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Soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptors (SNAREs) make up the core machinery that mediates membrane fusion. SNAREs, syntaxin, synaptosome-associated protein (SNAP), and synaptobrevin form a tight SNARE complex that brings the vesicle and plasma membranes together and is essential for membrane fusion. The cDNAs of SNAP-25, VAMP2, and Syntaxin 1A from Bombyx mori were inserted into a plasmid, transformed into Escherichia coli, and purified. We then produced antibodies against the SNAP-25, VAMP2, and Syntaxin 1A of Bombyx mori of rabbits and rats, which were used for immunohistochemistry. Immunohistochemistry results revealed that the expression of VAMP2 was restricted to neurons in the pars intercerebralis (PI), dorsolateral protocerebrum (DL), and central complex (CX) of the brain. SNAP-25 was restricted to neurons in the PI and the CX of the brain. Syntaxin 1A was restricted to neurons in the PI and DL of the brain. VAMP2 co-localized with SNAP-25 in the CX, and with Syntaxin 1A in the PI and DL. VAMP2, SNAP-25, and Syntaxin 1A are present in the CA. Bombyxin-immunohistochemical reactivities (IRs) of brain and CA overlapped with VAMP2-, SNAP-25, and Syntaxin 1A-IRs. VAMP2 and Syntaxin 1A are present in the prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH)-secretory neurons of the brain., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The AC component of a beam current extracted from a negative hydrogen (H - ) ion source was detected through a 0.1 mm wide, 66.5 mm long entrance slit to observe the spatial distribution. An internal antenna type multicusp source driven by a 2 MHz radio frequency (RF) power delivered beams to an electrostatic accelerator coupled to a pair of magnetic lenses. The local beam intensity measured by a Faraday cup after the entrance slit exhibited an oscillation showing two main frequency components: the RF power supply frequency and the frequency two times the driving RF. The frequency spectrum of the detected signal showed sharp peaks at 2 MHz, 4 MHz, and 6 MHz as well as at 3 MHz and 5 MHz. A 1 mm displacement of the Faraday cup slit position from the center of the beam axis increased the oscillation amplitude, corresponding to a larger amplitude of the AC component at the beam edge.

We developed a small-size electron gun capable of producing electrons with kinetic energy less than few tens of eV to investigate the slowing down and transport mechanisms of electrons in hydrogen negative ion source plasmas. The maximum extractable beam current density reached 36 μA/cm 2 for 1 eV beam energy in a preliminary experiment. Although the present electron current density is still insufficient compared with our target value, 1 mA/cm 2 , we have found some hints to realize larger beam current density from the electron gun through this study. The measured beam profile along the electron beam axis has shown that the electron beam could travel approximately 7 mm from the electron gun in vacuum. The Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulation explained the measured beam profile well and indicated that the electron beam has an energy spread as small as 0.1 eV compared to the 1 eV mean energy. The PIC simulation showed a discrepancy from the measurement in the dependence of the electron beam current on the beam extraction voltage of the electron gun. It implies that we should introduce a more realistic filament structure inside the electron gun in the PIC simulation in order to study the transport of low energy electrons more precisely.

Positive and negative hydrogen ion reflections from surfaces by injecting singly charged hydrogen ion beams show a clear difference between atomic and molecular ion injections at low energy and grazing incidence. The intensity ratio of reflected negative to positive ions H - /H + increased as the incident beam energy per nucleon decreased only when molecular ion beams are injected. It implies that negative ions are more produced upon beam-surface interaction when molecules are injected. A possible reason was discussed in terms of difference in the negative ion production processes between atomic and molecular ions.

A compact ion source that produces hydrogen plasma with an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) configuration combined with a 2-stage extraction system with a single aperture of 6 mm diameter has been designed and built to study the performance of different materials as the plasma electrode (PE) of a negative hydrogen ion source. The source has the capability to electrically bias the PE with respect to the ECR plasma. The first experiment with low ECR power input (less than 40 W) was carried out. The PE of the C12A7 electride showed the largest H - current among aluminum, molybdenum, and the C12A7 electride.

Understanding of the pathogenesis of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)-associated fibrosis has been hampered by the lack of a comprehensive and physiological small animal model of NASH with fibrosis. Feeding a high-fat and high-cholesterol (HFC) diet supplemented with cholic acid to rats is known to replicate human NASH pathology, and it induces fibrosis earlier than with an HFC diet alone. In the present study, physiological and histopathological observations from 65 Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats fed an HFC diet with or without cholic acid for 9 or 18 weeks in our laboratory between January 2013 and February 2018 were retrospectively reviewed. The liver weight/body weight ratio at the end of the rearing period was higher in rats fed an HFC diet than in rats fed a normal diet in a cholesterol dose-, cholic acid dose-, or rearing period dependent manner. Dietary fat, cholesterol and/or cholic acid and rearing period affected the histopathologic severity of NASH. Overall, 56 (86.2%) of 65 SD rats fed an HFC diet for 9 or 18 weeks developed histopathologically proven NASH. It is noted that the SD rats fed an HFC diet supplemented with 2% (w/w) cholic acid for 18 weeks frequently developed advanced fibrosis, including cirrhosis. Thus, this diet-induced NASH rat model is likely to be a highly reproducible., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a subtype of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), has a potentially progressive course that can lead to liver cirrhosis. Age is strongly associated with the development and progression of NAFLD/NASH, but the natural history of pediatric NAFLD is still not fully understood. Here, we evaluated the age-related alterations of NASH in 5-, 9- and 13-wk-old male Sprague-Dawley rats that were fed a high-fat and high-cholesterol diet (30% fat, 1.25% cholesterol and 0.5% sodium cholate, w/w) for 9 wk (6 rats/group). Our results showed that the cumulative energy intake, body weight gain and food efficacy during the 9-wk rearing period were highest in the youngest group and lowest in the oldest group. Serologically, almost all parameters including the serum triglyceride and total cholesterol were similar regardless of age. Histopathological findings, such as hepatic steatosis, lobular inflammation and hepatocyte ballooning, were also similar regardless of age, but hepatic fibrosis was more evident in the oldest group. Also, the mRNA expression levels of some fibrogenic, inflammatory, oxidative stress and cholesterol or lipid metabolism-related genes in the liver were highest in the oldest group and lowest in the youngest group, although the difference was not statistically significant. These results indicated that aging is likely associated with the development of NASH. Because the cumulative energy intake and daily food intake/body weight were not similar among groups in the present study, further studies designed with an equivalent daily food intake/body weight among groups are needed in order to interpret the exact nutritional effect.

The functions of a biased plasma grid of a negative hydrogen (H(-)) ion source for both pure volume and Cs seeded operations are reexamined. Proper control of the plasma grid bias in pure volume sources yields: enhancement of the extracted negative ion current, reduction of the co-extracted electron current, flattening of the spatial distribution of plasma potential across the filter magnetic field, change in recycling from hydrogen atomic/molecular ions to atomic/molecular neutrals, and enhanced concentration of H(-) ions near the plasma grid. These functions are maintained in the sources seeded with Cs with additional direct emission of negative ions under positive ion and neutral hydrogen bombardment onto the plasma electrode.

Purpose: This study aimed to identify factors associated with atrophic tongue in patients with dry mouth., Methods: Discriminant analysis was performed in 1265 patients with dry mouth to identify factors that might influence the risk of developing atrophic tongue. The dependent variable was the presence of atrophic tongue, while patient age, resting saliva flow rate, stimulated saliva flow rate and Candida colony-forming units (CFU) were used as the independent variables., Results: The standardised linear discriminant coefficients showed that Candida CFU, stimulated saliva flow rate and age were significantly associated with the presence of atrophic tongue. The following linear discriminant function was obtained: z = 0.024 × age - 0.63 × (resting saliva flow rate) - 0.81 × (stimulated saliva flow rate) + 0.002 × Candida CFU - 0.611., Conclusion: High Candida CFU, low stimulated saliva flow rate and advanced age were identified as closely associated factors for the risk of development of atrophic tongue., (© 2013 John Wiley & Sons A/S and The Gerodontology Society. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Patients with severe hypophosphatasia (HPP) develop osteogenic impairment with extremely low alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, resulting in a fatal course during infancy. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) differentiate into various mesenchymal lineages, including bone and cartilage. The efficacy of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for congenital skeletal and storage disorders is limited, and therefore we focused on MSCs for the treatment of HPP. To determine the effect of MSCs on osteogenesis, we performed multiple infusions of ex vivo expanded allogeneic MSCs for two patients with severe HPP who had undergone bone marrow transplantation (BMT) from asymptomatic relatives harboring the heterozygous mutation. There were improvements in not only bone mineralization but also muscle mass, respiratory function, and mental development, resulting in the patients being alive at the age of 3. After the infusion of MSCs, chimerism analysis of the mesenchymal cell fraction isolated from bone marrow in the patients demonstrated that donor-derived DNA sequences existed. Adverse events of BMT were tolerated, whereas those of MSC infusion did not occur. However, restoration of ALP activity was limited, and normal bony architecture could not be achieved. Our data suggest that multiple MSC infusions, following BMT, were effective and brought about clinical benefits for patients with lethal HPP. Allogeneic MSC-based therapy would be useful for patients with other congenital bone diseases and tissue disorders if the curative strategy to restore clinically normal features, including bony architecture, can be established.

In order to increase the count rate capability of a neutron detection system as a whole, we propose a multi-stage neutron detection system. Experiments to test the effectiveness of this concept were carried out on Fusion Neutronics Source. Comparing four configurations of alignment, it was found that the influence of an anterior stage on a posterior stage was negligible for the pulse height distribution. The two-stage system using 25 mm thickness scintillator was about 1.65 times the count rate capability of a single detector system for d-D neutrons and was about 1.8 times the count rate capability for d-T neutrons. The results suggested that the concept of a multi-stage detection system will work in practice.

Angle-resolved energy distribution functions of positive and negative hydrogen ions produced from a rough-finished Si surface under 1 keV proton irradiation have been measured. The corresponding distribution from a crystalline surface and a carbon surface are also measured for comparison. Intensities of positive and negative ions from the rough-finished Si are substantially smaller than those from crystalline Si. The angular distributions of these species are broader for rough surface than the crystalline surface. No significant temperature dependence for positive and negative ion intensities is observed for all samples in the temperature range from 300 to 400 K.

We study influence of electric field penetration into H(-) ion source plasma with three-electrode beam extraction system. Clear change in the plasma potential due to the field penetration is observed in case of low gap voltage between a plasma electrode and an extraction electrode. Influence of lens voltage on the second electrode, which is normally utilized to focus the extracted beam, on ion source plasma is evaluated separating contributions of H(-) density in the plasma and extraction probability of H(-) ions from the plasma by two kinds of photodetachment techniques. In our operation condition, we found that the lens voltage is also useful to enhance the H(-) density in the plasma, though it negatively affects the extraction probability.

A numerical simulation code, Atomic Collision in Amorphous Target, has been run to clarify the effects due to the incident angle of hydrogen flux onto surface collision cascade in the subsurface region of a Cs covered Mo plasma grid. The code has taken into account the threshold energy for negative hydrogen (H(-)) ions to leave the surface. This modification has caused the shift of energy distribution functions of H(-) from that of hydrogen atoms leaving the surface. The results have shown that large incident angle of hydrogen particle tilt the angular distribution of reflection component, while it caused a small effect onto the angular distribution of desorption component. The reflection coefficient has increased, while the desorption yield has decreased for increased angle of incidence measured from the surface normal.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are among the most promising sources of stem cells for regenerative medicine. However, the range of their differentiation ability is very limited. In this study, we explored prospective cell surface markers of human MSCs that readily differentiate into cardiomyocytes. When the cardiomyogenic differentiation potential and the expression of cell surface markers involved in heart development were analyzed using various immortalized human MSC lines, the MSCs with high expression of N-cadherin showed a higher probability of differentiation into beating cardiomyocytes. The differentiated cardiomyocytes expressed terminally differentiated cardiomyocyte-specific markers such as α-actinin, cardiac troponin T, and connexin-43. A similar correlation was observed with primary human MSCs derived from bone marrow and adipose tissue. Moreover, N-cadherin-positive MSCs isolated with N-cadherin antibody-conjugated magnetic beads showed an apparently higher ability to differentiate into cardiomyocytes than the N-cadherin-negative population. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction analyses demonstrated that the N-cadherin-positive population expressed significantly elevated levels of cardiomyogenic progenitor-specific transcription factors, including Nkx2.5, Hand1, and GATA4 mRNAs. Our results suggest that N-cadherin is a novel prospective cell surface marker of human MSCs that show a better ability for cardiomyocyte differentiation., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Inflorescence structures result from the activities of meristems, which coordinate both the renewal of stem cells in the center and organ formation at the periphery. The fate of a meristem is specified at its initiation and changes as the plant develops. During rice inflorescence development, newly formed meristems acquire a branch meristem (BM) identity, and can generate further meristems or terminate as spikelets. Thus, the form of rice inflorescence is determined by a reiterative pattern of decisions made at the meristems. In the dominant gain-of-function mutant tawawa1-D, the activity of the inflorescence meristem (IM) is extended and spikelet specification is delayed, resulting in prolonged branch formation and increased numbers of spikelets. In contrast, reductions in TAWAWA1 (TAW1) activity cause precocious IM abortion and spikelet formation, resulting in the generation of small inflorescences. TAW1 encodes a nuclear protein of unknown function and shows high levels of expression in the shoot apical meristem, the IM, and the BMs. TAW1 expression disappears from incipient spikelet meristems (SMs). We also demonstrate that members of the SHORT VEGETATIVE PHASE subfamily of MADS-box genes function downstream of TAW1. We thus propose that TAW1 is a unique regulator of meristem activity in rice and regulates inflorescence development through the promotion of IM activity and suppression of the phase change to SM identity.

Proof of principle experiments of neutral helium beam production for alpha particle diagnostics was carried out on a test stand. Negative helium ions were produced in the Li charge exchange cell, in which stable and long time operation was possible. He(-) beam was accelerated to 157 keV. Finally, He(0) beam was successfully produced after the flight in the drift-tube through the auto-electron-detachment process from He(-) to He(0). A neutral beam detector using a pyroelectric device was also developed to measure He(0) beam intensity. The metastable component in the neutral helium beam was found to be less than 2%.

A strongly focusing He(+) ion beam source equipped with concave multi-aperture electrodes was developed for production of He(-) through a charge exchange cell. The beam was extracted at a voltage less than 20 kV from 301 apertures distributed in an area of 100 mm φ, and focused at 750 mm distance. The beam current and the beam size of 2 A and 20 mm in diameter, respectively, were achieved with an arc power less than 10 kW. The optimum perveance was obtained at 0.02 A∕kV(1.5) at the beam energy less than 20 keV which is suitable for the conversion to He(-) in an alkali vapor cell.

An energetic helium neutral beam is involved in the beam neutralization measurement system of alpha particles confined in a DT fusion plasma. A full size strong-focusing He(+) ion source (2 A, the beam radius of 11.3 mm, the beam energy less than 20 keV). Present strong-focusing He(+) ion source shows an emittance diagram separated for each beamlet of multiple apertures without phase space mixing, despite the space charge of a beamlet is asymmetric and the beam flow is non-laminar. The emittance of beamlets in the peripheral region was larger than that of center. The heat load to the plasma electrode was studied to estimate the duty factor for the ITER application.

Array-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) using bacterial artificial chromosomes (BAC) is a powerful method to analyze DNA copy number aberrations of the entire human genome. In fact, CGH and aCGH have revealed various DNA copy number aberrations in numerous cancer cells and cancer cell lines examined so far. In this report, BAC aCGH was applied to evaluate the stability or instability of cell lines. Established cell lines have greatly contributed to advancements in not only biology but also medical science. However, cell lines have serious problems, such as alteration of biological properties during long-term cultivation. Firstly, we investigated two cancer cell lines, HeLa and Caco-2. HeLa cells, established from a cervical cancer, showed significantly increased DNA copy number alterations with passage time. Caco-2 cells, established from a colon cancer, showed no remarkable differences under various culture conditions. These results indicate that BAC aCGH can be used for the evaluation and validation of genomic stability of cultured cells. Secondly, BAC aCGH was applied to evaluate and validate the genomic stabilities of three patient's mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which were already used for their treatments. These three MSCs showed no significant differences in DNA copy number aberrations over their entire chromosomal regions. Therefore, BAC aCGH is highly recommended for use for a quality check of various cells before using them for any kind of biological investigation or clinical application.

Deuterium experiment on the Large Helical Device (LHD) is now being planned at the National Institute for Fusion Science. The fusion product diagnostics systems currently considered for installation on LHD are described in this paper. The systems will include a time-resolved neutron yield monitor based on neutron gas counters, a time-integrated neutron yield monitor based on activation techniques, a multicollimator scintillation detector array for diagnosing spatial distribution of neutron emission rate, 2.5 MeV neutron spectrometer, 14 MeV neutron counter, and prompt γ-ray diagnostics.

We developed a lost alpha detection system to use in burning plasma experiments. The scintillators of Ag:ZnS and polycrystalline Ce:YAG were designed for a high-temperature environment, and the optical transmission line was designed to transmit from the scintillator to the port plug. The required optical components of lenses and mirrors were irradiated using the fission reactor with the initial result that there was no clear change after the irradiation with a neutron flux of 9.6×10(17) nm(-2)  s(-1) for 48 h. We propose a diagnostic of alpha particle loss, so-called alpha particle induced gamma ray spectroscopy. The initial laboratory test has been carried out by the use of the Ce doped Lu(2)SiO(5) scintillator detector and an Am-Be source to detect the 4.44 MeV high energy gamma ray due to the (9)Be(α,nγ)(12)C reaction.

Full orbit-following calculation is performed for the final orbit of the lost alpha particles, showing some orbits escaping from the last closed flux surface could be detected by a concealed lost ion probe (CLIP) installed under the shadow of the original first wall surface. While both passing and trapped orbits hit the same wall panel, detecting a trapped orbit by the CLIP is easier than detecting passing orbits. Whether the final orbit is detected or not is determined by the position of the reflection point. The CLIP successfully detects the trapped orbits, which are reflected before they hit to a first wall. Then the pitch angles of the orbits at the CLIP are close to and smaller than 90°. Optimization of the position of the CLIP in terms of broader detection window is investigated.

Accuracy of 10% is demanded to the absolute fusion measurement on ITER. To achieve this accuracy, a functional combination of several types of neutron measurement subsystem, cross calibration among them, and in situ calibration are needed. Neutron transport calculation shows the suitable calibration source is a DT/DD neutron generator of source strength higher than 10(10) n/s (neutron/second) for DT and 10(8) n/s for DD. It will take eight weeks at the minimum with this source to calibrate flux monitors, profile monitors, and the activation system.

A digital signal processing (DSP) system is applied to stilbene scintillation detectors of the multichannel neutron emission profile monitor in JT-60U. Automatic analysis of the neutron-γ pulse shape discrimination is a key issue to diminish the processing time in the DSP system, and it has been applied using the two-dimensional (2D) map. Linear discriminant function is used to determine the dividing line between neutron events and γ-ray events on a 2D map. In order to verify the validity of the dividing line determination, the pulse shape discrimination quality is evaluated. As a result, the γ-ray contamination in most of the beam heating phase was negligible compared with the statistical error with 10 ms time resolution.

The expression of four transcription factors (OCT3/4, SOX2, KLF4, and MYC) can reprogram mouse as well as human somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. We generated iPS cells from mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) derived from human third molars (wisdom teeth) by retroviral transduction of OCT3/4, SOX2, and KLF4 without MYC, which is considered as oncogene. Interestingly, some of the clonally expanded MSCs could be used for iPS cell generation with 30-100-fold higher efficiency when compared with that of other clonally expanded MSCs and human dermal fibroblasts. Global gene expression profiles demonstrated some up-regulated genes regarding DNA repair/histone conformational change in the efficient clones, suggesting that the processes of chromatin remodeling have important roles in the cascade of iPS cells generation. The generated iPS cells resembled human embryonic stem (ES) cells in many aspects, including morphology, ES marker expression, global gene expression, epigenetic states, and the ability to differentiate into the three germ layers in vitro and in vivo. Because human third molars are discarded as clinical waste, our data indicate that clonally expanded MSCs derived from human third molars are a valuable cell source for the generation of iPS cells.

Human adipose-derived stem cells (hASCs) are ubiquitous, plentiful, and easily/safely obtainable cells derived from adipose tissue, regardless of the age and sex of the donor. However, the hASCs have limited proliferative and differentiation capabilities. In this study, we examined whether induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) could be generated from hASCs. We transduced hASCs with three human transcription factors (OCT3/4, SOX2, and KLF4), and found that they formed human embryonic stem cell (ESC)-like colonies. Importantly, we did not transduce c-MYC, which is usually utilized to generate iPSCs but is considered an oncogene. These colonies expressed human ESC-specific surface antigens (stage-specific embryonic antigens SSEA-3 and SSEA-4, and tumor-related antigens TRA-1-60 and TRA-1-81), endogenous transcription factors (OCT3/4, NANOG, and SOX2), and undifferentiated human ESC marker genes (REX1, UTF1, GDF3, DPPA2, DPPA4, and DPPA5). Further, the colonies were able to differentiate into the three germ layers both in vitro and in vivo. These results show that human iPSCs can be generated by the transduction of three factors (OCT3/4, SOX2, and KLF4) into hASCs.

We investigate influence of H(-) initial transport direction and kinetic energy on H(-) extraction probability with three-dimensional Monte Carlo calculation. As a result, lower energy H(-) ions are strongly trapped by the electrical potential structure, so that initial condition of H(-) transport direction is cancelled by alignment of the electric field; thus, it has lower influence for H(-) extraction probability. Besides, the potential hill induced by the beam extraction voltage more effectively enhances H(-) extraction probability for the lower energy H(-) ions. The correlation between the magnitude of the local plasma potential near the extraction region and the mean velocity of H(-) ions in the region should determine the H(-) extraction probability from the ion source.

The phase space distribution of a strongly focused He(+) ion beam source equipped with concave multiaperture electrodes was measured using a pepper-pot plate and a Kapton foil. The substructure of 301 merging He beamlets was clearly observed on a footprint of pepper-pot hole at the beam waist, where the beam density was 500 mA/cm(2). The position and the width of each beamlet substructure show the effect of interference of beamlets with surrounding one.

Chromosome 6 deletions are very rare (1,2), and deletion 6q syndrome is clinically characterized by mental and/or neuromotor retardation and microcephaly (3). Other alterations frequently observed are decreased biparietal diameter, hypertelorism, hypotelorism, absent eyebrows, prominent eyes with ptosis, receding chin, dysmorphic ears, large extremities, prominent nasal bridge, long philtrum, epicthus, strabismus, and micrognathia (3-5). Laryngomalacia is the most common congenital laryngeal anomaly and the most frequent cause of stridor in infants (6-11). We report the case of a 14-year-old male patient with both deletion 6q syndrome and laryngomalacia, who we treated for multiple dental caries. He had a medical history of tracheotomy at age 11 years for laryngomalacia, and has suffered from epileptic attacks and aspiration pneumonia over the last 2 and 6 years, respectively. Since he was mentally retarded and in a poor respiratory state, dental treatment under general anesthesia was scheduled in our hospital. General anesthesia was induced and maintained using 30% nitrous oxide and 1-3% sevoflurane in oxygen through the tracheotomy tube. Pre- and intraoperative endotracheal suction improved the condition of both lungs markedly and the procedures were uneventful and completed in 2 h and 58 min.

An orbit following calculation code with full gyromotion under the ITER magnetic field configuration has been developed to investigate escaping alpha particle orbits in ITER and to determine the geometrical arrangement for alpha particle detection. The code contained the full geometrical information of the first wall panels. It was carefully investigated whether an alpha particle escaping from the plasma through the last closed flux surface does not touch or intersect the first wall boundary before reaching the detection point. Candidates of blanket module modification have been studied to achieve effective measurement geometry for escaping alpha particle detection. The calculations showed that direct orbit loss and banana diffusion can be detected with a probe head recessed from the first wall surface.

A strongly focusing high-intensity He(+) ion source equipped with three concave electrodes has been designed and constructed as the beam source for a high-energy He(0) neutral beam probe system to diagnose fusion-produced alpha particles in thermonuclear fusion plasmas. The reduction of heat load onto the concave extraction electrodes is particularly important for a long pulse operation, as the heat load deforms the electrodes and thus the beam focal length. The effects on the arc efficiency (beam current/arc power) of the ion source due to the discharge filament structure (straight-type and L-shape-type filaments), size (filament diameters of 2 and 1.5 mm), number, and the locations have been studied. Choice of the appropriate filament structure improved the arc efficiency by 17%.

We have been developing a test stand for fast He(0) beam production. One of the major issues is how to transport effectively the He(+) and He(-) beams from which the He(0) beam is produced. The beam should be focused in two transverse focal points, the center of the charge exchange cell and the electrostatic accelerator. We studied the beam transport system and effect of space charge neutralization in the test stand by experiments and calculation.

Energy straggling in a charge exchange cell, which is frequently used for negative ion production, was studied experimentally and compared with the results of theoretical evaluation. The change of the energy spectrum of a He(+) beam due to charge exchange processes in argon gas was measured in the energy range of 2-6 keV. Energy straggling by multiple collisions is expressed by the energy loss formula due to inelastic and elastic processes. The impact parameter is related to the elastic scattering angle, and the geometry of the charge exchange cell and other components of the beam transportation system determines the maximum acceptable scattering angle. The energy spread was evaluated taking the integral limit over the impact parameter into consideration. The theoretical results showed good agreement with those of actual measurement.

A strongly focusing high-intensity He(+) ion source has been designed and constructed as a beam source for a high-energy He(0) beam probe system for diagnosis of fusion produced alpha particles in the thermonuclear fusion plasmas. The He(+) beam was extracted from the ion source at an acceleration voltage of 18-35 kV. Temperature distributions of the beam target were observed with an IR camera. The 1/e-holding beam profile half-width was about 15 mm at optimum perveance (Perv) of 0.03 (I(beam)=2.4 A). A beam current about 3 A was achieved at an acceleration voltage of 26.7 kV with an arc power of 10 kW (Perv=0.023).

We have developed a time-of-flight analyzer to measure energy distributions of reflected particles from solid surfaces bombarded by low-energy (1-2 keV) ions. The analyzer yields energy distributions of neutrals which can be compared with the energy distributions of charged particles measured by a magnetic deflection-type momentum analyzer. We have tested the system to measure the angular dependence of energy and intensity for neutrals reflected from a polycrystalline W target. The energies of the reflected neutrals are much smaller than the incident ion energies, suggesting multiple scattering in the target. No angular dependence is observed under the condition that the sum of the incident and reflected angles is constant. The intensity of the reflected neutrals takes the maximum around the mirror angle. We compare these characteristics of neutral particle reflections with those of reflected ions.

The effect upon extraction of negative hydrogen ions (H(-)) due to electric field near the extractor hole of a H(-) source is studied experimentally and theoretically. Probe measurements show that the extraction electric field penetrates into the plasma in the region near the extractor hole. Based on this observation a three-dimensional H(-) trajectory calculation that takes into account the local electric field distribution near the plasma electrode has been carried out. The validity of the trajectory calculation was examined by comparing the results with experimentally measured changes in H(-) current detected by a Faraday cup due to irradiation of a pulse laser beam in the region close to the extractor hole. The calculation results qualitatively explain the changes in H(-) current observed in the experiment. The calculation results also predict that the amount of H(-) current passing through the extractor hole changes with the electric field: the penetration of the electric field substantially enhances the H(-) extraction current, because it produces an electric field to attract H(-) toward the extraction hole.

Performance of a compact He(+) ion source was investigated before installing it to the experiment system developed for studying the efficiency of autodetachment neutralization from He(-) to He(0). Dependence of the extracted ion current upon the plasma parameters and that upon the extraction voltage indicated that the source performance was limited by space charge effect. The beam emittance was measured with a multislit system for various operation conditions. The experimentally determined emittance agreed well with the emittance obtained from ion trajectories calculated with input plasma parameters measured by a Langmuir probe. The beam current density of 60 mA/cm(2) and the emittance of less than 25pi mm mrad are expected to deliver enough current to the downstream of the He(-) neutralizer system to clarify factors affecting the final He(0) intensity.

A 12-year-old boy with mental retardation and cerebral palsy developed hyperthermia during dental treatment performed while he was conscious. During the treatment, he was highly excited, and shortly after completion of the procedure, general muscular spasms occurred. His axillary temperature was 41.6 degrees C then. He was transferred to another general hospital and there he was judged to have become afebrile and was discharged. His condition deteriorated during the night, and he was readmitted to the same hospital the following morning. The patient did not respond to the therapy and died from multiple organ failure on the 13th day. It was thought that hyperthermia had led to rhabdomyolysis and DIC. The cause of death is discussed. Hyperthermia in a handicapped patient is not always transient or benign, and can be life threatening.

Sawtooth oscillations have been observed in current-carrying helical plasmas by using electron-cyclotron-emission diagnostics in the Large Helical Device. The plasma current, which is driven by neutral beam injection, reduces the beta threshold of the sawtooth oscillation. When the central q value is increased due to the plasma current, the core region crashes, and, when it is decreased, the edge region crashes annularly. Observed rapid mixture of the plasma in the limited region suggests that these sawtooth crashes are reconnection phenomena. Unlike previous experiments, no precursor oscillation has been observed.

In the Large Helical Device plasma discharges, the size of an externally imposed island with mode number ( n/m = 1/1) decreases substantially when the plasma is collisionless ( nu(*)< approximately 1) and the beta is finite ( > approximately 0.1%) at the island location. For the collisional plasmas with finite beta, on the other hand, the size of the island increases. However, there is a threshold in terms of the vacuum island size below which the island enlargement is not seen.

It was observed that the vacuum magnetic island produced by an external error magnetic field in the large helical device shrank in the presence of plasma. This was evidenced by the disappearance of flat regions in the electron temperature profile obtained by Thomson scattering. This island behavior depended on the magnetic configuration in which the plasmas were produced.

Recent large helical device experiments revealed that the transition from ion root to electron root occurred for the first time in neutral-beam-heated discharges, where no nonthermal electrons exist. The measured values of the radial electric field were found to be in qualitative agreement with those estimated by neoclassical theory. A clear reduction of ion thermal diffusivity was observed after the mode transition from ion root to electron root as predicted by neoclassical theory when the neoclassical ion loss is more dominant than the anomalous ion loss.

The plasma dynamics arising from laser photodetachment is discussed herein theoretically and experimentally. The hybrid fluid-kinetic model, where the positive ions and electrons are treated by the fluid theory and the negative ions are treated within the ballistic approximation, is extended and applied to the analysis of densities perturbed by laser photodetachment. The agreement between the theory and measured data confirms the validity of the considered plasma dynamics model. This model, including the positive ion perturbation, shows a good agreement with the time evolution and the spatial distribution of perturbed electron densities which are measured by a Langmuir probe inside and outside the laser beam. From the overshoot in the time evolution of perturbed electron current in the center of the laser beam, the positive ion temperature was found to be in the range 0.1-0.25 eV, while the electron temperature changes from 0.3 to 3.2 eV.

Ion-cyclotron heating was applied to the Large Helical Device. When the proton-cyclotron resonance was near the saddle point of the magnetic field-strength plane, strong ion-cyclotron damping occurred. Under these conditions efficient plasma heating was achieved for more than one minute. A high-energy ion tail was observed, and the effective tail temperature was determined by a balance between the wave acceleration and the electron-drag relaxation. There was no apparent sign of particle orbit loss effect in the investigated density range of 0.8-1.3x10(19) m(-3).

Patients with Cornelia de Lange syndrome have many anomalies including micrognathia with a small mouth, a high arched palate, and a short neck, which might make laryngoscopy for tracheal intubation difficult during induction of general anesthesia. General anesthesia was performed in a patient with Cornelia de Lange syndrome, and restricted opening of the mouth, which had not been reported previously, was found during laryngoscopy. The possible causes were thought to be temporo-mandibular joint disorders, contracture of the masseter muscle due to injury by self-destructive tendencies, or elogated coronoid process. The potential difficulty with laryngoscopy should be considered for tracheal intubation in a patient with Cornelia de Lange syndrome.

Objectives: Given the high prevalence of fast-metabolizing alcohol dehydrogenase-1B*2 (ADH1B*2 ) and inactive aldehyde dehydrogenase-2*2 (ALDH2*2 ) alleles in East Asians, we evaluated how the ADH1B / ALDH2 genotypes and alcohol flushing might affect the development of alcohol dependence (AD)., Methods: We evaluated how the ADH1B / ALDH2 genotypes and self-reported alcohol flushing affected history of drinking events and withdrawal symptoms and ICD-10 criteria in 4116 Japanese AD men., Results: The ADH1B*1/*1 group and ALDH2*1/*1 group were 1-5 years younger than the ADH1B*2 (+) and ALDH2*1/*2 groups, respectively, for all of the ages at onset of habitual drinking, blackouts, daytime drinking, uncontrolled drinking, withdrawal symptoms, and first treatment for AD, and the current age. Blackouts were more common in the ADH1B*1/*1 group and ALDH2*1/*1 group. Daytime drinking, uncontrolled drinking, and withdrawal symptoms, such as hand tremor, sweating, convulsions, and delirium tremens/hallucinations were more common in the ADH1B*1/*1 group. The ADH1B*1/*1 was positively associated with the ICD-10 criteria for 'tolerance' and 'withdrawal symptoms'. The ADH1B*1/*1 group and ALDH2*1/*2 group had a larger ICD-10 score. Never flushing was reported by 91.7% and 35.2% of the ALDH2*1/*1 and ALDH2*1/*2 carriers, respectively. After a 1-2-year delay in the onset of habitual drinking in the former-/current-flushing group, no differences in the ages of the aforementioned drinking milestones were found according to the flushing status., Conclusion: The ADH1B*1/*1 and ALDH2*1/*1 accelerated the development of drinking events and withdrawal symptoms in Japanese AD patients. ICD-10 score was larger in the ADH1B*1/*1 group and ALDH2*1/*2 group. The effects of alcohol flushing on drinking events were limited., (Copyright © 2024 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)