Kinetic effects in strong Langmuir turbulence

Kinetic effects with regard to a one dimensional Langmuir soliton-like pulse are investigated. Though thus far mainly transit-time accelerations have been investigated regarding strong Langmuir turbulence, it is found that ponderomotive reflections (generalized nonlinear Landau damping) may play important roles also. The former may diffuse fast electrons up to relativistic energies, while the latter reflects slow electrons as well as ions that have speeds comparable with the group velocity of the pulse, and tend to form flat-top electron distributions at and around the quasi-soliton.Comment: 12th International Congress on Plasma Physics, 25-29 October 2004, Nice (France

Nonlinear cyclotron-resonance accelerations by a generalized EM wave

Particle accelerations by a 1D, EM, dispersive pulse in an external magnetic field are investigated. It is found that the well-known cyclotron resonance may be classified into three regimes as the length and/or the amplitude of the pulse are varied. Namely, as the pulse amplitude increases, the transit-time cyclotron-resonance acceleration [CRA] evolves to phase trapping, and reflect particles. The amplitude and wave dispersion as well as the pulse length strongly affect those accelerations. The interesting phenomena of quantization of resonance velocities in between the two regimes are also investigated. This new mechanism may lead to wave amplification at some discrete frequencies other than the cyclotron frequency.Comment: 12th International Congress on Plasma Physics, 25-29 October 2004, Nice (France

Ignition Condition for p-^11B Reactor with LHD type Magnetic Field Configuration

Proton-Boron fusion reactor (p-^11B reactor) might be able to be achieved by the combination of the LHD type magnetic field configuration and the ion cyclotron range of frequency (ICRF) heating scheme of protons. The LHD magnetic field has the excellent ability for the high energy particle confinements. This characteristic is studied by numerical computations of high energetic particles in the LHD magnetic field where the strong ICRF field is applied. It is shown by the Langevin equation analysis that the steady state distribution function of ICRF heated proton becomes to the quasilinear plateau distribution function (QPDF). The fusion reaction rate of p-11B is calculated for QPDF protons and studied the ignition condition. It is found that the ignition condition becomes possible to be satisfied if effective temperature of proton is of the order of 300 keV and nτ >~ 10^22 s/m3

p53 Expression in Pretreatment Specimen Predicts Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Including Anthracycline and Taxane in Patients with Primary Breast Cancer.

While clinical and pathologic responses are important prognostic parameters, biological markers from core needle biopsy (CNB) are needed to predict neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) response, to individualize treatment, and to achieve maximal efficacy. We retrospectively evaluated the cases of 183 patients with primary breast cancer who underwent surgery after NAC (anthracycline and taxane) at the National Cancer Center Hospital (NCCH). We analyzed EGFR, HER2, and p53 expression and common clinicopathological features from the CNB and surgical specimens of these patients. These biological markers were compared between sensitive patients (pathological complete response;pCR) and insensitive patients (clinical no change;cNC and clinical progressinve disease;cPD). In a comparison between the 9 (5%) sensitive patients and 30 (16%) insensitive patients, overexpression of p53 but not overexpression of either HER2 or EGFR was associated with a good response to NAC. p53 (p＝0.045) and histological grade 3 (p＝0.011) were important and significant predictors of the response to NAC. The correspondence rates for histological type, histological grade 3, ER, PgR, HER2, p53, and EGFR in insensitive patients between CNB and surgical specimens were 70%, 73%, 67%, 70%, 80%, 93%, and 73%. The pathologic response was significantly associated with p53 expression and histological grade 3. The correspondence rate of p53 expression between CNB and surgical specimens was higher than that of other factors. We conclude that the level of p53 expression in the CNB was an effective and reliable predictor of treatment response to NAC

The Relationship between H. pylori

Background and Objective. H. pylori infection causes a chronic inflammation in the gastric mucosa. However, this local inflammation may result in extra-digestive conditions. Our aim is to investigate the relationship between H. pylori infection and osteoporosis in Japan. Methods. This cross-sectional study was conducted among outpatients at the Juntendo University Hospital between 2008 and 2014. Participants for patient profile, H. pylori infection status, comorbidity, internal medical therapies, lumbar dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), and bone turnover marker were collected and upper gastrointestinal endoscopy for reflux esophagitis, hiatal hernia, peptic ulcer disease (PUD), and endoscopic gastric mucosal atrophy (EGA) was performed. The diagnosis of osteoporosis was performed in accordance with the Japanese criteria. We investigated risk factors of osteoporosis. Results. Of the eligible 200 study subjects, 41 cases were of osteoporosis. Bivariate analysis showed that age, being female, BMI, alcohol, smoking, H. pylori, bone-specific ALP, PUD, and EGA were related to osteoporosis. Multivariate analysis showed that age (OR 1.13; 95%CI 1.07–1.20), being female (OR 4.77; 95%CI 1.78–12.77), BMI (OR 0.79; 95%CI 0.68–0.92), H. pylori (OR 5.33; 95%CI 1.73–16.42), and PUD (OR 4.98; 95%CI 1.51–16.45) were related to osteoporosis. Conclusions. H. pylori infection may be a risk factor of osteoporosis in Japan

Optics Design for Microwave Imaging Reflectometry in LHD

An optics system for microwave imaging reflectometry (MIR) in the Large Helical Device (LHD) was newly developed to optimize the performance of the two-dimensional microwave receiver array. Reflected microwaves from the plasma and the first local oscillator (LO) wave are transmitted to the receiver array via the optics from the front. Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) calculation was used to design the ellipsoidal or hyperboloidal shapes of the quasi-optical mirrors. It is confirmed that the LO beam in the constructed system covers the receiver antenna aperture area as intended. The S/N ratios of the signals are improved with this optimized optics system from those in the previous system