The acidogenic phase of a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) inoculated with well acclimated sludge will produce a substantial amount of hydrogen gas and steady state microbial biomass. Hydrogen production of more than 65% was observed at high dilution rate and 71% at low dilution rate. Gas production rate of more than 10 1/day was also observed from the chemostat reactors. The true yield (Yt) value was 0.625 g.VSS/g.COD-utilized and the kd value was 0.41 hr-1. Sample sludge (cell) from chemostat reactors was then collected at steady state and small amount was inoculated into small vials. Many sets of vials were prepared and all were filled up by different concentrations of glucose and growth medium with the same proportion. The vials were treated as batch culture of the mixed microorganisms, incubated at 30°C and put on a rotating shaker with 130 osc.min.-1. The VSS values analyzed on the vials sample at predetermined time intervals will provide the data for the inhibitory constants determinations. From the available kinetics parameters and inhibitory model equation, graph fittings computations were done. The inhibitory model fits to some degree on the experimental data. These findings confirmed the inhibitory effects of glucose concentrations and the ability to recover hydrogen gas from organic substances at certain predetermined concentrations.

This scoring system for postoperative gastrointestinal dysfunction provides an objective measure of dysfunction related to specific surgical procedures and correlates with activities of daily living in the postoperative period.

Effects of solids retention time (SRT) on hydrogen gas production, glucose degradation and anaerobic bacteria in anaerobic treatment processes were investigated with use of 11,700 mg/l glucose solution as a substrate. Five series of experiments were conducted at 36 ± 1°C. Volatile fatty acids were produced in the order: acetic, n-butyric, propionic and n-valeric with concentration of effluent. Counts of general anaerobic bacteria and acid-forming bacteria in each reactor increased with increasing SRT, and counts of genus Clostridium and sulphate reducing bacteria in the reactor decreased with increasing SRT of the reactor. Gas production rates and gas composition were investigated to obtain information on energy production. Solids retention time increased from 2 to 10 h, hydrogen gas content decreased from 12 to 9%. The kinetic constants such as the microbial decay coefficient (Kd), the maintenance coefficient (m) and the growth yield for microorganisms (YG) were 4.04,41.7 and 0.097 day−1, respectively.

We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the interhemispheric difference of the N170 component for upright and inverted face perception in detail in fifteen healthy subjects. This is the first ERP study focusing on interhemispheric differences for face perception by showing faces in the hemifield. The face inversion effect, the prolonged latency and enhanced amplitude were found in both hemispheres. We found that the peak latency of the N170 following both upright and inverted face stimulation showed no significant difference between each hemisphere, though the N170 latency for the inverted face in the left hemisphere was shorter than that in the right hemisphere. The N170 recorded from the hemisphere ipsilateral to the stimulated hemifield showed unique findings. The interhemispheric time difference of the N170 between the right and the left hemispheres when the inverted face was presented in the left hemifield was significantly shorter than in the other three conditions. This unique finding may indicate that the conduction time from the right to the left for inverted face perception is faster than the other conditions, or that the left hemisphere specifically processed the inverted face very rapidly after receiving signals from the right hemisphere. If the N170 was generated by some, at least two, temporally overlapping activities, the different style of a summation of these activities may cause the unique findings found in this study. In conclusion, by presenting face stimuli in the hemifields, we could identify several new findings regarding the N170 component related to the face inversion effect.

Our preliminary scale is sufficiently reliable and valid, and will prove to be clinically useful.