Nanofiltration Hollow Fiber Membranes Made from Sulfonated Polysulfone having a Cyanophenylene Group

A nanofiltration hollow fiber membrane made from sulfonated polysulfone was proposed in this work to meet the demands of having tolerance against chemicals. The sulfonate group in the molecule is a source of highly hydrophilic properties and may increase the inter-molecular force acting between molecules on which it is attached. It also contributes to forming a tight structure in the membrane. The membrane may produce higher water flux than those of commercially available nanofiltration membranes made from polyamides. The state of water in the wet membrane was examined with a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer. The bonding force to confine water molecules in the membrane may be considered to control the water flux and salt rejection of membranes. It is revealed that there were two kinds of water in the membrane and the salt rejection was raised when the interaction to the water molecules from sulfonate groups in the sulfonated polysulfone molecule was increased. The salt rejection and water flux is highly correlated with the chemical shift of constrained water

Marbles from Anan City decorating the historically important buildings in Japan

筆者らは2000年以降，徳島県産大理石の採掘に関する現地調査と聞き取り調査，ならびに歴史的建造物における使用例の調査を進めてきた。その結果，東京では，国会議事堂，国立博物館本館，文化庁（文部科学省旧館），大阪では，大阪倶楽部，新井ビル（旧報徳銀行大阪支店）の建物に使用されていることを確認した。また，大阪市中央公会堂に関しては，増改築の際に使用された記録はあるが，近年の修復に伴って撤去されていることを確認した。本稿では，口絵に示す阿南市産大理石の使用例を解説した

ニホン ノ レキシテキ ジュウヨウ ケンゾウブツ ニオケル トクシマケン アナンシサン ダイリセキ ノ シヨウ ト ソノ イギ

Since 2000, we have researched the use of marbles from Tokushima Prefecture for the Important Cultural Properties (Architecture) in Japan. Based on the geological field research of quarrying traces, identifications of lithology, hearings and the verifications, several kinds of marbles from Anan City area were used for the interior decorations of the Diet Building of Japan, Tokyo National Museum, Agency for Cultural Affairs (ex-Ministry of Education), Osaka Municipal Central Public Hall and so other architectures in Tokyo and Osaka. In addition to their use in the important buildings in Japan, the significance of research was discussed herein as well as the history of marble quarrying that has started late Edo period at least from 1861 for the basement constructions of the Tairyu-ji, one of the eighty-eight pilgrimage main temples in Anan Kamo-dani area

Phospholipase Cbeta4 and protein kinase Calpha and/or protein kinase CbetaI are involved in the induction of long term depression in cerebellar Purkinje cells.

Activation of the type-1 metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR1) signaling pathway in the cerebellum involves activation of phospholipase C (PLC) and protein kinase C (PKC) for the induction of cerebellar long term depression (LTD). The PLC and PKC isoforms that are involved in LTD remain unclear, however. One previous study found no change in LTD in PKCgamma-deficient mice, thus, in the present study, we examined cerebellar LTD in PLCbeta4-deficient mice. Immunohistochemical and Western blot analyses of cerebellum from wild-type mice revealed that PLCbeta1 was expressed weakly and uniformly, PLCbeta2 was not detected, PLCbeta3 was expressed predominantly in caudal cerebellum (lobes 7-10), and PLCbeta4 was expressed uniformly throughout. In PLCbeta4-deficient mice, expression of total PLCbeta, the mGluR1-mediated Ca(2+) response, and LTD induction were greatly reduced in rostral cerebellum (lobes 1-6). Furthermore, we used immunohistochemistry to localize PKCalpha, -betaI, -betaII, and -gamma in mouse cerebellar Purkinje cells during LTD induction. Both PKCalpha and PKCbetaI were found to be translocated to the plasmamembrane under these conditions. Taken together, these results suggest that mGluR1-mediated activation of PLCbeta4 in rostral cerebellar Purkinje cells induced LTD via PKCalpha and/or PKCbetaI

Cellulose Triacetate (CTA) Hollow-Fiber (HF) Membranes for Sustainable Seawater Desalination: A Review

Cellulose triacetate (CTA)-based hollow fiber (HF) membrane is one of the commercially successful semipermeable membranes that has had a long progress since the time the excellent semi-permeable feature of cellulose-based polymers was found in 1957. Because of the reliable and excellent performances, especially for drinking water production from seawater, CTA-HFs have been widely used as reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, especially in arid regions. In this review, recent developments and research trends on CTA-HF membranes for seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plants were presented. A flux analytical model, an optimization strategy for chlorine injection without losing salt rejection performance, and a module of current high performance CTA RO membranes along with its plant operation data were updated in this paper. Furthermore, a newly developed CTA-HF membrane for brine concentration (BC) application (called BC membrane) was also addressed. Finally, RO/BC hybrid operation was introduced as an effective SWRO desalination technique that enables minimizing the volume of brine disposal from the RO plant by increasing the recovery ratio and the subsequent amount of produced freshwater, without an additional energy input

CATALYTIC ASYMMETRIC RING-OPENING OF σ-SYMMETRIC CYCLIC CARBONATES WITH CHIRAL AMINO SULFONAMIDE CATALYSTS

Enantioselective ring-opening of σ-symmetric six-membered cyclic carbonates with benzyl alcohol catalyzed by 20 mol% of chiral amino sulfonamide catalysts afforded chiral acyclic carbonates in up to 79% ee

Cellulose Triacetate (CTA) Hollow-Fiber (HF) Membranes for Sustainable Seawater Desalination: A Review

Cellulose triacetate (CTA)-based hollow fiber (HF) membrane is one of the commercially successful semipermeable membranes that has had a long progress since the time the excellent semi-permeable feature of cellulose-based polymers was found in 1957. Because of the reliable and excellent performances, especially for drinking water production from seawater, CTA-HFs have been widely used as reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, especially in arid regions. In this review, recent developments and research trends on CTA-HF membranes for seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plants were presented. A flux analytical model, an optimization strategy for chlorine injection without losing salt rejection performance, and a module of current high performance CTA RO membranes along with its plant operation data were updated in this paper. Furthermore, a newly developed CTA-HF membrane for brine concentration (BC) application (called BC membrane) was also addressed. Finally, RO/BC hybrid operation was introduced as an effective SWRO desalination technique that enables minimizing the volume of brine disposal from the RO plant by increasing the recovery ratio and the subsequent amount of produced freshwater, without an additional energy input

Investigation of deep learning model for predicting immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment efficacy on contrast-enhanced computed tomography images of hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract Although the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs)-targeted agents for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is promising, individual response variability exists. Therefore, we developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-based model to predict treatment efficacy using pre-ICIs contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) imaging characteristics. We evaluated the efficacy of atezolizumab and bevacizumab in 43 patients at the Nagasaki University Hospital from 2020 to 2022 using the modified Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors. A total of 197 Progressive Disease (PD), 271 Partial Response (PR), and 342 Stable Disease (SD) contrast CT images of HCC were used for training. We used ResNet-18 as the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model and YOLOv5, YOLOv7, YOLOv8 as the You Only Look Once (YOLO) model with precision-recall curves and class activation maps (CAMs) for diagnostic performance evaluation and model interpretation, respectively. The 3D t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding was used for image feature analysis. The YOLOv7 model demonstrated Precision 53.7%, Recall 100%, F1 score 69.8%, [email protected] 99.5% for PD, providing accurate and clinically versatile predictions by identifying decisive points. The ResNet-18 model had Precision 100% and Recall 100% for PD. However, the CAMs sites did not align with the tumors, suggesting the CNN model is not predicting that a given CT slice is PD, PR, or SD, but that it accurately predicts Individual Patient's CT slices. Preparing substantial training data for tumor drug effect prediction models is challenging compared to general tumor diagnosis models; hence, large-scale validation using an efficient YOLO model is warranted