Search

AIM Patient body composition is an important indicator of metabolic status and is associated with cancer progression. Because body composition varies between men and women, we aimed to examine the difference in clinical impact of preoperative body composition according to sex. METHOD We used an integrated dataset of 559 colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. The association between preoperative body composition indices [body mass index (BMI), visceral to subcutaneous fat area ratio (VSR) and skeletal muscle index (SMI)] and patient outcome, clinicopathological factors and preoperative inflammation and nutritional status was analysed, comparing men and women. RESULTS Preoperative low BMI and low SMI in men was significantly associated with unfavourable overall survival (OS) [BMI: hazard ratio (HR) 2.22, 95% CI 1.28-4.14, P = 0.004; SMI: HR 2.54, 95% CI 1.61-4.07, P

We report the result from a search for charged-current coherent pion production induced by muon neutrinos with a mean energy of 1.3 GeV. The data are collected with a fully active scintillator detector in the K2K long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. No evidence for coherent pion production is observed and an upper limit of $0.60 \times 10^{-2}$ is set on the cross section ratio of coherent pion production to the total charged-current interaction at 90% confidence level. This is the first experimental limit for coherent charged pion production in the energy region of a few GeV., 5 pages, 4 figures

Aim Preoperative anaemia is associated with adverse outcomes in colorectal cancer (CRC). To clarify the reason for this we aimed to comprehensively assess the association of preoperative anaemia with tumour characteristics, host systemic inflammation and nutrition status, and perioperative blood transfusion. Method We used an integrated database of 592 CRC patients. The association of preoperative anaemic subtype, calculated from haemoglobin and erythrocyte mean corpuscular volume levels, with patient outcome, preoperative serum data relating to systemic inflammation and nutrition and perioperative blood transfusion was analysed. Results Preoperative anaemia was significantly associated with poorer overall survival and relapse-free survival (RFS); in particular microcytic anaemia had a trend to poorer RFS than other forms of anaemia (P = 0.0648). In addition, preoperative anaemia was significantly correlated with right-sided tumours, greater depth of tumour invasion, use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, poorer prognostic nutritional index and higher modified Glasgow Prognostic Score (mGPS). Microcytic anaemia in particular had a strong association with a greater depth of tumour invasion (P = 0.0072) and higher mGPS (P = 0.0058) than other causes of anaemia. Perioperative blood transfusion for CRC patients with anaemia was associated with adverse outcomes. Conclusions Preoperative anaemia, especially microcytic anaemia, was associated with poor patient outcomes, possibly due to poor systemic inflammatory and nutritional status, and it was not improved by perioperative blood transfusion. Our data suggest that preoperative anaemia and the anaemic subtype may serve as an easily available predictor of outcome in CRC.

It has become evident that P-cadherin, one of the classical cadherins, contributes to the malignant behavior of several types of cancer. In this study, we analyzed the expression of P-cadherin and its clinicopathological and prognostic values in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) and pancreatic cancer. Furthermore, we investigated the functional role of P-cadherin in these cancer cells by knockdown and overexpression in vitro and by analyzing the correlation between the P-cadherin expression and its promoter methylation status. Thirty of 59 ICC cases (51%) and 36 of 73 pancreatic cancer cases (49%) stained positive for P-cadherin with mainly membranous distribution in tumor cells by immunohistochemistry. P-cadherin expression was significantly correlated with several clinicopathological factors, which reflect tumor behavior, and was identified as an independent adverse prognostic factor for disease-free survival in patients with ICC (relative risk [RR] 2.93, P = 0.04) and pancreatic cancer (RR 2.68, P = 0.005) via multivariate analyses. P-cadherin downregulation by siRNA suppressed migration and invasion, and P-cadherin overexpression induced the opposite effects in both ICC and pancreatic cancer cells, without any effects on cell proliferation. P-cadherin expression was related to its promoter methylation status in both cell lines and cancer tissues. In summary, P-cadherin overexpression may serve as a useful biomarker of invasive phenotype and poor prognosis; P-cadherin expression was found to be regulated by its promoter methylation. These results suggest that P-cadherin represents a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of ICC and pancreatic cancer.

Background: The inactivation of the Hippo pathway lead to TAZ (PDZ-binding motif)/YAP (yes-associated protein) overexpression, and is associated with worse prognostic outcomes in various cancers including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Although there are several reports of microRNA (miR) targeting for YAP, miR targeting for TAZ remains unclear. The aim of this study is to identify the miR targeting TAZ expression in HCC. Methods: MicroRNA expression was analysed using the Human miFinder 384HC miScript miR PCR array, and was compared between low and high TAZ expression cell lines. Then, we extracted miR-9-3p as a tumour-suppressor miR targeting TAZ. We examined the functional role of miR-9-3p using miR-9-3p mimic and inhibitor in HCC cell lines). Results: In HCC cell lines and HCC clinical samples, there was the inverse correlation between miR-9-3p and TAZ expressions. TAZ expression was induced by treatment of miR-9-3p inhibitor and was downregulated by treatment of miR-9-3p mimic. Treatment of miR-9-3p mimic inhibited cell proliferative ability with downregulated phosphorylations of Erk1/2, AKT, and β-catenin in HLF. Inversely, treatment of miR-9-3p inhibitor accelerated cell growth compared with control in HuH1. Conclusions: MicroRNA-9-3p was identified as the tumour-suppressor miR targetting TAZ expression in HCC cells.

With attention focused on flood hazard risk from place to place on a whole flood plain before and after flood hazard reduction and mitigation countermeasures are implemented, the present study proposes a method for evaluating flood hazard risk described using a local inundation depth and its frequency of occurrence. The method is composed of a rainfall run-off model, a 1-D channel flow model, a depth-integrated 2-D flood model, and several sub-models, such as of a potential damage curve and an evacuation rating curve. To test the applicability of the proposed method, a flood plain located in the northern lake area of Shiga prefecture is chosen for discussion. The spatial distribution of damage resulting from each flood is thus evaluated before and after countermeasures are implemented.

The inclusive photon energy spectra measured by the Large Hadron Collider forward (LHCf) experiment in the very forward region of LHC proton–proton collisions at s = 900 GeV are reported. The results from the analysis of 0.30 nb−1 of data collected in May 2010 in the two pseudorapidity regions of η > 10.15 and 8.77 η 9.46 are compared with the predictions of the hadronic interaction models DPMJET 3.04, EPOS 1.99, PYTHIA 8.145, QGSJET II-03 and SIBYLL 2.1, which are widely used in ultra-high energy cosmic ray experiments. EPOS 1.99 and SIBYLL 2.1 show a reasonable agreement with the spectral shape of the experimental data, whereas they predict lower cross-sections than the data. The other models, DPMJET 3.04, QGSJET II-03 and PYTHIA 8.145, are in good agreement with the data below 300 GeV but predict harder energy spectra than the data above 300 GeV. The results of these comparisons exhibited features similar to those for the previously reported data for s = 7 TeV collisions.

In early 2010, the Large Hadron Collider forward (LHCf) experiment measured very forward neutral particle spectra in LHC proton–proton collisions. From a limited data set taken under the best beam conditions (low beam-gas background and low occurrence of pile-up events), the single photon spectra at s = 7 TeV and pseudo-rapidity (η) ranges from 8.81 to 8.99 and from 10.94 to infinity were obtained for the first time and are reported in this Letter. The spectra from two independent LHCf detectors are consistent with one another and serve as a cross check of the data. The photon spectra are also compared with the predictions of several hadron interaction models that are used extensively for modeling ultra-high energy cosmic-ray showers. Despite conservative estimates for the systematic errors, none of the models agree perfectly with the measurements. A notable difference is found between the data and the DPMJET 3.04 and PYTHIA 8.145 hadron interaction models above 2 TeV where the models predict higher photon yield than the data. The QGSJET II-03 model predicts overall lower photon yield than the data, especially above 2 TeV in the rapidity range 8.81 η 8.99 .

LHCf is a high-energy physics experiment designed to study the forward production of neutral particles in proton–proton collisions at the LHC. The set-up consists of two small calorimetric systems symmetrically placed 140 m away on both the sides of the ATLAS interaction point. Results from the experiment will provide valuable information to the calibration of the nuclear interaction models used in the Monte Carlo codes for air-shower simulations, which are of great importance for present and future ground-based cosmic-ray experiments. In particular, since LHCf will start taking data in the first phase of operation of the LHC (during the beam commissioning phase at 5 + 5 TeV energy) and will complete its data taking at the beginning of the 7 + 7 TeV runs (laboratory equivalent collision energy 10 17 eV ), it will span an energy range up to the region between the “knee” and the GZK cut-off of the cosmic-ray spectrum.

The LHCf experiment at the LHC accelerator is ready for data taking. Both the LHCf detectors have been successfully tested and installed in their running configuration. The status of the apparatus, control software and some results of the last beam test at the SPS accelerator are presented in this work.

The LHCf experiment is the smallest of the six experiments installed at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). While the general purpose detectors have been mainly designed to answer the open questions of Elementary Particle Physics, LHCf has been designed as a fully devoted Astroparticle experiment at the LHC. Indeed, thanks to the excellent performances of its double arm calorimeters, LHCf will be able to measure the flux of neutral particles produced in p-p collisions at LHC in the very forward region, thus providing an invaluable help in the calibration of air-shower Monte Carlo codes currently used for modeling cosmic rays interactions in the Earth atmosphere. Depending on the LHC machine schedule, LHCf will take data in an energy range from 900 GeV up to 14 TeV in the centre of mass system (equivalent to 10 17 eV in the laboratory frame), thus covering one of the most interesting and debated region of the Cosmic Ray spectrum, the region around and beyond the “knee”.

The sodium/iodide symporter (NIS) mediates iodide uptake in the thyroid gland and lactating breast. NIS mRNA and protein expression are detected in most thyroid cancer specimens, although functional iodide uptake is usually reduced resulting in the characteristic finding of a ‘cold’ or non-functioning lesion on a radioiodine image. Iodide uptake after thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) stimulation, however, is sufficient in most differentiated thyroid cancer to utilize β-emitting radioactive iodide for the treatment of residual and metastatic disease. Elevated serum TSH, achieved by thyroid hormone withdrawal in athyreotic patients or after recombinant human thyrotropin administration, directly stimulates NIS gene expression and/or NIS trafficking to the plasma membrane, increasing radioiodide uptake. Approximately 10–20% differentiated thyroid cancers, however, do not express the NIS gene despite TSH stimulation. These tumors are generally associated with a poor prognosis. Reduced NIS gene expression in thyroid cancer is likely due in part, to impaired trans-activation at the proximal promoter and/or the upstream enhancer. Basal NIS gene expression is detected in about 80% breast cancer specimens, but the fraction with functional iodide transport is relatively low. Lactogenic hormones and various nuclear hormone receptor ligands increase iodide uptake in breast cancer cells in vitro, but TSH has no effect. A wide range of ‘differentiation’ agents have been utilized to stimulate NIS expression in thyroid and breast cancer using in vitro and in vivo models, and a few have been used in clinical studies. Retinoic acid has been used to stimulate NIS expression in both thyroid and breast cancer. There are similarities and differences in NIS gene regulation and expression in thyroid and breast cancer. The various agents used to enhance NIS expression in thyroid and breast cancer will be reviewed with a focus on the mechanism of action. Agents that promote tumor differentiation, or directly stimulate NIS gene expression, may result in iodine concentration in ‘scan-negative’ thyroid cancer and some breast cancer.

We examined larval mesopelagic fish assemblages, their distribution, and seasonal occurrence patterns in the Kuroshio–Oyashio transition region of the western North Pacific where complex hydrographic structures are observed due to the confluence of the Kuroshio Extension and Oyashio current. Larvae of the dominant families Myctophidae, Gonostomatidae, Bathylagidae, Sternoptychidae, and Phosichthyidae were represented by 31 species or types belonging to 24 genera. Based on species composition analysis using the Morishita–Horn similarity index, five assemblages were recognized: Oyashio, Spring Transition, Summer Transition, Kuroshio, and Slope Water assemblages. The distribution patterns of these assemblages corresponded closely with hydrographic structures such as position of the Oyashio and Kuroshio Extension fronts, warm core rings and streamers. Spring Transition (April) and Summer Transition (July–October) assemblages were the most important larval assemblages in the transition region. Larval abundances were low during late autumn and winter. The Spring Transition and Summer Transition assemblages were composed of subtropical, transitional, subarctic, and slope-water species, suggesting the importance of the transition region as nursery grounds of mesopelagic fishes of various origins from subarctic to subtropical waters. Larval fish transport by the Kuroshio, Oyashio, and Tsugaru Warm currents into the transition region is discussed.

We present measurements of nu_mu disappearance in K2K, the KEK to Kamioka long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. One hundred and twelve beam-originated neutrino events are observed in the fiducial volume of Super-Kamiokande with an expectation of 158.1^{+9.2}_{-8.6} events without oscillation. A distortion of the energy spectrum is also seen in 58 single-ring muon-like events with reconstructed energies. The probability that the observations are explained by the expectation for no neutrino oscillation is 0.0015% (4.3sigma). In a two flavor oscillation scenario, the allowed Delta m^2 region at sin^2(2theta) is between 1.9 and 3.5 x 10^{-3} eV^2 at the 90% C.L. with a best-fit value of 2.8 x 10^{-3} eV^2., Comment: 40 pages, 48 figures

A case of hereditary acetazolamide-responsive paroxysmal ataxia with mild mental retardation in an autopsied Japanese man is described. His ataxic attacks had occurred for approximately 65 years since the age of 6. One of his daughters had severe mental retardation and epilepsy, and the other had paroxysmal ataxic attacks and mild mental retardation. Analysis of the subject's CACNA1A gene and that in his daughter revealed neither mutations nor CAG expansion. Neuropathologically, cortical degeneration consisting of the marked loss of Purkinje and granule cells was found exclusively in the cerebellar vermis. This was consistent with findings at autopsy for cases reported as spinocerebellar ataxia 6. In addition, there were minor anomalies, such as hypoplastic cerebellum and brainstem, heterotopic Purkinje cells, and cortical microdysgenesis of the temporal lobe. It is considered that the cerebellar cortical degeneration and the minor malformations found in the brain are closely related to one another, rather than having occurred independently.

With the aim of fabricating a thermoelectric power device using III-nitride semiconductors, we recently studied thermoelectric properties of Al1−xInxN and InOsNt prepared by radio-frequency sputtering. For Al0.55In0.45N, the maximum value of power factor was 3.63 × 10−4 W/mK2 at 873 K. For InO0.82N0.86, it was 3.75 × 10−4 W/mK2 at 973 K. (© 2003 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Double-sided CeO/sub 2/ buffer layers were fabricated by pulsed-laser deposition on 20 mm /spl times/ 20 mm MgO[100] substrates to apply YBCO films using the TFA-MOD (trifluoroacetate-metalorganic deposition) process for microwave devices. The double-sided CeO/sub 2/ films had the characteristics of a smooth surface (R/sub ms/ < 1 nm) and a highly [100] aligned orientation, which is almost independent of thickness. We successfully obtained a YBCO film deposited by the TFA-MOD process on CeO/sub 2//MgO[100], which had a critical current density (J/sub c/) of 6 MA/cm/sup 2/ (77 K, 0 T) with good reproducibility.

The real-time detection of epithermal neutrons forms an important aspect of boron neutron capture therapy. In this context, we developed an epithermal neutron detector based on the combination of a small Eu:LiCaAlF6 scintillator and a quartz fiber in order to fulfill the irradiation-field requirements for boron neutron capture therapy. The irradiation test is performed with the use of a reactor-based neutron source. The thermal and epithermal neutron sensitivities of our epithermal neutron detector are estimated to be 9.52 × 10-8 ± 1.59 × 10-8 cm2 and 1.20 × 10-6 cm2 ± 8.96 × 10-9 cm2, respectively. We also subject the developed epithermal neutron detector to actual irradiation fields, and we confirm that the epithermal neutron flux can be measured in realtime.

We present a male autopsied case of chondrodysplasia punctata with abnormal face, symmetrical proximal limb shortness, severe psychomotor developmental delay, respiratory muscle weakness, and death at the age of 2 years. Although his clinical manifestations were similar to those of rhizomelic chondrodysplasia punctata (RCDP), biochemical studies using skin fibroblasts did not document the peroxisomal dysfunction described in RCDP. In addition, the sterol profile, for which abnormalities have recently been reported in cases of X-linked dominant form chondrodysplasia punctata (CDPX2), was normal both in the liver and in the fibroblasts. This patient may represent a new lethal form of chondrodysplasia punctata.

We investigated clinicopathologically the pyramidal signs, including spasticity, hyperreflexia, and Babinski's sign, and the involvement of the pyramidal tract and primary motor cortex, in seven Japanese autopsy cases of multiple system atrophy (MSA). Pyramidal signs were observed in six (86%) of the seven autopsy cases. Hyperreflexia and Babinski's sign were each evident in five patients, but spasticity was observed in only one patient. Loss of Betz cells and presence of glial cytoplasmic inclusions in the primary motor cortex were noticed in all seven cases. Astrocytosis in the fifth layer of the primary motor cortex was noticed in five cases, but its presence was not related to the duration of the disease. Involvement of the pyramidal tract in the spinal cord, particularly of the small myelinated fibers, was observed in all seven cases, but no involvement of the pyramidal tract in the midbrain was evident in any of the six cases in which this structure was examined. In MSA, pyramidal signs were shown to be present more frequently than believed before, and the clinicopathological correlation between pyramidal signs and involvement of the pyramidal tract was obvious. Constant involvement of Betz cells in MSA has not been reported. Our clinicopathological findings may also make a contribution to the understanding of the clinicopathological hallmarks of MSA.

Single crystals of the magnesium niobium oxide Mg 4 Nb 2 O 9 were prepared at 1400°C. This compound has the ordered corundum structure with the space group P 3 c 1 (No. 165) and the lattice parameters are a = 5.1612(7) and c = 14.028(1) A. The final R -factors were R = 0.032 and R w = 0.031 for 1092 unique reflections. The face-shared octahedra are occupied by the same cations and the cation is ordered in the way of an alternative stacking of two layers of a mixture of Mg and Nb (1:1) and one layer of Mg along the c axis.

In this study, we investigated multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) and nuclear matrix protein (NMP), which is an indicator for apoptosis, in burn patients. The subjects were 17 patients with a total burn surface area (TBSA) of 26% or more. Eight of them had MODS, and nine did not. Seven patients died, and 10 survived. The NMP value in the group with MODS (610 +/- 318 units/ml) was significantly higher than in the group without MODS (82 +/- 31 units/ml). The NMP values of the patients who died (645 +/- 326 units/ml) were significantly higher than in the group who survived (111 +/- 95 units/ml), and they rose significantly as the number of impaired organs increased. Our findings suggested that the NMP level in burn cases associated with MODS was higher when apoptosis developed and larger numbers of organs were impaired.

Background: Genome-wide DNA hypomethylation plays an important role in genomic instability and carcinogenesis. DNA methylation in the long interspersed nucleotide element-1 (LINE-1) is a good indicator of the global DNA methylation level. In previous studies, we demonstrated that LINE-1 hypomethylation was strongly associated with a poor prognosis in some types of cancers including esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, and hepatocellular carcinoma, supporting its potential role as a prognostic marker. However, the relationship between LINE-1 hypomethylation and clinical outcome in pancreatic cancer remains unclear. Methods: LINE-1 methylation level in 126 samples resected pancreatic cancers was measured by pyrosequencing assay, and the prognostic value of LINE-1 methylation level in pancreatic cancer was examined. Results: Pancreatic cancers showed significantly lower LINE-1 methylation levels compared to matched non tumorous parenchyma (P = 0.039; N = 36). Tumoral LINE-1 methylation range was 41.3-92.8 (N = 126; mean: 77.7; median: 78.5; standard deviation: 5.7). However, LINE-1 hypomethylation was not significantly associated with overall survival, cancer specific survival, disease-free survival [log-rank p = 0.30, p = 0.18 and p = 0.50, respectively]. Conclusion: The present result suggested that LINE-1 hypomethylation in pancreatic cancer is not associated with poor prognosis. In this study, our cohort was small, therefore further accumulation of data may be needed in order to confirm the effect of LINE-1 methylation level on survival in pancreatic cancer. Citation Format: Kensuke Yamamura, Yoshifumi Baba, Lei Zhou, Xiaobo Zhang, Keisuke Kosumi, Katunobu Taki, Kazuto Harada, Takatsugu Ishimoto, Katsunori Imai, Daisuke Hashimoto, Akira Chikamoto, Toru Beppu, Tan Xiaodong, Hideo Baba. The effect of LINE-1 methylation level on survival in pancreatic cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 2782.

Background: C5a is one of the important factors produced via the complement pathway and a strong chemokine. The C5a receptor (C5aR) is expressed in various cancer cells and is linked to C5a-induced promotion of cancer cell invasion. However, the role of C5aR in gastric cancer (GC) is still mostly unknown. Aim: To investigate the clinical role of C5aR-expression in human GC. Method: 1) We investigated the C5aR expression for 237 GC patients who underwent gastrectomy from Jan. 2004 to Dec. 2011 by immunostaining using monoclonal human C5aR-antibody and analyzed the association between C5aR expression and clinicopathological factors. 2) We investigated the association between C5aR expression and invasiveness of GC cells, in vitro. Result: 1) From immunostaining analysis, High-expression of C5aR was observed in 86 patients (36.8%) and was significantly related to depth of invasion, stage and vascular invasion. The 5-years RFS and OS rates of the patients with high-expression of C5aR were significantly worse than those of the patients with low-expression. 2) We found that several GC cell lines had high-expression of C5aR with western blotting. By using AGS and NUGC3 cell, the cell line which had low-expression of C5aR, We produced AGS (AGS/C5aR) and NUGC3 (NUGC3/C5aR) which had the overexpression of C5aR. Matrigel chamber assay revealed that C5a recombinant enhanced the cell invasion of AGS/C5aR and NUGC3/C5aR cell. Migration assay by using the timelapse imaging revealed that C5a recombinant enhanced the cell motility of AGS/C5aR and NUGC/C5aR cell. In addition, C5aR-antagont decreased the cell invasion and motility of those cell lines. The immunofluorescence microscopy revealed that C5a recombinant enhanced the cytoskeletal rearrangement, such as stress fiber, fillipdia and lamellipodia, in NUGC/C5aR cell. Then, C5a recombinant enhanced RhoA activity of NUGC3/C5aR. Conclusions: The stimulation of C5a receptor may enhance the cell motility via RhoA activity, then it may enhance the cell invasion ability. In addition, High-expression of C5aR was associated with poor prognosis for GC patients. Therefore, C5a receptor might be a target of medical treatment. Citation Format: Takayoshi Kaida, Hidetoshi Nitta, Yuki Kitano, Kensuke Yamamura, Risa Inoue, Kota Arima, Takaaki Higashi, Katunobu Taki, Hiromitsu Hayashi, Katsunori Imai, Daisuke Hashimoto, Akira Chikamoto, Toru Beppu, Hide Baba. C5a receptor promotes invasive ability of gastric cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 5073.

The nature and distribution of vascular changes in acute Wernicke's encephalopathy (WE) were analyzed in three autopsy cases. Lesions of the lateral vestibular nucleus of the medulla oblongata (three cases) and lateral ventricular wall (one case) were examined by reconstruction of 200 serial sections, and the capillary diameter in the tegmentum of the medulla oblongata was measured morphometrically in all cases. The vascular changes commonly found in and around the parenchymal lesions in all cases were: (1) dilatation and endothelial swelling of almost all vessels ranging from small arteries to veins, being especially severe with undulation in small arteries and arterioles, and (2) fibrinoid degeneration and hemorrhage involving selectively the arterioles and capillaries on the arterial side. These vascular changes in the medulla oblongata were essentially the same as those in the third ventricular wall, but differed in their severity. Capillary diameter in these cases was significantly larger than that in seven control cases. Such vascular changes, especially a dysoric change on the arterial side, could not be ascribed to secondary change following changes in the parenchyma, and were, therefore, considered to be a lesion essential to WE, as in the case of the parenchymal lesion.

The inclusive production rate of neutral pions in the rapidity range greater than $y=8.9$ has been measured by the Large Hadron Collider forward (LHCf) experiment during $\sqrt{s}=7\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{TeV}$ proton-proton collision operation in early 2010. This paper presents the transverse momentum spectra of the neutral pions. The spectra from two independent LHCf detectors are consistent with each other and serve as a cross-check of the data. The transverse momentum spectra are also compared with the predictions of several hadronic interaction models that are often used for high-energy particle physics and for modeling ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray showers.

Energy resolution and linearity of the LHCf calorimeters for electromagnetic showers were measured at the SPS H4 beam line in 2007 using electron beams of 50-200 GeV and muon beams of 150 GeV. The absolute energy scale was determined in these data. The results that were obtained (

The LHCf experiment is one of the LHC forward experiments. The aim is to measure the energy and the transverse momentum spectra of photons, neutrons and π 0 's at the very forward region (the pseudo-rapidity range of η > 8.4 ), which should be critical data to calibrate hadron interaction models used in the air shower simulations. LHCf successfully operated at s = 900 GeV and s = 7 TeV proton–proton collisions in 2009 and 2010. We present the first physics result, single photon energy spectra at s = 7 TeV proton–proton collisions and the pseudo-rapidity ranges of η > 10.94 and 8.81 η 8.9 . The obtained spectra were compared with the predictions by several hadron interaction models and the models do not reproduce the experimental results perfectly.

We give a brief description of the purpose of the LHCf experiment, detectors and their performance, and what has been done in the first year experiment. A short summary of results at ?s=900 GeV is given although the energy is not an "intrinsic" LHC energy. Since detailed results at ?s=7 TeV will appear soon elsewhere, here we limit ourselves to giving also a brief account of what will come in that paper. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.

In this paper we report on the measurement of the rate of inclusive $\pi^0$ production induced by charged-current neutrino interactions in a C$_8$H$_8$ target at a mean energy of 1.3 GeV in the K2K near detector. Out of a sample of 11,606 charged current neutrino interactions, we select 479 $\pi^0$ events with two reconstructed photons. We find that the cross section for the inclusive $\pi^0$ production relative to the charged-current quasi-elastic cross section is $$\frac{\sigma_{CC\pi^0}}{\sigma_{CCQE}}=0.426\pm0.032(stat.)\pm0.035(syst.)$$ The energy dependent cross section ratio is also measured. The results are consistent with previous experiments for exclusive channels on different targets., Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures, submitted to PRD

Analysis techniques in LHCf are presented, in which all techniques are required to have a high resolution and efficiency in order to overcome the severe situation, small lateral aperture and longitudinally short length of the detector. In this paper, methods for reconstructing an energy of electromagnetic shower are discussed following the data flow of measured data and Monte Carlo simulations.

The LHCf experiment is designed to measure energies and transverse momenta of neutral particles emitted in the forward region of s = 14 TeV p‐p collision at ±140 m away from the interaction point1 (IP1) of LHC. The energy resolution is confirm to be within 5% and the position resolution is better than 0.2 mm for gamma‐rays with energies from 100 GeV to 200 GeV by the test beam results at the CERN‐SPS. LHCf has taken data at 2009 and 2010 at s = 900 GeV and 7 TeV collision. A brief summary of LHCf operation at LHC is also reported here.

LHCf is an experiment dedicated to the measurement of neutral particles emitted in the very forward region of LHC collisions. The physics goal is to provide data for calibrating hadron interaction models that are used in the study of Extremely High-Energy Cosmic-Rays. The LHCf experiment acquired data from April to July 2010 during commissioning time of LHC operations at low luminosity. Production spectra of photons and neutrons emitted in the very forward region ($��>$ 8.4) have been obtained. In this paper preliminary results of the photon spectra taken at $\sqrt{s}$ = 7TeV are reported., This paper has been presented in the international conference CRIS 2010 for 100 years of cosmic ray physics: from pioneering experiments to physics in space. The paper will be published in Nuclear Physics B (conference proceedings)

The LHCf experiment aims to improve knowledge of forward neutral particle production spectra at the LHC energy which is relevant for the interpretation of air shower development of high energy cosmic rays. Two detectors, each composed of a pair of sampling and imaging calorimeters, have been installed at the forward region of IP1 to measure π0 energy spectra above 600 GeV. In this paper, we present a Monte Carlo study of the π0 measurements to be performed with one of the LHCf detectors for proton–proton collisions at s = 14 TeV. In approximately 40 min of operation at luminosity 0.8 × 10 29 cm - 2 s - 1 during the beam commissioning phase of LHC, about 1.5 × 104 π0 events are expected to be obtained at two transverse positions of the detector. The backgrounds from interactions of secondary particles with beam pipes and interactions of beam particles with residual gas in the beam pipes are expected to be less than 0.1% of the signal from π0s. We also discuss the capability of LHCf measurements to discriminate between the various hadron interaction models that are used for simulation of high energy air showers, such as DPMJET3.03, QGSJETII-03, SIBYLL2.1 and EPOS1.99.

In cosmic ray physics, the uncertainty of the hadron interaction model causes systematic errors of air shower simulations in high‐energy region. To solve the problem, the LHCf experiment measures energies and transverse momenta of neutral particles emitted in the forward region of 14 TeV p‐p collision at CERN LHC. Two LHCf detectors, consisting of sampling and imaging calorimeters, are installed at zero degree collision angle at + 140 m from the interaction point 1 (IP1). The energy resolution is confirmed as to be

LHCf measures the energy and transverse momentum of neutral particles produced in the forward region of the LHC interaction point. In high energy cosmic ray measurements, the results strongly depend on the hadron interaction model which is used in the air shower simulation. LHCf will take data at s = 0.9, 2.4, 7, 10 and 14 TeV collisions at LHC and provide crucial calibration points for the hadron interaction models.

Liquid xenon is a suitable material for a dark matter search. For future large scale experiments, single phase detectors are attractive due to their simple configuration and scalability. However, in order to reduce backgrounds, they need to fully rely on liquid xenon's self-shielding property. A prototype detector was developed at Kamioka Observatory to establish vertex and energy reconstruction methods and to demonstrate the self-shielding power against gamma rays from outside of the detector. Sufficient self-shielding power for future experiments was obtained., 8 pages, 8 figures

LHCf is an experiment currently installed at CERN at the LHC complex. It consists of two small calorimeters each one placed 140 meters away from the ATLAS interaction point. Their purpose is to study forward production of neutral particles in proton-proton collisions at extremely low angles. The results will provide invaluable inputs to the many air-shower Monte Carlo codes currently used for modeling cosmic rays interactions in the Earth atmosphere. Depending on machine start up, data will be taken from 900 GeV in the centre of mass up to 14 TeV (laboratory equivalent collision energy of 10 17 eV), thus covering an energy range up to and beyond the “knee” of the cosmic ray spectrum.

Role of sympathetic nerves in increasing the lung vascular permeability was investigated in the presence of papaverine using an isolated rat lung perfusion preparation. Sympathetic nerve stimulation was performed at different time points before and after pressure-induced weight gain. When stimulated at 3 or 7 min after the pressure associated increment, stimulation evoked a further increase in lung weight, particularly in the former case. In contrast, stimulation performed before or 15 min after the pressure increment elicited no such response. The histological finding of carbon particles in the perivascular wall after sympathetic nerve stimulation also provided direct evidence of increased lung vascular permeability.

The atmospheric neutrino background for proton decay via p→e + π 0 in ring imaging water Cherenkov detectors is studied with an artificial accelerator neutrino beam for the first time. In total, 3.14 × 10 5 neutrino events corresponding to about 10 megaton-years of atmospheric neutrino interactions were collected by a 1000 ton water Cherenkov detector (KT). The KT charged-current single π 0 production data are well reproduced by simulation programs of neutrino and secondary hadronic interactions used in the Super-Kamiokande (SK) proton decay search. The obtained p→ e + π 0 background rate by the KT data for SK from the atmospheric neutrinos whose energies are below 3 GeV is 1.63 +0.42 -0.33 (stat) +0.45 -0.51 (syst)(megaton-year) -1 . This result is also relevant to possible future, megaton-scale water Cherenkov detectors.

Single charged pion production in charged-current muon neutrino interactions with carbon is studied using data collected in the K2K long-baseline neutrino experiment. The mean energy of the incident muon neutrinos is 1.3 GeV. The data used in this analysis are mainly from a fully active scintillator detector, SciBar. The cross section for single $��^{+}$ production in the resonance region ($W, 15 pages, 12 figures, 7 tables. Uses revtex4. Minor revisions to match version accepted for publication in Physical Review D