Operational status of TAMA300 with the seismic attenuation system (SAS)

TAMA300 has been upgraded to improve the sensitivity at low frequencies after the last observation run in 2004. To avoid the noise caused by seismic activities, we installed a new seismic isolation system —- the TAMA seismic attenuation system (SAS). Four SAS towers for the test-mass mirrors were sequentially installed from 2005 to 2006. The recycled Fabry–Perot Michelson interferometer was successfully locked with the SAS. We confirmed the reduction of both length and angular fluctuations at frequencies higher than 1 Hz owing to the SAS

The disease game: An interactive simulation program designed to teach ocular disease management skills

The Disease Game is a computer simulation designed to aid students in practicing test selection, disease diagnosis and disease management skills. Features of the simulation include a game format, digitized images and videos, and the ability to add additional patients

Viscous slip coefficients for binary gas mixtures measured from mass flow rates through a single microtube.

International audienceArticles you may be interested in A slip model for rarefied gas flows above a moving surface with mass transfe

A new method to establish the rational extent of hepatic resection for advanced gallbladder cancer using dye injection through the cystic artery

BackgroundHepatic resection has been indicated to eliminate cancer at the surgical margin in cases of advanced gallbladder carcinoma, but there is considerable controversy about the reasonable extent of liver resection. A new on‐table dye injection technique has been introduced to determine the venous drainage of the gallbladder and ascertain the amount of liver to remove.MethodsIn four hepatic resections for pT2 gallbladder cancer, indocyanine green solution (25 mg/20 ml) was injected over a period of 30 seconds through the cystic artery. The stained area of the liver surface was completely resected, maintaining a margin of at least 2 cm from the gallbladder.ResultsThe entire serosal surface of the gallbladder takes on a light green stain immediately after dye injection, and then the liver surface around the gallbladder gradually becomes stained with a clear demarcation line. The distance between the demarcation line and the gallbladder ranged from 1.0 to 5.0 cm. The extent of the stained area differed from one individual to another. Histopathological examination of resected liver specimens revealed that one of the four resected livers had micrometastasis in the portal area 27 mm from the gallbladder wall and there were no cancer cells at the surgical margins. No recurrence has been seen in any of our 4 patients at 16–26 months after operation.DiscussionThe dye injection method is useful in determining the appropriate extent of hepatic resection for advanced gallbladder cancer, as it is possible to determine the necessary and sufficient amount of liver parenchyma that should be removed according to the perfusion area of the cystic veins in each individual patient

Current status of Japanese detectors

Current status of TAMA and CLIO detectors in Japan is reported in this article. These two interferometric gravitational-wave detectors are being developed for the large cryogenic gravitational wave telescope (LCGT) which is a future plan for detecting gravitational wave signals at least once per year. TAMA300 is being upgraded to improve the sensitivity in low frequency region after the last observation experiment in 2004. To reduce the seismic noises, we are installing new seismic isolation system, which is called TAMA Seismic Attenuation System, for the four test masses. We confirmed stable mass locks of a cavity and improvements of length and angular fluctuations by using two SASs. We are currently optimizing the performance of the third and fourth SASs. We continue TAMA300 operation and R&D studies for LCGT. Next data taking in the summer of 2007 is planned. CLIO is a 100-m baseline length prototype detector for LCGT to investigate interferometer performance in cryogenic condition. The key features of CLIO are that it locates Kamioka underground site for low seismic noise level, and adopts cryogenic Sapphire mirrors for low thermal noise level. The first operation of the cryogenic interferometer was successfully demonstrated in February of 2006. Current sensitivity at room temperature is close to the target sensitivity within a factor of 4. Several observation experiments at room temperature have been done. Once the displacement noise reaches at thermal noise level of room temperature, its improvement by cooling test mass mirrors should be demonstrated.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, Proceedings of GWDAW-1

Retinal glycoprotein enrichment by concanavalin a enabled identification of novel membrane autoantigen synaptotagmin-1 in equine recurrent uveitis.

Complete knowledge of autoantigen spectra is crucial for understanding pathomechanisms of autoimmune diseases like equine recurrent uveitis (ERU), a spontaneous model for human autoimmune uveitis. While several ERU autoantigens were identified previously, no membrane protein was found so far. As there is a great overlap between glycoproteins and membrane proteins, the aim of this study was to test whether pre-enrichment of retinal glycoproteins by ConA affinity is an effective tool to detect autoantigen candidates among membrane proteins. In 1D Western blots, the glycoprotein preparation allowed detection of IgG reactions to low abundant proteins in sera of ERU patients. Synaptotagmin-1, a Ca2+-sensing protein in synaptic vesicles, was identified as autoantigen candidate from the pre-enriched glycoprotein fraction by mass spectrometry and was validated as a highly prevalent autoantigen by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Analysis of Syt1 expression in retinas of ERU cases showed a downregulation in the majority of ERU affected retinas to 24%. Results pointed to a dysregulation of retinal neurotransmitter release in ERU. Identification of synaptotagmin-1, the first cell membrane associated autoantigen in this spontaneous autoimmune disease, demonstrated that examination of tissue fractions can lead to the discovery of previously undetected novel autoantigens. Further experiments will address its role in ERU pathology

Dynamics of a lattice Universe

We find a solution to Einstein field equations for a regular toroidal lattice of size L with equal masses M at the centre of each cell; this solution is exact at order M/L. Such a solution is convenient to study the dynamics of an assembly of galaxy-like objects. We find that the solution is expanding (or contracting) in exactly the same way as the solution of a Friedman-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker Universe with dust having the same average density as our model. This points towards the absence of backreaction in a Universe filled with an infinite number of objects, and this validates the fluid approximation, as far as dynamics is concerned, and at the level of approximation considered in this work.Comment: 14 pages. No figure. Accepted version for Classical and Quantum Gravit

Current status of the CLIO project

CLIO (Cryogenic Laser Interferometer Observatory) is a Japanese gravitational wave detector project. One of the main purposes of CLIO is to demonstrate thermal-noise suppression by cooling mirrors for a future Japanese project, LCGT (Large-scale Cryogenic Gravitational Telescope). The CLIO site is in Kamioka mine, as is LCGT. The progress of CLIO between 2005 and 2007 (room- and cryogenic-temperature experiments) is introduced in this article. In a room-temperature experiment, we made efforts to improve the sensitivity. The current best sensitivity at 300 K is about $6 \times 10^{-21} /\sqrt{\rm Hz}$ around 400 Hz. Below 20 Hz, the strain (not displacement) sensitivity is comparable to that of LIGO, although the baselines of CLIO are 40-times shorter (CLIO: 100m, LIGO: 4km). This is because seismic noise is extremely small in Kamioka mine. We operated the interferometer at room temperature for gravitational wave observations. We obtained 86 hours of data. In the cryogenic experiment, it was confirmed that the mirrors were sufficiently cooled (14 K). However, we found that the radiation shield ducts transferred 300K radiation into the cryostat more effectively than we had expected. We observed that noise caused by pure aluminum wires to suspend a mirror was suppressed by cooling the mirror.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures. Amaldi7 proceedings, J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. (accepted