110 research outputs found
The Synthesis of Carbon nanotubes and Nanoparticles by Alternating Current Arc - discharge Evaporation Method.
Formation of Carbon Nanostructures with Ge and SiC Nanoparticles Prepared by Direct Current and Radio Frequency Hybrid Arc Discharge
家庭のテレビジョンに対する高校生の態度
Problem: An individual views a variety of TV programs. Special attitude towards TV in general, roughly speaking, may be formed based upon the daily accumulation of viewing experiences over a long period of time. The same thing can also be said of reading and other communication experiences. In order to determine its nature, it is possible to compare youths\u27 attitudes towards TV with other communication experiences (reading, movies, etc.). That is the purpose of this research. There were two reasons for doing this. (1) We have been making progress since last year on a research on the latent functions of TV for youth. We estab-lished as an exposure criterion for TV for this research, not the individual programs viewed but rather the "amount of TV exposure" or that plus "amount of printed media exposure" in combination (based upon Schramm, Lyle and Parker, 1961). The first step in our work was to compute the partial and multiple correlations between this criterion and the eleven independent variables involved. Therefore it was necessary to clarify the psychological nature of the criterion, either TV or printed media exposure. Schramm, Lyle, and Parker (1960) while paying full attention to the fact that between the content of the media and the audience\u27s response there are various individual differences, in general thought … and we hypothesised that … children\u27s TV viewing is an activity which fulfills their fantasy needs. This assumption was indirectly tested by comparison of leisure time activities of children in Canadian Teletown versus Radiotown. However no direct data was given. It therefore was decided to give a picture projection test to clarify this point. (2) As made clear by G.A. Steiner (1963), attitudes towards TV are ambivalent. It was also decided to try to verify this during our research. Method and Procedure: A total of 1,700 subjects, first year high school (10th grade) students from public high schools in the San-Tama area of Tokyo were selected by cluster sampling by school units. They were shown six pictures of communication experiences (movies, newspapers, comic books, TV and conversation) and given 45 short sentences expressing subjective attitudes of the people appearing in the pictures. They were asked to match the picture most appropriate to each sentence. Both pictures and sentences were arranged in random order. The 45 sentences were divided into three categories: favorable feelings (interest, relaxation, etc.), negative counterparts (waste of time, shame, etc.), and cognitive instrumental effects (information gain, enriched aesthetic experience, furnishing of topics of conversation, etc.). The sentences were constructed with reference to the research materials on the functions of mass media found in Schramm and others (1960), Waples, Berelson and Bradshaw (1940), Klapper (1960), Steiner (1963) and others. Results: 1. Attitudes towards TV are emotional and immediate reward seeking, while attitudes towards written materials are cognitive and delayed reward seeking. 2. Attitudes towards TV are emotional, however rather than being release of complicated emotions (wish-fulfillment, identi-fication with the hero, etc.) they were seen as seeking of simple diversion. The function of releasing complicated emotions is A Picture Projection Test on the Attitudes Youth Hold Toward Television 179 at times significant and more so among high users of prints in the case of reading. (38% of all reading is of novels.) 3. Attitudes towards TV are ambivalent. For example: 77% of those who replied "Regardless of who says what I will not stop (watching TV)." also stated "(TV) is a hindrance to studying." 60% of those who replied "(TV) furnishes topics for conversation." also said "Afterwards I will surely regret it." (Averge TV viewing was about two and a half hours per day.) 4. By combining three levels of amount of TV viewing with three levels of intelligence, nine sub-groups were formed for comparison with negative feelings towards TV. All sub-groups were about the same, the interaction between intelligence and amount of TV contact was not significant. 5. The higher the amount of TV viewing the greater the cognitive instrumental effects. There were no significant differences found regardless of intelligence considered. It is not clear, however, if this cognition was a result of the respondents actually thinking in that manner or if it was merely justification
Vimentin binds IRAP and is involved in GLUT4 vesicle trafficking
Insulin-responsive aminopeptidase (IRAP) and GLUT4 are two major cargo proteins of GLUT4 storage vesicles (GSVs) that are translocated from a postendosomal storage compartment to the plasma membrane (PM) in response to insulin. The cytoplasmic region of IRAP is reportedly involved in retention of GSVs. In this study, vimentin was identified using the cytoplasmic domain of IRAP as bait. The validity of this interaction was confirmed by pull-down assays and immunoprecipitation in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. In addition, it was shown that GLUT4 translocation to the PM by insulin was decreased in vimentin-depleted adipocytes, presumably due to dispersing GSVs away from the cytoskeleton. These findings suggest that the IRAP binding protein, vimentin, plays an important role in retention of GSVs
Increased production of viral proteins by a 3'-LTR-deleted infectious clone of human T-cell leukemia virus type 1
We previously reported that a full-length provirus of HTLV-1 was directly constructed from the HTLV-1-transformed cell line MT-2 using overlapping polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and cloned into a plasmid vector (pFL-MT2). 293T cells transfected with pFL-MT2 alone did not produce virus particles because there was no expression of the viral transactivator protein Tax, whereas cells transfected with pFL-MT2 plus a Tax expression vector produced virus-like particles. In the process of constructing the HTLV-1 provirus by overlapping PCR, we also constructed an incomplete molecular clone, in which the 3' long terminal repeat (LTR) was replaced with the endogenous human gene, which resulted in the expression of a tax gene shorter by 43 bp. This incomplete molecular clone alone expressed Tax and produced the viral protein in transfected cells. Various clones were then constructed with different lengths of the 3' LTR and lacking the reverse-direction TATA box. The clones contained over 113 bp of the 3' LTR, with no reverse-direction TATA box, which might express the full-length tax gene, and did not produce the viral antigen. These results suggest that Tax in which the C-terminal portion is deleted is more strongly expressed than the wild-type protein and has transcriptional activity
Bortezomib-cyclophosphamide-dexamethasone induction/consolidation and bortezomib maintenance for transplant-eligible newly diagnosed multiple myeloma: phase 2 multicenter trial
[Objectives:] We conducted a phase II trial to prospectively evaluate the efficacy and safety of bortezomib-cyclophosphamide-dexamethasone (VCD) induction, autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT), VCD consolidation, and bortezomib maintenance in transplant-eligible newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (NDMM) patients in Japan (UMIN000010542). [Methods:] From 2013 to 2016, 42 patients with a median age of 58 (range 42–65) years with NDMM were enrolled in 15 centers. The primary endpoint was the complete response (CR) /stringent CR (sCR) rate after transplantation, and overall/progression-free survival rates were also evaluated. [Results:] Following induction therapy, the overall response rate was obtained in 71% of patients, including a CR/sCR of 10% and a very good partial response (VGPR) of 26%. Twenty-six of the 42 patients completed ASCT following the protocol and CR/sCR and VGPR rate 100 days after ASCT was 26% and 17%, respectively. During consolidation therapy, 3 of the 24 patients achieved deeper responses. Eight of the 18 patients completed 2-year bortezomib maintenance without disease progression and grade 3/4 toxicities. Five patients were VGPR or partial response after ASCT but maintained response with 2-year bortezomib maintenance. Two-year overall and progression-free survival rates were 92.5% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 78.5%−97.5%) and 62.6% (95% CI: 45.8%−75.5%), respectively. Grade 3/4 toxicities (≥ 10%) included neutropenia (19%) and anemia (17%) in induction, and thrombocytopenia (29%) in consolidation. [Conclusion:] VCD induction/consolidation and bortezomib maintenance with ASCT for NDMM resulted in a high CR/sCR rate and provided good overall/progression-free survival in Japan
Steroid receptor expression in the fish inner ear varies with sex, social status, and reproductive state
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Gonadal and stress-related steroid hormones are known to influence auditory function across vertebrates but the cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for steroid-mediated auditory plasticity at the level of the inner ear remain unknown. The presence of steroid receptors in the ear suggests a direct pathway for hormones to act on the peripheral auditory system, but little is known about which receptors are expressed in the ear or whether their expression levels change with internal physiological state or external social cues. We used qRT-PCR to measure mRNA expression levels of multiple steroid receptor subtypes (estrogen receptors: ERα, ERβa, ERβb; androgen receptors: ARα, ARβ; corticosteroid receptors: GR2, GR1a/b, MR) and aromatase in the main hearing organ of the inner ear (saccule) in the highly social African cichlid fish <it>Astatotilapia burtoni</it>, and tested whether these receptor levels were correlated with circulating steroid concentrations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We show that multiple steroid receptor subtypes are expressed within the main hearing organ of a single vertebrate species, and that expression levels differ between the sexes. We also show that steroid receptor subtype-specific changes in mRNA expression are associated with reproductive phase in females and social status in males. Sex-steroid receptor mRNA levels were negatively correlated with circulating estradiol and androgens in both males and females, suggesting possible ligand down-regulation of receptors in the inner ear. In contrast, saccular changes in corticosteroid receptor mRNA levels were not related to serum cortisol levels. Circulating steroid levels and receptor subtype mRNA levels were not as tightly correlated in males as compared to females, suggesting different regulatory mechanisms between sexes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This is the most comprehensive study of sex-, social-, and reproductive-related steroid receptor mRNA expression in the peripheral auditory system of any single vertebrate. Our data suggest that changes in steroid receptor mRNA expression in the inner ear could be a regulatory mechanism for physiological state-dependent auditory plasticity across vertebrates.</p
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