Serum microRNA profiles in patients with chronic hepatitis B, chronic hepatitis C, primary biliary cirrhosis, autoimmune hepatitis, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or drug-induced liver injury

金沢大学医薬保健研究域薬学系Purpose: Some blood biomarkers or histological examination by liver biopsy are used for the diagnosis of liver diseases in clinics. However, conventional blood biomarkers show poor specificity and sensitivity, and liver biopsy is highly invasiveness. Therefore, to overcome such disadvantages, specific/sensitive and noninvasive options are desirable. In recent years, circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) have been acknowledged for their potential as disease markers. Actually, several miRNAs have been reported to be biomarker candidates of liver diseases. However, these earlier studies were performed for one disease. Therefore, the specificity as biomarkers was not guaranteed, because they didn\u27t study for the other types of liver injury. In this study, we examined if circulating miRNA could distinguish different types of liver diseases. Methods: Serum miRNA profiles in 28 patients with chronic hepatitis B, chronic hepatitis C, primary biliary cirrhosis, autoimmune hepatitis, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis or drug-induced liver injury as well as 4 control subjects were determined by TaqMan MicroRNA Array analysis. Principal component analysis (PCA) of selected miRNAs was performed. Results: We identified 37 miRNAs whose levels were significantly different between any of the groups. Although individual miRNAs could not distinguish different types of liver diseases, probably because of similar liver pathology, their profiling by PCA could classify different liver disease groups. Conclusions: The profiling of the selected miRNAs can be useful to distinguish different types of liver diseases. © 2017 The Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists.Embargo Period 12 month

ICs for 100 Gbit/s Data Transmission

Research and development of InP--based transistors and integrated circuits (ICs)are driven by applications in millimeter-wave wireless and broadband optical fiber communications systems.This paper describes our research activities on InP HEMT and HBT IC technologies for optical communications systems and discusses the future prospects and technical issues of ICs for 100 Gbit/s and beyond

Improved stability in wide-recess InP HEMTs by means of a fully passivated two-step-recess gate

We report two-step-recess gate InP HEMTs with a new process option suitable for producing a wide recess. In the new devices the gate recess is completely covered with a passivation film. Though the gate recess is extremely wide, a transconductance of 1S/mm and a cutoff frequency of 208GHz are achieved with 100-nm gate devices. Moreover, a huge improvement in the drain reliability is achieved by the wide recess which reduces hot-carrier-induced degradation, and by the full passivation which eliminates the instability related to the recess surface

Japanese University Joint Dense Seismic Observation on and around Mt. Asama Volcano (July 2005−July 2007)

A joint dense seismic observation experiment was conducted during the period from July 2005 to July 2007 in cooperation of researchers of national universities and Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) under the national project for prediction of volcanic eruption. A main subject of this project is clarification of subsurface velocity structure of Asama volcano and of surrounding area penetrating to the upper mantle around 100km deep. We installed 15 seismographs temporarily on and around Asama volcano and the data was transmitted to the Volcano Research Center, Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo, by satellite, and cable telemetry systems. The Volcano Research Center further collected 6171 seismic data of permanent stations around Asama volcano operated by related research institutions, picking initial P- and S-wave phases manually. All the data will be compiled and distributed to the cooperated research institutions

National trends in the outcomes of subarachnoid haemorrhage and the prognostic influence of stroke centre capability in Japan: retrospective cohort study

Objectives To examine the national, 6-year trends in in-hospital clinical outcomes of patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) who underwent clipping or coiling and the prognostic influence of temporal trends in the Comprehensive Stroke Center (CSC) capabilities on patient outcomes in Japan.Design Retrospective study.Setting Six hundred and thirty-one primary care institutions in Japan.Participants Forty-five thousand and eleven patients with SAH who were urgently hospitalised, identified using the J-ASPECT Diagnosis Procedure Combination database.Primary and secondary outcome measures Annual number of patients with SAH who remained untreated, or who received clipping or coiling, in-hospital mortality and poor functional outcomes (modified Rankin Scale: 3–6) at discharge. Each CSC was assessed using a validated scoring system (CSC score: 1–25 points).Results In the overall cohort, in-hospital mortality decreased (year for trend, OR (95% CI): 0.97 (0.96 to 0.99)), while the proportion of poor functional outcomes remained unchanged (1.00 (0.98 to 1.02)). The proportion of patients who underwent clipping gradually decreased from 46.6% to 38.5%, while that of those who received coiling and those left untreated gradually increased from 16.9% to 22.6% and 35.4% to 38%, respectively. In-hospital mortality of coiled (0.94 (0.89 to 0.98)) and untreated (0.93 (0.90 to 0.96)) patients decreased, whereas that of clipped patients remained stable. CSC score improvement was associated with increased use of coiling (per 1-point increase, 1.14 (1.08 to 1.20)) but not with short-term patient outcomes regardless of treatment modality.Conclusions The 6-year trends indicated lower in-hospital mortality for patients with SAH (attributable to better outcomes), increased use of coiling and multidisciplinary care for untreated patients. Further increasing CSC capabilities may improve overall outcomes, mainly by increasing the use of coiling. Additional studies are necessary to determine the effect of confounders such as aneurysm complexity on outcomes of clipped patients in the modern endovascular era