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We evaluated damage to crystalline silicon (c-Si) induced by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H). The damaged layer +-on the c-Si surface under the a-Si:H film was evaluated by lifetime measurements using the photoconductance method in conjunction with step etching. This damaged layer is approximately 2.8 nm and did not disappear by annealing at 200 °C for 30 min in the air atmosphere. The image from cross-sectional transmission electron microscope (TEM) observation also shows an area of contrast on the c-Si surface approximately 2.8 nm thick, which appears to be a damaged layer. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements revealed that this damage is a non-luminescent defect. We verified that the difference in H2 flow rate during the a-Si:H deposition has an effect on the depth of the damage penetration into the c-Si. We concluded that the H atom is the main cause of the damage introduced into c-Si during a-Si:H deposition by PECVD.

Background Balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA) improves hemodynamics, symptoms and exercise capacity in patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) who are ineligible for pulmonary endarterectomy (PEA). However, certain patients still have hypoxemia after BPA or PEA despite normalization of hemodynamics. In CTEPH, hypoxemia is related increased dead space ventilation caused by vascular obstruction. Purpose This study was aimed to clarify whether additional BPA can improve hypoxemia of CTEPH patients after normalization of hemodynamics. Methods A total of 335 patients who underwent initial series of BPA in our institute were followed up. Sixty-four patients with mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP) Results Thirty-three of 64 patients underwent additional BPA procedures. Patients' age was older in BPA group than those in non-BPA group (71.3±10.4 vs. 66.5±9.4 years old, p=0.02). mPAP and pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) was significantly higher in BPA group (mPAP: 23.9±3.2 vs. 20.7±3.8 mmHg, p=0.001, PVR: 4.2±1.2 vs. 3.5±1.4 wood unit, p=0.03, respectively). Among the 1.8±1.4 BPA procedures per person, total 6.6±3.8 segmental pulmonary arteries per person were treated. While no obvious improvements were observed in non-BPA group, PVR and SpO2 in BPA group were significantly improved (4.2±1.2 to 3.7±1.3 wood unit, p=0.002, 90.7±3.1% to 94.1±3.6%, p Conclusions Additional BPA procedure was associated with improvement of hypoxemia in CTEPH patients after normalization of hemodynamics. Treating as many lesions as possible in BPA might relieve the patients' residual dyspnea.

The ATP-binding cassette subfamily B member 1 (ABCB1) is an efflux transporter that excretes xenobiotics and waste matter. High expression of ABCB1 induced by forskolin (FSK) and rifampicin (RIF) in the bovine blastocysts reportedly improves the cellular quality. In the present study, interferon-α, similar to FSK and RIF, was highly potent in inducing the expression of ABCB1 in the bovine blastocysts but did not exhibit an additive effect with FSK and RIF. Bovine blastocysts stimulated by the combined treatment with FSK, RIF, and interferon-α to express high levels of ABCB1 displayed better freezing resistance as indicated by higher cell numbers in post thawing cultures. On transfer to recipients, such embryos established pregnancies with significantly higher frequencies in repeat breeder cows rather than normal ones.

Titanium–6 aluminum–4 vanadium is isothermally forged at 1,023–1,223 K (750°C–950°C) at 0.05, 0.1, and 1.0/s using a 1,500-ton forging press simulator. The temperature increase of a workpiece (100 mm in diameter, 50 mm in height) during forging is measured by inserting thermocouples into the workpiece, and this increase is predicted using finite element analysis (FEA). The physical properties necessary for the FEA are determined using the same material as the forged one in order to improve the prediction accuracy. The true stress–true strain curves and heat transfer coefficient between the workpiece and dies are inversely obtained. The temperature change predicted by FEA using those parameters and curves agreed well with the experimental results. In the FEA, the inelastic heat fraction, which is a conversion factor for plastic deformation energy to heat energy, did not depend on the strain rate, but it remained the same at strain rates of 0.05–1.0/s. This result suggests that the large heat capacity of the workpiece in this study suppressed the effect of heat transfer between the workpiece and dies/air on the temperature of the workpiece. It is also shown that the prediction accuracy of the workpiece’s temperature could be degraded unless the appropriate specific heat value is used, especially near the β transus temperature, which can be affected by the composition of light elements.

We have used the Bi(0 0 0 1)/Si(1 1 1) template to grow highly ordered C 60 epitaxial thin films and analyzed them using scanning tunneling microscopy and low-energy electron microscopy. The in situ low-energy electron microscope investigations show that the initial nucleation of the C 60 islands on the surface takes place at surface defects, such as domain boundaries and multiple steps. The in-plane lattice parameters of this C 60 film turns out to be the same as that of the bulk fcc(1 1 1) C 60 . The line-on-line epitaxial structure is realized in spite of a weak interaction between the C 60 molecules and Bi(0 0 0 1) surface, while scanning tunneling spectroscopy indicates that there is a negligible charge transfer between the molecules and the surface.

Thin film growth of 6,13-pentacenequinone (C 24 H 12 O 2 , PnQ) on Si(1 1 1)-7 × 7 at room temperature (RT) was studied by low-energy electron microscopy (LEEM) and ab initio density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Our experiments yielded direct microscopic observation of enantiomorphic evolution mechanism in the initial stage of the chiral-like growth of PnQ islands, under kinetic growth conditions. We observed that the faster growth direction aligns with the direction of easier molecule incorporation, or lowest kink formation energy, rather than along the lowest energy step. Real time observation of the growth and subsequent relaxation of island shape revealed that kinetically stiff direction differs from the thermodynamic one. This feature together with anisotropic mass incorporation determines the enantiomorphic evolution and rotational arrangement of crystallites during the growth of elongated organic molecules, like PnQ.

Growth of pentacene (Pn) thin films has been studied in situ by means of low-energy electron microscopy (LEEM) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). A very low nucleation density of Pn grains has been observed on Bi(0 0 0 1)/Si(1 1 1) template, resulting in formation of large, monolayer-high Pn grains with diameter exceeding several hundreds of micrometers. We determined that formation of self-organized, standing-up Pn epitaxial layers was stabilized by a weak interaction between the substrate and Pn molecules and by the presence of the commensurate structure between the oblique Pn lattice and trigonal substrate surface lattice. The ‘point-on-line’ commensurability has been found along a-axis of Pn and one of the primitive vectors of substrate surface lattice. Strong ‘point-on-line’ commensurability in Pn/Bi(0 0 0 1)/Si(1 1 1) system resulted in a bulk-like epitaxial thin film growth, starting from the first layer. The presence of twins, often having a mirror line parallel to the direction of the ‘point-on-line’ matching, has been also detected using an asymmetric dark-field imaging mode in LEEM experiments, which, we believe, is the first LEEM demonstration of molecular tilt imaging.

An isothiazolone biocide, 5-chloro-2-methyl-4-isothiazolin-3-one (CMI), was degraded in the presence of iron. According to the Fe-dependent degradation of CMI, stoichiometric production of chloride was observed. Copper and stainless steel did not enhance the physico-chemical degradation of CMI, whilst phosphate inhibited the Fe-dependent degradation. Neither aerobic nor anaerobic conditions influenced the Fe-dependent CMI degradation. Furthermore, FeO(OH)-powder and Fe3O4-powder did not lead to the physico-chemical degradation of CMI. Rapid disappearance of CMI was observed in an operating cooling water plant. CMI added to the cooling tower declined from 1.4 mg l−1 to

The characteristics and effects of an exchange-coupled CoZrNb/CoSm underlayer for perpendicular recording media are reviewed. A CoSm layer pins CoZrNb domains via exchange coupling resulting from large induced radial anisotropy of the CoSm layer in the disk medium as well as in the CoZrNb layer. The number of CoZrNb domain walls is considerably reduced by the CoSm pinning effect which is effective in both signal stabilization to stray fields and noise reduction. Furthermore, the CoZrNb/CoSm underlayers exhibit high-frequency responses of over 1 GHz in permeability, which also result from their large induced anisotropy. The CoZrNb/CoSm underlayer is expected to enable the practical realization of perpendicular recording in data storage applications requiring high densities and high-speed data rates.

Various methods used to assess the biodegradability of chemicals often employ activated sludge as an inoculum since chemicals that ultimately enter the environment are often discharged through wastewater. Differences in the structure and function of activated sludge microbial communities that may complicate interpretation of biodegradation tests could arise from differences in wastewater composition, wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) operation, or manipulations done after collection of the activated sludge. In this study, various methods were used to characterize the structure of microbial communities found in freshly collected activated sludge from WWTPs in Japan, Europe, and the United States, as well as sludge that had been continuously fed either sewage or a glucose-peptone mixture for several weeks after collection. Comparisons of biomass levels, whole-community substrate utilization (determined using Biolog GN and GP plates), and phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) profiles indicated there were both geographical and temporal differences among freshly collected activated sludge samples. Moreover, marked shifts in the structure of activated sludge microbial communities occurred upon continuous cultivation in the laboratory for 5 weeks using a glucose-peptone feed. These shifts were evident from whole-community substrate utilization and PLFA profiles as well as differences in the profiles of 16S rDNA genes from numerically dominant populations obtained by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and terminal restriction fragment analyses. Further studies are needed to better define the variability within and between activated sludge from wastewater treatment plants and laboratory reactors and to assess the impact of such differences on the outcome of biodegradability tests.

Behavior of nonylphenol polyethoxylates (NPnEOs, n; number of ethoxy units) in 40 full-scale sewage treatment plants (STPs) in Japan was studied. Primary effluent (PE), secondary effluent (SE) and final effluent (FE) samples were collected from the STPs, and NPnEOs, their metabolic intermediates and related halogenated derivatives were quantitatively analyzed. Parent NPnEOs (n=4–18) were detected at concentrations between 5.1 and 1035 μg/l with the average value of 296 μg/l in the PEs from all the STPs, indicating widespread pollution of NPnEOs in Japan. The analyses of SEs revealed that normal biological treatment can relatively efficiently remove NPnEOs, however, the biotransformation led to the formation of biologically-refractory metabolites like nonylphenol (NP), NPnEOs with shorter ethoxy chains (n=1–3; NP1-3EO) and nonylphenol carboxylic acids (NP1-3EC). Halogenated (chlorinated or brominated) NPnEOs and/or NPnECs (n=1–2), which are considered to be produced as by-products during the disinfection processes using chlorination, were also found in SEs and/or FEs from 25 STPs. The ecotoxicity assays showed that the metabolic intermediates of NPnEOs possess higher acute toxicity against Daphnia magna and estrogenic activity than the parent surfactant NPnEOs.

Bacteria that degrade didecyldimethylammonium chloride (DDAC) were isolated from activated sludge from a municipal sewage treatment plant by enrichment culture with DDAC as a sole carbon source. One of the isolates, Pseudomonas fluorescens TN4, degraded DDAC to produce decyldimethylamine and subsequently, dimethylamine, as the intermediates. The TN4 strain also assimilated the other quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs), alkyltrimethyl- and alkylbenzyldimethyl-ammonium salts, but not alkylpyridinium salts. TN4 was highly resistant to these QACs and degraded them by an N-dealkylation process. These data mean that there are some QAC-resistant and QAC-degrading bacteria such as TN4 in the environment.

We performed direct measurement of hydrogen content in diamond-like carbon (DLC) thin films using elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA) of hydrogen atoms forward-scattered by a 2 keV beam of helium ions. DLC films were prepared in an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system. Use of a low-energy beam in conjunction with a small incidence angle allowed measurements of hydrogen content in the surface region of films of various thickness (2.4, 5 and 100 nm). Analysis of resultant spectra indicates that a higher negative substrate bias voltage produces lower hydrogen content; these findings are consistent with those obtained on thick DLC films using high-energy (2–3 MeV) ERDA. Accordingly, this confirms the suitability of using the low-energy ERDA system described to measure hydrogen content in ultrathin (

The estrogenic activities of chemicals for dental and similar use were tested by a reporter gene assay (yeast two-hybrid system) and an estrogen/estrogen receptor (ER-α) competition binding assay (fluorescence polarization system). Among the 10 chemicals [bisphenol-A (BPA), bis-2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate (Bis-GMA), triethylene glycol dimethacrylate (TEGDMA), methyl methacrylate (MMA) and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), n-butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP), n-butyl phthalyl n-butyl glycolate (BPBG), di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), and di-2-ethylhexyl adipate (DOA)], which were diluted with DMSO to concentrations ranging from 5 × 10-7 to 5 × 10-3M, and 17β-estradiol (E2) as a positive control, BPA and BBP showed estrogenic activity in these two assays, while the remaining eight chemicals did not at the concentrations tested. Additional data, together with in vivo and epidemiological examinations, are required. Such investigations should also provide information on the validity of these methods for testing the estrogenic activity of chemicals.

Optical conductivity spectra [ σ ( ω ) ] have been measured for many heavy-fermion (HF) Ce and Yb compounds. A characteristic mid-infrared peak has been observed in σ ( ω ) of these compounds, and has been analyzed in terms of the conduction (c)-f electron hybridized bands. A universal scaling is found in terms of the observed peak energies for these HF compounds. This optical scaling is discussed in comparison with other universal relations found for HF compounds such as the Kadowaki–Woods relation.

The structure change of SrTiO 3 (111) polar surface was studied as a function of atmosphere. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and coaxitial impact-collision ion-scattering spectroscopy (CAICISS) were used to study the surface structure of the (111) polar surfaces of SrTiO 3 single crystals. From the result of AFM observation, the polar surfaces annealed in oxygen gas had a trench structure, and that annealed in argon gas formed large triangular terraces. The surface annealed in air, i.e. in intermediate oxygen partial pressure, consisted of complicated self-similar triangles with different sizes, forming a fractal shape called Sierpinski's gasket. The time of flight spectra of CAICISS suggested that a Ti 4+ plane was more stable than a SrO 3 4− plane on the substrate surface annealed in oxygen gas, and the Ti 4+ and SrO 3 4− planes almost equally existed on the substrate surface annealed in argon gas. Molecular dynamic calculations at constant temperature and pressure were applied for various SrTiO 3 (111) polar surfaces.

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a relatively new solid-state joining process primarily for aluminum alloys. Both FSW and friction stir processing (FSP), a new technique that employs FSW tooling, have been generating interest. FSP is being explored as a thermo-mechanical processing technique that transforms a heterogeneous microstructure into a more homogenous microstructure. However, very little information is available regarding the FSP characteristics of superplastic alloys. In this study, we discuss experiments of FSP on superplastic Zn-22Al alloy. Especially, the superplastic behavior of friction stir processed Zn-22Al alloy at 150°C–350°C and the effect of FSP on strength anisotropy have been researched. The results are discussed in terms of residual microstructure, mechanical properties, and superplastic properties.

Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans is a Gram-negative bacterium implicated in the pathology of localized juvenile periodontitis, a condition involving rapid destruction of alveolar bone. We have established that gentle extraction of this bacterium in saline releases a proteinaceous fraction (which we have termed surface-associated material [SAM] which has potent osteolytic activity in the murine calvarial bone resorption assay. Fractionation of the SAM has now revealed that activity is associated with a 62-kD protein. This bone-resorbing activity can be blocked by a monoclonal antibody (raised to the whole bacterium) that is claimed to recognize a protein homologous to the Escherichia coli molecular chaperone GroEL. Purification of this bone-resorbing protein to homogeneity has been achieved by a combination of anion exchange, gel filtration, and ATP-affinity chromatography and the NH2-terminal sequence shows > 95% homology to E. coli GroEL. This GroEL homologue is found in the SAM of A. actinomycetemcomitans but is not found in the osteolytically active SAM from other Gram-negative or Gram-positive bacteria. The GroEL protein from E. coli, but not from Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae, also showed activity in the bone resorption assay. We believe this to be the first observation that a molecular chaperone has the capacity to stimulate the breakdown of connective tissue.

腹膜偽粘液腫は虫垂や卵巣を原発としてみられるが結腸原発は稀である,患者は71歳,男性.平成2年7月から腹部膨満感が増強し,同年10月入院となった.入院時腹部は腹水貯留を認め,右下腹部に手拳大の腫瘤を触知した.またCEA,CA125の上昇を認めた,注腸検査にて上行結腸に巨大腫瘤陰影を認めた.腹部CT検査にて右横隔膜下に肝弯入像と腫瘤周囲,脾周囲,ダグラス窩に腹水のCT値に近い病変部を認め,上行結腸癌原発腹膜偽粘液腫と診断された.開腹所見にて,上行結腸に手拳大の腫瘤を認め,腹腔内全体に粘液腫瘤塊が認められた.組織学所見では,結腸漿膜面を越えて浸潤する粘液癌であった,術前腹部CT検査にて診断された稀な結腸原発腹膜偽粘液腫の1例を報告した.

In addition to biological and mechanical compatibilities for promising implant materials, a morphological compatibility is proposed by the authors. It has been reported by many investigators that implant surface with appropriate roughness and pore size exhibit better bone ingrowth activities. However, these parameters cannot characterize the complexity of surface textures. In the present study, dentulous and edentulous mandibular alveolar bones were utilized. Four segments from each mandible were subjected to the Fractal Dimension (DF) analysis. It was found that the dentulous mandible showed the DF of 1.81 +/- 0.03 while the edentulous mandible exhibited DF of 1.55 +/- 0.07, indicating that the former has more complex surface texture. It was also found that there could be a linear relationship between the surface roughness and the fractal dimension.

High‐intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment using ultrasound contrast microbubbles for enhancing the heating effect has been developed with the aim of realising a less invasive tumor therapy. The focused sound waves result in an increase in temperature and increased thermal absorption, which necroses tumor cells. In addition, microbubbles are used as contrast agents for ultrasound imaging, and, in a previous study, we used microbubbles to enhance the heating effect. However, when microbubbles exist in the ultrasound pathway, they disturb ultrasound propagation and distort the acoustic field. Distortion of the acoustic field leads to defocusing and causes unexpected damage to tissue in the body. The objective of the present study is to propose a method by which to destroy microbubbles in the ultrasound pathway and to focus the thermal energy only at the focal point. The proposed method consists of two steps. The first step is to use repetitive high‐intensity, short‐burst waves (20 waves) to destroy ...

Activins, members of a family of the transforming growth factor beta (TGF beta), are involved in the regulation of multiple biological events. We found a novel effect of activin A on hybridoma and myeloma cell lines. Activin A exhibited a cytotoxic effect on interleukin-6 (IL-6)-dependent B9 cells and induced a significant increase in the proportion of fragmented DNA. B9 cells exposed to activin A released high amounts of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and exhibited the typical ladder pattern of DNA fragmentation of apoptotic cells. IL-6 did not prevent apoptosis of B9 cells induced by activin A. The cytotoxicity of activin A to B9 cells was suppressed by follistatin. On the other hand, TGF beta showed no cytotoxic effect on B9 cells. These findings indicate that apoptosis induced by activin A could be one of the mechanisms to prevent uncontrolled cell growth.

A 39-year-old man with acute myeloid leukemia underwent completely matched related hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. On post-transplantation day 83 he was diagnosed as having upper gastrointestinal graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) by endoscopic examination and pathological examination of endoscopic biopsy specimens, and daily administration of 60 mg of water-soluble prednisolone and 50 mg of cyclosporine was started. After steroid therapy, the symptoms of upper gastrointestinal GVHD disappeared completely and endoscopic findings dramatically improved.

Takeshi T, Keisuke N, Takaaki I, Makoto Y, Tatsuji N. Involvement of adhesion molecule in in vitro plaque-like formation of macrophages stimulated with Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans lipopolysaccharide. J Periodont Res 2010; 45: 550–556. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons A/S Background and Objective: Inflammatory agents, such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS), in periodontal pockets may promote atherogenesis by activating leukocytes. In our previous study, we developed a microchannel chip to observe the cell adhesion process in a fluid system. The objective of this investigation was to examine the mechanism by which periodontopathic bacterial LPS enhances plaque-like formation on a microchannel chip. Material and Methods: To evaluate the effect of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans LPS on the expression of adhesion molecules, e.g. intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), lymphocyte function-associated antigen 1 (LFA-1) and L-selectin, on the surface of murine macrophage RAW264.7 cells, the expression of each adhesion molecule was examined by flow cytometry and western blot analysis. Moreover, a flow test on the microchannel chip involving anti-adhesion molecule antibodies was conducted to clarify which adhesion molecule is related to plaque-like formation of RAW264.7 cells. Results: The expressions of ICAM-1 and LFA-1 on the surface of RAW 264.7 cells increased following 12 h culture with LPS; L-selectin expression was unaffected. An increase in ICAM-1 expression was also confirmed by western blot analysis. The flow test revealed that anti-ICAM-1 antibody inhibited plaque-like formation of LPS-stimulated macrophages on the micropillars of the microchannel chip. Conclusion: These findings indicate that ICAM-1 plays an important role in plaque-like formation of LPS-stimulated macrophages. Our microchannel chip is a suitable tool for the investigation of etiological factors of atherosclerosis, including periodontitis, in vitro.

High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment employing ultrasound contrast microbubbles for enhancing the heating effect has been developed in order to achieve a less invasive tumor therapy. The focused sound waves result in an increase of temperature, and its thermal energy increases to necrotize tumor cells. Furthermore, microbubbles are used as contrast agents of ultrasound imaging, and our previous work utilized microbubbles for enhancing the heating effect. However, when microbubbles exist on the pathway of ultrasound, the bubbles disturb ultrasound propagation and distort the acoustic field. Distortion of acoustic field leads to defocus and damage unexpected tissue in the body. The objective of present work is to propose a method to destroy microbubbles on the ultrasound pathway and to focus the thermal energy only at the focal point. The proposed method consists of two steps. The first step is irradiating repetitive high intensity short burst waves (20 waves) for destroying the microbubbles on the pathway. In the second step, weak continuous waves are sent for heating the focal point. This method was successful for a gel that contains microbubbles with the void fraction of the order of 10− 4. The results indicate that the more microbubbles were destroyed with the increased in the non-exposure time and pulse number at the first step. For applying the method to a living tissue, the optimization of pulse number is difficult because the void fraction distribution within the tissue is unclear. To overcome this problem, we suggested an advanced method, which is irradiating high intensity burst waves and weak waves in turn. This method contributes to reduce the required surgical procedure, because the destruction of microbubbles and heating the focal point is possible without optimization of burst wave number.

Mechanical ductility property of copper deposits is one of the most important factors necessary to provide a reliable component for the flexible printed circuit boards. Copper deposits are usually fabricated by either an electroless technique or an electrode position process. Among many parameters controlling the deposits quality, it is believed that the current density, bath temperature, the film thickness, annealing temperature and time, and the presence of impurities exhibit particularly strong influences on the mechanical ductility property. In our preliminary studies, it was found that the ductility obtained by the mechanical bulge testing showed a three-stage characteristics in terms of a room temperature annealing; namely (i) initial low ductility regime (from the right-after-copper-deposition until 12 hours aged at room temperature), (ii) transitional rapid increasing ductility regime (from 12 hours to 24 hours), and (iii) the high ductility regime (after 24 hours). In this study, X-ray diffraction analyses of the diffracted line width, the microstrain from which the dislocation density was estimated, residual macrostress, and the scanning electron microscopic observations were conducted and results were correlated with the characteristic three-stage ductility change behavior described above. Results of this study indicate that grain size and residual stress changes are strongly associated with improvement in copper ductility during the room temperature annealing.

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a multifunctional cytokine whose role in osteoclastic bone resorption has not been clearly defined. Therefore, we have used giant cells, which express many features of osteoclasts, from giant cell tumors of bone as a model to examine the role that IL-6 may play in human osteoclastic bone resorption. We found that conditioned medium from 24-h cultures of highly purified giant cells (10(6)/ml) contained large amounts of IL-6 (37.9 +/- 8.8 ng/ml), similar to the amount of IL-6 produced by tumor stromal cells (29.8 +/- 11.5 ng/ml). Giant cells and stromal cells from giant cell tumors expressed IL-6 mRNA, as indicated by polymerase chain reaction analysis and in situ hybridization studies, and immunohistochemical techniques demonstrated that the giant cells expressed IL-6 receptors. The addition of a neutralizing antibody to IL-6 significantly decreased the area of dentine resorbed by purified giant cells in a dose-dependent manner, and the addition of IL-6 to cultures of purified giant cells pretreated with anti-IL-6 restored the resorbing capacity of the giant cells. These data suggest that IL-6 may act as both an autocrine and a paracrine factor for human osteoclasts and play an important role in the bone-resorbing capacity of these cells.

Serotype-specific polysaccharide antigens from Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans ATCC 29523 (serotype a) and NCTC 9710 (serotype c) were extracted from whole cells by autoclaving and purified by ion-exchange chromatography and gel filtration. Analysis of component sugars by gas-liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, high performance liquid chromatography, and NMR together with optical rotation data showed that the serotype a antigen was composed solely of 6-deoxy-D-talose, whereas the serotype c antigen consisted of 6-deoxy-L-talose. Structural analysis indicated that both of these antigens were composed of closely related repeating units, -3)-6-deoxy-alpha-D-Talp-(1-2)-6-deoxy-alpha-D-Talp-(1-(sero type a) and -3)-6-deoxy-alpha-L-Talp-(1-2)-6-deoxy-alpha-L-Talp-(1-(sero type c). 1H and 13C NMR analysis showed that both of these serotype antigens contained one acetyl group/2 sugar residues. These acetyl groups localized at the O-2 position of 3-linked 6-deoxy-D-talose (serotype a) or O-4 position of 3-linked 6-deoxy-L-talose residues (serotype c), respectively. These results coupled with our previous findings on the serotype b antigen (Amano, K., Nishihara, T., Shibuya, N., Noguchi, T., and Koga, T. (1989) Infect. Immun. 57, 2942-2946) showed that the serotype antigens from A. actinomycetemcomitans are a group of novel polysaccharides with structural features closely related biosynthetically.

Lipopolysaccharide (Y4 LPS) isolated from Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans strain Y4 induced bone resorption in BALB/c mouse calvaria organ culture. The calcium release from LPS-low responsive C3H/HeJ mouse calvaria by Y4 LPS was very low. Indomethacin almost completely inhibited prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) production by Y4 LPS-stimulated BALB/c mouse calvaria, but did not suppress interleukin-1 (IL-1) release from the calvaria, and partially suppressed the bone resorption. Dexamethasone strongly inhibited the PGE2 and IL-1 production by Y4 LPS-stimulated BALB/c mouse calvaria, as well as Y4 LPS-induced bone resorption. Dexamethasone inhibited expression of membrane IL-1 on osteoblastic cells stimulated with Y4 LPS, but indomethacin did not. Furthermore, anti-IL-1 serum partially suppressed the calcium release from Y4 LPS-stimulated BALB/c mouse calvaria. These results suggest that both PGE2 and IL-1 participate in Y4 LPS-induced bone resorption in vitro.

Thin film growth of 6, 13-pentacenequinone, (C24H12O2, PnQ), on Si (111)-7 × 7 at room temperature (RT) was studied by low-energy electron microscopy (LEEM) and ab initio density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Our experiments yielded direct microscopic observation of enantiomorphic evolution mechanism in the initial stage of the chiral-like growth of PnQ islands under kinetic growth conditions. We observed that the faster growth direction aligns with the direction of easier molecule incorporation, or lowest kink formation energy, rather than along the lowest energy step. Real time observation of the growth and subsequent relaxation of island shape revealed that kinetically stiff direction differs from the thermodynamic one. This feature together with anisotropic mass incorporation determines the enantiomorphic evolution and rotational arrangement of crystallites during the growth of elongated organic molecules, like PnQ.

Summary Three monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to lipopolysacchar ide of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans strain Y4 (serotype b) and eight MAbs to a serotype b-specific polysaccharide antigen of strain Y4 were obtained. Latex particles sensitized with an MAb to the Y4 lipopolysaccharide produced a positive agglutination with whole cells of all three serotypes of A. actinomycetemcomitans , but not with Haemophilus apbrophilus , Haemophilus parapbropbilus , Haemophilus in(luenzae , Porphyromonas (Bacteroides) gingiva/is , “Bacteroides” intermedius , Fusobacterium nucleatum and Escherichia coli . On the other hand, latex particles sensitized with an MAb to the serotype b-specific polysaccharide antigen agglutinated with whole cells of serotype b A. actinomycetemcomitans and P.gingivalis , but not with heated and trypsinized cells of P. gingivalis . The simple and rapid latex agglutination assay using MAbs may be useful for the identification of A. actinomycetemcomitans .

We previously reported that osteoclast-like cells were formed in cocultures of a mouse marrow-derived stromal cell line (ST2) with mouse spleen cells in the presence of 1 alpha, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 and dexamethasone. In this study, we developed a new coculture system to determine the origin of osteoclasts. When relatively small numbers of mononuclear cells (10(3)-10(5) cells per well) obtained from mouse bone marrow, spleen, thymus, or peripheral blood were cultured for 12 days on the ST2 cell layers, they formed colonies with a linear relationship between the number of colonies formed and the number of hemopoietic cells inoculated. Tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAPase)-positive mononuclear and multinucleated cells appeared in the colonies (TRAPase-positive colonies) in response to 1 alpha, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 and dexamethasone. When hemopoietic cells suspended in a collagen-gel solution were cultured on the ST2 cell layers to prevent their movement, TRAPase-positive colonies were similarly formed, indicating that each colony originated from a single cell. All of the colonies consisted of nonspecific esterase-positive cells. The monocyte-depleted population prepared from peripheral blood failed to form colonies, whereas the monocyte-enriched population produced a large number of TRAPase-positive colonies. In addition, alveolar macrophages formed TRAPase-positive colonies most efficiently on the ST2 cell layers in the presence of the two hormones. Salmon 125I-labeled calcitonin specifically bound to the TRAPase-positive cells. Resorption lacunae were formed on dentine slices on which cocultures were performed. When direct contact between the peripheral blood cells and the ST2 cells was inhibited by a collagen-gel sheet, no TRAPase-positive cells were formed. These results indicate that osteoclasts are also derived from the mature monocytes and macrophages when a suitable microenvironment is provided by bone marrow-derived stromal cells.

Two cDNA clones corresponding to human microsomal dipeptidase (MDP, formerly referred to as dehydropeptidase-I or renal dipeptidase (EC 3.4.13.11] were isolated from human placental and renal cDNA libraries employing rapid amplification of cDNA ends strategy. The complete amino acid sequence deduced from the cDNAs contains 411 residues, beginning with a signal peptide of 16 residues. A highly hydrophobic sequence of 16 amino acids is located at the carboxyl terminus, supporting the previous observation which suggested that mature MDP is anchored to the membrane by covalently attached phosphatidylinositol. MDP has four potential N-glycosylation sites and has no apparent sequence similarity to other metallopeptidases. Expression of immunologically cross-reactive and enzymatically active MDP was attained in COS cells transfected with the cDNA. DNA and RNA blot analyses indicated the existence of a single gene and a substantial amount of 1.8-kilobase mRNA in kidney.

Peanut fruits were grown in nutrient media with or without Ca and in a soil with two Ca levels, from the 20th day after penetration of the gynophore. Seed weight was smaller in the nutrient medium without Ca than in the nutrient medium with Ca, and it was also smaller in the soil with 4 meq of exchangeable Ca (L treatment) than in the soil with 10 meq of exchangeable Ca (H treatment). The fat body of seeds from the Ca deficient medium and the L treatment had a decreased phospholipid content and an increased simple lipid content. In the seed from the H treatment, phosphatidylcholine increased from the 30th to 60th day, while caldiolipin decreased. The amount of triglyceride in the simple lipid content of fat body was decreased by Ca deficiency in the nutrient medium, whereas that of diglyceride was increased, but these effects were not observed in the fat body of the seed from the L treatment. No effect of Ca deficiency was observed in the fatty acid composition of triglyceride.

A greenhouse experiment was conducted to study the uptake and translocation of N applied at different rates of15N fertilizer to the fruiting and rooting zones of peanut plants. Higher N level treatments in the fruiting zone resulted in higher N concentrations in the shell and gynophore with fruit and lower N concentration in the testa when compared with the results of lower level treatments in the fruiting zone. Regardless of N levels applied in both rooting and fruiting zones, about 60–65% of15N application to the rooting zone was absorbed through the root, of which 30–35% was found in the seed. With fertilizer application to the fruiting zone and regardless of levels applied to both zones, 35–40% of the15N supplied was absorbed through the shell, and 65% of this remained in the fruit parts while 35% of it was translocated to the vegetation and roots. The percentage of N in the vegetative and root parts, derived from the fertilizer-15N through the shell, was lower in the root and nodules than in the shoot and gynophore without fruit. The translocation of N, absorbed through the roots, to the fruit as well as the amount of symbiotically fixed N were decreased by additions of N to the fruiting zone.

We describe the development of an air-gap type film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) filter fabricated using a thin sacrificed layer on a flat substrate. In the development process we focused on reducing the cost of the wafer process. Results from both simulations and experiments demonstrate that a dome- shaped air gap was formed between the substrate surface and the bottom electrode and that an air-gap type FBAR structure was possible. Even if a thin sacrificed layer is used, the air gap can be formed on the flat substrate using stress control. Consequently, the Q-factor at resonance and anti-resonance and effective k2 were found to be 1500, 1100, and 7.2% in the 2-GHz range, respectively. The wideband code division multiple access (W- CDMA) band I duplexer was designed using the proposed air- gap type FBAR filters in a 3.0 times 2.5 times 0.7-mm ceramic package. The insertion losses were as small as 1.2 dB and 1.5 dB in the Tx and Rx bands respectively.

In order to study the regulation of adhesion-molecule expression by cytokines, we have investigated the effect of transforming growth factor-beta1. (TGF-beta1) on the expression of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) in human pancreatic cancer cell lines.By using three pancreatic cancer cell lines, SW1990, CAPAN-2 and PANC-1, the effect of TGF-beta1 on expression of ICAM-1, cancer cell immunogenicity and liver metastasis were investigated.Cell surface ICAM-1 expression by ELISA on three cell lines were all reduced significantly by following incubation with various concentrations of TGF-beta1 and down-regulation of ICAM-1 expression was also observed at the mRNA level. Corresponding to the down expression of ICAM-1, the adhesion of peripheral blood mononuclear lymphocytes (PBMLs) to cancer cells and cancer cell cytotoxicity during co-culture with PBMLs were remarkably decreased by treatment with TGF-beta1. Furthermore, enhanced liver metastatic potential by in vivo splenic injection was observed in CAPAN-2 cells pretreated with TGF-beta1.Since decreased expression of ICAM-1 has been known to contribute to cancer cell escape from immunologic recognition and cytotoxicity by effector cells, the present results indicate that unknown function of TGF-beta1 in the tumor progression and metastasis of pancreatic cancer.

La0.6Sr0.4MnO3 thin films were fabricated on SrTiO3 (001) substrates using pulsed laser deposition with observing persistent intensity oscillation of reflection high-energy electron diffraction. By atomic force microscopy, the surface of resulting films was confirmed to be extremely flat, showing atomically smooth terraces and 0.4 nm high steps corresponding to a unit cell height of perovskite. The surface terminating atomic layer was unambiguously assigned to the MnO2 layer by coaxial impact collision ion scattering spectroscopy. Crystal symmetry of the films is distorted into a tetragonal one due to the strain to fulfill perfect in-plane matching with the substrate even for films as thick as 100 nm. Even for films as thin as 4 nm (10 unit cells), ferromagnetic transition takes place to induce a metallic state and large negative magnetoresistance is observed as well.

Dynamical conductivity spectra s(w) have been measured for a diverse range of heavy-fermion (HF) Ce and Yb compounds. A characteristic excitation peak has been observed in the mid-infrared region of s(w) for all the compounds, and has been analyzed in terms of a simple model based on conduction (c)-f electron hybridized band. A universal scaling is found between the observed peak energies and the estimated c-f hybridization strengths of these HF compounds. This scaling demonstrates that the model of c-f hybridized band can generally and quantitatively describe the charge excitation spectra of a wide range of HF compounds., 5 pages, 1 table, 3 figures, to appear in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 76 (2007)

This paper describes the development of a miniaturized antenna duplexer for the W-CDMA application. As the required insertion loss in the W-CDMA system is severe even for the film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) technology, we propose a modified FBAR structure, which we called an AlN "just-etched" FBAR, to reduce acoustic losses. The characteristics of the proposed FBAR are verified by both simulation and experimental data and it is confirmed that the lateral-leakage of acoustic waves is successfully decreased. As results, the Q-factor at the anti-resonance and the effective k 2 are improved from 700 to 900, and 7.4% to 7.5%. The W- CDMA duplexer is designed using the proposed FBAR and integrated lumped elements for the compact and low-loss phase shifters. The insertion losses of the fabricated 3 x 3 mm 2 duplexers are as small as 1.5 dB and 1.6 dB in the Tx and the Rx band with a high isolation.

The effects of exposure time, annealing temperature and mechanical stress on the magnetic stability of CoSm/Cr thin films, as well as its noise characteristics, were studied. The coercivity (He) of the films decreases with time because the Sm is oxidized. This change is reduced by means of a protective over coat. With an annealing temperature increase, the Hc of Cr/CoSm/Cr film decreases. From Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) analysis, it has been shown that the proportion of the Co/sub 5/Sm phase increases after annealing at 250/spl deg/C. Also, the Hc of the films increases with increasing compressive strain. The value of the change is about 3 times the value reported for CoPt. A low noise level and a high S/N at 97 kfci is obtained by weak exchange coupling caused by the increase in Ar gas pressure during Cr sputtering.