Prediction of Dew Condensation of Windows with Airflow

AbstractThermal insulating performance of windows is often poor. Thus, effective windows are important for sustainable buildings. In this study, we propose using a dynamic insulation (DI) window that uses indispensable ventilation effectively. The principle of the DI system is that airflow opposite to the direction of heat loss recovers part of the heat that would be lost. Another merit of DI windows is that they decrease the risk of dew condensation. In this paper, we report evaluation of humidity using a non-dimensional index: humidity index (HI), and dew condensation frequency for DI window frames, at several locations in Japan

Expression pattern of CXC chemokine receptor-4 is correlated with lymph node metastasis in human invasive ductal carcinoma

BACKGROUND: The stromal cell-derived factor-1/CXC chemokine receptor-4 (SDF-1/CXCR4) signal has been shown to be important in various immunological reactions. Recent studies have suggested that CXCR4 is expressed in certain cancer cells and that they use this chemokine receptor efficiently for metastasis formation. METHOD: The expression of CXCR4 was evaluated by immunohistochemical study in 79 surgically resected invasive ductal carcinomas, and the relation between the staining pattern and clinicopathological features was examined. RESULTS: CXCR4 was diffusely and homogeneously expressed in 59 cancers, which were further divided into 28 high-expression and 31 low-expression cancers by their staining intensity. The other 20 cancers showed heterogeneous immunoreactivity in tumor tissue, which was defined as focal type. In comparison with the diffuse type, focal type tumors showed significantly more extensive lymph node metastasis, because the number and extent of metastatic nodes were larger in the focal than the diffuse type. In the diffuse type, the rate of node-positive cases did not show a difference in staining intensity. However, high-CXCR4 tumors showed more extensive nodal metastasis in comparison with low-expression tumors. In contrast, the expression pattern of CXCR4 did not have a significant correlation with hematogeneous metastasis. The overall survival of these patients tended to be better in the diffuse type than in the focal type, although the difference was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: The expression pattern of CXCR4 was significantly correlated with the degree of lymph node metastasis in breast cancers. Our data suggest that CXCR4 might be particularly important in facilitating metastasis through the lymphatic system

Guest Editor : Turbulence simulation and flow design

特集1 乱流シミュレーションと流れの設計(TSFD

Mallory Bodies in Hepatocytes of Alcoholic Liver Disease and Primary Biliary Cirrhosis Contain Nε-(Carboxymethyl)lysine-Modified Cytokeratin, but not those in Hepatic Carcinoma Cells

Mallory bodies (MBs) are intracytoplasmic bodies seen in hepatocytes of alcoholic liver disease, primary biliary cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. However, the mechanism of MB formation has not been fully understood. Proteins could be modified to advanced glycation end products (AGEs) after long-term incubation with reducing sugar. AGEs are known to accumulate in several tissues in aging and age-enhanced disorders. To study the possible glycation process in the formation of MBs, hepatocytes of 80 human liver tissues with MBs were subjected to immunohistochemical analyses with five AGEs, two markers for oxidative stress proteins (OSPs) and four stress-response proteins (SRPs). MBs in hepatocytes of primary biliary cirrhosis and alcoholic liver disease were strongly positive for Nε-(carboxymethyl)lysine (CML) and weakly positive for pyrraline. MBs in hepatocellular carcinomas were negative for both CML and pyrraline. No significant immunoreactivity was detected in MBs for other AGEs, such as Nε-(carboxyethyl)lysine, pentosidine, and 3DG-imidazolone, or for OSPs and SRPs. Stainings for cytokeratin, a major protein component of MBs, and CML were co-localized. Furthermore, immunoblot analysis suggested that cytokeratin of MBs was modified to AGE, since a single protein band detected by a monoclonal anti-CML had a molecular weight identical to cytokeratin. The absence of the CML signal in MBs of hepatocellular carcinoma cells could be explained by scarce content of cytokeratin in carcinoma MBs

Oxidative Modification to Cysteine Sulfonic Acid of Cys111 in Human Copper-Zinc Superoxide Dismutase

Copper-zinc superoxide dismutase (SOD1) plays a protective role against oxidative stress. On the other hand, recent studies suggest that SOD1 itself is a major target of oxidative damage and has its own pathogenicity in various neurodegenerative diseases, including familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Only human and great ape SOD1s among mammals have the highly reactive free cysteine residue, Cys111, at the surface of the SOD1 molecule. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of Cys111 in the oxidative damage of the SOD1 protein, by comparing the oxidative susceptibility of recombinant human SOD1 modified with 2-mercaptoethanol at Cys111 (2-ME-SOD1) to wild-type SOD1. Wild-type SOD1 was more sensitive to oxidation by hydrogen peroxide-generating fragments, oligomers, and charge isomers compared with 2-ME-SOD1. Moreover, wild-type SOD1, but not 2-ME-SOD1, generated an upper shifted band in reducing SDS-PAGE even by air oxidation. Using mass spectrometry and limited proteolysis, this upper band was identified as an oxidized subunit of SOD1; the sulfhydryl group (Cys-SH) of Cys111 was selectively oxidized to cysteine sulfinic acid (Cys-SO2H) and to cysteine sulfonic acid (Cys-SO3H). The antibody raised against a synthesized peptide containing Cys111-SO3H reacted with only the Cys111-peroxidized SOD1 by Western blot analysis and labeled Lewy bodylike hyaline inclusions and vacuole rims in the spinal cord of human SOD1-mutated amyotrophic lateral sclerosis mice by immunohistochemical analysis. These results suggest that Cys111 is a primary target for oxidative modification and plays an important role in oxidative damage to human SOD1, including familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis mutants.This work was supported by Grants-in-aid for Scientific Research 17500242 and 19500313; a Hitech Research Center grant and the 21st Century Centers of Excellence program from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan; and in part by a Grant for the Research Group on Development of Novel Therapeutics for ALS from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan. The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked “advertisement” in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact