REPORT OF FIELD SURVEY IN KIRIMUN, KENYA, 1980

STUDY OF THE TERTIARY HOMINOINDS AND THEIR PALAEOENVIRONMENTS IN EAST AFRICA VOL.I1982 BY OSAKA UNIVERSITY This book is printed with the Grant-in-Aid of the Japanese Ministry of Education,Science and Culture(Project Number: 56043038/1981, 504141/1980

Paleomagnetic Studies on Miocene Sequences of Hokutan and Tottori Groups in Southwest Japan: Implications for Middle Miocene Rotational Movement of Southwest Japan Block Associated with the Japan Sea Opening

Miocene sequences composed of volcanic rocks and overlying marine sediments distributing at the Japan Sea side of Southwest Japan have been considered to form related to the rifting and subsequent spreading of the Japan Sea back-arc basin in Miocene time. We performed paleomagnetic investigations on the sequences in the eastern San’in district, the Hokutan and Tottori Groups. Paleomagnetic analyses on samples from 33 sites indicated that characteristic magnetic components from five sites of volcanic rocks in the Hokutan Group and from four sites of marine sediments in the Tottori Group were regarded as primary components. An obtained paleomagnetic direction of the volcanic rocks has an easterly deflected declination (D = 23.9° ± 20.2°), while that of the marine sediments shows no significant deflection in declination (D = 17.8° ± 19.1°). Through the comparison with paleomagnetic data from the Miocene sequences in Southwest Japan, it is suggested that magnetic polarities of the volcanic and sedimentary sequences are assigned to C5Cn and C5Br-C5Bn, respectively, and that the eastern San’in district suffered a clockwise rotation of 24° at around 16 Ma after the early Miocene volcanic activity and before the middle Miocene marine transgression in the whole clockwise rotation process of Southwest Japan related to the Japan Sea opening

Silicon Epitaxial Reactor for Minimal Fab

Cost-effective and mass production of size-controlled wafers becomes one of the future trends for electronic devices. Herein, we design a Minimal Fab system for the growth of half-inch-diameter silicon wafer devices. Different from the conventional chemical vapour deposition (CVD) systems, a new-type of CVD reactor was designed and developed for the Minimal Fab. The minimal CVD reactor has a small reaction chamber for rapid growth processes. It employed (i) a vertical gas flow, (ii) heating modules using concentrated infrared light, (iii) chlorine trifluoride gas for quick reactor cleaning and (iv) optimized epitaxial growth conditions so that the reactor cleaning is not necessary. Reducing the total gas flow rate is an effective way to increase the wafer temperature. The heating process was further assisted by the absorption of infrared light by the precursor trichlorosilane. The slimly designed reflector could help in improving the heating speed

ヒト白血病K562細胞におけるアドリアマイシン作用のクレモフォールELによる修飾

Adriamycin and paclitaxel are simultaneously used for cancer treatment in some cases. The formula of paclitaxel contains cremophor EL as a solvent. Since this solvent exerts diverse biological actions, the modification of adriamycin action by cremophor EL has been studied on human leukemia K562 cells. Cremophor EL did not significantly affect the concentration-response relation for antiproliferative action of adriamycin and the cell cycle changed by adriamycin. However, the induction of morphological change by adriamycin was significantly augmented by cremophor EL. The simultaneous application of cremophor EL increased the intensity of fluorescence from adriamycin trapped inside the cells in a concentration-dependent manner, suggesting an increase in intracellular concentration of adriamycin by cremophor EL. Adriamycin alone at concentrations higher than those to completely inhibit the growth induced morphological change in K562 cells. Therefore, cremophor EL may potentiate some of actions induced by adriamycin when adriamycin and paclitaxel are simultaneously applied

Chlorhexidine possesses unique cytotoxic actions in rat thymic lymphocytes : Its relation with electrochemical property of membranes

Chlorhexidine (CHX) is an antibacterial agent used in various types of pharmaceutical products. Therefore, CHX is easily found around us. Owing to its positive charge, the electrochemical property of cell membranes was assumed to be a key point of cytotoxic action of CHX. Depolarization of membranes attenuated the cytotoxic action of CHX in rat thymic lymphocytes. CHX interfered with annexin V binding to membranes. Manipulations to induce exposure of phosphatidylserine on the outer membrane surface augmented the cytotoxic action of CHX, indicating that changes in the electrochemical property of membranes affected the cytotoxic action of CHX. Hence, CHX might kill cells physiologically undergoing apoptosis, resulting instead in necrotic cell death. However, the threshold CHX concentration in this in vitro study was slightly higher than blood CHX concentrations observed clinically. Therefore, these results may support the safety of CHX use although CHX possesses unique cytotoxic actions described in this study

Phenotypic heterogeneity in a family with FAP due to a TTR Leu58Arg mutation: A clinicopathologic study

金沢大学医学部附属病院神経内科A family with familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP) due to a transthyretin (TTR) Leu58Arg mutation was investigated clinicopathologically. The proband presented with sensorimotor-autonomic polyneuropathy and autopsy demonstrated massive amyloid deposition in the peripheral nerves and heart. However, the mother was characterized by carpal tunnel syndrome and ocular vitreous opacities. Thus, there was considerable phenotypic heterogeneity among family members despite the identical TTR genotype. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Spatiotemporal T790M Heterogeneity in Individual Patients with EGFR-Mutant Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer after Acquired Resistance to EGFR-TKI

IntroductionEpidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation T790M accounts for approximately half of acquired resistances to EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI). Because T790M is mediated by TKI exposure, its penetration and “on–off” may affect T790M status.MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed T790M status and clinical course of patients who had undergone multiple rebiopsies after acquired resistance to EGFR-TKI.ResultsOf 145 patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC receiving rebiopsy after acquired resistance, 30 underwent multiple site rebiopsies, and 24 received repeated rebiopsies at the same lesion. In 22 patients who underwent rebiopsies from both central nervous system (CNS; 20 cerebrospinal fluids [CSF] and 2 brain tumoral tissues) and thoracic lesions (7 lung tissues, 14 pleural effusions, and 1 lymph node), 12 were thoracic-T790M-positive. Of these 12 patients, 10 were CNS-T790M-negative, despite exhibiting thoracic-T790M-positive. All 10 thoracic-T790M-negatives were CNS-T790M-negative. Three patients revealed a spatial heterogeneous T790M status among their thoracic lesions. In 24 patients receiving repeated rebiopsies at the same lesion (12 lung tissues, 6 CSFs, and 6 pleural effusions), T790M status of lung lesions varied in five patients after TKI-free interval. In all five patients whose T790M status changed from positive to negative, EGFR-TKI rechallenge was effective. In three of these five patients, after further TKI exposure, T790M status changed from negative to positive again. There was also a patient whose CSF T790M status changed from negative to positive after high-dose erlotinib therapy.ConclusionsT790M status in an individual patient can be spatiotemporally heterogeneous because of selective pressure from EGFR-TKI

Zinc increases vulnerability of rat thymic lymphocytes to arachidonic acid under in vitro conditions

Previous studies on the cytotoxicity of arachidonic acid (ARA) elucidated the involvement of oxidative stress and Ca2+. In the present study, the Zn2+-related cytotoxicity of ARA was studied by a flow cytometric technique with appropriate fluorescent probes in rat thymocytes. Addition of 10 μM ZnCl2 enhanced the increase in cell lethality induced by 10 μM ARA. The removal of Zn2+ by Zn2+ chelators attenuated the ARA-induced increase in cell lethality. Thus, Zn2+ is suggested to be involved in ARA cytotoxicity. ARA at 3–10 μM elevated intracellular Zn2+ level. The Zn2+ chelators attenuated the ARA-induced increase in intracellular Zn2+ level while ARA significantly increased intracellular Zn2+ level in the presence of 3 μM ZnCl2, suggesting the involvement of external Zn2+. Zn2+ reportedly exerts cytotoxic action under oxidative stress induced by hydrogen peroxide, via an excessive increase in intracellular Zn2+ levels. Since ARA induces oxidative stress, the simultaneous administration of zinc and ARA may be harmful