Experimental and Theoretical Progress of Linear Collider Final Focus Design and ATF2 Facility

In this brief overview we will reflect on the process of the design of the linear collider (LC) final focus (FF) optics, and will also describe the theoretical and experimental efforts on design and practical realisation of a prototype of the LC FF optics implemented in the ATF2 facility at KEK, Japan, presently being commissioned and operated

Tributyltin Inhibits Neural Induction of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Tributyltin (TBT), one of the organotin compounds, is a well-known environmental pollutant. In our recent study, we reported that TBT induces mitochondrial dysfunction, in human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) through the degradation of mitofusin1 (Mfn1), which is a mitochondrial fusion factor. However, the effect of TBT toxicity on the developmental process of iPSCs was not clear. The present study examined the effect of TBT on the differentiation of iPSCs into the ectodermal, mesodermal, and endodermal germ layers. We found that exposure to nanomolar concentration of TBT (50 nM) selectively inhibited the induction of iPSCs into the ectoderm, which is the first step in neurogenesis. We further assessed the effect of TBT on neural differentiation and found that it reduced the expression of several neural differentiation marker genes, which were also downregulated by Mfn1 knockdown in iPSCs. Taken together, these results indicate that TBT induces developmental neurotoxicity via Mfn1-mediated mitochondrial dysfunction in iPSCs

ナンショウカセイ デキストリン セッシュ ガ ケイウンドウジ ニオケル トウ シシツ タイシャ ニ オヨボス エイキョウ

It has been reported that dextrin (DX) has an effect of inhibition from elevation of blood glucose concentration after taking a meal. A little increase of blood glucose concentration after the meal would not accelerate secretion of insulin from the pancreas, so that, the blood insulin concentration may not elevate so much after the meal. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of DX intake with light meal on carbohydrate and fat metabolism in light intensity exercise. Eight young male subjects participated in this study. They took the light meal one hour before exercise, and performed a 30-min exercise at light intensity of heart sound breaking point on a cycle ergometer under two conditions of taking the meal with and without DX. Heart rate, oxygen consumption, plasma lactate (LA), plasma glucose (BG) and plasma free fatty acid (FFA), and respiratory exchange ratio (RER) were determined at before meal, start of exercise after 60 minutes of taking the meal, midpoint of exercise (15-min point), end of exercise (30-min point) and recovery phase after 15 minutes from cessation of the exercise. Average heart rate were 126.3 (SD; 11.3) and 122.8 (10.1) bpm during exercises with and without DX, respectively (not significant). Oxygen consumptions were 1.18 (0.24) and 1.16 (0.22) 1/min during exercises with and without DX, respectively (not significant). LA showed same values (1.8 (0.6) mM) in both conditions (not significant). BG showed significantly low values in DX condition at start and end of exercise and recovery phase than that in non-DX condition. FFA showed also significantly low values in DX condition at start and end of exercise and recovery phase than that in non-DX condition. These results indicate that DX inhibit absorption of BG not only at rest but also during exercise, and intake of DX with a meal may affect to elevate FFA intake to active muscle during exercise

Topological isomers of human uroguanylin: interconversion between biologically active and inactive isomers

AbstractThe solution structures of the two compounds of human uroguanylin (I and II), which were generated during disulfide bond forming reaction, were found to be topological isomers by 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. These isomers are interconvertible in aqueous media at rates which vary with the pH and temperature of the solution. Because compound I is active in the cGMP producing assay, but compound II is not, this interconversion may be useful for evaluating the activity of human uroguanylin both in vivo and in vitro

Schr\"odinger uncertainty relation, Wigner-Yanase-Dyson skew information and metric adjusted correlation measure

In this paper, we give a Schr\"odinger-type uncertainty relation using the Wigner-Yanase-Dyson skew information. In addition, we give Schr\"odinger-type uncertainty relation by use of a two-parameter extended correlation measure. Moreover, we give the further generalization for Schr\"odinger-type uncertainty relation by metric adjusted correlation measure. These results generalize our previous result in [Phys. Rev. A, Vol.82(2010), 034101].Comment: Section 3 was revise

Risk factors for an additional port in single-incision laparoscopic cholecystectomy in patients with cholecystitis

Although single-incision laparoscopic cholecystectomy is now widely performed in patients with cholecystitis, some cases require an additional port to complete the procedure. In this study, we focused on risk factor of additional port in this surgery. We performed single-incision cholecystectomy in 75 patients with acute cholecystitis or after cholecystitis between 2010 and 2014 at Gunma University Hospital. Surgical indications followed the TG13 guidelines. Our standard procedure for single-incision cholecystectomy routinely uses two needlescopic devices. We used logistic regression analysis to identify the risk factors associated with use of an additional full-size port (5 or 10 mm). Surgical outcome was acceptable without biliary injury. Nine patients (12.0%) required an additional port, and one patient (1.3%) required conversion to open cholecystectomy because of severe adhesions around the cystic duct and common bile duct. In multivariate analysis, high C-reactive protein (CRP) values (>7.0 mg/dl) during cholecystitis attacks were significantly correlated with the need for an additional port (P = 0.009),with a sensitivity of 55.6%, specificity of 98.5%, and accuracy of 93.3%. This study indicated that the severe inflammation indicated by high CRP values during cholecystitis attacks predicts the need for an additional port

The Effect of Non-Axisymmetry of Magnetic Configurations on Radial Electric Field Transition Properties in the LHD

Transition property of the radial electric field (Er) in LHD have been theoretically investigated and also applied to explain experimental results. Especially, effects of the helicity of the magnetic configuration on the condition to realize the electron root are examined. Larger helicity makes the threshold collisionality higher. This is attributed to the nonlinear dependence of Γe(Er) in a low collisional regime. This interesting feature predicts that the threshold temperature becomes higher for a case of smaller helicity. The variation of the threshold density anticipated from the analysis for cases with different magnetic axis position is qualitatively verified in the density scan experiment