Toray Industries, Inc.

Shimadzu Corporation

Kazumi Tanaka

Yoshihiro Inoue

Atsushi Ohtani

Tetsuro Mizuta

Masaharu Amano

Yoshiyuki Ueno

Takuichi Kobayashi

Hiroaki Fujieda

Hiroyuki Sugaya

Ryozo Terada

Koichiro Oka

Ichiro Itagaki

Tetsunosuke Kunitomo

Tatsuo Nogi

Yoshihiko Kumazawa

Masahiro Osabe

Hidetoshi Kozawa

Fumiaki Fukui

Masahiro Minaga

Hiromu Takeda

Toshikazu Tayama

Tomonori Iwami

Kenji Nishikawa

Hidetoshi Cosmos Higashiyama 605 Kozawa

A solid fiber is described, where the solid fiber is characterized by (a) a modification degree Do/Di, in a cross section of the solid fiber of 1.20 to 8.50 where the inscribed circle diameter is denoted by Di and the circumscribed circle diameter is denoted by Do; and (b) a porous specific surface area of not less than 30 m/g.

Porous fiber, adsorbent material, and purification column

There are provided porous fibers having excellent removal performance with respect to a material to be purified; and a purification column into which an adsorbent material obtained by bundling the fibers is incorporated. The porous fibers satisfying the following conditions (a) and (b) and having a shape in which three or more projected parts are continuously present in the lengthwise direction on the periphery part of a solid-state fiber: (a) The modification degree Do/Di in a cross section is 1.2 to 6.6 when the diameter of the inscribed circle is denoted by Di and the diameter of the circumscribed circle is denoted by Do., and (b) The specific surface area of pores is 50 m/g or more.

Porous fibers, adsorbent material, and purification column

A blood purification column includes an adsorbent and a casing whose two ends are open ends, wherein the adsorbent is housed inside the casing, and wherein one of two casing ends is a blood inflow-side end portion and another is a blood outflow-side end portion, and wherein a filter is disposed at the blood inflow-side end portion and/or the blood outflow-side end portion of the casing, and wherein the filter satisfies (1)-(3):

Blood purification column

Provided is a medical image diagnosis apparatus which requires a small area for installation, has a short length in an axial direction of the apparatus, can reduce a problem of the strength of a top plate, and can simultaneously carry out dynamic PET-imaging of the entire body. A top plate () on which an examinee lies is moved through a tunnel of a CT gantry () and a PET gantry () to execute CT imaging and PET imaging. A PET unit consisting of a plurality (e.g. seven) of PET units () has a length of 2 m in the axis direction, the visual field thereof covers the whole body and the whole body can be simultaneously subjected to dynamic PET-imaging. For the maintenance of the PET gantry (), the diagnosis apparatus is separated at an arbitrary PET unit () to be maintained, the apparatus slides on a rail () in the axis direction and is separated for maintenance operation. Accordingly, a large space for maintenance is not required and the area for installation is small.

Medical diagnostic imaging apparatus

This invention has one object to provide radiation tomography apparatus that allows suppression of arithmetic load of detection data with a wider detector ring. In order to achieve this purpose, the radiation tomography apparatus according to this invention performs coincidence only when two scintillation counter crystals that detect gamma rays coincidentally (A) belong to the same ring unit, or (B) belong to each of the ring units adjacent to each other. Accordingly, a distance in the central axis direction between the radiation detecting elements is limited to be equal to or less than a thickness of the ring unit in the central axis direction. Accordingly, radiation tomography apparatus may be provided that allows generation of the sectional image suitable for diagnosis while arithmetic load is suppressed.

Radiation tomography apparatus

A water vapor permeable membrane is provided comprising a dense layer and a support layer that are adjacent to each other, wherein the dense layer contains voids with a void length of 0.1 &#x3bc;m or less and the dense layer has a thickness of 0.1 &#x3bc;m or more and 2 &#x3bc;m or less while in the support layer, void (a), i.e. the void with the largest length in the 2 &#x3bc;m thick region measured from the boundary between the dense layer and the support layer into the support layer, has a length of 0.3 &#x3bc;m or more and void (b), i.e. the void with the largest length in the region ranging between 2 &#x3bc;m and 4 &#x3bc;m measured from the boundary into the support layer, has a length of 0.5 &#x3bc;m or more, the length of the void (b) being larger than that of the void (a). A water vapor permeable membrane having both a high water vapor permeability and a low air leakage is provided.

Water-vapor-permeable membrane, hollow-fiber membrane, and hollow-fiber membrane module

This invention has one object to provide a method of collecting calibration data in radiation tomography apparatus that allows reliable collection of calibration data with a wide detector ring. In order to achieve this purpose, in the method of collecting calibration data in radiation tomography apparatus according to this invention, the number of coincidence events is obtained while the phantom that emits annihilation gamma-ray pairs moves as to pass through an inner hole of the detector ring. Such configuration dose not need the phantom having a width equal or larger than the detector ring, and may realize reliable collection of calibration data. Moreover, it may be considered that annihilation gamma-ray pairs have been emitted in uniform property without depending on positions of the detector ring. As a result, calibration data that is more suitable for removal of a image artifact may be obtained.

Method of collecting calibration data in radiation tomography apparatus

One purpose of this invention is to provide radiation tomography apparatus with easier maintenance. A specific approach for this purpose is as follows. That is, a detector ring in the radiation tomography apparatus includes two or more rings. Moreover, a ring moves as to approach a next ring, whereby both the rings are connected. If radiation tomography is conducted while a clearance is provided between the rings, detection sensitivity of the detector ring decreases due to the clearance. On the other hand, according to this invention, the ring moves as to approach the next ring, which results in a narrower clearance. Accordingly, radiation that is not observed may be reduced as much as possible.

Membrane materials for removing uremic toxins from a hydrophobic polymer such as polysulfone and two polyvinyl pyrrolidones, hydrophilic polymers of different molecular weights, that is 10-50 wt. % of a low molecular weight component (molecular weight<100,000) and 90-50 wt. % of a high molecular weight component (molecular weight&gE;100,000). The membranes are permselective useful in dialysis. The membrane material may have an overall mass transfer coefficient (K ), for a Strokes' radius of at least 30 &angst; (as determined by a diffusion test during dextran), of &gE;0.0025 cm/min and a permeability to albumin of &lE;4%.

Permselective membranes and methods for their production

A hollow polysulfonic fiber intended for a selectively transmissive membrane contains a hydrophilic polymer which is cross-linked into a water-insoluble form (for example polyvinylpyrrolidone) and is used in the form of a hydrogel containing water. A method for the production of a membrane module consists in spinning a hollow fiber by the use of a spinning solution containing a polysulfonic resin and a hydrophilic polymer, wetting the fiber above the saturated moisture content, and then, with the wet condition maintained, subjecting the fiber to the processes of module molding and radiation induced cross-linking, these processes being performed in either order. The method provides a selectively transmissive hollow polysulfone fiber membrane which displays less elution into water and a sharp molecular weight fractionation, so as to be usable safely in the fields of medicine and foodstuffs.

Process of making a module including a polysulphonic hollow fiber

Hydrophilic material and semipermeable membrane made therefrom

A first image collection memory collects two-dimensional image data within a predetermined energy window to constitute a fine matrix. A second image collection memory collects three-dimensional image data, including energy spectral information, to constitute a coarse matrix. Each pixel of the data collected in the second image collection memory is subjected to a scatter correction with energy weighted acquisition using a weight function. Correction coefficients are derived from a ratio between data before the correction and data after the correction, and by interpolation processing for each pixel in the fine matrix, and are applied to the image data collected in the first image collection memory. The data collected in the second image collection memory is subjected to two-dimensional low-pass filter processing. The scatter correction with the energy weighted acquisition is effected for each data collected in the second image collection memory such that the function is applied to the data before the filter processing, or after the filter processing.

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Otsu, Japan

Kazumi Tanaka