Precipitation induced filament pattern of injected fluid controlled by structured cell

Mixing of two fluids can lead to the formation of precipitation. If one of the fluids is injected into a confined space filled with the other, a created precipitate disrupts the flow locally and intricates complex spatiotemporal patterns. Here, we show that such injection patterns can be controlled consistently by injection rate and obstacles. Our experimental results revealed filament patterns for high injection and low reaction rates, and the injection rate can control the number of active filaments. Furthermore, appropriately spaced obstacles in the cells can straighten the motion of the advancing tip of the filament. A mathematical model based on a moving boundary adopting the effect of precipitation reproduced the phase diagram and the straight motion of filaments in structured cells.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure

New method to create a vascular arteriovenous fistula in the arm with an endoscopic technique

AbstractWe describe a new technique in which the basilic vein is transposed subcutaneously with endoscopic surgery to create a vascular access in the arm. The vein was harvested with the Endoscopic Vascular Surgery System (Olympus Co, Tokyo, Japan). We could harvest a vessel about 25 cm long with endoscopy. After vessel transposition, an arteriovenous fistula was created in the usual manner. In all 10 patients, we created an effective blood access as scheduled before surgery. We could use the arteriovenous fistula 6 days after surgery and get blood flow in all cases. (J Vasc Surg 2002;36:635-8.

Investigation of remaining tritium in the LHD vacuum vessel after the first deuterium experimental campaign

Remaining tritium in the vacuum vessel after the first deuterium plasma experimental campaign conducted over four months was investigated in the large helical device (LHD) for the first time in stellarator/heliotron devices by using the tritium imaging plate technique. In-vessel components such as divertor tiles and first wall panels, and long-term material probes retrieved from the vacuum vessel were analyzed. The in-vessel component in which tritium remained most densely is the baffle part of divertor tiles made of graphite retrieved from the inboard-side divertor. Asymmetric tritium retention is observed on divertor tiles located at magnetically symmetric positions, and can be attributed to the toroidal field direction dependence of the asymmetric loss of energetic tritons generated by deuterium–deuterium nuclear fusion reactions. On the first wall, tritium remained in a deposited layer, which mainly consists of carbon

Antiviral Mechanism of Action of Epigallocatechin-3-O-gallate and Its Fatty Acid Esters

Epigallocatechin-3-O-gallate (EGCG) is the major catechin component of green tea (Cameria sinensis), and is known to possess antiviral activities against a wide range of DNA viruses and RNA viruses. However, few studies have examined chemical modifications of EGCG in terms of enhanced antiviral efficacy. This paper discusses which steps of virus infection EGCG interferes with, citing previous reports. EGCG appears most likely to inhibits the early stage of infections, such as attachment, entry, and membrane fusion, by interfering with viral membrane proteins. According to the relationships between structure and antiviral activity of catechin derivatives, the 3-galloyl and 5′-OH group of catechin derivatives appear critical to antiviral activities. Enhancing the binding affinity of EGCG to virus particles would thus be important to increase virucidal activity. We propose a newly developed EGCG-fatty acid derivative in which the fatty acid on the phenolic hydroxyl group would be expected to increase viral and cellular membrane permeability. EGCG-fatty acid monoesters showed improved antiviral activities against different types of viruses, probably due to their increased affinity for virus and cellular membranes. Our study promotes the application of EGCG-fatty acid derivatives for the prevention and treatment of viral infections

Sialyllactose-Modified Three-Way Junction DNA as Binding Inhibitor of Influenza Virus Hemagglutinin

Sialic acid present on the cell surface is recognized by hemagglutinin (HA) on the influenza virus in the first step of infection. Therefore, a compound that can efficiently interfere with the interaction between sialic acid and HA might inhibit infection and allow detection of the influenza virus. We focused on the spatial arrangement of sialic acid binding sites on HA and developed 2,3-sialyllactose (2,3-SL)-modified three-way junction (3WJ) DNA molecules with a topology similar to that of sialic acid binding sites. 3WJ DNA with three 2,3-SL residues on each DNA strand showed (8.0 × 10⁴)-fold higher binding affinity for influenza virus A/Puerto Rico/08/34 (H1N1) compared to the 2,3-SL. This result indicated that the glycocluster effect due to clustering on one DNA arm and optimal spatial arrangement of the 3WJ DNA improved the weak interactions between a sialic acid and its binding site on HA. This 3WJ DNA compound has possible application as an inhibitor of influenza infection and for virus sensing

STX11 functions as a novel tumor suppressor gene in peripheral T-cell lymphomas

Peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCL) are a heterogeneous group of non-Hodgkin lymphomas with poor prognosis. Their molecular pathogenesis has not been entirely elucidated. We previously showed that 6q24 is one of the most frequently deleted regions in primary thyroid T-cell lymphoma. In this study, we extended the analysis to other subtypes of PTCL and performed functional assays to identify the causative genes of PTCL that are located on 6q24. Genomic loss of 6q24 was observed in 14 of 232 (6%) PTCL cases. The genomic loss regions identified at 6q24 always involved only two known genes, STX11 and UTRN. The expression of STX11, but not UTRN, was substantially lower in PTCL than in normal T-cells. STX11 sequence analysis revealed mutations in two cases (one clinical sample and one T-cell line). We further analyzed the function of STX11 in 14 cell lines belonging to different lineages. STX11 expression only suppressed the proliferation of T-cell lines bearing genomic alterations at the STX11 locus. Interestingly, expression of a novel STX11 mutant (p.Arg78Cys) did not exert suppressive effects on the induced cell lines, suggesting that this mutant is a loss-of-function mutation. In addition, STX11-altered PTCL not otherwise specified cases were characterized by the presence of hemophagocytic syndrome (67% vs 8%, P = 0.04). They also tended to have a poor prognosis compared with those without STX11 alteration. These results suggest that STX11 plays an important role in the pathogenesis of PTCL and they may contribute to the future development of new drugs for the treatment of PTCL