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2‘-Deoxyribonucleosides, ribonucleosides, nucleobases, deoxyribose, and ribose were oxidized with Fenton's reagent. Malonaldehyde (MA) formed was derivatized with N-methylhydrazine to N-methylpyrazole, and acetaldehyde formed was derivatized with cysteamine to 2-methylthiazolidine. The resulting nitrogen-containing derivatives were quantitatively analyzed using gas chromatography with a nitrogen−phosphorus detector. MA and acetaldehyde were found in 2-deoxy-d-ribose and 2‘-deoxyribonucleosides but not in ribonucleosides, nucleobases, and d-ribose. Amounts of MA formed from four deoxynucleosides were in the following order: 2‘-deoxyguanosine > 2‘-deoxycytidine > 2‘-deoxyadenosine ≥ thymidine. Amounts of acetaldehyde formed from four deoxynucleosides were in the following order: 2‘-deoxycytidine > thymidine > 2‘-deoxyadenosine ≥ 2‘-deoxyguanosine. The results suggest that the formation of MA and acetaldehyde requires a deoxy group on carbon 2‘ of a ribose moiety. Keywords: Malonaldehyde; nucleosides; acet...

Acetaldehyde present in the blood of bull, chicken, hamster, horse, human, monkey, pig, rabbit, rat and sheep, was quantitatively analyzed by a newly developed gas chromatographic method. Acetaldehyde in a blood sample was reacted with cysteamine to give 2-methylthiazolidine, which was extracted with dichloromethane and subsequently analyzed by gas chromatography with a fused-silica capillary column and a nitrogen-phosphorus detector. The quantities of acetaldehyde found in blood ranged from 2.04 micromol/ml (hamster) to 14.8 micromol/ml (pig). The quantity of acetaldehyde recovered from human blood was 6.17 micromol/ml.

We report a carcinoid tumor in the mucosal layer of the esophagus of a 63-year-old man. Barium X-ray and endoscopy indicated the tumor to be a polypoid lesion in the lower esophagus. Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) demonstrated the lesion to be a sharply demarcated hyperechoic tumor in the mucosal layer. Biopsy yielded a diagnosis carcinoid of the esophagus. In the resected specimen of the esophagus, the tumor was 11 mm in longest dimension with a shallow depression on it smooth surface. Histologically, the tumor was located in the mucosal layer, as shown by EUS, and was composed of small round cells which were positive for argyrophil, but not argentaffine. Carcinoid tumor of the esophagus found at an early stage, and localized in the lamina propria layer, is very rare. The present case is the second report in Japan.

A 76-year-old male with anterior mediastinal tumor was admitted to our hospital. He had undergone mediastinal lipoma surgery 3 years earlier. The tumor was excised surgically. Microscopic sections of the tumor showed liposarcoma composed of myxoid tissue. Further examination of prior specimens taken from this patient proved this case to be a recurrence of liposarcoma. Poorly differentiated tumors, which pathologically tend to be more cellular with less fat per cell component, are likely to have high CT numbers. But CT number is not sufficient to distinguish well-differentiated liposarcoma from benign lipoma.

Angiotensin (Ang) II exerts direct effects on the arterial wall to influence atherosclerosis and aneurysm development with the induction of vascular inflammation. Therefore, we examined the hypothesis that the inhibition of Ang II would decrease the expansion of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) in a rat model. We used the Ang II receptor blocker (ARB) valsartan to inhibit the effect of Ang II. Additionally, we employed a dosage of valsartan (1 mg/ kg/day) that does not affect blood pressure, to avoid the effect of blood pressure lowering. Notably, progression of elastase-induced AAA was inhibited in rats treated with valsartan (P< or =0.05). To clarify the mechanism, we focused on matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) and inflammatory related factors. Western blot analysis demonstrated that the expression of MMPs was significantly decreased in an AAA model treated with continuous ARB infusion compared to an AAA model treated with vehicle (P< or =0.05), through suppression of nuclear factor kappaB activation (P< or =0.05). Consistently, valsartan significantly inhibited infiltration of macrophages into the aortic wall, accompanied by a reduction of protein expression of intercellular adhesion molecule-1. Importantly, the inhibitory effect of valsartan on MMP-2 and MMP-9 expression was also confirmed using isolated peritoneal macrophages from a rat AAA model. Moreover, treatment with valsartan protected against the destruction of elastic fibers. Overall, the present study demonstrated that treatment with valsartan, significantly prevented the progression of experimental AAA in a rat model. These data suggest that blockade of Ang II has an inhibitory effect on the development of AAA, independent of its antihypertensive effect.

The growth of pollen tubes of Nicotiana tabacum cultured in a petri dish was divided into five stages by the behaviors of pollen tubes, vegetative nuclei (VNs), and generative cells (GCs). Pollen tubes continued to elongate during every stage. Colchicine, at a concentration of 1 mM, preferentially inhibited the movement of the VNs but not that of GCs. Nonanoic acid preferentially inhibited the movement of GCs. These results suggest that different mechanisms of movement exist between VNs and GCs.

Half-metallic systems will be quite useful in future spin electronics. The GW approximation is employed to study electronic structure of half-metallic La0.7Sr0.3MnO3, to show that the lowest quasiparticle energy of the unoccupied minority spin states is far above the Fermi energy compared to that in the LSDA. As a bulk, this system is predicted to be a fully spin-polarized half-metallic ferromagnet.

We develop the multi-scale ab-initio scheme for correlated electrons (MACE) for transitionmetal-oxide heterostructures, and determine the parameters of the low-energy effective model. By separating Ti t2g bands near the Fermi level from the global Kohn-Sham (KS) bands of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 which are highly entangled with each other, we are able to calculate the parameters of the low-energy effective model of the interface with the help of constrained random phase approximation (cRPA). The on-site energies of the Ti t2g orbitals in the 1stlayer is about 650 meV lower than those in the 2nd-layer. In the 1st-layer, the transfer integral of the Ti t2g orbital is nearly the same as that of the bulk SrTiO3, while the effective screened Coulomb interaction becomes about 10 percent larger than that of the bulk SrTiO3. The differences of the parameters from the bulk SrTiO3 reduce rapidly with increasing distance from the interface. Our present versatile method makes it possible to derive effective ab-initio low-energy models and allows studying interfaces of strongly correlated electron systems from first principles., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Jpn

Effective low-energy Hamiltonians for several different families of iron-based superconductors are compared after deriving them from the downfolding scheme based on first-principles calculations. Systematic dependences of the derived model parameters on the families are elucidated, many of which are understood from the systematic variation of the covalency between Fe-3d and pnictogen-/chalcogen-p orbitals., Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures and 12 tables. To appear in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. The revised version contains a comment on the transfer integrals in the caption of Table |V. Table |V-V|| have been revised accordingly.

To explore the electronic structure of the first aromatic superconductor, potassium-doped solid picene which has been recently discovered by Mitsuhashi et al with the transition temperatures $T_c=7 - 20$ K, we have obtained a first-principles electronic structure of solid picene as a first step toward the elucidation of the mechanism of the superconductivity. The undoped crystal is found to have four conduction bands, which are characterized in terms of the maximally localized Wannier orbitals. We have revealed how the band structure reflects the stacked arrangement of molecular orbitals for both undoped and doped (K$_3$picene) cases, where the bands are not rigid. The Fermi surface for K$_3$picene is a curious composite of a warped two-dimensional surface and a three-dimensional one., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

A method for numerically simulating quantum systems is proposed and applied to the two-dimensional electron fluid at T = 0. This method maps quantum systems onto classical ones in the spirit of the classical-map hypernetted-chain theory and performs simulations on the latter. The results of the simulations are free from the assumption of the hypernetted-chain approximation and the neglect of the bridge diagrams. A merit of this method is the applicability to systems with geometrical complexity and finite sizes including the cases at finite temperatures. Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations are performed corresponding to two previous proposals for the 'quantum' temperature and an improvement in the description of the diffraction effect. It is shown that one of these two proposals with the improved diffraction effect gives significantly better agreement with quantum Monte Carlo results reported previously for the range of 5≤r(s)≤40. These results may serve as the basis for the application of this method to finite non-periodic systems like quantum dots and systems at finite temperatures.

In order to establish a stable and uniform cultural method in a cell line HaLa 229, we studied the effect of DEAE-dextran, centrifugation, cycloheximide and their combination on infectivity and progeny yields of Chlamydia psittaci isolated mainly from birds. Of 11 strains (10 avian and one human origin Ito strain), 9 showed maximal inclusion formation when host cells were treated with a combination of dextran and cycloheximide. Of the other two strains, one showed maximum inclusion formation with dextran alone and any treatments did not enhance the inclusion formation in another strain. Maximal yields of progeny at 48 hours after infection was observed in 5 (4 avian and Ito) strains when host cells were treated with a combination of dextran and cycloheximide. One avian strain showed maximal yields with a triple treatment; dextran and cycloheximide combined with centrifugation. At 72 hours after infection, three avian and Ito strains showed maximal yields with a double treatment (dextran and cycloheximide) and other two avian strains showed that with a triple treatment (double treatment added with centrifugation). The results suggest that in a cell culture HeLa 229, the treatment with dextran and cycloheximide may provide an efficient isolation and growth pattern for most strains originated from birds.

MRL/lpr mice (H-2k) with Fas gene mutation develop severe autoimmune diseases, and their hematolymphoid cells such as bone marrow and spleen cells showed a low apoptotic activity by irradiation. Therefore, conventional bone marrow transplantation (BMT) cannot be used to treat autoimmune diseases in these mice (chimeric resistance). In the present study, we examine the effects of additional adult thymus transplantation (TT) from the same donor on successful BMT. When the MRL/lpr mice were lethally irradiated (9.5Gy) and reconstituted with 3 X 107 of C57BL/6 mouse (H-2b) bone marrow cells (BMCs) in conjunction with TT, the mice significantly survived long-term and showed a high donor-derived chimerism in comparison with those treated with BMT alone. Interestingly, the numbers of not only donor-derived T cells but also B cells significantly increased in the mice treated with BMT plus TT even at the early phase of BMT. The number of aberrant CD3+B220+ cells significantly decreased, and the numbers of lymphocyte subsets were also normalized 4 weeks after the treatment. Finally, the autoimmune diseases in MRL/lpr mice could be cured by BMT with TT. These results indicate that the combination of BMT plus TT can overcome the chimeric resistance and treat the autoimmune diseases in MRL/lpr mice.

Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with long length and high density were successfully synthesized on SiO2, Ta, and Ti substrates by thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The use of Fe catalyst film supported by an Al buffer layer (Fe∕Al) has a significant influence on the increase of the number density of the aligned CNTs and the decrease of their diameter. The time dependencies of the aligned CNTs growth show that there is a limit to the length of the aligned CNTs formation. The aligned CNTs can be lengthened further using an intermittent growth method. These findings for the aligned CNTs synthesized on SiO2, Ta, and Ti substrates demonstrate that the thermal intermittent CVD with a Fe∕Al multilayer is a versatile method for obtaining vertically aligned CNTs with moderate length, for use in various device applications.

We evaluated the prevalence of Coxiella burnetii antibodies in 626 human serum samples (275 from veterinarians, 107 from meat-processing workers, 184 from respiratory-disorder patients, and 60 from healthy humans) by the indirect immunofluorescence test. Of the serum samples examined, 54 (8.6%) and 103 (16.5%) reacted positively to phase I and II antigens, respectively, of C. burnetii. The rates differed for healthy humans and respiratory-disorder patients. Antibody prevalence was high for healthy humans living in close contact with animals (e.g., veterinarians and meat-processing workers).

Time of flower opening (anthesis) is one of the floral traits comprising a pollination syndrome. The time when pollinators are active has been thought to exert selective pressures on anthesis, but no models have been developed to explain it. Using a simulation model, we estimated the number of pollen grains transferred by both diurnal and nocturnal pollinators in flowers opened at dusk, midnight, morning, and noon. We assumed that pollen removal is proportional to the amount of pollen in the flower and that poller: deposition is an increasing and decelerating function of pollen removal. Pollen removal efficiencies and pollen deposition efficiencies of nocturnal and diurnal pollinators were estimated from field data for Lonicera japonica. Anthesis at dusk was favored, even with a larger number of diurnal pollinators, up to ten, versus two nocturnal pollinators. As long as both the pollen removal efficiency of nocturnal pollinators was lower and their pollen deposition efficiency was higher than those of diurnal pollinators. anthesis at dusk was favored, even when diurnal pollinators transferred more pollen than nocturnal ones. Anthesis at dusk may not be a specialization for nocturnal pollinators.

The title reaction using optically active S-stannylmethyl phosphonothioates, followed by quenching with alkyl iodide affords mainly the corresponding (alkylthiomethyl)phosphine oxides with a retention of configuration.

A spontaneous hyperplastic growth of skin which developed in Acanthogobius flavimanus collected from the Mikawa-bay area was studied preliminary from the view point of histopathology and virology.The hyperplastic region showed proliferating epidermal cells accompanied with relativelythin connective tissues. The lesions were characterized by giant cells which were observed among the hyperplastic epidermal cell layers.However, in the hyperplastic lesions less than 1mm thick, possibly in the early stage of the disease, the growth was characterized by angiomatous or fibrous connective tissues.In these connective cell layers, histiocytic or round cells were frequently observed. Even when the epidermal layer did not show too extensive proliferative growth, the basal cells changed their morphology and lost their cylindrical cell natures.Similar changes of the epithelial and connective tissue cells usually occurred in the transitional area between the normal skin and the papillomatous growth. Infiltrative growth of the hyperplastic epithelial cell elements into adjacent normal skin or muscular layer was not observed in any cases.The findings closely resembling the morphology of this disease entity have been reported in papillomatous growth of skin in flat fishes. Considering the different charcteristics of epidermis between mammal and fish, the disease of the goby was considered as one of a unique neoplastic disease found in fishes.Factors possibly related to the development of the papillomatous growth were also discussed in this communication.

Discussion and SummaryAfter terminating the present series of experiments, we found in the literature that Heston had employed the analogous methodological approach in order to confirm the difference in degree of genetic susceptibility to tumor formation in susceptible strain A and resistant strain C57L lung and had shown that the genetic factor of the susceptibility to the development of pulmonary tumor in mice resides in the lung per se (5).In order to explain the reason of higher susceptibility in the newborn animals to chemical carcinogenesis, Toth itemized the following alternatives: (1) detoxification and metabolism rates of carcinogenic chemicals are different in newborn and adult animals; (2) the rate of development and size of organs in newborn is greater than in adult animals; (3) involvement of a viral factor; (4) the effect of hormonal status modulated by the age of the animals; and (5) the possible interference of immunological processes (6).In the present study an attempt was made to clarify...

We treated three patients of chlamydial pneumonia with OFLX, two patients were diagnosed as psittacosis and one as pneumonia associated with TWAR strain by serologic test. Three hundred mg of OFLX was orally administered three times per day and the duration of treatment was from seven to fourteen days, and we compared the clinical effectiveness of OFLX in three cases (mild: 1, moderate: 2) with that of MINO in eleven cases (mild: 3, moderate: 8), who were administered two hundred mg of MINO two times per day orally or intravenously. We isolated C. psittaci from three pet birds including case 2 and the in vitro activity of OFLX and MINO against three strains of C. psittaci was determined. Clinical effectiveness were observed and obtained results were as follows. 1) In OFLX group, three patients judged as "Good", and in MINO, one patient as "Excellent", ten as "Good". 2) The duration of pneumonic shadow was 9.33 +/- 3.21 in OFLX group, 10.3 +/- 3.50 in MINO group, and there was no significant difference between both groups. 3) The in vitro activity of OFLX and MINO against 3 strains was 0.78-1.56 micrograms/ml and 0.025 microgram/ml, respectively. From these results, it was concluded that OFLX was considered to be a useful antichlamydial agent in the treatment of mild or moderate cases of chlamydial pneumonia.

Total energies of solids are calculated by an ab initio method based on the Green's-function theory. Green's function is constructed from one-body wave functions and eigenvalues obtained in the local-density approximation (LDA) to density-functional theory, and the correlation energy is estimated within the random-phase approximation. The scheme is applied to Na and Si. In both cases, the equilibrium lattice constants are in reasonable agreement with experiments. The role of the exchange-correlation energy in the total-energy curve is discussed in detail in comparison with the LDA.