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The chemically stable, partially fluorinated polyphenylene ionomer membranes reinforced with porous polyethylene substrates achieved superior durability to survive more than 20 000 cycles in severe accelerated durability test.

Background Undernutrition is a negative predictor of adverse outcomes in patients with heart failure (HF). Despite the survival advantage of elevated body mass index (BMI) in patients with HF, BMI does not necessarily reflect a favorable nutritional status. In the present study, we investigated the clinical impact of nutritional screening in patients with HF and overweight/obesity. Methods We examined the data from 170 patients with overweight or obesity status (defined as BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2) who admitted for acute HF. Their controlling nutritional status (CONUT) score was calculated on admission. The CONUT score is regarded as an index of the nutritional status. Results The median duration of follow-up was 1096 days (interquartile range, 805–1096 days). Undernutrition was identified in 66.5% of the patients. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis demonstrated that patients with undernutrition had a higher incidence of all-cause death and readmission due to HF than those without undernutrition. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that the CONUT score, but not BMI and the geriatric nutritional risk index, was independently correlated with poor prognosis. Conclusions Undernutrition is highly prevalent and independently predicts poor outcomes in patients with overweight/obesity and acute HF.

The technical possibility and possible issues of an intermediate–temperature–operated polymer electrolyte fuel cell (@120 °C, IT–PEFC) was investigated toward the launching of new fuel cell heavy–duty vehicles. Commercial perfluorosulfonic acid membrane (PSFA, NRE212) and a commercial Pt catalyst supported on carbon (Pt/C: TEC10E50E, TKK) were selected to clarify the possible issues in the fuel cells. The higher oxygen back–pressures, over 200 kPa(abs.), allowed us to obtain higher power densities than those for cells operated at 80 °C (Fig. 1), because the water vapor pressure at 120 °C exceeded 100 kPa(abs.) above 50% RH. The mass activity at 0.85 V increased monotonically with increasing back–pressure above the water vapor pressure of 160 kPa(abs.) at 120 °C, 80% RH. The open circuit voltage (OCV) exceeded 1.0 V for back–pressures above 200 kPa(abs) at the Pt loadings on the cathode catalyst layer above 0.20 mgPt cm–2 (Fig. 2), which would relate with the hydrogen crossover in the PFSA membrane. The mass activity (@0.85 V) decreased moderately with decreasing cathodic Pt loading amount at each back–pressures (Fig. 3), indicating that the limitation of Pt mass activity in the lower Pt loading cathode catalyst layers occurred at 120oC, 80 %RH. The load cycle durability test (0.60V-1.0 V, 6 sec.) of the Pt catalyst supported on carbon at 120 °C at low humidity (20% RH) was higher than that at 120 °C at high humidity (80% RH) and 80 °C at 80% RH (Fig. 4), indicating that effect of Ostwald ripening would mitigate. The degradation of PFSA membrane accelerated at open circuit voltage condition by increasing operating temperature despite of the operation under the high humidity condition of 80% RH. We propose that the further improvement of both the gas transport properties in gas diffusion layers and the durability of the PFSA membrane to realize the IT–PEFC operation. Acknowledgment This work was partially supported by funds for the project “Electrolytes, Catalysts and Catalyst layers with Extraordinary Efficiency, power and Durability for PEFCs-2040 (ECCEED’40) from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) of Japan. Reference K. Kakinuma, H. Taniguchi, T. Asakawa, T. Miyao, M. Uchida, Y. Aoki, T. Akiyama, A. Masuda, N. Sato, A. Iiyama J. Electrochem. Soc. 169, 044522 (2022). Figure 1

Some active controls using resonance technique were proposed to maximize the power production for the point absorber type wave energy converter with a linear generator. However, the generated power is bidirectional because the motor drive and the power generation drive alternate in the wave cycle. So, power smoothing with energy storage is needed for grid connection. In the paper, a smoothing converter with energy storage and its control strategy for maximum power-controlled wave energy converter are proposed. The proposed converter consists of two types of storage and bidirectional choppers which controls each storage current. One of the energy storages is a lithium-ion battery for long-term power smoothing, and the other is an electric double layer capacitor for short-term power smoothing. The configuration of the proposed converter and the proposed control strategy for water tank experiment is modeled and simulated. It is confirmed that the proposed converter with the proposed control method works well.

The technical possibility and possible issues of an intermediate–temperature–operated polymer electrolyte fuel cell (@120 °C) is investigated with an eye toward the launching of new fuel cell heavy–duty vehicles on the world market. Commercial perfluorosulfonic acid membrane and a commercial Pt catalyst supported on carbon are selected to clarify the possible issues in the fuel cells. The cell resistivity at high humidity is less than 0.1 Ω cm–2. The mass activity (@ 0.85 V, Pt loading amount: 0.33 mgPt cm−2) approaches 850 A gPt –1. The high gas crossover rate through the membrane leads to decreased open circuit voltage, which necessitates the use of higher Pt loadings (>0.30 mgPt cm–2) at the cathode to mitigate the effect of the mixed potential. Pt degradation during 120 °C operation at low humidity is found to be much lower than that during 80 °C operation at high humidity based on the results of load–cycle durability testing.

Careful design of the structures of interfaces between nanofillers and polymer matrices can significantly improve the mechanical and thermal properties of the overall nanocomposites. Here, we investigate how the grafting density on the surface of nanocelluloses influences the properties of nanocellulose/cellulose triacetate (CTA) composites. The surface of nanocellulose, which was prepared by 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl oxidation, was modified with long poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) chains at different grafting densities. The PEG-grafted nanocelluloses were homogeneously embedded in CTA matrices. The mechanical and thermal properties of the nanocomposites were characterized. Increasing the grafting density caused the soft PEG chains to form denser and thicker layers around the rigid nanocelluloses. The PEG layers were not completely miscible with the CTA matrix. This structure considerably enhanced the energy dissipation by allowing sliding at the interface, which increased the toughness of the nanocomposites. The thermal and mechanical properties of the composites could be tailored by controlling the grafting density. These findings provide a deeper understanding about interfacial design for nanocellulose-based composite materials.

The mechanical durability of our hydrocarbon polymer electrolyte membrane, poly(sulfophenylene quinquephenylene) (SPP-QP) or polyphenylene ionomer, was evaluated in wet/dry cycle tests in fuel cells according to the US-DOE protocol, where the effect of gas diffusion layers (hard or soft GDL) was investigated. The membrane exhibited mechanical failure with the hard GDL and H2 crossover (permeation through the membrane) jumping from 0.01% to ca. 2% after 4,000 cycles. Post-test analyses indicated that the edge of the membrane under the gasket was the most damaged, where the dimensional change upon humidification/dehumidification was restricted. Use of the soft GDL significantly improved the wet/dry cycle durability of the membrane with no practical changes in the H2 crossover, even after 30,000 cycles, due to the strong adhesion of the GDL to the catalyst layers. The mechanical durability of the SPP-QP membrane was better than that of our previous aromatic-based ionomer membrane containing ether and ketone groups in the main chain. The loss of molecular weight and the sulfonic acid groups was rather minor for the SPP-QP membrane, indicating chemical robustness of the membrane under the severe wet/dry cycle conditions.

Chromosome translocations involving the immunoglobulin heavy chain (IGH) gene locus at chromosome region 14q32 are often observed in B-cell lymphoid neoplasms. Of these, t(14;18)(q32;q21) results in juxtaposition of the IGH gene on chromosome 14 and the BCL2 gene on chromosome 18, leading to the overexpression of BCL2 anti-apoptotic protein, which plays a critical role in the development of follicular lymphoma (FL). However, BCL2 overexpression is not observed in approximately 10 % of FL, and the molecular pathogenesis of BCL2-negative FL has not been elucidated. Here, we identify the SRY-related high-morbidity-group (HMG) box 5 (SOX5) gene on chromosome 12p12 as a novel IGH-involved translocation partner in the case of BCL2-negative follicular lymphoma (FL) with a complex karyotype including t(12;14)(p12.2;q32) by long-distance inverse PCR. As a result of this translocation, the SOX5 gene is juxtaposed to the enhancer of the IGH gene; SOX5 overexpression in neoplastic cells was demonstrated by immunohistochemistry. The results of the present study suggest a role for SOX5 in the molecular pathogenesis of FL.

This paper presents a new structure of bone conduction speaker. It is smaller than the conventional structure by removing an extra space. The magnetic path of this structure is not wasteful because the coil case is attached a cover and this structure uses the magnetic material as the vibrating plate. This structure operates by flowing the audio current into the voice coil. That reason is the change of magnetic attractive force between the magnetic pole of yoke and magnet. The authors revealed various characteristics of this structure by the electromagnetic field analysis and structural analysis by using the 3-dimensional finite element method (3D-FEM). As the result of electromagnetic analysis, the leakage flux of this structure is lower than the conventional structure by 55.2 %. As the result of structural analysis, the sound pressure level (SPL) of this structure is higher than the conventional structure by 12.6 %. Consequently, the performance of this structure is improved.

The preferentially expressed antigen of melanoma (PRAME), a tumor-associated antigen, is considered a prognostic marker for various human malignancies. The prognostic significance of PRAME expression for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients treated with rituximab-containing chemotherapy has not been evaluated to date, and the ability of immunohistochemistry (IHC) to detect PRAME expression in these patients has not yet been studied, although IHC is simple to perform in clinical practice. We evaluated the prognostic significance of PRAME expression based on IHC analysis in 160 DLBCL patients treated with R-CHOP therapy. There was a significant association between higher PRAME expression and shorter progression-free survival (PFS), and a trend toward shorter overall survival (OS) in patients with higher PRAME expression than that in patients with lower PRAME expression (5-year PFS, 48.1 vs. 61.1 %; 5-year OS, 65.6 vs. 79.1 %). Patients with high PRAME expression tended to have lower chemotherapeutic responses. Thus, IHC is useful for detecting and assessing PRAME expression in DLBCL. Further, we found a positive correlation between IHC and quantitative real-time RT-PCR measurements of PRAME expression. Our findings indicate that IHC results of PRAME expression can be a novel prognostic maker in DLBCL patients treated with R-CHOP therapy.

Solder bumping is one of the key technologies for flip chip connection. Flip chip connection has been moving forward to its further downsizing and higher integration with new technologies, such as Cu pillar, micro bump and Through Silicon Via (TSV). Unlike some methods like solder printing and ball mounting, electroplating is a very promising technology for upcoming finer bump formation. We have been developing SnAg plating chemical while taking technology progress and customers' needs into consideration at the same time. Today, we see more variety of requests including for high speed plating to increase the productivity and also for high density packaging such as narrowing the bump pitch itself and downsizing of the bump diameter. To meet these technical needs, some adjustments of plating chemical will be necessary. This time we developed new plating chemicals to correspond to bump miniaturization. For instance, our new SnAg chemical can control bump morphology while maintaining the high deposition speed. With our new plating chemicals, we can deposit mushroom bumps that grow vertically against the resist surface, also this new chemicals work effectively to prevent short-circuit between mushroom bumps with fine pitch from forming. In addition, we succeeded in developing high speed Cu pillar plating chemicals that can control the surface morphology to create different shapes. We'd like to present our updates on controlling bump morphology for various applications.

Perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) membranes such as Nafion® have been widely used as the electrolyte for polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) due to their high proton conductivity and chemical stability. However, their fully fluorinated chemical structure leads to high production cost, low glass transition temperature and high gas permeability, which tend to impede the widespread application of PEFCs. To address these problems, sulfonated hydrocarbon (HC) membranes have been researched over the past decade. In our previous study,1 we investigated a sulfonated benzophenone poly(arylene ether ketone) semiblock copolymer (SPK-bl-1, SPK, Figure 1a)2 and a phenylene poly(arylene ether ketone) semiblock copolymer (SPP-bl-1, SPP, Figure 1b)3 membrane under accelerated open circuit-voltage (OCV) conditions appropriate for FCVs. The results indicate that a simple hydrophilic structure that does not include ketone groups leads to increased chemical stability versus radical attack decomposition.On the other hand, an SPP membrane quickly decomposed when subjected to a Fenton’s reagent test, which may be attributed to the presence of heteroatoms in the hydrophobic structure. Based on these results, we developed a new hydrocarbon membrane that consists solely of phenylene groups, which is designated a sulfonated poly(phenylene) quinquephenylene (SPP-QP, Figure 1c).4 In the present research, we focus on the durability of the SPP-QP membrane, in comparison with previous results for HC membranes (SPP and SPK) under identical accelerated OCV conditions.1 The properties of the membranes are listed in Table 1. We have designated these combinations of MEA components as cell types 1, 2 and 3 cells, as listed in Table 2. The membrane designations, e.g., “SPP-QP type #” (Figure 2), simply refer to the same membrane tested in different cell configurations. During the durability evaluations, the exhaust water from both sides of the cells was collected and then analyzed by ion chromatography (IC). After the durability evaluations, the post-test membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) were analyzed with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The cell voltages were continuously measured during the accelerated OCV stress evaluation, and the hydrogen leak current density and the composition of the water that was drained from each cell were measured every 200 h by use of LSV and IC, respectively, as shown in Figures 2a–2c. The cell voltage for the SPP-QP type 1 cell decreased significantly after 700 h. In the case of SPP-QP type 2 and type 3 cells, the cell voltages maintained high values for over 1000 h, as well as those for the SPP cell and SPK cell (Figure 2a). The hydrogen leak current density also behaved nearly the same for each of the cells, except for the SPP-QP type 1 cell, which reached ca. 100 times higher H2 leakage at 800 h than those of the others (Figure 2b). The emitted concentration values of sulfate decreased in the order SPK » SPP > SPP-QP type 1 > SPP-QP type 2 ≈ SPP-QP type 3(Figure 2c). The intrinsic chemical stabilities of the SPP-QP, SPP and SPK membranes were evaluated with Fenton’s reagent. These results indicated that the SPP-QP membranes had much higher intrinsic chemical stability compared to those of SPP and SPK membranes, which was reflected in the results of the accelerated OCV stress evaluation. We also studied approaches to mitigate the mechanical stress by use of GDLs5 and gaskets in order to evaluate the chemical stability of the membranes under accelerated conditions in MEAs.6 Acknowledgement This work was partially supported by funds for the “Superlative, Stable, and Scalable Performance Fuel Cell (SPer-FC)” Project from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) of Japan. The authors are grateful to Panasonic Corporation for kindly providing the experimental GDL as soft GDL. Also, the authors are grateful to Honda R&D Co., Ltd. for kindly providing the accelerated OCV stress-evaluation protocol. References 1) R. Shimizu, J. Tsuji, N. Sato, J. Takano, S. Itami, M. Kusakabe, K. Miyatake, A. Iiyama, and M. Uchida, J. Power Sources, 367, 63 (2017). 2) T. Miyahara, T. Hayano, S. Matsuno, M. Watanabe, and K. Miyatake, ACS applied materials & interfaces, 4, 2881 (2012). 3) J. Miyake, T. Mochizuki, and K. Miyatake, ACS Macro Letters, 4, 750 (2015). 4) J. Miyake, R. Taki, T. Mochizuki, R. Shimizu, R. Akiyama, M. Uchida, and K. Miyatake, Science Advances, 3, eaao0476 (2017). 5) H. Ishikawa, T. Teramoto, Y. Ueyama, Y. Sugawara, Y. Sakiyama, M. Kusakabe, K. Miyatake, and M. Uchida, J. Power Sources, 325, 35 (2016). 6) R. Shimizu, K. Otsuji, A. Masuda, N. Sato, M. Kusakabe, A, Iiyama, K. Miyatake, and Makoto Uchida, J. Electrochem. Soc, 166 (7) F3105-F3110 (2019) Figure 1

Flip chip connection has been applied to a lot of applications in order to shorten the connection length of high performance devices. Solder bumping is one of the key technologies for flip chip connections, and its quality makes a large impact on the reliability after packaging. Recently, bump size has been getting smaller to correspond to the finer connection pitch, and these types of bumps are called “micro bumps”. Electroplating is one of the methods for solder bump formation. Sn-Ag is considered as the best candidate for lead free alloy to be used for the electroplating method. Electroplating is a suitable method to form micro bumps. For micro bump connections, Cu pillar is necessary to obtain a suitable bump height. Traditionally, there have been some technical difficulties to achieve smooth morphology on “micro bump” surfaces due to its small diameter and/or high aspect ratio. Lately, we succeeded in developing a new Sn-Ag plating process for micro bump formation by optimizing the plating process. We also successfully developed our Cu plating process for Cu pillar application with a high plating rate more than 10 ASD condition. Our Cu plating process is available to obtain various surface shapes of Cu pillar such as flat, dome, and concave. In this study, we established our plating process with Cu pillar + Sn-Ag solder cap. We will review our current status and features of our plating chemical for micro bump formation.

We have successfully developed super fine lead-free and low alpha solder powder, which contains more than two elements by the method of wet chemical reduction. The size (D50) of super fine powder is around 2–3 micrometer to meet finer pitch assembly in the near future. This new method made it available to synthesize various compositions of solder powder like Sn-Ag, Sn-Cu, Sn-Ag-Cu, etc. Also, this method achieves very high yield compared to a gas atomization method. A solder paste for printing method composed of the fine solder powder has a superior printing ability because of the unique powder shape. The powder shows anisotropic shape, and it can make printed figure excellent after printing without bridge and coplanarity issues for finer pitch applications. With our super fine solder paste, we will be ready for Furthermore, the super fine powder is applied to the Cu pad pre-coat. The solder paste for pre-coat composed of the super fine powder shows an excellent coverage and solders flatness on the outer pad after reflow.

Flip chip connection has been applied to a lot of applications to shorten the connection length for high performance. Solder bumping is one of the key technologies for flip chip connection, and its quality strongly brings large impact on the reliability after packaging. Electroplating is one of the methods to form solder bumps. And Sn-Ag is considered as the first candidate of lead free alloy for electroplating method. We have released Sn-Ag plating chemical and it has been used by many customers in the world. In the future, flip chip technology will progress to further miniaturization and high integration with the new technologies such as Cu pillar and Through Silicon Via (TSV). At that time, further variations of alloys are necessary for electroplating method to meet various requirements. Even for Sn-Ag plating chemical, higher plating rate is required to improve productivity in mass production. In this time, we have developed new Sn-Ag high speed plating chemical based on our conventional technology. Furthermore, we have succeeded to develop Pure Sn and Sn-Cu chemicals for bumping method to meet customer's requirement. Sn-Cu is considered as a good candidate for bumping alloy to achieve high reliability, but the chemical stability is not so good. Therefore, we successfully modified the Sn-Cu chemical and extended chemical stability. We will update our current status about high speed Sn-Ag plating chemical and other chemicals like Sn-Cu and pure Sn in this time. By using these binary alloy chemicals, we are able to produce Sn-Ag-Cu solder bumps by stacking Sn-Ag and Sn-Cu. And it can bring further variation for bumping alloys.

Regarding to inner bump formation using solder paste for FC-BGA and FC-CSP, the voids and abnormal bump shape generation are undesirable problems to achieve high quality assembly. The solder pastes which contain small solder particle and flux are applied to wafer bumping and substrate bumping method. However, as the bump pitch becomes tighter, the influence of those problems gets more serious especially for yield issue. In this study, we tried to solve the following issues 1)voids generation using 99.3mass%Sn-0.7mass% Cu solder paste and other alloys, 2)the dint bumps generation on the top of bumps using 95mass%Pb-5mass%Sn paste and 3)the needle and plate like intermetallic compound generation on the top and side of bumps using 96.5mass%Sn-3mass%Ag-0.5mass%Cu paste and 95.5mass%Sn-4mass%Ag-0.5mass%Cu paste. In terms of 1), it was available to understand when and where voids were generated by in-situ soft x-ray observation, and we could construct our original consideration why voids were generated during bumping process. In terms of 2) and 3), it was found that some kind of impurities affected on the dint, needle and plate like IMC generation. Furthermore, we tried to understand from the influence of reflow profile. By understanding these defects, we believe we can bring benefits to operating solder paste for printing method.

An autopsy case of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) with a peculiar form of extensive portal invasion is reported here. A 76-year-old woman presented with anorexia and abdominal discomfort. A high level of serum carbohydrate antigen 19-9 and endoscopically detected esophageal varices were found. Obvious mass lesion was not identified on CT scan and no portal blood flow was found. The patient died 6 months after admission. At autopsy multiple irregular shaped tumors in the liver were found. The size of the largest one was 3 x 2 cm. These tumors were well-differentiated adenocarcinomas with partial mucinous carcinoma morphology. Surprisingly, portal veins contained mucinous fluid and the inner surface was lined with a single layer of tumor cells but not endothelial cells. Invasion of carcinoma into the tissue outside the blood vessels was hardly observed in organs other than the liver. This form of extensive invasion of the tumor, termed intimal carcinoma spreading, caused complete obstruction of the portal system. To our knowledge there has been no report on this type of portal invasion of ICC.

Porous alumina membrane filters (Anodisc ™ ) were applied to catalyst support for oxidative reforming of methane. Two discs were used: the 1st catalyst disc was mainly for methane combustion and the 2nd was for methane reforming. Additives for Ni/Anodisc or Co–Mg/Anodisc catalyst were screened by an artificial neural network (ANN). After an ANN was trained using the physicochemical properties of 9 elements and their catalytic performances as Ni-additive/Anodisc or Co–Mg-additive/Anodisc, the ANN can predict the catalytic performance from physicochemical properties of other elements than the 9 elements. The two kinds of optimum catalysts were determined to be Ni–Pr/Anodisc and Co–Mg–Li/Anodiscs, respectively. Hot-spot formation was avoided according to the restricted catalyst zone by overlapping these quite thin discs. The total performance of the optimized base metal catalysts was almost the same as that of Rh/Anodisc catalyst disc.

Oxidative reforming of methane was conducted at 650 ° C, 1 MPa, and GHSV= 2,000,000 N ml/(g h) using Ni/ α -Al2O3 catalyst. Dilution of catalyst bed with α -Al2O3 prevented the formation of hot-spots in the catalyst bed. Element X ( X = B , P, Ca, Mn, Fe, Cd, Ce, Gd and Re) was added to Ni/ α -Al2O3, and the catalyst activities were experimentally observed to obtain training data of an artificial neural network (ANN). Then the physicochemical properties of element X and the observed values (CH4 conversion, H2 selectivity, or CO selectivity) of Ni–X/ α -Al2O3 catalyst were used for ANN training. After the training, the ANN was able to predict the catalytic performance of Ni–Z/ α -Al2O3 based on the physicochemical properties of element Z where Z is a possible additive other than X. In addition to La and Ce, Sc and Nd were predicted to promote the activity of Ni/ α -Al2O3. The experimentally observed activity of Ni–Sc/ α -Al2O3 was five times higher than that of unpromoted Ni/ α -Al2O3 catalyst.

The activity of Cu-based mixed oxide catalysts for oxidative steam reforming of methanol (OSRM) was investigated. In order to find a binary Cu–X mixed oxide catalyst with high methanol conversion, high H2selectivity, and low CO selectivity, an artificial neural network (ANN) was applied to relate the physicochemical properties of additive element X and the catalytic performance of the Cu–X mixed oxide catalyst. Experimental results of 14 Cu–X catalysts were used to train the ANN; the trained ANN predicted that Cu–Ca, Cu–Ce, and Cu–Pr oxides are the best candidates among all Cu–X binary catalysts. The same method using physicochemical properties and ANN was applied to find a good third additive for each binary oxide: (i) For the Cu–Ca system, any additive resulted in inferior catalytic performance. (ii) For the Cu–Ce system, Cu–Ce–Mn showed the best performance. (iii) For the Cu–Pr system, Cu–Pr–Ti was best. In the final step, ANN was also applied to improve the performance of the Cu–Pr–Ti catalyst by optimizing the catalyst composition and the preparation conditions (calcination temperature and total metal salt concentration). For the optimization, an L9 orthogonal array, and a grid search (GS) were applied with the ANNs. The optimum Cu–Pr–Ti catalyst was: Cu / Pr / Ti = 58 / 16 / 26 , calcination temperature = 623 K, total metal salt concentration in preparation step = 1 M. The catalyst showed good performance comparable with the best Cu–Zn-based catalyst ever reported: methanol conversion, H2 selectivity, and residual CO concentration were 96%, 78%, and 510 ppm, respectively.

Isolated primary granulocytic sarcoma is a rare disease that presents as an extramedullary tumor of myeloid lineage cells. Most patients subsequently develop acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) within a short period, and their prognosis is poor. Herein, we report the case of a 33-year-old woman with a primary isolated granulocytic sarcoma which originated in the small intestine. After she recovered from surgery, she received intensive chemotherapy equivalent to that for AML, followed by allogeneic bone marrow transplantation from an HLA-matched, unrelated donor. Four years after the transplantation, she remains in complete remission without graft-versus-host disease or any other symptoms. This case illustrates the effectiveness of our therapeutic strategy for isolated granulocytic sarcoma, not only with surgical resection of the tumor and intensive chemotherapy equivalent to that for AML, but also with allogeneic bone marrow transplantation, performed while no sign of AML is observed.

メタンの酸化的改質反応用新規触媒を探索するために，多数の触媒の活性評価を短期間に行うハイスループットスクリーニング用高圧反応器を設計している。そのために高圧条件下で使用可能な簡易合成ガス検出器を試作した。生成ガスを常圧で分析する手法では，圧力を常圧へ減圧するデバイスの制限で一度に評価できる数に限界がある。そこで，高圧下で利用可能な検出方法として有色の金属酸化物の還元反応を用いた。酸化銅をアルミナ製フィルターに担持し，触媒層と重ねて用いた。650℃，1 MPaにてメタンの酸化的改質反応を行ったところ，触媒と接する部分のみ焦げ茶色から薄茶色への変色がスポット状に観察され，このフィルターが加圧下で改質触媒の水素生成能の評価に利用できることが示された。

The electrical conductivity of silver nanowires (AgNWs) deposited on two types of flexible plastic sheets was traced while being bent at 1 mm radius of curvature, which led to a suggestion of a possible role of surface-bound PVP as a “glue”, but also to a suggestion of weak “glue” to bind AgNWs to a sheet as preferred for bending durability. Ar plasma bombardment successfully partially removed the surface-bound insulator PVP, leading to better electrical conductivity. It also suppressed the Rayleigh–Plateau instability of AgNWs well above 300 °C, which has the practical importance of enabling thermal treatment above 300 °C in the atmosphere. PVP proved to endow AgNWs with the antisulfuration and -oxidation resistance against two weeks’ exposure to ambient conditions, even after partial removal of PVP by Ar plasma bombardment.

Silver nanowires are superior material for semitransparent electrode fabrication: with printing on a transparent glass or plastic film, deposited and mutually crossed-over silver nanowire network serves as a good electrical conductor, especially when they are composed of grain-boundary free crystallographic 1D nanowires. The free space among the network serves as transparent portion which light passes through. Combined with the emerging technology of roll-to-roll printing on flexible plastic films, the silver nanowire realizes superior semi-transparent electrodes for flexible large area photovoltaic panels or shock-resistant touch panels for “smart phones” and portable “tablets”. However the lowered melting point, which is inherent to nanostructures, restricts the device fabrication process and need to be addressed. The present study checks the contribution of surface bound polymer catalysts to this nanowire melting point lowering, and tries to remove them by argon plasma processing.

The distribution of dendritic cells (DCs) expressing DC-specific ICAM-3-grabbing non-integrin (DC-SIGN, CD209) and the morphological interaction of DC-SIGN⁺ DCs with other cells, especially B cells, in tonsillar and other lymphoid tissues were investigated by multiple immunohistochemistry (IHC) using the graphics editing program Photoshop, which enabled staining with 4 or more antibodies in formalin-fixed paraffin sections. Images obtained by repetition of conventional IHC using diaminobenzidine color development in a tissue section were processed on Photoshop for multiple staining. DC-SIGN⁺ DCs were present in the area around the lymphoid follicles and formed a DC-SIGN⁺ DC-rich area, and these cells contacted not only T cells, fascin⁺ DCs, and blood vessels but also several subsets of B cells simultaneously, including naïve and memory B cells. DC-SIGN⁺ DCs may play an important role in the regulation of the immune response mediated by not only T cells but also B cells. The multiple IHC method introduced in the present study is a simple and useful method for analyzing details of complex structures. Because this method can be applied to routinely processed paraffin sections with conventional IHC with diaminobenzidine, it can be applied to a wide variety of archival specimens.

We report conduction measurements on the clean, free surface of transparent insulating BaTiO3 single crystals in high vacuum. We find that the insulating BaTiO3 crystals exhibit surface conductance that is dependent on the spontaneous polarization, whereas no conduction perpendicular to the surface is observed. The surface conduction shows semimetallic temperature dependence and persists down to at least 100 K. The observations suggest a two-dimensional electron on a clean, free ferroelectric surface that may be regarded as a ferroelectric metal. The results have important implications for understandings of the fundamental properties of ferroelectrics, the size effect, and ferroelectric devices.

Dendritic cells (DCs) take up tumour-specific antigen and migrate to regional lymph nodes to generate anti-tumour immunity. Although DC infiltration within human tumour tissue has been reported, the subset distribution has not been fully investigated. This study used immunohistochemistry to investigate DC subset distribution in colorectal adenocarcinoma. DCs expressing CD83, which are considered to be mature DCs, were present mainly in the invasive margin of cancer stroma. CD83(+) DCs in the invasive margin formed clusters with lymphocytes, the majority of which were CD45RO(+) T cells. The number of CD4(+) T cells was greater than that of CD8(+) T cells in these DC-lymphocyte clusters. The elongated cytoplasmic processes of CD83(+) DCs engulfed CD4(+) T cells. DCs that express CD1a were located throughout tumour tissue. Although the number of CD1a(+) DCs was almost the same as that of CD83(+) DCs in the invasive margin of cancer stroma, CD1a(+) DCs were mostly scattered and rarely formed clusters with lymphocytes. DCs that expressed both CD1a and CD83 were rare. Moreover, about 20% of lymphocytes in DC-lymphocyte clusters were positive for Ki-67, and CD83(+) DCs were attached to Ki-67(+) cells. CD83(+) DCs were also present in T-cell areas that had a distinctive structure involving the presence of B-cell lymphoid follicles. These results suggest that in the invasive margin of the colorectal cancer stroma, mature CD83(+) DCs form clusters with T cells to promote T-cell activation for the generation of tumour-specific immunity.

Complement receptor type 1 (CR1and type 2 (CR2are expressed on the surface of B‑cells and follicular dendritic cells (FDCs in lymphoid follicles of mice. The importance of CR1 and CR2 in humoral immune response is well documented. Retrovirus‑induced immunodeficiency syndromemurine AIDS (MAIDSresults in abnormal humoral immune responsesdestruction of lymphoid structuresand loss of FDC functionsnamely trapping of antigens (Agsand their retention on the cell surface. We investigated the expression of CR1 and CR2 in the spleen and lymph nodes of mice withMAIDS. Flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry revealed the existence of a correlation between the decrease in the expression of CR1 and CR2 by B‑cells and the progression of the disease. Howeverexpression of CR1 and CR2 by FDCs was maintained in the later stage of the disease in which lymphoid follicles were destroyed and the ability of FDCs to trap and retain Ag was severely impaired or lost. MoreoverFDCs expressing CR1 and CR2 but not FDCs‑specific Ag (FDC‑M1 antigenproliferated in destroyed lymphoid structures. Although the ability of FDCs to trap and retain Ag in vivo was impairedFDCs trapped immune complexes supplemented with complements in cryostat sections. In additionFDCs proliferating in MAIDS displayed the same ultrastructural characteristic as normal FDCsand expressed CD23. We conclude that decreased CR1 and CR2 expression in B‑cells and continuous CR1 and CR2 expression in

Ideal ferroelectrics have mostly been modeled as insulators, i.e., infinite band gap materials, having a spontaneous polarization. Based on this assumption, theories for the finite size effect, the domain configuration, and the depolarization field instability have been proposed. However, most of oxide perovskite ferroelectrics have finite band gaps of 3 to 4 eV. We show that the inclusion of the finite band gap effect changes drastically conventional understanding of the finite size effect and others. The conclusions extracted from the present approach are consistent with recent experimental results. In particular, we discuss the stability of ferroelectric memory devices in detail.

Finite size effect of thin ferroelectric platelets is investigated using a Ginzburg-Landau thermodynamic theory, where spontaneous polarization (P) is an order parameter. The theory is directly applicable to metal/ferroelectric/insulator/semiconductor heterostructures. Furthermore, we show that an inhomogeneous P (ΔP) or a relaxation at the ferroelectric surface is effectively the same as the existence of a surface dead layer and is modeled by ferroelectric/semiconductor or ferroelectric/insulator heterostructure. Noting this result and considering the effect of the surface dead layer, the finite size effect and the P-induced field effect in metal/ferroelectric/metal and a thin ferroelectric platelet is discussed. Additionally, rigorous numerical results are also present to supplement our recent publication.

Follicular dendritic cells (FDC) are found in the follicles of virtually all secondary lymphoid tissues. In health, these cells trap and retain antigens (Ag) in the form of immune complexes and preserve them for months in their native conformation. FDC thus serve as a long-term repository of extracellular Ag important for induction and maintenance of memory responses. In retroviral infection, FDC trap and retain large numbers of retroviral particles with profound effects on FDC. FDC-trapped retrovirus induces follicular hyperplasia, and conventional Ag trapped prior to infection are lost and new Ag cannot be trapped. Concomitantly, antibody-forming cells (AFC) specific for Ag lost from FDC decrease followed by loss of specific serum antibody (Ab). Eventually, FDC die and follicular lysis occurs. From the pathogen perspective, binding to FDC is remarkably beneficial, bringing together virus and activated target cells that are highly susceptible to infection. Furthermore, FDC permit HIV to infect surrounding cells even in the presence of a vast excess of neutralizing Ab. Preliminary data suggest that FDC maintain virus infectivity-even when the virus cannot replicate. Thus retrovirus infection monopolizes FDC networks, thereby transforming the FDC Ag repository into a highly infectious retroviral reservoir.

Subcutaneous panniculitis-like T-cell lymphoma (SPTCL) is a very rare type of cutaneous lymphoma that localizes primarily in the subcutaneous adipose tissue without palpable involvement of the lymph nodes. Most often, it presents as multiple, painless, subcutaneous nodules on the extremities and trunk. In this study, we describe an unusual case of SPTCL that mimicked phlegmonous inflammation; PET/CT revealed massive diffuse involvement of the lower legs, low-grade nodal active disease, and occult involvement of the intra-abdominal visceral fat. A repeat PET/CT study after CHOP chemotherapy revealed complete resolution of abnormal FDG uptake in the initially involved sites.

Phospholipid-linked porphyrins separated by spacer methylene groups (Cn), PE−Cn−MTTP and PE−Cn−MPFPP (n = 0, 5, 11; M = H2, Mn) (Chart 1) were synthesized. The phospholipid-linked porphyrin complexes easily associated with phospholipid bilayers in a manner that allows the porphyrin portion to penetrate the membrane. Ground state transmembrane electron transfer catalyzed by the manganese complex of the phospholipid-linked porphyrins in egg PC and DPPC liposomes revealed that the porphyrin causes a significant accelerated electron transfer especially when n = 11 and that the electron transfer rate was controlled not only by the separated spacer methylene groups between the porphyrin and the phospholipid but also by the phase transition temperature of the lipid bilayers. Comparison of PE−Cn−MnTTP- and PE−Cn−MnPFPP-catalyzed electron transfer is made. Furthermore, the electron transfer was enhanced with an increase of imidazole concentration, implying that imidazole plays an important role in the electron tra...