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To supplement clinical decision-making in the management of cervical cancer, various prognostic factors, including tumor immune microenvironments, were examined in patients with cervical cancer treated with definitive chemoradiotherapy. We retrospectively analyzed the expression of CD8, FoxP3, HLA-1, PD-L1, and XRCC4 in 100 cases of cervical cancer. The observed tumor immune microenvironments were also classified into three types: inflamed, excluded, and cold type. Less FoxP3+ T cells and cold-type tumor were found to be poor prognostic factors in addition to non-SCC, large pre-treatment tumor volume, and three or less cycles of concurrent chemotherapy based on multivariate analysis. Cold-type tumors had significantly worse prognoses than the other two types, whereas inflamed- and excluded-type tumors showed similar 5-year disease-specific survival (P < 0.001; 0% vs. 60.3% vs. 72.3%). Radiotherapy could overcome the inhibitory immune microenvironment that occurs in excluded type. Individualized combination therapy adapted to pre-treatment tumor immunity may be necessary to improve radiotherapy outcomes in cervical cancer., (© 2021. The Japanese Society for Clinical Molecular Morphology.)

Background: Reliable measurements of iodine are essential for ensuring the quality of infant formula. The AOAC Official Method 2012.15 for iodine tends to produce higher results in the presence of carbon remaining in the final test solution after digestion with alkaline dissolution. This is partly because of the lack of countermeasures for signal enhancement induced by coexisting carbon in Method 2012.15. Objective: To obtain more reliable values for infant formulas, we undertook an experiment. Methods: We modified the protocol by adding carbon in the form of methanol to both the standard solutions and the final test solutions. Comparisons of the enhancement factor for iodine-127 were used to find the optimized concentration of methanol from 0-10%. Results: Optimization of the additional carbon showed that a 5% methanol minimum was necessary for a constant ratio of iodine. The results exhibited good linearity (coefficient of determination >0.999), and the LOQ was 0.19 μg/100 g for the reconstituted final product with a methanol concentration of 5%. The intermediate precision RSD was <3.76%, and the recovery factor was 97.5-104.2% for infant formula distributed in several countries and a special formula distributed in Japan. Conclusions: This demonstrates that 5% methanol, when added to standard and final solutions, acts as an effective matrix matching agent. Highlights: This modified method produces more accurate iodine quantification in infant formulas and special formulas in which there is incomplete digestion of the matrix.

An intercomparison of γ-spectrometry measurement and analysis was organized by the Japan Chemical Analysis Center (JCAC), the National Institute for Radiological Protection, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (NIRP, China CDC), and the Radiation Monitoring Technical Center of Ministry of Environmental Protection, Chinese (RMTC). The main objective of this study was to assess the γ-spectrometry measurement and analysis technology. The JCAC completed the collection and preparation of soil and powdered rice samples. Three laboratories compared the measurement of seven radionuclides that included two samples of (214)Pb, (214)Bi, (208)Tl, (228)Ac, (40)K, (137)Cs, and (134)Cs with γ-spectrometry. During the studies conducted at the laboratory, the calculated value En was found to be the total uncertainty data of the reported activity. Except (134)Cs in powdered rice sample, the calculated En between each of the two laboratories was <1. The measurement results are acceptable except (134)Cs; therefore, measurement results in the three laboratories were consistent within a certain range except in the case of (134)Cs. Although there is a need to improve the accuracy of measurements and analysis of (134)Cs, an intercomparison was conducted of the tested levels on radionuclide analyzed in the three laboratories., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Soil deposition density maps of gamma-ray emitting radioactive nuclides from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) accident were constructed on the basis of results from large-scale soil sampling. In total 10,915 soil samples were collected at 2168 locations. Gamma rays emitted from the samples were measured by Ge detectors and analyzed using a reliable unified method. The determined radioactivity was corrected to that of June 14, 2011 by considering the intrinsic decay constant of each nuclide. Finally the deposition maps were created for (134)Cs, (137)Cs, (131)I, (129m)Te and (110m)Ag. The radioactivity ratio of (134)Cs-(137)Cs was almost constant at 0.91 regardless of the locations of soil sampling. The radioactivity ratios of (131)I and (129m)Te-(137)Cs were relatively high in the regions south of the Fukushima NPP site. Effective doses for 50 y after the accident were evaluated for external and inhalation exposures due to the observed radioactive nuclides. The radiation doses from radioactive cesium were found to be much higher than those from the other radioactive nuclides., (Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Damage to the Fukushima nuclear power plant caused by the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami off the northeast coast of Japan resulted in the release into the environment of radioactive material. Airborne radioactive material was detected in metropolitan areas near Tokyo, and increases in radiation dose rate were observed at many locations. In this study, repeated measurements with the in situ Ge system were performed in Chiba City, which is about 220 km south of Fukushima. Increases in radiation dose rate were recorded on 15, 16, and 21 March, with a maximum of 0.5 μGy h(-1). This level is clearly higher than natural background in Japan. Airborne (99)Mo, (99m)Tc, (129m)Te, (129)Te, (132)Te, (131)I, (132)I, (133)I, (133)Xe,(133m)Xe, (135)Xe, (134)Cs, (136)Cs, (137)Cs, and (140)La were detected. Environmental radioactive contamination in the metropolitan area occurred mainly on 21 March by rainfall. The initial rates of decrease in radiation dose rate generally reflected radiological decay according to their physical (radiological) half-lives. However, the in situ half-lives of the long-lived radionuclides such as (134)Cs and (137)Cs reflected environmental dispersal rather than radiological decay.

From protein sequence comparison data found in the literature, a library was organized using peptide fragment sequences which are common to related proteins. Each of the fragments was then examined for its occurrence in all the protein superfamilies defined by the NBRF-PIR data base. We have selected those fragment peptides that appear exclusively in one or a few superfamilies, and thus made a library of fragment peptides that characterize specific superfamilies. Such characteristic peptides are, in general, five to seven residues long and contain unusually high proportions of glycine and cysteine. This collection is a useful resource for the classification and functional prediction of protein molecules.