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A microcytofluorometrical DNA measurement was basically studied and was applied to single megakaryocytes previously identified on a Wright-Giemsa stained smear. The smear was first photographed and the location of each megakaryocyte was recorded on a cell map. The smear was then bleached with 50% acid ethanol and absolute methanol, and re-stained with 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) reagent (pH 7.4) at 4 degrees C. Nuclear blue fluorescence was observed and the intensity of this fluorescence was proportional to the amount of DNA with the coefficient of variation (CV) of 3.6% when stained for 30 min. After 30 min DAPI staining, the DNA measurement was microcytofluorometrically performed in single megakaryocytes which had been morphologically classified into 4 groups on the basis of cytoplasmic maturation, Bessis' classification, assessed on Wright-Giemsa-stained bone-marrow smears from normal human beings. The histograms of the cells did not show any difference in DNA ploidy distribution among the classes: that is, the DNA histograms disclosed ploidy distribution from 4 N to 64 N with the largest population of 16 N. These findings suggest that nuclear DNA synthesis is completed before platelet production starts. This method is useful for comparing the morphological features and DNA content of single megakaryocytes.

大腸多発癌の病態を把握し大腸癌全体の予後向上に役立てるために,本研究を行った.1981年1月から1990年12,月までの10年間に経験した大腸多発癌は47例(同時性38例,異時性9例)であり,同時期の大腸癌手術例835例の5.6%に相当した.進行度や異時性多発癌の発現時期から判断すると,同時性に発生したものを見逃して異時性として扱った症例がいくつかある可能性が推察された.腺腫の併存は20例(42.6%)にみられ,単発大腸癌の14.0%(105/749)より有意に高率であった(p

最近10年間で教室で経験した大腸癌緊急手術例54例につき,臨床病理学的事項,術式,術後合併症,予後について検討を行った.緊急手術54例は同時期の大腸癌手術例896例の6.0%で,男31例,女23例で,平均年齢は63.3歳であった.その内訳はイレウス42例,穿孔9例,炎症2例,出血1例であった,癌占居部位において,予定手術例(842例)よりRの占める割合が少なかった(p

In order to explore the 4α‐particle condensate state in 16O, we solve a full four‐body equation based on the 4α OCM (Orthogonality Condition Model) in a large 4α model space spanned by Gaussian basis functions. A full spectrum up to the 06+ state is reproduced consistently with the lowest six 0+ states of the experimental spectrum. It is suggested that the 06+ state is the analog to the Hoyle state of 12C, to be identified with the well known 06+ state at 15.1 MeV in 16O.

Crystallographic analyses have revealed a new “domain structure” in YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7− x (123) prepared by the quench and melt growth (QMG) process. The analyses were carried out by X-ray diffractometry: a kind of pole figure method and an improved technique of microarea X-ray diffraction. The “domain structure” is composed of crystallographic units which are aligned in two-dimensions; the c-axes of them are parallel to each other and there is a slight deviation in directions of their a -and b -axes. The degree of deviation of them differs in scale: macrograins (∼ 10 mm), subgrains (∼ mm) and crystallites (∼ 100 μm) and it is about a few degrees in scale of crystallites. The “domain structure” in QMG-processed materials is closely related to their high J c values, J c > 10 4 A/cm 2 at 77 K under a magnetic field of 1 T. Crystallographic units in the “domain structure” are more strongly linked in superconducting than those in conventionally sintered specimens. The control of the “domain structure” is one of the most important factors for improving properties of superconductors.

Poly(dimethylsiloxane)s (PDMS) of molecular weight, M w , = 8 × 10 4 −1.15 × 10 6 were found to be partially miscible with poly(methylethylsiloxane)s (PMES) of M w = 4 × 10 3 −9 × 10 3 , exhibiting the upper critical solution temperature. The extremum temperature, T cl,ex , of the cloud-point curve ranged from room temperature to 100°C, and the T cl,ex of ternary blends consisting of PDMS and PMES having a bimodal molecular weight distribution could be controlled by changing the composition of the low and high molecular weight fractions in PMES. The temperature dependence of the interaction parameter χ between PDMS and PMES could be reasonably determined from the molecular weight dependence of T cl,ex . The result is expressed as χ ( per PMES monomer unit ) = 4.07 T( K ) − 2.00 × 10 −3 , showing that the enthalpy term in χ is dominant. For a particular mixture with very narrow molecular weight distributions, the critical point was determined by measuring the volume ratio of two demixed phases and was found to shift from the extremum of the cloud point curve, indicating that the location of the critical point is very sensitive to the polydispersity.

Multi-device communication will be usual in a ubiquitous networking environment with features of heterogeneity and ubiquity. Under such circumstances, users shall be able to communicate via a method optimized based on their surroundings and preferences. This paper shows a dynamic session modification mechanism that enables users to switch their communication resources via operation from remote devices during a session. With this in mind, the session manager and presence manager are introduced as application servers (AS) in IMS/MMD infrastructures. A prototype system, including implementation on a cellular phone, and performance evaluations are also shown.

To explore the four-alpha-particle condensate state in 16O, we solve a full four-body equation of motion based on the four-alpha-particle orthogonality condition model in a large four-alpha-particle model space spanned by Gaussian basis functions. A full spectrum up to the 0_{6};{+} state is reproduced consistently with the lowest six 0;{+} states of the experimental spectrum. The 0_{6};{+} state is obtained at about 2 MeV above the four-alpha-particle breakup threshold and has a dilute density structure, with a radius of about 5 fm. The state has an appreciably large alpha condensate fraction of 61%, and a large component of alpha+12C(0_{2};{+}) configuration, both features being reliable evidence for this state to be of four-alpha-particle condensate nature.

1963年6月より1989年9月までに67例の大腸穿孔を経験した.予後に影響する因子として, 年齢, 原因疾患, 術式, 穿孔から手術までの時間, 検出菌をとりあげ, これらの予後との関係について検討した.全症例の死亡率は25.3%であり, 悪性疾患によるものでは45.8%と高く, とくに61歳以上の悪性疾患では55%の死亡率であった.特発性穿孔は5例中3例が死亡したが, その他の悪性以外の疾患では, 術式のいかんにかかわらずきわめて高い生存率 (92.3%) を得た.穿孔から手術までの時間と予後との関係は, 一般に発症より手術までの時間が短いほど生存率が高いといわれているが, 自験例ではそれらと一致せず, むしろ経過時間が長いほど死亡率が低かった.これは経過時間が短い症例の中に, 悪性疾患や特発性のものが多く含まれていたためと考えられ, 経過時間そのものよりも患者の基礎疾患や全身状態などが, 予後に大きく影響すると考えられる.

Nowadays, many enterprises want to deploy Managed Network Services (MNS) so that their corporate resources are dedicated to their core businesses. Configuration management of network elements (NE) is a prerequisite of other parts of MNS, though it requires onsite personnel and is labor-intensive, so those systems that remotely and automatically manage NE configurations in behalf of MNS Providers (MNSPs)1 onsite personnel can help reduce service cost. However, the existing systems for this purpose, in which a monolithic server daemon serves for the entire customer base, cannot necessarily ensure independence of the service continuity for each customer, because an unexpected halt of service to a customer can bring the entire system down with it. We offer a customer equipment configuration management system (CECM), which allows MNSPs to remotely and automatically manage configurations of thousands of NEs geographically scattered in many sites simultaneously, while ensuring the independence of the service continuity CECM achieves this by adopting a novel Process-Per-Service (PPS) architecture, in which a set of independent system processes is exclusively used for the management of a customer's NE configurations. We also implement a prototype system to show the worst-case performance of CECM. The result shows that the configuration of 1000 emulated NEs for 100 customers can be simultaneously set within 45 seconds. While these results are preliminary, they suggest that CECM can help reduce service cost of providing MNSs.

Background Antineutrophil cytoplasm antibody (ANCA) associated vasculitis can be life-threatening. Diffuse alveolar hemorrhage is one of the most serious complications in ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV). Steroid pulse, cyclophosphamide (CY), and plasma exchange therapies are recommended for severe alveolar hemorrhage. However, the mortality of patients with pulmonary vasculitis remains high. Objectives We examined the outcome of patients with AAV complicated with diffuse alveolar hemorrhage. Methods We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of patients with AAV admitted at our hospital between January 1st 2008 and September 30th 2013.We analyzed in respect to outcomes age, CRP, Hb, serum creatinine (sCr) disease activity (Birmingham vasculitis activity score: BVAS), and medical treatment method. Results AAV occurred in 70 patients (GPA17, MPA43, and EGPA10) and diffuse alveolar hemorrhage in 21 patients (30%). The average age was 66.8±22.6 years (MPA 71.8±18.9 years old, GPA 50.5±28.7 years old), and the sex ratio was male: female 7:10. Other severe comorbidities were progressive glomerulonephritis (4 of 6 patients died), and interstitial pneumonia (2 from 2 patients). Nine patients died and eight cases received remission maintenance therapy. The average BVAS was 21.0±5.48 in the death group, and 18.4±4.65 ( p =0.34 ) in the survival group. The was no significant difference in disease activity between the survival and death groups. There were no significant differences in CRP, sCr, Hb levels and volumes of alveolar hemorrhage in CT. There was a significant difference in average age (survival groups 51.4±28.9 years old, death groups 77.1±6.25 years old, p =0.02 ). There was also a significant difference in five-factor score (FFS) between the two groups (survival group 1.6±0.29, death group 0.5±0.76, p =0.02 ). All the cases in the survival group were treated with CY. Conclusions Our study showed that early CY treatment decreased the mortality of diffuse alveolar hemorrhage in AAV, especially in younger patients. Disclosure of Interest None declared

Objectives To elucidate the decrease ratio of lymphocyte counts as a contributing risk factor for Pneunocystis pneumonia (PCP) in immunocompromised hosts. Methods Twenty patients with PCP who received prednisolone (PSL), DMARDs or Biologics were enrolled from September 1984 to February 2013 in our hospital. Patient were classified as follows: Group 1: received only PSL (mean PSL: 27.0±5.4 mg/day) (n=13). Group 2: received PSL with DMARDs or Biologics (mean PSL: 8.4±2.9 mg/day) (n=7). Control group: non-PCP patients received only PSL without PCP prophylaxis (mean PSL: 16.5±2.5 mg/day) (n=13). Statististically, there is no significant differences about the doseage of PSL between Group1 and control group (p=0.36).The decrease ratio of the lymphocyte counts between just before receiving the immunosuppressants and at the onset of PSP (ΔLym) were calculated in each group. Results Primary diseases were CTD (n=14), non-CTD (n=6) in Group 1 and 2. CTD (n=13) were selected as a control group. Mean ΔLym in Group 1, 2 and Control group were 80.5±4.3%, 62.6±4.2% and 33.5%±8.0%, respectively. The mean ΔLym in Group1 was significantly decreased compared with those of in control group (80.5% vs 33.5%: p Conclusions ΔLym might be a new risk factor and an index parameter for the indication for prophylaxis of PCP. Disclosure of Interest None declared

The extracellular polysaccharides (EPS) produced by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are associated with the rheology, texture, and mouthfeel of fermented milk products, including yogurt. This study investigated the immunomodulatory effects of EPS purified from the culture supernatant of Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus (L. bulgaricus) OLL1073R-1. The crude EPS were prepared from the culture supernatant of L. bulgaricus OLL1073R-1 by standard chromatographic methods, and were fractionated into neutral EPS and acidic EPS (APS). Acidic EPS were further fractionated into high molecular weight APS (H-APS) and low molecular weight APS (L-APS). High molecular weight APS were shown to be phosphopolysaccharides containing D-glucose, D-galactose, and phosphorus. Stimulation of mouse splenocytes by H-APS significantly increased interferon-gamma production, and, moreover, orally administered H-APS augmented natural killer cell activity. Oral administration of yogurt fermented with L. bulgaricus OLL1073R-1 and Streptococcus thermophilus OLS3059 to mice showed a similar level of immunomodulation as H-APS. However, these effects were not detected following administration of yogurt fermented with the starter combination of L. bulgaricus OLL1256 and S. thermophilus OLS3295. We conclude from these findings that yogurt fermented with L. bulgaricus OLL1073R-1, containing immunostimulative EPS, would have an immunomodulatory effect on the human body.

Spontaneous vehicular networks formed by vehicles contribute to safe and comfortable driving by disseminating vehicular movement information. Inter-vehicle communication protocols have been proposed that can provide indirect communications by relaying packets. Although the relay expands the area over which packets can deliver, it generates new communication traffic, hence existing protocols have some mechanism to reduce this traffic, for example the selection of a minimum set of relaying vehicles. However, communication delays increase due to the overhead of the mechanism when the numbers of vehicles increase. In this paper, we propose a relay control protocol for the data dissemination of Spontaneous Vehicular Networks. The protocol controls the relay of each packet, on an as-required basis, in order to adapt to various vehicular communication environments. In addition, the protocol reduces communication traffic by avoiding duplicate relays through a duplicate relay detection algorithm. Furthermore, we evaluate the proposed protocol through experiments and compare it with one of the existing protocols.

Many industrial applications rely on sensors and sensor networks residing on machinery, transport containers or in the environment. For distributed processes in such domains the sharing of those sensor networks is crucial. This paper introduces a peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture for sharing services provided by existing sensor networks with any Internet based application. The differences between the sensor networks are abstracted using a service-oriented approach. The proposed technology is able to build up a global sensor Internet across multiple domain boundaries. Our implementation is evaluated with 300+ sensor nodes organized in a P2P network across continents.

Wireless sensor network monitoring is important for network maintenance, since it keeps the observer aware of node failures, resource depletion etc. Since communication overheads increase if the sink collects data individually from all sensor nodes, in-network data aggregation methods have been proposed which reduce the overheads. They form a routing tree and data follows up from the edge of the tree to the sink. However, in the event of heavy packet loss, the error margin of the collected data received by the sink grows. Furthermore, when the assumed hop count of the edge of the tree is smaller than the actual count, data can not be followed up from the edge. For the reasons mentioned above, observers find it problematic to assess the state of the network, since the error margin increases as the accuracy of the collected data falls. In this paper, we propose a new in-network aggregation method for sensor network monitoring. The method provides fault tolerance for packet loss by forming a directed acyclic graph (DAG), which allows a node to have multiple parent nodes. In addition, the method can ensure correct data transmission timing, according to the actual hop count of the edge of the DAG. Furthermore, we evaluated the proposed method in comparison with the existing methods, from the perspective of the error margin of the collected data.

International audience; Aspergillus fumigatus is exceptional among microorganisms in being both a primary and opportunistic pathogen as well as a major allergen. Its conidia production is prolific, and so human respiratory tract exposure is almost constant. A. fumigatus is isolated from human habitats and vegetable compost heaps. In immunocompromised individuals, the incidence of invasive infection can be as high as 50% and the mortality rate is often about 50% (ref. 2). The interaction of A. fumigatus and other airborne fungi with the immune system is increasingly linked to severe asthma and sinusitis. Although the burden of invasive disease caused by A. fumigatus is substantial, the basic biology of the organism is mostly obscure. Here we show the complete 29.4-megabase genome sequence of the clinical isolate Af293, which consists of eight chromosomes containing 9,926 predicted genes. Microarray analysis revealed temperature-dependent expression of distinct sets of genes, as well as 700 A. fumigatus genes not present or significantly diverged in the closely related sexual species Neosartorya fischeri, many of which may have roles in the pathogenicity phenotype. The Af293 genome sequence provides an unparalleled resource for the future understanding of this remarkable fungus.

We present a service initiation and migration system for real-time communication services in a ubiquitous networking environment. The key concepts are: (1) the isolation of a few functions as common components with SIP protocol from realtime applications; (2) the incorporation of service migration into service initiation so that users can change resources at any time during communication; and (3) service negotiation which enables all user requests and situations to he reflected in the service. Therefore, users can enjoy real-time communication even when they face resource heterogeneity and changeable situations in the ubiquitous networking environment. The implementation of this system and the experimental results are also described, which demonstrate that users can switch devices and applications seamlessly without terminating the session.

In this paper, we propose an energy-efficient address allocation method for the event-driven sensor network, and implement and evaluate the proposed method. The proposed method allocates a temporary address only to a sensor node which detects an event, on an on-demand basis. By performing simulation studies, we evaluated the proposed method and compared it with one of the existing methods from the perspective of the number of control messages for the address allocation. The results show that the number of control messages of the proposed method is small compared to that of the existing methods. We also evaluated the processing time overhead of the proposed method using the implemented system. Although the proposed method has little extra overhead, the results show the processing time is short enough for practical use.

Towards the wide acceptance of ubiquitous networking, practical and deployable ubiquitous applications must be provided in a concrete and easily understandable form to end-users. We designed and implemented ubiquitous nodes, KDDI Ubiquitous Bit (kubit). The highest priority was given to application-oriented design and ease of deployment in a typical home network environment. The kubit quickly detects anything suspicious with built-in sensors, and sends notification of the event via e-mail containing an image to be displayed on a PC or mobile phone, as well as controlling the existing home appliances via a PC or mobile phone or led by the event.

Primary cancer of the gallbladder is not unusual. Most cases of gallbladder cancer are found at an advanced stage, accompanied by the invasion to the liver, metastases to the lymph nodes and distant organs, and peritoneal dissemination. In this study, we first examined the effect of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK) inhibitors on the production of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA), and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs) in a human gallbladder cancer cell line, NOZ cells in vitro. MEK inhibitors (PD98059 and U0126) inhibited the production of MMP-2, MMP-9 and high MW uPA, and upregulated TIMPs (TIMP-1, TIMP-2 and TIMP-3). Subsequently, we examined the effect of U0126 on invasion and metastasis of orthotopically inoculated NOZ cells in nude mice. Direct liver invasion by cancer cells was detected in all of the mice in the control group, but in only one mouse in the U0126-treated group. Most of the primary tumors in the U0126-treated group expanded to the liver, but did not invade into the liver. Vessel invasion in the liver was evident in 4 out of 5 mice in the control group, but in only one mouse in the U0126-treated group. Lymph node metastases and peritoneal dissemination were recognized in all of the mice in both groups. All 5 mice in the U0126-treated group, and 4 out of 5 mice in the vehicle control group, had metastases in the lungs. The present results suggest that a MEK inhibitor, U0126, prolonged the survival of the mice with NOZ tumor by inhibiting direct liver invasion and vessel invasion of the cancer cells via down-regulation of the matrix degrading ability of the cancer cells.

Person-to-person communication on digital networks has begun to play an important role in our daily life. In a ubiquitous networking environment where we will be surrounded by more and more networked devices, real-time communication should be performed using appropriate devices, applications, and network. Moreover, when our situation changes, resources must be switched dynamically without breaking down the ongoing session. In this paper, we present a unified resource switching mechanism that supports network, device, application, and composite switching. Resource switching can be executed even in a session initiation phase because this is designed based on the SIP protocols. The implementation of the prototype and the experimental results are also described in the paper.

The relation between the superdeformed band of $^{32}{\rm S}$ and $^{16}{\rm O} + ^{16}{\rm O}$ molecular bands is studied by the deformed-base antisymmetrized molecular dynamics with the Gogny D1S force. It is found that the obtained superdeformed band members of $^{32}{\rm S}$ have considerable amount of the $^{16}{\rm O} + ^{16}{\rm O}$ component. Above the superdeformed band, we have obtained two excited rotational bands which have more prominent character of the $^{16}{\rm O} + ^{16}{\rm O}$ molecular band. These three rotational bands are regarded as a series of $^{16}{\rm O} + ^{16}{\rm O}$ molecular bands which were predicted by using the unique $^{16}{\rm O}$ -$^{16}{\rm O}$ optical potentil. As the excitation energy and principal quantum number of the relative motion increase, the $^{16}{\rm O} + ^{16}{\rm O}$ cluster structure becomes more prominent but at the same time, the band members are fragmented into several states.

Summary form only given. A one-chip DC-DC converter IC with an on-chip planar inductor was developed. The planar inductor was placed on the LSI module with BiCMOS control circuitry and power MOSFETs. Therefore it is important to investigate the local EMI effect of the leakage magnetic field from the on-chip planar inductor on the lower LSI circuit. In this study, the local EMI problem in the monolithic DC-DC converter is discussed on the basis of a simulation of the magnetic field distribution.

Excited states of Be isotopes have been studied with microscopic calculations. Exotic clusters have been predicted.

The Worldwide Intelligent Network (WIN) group is studying and developing robust network operation and traffic control techniques to realize international dynamic routing. So far, the WIN group has developed the TMN based interface specification for an exchange of routing information among WIN systems at each telecommunication administration (TA). This paper describes the TMN based traffic management data exchange architecture, WIN system implementations and evaluation of the data exchange performance.

For efficient and integrated network management of SDH/PDH mixed large-scale transport networks, KDD has developed a TMN-based integrated management system. This paper describes an architecture of the system and its implementation. The features of the architecture are: (1) to employ a distributed system configuration based on TMN multi-layered functional architecture, (2) to newly define an integrated management information model which unifies different management information models for many kinds of NEs (Network Elements) and which enables us to manage a network with mixed SDH and PDH hierarchies of, and (3) to introduce a new alarm correlation mechanism for high system performance.

Aiming at realising the frequency response with small group delay deviation and wide passband width, we propose miniaturised surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters having folded propagation path and employing a straight edge mirror reflector for SH-type SAWs. In a filter fabricated on a PZT substrate, the group delay deviation of less than /spl plusmn/15 ns and passband width of 5% were obtained at the centre frequency of 100 MHz. The experimental result and theoretical prediction were in good agreement with each other.

Black-pigmented bacteria which produce cytotoxic metabolic end-products and cell membrane-associated proteases have been reported to play an important role in the pathogenesis of periodontal diseases. These bacterial virulence factors can be modified by the environmental conditions including nutrients supplied variously into the oral cavity. Although glucose is one of the most essential nutrients for oral bacteria, the exogenous supply of glucose may be discontinuous and the glucose concentration in a periodontal pocket may be influenced by the depth of the periodontal pocket. Therefore, effects of glucose as an environmental factor on the virulence factors of Prevotella intermedia, Prevotella nigrescens and Porphyromonas in the presence o glucose.,bo t P. intermedia and P. nigrescens markedly decreased the production of cytotoxic end-products including succinate.,isobutyrate,isovalerate and ammonia, although their growth was increased. Furthermore, the proteolytic activities such as immunoglobulin- albumin- and casein-degrading activities of these bacteria were decreased in the presence of glucose. On the other hand, no effect of glucose on the metabolic activity of P gingivalis was observed. These results suggest that pathogenicity of P. intermedia P. nigrescens may be decreased by the presence of glucose.

A spatial deformation is introduced into the model wave function of the α‐cluster condensate in order to study non‐zero spin excitations of the α‐particle condensate type. Application to 8Be shows that the binding energies of the 0+ and 2+ states are nicely reproduced. Our 0+ wave function is found to be exactly equal to the 0+ wave function obtained by the full microscopic calculation of two α particles.

The structures of the ground and excited states of sd-shell nuclei: Ca-40 and Ar-36 were studied with a method of antisymmetrized molecular dynamics. Recently observed rotational bands were described with deformed intrinsic states which are dominated by excited configurations such as 4p-4h, 8p-8h and 4p-8h states. The results showed the coexistence of various kinds of exotic shapes with oblate, prolate and large prolate deformatios in the low-energy region of Ca-40. Possible cluster aspects in heavy sd-shell nuclei were implied in these exotic shapes., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, the proceedins of the 4th Catania Relativistic Ion Studies on Exotic Clustering(CRIS2002), Catania, Italy, June 2002

Nb 5 Ge 1.5 Sn 1.5 , M r =751.45, tetragonal, I4/mcm, a=10.451 (1), c=5.1920 (7) A, V=567.0 (1) A 3 , Z=4, D x =8.80 Mg m -3 , λ(Mo Kα)=0.71069 A, μ=24.05 mm -1 , F(000)=1312, roomtemperature, final R=0.044, wR=0.042 for 245 [|Fo|>3σ(F o )] unique reflections. The title compound is isomorphous with W 5 Si 3 . The 16(k) and 4(a) sites are only occupied by Nb, and the 4(b) sites only by Ge

A new alpha-cluster wave function is proposed which is of the alpha-particle condensate type. Applications to 12C and 16O show that states of low density close to the 3 and 4 alpha-particle thresholds in both nuclei are possibly of this kind. It is conjectured that all self-conjugate 4n nuclei may show similar features.

Microcirculatory disturbance has been shown to play a critical role in hepatic ischemia and reperfusion (I/R) injury. Angiotensin II (AngII) is one of the most potent endogenous vasoconstrictors. Angiotensin II type I (AT1) receptor antagonist has been reported to have protective effects on I/R injury of the heart and kidney. However, effect on hepatic I/R injury has not been determined. In this study, we investigate our hypothesis that AT1 receptor antagonist, CV-11974, attenuates hepatic I/R injury.Twelve beagle dogs underwent a 2-hr total hepatic vascular exclusion with veno-venous bypass. CV-11974 was given to animals at a dose of 0.002 mg/ kg/min for 5 min followed by 0.001 mg/kg/min for 25 min via portal vein before ischemia (group II, n=6). Nontreated animals were used as the control (group I, n=6). Animal survival, hemodynamics, hepatic tissue blood flow (HTBF), liver function, platelet count, renin activity, and AngII concentration of hepatic vein, energy metabolism, and histopathology were analyzed.Two-week survival was 33% in group I, in contrast, 100% in group II. Mean arterial blood pressure during early reperfusion was maintained, and HTBF after reperfusion was significantly higher in group II. Treatment attenuated liver enzyme release and decrease of platelet count, increased renin and AngII, suppressed ATP degradation during ischemia and enhanced ATP resynthesis after reperfusion. Neutrophil infiltration and histopathological damages were lessened in group II.Our data demonstrated that the local renin-angiotensin system might play a role in hepatic microcirculation. AT1 receptor blockade with CV-11974 attenuated hepatic microcirculatory disturbance and ameliorated I/R injury.

To evaluate the vertical earth pressures on buried H-shaped beams in granular materials, we have conducted: 1) Small scale (1/10) model experiment using a 2D test box with a vertically movable base; 2) 2D elasto-plastic finite element simulation of the model experiments to study the validity of the analysis method employed; 3) Parametric study to evaluate the vertical earth pressures on full scale H-shaped beams using the validated finite element method. This paper describes the results of the parametric study, and proposes an explicit formulation of vertical earth pressures on buried H-shaped beams is developed for use in designing procedures.

Study of nuclear clustering by the use of antisymmetrized molecular dynamics (AMD) is discussed for both nuclear structure problems and nuclear collision problems. AMD enables us to describe both the mean field dynamics and the cluster formation. In the study of nuclear structure of light nuclei up to the neutron dripline, it presents us with a unique theoretical method which can describe both shell model structure and the cluster structure and the structure-change between the two. Capability of treating both the mean field dynamics and the dynamical formation of clusters is especially important in the study of heavy ion collisions at intermediate energies because the reaction process is dominated by various types of fragmentation mechanisms.