BACKGROUND We compared the usefulness of tuberculin skin test (TST) and three interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) [QuantiFERON-TB Gold (QFT-2G), QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-tube (QFT-3G), T-SPOT.TB] as the supportive method for diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). METHODS The subjects were 66 patients who required clinical differentiation of pulmonary TB. The final clinical diagnosis of pul...

We encountered five cases of pulmonary Mycobacterium kansasii (MK) disease for which the QuantiFERON-TB Gold (QFT-2G) test was useful as a supportive diagnostic method. Because none of these patients could expectorate sputum, we ultimately confirmed the clinical diagnosis of pulmonary MK disease using 6- to 8-week cultures of bronchoscopic specimens (bronchoalveolar lavage fluid) according to t...

Early quench detection and thermal stability of superconducting coils are of great relevance for practical applications. Magnets made with second generation high temperature superconducting (2G-HTS) tapes present low quench propagation velocities and therefore slow voltage development and high local temperature rises, which may cause irreversible damage. Since quench propagation depends on the ...

The production of liquid biofuels to blend with gasoline is of worldwide importance to secure the energy supply while reducing the use of fossil fuels, supporting the development of rural technology with knowledge-based jobs and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Today, engineering for plant construction is accessible and new processes using agricultural residues and municipal solid wastes ha...

BACKGROUND & AIMS Dietary nucleotides are reported to influence the growth and functioning of the liver. The objective of the study was to evaluate the uptake and incorporation of exogenous nucleosides by hepatic cells, and the potential implications for cell proliferation and function. METHODS Liver stellate cell line CFSC-2G and primary hepatocytes in single and mixed cultures were exposed ...

The perovskite oxide LaCoO3 has been studied over the last few decades primarily due to its two transitions, namely the transition from a nonmagnetic insulating state to semiconducting one at 80 K and the transition from semiconducting state to metallic phase above 500 K. While the transition at 80 K is believed to be due to a change in the Co 3+ -ion spin state from a low spin (t 6 2g e 0 g S=...

The present study was conducted to determine whether adolescents and/or the elderly are more sensitive to mobile phone (MP)-related bioeffects than young adults, and to determine this for both 2nd generation (2G) GSM, and 3rd generation (3G) W-CDMA exposures. To test this, resting alpha activity (8-12 Hz band of the electroencephalogram) was assessed because numerous studies have now reported i...

The traditional Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system, in which the information maintained in tags is passive and static, has no intelligent decision-making ability to suit application and environment dynamics. The Second-Generation RFID (2G-RFID) system, referred as 2G-RFID-sys, is an evolution of the traditional RFID system to ensure better quality of service in future networks. Due to...

Applications such as instant messaging and push email require long-lived connections between clients and servers. In the absence of other traffic, stateful firewalls and Network Address Translators (NATs) require “keep-alive” messages to maintain state for such persistent connections. We present new measurements analyzing the energy consumption of these keep-alive messages on a mobile phone in ...

Ten of 140 patients (7.1%) showed negative results on a QFT-2G test. The 10 patients consisted of seven males and three females (mean age: 66.0 years old). Three of the 10 patients had no clinical symptoms and no underlying diseases. They showed negative results on the QFT-2G test repeatedly within 1 month and a negative response on a tuberculin skin test (TST). Six of the seven remaining patie...