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The study aimed to investigate the clinical implications and natural history of primary intraparenchymal lesions in patients with neurofibromatosis type 2. Radiological findings of 15 neurofibromatosis type 2 cases were retrospectively collected. Twenty-seven primary intraparenchymal lesions were observed in 7 out of 15 patients (47%). Cortical/subcortical T2 hyperintense lesions and enlarged Virchow–Robin spaces were the most common findings in five and four patients, respectively. During the follow-up period (median 84 months), one new primary intraparenchymal lesion was identified and increased lesions were observed in two cases on contrast-enhanced MRI. Surgical resection was performed in one case pathologically diagnosed with atypical meningioma. Twenty-five other lesions without contrast enhancement presented no apparent growth during follow-up. Although most primary intraparenchymal lesions are benign, a subset of cases would present newly developed or increased lesions on contrast-enhanced MRI. Careful monitoring is necessary for such cases, and pathological confirmation should be considered.

Aquaporin 4 (AQP4)-IgG-positive neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (AQP4-IgG+NMOSD) is an autoimmune astrocytopathic disease pathologically characterized by the massive destruction and regeneration of astrocytes with diverse types of tissue injury with or without complement deposition. However, it is unknown whether this diversity is derived from differences in pathological processes or temporal changes. Furthermore, unlike for the demyelinating lesions in multiple sclerosis, there has been no staging of astrocytopathy in AQP4-IgG+NMOSD based on astrocyte morphology. Therefore, we classified astrocytopathy of the disease by comparing the characteristic features, such as AQP4 loss, inflammatory cell infiltration, complement deposition and demyelination activity, with the clinical phase. We performed histopathological analyses in eight autopsied cases of AQP4-IgG+NMOSD. Cases comprised six females and two males, with a median age of 56.5 years (range, 46–71 years) and a median disease duration of 62.5 months (range, 0.6–252 months). Astrocytopathy in AQP4-IgG+NMOSD was classified into the following four stages defined by the astrocyte morphology and immunoreactivity for GFAP: (i) astrocyte lysis: extensive loss of astrocytes with fragmented and/or dust-like particles; (ii) progenitor recruitment: loss of astrocytes except small nucleated cells with GFAP-positive fibre-forming foot processes; (iii) protoplasmic gliosis: presence of star-shaped astrocytes with abundant GFAP-reactive cytoplasm; and (iv) fibrous gliosis: lesions composed of densely packed mature astrocytes. The astrocyte lysis and progenitor recruitment stages dominated in clinically acute cases (within 2 months after the last recurrence). Findings common to both stages were the loss of AQP4, a decreased number of oligodendrocytes, the selective loss of myelin-associated glycoprotein and active demyelination with phagocytic macrophages. The infiltration of polymorphonuclear cells and T cells (CD4-dominant) and the deposition of activated complement (C9neo), which reflects the membrane attack complex, a hallmark of acute NMOSD lesions, were selectively observed in the astrocyte lysis stage (98.4% in astrocyte lysis, 1.6% in progenitor recruitment, and 0% in protoplasmic gliosis and fibrous gliosis). Although most of the protoplasmic gliosis and fibrous gliosis lesions were accompanied by inactive demyelinated lesions with a low amount of inflammatory cell infiltration, the deposition of complement degradation product (C3d) was observed in all four stages, even in fibrous gliosis lesions, suggesting the past or chronic occurrence of complement activation, which is a useful finding to distinguish chronic lesions in NMOSD from those in multiple sclerosis. Our staging of astrocytopathy is expected to be useful for understanding the unique temporal pathology of AQP4-IgG+NMOSD.

Introduction Thyroid storm is a rare life-threating condition. We report a case of thyroid storm after radical nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma with inferior vena cava tumor thrombus. Case presentation A 76-year-old man with a left renal tumor and tumor thrombus extending into the inferior vena cava underwent left radical nephrectomy and thrombectomy. After the surgery, his postoperative course rapidly deteriorated, including central nervous system disturbance, fever, tachycardia, congestive heart failure, and hepatic manifestation. Thyroid function test revealed perioperative hyperthyroidism. Corticosteroids and inorganic iodide improved his condition, suggesting that he developed thyroid storm after surgery. He was discharged 5 months after surgery and has been free from disease recurrence for more than 2 years. Conclusion Thyroid storm after surgery is rare. However, this postoperative complication is important because it is fatal if not diagnosed and treated properly.

PZT (lead zirconate titanate)-glued bimorph deformable mirrors are widely used in hard x-ray regimes[1], however, they have not yet been used in soft X-ray regimes because they are less compatible for usage under high vacuum. Therefore, we have developed a glue-free bimorph deformable mirror, in which silver nanoparticles were employed to bond PZT actuators to mirror substrates[2]. In this study, we achieved a 2 nm figure error on an elliptical shape of a glue-free deformable mirror. We evaluated the figure change characteristics due to humidity and temperature increasing at the ultrafine figure error condition.

Objectives Although many studies have examined locomotive syndrome (LS) among elderly people, few studies have examined LS in young‐ and middle‐aged adults. This study aimed to provide basic data on the epidemiological characteristics of LS, including in young‐ and middle‐aged adults. Method We conducted a cross‐sectional survey of a nonrandom sample of 852 adults aged 18–64 (678 males, 174 females) working in five companies in Japan, between December 2015 and February 2018. LS stage was determined using the criteria proposed by the Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA). LS stage 0 was defined as No‐LS, and stages 1 and 2 were defined as LS. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the independent relationship between LS and sociodemographic, smoking, alcohol drinking (AD), frequency of breakfast consumption (FBC), dietary variety score (DVS), and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) activity score after adjusting for age and sex. Results We found that 23.1% of participants were evaluated as LS, including 21.5% of males and 29.3% of females (P

// Naoko Ishida 1 , Motoi Baba 1 , Yutaka Hatanaka 2, 3 , Kanako Hagio 1 , Hiromi Okada 2 , Kanako C. Hatanaka 3 , Kenichi Togashi 4 , Yoshihiro Matsuno 2, 3 and Hiroko Yamashita 1 1 Department of Breast Surgery, Hokkaido University Hospital, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8648, Japan 2 Department of Surgical Pathology, Hokkaido University Hospital, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8648, Japan 3 Research Division of Companion Diagnostics, Hokkaido University Hospital, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8648, Japan 4 Roche Diagnostics K.K., Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0075, Japan Correspondence to: Hiroko Yamashita, email: hirokoy@huhp.hokudai.ac.jp Keywords: breast cancer; estrogen receptor; PIK3CA; AKT Ser473; ERα Ser167 Received: June 27, 2017 Accepted: February 28, 2018 Published: April 03, 2018 ABSTRACT Although endocrine therapy is the most important treatment option in estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer, new strategies, such as molecular targeted agents together with endocrine therapy are required to improve survival. PIK3CA is the most frequent mutated gene in ER-positive early breast cancers, and PIK3CA mutation status is reported to affect activation of AKT and ERα. Moreover, recent studies demonstrate that patients had a better prognosis when tumors expressed ER, androgen receptor (AR), and vitamin D receptor (VDR). In this study, we examined expression of AR and VDR, phosphorylation of AKT serine (Ser) 473 (AKT phospho-Ser473) and ERα Ser167 (ERα phospho-Ser167) by immunohistochemistry in ER-positive, HER2-negative early breast cancer. PIK3CA gene mutations were also detected in genomic DNA extracted from tumor blocks. Correlations between these biological markers, clinicopathological factors and prognosis were analyzed. Levels of AKT phospho-Ser473 were significantly higher in premenopausal women than in postmenopausal women. In contrast, AR expression was significantly higher in postmenopausal women than in premenopausal women. PIK3CA mutations were detected in 47% in premenopausal women and 47% in postmenopausal women. Postmenopausal women with PIK3CA wild-type tumors had significantly worse disease-free survival than patients with PIK3CA mutant tumors. Low levels of AKT phospho-Ser473 and high levels of ERα phospho-Ser167 were strongly associated with increased disease-free survival in postmenopausal women. Evaluation of ERα activation, in addition to PIK3CA mutation status, might be helpful in identifying patients who are likely to benefit from endocrine therapy alone versus those who are not in postmenopausal ER-positive early breast cancer.

Background Muir–Torre syndrome (MTS) is a rare autosomal dominant genodermatosis caused by mutations in mismatch repair genes. It is characterized by the presence of at least one sebaceous skin tumor associated with internal malignancies. Whether positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) is useful for the detection of malignancies in patients with MTS has not been determined. We herein report two cases in which PET/CT was useful for the diagnosis and follow-up of internal malignancies in patients with MTS. Case presentation In case 1, a 57-year-old woman underwent excision of a sebaceous carcinoma on the left upper eyelid. She underwent follow-up PET/CT once yearly thereafter. Forty-two months after the eyelid surgery, PET/CT showed intense tracer uptake in the right lower abdomen. An ascending colon tumor was identified, and examination of a biopsy specimen showed adenocarcinoma. In case 2, a 77-year-old man presented for evaluation of three continuous papules with telangiectasia on his right cheek. Examination of a skin biopsy specimen of the cheek papule revealed a sebaceous carcinoma. He underwent PET/CT to detect other malignancies. PET/CT showed intense tracer uptake in the sigmoid colon. A sigmoid colon tumor was identified, and examination of a biopsy specimen showed adenocarcinoma. Both patients underwent resection of their tumors, and both were still free of recurrence of the sebaceous and colon carcinomas at the time of this writing. Conclusion PET/CT is a reliable imaging modality for the detection of internal malignancies and is useful for the diagnosis and follow-up of MTS.

This study surveyed that the relationship between the frequencies of intake of taurine-contained nutritional drinks (TCND), and lifestyle and the purposes of intake it. The study was conducted a cross-sectional survey using 265 people (203 male, 62 female) aged 18–64 worked in two companies in Mie Prefecture, Japan between December 2017 and February 2018. The questionnaires gathered characteristics, demographic, socioeconomic, lifestyle habits and purpose of TCND intake. We divided the frequency of intake of TCND of at least a few times every month as the high-frequency TCND (HF-TCND) group, and the remaining as the low-frequency TCND (LF-TCND) group. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the relationship between characteristics, demographic, socioeconomic, lifestyle habits and purpose of TCND intake and HF-TCND after controlling for individual variables. Of all participants, 13.4% was evaluated as HT-CND. 16.3% for male or 4.3% for female were evaluated as HF-TCND (p < 0.05). The most reason for frequent choosing a TCND was fatigue recovery. Logistic regression analysis showed that sex, occupation, purpose of TCND intake and stressful are related to HF-TCND. Our study indicates that purpose of TCND intake, such as fatigue recovery and reducing stress, may partly affect the frequency of intake of TCND. Therefore, we must continue to show scientific evidence for taurine by enlightenment activity etc.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the clinicopathological features of cystic lesions in the eyelid. Clinicopathological profiles were retrospectively searched based on medical records of 35 patients with cystic lesions of the eyelids, which were surgically resected from January 2003 to June 2016. The cohort consisted of 16 men and 19 women. The mean age of the patients was 57±24 years. The main locations of the cysts were the upper eyelid in 22 patients, followed by the lower eyelid in 5 patients. Eyelid skin and its appendages were the most common as the origin of cysts, followed by the tarsus, palpebral conjunctiva and lacrimal gland. The histopathological diagnoses were 16 epidermal cysts, 5 intratarsal keratinous cysts, 3 conjunctival cysts, 2 trichilemmal cysts, 1 dermoid cyst, 1 apocrine hidrocystoma, 1 lacrimal gland cyst and 6 unclassifiable cysts. All cysts did not recur following resection. In summary, cystic lesions of the eyelid were frequently observed in the upper eyelid. The most frequent diagnoses were epidermal cysts, followed by intratarsal keratinous cysts, while a definitive diagnosis in some cysts could not be pathologically determined, as they lacked epithelia and/or the contents or they resembled apocrine hidrocystoma and intratarsal keratinous cysts with atypical findings. The results of the current study indicate that the incidence and differential diagnosis of eyelid cystic lesions may contribute to the application of appropriate treatment for patients with eyelid tumors.

BACKGROUND Family members of children with cancer experience various long-term effects as a result of cancer diagnosis and treatment. Therefore, comprehensive and long-term support is needed. As the employment rate of women has increased in recent years, support for working mothers with children diagnosed with cancer is also required. OBJECTIVE We investigated the following issues and relevant changes that working mothers of children diagnosed with cancer must deal with: (1) work change, (2) stress, (3) social support, (4) work motivation, and (5) employment status after diagnosis. METHODS A cross-sectional exploratory study design was used. Data were collected from 62 mothers of children who were diagnosed with cancer using self-report questionnaires. RESULTS Of the 32 mothers who worked at the time of diagnosis, 10 continued to work, 12 took an extended leave, and 10 quit working, and 70% lost motivation for work following diagnosis. Half of mothers who continued to work during treatment reported financial reasons. CONCLUSIONS These findings indicate that mothers who quit work following diagnosis did not initially consider a long leave of absence. Even mothers who continued to work during treatment desired a long leave of absence to care for their children. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE Nurses should provide mothers with explanations of the prospects after the completion of cancer treatment and determine their expectations for their lifestyle and work during treatment. We recommend that nurses confirm mothers' willingness to take a long leave of absence from work and give relevant advice about seeking financial assistance.

The development of next-generation sequences has brought not only high-throughput sequencing but also new possibilities for various kinds of analysis methods of genetic information. Dr. Hayashizaki et al. developed new technologies to construct the full-length cDNA library and applied them to high-throughput sequencing technologies for large-scale transcriptome analysis. These analysis results overturned the conventional assumption the 2% of the genome is transcribed by showing that 70% or more of the genome is transcribed as RNA through FANTOM activities which was founded in 2000 on their initiative. Further, the existence of 23,000 non-protein coding RNAs was confirmed. These new findings redefine the central dogma into a new picture containing new interaction cascade and the unexpected complexity of combined omics. The neo central dogma shows that there are three types of final products derived from genes; long ncRNA, small ncRNA, and protein. They play essential roles by forming complexes with each other to maintain life. Long ncRNA and small ncRNA play a role as a ligand with sequence information. Long ncRNA and protein play a role as a functional molecule. Here, I would like to introduce the neo central dogma concept and some of the mechanisms of ncRNAs.

X-ray spectromicroscopy with a full-field imaging technique is a powerful method for chemical analysis of heterogeneous complex materials with a nano-scale spatial resolution. For imaging optics, an X-ray reflective optical system has excellent capabilities with highly efficient, achromatic, and long-working-distance properties. An advanced Kirkpatrick–Baez geometry that combines four independent mirrors with elliptic and hyperbolic shapes in both horizontal and vertical directions was developed for this purpose, although the complexity of the system has a limited applicable range. Here, we present an optical system consisting of two monolithic imaging mirrors. Elliptic and hyperbolic shapes were formed on a single substrate to achieve both high resolution and sufficient stability. The mirrors were finished with a ~1-nm shape accuracy using elastic emission machining. The performance was tested at SPring-8 with a photon energy of approximately 10 keV. We could clearly resolve 50-nm features in a Siemens star without chromatic aberration and with high stability over 20 h. We applied this system to X-ray absorption fine structure spectromicroscopy and identified elements and chemical states in specimens of zinc and tungsten micron-size particles.

We fabricate ultra-precision mirrors, Osaka Mirror, for synchrotron facilities. In order to fabricate them, it is very important to measure mirror surface precisely. In respect of the importance, we use two kinds of metrology, RADSI and MSI, developed by Osaka University. We have delivered more than 300 mirrors to synchrotron facilities all over the world since 2006 and our mirrors have produced excellent results to many researchers. As the demand on one meter long mirrors has increased lately, we developed RADSI and MSI systems which are capable in precise measurement of such long mirrors.

Background: Vitreoretinal lymphoma (VRL) is a life- and sight-threatening disorder. The aim of this study was to analyze the usefulness of the cell block method for diagnosis of VRL. Methods: Sixteen eyes in 12 patients with VRL, and 4 eyes in 4 patients with idiopathic uveitis presenting with vitreous opacity were enrolled in this study. Both undiluted vitreous and diluted fluids were isolated during micro-incision vitrectomy. Cell block specimens were prepared in 19 eyes from diluted fluid containing shredding vitreous. These specimens were then submitted for HE staining as well as immunocytological analyses with antibodies against the B-cell marker CD20, the T-cell marker CD3, and cell proliferation marker Ki67. Conventional smear cytology was applied in 14 eyes with VRL using undiluted vitreous samples. The diagnosis of VRL was made based on the results of cytology, concentrations of interleukin (IL)-10 and IL-6 in undiluted vitreous, and immunoglobulin heavy chain gene rearrangement analysis. Results: Atypical lymphoid cells were identified in 14 out of 15 cell block specimens of VRL (positive rate: 93.3 %), but in 5 out of 14 eyes in conventional smear cytology (positive rate: 35.7 %). Atypical lymphoid cells showed immunoreactivity for CD20 and Ki67. Seven cell block specimens were smear cytology-negative and cell block-positive. The cell block method showed no atypical lymphoid cells in any patient with idiopathic uveitis. Conclusions: Cell block specimens using diluted vitreous fluid demonstrated a high diagnostic sensitivity and a low pseudo-positive rate for the cytological diagnosis of VRL. The cell block method contributed to clear differentiation between VRL and idiopathic uveitis with vitreous opacity., 背景：眼内リンパ腫（VRL）は視力・生命予後に影響を及ぼす疾患である。本研究ではVRLの診断における細胞塊（セルブロック）標本の有用性を検討することを目的とした。症例と方法：北海道大学病院眼科および他院を受診したVRL12例16眼、および硝子体混濁を呈した特発性ぶどう膜炎4例4眼を対象とした。小切開硝子体手術により、無希釈硝子体液および硝子体灌流液を採取した。19眼で、硝子体灌流液を用いたセルブロック標本を作製した。これらの標本を用いて特殊染色、およびB細胞マーカーである抗CD20抗体の免疫細胞化学的検討を行った。14眼では無希釈硝子体液を用いた塗抹細胞診を併せて行った。VRLの診断は、細胞診、無希釈硝子体液のIL-10, -6濃度、灌流液沈殿物から遺伝子再構成部位のモノクローナリティについて検討して行った。結果：VRLの15眼中14眼でセルブロック標本にて悪性リンパ腫細胞が検出された（陽性率：93.3％）。一方、塗抹細胞診では5眼で悪性細胞が検出された（陽性率：35.7％）。塗抹細胞診で陰性、セルブロックで陽性を示したIOL症例は7例8眼であった。特発性ぶどう膜炎では、悪性細胞が検出された症例はなかった（陽性率：0％）。VRL細胞はCD20陽性を示したが、特発性ぶどう膜炎ではCD20陽性細胞は検出されなかった。結語：硝子体灌流液を用いたセルブロック細胞診は、これまでの塗抹細胞診よりVRLの陽性率が高く、偽陽性も無かった。セルブロックは、VRLとぶどう膜炎との鑑別にも有用であることが示唆された。

Many researchers have recently studied various applications such as Inter-Vehicle Communications (IVC) and Road-to-Vehicle Communications (RVC) for Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). RVC is a key technology that can connect vehicles with the internet through Road Side Units (RSUs). Relative positions between vehicles vary within short periods of time. Neighboring vehicles and barriers cause shadowing that blocks communication for extended periods of time between RSUs and vehicles. We propose a fast scheme of Mobile IPv6 handover using dual-band communications in RVC. This scheme uses ISM and UHF dual bands. It switches to the UHF band during handover or in the shadowing period. We demonstrate that the proposed scheme can establish continuous communications through computer simulations.

An increased expression of plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1 (PAI-1) has been implicated in accelerating atherogenesis and coronary artery disease in patients with type 2 diabetes. Transforming growth factor (TGF)-β increases its expression. An increased PAI-1 appears to predispose also to augmented fibrosis potentially contributing to negative left ventricular remodeling and heart failure after myocardial infarction. Diabetes is well known to induce oxidative stress. To elucidate molecular mechanisms underlying an increased PAI-1 production, the effects of TGF-β and oxidative stress implicated as agonists of PAI-1 synthesis were characterized with the use of human liver-derived HepG2 cells.PAI-1 mRNA was assayed by real-time PCR, and PAI-1 protein was assayed by western blotting. PAI-1 promoter (-825 -+42 bp) activity was assessed with the luciferase assay. The role of the 3'-untranslated region was delineated with the use of luciferase constructs containing the 3'-untranslated region. Oxidative stress was measured after loading carboxy-2,7-dichlorodihydrofluorescein into cells.TGF-β increased oxidative stress, which was accompanied by increases in NADPH oxidase 3 mRNA and membrane translocation of Rac proteins. TGF-β-inducible increases in the PAI-1 promoter activity involved Smad-binding elements and a nuclear factor-κB-binding site. TGF-β did not increase the activity of the PAI-1 mRNA 3'-untranslated region. TGF-β-inducible PAI-1 expression was attenuated by simvastatin and curcumin, a natural polyphenol.TGF-β can increase the expression of PAI-1 through multiple mechanisms involving Smad and nuclear factor-κB pathways and oxidative stress. As both oxidative stress and PAI-1 production were reduced by simvastatin and curcumin, modulation of oxidative stress and PAI-1 production are attractive targets for pharmacotherapy of cardiovascular disorders associated with an increased PAI-1 including type 2 diabetes and its associated consequences including accelerated coronary artery disease and an increased fibrosis that may exacerbate adverse left ventricular remodeling after myocardial infarction.

Various recent intelligent transport system projects are promoting vehicle safety and efficient vehicular traffic control all over the world. One of ITS applications is a system that solves road traffic problems by using vehicular communications technology. Inter-vehicle communication (IVC) is the communications technology for vehicles to exchange moving vehicle information by wireless networks without any base stations. The Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) is expected to provide new applications for passengers of vehicles by enabling vehicles to communicate with each other via IVC as well as with roadside base stations via roadside-to-vehicle communications. However, when each vehicle transmits its own information to neighboring vehicles, the amount of information being transmitted increases significantly. To solve this problem, we present a novel real-time recognition method for vehicular traffic congestion via VANET with IVC. Vehicles collect the original GPS information of other vehicles by communicating with each other, and they create content that may be useful for drivers by analyzing that original information. The proposed method can reduce the information amount and deliver the analyzed contents to other vehicles efficiently. Computer simulation results show that the proposed method provides real-time information of vehicular accidents and traffic congestion to distant vehicles accurately.

In this paper, we develop a VCASS substitution system (S-VCASS) using a personal mobile terminal in order to improve the effectiveness of VCASS in an environment comprising both VCASS and non-VCASS vehicles. We propose three new pedestrian state judgment algorithms that can be implemented on a personal mobile terminal for inter-vehicle communications. We evaluate the performances of the three proposed algorithms with real vehicles. Finally, we show that the proposed algorithms can recognize vehicles without VCASS.

In the third- and coming fourth-generation synchrotron radiation facilities, X-rays having both high brightness and high coherency can be utilized. Such X-rays require high accuracy in the reflective optics. In this study, we developed an ultra-precise measurement instrumentation for tangentially long X-ray mirrors using a Fizeau interferometer. In the system, the mirror figure is measured by stitching the subaperture profiles measured by the relative-angle determinable stitching interferometry, which we developed previously. High measurement accuracy of approximately 2 nm (peak to valley) was achieved in the measurement of a 400 mm-long aspherical surface.

Insulin increases, through several molecular mechanisms, expression of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), the major physiologic inhibitor of fibrinolysis. This phenomenon has been implicated as a cause of accelerated coronary artery disease and the increased incidence of acute coronary syndromes associated with type 2 diabetes. We have previously reported that physiologic and pharmacologic concentrations of insulin induce PAI-1 synthesis in human HepG2 cells and that simvastatin can attenuate its effects. This study was performed to further elucidate mechanisms responsible for the insulin-induced PAI-1 production.Concentrations of PAI-1 mRNA were determined by real-time PCR, and PAI-1 protein was assayed by western blotting. PAI-1 promoter (-829 to +36 bp) activity was assayed with the use of luciferase reporter assays. The potential role of the 3'-untranslated region (UTR) in the PAI-1 gene was assayed with the use of luciferase constructs containing the 3'-UTR. Oxidative stress was measured by loading cells with carboxy-2,7 dichlorodihydrofluorescein.Insulin increased PAI-1 promoter activity, PAI-1 mRNA, and accumulation of PAI-1 protein in the conditioned media. Insulin-inducible PAI-1 promoter activity was attenuated by simvastatin. Experiments performed with luciferase reporters containing the 3'-UTR showed that insulin increased luciferase activity through this region. Insulin also increased oxidative stress. Both insulin-inducible luciferase activity through the 3'-UTR and oxidative stress were attenuated by simvastatin.Insulin can increase PAI-1 expression through multiple mechanisms including induction mediated by the 3'-UTR of the PAI-1 gene. Accordingly, beneficial pleiotropic effects of statins on coronary artery disease may be attributable, in part, to attenuation of overexpression of PAI-1 mediated by the 3'-UTR in syndromes of insulin resistance (such as the metabolic syndrome) and type 2 diabetes.

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology is expected to be used as a localization tool. By the localization of RFID tags, a mobile robot equipped with an RFID reader can recognize the surrounding environment. In this paper, we propose a novel effective scheme called the communication range recognition (CRR) scheme for localizing RFID tags. In this scheme, an RFID reader determines the boundaries of the communication range when it is appropriately positioned by the robot. We evaluate the estimated position accuracy through numerous experiments. We show that the moving distance of the RFID reader in the proposed scheme is lower than that in conventional schemes.

In recent years, researchers have studied extensively about vehicle collision avoidance. The authors have developed Vehicular Collision Avoidance Support System (VCASS) based on IVC in order to prevent a vehicular collision beforehand. The system grasps the relative locations of vehicles by exchanging the GPS information in each vehicle. Then the system warns drivers if it detects some danger of collision. VCASS can drastically reduce the potential accidents of vehicular collisions. However, VCASS can not avoid collisions between vehicles and pedestrians, but avoid collisions just between vehicles. About 30% of fatal accidents by vehicles are happened with pedestrians in Japan. So it is necessary to develop a new system for pedestrians. This paper deals with collision avoidance between pedestrians and vehicles. There are two problems to develop such system. First it is necessary to reduce the power consumption of the pedestrian terminal, because pedestrian terminals have small-sized battery compared with vehicles. Second it is necessary to consider the movement characteristic of the pedestrian. In this paper, we propose a new Pedestrian-Vehicular Collision Avoidance Support System (P-VCASS) which extends VCASS. P-VCASS solves above two problems. We show the validity of the proposed system by experiments using some vehicles.

Introduction Genetic deficiencies of PROS1, PROC, and SERPINC1 (antithrombin) are risk factors for deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Diagnosis of the inherited deficiencies of these three genes is sometimes difficult because of the phenotypic variability. This study was undertaken to reveal the frequency of nonsynonymous mutations of these three genes in Japanese DVT patients. Patients/Methods One hundred seventy-three DVT patients were registered by the Sub-group of Blood Coagulation Abnormality, from the Study Group of Research on Measures for Intractable Diseases. We sequenced the entire coding regions of the three genes in all DNA samples and identified the nonsynonymous mutations. Results and Conclusions For PROS1 we identified 15 nonsynonymous mutations in 28 DVT patients; for PROC, 10 nonsynonymous mutations in 17 patients; and for SERPINC1, 13 nonsynonymous mutations in 14 patients. Five patients had two mutations in PROS1 and PROC, and all of them had PROS1 K196E mutation. We previously identified one patient with a large PROS1 gene deletion. Thus, 55 out of 173 patients (32%) carried at least one genetic defect in the three genes. The PROS1 K196E mutation found in 15 Japanese DVT patients was the most prevalent. Mutations of PROC K193del and V339M were the second, each found in four patients. Our data suggested that the PROC K193del mutation caused the loss of the anticoagulant activity but not the amidolytic activity. Our effort is the first DNA resequencing study to identify the genetic variations in DVT patients without any consideration of their plasma activities and antigens. To minimize selection bias in a future evaluation of the contribution of genetic deficiency to DVT, we must recruit patients consecutively.

The RFID tag system has received attention as an identification source. Each RFID tag is attached to some object. With the unique ID of the RFID tag, a user identifies the object provided with the RFID tag, and derives appropriate information about the object. One of important applications of the RFID technology is the position estimation of RFID tags. It can be very useful to acquire the location information concerning the RFID tags. It can be applied to navigation systems and positional detection systems for robots etc. In this paper, we propose a new position estimation method of RFID tags by using a probabilistic approach. In this method, mobile objects (person and robot, etc.) with RFID readers estimate the positions of RFID tags with multiple communication ranges. We show the effectiveness of the proposed method by computer simulations.

The RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) tag technology is expected as a tool of localization. By the localization of RFID tags, a mobile robot which installs in RFID readers can recognize surrounding environments. In addition, RFID tags can be applied to a navigation system for walkers. In this paper, we propose an adaptive likelihood distribution scheme for the localization of RFID tags. This method adjusts the likelihood distribution depending on the signal intensity from RFID tags. We carry out the performance evaluation of estimated position error by both computer simulations and implemental experiments. We show that the proposed system is more effective than the conventional system.

Inter-Vehicle Communication (IVC) is one of the most important technologies to realize advanced Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). We extensively apply the IVC technology to the communications between pedestrians and vehicles. We call this kind of communications VPEC (Vehicle-PEdestrian Communications). The objective of this paper is to present an effective control scheme for VPEC and to evaluate the performance of proposed scheme by experiments. We deal with direct communications between pedestrians and vehicles. Due to the battery shortage of pedestrians' terminals (p-node), we have presented a reflect-transmission scheme. In this paper, we propose a new access protocol for reflect-transmission scheme, and show its validity by various experiments with several vehicles.

The use of indium–gallium–zinc oxide (IGZO) has paved the way for high-resolution uniform displays or integrated circuits with transparent and flexible devices. However, achieving highly reliable devices that use IGZO for low-temperature processes remains a technological challenge. We propose the use of IGZO thin-film transistors (TFTs) with an ionic-liquid gate dielectric in order to achieve high-density carrier-accumulated IGZO TFTs with high reliability and we discuss a distinctive mechanism for the degradation of this organic–inorganic hybrid device under long-term electrical stress. Our results demonstrated that an ionic liquid or gel gate dielectric provides highly reliable and low-voltage operation with IGZO TFTs. Furthermore, high-density carrier accumulation helps improve the TFT characteristics and reliability and it is highly relevant to the electronic phase control of oxide materials and the degradation mechanism for organic–inorganic hybrid devices.

SummarySeveral studies have indicated that approximately 25% of patients treated with aspirin exhibit high on-treatment platelet reactivity (HTPR), which is potentially associated with cardiovascular events (CVEs). However, this association is still controversial, since the mechanisms by which HTPR contributes to CVEs remain unclear and a no standardised definition of HTPR has been established. To determine whether HTPR is associated with CVE recurrence and what type of assay would best predict CVE recurrence, we conducted a multicentre prospective cohort study of 592 stable cardiovascular outpatients treated with aspirin monotherapy for secondary prevention. Their HTPR was determined by arachidonic acid- or collagen-induced aggregation assays using two different agonist concentrations. Residual cyclooxygenase (COX)-1 activity was assessed by measuring serum thromboxane (TX)B2 or urinary 11-dehydro TXB2. Shear-induced platelet thrombus formation was also examined. We followed all patients for two years to evaluate how these seven indexes were related to the recurrence of CVEs (cerebral infarction, transient ischaemic attack, myocardial infarction, unstable angina, revascularisation, other arterial thrombosis, or cardiovascular death). Of 583 patients eligible for the analysis, CVEs occurred in 69 (11.8%). A Cox regression model identified several classical risk factors associated with CVEs. However, neither HTPR nor high residual COX-1 activity was significantly associated with CVEs, even by applying cut-off values suggested in previous reports or a receiver-operating characteristic analysis. In conclusion, recurrence of CVEs occurred independently of HTPR and residual COX-1 activity. Thus, our findings do not support the use of platelet or COX-1 functional testing for predicting clinical outcomes in stable cardiovascular patients.Supplementary Material to this article is available at www.thrombosis-online.com.

Background: Due to variations in location and size, laparoscopic surgery for paraaortic or paracaval neurogenic tumors is challenging. We evaluated the surgical outcomes, as well as surgical tips and tricks. Methods: Between 2000 and 2015, 25 procedures were performed in 24 patients. One patient underwent second surgery due to the recurrence of paraganglioma. Data were collected on the tumor diameter, tumor location, perioperative outcomes, pathology, and last known disease status. Regarding the operative procedures, we reviewed the operative charts or videos to identify surgical tips and tricks. Results: The median tumor diameter was 5.0 cm (range, 1.5-10). The tumor location was suprahilar in 10, hilar in 6, and infrahilar in 9. Regarding the approach, a transperitoneal approach was selected in 24 cases and retroperitoneal approach in 1. The median operative time and blood loss were 208 minutes (range, 73-513) and 10 mL (range, 0-1,020), respectively. No patient required blood transfusion or conversion to open surgery. Pathological examination revealed paraganglioma in 12, ganglioneuroma in 7, and schwannoma in 6. At the last follow-up, 23 patients were free of disease, while one patient developed metastatic multiple recurrence of paraganglioma 54 months after the second laparoscopic surgery. A review of the surgical records revealed several tips and tricks, including taping the vena cava/ renal vein (n=2) being helpful for detaching a retrocaval tumor from these great vessels, or rotating the kidney to provide a favorable operative view of tumors behind the renal hilum (n=2). In recent cases, 3D-CT was helpful for preoperative planning. Conclusion: Laparoscopic resection of paraaortic or paracaval neurogenic tumors is feasible in experienced hands. Surgeons should be familiar with detaching maneuvers around great vessels and the mobilization of adjacent organs. Careful preoperative planning is mandatory.

Content Distribution Networks (CDNs) are highly advanced architectures for networks on the Internet, providing low latency, scalability, fault tolerance, and load balancing. One of the most important issues to realize these advantages of CDNs is dynamic content allocation to deal with temporal load fluctuation, which provides mirroring of content files in order to distribute user accesses. Since user accesses for content files change over time, the content files need to be reallocated appropriately. In this paper, we propose a cost-effective content migration method called the Step-by-Step (SxS) Migration Algorithm for CDNs, which can dynamically relocate content files while reducing transmission cost. We show that our method maintains sufficient performance while reducing cost in comparison to the conventional shortest-path migration method. Furthermore, we present six life cycle models of content to consider realistic traffic patterns in our simulation experiments. Finally, we evaluate the effectiveness of our SxS Migration Algorithm for dynamic content reconfiguration across time.

In advanced ITS, on-board intelligent systems by the Inter-Vehicle Communications (IVC) is essential technology to achieve a safe automotive society. We aim to avoid the vehicular collisions under almost all situations such as intersections, highways, and blind corners by using IVC technology through wireless ad hoc networks. The objectives of this paper are to develop Vehicular Collision Avoidance Support System (VCASS), and to show its performance by various experiments with two real vehicles. We have installed personal computers, telecommunication equipments, and GPS in two vehicles. In this system, the vehicles exchange the location information and the velocity vectors by the UDP broadcast with each other, and calculate the relative position/speed. The vehicles make the warning for drivers with the possibility of the collision. We verify the validity and the effectiveness of VCASS by the experiments.

Bluetooth utilizes fast frequency hopping to mitigate interference from other wireless devices and other Bluetooth piconets that share the same frequency range. However, it still cannot avoid the interference between piconets entirely. In our simulation, we observed that the inter-piconet interference can significantly degrade the system throughput by more than 10%. The system throughput within a piconet can be improved by a proper arrangement of the segmentation/reassembling (SAR) policy and a good selection of MAC scheduling protocols. Many SAR policies and MAC scheduling protocols were proposed, but none of them takes the inter-piconet interference into consideration. In this paper, we study the impact of the interference on the performance of TCP traffic over a Bluetooth scatternet with multiple overlapping piconets. To alleviate the impact, we propose interference-aware SAR policies as well as the interference-aware MAC scheduling protocols. The simulation results show that our schemes help reduce the impact of the inter-piconet interference by more than 15%.

In recent years, transportation convenience is improved significantly by the spread of the automobile. However, traffic violation vehicles passing on the signal, hit-and-run, etc. are increasing with the increase of vehicles. To track a violation vehicle, recognition systems of the license plate using the image processing technology and cameras have been developed. However this system becomes expensive and complicated. To solve these problems, we have proposed a recognition method of the vehicle code using infrared laser radar. We set up a one-dimensional code created by reflectors on the vehicle, and acquire the vehicle information by reading the vehicle code by infrared laser radar. It can be constructed inexpensive system by using infrared laser radar. However, there is a problem that the number of code patterns is small, so the system cannot accommodate too many vehicles. In this paper, we propose a new code recognition method using time-sequence processing for infrared laser radar. We create a two-dimensional code by setting different type reflectors on vertical positions. Thereby we increase the number of code patterns. Through experiments, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

We have proposed a simple vehicular information acquisition scheme using infrared radar and reflector code in order to recognize vehicle information with low cost. However, since the size of the reflector code is so large and the number of code patterns is not so large, it is necessary to reduce the size and increase the patterns in order to be attached with vehicles. So we propose a new scheme using subdivided reflector code.

The authors have proposed the Emergency Rescue Evacuation Support System (ERESS) for reducing human damage at disasters. The ERESS primarily intended to reduce the number of victims in panic-type disasters (e. g., fire, terrorism) and works under mobile ad-hoc networks (MANET). This system uses ERESS Mobile Terminals (EMTs) like smart phones and tablets. EMTs have an advanced disaster detection algorithm and sensors. They get data from sensors such as acceleration, angular velocity, and terrestrial magnetism. EMTs classify behavior of EMTs holders like walking and running, and detect disasters from escape actions. In this paper, the authors propose a new effective disasters detection method using statistics and a support vector machine (SVM). In this method, we introduce weight coefficient for each EMT holder according to his behavior statistics. Disasters simulation experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Many people have faced mortal risks due to sudden disasters such as fires, earthquakes, and terrorisms all over the world. To solve this kind of problems, we are developing ERESS (Emergency Rescue Evacuation Support System). This system consists of only mobile terminals with various sensors. In ERESS, these sensor data are exchanged and analyzed using only ad-hoc communication among nearby mobile terminals. ERESS aims to reduce the number of victims by supporting real-time evacuation in the critical situation for less than 30 seconds immediately after disaster outbreaks. The conventional ERESS recognized the disaster outbreaks by behavior analysis of terminal holders from sensor data using SVM (Support Vector Machine). However, there was a problem that it is difficult to obtain high reliability of judging disaster outbreak. In this paper, we propose a new method by buffering judgment results of SVM. We carry out experiments on the emergency evacuation with more than 200 examinees. We investigate the judgment accuracy of the proposed method and the time required for recognition of disaster outbreak.

Previously, the authors have proposed the Emergency Evacuation Support System (ERESS) for reducing disaster damage. The ERESS runs under Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANET) and primarily aims to reduce the number of victims in panic-type disasters. This system uses ERESS Mobile Terminals (EMT) which are mobile terminals assuming smartphones and tablets. EMT is provided with an advanced disaster detection algorithm and acquires sensor information such as acceleration, direction difference and walking steps. However, disaster detection of conventional ERESS is needed the information of all members existing on the same floor. In this paper, we propose a new disaster detection method using the positioning area information. Location information of the terminal holders are obtained by Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). In this method, we separate a number of areas in the floor and detect a disaster by the information of evacuees in the presence of each area. We show the effectiveness of the proposed method by panic-type experiments.

In this study, we investigate the problem of accommodating multicast traffic in ATM networks, with emphasis on the virtual path (VP) environment. We propose a network structure called “virtual copy network” that is suitable for multicast communication and connection setup scheme, taking into account the VP environment. With our technique, we can expect statistical multiplexing gain in accommodating multiple multicast traffic streams over a VP. Also, we propose two multicast routing algorithms (the CNR-LH algorithm and the improved CNR-LH algorithm) for an ATM network environment. In these algorithms, in addition to determining an adequate route, the exact corresponding VPs on the route are also obtained. We examine the efficiency of the algorithms by demonstrating their basic characteristics using computer simulations.