Role of Metabolism in Bone Development and Homeostasis

Carbohydrates, fats, and proteins are the underlying energy sources for animals and are catabolized through specific biochemical cascades involving numerous enzymes. The catabolites and metabolites in these metabolic pathways are crucial for many cellular functions; therefore, an imbalance and/or dysregulation of these pathways causes cellular dysfunction, resulting in various metabolic diseases. Bone, a highly mineralized organ that serves as a skeleton of the body, undergoes continuous active turnover, which is required for the maintenance of healthy bony components through the deposition and resorption of bone matrix and minerals. This highly coordinated event is regulated throughout life by bone cells such as osteoblasts, osteoclasts, and osteocytes, and requires synchronized activities from different metabolic pathways. Here, we aim to provide a comprehensive review of the cellular metabolism involved in bone development and homeostasis, as revealed by mouse genetic studies.     

Dynamical Properties of Vortices in a Bose-Einstein Condensate in a Rotating Lattice

We present simulation results of the vortex dynamics in a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate in the presence of a rotating optical lattice. Changing the potential amplitude and the relative rotation frequency between the condensate and the optical lattice, we find a rich variety of dynamical phases of vortices. In particular, when the optical lattice rotates faster than the condensate, the competition between the pinning force and the interactions by nucleated interstitial vortices leads to the melting of vortex lattice, yielding a vortex liquid phase.     

Comparative antimycobacterial activities of the newly synthesized quinolone AM-1155, sparfloxacin, and ofloxacin

AM-1155 is a newly synthesized 6-fluoro-8-methoxy quinolone. We assessed its in vitro antimycobacterial activity using sparfloxacin (SPFX) and ofloxacin (OFLX) as comparison drugs. The MICs of these agents for various mycobacterial strains were determined by the agar dilution method with 7H11 medium. AM-1155 had lower MICs for 50 and 90% of tested strains of Mycobacterium kansasii, M. marinum, and M. fortuitum-M. chelonae complex than SPFX and OFLX, and the values for M. tuberculosis, M. scrofulaceum, and the M. avium-M. intracellulare complex were similar to those of SPFX and considerably lower than those of OFLX. In addition, the antimicrobial activity of AM-1155 against M. tuberculosis and M. intracellulare phagocytosed into murine peritoneal macrophages was compared with that of OFLX. AM-1155 (1 microgram/ml) inhibited the intracellular growth of both M. tuberculosis and M. intracellulare, whereas OFLX at the same concentration failed to show any such effect. Moreover, AM-1155 (10 micrograms/ml) exhibited a steady bactericidal action against M. tuberculosis, whereas OFLX at the same concentration had only a weak effect. AM-1155 (10 micrograms/ml) also inhibited the growth of M. intracellulare more effectively than OFLX.     

Superconductivity in SrTa2S5

A strontium tantalum sulfide, SrTa₂S₅, has a hexagonal structure with lattice constants of a =3.32 and c=24.1 Å. With decreasing temperature the electrical resistivity decreases monotonically and exhibits an abrupt superconducting transition at 3.16 K (midpoint). The diamagnetic susceptibility is observed below T_c. The magnetic susceptibility is nearly independent of temperature above T_c and shows Pauli paramagnetism.     

Human peripheral eosinophils express functional interferon-gamma receptors (IFN-gammaR)

In order to determine whether or not IFN-gammaR is associated with regulatory mechanisms on human eosinophil function, we examined the expression of functional IFN-gammaR on human peripheral eosinophils. In this study, peripheral blood eosinophils were obtained from seven normal controls and 12 patients (bronchial asthma, n = 9, and hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES), n = 3), and the purity of eosinophils was 97.11 +/- 2.31%, n = 19. We first showed that anti-IFN-gammaR alpha-chain MoAb reacted with all tested eosinophils of both normal controls and patients by flow cytometry analysis. We also showed expression of mRNA for the alpha-chain of IFN-gammaR in all purified eosinophils of six individuals. Further, to characterize IFN-gammaR on eosinophils, we did binding experiments with 125I-IFN-gamma on purified peripheral eosinophils. The linear Scatchard plot indicated a single type of high-affinity binding sites (dissociation constant (Kd) = 3.89-4.95 x 10(-10) M, numbers of binding sites = 183-233/cell, n = 3). To determine whether IFN-gammaR on eosinophils is functional, we examined surface eosinophilic cationic protein (ECP) and CD69 induction after IFN-gammaR ligation with recombinant human IFN-gamma (rhIFN-gamma) on eosinophils by flow cytometry. rhIFN-gamma stimulation significantly induced both ECP and CD69 expression on the 2-18 h-cultured eosinophils in a dose-dependent manner. Further, the effects of rhIFN-gamma stimulation were significantly blocked by both a neutralizing anti-IFN-gamma MoAb and a blocking anti-IFN-gammaR MoAb. These results suggest that human peripheral eosinophils express functional IFN-gammaR.     

Analytic Approximation to The Standard Error of Swap-Rate

When we select No students from N applicants on the basis of a composite score of subtests, it is important to evaluate the contribution of each subtest. The swap-rate, which is defined as the proportion of the applicants who actually pass the examination but would fail if the j-th subtest were not included in the component to rank the applicants, is one of the measures of the contribution of the j-th subtest.

In this article, first, we derive the characteristics and limiting properties of the population swap-rate. Next, using the properties of the order statistics and the extended hypergeometric distribution, we derive an approximation to the asymptotic variance of the sample swap-rate when the number of applicants is large. Finally, we propose the use of our analytic approximation to the variance of the sample swap-rate in the real data problem and show that it is very efficient.

     

Development of 170 GHz/500 kW gyrotron

A development of 170GHz/500kW level gyrotron was carried out as R&D work of ITER. The oscillation mode is TE_31,8. In a short pulse experiment, the maximum power of 750kW was achieved at 85kV/40A. The efficiency was 22%. In the depressed collector operation, 500kW/36%/50ms was obtained. The maximum efficiency of 40% was obtained at P_RF=470kW whereas the power decrease by the electron trapping was observed. Pulse extension was done up to 10s at P_RF=170kW with the depressed collector operation. The power was limited by the temperature increase of the output window.     

Modeling of a power electronic converter for EMC in the conduction emission frequency band

With the advancement of high‐frequency switching devices, electromagnetic interferences (EMI) have become problems in power electronic converter designs. It is necessary for an electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) design to prospect and consider its possible EMI levels. This paper describes how to compute effects from a power converter to an object point to reduce conduction EMI noises effectively by an appropriate design. Modeling techniques for converter elements are discussed for a model in the conduction emission frequency band by the parameter tuning method and for line constants by an analytical derivation. Then a derived model is simulated for harmonic distributions of loop currents and their magnetic fields. © 2002 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 139(1): 44–50, 2002: DOI 10.1002/eej.1145     

Tradeoffs in granularity and parallelization for a Monte Carlo shower simulation code

The EGS4 code, developed at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, simulates electron-photon cascading phenomena. The original code is inherently sequential: processing one particle at a time. This paper reports on a series of experiments in parallelizing different versions of EGS4. Our parallel experiments were run on a 30-processor Sequent Balance B21 and a 6-processor Symmetry S27. We have considered the following approaches for parallel execution of this application code:

1. (1) Original sequential version modified for parallel processing: 1 processor;

2. (2) Version 1 run multiprocessed: 1 to 29 processors;

3. (3) Sequential version modified for large-grain parallel processing: 1 procssor;

4. (4) Version 3 run using the Sequent Microtasking Library: 1 to 29 processors.

For each approach, we discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages in the areas of coding effort, understandability and portability, as well as performance, and outline a new parallelization approach we are currently pursuing based on Large-Grain Data Flow techniques.     

The heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of finned tube banks in forced convection (effects of fin height on pressure drop characteristics)

In recent years the requirement for the reduction of energy consumption has been increasing to solve the problems of global warming and the shortage of petroleum resources. For example, in the power generation field, as thermal power generation occupied 60% of the power generation demand, considerable improvement of the thermal efficiency is required. This paper describes the pressure drop characteristics of finned tube banks used for heat exchangers in thermal power generation that were clarified by testing serrated finned tube banks with different fin heights for improved heat transfer and conventional spiral finned tube banks with different fin heights, and an equation to predict pressure drop which is necessary for the heat exchanger design is proposed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 35(3): 179–193, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20112