Thermo-responsive microgel particles can exhibit a drastic volume shrinkage upon increasing the solvent temperature. Recently we found that spreading of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)(PNiPAm) microgels at liquid interface under influence surface tension hinders temperature-induced phase transition. In addition, observed hysteresis behavior temperature cycling, i.e. different evolution in size and ...

BACKGROUND Many men with clinically suspicious findings would not be diagnosed to have prostate cancer. Establishing criteria for indicating repeat biopsy is imperative for early detection of prostate cancer. METHODS Eighty-one patients underwent repeat prostatic biopsies under sonographic guidance at Kitasato University Hospital between March 1992 and October 1996. Clinicopathological parame...

Use of patient-specific drain-phase parameters has previously been suggested to improve peritoneal dialysis (PD) adequacy. Improving management of the drain period may also help to minimize intraperitoneal volume (IPV). A typical gravity-based drain profile consists of a relatively constant initial fast-flow period, followed by a transition period and a decaying slow-flow period. That profile w...

In this work, three different particle sizes: the static radius Rs, hydrodynamic radius Rh and apparent hydrodynamic radius Rh,app obtained using the light scattering technique, are investigated for dilute poly-disperse homogenous spherical particles with a simple assumption that the hydrodynamic radius is in proportion to the static radius, when the Rayleigh-Gans-Debye approximation is valid. ...

We report on the pressure-induced phase transition in amorphous Germanium (a-Ge! using an ab initio constant pressure-relaxation simulation. a-Ge exhibits a first-order polyamorphic phase transition at 12.75 GPa with a discontinuous volume change of ;19%. The transition pressure is also calculated from the Gibbs free-energy curves, and it is found that the transition occurs at 5.2 GPa in agreem...