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We discovered that Ag nanowires (AgNWs) on an Au electrode exhibited an anomalous deformation behavior despite a low-temperature environment of 65 °C. Most AgNWs on the Au electrode were deformed after heating. In contrast, AgNWs on the Cr and Ag electrodes exhibited a few changes and maintained their initial shape. The deformation behavior of AgNWs on metal electrodes has not yet been reported and is currently difficult to explain using known processes such as diffusion and alloying. Nonetheless, they evidently depend on the electrode material. The findings of this study are crucial for the design of AgNW-based electronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Radiological technologists serve as risk communicators who aim to lessen patients' anxiety about radiation exposure, in addition to performing radiological examinations. OBJECTIVE: We conducted a fact-finding survey on knowledge and awareness of radiation disasters among the radiological technologists to reveal their literacy and competencies regarding radiation disasters. METHODS: A paper questionnaire was distributed to 1,835 radiological technologists at 166 National Hospital Organization facilities in Japan. The 28-item questionnaire covered knowledge and awareness of radiation protection and radiation disasters. Radiological technologists were divided into 2 groups by regionality: areas where a nuclear power station was present/nearby (NPS areas) and non-NPS areas. RESULTS: Completed questionnaires were returned from 148 facilities with a facility response rate of 89.2% and from 1,391 radiological technologists with a response rate of 75.8%. There were 1,290 valid responses with a valid response rate of 70.3%. The correct answer rate for knowledge of radiation protection and radiation disasters was high in the 24 NPS areas. There were no differences in awareness of radiation disasters between NPS and non-NPS areas. CONCLUSIONS: Establishing a nationwide, region-independent training system can be expected to improve literacy regarding radiation disasters among radiological technologists. Willingness to assist during disasters was high among radiological technologists irrespective of area, indicating that the competencies of radiological technologists represent a competency model for radiation disaster assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surgeon experience certainly improves their technical efficiency although it also causes physiological changes with aging. The authors hypothesized that surgeons' technical efficiency improves with increasing experience up to a point where it then decreases, which is a concave relationship. The authors collected data from all the surgical procedures performed at University Hospital from April through September in 2013–19. The dependent variable was defined as surgeons' technical efficiency scores that were calculated using output-oriented Charnes–Cooper–Rhodes model of data envelopment analysis. Inputs were defined as (1) the number of assistants and (2) the duration of surgical operation. The output was defined as the surgical fee for each surgery. Surgeon experience was defined as the number of years since medical school graduation. Five control variables were selected: surgical volume, gender, academic rank, surgical specialty, and the year of surgery. Multiple regression analysis using pooled and random-effects Tobit models was performed for our panel data. Totally 20,375 surgical procedures performed by 264 surgeons in 42 months were analyzed. The coefficients of experience and the square of experience were not significantly different from zero. The other coefficients were also insignificant. Surgeons' technical efficiency does not have a concave relationship with experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigated the effects of text modification and task on incidental learning of foreign-language vocabulary by reading. The study focuses on how different cue types and a task would affect processing of input, initial learning, and retention of the meaning of target words. Results indicate that single and multiple-choice marginal gloss conditions performed significantly better than no cue and appositive conditions. (49 references) (Author/CK)

Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) are found in patients with various diseases, including cardiovascular diseases. We previously reported that copper-oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) promotes NET formation of neutrophils, and that the resulting NETs increase the inflammatory responses of endothelial cells. In this study, we investigated the effects of high-density lipoproteins (HDL) on NET formation. HL-60-derived neutrophils were treated with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) and further incubated with oxLDL and various concentrations of HDL for 2 h. NET formation was evaluated by quantifying extracellular DNA and myeloperoxidase. We found that the addition of native HDL partially decreased NET formation of neutrophils induced by oxLDL. This effect of HDL was lost when HDL was oxidized. We showed that oxidized phosphatidylcholines and lysophosphatidylcholine, which are generated in oxLDL, promoted NET formation of PMA-primed neutrophils, and NET formation by these products was completely blocked by native HDL. Furthermore, we found that an electronegative subfraction of LDL, LDL(–), which is separated from human plasma and is thought to be an in vivo oxLDL, was capable of promoting NET formation. These results suggest that plasma lipoproteins and their oxidative modifications play multiple roles in promoting NET formation, and that HDL acts as a suppressor of this response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the peripheral blood is associated with short survival, making the detection of CTCs clinically useful as a prognostic factor of disease outcome and/or a surrogate marker of treatment response. Recent technical advances in immunocytometric analysis and quantitative real-time PCR have made it possible to detect a few CTCs in the blood; however, there is no sensitive assay to specifically detect viable CTCs. Here, we report what we believe to be a new approach to visually detect live human CTCs among millions of peripheral blood leukocytes, using a telomerase-specific replication-selective adenovirus expressing GFP. First, we constructed a GFP-expressing attenuated adenovirus, in which the telomerase promoter regulates viral replication (OBP-401; TelomeScan). We then used OBP-401 to establish a simple ex vivo method that was able to detect viable human CTCs in the peripheral blood. The detection method involved a 3-step procedure, including the lysis of rbc, the subsequent addition of OBP-401 to the cell pellets, and an automated scan using fluorescence microscopy. OBP-401 infection increased the signal-to-background ratio as a tumor-specific probe, because the fluorescent signal was amplified only in viable, infected human tumor cells, by viral replication. This GFP-expressing virus-based method is remarkably simple and allows precise enumeration of CTCs., Introduction Determination of the extent of the disease is the most important factor in predicting the clinical outcome in cancer patients. Primary cancers have been known to shed tumor cells [...]

Flexible devices have been studied to realize IoT or novel wearable devices. The data that flexible devices deal with can include personal information when application areas further expand. A security system for flexible devices becomes more important in this case. In this study, we investigate the thermal stability of an organic flexible security system. The security system utilizes fabrication variation of a chip, and it is called a physically unclonable function (PUF). As a result, the bit error rate of the organic PUF is 1.8% and the index of ID uniqueness (i.e., randomness) has an almost theoretical value of 0.48. The generated ID remains even after annealing at 100 °C for 97 h by using CYTOP encapsulation. X-ray diffraction measurement implies that degradation of PUF characteristics partially derives from structure changes of the organic n-type semiconductor thin film after annealing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We suggested a printable physically unclonable function (PUF) with a simple circuit structure, to provide a low-cost PUF for improvement in the security level of electronic devices. An element of our contact-type printable PUF was constructed of a conductive filler layer and a pair of electrodes formed by printing. The contact-type printable PUF was based on an open- or short-circuit information of elements induced by a percolation conduction phenomenon of the conductive filler layer. An average conduction probability of the elements could be controlled by adjusting the manufacturing conditions, but an actual appearance pattern of the conduction elements became completely random by the influence of the uncontrollable printing variations. We fabricated a thousand elements for each printing condition to evaluate the PUF performance statistically and obtained a random conduction pattern with a conduction probability of 48.3%. Therefore, our contact-type printable PUF had enough potential to be used as a PUF security system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lipid droplets (LDs) are intracellular organelles that are ubiquitous in many types of cells. The LD core consists of triacylglycerols (TGs) surrounded by a phospholipid monolayer and surface proteins such as perilipin 2 (PLIN2). Although TGs accumulate in the phospholipid bilayer of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and subsequently nascent LDs buds from ER, the mechanism by which LD proteins are transported to LD particles is not fully understood. Sar1 is a GTPase known as a regulator of coat protein complex Ⅱ (COPⅡ) vesicle budding, and its role in LD formation was investigated in this study. HuH7 human hepatoma cells were infected with adenoviral particles containing genes coding GFP fused with wild-type Sar1 (Sar1 WT) or a GTPase mutant form (Sar1 H79G). When HuH7 cells were treated with oleic acid, Sar1 WT formed a ring-like structure around the LDs. The transient expression of Sar1 did not significantly alter the levels of TG and PLIN2 in the cells. However, the localization of PLIN2 to the LDs decreased in the cells expressing Sar1 H79G. Furthermore, the effects of Sar1 on PLIN2 localization to the LDs were verified by the suppression of endogenous Sar1 using the short hairpin RNA technique. In conclusion, it was found that Sar1 has some roles in the intracellular distribution of PLIN2 to LDs in liver cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently available methods for detection of tumors in vivo such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging are not specific for tumors. Here we describe a new approach for visualizing tumors whose fluorescence can be detected using telomerase-specific replication-competent adenovirus expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) (OBP-401). OBP-401 contains the replication cassette, in which the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) promoter drives expression of E1 genes, and the GFP gene for monitoring viral replication. When OBP-401 was intratumorally injected into HT29 tumors orthotopically implanted into the rectum in BALB/c nu/nu mice, para-aortic lymph node metastasis could be visualized at laparotomy under a three-chip color cooled charged-coupled device camera. Our results indicate that OBP-401 causes viral spread into the regional lymphatic area and selectively replicates in neoplastic lesions, resulting in GFP expression in metastatic lymph nodes. This technology is adaptable to detect lymph node metastasis in vivo as a preclinical model of surgical navigation., Author(s): Hiroyuki Kishimoto [1, 2]; Toru Kojima [1, 2]; Yuichi Watanabe [1, 3]; Shunsuke Kagawa [1, 2]; Toshiya Fujiwara [1, 2]; Futoshi Uno [1, 2]; Fuminori Teraishi [1, 2]; Satoru [...]

Optical materials for vacuum ultraviolet optics have attracted strong research interest as ArF excimer laser lithography of semiconductors has entered the practical application phase since 1996. A study was conducted to investigate ArF excimer-laser solarization in P-free and doped AlF3-YF3-RF2, R = alkaline earth metal, glasses by optical absorption and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopies. Results are discussed.

The authors had previously demonstrated that the Japanese surgical fee schedule had been unequal among surgical specialties in spite of its biannual revisions. This study examined how the degree of inequality of the fee schedule changed by estimating Gini coefficients for efficiency scores computed from data envelopment analysis. All the surgeries at Teikyo University Hospital in 2013 to 2018 were candidates used for the analysis of efficiency and equality of fee schedule. Inputs were defined as (1) the number of assistants, and (2) the duration of operation. An output was defined as the surgical fee. Each surgeon's efficiency score was calculated using data envelopment analysis. Using the medians of efficiency scores in each surgical specialty, the authors inferred Gini coefficients and their standard errors in each year and in each surgical fee schedule. The authors analyzed 16 307 surgical procedures during the study period of 2013 to 2018. There was no statistically significant difference in the Gini coefficients between the years and between the surgical fee schedules (P >.05). It was demonstrated that the degree of inequality of the Japanese surgical fee schedule remained constant from 2013 through 2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We developed a method of measuring microscopic ζ potential (ZP) from force vs distance (FD) curves observed by atomic force microscope (AFM). ZP in microscopic regions on wafer surfaces may be one of the most important design guides of chemical mechanical polishing slurries applicable to ultrafine patterned wafers, while ZP is generally observed as an average information for a wide area. Our method is based on the linear correlation between jump-in loads in FD curves observed by the AFM for the blanket wafers (SiO2, SiN and poly-Si) in water systems and ZP of each wafer surface measured by the flow potential method. In the applications of our AFM-based measurement method, material-dependency of ZP on the SiO2/SiN patterned wafer surface and an additive material in a slurry (anionic polymer) adsorbing selectively on the SiN surface of the SiO2/SiN patterned wafer were observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is difficult for university hospitals to recruit and retain technically efficient surgeons because their missions include teaching and research as well as clinical services. The authors hypothesized that technically efficient surgeons do not continue to provide active clinical services in a university hospital. The authors collected data from all the surgical procedures performed at Teikyo University Hospital from April 1 through September 30 in 2013–2018. The dependent variable was defined as a length of each surgeon's active clinical services measured by month. Data envelopment analysis was employed to calculate each surgeon's technical efficiency score. Five control variables were selected; experience, medical school, surgical volume, gender, and academic ranks. Multiple regression analysis was performed. Efficiency scores had significantly negative association with length of active clinical services. Experience and surgical volume had significantly positive association with length of active clinical services. The other coefficients of control variables were insignificant. Technically efficient surgeons provide shorter active clinical services in a university hospital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]