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Obesity is assumed to be one of the robust risk factors for coronary artery disease. However, the effects of obesity on the progression of atherosclerosis in patients in different age groups after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) remain unclear. This study aimed to examine the effect of obesity on prognosis in different age groups.Consecutive patients who underwent urgent or elective PCI were surveyed for this study and were then divided into the elderly group and middle-aged group with a cut-off age of 70 years. All patients underwent coronary angiography or coronary computed tomography angiography 1 year after PCI to examine the progression of atherosclerosis. The primary endpoint was revascularization for a new lesion within 2 years after PCI. In addition, the main effects and correlations between obesity and age were examined. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify independent predictors of non-target lesion revascularization (non-TLR).Of the 711 patients who met the criteria and were available for follow-up analysis, the incidence of non-TLR within 2 years was 97/711 (13.6%). The higher incidence of non-TLR in patients with obesity was observed only in the middle-aged group. Furthermore, in the multivariate analysis, obesity was independently associated with non-TLR only in the middle-aged group.The findings of the present study would enable us to construct the hypothesis that obesity in elderly patients may not be an independent predictor of the incidence of non-TLR, indicating that the management to prevent non-TLR may vary depending on the age of the patient.

Background: Adipose tissue (AT) characteristics are considered to be a marker for predicting clinical outcomes. This study aimed to investigate the prognostic value of subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) computed tomography (CT) assessment in patients who underwent transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Methods: We used the Japanese multicentre registry data of 1372 patients (age: 84.5 ± 5.0 years, women: 70.6%) who underwent TAVR. The SAT and VAT were assessed according to the preprocedural CT area and density. Baseline characteristics and clinical outcomes were compared based on the differences in AT characteristics. The independent associations with all-cause mortality after TAVR were evaluated according to the CT area and density of AT. Results: Low-volume area of SAT and VAT was associated with worse clinical outcomes compared with high-volume area of SAT and VAT in patients who underwent TAVR (log-rank test P = 0.016 and P = 0.014). High CT density of SAT and VAT was associated with increasing mortality in comparison with low CT density of SAT and VAT (log-rank test P < 0.001 and P = 0.007). The Cox regression multivariate analysis demonstrated the independent association of increased all-cause mortality in the high SAT and VAT density (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.41, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.06-1.88, P = 0.019, and HR: 1.34, 95% CI: 1.03-1.76, P = 0.031, respectively), but not in the low SAT and VAT area (HR: 0.85, 95% CI: 0.74-1.29, P = 0.85, and HR: 0.78, 95% CI: 0.60-1.03, P = 0.085, respectively). Conclusions: CT-derived AT characteristics, particularly the qualitative assessments, were useful for predicting the prognosis in patients after TAVR. Résumé: Introduction: Les caractéristiques du tissu adipeux (TA) sont considérées comme un marqueur de la prédiction des résultats cliniques. La présente étude avait pour objectif d’examiner la valeur pronostique de l’évaluation par tomodensitométrie (TDM) du tissu adipeux sous-cutané (TASC) et du tissu adipeux viscéral (TAV) des patients qui subissaient un remplacement valvulaire aortique par cathéter (RVAC). Méthodes: Nous avons utilisé les données du registre multicentrique japonais de 1 372 patients (âge : 84,5 ± 5,0 ans, femmes : 70,6 %) qui subissaient un RVAC. Nous avons évalué le TASC et le TAV selon la surface et la densité à la TDM préinterventionnelle. Nous avons comparé les caractéristiques initiales et les résultats cliniques en nous basant sur les différences dans les caractéristiques du TA. Nous avons évalué les associations indépendantes à la mortalité toutes causes confondues après le RVAC selon la surface et la densité du TA à la TDM. Résultats: La surface de faible volume du TASC et du TAV était associée à de plus mauvais résultats cliniques que la surface de grand volume du TASC et du TAV chez les patients qui subissaient le RVAC (test logarithmique par rangs P = 0,016 et P = 0,014). La densité du TASC et du TAV à la TDM était associée à l’augmentation de la mortalité en comparaison d’une faible densité du TASC et du TAV à la TDM (test logarithmique par rangs P < 0,001 et P = 0,007). L’analyse multivariée selon le modèle de régression de Cox démontrait l’association indépendante de l’augmentation de la mortalité toutes causes confondues lors de densité élevée du TASC et du TAV (rapport de risque [RR] 1,41, intervalle de confiance [IC] à 95 %, 1,06-1,88, P = 0,019, et RR 1,34, IC à 95 %, 1,03-1,76, P = 0,031, respectivement), mais non lors de faible surface du TASC et du TAV (RR 0,85, IC à 95 %, 0,74-1,29, P = 0,85, et RR 0,78, IC à 95 % : 0,60-1,03, P = 0,085, respectivement). Conclusions: Les caractéristiques du TA acquises par TDM, particulièrement les évaluations qualitatives, étaient utiles à la prédiction du pronostic des patients après le RVAC.

A 0.8-V Bluetooth 5 (BT5) digitally intensive transceiver with a phase-tracking RX and a digital TX in 40-nm CMOS is presented. For the phase-tracking RX, a hybrid loop filter with a loop-delay compensation is proposed to suppress digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) sidelobe energy, enhancing interference resilience. To facilitate the DCO-based phase-tracking RX for the reception of BT5 signals, a corresponding digital baseband is implemented with a carrier frequency offset (CFO) calibration to remove the initial static CFO error during the preamble, while an automatic frequency calibration tackles the frequency drift during the payload. An all-digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL)-based digital frequency-modulation (FM) interface shared between TX and RX provides a precise deviation frequency control, ensuring the quality of signal transmission and reception. In the RX mode, the chip consumes 2.3 mW from a 0.8-V supply, achieving a figure of merit (FoM) of 180 dB with −91-/−94-dBm sensitivity at 2/1 Mb/s. In the TX mode, it consumes 6.1 mW when delivering a maximum 1.8-dBm output power, resulting in 25% TX system efficiency.

Objective: Although it is well known that smoking is a risk factor for subarachnoid hemorrhage, the association between smoking and unruptured intracranial aneurysms remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether smoking status was associated with unruptured intracranial aneurysms among Japanese brain health check-up examinees. Materials and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 1,496 adults (aged 26–90 years) undergoing brain health check-ups at a single community medical support hospital in Akita, Japan between 2009 and 2013. In Japan, people can discretionarily undergo a brain health check-up for early detection of unruptured intracranial aneurysms or subarachnoid hemorrhages. Participants responded to a questionnaire on lifestyle, such as smoking status, and were classified into three groups: never, former, and current smoker. The evaluation of unruptured intracranial aneurysms detected by magnetic resonance angiography was performed by an expert physician. Multiple logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds ratio for unruptured intracranial aneurysms. We performed statistical analyses by age, sex, and family history of stroke. Results: The number of participants with unruptured intracranial aneurysms was 43 (2.9%). The mean age (standard deviation) and proportion of males was 55.8 (9.5) years and 53.3%, respectively. The adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) for unruptured intracranial aneurysms of 1.21 (0.48–3.08) among former smokers and 2.88 (1.10–7.50) among current smokers were compared to those of never smokers (p-trend = 0.041). After stratifying by age, sex, and family history of stroke, no interactions were found. Conclusion: This cross-sectional study conducted in Japan showed that smoking was positively associated with unruptured intracranial aneurysms among brain health check-up examinees.

Previous studies have unravelled glycolytic oscillations in cancer cells, such as HeLa cervical and DU145 prostate cancer cells, using a monolayer culture system. Here, we demonstrate glycolytic oscillations in HeLa cervical cancer cell spheroids. Experiments revealed that a small number of HeLa cells in spheroids exhibited heterogeneous oscillations with a higher frequency than those in monolayers. Model analyses and our previous experiments indicated that the higher frequencies of oscillations in spheroids were mostly due to the increase in glycolytic enzyme activity in the cells, and to the decrease in glucose concentration by diffusional transport of glucose from the surface to inside the spheroids, as well as the increase in cell density through spheroid formation. These results and our previous studies imply that more malignant cancer cells tend to exhibit glycolytic oscillations with higher frequencies than less malignant cells. Adjacent cells in spheroids oscillated within a 10% difference in frequency, but did not synchronize with each other. This suggests that weak cell-to-cell interactions might exist among HeLa cells connected with cadherins in the spheroid microenvironment; however, the interactions were not strong enough to induce synchronization of glycolytic oscillations.

Background Ventricular‐arterial coupling predicts outcomes in patients with heart failure. The arterial elastance to end‐systolic elastance ratio (Ea/Ees) is a noninvasively assessed index that reflects ventricular‐arterial coupling. We aimed to determine the prognostic value of ventricular‐arterial coupling assessed through Ea/Ees after transcatheter aortic valve replacement to predict clinical events. Methods and Results We retrieved data on 1378 patients (70% women) who underwent transcatheter aortic valve replacement between October 2013 and May 2017 from the OCEAN‐TAVI (Optimized transCathEter vAlvular iNtervention) Japanese multicenter registry. We determined the association between Ea/Ees and the composite end point of hospitalization for heart failure and cardiovascular death by classifying the patients into quartiles based on Ea/Ees values (group 1: 0.666) during the midterm follow‐up after transcatheter aortic valve replacement. During a median follow‐up period of 736 days (interquartile range, 414–956), there were 247 (17.9%) all‐cause deaths, 89 (6.5%) cardiovascular deaths, 130 (9.4%) hospitalizations for heart failure, and 199 (14.4%) composite events of hospitalization for heart failure and cardiovascular death. The incidence of the composite end point was significantly higher in group 2 (hazard ratio [HR], 1.76; 95% CI, 1.08–2.87 [ P =0.024]), group 3 (HR, 2.43; 95% CI, 1.53–3.86 [ P P P =0.015]). Conclusions These findings suggest that a higher Ea/Ees at discharge after transcatheter aortic valve replacement is associated with adverse clinical outcomes during midterm follow‐up. Registration URL: https://www.upload.umin.ac.jp/ . Unique identifier: UMIN000020423.

Obesity is assumed to be one of the robust risk factors for coronary artery disease. However, the effects of obesity on the progression of atherosclerosis in patients in different age groups after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) remain unclear. This study aimed to examine the effect of obesity on prognosis in different age groups.Consecutive patients who underwent urgent or elective PCI were surveyed for this study and were then divided into the elderly group and middle-aged group with a cut-off age of 70 years. All patients underwent coronary angiography or coronary computed tomography angiography 1 year after PCI to examine the progression of atherosclerosis. The primary endpoint was revascularization for a new lesion within 2 years after PCI. In addition, the main effects and correlations between obesity and age were examined. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify independent predictors of non-target lesion revascularization (non-TLR).Of the 711 patients who met the criteria and were available for follow-up analysis, the incidence of non-TLR within 2 years was 97/711 (13.6%). The higher incidence of non-TLR in patients with obesity was observed only in the middle-aged group. Furthermore, in the multivariate analysis, obesity was independently associated with non-TLR only in the middle-aged group.The findings of the present study would enable us to construct the hypothesis that obesity in elderly patients may not be an independent predictor of the incidence of non-TLR, indicating that the management to prevent non-TLR may vary depending on the age of the patient.

Organic electronics devices can be applicable to implant sensors. The noises in the acquired data can be removed by smoothing using sliding windows. We developed a new criterion for window-size decision based on smoothness and similarity (SSC). The smoothed curve fits the raw data well and is sufficiently smooth.

A randomized, controlled trial was conducted to examine the effects of perioperative neuromuscular electrical stimulation on muscle proteolysis and physical function using blinded assessment of physical function. Consecutive patients undergoing cardiovascular surgery were screened for eligibility as study subjects. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either neuromuscular electrical stimulation or the usual postoperative mobilization program. The intervention group received neuromuscular electrical stimulation on bilateral legs 8 times before and after surgery. The primary outcomes were the mean 3-methylhistidine concentration corrected for urinary creatinine content from baseline to postoperative day 6, and knee extensor isometric muscle strength on postoperative day 7. Secondary outcomes were usual walking speed and grip strength. Physical therapists blinded to patient allocation performed measurements of physical function. Of 498 consecutive patients screened for eligibility, 119 participants (intervention group, n = 60; control group, n = 59) were enrolled. In the overall subjects, there were no differences in any outcomes between the intervention and control groups. The results demonstrated no significant effects of neuromuscular electrical stimulation on muscle proteolysis and physical function after cardiovascular surgery, suggesting the need to explore indications for neuromuscular electrical stimulation and to clarify the effects in terms of the dose-response relationship.

12103 Background: Stomatitis, a frequent adverse event in patients undergoing chemotherapy, can lead to pain, ulcers, bleeding, and malnutrition due to reduced oral intake, which not only deteriorates quality of life but may also result in dose reduction or interruption of chemotherapy. However, there is currently no standard approach for preventing chemotherapy-induced stomatitis. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of a dexamethasone-based mouthwash for preventing chemotherapy-induced stomatitis in patients with early breast cancer. Methods: We conducted a multicenter, randomized, controlled phase II trial. Patients with early-stage breast cancer scheduled for epirubicin and cyclophosphamide (EC) or docetaxel and cyclophosphamide (TC) therapies were allocated in a 1:1 ratio to the intervention and control groups. The sample size was set to 120 cases based on the following assumptions: stomatitis incidence of 50% in the control group and 30% in the intervention group, alpha error of 0.2, one-sided power of 0.9, and dropout proportion of 10%. The intervention group received chemotherapy, oral care, and a dexamethasone-based mouthwash (10 mL, 0.1 mg/mL; swish for 2 min and spit, 4 times daily for 9 weeks), and the control group received chemotherapy and oral care. The primary endpoint was the incidence of stomatitis that was compared between the two groups. Results: There were 60 patients in the control group and 61 in the intervention group. One patient in the control group and two in the study group withdrew consent; one patient in the control group was excluded because of discontinuation of the first cycle of chemotherapy and unavailability of data related to the incidence of stomatitis. Finally, the data of 58 patients in the control group and 59 in the intervention group were analyzed. There were no differences in age and chemotherapy regimens between the groups. The incidence of stomatitis was 55% in the control group and 38% in the intervention group (risk ratio 0.68; 80% confidence interval, 0.52 – 0.88; p = 0.052). The grade of stomatitis (0/1/2/3) was significantly lower in the study group (intervention group vs. control group: 37/13/7/2 vs. 26/16/7/9, p = 0.03). There were no differences in the duration of stomatitis between the groups. Moreover, the percentage of patients who adhered to the mouthwash regimen was 87% (range, 14% – 100%). There were no significant differences in the occurrence of other adverse events between the groups, and only one case of oral candidiasis was observed in the intervention group. Conclusions: Dexamethasone-based mouthwash safely reduced the incidence and severity of stomatitis in patients receiving chemotherapy (EC/TC) for early breast cancer. Clinical trial information: UMIN000030489.

We highlight recently discovered glycolytic oscillations in HeLa cervical and DU145 prostate cancer cells, and discuss the individual and collective behaviors based on a mathematical model proposed previously. We found strong heterogeneities in the oscillations, indicating that glycolytic enzymatic activities are very heterogeneous in these cells. Further, the degree of synchronisation in their oscillations was very low, indicating that cell-to-cell interaction is very low during glycolysis in cancer cells. Biomedical implications obtained from the analyses of the oscillatory dynamics are also presented; more malignant cancer cells tend to exhibit glycolytic oscillations with higher frequencies than less malignant cells. Thus, glycolytic oscillations in cancer cells can be a medical indicator to detect the malignancy of cancer cells.

A 17-year-old girl was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). After the administration of high-dose methotrexate (MTX) or intrathecal MTX, the patient experienced transient hemiparesis and motor aphasia. Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging showed a high-intensity lesion in the bilateral centrum semiovale, and a vasospasm was detected in the proximal segment of bilateral A1 on magnetic resonance angiography. Edaravone was administered, and leucovorin rescue treatment was continued; eventually, the patient's neurological symptoms completely resolved. This finding suggested that vasospasm might be a mechanism underlying MTX-induced transient encephalopathy in adolescent and young adult patients with ALL.

A low-voltage, low-power, low-phase-noise, and wide-frequency-tuning-range (FTR) LC-VCO for Internet of Things (IoT) has been implemented in the 55nm Silicon on Thin Buried Oxide (SOTB) technology. It uses a tail resistor configuration to reduce phase noise with a low supply voltage of 0.7-0.9 V, where a back-gate bias control of the SOTB technology is also employed. An output amplitude of the LC-VCO is designed so as to minimize frequency sensitivity for both current and supply voltage. These lead to a low phase noise of −101 and −123 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz and 1 MHz offset frequencies respectively, with a low power of 0.88 mW. A high-Q LC-tank with low parasitic capacitance design enables a wide FTR of 40.7%, and an excellent figure-of-merit with the FTR (FoM T ) of-204 dBc/Hz.

Nowadays, almost every mobile device features Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connectivity. Accurate RF-based ranging is of major importance to enable rapidly emerging applications such as indoor localization and navigation, asset tracking as well as secure access control. Phase-based ranging has many advantages over other methods such as Time-of-Flight or signal-strength-based approaches [1]. Phase-based ranging is based on the phase difference between the two nodes, which depends on the RF frequency. To mitigate multipath problems and deal with the 2n ambiguity in phase measurements, the phase difference is measured on multiple frequencies, i.e. Multi-Carrier Phase Difference (MCPD) [1].

Nutritional condition is one marker of patients' frailty. The Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index (GNRI) is a well-known marker of nutritional status. This study sought to assess the clinical outcomes of GNRI after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR).We evaluated the GNRI value of 1,613 patients who underwent TAVR using data from a Japanese multicenter registry. According to baseline GNRI, patients were classified into 3 groups: GNRI ≥92 (n = 1,085; 67.3%), GNRI 82-92 (n = 396; 24.6%), and GNRI ≤82 (n = 132; 8.2%). Baseline characteristics, procedural outcomes, and cumulative mortality rates were compared. In addition, GNRI correlations with other frailty components (gait speed, grip strength, and Clinical Frailty Scale) and Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) score were also evaluated.Significantly increased mortality rates were observed across the 3 groups at 30 days (0.9%, 2.3%, and 6.8%, respectively; P .001) and 1 year (6.5%, 16.4%, and 36.4%, respectively; P .001). Both GNRI 82-92 and GNRI ≤82 (as a reference for GNRI ≥92) were independently associated with increased midterm mortality in the Cox regression multivariate model (hazard ratio: 1.97, 3.60; 95% confidence interval: 1.37-2.84, 2.30-5.64; P .001, P .001, respectively). The GNRI value was significantly correlated with gait speed (Spearman ρ = -0.15, P .001), grip strength (ρ = 0.25, P .001), Clinical Frailty Scale (ρ = -0.24, P .001), and STS score (ρ = -0.29, P .001).GNRI is related to both frailty components and the STS score and is an important surrogate marker for predicting worse clinical outcomes after TAVR. Assessment of the GNRI may be considered when deciding on TAVR.

Starvation is one of the most common forms of stress experienced in the wild life. Such conditions associate the other forms of stress such as acid, heat, oxidation, and so on. Organisms acclimate to such stresses and acquire the stress tolerances, which often trade-off their growth rates. To investigate whether starvation and the associated stresses may cause the changes in the growth and the central carbon metabolism, we stock-cultured the yeast S. cerevisiae on YNB agar plates up to a month and subsequently cultured in YNB broth. The pH of the agar medium just under the yeast’s colonies sharply dropped from 5.0 to 3.9 in the first day, eventually reached approximately 3.0, and the viability logarithmically decreased. The surviving cells accumulated cell damages that were measured as the prolonged LPDs (lag phase durations). We did not, however, observe the effects of long-term stock-cultivations on the measured phenotypes: growth rates, the carrying capacities, and the glycolytic oscillations that are the temporal dynamics of the central carbon metabolism. Our study revealed that the contribution of cell damages to the total delay in growth was 78%, and that LPDs are closely related to damage-recovery mechanisms.

A low-power impedance detection method using a hybrid transformer and its analysis are presented. A balun is reused for the hybrid transformer to achieve area-efficiency. The complex impedance detection enables faster optimization on a tunable matching network and its calibration technique increases the detection accuracy. The proposed impedance detection method fabricated in a 40-nm CMOS process consumes only 0.83 mW and demonstrates the accuracy of less than 18° and 0.1 on the Γ detection up to $\vert \Gamma _{{\rm{Ant}}}\vert $ of 0.5 in ISM2.4 GHz band. After single-step matching network tuning, PA power and RX noise figure are improved by up to 1.2 dB and 1.3 dB, respectively.

Researchers have suggested that cyprinid fishes are less sensitive to chemical stress than comparable fish families, yet few empirically based evaluations of this hypothesis have been conducted. In this study, we developed a generalized linear mixed model in which the no- effect concentrations (NECs ; threshold concentration below which no effect on survival is predicted during prolonged exposure) of 29 fish species from 13 families exposed to an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor pesticide (carbaryl, chlorpyrifos, or malathion) were used as the response variable. The corresponding specific somatic maintenance (SSM) rates, as a size-independent proxy for fish metabolism and a categorical variable regarding whether the species is a cyprinid, were used as the predictor variables. We included SSM rates in the analysis because previous work demonstrated that they are negatively correlated with NECs. Our results indicate that the NECs for cyprinid fishes were significantly higher than those for other fishes, suggesting that cyprinids are indeed less sensitive to the three studied pesticides. Although the SSM rates were negatively related with the NECs, the actual relationship between the two was not clear, implying that the importance of SSM rates may depend on the taxonomic group tested.

CD205 can be used to detect myoepithelial cells (MECs) and dendritic cells (DCs) in breast tissue. However, the usefulness of CD205 immunostaining in the pathological diagnosis of breast tumors is not fully understood. The objective of this study was to re-evaluate CD205 co-expression with other MEC markers, such as p63 and CD10, in nonneoplastic and neoplastic breast tissue and to evaluate its pathological diagnostic utility in these types of breast cancer.Nonneoplastic breast tissue samples with a terminal duct lobular unit and duct were obtained from fibroadenoma and mastopathy patients. Neoplastic breast tissue samples included ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) (n=43) and invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) (n=60), including the tubule-forming type (n=20). These specimens were investigated by CD205, p63, and CD10 immunostaining.In addition to p63 and CD10, CD205 was expressed on MECs in nonneoplastic breast and DCIS tissue samples; CD205 was simultaneously detected on DCs that had infiltrated DCIS and IDC tumor nests. CD205 was expressed on cancer cells themselves in only 7.3% of the breast cancer samples. The number of intratumoral CD205⁺ DCs in tubular IDC was significantly higher than that in DCIS (P0.01).Because CD205 was simultaneously detected on MECs and DCs in the same breast tissue sections, it may be useful for distinguishing tubular IDC from DCIS.

Purpose To examine the use of 10-m usual walking speed as an explanatory variable of the 6-min walk test distance (6MWD) in cardiac patients and community-dwelling older adults. Methods This was a cross-sectional secondary analysis correlational study. Participants of the present study were 119 patients hospitalized for cardiac disease and 109 community-dwelling older adults. Data including 6MWD, 10-m usual walking speed, age, sex, grip strength, height, weight, and cognitive function were obtained from the medical records of patients in 2 acute care hospitals and a cohort of community-dwelling Japanese older adults. Multiple linear regression models for the 6MWD were examined in each group. Results The mean ± standard deviation for 6MWDs were 276 ± 106 m in hospitalized patients and 466 ± 81 m in community-dwelling older adults. In both groups, 10-m usual walking speed was the strongest factor correlated with 6MWD. On univariate analysis, the correlation between walking tests was stronger in the hospitalized group (β = .855) than in the community-dwelling elderly (β = .627). When age and sex were added into the models, the determination coefficients improved (adjusted R = 0.745 and 0.463 in the hospitalized patients and the community-dwelling elderly, respectively). Conclusions The present findings indicated that the 6MWD was more strongly associated with 10-m usual walking speed in patients hospitalized for cardiac disease than in community-dwelling older adults. The predictive validity of 10-m walking speed for future adverse outcomes among cardiac patients is an issue for future research.

Hormone therapy has been used for patients with estrogen receptor alpha (ERα)–positive breast cancers. Recently, some studies reported the expression of ERα on neoplastic cells from B‐cell lymphomas. However, there has been only one report of ERα expression on the follicular dendritic cells (FDCs) that structurally and functionally support the microenvironment of follicular lymphomas (FLs). The objective of this study was to investigate the frequency of ERα expression on FDCs in nonneoplastic reactive lymphoid tissues and to compare the frequency of ERα expression on FDCs in the axillary lymph nodes between patients with and without antiestrogen therapy and among patients with grades 1‐3 of FL. Reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction was performed to detect ERα mRNA in FL. In nonneoplastic germinal centers (GCs) from patients with tonsillitis or reactive lymphadenitis, ERα was expressed in the light zone. ERα‐positive cells strongly correlated with the width of GCs (r s = 0.81, P

This paper presents a low-voltage (0.8V) ultra-low-power Bluetooth 5(BT5)/Bluetooth Low Energy(BLE) digitally-intensive transceiver for IoT applications. In comparison to BLE, BT5 has a 2x higher data-rate and 4x longer range, while having >8x longer packet. The BLE prior arts [1-5] have made significant efforts to minimize the power consumption for longer battery life, as well as the chip area. However, the prior-art Cartesian BLE radios consume namely 6 to 10mW [1-3] to achieve a DD ) (>1.0V). Operating a BLE RF transceiver at a lower V DD (e.g., DD down to 0.85V. However, it suffers from a degraded sensitivity due to a poor deviation frequency control and an excessive loop delay, limited ACR (Adjacent-Channel-Rejection) due to the digitally-controlled-oscillator (DCO) side-lobe energy, and an undefined initial carrier frequency due to the lack of a PLL/FLL that could have a risk of tracking to an interference. This work presents a fully-integrated 0.8V phase-domain BT5/BLE-combo transceiver, including a PHY-layer digital baseband (DBB), and addresses the above-mentioned issues by employing two key techniques: 1) a hybrid loop filter with a loop-delay compensation for DCO side-lobe suppression to enhance interference tolerance, and 2) an all-digital PLL(ADPLL)-based digital FM interface shared between RX and TX is employed, including a deviation frequency calibration, and it also precisely defines the initial frequency. Moreover, the PHY-layer DBB that supports a packet-mode phase-tracking RX operation is also demonstrated.

We report the first direct observation of glycolytic oscillations in HeLa cervical cancer cells, which we regard as primordial oscillations preserved in living cells. HeLa cells starved of glucose or both glucose and serum exhibited glycolytic oscillations in nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH), exhibiting asynchronous intercellular behaviors. Also found were spatially homogeneous and inhomogeneous intracellular NADH oscillations in the individual cells. Our results demonstrate that starved HeLa cells may be induced to exhibit glycolytic oscillations by either high-uptake of glucose or the enhancement of a glycolytic pathway (Crabtree effect or the Warburg effect), or both. Their asynchronous collective behaviors in the oscillations were probably due to a weak intercellular coupling. Elucidation of the relationship between the mechanism of glycolytic dynamics in cancer cells and their pathophysiological characteristics remains a challenge in future.

Background— Gait speed reflects an important factor of frailty and is associated with an increased risk of late mortality in patients with cardiac disease. This study sought to assess the prognostic value of gait speed in elderly patients who underwent transcatheter aortic valve replacement. Methods and Results— We investigated the 5-m or 15-feet gait speed (m/sec) in 1256 patients who underwent transcatheter aortic valve implantation using data from the OCEAN-TAVI Japanese multicenter registry (Optimized Catheter Valvular Intervention–Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation). Baseline characteristics, procedural outcomes, and all-cause mortality were compared among groups defined by differential gait speed classification: model 1, normal (>0.83 m/sec; n=563; 44.8%), slow (0.5–0.83 m/sec; n=429; 34.2%), slowest (0.385 m/sec; n=1080 versus ≤0.385 m/sec; n=117). The cumulative 1-year mortality rate showed significant differences in the classical gait speed groups in model 1 (7.6%, 6.6%, 18.2%, and 40.7%, respectively; P P P =0.039, P =0.001). Conclusions— Gait speed using both traditional and specific classification is useful as a potential marker for predicting vulnerable patients associated with adverse clinical outcomes after transcatheter aortic valve replacement.

A high efficiency class-E power amplifier (PA) is proposed with only 3 external components. The PA is driven by a 33.3% duty cycle with a rise-edge-synchronized harmonic calibration. The 33.3% duty cycle operation lowers the drain voltage swing as well as the 3rd harmonics, and the calibration optimizes the duty imbalance and the phase difference between the differential signals, improving the PA efficiency and eliminating the external harmonic filters. The PA fabricated in 40nm CMOS has achieved the output power of 20dBm and the TX efficiency of 43% with “only 3 external components” in the impedance matching network.

To investigate the ecological impacts of a widely-used antibiotic agent oxytetracycline (OTC), we prepared an aquatic microcosm consisting of two green algae (Chlorella sp. and Scenedesmus sp.), a blue-green alga (Tolypothrix sp.), a protozoan (Cyclidium sp.), two rotifers (Philodina sp. and Lecane sp.), an aquatic oligochaete (Aeolosoma hemprichi), and bacteria. We investigated the effects of OTC on population abundance of composite species, gross primary production (GPP), and community respiration (CR). We linked population abundance, GPP and CR to understand the relationship between these measures. First, ‘experimental respiration rate of heterotrophs’ (HRexp) was obtained by CR minus algal respiration that is calculated by 0.35 × GPP. Next, the population respiration of each heterotroph was calculated from the direct measure of population abundance and the assumed constant of per-capita respiration. We defined the sum of the population respirations across all heterotrophs as ‘theoretical respiration rate of heterotrophs’ (HRtheo). Finally, relative community metabolism (RCM) of the heterotrophic community was obtained by calculating the ratio of HRexp to HRtheo that indicates changes in specific respiration rates as a whole in the community. The influence of OTC on RCM was larger than on CR, thus the effect of OCT on the metabolism of heterotrophs was far more severe than expected from CR. RCM can magnify the rate of change in the original data, and facilitate the detection of influences in ecotoxicological studies.

Hand-dominant grip strength is a simple marker that reflects frailty associated with incremental risks for late mortality. However, the prognostic value and optimal threshold of grip strength are not fully validated in elderly patients who undergo transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). The

Previous experiments demonstrated that a population of HeLa cells starved of glucose or both glucose and serum exhibited a strong heterogeneity in the glycolytic oscillations in terms of the number of oscillatory cells, periods of oscillations, and duration of oscillations. Here, we report numerical simulations of this heterogeneous oscillatory behavior in HeLa cells by using a newly developed mathematical model. It is simple enough that we can apply a mathematical analysis, but capture the core of the glycolytic pathway and the activity of the glucose transporter (GLUT). Lognormal distributions of the values of the four rate constants in the model were obtained from the experimental distributions in the periods of oscillations. Thus, the heterogeneity in the periods of oscillations can be attributed to the difference in the rate constants of the enzymatic reactions. The activity of GLUT is found to determine whether the HeLa cells were oscillatory or non-oscillatory under the same experimental conditions. Simulation with the log-normal distribution of the maximum uptake velocity of glucose and the four randomized rate constants based on the log-normal distributions successfully reproduced the time-dependent number of oscillatory cells (oscillatory ratios) under the two starving conditions. The difference in the initial values of the metabolites has little effect on the simulated results., This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. This article appeared in (citation of published article) and may be found at [https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5087216].

Covalent grafting of chromotropic acid (CA) moiety to a glassy carbon electrode was performed by electrochemical reduction of the corresponding diazonium cation generated in situ. Grafted electrodes were subjected to the electrochemical detection of multivalent cations using Fe(CN)6 3-/4- as an electrochemical probe molecule. In the absence of metal cations, redox reaction of the anionic probe was depressed by electrostatic repulsion between the probe and negatively charged CA moieties on the electrode surface. Binding of tetravalent cations such as Zr(IV) and Hf(IV) and trivalent cations such as Al(III) and lanthanide(III) to the CA moiety on the electrode surface resulted in an increase in the current intensity of the probe due to a decrease in electrostatic repulsion. Highly selective detection of the tetravalent cations was achieved in the micromolar concentration range at pH 1.0. © The Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry.

加熱によりゲル化するメチルセルロースヒドロゲルは，ポリエチレングリコールの添加によってゲル化温度を低下させることができ，添加量によってゲル化温度がある程度制御できる．メチルセルロース（MC），ポリエチレングリコール（PEG）ともに環境及び生体調和型の親水性高分子であり，医薬・環境面の応用が期待され，ゲル中の水の状態に関する情報が重要であるが，冷却により水溶液状態に戻る熱可逆ゲルであるため，これまで多く行われてきたDSCを用いたゲル中の水の凍結・融解過程の検討は行われてこなかった．本研究ではMC－PEG－水系中の水の状態に注目した．エシレンオキシドユニット（EOX）のモル分率で0.05以上のPEG6000を含むMCヒドロゲルにおいて，ゲル化後冷却して見掛けはゾル状態に戻った試料においても，水の状態はゲル化前と異なり，ゲルの状態を反映した結果が得られることがわかった．熱可逆性の加熱ゲル中の水の状態分析手法として，含まれるPEGと水の共晶の融解過程に注目することが有効であると考えられた．

A highly efficient organic thin-film solar cell based on a heterojunction structure employing a novel electron-donor (ED) material, tetraphenyldibenzoperiflanthene (DBP), has been demonstrated for the first time. An organic photovoltaic (OPV) cell with 0.033-cm 2 active area, comprising DBP as an ED layer, fullerene C 60 as an electron-acceptor (EA) layer, and 2,9-dimethyl-4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline as an exciton-blocking (EB) layer, has exhibited an open-circuit voltage ( V oc ) of 0.92 V, a short-circuit current density ( J sc ) of 6.3 mA/cm 2 and a conversion efficiency of 3.6% at 100-mW/cm 2 simulated AM1.5G sunlight. Meanwhile, those of a conventional cell employing copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) for an ED layer are 0.51 V, 4.3 mA/cm 2 , and 1.4%, respectively. The high V oc and J sc of the DBP-based cell is attributed to the DBP's highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level 5.5 eV and the effective light absorption, respectively.