The Belle Silicon Vertex Detector

The silicon vertex detector of the Belle experiment has been built to provide the vertex information of $B$ meson decays at the KEKB accelerator. Performance during the initial data taking period and a brief description of the upgrade plan are also presented.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Development and Application of Semiconductor Tracking Detectors, March 22 - 25, 2000 Hiroshima, Japa

The Hyper Suprime-Cam SSP Survey: Overview and survey design

Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) is a wide-field imaging camera on the prime focus of the 8.2-m Subaru telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. A team of scientists from Japan, Taiwan, and Princeton University is using HSC to carry out a 300-night multi-band imaging survey of the high-latitude sky. The survey includes three layers: the Wide layer will cover 1400 deg^2 in five broad bands (grizy), with a 5 σ point-source depth of r ≈ 26. The Deep layer covers a total of 26 deg^2 in four fields, going roughly a magnitude fainter, while the UltraDeep layer goes almost a magnitude fainter still in two pointings of HSC (a total of 3.5 deg^2). Here we describe the instrument, the science goals of the survey, and the survey strategy and data processing. This paper serves as an introduction to a special issue of the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, which includes a large number of technical and scientific papers describing results from the early phases of this survey

The Hyper Suprime-Cam SSP Survey: Overview and survey design

Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) is a wide-field imaging camera on the prime focus of the 8.2-m Subaru telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. A team of scientists from Japan, Taiwan, and Princeton University is using HSC to carry out a 300-night multi-band imaging survey of the high-latitude sky. The survey includes three layers: the Wide layer will cover 1400 deg^2 in five broad bands (grizy), with a 5 σ point-source depth of r ≈ 26. The Deep layer covers a total of 26 deg^2 in four fields, going roughly a magnitude fainter, while the UltraDeep layer goes almost a magnitude fainter still in two pointings of HSC (a total of 3.5 deg^2). Here we describe the instrument, the science goals of the survey, and the survey strategy and data processing. This paper serves as an introduction to a special issue of the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, which includes a large number of technical and scientific papers describing results from the early phases of this survey

The Eighth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Data from SDSS-III

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) started a new phase in 2008 August, with new instrumentation and new surveys focused on Galactic structure and chemical evolution, measurements of the baryon oscillation feature in the clustering of galaxies and the quasar Lyα forest, and a radial velocity search for planets around ~8000 stars. This paper describes the first data release of SDSS-III (and the eighth counting from the beginning of the SDSS). The release includes five-band imaging of roughly 5200 deg^2 in the southern Galactic cap, bringing the total footprint of the SDSS imaging to 14,555 deg^2, or over a third of the Celestial Sphere. All the imaging data have been reprocessed with an improved sky-subtraction algorithm and a final, self-consistent photometric recalibration and flat-field determination. This release also includes all data from the second phase of the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration (SEGUE-2), consisting of spectroscopy of approximately 118,000 stars at both high and low Galactic latitudes. All the more than half a million stellar spectra obtained with the SDSS spectrograph have been reprocessed through an improved stellar parameter pipeline, which has better determination of metallicity for high-metallicity stars

内視鏡的硬化療法の手技と治療成績における透明フードの有用性

Objective: Although the effectiveness of a transparent hood has been reported in various endoscopic procedures, there are only a few reports regarding the benefit of a transparent hood in endoscopic injection sclerotherapy(EIS). In the current study, we conducted a retrospective evaluation of the efficacy and long-term benefit of an oblique transparent hood on EIS. Methods: The transparent hood, manufactured by Olympus (MAJ295 or MAJ296), consisted of a reusable wide oblique distal attachment with rim. This hood was attached when the varix was fine (F0 or F1). In this retrospective study, a total of 201 patients were recruited, and 99 patients (designated as the "Hood Group") received this hood while 102 patients (designated as the "Conventional Group") did not. We compared the rate of intravariceal injection, enhanced supply vessels, variceal eradication, and recurrence between these two groups. Results: This transparent hood provided a better visual field, and there was no serious complication in any of the patients. Intravariceal injection rates in the Hood Group and Conventional Group were 73.9% (190/257) and 57.7% (146/253) respectively (p<0.01). The rates of enhanced supply vessels in the Hood Group and Conventional Group were 89.8% (89/99) and 72.5% (74/102) respectively (p<0.01). The rates of variceal eradication did not differ significantly. We also assessed the cumulative non-recurrence probability for up to 3000 days between the two groups. The Hood Group was statistically superior to the Conventional Group (p<0.01) Conclusion: The application of an oblique transparent hood method is safe and effective for intravariceal EIS. This hood contributes especially to reduction of the long-term recurrence probability.博士（医学）・乙第1365号・平成27年11月27

Extragalactic Science, Cosmology and Galactic Archaeology with the Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS)

The Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) is a massively-multiplexed fiber-fed optical and near-infrared 3-arm spectrograph (N_fiber=2400, 380<lambda<1260nm, 1.3 degree diameter FoV), offering unique opportunities in survey astronomy. Here we summarize the science case feasible for a survey of Subaru 300 nights. We describe plans to constrain the nature of dark energy via a survey of emission line galaxies spanning a comoving volume of 9.3 (Gpc/h)^3 in the redshift range 0.8<z<2.4. In each of 6 redshift bins, the cosmological distances will be measured to 3% precision via BAO, and redshift-space distortions will be used to constrain structure growth to 6% precision. In the GA program, radial velocities and chemical abundances of stars in the Milky Way and M31 will be used to infer the past assembly histories of spiral galaxies and the structure of their dark matter halos. Data will be secured for 10^6 stars in the Galactic thick-disk, halo and tidal streams as faint as V~22, including stars with V < 20 to complement the goals of the Gaia mission. A medium-resolution mode with R = 5000 to be implemented in the red arm will allow the measurement of multiple alpha-element abundances and more precise velocities for Galactic stars, elucidating the detailed chemo-dynamical structure and evolution of each of the main stellar components of the Milky Way Galaxy and of its dwarf spheroidal galaxies. For the extragalactic program, our simulations suggest the wide avelength range will be powerful in probing the galaxy population and its clustering over a wide redshift range. We propose to conduct a color-selected survey of 1<z<2 galaxies and AGN over 16 deg^2 to J~23.4, yielding a fair sample of galaxies with stellar masses above ~10^{10}Ms at z~2. A two-tiered survey of higher redshift LBGs and LAEs will quantify the properties of early systems close to the reionization epoch.Comment: This document describes the scientific program and requirements for the Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) project. Made significant revision based on studies for the Preliminary Design Review (PRD) held in Feb 2013. The higher-resolution paper file is available from http://member.ipmu.jp/masahiro.takada/pfs_astroph_rv.pd

Randomized phase II study to determine the optimal dose of 3-week cycle nab-paclitaxel in patients with metastatic breast cancer

Background Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy is commonly observed in patients treated with nanoparticle albumin–bound paclitaxel (nab-PTX). We conducted a multicenter randomized controlled study to evaluate the optimal dose of nab-PTX. Methods We compared three different doses of q3w nab-PTX (Standard: 260 mg/m2 [SD260] vs Medium: 220 mg/m2 [MD220] vs Low: 180 mg/m2 [LD180]) in patients with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS). Grade 3/4 neuropathy rates in the three doses were estimated using the logistic regression model. The optimal dose was selected in two steps. Initially, if the hazard ratio (HR) for PFS was 1.33, the inferior dose was excluded, and we proceeded with the non-inferior dose. Then, if the estimated incidence rate of grade 3/4 neurotoxicity exceeded 10%, that dose was also excluded. Results One hundred forty-one patients were randomly assigned to SD260 (n = 47), MD220 (n = 46), and LD180 (n = 48) groups, and their median PFS was 6.66, 7.34, and 6.82 months, respectively. The HRs were 0.73 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.42–1.28) in MD220 vs SD260, 0.77 (95% CI 0.47–1.28) in LD180 vs SD260, and 0.96 (95% CI 0.56–1.66) in LD180 vs MD220. SD260 was inferior to MD220 and was excluded. The estimated incidence rate of grade 3/4 neurotoxicity was 29.5% in SD260, 14.0% in MD220, and 5.9% in LD180. The final selected dose was LD180. Conclusions Intravenous administration of low-dose nab-PTX at 180 mg/m2 q3w may be the optimal therapy with meaningful efficacy and favorable toxicity in patients with MBC