The Complete Loss of p53 Expression Uniquely Predicts Worse Prognosis in Colorectal Cancer

p53 immunohistochemistry is considered an accurate surrogate marker reflecting the underlying TP53 mutation status and has utility in tumor diagnostics. In the present study, 269 primary CRCs were immunohistochemically evaluated for p53 expression to assess its utility in diagnostic pathology and prognostication. p53 expression was wild-type in 59 cases (23%), overexpressed in 143 cases (55%), completely lost in 50 cases (19%), and cytoplasmic in 10 cases (4%). p53 immunoreactivity was associated with tumor size (p = 0.0056), mucus production (p = 0.0015), and mismatch repair (MMR) system status (p < 0.0001). Furthermore, among CRCs with wild-type p53 expression, a significantly higher number of cases had decreased CDX2 than those with p53 overexpression (p = 0.012) or complete p53 loss (p = 0.043). In contrast, among CRCs with p53 overexpression, there were significantly fewer ALCAM-positive cases than p53 wild-type cases (p = 0.0045). However, no significant association was detected between p53 immunoreactivity and the “stem-like” immunophenotype defined by CDX2 downregulation and ALCAM-positivity. Multivariate Cox hazards regression analysis identified tubular-forming histology (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.17, p < 0.0001), younger age (HR = 0.52, p = 0.021), and female sex (HR = 0.55, p = 0.046) as potential favorable factors. The analysis also revealed complete p53 loss (HR = 2.16, p = 0.0087), incomplete resection (HR = 2.65, p = 0.0068), and peritoneal metastasis (HR = 5.32, p < 0.0001) as potential independent risk factors for patients with CRC. The sub-cohort survival analyses classified according to chemotherapy after surgery revealed that CRC patients with wild-type p53 expression tended to have better survival than those with overexpression or complete loss after chemotherapy. Thus, immunohistochemistry for p53 could be used for the prognostication and chemotherapy target selection of patients with CRC.     

Temperature imaging of sub-millimeter-thick water using a near-infrared camera

This paper presents a method of imaging temperature distributions of sub-millimeter-thick water using a near-infrared camera and optical narrow-bandpass filter. The principle is based on the temperature dependence of the ν₁ + ν₃ absorption band of water. Temperature images are constructed by measuring the absorbance of water at the wavelength of 1412 nm through the filter for all pixels of the camera. From calibration measurements on 0.5-mm thick water at temperatures from 26.0 °C to 40.0 °C, the temperature coefficient was 6.3 × 10^?4 K^?1 and the standard deviation of absorbance was 1.9 × 10^?4. Thermal diffusion in 0.5-mm thick water caused by a thin heating wire was visualized with this method. The obtained images were verified against temperature distributions calculated by solving a two-dimensional thermal conduction model. This method would be useful for temperature measurement applications and control of aqueous solutions in microchips.     

A concentrator module of spherical Si solar cell

Spherical Si solar cell, which is made up of Si spheres with a diameter of approximately 1.0 mm, is expected to be a promising candidate for low consumption of Si feedstock and simple process technology. This paper describes the formation process and the structure of a concentrator module in detail. The concentrator lens was formed by casting with ultraviolet light hardening resin. The concentration ratio was 4.4 times and the pitch between the spheres was 2.0 mm. By this module design, it was possible to realize a consumption of the Si feedstock of about 3.0 g/W. Conversion efficiencies of 11.3% from single-sphere cell, 8.5% from a 23-spheres module and 5.2% from a 105-spheres module under AM1.5, 100 mW/cm² illumination were achieved.     

Hydrogen production by combining two types of photosynthetic bacteria with different characteristics

The double-layer photobioreactor using two types of photosynthetic bacteria, Rhodobacter sphaeroides RV and its reduced-pigment mutant, MTP4, was developed for efficient hydrogen production. The two types of bacteria had different characteristics on light energy, hydrogen production rate and conversion efficiency. MTP4 produced hydrogen more efficiently under high light conditions and RV did so under low light conditions. Illuminated light toward the surface of a photobioreactor quasi-exponentially declines as it penetrates into the reactor. When two types of bacteria were placed using the developed reactor according to this light distribution, the hydrogen production rate reached 3.64 l/m²/h at a light intensity of 500 W/m² in 24 h and the conversion efficiency of light energy to hydrogen was 2.18%. These values were 33% higher than those of only using RV. The low light in the deep part of the reactor was utilized efficiently, resulting in a higher hydrogen production rate.     

Multimodal sensing and active continuous closed‐loop feedback for achieving reliable manipulation in the outdoor physical world

The use of field robots can greatly decrease the amount of time, effort, and associated risk compared to if human workers were to carryout certain tasks such as disaster response. However, transportability and reliability remain two main issues for most current robot systems. To address the issue of transportability, we have developed a lightweight modularizable platform named AeroArm. To address the issue of reliability, we utilize a multimodal sensing approach, combining the use of multiple sensors and sensor types, and the use of different detection algorithms, as well as active continuous closed‐loop feedback to accurately estimate the state of the robot with respect to the environment. We used Challenge 2 of the 2017 Mohammed Bin Zayed International Robotics Competition as an example outdoor manipulation task, demonstrating the capabilities of our robot system and approach in achieving reliable performance in the fields, and ranked fifth place internationally in the competition.     

Neutronic and thermodynamic feasibility of UF6-NpF6 fueled transmutation reactor

Transmutation of neptunium, which is contained in radioactive wastes discharged from nuclear reactors, was investigated as a substitutional method for geologic disposal. We proposed a transmutation reactor fueled with a mixture of gaseous ²³³UF₆ and ²³⁷NpF₆. Neutronic and thermodynamic analysis of the reactor revealed the feasibility of the concept. The reactor has two principal advantages: (1) use of the fuel gas enables on-line reprocessing, (2) ²³⁷Np can be transmuted by a high neutron flux. Our calculation indicated that the transmutation rate of ²³⁷Np was 335 g/year/MW_th, which is much larger than the annual yield of ²³²Np in PWR (6.19 g/year/MW_th).     

JSFR key technology evaluation on fuel handling system

A simplified fuel handling system design for the demonstration Japan sodium-cooled fast reactor (JSFR) has been proposed. Fast Reactor Cycle Technology Development project phase I results of key technology evaluations on a pantograph fuel handling machine (FHM), a fuel transfer pot with two core component positions, dry spent fuel cleaning and minor actinide-bearing fresh fuel shipping cask are summarized. A full-scale FHM mockup has been fabricated and tested in the air accumulating performance and seismic tolerance data. A mockup fuel transfer pot with fins and chromium carbide coating has been fabricated and tested with sodium accumulating heat transfer performance data. Several sodium cleaning tests using a dummy subassembly has been conducted accumulating cleaning performance data. For fresh fuel shipping cask, a design tool for evaluation of heat transfer capability has been developed and a helium gas cask shows cooling capability of minor actinide-bearing fresh fuel. Those experimental and analytical efforts have shown that key technologies to develop simplified fuel handling system are matured enough to proceed large-scale sodium experiments and conceptual design study for the demonstration JSFR.     

Measurements of keV-neutron capture cross sections and capture gamma-ray spectra of 105Pd

The neutron capture cross sections and capture gamma-ray spectra of ¹⁰⁵Pd were measured in the region from 15 to 100 keV and at 585 keV. A neutron time-of-flight method was utilised with an anti-Compton NaI(Tl) spectrometer and a 1.5-ns pulsed neutron source by the ⁷Li(p,n)⁷Be reaction. The capture yields were obtained by applying a pulse-height weighting technique to the observed net capture gamma-ray pulse-height spectra. The capture cross sections of ¹⁰⁵Pd were derived with errors less than 5%, using the standard capture cross sections of ¹⁹⁷Au. The evaluated capture cross sections of JENDL-4.0 and ENDF/B-VII.1 were compared with the present results. The evaluations of JENDL-4.0 and ENDF/B-VII.1 were larger than the present results by 3%–15% in the region from 15 to 100 keV and at 585 keV. The capture gamma-ray spectra of ¹⁰⁵Pd were also derived by unfolding the observed net capture gamma-ray pulse-height spectra. The multiplicities of capture gamma rays of ¹⁰⁵Pd were obtained from the capture gamma-ray spectra.     

Generated output increase control with consideration of the influence of wake for wind farm

Presently, many wind turbine generators (WTGs) are connected to the power grid. While the penetration of wind power to the power system is increasing, FIT price is decreasing. Therefore, wind generation companies want to increase the electric power output from wind farms (WFs). In this article, we propose a control technique to reduce the influence of the wake by changing a power coefficient of each WTG in a WF for the purpose of improving electric power output of WFs. We showed the optimization technique of a power coefficient of each WTG and the effect of reducing the influence of the wake using measurement data from WFs. In addition, we formulated the wake effect as a function of distance between WTGs. We verified 1% improvement of generated energy in a year compared to the conventional control method by simulation. Furthermore, we quantified the improvement of generated energy output, using the distance between WTGs and the occurrence rate of the direction of the wind as a variable.