Change in bacterial community during biodegradation of aniline

A modification of the standard electrodiagnostic test was developed in an effort to provide a more sensitive electrodiagnostic evaluation in radial tunnel syndrome. Radial motor nerve latency recordings were obtained in 3 different forearm positions: neutral, passive supination, and passive pronation. The maximal difference in these recordings, the differential latency, in 25 patients with radial tunnel syndrome of greater than 6 months duration (test group) was compared with those in 25 asymptomatic volunteers (control group). Differential latency recordings were obtained in all patients in the test group before and after surgery. Radial nerves that were compressed demonstrated a significantly greater differential latency (0.44+/-0.12 ms) versus controls (0.12+/-0.008 ms). Following radial nerve decompression, differential motor latencies in the test group decreased below control values, demonstrating a resolution of the provoked electrical response with a postoperative differential latency of 0.07+/-0.05 ms. Our results demonstrate the differential motor latency of the radial nerve to be a sensitive electrodiagnostic tool in patients with radial tunnel syndrome. A differential latency of > or =0.30 ms was considered indicative of radial tunnel syndrome.     

Input information maximization for improving self-organizing maps

In this paper, we propose a new type of information-theoretic method called “input information maximization” to improve the performance of self-organizing maps. We consider outputs from input neurons by focusing on winning neurons. The outputs are based on the difference between input neurons and the corresponding winning neurons. Then, we compute the uncertainty of input neurons by normalizing the outputs. Input information is defined as a decrease in the uncertainty of input neurons from a maximum and observed value. When input information increases, fewer input neurons tend to be activated. In the maximum state, only one neuron is on, and all others are off. We applied the method to two data sets, namely, the Senate and voting attitude data sets. In both, experimental results confirmed that when input information increased, quantization and topographic errors decreased. In addition, clearer class structure could be extracted by increasing input information. In comparison to our previous methods to detect the importance of input neurons, the present method turned out to be good at producing faithful representations with much more simplified computational procedures.     

Selective enumeration of viable Enterobacteriaceae and Pseudomonas spp. in milk within 7 h by multicolor fluorescence in situ hybridization following microcolony formation

Rapid and simultaneous enumeration of viable Enterobacteriaceae and viable Pseudomonas spp. in milk was achieved by using multicolor fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with oligonucleotide probes based on 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) sequences in combination with a microcolony growth method (multicolor microcolony-FISH; MMC-FISH). The procedure of MMC-FISH method is rather simple; that is milk clearing, filtration of cells, incubation, hybridization and enumeration. Enumeration of targeted bacteria in logarithmic growth phase, stationary phase, or in a starved state in milk by MMC-FISH required 5-7 h, while it took 1-3 days to test for Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas putida by the conventional culture method. The numbers of E. coli and P. putida in each phase or in a starved state in milk determined by MMC-FISH were almost the same or greater than the number of colony forming units determined by the plate counting method. The MMC-FISH allows rapid examination of contamination in milk by viable Enterobacteriaceae and Pseudomonas spp. with growth potential.     

Numerical simulation on the dynamics of photoinduced cooperative phenomena in molecular crystals

We develop a new simulation method to study the dynamics of initial nucleation processes of photoinduced structural change of molecular crystals. In order to describe the nonadiabatic transition in each molecule, we employ a model of localized electrons coupled with a fully quantized phonon mode, and the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for the model is numerically solved. By applying a mean-field approximation in solving the Schrödinger equation, the calculation method is quite efficient on parallel computing systems. We show that coherently driven molecular distortion plays an important role in the successive conversion of electronic states which leads to photoinduced cooperative phenomena.     

Highly reliable copper dual-damascene interconnects with self-formed MnSi/sub x/O/sub y/ barrier Layer

Copper (Cu) dual-damascene interconnects with a self-formed MnSi/sub x/O/sub y/ barrier layer were successfully fabricated. Transmission electron microscopy shows that approximately 2-nm thick and continuous MnSi/sub x/O/sub y/ layer was formed at the interface of Cu and dielectric SiO/sub 2/, and that no barrier was formed at the via bottom because no oxygen was at the via bottom during annealing. No leakage-current increase was observed, and electron energy loss analysis shows that no Cu was in SiO/sub 2/, suggesting that MnSi/sub x/O/sub y/ layer has sufficient barrier properties for Cu, and that the concept of self-forming barrier process works in Cu dual-damascene interconnects. Via chain yield of more than 90% and 50% reduction in via resistance were obtained as compared with physical vapor deposited tantalum barrier, because there is no barrier at the via bottom. In addition, no failure in the stress-induced voiding measurement was found even after a 1600-h testing. No failure in electromigration (EM) testing was found, as the electron flow is from the lower level interconnects through via up to upper level interconnects even after 1000-h testing. At least, four times EM lifetime improvement was obtained in the case of electron flow from upper level interconnect through via down to lower level interconnects. Significant EM lifetime improvement is due to no flux divergence site at the via bottom, resulting from there being no bottom barrier at the via.     

Photoautotrophic cultures of the host and transformed cells of Marchantia polymorpha under controlled incident light intensity

Photoautotrophic cultures of the host and transformed cells of the liverwort, Marchantia polymorpha, were examined. In cultures in flat glass flasks under various light intensities, it was found that the growth rates of both the cells increased with increase in light intensity in the range of 0 to 25 W/m2, but further increase in light intensity caused photoinhibition of the growth of the cells. Cultures of both the types of cells under light-controlled conditions using an externally illuminated bioreactor were carried out taking into consideration the inhibition of cell growth by excessive light and the light intensity distributions in the cell suspensions. In these cultures, 2.1 (transformed cells) and 3.3 (host cells) kg dry cell weight per m3 were harvested at culture times of 9.0 and 10 d, respectively. These values were larger than those obtained in cultures of the respective cells at a fixed incident light intensity of 25 W/m2.     

MaMi, a human endometrial stromal sarcoma cell line that constitutively produces interleukin-6, interleukin-8, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1

BACKGROUND: Uterine endometrial stromal sarcoma is a rare neoplasm with a morphology that closely resembles that of the proliferative endometrial stroma. To understand its pathologic characteristics, we established a novel cell line, MaMi, from a primary culture of an endometrial stromal sarcoma obtained from a 65-year-old Japanese woman. METHODS: We observed the morphology of MaMi cells and performed immunohistochemical analysis on the primary tumor and transplants in nude mice. Prolactin, insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-1, interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, intercellular adhesion molecule-1, E-selectin, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1, and fibronectin production in the culture medium of MaMi cells were also examined. RESULTS: MaMi cells were shown to exhibit a fibroblast-like morphology in vitro, and they adopted a more elongated appearance in response to 12-O-tetradecanoyl phorbol-13-acetate (TPA). On injection into nude mice, the cells gave rise to subcutaneous tumors. Immunohistologically, both the primary tumor and MaMi cell-induced tumors stained positively with antibodies to neuron-specific enolase or vimentin. MaMi cells constitutively produced IL-6, IL-8, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 in vitro. Interleukin-1beta, (100 pmol/L), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (1 nmol/L), and lipopolysaccharide (1 microg/mL) each increased the release of IL-6, IL-8, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 by MaMi cells. TPA (10 nmol/L) also stimulated the production of IL-6 and IL-8 by these cells, but inhibited that of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated that MaMi cells closely resemble proliferative endometrial stromal cells not only morphologically, but also functionally. This cell line may prove valuable in understanding the role of cytokines produced by tumor cells in the pathogenesis of endometrial stromal sarcoma and may also be useful as an in vitro model of functioning endometrial stromal cells.