[en] The invention provides a calandria tank which can effectively absorb the difference in thermal expansion between the calandria tank barrel and the calandria tubes, and which permits the reduction of the distance between the outermost calandria tubes and the inner peripheral surface of the calandria tank barrel to the minimum required distance. The tank comprises upper and lower barrel sections having cylindrical forms with upper and lower end openings. The upper end opening of the lower barrel section is positioned opposite the lower end opening of the upper barrel section at a suitable distance from and coaxially with the latter. A tube sheet attached to the upper barrel section closes the upper opening of the barrel section, and the calandria tubes are connected at their upper ends to the tube sheet. Similarly, a lower tube sheet attached to the lower barrel section closes the lower opening of the lower barrel section, and the calandria tubes are connected at their lower ends to the lower tube sheet. A connecting mechanism joins the lower end opening of the upper barrel section and the upper end opening of the lower barrel section so as to allow an axial movement of the barrel sections with respect to each other. The connecting mechanism includes an aseismatic ring making a sliding contact with an inner surface of one of the upper and lower barrel sections and having elongated guide bores, and being attached to the other barrel section. Protrusions attached to the barrel section make sliding contact with the aseismatic ring, by engaging with the guide bores to prevent the ring from moving in a circumferential direction but, allowing the ring to move in the axial direction

[en] The causes of severe complications in a high-dose-rate intracavitary irradiation of carcinoma of the uterine cervix are analyzed in relation to its dose distribution. These severe complications consist of three grade 2 patients and four grade 3 patients out of 74 patients treated with a minimum follow-up of 2 years. The complications were probably related to shallow tandem in four patients, overlap of center shield in two patients, high intracavitary dose in two patients, short distance of both ovoid sources in two patients, prior pelvic surgery in one patient, and high external dose in one patient, while four of the seven complications were related to more than one probable cause. The dose distribution of the shallow tandem was suggested to play an important role in its cause, as compared with that of standard length of tandem

[en] Emission computed tomograph wherein a pluralty of detectors surround an object to be examined so as to detect x- or gamma radiation emitted by said object. In front of each of said detectors there is provided a collimator which comprises a pair of main plates and a subsidiary plate interposed therebetween. The plates are made of a material capable of blocking penetration of the radiation therethrough and so supported as to be swingable over an angle sufficient to cover the whole of said object. The plates of all the collimators are simultaneously swung to the same side and at the same angular speed thereby to change the direction of incidence of said radiation on each of said detectors

[en] A new method of detecting thermal anomalies using in infrared camera has been developed for remote plant machine monitoring. Anomalous phenomena, such as an air flow shortage of the cooling system in an electric motor, were successfully detected at an early stage by this method even it the motor operation state is thermally transitional. This method is based on the simple principle of comparing thermal image data between pre-stored reference thermal image obtained during the normal machine operation and the monitored images. The images are taken by the infrared camera. A thermal anomaly index is calculated as a two-dimensional cross correlation coefficient from the two images. Experiments were carried out to confirm the usefulness of the proposed method. In the experiments, a pseudo-thermal anomalous occurrence was generated by closing the air inlet of the motor cooling system. Reference thermal images were taken at the rated load condition and the pseudo thermal anomaly was successfully detected by monitoring the anomaly index. It was also confirmed that thermal conditional change associated with normal motor operation, such as load change, gave very little variation to the index value and a normal judgment was made, although the load change resulted in a significant temperature change on the motor surface. This method is suitable for not only the detection of anomalous phenomena on rotating machines, but also the detection of thermal anomalous phenomena on several kinds of plant machines

[en] The ion sheath instability with the frequency near the ion plasma frequency is observed in a negative ion plasma. When the negative ion concentration α is increased, the sheath width widens and the frequency of the instability decreases since the sheath transit time is prolonged by the sheath widening. Furthermore, it is found that when α is increased, the amplitude of the instability decreases, that is, the growth rate of the instability becomes small. By measuring the dependence of the phase velocity of the ion wave on α, the dominant negative ion is also specified. (author)

[en] α-Lactalbumin (α-LA) is a calcium binding protein that also binds Mn(II), lanthanide ions, Al(III), Zn(II), Co(II). The structural implications of cation binding were studied by high-resolution proton (200 MHz) NMR and photochemically induced dynamic nuclear polarization (CIDNP) spectroscopy. Marked changes were observed in the NMR spectra of the apoprotein upon addition of a stoichiometric amount of calcium to yield Ca(II)-α-LA, manifested particularly in ring current shifted aliphatic peaks and in several shifts in the aromatic region, all of which were under slow exchange conditions. The CIDNP results showed that two surface-accessible tyrosine residues, assigned as Tyr-18 and -36, became inaccessible to the solvent upon addition of 1:1 Ca(II) to apo-α-lactalbumin, while Tyr-103 and Trp-104 remained completely accessible in both conformers. The proton NMR spectra of apo-α-LA and Al(III)-α-LA were extremely similar, which was also consistent with intrinsic fluorescence results. The paramagnetic cation Mn(II) bound to the strong calcium binding site on apo-α-LA but also to the weak secondary Ca(II) binding site(s) on Ca(II)-α-LA. It was also found that Co(II) bound to some secondary sites on Ca(II)-α-LA that overlapped the weak calcium site. All of the lanthanide shift reagents [Pr(III), Eu(III), Tb(III), Dy(III), Tm(III), and Yb(III)] bound under slow exchange conditions; their relative affinities for apo-α-lactalbumin from competitive binding experiments were Dy(III), Tb(III), and Pr(III) > Ca(II) > Yb

[en] Formation kinetics and behavior of dust particles below about 10 nm in size, referred to as clusters, in silane capacitively-coupled RF plasmas are studied using double pulse discharge and photon-counting laser-light-scattering methods. Even under so-called device quality conditions, clusters of ∝ 10¹¹ cm^-3 high compared to a plasma ion density of ∝ 10^-9 cm³ are found at t ∝ 50 ms after the discharge initiation. Clusters begin to be composed of two size groups at t ∝ 10 ms. The ones in the small size group have an almost constant average size of ∝ 0.5 nm during the discharge period, while the ones in the large size group grow at a rate of ∝ 4 nm/s. This result indicates that the large clusters are nucleated by the small ones containing 3-4 Si atoms. Various methods for suppressing cluster growth have also been studied using two in situ cluster detection methods. Since species contributing to the initial growth of clusters are principally produced in the radical production region around the plasma/sheath boundary near the rf electrode, the pulse discharge modulation which has the discharge-off period in one modulation cycle longer than the diffusion time of clusters through the radical production region is effective in reducing the growth of clusters. Thermophoretic force due to heating of the grounded electrode drives neutral clusters above a few nm in size toward the cool RF electrode which is at room temperature. Periodical pulse discharge modulation is much more effective in reducing the cluster density when it is combined with grounded electrode heating. Hydrogen dilution of a high H₂/SiH₄ concentration ratio above about 5 is useful for suppressing cluster growth especially in the radical production region near the RF electrode. (orig.)

[en] Reflection coefficients and excitation efficiency of a gridded plate (a bipolar potential structure where the grid is separate but parallel to the juxtaposed plate) and a metallic disk for ion-acoustic waves have been measured experimentally. When the grid is biased negatively with respect to the plasma potential, reflection in phase with the incident wave and excitation of an outgoing wave are observed only when the bias of the plate is positive. When the bias of the gridded plate is positive, reflection occurs when the grid bias is either negative or positive. For the metal disk, reflection and excitation are observed when the bias is positive. The small reflection detected when the bias is negative is found to be due to scattering of the incident wave at the edge of the disk. (Author)

No abstract available

[en] The significance of age factor for the development of radiation pneumonitis is evaluated in 62 patients with lung cancer between 1977 and 1985. The younger group consists of those less than 70 years old and the elderly group of those 70 years old or more. Radiation doses ranged from 1.5 to 2 Gy, 3 to 5 times per week, therefore the delivered doses were converted to nominal single doses (rets dose). Severe radiation pneumonitis was more often observed in the elderly than in the younger regardless of radiation field size and chemotherapy (n.s.). The onset of radiation pneumonitis occurred earlier in a field size of 90 sq cm or more than in that of less than 90 sq cm in both age groups; there was no significant difference between the two age groups in each field size. The pneumonitis was more frequently noted with increasing rets dose in both age groups (n.s.) regardless of field size and chemotherapy. It is concluded that there is no significant difference in the development of radiation pneumonitis between the younger group and the elderly group, but the pneumonitis is inclined to be more severe in the latter