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Background The existing endoscopic scores for Ulcerative Colitis (UC) such as the Mayo Endoscopic Subscore (MES) and the Ulcerative Colitis Endoscopic Index of Severity (UCEIS) are objectively categorize the severity of the disease based on presence or absence of endoscopic findings. Therefore, they may not reflect the range of clinical severity within each category. But, Inflammatory bowel disease expert endoscopists do not only categorize the severity, but rather diagnose the overall impression of degree of inflammation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop an AI that can accurately represent the complexed assessment of endoscopic severity of UC by expert endoscopists, similarly to Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). Methods To enable the AI to perform continuous evaluations of inflammation in line with the strategy used by IBD expert endoscopists, we did not utilize scores determined from images using MES or UCEIS for physician data. Rather, we incorporated data for the relationships identified by IBD expert endoscopists who compared the severity of paired images. This study was conducted using a method that incorporates data on relationships identified by comparing the severity of paired images created from 59595 endoscopic images by an IBD expert endoscopist into a Ranking- Convolutional Neural Network, and then the severity was then expressed on a scale called UC Endoscopic Gradation Scale (UCEGS) rather than a score. Using 4,000 images for which the MES had been assessed beforehand by an IBD expert endoscopist, correlation coefficients were calculated to ensure that there were no inconsistencies in assessments of severity made using results of this novel AI diagnosed UCEGS and the current MES score. The correlation coefficients of the means of the UCEGS results for the 50 test images evaluated by the five IBD expert endoscopists and the novel AI were also calculated. Results Spearman's correlation coefficient between MES and AI-diagnosed UCEGS was approximately 0.89, indicating a strong positive correlation for the order of severity between the AI-diagnosed UCEGS and MES. Correlation coefficient between IBD expert endoscopists and the AI of the evaluation results were all higher than 0.95 (P Conclusion In this study, we developed a novel AI that does not rely on conventional scoring methods but instead aims to leverage the intelligence of IBD expert endoscopists when evaluating the disease status of UC. This AI quantifies inflammation as a gradient, allowing for an automated visualization of the expert endoscopist's assessment of mucosal inflammation.

The chemical shifts of the carbon K-edge during the ring-opening dynamics of 1,3-cyclohexadiene observed by femtosecond transient soft X-ray absorption confirm that the stereochemistry of the ring-opening reaction follows the Woodward-Hoffmann rule.

The present study aimed at establishing a new cryopreservation method for mouse pancreatic islets by vitrification using hollow fibers as a container. A unique feature of the hollow fiber vitrification (HFV) method is that this method achieves stable vitrification using a minimum volume of cryoprotectant (CPA) solution, thereby ensuring high viability of the islets. The cytotoxicity, optimum composition, and concentration of the CPAs for vitrifying islets were examined. The viability, functional-integrity of vitrified islets were evaluated in comparison with those vitrified by conventional methods. Insulin secretion was measured in vitro by a static incubation assay and the metabolic functions was tested after transplantation into Streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice. The combination of 15% dimethyl sulfoxide+15% ethylene glycol resulted in the best CPA solution for the HFV of islets. HFV showed the highest viability in comparison to 2 vitrification methods, open pulled straws and vitrification with EDT324 solution. The vitrified islets stably expressed β-cells markers NeuroD, Pancreatic and duodenal homeobox-1, and MafA. Transplantation of the vitrified islets achieved euglycemia of the host diabetic mice and response to an intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test to a similar extent as non-vitrified transplanted islets. The HFV method allows for efficient long-term cryopreservation of islets.

The positional information has an important role in our lifestyle. People need to get positional information by GNSS. The satellite positioning must receive a signal from four or more satellites, however, most of Japanese country is covered with mountain and urban area has a lot of tall buildings. Then Japanese government launched QZS (Quasi Zenith Satellite) which is the first satellite of QZSS (Quasi Zenith Satellite System) in 2010. QZSS including QZS can improve positioning accuracy and reliability. QZS has 6 signals by using four kinds of frequency. These signals are the same frequency of GPS and GLONASS and so on. This paper was reported about the comparison of the positioning between GPS and QZSS.

Synopsis We developed a carrier-envelope phase-stable, KTA parametric amplifier delivering 17-W mid-IR pulses (signal: 1.4 micron, idler: 3.8 micron) at a 100-kHz rep. rate. The key aspect is stable generation of supercontinuum seed pulses with 1.4-ps pulses, which are the longest for supercontinuum generation on its longer wavelength side. This technology offers a robust architecture with characteristics of stable phases, simple dispersion management, wavelength tunability for 1.3-4.5 micron, and this high photon flux opens novel statistics-driven spectroscopy for rare events in strong field physics.

We report on the generation of 260-mJ pulses at 2 µm wavelength from a Ho:YLF MOPA system for pumping a millijoule-class 7-µm OPCPA.

The aim of this work is to develop and adapt a formalism to determine absorbed dose to water from graphite calorimetry measurements in carbon-ion beams. Fluence correction factors, [Formula: see text], needed when using a graphite calorimeter to derive dose to water, were determined in a clinical high-energy carbon-ion beam. Measurements were performed in a 290 MeV/n carbon-ion beam with a field size of 11 × 11 cm

The development and regeneration of the pancreas is of considerable interest because of the role of these processes in pancreatic diseases, such as diabetes. Here, we sought to develop a large animal model in which the pancreatic cell lineage could be tracked. The pancreatic and duodenal homeobox-1 (Pdx1) gene promoter was conjugated to Venus, a green fluorescent protein, and introduced into 370 in vitro-matured porcine oocytes by intracytoplasmic sperm injection-mediated gene transfer. These oocytes were transferred into four recipient gilts, all of which became pregnant. Three gilts were sacrificed at 47–65 days of gestation, and the fourth was allowed to farrow. Seven of 16 fetuses obtained were transgenic (Tg) and exhibited pancreas-specific green fluorescence. The fourth recipient gilt produced a litter of six piglets, two of which were Tg. The founder Tg offspring matured normally and produced healthy first-generation (G1) progeny. A postweaning autopsy of four 27-day-old G1 Tg piglets confirmed the pancreas-specific Venus expression. Immunostaining of the pancreatic tissue indicated the transgene was expressed in β-cells. Pancreatic islets from Tg pigs were transplanted under the renal capsules of NOD/SCID mice and expressed fluorescence up to one month after transplantation. Tg G1 pigs developed normally and had blood glucose levels within the normal range. Insulin levels before and after sexual maturity were within normal ranges, as were other blood biochemistry parameters, indicating that pancreatic function was normal. We conclude that Pdx1-Venus Tg pigs represent a large animal model suitable for research on pancreatic development/regeneration and diabetes.

We conducted an experiment on the fabrication of fluidic devices for producing fine droplets. In our proposed method, multiple channels were fabricated by using a focused ion beam (FIB) system. The minimum feature top width was found to be approximately 56 nm. When both the target width and depth of one channel were set to 500 nm, the resultant top width was 750–780 nm, the bottom width was 250–320 nm, and the depth was 560 nm, almost achieving the target size for the channel depth.

金沢大学理工研究域数物科学系, The crystal structure of quartz (SiO2) was analyzed by neutron powder diffraction at several temperatures in the range of 10–250 K. The temperature dependence of the structure parameters was consistent with our previous results obtained using single-crystal X-ray diffraction above room temperature. Atomic displacements are order parameters for displacive structural phase transitions. The temperature evolution of Si atomic displacement in quartz was analyzed by studying the quantum expansion of the Landau potential. The expansion was found to accurately describe the evolution of the atomic displacement over the entire temperature interval. To the best of our knowledge, such a verification of atomic displacement is the first of its kind. A proportional relationship between spontaneous strain and the square of the atomic displacement was observed over the entire temperature interval. The validity of the obtained characteristic temperature for the quantum effect is discussed and compared with the results of previous Raman-scattering studies.

Life science and biology have advanced with the progress of microscope technology. A strong desire of life scientists is to observe living cells with high spatial resolution. The development of soft x-ray microscopy using a special wavelength called the water window started in the 1970s in order to fulfill this desire. However, the photon fluxes realized so far are still insufficient for this application. Here, we review our work on a coherent water window x-ray generation based on high-order harmonics driven by an infrared pulse. Our proposed generation scheme, combining an infrared laser driver and a neutral gas medium, is efficient and scalable in output yields of the water window x-ray.

The features of relativistic carbon-ion beams are attractive from the viewpoint of radiotherapy. They exhibit not only a superior physical dose distribution but also an increase in biological efficiency with depth, because energy loss of the beams increases as they penetrate the body. This paper reviews clinical aspects of carbon-beam radiotherapy using the experience at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences. The paper also outlines the dosimetry related to carbon-beam radiotherapy, including absolute dosimetry of the carbon beam, neutron measurements and radiation protection measurements.

To evaluate the characteristics of commercial memory devices for space use, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched a Solid State Recorder (SSR) on the Mission Demonstration test Satellite-1 (MDS-1 or 'Tsubas') into geo-stationary transfer orbit (GTO) in February 2002. Passing through the radiation belt exposed the MDS-1 to severe radiation environment in every orbit. This flight experiment allowed the observation of Single-Event Upsets (SEU) and Total Ionizing Dose (TID) effect on a large number of stacked 64 Mbit Dynamic Random Access Memories (DRAM). As a result, the actual SEU rates could be calculated, and the capabilities of two types of on-the-fly Error Detection and Correction (EDAC) mechanisms were confirmed. This paper presents the results of the space experiment of SSR, focusing especially on SEU analysis

In the market, a film adapted to environmental and barrier problems is desired. The previous report discussed easy tear and gas barrier PA6 film. This report discusses the multilayer PA6 film having high barrier EVOH layer. A biaxially oriented PA6 film produced by double bubble tubular film process has high strength, but does not have enough gas barrier property compared with K-coated PA6. In the following a multilayer film with gas barrier layer is studied. A high gas barrier layer of EVOH is added to the center layer in the outer layers of PA6 films. The gas barrier ability increases with increasing the content of EVOH and decreasing ethylene content of EVOH, but at the same time the mechanical properties and processability get worse. From this point of view, it is found that the optimum content of EVOH is between 20% and 43%. In a biaxially oriented multilayer film composed of PA6 layers and EVOH one keeps high strength and high gas barrier. The material and production technology of a PA6 film can solve environmental and barrier problems.

In the market, a film which is adapted to environmental and barrier problems and easy tear property is desired. A previous report discussed easy tear PA6 film. This report discusses the film having not only easy tear, but also high barrier properties. A biaxially oriented PA6/MXD6 blend film produced by double bubble tubular film process does possess gas barrier. So a multilayer film having high gas barrier layer and keeping easy tear cut has been studied. High gas barrier layer of high content MXD 6 in the center layer is added to PA6/MXD6 blend film in the outer layers. When MXD6 blending ratio of PA6/MXD6 blending film layer is 30 %, the property of easy straight line cut is obtained. It is found that the plate-like cylinder structure was formed in the observation of TEM for PA6/MXD6 blend film. The multilayer biaxially oriented film composed of PA6/MXD6 blend layer and MXD6 high content layer keeps high strength, easy tear property and high gas barrier. Namely, the material and production technology of a PA6 film could solve environmental and barrier problems.

In the market, a film which adapted to environmental and barrier problems is desired. This report discusses the stretching stability and physical properties for biaxially oriented PA 6/ MXD 6 blending film produced by double bubble tubular film process. As MXD 6 blending ratio increased, the stretching stress decreased. Hydrogen bond is due to be suppressed by the steric hindrance of the MXD 6 resin. Blending film can be stretched stably and oxygen gas permeability is more excellent than PA 6. Further the film blended between 20 % and 40 % as MXD 6 blend ratio has the property of easy straight line cut. It is found that the plate-like cylinder structure was formed in the observation of TEM. However, thickness uniformity deteriorates when MXD 6 blending ratio exceeds 40 %. To improve the thickness uniformity, the influence of the kneading conditions was studied. When the melting point of MXD 6 decreased, the stretching stability deteriorated and mechanical properties drastically lowered. The excess reaction of the blending resins is not desirable. Stretchability, easy tear property and oxygen gas barrier property are maintained by following process conditions. In case of dry blending, MXD 6 30% is proper content. And in case of premixing, MXD 6 melting point keeps over 236°C. It was confirmed that there is the condition satisfying all properties. The blending film keeps the compatible performance of strength and easy tear property. Namely, the material and production technology of a film could solve environmental and barrier free problems.

This report is to discuss the bowing phenomenon and the sag elimination tension for biaxial oriented PA 6 film process, which consists of double bubble tubular film process and the thermosetting tentering. The bowing phenomenon does not occur in the heat set of the triple bubble tubular process. However, there is a serious problem of the bubble stability when the sufficient thermosetting by the tubular process is carried out, so the heat set by the tenter process is required. The bowing phenomenon arises when the annealing is carried out by the tenter method. The bowing distortion becomes large when the annealing temperature is high and film relaxation ratio is large. It is possible to reduce the bowing distortion when thermosetting is carried out in a two-step tenter process. The shrinkage stress of the stretched film was relaxed in the heat treatment during the second step whose temperature is higher than the first one. A two-step heat treatment was able to decrease the bowing distortion compared with the one-step heat treatment. When the bowing phenomenon occurred, shrinkage percentage in hot water changes along the cross-direction of a film. The humidity expansion coefficient in the film which increases as the increasing shrinkage percentage in hot water is related to the molecular orientation. The sag also increased with increasing the bowing distortion. The bowing distortion and the sag elimination of tension have proportional connection.

It is known that while the double bubble tubular film process gives better impact strength and more uniform shrinkage balance than the tenter process, yet it is relatively poor in film thickness uniformity. The film thickness uniformity of the PA 6 produced by the double bubble tubular film process was investigated. The optimum stretching stress during the double bubble tubular film process exists. The bubble breaks over stress 130 MPa and bubble is unstable below stress 60 MPa. In the optimum condition, which is process temperature 310 °C and stretching ratio 3.2, stretched film uniformity was twice worse than non-stretched film one. The thickness uniformity of the film stretched in the optimum condition was better than that of the film stretched at higher process temperature and at lower stretching ratio. In the observations of the bubble sample through the polarizing plates, deformation pattern showed the equality of deformation. Thickness uniformity of non-stretched film significantly affects the thickness uniformity of biaxially oriented film. Local stretching ratio, which varies along the film width, influences tensile modulus and tensile strength at break. In order to obtain the uniform physical properties of film, it is important to produce the film with uniform thickness. Film thickness uniformity can be improved when stretching stress is high and bubble stability is good. These factors are influenced by stretching temperature, stretching ratio and air velocity from air ring.

The analysis of scale-up rule for double bubble tubular film process of PA6 was investigated. The scale-up rule previously proposed for a blown film process by the authors was applied to a double bubble tubular film process with a small-scale plant for research (pilot plant) and a large-scale plant for commercial production (production plant). According to the scale-up rule based on the equivalent stretching stress between the pilot and production plants, the equivalence of stretching stability, birefringence pattern and deformation pattern were confirmed. It has been confirmed that the proposed scale-up rule is applicable to predict the physical properties such as film impact strength and the bubble stability for the large-scale tubular film process on the basis of the experimental results obtained from the pilot plant.

A simplified method for forming a palladium circuit pattern on polyimide resin substrate was proposed. The carboxyl group, as a cation exchange group, was formed on the polyimide resin surface by a potassium hydroxide treatment. Palladium(II) ion was then adsorbed onto the surface modified polyimide resin by ion exchange. Ultraviolet irradiation of this palladium(II) ion absorbed resin with sodium formate coated on its surface resulted in the formation of a palladium thin film. Irradiation through a metal-on-quartz mask onto the modified polyimide resin surface photoreduced the palladium ion into metallic palladium circuit patterns easily without using a plating resist.

In July 2000, a new automatic gauge control (AGC) system was successfully installed at the Kakogawa Works, Kobe Steel, Ltd., Hyogo, Japan. The new AGC system consists of two functions: multivariable AGC based on mass flow thickness; and roll eccentricity control. The multivariable AGC is designed using inverse linear quadratic theory, a type of optimal control theory, and controls both thickness and tension. Repetitive control theory is applied to roll eccentricity control as roll eccentricity is a periodic disturbance related to the rotational angle of the rolls. The new AGC system has contributed to improved thickness accuracy and stable rolling. In this paper, details of the new AGC system are described and the application results are shown.

The objective of the present study was to describe the characteristics of pediatric burns in order to prepare a program for the prevention of severe burn injuries in children. We conducted a retrospective study of burn victims aged 15 years or younger who were hospitalized in our Critical Care Medical Center between 1982 and 1997. There were 73 children with burn injuries hospitalized in our center during the study period. The greatest number were children 1 year old. The average % body surface area burned was 21.5±20.5%. The most important causes of pediatric burns were found to be hot bath water and other hot liquids. Hot bath scalds accounted for about half of the pediatric burns occurring in all age groups, and they were often extensive. Non-bath scalds accounted for about one-third of the pediatric burns and were most frequent in children 2 years and younger. All the injuries sustained at home occurred when a family member was in the house. Similar to many reports from overseas, non-bath scalds were one of the most common causes of burns in this study; however, hot bath scalds were the most important cause. These data are being used to develop a prevention program. We also consider it necessary to educate children and their family members about the dangers of burn injuries.

Rectoceleは,主に女性において直腸前壁の弛緩のために,便秘・排便困難・残便感などの排便障害を呈する疾患である.rectoceleには内痔核・裂肛等の肛門部病変を伴うことが多く(約65%),その処置も必要な場合があること,愁訴が排便に関するものであるため,経肛門的手術のほうが受け入れやすいなどの理由から,当院においては「経肛門的」手術を行っている.すなわち経肛門的に,rectoceleの存在範囲およびその周囲の直腸粘膜上皮を電気メスにて焼灼し,直腸粘膜下層・直腸固有筋層・rectoceleの両側に存在する肛門挙筋に対し,横方向の結節縫合を施行し直腸腟中隔を補強,ドレナージ創を作製するという術式である.1997年4月から1999年3月の間に72例のrectocele手術症例を経験し,有症状例60例は全例に症状の改善が得られた(excellent 39例(65%),good 18例(30%),fair 3例(5%),poor 0例(0%)).全治4週間程度であり,合併症は認めず.有効な手術方法であると考えられる.

We have studied the relationship between cell killing and the induction of residual chromatin breaks on various human cell lines and primary cultured cells obtained by biopsy from patients irradiated with either X-rays or heavy-ion beams to identify potential bio-marker of radiosensitivity for radiation-induced cell killing. The carbon-ion beams were accelerated with the Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba (HIMAC). Six primary cultures obtained by biopsy from 6 patients with carcinoma of the cervix were irradiated with two different mono-LET beams (LET = 13 keV/micrometer, 76 keV/micrometer) and 200kV X rays. Residual chromatin breaks were measured by counting the number of non-rejoining chromatin fragments detected by the premature chromosome condensation (PCC) technique after a 24 hour post-irradiation incubation period. The induction rate of residual chromatin breaks per cell per Gy was the highest for 76 keV/micrometer beams on all of the cells. Our results indicated that cell which was more sensitive to the cell killing was similarly more susceptible to induction of residual chromatin breaks. Furthermore there is a good correlation between these two end points in various cell lines and primary cultured cells. This suggests that the detection of residual chromatin breaks by the PCC technique may be useful as a predictive assay of tumor response to cancer radiotherapy.

We have shown a correlation between cell death and induction of non-rejoining chromatin breaks in two normal human cells and three human tumor cell lines irradiated by carbon-ion beams and X rays. Non-rejoining chromatin breaks were measured by counting the number of remaining chromatin fragments detected by the premature chromosome condensation (PCC) technique. Carbon-ion beams were accelerated by the Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba (HIMAC). The cells were irradiated by two different mono-LET beams (LET = 13 keV/micrometer and 77 keV/micrometer ) and 200 kV X rays. The RBE values of cell death for carbon-ion beams relative to X rays were 1.1 to 1.4 for 13 keV/micrometer beams and 2.5 to 2.9 for 77 keV/micrometer beams. The induction rate of non-rejoining PCC breaks per cell per Gy was found to be highest for the 77 keV/micrometer beams for all of the cell lines. The results found in this study show that there is a good correlation between cell death and induction of non-rejoining PCC breaks for these human cell lines.

A heavy-ion synchrotron facility, HIMAC (Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba), began operating in 1993 at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Japan. The primary purpose of HIMAC is to carry out a clinical studies of ‘cancer treatment using heavy ion beams’. Treatment employing carbon beams began in June, 1994, and about 150 patients had been treated by the end of July, 1996. The accelerator of HIMAC, which comprises linear accelerators as an injector and a synchrotron, can accelerate ion beams ranging from helium to argon with a maximum energy of 800 MeV/nucleon for ions with a charge-to-mass ratio of 1/2. The research activities at HIMAC are not limited to medical applications, but include a wide area of research: physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, etc.

Objective: Vitamin K is known to influence bone metabolism by facilitating the synthesis of osteocalcin (BGP). The bone mineral density decreases drastically after menopause. We investigated the relationship of bone mineral density, vitamin K levels and other biological parameters of bone metabolism in post-menopausal women. Methods: Serum levels of vitamin K, BGP and other markers of bone metabolism were measured in 71 post-menopausal women (19 with reduced bone mineral density and 52 with normal bone density), and 24 women with climacteric symptoms receiving hormone replacement therapy (HRT), (6 with reduced bone mineral density and 18 with normal density). Results: In the first group, women with reduced bone mineral density showed lower levels of vitamin K1 and K2 than those with normal bone mineral density. In the other group, the level of BGP decreased but levels of vitamin K showed no increase during HRT. Conclusion: The present findings suggested that vitamin K was related to post-menopausal bone mineral loss.

Interleukin-1 (IL-1) receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) levels in the cervical mucus of women in the ovulatory phase are significantly higher than those in the follicular phase. IL-1 titers of women in the ovulatory phase are also significantly higher than those in the follicular phase. A positive correlation between IL-1ra and IL-1 levels in the cervical mucus was observed. Immunohistochemistry using an anti-IL-1ra monoclonal antibody revealed positive staining in the epithelial cells of the endocervix. These results suggest that IL-1ra from cervical epithelial cells protects the reproductive system from the toxicity of IL-1 produced in the endocervix.

Background The development and validation of stem cell therapies using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can be optimized through translational research using pigs as large animal models, because pigs have the closest characteristics to humans among non-primate animals. As the recent investigations have been heading for establishment of the human iPS cells with naive type characteristics, it is an indispensable challenge to develop naive type porcine iPS cells. The pluripotency of the porcine iPS cells can be evaluated using their abilities to form chimeras. Here, we describe a simple aggregation method using parthenogenetic host embryos that offers a reliable and effective means of determining the chimera formation ability of pluripotent porcine cells. Methodology/Significant Principal Findings In this study, we show that a high yield of chimeric blastocysts can be achieved by aggregating the inner cell mass (ICM) from porcine blastocysts with parthenogenetic porcine embryos. ICMs cultured with morulae or 4–8 cell-stage parthenogenetic embryos derived from in vitro-matured (IVM) oocytes can aggregate to form chimeric blastocysts that can develop into chimeric fetuses after transfer. The rate of production of chimeric blastocysts after aggregation with host morulae (20/24, 83.3%) was similar to that after the injection of ICMs into morulae (24/29, 82.8%). We also found that 4–8 cell-stage embryos could be used; chimeric blastocysts were produced with a similar efficiency (17/26, 65.4%). After transfer into recipients, these blastocysts yielded chimeric fetuses at frequencies of 36.0% and 13.6%, respectively. Conclusion/Significance Our findings indicate that the aggregation method using parthenogenetic morulae or 4–8 cell-stage embryos offers a highly reproducible approach for producing chimeric fetuses from porcine pluripotent cells. This method provides a practical and highly accurate system for evaluating pluripotency of undifferentiated cells, such as iPS cells, based on their ability to form chimeras.

It has been assumed that the maturation of pre-CTL to virus-specific effector CTL is dependent upon IL-2-mediated T cell triggering through the IL-2R. In view of its similarity to IL-2 in its effects on immune cells, we sought to determine whether IL-15 can induce the expansion of AIDS virus-specific pre-CTL to mature CTL. PBL of SIV(mac)-infected rhesus monkeys or HIV-1-infected humans have previously been shown to expand to effector CTL when cultivated with a predicted CTL epitope peptide and rIL-2. We now demonstrate that rIL-15 facilitates this expansion of effector CTL. In fact, rIL-15-driven expansion of virus-specific CTL occurs in the presence of IL-2-neutralizing or anti-IL-2R Abs, indicating that this cellular maturation can occur in an IL-2-independent fashion. These studies suggest a mechanism by which CTL may be capable of expanding in vivo in the absence of IL-2 and functional CD4+ T lymphocytes.

A tanks-in-series model was applied for mathematical modeling of the steady-state performance of continuous cultures in an airlift bioreactor. In the present computational algorithm, non-linear algebraic equations for the material balances of micro-organism, substrate and dissolved oxygen around the hypothetical well-mixed stages with backflow in the riser and downcomer were solved simultaneously using the Newton-Raphson technique. The concentration profiles of micro-organism, substrate and dissolved oxygen in the airlift bioreactor for continuous cultures were obtained under the same specifications. The simulation results were discussed mainly from the viewpoint of mixing in the airlift bioreactor. The relationships between the micro-organism productivity and design parameters of the airlift bioreactor such as liquid recycle flow rate and downcomer configuration were examined. The effect of mixing on the washout was also discussed. Numerical examples indicate that the proposed simulation scheme is very flexible and useful for the design and operation studies of airlift bioreactors.

We investigated the LET dependence of cell death, mutation induction and chromatin break induction in human embryo (HE) cells irradiated by accelerated carbon-ion beams. The results showed that cell death, mutation induction and induction of non-rejoining chromatin breaks detected by the premature chromosome condensation (PCC) technique had the same LET dependence. Carbon ions of 110 to 124keV/micrometer were the most effective at all endpoints. However, the number of initially induced chromatin breaks was independent of LET. About 10 to 15 chromatin breaks per Gy per cell were induced in the LET range of 22 to 230 keV/micrometer. The deletion pattern of exons in the HPRT locus, analyzed by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), was LET-specific. Almost all of the mutants induced by 124 keV/micrometer beams showed deletion of the entire gene, while all mutants induced by 230keV/micrometer carbon-ion beams showed no deletion. These results suggest that the difference in the density distribution of carbon-ion track and secondary electron with various LET is responsible for the LET dependency of biological effects.

内痔核の好発部位とそれぞれの位置における痔核の特徴を明らかにする目的で, 内痔核の存在する位置, 痔核の幅, 奥行き, 移動度および痔核に付随する病変について, 低位腰椎麻酔下で検討した. 対象は痔核初回手術例137例であった. 内痔核は左側方・右後方・右前方の3群に分かれるものが多く, 左側方の痔核は2時から5時の範囲で幅が広く, 右後方の痔核は7時から9時, 右前方の痔核は11時で幅が狭いという特徴が認められた. 左側方の痔核は右側の痔核に比べ奥行きが浅い傾向にあった. 右後方の痔核は他の部位に比較し移動度のスコアーが有意に高く脱出しやすかった (p

In vitro matured (IVM) oocytes have been used to create genetically modified pigs for various biomedical purposes. However, porcine embryos derived from IVM oocytes are very cryosensitive. Developing improved cryopreservation methods would facilitate the production of genetically modified pigs and also accelerate the conservation of genetic resources. We recently developed a novel hollow fiber vitrification (HFV) method; the present study was initiated to determine whether this new method permits the cryopreservation of IVM oocyte-derived porcine embryos. Embryos were created from the in vitro fertilization of IVM oocytes with frozen-thawed sperm derived from a transgenic pig carrying a humanized Kusabira-Orange (huKO) gene. Morula-stage embryos were assigned to vitrification and nonvitrification groups to compare their in vitro and in vivo developmental abilities. Vitrified morulae developed to the blastocyst stage at a rate similar to that of nonvitrified embryos (66/85, 77.6% vs. 67/84, 79.8%). Eighty-eight blastocysts that developed from vitrified morulae were transferred into the uteri of three recipient gilts. All three became pregnant and produced a total of 17 piglets (19.3%). This piglet production was slightly lower, albeit not significantly, than that of the nonvitrification group (27/88, 30.7%). Approximately half of the piglets in the vitrification (10/17, 58.8%) and nonvitrification (15/27, 55.6%) groups were transgenic. There was no significant difference in the growth rates among the piglets in the two groups. These results indicate that the HFV method is an extremely effective method for preserving cryosensitive embryos such as porcine in vitro maturation/fertilization-derived morulae.

To compute dynamic characteristics of nonlinear viscoelastic springs with elastic structures having huge degree-of-freedom, Yamaguchi proposed a new fast numerical method using finite element method [1]-[2]. In this method, restoring forces of the springs are expressed using power series of their elongation. In the expression, nonlinear hysteresis damping is introduced. In this expression, nonlinear complex spring constants are introduced. Finite element for the nonlinear spring having complex coefficients is expressed and is connected to the elastic structures modeled by linear solid finite element. Further, to save computational time, the discrete equations in physical coordinate are transformed into the nonlinear ordinary coupled equations using normal coordinate corresponding to linear natural modes. In this report, the proposed method is applied to simulation for impact responses of a viscoelastic shock absorber with an elastic structure (an S-shaped structure) by colliding with a concentrated mass. The concentrated mass has initial velocities and collides with the shock absorber. Accelerations of the elastic structure and the concentrated mass are measured using Levitation Mass Method proposed by Fujii [3]. The calculated accelerations from the proposed FEM, corresponds to the experimental ones. Moreover, using this method, we also investigate dynamic errors of the S-shaped force transducer due to elastic mode in the S-shaped structure., {"references":["T. Yamaguchi, Y. Fujii, T. Fukushima, T. Kanai, K. Nagai and S.\nMaruyama, \"Dynamic responses for viscoelastic shock absorbers to\nprotect a finger under impact force,\" Applied Mechanics and Materials,\nvol.36, pp.287-292, Oct. 2010.","T. Yamaguchi, Y. Fujii, K. Nagai and S. Maruyama, \"FEA for vibrated\nstructures with non-linear concentrated spring having hysteresis,\"\nMechanical Systems and Signal Processing, vol.20, pp.1905-1922, Nov.\n2006.","Y. Fujii, \"Measurement of the electrical and mechanical responses of a\nforce transducer against impact forces,\" Review of Scientific Instruments,\nvol.77, pp. 1-5, Aug. 2006.","Y. Fujii and T. Yamaguchi, \"Method for evaluating material\nviscoelasticity,\" Review of Scientific Instruments, vol.75, no.1, pp.119-\n123, Jan. 2004.","Y. Fujii and T.Yamaguchi, \"Proposal for material viscoelasticity\nevaluation method under impact load,\" Journal of Material Science,\nvol.40, no.18, pp.4785-4790, 2005.","T. Yamaguchi and Y. Fujii, \"Dynamic analysis by FEM for a\nmeasurement system to observe viscoelasticity using levitation mass\nmethod,\" International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing and\nTechnology, vol.46, no.9-12, pp.885-891, 2010."]}