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The nuclear p300/CBP proteins function as coactivators of gene transcription. Here, using cells deficient in p300 or CBP, we show that p300, and not CBP, is essential for ionizing radiation-induced accumulation of the p53 tumor suppressor and thereby p53-mediated growth arrest. The results demonstrate that deficiency of p300 results in increased degradation of p53. Our findings suggest that p300 contributes to the stabilization and transactivation function of p53 in the cellular response to DNA damage.

The objective of this study is to develop joining technology of a plasma facing CFC armor and DSCu heat sink by means of Ag-free brazing and to evaluate its performances under repeated high heat fl...

Chemical nature of hydrogen on the lithium silicate and Al-doped lithium silicate surfaces was investigated with ab initio molecular orbital calculations. From the results of calculations, the charge distributions and proton affinity (PA) were obtained for the model clusters H 4-x SiO 4 Li x and H 7-x SiAlO 7 Li x (x=0 and 1). It was shown by the calculation that the ionicity of surface hydrogen is strengthened by the interaction of Al atom to surface oxygen, while weakened by Li ion coordinated to nonbridging oxygen. Also, PA values decrease with increase in the ionicity of the surface hydrogen.

This paper describes the disruption and sputtering erosions on newly developed SiC doped Carbon fiber reinforced composite (CFC). Disruption experiments were performed under heat fluxes of 1000–2000 MW/m 2 with pulse length of 2–4 ms in the temperature range from RT to 1000°C at the JEBIS facility. Sputtering experiments were performed under the deuterium particle flux of 1–2 × 10 20 m 2 /s with energy of 50–100 eV in the temperature range from 200°C to 600°C at the SLEIS facility. As a result, it is clear that the sputtering yield from 200°C to 450°C is about 0.09 and gradually decreases to 0.067 with increasing sample temperature and that the disruption erosion of SiC doped CFC was about double that of the non-doped CFC and the erosion was mainly caused by the loss of the matrix part.

A mock-up module of an antenna tip made of carbon fiber composite (CFC) was fabricated for the development of a heat-resistive front of the lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) antenna. The CFC surface was coated with a thin Ti layer and was plated with Cu. The mock-up module has three waveguides and is designed to simulate the front tip of the 8 GHz LHCD antenna. The module has an active water cooling channel and the length is 200 mm, the mouth dimension is 19.5×50 mm 2 . The mock-up module was tested with heat fluxes up to 20 MW m −2 due to electron beam irradiation. No damage of the waveguide mouth was observed up to the heat flux of 3.2 MW m −2 for 2 min, though a maximum temperature of 762°C was measured at the septum plate. The obtained heat load of 3.2 MW m −2 is about 10 times higher than the steady-state surface-averaged heat load of the first wall required in the ITER design.

Thermal shock experiments on CVD-W, powder sintered tungsten (P-W), monocrystal tungsten (M-W) and brush tungsten (B-W) have been performed under the heat flux of 1000–2400 MW m −2 with the pulse length of 2 ms in JAERI electron beam irradiation system (JEBIS). The samples were exposed to a single pulsed beam with the electron energy of 70 keV and preheated up to 1000°C. In these experiments, the following information was obtained: (1) CVD-W is the most promising from an erosion point of view; (2) the increased weight loss was mainly caused by severe particle emission; (3) weight loss for every kind of tungsten was greater at 1000°C than at room temperature; (4) no cracks were observed at 1000°C for every sample by SEM observation; (5) secondary cracks were observed along the rolled direction at room temperature and may cause the exfoliation of a piece of tungsten surface during normal operation.

A HIP bonded DS-Cu/SS first wall (FW) with built-in circular cooling tubes was fabricated under the optimized HIP conditions. High heat flux testing of the panel was carried out on electron beam facility, JEBIS , at JAERI. The objective of this test is to examine the thermomechanical performance of the panel, including the integrity of the HIP bonded interfaces and also to examine the relation between the design fatigue curve and experimental results. Test conditions applied during these tests were 5.0–7.0 MW/m 2 in average, much higher than the ITER normal operation condition of 0.5 MW/m 2 , to accelerate the fatigue test with a repetition cycle up to 2500 cycles in total. High heat flux tests consisted of two test campaigns. Throughout these tests, no damages such as cracks were observed and no degradation in heat removal performance was also observed from temperature responses measured with thermocouples embedded within the panel. Thermomechanical integrity of the panel was confirmed within the parameter tests and the fatigue lifetime of the panel was found to be much longer than the design fatigue curve of this material, or even beyond the raw fatigue data.

KNSL4 (Kid; kinesin-like DNA-binding protein) is a member of the kinesin family that is involved in spindle formation and the movements of chromosomes during mitosis and meiosis. Myc-associated zinc finger protein (MAZ) participates in both the initiation and the termination of transcription of target genes. We isolated genomic DNA clones that encoded KNSL4 and MAZ from a human cosmid library. Sequence analysis revealed that the two genes were very close to one another. The distance between the two genes was only 1.2 kb, and this intervening 1.2-kb region was extremely GC-rich. The gene for KNSL4 spanned 16 kb and consisted of 14 exons and 13 introns, while the gene for MAZ spanned 6 kb and consisted of 5 exons and 4 introns. The two genes were mapped to chromosome 16p11.2 by fluorescence in situ hybridization.

We have cloned and characterized the genomic structure of the human gene for Myc-associated zinc finger protein (MAZ), which is located on chromosome 16p11.2. This gene is transcribed as an mRNA of 2.7 kilobases (kb) that encodes a 60-kDa MAZ protein. A 40-kb cosmid clone was isolated that includes the promoter, five exons, four introns, and one 3'-untranslated region. All exon-intron junction sequences conform to the GT/AG rule. The promoter region has features typical of a housekeeping gene: a high G + C content (88. 4%); a high frequency of CpG dinucleotides, in particular within the region 0.5 kb upstream of the site of initiation of translation; and the absence of canonical TATA and CAAT boxes. An S1 nuclease protection assay demonstrated the presence of multiple sites for initiation of transcription around a site 174 nucleotides (nt) upstream of the ATG codon and such expression was reflected by the promoter activity of a MAZ promoter/CAT (chloramphenicol acetyltransferase) reporter gene. Cis-acting positive and negative elements controlling basal transcription of the human MAZ gene were found from nucleotides (nt) -383 to -248 and nt -2500 to -948. Moreover, positive and negative autoregulatory elements were also identified in the regions from nt -248 to -189 and from nt -383 to -248 after co-transfection of HeLa cells with plasmids that carried the MAZ promoter/CAT construct and the MAZ-expression vector. Our results indicate that the 5'-end flanking sequences are responsible for the promoter activities of the MAZ gene.

The uniformity of deep levels in semi-insulating InP wafers, which have been obtained by multiple-step wafer annealing under phosphorus vapor pressure, was studied using the thermally stimulated current (TSC) and photoluminescence (PL) methods. Only three traps related to Fe, T0 (ionization energy Ei=0.19 eV), T1 (0.25 eV), and T2 (0.33 eV), probably forming complex defects, were observed in the wafer and they exhibited a relatively uniform distribution. PL spectra relating to phosphorus vacancies observed in some regions of the wafer are correlated with a small TSC signal having an ionization energy of 0.43 eV.

A theoretical model for the bending waveguide polarization rotator has been developed based on the full-vectorial wave equations and the coupled-mode theory. Calculation results from this model are found to agree favorably with measurement data reported in literature. It is found that the polarization conversion efficiency of this device hinges on the degree of asymmetry of the cross-sectional field profile with respect to both the x- and y-axes. Sensitivity analysis, furthermore, revealed that the device characteristics are strongly dependent on the waveguide geometry, in particular, the sidewall tilt angle and the amount of over-etch of the ridge waveguide. Finally, it is also found that the bending waveguide polarization rotator is virtually wavelength independent, making it suitable for wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) applications.

Device characteristics of optical polarization rotators are founded upon the vector properties of the Maxwell equations. Recently, a bending waveguide based polarization rotator has been proposed and demonstrated. To provide a rigorous basis for the analysis and design of this polarization rotator, the full-vectorial wave equations for both E/spl I.oarr/ and H/spl I.oarr/-field in bending waveguides are derived. It is found from these wave equations that under a broad range of circumstances, a bending waveguide can be analyzed using the equivalent straight waveguide approximation. Details of the model for optical polarization rotators, which is based on the coupled-mode theory, will be described in a companion paper.

Sealability of the O-ring was analyzed by the investigation of O-ring contact pressure variation affected by the assembly structure and fluid pressure. The effect of the degrading reaction of rubber was also determined. Based on the results of this investigation, design guidelines to keep the O-ring seal reliable were found.

The use of a more accurate scheme is effective in reducing the required memory resources in the explicit time-domain simulation of optical field propagation. A promising technique is the application of the symplectic integrator, which can simulate the long-term evolution of a Hamiltonian system accurately. The stability condition and the numerical dispersion of schemes with fourth-order accuracy in time and space using the symplectic integrator are derived for the transverse electric (TE)-mode in two dimensions. Their stable and accurate performance is qualitatively verified, and is also demonstrated by numerical simulations of wave-converging by a perfect electric conductor wall and propagation along a waveguide whose refractive index difference between the core and cladding is more than 9%.

Shaking table tests were performed on six geosynthetic-reinforced soil retaining wall (GRS-RWs) models. The geogrid reinforcement length, wall height, wall facing type, wall slope, and input acceleration waveform were varied in order to observe the behavior and the reinforcement mechanisms that occur in GRS-RWs. The test results were compared with the results of a pseudo-static seismic stability analysis that is adopted in the current design method in Japan. The analysis showed that this design method provides a margin of safety against the failure of reinforced soil walls. Permanent displacement computations based on the cumulative damage concept and the simplified sliding block method were performed for the tested model walls. The results showed that the sliding block method has the potential to estimate the permanent displacement of GRS-RWs.

To examine the effect of Aged Garlic Extract (AGE) on the function of mast cells and activated T lymphocytes, we adopted the in vitro histamine release system, the in vivo IgE mediated skin reaction system and the in vivo late phase reaction system. Consequently, at 1.25, 2.5, and 5.0% (v/v), AGE dose-dependantly inhibited the antigen specific histamine release by mouse anti-TNP monoclonal antibody and TNP-BSA hapten carrier complex against rat basophil cell line RBL-2H3 by 50, 80, and 90 percent, respectively. In the IgE mediated skin reaction system, repeated or single intragastric administration of AGE (10 ml/kg), decreased by 25-45% the antigen specific ear swelling which was induced by a picryl chloride ointment applied to the ear of mice also given an intravenous administration of anti-TNP antibody IgE ascites. In the late phase reaction system, repeated or single intragastric administration of AGE (10 ml/kg) suppressed by 45-55% the antigen specific ear swelling induced by a secondary challenge to the ear of mice given a picryl chloride ointment seven days prior. These results suggest that AGE application could modify, directly or indirectly, the function of mast cells, basophils and activated T lymphocytes which play a leading role in allergic cascade reactions including inflammation.

This paper presents a guideline for designing an optimum low-threshold 1.55-/spl mu/m graded-index (GRIN) separate confinement-heterostructure (SCH) strained InGaAsP single quantum-well (SQW) laser diode (LD). The guideline was formulated based on the results of numerical and experimental analysis. After calculating the sheet carrier density at the lasing threshold, the guideline was obtained by considering the tradeoff between carrier and optical confinements in the well: the GRIN layer energy gap should be varied parabolically from InP to InGaAsP having a band gap wavelength of 1.1 /spl mu/m to inject a large number of carriers into the well, and the thickness of one side of the GRIN layer should be more than 300 nm to keep a strong optical confinement. The GRIN SQW LD designed using the guideline has a J/sub th/ as low as 98 A/cm/sup 2/ at a cavity length of 5 mm, which proves the guideline is effective for designing low-threshold 1.55-/spl mu/m GRIN SQW LDs.

The transcription factor KBF2 has been characterized as a factor that binds to the NFkB site of mouse major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I genes and its amino acid sequence has been shwn to be identical to those of members of the recombination signal-sequence binding protein (RBP-Jk) family. Previous studies by Amakawa et al. (Genomics 17, 306-315, 1993) demonstrated that the functional gene is localized at human chromosome 3q25. However, in the present study we showed by in situ hybridization with the functional KBF2/RBPJk cosmid clone that the gene is localized at 9p12-13 and 9q13, namely, at the same loci as pseudogenes that were reported previously (Zhang et al, Jpn J Human Genet 39, 391-401, 1994).

The regulation of transcription factors by kinase or phosphatase has been well-described. However, little is known about the inactivation of transcription factors or the nuclear regulators by proteolytic degradation. In this report, we purified a specific protease, SPase, from nuclear extracts of the green monkey kidney cell line, CV-1. Studies of biochemical characteristics and substrate specificity indicated that SPase is a cathepsin B-like cysteinyl protease. However, the two tryptic peptide sequences derived from the purified SPase are either identical or highly homologous to those of human cathepsin L, and furthermore, SPase shares immunoreactivity with both anti-human cathepsin L and anti-mouse cathepsin L antibody. The SPase was shown to be localized in both cytoplasm and nucleus when subcellular compartments of CV-1 cells were fractionated. Transcription factor, SP1, and retinoblastoma susceptible gene product, RB, are substrates of SPase while other nuclear factors such as c-Jun and c-Fos are not. These results implied that SPase plays an integral role in regulating a set of proteins in the nuclei. In vivo treatment of CV-1 cells with cysteinyl protease inhibitor, E-64d, protected RB from degradation. SPase failed to degrade underphosphorylated RB present in TPA induced terminally differentiated HL-60 or U937 cells. Phosphorylation of RB may cause conformational changes, thus facilitating proteolytic digestion. These observations suggest that an alternative pathway inactivates the function of RB in controlling cell growth. Therefore, a possible role of SPase may be to affect the stability of important regulators involved in controlling cellular proliferation and differentiation.

The analytical form of the discretization error in modal calculations using the finite-difference method (in both one and two dimensions) has been derived. Based upon this knowledge, a linear extrapolation scheme is devised such that highly accurate propagation constants can be extracted from calculation results using coarse grids. Efficiency and precision are both improved significantly as a result.

Fusarium infections in humans are usually opportunistic, but the fungus sometimes infects healthy persons, causing keratomycosis or onychomycosis. Onychomycosis is usually caused by F. solani or F. oxysporum. We report the first two cases of onychomycosis caused by F. proliferatum, and discuss methods of diagnosis and effective treatment. Nail samples from the two patients were examined by direct microscopy, cultured, and identified morphologically and genetically as F. proliferatum. Both patients were treated successfully with oral itraconazole, even though the minimum inhibitory concentration of itraconazole was relatively high in Patient 1. This is the first report of F. proliferatum as an agent of onychomycosis. Itraconazole may be effective in the treatment of onychomycosis caused by F. proliferatum.

Epidemiological studies demonstrate that the incidence and mortality of gastric cancer in women are lower than in men worldwide. Many studies have reported the delayed menopause and hormone replacement therapy are associated with a reduced risk for gastric cancer. It has been reported that endogenous estrogen lowers gastric cancer incidence in women, and cancer patients treated with estrogens have a lower subsequent risk of gastric cancer. It has been reported that estrogen decreases the progression of gastric cancer by inhibiting erbB-2 oncogene expression. Overexpression of estrogen receptor might inhibit the proliferation and invasion of MKN28 gastric cancer cells. Accumulating evidence suggests that bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells contribute to the progression of gastric cancer. However, it is unknown if 17β-estradiol (E2) treatment is sufficient to inhibit human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (HBMMSCs)-mediated cell motility in human gastric cancer cells. The results from human cytokine arrays have shown that HBMMSCs notably secrete interleukin 6 (IL-6) protein. Administration of IL-6–specific neutralizing antibody significantly inhibits HBMMSCs-mediated motility activity in human gastric cancer cells. Treatment of recombinant IL-6 soluble protein confirmed the role of IL-6 in mediating HBMMSCs-upregulated cell motility. IL-6 mainly upregulates motility activity via activation of Src signaling pathway in human gastric cancer cells. We further observed that E2 treatment inhibits HBMMSCs-induced cellular motility via suppressing the activation of IL-6−Src/Cas/paxillin signaling pathway in human gastric cancer cells. Collectively, these results suggest that E2 treatment significantly inhibits HBMMSCs-induced cellular motility in human gastric cancer cells.

Senescence is an irreversible event that occurs during the G1 transition of the cell cycle and is elicited by replicative exhaustion or in response to stresses such as DNA damage, chemotherapeutic drugs, or aberrant expression of oncogenes. Senescence-associated heterochromatin foci, repress the expression of proliferation-promoting genes, thereby contributing to senescence-associated proliferation arrest. This arrest is regulated by chromatin-remodeling factors and two tumor suppressor proteins, p53 and Rb, whose expression is controlled by the CDKN2A locus. Jun dimerization protein 2 (JDP2)-deficient mouse embryonic fibroblasts are resistant to replicative senescence. Oxygen induces the expression of JDP2, which then inhibits the recruitment of polycomb repressive complexes (PRCs) 1 and 2 to the promoter of the gene encoding p16Ink4a and p19Arf, resulting in inhibition of the methylation of histone H3K27. These results suggest that the PRC controlled by JDP2 plays an important role in replicative senescence. Here we review the possible contribution of the histone chaperone JDP2 to induction of replicative senescence.

Chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan 4 (CSPG4), a transmembrane proteoglycan originally identified in melanoma cells, has been reported to be expressed in breast cancer cells. This study was performed to examine the expression and significance of CSPG4 in a cohort of breast cancer patients. Immunohistochemical analysis of CSPG4 was performed on tissue microarrays constructed from tissue specimens from 240 breast cancer patients. CSPG4 staining was correlated with clinical and pathological characteristics, overall survival (OS), and disease recurrence. Contradicting to a previous report, our results showed that high CSPG4 expression was not related to triple-negative status of breast cancer patients. The Kaplan–Meier method showed that high CSPG4 expression was significantly associated with shorter time to recurrence (TTR). Patients with high CSPG4 expression had poorer OS and shorter TTR in a multivariate survival analysis after adjustment for stage, tumor grade, expression of estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor, and HER2 overexpression. This study showed that high CSPG4 expression correlates with disease recurrence and OS in breast cancers.

Simulation and experimental results have shown that the combination of two kinds of codes to modulate phase-shift pulse Brillouin optical time domain analysis (PSP-BOTDA) pump pulse for distributed strain measurement provides higher SNR than that of using only one code system, and better spatial resolution than dual Golay codes PSP-BOTDA. In preliminary experiments, 10cm spatial resolution measurement was demonstrated.

Emission of muonium ($\mu^{+}e^{-}$) atoms from silica aerogel into vacuum was observed. Characteristics of muonium emission were established from silica aerogel samples with densities in the range from 29 mg cm$^{-3}$ to 178 mg cm$^{-3}$. Spectra of muonium decay times correlated with distances from the aerogel surfaces, which are sensitive to the speed distributions, follow general features expected from a diffusion process, while small deviations from a simple room-temperature thermal diffusion model are identified. The parameters of the diffusion process are deduced from the observed yields., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PTEP

The use of C-Band structures for electron acceleration and production of high quality beams has been proposed and adopted in several linac projects all over the world. The two main projects that adopted such type of structures are the Japanese Free Electron Laser (FEL) project in Spring-8 and the SwissFEL project at Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). Also the energy upgrade of the SPARC photo-injector at LNF-INFN (Italy) from 150 to more than 240 MeV will be done by replacing a low gradient S-Band accelerating structure with two C-band structures. The structures are Traveling Wave (TW) and Constant Impedance (CI), have symmetric axial input couplers and have been optimized to work with a SLED RF input pulse. The paper presents the design criteria of the structures, the realization procedure and the low and high power RF test results on a prototype. The high power tests have been carried out by the Frascati INFN Laboratories in close collaboration with the Japanese Laboratory KEK. Experimental results confirmed the feasibility of the operation of the prototype at 50 MV/m with about 10 6 breakdowns per pulse per meter. Such high gradients have not been reached before in C-Band systems and demonstrated the possibility to use C-band accelerators, if needed, at such high field level. The results of the internal inspection of the structure after the high power test are also presented.

BRCA1-associated breast cancers are associated with particular features such as early onset, poor histological differentiation, and hormone receptor negativity. Previous studies conducted in Taiwanese population showed that the mutation of BRCA1 gene does not play a significant role in the occurrence of breast cancer. The present study explored methylation of BRCA1 promoter and its relationship to clinical features and outcome in Taiwanese breast cancer patients. Tumor specimens from a cohort of 139 early-stage breast cancer patients were obtained during surgery before adjuvant treatment for DNA extraction. Methylation of BRCA1 promoter region was determined by methylation-specific PCR and the results were related to clinical features and outcome of patients using statistical analysis. Methylation of the BRCA1 promoter was detected in 78 (56%) of the 139 tumors. Chi-square analysis indicated that BRCA1 promoter methylation correlated significantly with triple-negative (ER-/PR-/HER2-) status of breast cancer patients (p = 0.041). The Kaplan-Meier method showed that BRCA1 promoter methylation was significantly associated with poor overall survival (p = 0.026) and disease-free survival (p = 0.001). Multivariate analysis which incorporated variables of patients' age, tumor size, grade, and lymph node metastasis revealed that BRCA1 promoter methylation was associated with overall survival (p = 0.027; hazard ratio, 16.38) and disease-free survival (p = 0.003; hazard ratio, 12.19) [corrected].Our findings underscore the clinical relevance of the methylation of BRCA1 promoter in Taiwanese patients with early-stage breast cancer.

High heat flux experiments were conducted on the divertor mock-ups with the thermal bond layer (TBL). The experiments were carried out at JAFRI Electron Beam Irradiation System (JEBIS). For the simulation of normal operation of ITER, the incident heat flux of MW/m{sup 2} at a maximum pulse duration of 50 s was loaded; and for the simulation of transient period of ITER, the heat flux of up to 15 MW/m{sup 2} at a maximum pulse duration of 10 s was loaded. The thermal performance of the mock-ups was stably sustained against both thermal loads. 5 refs., 8 figs., 1 tab.

CVD-tungsten coated divertor mock-ups were fabricated and tested in an ion beam test facility in JAERI. The mock-up consisted of a 2 mm thick CVD-tungsten on a 30 wt% Cu infiltrated tungsten skeleton heat sink. For the thermal fatigue tests, the heat load of 15 MW/m{sup 2}, 0.3 s was applied to simulate the bonding interface temperature under a steady heat load of 5 MW/m{sup 2}. The mock-up successfully endured a heat load of 15 MW/m{sup 2}, 0.3 s for more than 1000 thermal cycles. No cracks were observed at the bonding interface by optical microscope observation. Screening tests were also performed to evaluate the performance limit of the mock-up. The mock-up endured up to a heat load of 20 MW/m{sup 2}, 10 s without failure. 9 refs., 4 figs., 1 tab.

Since the thermal loads causes deformation of the divertor plate, it is one of the critical issues to develop support structures which can suppress the deformation within an allowable tolerance. Sl...

To evaluate the efficacy of nitric oxide (NO) inhalation against endotoxin-induced lung injury.Randomized prospective short-term study.University school of Medicine Laboratory.Animal experiment (using 16 Japanese white rabbits). The animals inhaled NO at a concentration of 10 ppm.The rabbits were randomly divided into the NO inhaling group (n = 7) and the control group (n = 9). Both groups received continuous infusion of 1200 mcg lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and the NO group inhaled 10 ppm NO during the LPS administration. In the control group, severe right ventricular (RV) failure was observed at 30-90 min of LPS infusion, and 4 of 9 animals died within 90 min of LPS infusion. In the NO group, none of the animals died and the early phase hemodynamic deterioration was milder than in the control group. But pulmonary gas exchange was not significantly different between the two groups throughout the study. At the end of the study there were no significant differences in any parameters of the surviving animals between the two groups.Although an improvement of pulmonary gas exchange was not demonstrated, NO inhalation (10 ppm) improved the outcome of severe RV failure caused by LPS infusion.

Electron-irradiation induced defects in semi-insulated Fe-doped InP have been studied using a thermally stimulated current (TSC) method. New peaks, e 1 , e 2 and e 3 , with activation energies of 0.18, 0.39 and 0.52 eV, respectively, were observed. Based upon the annealing behavior of defects observed by TSC and photoluminescence methods, the e 1 peak produced by the irradiation with an electron dose of 1 × 10 16 cm −2 was linked to In p antisite defects that probably form complexes. The e 3 peak produced by irradiation with doses below 1 × 10 15 cm −2 was associated with Frenkel type defects which are the preceding stage of the creation of antisite defects. Some TSC peaks appeared in the process of annealing.

An evaluation of the erosion under disruption heat loads is very important to the lifetime prediction of divertor armour tiles of next fusion devices such as ITER. In particular, erosion data on CFCs (carbon fiber reinforced composites) and beryllium (Be) as the armour materials is urgently required in the ITER design. For CFCs, high heat flux experiments on the newly developed CFCs with high thermal conductivity have been performed under the heat flux of around 800–2000 MW/m 2 and the pulse length of 2–5 ms in JAERI electron beam irradiation systems (JEBIS). As a result, the weight losses of B 4 C doped CFCs after heating were almost same to those of the non doped CFC up to 5 wt% boron content. For Be, we have carried out our first disruption experiments on S65/C grade Be specimens in the Juelich divertor test facility in hot cells (JUDITH) facility as a frame work of the J—EU collaboration. The heating conditions were heat loads of 1250–5000 MW/m 2 for 2–8 ms, and the heated area was 3 × 3 mm 2 . As a result, the protuberances of the heated area of Be were observed under the lower heat flux.

A human recombinant cDNA clone that encoded a zinc-finger protein ( M yc- a ssociated z inc-finger protein of human i slet; MAZi) was cloned by screening a cDNA library prepared from human pancreatic islet cells. The encoded protein showed a high degree of homology to theMyc-associated zinc-finger protein MAZ (ZF87 or Pur-1). However, differences between the cDNAs for MAZi and MAZ were found in the length of the encoded polyalanine stretch and in the sequence of the 5′-end leader. MAZi transcripts were significantly more abundant in rat pancreatic islet carcinoma tissue than in normal rat islet cells. Moreover, MAZi protein bound specifically to the pyrimidine-rich strand of the CT-element of thec-mycgenein vitroand strongly induced the expression of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) from ac-mycpromoter/CAT reporter construct in human pancreatic cells. Our results suggest that a distinct member of the MAZ family is expressed in human islet cells and enhances the transcriptional activity of thec-mycgene.

Limethason is an i.v. injectable lipid emulsion in which dexamethasone-21-palmitate is dissolved as an active ingredient. Limethason exhibited 2 to 5 times as potent anti-inflammatory activity as water-soluble dexamethasone phosphate on chronic inflammatory disease models. The strong anti-inflammatory activity of the drug was primarily based on a high distribution in the inflammatory lesion, a high uptake by macrophages and a suppressive effect on the macrophage function. A multicenter double-blind comparative clinical trial showed a tendency to a significantly higher rate of improvement with lower frequency of side effects in the Limethason group than the dexamethasone phosphate group. These results indicate that Limethason is more useful for rheumatoid arthritis and that the separation of the efficacy and side-effects of steroid could be clinically confirmed to some extent.

A breakdown of the standard Watson-type rotational Hamiltonian was suggested for a molecule with H2XYZstructure [S. Urban and K. M. T. Yamada,J. Mol. Spectrosc.160,279–288 (1993)]. This breakdown is due to a near-resonant interaction between the ground state rotational levels and rotational levels in an excited vibrational state. This interaction has been observed in the excited electronic state of H2CCC−(2A1state) by high-resolution autodetachment spectroscopy. The centrifugal distortion coupling term and nonvanishing matrix elements for electronic spin doublet and triplet states are described using Hund's case (b) basis sets. The results are used to interpret the centrifugal distortion couplings between the ν6and ν9modes and the vibrational ground states in H2CCC−. Centrifugal distortion coupling constantsCac6= 1.0723(2) × 10−4andCab9= −1.5397(5) × 10−5were obtained for this system.

All-optical switching performance of waveguide-type device utilizing intersubband transition is investigated by analyzing the position-dependent change of optical power densities and carrier densities in the waveguide. In the device, the three lowest energy-level subbands in the conduction band structure of asymmetric coupled quantum wells are used. The optical excitation pulse excites the electrons in the first subband to the third subband and the stimulated emission between the third subband and second subband amplifies the optical signal pulse. We find that the signal pulse is notably amplified when the excitation pulsewidth is less than the relaxation time of the third subband. The calculated results show that wavelength conversion from 1.35 to 1.6 /spl mu/m with a gain of more than 10 dB is achieved by the excitation using an optical pulse with 1.5-ps width. This demonstrates the effectiveness of using a waveguide-type device structure with pulsed operation to make devices with a high-optical gain. We also derive a simple approximation for the optical gain. We show that the approximation gives results in good agreement with the results of the rigorous simulation using a finite difference method and the approximation is useful for designing devices.

A general method of deriving finite-difference schemes suitable for the discretization of the wave equation along the boundary of a simulation region has been developed, thereby eliminating the need of artificially imposed boundary conditions for modal calculations. Its effectiveness is demonstrated through examples.

The success of gene therapy using a RNA interference approach relies on small interfering RNA (siRNA) expression from a highly tissue-specific RNA polymerase II promoter rather than from ubiquitous RNA polymerase III. Accordingly, we have developed a prostate-specific vector that expresses siRNAs from the human prostate-specific antigen promoter, a RNA polymerase II promoter. Our data demonstrate androgen-dependent and tissue-specific siRNA-mediated gene silencing in the androgen-responsive prostate cancer cell line, LNCaP. The biological significance was evidenced by altered apoptotic activity through the inhibition of the apoptosis-related regulatory gene. These results demonstrate that siRNA-mediated gene silencing from a tissue-specific RNA polymerase II promoter could be a potential tool for tissue-specific gene therapy.

High heat flux experiments (550–1600 MW m−2, 2–10 ms) in the JAERI electron beam irradiation system (JEBIS) were carried out on B4C-overlaid carbon fibre reinforced composites (CFCs), on which the B4C was overlaid with a thickness of 50–800 μm by using three coating methods, chemical vapour reaction (CVR), low pressure plasma spraying and chemical vapour deposition. Investigations were made with respect to changes of weight, surface morphology, surface atomic composition and crystal orientation of B4C. Severe exfoliation and large weight losses of the B4C layers were observed in the samples except for the sample produced by the CVR method. Weight losses of the samples increased with the heat flux under the identical absorbed energy. A preferential evaporation of boron was observed only in the melted area of the B4C under lower heat flux conditions (550 MW m−2, 5 ms), the evaporated thickness was a few micrometres. However, under higher heat flux conditions (1600 MW m−2, 2 ms), the atomic ratio of the boron to carbon did not change. The present results suggest that the B4C-overlaid CFCs produced by the CVR method can be applied to the divertor materials of JT-60U.

We investigate conduction properties and electrical field effect of highly resistive NbN microbridges. The bridge region consists of NbN thin films which have granular structure with /spl sim/10 nm. The dimension of the microbridge is approximately /spl sim/200 nm in length and /spl sim/50 nm in width. The highly resistive (100 k/spl Omega/) microbridges exhibit nonlinear current-voltage (I-V) characteristics at low temperatures which are similar to those of an array of single electron tunneling (SET) junctions. The offset voltage ranges from 2 mV to 300 mV at 4.2 K depending on the bridge resistance and the bridge width. Periodic modulation of bridge conductance is observed when external gate electric field is applied to the bridges. These results coincide fairly well with the simulation based on the SET array model. >

By taking into account the electrostatic deformation in the band profiles and the temperature dependence of the optical dephasing time, we study the temperature sensitivity of the differential gain, threshold carrier density, and radiative current density in 1.3-/spl mu/m InP-based strained-layer quantum-well (QW) lasers. Electrostatic deformation is analyzed by the self-consistent numerical calculation of Poisson's equation, the scalar effective-mass equation for the conduction band, and the multiband effective-mass equation for the valence band. The optical dephasing time is then obtained from the intrasubband scattering rates for electrons and holes within the fully dynamic random phase approximation including carrier-carrier and carrier-phonon interactions on an equal basis. It is clarified that the electrostatic band-profile deformation is one of the dominant mechanisms For determining the temperature sensitivity Of the differential gain, while the optical dephasing time has a pronounced influence on the transparent condition at elevated temperatures. We demonstrate that the electrostatic band-profile deformation and the temperature-dependent optical dephasing play essential roles in determining the high-temperature characteristics of InP-based QW lasers. >