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Neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) are rare neoplasms that occur in various organs and present with diverse clinical manifestations. Pathological classification is important in the diagnosis of NENs. Treatment strategies must be selected according to the status of differentiation and malignancy by accurately determining whether the neoplasm is functioning or nonfunctioning, degree of disease progression, and presence of metastasis. The newly revised Clinical Practice Guidelines for Gastroenteropancreatic Neuroendocrine Neoplasms (GEP-NENs) comprises 5 chapters—diagnosis, pathology, surgical treatment, medical and multidisciplinary treatment, and multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1)/von Hippel–Lindau (VHL) disease—and includes 51 clinical questions and 19 columns. These guidelines aim to provide direction and practical clinical content for the management of GEP-NEN preferentially based on clinically useful reports. These revised guidelines also refer to the new concept of “neuroendocrine tumor” (NET) grade 3, which is based on the 2017 and 2019 WHO criteria; this includes health insurance coverage of somatostatin receptor scintigraphy for NEN, everolimus for lung and gastrointestinal NET, and lanreotide for GEP-NET. The guidelines also newly refer to the diagnosis, treatment, and surveillance of NEN associated with VHL disease and MEN1. The accuracy of these guidelines has been improved by examining and adopting new evidence obtained after the first edition was published. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00535-021-01827-7.

Highly optically transparent polycrystalline fluorapatite ceramics with hexagonal crystal structures were fabricated via a liquid-phase synthesis of fluorapatite powder, followed by spark plasma sintering (SPS). The effect of sintering temperature, as observed using a thermopile, on the optical transmittance and microstructure of the ceramics was investigated in order to determine suitable sintering conditions. As a result, high optical transmittance was obtained in the SPS temperature range of 950–1100 °C. The highest optical transmittance was obtained for the ceramic sample sintered at 1000 °C, and its average grain size was evaluated at only 134 nm. The grain size dramatically increased with temperature, and the ceramics became translucent at SPS temperatures above 1200 °C. The mechanical and thermal properties of the ceramics were measured to evaluate the thermal shock parameter, which was found to be comparable to or slightly smaller than that of single-crystal fluorapatite. This transparent polycrystalline fluorapatite ceramic material should prove useful in a wide range of applications, for example as a biomaterial or optical/laser material, in the future. Furthermore, the knowledge obtained in this study should help to promote the application of this ceramic material.

Hemoglobin (Hb) concentration monitoring is the most required analysis during surgery and critical care treatment to make proper decision regarding blood transfusion. Blood gas analysis is required invasive intermittent blood sampling. Various non-invasive Hb monitoring techniques are under research for better real time patients’ management. Masimo rainbow® Pulse CO-Oximeter® is to monitor continuous and noninvasive hemoglobin (SpHb) whereas blood samples give intermittent results. Recently, disposable SpHb sensor has been updated. We evaluate the SpHb sensor compared with total Hemoglobin(tHb) in patients undergoing cardiac surgery using cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). A total of 272 SpHb and tHb paired data samples from 60 patients. To analyze the tHb, the patients’ blood samples were drawn intermittently by the radial arterial line and blood gas analyzer ABL 90 (Radiometer corp., Denmark) as per anesthesiologist decision. SpHb sensors (RD rainbow SET-2 Adt sensor, Masimo Corp., USA) were attached to the patients’ ring finger connected to Root® with Radical-7®. Reliability and trending ability between the SpHb and tHb were analyzed by the regression analysis, Bland-Altman analysis, four quadrant plots and polar plot. Limits of agreement between SpHb and tHb is calculated to be -2.01 to 2.2 g/dL with a bias of 0.13 g/dL. The correlation coefficient (r) of SpHb and tHb were 0.8036. Concordance ratio of four quadrant and polar plots were 93% and 91%, respectively. Both Absolute and trend accuracy of SpHb with the latest version are clinically acceptable in patients undergo cardiac surgery using CPB.

To clarify the effect of constraint conditions on the kink formation, fabrication process of the texture and porosity controlled Ti3SiC2 polycrystals was investigated and microstructural evolution during high temperature deformation was examined in it under high temperature uniaxial compression tests at 1200℃. Dense textured Ti3SiC2 sintered body was fabricated by slip casting in the high magnetic field of 12 T and following pressureless sintering at 1400℃ for 1 h. The porosity of the textured Ti3SiC2 was controlled by dispersing polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) particles into the textured Ti3SiC2 as a spacer media. The highly textured Ti3SiC2 polycrystals with porosity of 8.4 vol％ and 16.7 vol％, respectively, were successfully fabricated by the slip casting in the high magnetic field. After the high temperature uniaxial compression perpendicular to the c-axis of the textured structure, both the porous and dense Ti3SiC2 showed kink formation, which is a common deformation mode for anisotropic layered materials. However, the average rotation angles of the kink boundaries were higher in the porous specimen than in the dense specimen. Since the crystal rotation is necessary for the kink formation, kink bands would be preferably developed in the porous area due to its weaker constraint than in the dense area. It can be concluded from the microstructural analysis that the constrain factor caused by the neighbor grains affects the crystalline rotation, resulting in the kink boundary formation with different rotation angles.

In-vessel retention (IVR) is a viable method of preserving reactor pressure vessel integrity in severe reactor accidents. Accurate knowledge of the bubble lift-off diameter for a downward-facing in...

Background Arterial spin labeling, a magnetic resonance imaging modality that can evaluate cerebral perfusion without using a contrast material or ionizing radiation, is becoming increasingly accessible. However, only a few reports have used this method to assess the perfusion abnormalities observed in acute encephalopathy with biphasic seizures and late reduced diffusion. Patient description A 10-month-old Japanese girl presented with febrile status epilepticus (early seizures). Her convulsions ceased after the administration of intravenous phenobarbital, although her impaired consciousness was protracted. Five days later, diffusion-weighted imaging revealed slightly high signal intensity lesions in the bilateral posterior frontal areas. Arterial spin labeling revealed bilateral frontal-dominant hypoperfusion and posterior frontal hyperperfusion. On day 6, she had three convulsions (late seizures) and was diagnosed with acute encephalopathy with biphasic seizures and late reduced diffusion. She received treatment accordingly and recovered eventually. Discussion Based on previous reports, hypoperfusion within 1–2 days of early seizures and hyperperfusion accompanied by bright tree appearance on diffusion-weighted imaging within 1–2 days of late seizures are typical in acute encephalopathy with biphasic seizures and late reduced diffusion. In our patient, the first magnetic resonance imaging scan was performed one day prior to the onset of late seizures. We observed posterior frontal hyperperfusion accompanied by high signals on diffusion-weighted imaging, which leads us to speculate that this could be a predictive marker of late seizures.

A new subassembly-type passive reactor shutdown device is proposed to expand the diversity and robustness of core disruptive accident prevention measures for sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs). The device contains pins with a fuel material that is in a solid state during normal operation but melts and fluidizes during an unprotected loss of flow (ULOF) or unprotected transient overpower (UTOP) accident. By rapidly transferring the liquefied device fuel into the lower plenum region of the pins via gravitation alone, the device can passively provide a large negative reactivity to the core. In this study, the nuclear and thermal properties of the device subassembly with metallic fuel were evaluated to determine the basic device specifications for proper device operation during ULOF and UTOP accidents. The results of the transient analysis of the ULOF initiating phase in a 750-MWe-class MOX-fueled SFR core showed that a conventional homogeneous core can maintain stable cooling of the core prior to coolant boiling in the driver fuel subassemblies. On the other hand, the negative reactivity required to terminate the event by device operation was found to be slightly larger in the low sodium void reactivity core than in the conventional homogeneous core.

The elastic properties of a single-crystalline Ti3SiC2 MAX phase with a nanolayered crystal structure, comprising Ti-Si and two distinct Ti-C bonding layers, that had remained unclear because of the difficulty in growing large single crystals, were studied. Rather than unavailable large single crystals, polycrystalline samples with a crystallographic texture were prepared. By analyzing the polycrystalline elastic constants on the basis of an inverse Voigt–Reuss–Hill approximation, the elastic properties of a single crystal Ti3SiC2 with a hexagonal symmetry were determined. This revealed that the single-crystalline Young's modulus was almost isotropic despite its highly anisotropic layered structure. The shear modulus for (0001) 〈 11 2 ¯ 0 〉 was higher than that for {11 2 ¯ 0}[0001] in contrast to the basal slip-dominated plastic deformation reflecting the layered structure. Furthermore, first-principles calculations revealed that heterogeneous interlayer elastic deformation caused by the stabilization of Ti-Si bonding is the origin of the elastic isotropy in a Ti3SiC2 MAX phase.

It is well known that computational fluid dynamics has been challenging for low-computational-resourced students and researchers. In this study, we performed a 2D dam break simulation by Eulerian approach-finite volume method of OpenFOAM and Lagrangian approach-finite volume particle method (FVP) in a low-specification personal computer. We compared those approaches’ results qualitatively and quantitatively against experimental data and measured their simulation time for 6 different grid sizes. We compared the visualization results and their pressure and velocity using ParaView and VisIt. At the same time, a quantitative comparison was made by determining the waterfront position each time using the Tracker video analyzer. It was found that OpenFOAM resulted in better visualization results, lower error by 28 - 68 %, and more reasonable pressure and velocity profiles. It can also simulate smaller grid sizes and 10 to 200 times faster than FVP, but it can’t produce the air-liquid interface’s sharpness as good as FVP. Thus, to simulate cases where interfaces are not important, Eulerian-based OpenFOAM is best suited to perform in a low-specification computer. HIGHLIGHTS One of the main challenge in CFD is that it needs a huge computational resources to get optimum results. For students or researchers with limited computational resources, which approaches can they used? Two approaches in CFD: Eulerian and Lagrangian methods-represented by OpenFOAM and Finite Volume Particle Method (FVP)-were performed in a personal laptop to simulate 2D dam break problem and their results are compared with the experimental data Qualitative and quantitative comparison shows that OpenFOAM is well suited for low computational resources users. However, FVP method has an advantage in terms of capturing the interface of the two phases involved in simulation. Thus, for phase-change phenomena where interface is important, it is strongly recommended to use FVP-though one might need a more sophisticated resources than a personal laptop GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

In the final sintering stage, nano-sized powder frequently forms a pore structure where most pores are surrounded by more than 5 grains. The pore structure is different from that of coarse powder. In this study, the densification behavior of nano-sized powder is modelled and simulated in the final sintering stage. The porous body has the initial size distribution of pores, represented as a Weibull function. The mechanical interaction between pores is analyzed to simulate the evolution of porosity characteristics as well as densification kinetics. The densification rate for the size-distributed pores is lower than that for single-sized ones. The experimental relationship between the densification rate and the porosity could well be reproduced by choosing appropriate pore-size distributions. The simulation also shows that the sintering stress with densification may increase or decrease depending on the size distribution, but is remarkably lower than that for single-sized pores.

Immunotherapy using antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) has become one of the most attractive strategies for cancer treatment. For the induction of antigen-specific CTLs in vivo, the co-delivery of CpG-DNAs and antigens to the same antigen-presenting cells (APCs) is a promising strategy. In this study, we prepared conjugates consisting of 40mer of CpG-DNA (CpG40) and antigenic peptide (OVA257-264), which have the following distinctive features: (1) multiple CpG motifs in a molecule; (2) cleavage in the cytosol because of the disulfide bonding via cysteine residue between peptide and CpG-DNA; (3) conjugation designed to induce antigen presentation on MHC class I molecules. Immunization with the conjugate CpG40-C-OVA257-264 at the mouse tail base induced strong CTL activity at a very low peptide dose of 20 ng/head. It was found that the conjugates were internalized into C-type mannose receptor 1 (MRC1)-expressing cells in inguinal lymph nodes, indicating that the CpG portion in the conjugate acts as not only an adjuvant for the activation of TLR9 but also a carrier to APCs expressing MRC1. In a tumor-bearing mice model, mice immunized with CpG40-C-OVA257-264 conjugates exhibited long delays in tumor growth compared with those treated with PBS, OVA257-264 alone, or a mixture of CpG40 and OVA257-264. Therefore, CpG-C-peptide conjugates could be a new and effective platform for peptide vaccine for the treatment of cancers and infectious diseases.

A high-pressure spark plasma sintering (SPS) process was applied for consolidating Y2O3–MgO nanocomposites. This approach enabled to fabricate a fully dense infrared (IR) transparent nanocomposites, which possess an average grain size of ∼70 nm and high hardness, at a relatively low sintering temperature of 1130 °C under a high pressure of 300 MPa. The light transmittance was improved with increasing pressure and reached to the maximum transmittance of 64.5% at a wavelength of 0.2–1.6 μm owing to the fine-grained microstructure. The Vickers hardness exhibited 16.6 ± 0.7 GPa for the grain size of 74 nm, which is significantly higher than that of the sub-micro grains obtained at a conventional sintering pressure of 70 MPa (11.9 ± 0.8 GPa). The hardness rigorously followed the Hall–Petch relationship, that is, it is enhanced with a reduction of the grain size. Successful fabrication of the high-performance Y2O3–MgO nanocomposites indicates that the nanopowder processing followed by the high-pressure sintering process can be applied for fabricating fully dense fine-grained nanocomposites with excellent optical and mechanical properties.

Development of a facile and environmentally benign route to shaping chitin into macroscopic forms is one of the important and challenging issues for designing sustainable biopolymer materials. Here...

Infrared (IR) transparent Y2O3–MgO nanocomposites with a volume ratio of 50:50 were synthesized by combining colloidal and spark-plasma-sintering (SPS) techniques. In order to attain well-dispersed and homogeneous starting Y2O3–MgO nanopowder mixture, the effects of the pH value and the amount of polyetherimide (PEI) dispersant on the suspension stability were studied. Rheological measurement reveals that highly-dispersed and stable suspension was obtained at 7 wt% of PEI dispersant under pH = 10.6. The obtained nanopowders with particle size of 20–30 nm were densified using SPS at several sintering temperatures. The sintered composites show fine grains, narrow grain size distribution and uniform microstructure. The nanocomposite sintered at 1250 °C showed the maximum IR transmittance of 84% at a wavelength range of 2.5–6 μm. The Vickers hardness of the nanocomposite was about 11.9 ± 0.3 GPa, which is significantly higher than those of single phase MgO or Y2O3. Successful fabrication of the high-performance Y2O3–MgO nanocomposite indicates that i) the colloidal technique is an effect method to obtain highly dispersed and homogeneous nanopowders and ii) the SPS technique is a powerful tool to fabricate fine-grained dense transparent ceramics, which are suitable for fabricating IR transparent Y2O3–MgO composite ceramics from commercial starting powders.

Purpose We report the case of a male neonate with a respiratory disorder who developed adverse cardiorespiratory symptoms after the continuous infusion of midazolam. Methods To clarify the cause of cardiogenic shock, we performed whole exome sequencing and screened relative single-nucleotide variants of 2 cytochrome P450 (CYP) isoforms, CYP3A4 and CYP3A5, which play a dominant role in the metabolic elimination of midazolam. We measured endogenous cortisol 6β-hydroxylation clearance to phenotypically assess CYP3A activity. Findings The CYP3A activity level in the patient was significantly lower than the mean CYP3A activity level in healthy adults. Three intronic mutations in the CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 isoforms were detected in the patient. Implications Our findings suggest that the midazolam concentration in plasma was achieved at above the steady-state concentration during continuous infusion used to sedate neonates receiving mechanical ventilatory support. Evaluation of the drug-metabolizing ability based on CYP3A might be useful if adverse electrophysiologic variables or the induction of tachycardia occur because of delayed elimination.

Background/purpose: Stress in the elderly is caused by loss of physical and psychological health. Although there have been many reports on the intraoral environment affecting physical health, few reports exist on stress and the intraoral environment in the elderly. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between salivary α-amylase as an index of stress value and the intraoral environment. Materials and methods: Three hundred and nineteen participants were community-dwelling independent individuals over 65 years old. The outcome variable was salivary α-amylase. After measurement, salivary α-amylase was classified into four groups (0 = 0–30, 1 = 31–45, 2 = 46–60, 3 = 61–200). The predictor variables were physical status (which includes age and male body-mass index) and subjective and objective symptoms (which include present teeth, torus palatinus, torus mandibularis, temporomandibular joint noise, bruxism, and dental attrition). These variables were compared among participants using univariate analysis and multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: The participants included 77 men and 242 women, with a mean age of 75.8 ± 5.4 years (65–94 years). Although temporomandibular joint noise and dental attrition were significantly positively correlated with salivary α-amylase, bruxism was significantly negatively correlated with salivary α-amylase (p

Oligonucleotides containing 2'-O,4'-C-ethylene nucleic acids (ENA) have been proven highly effective for antisense therapeutics. 2'-O,4'-C-Ethyleneguanosine and its phosphoramidite were previously obtained from 3,5-di-O-benzy1-4-C-(p-tolulenesulfonyloxyethyl)-1,2-di-O-acetyl-α-D-erythropentofuranose by glycosylation, but with limited efficiency. Using 3,5-di-O-benzy1-4-C-(2-t-butyldiphenylsilyloxyethyl)-1,2-di-O-acetyl-α-D-erythropentofuranose as an alternative substrate, we developed several methods to obtain 2'-O,4'-C-ethyleneguanosine derivatives with much higher yields than previously reported. These methods were also applicable for the synthesis of 2'-O,4'-C-ethyleneadenosine and 2'-O,4'-C-ethylene-5-methyluridine derivatives. Moreover, we investigated the thermodynamic benefit of DNA strands containing 2'-O,4'-C-ethyleneguanosines during duplex formation with complementary RNA. Only a single modification by the nucleoside resulted in a 10-fold greater binding constant of the DNA/RNA duplex.

Purpose: HER3 is a compelling target for cancer treatment; however, no HER3-targeted therapy is currently clinically available. Here, we produced U3-1402, an anti-HER3 antibody–drug conjugate with a topoisomerase I inhibitor exatecan derivative (DXd), and systematically investigated its targeted drug delivery potential and antitumor activity in preclinical models. Experimental Design: In vitro pharmacologic activities and the mechanisms of action of U3-1402 were assessed in several human cancer cell lines. Antitumor activity of U3-1402 was evaluated in xenograft mouse models, including patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models. Safety assessments were also conducted in rats and monkeys. Results: U3-1402 showed HER3-specific binding followed by highly efficient cancer cell internalization. Subsequently, U3-1402 was translocated to the lysosome and released its payload DXd. While U3-1402 was able to inhibit HER3-activated signaling similar to its naked antibody patritumab, the cytotoxic activity of U3-1402 in HER3-expressing cells was predominantly mediated by released DXd through DNA damage and apoptosis induction. In xenograft mouse models, U3-1402 exhibited dose-dependent and HER3-dependent antitumor activity. Furthermore, U3-1402 exerted potent antitumor activity against PDX tumors with HER3 expression. Acceptable toxicity was noted in both rats and monkeys. Conclusions: U3-1402 demonstrated promising antitumor activity against HER3-expressing tumors with tolerable safety profiles. The activity of U3-1402 was driven by HER3-mediated payload delivery via high internalization into tumor cells.

The EAGLE in-pile ID1 test was performed by Japan Atomic Energy Agency to demonstrate the effectiveness of fuel discharge from a fuel subassembly with an inner duct structure during a core disruptive accident in a sodium-cooled fast reactor. The experimental results suggested that early duct wall failure observed in the test was initiated by high heat flux from the molten pool of fuel and steel mixture, and the post-test numerical calculation and analyses showed that the high thermal load may be enhanced effectively by molten steel with a rather high thermal conductivity. In this study, to overcome weakness in conventional fluid-dynamic calculations, we adopted a fully 3D Lagrangian approach based on the finite volume particle method to analyze the mechanisms of heat transfer from the molten pool to the duct wall in the ID1 test. A series of behaviors representing pin disruption, molten pool formation, as well as the mixing and separation of molten steel and fuel in the pool was simulated to investigate their effects on molten pool-to-duct wall heat transfer. The present 3D particle-based simulation, which moderated some inherent defects in our previous 2D calculations, clarified that direct contact of the solid fuel with nuclear heat and liquid steel near the duct wall can expose the duct wall to a large thermal load, which led to the duct wall failure in the experiment.

Critical heat flux (CHF) is one of the most significant thermal criteria for nuclear reactor design and safety in subcooled flow boiling. The accurate prediction capabilities of the characteristic size of departure bubbles are crucial for predicting the net vapor generation point (NVG) and CHF. An experimental research facility was designed to determine the bubble departure diameter and subcooling at the net vapor generation point, not only for vertical flow boiling but also in any orientation between vertical and downward-facing horizontal. An improved force-balanced model is proposed to calculate the bubble departure diameter at the net vapor generation point to predict CHF in vertical subcooled flow boiling. The force-balance equation was solved numerically through iteration to calculate the bubble departure diameter using a novel MATLAB script. The net vapor generation point was modified using the bubble departure diameter obtained from the proposed model. The model agrees well with the experimental data. Finally, the modified departure diameter and NVG were applied to the liquid sublayer dryout model to predict the CHF on upward subcooled flow boiling. It was found that the model predicts the experimental CHF data with an average relative error of 7.17%.

After the Fukushima NPP accident in 2011, it has become increasingly important for reactor safety design to consider design measures to prevent the occurrence of severe accidents. In this study, a new subassembly-type passive reactor shutdown device is proposed to enhance the diversity and robustness of prevention measures for core disruptive accidents in sodium-cooled fast reactors. The proposed device contains pins with a fuel material that is kept in the solid state during normal operation but melts into the liquid when its temperature exceeds a prescribed value under the accidents. When a ULOF (unprotected loss of flow) or UTOP (unprotected transient overpower) accident occurs, the device can provide large negative reactivity passively by the relocation of liquefied device fuel into the lower plenum region of the pins by gravitation alone in a short time. The reactor, in which part of usual fuel subassemblies is replaced with the proposed devices, becomes subcritical before driver fuels are damaged, even if ULOF or UTOP transient occurs. In the present study, candidate materials for device fuel such as metallic alloy and chloride, optimum device pin structure for liquefied fuel relocation, and nuclear and thermal-hydraulic characteristics of the device-loaded core under accident conditions will be mainly investigated to demonstrate engineering feasibility of the proposed device. This paper describes the project overview and discusses preliminary results on nuclear requirements for negative reactivity to be inserted for reactor shutdown under expected device conditions.

One of the key issues in a core disruptive accident (CDA) evaluation in sodium-cooled fast reactors is eutectic reactions between boron carbide (B4C) and stainless steel (SS) as well as its relocation. Such behaviors have never been simulated in CDA numerical analyses in the past, therefore it is necessary to develop a physical model and incorporate the model into the CDA analysis code. This study focuses on B4C-SS eutectic melting experiments, thermophysical property measurement of the eutectic melt, and physical model development for the eutectic melting reaction. The eutectic experiments involve the visualization experiments, eutectic reaction rate experiments and material analyses. The thermophysical properties are measured in a range from solid to liquid state. The physical model is developed for a CDA computer code based on the measured data of the eutectic reaction rate and the physical properties. This paper describes the project overview and progress of experimental and analytical studies conducted until 2019. Specific results in this paper are the validation of physical model describing B4C-SS eutectic reaction in the CDA analysis code, SIMMER-III, through the numerical analysis of the B4C-SS eutectic melting experiments in which a B4C block was placed in a SS pool.

We present a stable and accurate moving particle semi-implicit (MPS) for free-surface flows. For simulating free-surface flows, previous formulations using renormalized procedure is only applicable to interior particles. Poor accuracy of the free-surface particle in turn contaminate the overall solution accuracy. In this study, dummy particle is introduced to stabilize the renormalized Laplacian model on free surface and to enforce the free-surface condition. The proposed renormalized Laplacian model enables accurate pressure calculation for both internal and free-surface particles. Modification also includes a modified gradient model in which linear consistency is guaranteed and stability is enhanced by introducing dummy particle. The proposed MPS scheme provides a more accurate and stable simulation of incompressible free surface flows. Several two-dimensional numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate the enhanced performance of the proposed MPS method.

Previously, a reactor cavity cooling system (RCCS) has been reported with passive safety features comprising of two continuous closed regions, namely an ex-reactor pressure vessel region and cooling region with a heat-transfer surface to ambient air. The novel shape of the RCCS allows it to efficiently remove heat released from the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) via thermal radiation and natural convection. The RCCS design significantly reduces the possibility of losing the heat sink for decay heat-removal during nuclear accidents including a station blackout by employing air as a working fluid and ambient air as ultimate heat sink. RCCS has the potential to stably and passively remove heat released from the RPV and decay heat following a reactor shutdown. The RCCS achieved a heat-removal rate of approximately 3 kW/m2. On the contrary, the heat fluxes from the RPV surface of the high temperature engineering test reactor and commercial high temperature gas-cooled reactors are 1.23–2.46 kW/m2 and approximately 3.0 kW/m2, respectively. In the previous report, the authors changed the adiabatic boundary conditions and considered the heat dissipation effect from the RPV region to ground through the RCCS wall via heat conduction; therefore, the authors could improve the system’s heat-removal capability to increase its thermal reactor power level. Moreover, considering the possibilities for doubling the heat-transfer areas and increasing the emissivities, heat flux removed by the RCCS could potentially reach 7.0 kW/m2. Herein, the authors conduct a comparative methodology between an actual RCCS and a downscaled heat-removal test facility.

Coupling the finite volume method (FVM) and the moving-particle semi-implicit (MPS) method, a conservative hybrid method is proposed for simulation of incompressible interfacial flow. In this hybrid method, bulk flow is resolved using the multi-moment constrained interpolation profile (CIP) FVM while the interface region is rendered using moving particles calculated by several enhanced MPS schemes. A new boundary condition is developed for particles located on the boundary of the interface. Numerical particles in the MPS method are used to determine the density of each mesh cell and the conservation of mass is guaranteed by a volume-fraction remedy procedure. The approach allows accurate interface tracking without diminishing numerical efficiency. Several benchmark simulations are conducted to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed hybrid method.

Aims: The proper management of atherosclerotic risk factors (ARFs) and attainment of target levels (TLs) for ARFs are crucial in preventing atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). In this study, utilizing data from the “Specific Health Check and Guidance in Japan,” which was conducted from 2008 to 2011, we examined TL attainment status of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and blood pressure (BP) and prescription status of dyslipidemia and hypertension in patients with diabetes undergoing medical treatment, and analyzed the factors that affected prescription status. Methods: Subjects receiving medical treatment for diabetes were selected from the database. Subjects were classified by prescription status for dyslipidemia and hypertension, and TL attainment status was assessed for each ARF. Results: The percentage of subjects who did not attain TLs and were not under medication was higher for LDL-C than for BP. The un-prescribed rates among non-TL-attained subjects were 60%–75% for LDL-C, and around 30%–40% for BP. The un-prescribed rates to those who were qualified for prescription therapy were also higher for LDL-C than for BP. Logistic regression analyses revealed that the subjects who were prescribed for dyslipidemia had the following characteristics compared with the un-prescribed non-TL-attained subjects: older age, higher body mass index, lower estimated glomerular filtration rate, previous heart or cerebrovascular disease, and higher medication rate for other ARFs. Conclusions: The present study revealed that, in Japan, the adequate prescription rate for dyslipidemia was lower than that for hypertension in patients with diabetes, suggesting the proper prescription therapy for dyslipidemia should be pursued to further prevent ASCVD.

We present a formulation of incompressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics (ISPH) method that utilizes pairwise-relaxing kernel to achieve approximately first-order consistency. Previous high-order formulations by using reproduced and corrected kernel function have had difficulties in ensuring momentum conservation. In the new scheme, relaxing constants for each kernel function are determined pair-wisely throughout the entire calculation domain by enforcing the Taylor-series consistency condition. We call this modified ISPH method Pairwise-Relaxing ISPH, or PR-ISPH. PR-ISPH retains high-order accuracy for non-uniform particle distributions. The spatial symmetry of the kernel function is kept in PR-ISPH thus momentum is strictly conserved. Several two-dimensional benchmark calculations are conducted to demonstrate the accuracy as well as the conservation property of the PR-ISPH.

The experimental densification kinetics of 7.8 mol% Y2O3-stabilized zirconia was analyzed theoretically during isothermal sintering in the final stage. By taking concurrent grain growth into account, a possible value of the grain-size exponent n was examined. The Coble’s corner-pore model recognized widely was found not to be applicable for explaining the densification kinetics. The corner-pore model of n = 4 shows a significant divergence in the kinetics at different temperatures. Microstructural observation shows that most pores are not located at grain corners and have a size comparable to the surrounding grains. The observed pore structure is similar to the diffusive model where single pore is surrounded by dense body. The diffusive model combined with theoretical sintering stress predicts n = 1 or n = 2, which shows a good consistence to the measured densification kinetics. During sintering of nano-sized powder, it is found that the densification kinetics can be explained distinctively by the diffusive single-pore model.

Fragment mass distributions from fission of the excited compound nucleus 178Pt have been deduced from the measured fragment velocities. The 178Pt nucleus was created at the JAEA tandem facility in a complete fusion reaction 36Ar + 142Nd, at beam energies of 155, 170 and 180 MeV. The data are indicative of a mixture of the mass-asymmetric and mass-symmetric fission modes associated with higher and lower total kinetic energies of the fragments, respectively. The measured fragment yields are dominated by asymmetric mass splits, with the symmetric mode contributing at the level of ≈1/3. This constitutes the first observation of a multimodal fission in the sub-lead region. Most probable experimental fragment-mass split of the asymmetric mode, AL/AH≈79/99, is well reproduced by nuclear density functional theory using the UNEDF1-HFB and D1S potentials. The symmetric mode is associated by theory with very elongated fission fragments, which is consistent with the observed total kinetic energy/fragment mass correlation. Keywords: 178Pt, Fusion–fission, Symmetric and asymmetric fission modes

A 49-year-old woman with membranous nephropathy was referred to our hospital during the tapering of oral prednisolone, because of suspicion of primary adrenal insufficiency based on a plasma ACTH level of 399.1 pg/mL in the Elecsys assay and a serum cortisol level of 3.1 μg/dL. A rapid ACTH stimulation test revealed a suboptimal response, whereas a prolonged ACTH simulation test showed a sufficient increase in her urinary free cortisol. Also, big ACTH was not detected by gel exclusion chromatography. Therefore, we speculated that ACTH levels were falsely elevated due to some interference substances. Pretreatment of her plasma with either polyethylene glycol precipitation or a heterophilic blocking tube substantially reduced her ACTH values. When either the Immulite ACTH II or the TOSOH II ACTH was tried instead of the Elecsys ACTH, her plasma ACTH values turned out to be lower and appropriate for her clinical status. These results indicated that heterophilic antibodies interfered only with the Elecsys ACTH assay presumably by bridging the capture and tracer antibodies. To our knowledge, this is the first case in which the Elecsys ACTH assay yielded falsely elevated results. Regardless of the measurement system used, if there is a discordance between assay results and clinical findings, it should be considered to adopt additional procedures and/or another assay.