Michio Nishida

BM-ca is a newly defined type I/II anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody with unique biological properties.

Rituximab (chimeric anti-CD20 mAb) is currently used in the treatment of B-NHL and B cell malignancies, alone or in combination with chemotherapy. However, subsets of patients do not initially respond and/or develop resistance to additional treatments. Hence, there is a need to develop more effective anti-CD20 mAbs that may improve clinical response. BM-ca is a novel humanized anti-CD20 mAb that was tested against several B-NHL cell lines and was compared to several anti-CD20 mAbs (Rituximab, ofatumumab, 2H7, B1 and B-Ly1). BM-ca was shown to strongly induce both homotypic cell aggregation and redistribution of CD20 to membrane lipid rafts. BM-ca was also able to induce programmed cell death (apoptosis) without the need for cross-linking and demonstrated potent complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC). BM-ca was more cytotoxic than rituximab even in malignant B cells expressing low amounts of membrane CD20. Type I anti-CD20 mAbs typically induce minimal levels of homotypic cell aggregation and apoptosis but strong localization of CD20 to lipid rafts and potent CDC. Type II anti-CD20 mAbs typically exert the reverse activities. Noteworthy, BM-ca exhibits properties that are shared by both type I and type II anti-CD20 mAbs, which may reflect the recognition of a new CD20 epitope and/or exhibit different molecular signaling. Overall, the present data show that BM-ca is a novel anti-CD20 mAb that may be classified as a type I/II. The therapeutics efficacy of BM-ca awaits its use in clinical trials.

Nonequilibrium Viscous Shock Layer in a Partially Ionized Gas

The structure of a nonequilibrium, partially ionized viscous shock layer of a blunt body which is at floating potential is described. Electron temperature and electron‐ion density profiles across the shock layer have been theoretically investigated for the case where electrons are in thermal nonequilibrium with heavy particles in a free stream. Immediately behind the shock, the electron temperature profile across the shock layer has been matched with that in a free stream, using the relation for the jump of the electron temperature gradient across the shock. The method of matching is described. Dependence of the electron temperature profile across the shock layer upon the degree of thermal nonequilibrium in the free stream has been investigated.

Density contours of a supersonic freejet

The electron beam fluorescence technique has been employed by many investigators to measure density in supersonic low-density freejets issuing from a sonic orifice. However, this technique is difficult for quantitative measurements in relatively high-density freejets because scattering of the electron beam and decay in its energy become significant. In such high-density freejets, the laser interferometry using Wollaston prisms and PIN-photodiodes works satisfactorily (Kobayashi et al., 1984). In the present work, for a purpose of revealing the flowfield of the freejets issuing from a sonic orifice into a vacuum chamber, density measurements in the freejets were carried out by means of laser interferometry. For comparison of the experimental and calculated results, the numerical analysis of the freejet flowfield was also performed. In this Note, the constant density contours which were drawn, based on the experimental and numerical data, are illustrated.

Electron temperature measurements along a stagnation point streamline

Experimental observations of the electron temperature profile along a stagnation point streamline have been found to be in good agreement with the theory developed for the case where the interaction between an electron thermal layer and a viscous shock layer was considered. The electron temperature measurements have been carried out with the Langmuir probe technique in an argon plasma flow.

Aerodynamic Characteristics of Swept Propellers

The vortex lattice method is applied to calculations of the aerodynamic characteristics of propellers. A blade of the propeller is divided into many trapezoidal panels, and each panel is represented by a spiral horse shoe vortex in which a bound vortex is placed on the 1/4chord line of the panel, and a pair of wake vortices is emitted from the both ends of the bound vortex. The circulation strength of these vortices can be obtained by the boundary conditions which describe the tangency condition of the flow at 3/4-chord point. The forces acting on each panel are calculated by KUTTA-JOUKOWSKI theorem. Thrust, torque and efficiency of the propeller are obtained by summing up all forces. Although the flow is assumed to be inviscid and incompressible, the effect of displacement velocity, the effect of compressibility by PRANDTLGLAUERT similarity rule and the effect of drag force introduced into the force calculations using experimental data are examined. Furthermore, utilizing the efficiency of each panel, total efficiency of propeller is improved by increasing or decreasing pitch angle of the blade. The following results are derived by these calculations. (1) The power coefficients agree well with the experimental values for the conventional type of propeller, however, for ATP theoretical values are larger than experimental results. (2) The efficiencies are larger than the experimental values for all types of propeller. Including the drag forces into calculations, theoretical values for the conventional type of propeller agree well with the experimental values, but are still larger for ATP. (3) For the reason of disagreement described in (1) and (2), it can be considered that the inflow to the blade is inclined by nacelle. (4) In middle subsonic range, the power coefficients increase, and the efficiencies decrease by application of PRANDTLGLAUERT similarity rule. (5) Varying pitch angle distribution along the spanwise direction, the section efficiency increases with reduction of the pitch angle and vice versa.

The Behaviour of the Charged Particles Across a Shock Wave in a Partially Ionized Gas

The electron temperature and the ion density across the normal shock wave in the nonequilibrium, weakly ionized argon were measured by means of the LANGMUIR probe technique at Mach numbers of 4.17, 4.39 and 4.88. The electron temperature distribution across the shock in a nonequilibrium weakly ionized gas was calculated using the NAVIER-STOKES equation and it was found that the existence of the broad thermal layer of the elevated electron temperature was determined by Mach number and the degree of the nonequilibrium. Calculations were in fairly good agreement with experimental results, excepting the case where the degree of the nonequilibrium was great. Considering the decay of the free-stream ion density, the ion density distribution across the shock was calculated using the Morr-SMITHs solution for the neutral shock, and it was shown that the ion density decrease due to chemical reaction, diffusion, etc. in the free stream had great influence on it. These calculations agreed well with the experimental results, especially in the density ratio, and these agreements confirmed the above influence.