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The JAXA Hayabusa2 mission accomplished the formation of an artificial crater on the asteroid Ryugu. The aim of this work is to analyse the area surrounding the artificial crater and reveal spectral variability compared to the same region before the crater formation, to mineralogically and physically characterize the subsurface exposed material. The crater’s investigation focused on the analysis of two regions corresponding to the inner part of crater (the pit and the crater wall/floor), two areas related to ejecta deposited close to the crater, two areas of ejecta moved far from the crater, and two external areas. Each area was investigated both before and after the crater formation, by the study of the photometrically corrected spectral parameters: the 1.9 $\mu$m reflectance, the near-infrared spectral slope, and the depth of the bands at 2.7 and 2.8 $\mu$m. The subsurface material of the post-crater areas shows deeper absorption bands, a decrease in reflectance, and a reddening in spectral slope with respect to the surface material of pre-crater areas. The subsurface regolith could have experienced a lower OH devolatilization due to space weathering and/or could be composed of finer dark grains than the surface layer. The ejecta reached distances of $\sim $20 m from the impact point, mainly moving in the northern direction; nevertheless, a few ejecta also reached the south-eastern part of crater.

Samples of the carbonaceous asteroid Ryugu were brought to Earth by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. We analyzed 17 Ryugu samples measuring 1 to 8 millimeters. Carbon dioxide–bearing water inclusions are present within a pyrrhotite crystal, indicating that Ryugu’s parent asteroid formed in the outer Solar System. The samples contain low abundances of materials that formed at high temperatures, such as chondrules and calcium- and aluminum-rich inclusions. The samples are rich in phyllosilicates and carbonates, which formed through aqueous alteration reactions at low temperature, high pH, and water/rock ratios of

AIM: This study evaluated a convolutional neural network (CNN) for automatically delineating the liver on contrast-enhanced or non-contrast-enhanced CT, making comparisons with a commercial automated technique (MIM Maestro®). BACKGROUND: Intensity-modulated radiation therapy requires careful labor-intensive planning involving delineation of the target and organs on CT or MR images to ensure delivery of the effective dose to the target while avoiding organs at risk. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Contrast-enhanced planning CT images from 101 pancreatic cancer cases and accompanying mask images showing manually-delineated liver contours were used to train the CNN to segment the liver. The trained CNN then performed liver segmentation on a further 20 contrast-enhanced and 15 non-contrastenhanced CT image sets, producing three-dimensional mask images of the liver. RESULTS: For both contrast-enhanced and non-contrast-enhanced images, the mean Dice similarity coefficients between CNN segmentations and ground-truth manual segmentations were significantly higher than those between ground-truth and MIM Maestro software (p

BackgroundThe role of completion lymph node dissection (CLND) in patients with sentinel lymph node (SLN)-positive melanoma continues to be debated. This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated survival and recurrence rate in these patients who underwent CLND, compared with observation.MethodsA comprehensive MEDLINE and Embase database search was performed for cohort studies and RCTs published between January 2000 and June 2017 that assessed the outcomes of CLND compared with observation in patients with SLN-positive melanoma. The primary outcome was survival and the secondary outcome was recurrence rate. Studies were assessed for quality using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for RCTs and Newcastle–Ottawa Scale for cohort studies. Pooled relative risk or hazard ratio with 95 per cent confidence intervals were calculated for each outcome. The extent of heterogeneity between studies was assessed with the I2 test. The protocol was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42017070152).ResultsFifteen studies (13 cohort studies with 7868 patients and 2 RCTs with 2228 patients) were identified for qualitative synthesis. Thirteen studies remained for quantitative meta-analysis. Survival was similar in patients who underwent CLND and those who were observed (risk ratio (RR) for death 0·85, 95 per cent c.i. 0·71 to 1·02). The recurrence rate was also similar (RR 0·91, 0·79 to 1·05).ConclusionPatients with SLN-positive melanoma do not have a significant benefit in survival or recurrence rate if they undergo CLND rather than observation.

The 27th of June 2018 the Japanese Haybusa-2 spacecraft approached the C-type Near Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu [1]. Haybusa2 is equipped with three remote sensing instruments such i.e. as the Thermal Infrared Imager TIR [2], the NIRS 3 spectrometer [3] and the Optical Navigation Camera-Telescopic (ONC-T) with a wideband and seven narrow band filters [4]. A Lidar instrument [5] allowed to reconstruct the shape model of the asteroid and to measure the altimetry, in order to perform a precise touchdown in sampling the asteroidal regolith. Additionally, by using the robotic landers Minerva-II and Mascot [6], Hayabusa 2 has conducted in situ surface experiments. Ryugu is a top-shaped Cb type asteroid and is covered by a large number of boulders [7,8]. It is one of the darkest object in our Solar System with a quite homogenous composition, including OH-rich materials [7,9]. We found that the NIRS3 data contains sensible variations, possibly linked to geomorphological structures, even though Ryugu surface varies only of few percent in reflectance. Our approach is to exploit the whole spectrometer dataset, to find correlation that could not be foreseen with traditional methods relying on fewer spectral points. Past experience on Mercury data shows that this is a sensible approach, in case of homogeneous featureless targets. We collect NIRS3 data from 20180711_l3a and 20180719_l3a counting around 20k useful spectra, covering almost the whole surface. The data were windowed between 1.8 and 3.1 um to avoid residual thermal effects at higher wavelength, obtaining a data matrix of 20k row x 75 feature or bands. Then we applied a PCA transformation step to retain 10 component or 98% of the total variance, effectively compressing the data from 75 to 10 components. Even though the PCA components per se doesn’t normally have a clear physical meaning, because they mix spectral feature in an unpredictable way, it is interesting to look at the results. The first PCA component has redder slope between 1.8 and 2.5 um, where the second has an inverted redder slope in the same range. The third is spectrally flatter, with an hint of absorption between 2.4 and 2.5 um. The concentration distribution of those three components is also worth investigating: the PCA.0 is anti-correlated with the equatorial bulge and higher in craters, PCA.1 is also higher in crater but not strongly anti-correlated with the equatorial bulge like PCA.0. PCA.3 this is clearly showing a north-south asymmetry. The PCA component order indicate also the importance in explaining total data variance. After that, we apply T-distributed Stochastic Neighbour Embedding (t-SNE)[10]: this converts similarities between data to joint probabilities, minimize the divergence between the joint probabilities of the low-dimensional embedding and the high-dimensional data, typically 2 or 3 dimensions. Essentially, we can feed high dimensional data and get a lower dimension 2D map representation were closer point are also close in the original data space that is easy to visualize. On top of that we partitioned the data point using an Agglomerative Clustering algorithm: starting from all separated data point it clusters the closest together, where closeness is calculated with complete linkage, i.e. the maximum distances between all observations in each pair of classes. Hierarchical algorithm has the nice advantage to show which partition is more stable via a dendrogram plot. In our case, a 6 classes parti tion show as the most suitable one. Results: The surface of Ryugu could be separated in 6 spectral classes, which have a similar spectral trend and are spatially coherent Classes (0,1,5,3) have same trend, but different albedo (from lower to higher reflectance). Class 0 and 1 (C0/C1) are inter-craters terrains, the former mostly in the north , the latter in the south, with minor outcrops in the other hemisphere. C0 is up to -2% darker than Global Mean Reflectance (GMR) and C1 up to +4% brighter. Class 2 (C2) is the darkest class (-5% GMR), and it is found mostly in craters interiors. machine learningClass 3 (C3) is the brightest (+5% GMR) and it is found on the the equatorial bulge, but interrupted by Urashima, Momotaro, Kintaro and Kolobock craters. Class 4 and 5 (C4/C5) are two different trend of intermediate terrains. Those are the closest to GMR with a 2% variation around GMR. C4 is mostly found in the north, where C5 in the south, with substantial outcrops in the other hemisphere. The most interesting difference is that C5 follows the global trend of being slightly bluer than GMR between 1.9 um and 2.5 um, but C4 shows an inverted trend, being redder then GMR. In conclusion, we find an automated approach to extract spatially coherent region on Ryugu surface based only on spectral data using almost the whole NIRS3 spectral range. Those classes show a significant spatial correlation with geomorphological feature and different spectral trends.

Background Few studies have been conducted on patterns of recurrence after resection for distal cholangiocarcinoma (DCC). The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence and pattern of recurrence after resection of DCC, and to evaluate prognostic factors for time to recurrence and recurrence-free survival (RFS). Methods Patients who underwent pancreatoduodenectomy with curative intent for DCC between 2001 and 2010 at one of 30 hospitals in Japan were reviewed retrospectively, with special attention to recurrence patterns. The Cox proportional hazards model was used for multivariable analysis. Results In the study interval, 389 patients underwent pancreatoduodenectomy for DCC with R0/M0 status. Recurrence developed in 213 patients (54·8 per cent). The estimated cumulative probability of recurrence was 54·3 per cent at 5 years. An initial locoregional recurrence occurred in 55 patients (14·1 per cent) and initial distant recurrence in 168 (43·2 per cent), most commonly in the liver. Isolated initial locoregional recurrence occurred in 45 patients (11·6 per cent). Independent prognostic factors for time to recurrence and RFS were perineural invasion (P = 0·001 and P = 0·009 respectively), pancreatic invasion (both P < 0·001) and lymph node metastasis (both P < 0·001). RFS worsened as the number of risk factors increased: the 5-year RFS rate was 70·6 per cent for patients without any risk factors, 50·3 per cent for patients with one factor, 31·8 per cent for those with two factors, and 13·4 per cent when three factors were present. Conclusion More than half of patients with DCC experienced recurrence after R0 resection, usually within 5 years. Perineural invasion, pancreatic invasion and positive nodal involvement are risk factors for recurrence.

The fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of an impinging jet with a combined active–passive device were investigated. The combined device consisted of triangular tabs and a synthetic jet array that provided periodic disturbance to the jet’s shear layer. The Reynolds number based on the nozzle diameter ( D ) was 3.9 × 10 4 , and the nozzle-to-wall spacing ( L / D ) was 2. Four triangular tabs were attached to the nozzle outlet. The synthetic jets were issued at an angle of 30° against the primary jet. Under the triangular tab operation, the longitudinal vortices were generated and the transverse vortex of the primary jet collapsed. Moreover, the velocity of the primary jet increased because of contracted flow. Under the synthetic jet operation, the development of the transverse vortex was promoted due to the increased instability of the shear layer. The jet’s periodic disturbances strengthened because of the use of synthetic jets. The combined device operation led to increased velocity magnitude and periodic disturbance of the primary jet; thus, the peak RMS value of the velocity fluctuation was enhanced and the peak local Nusselt number near the stagnation point increased by 35% compared with cases where the device was not used. Additionally, the area-averaged Nusselt number was 10% larger than that obtained without the device. The heat transfer was governed by the jet’s velocity, RMS, and periodic velocity fluctuation. These results indicate that the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of an impinging jet could be controlled by optimizing the actuation conditions of the combined active–passive device.

Background Little is known about the value of portal vein (PV) resection in distal cholangiocarcinoma. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical significance of PV resection in distal cholangiocarcinoma. Methods Patients who underwent pancreatoduodenectomy (PD) for distal cholangiocarcinoma between 2001 and 2010 at one of 31 hospitals in Japan were reviewed retrospectively with special attention to PV resection. Short- and long-term outcomes were evaluated. Results In the study interval, 453 consecutive patients with distal cholangiocarcinoma underwent PD, of whom 31 (6·8 per cent) had combined PV resection. The duration of surgery (510 versus 427 min; P = 0·005) and incidence of blood transfusion (48 versus 30·7 per cent; P = 0·042) were greater in patients who had PV resection than in those who did not. Postoperative morbidity and mortality were no different in the two groups. Several indices of tumour progression, including high T classification, lymphatic invasion, perineural invasion, pancreatic invasion and lymph node metastasis, were more common in patients who had PV resection. Consequently, the incidence of R1/2 resection was higher in this group (32 versus 11·8 per cent; P = 0·004). Survival among the 31 patients with PV resection was worse than that for the 422 patients without PV resection (15 versus 42·4 per cent at 5 years; P < 0·001). Multivariable analyses revealed that age, blood loss, histological grade, perineural invasion, pancreatic invasion, lymph node metastasis and surgical margin were independent risk factors for overall survival. PV resection was not an independent risk factor. Conclusion PV invasion in distal cholangiocarcinoma is associated with locally advanced disease and several negative prognostic factors. Survival for patients who have PV resection is poor even after curative resection.

"The efficient production of lactic acid, standardization of ingredients, protein hydrolysis, and the presence of an active starter were key factors for development of a controlled lactic acid fermentation of fish wastes and papaya. The maxima buffering capacities, proteases activities, protein and ash contents were considered for the selection of the suitable mixture of bones, fins, viscera, heads and dark meat. In addition, the overproduction of papaya is commonly presented in tropical countries, and herein, papaya surpluses were successfully employed as carbon source for Lactobacillus plantarum fermentation of tuna toward the production of added value protein hydrolysates. The maximum lactic acid produced, acidification rate constant and maximum acid production rate were estimated by Gompertz model with experimental data of 5 d of 1.27 mmol of lactic acid/g, 0.142 1/h and 0.067 mmol LA/gh, respectively. The highest degree of hydrolysis of 87.71% was achieved at 120 h. The radical-scavenging activity of the protein hydrolysates was determined by electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy analyses based on the conversion of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl free-radical. In addition, the lowest concentration of tuna protein hydrolysates (5.75 (g protein/mg) that gave the half-maximal inhibitory concentration was determined at 72 h of fermentation."

The characteristic improvements of salient-pole synchronous generators by inserting additional permanent magnets are investigated from both results of finite-element analyses and experiments. First, the assist effects of the magnets in a megavoltampere-class generator are analyzed by the finite-element method. It is clarified that the additional permanent magnets have the effects of reducing magnetic saturation at the rotor-pole bodies, as well as the effects of increasing the direct flux linkage of armature windings. It is also clarified that the output of the generator can be increased by more than 20% by inserting the magnets without any increase in total machine size and decrease in efficiency. Finally, the characteristic improvements are validated by the experiment of a small prototype generator. The experimental and calculated results are found to be in good agreement.

The hexagonal phase MoSi2 was grown using MoS2 powder as the source material by the molten salt method. The structural and morphological properties of the resultant silicides are characterized. As a comparison, the structural and compositional characterizations were made for the Mo-silicides grown on a Mo substrate and a Mo-Ti alloy compact. It was revealed that the homogeneity of the chemical composition of the silicides grown using MoS2 is improved, except for the existence of the Si source powders, though a small amount of S remained in the powder. The layered structure of MoS2 with a hexagonal crystalline structure would affect the growth morphology and enhance the formation of the hexagonal MoSi2. A simple growth procedure to fix the crystalline structure using an appropriate starting material under a preferable growth environment is proposed. [DOI: 10.1380/ejssnt.2012.55]

In this paper, we investigate the mechanism of output increase by inserting additional permanent magnets in salient-pole synchronous machines. The machines are modeled not only by finite element methods but also by a simple nonlinear magnetic circuit in order to express the assist effects of permanent magnets by simple theoretical expressions. The no-load saturation curves obtained by the finite element method and the magnetic circuit are compared with those of measurements in order to confirm the validities. It is clarified that the accuracy of the proposed magnetic circuit is nearly identical to that of the finite element method. Furthermore, the mechanism of the output increase by the permanent magnets is revealed by the theoretical expressions derived from the magnetic circuit equations.

The size dependence of the air oxidation for Mg nanoparticles is studied by Mg K-edge NEXAFS and AFM techniques. In the case of the exposure to the air for 3 days, the degree of the air oxidation for Mg nanoparticles increases with reduction of the size of Mg nanoparticle. However, the opposite size dependence is observed in the case of the exposure to the air for 25 days, i.e. the air oxidation reaction for the smaller Mg nanoparticles is more inhibited in the case of long term exposure to the air. This size dependence is attributed to the occupation of the free spaces between Mg nanoparticles, which protects against the incursion of the air component molecules into the multilayer of Mg nanoparticles. [DOI: 10.1380/ejssnt.2011.315]

The chemical state of interface between Pd and Mg layers has been investigated by XPS and NEXAFS methods. Since it is thought that the hydrogen storage ability strongly depends on the chemical state of the interface, we focus on the interface of the Pd—Mg. It is found that the different phase from bulk metal or oxide exists between Pd and Mg layers prepared by both DC magnetron sputtering and vacuum evaporation methods. From XPS and NEXAFS measurements, we have revealed that Pd loses the electron and Mg picks up one in this phase. It might be thought that the Pd—Mg alloy phase exists between Pd and Mg. [DOI: 10.1380/ejssnt.2011.438]

SUMMARY Aims: Glimepiride, a third generation sulfonylurea (SU), is known to have extrapancreatic effects, but its vascular effect is unclear. We investigated the efficacy of glimepiride in improving arterial stiffness assessed by cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) in type 2 diabetic patients, compared with glibenclamide, a conventional SU. Methods: Forty type 2 diabetic patients were randomly assigned to two groups. One group was administered glimepiride 1.5 mg ⁄day, and the other group was administered glibenclamide 1.25 mg ⁄day for 6 months. Results: No significant difference in hypoglycaemic effect was observed between two groups. CAVI significantly decreased only in glimepiride group (9.4 ± 1.4 fi 8.9 ± 0.8, p < 0.05). Decrease in CAVI was greater in glimepiride group than in glibenclamide group ()0.50 ± 0.98 vs. )0.04 ± 0.57, p = 0.048). Urinary 8-hydroxy-2¢-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) decreased in glimepiride group and increased in glibenclamide group, and the changes were significantly different between groups ()1.5 ± 3.5 vs. + 1.8 ± 3.6, p = 0.009); whereas serum lipoprotein lipase mass increased in glibenclamide group and decreased in glibenclamide group, and the changes tended to be different between groups (+ 2.1 ± 19.1 vs. )7.4 ± 19.2, p = 0.096). Change in urinary 8-OHdG was a significant independent predictor for change in CAVI in all subjects. Conclusions: These results suggest that glimepiride improves CAVI compared with glibenclamide. Reduced oxidative stress and improved insulin resistance may contribute to the improvement of CAVI by glimerpiride. What’s known Diabetes mellitus is a risk factor for all manifestations of atherosclerotic vascular disease.

This paper describes a fabrication process that uses flash-lamp annealing (FLA) and the characteristics of the CMOS transistors that are constructed with an ultralow-thermal- budget process tuned for 45-nm metal/high-k FETs. FLA enhances the drivability of pFETs with the solid-phase epitaxial (SPE) extension junction, but reducing the thermal budget deteriorates the poly-gate depletion and the electron mobility. Metal gate, however, prevents the depletion problem and leads to higher drain currents and better threshold-voltage (VTH) roll-offs when processed with tilted extension implantation combined with SPE + FLA than when processed with untilted extension implantation combined with spike rapid thermal annealing. Reducing the thermal budget is also effective in obtaining low VTH values in p-metal/HfSiON gate because of the reduced vacancy formation. Moreover, cluster-boron implantation for pFETs has superiority over monomer-boron implantation with Ge postamorphous implantation in terms of VTH roll-offs and Ion-Ioff's if FLA is used as activation. The superior electrical characteristics of full-metal- gate HfSiON transistors whose gate length is less than 50 nm, which are fabricated by using the FLA process, are demonstrated.

We developed a biomagnetic measurement system on mice. Our initial model of the system has the magnetic field sensitivity of 1.3 pT/Hz½ in the white-noise region (10 Hz-10 kHz). And using the system, we succeeded to obtain magnetically the heart activity on mice. However, in its application to measure the brain activity on mice, it was necessary to improve the magnetic field sensitivity of the system. Therefore, we changed the material of the window cap, which holds a sapphire glass window on the dewar tail, to ceramic. The system noise was decreased and the magnetic field sensitivity of the system was improved to 0.75 pT/Hz½ in the white-noise region. For an initial measurement of the brain activity, we also developed a whisker stimulation system using a piezoelectric element to evoke somatosensory responses.

To evaluate the effect and safety of treatment with low-calorie formula diet on renal function and proteinuria in obese patients with diabetic nephropathy.Prospective study on safety and efficacy of a 4-week low-calorie (11-19 kcal/kg/day) normal-protein (0.9-1.2 g/kg/day) diet partly supplemented with formula diet.In all, 22 obese patients with diabetic nephropathy (BMI: 30.4+/-5.3 kg/m(2), HbA1c: 7.1+/-1.4%, serum creatinine: 172.4+/-57.5 micromol/l, urinary protein: 3.3+/-2.6 g/day).The mean body weight decreased by 6.2+/-3.0 kg. The mean systolic blood pressure, creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, urinary protein, and 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine decreased significantly by 7.5+/-12.7 mmHg, 41.6+/-23.9 micromol/l, 1.50+/-1.61 mmol/l, 1.8+/-1.7 g/day, and 3.1+/-3.6 ng/mg creatinine, respectively. No patient had increased serum creatinine and urinary protein. Mean creatinine clearance (40.6+/-17.9 to 46.1+/-14.6 ml/s/1.73 m(2)) and serum albumin showed no significant changes. Delta serum creatinine and Delta urinary protein correlated with Delta body weight (r=0.62 and 0.49, respectively) and Delta visceral fat area (r=0.58 and 0.58, respectively), but did not correlate with Delta systolic blood pressure, Delta fasting blood glucose and Delta subcutaneous fat area.These results suggested that weight reduction using formula diet might improve renal function and proteinuria safely for a short term in obese patients with diabetic nephropathy.

Aims: To localise Smads3/4 proteins in lens epithelial cells (LECs) of fresh and postoperative human specimens. Smads3/4 are involved in signal transduction between transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) cell surface receptors and gene promoters. Nuclear localisation of Smads indicates achievement of endogenous TGFβ signalling in cells. Methods: Three circular sections of the anterior capsule, one lens, and 17 capsules undergoing postoperative healing were studied. Immunohistochemistry was performed for Smads3/4 in paraffin sections of the specimens. The effect of exogenous TGFβ2 on Smad3 subcellular localisation was examined in explant cultures of extracted human anterior lens epithelium. Results: The cytoplasm, but not the nuclei, of LECs of uninjured lenses was immunoreactive for Smads3/4. In contrast, nuclear immunoreactivity for Smads3/4 was detected in LECs during capsular healing. Nuclei positive for Smads3/4 were observed in monolayered LECs adjacent to the regenerated lens fibres of Sommerring’s ring. Interestingly, the nuclei of LECs that were somewhat elongated, and appeared to be differentiating into fibre-like cells, were negative for Smads3/4. Fibroblast-like, spindle-shaped lens cells with nuclear immunoreactivity for nuclear Smads3/4 were occasionally observed in the extracellular matrix accumulated in capsular opacification. Exogenous TGFβ induced nuclear translocation of Smad3 in LECs of anterior capsule specimens in explant culture. Conclusions: This is consistent with TGFβ induced Smad signalling being involved in regulating the behaviour of LECs during wound healing after cataract surgery.

This paper describes two humanoid robots developed in the Humanoid Robotics Institute, Waseda University. Hadaly-2 is intended to realize information interaction with humans by integrating environmental recognition with vision, conversation capability (voice recognition, voice synthesis), and gesture behaviors. It also possesses physical interaction functions for direct contact with humans and behaviors that are gentle and safe for humans. WABIAN is a robot with a complete human configuration that is capable of walking on two legs and carrying things as with humans. Furthermore, it has functions for information interactions suite for uses at home.

The effect of phospholipids on cholesteryl ester hydrolysis by neutral cholesterol esterase in alveolar macrophages was studied. Among the phospholipids used as emulsifiers, those with a negative charge, such as phosphatidylserine, phosphatidic acid, phosphatidylinositol, and cardiolipin, gave a higher level of hydrolysis by neutral cholesterol esterase than other less negatively charged phospholipids, such as phosphatidylcholine, lysophosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, and sphingomyelin. Phospholipase D treatment of liposomes emulsified with phosphatidylcholine produced phosphatidic acid and enhanced cholesteryl ester hydrolysis. Phospholipase A2 treatment produced lysophosphatidylcholine and decreased the hydrolysis. The hydrolysis of cholesteryl ester in lipid droplets obtained from cholesterol-laden macrophages elicited by thioglycollate in the rat peritoneal cavity was low compared to artificial liposomes emulsified with phosphatidylcholine. The reason for this was speculated to be that lipid droplets were low in total phospholipids and poor in phospholipids with strong negative charges but rich in phosphatidylethanolamine and sphingomyelin. These results suggest that the polar heads of phospholipids may play an important role in cholesteryl ester hydrolysis by neutral cholesterolesterase.

Glimepiride, a third generation sulfonylurea (SU), is known to have extrapancreatic effects, but its vascular effect is unclear. We investigated the efficacy of glimepiride in improving arterial stiffness assessed by cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) in type 2 diabetic patients, compared with glibenclamide, a conventional SU.Forty type 2 diabetic patients were randomly assigned to two groups. One group was administered glimepiride 1.5 mg/day, and the other group was administered glibenclamide 1.25 mg/day for 6 months.No significant difference in hypoglycaemic effect was observed between two groups. CAVI significantly decreased only in glimepiride group (9.4 ± 1.4→8.9 ± 0.8, p0.05). Decrease in CAVI was greater in glimepiride group than in glibenclamide group (-0.50 ± 0.98 vs. -0.04 ± 0.57, p = 0.048). Urinary 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) decreased in glimepiride group and increased in glibenclamide group, and the changes were significantly different between groups (-1.5 ± 3.5 vs. + 1.8 ± 3.6, p = 0.009); whereas serum lipoprotein lipase mass increased in glibenclamide group and decreased in glibenclamide group, and the changes tended to be different between groups (+ 2.1 ± 19.1 vs. -7.4 ± 19.2, p = 0.096). Change in urinary 8-OHdG was a significant independent predictor for change in CAVI in all subjects.These results suggest that glimepiride improves CAVI compared with glibenclamide. Reduced oxidative stress and improved insulin resistance may contribute to the improvement of CAVI by glimerpiride.

This article attempts to provide a consistent description for the unique characters of boron and boron-rich solids from the electronic-structure calculations. Recent developments of the first-principles calculation provide significant contributions to our understanding of the unusual properties of this class of materials. In particular, a combination of high-pressure experiment is successful in providing convincing evidence for our understanding, while it gives rise to unforeseen developments, such as discovery of superconductivity. Throughout analyses of many properties of boron solids, care is repeated for the effects of special arrangement of atoms and atom relaxation for those of complicated structures, which otherwise would mislead our intuitive interpretations. Special emphasize is placed on the phase stability and phase transitions at high pressure, because of recent successive discoveries of novel hard materials, such as γ-orthorhombic boron and diamond-like BC₅ compound. The first part of this review describes the ground state of boron and boron-rich crystals. The energy gap, native defects, and phonon properties are discussed. Дана стаття є спробою дати несуперечливий опис унікальних властивостей бору й багатих бором твердих тіл, виходячи з розрахунків електронної структури. У першій частині цього огляду описано основний стан бору й збагачених бором кристалів. Обговорено ширину забороненої зони, власні дефекти й властивості фононів. Данная статья является попыткой дать непротиворечивое описание уникальных свойств бора и богатых бором твердых тел, исходя из расчетов электронной структуры. В первой части этого обзора описывается основное состояние бора и обогащенных бором кристаллов. Обсуждаются ширина запрещённой зоны, собственные дефекты, и свойства фононов.

The second part of this review treats the phase diagram of boron, because of the importance of the material research. A comparison of the phase stabilities of related crystals has been made and deducing general trends among them has been attempted, from which the reader could get useful insights for future development of superhard materials. The mechanical properties of boron and boron-rich crystals are then discussed as the basis of superhard materials. This area is the primary source, from which many controversies arose regarding the strong intericosahedral bonding. Through working on many examples for deformation, consistent interpretations are given. У другій частині огляду розглянуто фазову діаграму бору. Порівняно фазову стабільність кристалів і зроблено спробу вивести загальні тенденції, які б дозволили отримати уявлення про майбутнє надтвердих матеріалів. Розглянуто механічні властивості бору і кристалів з високим вмістом бору як основи надтвердих матеріалів. Ця область є головним джерелом багатьох суперечностей стосовно сильного міжікосаедричного зв’язку. На основі вивчення багаточисельних прикладів деформації дано логічні трактовки зв’язку. Во второй части обзора рассматрена фазовая диаграмма бора. Сравнена фазовая стабильность кристаллов и сделана попытка вывести общие тенденции, которые позволили бы получить представление о будущем сверхтвердых материалов. Рассмотрены механические свойства бора и кристаллов с высоким содержанием бора как основы сверхтвердых материалов. Эта область исследований является основным источником многих разногласий относительно прочной межикосаэдрической связи. На основании изучения многочисленных примеров деформации даны логические трактовки связи.

"El propósito de este trabajo fue producir ensilados y determinar los cambios en la composición química y microbiológica de desechos del ahumado de atún aleta amarilla (Thunnus albacares) y del fileteado de tilapia (Oreochromis sp), fermentados con un inóculo comercial de Lactobacillus casei cepa Shirota. Se emplearon procedimientos rústicos y materiales de fácil acceso para utilizarse como suplemento en alimentos acuícolas. Se determinó el porcentaje de melaza óptima para la fermentación, la composición proximal y la cuenta microbiológica de los ensilados. Los desechos se mezclaron con melaza de caña de azúcar como fuente de carbono y el inóculo comercial de Lactobacillus casei cepa shirota. A los 6 días de fermentación ambos ensilados presentaron características físicas y químicas aceptables. Las proporciones de melaza que produjeron la acidificación más alta fueron 15 y 20 % en ambos ensilados y no hubo diferencias significativas (p < 0.05). Los coliformes totales, mohos, levaduras y Salmonella sp no estuvieron presentes porque son inhibidos por el proceso de ensilaje y este tienen características adecuadas para su utilización como suplemento en alimentos para organismos acuáticos."

A recent discovery of complicated isotope shifts of PL 1014‐meV line in Cu‐containing silicon, which was made by Thewalt’s group, indicates that existing models of Cu pair are not appropriate for the luminescence center. Our previous study shows that the most probable form of the complex is a four‐membered complex Cu(s)Cu(3i); the symmetry is C3v. For interpreting the complicated splitting for Γ4 excition peak, involvement of a non‐totally symmetric mode is proposed. The normal modes of this complex has been obtained by ab initio phonon calculation with explicit symmetry.

The c-axis transport properties of a high-pressure synthesized PrFeAsO0.7 single crystal are studied using s-shaped junctions. Resistivity anisotropy of about 120 detected at 50 K shows the presence of strong anisotropy in the electronic states. The obtained critical current density for the c-axis of 2.9*10^5 A/cm^2 is two orders of magnitude larger than that in Bi2Sr1.6La0.4CuO6+d. The appearance of a hysteresis in the current-voltage curve below T_c is the manifestation of the intrinsic Josephson effect similar to that in cuprate superconductors. The suppression of the critical current-normal resistance (I_cR_n) product is explained by an inspecular transport in s_pm-wave pair potential., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures

"La pluma de calamar gigante es una fuente importante de B-quitina, la cual tiene un arreglo de cadenas en forma paralela que le da un carácter particular en sus propiedades tales como, alta reactividad, afinidad en disolventes orgánicos y retención de agua. La extracción de la B-quitina se realizó con el método químico, el cual consistió en desmineralización (DM) probando HCl 0.2M ó 1M, posteriormente se realizó la desproteinización (DP) con NaOH en concentraciones de 0.2M a 2M. La DP total, el cual es el paso limitante para la extracción de la B-quitina, se logró mediante concentraciones de NaOH 1M a 25 °C. El tamaño de partícula fue significativo para la DM pero no en la DP. Se observó que es factible la utilización de agua corriente para la neutralización de las muestras con el fin de disminuir un costo de producción obteniéndose rendimientos de 32% a 20% a partir de pluma de calamar, así como gastos de agua de 0.3 L/g de quitina y de 2.8 L/g de quitosano. El quitosano resultante fue soluble en un 95% en ácido acético 0.1 M, con peso molecular (Mv) de 534.17 g/mol y grado de acetilación de 26%."

"The purpose of this study was to produce protein hydrolysates from lactic acid fermentation of three sources of fish wastes: Shrimp by catch (SC), Sphyraena ensis wastes (SB) and mixture of fisheries processing wastes from several species (MixW). MixW were added with several sugar cane molasses concentrations as the carbon source, 180 g.kg-1 of sugar molasses gave the fastest acidification. The maximum concentration of lactic acid (Pmax) was significantly higher with Lactobacillus sp. B2 than that obtained with Lb. plantarum. MixW was selected for scaling up and inoculated with Lactobacillus sp. B2 due to the enhanced lactic acid production and availability. According to microbiological and chemical analyses, the fermented product was well preserved due to the acid produced and the reduction in aW (0.94) that inhibit spoilage microorganisms and putrefaction. The coefficient of protein hydrolysis at 144 h of fermentation was significantly higher (0.94) than the obtained with raw MixW (0.12). The coefficient of protein in vitro digestibility (CPD) was also determined, which was higher, 0.88, than raw MixW (0.69)."

Aim: We investigated the effects of a calorie-restricted low-carbohydrate diet on glucose and lipid metabolism, and body fat distribution, especially on the secretion of leptin and lipoprotein lipase from adipose tissue in Otsuka Long Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF) rats.Methods: Forty-three week-old male OLETF rats were randomized into three groups (n=6 per group): the HC group (HC) was fed a diet with 60% carbohydrate; the LC group (LC) with 30% carbohydrate; and the P-HC group (P-HC) with 60% carbohydrate and pioglitazone (0.1%). The total calorie intake was restricted to 70% of the average intake from each diet (60 kcal/day). The diets were continued for 8 weeks.Results: Similar decreases in body weight and serum glucose were observed in the three groups. Serum insulin concentration was significantly decreased in LC and P-HC compared to HC. Serum total cholesterol and triglycerides decreased significantly (p

The necessity of the interim dry storage of nuclear spent fuel using metal casks has risen year by year. Metal gaskets have been used worldwide to prevent leaks from the metal cask during long-term storage. There are still uncertainties for the impact behaviours of the metal cask without impact limiters under severe impact loads, such as drop or tipping-over events in the interim storage facility. Therefore, it is very important to clarify the dynamic behaviour of the metallic gaskets subjected to sliding and opening movements of the lid structures during impact loads. To demonstrate the structural integrity and leak-tightness of gasketed joints of the metal cask against drop impacts, many impact tests and analysis have been performed based on transport regulations or storage accident scenarios. The inert gas will be released instantaneously under very slightly opening or sliding movements of the lid structures. Until now, there has been less evaluation data concerning the instantaneous leak rates from the lid gasket during impact loading. Therefore, two impact tests with the full-size metal cask (horizontal drop and rotational impact onto concrete floor) have been executed and the relationships between gasket movements and the leak rate of inert gas have been clarified. Moreover, according to the drop analysis using dynamic analysis code LS-DYNA and the comparison with the experimental results, the impact behaviour of the complicated gasketed joints can be simulated accurately and directly.