• Title/Summary/Keyword: Free End

Search Result 1,202, Processing Time 0.03 seconds

COATED PARTICLE FUEL FOR HIGH TEMPERATURE GAS COOLED REACTORS

  • Verfondern, Karl;Nabielek, Heinz;Kendall, James M.
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
    • /
    • v.39 no.5
    • /
    • pp.603-616
    • /
    • 2007
  • Roy Huddle, having invented the coated particle in Harwell 1957, stated in the early 1970s that we know now everything about particles and coatings and should be going over to deal with other problems. This was on the occasion of the Dragon fuel performance information meeting London 1973: How wrong a genius be! It took until 1978 that really good particles were made in Germany, then during the Japanese HTTR production in the 1990s and finally the Chinese 2000-2001 campaign for HTR-10. Here, we present a review of history and present status. Today, good fuel is measured by different standards from the seventies: where $9*10^{-4}$ initial free heavy metal fraction was typical for early AVR carbide fuel and $3*10^{-4}$ initial free heavy metal fraction was acceptable for oxide fuel in THTR, we insist on values more than an order of magnitude below this value today. Half a percent of particle failure at the end-of-irradiation, another ancient standard, is not even acceptable today, even for the most severe accidents. While legislation and licensing has not changed, one of the reasons we insist on these improvements is the preference for passive systems rather than active controls of earlier times. After renewed HTGR interest, we are reporting about the start of new or reactivated coated particle work in several parts of the world, considering the aspects of designs/ traditional and new materials, manufacturing technologies/ quality control quality assurance, irradiation and accident performance, modeling and performance predictions, and fuel cycle aspects and spent fuel treatment. In very general terms, the coated particle should be strong, reliable, retentive, and affordable. These properties have to be quantified and will be eventually optimized for a specific application system. Results obtained so far indicate that the same particle can be used for steam cycle applications with $700-750^{\circ}C$ helium coolant gas exit, for gas turbine applications at $850-900^{\circ}C$ and for process heat/hydrogen generation applications with $950^{\circ}C$ outlet temperatures. There is a clear set of standards for modem high quality fuel in terms of low levels of heavy metal contamination, manufacture-induced particle defects during fuel body and fuel element making, irradiation/accident induced particle failures and limits on fission product release from intact particles. While gas-cooled reactor design is still open-ended with blocks for the prismatic and spherical fuel elements for the pebble-bed design, there is near worldwide agreement on high quality fuel: a $500{\mu}m$ diameter $UO_2$ kernel of 10% enrichment is surrounded by a $100{\mu}m$ thick sacrificial buffer layer to be followed by a dense inner pyrocarbon layer, a high quality silicon carbide layer of $35{\mu}m$ thickness and theoretical density and another outer pyrocarbon layer. Good performance has been demonstrated both under operational and under accident conditions, i.e. to 10% FIMA and maximum $1600^{\circ}C$ afterwards. And it is the wide-ranging demonstration experience that makes this particle superior. Recommendations are made for further work: 1. Generation of data for presently manufactured materials, e.g. SiC strength and strength distribution, PyC creep and shrinkage and many more material data sets. 2. Renewed start of irradiation and accident testing of modem coated particle fuel. 3. Analysis of existing and newly created data with a view to demonstrate satisfactory performance at burnups beyond 10% FIMA and complete fission product retention even in accidents that go beyond $1600^{\circ}C$ for a short period of time. This work should proceed at both national and international level.

Studies on Food Preservation by Controlling Water Activity - II. Dehydration Mechanism and Water Activity of Filefish Muscle - (식품보장(食品保藏)과 수분활성(水分活性)에 관(關)한 연구(硏究) - 제 2 보 : 말쥐치육(肉)의 건조기구(乾操機構)와 수분활성(水分活性) -)

  • Han, Bong-Ho;Choi, Soo-Il;Lee, Jong-Gab;Bae, Tae-Jin;Park, Ho-Gu
    • Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
    • /
    • v.14 no.4
    • /
    • pp.342-349
    • /
    • 1982
  • Filefish muscle in the form of thin plate $(5{\times}10{\times}0.4\;cm)$ was dried in a forced air dryer at $47.5^{\circ}C$ to study the relation between dehydration mechanism and water activity. The dryer was designed in such a way that the temperature, relative humidity and velocity of air could be controlled. The whole dehydration process of the filefish muscle was divided into two different drying rate periods, constant and falling rate period. During the constant drying rate period, the drying rate was proportional to the square root of air velocity under the conditions of constant temperature and relative humidity of air. The falling rate period was further divided into two different falling drying rate periods, first and second falling rate period. The first falling rate period was an unsaturated surface drying period caused by partial unsaturation of the drying surface with capillary condensed free water diffused from the internal part of the filefish muscle. At this stage he drying rate was mainly dependent on the relative humidity at constant air temperature, and case-hardening phenomenon started at the end of this stage. The moisture content and the water activity at which the second falling rate period started were not constant, because the drying rate of the first falling rate period was strongly dependent on the air humidity. The second falling rate period was again divided into two drying rate periods, former and latter period. The drying rates of both of these periods were independent on the external air humidity. During the former period of the second falling rate period, the dehydration was proceeded by diffusion and vaporization of capillary condensed free water in filefish muscle. The diffusion coefficient of water was $2.89{\times}10^{-10}m^2/sec\;at\;47.5^{\circ}C$. At this stage, the case-herdening continued until the water activity reduced to 0.7. The latter period of the second falling rate period started at the water activity of 0.45. The dedydration was proceeded by diffusion and vaporization of bound water, which adsorbed in multimolecular layers, through the hardened drying surface. The number of molecular layers was 4, and the diffusion coefficient of water during this stage was $4.38{\times}10^{-11}m^2/sec\;at\;47.5^{\circ}C$.

  • PDF

Predictive Clustering-based Collaborative Filtering Technique for Performance-Stability of Recommendation System (추천 시스템의 성능 안정성을 위한 예측적 군집화 기반 협업 필터링 기법)

  • Lee, O-Joun;You, Eun-Soon
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
    • /
    • v.21 no.1
    • /
    • pp.119-142
    • /
    • 2015
  • With the explosive growth in the volume of information, Internet users are experiencing considerable difficulties in obtaining necessary information online. Against this backdrop, ever-greater importance is being placed on a recommender system that provides information catered to user preferences and tastes in an attempt to address issues associated with information overload. To this end, a number of techniques have been proposed, including content-based filtering (CBF), demographic filtering (DF) and collaborative filtering (CF). Among them, CBF and DF require external information and thus cannot be applied to a variety of domains. CF, on the other hand, is widely used since it is relatively free from the domain constraint. The CF technique is broadly classified into memory-based CF, model-based CF and hybrid CF. Model-based CF addresses the drawbacks of CF by considering the Bayesian model, clustering model or dependency network model. This filtering technique not only improves the sparsity and scalability issues but also boosts predictive performance. However, it involves expensive model-building and results in a tradeoff between performance and scalability. Such tradeoff is attributed to reduced coverage, which is a type of sparsity issues. In addition, expensive model-building may lead to performance instability since changes in the domain environment cannot be immediately incorporated into the model due to high costs involved. Cumulative changes in the domain environment that have failed to be reflected eventually undermine system performance. This study incorporates the Markov model of transition probabilities and the concept of fuzzy clustering with CBCF to propose predictive clustering-based CF (PCCF) that solves the issues of reduced coverage and of unstable performance. The method improves performance instability by tracking the changes in user preferences and bridging the gap between the static model and dynamic users. Furthermore, the issue of reduced coverage also improves by expanding the coverage based on transition probabilities and clustering probabilities. The proposed method consists of four processes. First, user preferences are normalized in preference clustering. Second, changes in user preferences are detected from review score entries during preference transition detection. Third, user propensities are normalized using patterns of changes (propensities) in user preferences in propensity clustering. Lastly, the preference prediction model is developed to predict user preferences for items during preference prediction. The proposed method has been validated by testing the robustness of performance instability and scalability-performance tradeoff. The initial test compared and analyzed the performance of individual recommender systems each enabled by IBCF, CBCF, ICFEC and PCCF under an environment where data sparsity had been minimized. The following test adjusted the optimal number of clusters in CBCF, ICFEC and PCCF for a comparative analysis of subsequent changes in the system performance. The test results revealed that the suggested method produced insignificant improvement in performance in comparison with the existing techniques. In addition, it failed to achieve significant improvement in the standard deviation that indicates the degree of data fluctuation. Notwithstanding, it resulted in marked improvement over the existing techniques in terms of range that indicates the level of performance fluctuation. The level of performance fluctuation before and after the model generation improved by 51.31% in the initial test. Then in the following test, there has been 36.05% improvement in the level of performance fluctuation driven by the changes in the number of clusters. This signifies that the proposed method, despite the slight performance improvement, clearly offers better performance stability compared to the existing techniques. Further research on this study will be directed toward enhancing the recommendation performance that failed to demonstrate significant improvement over the existing techniques. The future research will consider the introduction of a high-dimensional parameter-free clustering algorithm or deep learning-based model in order to improve performance in recommendations.

Study of HubWA Protein Folding Reaction by Measuring the Stability of Folding Intermediate (중간단계의 구조적 안정성을 통한 HubWA 단백질의 접힘(folding) 반응 탐색)

  • Soon-Ho Park
    • Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
    • /
    • v.67 no.2
    • /
    • pp.81-88
    • /
    • 2023
  • The contribution of hydrophobic residues to the protein folding reaction was studied by using HubWA variant proteins with I and L to V mutation. Folding kinetics of all V variant proteins was observed to be satisfied by a three-state on-pathway mechanism, U ⇌ I ⇌ N, where U, I, and N represent unfolded, intermediate, and native state, respectively. Three-state folding reaction was quantitatively analyzed and the free energy of folding of each elementary reactions and overall folding reaction, ΔGoUI, ΔGoIN, and ΔGoUN, were obtained. From the ratio of free energy difference between the variant protein and HubWA, ΔΔGoUI/ΔΔGoUN (ΔΔGoUI = ΔGoUI (variant protein) - ΔGoUI (HubWA) and ΔΔGoUN = ΔGoUN (variant protein) - ΔGoUN(HubWA)), the contribution of hydrophobic residues to HubWA folding was analyzed. The residues which are located in the hydrophobic core between α-helix and β-sheet, I3, I13, L15, I30, L43, I61 and L67, showed ΔΔGoUI/ΔΔGoUN value of ~0.5 when each of these residues was mutated to V, indicating that these residues form relatively solid hydrophobic core in the intermediate state. Residues located at the end of secondary structures and loop, I23, L69 and I36 showed ΔΔGoUI/ΔΔGoUN value below 0.4 when each of these residues was mutated to V, indicating that the region containing these residues are loosely formed in the intermediate state. V17A, L50V and L56V showed fairly high ΔΔGoUI/ΔΔGoUN value of ~0.8. Since L50 and L56 are located in the region containing long loop (residue 46 to 62), it is suggested that the high ΔΔGoUI/ΔΔGoUN value of these residues prevents the formation of aggregate at the early stage of folding reaction.

Calculation of Unit Hydrograph from Discharge Curve, Determination of Sluice Dimension and Tidal Computation for Determination of the Closure curve (단위유량도와 비수갑문 단면 및 방조제 축조곡선 결정을 위한 조속계산)

  • 최귀열
    • Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
    • /
    • v.7 no.1
    • /
    • pp.861-876
    • /
    • 1965
  • During my stay in the Netherlands, I have studied the following, primarily in relation to the Mokpo Yong-san project which had been studied by the NEDECO for a feasibility report. 1. Unit hydrograph at Naju There are many ways to make unit hydrograph, but I want explain here to make unit hydrograph from the- actual run of curve at Naju. A discharge curve made from one rain storm depends on rainfall intensity per houre After finriing hydrograph every two hours, we will get two-hour unit hydrograph to devide each ordinate of the two-hour hydrograph by the rainfall intensity. I have used one storm from June 24 to June 26, 1963, recording a rainfall intensity of average 9. 4 mm per hour for 12 hours. If several rain gage stations had already been established in the catchment area. above Naju prior to this storm, I could have gathered accurate data on rainfall intensity throughout the catchment area. As it was, I used I the automatic rain gage record of the Mokpo I moteorological station to determine the rainfall lntensity. In order. to develop the unit ~Ydrograph at Naju, I subtracted the basic flow from the total runoff flow. I also tried to keed the difference between the calculated discharge amount and the measured discharge less than 1O~ The discharge period. of an unit graph depends on the length of the catchment area. 2. Determination of sluice dimension Acoording to principles of design presently used in our country, a one-day storm with a frequency of 20 years must be discharged in 8 hours. These design criteria are not adequate, and several dams have washed out in the past years. The design of the spillway and sluice dimensions must be based on the maximun peak discharge flowing into the reservoir to avoid crop and structure damages. The total flow into the reservoir is the summation of flow described by the Mokpo hydrograph, the basic flow from all the catchment areas and the rainfall on the reservoir area. To calculate the amount of water discharged through the sluiceCper half hour), the average head during that interval must be known. This can be calculated from the known water level outside the sluiceCdetermined by the tide) and from an estimated water level inside the reservoir at the end of each time interval. The total amount of water discharged through the sluice can be calculated from this average head, the time interval and the cross-sectional area of' the sluice. From the inflow into the .reservoir and the outflow through the sluice gates I calculated the change in the volume of water stored in the reservoir at half-hour intervals. From the stored volume of water and the known storage capacity of the reservoir, I was able to calculate the water level in the reservoir. The Calculated water level in the reservoir must be the same as the estimated water level. Mean stand tide will be adequate to use for determining the sluice dimension because spring tide is worse case and neap tide is best condition for the I result of the calculatio 3. Tidal computation for determination of the closure curve. During the construction of a dam, whether by building up of a succession of horizontael layers or by building in from both sides, the velocity of the water flowinii through the closing gapwill increase, because of the gradual decrease in the cross sectional area of the gap. 1 calculated the . velocities in the closing gap during flood and ebb for the first mentioned method of construction until the cross-sectional area has been reduced to about 25% of the original area, the change in tidal movement within the reservoir being negligible. Up to that point, the increase of the velocity is more or less hyperbolic. During the closing of the last 25 % of the gap, less water can flow out of the reservoir. This causes a rise of the mean water level of the reservoir. The difference in hydraulic head is then no longer negligible and must be taken into account. When, during the course of construction. the submerged weir become a free weir the critical flow occurs. The critical flow is that point, during either ebb or flood, at which the velocity reaches a maximum. When the dam is raised further. the velocity decreases because of the decrease\ulcorner in the height of the water above the weir. The calculation of the currents and velocities for a stage in the closure of the final gap is done in the following manner; Using an average tide with a neglible daily quantity, I estimated the water level on the pustream side of. the dam (inner water level). I determined the current through the gap for each hour by multiplying the storage area by the increment of the rise in water level. The velocity at a given moment can be determined from the calcalated current in m3/sec, and the cross-sectional area at that moment. At the same time from the difference between inner water level and tidal level (outer water level) the velocity can be calculated with the formula $h= \frac{V^2}{2g}$ and must be equal to the velocity detertnined from the current. If there is a difference in velocity, a new estimate of the inner water level must be made and entire procedure should be repeated. When the higher water level is equal to or more than 2/3 times the difference between the lower water level and the crest of the dam, we speak of a "free weir." The flow over the weir is then dependent upon the higher water level and not on the difference between high and low water levels. When the weir is "submerged", that is, the higher water level is less than 2/3 times the difference between the lower water and the crest of the dam, the difference between the high and low levels being decisive. The free weir normally occurs first during ebb, and is due to. the fact that mean level in the estuary is higher than the mean level of . the tide in building dams with barges the maximum velocity in the closing gap may not be more than 3m/sec. As the maximum velocities are higher than this limit we must use other construction methods in closing the gap. This can be done by dump-cars from each side or by using a cable way.e or by using a cable way.

  • PDF

Studies on Garlic Mosaic Virus -lts isolation, symptom expression in test plants, physical properties, purification, serology and electron microscopy- (마늘 모자이크 바이러스에 관한 연구 -마늘 모자이크 바이러스의 분리, 검정식물상의 반응, 물리적성질, 순화, 혈청반응 및 전자현미경적관찰-)

  • La Yong-Joon
    • Korean journal of applied entomology
    • /
    • v.12 no.3
    • /
    • pp.93-107
    • /
    • 1973
  • Garlic (Allium sativum L.) is an important vegetable crop for the Korean people and has long been cultivated extensively in Korea. More recently it has gained importance as a source of certain pharmaceuticals. This additional use has also contributed to the increasing demand for Korean garlic. Garlic has been propagated vegetatively for a long time without control measures against virus diseases. As a result it is presumed that most of the garlic varieties in Korea may have degenerated. The production of virus-free plants offers the most feasible way to control the virus diseases of garlic. However, little is known about garlic viruses both domestically and in foreign countries. More basic information regarding garlic viruses is needed before a sound approach to the control of these diseases can be developed. Currently garlic mosaic disease is most prevalent in plantings throughout Korea and is considered to be the most important disease of garlic in Korea. Because of this importance, studies were initiated to isolate and characterize the garlic mosaic virus. Symptom expression in test plants, physical properties, purification, serological reaction and morphological characteristics of the garlic mosaic virus were determined. Results of these studies are summarized as follows. 1. Surveys made throughout the important garlic growing areas in Korea during 1970-1972 revealed that most of the garlic plants were heavily infected with mosaic disease. 2. A strain of garlic mosaic virus was obtained from infected garlic leaves and transmitted mechanically to Chenopodium amaranticolor by single lesion isolation technique. 3. The symptom expression of this garlic mosaic virus isolate was examined on 26 species of test plants. Among these, Chenopodium amaranticolor, C. quince, C. album and C. koreanse expressed chlorotic local lesions on inoculated leaves 11-12 days after mechanical inoculation with infective sap. The remaining 22 species showed no symptoms and no virus was recovered from them whet back-inoculated to C. amaranticolor. 4. Among the four species of Chtnopodium mentioned above, C. amaranticolor and C. quinoa appear to be the most suitable local lesion test plants for garlic mosaic virus. 5. Cloves and top·sets originating from mosaic infected garlic plants were $100\%$ infected with the same virus. Consequently the garlic mosaic virus is successively transmitted through infected cloves and top-sets. 6. Garlic mosaic virus was mechanically transmitted to C, amaranticolor when inoculations were made with infective sap of cloves and top-sets. 7. Physical properties of the garlic mosaic virus as determined by inoculation onto C. amaranticolor were as follows. Thermal inactivation point: $65-70^{\circ}C$, Dilution end poiut: $10^-2-10^-3$, Aging in vitro: 2 days. 8. Electron microscopic examination of the garlic mosaic virus revealed long rod shaped particles measuring 1200-1250mu. 9. Garlic mosaic virus was purified from leaf materials of C. amaranticolor by using two cycles of differential centrifugation followed by Sephadex gel filtration. 10. Garlic mosaic virus was successfully detected from infected garlic cloves and top-sets by a serological microprecipitin test. 11 Serological tests of 150 garlic cloves and 30 top-sets collected randomly from seperated plants throughout five different garlic growing regions in Korea revealed $100\%$ infection with garlic mosaic virus. Accordingly it is concluded that most of the garlic cloves and top-sets now being used for propagation in Korea are carriers of the garlic mosaic virus. 12. Serological studies revealed that the garlic mosaic virus is not related with potato viruses X, Y, S and M. 13. Because of the difficulty in securing mosaic virus-free garlic plants, direct inoculation with isolated virus to the garlic plants was not accomplished. Results of the present study, however, indicate that the virus isolate used here is the causal virus of the garlic mosaic disease in Korea.

  • PDF

Radiotherapy in Incompletely Resected Gastric Cancers (불완전 절제된 위암의 방사선 치료)

  • Kim Jong Hoon;Choi Eun Kyung;Cho Jung Gil;Kim Byung Sik;Oh Sung Tae;Kim Dong Kwan;Chang Hyesook
    • Radiation Oncology Journal
    • /
    • v.16 no.1
    • /
    • pp.17-25
    • /
    • 1998
  • Purpose : Although local recurrence rates of stomach cancer after radiocal surgery have been reported in the range of $30-70\%$, the role of postoperative adjuvant therapy has not been established. We report the result of radiotherapy in resected stomach cancer with positive surgical margin to elucidate the role of postoperative radiotherapy. Materials and Methods : From June 1991 to August 1996, twenty five patients with positive surgical margins after radical gastrectomy were treated with postoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Median dose of radiation was 55.8Gy and the range was 44.6-59.4Gy. Second cycle of chemotherapy was delivered concurrently with radiation and total number of six cycles were delivered. Twenty three had adenocarcinoma and the other two had leiornyosarcoma. The numbers of patients with stage I B, II, III A, III B, and IV were 1, 2, 11, 10 and 1 respectively. Positive margins at distal end of the stomach were in 17 patients and proximal in 5. The other three patients had positive margin at the sites of adjacent organ invasion Minimum and median follow-up periods were 12 months and 18 months, respectively, Results : Twenty-four of 25 patients received prescribed radiation dose and RTOG grade 3 toxicity of UGI tract was observed in 3, all of which were weight loss more than $15\%$ of their pretreatment weight. But hematemesis. melena, intestinal obstruction or grade 4 toxicity were not found. Locoregional failure within the radiation field was observed in 7 patients, and distant metastasis in 10 patients. Sites of locoregional recurrences involve anastomosis/remnant stomach in 3, tumor bed/duodenal stump in 3, regional lymph node in 1 patient Peritoneal seeding occurred in 6, liver metastases months and median disease free survival time was 26 months. Stages andradiation dose were not significant prognostic factors for locoregional in 2, and distant nodes in 2 patients. Four year disease specificsurvival rate was $40\%$ and disease free survival was $48\%$. Median survival was 35 failures. Conculsion : Although all patients in this study had positive surgical margins, locoregional failure rate was $28\%$, and 4 year disease specific survival rate was $40\%$. Considering small number of patients and relatively short follow-up period, it is not certain that postoperative radiotherapy lowered locoregional recurrences. but we could find a Possibility of the role of postoperative radiotherapy in Patients with high risk factors.

  • PDF

Effects of Vitamin E on the Changes of Mineral Contents in Chronic Cadmium-Poisoned Rats

  • Kim, Mi-Ji;Rhee, Soon-Jae
    • Nutritional Sciences
    • /
    • v.6 no.4
    • /
    • pp.223-228
    • /
    • 2003
  • This study was carried out to investigate the effects of vitamin E on the cadmium contents of bone and on the calcium and phosphorous contents of the blood, urine and feces. Male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 100$\pm$10g were randomly assigned to one normal group and three cadmium poisoned groups. The cadmium poisoned groups consisted of a vitamin E free diet (Cd-0E) group; a 40 mg vitamin E /kg diet (Cd-40E) group; and a 400 mg/kg diet (Cd-400E) group. Experimental animals were maintained on their respective diets for 20 weeks and were simultaneously administered 50 ppm $Cd^{2+}$ dissolved in the drinking water. At the end of the trial, the average hematocrit value in the Cd-0E group was 28.13% lower than in the normal group. However, the average hematocrit value in the Cd-400E group was significantly higher than in the Cd-0E and Cd-40E groups. WBC levels in the cadmium-poisoned groups were lower than in the normal group, but Cd-400E group levels were significantly higher than in the Cd-0E and Cd-40E groups. The contents of calcium of tibia has no significant difference between normal group and cadmium exposed group at $10^{th}$ week After 20 weeks, the calcium contents of the tibia in the Cd-0E and Cd-40E groups were lower than in the normal group by 25.5% and 22.1 %, respectively, although the calcium contents of the tibia in the Cd-400E group were higher than in the normal group. After 10 weeks, the calcium contents of the femur in the Cd-0E and Cd-40E groups were 19.25% and 15.45% lower than in the normal group, respectively, but the calcium contents of the femur in the Cd-400E group were at the same levels as in the normal group. The levels of calcium in the femur after 20 weeks were similar to the 10-week levels. Calcium levels of the urine in the Cd-0E and Cd-40E groups were 3.92 fold and 2.92 fold higher, respectively, than in the normal group, but levels in the Cd-400E group were significantly lower than in either the Cd-0E group or the Cd-40E group. Calcium levels of the feces in cadmium-poisoned groups were significantly higher than in the normal group, although levels in the Cd-400E group were significantly lower than in the Cd-0E and Cd-40E groups. Phosphorous levels of the blood in the Cd-0E group were 17% lower than in the normal group, although levels in the Cd-400E group were significantly higher than in the Cd-0E group. Phosphorous levels of the urine in the Cd-0E and Cd-40E groups were significantly higher than in the normal group, while Cd-400E group levels were found to be at the same level as in the normal group. Cadmium contents of the tibia in the Cd-40E and Cd-400E groups were 13% and 17% lower, respectively, than in the Cd-0E group. Regarding cadmium levels in the femur, only the Cd-400E group achieved lower levels (10% lower) than the Cd-0E group. In conclusion, vitamin E supplementation resulted in a suppression of the release of calcium from bone, and a reduction in the excretion of calcium via the urine and feces, thus having a normalizing effect on calcium metabolism in rats with chronic cadmium poisoning.

Changes of Ventricular Function and Mitral Regurgitation after Repair of Anomalous Origin of Coronary Artery from the Pulmonary Artery (관상동맥 폐동맥 이상 기시증의 외과적 치료 후 좌심실 및 승모판 기능의 변화)

  • Lee Jeong Ryul;Oh Sea Jin;Kim Woong Han;Kim Yong Jin;Rho Joon Ryang;Bae Eun Jung;Noh Chung II;Yun Yong Soo
    • Journal of Chest Surgery
    • /
    • v.38 no.8 s.253
    • /
    • pp.523-528
    • /
    • 2005
  • Background: Investigation of the change of ventricular function and mitral regurgitation after surgical repair of patient with anomalous origin of left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery (ALCAPA) is key issue for the better surgical outcome. Material and Method: From April 1986 to July 2002, 12 patients presented with ALCAPA. The median age at repair was 4 months. Surgical methods included left coronary artery transfer to the aorta (10), Takeuchi procedure (1), saphenous vein free graft bypass (1). Mitral valve was repaired in 1. Result: There were 2 hospital death $(16.7\%)$. The mean follow-up period was $7.1\pm4.1$ years (range, 7 months to 13 years). Four patients required postoperative circulatory assist for $2.2\pm1.1$ days and one needed left ventricular assist device (LVAD) for 1day. Postoperative echocardiography demonstrated significant improvements in mean fractional shortening $(33.4\pm9.1\%\;vs\;17.7\pm9.6\%,\;n=10,\;p<0.05);$ left ventricular end diastolic dimension $(33.4\pm7.3\;mm\;vs\;44.8\pm7.0\;mm,\;n=10,\;p<0.05)$ and systolic dimension $(22.2\pm7.5\;mm\;vs\;33.4\pm7.9\;mm,\;n=10,\;p<0.05)$. Severities of mitral regurgitation decreased in all survivors at 1st and 4th year follow-up echocardiography. There were 2 reoperation due to residual MR and right ventricular outflow obstruction (Takeuchi case). Conclusion: Anatomic repair of anomalous left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery offered an excellent surgical results, especially in terms of the recovery of left ventricle function and mitral regurgitation. However, preoperative indications for mitral procedure is to be evaluated.

Long Term Results of Valve Replacement with the St. Jude Medical Heart Valves: Thirteen Year Experience (St. Jude 기계판막을 이용한 판막 치환술의 장기 성적)

  • Kim, Chang-Gon;Gu, Ja-Hong;Jo, Jung-Gu;Kim, Gong-Su
    • Journal of Chest Surgery
    • /
    • v.30 no.9
    • /
    • pp.891-898
    • /
    • 1997
  • Between May 1984 and January 1996, 130 patients were replaced cardiac valve using 150 St. Jude Medical prosthetic valves(42 aortic, 68 mitral, 20 aortic and mitral valve replycements). Follow-up was 97.6% complete. The early mortality rate was 5.4%, and late mortality rate was 4.9%. The valve-related late mortality rate was 3.3%. Of late complications, there were 6 anticoagulant related hemorrhages, 4 thromboembolisms and 1 paravalvular leakage. Linearized rates of late complication and valve-related late mortality were as follows: total late complications, .1.68o per patient-year: anticoagulant related hemorrhages, 0.92% per patient-year: thromboembolism, 0.61% per patient-year: paravalvular leakage, 0.15% per patient-year: reoperation, 0.15% per patient-year: and valve-related late mortalities, 0.61% per patient-year. Actuar al event free rate at 10 years was 87.4 $\pm$ 3.2%. The overall actuarial survival rate was 90.4$\pm$2.7% at 5 years, 87.5$\pm$3.3% at 10 years. Ninety eight percent of the survivors were in the New York Heart Association functional class I or II at the end of follow-up. There was significant improvement of cardiothoracic ratio. In conclusion, this study suggests the excellent durability of the St. Jude Medical Heart valve and remarkable functional benefit for the majority of the patients. However, prosthesisrelated complications are still common. Outcome is strongly related to the patient's preoperative cardiac condition and to the adequacy of anticoagulation control.

  • PDF