Seifert surfaces in open books, and a new coding algorithm for links

We introduce a new standard form of a Seifert surface $F$. In that standard form, $F$ is obtained by successively plumbing flat annuli to a disk $D$, where the gluing regions are all in $D$. We show that any link has a Seifert surface in the standard form, and thereby present a new way of coding a link. We present an algorithm to read the code directly from a braid presentation.Comment: 10 page

Network optimization for enhanced resilience of urban heat island measurements

The urban heat island is a well-known phenomenon that impacts a wide variety of city operations. With greater availability of cheap meteorological sensors, it is possible to measure the spatial patterns of urban atmospheric characteristics with greater resolution. To develop robust and resilient networks, recognizing sensors may malfunction, it is important to know when measurement points are providing additional information and also the minimum number of sensors needed to provide spatial information for particular applications. Here we consider the example of temperature data, and the urban heat island, through analysis of a network of sensors in the Tokyo metropolitan area (Extended METROS). The effect of reducing observation points from an existing meteorological measurement network is considered, using random sampling and sampling with clustering. The results indicated the sampling with hierarchical clustering can yield similar temperature patterns with up to a 30% reduction in measurement sites in Tokyo. The methods presented have broader utility in evaluating the robustness and resilience of existing urban temperature networks and in how networks can be enhanced by new mobile and open data sources

Role of the expression of collagen prolyl-4-hydroxylase α subunits 1 and 2 in the development and prognosis of breast cancer

　Background: The expression of prolyl-4-hydroxylase (P4H), an enzyme involved in collagen biosynthesis, is significantly upregulated during breast cancer development and progression. However, the molecular mechanisms by which P4H expression in cancer cells induces progression have not been elucidated. Thus, we aimed to determine the significance of the expression of isoforms 1 and 2 of P4H in breast cancer.　Methods: We performed immunohistochemical analysis for P4HA1 and P4HA2 on the tumor samples obtained from 182 patients with breast cancer and examined the correlation between clinicopathological factors and markers related to epithelial-mesenchymal transition and ischemia. Protein expression levels were investigated using western blotting. In addition, breast cancer cell cultures were used to characterize the expression.　Results: Expression of both P4HA1 and P4HA2 was upregulated in cancer cells compared with that in normal mammary glands; the high-P4H expression group tended to have a poorer prognosis than the low-P4H expression group. In particular, P4HA2 was strongly associated with tumor grade; P4HA2 expression showed a weak negative correlation with HIF-2α expression. In cultured breast cancer cells, the immunohistological expression of P4H and HIF increased tovarious degrees under hypoxia, while P4H protein levels increased in a time-dependent manner. 　Conclusion: P4HA2 can be used as a marker of breast cancer grade and a prognostic factor. Differential expression of P4HA1 and P4HA2 was observed in an ischemic environment,suggesting that each may be affected by the type of collagen involved

Treatment Strategy for Recurrent and Refractory Epithelial Ovarian Cancer: Efficacy of High-Dose Chemotherapy with Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

According to population statistics in Japan, approximately 3,800 women die of ovarian ­cancer annually, and approximately 6,000 are affected by this disease. Ovarian cancer is ­referred to as a “silent tumor”, since patients have few subjective symptoms and by the time symptoms are observed, the cancer has progressed to Stage III or IV in about half of the patients. The basic treatment for advanced epithelial ovarian cancer is to remove as much of the tumor as possible, and subsequently to perform anticancer therapy using drugs such as cisplatin, carboplatin and paclitaxel, all of which have been shown to be effective for epi­thelial ovarian cancer. However, the 5-year survival rate in advanced ovarian cancer patients is still only about 20%, and a treatment that leads to long-term survival has yet to be developed. Here, we review the available treatments for ovarian cancer, and present the results of high-dose chemotherapy (HDC) performed in our hospital for recurrent and refractory ­ovarian cancer

Photoacoustic mammography: initial clinical results.

[Purpose]Photoacoustic tomography can image the hemoglobin distribution and oxygenation state inside tissue with high spatial resolution. The purpose of this study is to investigate its clinical usefulness for diagnosis of breast cancer and evaluation of therapeutic response in relation to other diagnostic modalities. [Materials and methods]Using a prototype machine for photoacoustic mammography (PAM), 27 breast tumor lesions, including 21 invasive breast cancer (IBC), five ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), and one phyllodes tumor, were measured. Nine out of twenty-one IBC patients had received primary systemic therapy (PST). [Results]Eight out of twelve IBC without PST were visible. Notably, detection was possible in all five cases with DCIS, whereas it was not in one case with phyllodes tumor. Seven out of nine IBC with PST were assigned as visible in spite of decreased size of tumor after PST. The mean value of hemoglobin saturation in the visible lesions was 78.6 %, and hemoglobin concentration was 207 μM. The tumor images of PAM were comparable to those of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). [Conclusions]It is suggested that PAM can image tumor vascularity and oxygenation, which may be useful for diagnosis and characterization of breast cancer

Longitudinal change of postoperative serum anti-thyroglobulin antibody levels in patients without total thyroidectomy and remnant ablation

　Backgroud: There is little information regarding postoperative anti-thyroglobulin antibody (TgAb) changes in patients without a total thyroidectomy and ablation. This study aimed to analyze the longitudinal change of TgAb levels in patients with remnant thyroid.　Methods: The study group were patients who had undergone a non-total thyroidectomy for papillary thyroid carcinoma from 1996 to 2018. The median follow-up period of measurement serum Tg and Tg Ab was 3.5 years (1-7.5 years). Eligible patients had a combined serum Tg and TgAb measurement at least three times biannually. We excluded patients with thyroid dysfunction at the initial diagnosis or with papillary carcinoma who had persistent or any recurrence of disease.　Results: A total of 209 patients were enrolled. In the preoperative analysis, 41 (31%) patients had positive TgAb values, and 91 were negative (69%). Seventeen years after the operation, a TgAb value over 800 IU/ml was not seen. The positive TgAb ratio was stable for 12 years (20%-30%); however, its positivity gradually increased from 13 years onward to 45.5%. The number of patients with consistently negative and positive TgAb values was 140 (67.0%) and 47 (22.5%), respectively. The number of patients with a mixture of positive and negative TgAb values was 10 (4.8%). The number of patients who changed from positive to negative values was six (2.9%) and, inversely, six (3.9%).　Conclusions: We found positivity of TgAb after surgery gradually increases up to 45.5% over about 10 years in patients with normal remnant thyroid. We might continue to measure both serum Tg and TgAb values concurrently for the patients with remnant thyroid tissue throughout

Genome-Edited Triple-Recessive Mutation AltersSeed Dormancy in Wheat

1Common wheat has three sets of sub-genomes, making mutations difficult to observe, especially for traits controlled by recessive genes. Here, we produced hexaploid wheat lines with loss of function of homeoalleles of Qsd1, which controls seed dormancy in barley, by Agrobacterium-mediated CRISPR/Cas9. Of the eight transformed wheat events produced, three independent events carrying multiple mutations in wheat Qsd1 homeoalleles were obtained. Notably, one line had mutations in every homeoallele. We crossed this plant with wild-type cultivar Fielder to generate a transgene-free triple-recessive mutant, as revealed by Mendelian segregation. The mutant showed a significantly longer seed dormancy period than wild-type, which may result in reduced pre-harvest sprouting of grains on spikes. PCR, southern blotting, and whole-genome shotgun sequencing revealed that this segregant lacked transgenes in its genomic sequence. This technique serves as a model for trait improvement in wheat, particularly for genetically recessive traits, based on locus information from diploid barley

ABCA1 gene-physical activity interaction for HDL-C

Few studies have investigated the interactions between HDL-C-related SNPs identified by genome-wide association (GWA) study and physical activity (PA) on HDL-C. First, we conducted a sex-stratified GWA study in a discovery sample (2,231 men and 2,431 women) and replication sample (2,599 men and 3,109 women) to identify SNPs influencing log-transformed HDL-C in Japanese participants in the baseline survey of the Japan Multi-Institutional Collaborative Cohort Study. We also replicated previously reported HDL-C-related SNPs in a combined (discovery plus replication) sample (4,830 men and 5,540 women). We then analyzed the interactions of the HDL-C-related SNPs with PA on HDL-C. The sex-stratified GWA analyses identified 11 and 10 HDL-C-related SNPs in men and women as targets for an interaction analysis. Among these, only one interaction of ABCA1 rs1883025 with PA was statistically significant in men, after Bonferroni correction [P-interaction = 0.001 (α = 0.05/21 = 0.002)]. The per-major-allele (C allele) increase in log-transformed HDL-C was lost in men with low PA (β = 0.008) compared with those with medium (β = 0.032) or high PA (β = 0.034). These findings suggest that the benefit of carrying a C allele of ABCA1 rs1883025 on enhancing HDL-C may be attenuated in inactive men

Body mass index and colorectal cancer risk : A Mendelian randomization study

Traditional observational studies have reported a positive association between higher body mass index (BMI) and the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). However, evidence from other approaches to pursue the causal relationship between BMI and CRC is sparse. A two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study was undertaken using 68 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from the Japanese genome-wide association study (GWAS) and 654 SNPs from the GWAS catalogue for BMI as sets of instrumental variables. For the analysis of SNP-BMI associations, we undertook a meta-analysis with 36 303 participants in the Japanese Consortium of Genetic Epidemiology studies (J-CGE), comprising normal populations. For the analysis of SNP-CRC associations, we utilized 7636 CRC cases and 37 141 controls from five studies in Japan, and undertook a meta-analysis. Mendelian randomization analysis of inverse-variance weighted method indicated that a one-unit (kg/m2) increase in genetically predicted BMI was associated with an odds ratio of 1.13 (95% confidence interval, 1.06-1.20; P value <.001) for CRC using the set of 68 SNPs, and an odds ratio of 1.07 (1.03-1.11, 0.001) for CRC using the set of 654 SNPs. Sensitivity analyses robustly showed increased odds ratios for CRC for every one-unit increase in genetically predicted BMI. Our MR analyses strongly support the evidence that higher BMI influences the risk of CRC. Although Asians are generally leaner than Europeans and North Americans, avoiding higher BMI seems to be important for the prevention of CRC in Asian populations