Heat immunotherapy using magnetic nanoparticles and dendritic cells for T-lymphoma

Dendritic cells (DCs) are potent antigen-presenting cells that play important roles in regulating immune responses in cancer. Immunotherapy using these immunocytes has become an accepted therapeutic modality. We previously reported that hyperthermia using magnetic nanoparticles induces antitumor immunity, which could be activated by adjuvant including cytokines. In the present study, we investigated the therapeutic effects of hyperthermia combined with DC immunotherapy on mouse EL4 T-lymphoma. Magnetite cationic liposomes (MCLs) have a positive surface charge and generate heat in an alternating magnetic field (AMF) due to hysteresis loss. MCLs were injected into an EL4 nodule in C57BL/6 mice, which were subjected to AMF for 30 min. The temperature at the surface of the tumor reached 45 degrees C and was maintained by controlling the magnetic field intensity. Hyperthermia treatment was repeated twice with 24 h intervals. After hyperthermia, immature DCs were directly injected into the EL4 nodule. As a result, complete regression of tumors in 75% (6/8) of the mice was observed, while the percentage of complete regression of tumors was 12.5% (1/8) in the case of mice treated by hyperthermia alone. This novel cancer therapy, which we have termed "heat immunotherapy", may be applicable to patients with advanced malignancies.     

Feeding response of the silkworm,Bombyx mori,to UV irradiation of mulberry leaves

Ultraviolet irradiation of mulberry leaves caused a reduced feeding response inBombyx mori larvae (ca. 22% reduction in consumption as compared with control). Sucrose content of the foliage decreased after exposure to UV irradiation (0.5 mW/cm² for 1 hr. Electrophysiological responses of the sensilla styloconica-I to sucrose concentration (ca. 0–80 mg/g) showed a reduced response to UV-irradiated foliage when compared with the control. From feeding, gustatory, and electrophysiological responses, as well as the measurement of sucrose contents of the leaves, we concluded that the reduced feeding response to UV-irradiated leaves is due to the reduced sucrose content of the mulberry leaves, thus reducing pleogostimulatory levels.     

Effects of hub-to-tip ratio and reynolds number on the performance of impulse turbine for wave energy power plant

The objective of this paper is to present the performance comparison of the impulse turbines for different diameters. In the study, the investigation has been performed experimentally by model testing for some diameters, especially 0.3 m and 0.6 m. The experiment was performed for Reynolds number range of 0.17 X 10⁵—1.09X 10⁵ and for different values of hub-to-tip ratiov ranging from 0.6 to 0.85. As a result, it was found that the critical Reynolds number is to be around 0.5 X 10⁵ for v=0.6 and 0.4X 10⁵ for v=0.7. For the hub-to-tip ratio, the optimum value is 0.7 when the turbine is operated at lower Reynolds number. However, its value seems to be 0.6 at higher Reynolds number in the tested range.     

Development of computerized Kana Pick-out Test for the neuropsychological examination

The Kana Pick-out Test, which was developed in Japan and done with paper and pencil, is said to be suitable for inspecting higher-order brain function and to be a good method for screening persons with mild or slight dementia. We have developed a computerized version of the Kana Pick-out Test, which runs on a stand-alone computer, intended to be utilized for mass screening and self-administration. The program was developed with Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 and runs under the Windows operating system on any IBM PC compatible computer. In this study, all subjects could use the system by interacting with the computer and it was found that the system seemed to have the capability of detecting cognitive status equal to the paper-based Kana Pick-out Test. Besides this, we developed a network-based Kana Pick-out game software which was intended to attract user's notice. The game program was written in JAVA language and runs on a web-browser supporting JAVA on any operating system. The program, a so called applet, is located on our web site (http://environ.med.tottori-u.ac.jp) and anyone can use the applet by accessing our homepage.     

GTO DC Circuit Breaker Based on a Single-Chip Microcomputer

A single-chip microcomputer is used to obtain a versatile GTO circuit breaker for electric railway substations. The microcomputer provides firing control, excellent dc short-circuit fault interrupting performance, precise overload protection of circuit breakers by themselves, as well as high reliability with minimum components. Emphasis is on the GTO junction temperature observation.     

Self-organization phenomenon of strained InGaAs on InP (311) substrates grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy

We have demonstrated that a self-organization phenomenon occurs in strained InGaAs system on InP (311) substrates grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. This suggests that a similar formation process of nanocrystals exists not only on the GaAs (311)B substrate but also on the InP (311)B substrate. However, the ordering and the size homogeneity of the self-organized nanocrystals are slightly worse than those of the InGaAs/AlGaAs system on the GaAs (311)B substrate. The tensilely strained condition of a InGaAs/InP system with growth interruption in a PH₃ atmosphere reveals a surface morphology with nanocrystals even on the InP (100) substrate. It was found that strain energy and high growth temperature are important factors for self-organization on III-V compound semiconductors. Preliminary results indicate that the self-organized nanostructures in strained InGaAs/InP systems on InP substrates exhibit room temperature photoluminescent emissions at a wavelength of around 1.3 p.m.     

On the computation of unipotent characters of finite classical groups

We determine the constants appearing in the Lusztig conjecture in the case of unipotent characters of classical groupsG subject to the condition that the characteristic is odd and the center ofG is connected. This enables us to compute the character values of unipotent characters of such finite classical groups.     

A new fast and safe marking algorithm

A new marking algorithm for garbage collection is presented. Although the method is a variation of the usual simple stacking algorithm, in practice this algorithm has quite improved both in stack space and processing time. One significant modification is to stack a node only when both the sublists are unmarked. The other innovation is a ‘stacked-node-checking’ method invoked after each stack-overflow. With this method, a number of unnecessary nodes are eliminated, the stack is compacted, and the marking process can resume using the generated space in the stack. This algorithm has been used for LISP1.9 garbage collection for years, and succeeded in showing good figures.     

Bubble behaviors in subcooled boiling of wetting surface under low gravity

Stainless steel plate with 30mm in length, 1 mm in width and 0.1 mm in thickness is employed for a heating surface in subcooled quasi-pool boiling of water under low gravity performed by a parabolic flight. Testing liquid subcooling is about 10K at atmospheric pressure. The wetting heating surfaces are coated with ceramics materials which have been developed by a certain glass company. DC power is applied directly into the test heating surface and the bubble behaviors are observed by a high-speed video camera. Contact angle of water droplet is about 77–96 degree for the stainless surface and 30 degree or less for the wetting surface. In the ground experiment, the size of detaching bubbles from the wetting surface is smaller than those of stainless surface and the detaching period is shorter at same heating power. The burnout heat fluxes of wetting surfaces are about 50 percent higher those of stainless surfaces. In the low gravity experiment, DC power is applied into the surface at 10 second before start of low gravity and increases slightly until burnout. A single large bubble grows on the stainless surface and finally, the surface is burned out in a short period. For wetting surface, several large coalescing bubbles appear and they move rapidly on the surface, then one of the large bubbles grows and the burnout occurs. The burnout heat fluxes are higher than those of stainless surface. The wetting ceramics surface is considered to accelerate the liquid supply and the bubble moving.