Impact of lymph node dissection on clinical outcomes of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma: Inverse probability of treatment weighting with survival analysis

Background: Lymph node metastasis (LNM) has been established as a critical risk factor for prognosis in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC). The clinical implications of lymph node dissection (LND) have been debated. This study aimed to clarify the prognostic impact of LND by multicenter retrospective analysis. Methods: A total of 310 ICC patients who had undergone curative resection between 2000 and 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. The prognostic impact of LND was estimated under an inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) approach using propensity scores. Results: LND was performed for 224 patients (72%), with LNM pathologically confirmed in 90 patients (40%). Prognosis was poorer for patients with LNM (median survival, 16.9 months) than for those without (57.2 months; P Conclusions: LND could have a significant role to play in improving oncologic outcomes. Therapeutic LND should be implemented on the basis of tumor location and tumor advancement

Enhanced expression of GTP cyclohydrolase I in V-1-overexpressing PC12D cells.

Abstract Three of the catecholamine-synthesizing enzymes, i.e., tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), aromatic L -amino acid decarboxylase, and dopamine b-hydroxylase, were earlier shown to be up-regulated in cloned PC12D cells overexpressing V-1, a cdc10/SWI6 motifcontaining protein. GTP cyclohydrolase I (GCH) is the rate-limiting enzyme for the biosynthesis of tetrahydrobiopterin (BH 4 ), known as an essential cofactor for TH; and here we found the increased expression of GCH in V-1-overexpressing clones. Both GCH activity and total biopterin content were highly increased in the V-1 clones; whereas the activity of sepiapterin reductase, enzyme in the final step of the BH 4 biosynthesis, was not altered. Biochemical analyses revealed increased levels of GCH protein, mRNA, and transcription in the V-1 clones. Promoter analysis showed increased reporter activity in the construct with 150 bp of the promoter region of the human GCH gene, suggesting the involvement of cAMP-responsive element-mediated transcriptional regulation.

A New Tropospheric Delay Model For

GPS can play an important role in high-altitude vehicle positioning. In such GPS applications the residual tropospheric delay in GPS measurements is a major error source. Several strategies for estimating the residual zenith tropospheric delay have been described in the scientific literature. In general, such models incorporate the timevarying residual tropospheric errors within the stochastic models, which are then estimated using a Kalman filter. However, these methods have not considered the height difference between GPS receivers. In this paper, a new functional model for tropospheric delay is proposed. The error of the meteorological data measured at a ground reference site is estimated by Kalman filtering. Analytical results of a flight experiment indicate that the proposed model is indeed superior to the standard models. The new model can compensate for errors of meteorological data, and is feasible for use in precise positioning of high-altitude receiver platforms

Inter-element miscibility driven stabilization of ordered pseudo-binary alloy

元素間の混ざり方の違いを利用して新しい結晶構造の安定化に成功 --未踏の高機能材料開発への貢献に期待--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-02-25.An infinite number of crystal structures in a multicomponent alloy with a specific atomic ratio can be devised, although only thermodynamically-stable phases can be formed. Here, we experimentally show the first example of a layer-structured pseudo-binary alloy, theoretically called Z3-FePd₃. This Z3 structure is achieved by adding a small amount of In, which is immiscible with Fe but miscible with Pd and consists of an alternate L10 (CuAu-type)-PdFePd trilayer and Pd–In ordered alloy monolayer along the c axis. First-principles calculations strongly support that the specific inter-element miscibility of In atoms stabilizes the thermodynamically-unstable Z3-FePd₃ phase without significantly changing the original density of states of the Z3-FePd₃ phase. Our results demonstrate that the specific inter-element miscibility can switch stable structures and manipulate the material nature with a slight composition change