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Autorzy: Abe K., Adrich P., Aihara H., Akutsu, R., Alekseev I., Ali A. , Ameli F., Anghel I., Anthony L. H. V., Antonova M. , Araya A., Asaoka Y., Ashida Y., Aushev V., Ballester F., Bandac I., Barbi M., Barker G. J., Barr G., Batkiewicz-Kwasniak M., Bellato M., Berardi V., Bergevin M., Bernard L., Bernardini E., Berns L., Bhadra S., Bian J., Blanchet A., Blaszczyk F. d. M., Blonde A., Boiano A., Bolognesi S., Bonavera L., Booth N., Borjabad S., Boschi, T., Bose D., Boyd S . B., Bozza C., Bravar A., Bravo-Berguño D., Bronner C., Brown L., Bubak Arkadiusz, Buchowicz A., Buizza Avanzini M., Cafagna F. S., Calabria N. F., Calvo-Mozota J. M., Cao S., Cartwright S.L., Carroll A., Catanesi M. G., Cebriàn, S., Chabera M., Chakraborty, S., Checchia C., Choi J.H., Choubey S., Cicerchia M., Coleman J., Collazuol G., Cook L., Cowan G., Cuen-Rochin, S., Danilov M., Díaz López G., De la Fuente E., de Perio P., De Rosa G., Dealtry T., Densham C. J., Dergacheva A., Deshmukh N., Devi M. M., Di Lodovico F., Di Meo, P., Di Palma I., Doyle T. A., Drakopoulou E., Drapier O., Dumarchez J., Dunne P., Dziewiecki M., Eklund L., El Hedri S., Ellis J., Emery S., Esmaili A., Esteve R., Evangelisti A., Feely M., Fedotov S., Feng J., Fernandez P., Fernández-Martinez E., Ferrario P., Ferrazzi,B., Feusels T., Finch A., Finley C., Fiorentini A., Fiorillo G., Fitton M., Frankiewicz K., Friend M., Fujii Y., Fukuda Y., Galinski G., Gao J., Garde C., Garfagnini A., Garode S., Gialanella L., Giganti C., Gomez-Cadenas J.J., Gonin M., González-Nuevo J., Gorin A., Gornea R., Gousy-Leblanc V. Gramegna F. Grassi M. Grella G. Guigue M. Gumplinger P. Hadley D.R. Harada M., Hartfiel B., Hartz M., Hassani S., Hastings N.C., Hayato Y., Hernando-Morata J.A., Herrero V., Hill J., Hiraide K., Hirota S., Holin A., Horiuchi S., Hoshina K., Hultqvist K., Iacob F., Ichikawa A.K., Idrissi Ibnsalih W., Iijima T., Ikeda M., Inomoto M., Inoue K., Insler J., Ioannisian A., Ishida T., Ishidoshiro K., Ishino H., Ishitsuka M., Ito H., Ito S., Itow Y., Iwamoto K., Izmaylov A., Izumi N., Izumiyama S., Jakkapu M., Jamieson B., Jang H.I., Jang J.S., Jenkins S.J., Jeon S.H., Jiang M., Jo H.S., Jonsson P., Joo K.K., Kajita T., Kakuno H., Kameda J., Kano Y., Kalaczynski P., Karlen D., Kasperek J., Kataoka Y., Kato A., Katori T., Kazarian N., Kearns E., Khabibullin M., Khotjantsev A., Kikawa T., Kekic M., Kim J.H., Kim J.Y., Kim S.B., Kim S.Y., King S., Kinoshita T., Kisiel Jan, Klekotko A., Kobayashi T., Koch L., Koga M., Koerich L., Kolev N., Konaka A., Kormos L.L., Koshio Y., Korzenev A., Kotsar Y., Kouzakov K.A., Kowalik K.L., Kravchuk L., Kryukov A.P., Kudenko Y., Kumita T., Kurjata R., Kutter T., Kuze M., Kwak K., La Commara M., Labarga L., Lagoda J., Lamers James J., Lamoureux M., Laveder M., Lavitola L., Lawe M., Learned J.G., Lee J., Leitner R., Lezaun V., Lim I.T., Lindner T., Litchfield R.P., Long K.R., Longhin A., Loverre P., Lu X., Ludovici L., Maekawa Y., Magaletti L., Magar K., Mahn K., Makida Y., Malek M., Malinský M., Marchi T., Maret L., Mariani C., Marinelli A., Martens K., Marti L., Martin J.F. Martin D., Marzec J., Matsubara T., Matsumoto R., Matsuno S., Matusiak M., Mazzucato E., McCarthy M., McCauley N., McElwee J., McGrew C., Mefodiev A., Medhi A., Mehta P., Mellet L., Menjo H., Mermod P., Metelko C., Mezzetto M., Migenda J., Migliozzi P., Mijakowski P., Miki S., Miller E.W., Minakata H., Minamino A., Mine S., Mineev O., Mitra A., Miura M., Moharana R., Mollo C.M., Mondal T., Mongelli M., Monrabal F., Moon D.H., Moon C.S., Mora F.J., Moriyama S., Mueller Th.A., Munteanu L., Murase K., Nagao Y., Nakadaira T., Nakagiri K., Nakahata M., Nakai S., Nakajima Y., Nakamura K., Nakamura KI., Nakamura H., Nakano Y., Nakaya T., Nakayama S., Nakayoshi K., Nascimento Machado L., Naseby C.E.R., Navarro-Garcia B., Needham M., Nicholls T., Niewczas K., Nishimura Y., Noah E., Nova F., Nugent J.C., Nunokawa H., Obrebski W., Ochoa-Ricoux J.P., O’Connor E., Ogawa N., Ogitsu T., Ohta K., Okamoto K., O’Keeffe H.M., Okumura K., Onishchuk Y., Orozco-Luna F., Oshlianskyi A., Ospina N., Ostrowski M., O’Sullivan E., O’Sullivan L., Ovsiannikova T., Oyama Y., Ozaki H., Pac M.Y., Paganini P., Palladino V., Paolone V., Pari M., Parsa S., Pasternak J., Pastore C., Pastuszak G., Patel D.A., Pavin M., Payne D., Peña-Garay C., Pidcott C., Pinzon Guerra E., Playfer S., Pointon B.W., Popov A., Popov B., Porwit Kamil, Posiadala-Zezula M., Poutissou J.M., Pozimski J., Pronost G., Prouse N.W., Przewlocki P., Quilain B., Quiroga A.A., Radicioni E., Radics B., Rajda P.J., Renner J., Rescigno M., Retiere F., Ricciardi G., Riccio C., Richards B., Rondio E., Rose H.J., Roskovec B., Roth S., Rott C., Rountree S.D., Rubbia A., Ruggeri A.C., Ruggles C., Russo S., Rychter A., Ryu D., Sakashita K., Samani S., Sánchez F., Sánchez M.L., Sanchez M.C., Sano S., Santos J.D., Santucci G., Sarmah P., Sashima I., Sato K., Scott M., Seiya Y., Sekiguchi T., Sekiya H., Seo J.W., Seo S.H., Sgalaberna D., Shaikhiev A., Shan Z., Shaykina A., Shimizu I., Shin C.D., Shinoki M., Shiozawa M., Sinnis G., Skrobova N., Skwarczynski K., Smy M.B., Sobczyk J., Sobel H.W., Soler F. J. P., Sonoda Y., Spina R., Spisso B., Spradlin B., Stankevich K.L., Stawarz L., Stellacci S.M., Stopa K., Studenikin A.I., Suárez Gómez S.L., Suganuma T., Suvorov S., Suwa Y., Suzuki A.T., Suzuki S.Y., Suzuki Y., Svirida D., Svoboda R., Taani M., Tada M., Takeda A., Takemoto Y., Takenaka A., Taketa A., Takeuchi Y., Takhistov V., Tanaka H., Tanaka H.A., Tanaka H.I., Tanaka M., Tashiro T., Thiesse M., Thompson L.F., Toledo J., Tomatani-Sánchez A.K., Tortone G., Tsui K.M., Tsukamoto T., Tzanov M., Uchida Y., Vagins M.R., Valder S., Valentino V., Vasseur G., Vijayvargi A., Vilela C., Vinning W. G. S., Vivolo D., Vladisavljevic T., Vogelaar R.B., Vyalkov M.M., Wachala T., Walker J., Wark D., Wascko M.O., Wendell R.A., Wilkes R.J., Wilking M.J., Wilson M.R., Wronka S., Xia J., Xie Z., Xin T., Yamaguchi Y., Yamamoto K., Yanagisawa C., Yano T., Yen S., Yershov N., Yeum D.N., Yokoyama M., Yonenaga M., Yoo J., Yu I., Yu M., Zakrzewski T., Zaldivar B., Zalipska J., Zaremba K., Zarnecki G., Ziembicki M., Zietara K., Zito M., Zsoldos S., Core-collapse supernovae are among the most magnificent events in the observable universe. They produce many of the chemical elements necessary for life to exist and their remnants-neutron stars and black holes-are interesting astrophysical objects in their own right. However, despite millennia of observations and almost a century of astrophysical study, the explosion mechanism of core-collapse supernovae is not yet well understood. Hyper-Kamiokande is a next-generation neutrino detector that will be able to observe the neutrino flux from the next galactic core-collapse supernova in unprecedented detail. We focus on the first 500 ms of the neutrino burst, corresponding to the accretion phase, and use a newly-developed, high-precision supernova event generator to simulate Hyper-Kamiokandeʼs response to five different supernova models. We show that Hyper-Kamiokande will be able to distinguish between these models with high accuracy for a supernova at a distance of up to 100 kpc. Once the next galactic supernova happens, this ability will be a powerful tool for guiding simulations toward a precise reproduction of the explosion mechanism observed in nature.

We report a fuel-dependent reactor electron antineutrino ($\overline{\nu}_e$) yield using six 2.8 GW$_{\text{th}}$ reactors in the Hanbit nuclear power plant complex, Yonggwang, Korea. The analysis uses $850\,666$ $\overline{\nu}_e$ candidate events with a background fraction of 2.0 % acquired through inverse beta decay (IBD) interactions in the near detector for 1807.9 live days from August 2011 to February 2018. Based on multiple fuel cycles, we observe a fuel $^{235}$U dependent variation of measured IBD yields with a slope of $(1.51 \pm 0.23) \times 10^{-43} $cm$^2$/fission and measure a total average IBD yield of $(5.84 \pm 0.13) \times 10^{-43} $cm$^2$/fission. The hypothesis of no fuel-dependent IBD yield is ruled out at 6.6 $\sigma$. The observed IBD yield variation over $^{235}$U isotope fraction does not show significant deviation from the Huber-Mueller (HM) prediction at 1.3 $\sigma$. The measured fuel-dependent variation determines IBD yields of $(6.15 \pm 0.19) \times 10^{-43} $cm$^2$/fission and $(4.18\pm 0.26) \times 10^{-43} $cm$^2$/fission for two dominant fuel isotopes $^{235}$U and $^{239}$Pu, respectively. The measured IBD yield per $^{235}$U fission shows the largest deficit relative to the HM prediction. Reevaluation of the $^{235}$U IBD yield per fission may mostly solve the Reactor Antineutrino Anomaly (RAA) while $^{239}$Pu is not completely ruled out as a possible contributor of the anomaly. We also report a 2.9 $\sigma$ correlation between the fractional change of the 5 MeV excess and the reactor fuel isotope fraction of $^{235}$U., Comment: 6 pages and 5 figures, v4 note: (1) data files for figure 1, figure 2, figure 5 are included for arXiv users (2) minor modifications in abstract and main text for clarification

The JSNS$^{2}$ (J-PARC Sterile Neutrino Search at J-PARC Spallation Neutron Source) experiment will search for neutrino oscillations over a 24 m short baseline at J-PARC. The JSNS$^{2}$ inner detector will be filled with 17 tons of gadolinium-loaded liquid scintillator (LS) with an additional 31 tons of unloaded LS in the intermediate $\gamma$-catcher and outer veto volumes. JSNS$^{2}$ has chosen Linear Alkyl Benzene (LAB) as an organic solvent because of its chemical properties. The unloaded LS was produced at a refurbished facility, originally used for scintillator production by the RENO experiment. JSNS$^{2}$ plans to use ISO tanks for the storage and transportation of the LS. In this paper, we describe the LS production, and present measurements of its optical properties and long term stability. Our measurements show that storing the LS in ISO tanks does not result in degradation of its optical properties., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures

This study investigated changes in the microbial composition of microbrewed beer during the manufacturing processes and identified potential microbial hazards, effective critical quality control points, and potential contamination routes. Comprehensive quantitative (aerobic plate count, lactic acid bacteria, fungi, acetic acid bacteria, coliforms, and Bacillus cereus) and qualitative (Escherichia coli and eight foodborne pathogens) microbiological analyses were performed using samples of raw materials (malt and manufacturing water), semiprocessed products (saccharified wort, boiled wort, and samples taken during the fermentation and maturation process), and the final product obtained from three plants. The initial aerobic plate count and lactic acid bacteria counts in malt were 5.2 and 4.3 log CFU/g, respectively. These counts were reduced to undetectable levels by boiling but were present at 2.9 and 0.9 log CFU/ml in the final product. Fungi were initially present at 3.6 log CFU/g, although again, the microbes were eliminated by boiling; however, the level in the final product was 4.6 log CFU/ml. No E. coli or foodborne pathogens (except B. cereus) were detected. B. cereus was detected at all stages, although it was not present in the water or boiled wort (total detection rate ¼ 16.4%). Results suggest that boiling of the wort is an effective microbial control measure, but careful management of raw materials and implementation of effective control measures after boiling are needed to prevent contamination of the product after the boiling step. The results of this study may constitute useful and comprehensive information regarding the microbiological quality of microbrewed beer.

Enabling detection of target molecules at low concentration is a key feature in localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) biosensors, which utilizes the remarkable optical properties of metal nanoparticles such as gold (Au) and silver (Ag) induced by the excitation of LSPR. However, the clear interrelationship between three-dimensional (3D) metal nanoparticle topography and localization of SPR is not fully understood. For the studies, we here propose and demonstrate an approach for fabricating new type of self-template 3D Au nanostructures by using boron nanowire arrays (BNWs) as a building block grown by oxide-assisted vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) mode at relatively low temperatures. This is the first report on formation of 3D Au pores and clusters induced by boron oxide (B 2 O 3 ) below 500°C.

The RENO experiment reports more precisely measured values of $\theta_{13}$ and $|\Delta m_{ee}^2|$ using $\sim$2\,200 live days of data. The amplitude and frequency of reactor electron antineutrino ($\overline{\nu}_e$) oscillation are measured by comparing the prompt signal spectra obtained from two identical near and far detectors. In the period between August 2011 and February 2018, the far (near) detector observed 103\,212 (850\,666) electron antineutrino candidate events with a background fraction of 4.7\% (2.0\%). A clear energy and baseline dependent disappearance of reactor $\overline{\nu}_e$ is observed in the deficit of the measured number of $\overline{\nu}_e$. Based on the measured far-to-near ratio of prompt spectra, we obtain $\sin^2 2 \theta_{13} = 0.0896 \pm 0.0048({\rm stat}) \pm 0.0048({\rm syst})$ and $|\Delta m_{ee}^2| =[2.68 \pm 0.12({\rm stat}) \pm 0.07({\rm syst})]\times 10^{-3}$~eV$^2$., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, updated with rephrase in the text for clarity

A thin film, NiMoNb, was introduced as an adhesion layer between the Cu metal and the insulator polyimide substrate in a flexible Cu-clad laminated structure. Using 90° peel test, we evaluated the peel strength of the system as a function of the thickness of the adhesion layer. An increase in the NiMoNb thickness from 7 to 40 nm enhanced the peel strength of the deposited systems. After plasma treatment by the roll-to-roll method, the multilayer structure showed an outstanding peel strength of ~ 529 N/m, even after thermal annealing at 150 °C for 168 h. We also studied the role of plasma treatment of the polyimide substrate on the adhesion strength and microstructure of a flexible Cu-clad laminated structure by peel strength, atomic force microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. These experimental observations showed that the plasma-treated polyimide substrate with the deposition of NiMoNb showed the enhanced adhesion of ~ 656 N/m, because of the change of functional groups, which affected the bonding force and crystallinity of the thin films deposited on polyimide, rather than an increase in the surface roughness.

Minimal clinically important difference is the smallest difference in the score of an outcome instrument that patients perceive as important. A prospective observational study was conducted involving 66 consecutive patients undergoing limited open carpal tunnel release. Patients completed the Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire (CTQ) before surgery and 3 months post-surgery. A transition item for patient satisfaction after 3 months of surgery was used as an anchor. Receiver operator characteristic curves were used to determine the minimal clinically important differences for the CTQ and its two subscales that best separated satisfied and unsatisfied patients. A 0.92 point change in the CTQ, a 1.14 point change in the symptom subscale, and a 0.74 point change in the function subscale indicated a clinically relevant threshold of satisfaction, and those values were greater than what could be accounted for by measurement errors.

The somatic cell count (SCC) is one of the international standards for monitoring milk quality, and it is a useful indicator of mastitis. The current reference method for determining the SCC in raw milk is direct microscopic analysis, but this method requires well-trained staff to maintain its accuracy and reproducibility. To overcome these inconveniences, we developed a portable system (the C-reader system) that utilizes the capillary flow of a microfluidic chamber by surface modification of the hydrophilicity. The microfluidic technology of disposable microchips allows for low consumption of reagents, and a combination of ready-to-use reagents makes the daily work easier. The repeatability test of the C-reader using 10 composite bovine milk samples satisfied the recommended values for SCC equipment. In addition, an acceptable accuracy level of the natural logarithmic-transformed SCC [ln(SCC/1,000): +/- 0.059 to 0.112] was achieved using composite raw milk samples and various somatic cell standard solutions from the American Eastern Laboratory and the Korean National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service. After testing 875 composite milk samples, the C-reader showed a high correlation coefficient (R2 = 0.935 to 0.964) and a low mean difference value in log-transformed SCC (-0.088 to 0.004) compared with 3 automatic commercialized somatic cell counters (Fossomatic 4000, Somacount 150, and Somascope). In conclusion, the C-reader system is a new, easy-to-use automatic on-farm method with acceptable repeatability and accuracy for measuring SCC in large dairies and smaller laboratories.

We study rubber friction for tire tread compounds on asphalt road surfaces. The road surface topographies are measured using a stylus instrument and atomic force microscopy, and the surface roughness power spectra are calculated. The rubber viscoelastic modulus mastercurves are obtained from dynamic mechanical analysis measurements and the large-strain effective modulus is obtained from strain sweep data. The rubber friction is measured at different temperatures and sliding velocities, and is compared to the calculated data obtained using the Persson contact mechanics theory. We conclude that in addition to the viscoelastic deformations of the rubber surface by the road asperities, there is an important contribution to the rubber friction from shear processes in the area of contact. The analysis shows that the latter contribution may arise from rubber molecules (or patches of rubber) undergoing bonding-stretching-debonding cycles as discussed in a classic paper by Schallamach.

Research on the fluorination reaction of UO 2 in CF 4 /O 2 /N 2 r.f. plasma is carried out under 0.3 Torr total gas pressure. The reaction rates are investigated as functions of the CF 4 /O 2 /N 2 ratio, plasma power, substrate temperature, and exposure time to the plasma. It is found that there exists an optimum CF 4 /O 2 ratio of around four for the efficient etching, regardless of the r.f. power and substrate temperature. The reason that the etching reaction rate reaches the maximum at the optimum gas composition is explained by the optical emission spectroscopy (OES) results showing that fluorine atoms are produced most abundantly in the 80%CF 4 /20%O 2 discharge plasma. The highest etching reaction rate at 370 °C under 150 W exceeds 1000 mono-layers/min, which is equivalent to 0.4 μm/min. According to the mass spectrometric analysis, the major reaction product turns out to be uranium hexa-fluoride UF 6 . Based on the experimental findings, the dominant overall reaction of uranium dioxide in the plasma is determined as UO 2 +3/2 CF 4 +3/8 O 2 =UF 6 +3/2 (CO or CO 2 ). It is found that this reaction seems to follow a linear kinetics with the activation energy of 12.1 kJ/mol. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis confirms UO 2 F 2 formation on the surface during the reaction and the two step reaction paths: UO 2 →UO 2 F 2 →UF 6 . Experimental results in the CF 4 /O 2 /N 2 discharge plasma show that the reaction rate enhances with the addition of the third gas in the binary plasma. The ratio of the reaction rate in the ternary to that in the binary plasma saturates twice as much when the volumetric flow rate of the gas reaches 5% flow rate of CF 4 . It is also found that the reaction rates increase in a linear proportion to the applied plasma power in both the binary and ternary gas discharges and the proportionality in the ternary gas plasma is larger than that in the binary one.

The fruits ofSchisandra chinensis were extracted with supercritical carbon dioxide under various conditions of temperature (40–80 °C) and pressure (13.6–34.0 MPa) and each extract was analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography for the main bioactive lignans schisandrol A (1), schisandrol B (2), schisandrin A (3), schisandrin B (4), and schisandrin C (5). When the extraction time was sufficient (30 min/100 mg plant material) the temperature and pressure of the supercritical carbon dioxide had no distinct effect on the extraction yields of the targetted lignans. If, however, the extraction time was 6 min, increasing the pressure greatly enhanced the yields of the lignans. The extraction efficiency of supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) was compared with that of conventional extraction with organic solvent. The efficiency of extraction ofS. chinensis lignans by SFE was approximately 80% that by methanol extraction but was superior to that achievable by use of other solvents such as chloroform-methanol (2:1),n-hexane, and petroleum ether. The results obtained suggest that in terms of efficiency and selectivity SFE could be used as an alternative to conventional extraction with organic solvent.

This study describes the preparation of hydroxyapatite microspheres for local drugs delivery. The formation of the hydroxyapatite microspheres was initiated by enzymatic decomposition of urea and accomplished by emulsification process (water-in-oil). The microspheres obtained were sintered at 500°C. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) indicated that the microspheres have various porous with random size, which maximizes the surface area. Cytotoxicity was not observed after sintering. Osteoporosis drugs, alendronate and BMP-2, were loaded into HAp microspheres and the releases of both molecules showed sustained releasing profiles.

Ferroelectrics, which exhibit electric field dependent dielectric constant, have been of interest for possible applications on electrically controllable devices. Especially, dielectric constant of ferroelectrics could be adjusted in few microseconds to response on externally applied electric field, which made it possible ferroelectrics being used in microwave tunable devices. In this paper, Effect of BaSrTiO 2 /Li 2 CO 3 on low temperature sintering and BaSrTiO 2 /MgO on dielectric property of thick films has been investigated for variable capacitor on RF frequency band. The thick films were fabricated by the tape casting and then the structural and dielectric properties as a function of an addition composition of plastic-sizer ratio and sintering temperature were studied. For the thick film sintered at 1100°C, it was densified to 96 % of BaSrTiO 2 theoretical density by the addition of 3 and 10 w% BaSrTiO 2 /Li 2 CO 3 . Dielectric constant increased and tuning range increased with the increased of BaSrTiO 2 /Li 2 CO 3 content, which probably can be explained by the substitution of Ba 3+ , Li 1+ on BaTiO 3 lattice. The tunability and dielectric loss of the BaSrTiO 2 /Li 2 CO 3 thick film, sintered at 1150°C, were about 43 % and 0.234 at 10~15 MHz respectively. In case of BaSrTiO 2 /MgO, Dielectric constant decreased and tunability increased with the added of BaSrTiO 2 /MgO.

Five-year overall survival after radical nephrectomy in pT3N0M0 renal cell carcinoma is 35-50%. In light of immunotherapy, which has shown some activity in advanced diseases with increasing efficacy in limited metastatic invasion, we decided to explore the theoretical advantage of adjuvant immunotherapy in radically resected stage pT3N0M0 renal cell carcinoma. We studied several factors including tumor size, nuclear grade, mean nuclear area and expression of p53 protein to find out which factor is concerned with disease progression. A total of 10 patients with pT3N0M0 RCC who received radical nephrectomy from February 1992 to April 1999 were randomly assigned to receive treatment with either interferon-alpha alone or interferon-alpha plus vinblastine. Eight patients with pT3N0M0 RCC who received only radical nephrectomy from January 1984 to February 1993 were analyzed and the results were compared with the first group. Six out of 10 (60%) patients in the adjuvant immunotherapy group are alive with no evidence of disease. Metastases were documented in 4 patients (40%) with a median interval to progression of 17.5 months. All of them died of tumor. In the surgery only group, 5 out of 8 patients (62.5%) are still alive with no evidence of disease. Two patients (25%) developed distant metastases and both of them died of tumor. The median progression interval was 11 months. There were no statistical differences in time to progression and survival rate between the two groups. In the univariate analysis using a log-rank test, the expression of p53 protein seemed to be associated with shorter survival (p = 0.0591). However, in the multivariate analysis using Cox's proportional hazard model, no parameter had significant independent prognostic value. We concluded that adjuvant immunotherapy did not improve the survival of patients with pT3N0M0 RCC. Furthermore, we failed to find significant prognostic factors in patients with pT3N0M0 RCC.

Two mRNA species with different sizes (3.8 kb and 2.8 kb) for the fyn proto-oncogene have been noticed during Northern hybridization analysis. However, the difference between the two mRNA species has not been resolved yet. By screening a phage expression library using the monoclonal antibody (mAb) B16-5 which recognizes Src homology 3 (SH3) domains of phospholipase C-gamma and Nck, we have cloned a cDNA encoding the larger species of fyn mRNA. The size of the clone was 3.5 kb and DNA sequencing analysis of the clone showed that it was fyn expressed mainly in T-cells, fyn (T), with an untranslated region 1 kb longer than the previously reported one. The 3'-end fragment of the clone hybridized only to the larger species (3.8 kb) of fyn mRNA but not to the smaller one (2.8 kb) on Northern blot analysis. Furthermore, an additional polyadenylation signal sequence was found at the end of this clone. These results indicate that the two mRNA species for fyn are produced by alternative polyadenylation.

We investigated resistance switching in top-electrode/NiO∕Pt structures where the top electrode was Au, Pt, Ti, or Al. For Pt∕NiO∕Pt and Au∕NiO∕Pt structures with ohmic contacts, the effective electric field inside the film was high enough to induce trapping or detrapping at defect states and thus resistance switching. For a Ti∕NiO∕Pt structure with well-defined Schottky contact at Ti∕NiO interface accompanied by an appreciable voltage drop, the effective electric field inside the NiO film was not enough to induce resistance switching. For an Al∕NiO∕Pt structure with a low Schottky barrier at the Al∕NiO interface, resistance switching could be induced at a higher voltage since the voltage drop at the Al∕NiO interface was not negligible but small.

Polycrystalline ZrO2 and yttria-stabilized ZrO2 thin films have been deposited on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates by pulsed-laser-deposition methods. Pt/ZrO2/Pt and Pt/YSZ/Pt capacitor structures show giant conductivity switching behaviors which can be utilized for nonvolatile memory devices. Maximum on/off ratio of 10 and good endurance even after 10 times conductivity switching are observed in a typical Pt/ZrO2/Pt whose ZrO2 film has been deposited at 100 ◦C and at an oxygen pressure of 50 mTorr. The Pt/ZrO2/Pt structure exhibits two ohmic behaviors in the low-voltage region (V < 1.4 V), depending on the value of previously applied high voltage, and Schottky-type conduction in the high-voltage region (1.4 V < V < 8.9 V). It seems that conductivity switching behaviors in our Pt/ZrO2/Pt structure result from changes in both the Schottky barrier and the bulk conductivity controlled by applied voltages. A Pt/YSZ/Pt capacitor structure has more stable reset voltage and current state than a Pt/ZrO2/Pt capacitor structure. Moreover, a Pt/YSZ/Pt capacitor structure shows higher conductivity than a Pt/ZrO2/Pt capacitor structure, which may result from substitution of Y ions for Zr ions.