Unobstructive Heartbeat Monitoring of Sleeping Infants and Young Children Using Sheet-Type PVDF Sensors.

Techniques for noninvasively acquiring the vital information of infants and young children are considered very useful in the fields of healthcare and medical care. An unobstructive measurement method for sleeping infants and young children under the age of 6 years using a sheet-type vital sensor with a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) pressure-sensitive layer is demonstrated. The signal filter conditions to obtain the ballistocardiogram (BCG) and phonocardiogram (PCG) are discussed from the waveform data of infants and young children. The difference in signal processing conditions was caused by the physique of the infants and young children. The peak-to-peak interval (PPI) extracted from the BCG or PCG during sleep showed an extremely high correlation with the R-to-R interval (RRI) extracted from the electrocardiogram (ECG). The vital changes until awakening in infants monitored using a sheet sensor were also investigated. In infants under one year of age that awakened spontaneously, the distinctive vital changes during awakening were observed. Understanding the changes in the heartbeat and respiration signs of infants and young children during sleep is essential for improving the accuracy of abnormality detection by unobstructive sensors.

Behçet's Disease with Extremely High Levels of Urinary ß2-Microglobulin after Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug Treatment.

Behçet's disease is an inflammatory disease which manifests itself as various symptoms, such as uveitis, oral and genital aphthae, erythema nodosa, gastro-intestinal ulcerations and encephalopathy. Among the manifestations, renal dysfunction is reported in some percentage of the patients with this disorder. We experienced a middle-aged male with Behçet's disease who showed an extremely high level of urinary ß2-microglulin, which is one of the markers of renal dysfunction, despite normal serum creatinine levels. The patient was on non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) therapy for 7 weeks, and this could have affected his renal dysfunction. The present report suggests that renal injury should not be underestimated in patients with Behçet's disease, especially in patients using NSAIDs.

Persistent Dialkylsilanone Generated by Dehydrobromination of Dialkylbromosilanol.

A persistent dialkylsilanone was synthesized by the dehydrobromination of a dialkylbromosilanol with tris(trimethylsilyl)silyl potassium in solution at -80 °C: It was characterized by NMR and IR spectroscopy, and was tested in several reactions. In (29) Si NMR spectrum in [D8 ]toluene, the signal due to the unsaturated silicon nuclei was observed at 128.7 ppm. Reactions of the dialkylsilanone with water and mesitonitrile oxide gave a silanediol and a [2+3] cycloadduct, respectively. The silanone remains intact in [D8 ]toluene below -80 °C for at least two days, while it undergoes unprecedented isomerization to give a siloxysilene by means of 1,3-silyl migration at higher temperatures.

Synthesis, properties, and reactions of a series of stable dialkyl-substituted silicon-chalcogen doubly bonded compounds.

The first dialkyl-substituted silicon-chalcogen doubly bonded compounds [R2Si=X; R2=1,1,4,4-tetrakis(trimethylsilyl)butane-1,4-diyl, X = S (4), Se (5), and Te (6)]were synthesized by the reactions of an isolable dialkylsilylene R2Si: (3) with phosphine sulfide, elemental selenium, and elemental tellurium, respectively. Systematic changes of characteristics of silicon-chalcogen double bonds are elucidated by X-ray analysis, UV-vis spectroscopy, and DFT calculations. In the solid state, the unsaturated silicon atom in 4-6 adopts planar geometry and the extent of the shortening of Si=X double bonds from the corresponding Si-X single bonds decreases in the order 4 > 5 > 6. In the absorption spectra of 4-6, pi -->pi* transition bands are observed distinctly in addition to n -->pi* transition bands. Both the n -->pi* and pi -->pi* transitions are red-shifted in the order 4 < 5 < 6, and the difference between the energies of the two transitions is kept almost constant among 4-6. The tendency is explained using the qualitative perturbation theory and is reproduced by the DFT calculations for model silanechalcogenones. Addition reactions of water, methanol, and isoprene to 4-6 are reported.

[Gastric functions using capsules containing contrast medium: characteristics in patients with esophagitis].

We studied gastric function in patients with functional dyspepsia, using capsules containing contrast medium. We were able to estimate intragastric capsule movement by this method. Here, we report gastric functions in patients with esophagitis. We were able to recognize gastric dysfunction (delayed gastric emptying) in these patients.

Cell wall thickening is a common feature of vancomycin resistance in Staphylococcus aureus.

We have previously shown that a thickened cell wall is responsible for the vancomycin resistance of vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA) (equivalent to vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus and glycopeptide-intermediate S. aureus) strain Mu50 (L. Cui, H. Murakami, K. Kuwahara-Arai, H. Hanaki, and K. Hiramatsu, Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 44:2276-2285, 2000). However, the mechanism of vancomycin resistance in other VRSA strains remained unclear. In this study, 16 clinical VRSA strains from seven countries were subjected to serial daily passage in drug-free medium. After 10 to 84 days of passage in the nonselective medium, passage-derived strains with decreased MICs of vancomycin (MIC, <4 mg/liter) were obtained. However, all of the passage-derived strains except one (15 of 16) still possessed subpopulations that were resistant to vancomycin as judged by population analysis, and vancomycin-resistant mutant strains were selected from the passage-derived strains by one-step vancomycin selection with a frequency of 4.25 x 10(-6) to 1.64 x 10(-3). The data indicated that vancomycin-resistant cells are frequently generated from the passage-derived strains even after vancomycin selective pressure is lifted. Cell wall thicknesses and MICs of glycopeptides (vancomycin and teicoplanin) and beta-lactams (imipenem and oxacillin) were determined for a total of 48 strains, including 15 sets of three strains: the clinical VRSA strain, the passage-derived strain, and the vancomycin-resistant mutant strain obtained from the passage-derived strain. No simple correlation between glycopeptide and beta-lactam MICs was seen, while significant correlations between MICs of vancomycin and teicoplanin (r = 0.679; P < 0.001) and between MICs of imipenem and oxacillin (r = 0.787; P < 0.001) were recognized. Moreover, all of the VRSA strains had significantly thickened cell walls, which became thinner with the loss of vancomycin resistance during drug-free passages and again became thick in the resistant mutant strains. The data showed that cell wall thickness had high correlation with the MICs of the two glycopeptides (correlation coefficients, 0.908 for vancomycin and 0.655 for teicoplanin) but not with those of the beta-lactam antibiotics tested. These results together with coupled changes of cell wall thickness and vancomycin MICs in 16 isogenic sets of strains indicate that thickening of the cell wall is a common phenotype of clinical VRSA strains and may be a phenotypic determinant for vancomycin resistance in S. aureus.