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Objectives The aim of this AFIRE (Atrial Fibrillation and Ischemic Events With Rivaroxaban in Patients With Stable Coronary Artery Disease) trial subgroup analysis was to examine rivaroxaban monotherapy benefits and their relation to the time between stenting and enrollment among patients after coronary stenting. Background Of 2,215 patients with atrial fibrillation and stable coronary artery disease in the AFIRE trial, rivaroxaban monotherapy was noninferior to rivaroxaban plus antiplatelet therapy (combination therapy) in terms of efficacy and superior for safety endpoints. However, thrombotic risk after antiplatelet therapy cessation remained a concern among 1,444 patients who had undergone coronary stenting >1 year before enrollment. Methods The benefits of rivaroxaban monotherapy in coronary stenting subgroups were assessed for efficacy (a composite of stroke, systemic embolism, myocardial infarction, unstable angina requiring revascularization, or death of any cause), safety (major bleeding defined according to International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis criteria), ischemic endpoints, net adverse clinical event, and time between stenting and enrollment. Results Efficacy and safety endpoints for monotherapy were superior to combination therapy, with HRs of 0.70 for efficacy (95% CI: 0.50-0.98; P = 0.036) and 0.55 for safety (95% CI: 0.33-0.92; P = 0.019). For ischemic endpoints, the HR was 0.82 (95% CI: 0.58-1.15; P = 0.240). The HR became smaller with longer time between stenting and enrollment (efficacy, P for interaction = 0.158; safety, P = 0.097). Conclusions In patients with atrial fibrillation after coronary stenting, the benefits of rivaroxaban monotherapy for efficacy and safety endpoints were consistent with those in the whole AFIRE trial population. The benefits became apparent with longer time between stenting and enrollment. (Atrial Fibrillation and Ischemic Events With Rivaroxaban in Patients With Stable Coronary Artery Disease Study [AFIRE]; UMIN000016612 , NCT02642419 )

Background and objective Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with metallic coronary stent (bare-metal stents [BMS] and drug-eluting stents [DES]) implantation is most frequently performed therapeutic procedures for coronary artery disease. In-stent restenosis (ISR) is a critical drawback of metallic coronary stents. Incidence of ISR has been reported in up to 30% after BMS implantation. The use of DES has greatly reduced the proportion of restenosis compared with the BMS. However, ISR still remains the primary concern after PCI even in the contemporary DES era, and thought to be associated with worse clinical outcomes. However, comparative data on ISR and de novo lesions are rare. Purpose The aim of the present study was to compare the clinical outcomes after PCI for the de novo lesion and the ISR lesion. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of patients who underwent PCI between 2013 and 2020. The incidences of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE) and all-cause death were evaluated. MACCE was defined as composite of cardiovascular death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, and stroke. Results In this study, 1538 patients were enrolled and divided into two groups: PCI for de novo lesion group (n=1258, 81.8%), and PCI for ISR lesion group (n=280, 18.2%). Patients in the ISR lesion group were significantly older and had higher prevalence of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia and chronic kidney disease than patients in the de novo lesion group. During a median follow-up period of 1.9 years, Kaplan-Meier curves showed no significant differences in the incidences of MACCE (log-rank, p=0.86) and all-cause death (p=0.84) between two groups. After adjustment for other covariates, PCI for ISR lesion were not significantly associated with MACCE (hazard ratio [HR], 1.10; 95% confidential interval [CI], 0.61–1.97; p=0.76) and all-cause death (HR, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.56–1.56; p=0.79) Conclusion PCI for the ISR lesion was not associated with worse clinical outcomes compared with PCI for the de novo lesion. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: None.

Background Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) are useful imaging modalities to identify lipid-rich plaque (LRP) which is associated with an increased risk of future cardiovascular events in individuals undergoing PCI. Pathological studies have raised concerns that treating LRP with stents may impair vascular healing. However, the impact of stent implantation to LRP lesions was less known. Moreover, little information is available about changes in the extent of LRP at before and after PCI. Purpose The aim of this study was to investigate changes in LRP by NIRS between pre- and post-stent implantation, and to evaluate an association among impact of LRP by NIRS at pre- and post-stenting and late lumen loss (LLL) by angiography. Methods We studied 175 lesions in 149 patients who underwent PCI under NIRS-IVUS guidance and follow-up angiography at 8-month later from 2017 to 2020. Plaque characteristics on IVUS, the extent of LRP [defined as a long segment with a 4-mm maximum lipid core burden index (maxLCBI4mm)] on NIRS, and quantitative coronary angiography measurements were analyzed. We evaluated a change of the extent of LRP between pre- and post-stenting at index PCI procedure, and association between the extent of LRP and a 8-month LLL at follow-up coronary angiography. A large LRP was defined as maxLCBI4mm>400 at pre-stenting. Results Mean age was 64.5 years old, and 123 (82%) patients were male. The prevalence of large LRP was 51% and median plaque burden at minimum lumen area was 81%. The extent of LRP at culprit lesion significantly decreased from pre- to post-stenting (median maxLCBI4mm [interquartile range (IQR)]: 407 [199, 580] to 133 [13, 319], p0.05). Median LLL at follow-up angiogram was 0.17 [0.07–0.35] mm. Both the extent of pre- and post-stenting LRP were not associated with LLL (r=0.018, p=0.80 and r=0.022, p=0.76, respectively) (Figure 2). In addition, there was no significant difference in LLL between the post-stenting large and non-large LRP (median [IQR] 0.18 [0.08–0.35] vs. 0.17 [0.07–0.35]; P=0.95). Conclusions This study showed coronary stent implantation significantly reduced the NIRS-derived LRP in patients undergoing PCI. Although the extent of pre-stenting LRP and IVUS plaque burden predicted the reduction of LRP, the extent of pre- and post-stenting LRP were not associated with LLL. These findings suggest that stent implantation for LRP, even in a large LRP, is safe and does not affect LLL. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: None. Figure 1. Scatter plotsFigure 2. CENTRAL Figure

Background Asians have a much lower incidence of adverse coronary events than Caucasians, and the characteristics of vulnerable plaque might be different among the ethnics. Purpose The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical characteristics of lipid-rich plaque (LRP) in the Asian population and we also aimed to distinguish the characteristics of an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) culprit lesion and a chronic coronary syndrome (CCS) culprit lesion. Furthermore, we evaluated the association between lipid core burden index (LCBI) and cardiovascular risk factors, lipid profiles, and inflammatory biomarkers, as determined in vivo by near infrared spectroscopy intravascular ultrasound (NIRS-IVUS) imaging in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods We evaluated 207 patients (ACS, n=75; CCS, n=132) who underwent PCI under NIRS-IVUS. Plaque characteristics and the extent of LRP [defined as a long segment with a 4-mm maximum LCBI (maxLCBI4mm)] on NIRS in de-novo culprit and non-culprit segments were analyzed. Results The mean age was 65 years old and 82% of patients were male. The ACS culprit lesions had a significantly higher maxLCBI4mm (median [interquartile range (IQR)]: 533 [385–745] vs. 361 [174–527], p Conclusions We confirmed that NIRS-IVUS plaque assessment could be useful to differentiate ACS from CCS culprit lesions, and that a threshold maxLCBI4mm ≥400 was clinically suitable in Japanese patients. No systemic surrogate markers were found to be associated with the extent of LRP by NIRS in culprit and non-culprit segments. Consequently, we believe that direct intravascular evaluation of coronary plaque characteristics remains important for identification of high-risk LRP. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: None. Figure 1. The difference of maxLCBI4mmFigure 2. ROC curve

La–Co co-substituted magnetoplumbite-type (M-type) strontium ferrite is typically used as a base material for high-performance hard ferrite magnets. Generally, the unquenched orbital moment of Co2+, substituted for Fe3+, is thought to enhance magnetic anisotropy and then coercivity. La3+ is substituted for Sr2+ to compensate for the charge unbalance associated with Co2+ substitution. Even if the synthesis starts with equal amounts of Co and La, the Co contents of the resulting samples are generally lower than the La contents because of the partial reduction of Fe3+ to Fe2+. We studied how the oxygen potential suppresses the formation of Fe2+ and expands the Co solubility range in this system. Polycrystalline samples, synthesized under oxygen partial pressures of 0.2, 1.0, and 387 atm, were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, wavelength-dispersive X-ray analysis, and magnetization measurements. We reveal that the application of higher oxygen pressure dramatically expands the Co solubility range, resulting in the enhancement in magnetic anisotropy. We successfully synthesized Sr-free LaFe11CoO19 with high magnetic anisotropy using the hot isostatic pressure (HIP) technique.

Laser Produced Plasma (LPP) light source is widely accepted to be the most promising solution for the 13.5 nm high power light source for high volume manufacturing (HVM) EUV lithography. We have been developing LPP systems using CO2 laser and tin (Sn) target for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light source since 2003. In the development of LPP light source, various kinds of original technologies, such as the combination of pulsed CO2 laser and Sn droplets, dual wavelength laser pulse shooting , and debris mitigation with magnetic field have been developed in Gigaphoton Inc.. By the use of Proto #2 device, 108 W EUV power (clean power at intermediate focus (I/F) in burst mode) under 80 kHz, 24 h operation was demonstrated. Currently, we are constructing the first practical source for HVM “GL200E Pilot #1” aiming for 250 W EUV output power by 27 kW pulsed CO2 laser system.

The variation tolerant assist circuits of an SRAM against process and temperature are proposed. Passive resistances are introduced to the read assist circuit with replica memory transistors to lower the wordline voltage accurately reflecting the process and temperature variations. For the sake of not only enlarging the write margin but also reducing power consumption and speed overhead, the divided dynamic power-line scheme based on a charge sharing is adopted. Test chips of 512-Kb SRAM macros and isolated memory cell TEGs are fabricated using 45-nm bulk CMOS technology. Two types of 6-T SRAM cells, whose sizes were 0.245 mum2 and 0.327 mum2 were designed and evaluated. From the measurement results, we achieved over 100-mV improvement for static noise margin, and 35 mV for write margin for both SRAM cells at 1.0-V worst condition by using assist circuitry. It enables the wordline level to keep higher voltage at the slowest condition than the typical process condition, which results in 83% improvement of the cell current compared with the conventional assist circuit. Furthermore, the minimum operating voltage in the worst case condition was improved by 170 mV, confirming a high immunity against process and temperature variations with less than 10% area overhead.

Embedded processors for video image recognition in most cases not only need to address the conventional cost (die size and power) versus real-time performance issue, but must also maintain high flexibility due to the immense diversity of recognition targets, situations, and applications. This paper describes IMAP, a highly parallel SIMD linear processor and memory array architecture that addresses these trade-off requirements. By using parallel and systolic algorithmic techniques, but based on a simple linear array architecture, IMAP successfully exploits not only the straightforward per-image row data level parallelism (DLP), but also the inherent DLP of other memory access patterns frequently found in various image recognition tasks, while allowing programming to be done using an explicit parallel C language (1DC). We describe and evaluate IMAP-CE, one of the latest IMAP processors, integrating 128 100 MHz 8 bit 4-way VLIW PEs, 128 2 KByte RAMs, and one 16 bit RISC control processor onto a single chip. The PE instruction set is enhanced to support 1DC code. The die size of IMAP-CE is 11 times11 mm2 integrating 32.7 M transistors, while the power consumption is, on average, approximately 2 watts. IMAP-CE is evaluated mainly by comparing its performance while running 1DC code with that of a 2.4 GHz Intel P4 running optimized C code. Based on the use of parallelizing techniques, benchmark results show a speed increase of up to 20 times for image filter kernels and of 4 times for a full image recognition application

From the viewpoint of hardness, chemical bonding states of nitrogen-doped hydrogenated amorphous carbon film were characterized by Ultra violet (UV) Raman spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. UV Raman spectra revealed that disorder of the structure in nitrogen-doped hydrogenated amorphous carbon was promoted by applying higher bias voltages in the preparation. FT-IR spectra showed that NH bonds decreased and sp 3 Csp 3 N bonds increased with the increase of the bias voltages. The content of sp 3 Csp 3 N bonds was maximized at the bias voltage of −800 V. We found out a guarantee that the content of sp 3 Csp 3 N bonds against bias voltages correlated with the hardness obtained by nanoindentation test. The structural disorder and the increase of sp 3 Csp 3 N bonds are possible source of the hardness in the case of nitrogen-doped hydrogenated amorphous carbon.

There are serious gaps in knowledge with respect to the use of standardized assessment instruments such as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition (WAIS-III; D. Wechsler, 1997) or the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2; J. N. Butcher, W. G. Dahlstrom, J. R. Graham, A. Tellegen,B. Kaemmer, 1989) with Asian Americans. Issues surrounding the availability, reliability, and validity of assessment instruments must be addressed before extended discussions about the implication of test revisions for this population can take place. The authors review the current status of the WAIS-III and MMPI-2 with Asian Americans with respect to their availability, reliability, and validity, including reasons why Asian Americans have been severely underrepresented in validation studies. The authors argue for the need to collect data on the use of standardized assessment instruments with Asian Americans and conclude with recommendations for the inclusion of this population in future test revision projects.

The elastic energy associated with coherent precipitation of hydrides with various shapes in LaNi 5 has been calculated by the Eshelby method with the single-crystal elastic constants experimentally determined by a rectangular parallelepiped resonance method. The calculated elastic energy amounts to about 70% of the change in chemical energy that occurs upon hydride formation. This implies the difficulty for coherent hydrides to nucleate in the perfect lattice of LaNi 5 . This is in contrast to the case of titanium or zirconium, in which the associated elastic energies are only about 15% of the chemical energy change. Hydride precipitation in LaNi 5 is thus suggested to occur preferentially at free surfaces and lattice defects such as dislocations and grain boundaries.

In 2004, an unidentified disease causing chlorotic yellows on the leaves of melon (Cucumis melo) plants was found in Kumamoto Prefecture. A few flexuous filamentous structures (ca. 900 nm in length) were observed with transmission electron microscopy. RT-PCR and subsequent nested PCR amplified a DNA fragment, which had 75% and 73% similarities with a corresponding sequence for Cucurbit yellow stunting disorder virus and Beet pseudo-yellows virus, respectively. Both Bemisia tabaci Q-biotype and B. tabaci B-biotype (syn. B. argentifolii) acquired and transmitted the virus, and the infected melon plants developed the original symptoms of the disease. These results demonstrate that the virus is a new species in the genus Crinivirus (family Closteroviridae), and we propose the name Cucurbit chlorotic yellows virus.

This study tested an affect-specific explanation for the Asian and White American differences in depression and social anxiety. Construal of the self as independent or interdependent in relation to others (H. R. MarkusS. Kitayama, 1991) was hypothesized to be 1 possible way in which culture may be expressed in individuals' psychological functioning, which in turn was hypothesized to be linked specifically to social anxiety. College students (N = 348; 183 White Americans and 165 Asian Americans) completed self-report measures of depression, social anxiety, and self-construals. Asian Americans scored significantly higher than White Americans on measures of depression and social anxiety. When the covariance between depression and social anxiety was statistically controlled, ethnicity and self-construal variables were found, as predicted, to be associated with measures of social anxiety but not depression. These findings suggest a more differentiated perspective on the relations between culture, ethnicity, and emotional distress.

The surface free energy (γ s ) of modified carbon fibers was determined by tensiometry and effects of CF4-O2 plasma treatment were evaluated. The treatment with the gas mixture in which oxygen was above 40% accelerated preferentially the oxidation of fiber surfaces and the nondispersive component of the surface free energy, γ P S , increased to about three times that of the untreated fiber. On the other hand, the treatment with the gas containing CF4 above 80% induced fluorination and surface species such as - CF, - CF2, or - CF3 were formed. The γ P S values decreased to almost zero and the dispersive component became about 18 mJ/m2. The calculated work of adhesion between various fibers and the epoxy resin was well correlated with the interfacial shear strength of the composites formed with these materials.

Niobium compounds and materials such as noibium pentoxide (Nb 2 O 5 ), niobic acid (Nb 2 O 5 ·nH 2 O), niobium phosphate (NbOPO 4 ), niobium layer compounds (K 4 Nb 6 O 17 , HCa 2 Nb 3 O 10 , etc.) and mixed oxides containing niobia (Nb 2 O 5 SiO 2 , Nb 2 O 5 Al 2 O 5 , Nb 2 O 5 TiO 2 , Nb 2 O 5 V 2 O 5 , etc.) are shown to be useful as promoters and supports of catalysts and as unique solid acid catalysts, selective oxidation catalysts and photosensitive catalysts. High catalytic activities, selectivities and stabilities of these niobium compounds and materials and metals (Rh, Pd, Ni, Co, etc.) supported on Nb 2 O 5 are demonstrated for various reactions given in the following list of contents.

The nickel-catalyzed reactions of 3,4-benzo-1,1,2,2-tetraethyl-1,2-disilacyclobut-3-ene (1) with disubstituted acetylenes have been investigated. Treatment of 1 with 3-hexyne and diphenylacetylene at 150°C gave two types of adducts: 5,6-benzo-1,4-disilacyclohexa-2,5-diene and 5,6-benzo-1,2-disilacyclohexa-3,5-diene, together with a small amount of the other isomer. The reaction of 1 with phenyl(trimethylsilyl)acetylene produced 5,6-benzo-1,1,4,4-tetraethyl-3-phenyl-2-trimethylsilyl-1,4-disilacyclohexa-2,5-diene and 4,5-benzo-1,1,3,3-tetraethyl-2-[phenyl(trimethylsilyl)methylene]-1,3-disilacyclopent-4-ene (10). Similar reaction of 1 with 1-(trimethylsilyl)hexyne also afforded 5,6-benzo-3-butyl-1,1,4,4-tetraethyl-2-trimethylsilyl-1,4-disilacyclohexa-2,5-diene and 4,5-benzo-2-[butyl(trimethylsilyl)methylene]-1,1,3,3-tetraethyl-1,3-disilacyclopent-4-ene (12). A vinylidene carbene-nickel complex is proposed for the formation of 10 and 12, as a key intermediate.

We have fabricated a high yield integrated memory array processor (IMAP) LSI, which features a high memory bandwidth (1.28-GB/s) and low power consumption (4-W max.) and which contains a 2-Mb SRAM with 1.28-I/O's and 64 processor elements (PE's) in one chip. A high-bandwidth and low-power memory circuit design is the key technology to realize the IMAP-LSI. We adopted following new designs for memory circuit. (1) Memory access time is designed to be twice as fast as PE execution time (2) Employment of dynamic power control mode, which reduces the memory power consumption down to 30% of maximum power without a loss in access-speed (3) Simplified synchronization with PE's (4) 4-way block redundancy. These design techniques are suitable for future system integrated ULSI's. >

Gasochromic characteristics of sol-gel derived Pt/WO3 film as a hydrogen sensitive material was evaluated at various temperatures in the near-infrared region by optical transmittance measurements. The sensitivity of the film was high and more than 60% transmittance change was observed at room temperature and higher, with 4 % H2/N2 balance gas. The curves may be approximated by exponential response. The response speed was fast and the 63% response time was about 5 sec. at 25 °C. On the other hand, recovery speed was slower than that of the response, suggesting that the recovery process may not be a reverse reaction of the response mechanism. As temperature lowers, the response becomes slower and weaker, yet reasonable response was still observed at 0 °C. However, anomalous response behavior was observed at -40 °C. The behavior may be attributed to the effect of water formed by the recovery reaction.

A new concept to produce large thin film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCD's) without using an optical mask aligner is proposed which emphasizes patterning technology. Some experimental thin film transistors (TFT's) are fabricated according to the concept and operated like conventional transistors fabricated by using an optical mask aligner. The concept includes improvement of printing technology and development of a double-layer resist method. The latter method employs a printed ink pattern and a photoresist. This prevents contamination of thin films by metal impurities which affect electrical characteristics of the TFT's. A special gravure offset printing technology is proposed, composed of a large thixotropy valued UV ink, and a fine, precision etched glass intaglio. The experimental TFT's, with a designed minimum gate length of 10 /spl mu/m, have comparable electric characteristics to those of conventional poly-Si TFT's. >

Twenty five male and 25 female Slc:SD rats were given orally lactitol, a hepatic encephalopathy drug, for 52 weeks at doses of 0, 0.4, 2 or 10 g/kg/day. A 9 week recovery test was conducted after the discontinuation of the drug treatment. Treatment related death, soft stool, diarrhea, decreased body weight gain and food intake and increased water consumption were observed in the 10 g/kg group. Urinalysis showed increased Ca excretion in the 2 and 10 g/kg groups. In the 10 g/kg group, there were increased Ca++ excretion and urine specific gravity and decreased K+ and Na+ excretion and urine volume. Hematologic examination showed decreased platelet count in the 10 g/kg group. Biochemical examination revealed higher A/G ratio in the 2 and 10 g/kg groups. In the 10 g/kg group, there were lowered level of total cholesterol, triglyceride, phospholipid, Na+, Cl- and total protein. Distention of the cecum with increased organ weight was seen pathologically in the 2 and 10 g/kg groups. In the 10 g/kg group, cecal mucosa was hyperplasic. The adrenal gland was hypertrophic in the zona glomerulosa in the 2 and 10 g/kg groups. In the 10 g/kg group, the adrenal weight was increased. Dilatation of renal tubules was also found in the 10 g/kg group. The above mentioned changes were satisfactorily reversible except for the increased cecum weight in the 10 g/kg group. Based on the results obtained, the NOAEL of this study was suggested to be 0.4 g/kg/day.

An integrated memory array processor (IMAP) LSI has peak performance of 3.84 GIPS and is suitable for high-speed, low-level image processing (LIP). Keys to performance are: integration of 64 simple processing elements (PEs) and 2 Mb SRAM with 128 b I/O, and single-instruction stream multiple-data stream (SIMD) parallel processing by use of 1.28 GB/s on-chip processor-memory bandwidth. A large number of active sense amplifiers ordinarily used in a wide memory bandwidth creates the problem of large power consumption. The number of active sense amplifiers here is reduced by a factor of 4 by accessing half of each word at a time, but accessing it at twice the speed of the PE clock. This keeps power consumption low. Each memory block can perform indexed addressing within its pages. This capability contributes to IMAP flexibility and efficiency in LIP. To raise yield, the architecture employs 4-way block replacement redundancy. IMAP is fabricated in 0.55 /spl mu/m BiCMOS 2-layer metal process technology. >

Unusual glow discharges in air, argon, oxygen and nitrogen at atmospheric pressure can be produced using a 50 Hz source. This technique is introduced on the basis of the idea of a lower dielectric breakdown voltage gas. The electrode system, which is composed of a fine metal wire mesh of specified radius and a dielectric substance, is very useful for plasma surface processes and for chemical reactions in the plasma bulk. The observations of the Lissajous figure of voltage-electric charges and of the current pulse shapes are proposed as a method of distinguishing between the atmospheric pressure glow plasma and the silent electric discharge.

A pentanucleotide repetitive sequence, (TTAGG)n, has been isolated from a silkworm genomic library, using cross-hybridization with a (TTNGGG)5 sequence, which is conserved among most eukaryotic telomeres. Both fluorescent in situ hybridization and Bal 31 exonuclease experiments revealed major clusters of (TTAGG)n at the telomeres of all Bombyx chromosomes. To determine the evolutionary origin of this sequence, two types of telomeric sequence, (TTAGG)5 and a hexanucleotide repetitive sequence, (TTAGGG)4, which is conserved mainly among vertebrate and several invertebrate telomeres so far examined, were hybridized to DNAs from a wide variety of eukaryotic species under highly stringent hybridization conditions. The (TTAGGG)5 oligonucleotide hybridized to genomic DNAs from vertebrates and several nonvertebrate species, as has been reported so far, but not to any DNAs from insects. On the other hand, the Bombyx type of telomere sequence, (TTAGG)n, hybridized to DNAs from 8 of 11 orders of insect species tested but not to vertebrate DNAs, suggesting that this TTAGG repetitive sequence is conserved widely among insects.

This method improves linewidth accuracy and overlay accuracy by decreasing the multiple interference effect in a resist film. A clear anti-reflective film is spun on a photoresist prior to alignment pattern detection and exposure

The reaction of 3,4-benzo-1,1,2,2-tetraethyl-1,2-disilacyclobutene (1) with benzene in the presence of a catalytic amount of Ni(PEt3)4 affo

Meniere's disease, characterised by episodic vertigo, fluctuating hearing loss and tinnitus, can occur under conditions of stress. Its pathology was first revealed to be inner ear hydrops through temporal bone studies in 1938. Although its pathogenesis has been proposed to be a disorder of water transport in the inner ear, subsequently, it remains unsolved, until now. A recent study revealed that both plasma stress hormone, vasopressin (pAVP) and its receptor, V2 (V2R) expression in the inner ear endolymphatic sac were significantly higher in Meniere's patients. In the present study, to link V2R-related molecules and inner ear hydrops, we examined V2R-linked water channel molecule, aquaporin-2 (AQP2) expression and translocation in human endolymphatic sac. AQP2 mRNA expression in the endolymphatic sac was significantly higher in Meniere's patients by using real-time polymerase chain reaction, as further confirmed by western blotting. AQP2-like immunoreactivity (-LIR) was translocated from luminal to basolateral side with endosomal trapping in the endolymphatic sac at the time of AVP exposure in human endolymphatic sac tissue culture. The similar AQP2-LIR translocation was also demonstrated by forskolin and blocked by vasopressin/V2R specific antagonist, OPC31260 and protein kinase A (PKA) specific antagonists, H-89 and KT-5720. We concluded that in the pathogenesis of inner ear hydrops resulting in Meniere's attacks, pAVP elevation as a result of stress and subsequent V2R-cAMP-PKA-AQP2 activation and endosomal trapping of AQP2 in the endolymphatic sac, might be important as a basis of this disease. Further experimental and clinical studies are needed to better clarify the neuroscientific relationship between stress and Meniere's disease.