Long-term follow-up of a patient with hepatocellular carcinoma associated with triple hepatitis virus (HBV, HDV, HCV) infection

OBJECTIVE: To determine the serum levels of soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1) and soluble E-selectin (sE-selectin) in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). METHOD: Serum samples from 80 patients with SSc and 20 healthy control subjects were examined by a sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: The serum levels of sVCAM-1 and sE-selectin were significantly higher in the patients with SSc than in the healthy controls. The serum levels of sVCAM-1 were correlated with the presence of pulmonary fibrosis, joint involvement and elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate levels. The serum levels of sE-selectin were correlated with the presence of pulmonary fibrosis. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that endothelial activation is involved in the development of this disease.     

New sensitivity measures for resistively terminated LC filters

Two new sensitivity measures for resistively terminated LC filters with arbitrary network structures are proposed. One gives an upper bound of the absolute sum of the second-order sensitivities of the operating propagation attentuation function with respect to the reactive elements. This measure, however, is based on the supposition of the invariance of the attenuation poles. the other gives an upper bound of the absolute sum of the first-order sensitivities of the group delay characteristic with respect to the reactive elements. Both the measures can be evaluated only from the prescribed characteristic function of the network. Some examples are included which show the utility of these measures for designing filters with favourable statistical tolerance in the passband.     

A detection method for intronic snoRNA genes using extended-weight-updating SOM with appearance probability of bases

Small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) are known that they will participate with RNA modification. However, detail functions of snoRNAs have not been clear still yet. In order to make clear functions of snoRNA, finding more snoRNAs and studying their works in cells are required. In this paper, we propose a method to detect snoRNA genes using extended-weight-updating self-organizing map (eSOM). An input vector to eSOM consists of a feature vector and a target vector. Different from a conventional SOM, a winner node for an input vector is decided by the feature vector only, and all the weights around the winner node are updated to be close to the input vector. We employ bases appearance probabilities and complementary base pair ratio for a feature vector. A target vector is a flag which is 1.0 or 0.0 for a positive or a negative sample, respectively. Experimental results showed our method achieved 91 and 93 % detection ratio for boxC/D and boxH/ACA type snoRNA genes, respectively.     

Detergency and mechanism of soil removal in detergent-enzyme system

Enzyme effects on detergency were studied at a relatively low temperature (20 C) using naturally solied fabrics (collars on working clothing) and 2 types of artificially soiled cotton cloths, milk-soiled and carbon-milk-soiled. Results of the test showed that protease has a favorable effect on detergency even at 20 C and improves the removal of common soils solid or oily, as well as protein-based soils. The protease also was proved fully effective under mechanical agitation in the presence of detergents. Futhermore, the role of enzyme was discussed based upon gel filtration of the washing bath which treated the milk-soiled cloths. The degradation of protein by protease to a molecular weight of ca. 10,000 to 50,000 was proved to be fairly important for removal of soil protein. It also was found that endo-peptidase action is more effective than exo-peptidase action. Based upon these findings, a problem in activity evaluation method for enzymes as detergent compoments also was presented.     

Elastic behavior of concentrated solutions of acrylonitrile copolymers

The elastic behavior of concentrated solution of acrylonitrile copolymer was investigated by the capillary end correction method. The results were as follows. (1) The shear stress is proportional to recoverable shear strain in accordance with Hooke's law below critical concentration; above a critical concentration, however, the shear modulus depends on shear stress. (2) The log–log plots of zero shear modulus against polymer concentration and molecular weight fall on two straight lines with different slopes. The intersection of lines is considered to be the onset of elastically deformable entanglement network. We denote this inflection point as (C_c)_e or (M_c)_e. (3) The log–log plot of viscosity against polymer concentration does not show a change of slope at the critical concentration (C_c)_e. (4) By the application of the kinetic theory of rubberlike elasticity to the pseudo-network structure of concentrated polymer solution, in the range of C_c < C < (C_c)_e or M_c < M < (M_c)_e, the number of chain entanglement per molecule is kept one; moreover, in the range of C > (C_c)_e, or M > (M_c)_e, the number of chain entanglement increases to three.     

Three-dimensional fine structure of the biliary tract: Scanning electron microscopy of biliary casts

The three-dimensional structure of the biliary tract was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of biliary casts. The replica of the biliary tract was successfully prepared by retrograde injection of low viscosity resin into the common bile duct. Bile canaliculi are intricate networks in which hexagonal and pentagonal meshworks are interconnected. Each hexagonal or pentagonal meshwork is on a plane, but adjoining meshworks are on different planes. Bile canalicular networks connect with bile ductules at the periphery of the portal tract. The intrahepatic bile duct showed considerable interspecies variation. The human bile duct has plexiform side branches and periductal sacculi, which are most numerous near the liver hilum and fewest in the smaller portal tracts. The hilar plexus and sacculi are present on opposite sides of the bile duct. The plexus formed at the bifurcation of the bile ducts exhibits a plane. Periductal sacculi were also observed in the monkey and pig bile ducts, particularly the latter, while rat bile ducts possess a peculiar portal bile ductular plexus situated between the portal tract and the surrounding liver parenchyma. No such structures were observed in either the dog or rabbit bile ducts. SEM of the biliary casts showed that the biliary tract was not a simple draining tube but had additional structures, such as periductal sacculi and plexiform side branches. These structures, together with the peribiliary vascular plexus, may be implicated in the modification of bile.     

Polyimide‐free LCD by dissolving dendrimers

Vertical alignment (VA) and in‐plane switching modes have been widely used for liquid crystal displays (LCDs). They require a polyimide (PI) alignment layer in the pixel structure. PI‐free LCDs have been proposed to exploit the VA of liquid crystals (LCs) obtained by dissolving dendrimers without PI. In this paper, we report a new PI‐free VA mode with a pixel structure that has in‐plane electrodes. The PI‐free VA is achieved by dissolving an LC dendrimer in a positive LC mixture. We measured the test cell properties and obtained a lower voltage and a higher brightness in the voltage–brightness curve. In addition, we analyzed the alignment surface of LC dendrimer by time‐of‐flight secondary ion mass spectrometry and scanning electron microscopy observations. We found that dendrimer molecules are uniformly adsorbed on the glass surface and that the layer was generally one molecule thick. These properties are responsible for the lower voltage and higher brightness of the PI‐free VA mode. The use of dendrimers allows the PI process to be omitted and reduces the power consumption of the VA mode. It is thus possible to reduce the high manufacturing costs and improve the performance of the VA mode.     

Demonstration of Transfer of Liquid Helium Using a Pump System with MgB2 Wires

An electric pump composed of an MgB₂ motor is combined with a superconducting level sensor using a thin CuNi-sheathed MgB₂ wire to demonstrate the transfer of liquid helium. An impeller is attached to the lower end of a rotating shaft of the MgB₂ motor and covered with an outer casing to form a kind of centrifugal pump. After that, the MgB₂ motor with the impeller is located vertically inside a cryostat with an infill of the liquid helium. Another glass Dewar vessel is also prepared to receive the liquid helium transferred from the cryostat containing the MgB₂ motor. The MgB₂ sensor is used not only to detect the level of the liquid helium but also to control the electric pump on the basis of its pre-estimated calibration curve. By using the assembled pump system, the liquid helium is successfully transferred from the cryostat to the glass Dewar vessel via a transfer tube. The transfers of liquid hydrogen with the identical pump system will be carried out in the near future.