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Takumi Takeuchi,1 Kazuki Maki,1 Yumiko Okuno,1 Mami Hattori-Kato,2 Koji Mikami1 1Department of Urology, Japan Organization of Occupational Health and Safety, Kanto Rosai Hospital, Nakahara-ku, Kawasaki, Japan; 2Department of Urology, Tokyo Teishin Hospital, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8798, JapanCorrespondence: Takumi TakeuchiDepartment of Urology, Japan Organization of Occupational Health and Safety, Kanto Rosai Hospital, 1-1 Kizukisumiyoshi-Cho, Nakahara-ku, Kawasaki 211-8510, JapanEmail takeuchit@abelia.ocn.ne.jpObjective: We herein attempted to select male patients with an elevated nocturnal urinary frequency possibly due to a shortage of AVP. These patients may be good candidates for low-dose oral desmopressin administration.Patients and Methods: Serum and spot urine osmolality, electrolytes, serum creatinine, casual blood glucose, plasma brain natriuretic polypeptide (BNP), and plasma AVP were measured at the same time in 97 elderly male patients with urinary symptoms under free water drinking.Results: A binary plot of plasma AVP and serum osmolality indicated a region at which patients had relatively lower AVP considering higher serum osmolality. It was tentatively named the desmopressin region. Twenty out of 97 (20.6%) patients were in the desmopressin region. Daily urine output did not exceed 3 L in any patient. Urine osmolality was slightly lower in patients in the desmopressin region. No significant differences were observed in urine volume, urinary frequency, or urination questionnaire scores between both groups.Conclusion: AVP-shortage patients may be selected for treatment with oral desmopressin based on measurements of serum osmolality and plasma AVP.Keywords: AVP, osmolality, desmopressin, urination

Lattice-matched Al1−xInxN / GaN heterostructures with InN mole fraction (x) of 0.18 have attracted considerable interest for use in GaN-based optoelectronic devices. Because the light emission efficiency (η emission ) of Al1−xInxN alloys is far less than that of InxGa1−xN, understanding its causes is essential. For this purpose, room-temperature photoluminescence lifetime (τ PL RT ), which almost represents the nonradiative recombination lifetime that limits the internal quantum efficiency in low η emission semiconductors, of c-plane Al1−xInxN epilayers nearly and modestly lattice-matched to GaN (0.11 ≤ x ≤ 0.21) was examined. For the epilayers grown on low threading dislocation density (TDD) GaN substrates (≪ 10 7 c m − 2 ), τ PL RT principally decreased with increasing x, indicating a progressive increase in the concentration of nonradiative recombination centers (NRCs), N NRC . One of the probable causes is the growth temperature (T g ) reduction that is indispensable to incorporate more In, because in insufficient T g regime higher T g is preferred for enhancing the surface migration of adatoms to decrease the concentrations of vacancies that compose NRCs. The Al1−xInxN epilayers of the same x but grown on high TDD (> --> 10 8 c m − 2 ) GaN-on-sapphire templates exhibited shorter τ PL RT . Because the diffusion length of minority carriers was nearly zero in the Al1−xInxN epilayers, the shorter τ PL RT indicates higher bulk N NRC in high TDD epilayers. The Al1−xInxN epilayers of considerably rough surface morphologies exhibited spatially inhomogeneous τ PL RT , implying that excited carriers recombined everywhere at InN-rich to InN-poor portions, where N NRC were likely lower to higher, respectively, than the average due to the deviations in the surface stoichiometry at various non-c-plane surfaces at a given T g . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have investigated the electronic structure of silver chalcogenides Ag2X (X = S, Se, Te) and their solid solutions using hard x-ray photoemission spectroscopy in combination with density functional theory calculations using generalized gradient approximation (GGA). By including the corrections for on-site Coulomb interactions (GGA + U), we successfully reproduced the valence band photoemission spectra, which consist mainly of the Ag 4d band, by calculation. The estimated values for U = 4–6 eV are slightly high for Ag 4d electrons but are consistent with those used in previously reported structural studies. On the other hand, the magnitude of the energy gap is virtually independent of U. These results suggest the strong correlation between Ag 4d electrons in Ag2X compounds to have surprisingly little impact on their electron transport properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a review of the present status of neutrino mass physics, which grew out of an APS sponsored study of neutrinos in 2004. After a discussion of the present knowledge of neutrino masses and mixing and some popular ways to probe the new physics implied by recent data, it summarizes what can be learned about neutrino interactions as well as the nature of new physics beyond the Standard Model from the various proposed neutrino experiments. The intriguing possibility that neutrino mass physics may be at the heart of our understanding of a long standing puzzle of cosmology, i.e. the origin of matter-antimatter asymmetry is also discussed. © 2007 IOP Publishing Ltd.

HIV-1 protease inhibitor (PI), nelfinavir (NFV) induced growth arrest and apoptosis of NCI-H460 and -H520, A549, EBC-1 and ABC-1 non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells in association with upregulation of p21waf1, p27kip1 and p53, and downregulation of Bcl-2 and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 proteins. We found that NFV blocked Akt signalling in these cells as measured by Akt kinase assay with glycogen synthase kinase-3alpha/beta (GSK-3alpha/beta) as a substrate. To explore the role of Akt signalling in NFV-mediated growth inhibition of NSCLC cells, we blocked this signal pathway by transfection of Akt small interfering RNA (siRNA) in these cells; transient transfection of Akt siRNA in NCI-H460 cells decreased the level of Bcl-2 protein and slowed their proliferation compared to the nonspecific siRNA-transfected cells. Conversely, forced-expression of Akt partially reversed NFV-mediated growth inhibition of these cells, suggesting that Akt may be a molecular target of NFV in NSCLC cells. Also, we found that inhibition of Akt signalling by NFV enhanced the ability of docetaxel to inhibit the growth of NCI-H460 and -H520 cells, as measured by MTT assay. Importantly, NFV slowed the proliferation and induced apoptosis of NCI-H460 cells present as tumour xenografts in nude mice without adverse systemic effects. Taken together, this family of compounds might be useful for the treatment of individuals with NSCLC.

In magnetically confined fusion plasmas, a gyrotron is an essential auxiliary heating device for generating and sustaining plasma through electron cyclotron resonance heating owing to its ability to generate high-power microwaves. Microwaves emitted from a gyrotron are often transmitted through waveguides, and the transmitted power is monitored by a power monitor with a multi-hole directional coupler at the miter bend of the transmission line. Recently, a high-power dual-frequency gyrotron has been installed and operated in the Large Helical Device. A power monitor with good sensitivity to multiple frequencies is required to monitor the power transmission of the different frequencies at the same transmission line. In order to realize the power monitor, which can couple with the multiple-frequency microwaves, we focused on a sub-waveguide shape in the power monitor and investigated the influence of the tapered sub-waveguide by conducting electromagnetic simulations using a simple model. We also performed the high-power test using a power monitor with a tapered sub-waveguide. The experimental result was different from the simulation, but enough receiving power was obtained at both 116 and 154 GHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use angle-resolved photoemission to unravel the quasiparticle decoherenceprocess in the high-$T_c$ cuprates. The coherent band is highly renormalized,and the incoherent part manifests itself as a nearly vertical ``dive'' in the$E$-$k$ intensity plot that approaches the bare band bottom. We find that thecoherence-incoherence crossover energies in the hole- and electron-dopedcuprates are quite different, but scale to their corresponding bare bandwidth.This rules out antiferromagnetic fluctuations as the main source fordecoherence. We also observe the coherent band bottom at the zone center, whoseintensity is strongly suppressed by the decoherence process. Consequently, thecoherent band dispersion for both hole- and electron-doped cuprates isobtained, and is qualitatively consistent with the framework of Gutzwillerprojection.

Ground-based measurements of aerosols and trace gases were conducted at an urban site in Tokyo (Komaba) and a site 50 km to the north (Kisai) during July-August 2004. An Aerodyne aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) was deployed at each measurement site to investigate the chemical evolution of submicron organic aerosol (OA) in polluted air. The mass concentrations of OA at the Kisai site were systematically higher than those at the Komaba site and were correlated with ozone under southerly conditions. The rate of increase of OA at the Kisai site is investigated using the photochemical age derived from the ratio of alkyl nitrates to their parent hydrocarbons. The OA concentrations in processed air (age of 8-16 h) were 4-5 times larger than those in fresh emissions (age ∼ 0), suggesting that the OA concentrations can be significantly enhanced within ∼0.5 days under conditions of high photochemical activity. Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.

Aim: We tested the hypothesis that stimulation by electro-resection of bladder tissue induces stem cells in the tissue repair process. Materials & Methods: After primary transurethral resection of a bladder tumor and surrounding tissue (TUR-Bt), second TUR-Bt was performed. Tissues excised by second TUR-Bt were immunohistochemically stained for Oct4, a marker of pluripotency, and for CD90 and CD73, markers of mesenchymal stromal cells, when no bladder tumor cells remained. Results and Conclusions: Oct4B protein was sporadically stained in the cytoplasm of interstitial cells in four out of eight cases. CD90 and CD73 are upregulated in interstitial and vascular endothelial cells without CD45 expression. Mesenchymal stromal cells, but not pluripotent stem cells, may be mainly involved in bladder tissue repair.

Takumi Takeuchi, Yumiko Okuno, Mami Hattori-Kato, Masayoshi Zaitsu, Koji MikamiDepartment of Urology, Kanto Rosai Hospital, Kawasaki, JapanAbstract: A splice variant of androgen receptor (AR), AR-V7, lacks in androgen-binding portion and leads to aggressive cancer characteristics. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reactions (PCRs) and subsequent nested PCRs for the amplification of AR-V7 and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) transcripts were done for whole blood of patients with prostate cancer and male controls. With primary reverse transcription PCRs, AR-V7 and PSA were detected in 4.5% and 4.7% of prostate cancer, respectively. With nested PCRs, AR-V7 messenger RNA (mRNA) was positive in 43.8% of castration-sensitive prostate cancer and 48.1% of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), while PSA mRNA was positive in 6.3% of castration-sensitive prostate cancer and 18.5% of CRPC. Whole-blood samples of controls showed AR-V7 mRNA expression by nested PCR. Based on multivariate analysis, expression of AR-V7 mRNA in whole blood was not significantly correlated with clinical parameters and PSA mRNA in blood, while univariate analysis showed a correlation between AR-V7 mRNA and metastasis at initial diagnosis. Detection of AR-V7 mRNA did not predict the reduction of serum PSA in patients with CRPC following abiraterone and enzalutamide administration. In conclusion, AR-V7 mRNA expression in normal hematopoietic cells may have annihilated the manifestation of aggressiveness of prostate cancer and the prediction of the effectiveness of abiraterone and enzalutamide by the assessment of AR-V7 mRNA in blood.Keywords: AR-V7, prostate cancer, castration-resistant

We have investigated the electronic structure of a potential thermoelectric material, higher manganese silicide, and its solid solutions with supersaturated Re by means of hard x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. The unusual Re substitution dependence of thermoelectric properties in the higher manganese silicide, reducing the electrical resistivity without altering the Seebeck coefficient, can be explained in terms of the variation of the density of states at the Fermi level and its energy derivative. Such an electronic structure variation contributes to an improvement in the thermoelectric performance in combination with the suppressed thermal conductivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Degradation mechanisms of 275-nm-band AlxGa1-xN multiple quantum well deep-ultraviolet light-emitting diodes fabricated on a (0001) sapphire substrate were investigated under hard operation conditions with the current of 350 mA and the junction temperature of 105 °C. The optical output power (Po) initially decreased by about 20% within the operating time less than 102 h and then gradually decreased to about 60% by 484 h. For elucidating the causes for the initial and subsequent degradations, complementary electrical, time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL), and impurity characterizations were carried out making a connection with the energy band profiles. Because the degradation of the wells was less significant than the Po reduction, the initial degradation is attributed essentially to the decrease in carrier injection efficiency ( η injection ), not in internal quantum efficiency of the wells, most likely due to depassivation of initially H-passivated preexisting nonradiative recombination centers (NRCs) in a Mg-doped p-type Al0.85Ga0.15N electron blocking layer. The principal cause for the subsequent Po reduction until 484 h is attributed to further decrease in η injection due to the appearance of certain current bypasses in addition to continuous depassivation of the NRCs in p-type AlxGa1-xN layers. According to our database on the species of vacancy-type defects acting as NRCs in GaN and AlN, which have been identified using the combination of positron annihilation and TRPL measurements, vacancy clusters comprised of a cation vacancy (VIII) and nitrogen vacancies (VN), such as V III V N 2 ∼ 4 , are the most suspicious origins of the NRCs in Mg-doped p-type AlxGa1-xN layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]