences were observed in patients with acute myocardial infarction and other heart disorders between total plasma concentration and free fraction of mexiletine.There was no significant difference in total plasma concentration of disopyramide between the patients with acute myocardial infarction and other heart disorders. The free fraction in patients with acute myocardial infarction was significantly lower than that in those with other heart disorders (P

H− ion density in the extraction region of a volume-production-type ion source is measured, using the photodetachment method, and directly compared to H− ion beam extracted from the ion source in order to understand the effective production of H− ions. It is observed that there is qualitative similarity between H− density and extracted H− beam current, as expected. Characteristics of H− ion production under two values of magnetic strength are compared to study the effect of the filter field. It was found that the weaker magnetic field of 750 G cm is not sufficient for the filter field since high energy electrons can come into the extraction region across the magnetic field.

Microwave plasma source for the negative hydrogen ion production was constructed and tested. The plasma source consists of two chambers: a plasma production chamber and a plasma confinement chamber. The production chamber is placed into the strong axial magnetic field and the microwaves (2.45 GHz, up to 5 kW) are introduced through the quartz window along the magnetic field lines. It is found that the suppression of the fast electron loss to the window holder is important to improve the efficiency of hydrogen plasma production. The plasma density increases with the magnetic field strength in the plasma production chamber. For the microwave power of 4 kW the uniform plasma of 3×1012 cm−3 for argon and 3×1011 cm−3 for hydrogen is obtained in the area of 20×20 cm. Electron temperature in the plasma grid region is around 2 eV. The optimum gas pressure is around 6 mTorr.

An electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma production method using electron cyclotron wave is presented. This method is not subjected to any cutoff-density scaling, and is capable of generating dense plasmas far beyond the critical density of an ordinary wave. It has been demonstrated that a plasma density more than 1013 cm−3 (argon) is obtained with a low frequency (2.45 GHz) and low power (11 kW) microwave. The experimental results and the application to plasma neutralizer are described. The experimental verification of superpermeability of Nb membrane in a plasma environment is in progress to develop a plasma neutralizer with Nb-membrane wall. The design parameters of Nb-membrane pump are presented.

Objectives It is known that spontaneous otoacoustic emission (SOAE) is often observed in normal hearing ears, but concrete clinical application of SOAE test has been rarely reported, compared with transiently evoked otoacoustic emission (TEOAE) and distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) tests. In addition, there have been a variety of opinions concerning laterality of SOAE, and influence of gender and hearing on SOAE. The reason for this may be that each report has the small number of subjects and lacks in statistical power. Therefore, in the present study, SOAE, TEOAE and DPOAE were measured in 447 ears of subjects at various ages with different hearing level, and statistical analysis was performed to investigate the clinical significance of SOAE. Materials and methods The subjects were 447 ears in 268 patients (268 ears in females, and 179 ears in males). The age of subjects ranged from 0 to 75 years (mean: 30.8 years), and there were 222 left and 225 right ears. The subjects of schoolchildren or older (414 ears) received pure-tone audiometry, and infants (33 ears) received auditory brain-stem response (ABR). SOAE and TEOAE were measured using ILO88 (Otodynamics, Version 4.20). DPOAE was measured using ILO92 (Otodynamics, Version 1.32). Results Incidence of SOAE and the number of SOAE per ear were high in the subjects at age of 50 years or younger, in those with hearing level of not more than 30 dB, in the right ear, and in females. Incidence of SOAE in the whole of normal hearing ears was approximately 38%, but the ears with SOAE had almost normal hearing of not more than 30 dB. Conclusions SOAE is useful for objective hearing assessment. Moreover, SOAE sometimes appeared in the ears in which TEOAE or DPOAE could not be confirmed, and it might be useful for definite diagnosis of disease state to measure SOAE in addition to TEOAE or DPOAE.

A large rf‐driven hydrogen negative‐ion source has been developed for a neutral beam injection (NBI) system in the fusion application. The rf plasma generator is a metal‐walled multicusp bucket source, the dimensions of which are 30 cm×30 cm in cross section and 20 cm in depth. An induction coil antenna is fully immersed in the rf plasma generator, and is used for coupling the rf power into plasma. A strong external magnetic filter is generated in front of the plasma electrode for negative‐ion production, and a filter field strength of more than 1000 G cm is required to reduce the electron temperature in the extraction region as low as 1 eV. Precisely 5.5 mA of a negative‐ion current was obtained from a single aperture, corresponding to 4.1 mA/cm2 of current density. A small amount of cesium was supplied to the rf plasma generator from a cesium oven. As a result, a lowering of the operational gas pressure and improvement of the negative‐ion production efficiency were observed. The optimum bias voltage was...

The R&D program on a large current negative ion source has been carried out at the National Institute for Fusion Science for the Large Helical Device Project. So far a 1/3-scaled model ion source has been examined. By seeding a small amount of cesium in discharge, we obtained a total current of 8.5 A with an extracting energy of 40 keV. 1.2 A of high density negative ion beam was obtained from the restricted area of the source with the current density of 54 mA/cm/sup 2/. An engineering test of a vacuum-immersed source has also been performed.