Characteristics and treatment outcomes of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients have been studied; however, those of recent myocardial infarction (RMI) patients remain unclear. This study aimed to clarify characteristics, treatment strategy, and in-hospital outcomes of RMI patients in the Tokyo CCU network database.
In order to establish fully automated pest control in a greenhouse, the authors developed a spraying vehicle that travels along furrows. Since a power sprayer mounted on the vehicle is driven by a gasoline engine, plants in the greenhouse might be injured by exhaust gas. Gasoline exhaust contains ethylene. Ethylene is one of the plant hormone that makes plants shed their flowers and buds. The objectives of this study are to clarify the effects of ethylene contained in the gasoline exhaust on the shedding of flowers and buds of plants grown in greenhouse, and to determine a countermeasure against shedding.1. In a closed vinyl house, the engine was operated for 5 (high ethylene concentration) and 2.5 (low concentration) minutes. Potted sesame and sweet pepper plants were exposed to the exhaust gas for 2, 4 and 12 hours. The longer the fumigation time the more flowers and buds were shed. However, flowers and buds increased when plants were fumigated for 2 hours in either concentration.2. In a closed or partially opened vinyl house, the engine was operated for 5 minutes and potted sesame plants were exposed to the exhaust gas for 12 hours. In the closed vinyl house, ethylene concentration was 0.75ppm even 12 hours after the engine was stopped, and flowers and buds were shed markedly. In contrast, in the partially opened vinyl house, ethylene concentration decreased to 0ppm 3 hours after the engine was stopped, and neither flowers nor buds were shed.As mentioned above, it was revealed that shedding of flowers and buds caused by ethylene contained in the gasoline exhaust could be prevented by providing suitable ventilation.
To save the labor, a robot was developed for harvesting strawberry grown on table top culture at low cost which can work fleetly and accurately. First of all, the exposure level of fruits was investigated. From the result, the exposure level of fruits was higher than that of the passage side when seeing from the planting bed side. Then, a new harvesting robot was examined about the mechanism approached from the planting bed side. In addition, this harvesting robot consisted of three compact color sensors and an ultrasonic range sensor without CCD camera. From the recognition experiment of the harvest target fruits, the fruits of the harvest proper time were able to be judged according to the number of color sensors which detected red tinge. The result of this experiment indicated the possibility of the harvesting robot without visual sensor.
The fatigue failure mechanism of the CVT rubber belt was investigated using some experiments, FEM analysis and a simplified mechanical analysis. There are three major failure modes for the CVT rubber belts, namely adhesive rubber crack, bottom land crack and tension rubber crack. The paper focused on the adhesive rubber crack initiation mechanism. The crack was initiated along the interfaces between the adhesive rubber and the fiber reinforced rubber. The mechanical analysis revealed that the de-bonding of the interface was explained by the dishing deformation of the CVT belt that was wounded around the pulley. The contribution of the geometrical factors of the belt and pulley on the failure initiation was estimated by using the mechanical analysis.
Abstract Objectives The objective of this study was to determine the optimal cut-off value of % uptake of simultaneous dual-isotope (99mTc-sestamibi/123I-BMIPP) SPECT in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) for prediction of myocardial viability in chronic phase. Methods We evaluated 30 consecutive patients with AMI who had undergone both dual-SPECT in acute phase and stress myocardial SPECT using 99mTc-tracers in chronic phase by Discovery NM530c. Regional % uptake with a 17-segment model was obtained using QPS software. The presence of myocardial viability was defined when regional % uptake ≥50% in 99mTc SPECT at rest in chronic phase was observed. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were analyzed to determine the optimal cutoff values of regional % uptake in both left anterior descending artery (LAD) territory and non-LAD coronary territory in acute phase to predict the myocardial viability in chronic phase. Results The cutoff values for prediction of viable myocardium were %uptake ≥47% for 99mTc-sestamibi, %uptake ≥31% for 123I-BMIPP in acute phase in LAD territory and %uptake ≥52% for 99mTc-sestamibi, %uptake ≥48% for 123I-BMIPP in non-LAD territory. The respective sensitivities, specificities and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) values in the prediction of myocardial viability were 92%, 92% and 0.94 with 99mTc-sestamibi, 90%, 85%, 0.92 with 123I-BMIPP in LAD territory, and 81%, 93% and 0.92 with 99mTc-sestamibi, 81%, 90%, 0.92 with 123I-BMIPP in non-LAD territory. There were no significant differences in AUC values between 99mTc-sestamibi and 123I-BMIPP in both LAD territory and non-LAD coronary territory. Conclusions In the simultaneous 99mTc-sestamibi/123I-BMIPP dual-isotope imaging in patients with AMI, these results suggest that not only 99mTc-sestamibi SPECT, but also 123I-BMIPP SPECT may be possible to predict the presence of myocardial viability in chronic phase. But it should be noted that the optimal cutoff values of regional % uptake in acute phase to predict the myocardial viability may differ for LAD territory and non-LAD coronary territory. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding source: None
