Search

We designed and synthesized amphiphilic glycopeptides with glucose or galactose at the C-terminals. We observed the protein-induced structural changes of the amphiphilic glycopeptide assembly in the lipid bilayer membrane using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Fourier transform infrared reflection-absorption spectra (FTIR-RAS) measurements. The glycopeptides re-arranged to form a bundle that acted as an ion channel due to the interaction among the target protein and the terminal sugar groups of the glycopeptides. The bundle in the lipid bilayer membrane was fixed on a gold-deposited quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) electrode by the membrane fusion method. The protein-induced re-arrangement of the terminal sugar groups formed a binding site that acted as a receptor, and the re-binding of the target protein to the binding site induced the closing of the channel. We monitored the detection of target proteins by the changes of the electrochemical properties of the membrane. The response current of the membrane induced by the target protein recognition was expressed by an equivalent circuit consisting of resistors and capacitors when a triangular voltage was applied. We used peanut lectin (PNA) and concanavalin A (ConA) as target proteins. The sensing membrane induced by PNA shows the specific response to PNA, and the ConA-induced membrane responded selectively to ConA. Furthermore, PNA-induced sensing membranes showed relatively low recognition ability for lectin from Ricinus Agglutinin (RCA120) and mushroom lectin (ABA), which have galactose binding sites. The protein-induced self-organization formed the spatial arrangement of the sugar chains specific to the binding site of the target protein. These findings demonstrate the possibility of fabricating a sensing device with multi-recognition ability that can recognize proteins even if the structure is unknown, by the protein-induced self-organization process.

We demonstrate an ultra-low standby power embedded SRAM with cost effective test screening circuits on 110-nm SoC/MCU. A source bias design technique has been applied to reduce SRAM standby power in the resume standby mode where the stored data is retained. Meanwhile the testing time is increased due to the long pause time to screening the retention failures, because the source bias level will be shifted slightly by small SRAM leakage current. Therefore, a 2-stage test screening method for resume standby mode is newly proposed. It is applied for only low-temperature test loop to minimize the total testing time without any test coverage loss. Test chips including 130kbit SRAMs on 110-nm show full reading and writing operations and 0.28 pW/cell resume standby power at 1.5 V typical supply voltage and 25°C. The testing time is reduced to 1/50 by proposed 2-stage screening testing circuits with only 0.03% area overhead.

An effective standby power reduction of buffer/backup SRAM in MCU is proposed for power module IC (PMIC) less edge system in IoT applications. The proposed SRAM macro is implemented using 3.3 V thick-gate-oxide IO MOSs for effectively reducing the leakage power with source bias control techniques. Four multiples interleave wordline circuitry is also introduced to reduce read and write operating power. A test chip with 64-kbit SRAM macro is designed and fabricated using 40-nm technology. The measured data show that the leakage power is 330 nW at 65°C (47 nW at 25°C), which is 1/140 of other works. The read/write power is reduced by 60% by interleave wordline circuitry.

A method for selecting antibodies against a membrane protein is important for attaining a variety of antibody-based diagnostics and therapies. In this study, we propose a novel system to select specific antibodies against a membrane protein based on mammalian cell proliferation as a readout. The system employs a chimeric membrane protein in which a target membrane protein of interest is fused to the intracellular signaling domain of a cytokine receptor. The chimeric membrane protein transduces a cell proliferation signal through dimerization when co-expressed with a specific single-chain Fv fused with a mutant of FK-binding protein 12 (scFv-Fk) that can be conditionally dimerized by a synthetic ligand AP20187. To demonstrate this system, ErbB2 and gp130 were chosen as the target membrane protein and cytokine receptor, respectively. Consequently, co-expression of the ErbB2/gp130 chimera and ErbB2-specific scFv-Fk rendered the cells proliferative in response to AP20187. The system also allowed selection of high-affinity binders from a mixture composed of dominant low-affinity binders. This system may be extended to affinity maturation of scFvs by modulating AP20187 concentration in the selection process.

Background Surfing is an increasingly popular activity and surfing-related injuries have increased accordingly. However, to the best of our knowledge, there are no reports of penetrating upper airway injuries in surfers. We present a “cannot ventilate, cannot intubate” situation following penetrating neck injury by a surfboard fin. Case presentation A previously healthy 29-year-old Japanese man was swept off his board by a large wave and his left mandible, tongue root, and right epipharynx were penetrated by the surfboard fin. He presented with severe hypovolemic shock because of copious bleeding from his mouth. Direct laryngoscopy failed, as did manual ventilation, because of the exacerbated upper airway bleeding and distorted upper airway anatomy. Open cricothyrotomy was immediately performed, followed by surgical exploration, which revealed extensive ablation of his tongue root and laceration of his lingual artery. After definitive hemostasis and intensive care, he returned home with no sequelae. Conclusions The long, semi-sharp surfboard fin created both extensive crushing upper airway lesions and a sharp vascular injury, resulting in a difficult airway. This case illustrates that surfing injuries can prompt a life-threatening airway emergency and serves as a caution for both surfers and health care professionals.

Wool fabrics were graft copolymerized with methacrylamide (MAAm) and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) in aqueous media, using a chemical redox system as an initiator. After grafting, the mechanical properties related to the hand evaluation, such as tensile, shearing, bending, compression and surface properties of wool fabrics, were evaluated by means of the Kawabata Evaluation System for Fabric. The surface morphology was examined by scanning electron microscopy. The results revealed that the surface morphology and low-stress mechanical properties of wool fabrics were remarkably changed after grafting with HEMA. The weight gain of the wool fabrics grafted with HEMA increased rapidly in the initial grafting stage and reached saturation level at 17 wt% after 20 minutes. Small deposits of oligomers were visible on wool surfaces and typical scale patterns were changed after grafting wool fabric with HEMA. The slope of the shearing hysteresis curves in the weft and warp directions for wool fabrics grafted with HEMA was increased compared with the control and wool fabrics grafted with MAAm. These results imply that the changes in tensile, shearing, bending and compression behavior of grafted wool fabrics are due to the reduction of the free internal volumes of the fabrics, leading to a tightening of its texture.

頭頸部癌において頸部リンパ節転移は予後を規定する因子のひとつである。様々な微小転移の検出法があるなか，センチネルリンパ節生検は潜在リンパ節転移の検出に適した方法である。癌原発巣からリンパ管に入った癌細胞が最初に流れ込むリンパ節のことをセンチネルリンパ節と呼び，ここに転移がなければ，他のリンパ節に転移がないものと推察され郭清術を省略できると考えられる。乳癌や悪性黒色腫においてセンチネルリンパ節生検は一般的な検査となりつつある。当科でI・II期舌癌に対しセンチネルリンパ節生検を行い，25例中16例に頸部郭清術を省略することができており，センチネルリンパ節生検は早期舌癌における頸部郭清術の適応を振り分けるのに有用な検査である。現状では頭頸部領域での実施施設が少なくその有用性の検証が不十分であり，今後は多施設での追試と大規模臨床試験への参加が望まれる。

リンパ節転移は従来，病理検査で診断するが，OSNA法は遺伝子学的な手法を用いて約30分で診断する方法で乳癌では所属リンパ節転移の診断の補助として保険適用が認可されている。頭頸部領域での有用性を検証した。頭頸部扁平上皮癌13症例のリンパ節31個を対象とした。術中転移が疑われたリンパ節を摘出・分割し，迅速病理検査とOSNA法によるCK19mRNAの増幅および検出を行った。迅速病理検査では31個中7個が転移ありの結果であり，OSNA法陽性はリンパ節31個中6個であった。偽陰性のリンパ節が1個あり，マクロ標本および病理組織検査にて壊死しており，これを除くと30個全てで一致していた。OSNA法は術中のリンパ節転移を従来の病理検査と同等に診断できる可能性がある。

The connections between hematopoietic bone marrow and the tympanum caused by bony dehiscences in immature middle ear were examined in 58 temporal bones of fetuses and infants. There were no anomalies in any of the cases, and they were divided into two groups: a group with inflammation of middle ear and a group without inflammation. The tympanic cavity was compartmentalized into thirteen portions to investigate the appearance of the connection, and the connections were classified into the mesenchymal type and the direct type dependent on residual mesenchyme in each portion. Marrow-tympanum connections were observed from 20 weeks of gestation until 14 months of age. In most cases the connections were the mesenchymal type. A large amount of mesenchyme remained in the inflammatory group. Some direct-type connections were observed in the non-inflammatory group from 1 month after birth onward and the mesenchyme was completely absorbed in these connections. Both types of the connections were frequently found in the antrum, facial recess and tympanic sinus. These results indicate that a marrow-tympanum connection is usually present in the temporal bone not only anomaly cases but also normal fetuses and infants. In addition, in normal cases without otitis media the connections first appear as mesenchymal type, and progress to direct type due to the absorption of mesenchyme. Presumably marrow-tympanum connections have structural disadvantage to induce osteomyelitis in cases with otitis media. And evoked osteomyelitis may cause complications such as acute mastoiditis and facial paralysis. The results of this study suggest that children under 2 years of age are at higher risk of complications of otitis media owing to marrow-tympanum connections than older children. Further study of the role of mesenchyme in otitis media is needed.

A method for selecting antibodies against a membrane protein is important for attaining a variety of antibody-based diagnostics and therapies. In this study, we propose a novel system to select specific antibodies against a membrane protein based on mammalian cell proliferation as a readout. The system employs a chimeric membrane protein in which a target membrane protein of interest is fused to the intracellular signaling domain of a cytokine receptor. The chimeric membrane protein transduces a cell proliferation signal through dimerization when co-expressed with a specific single-chain Fv fused with a mutant of FK-binding protein 12 (scFv-Fk) that can be conditionally dimerized by a synthetic ligand AP20187. To demonstrate this system, ErbB2 and gp130 were chosen as the target membrane protein and cytokine receptor, respectively. Consequently, co-expression of the ErbB2/gp130 chimera and ErbB2-specific scFv-Fk rendered the cells proliferative in response to AP20187. The system also allowed selection of high-affinity binders from a mixture composed of dominant low-affinity binders. This system may be extended to affinity maturation of scFvs by modulating AP20187 concentration in the selection process.

In this Letter, we propose a novel method for completely reproducing given motion pictures using totalistic rules in a two-dimensional cellular automata. The point is that one can find a specified totalistic rule for each pixel in a motion picture during an arbitrarily given time frame interval, which enables a complete and compressive description of the given data. Actual examples are given using computer experiments with respect to the binary bit patterns of two-dimensional motion pictures made from video pictures that are recorded using the standard sampling format of the present video markets.

We attempted lymph node mapping for clinically positive neck using sentinel node navigation technique. Technetium labeled rhenium sulfide was injected as a radiotracer in 11 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue. After surgery, the radioactivity and the ratio of metastatic area (RMA) of the removed nodes were measured. Average RMA (57%) of 18 high radioactive metastatic nodes was significantly lower than the RMA (90%) of 16 low radioactive metastatic nodes. Average number of metastatic nodes (4.7 nodes) in the five cases with low radioactive metastatic nodes was significantly larger than that (1.8 nodes) in the six cases with only high radioactive metastatic nodes. There is no accumulation of radioactive tracer if a lymph node is totally or predominantly occupied by metastatic cells. When the sentinel node was mostly occupied by malignant cells, the injected colloid could not flow to the sentinel node and flowed to a different lymph node through another basin. Sentinel node navigation technique can show the actual time of lymphatic flow at the operation of positive neck cases.

Canine and equine ferritin H and L subunit cDNA clones were obtained using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and TA cloning from various tissues. Canine liver and spleen ferritin H subunit cDNA clones contained an open reading frame for the same 182-amino acid protein as that reported in canine brain ferritin H subunit cDNA although there were substitutions in the 3'-noncoding regions. Ferritin L subunit cDNA clones from canine liver, spleen, and kidney showed identical coding sequences encoding the 174-amino acid protein except for a single nucleotide substitution in kidney (C474G). The H subunit nucleotide sequences of equine leukocyte and spleen were identical to the fragment encoding the 181-amino acid protein in equine peripheral blood mononuclear cells, with the exception of one substitution seen in both leukocyte and spleen sequences (C234T). The nucleotide sequence of equine leukocyte ferritin L subunit showed 7 substitutions compared with the published equine liver L subunit sequence with two substitutions at positions 281 and 282 resulting in an amino acid substitution of P94L. The amino acid residues involved in the ferroxidase center and in iron nucleation were perfectly conserved in H and L subunits of canine and equine ferritins, respectively.

われわれは放射性医薬品を用いた頸部リンパ節マッピングを試み, 頭頸部におけるセンチネルリンパ節生検の可能性について検討した。舌・口腔癌4症例を対象にテクネチウム-99m標識レニウムコロイドを原発巣周囲に注入し, ガンマカメラとハンディタイプのγ線検出器を用いて計測した。原発巣周囲に局注した薬剤は頸部に流れ, 2時間以内に集積位置が固定し, その位置は24時間後も変化しないことがガンマカメラで確認された。ハンディタイプγ線検出器をもちいることで術中に薬剤集積の位置を同定でき, ガンマカメラでの同定の位置と変化なかった。摘出標本での集積はリンパ節に限局し, 注入より30時間後も計測が可能であった。本方法はセンチネルリンパ節の同定に有用であると考えられた。

Background : Management of the cervical lymph node is one of the most important factors to control head and heck carcinoma. We investigated the method of sentinel lymph node ( SLN ) detection for clinically positive neck metastasis. Methods : For 9 patients of tongue squamous cell carcinoma (N1: 5 cases, N2 : 4 cases, 5 males and 4 females), peritumoral perimucosal injection of Tc-99m -Rhenium colloid was performed, and followed by dynamic lymphoscintigraphy and hand-held gamma probe. All the patients underwent neck dissection, and after surgery we removed the lymph nodes from the resected tissue and measured the size and radioactivity. And then, examined metastasis in each lymph node pathologically. Results : In all cases, Rhenium colloid was accumulated in the lymph nodes ; identification rate was 100%. In most cases, accumulation was in the sub-mandible area and jugular chain. In 5 of 9 cases, it was accumulated in pathologically metastatic lymph nodes. But in the other 4 cases, it did not accumulate in the lymph node metastasis, which was distinguished clinically. In 2 cases, Rhenium colloid accumulation was detected in the contralateral lymph node. And in 1 case contralateral metastasis occurred where there was Rhenium colloid accumulation. Conclusion : When the sentinel lymph node had already metastasized and was blocked the lymphatic basin, injected colloid flowed to a different lymph node through another basin. We call this node "secondary SLN". We suggest detection of colloid in secondary SLN is useful for selecting the field of the neck dissection.

The performance of a small hydrocyclone is examined experimentally for solid particle separation from water. The cyclone has an inner perforated cylindrical tube connected to the overflow orifice, and a conical cylinder is inserted into the underflow orifice to adjust the underflow flux. Two types of the inner cylinder were tested: the one has 50% void fraction of the perforated surface and the other has 61.2%. The glass bead was used as a solid particle whose average diameter is 4.84 μm. It is found that the hydrocyclone with the inner perforated cylinder shows better performance: When the cyclone has 50% void fraction of the perforated cylinder, the decrease of pressure loss is about 30% and the increase of separation efficiency is about 15% compared with the conventional cyclone. The higher void fraction of the inner cylinder produces higher performance.

Conventional intraoperative pathological examination for Sentinel node navigation surgery (SNNS) has been controversial. We evaluated the efficacy of one-step nucleic acid amplification (OSNA) assay for intraoperative diagnosis of cervical lymph node (CLN) metastasis compared with histopathological examination in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). A total of 175 CLNs dissected from 56 patients with HNSCC who underwent surgery at Aichi Cancer Center, Kyorin University, Gunma University or Fukushima Medical University, between April 2008 and December 2011 were enrolled. CLN samples were sectioned into four equal pieces, with two of each used for OSNA assay and other histopathological examinations. The diagnostic value of OSNA assay in HNSCC patients in predicting the results of histopathological diagnosis was evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curve. OSNA assay showed acceptable efficacy in the detection of pathological CLN metastasis (AUROC 0.918, 95 % confidence interval [CI] 0.852–0.984). Regarding the CK19mRNA cutoff value, the optimum cutoff point in HNSCC patients was 131 copies/μl (sensitivity: 82.4, 95 % CI 65.5–93.2; specificity: 99.3, 95 % CI 96.1–100.0; positive likelihood ratio 116.1; negative likelihood ratio 0.2]. We demonstrated that OSNA assay is useful in intraoperative diagnosis for CLN metastasis in patients with HNSCC. OSNA assay could be applied for SNNS in HNSCC patients.

Background Lung cancers are the most common type of human malignancy and are intractable. Lung cancers are generally classified into four histopathological subtypes: adenocarcinoma (AD), squamous cell carcinoma (SQ), large cell carcinoma (LC), and small cell carcinoma (SC). Molecular biological characterization of these subtypes has been performed mainly using DNA microarrays. In this study, we compared the gene expression profiles of these four subtypes using twelve human lung cancer cell lines and the more reliable quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). Results We selected 100 genes from public DNA microarray data and examined them by DNA microarray analysis in eight test cell lines (A549, ABC-1, EBC-1, LK-2, LU65, LU99, STC 1, RERF-LC-MA) and a normal control lung cell line (MRC-9). From this, we extracted 19 candidate genes. We quantified the expression of the 19 genes and a housekeeping gene, GAPDH, with qPCR, using the same eight cell lines plus four additional validation lung cancer cell lines (RERF-LC-MS, LC-1/sq, 86-2, and MS-1-L). Finally, we characterized the four subtypes of lung cancer cell lines using principal component analysis (PCA) of gene expression profiling for 12 of the 19 genes (AMY2A, CDH1, FOXG1, IGSF3, ISL1, MALL, PLAU, RAB25, S100P, SLCO4A1, STMN1, and TGM2). The combined PCA and gene pathway analyses suggested that these genes were related to cell adhesion, growth, and invasion. S100P in AD cells and CDH1 in AD and SQ cells were identified as candidate markers of these lung cancer subtypes based on their upregulation and the results of PCA analysis. Immunohistochemistry for S100P and RAB25 was closely correlated to gene expression. Conclusions These results show that the four subtypes, represented by 12 lung cancer cell lines, were well characterized using qPCR and PCA for the 12 genes examined. Certain genes, in particular S100P and CDH1, may be especially important for distinguishing the different subtypes. Our results confirm that qPCR and PCA analysis provide a useful tool for characterizing cancer cell subtypes, and we discuss the possible clinical applications of this approach.

分子の両末端にピリジン環をもつ非環状ジアミドを合成し,その分子構造と遷移金属イオンの抽出能および液膜輸送能との関連を検討した。配位子L1,L2およびL4は酸性領域においても二つのアミド水素を解離してCu2+イオンと選択的に非イオン性錯体を形成し,脂溶性陰イオンを必要とせずに抽出や輸送の可能なことが認められた。L3はpHが中性付近においてのみアミド水素を解離してCu2+イオンと錯形成した。L1,L2では高い抽出率を示したが輸送能は低く,これらの配位子の抽出能はL2>L1>L4>L3,輸送能はL3>L4>L1>L2の順に低下することが認められた。この両者の不一致はCu肝イオンの取り込みと放出速度の測定から輸送能が取り込みよりも放出速度に依存しているものと推定した。さらに,L1とL2はピクリン酸イオンが共存する場合にはNi2+,Zn2+iCo2+ イオンも抽出したが,これらのイオンもCu2+ イオンとの混合溶液ではCu2+イオンのみを抽出して他のイオンはまったく抽出しない。

Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate lymph node mapping for clinically positive neck metastasis using a sentinel node navigation technique. Methods: 99mTc-labeled rhenium sulfide was injected as a radiotracer in 10 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue. After surgery, lymph nodes were classified into two categories according to the radioactive accumulation: nodes with radioactivity and nodes without radioactivity. The ratio of the metastatic area (RMA) of pathologically metastatic lymph nodes was measured. Results: In 5 of 10 cases, all of the metastatic nodes had radioactive accumulation. In one case with three metastatic nodes, radioactivity was not detected in one metastatic node, although it was detected in the other two nodes. In the other four cases, there were no radioactivities in any of the metastatic nodes. RMA of lymph nodes in which radioactivity was not detected was higher than that of lymph nodes in which radioactivity was detected. None of the nodes in which radioactivity was detected was fully occupied by metastatic carcinoma cells. In each case, in comparing the clinically positive lymph nodes, RMA of the nodes in which no radioactivity was detected was higher than that of the nodes in which radioactivity was detected. Conclusion: The principle behind the sentinel node technique is detection of the node that has the most lymph flow from the tumor through injection of the tracer into the circumference of the tumor. When no radioactive accumulation is found in clinically positive metastatic lymph nodes, the possibility of metastasis to other lymph nodes should be highly suspected.

With the lowering volatilities in the foreign exchange and stock markets in recent years and historically low interest rates, investments in hedge funds and investment trusts (Japanese mutual funds) by Japanese investors have been increasing. For both hedge funds and investment trusts, investors subcontract asset management to investment managers by paying a management fee. It is pointed out that hedge funds, compared to publicly offered investment trusts, generally have less information disclosure and may have risk characteristics which are difficult to comprehend. On the other hand, investors can, by investing in hedge funds, seek returns that are not subject to fluctuations in market benchmarks. Such characteristics of hedge fund investments are realized through a highly free environment for investment managers. But from the perspective that investors bear risks, not embedded in investment trusts, such as liquidity constraints, liquidation risks, etc., there is a trade-off between risk and return. The reasons behind hedge funds securing positive returns since year 2000 regardless of fluctuations in benchmarks may have been derived from an investment policy aiming for "absolute returns" and less investment constraints.