Reduced sensitivity to ethanol of Gs alpha and Gi/o alpha in the cerebral cortex of alcoholic patients

CA125 is a coelomic epithelial antigen which is widely used to monitor residual disease in patients undergoing chemotherapy for ovarian cancer. Interpretation of serum CA125 levels has been based on a normal value of 35 U/ml which was derived by screening a young, general population of blood donors which included women with intact reproductive systems. This study addresses the issue of what constitutes a normal serum CA125 level following successful surgical therapy for gynecologic malignancy. Three hundred ninety-three CA125 values were measured in 145 patients after an elapsed time of at least 1 year following completion of surgical therapy for early-stage endometrial or cervical adenocarcinoma. All patients were without evidence of recurrent disease. The mean duration of followup was 4.3 years with a median of 3.7 years. Sixty-seven percent of the CA125 values were less than 10 U/ml; 95% were less than or equal to 20 U/ml. The median value for this patient population was 7.5 U/ml with a mode of 7.1 U/ml. There was no correlation between patient age and CA125 levels. These data suggest that the normal value for CA125 used for patient follow-up after treatment for gynecologic adenocarcinoma needs to be redefined. Our data support an upper limit of normal of 20 U/ml and encourage further study on the clinical impact of this new definition.     

Inter-laboratory evaluation studies for establishment of notified ELISA methods for allergic substances (buckwheat)

Inter-laboratory evaluation studies were conducted for the ELISA methods for allergic substances (buckwheat). Extracts of snack, bun and udon spiked with buckwheat standard protein at a level of 5-20 ng/mL as sample solutions were analyzed in replicate at 10 laboratories. Coefficients of variation (CVs) of the ELISA methods using a Buckwheat Protein ELISA Kit (Buckwheat kit) and a FASTKIT Buckwheat ELISA kit (Buckwheat ELISA kit) were mostly below 10%. Mean recoveries of the buckwheat standard protein from the food extracts were over 40% in the two ELISA methods. Repeatability relative standard deviations of buckwheat standard protein in three food extracts were in the ranges of 6.8-78.5% and 5.0-33.9% for the Buckwheat kit and the Buckwheat ELISA kit, respectively. Reproducibility relative standard deviations of buckwheat standard protein in three food extracts were 11.9-69.5% and 16.5-34.1% for the Buckwheat kit and the Buckwheat ELISA kit, respectively. The detection limits of both ELISA methods were 1 ng/mL in sample solutions. These results suggest that the notified ELISA methods are reliable and reproducible for the inspection of buckwheat protein levels in extracts of snack, bun and udon.     

Critical current of react-and-jacket processed Nb3Sn conductor

A new type of large-scale Nb₃Sn conductor was developed that has an aluminum-alloy jacket to support an electromagnetic force. The manufacturing process of the conductor has a unique feature, in which the jacketing process is performed after a reaction heat treatment of the Nb₃Sn cable. This enables the conductor to have a high critical current, because the thermal strain of the Nb₃Sn filaments is decreased. Critical current measurements using a short conductor sample confirmed the expected high performance.     

Flux linkage areas of coupling current loops for different shape cable-in-conduit conductor

For large scale application such as fusion magnets, the cable-in-conduit conductor (CICC) is the most promising conductor because of its high mechanical strength under large electromagnetic force. However, there are still remained issues about degradation of critical current of Nb₃Sn conductor and unpredictable AC loss. With regard to the second item, inter-strand coupling current loss is dominant among the AC losses and unpredictable before fabricating large scale conductor. The strand displacements which are caused by the compaction of the conductor in order to increase its current density would cause the loss. In order to do quantitative investigation of the relation between the loss and the strand displacements, we measured strand traces for circular conductor and rectangular conductor. The evaluation of the flux linkage areas which are driving forces of the coupling current indicated that the flux linkage areas have strong dependence on the changing magnetic field only for the rectangular one. It also indicated that the loss should be large when the field is applied from the direction which is perpendicular to the wide surface of the conduit.     

Effects of the fermentation product of herbs by lactic acid bacteria against phytopathogenic filamentous fungi and on the growth of host plants

The fermentation product of herbs by lactic acid bacteria (FHL) was assayed for antifungal activities against Rosellinia necatrix, Helicobasidium mompa, Fusarium oxysporum, Pythium graminicola and Pyricularia oryzae. FHL completely inhibited the growth of R. necatrix, H. mompa, P. graminicola and P. oryzae, and reduced the growth of F. oxysporum by 35%. When the seeds of Medicago sativa L. (alfalfa), Asparagus officinalis L. (asparagus), Brassica campestris L. (komatsuna), Oryza sativa L. (rice), Spinacia oleracea L. (spinach), Festuca arundinacea Schreb. (tall fescue), and Lycopersicum esculentum Mill. (tomato) were put on plates containing 0.69 mg/ml FHL, their germination rates did not decrease. The root elongation of A. officinalis, B. campestris, O. sativa, and L. esculentum seedlings was suppressed on plates containing 6.92 mg/ml FHL, but the root elongation of M. sativa was not suppressed on the 6.92 mg/ml FHL plate. When FHL was diluted to less than 1.73 mg/ml, the diluted FHL solution did not suppress the germination of B. campestris seeds, but it suppressed the root elongation of B. campestris seedlings. An FHL concentration higher than 0.35 mg/ml hastened the growth of seedlings of B. campestris in the presence of a chemical fertilizer but delayed the growth of these seedlings in the absence of the chemical fertilizer, suggesting that inorganic elements could affect the efficiency of FHL.     

QSAR and molecular graphics analysis of N2-phenylguanines as inhibitors of herpes simplex virus thymidine kinases

A quantitative structure-activity relationship study of N2-(substituted)-phenylguanines (PHG) as inhibitors of herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSV TK) was performed. The activity of a set of PHG derivatives were analyzed against the thymidine kinase of herpes simplex virus types 1 (HSV1 TK) and 2 (HSV2 TK). Classic and calculated physicochemical parameters were included in the analysis. The results showed that there is an important difference in the activity of the meta substituted PHG derivatives against HSV1 TK and HSV2 TK. The activity of the meta derivatives against HSV2 TK is influenced by a steric effect, which is not observed against HSV1 TK. The superposition of the three-dimensional structures of the active sites of HSV1 TK (crystal structure) and HSV2 TK (homology model) revealed that the amino acid Ile97 is located near the meta position in the HSV1 TK active site, whereas the amino acid Leu97 is located near the meta position in the HSV2 TK active site. This single difference in the active sites of both enzymes can explain the source of the steric effect and serves as an indication that our previously proposed binding mode for the PHG derivatives is plausible. However, another observed mutation in the active site region, Ala168 by Ser168, suggests that an alternative binding mode, similar to that of ganciclovir, could be possible.     

Developmental Changes in Properties of Sweet Potato Starches

Sweet potato starches extracted from two varieties at different stages of development were investigated for various physicochemical properties. Average granule size increased in the early stage of development. The amylose content calculated from the blue value (BV) remained almost constant. The onset temperature (To) determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was lowest in the latest stage of development. The heat of gelatinization (ΔH) was lowest in the earliest stage of development. Digestibility by two glucoamylases tendet to be lower in the later stage of development.     

Ultrafast monolithic receiver OEIC composed of multimode waveguidep-i-n photodiode and HEMT distributed amplifier

A multimode waveguide p-i-n photodiode (WGPD) and a distributed baseband amplifier consisting of high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) were monolithically integrated on InP substrate using a stacked layer structure for both components. The multimode WGPD has a 3-dB bandwidth of 49 GHz. The distributed baseband amplifier has a 3-dB bandwidth of 47 GHz, though its 0.5-μm gate-length HEMTs have modest cutoff frequencies f_T/f_max of 47/100 GHz. The receiver optoelectronic integrated circuit has a bandwidth of 46.5 GHz. It was packaged into a fiber-pig-tailed module, and the WGPD in the module has a high responsivity of 0.62 A/W for 1.55-μm wavelength. The module achieves a sensitivity of -22.7 dBm at 40 Gb/s and exhibits a clear eye-opening at 50 Gb/s