Kazunori Koga

Sixty patients were randomly allocated to one of three groups and the incidences of respiratory complications which occurred during emergence from anaesthesia were compared under the following three circumstances: tracheal extubation after the patient had regained consciousness (awake group); tracheal extubation while the patient was still anaesthetised (anaesthetised group); and the use of the laryngeal mask during emergence from anaesthesia (mask group). In the mask group, the laryngeal mask w

Abstract We have studied the effects of air nonthermal plasma irradiation of seeds of Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) on their growth from the beginning of cultivation to their harvest. Three minute plasma irradiation of dry seeds resulted in growth acceleration in all the growth stages. Compared with the control, the plasma irradiation led to an 11% shorter harvest period, a 56% increase in total seed weight, a 12% increase in each seed weight, and a 39% increase in seed number.

Growth processes of clusters in low-pressure and low-power silane radio frequency discharges are studied by using the newly developed double-pulse-discharge method which realizes in situ measurement of their size and density in a size range of 0.5–4 nm. The clusters begin to be composed of two size groups at about 10 ms after the discharge initiation: clusters in the small size group have an almost constant average size of about 0.5 nm through the discharge period, while those in the large one g

We randomly allocated 60 patients with normal airways into three groups to compare the ease of fibrescope-aided tracheal intubation using 8.0-mm internal diameter (group F8) and 6.0-mm (group F6) reinforced tracheal tubes and to evaluate the efficacy of the laryngeal mask as an aid for fibreoptic tracheal intubation (group L). In group F8 tracheal intubation was optimal in 2 of 20 patients and in two patients in whom intubation over the fibrescope was difficult the attempts resulted in inadverte

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films of high stability against light exposure have been deposited by using a newly developed multi-hollow plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. Films deposited in the upstream region in the multi-hollow plasma CVD reactor are a-Si:H films without incorporating a-Si:H nano-particles (clusters), while those in the downstream region are a-Si:H films with incorporating clusters. A-Si:H films without clusters have a low initial defect density of 5 ×10

We have reported that an intravenous anesthetic, ketamine, has a potent suppressive effect on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced TNF-alpha production in vitro [Takenaka et al., Anesthesiology 80:402-408, 1994]. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the overall effects of ketamine on hemodynamics, serum TNF-alpha level, arterial blood gases (ABGs), blood glucose level, liver function, and lethality in carrageenan (CAR)-sensitized endotoxemic models. All animals were pretreated intrape

Abstract In recent years, cold atmospheric pressure plasma (CAP) applications in agriculture are rapidly increasing. This review covers the effect of CAP and plasma-treated liquid (PTL) on seeds. CAP treatment on seed alters the germination percentage, morphology (shoot height, root length, surface area, etc.), gene expression, and biochemical responses (changes in hormones, antioxidants, amino acids, total soluble sugar content, chlorophyll content, etc.). The changes were incorporated in yield

We have developed a novel plasma chemical vapor deposition (PCVD) method for preparing high quality hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films, which suppresses effectively growth of clusters by transporting them out of the reactor using gas flow and thermophoresis. By utilizing this cluster-suppressed PCVD method, we have demonstrated deposition of quite high quality a-Si:H films, microstructure parameter Rα of which can be reduced below 0.003. The decrease in Rα value is closely related to

A downstream-cluster-collection method of high sensitivity has been developed to obtain information on size distribution, density, shape, and structure of clusters formed in reactive plasmas. The method have been applied together with a cluster-suppressed plasma chemical vapor deposition method in order to study a correlation between a volume fraction Vf of clusters incorporated into a-Si:H films and a hydrogen content CH(SiH2) associated with Si–H2 bonds in the films. The CH(SiH2) value decreas