Suppression of vascular endothelial growth factor expression at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels

Gene expression is regulated at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. Therefore, in order to achieve a high level of silencing, which includes minimizing any residual expression of a target gene, suppression at both the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels is required. In this study, we describe a new method for highly efficient gene silencing that combines zinc finger protein-mediated transcriptional repression and small interfering RNA (siRNA)-mediated inhibition of post-transcriptional events. To measure the amount of gene expression under various conditions, we used a luciferase reporter gene that was driven by a variety of promoters, including that of the human vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) gene. We also measured expression of the endogenous VEGF-A gene. Inhibition of gene expression by each of the two individual technologies was effective, but in-depth analyses revealed residual expression of the target gene. The combination of specific zinc finger transcription factors and siRNAs greatly enhanced the silencing of the human VEGF-A gene, not only when cells were grown in the presence of normal amounts of oxygen but also under conditions of hypoxic stimulation. These results suggest that a bi-level approach to the silencing of VEGF-A expression may be clinically beneficial as part of a cancer treatment protocol

A Case of Extensive Spinal Cysticercosis Involving the Whole Spinal Canal in a Patient with a History of Cerebral Cysticercosis

Although cysticercosis is the most common parasitic disease affecting the central nervous system, spinal cysticercosis is rare. A rare form of spinal cysticercosis involving the whole spinal canal is presented. A 45-year-old Korean male had a history of intracranial cysticercosis and showed progressive paraparesis. Spinal magnetic resonance scan showed multiple cysts compressing the spinal cord from C1 to L1. Three different levels (C1-2, T1-3, and T11-L1) required operation. Histopathological examination confirmed cysticercosis. The patient improved markedly after surgery

Optimal Multiuser Diversity in Multi-Cell MIMO Uplink Networks: User Scaling Law and Beamforming Design

We introduce a distributed protocol to achieve multiuser diversity in a multicell multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) uplink network, referred to as a MIMO interfering multiple-access channel (IMAC). Assuming both no information exchange among base stations (BS) and local channel state information at the transmitters for the MIMO IMAC, we propose a joint beamforming and user scheduling protocol, and then show that the proposed protocol can achieve the optimal multiuser diversity gain, i.e., KM log (SNR log N), as long as the number of mobile stations (MSs) in a cell, N, scales faster than SNRKM-L/1-epsilon for a small constant epsilon > 0, where M, L, K, and SNR denote the number of receive antennas at each BS, the number of transmit antennas at each MS, the number of cells, and the signal-to-noise ratio, respectively. Our result indicates that multiuser diversity can be achieved in the presence of intra-cell and inter-cell interference even in a distributed fashion. As a result, vital information on how to design distributed algorithms in interference-limited cellular environments is provided

Monte Carlo Analysis of the Accelerator-Driven System at Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute

An accelerator-driven system consists of a subcritical reactor and a controllable external neutron source. The reactor in an accelerator-driven system can sustain fission reactions in a subcritical state using an external neutron source, which is an intrinsic safety feature of the system. The system can provide efficient transmutations of nuclear wastes such as minor actinides and long-lived fission products and generate electricity. Recently at Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute (KURRI; Kyoto, Japan), a series of reactor physics experiments was conducted with the Kyoto University Critical Assembly and a Cockcroft-Walton type accelerator, which generates the external neutron source by deuterium-tritium reactions. In this paper, neutronic analyses of a series of experiments have been re-estimated by using the latest Monte Carlo code and nuclear data libraries. This feasibility study is presented through the comparison of Monte Carlo simulation results with measurements.clos

Meteorin regulates mesendoderm development by enhancing nodal expression

During gastrulation, distinct lineage specification into three germ layers, the mesoderm, endoderm and ectoderm, occurs through an elaborate harmony between signaling molecules along the embryonic proximo-distal and anterior-posterior axes, and Nodal signaling plays a key role in the early embryonic development governing embryonic axis formation, mesoderm and endoderm specification, and left-right asymmetry determination. However, the mechanism by which Nodal expression is regulated is largely unknown. Here, we show that Meteorin regulates Nodal expression and is required for mesendoderm development. It is highly expressed in the inner cell mass of blastocysts and further in the epiblast and extra-embryonic ectoderm during gastrulation. Genetic ablation of the Meteorin gene resulted in early embryonic lethality, presumably due to impaired lineage allocation and subsequent cell accumulation. Embryoid body culture using Meteorin-null embryonic stem (ES) cells showed reduced Nodal expression and concomitant impairment of mesendoderm specification. Meteorin-null embryos displayed reduced levels of Nodal transcripts before the gastrulation stage, and impaired expression of Goosecoid, a definitive endoderm marker, during gastrulation, while the proximo-distal and anterior-posterior axes and primitive streak formation were preserved. Our results show that Meteorin is a novel regulator of Nodal transcription and is required to maintain sufficient Nodal levels for endoderm formation, thereby providing new insights in the regulation of mesendoderm allocation.open1113sciescopu

Early Results from Posterior Cervical Fusion with a Screw-Rod System

PURPOSE: We performed 65 cases of posterior fusion surgery for cervical and/or high thoracic lesions using a polyaxial screw-rod system. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 486 screws were implanted in 65 patients. RESULTS: Fixation of the screws was carried out over an average of 2.9 spinal segments. Upon evaluation by postoperative CT scans, twelve (2.5%) screws had suboptimal trajectories but two of these revealed radiculopathy in one patient and required screw repositioning. No vascular sequelae resulted. There has been no segmental motion in any of the cases to date. As for other complications, there was one case of dural tearing and two cases of lateral mass fractures. There were no infections or other wound healing problems or hardware failures. No patients had neurological deterioration after surgery. There were statistically significant improvements in the mean Neck Disability Index (NDI) scores and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) scores in the preoperative and late postoperative follow-up evaluations. Although further studies are required to establish the long-term results of fusion rates and clinical outcomes. CONCLUSION: We cautiously suggest that the posterior polyaxial screw-rod system can be safely used as a primary or additional fusion method in this risky region. The successful and safe use of this method is dependent on a precise preoperative surgical plan and tactics for ensuring safe screw fixation.ope

Advanced Technologies for Large-Sized OLED Display

Five years have passed, since the first 55″ full high-definition (FHD) OLED TV fabricated on Gen 8.5 glass was successfully launched into the TV market. For the time being, the size of OLED TV became diverse from 55″ to 77″, and the resolution was doubled into ultrahigh definition (UHD). The brightness and color gamut were enhanced, while the lower power consumption was realized. Utmost picture quality and slim form factor of OLED TV as well as the improved performance have made OLED TV recognized as the best premium TV. In this chapter, we describe the recent progress in three key technologies, which enable such an enhancement of performance in OLED TV, i.e., oxide thin-film transistor (TFT) and white organic light-emitting diode (WOLED), compensation circuit, and method to compensate the nonuniformity of oxide TFTs, OLED devices, and luminance

Crystal structure of Hop2-Mnd1 and mechanistic insights into its role in meiotic recombination

In meiotic DNA recombination, the Hop2−Mnd1 complex promotes Dmc1-mediated single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) invasion into homologous chromosomes to form a synaptic complex by a yet-unclear mechanism. Here, the crystal structure of Hop2−Mnd1 reveals that it forms a curved rod-like structure consisting of three leucine zippers and two kinked junctions. One end of the rod is linked to two juxtaposed winged-helix domains, and the other end is capped by extra α-helices to form a helical bundle-like structure. Deletion analysis shows that the helical bundle-like structure is sufficient for interacting with the Dmc1-ssDNA nucleofilament, and molecular modeling suggests that the curved rod could be accommodated into the helical groove of the nucleofilament. Remarkably, the winged-helix domains are juxtaposed at fixed relative orientation, and their binding to DNA is likely to perturb the base pairing according to molecular simulations. These findings allow us to propose a model explaining how Hop2−Mnd1 juxtaposes Dmc1-bound ssDNA with distorted recipient double-stranded DNA and thus facilitates strand invasio