SuperDARN future plan for Phase X JARE project

The Tenth Symposium on Polar Science/Special session: [S] Future plan of Antarctic research: Towards phase X of the Japanese Antarctic Research Project (2022-2028) and beyond, Tue. 3 Dec. / Entrance Hall (1st floor) at National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR

60 Gbps real-time wireless communications at 300 GHz carrier using a Kerr microcomb

Future wireless communication infrastructure will rely on terahertz systems that can support an increasing demand for large-bandwidth, ultra-fast wireless data transfer. In order to satisfy this demand, compact, low-power, and low noise sources of terahertz radiation are being developed. A promising route to achieving this goal is combining photonic-integrated optical frequency combs with fast photodiodes for difference frequency generation in the THz. Here, we demonstrate wireless communications using a 300 GHz carrier wave generated via photomixing of two optical tones originating from diode lasers that are injection locked to a dissipative Kerr soliton frequency microcomb. We achieve transfer rates of 80 Gbps using homodyne detection and 60 Gbps transmitting simultaneously both data and clock signals in a dual-path wireless link. This experimental demonstration paves a path towards low-noise and integrated photonic millimeter-wave transceivers for future wireless communication systems

Immunologic Monitoring of Cellular Responses by Dendritic/Tumor Cell Fusion Vaccines

Although dendritic cell (DC)- based cancer vaccines induce effective antitumor activities in murine models, only limited therapeutic results have been obtained in clinical trials. As cancer vaccines induce antitumor activities by eliciting or modifying immune responses in patients with cancer, the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) and WHO criteria, designed to detect early effects of cytotoxic chemotherapy in solid tumors, may not provide a complete assessment of cancer vaccines. The problem may, in part, be resolved by carrying out immunologic cellular monitoring, which is one prerequisite for rational development of cancer vaccines. In this review, we will discuss immunologic monitoring of cellular responses for the evaluation of cancer vaccines including fusions of DC and whole tumor cell

Current Immunotherapeutic Approaches in Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is a highly aggressive and notoriously difficult to treat. As the vast majority of patients are diagnosed at advanced stage of the disease, only a small population is curative by surgical resection. Although gemcitabine-based chemotherapy is typically offered as standard of care, most patients do not survive longer than 6 months. Thus, new therapeutic approaches are needed. Pancreatic cancer cells that develop gemcitabine resistance would still be suitable targets for immunotherapy. Therefore, one promising treatment approach may be immunotherapy that is designed to target pancreatic-cancer-associated antigens. In this paper, we detail recent work in immunotherapy and the advances in concept of combination therapy of immunotherapy and chemotherapy. We offer our perspective on how to increase the clinical efficacy of immunotherapies for pancreatic cancer

An integrated analysis platform merging SuperDARN data within the THEMIS tool developed by ERG-Science Center (ERG-SC)

The Energization and Radiation in Geospace (ERG) mission seeks to explore the dynamics of the radiation belts in the Earth’s inner magnetosphere with a space-borne probe (ERG satellite) in coordination with related ground observations and simulations/ modeling studies. For this mission, the Science Center of the ERG project (ERG-SC) will provide a useful data analysis platform based on the THEMIS Data Analysis software Suite (TDAS), which has been widely used by researchers in many conjunction studies of the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) spacecraft and ground data. To import SuperDARN data to this highly useful platform, ERG-SC, in close collaboration with SuperDARN groups, developed the Common Data Format (CDF) design suitable for fitacf data and has prepared an open database of SuperDARN data archived in CDF. ERG-SC has also been developing programs written in Interactive Data Language (IDL) to load fitacf CDF files and to generate various kinds of plots−not only range-time-intensity-type plots but also two-dimensional map plots that can be superposed with other data, such as all-sky images of THEMIS-GBO and orbital footprints of various satellites. The CDF-TDAS scheme developed by ERG-SC will make it easier for researchers who are not familiar with SuperDARN data to access and analyze SuperDARN data and thereby facilitate collaborative studies with satellite data, such as the inner magnetosphere data provided by the ERG (Japan)−RBSP (USA)−THEMIS (USA) fleet

Involvement of MAP3K8 and miR-17-5p in Poor Virologic Response to Interferon-Based Combination Therapy for Chronic Hepatitis C

<div><p>Despite advances in chronic hepatitis C treatment, a proportion of patients respond poorly to treatment. This study aimed to explore hepatic mRNA and microRNA signatures involved in hepatitis C treatment resistance. Global hepatic mRNA and microRNA expression profiles were compared using microarray data between treatment responses. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction validated the gene signatures from 130 patients who were infected with hepatitis C virus genotype 1b and treated with pegylated interferon-alpha and ribavirin combination therapy. The correlation between mRNA and microRNA was evaluated using <i>in silico</i> analysis and <i>in vitro</i> siRNA and microRNA inhibition/overexpression experiments. Multivariate regression analysis identified that the independent variables IL28B SNP rs8099917, hsa-miR-122-5p, hsa-miR-17-5p, and MAP3K8 were significantly associated with a poor virologic response. MAP3K8 and miR-17-5p expression were inversely correlated with treatment response. Furthermore, miR-17-5p repressed HCV production by targeting MAP3K8. Collectively, the data suggest that several molecules and the inverse correlation between mRNA and microRNA contributed to a host genetic refractory hepatitis C treatment response.</p></div

Validation of differentially expressed miRNAs by qPCR analysis.

<p>The expression levels of three miRNAs were significantly higher in null/partial responders than in SVRs/relapsers. Assays for each sample were performed in triplicate. All <i>p</i>-values were calculated using the Mann–Whitney test.</p

Luciferase reporter assay.

<p>miR-17-5p inhibited the luciferase activity of the wild-type MAP3K8 3′UTR construct (right), whereas no decrease in activity was observed in cells co-transfected with the mutant MAP3K8 3′UTR construct (left) or mock plus wild-type or mutant construct (right and left, respectively). Bars indicate the means of three independent experiments, and the error bars indicate standard deviations. **<i>p</i><0.001 compared with controls.</p