Perspectives on the role of the lateral pterygoid muscle and the sphenomandibular ligament in temporomandibular joint function

This is a phase II study to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of short-course carboplatin in advanced-stage nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Thirty-three previously untreated stage III-IV NPC patients were studied. Carboplatin was given as a rapid intravenous injection every 3 weeks. The dose of carboplatin was calculated according to the individual patient's creatinine clearance and desired platelet nadir of 75,000/microliter according to the Egorin formula. Response and toxicity were evaluated. Thirty-two patients were evaluated for response. The median age was 54 years, range 30-70 years. Twenty-four patients had local regional disease and 8 patients had metastatic disease. The median dose of carboplatin given was 415 mg/m2 (range 91-791 mg/m2). Fourteen (44%) patients had a partial response with a 95% confidence interval of 26-62%. Fifteen (47%) patients had stable disease and 3 (9%) progressive disease. The overall median survival rate was not reached at 43 months. Overall toxicity was tolerable. Grade III-IV myelosuppression occurred in 4 (12%) patients. There were no other major toxicity- or treatment-related deaths. We conclude that carboplatin has a significant anticancer effect in advanced NPC. Thus carboplatin combination chemotherapy for the treatment of NPC is worthy of future clinical investigations.     

Influence of sn‐1,3‐lipase‐catalysed interesterification on the oxidative stability of soybean oil‐based structured lipids

The oxidative stability of structured lipids (SLs) synthesised by specific sn‐1,3‐lipase catalysed interesterification of soybean oil (SBO) with caprylic acid (CA) in a stirred batch reactor was studied. SLs contained considerable amounts of tocopherol (TOH) isomers, although they lost almost 25% of endogenous TOHs during production. The effects of the addition of different TOH homologues (α, β, γ, δ), ascorbyl palmitate (AP, 200 ppm), lecithin (Le, 1000 ppm), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT, 100 ppm) and butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA, 100 ppm) on the oxidative stability of SLs were investigated. Induction time (IT) of SBO, determined by the Rancimat method, decreased from 8.4 to 5.8 h at 110 °C after the modification. On the other hand, purified SLs and purified SBO had the same IT due to the tocopherol reduction during silica purification. No significant difference was observed between IT of SLs and SLs plus different α‐tocopherol concentrations (50, 100, 150, 200, 300, 500 and 1000 ppm) (P > 0.05). However, the addition of Le and/or AP significantly improved oxidative stability of purified SLs and SBO. The ternary blend containing δ‐TOH, AP and Le had higher IT than ternary blends of α‐TOH, β‐TOH or γ‐TOH. Furthermore, ternary blend containing BHA, AP and Le had higher IT than ternary blends of BHT, AP and Le. In addition, there was an increase in peroxide value (PV), conjugated diene (CD) content and p‐anisidine value (AV) during oxidation of oils at 60 °C. Antioxidant mixtures of α‐TOH (50 ppm) and δ‐TOH (500 ppm) with AP and Le decreased PV, CD and AV effectively. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry     

Novel Heterobimetallic Radiotheranostic: Preparation,Activity, and Biodistribution

A novel Ru^II(arene) theranostic complex is presented. It is based on a 1,4,7,10‐tetraazacyclododecane‐1,4,7,10‐tetraacetic acid macrocycle bearing a triarylphosphine and can be tracked in vivo by using the γ emission of ¹⁵³Sm atoms. Notably, the heteroditopic ligand can be selectively metalated with ruthenium at the phosphorus atom despite the presence of other functionalities that are prone to metal coordination. Subsequent labeling with radionuclides such as ¹⁵³Sm can then be performed easily. The resulting heterobimetallic complex exhibits favorable solubility and stability properties in biologically relevant media. It also shows in vitro cytotoxicity in line with that expected for this type of metallodrug, and is nontoxic to the organism as a whole. As a proof of concept, initial studies in healthy mice were performed to obtain information about the uptake, biodistribution, and excretion of the radiolabeled complex.     

Finite-element calculation of leakage inductances of a saturated salient-pole synchronous machine with damper circuits

It is important to understand the relationship between leakage flux distributions and machine characteristics for better design of synchronous machines. This paper presents a calculation method for leakage inductances of saturated salient-pole machines with damper circuits. All leakage inductances are divided into the self-leakage, gap leakage, and winding-differential leakage inductances. The leakage inductances correspond directly to the leakage flux distributions in the machines. Cross-magnetizing inductances are also calculated. The method is applied to a 300-MVA class generator. The relationship between the winding distributions, flux distributions, saturation, and inductances is discussed. Weak magnetic influence of the damper circuits on the armature in the d-axis is quantitatively illustrated through values of the winding-differential leakage inductances. The cross-magnetizing inductances, except for the d-axis damper circuits, are relatively large. Variations of the armature self-leakage inductances with saturation are small, and variations of the field and damper self-leakage inductances are larger.     

Molecular recognitive photocatalytic decomposition on mesoporous silica coated TiO2 particle

Mesoporous silica coated titania exhibited a substrate selective photocatalytic reaction; 4-nonylphenol and phenol were decomposed while nonane was not decomposed by the UV irradiation to their aqueous mixture.     

In situ mRNA hybridization technique for analysis of human telomerase RNA in gastric precancerous and cancerous lesions

Telomerase, the ribonucleoprotein enzyme that elongates telomerase, is repressed in normal somatic cells but is reactivated during tumor progression. The purpose of this study was to investigate the localization of human telomerase RNA (hTR) expression in human gastric precancerous and cancerous lesions by using in situ mRNA hybridization (ISH) with avidin-biotin staining. We also examined telomerase activity in these lesions by using hybridization protection assay connected with a telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP/HPA). Analyzed tissue samples were as follows; 132 cases of chronic atrophic gastritis without intestinal metaplasia, 115 incomplete-type intestinal metaplasias, 40 complete-type intestinal metaplasias, 23 hyperplastic polyps, 23 tubular adenomas and 26 adenocarcinomas. In ISH analysis, high levels of hTR expression were observed preferentially in the nuclei at the single-cell level. hTR-expressing cells in carcinomas and adenomas were significantly more frequent than those of the other lesions (P < 0.001). The expression pattern of hTR in carcinoma and adenoma tissues was heterogeneous and similar intratumor heterogeneity was detected in Ki-67 immunoreactivity. Infiltrating lymphocytes in tissue also exhibited high levels of hTR expression. In TRAP/HPA analysis, carcinomas had significantly more frequent positivity for telomerase activity and a higher level of telomerase activity than the other lesions (P < 0.05). However, the amount of telomerase activity did not parallel the expression level of hTR. Our data suggest that hTR expression increases in the early stages of stomach carcinogenesis and that sufficient synthesis of hTR is a prerequisite for telomerase reactivation in tumorigenesis.     

Novel rotor position extraction based on carrier frequency component method (CFCM) using two reference frames for IPM drives

In this paper a novel interior permanent-magnet (IPM) motor's rotor position extraction method from the carrier-frequency component signal, derived from pulsewidth-modulated (PWM) inverter switching, using two reference frames is presented. This method has been utilized for IPM motor vector control without a mechanical rotor position detector, extracting rotor position angle from the switching carrier-frequency (10 kHz) component current. It is effective for IPM motors, which have magnetic saliency, sinusoidal distributed stator winding, and are supplied by a PWM voltage-source inverter. The performance of two IPM motors' vector control without mechanical rotor position detector utilizing this method has been investigated. Experimental results demonstrating good dynamic and steady-state performance achieved are presented and discussed.     

Interaction of rat lin-10 with brain-enriched F-actin-binding protein, neurabin-II/spinophilin

We have recently isolated a rat homologue of the Caenorrhabditis elegans lin-10 product. Although rat lin-10 is expressed in the cytosol and membrane fractions of various tissues, it is distributed only in the membrane fraction in brain where it is enriched in the synaptic plasma membrane and postsynaptic density fractions. We have isolated here a rat lin-10-interacting protein from rat brain and identified it to be neurabin-II/spinophilin, which has recently been isolated as a protein interacting with protein phosphatase I and F-actin. Neurabin-II/spinophilin is ubiquitously expressed but enriched in brain, especially in the synaptic plasma membrane and postsynaptic density fractions. We discuss the physiological significance of the interaction of rat lin-10 with neurabin-II/spinophilin.