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Background Recent guidelines have stated that reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is the gold standard marker for identifying patients at risk for cardiac mortality. Although reduced LVEF identifies patients at an increased risk of cardiac arrest, sudden cardiac deaths (SCDs) occur considerably more often in patients with relatively preserved LVEF. Current guidelines on SCD risk stratification do not adequately cover this general population pool. Several noninvasive electrocardiographic (ECG) risk stratifiers that reflect depolarization abnormality, repolarization abnormality, and autonomic imbalance have been evaluated so far. With current therapeutic advances using new medicines or devices, an LVEF is often preserved in patients with structural heart disease (SHD). However, the usefulness of noninvasive ECG markers for risk stratification in such a patient population has not yet been elucidated. Purpose This study aimed to assess clinical indices and ECG markers based on 24-hour Holter ECG recordings for predicting cardiac mortality in patients with SHD who have left ventricular dysfunction (LVD) but relatively preserved LVEF. Methods In total, 1,829 patients were enrolled into the Japanese Multicenter Observational Prospective Study (JANIES study). In this study, we analyzed data of 719 patients (569 men, age 64±13 years) with SHD including mainly ischemic heart disease (65.8%). As ECG markers based on 24-hour Holter recordings, nonsustained ventricular tachycardia (NSVT), ventricular late potentials, and heart rate turbulence (HRT) were assessed. The primary endpoint was all-cause mortality, and the secondary endpoint was fatal arrhythmic events. Results During a mean follow-up of 21±11 months, all-cause mortality was eventually observed in 39 patients (5.4%). Among those patients, 32 patients (82%) suffered from cardiac causes such as heart failure and arrhythmia. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that after adjustment for age and LVEF, documented NSVT (hazard ratio=2.82, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.38–5.76, P=0.005) and abnormal HRT (hazard ratio=2.31, 95% CI: 1.15–4.65, P=0.02) were significantly associated with the primary endpoint. These two ECG markers also had significant predictive values with the secondary endpoint. The combined assessment documented NSVT and abnormal HRT improved predictive accuracy. Conclusion This study demonstrated that combined assessment of documented NSVT and abnormal HRT based on 24-hour Holter ECG recordings are recommended for predicting future serious events in SHD patients who have relatively preserved LVEF. Acknowledgement/Funding Grants-in-Aid (21590909, 24591074, and 15K09103 to T.I.) for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technol

Most catalytic micro/nanomotors that have been developed so far use hydrogen peroxide as fuel, while some use hydrazine. These fuels are difficult to apply because they can cause skin irritation, and often form and store disruptive bubbles. In this paper, we demonstrate a novel catalytic Pt micromotor that does not produce bubbles, and is driven by the oxidation of stable, non-toxic primary alcohols and aldehydes with dissolved oxygen. This use of organic oxidation mirrors living systems, and lends this new motor essentially the same characteristics, including decreased motility in low oxygen environments and the direct isothermal conversion of chemical energy into mechanical energy. Interestingly, the motility direction is reversed by replacing the reducing fuels with hydrogen peroxide. Therefore, these micromotors not only provide a novel system in nanotechnology, but also help in further revealing the underlining mechanisms of motility of living organisms.

We report neutron scattering measurements on Er_{2}Pt_{2}O_{7}, a new addition to the XY family of frustrated pyrochlore magnets. Symmetry analysis of our elastic scattering data shows that Er_{2}Pt_{2}O_{7} orders into the k=0, Γ_{7} magnetic structure (the Palmer-Chalker state), at T_{N}=0.38 K. This contrasts with its sister XY pyrochlore antiferromagnets Er_{2}Ti_{2}O_{7} and Er_{2}Ge_{2}O_{7}, both of which order into Γ_{5} magnetic structures at much higher temperatures, T_{N}=1.2 and 1.4 K, respectively. In this temperature range, the magnetic heat capacity of Er_{2}Pt_{2}O_{7} contains a broad anomaly centered at T^{*}=1.5 K. Our inelastic neutron scattering measurements reveal that this broad heat capacity anomaly sets the temperature scale for strong short-range spin fluctuations. Below T_{N}=0.38 K, Er_{2}Pt_{2}O_{7} displays a gapped spin-wave spectrum with an intense, flat band of excitations at lower energy and a weak, diffusive band of excitations at higher energy. The flat band is well described by classical spin-wave calculations, but these calculations also predict sharp dispersive branches at higher energy, a striking discrepancy with the experimental data. This, in concert with the strong suppression of T_{N}, is attributable to enhanced quantum fluctuations due to phase competition between the Γ_{7} and Γ_{5} states that border each other within a classically predicted phase diagram.

"Hemos desarrollado anticuerpos policlonales y monoclonales dirigidos contra modificaciones especificas de peptidos dirigidos al sitio llamados pseudopeptidos de amida reducidos, todos derivados de antigenos paludicos altamente conservados del parasito letal Plasmodium falciparum del ser humano. Entre estos antigenos hemos elegido las proteinas de superficie de merozoito 1 y 2 (MSP-1 y MSP-2). De este modo, hemos obtenido nuevas herramientas moleculares con posibles aplicaciones en el control de la malaria. Despues del cambio de isotipo in vitro de Ig, se evaluo la capacidad de estos anticuerpos o sus fragmentos F (ab) '2 Ig derivados para suprimir la parasitemia en el estadio sanguineo in vivo mediante inmunizacion pasiva en ratones infectados con malaria. Algunas de estas moleculas demostraron ser totalmente efectivas en la supresion de una infeccion letal por malaria en fase de desafio; y otros redujeron la parasitemia paludica. La proteccion contra la malaria por P. berghei y P. yoelii despues de la inmunizacion pasiva con Ig puede asociarse con posibles mecanismos novedosos inducidos por pseudopeptidos disenados especificamente dirigidos al sitio."

A compensating effect in the reduction of bisphenols (BPs) has been shown using biodegradation in slow sand filtration and advanced photocatalysis. We tried to remove 8 kinds of BP by slow sand filtration. Removal rates of BPA, BPB, BPE, BPF, BPS, thiobisphenol (TBP), and dihydroxybenzophenone (DHB) indicated a high removal rate up to more than 90% at an initial concentration of 100 μg/L, whereas the removal rate of BPP was only 30%. We also examined removal of BPs by Pt-loaded porous photocatalyst under visible light irradiation. Removal rates of BPA, BPB, BPE, BPF, BPP, and TBP showed high removal rates up to more than 90% at an initial concentration of 10 mg/L. Removal of BPS and DHB was relatively low at 20% and 30%, respectively. Removal of BPP was low in slow sand filtration, but Pt-loaded photocatalyst removed BPP effectively. Removal of BPS was low with Pt-loaded photocatalyst, but slow sand filtration removed BPS effectively. The combination of a slow sand filter and Pt-loaded photocatalyst may be helpful to degrade BPs. The magnitude of decomposition of BPs by photocatalytic reaction may be related to electrophilic frontier density. But the degradability of BPs in slow sand filtration is not the same as that in photocatalytic reaction with Pt-loaded titanium dioxide. The biodegradability of BPs by slow sand filtration cannot be explained by molecular orbital calculation.

Ectopic infection with Paragonimus miyazakii was determined to be the cause of a subcutaneous inguinal mass in a 15-month-old, male, boar-hunting dog. On histologic examination, the mass comprised granulomatous panniculitis, intralesional adult trematodes and eggs, and lymphadenitis. Extrapulmonary paragonimosis in animals is rare. This appears to be the first report in a dog of ectopic P. miyazakii infection with mature trematodes and eggs that involved the inguinofemoral lymphocenter and surrounding subcutis.

Background/aims: Porphyromonas gingivalis, a major etiological organism implicated in periodontal disease, can be classified into virulent and avirulent strains. Our aim was to identify a gene for the virulence of P. gingivalis. Methods: The subtractive hybridization technique was employed to identify the genes specific to P. gingivalis W83, a virulent strain. In this study, P. gingivalis W83 was used as the tester strain, and P. gingivalis ATCC 33277 was the driver strain. The prevalence of W83-specific genes was determined by Southern blot analysis of several P. gingivalis strains. Results: We obtained 575 colonies using the subtractive hybridization technique. From among these, 26 DNA fragments were subjected to a homology search using the BLAST program. Compared with strain ATCC 33277, strain W83 contained 12 unique clones. The specificities of the isolated DNA fragments were analyzed among four P. gingivalis strains by Southern blot analysis. Five genes showed specificity for strain W83 compared with strain ATCC 33277. All five genes were also identified in strain W50. Conclusions: The subtractive hybridization technique was effective in screening the two strains for specific DNA sequences, some of which might be responsible for determining virulence. The results suggested that several genes specific to strain W83 were associated with its virulence. Further analysis of these DNA fragments will provide important information on the pathogenesis of virulent P. gingivalis strains.

Summary Objectives: The objectives of this paper were to present a method to extract the amplitude of RSA in the respiratory-phase domain, to compare that with subjective or objective indices of the MWL (mental workload), and to compare that with a conventional frequencyanalysis in terms of its accuracy during a mental arithmetic task. Methods: HRV (heart rate variability), ILV (instantaneous lung volume), and motion of the throat were measured under a mental arithmetic experiment and subjective and objective indices were also obtained. The amplitude of RSA was extracted in the respiratory-phase domain, and its correlation with the load level was compared with the results of the frequencydomain analysis, which is the standard analysis of the HRV. Results: The subjective and objective indices decreased as the load level increased, showing that the experimental protocol was appropriate. Then, the amplitude of RSA in the respiratory-phase domain also decreased with the increase in the load level. The results of the correlation analysis showed that the respiratory-phase domain analysis has higher negative correlations, −0.84 and −0.82, with the load level as determined bysimplecorrelation and rankcorrelation, respectively, than does frequencyanalysis, for which the correlations were found to be −0.54 and −0.63, respectively. In addition, it was demonstrated thatthe proposed method could be applied to the short-term extraction of RSA amplitude. Conclusions: We proposed a simple and effective method to extract the amplitude of the respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) in the respiratory-phase domain and the results show that this method can estimate cardiac vagal activity more accurately than frequency analysis.

Crystalline silicon solar cells show promise for further improvement of cell efficiency and cost reduction by developing process technologies for large-area, thin and high-efficiency cells and manufacturing technologies for cells and modules with high yield and high productivity. In this paper, Japanese activities on crystalline Si wafers and solar cells are presented. Based on our research results from crystalline Si materials and solar cells, key issues for further development of crystalline Si materials and solar cells will be discussed together with recent progress in the field. According to the Japanese PV2030 road map, by the year 2030 we will have to realize efficiencies of 22% for module and 25% for cell technologies into industrial mass production, to reduce the wafer thickness to 50–100 μm, and to reduce electricity cost from 50 Japanese Yen/kWh to 7 Yen/kWh in order to increase the market size by another 100–1000 times.

The grain size distribution of B-doped cast-grown polycrystalline Si could not explain the minority carrier lifetime map. The lifetime was not mainly determined by the grain boundary recombination, since the grain size of the present cast-grown polycrystalline Si exceeded 1 cm and was large enough as compared with the minority carrier diffusion length (0.25 μm). In the region where lifetime was relatively short, there were many defects, which appeared as etch-pit by the Secco etching. The relationship between the etch-pit density and the minority carrier lifetime suggested that these defects acted as a recombination center and that they mainly determined the lifetime. There were many C atoms (>10 17 cm 3 ), which exist as substitutional impurities, in the as-grown wafer. The thermal annealing induced the C segregation, which might deteriorate the solar cell performance through the cell fabrication processes.

Chemical beam epitaxy (CBE) offers a new growth technique for InGaAsN films that are expected to provide the third cell in an ultra-efficiency 4-junction tandem III–V solar cell. In the CBE system, the selection of arsenic (As) and nitrogen (N) sources is important, so the decomposition processes of As (TBAs, TDMAAs) and N (DMHy, MMHy) precursors were investigated with substrate temperature. Both tertiarybutylarsine (TBAs) and trisdimethylaminoarsenic (TDMAAs) were decomposed at a low temperature (

Neither postoperative radiotherapy nor chemotherapy alone provided a survival benefit after curative esophagectomy for esophageal squamous carcinoma.Of 103 consecutive patients who underwent potentially curative esophagectomy for esophageal squamous carcinoma, 45 patients with advanced cancers without preoperative adjuvant treatments were prospectively randomized to two groups; postoperative chemotherapy alone (Group A, n=23) and postoperative radio/chemotherapy (Group B, n=22). In Group A, cisplatin (CDDP) (50 mg/m(2)) was given by intravenous infusion on days 1 and 15, and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) (300 mg/m(2)) was given daily by continuous intravenous infusion for 5 weeks. In Group B, in addition to the same chemotherapeutic regimen of Group A, 50 Gy of radiotherapy was given to the mediastinum over 5 weeks. The immunohistochemical staining of tumoral p53 and microvessel density was undertaken to correlate to the radio/chemosensitivity.There were no significant differences in the clinicopathologic characteristics between the two groups. The median dose of 5-FU and CDDP administered were not significantly different between the two groups. The mean (SD) dose of radiotherapy in Group B was 42+10 Gy. The 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rates in Group A were 100, 63 and 38% and those in Group B were 80, 58 and 50%, respectively (P=0.97). In each group, four patients succumbed to locoregional recurrences. Tumoral p53 was immunohistochemically negative in 43% in Group A and 77% in Group B (P=0.03), indicating that many patients in Group B might be potentially sensitive to radiochemotherapy. The 3- and 5-year survival rates (75 and 64%) of patients with p53 negative expression (n=18) were significantly (P=0.03) better than those with p53 positive expression (n=27, 44 and 26%). The long-term survival was better for patients with p53 negative tumours than those with p53 positive tumours in Group B (P=0.06 by long-rank test, P0.05 by Generalized-Wilcoxon test). However, the long-term survival was not different between the patients who had p53 negative and positive tumours in Group A (P=0.19). These data suggest that there were no survival advantage for patients receiving radiotherapy in Group B, instead p53 negative tumours appeared to have a favorable prognosis.Postoperative radiotherapy administered concurrently with chemotherapy does not provide a survival benefit compared with chemotherapy alone. Tumoral p53 expression has a predictive value for survival in patients treated with postoperative radio/chemotherapy.

Aim: Operative procedures for oesophageal malignancies are becoming more extensive and may result in fatal complications. Splenectomy compromises the immune system and can lead to increased susceptibility to infections. The aim of the present study was to report the early outcome of patients who underwent oesophagectomy and simultaneous splenectomy due to oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Methods: Pre-operative risks and post-operative morbidity and mortality in 135 patients who had undergone extensive oesophagectomy without simultaneous splenectomy for SCC of the thoracic oesophagus were compared with those of 14 patients who had undergone oesophagectomy associated with splenectomy. Results: Post-operative pneumonia, intra-abdominal abscess, post-operative sepsis and anastonotic leakage were significantly increased when splenectomy was added to the original operation. The incidence of in-hospital death was significantly higher among splenectomized than non-splenectomized patients (35.7% vs 8.1%, P

A smartphone is a personal device and as such usually hosts multiple public user identities such as a phone number, email address, and Facebook account. As each smartphone has a unique Bluetooth MAC address, Bluetooth discovery can be used in combination with the user registration to a server with a Facebook account. This makes it possible to identify a nearby smartphone related to a given Facebook contact. Using this capability, we designed Memorit, an application that handles reminders alerting the user when a contact is nearby her/him. This way it is possible to trigger a user-defined reminder, for example to give back a book, when a registered contact comes in proximity. Data collected from Memorit will allow study of pervasive social context. This paper gives an overview of Memorit, its features, implementation, and evaluates its applicability through a user study.

The microhardness of C70 crystals was investigated in the temperature range of 295–425 K. The hardness gradually decreased with increasing temperature. The photoinduced hardening was observed after the long-time illumination of light. The hardening reached the maximum near the phase transition temperature of 348 K. These results are discussed and compared with those of C60 crystals.

Flow cytometric DNA ploidy analysis for human bladder cancers may provide significant diagnostic and prognostic potential. We have previously reported that combined use of histologic and flow cytometric parameters may offer additional information regarding the clinical outcome for bladder cancer patients. However, the evaluation included both superficial and muscle-invasive tumors. In the present manuscript, we present our study on whether flow cytometric determination yields significant prognosticators beyond the classical histologic evaluation only in the patient with superficial bladder cancer. A total of 217 patients with untreated bladder cancer were evaluated, using fresh bladder tumor specimens. Tumor grading (grade 1, 2, and 3) and stage (pTa + pT1a and pT1b) served as the histologic prognostic parameters. Multiple flow cytometric parameters assessed included DNA index, percentage S-phase cells, percentage G2/M-phase cells, and hypertetraploid cell presence. Multivariate survival analysis was performed using the SAS proportional hazard regression procedure to study statistical individual prognostic values of both the histologic and the flow cytometric parameters. Clinical follow-up of more than 60 months was required, with the mean follow-up being 116.3 +/- 18.6 months. Hypertetraploid cell presence was the single most important prognostic factor (p < 0.01; risk ratio: 14.3), with the second being tumor grade (p < 0.05; risk ratio: 4.6). No other parameters, including tumor stage, the DNA index, and cell phase fractions, contributed to the model. These results indicate that hypertetraploid cell presence found by flow cytometric determination may provide additional information regarding the clinical outcome for superficial bladder cancer patients, and can be used as an indicator for decision making in treatment of superficial bladder cancer patients.

The p53 protein, which regulates the rate of cell division and death, is the most frequently mutated tumor suppressor to be identified so far in human cancers. Recently, a gene with significant homology to p53, termed p73, has been identified in a chromosomal region that is implicated in the molecular pathogenesis of neuroblastoma. We have cloned a second human p53 -related gene, termed p73L, which shows strong amino-acid similarity to p73. The p73L gene is mapped to human chromosome 3q27-28 using in situ hybridization technique. p73L encodes a protein of 586 amino acids and its putative DNA binding domain (DBD) has high identities to those of p53 (60.6%) and to p73 (87.8%). Northern blot analysis, which demonstrated that the expression profiles of p73L and p73 mRNAs are distinct in some tissues, implies that p73 and p73L may have separate, distinct roles in different tissues.

This chapter summarizes the current strategy and policy for radioactive waste management in Japan which has been hindered by a lack of public acceptance and of a final high level waste end-point (geological repository). Ongoing decommissioning of several nuclear facilities, including the Tokai-1 NPP, the Advanced Thermal Reactor ‘Fugen’ and the Plutonium Fuel Fabrication Facility (PFFF), are described.

Photoluminescence spectra of mechanically damaged C60 single crystals were investigated. Two main spectral peaks were observed at 685 and 735 nm, which originate from structural defects, such as dislocations, introduced near the crystal surface and in a perfect region of the crystal, respectively.

大腸癌治癒切除後早期に卵巣転移を認めた症例を経験したので,当院で過去7年間に行った女性大腸癌治癒切除122例にっいて卵巣転移の臨床病理学的特徴について検:討した.症例は44歳女性.1991年11月横行結腸癌に対して左半結腸切除術(R3)を施行された.組織学的所見は高分化型腺癌で絶対治癒切除であった.1992年6月CEA値の上昇がみられ,同年11月骨盤CT・MRI検査にて両側卵巣に転移性卵巣腫瘍を指摘され,1993年1月両側卵巣摘出術施行.組織学的所見は中分化型腺癌であった,女性大腸癌治癒切除122例のうち同時性卵巣摘出を行った症例は12例でいずれも転移は見られなかった.また異時性に転移を認めた症例は本例を含め2例であった.また卵巣転移例は深達度a1,s,リンパ管侵襲ly1,ly3であった.今後は症例数を増やしより詳細な検討を行い,予防的卵巣摘出の適応を決めていく予定である.

OBJECTIVE: Transhiatal esophagectomy (THE), mostly performed in patients with adenocarcinoma of the esophagus, bears the risk of damage to mediastinal structures because the physician's vision is poor during esophageal dissection. The authors report a new endoscopic technique, which enables microsurgical dissection of the esophagus under visual control, that can be performed simultaneously to the abdominal approach. The clinical results in unselected patients with malignant esophageal disease were compared with those of patients undergoing conventional THE. METHODS: Thirty unselected patients (24 men and 6 women; median age, 60 years; age range, 35 to 80 years), mostly with adenocarcinoma of the esophagus, underwent endodissection between April 1991 and July 1992. Thirty patients, who underwent conventional THE between January 1986 and December 1990, were selected using a matched pair algorithm. RESULT: Three significant intraoperative complications were recorded during endodissection (one case of mediastinal bleeding; one case of postoperative bleeding; and one case of a lesion of the right main bronchus), and all were managed without further patient morbidity. The mortality rate (30 days) was 6.6% in the endodissection group (vs. 9.9% THE; not significant [NS]). The frequency of postoperative severe pulmonary complications was 13.3% in the endodissection group (vs. 30% in THE; p < 0.05). The rate of recurrent nerve palsy was only 6.6% in the endodissection group (vs. 13.3% in THE; NS). CONCLUSIONS: Endodissection is especially helpful during esophageal dissection at or above the trachea. It allows identification of mediastinal structures and controlled biopsy of mediastinal lymph nodes. This study showed that endodissection eliminates the "blind angle" during conventional THE, prevents recurrent nerve damage, and reduces pulmonary distress during transhiatal esophagectomy.

As a simulation experiment for secondarily excited characteristic X-rays in PIXE spectra, S Ks emitted from Na2SO3 were measured by using a tungsten anode X-ray tube as an excitation source. The DV-Xα method confirmed that the Ks and Ks transition did not originate from the crossover or interatomic transition but from S 3p → S 1s and S 2p → S 1s transitions. Such assignment is helpful not only to analyze the fine structures in X-ray spectra secondarily induced in PIXE experiments but also to investigate the fine structures in XRF spectra.

We show formation of paperlike thin films (Buckypaper) consisting of pseudo-two-dimensional network of individual boron-doped single-walled carbon nanotubes (B-SWNTs), by sufficiently dissolving as-grown ropes of SWNTs and densely assembling them on silicon substrate. We find superconducting transition at temperature $({T}_{\text{c}})$ of 8 K under absent pressure and that it can be induced as large as 2.4 times up to 19 K by applying a small pressure of 20 MPa. A significant frequency increase in the radial breathing phonon mode (RBM) is also found with applying pressure in Raman spectrum measurements. Moreover, B-SWNTs with a diameter of 0.6 nm are confirmed in the Buckypaper. These imply the strong correlation of the pressure-induced ${T}_{\text{c}}$ with electron-phonon (RBM) coupling of 0.6-nm-diameter B-SWNTs.

Background: Mast cells play a central role in allergic and inflammatory diseases. Several reports indicated role of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) on mast cell function. However, there is no report about the role of PPARγ on differentiation of mast cells from the progenitors. In this study, we investigated the role of PPARγ in regulating bone marrow-derived mast cell maturation and the therapeutic implications for mast cell-related diseases such as atopic or contact dermatitis. Methods: We used in vitro cell culture system for mast cell differentiation from bone marrow-progenitors using specific ligands and lentiviral-mediated short hairpin RNA of PPARγ, and in vivo murine dermatitis models. Results: Activation of PPARγ inhibited the maturation of bone marrow progenitors into connective tissue-type mast cells (CTMCs) through up-regulation of GATA-4 and GATA-6 resulting in a decrease in expression of histidine decarboxylase and mast cell histamine content. In comparison, the differentiation of bone marrow progenitors into CTMCs was significantly accelerated by the knockdown of PPARγ expression by lentiviral-mediated short hairpin RNA. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma ligand administration to mice inhibited the maturation of mast cells resulting in attenuation of atopic and contact dermatitis via diminishment of the number of mature mast cells. Conclusion: Our results indicate that PPARγ is one of master regulators on mast cell maturation and potentially useful for the therapy in various disorders involving mast cell activation.

Porphyromonas gingivalis, a major etiological organism implicated in periodontal disease, can be classified into virulent and avirulent strains. Our aim was to identify a gene for the virulence of P. gingivalis.The subtractive hybridization technique was employed to identify the genes specific to P. gingivalis W83, a virulent strain. In this study, P. gingivalis W83 was used as the tester strain, and P. gingivalis ATCC 33277 was the driver strain. The prevalence of W83-specific genes was determined by Southern blot analysis of several P. gingivalis strains.We obtained 575 colonies using the subtractive hybridization technique. From among these, 26 DNA fragments were subjected to a homology search using the BLAST program. Compared with strain ATCC 33277, strain W83 contained 12 unique clones. The specificities of the isolated DNA fragments were analyzed among four P. gingivalis strains by Southern blot analysis. Five genes showed specificity for strain W83 compared with strain ATCC 33277. All five genes were also identified in strain W50.The subtractive hybridization technique was effective in screening the two strains for specific DNA sequences, some of which might be responsible for determining virulence. The results suggested that several genes specific to strain W83 were associated with its virulence. Further analysis of these DNA fragments will provide important information on the pathogenesis of virulent P. gingivalis strains.

FKα X-ray satellite spectra of NaF and KF induced by photon impact were observed. The intensity of a K1L1 satellite peak relative to a K1L0 diagram line of KF was much reduced compared to that of NaF. The reduction in the relative intensity of the K1L1 satellite peak of KF has been explained qualitatively by the delocalization of the F2p−1 hole through molecular orbitals in the ionized or K1L1 state. However, a degree of the reduction in the K1L1 satellite peak intensity was estimated here quantitatively from calculations of X-ray emission rates using the numerical basis SCC-DV-Xα method in the ionized or hole states. The calculated results indicate that the formation of molecular orbitals in the K1L1 state of KF is not responsible for the reduction in X-ray emission rate for the K1L1 satellite.

Purpose: To compare quantitative image quality (IQ) evaluation methods using Noise Power Spectrum (NPS) and Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) with standard IQ analyses for minimizing the observer subjectivity of the standard methods and maximizing the information content. Methods: For our routine IQ tests of Elekta XVI Cone-Beam CT, image noise was quantified by the standard deviation of CT number (CT#) (Sigma) over a small area in an IQ test phantom (CatPhan), and the high spatial resolution (HSR) was evaluated by the number of line-pairs (LP#) visually recognizable on the image. We also measured the image uniformity, the low contrast resolution ratio, and the distances of two points for geometrical accuracy. For this study, we did additional evaluation of the XVI data for 12 monthly IQ tests by using NPS for noise, MTF for HSR, and the CT#-to-density relationship. NPS was obtained by applying Fourier analysis in a small area on the uniformity test section of CatPhan. The MTF analysis was performed by applying the Droege-Morin (D-M) method to the line pairs on the phantom. The CT#-to-density was obtained for inserts in the low-contrast test section of the phantom. Results: All the quantities showed a noticeable change over the one-year period. Especially the noise level changed significantly after a repair of the imager. NPS was more sensitive to the IQ change than Sigma. MTF could provide more quantitative and objective evaluation of the HSR. The CT# was very different from the expected CT#; but, the CT#-to-density curves were constant within 5% except two months. Conclusion: Since the D-M method is easy to implement, we recommend using MTF instead of the LP# even for routine periodic QA. The month-to-month variation of IQ was not negligible; hence a routine IQ test must be performed, particularly after any modification of hardware including detector calibration.

Single beam communication for data and control signal in optical wireless access was performed by utilizing PLL circuits. The circuits were demonstrated as frequency synthesizer for the transmitting section and as clock recovery in receiving section.

Multiple highspeed optical wireless access terminals by using VCSELs- and receivers- array are proposed by using optical micro-cell systems. Controland data-multi-beams directions are quickly controlled by electronic matrix switches of HUB-node and LD/PD/lens array of end-node.

A speech feature extraction system for speaker-independent continuous phoneme recognition requires high performance in the 50 MIPS range. The vector processes in feature extraction can be mapped into parallel processes on a linear array vhich consists of multiple processing elements (PEs). Each PE takes charge of the processes of each vector element and extracts features by repeating product-and-sum operations and data/ instruction transfers between tvo neighboring PEs, like a systolic array. The system has a hierarchical configuration with one general purpose digital signal processor (DSP) as the upper layer and a linear array as the lower layer. An experimental system with 16 PEs in the Lower layer is shorn to have about 20 times the processing capability of a single-layered system using only one DSP.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between air-plethysmographic volume parameters under standard exercise loading and foot venous pressure parameters under ideal exercise loading in patients with primary varicose veins.Seventy-one lower limbs in 39 patients with primary varicose veins and 8 lower limbs in 4 healthy controls were examined. The patients included 12 males and 27 females, ranging in age from 36 to 79 years. Eighteen limbs were asymptomatic (class 0) limbs, 28 limbs had symptoms of swelling or heaviness (class 1), and 25 had skin lesions (class 2+3). The patients and controls were examined with duplex scanning, air-plethysmography, and ambulatory foot venous pressure measurement.The mean ambulatory venous pressure (AVP) was significantly higher in the class 2+3 limbs than in the other classes, but it was not significantly higher in class 1 than in class 0. There were no significant differences between the class 2+3 limbs and class 1 limbs in any of the air-plethysmographic parameters. However, the VFI in the class 0 limbs was significantly different from that in the other 2 groups. Among all parameters examined, the venous filling index (VFI) was the most closely correlated with the AVP. All air-plethysmographic parameters were negatively correlated with the VRT.Among non-invasive air-plethysmographic volume parameters, VFI is the most reliable indicator for quantitative evaluation of calf pump function.

Primary cancer of the gallbladder is not unusual. Most cases of gallbladder cancer are found at an advanced stage, accompanied by the invasion to the liver, metastases to the lymph nodes and distant organs, and peritoneal dissemination. In this study, we first examined the effect of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK) inhibitors on the production of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA), and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs) in a human gallbladder cancer cell line, NOZ cells in vitro. MEK inhibitors (PD98059 and U0126) inhibited the production of MMP-2, MMP-9 and high MW uPA, and upregulated TIMPs (TIMP-1, TIMP-2 and TIMP-3). Subsequently, we examined the effect of U0126 on invasion and metastasis of orthotopically inoculated NOZ cells in nude mice. Direct liver invasion by cancer cells was detected in all of the mice in the control group, but in only one mouse in the U0126-treated group. Most of the primary tumors in the U0126-treated group expanded to the liver, but did not invade into the liver. Vessel invasion in the liver was evident in 4 out of 5 mice in the control group, but in only one mouse in the U0126-treated group. Lymph node metastases and peritoneal dissemination were recognized in all of the mice in both groups. All 5 mice in the U0126-treated group, and 4 out of 5 mice in the vehicle control group, had metastases in the lungs. The present results suggest that a MEK inhibitor, U0126, prolonged the survival of the mice with NOZ tumor by inhibiting direct liver invasion and vessel invasion of the cancer cells via down-regulation of the matrix degrading ability of the cancer cells.