Whole body counter surveys of Miharu-town school children for four consecutive years after the Fukushima NPP accident

Comprehensive whole-body counter surveys of Miharu town school children have been conducted for four consecutive years, in 2011-2014. This represents the only long-term sampling-bias-free study of its type conducted after the Fukushima Dai-ichi accident. For the first time in 2014, a new device called the Babyscan, which has a low $^{134/137}$Cs MDA of $< 50$ Bq/body, was used to screen the children shorter than 130 cm. No child in this group was found to have detectable level of radiocesium. Using the MDAs, upper limits of daily intake of radiocesium were estimated for each child. For those screened with the Babyscan, the upper intake limits were found to be <1 Bq/day for $^{137}$Cs. Analysis of a questionnaire filled out by the children's parents regarding their food and water consumption shows that the majority of Miharu children regularly consume local and/or home-grown rice and vegetables. This however does not increase the body burden.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure

First order phase transition in the quark matter

We investigate chiral phase transition of the first order in the quark matter. Using the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model, an equation of state of the quark matter which is similar to the van der Waals' one is obtained. Moreover the specific heat and the compressibility are calculated. It is shown that they are enhanced in the symmetry broken phase, in particular diverge near the tricritical point.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure

Development of a Si/CdTe semiconductor Compton telescope

We are developing a Compton telescope based on high resolution Si and CdTe imaging devices in order to obtain a high sensitivity astrophysical observation in sub-MeV gamma-ray region. In this paper, recent results from the prototype Si/CdTe semiconductor Compton telescope are reported. The Compton telescope consists of a double-sided Si strip detector (DSSD) and CdTe pixel detectors, combined with low noise analog LSI, VA32TA. With this detector, we obtained Compton reconstructed images and spectra from line gamma-rays ranging from 81 keV up to 356 keV. The energy resolution is 3.8 keV and 7.9 keV at 122 keV and 356 keV, respectively, and the angular resolution is 9.9 degrees and 5.7 degrees at 122 keV and 356 keV, respectively.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figures, submitted to SPIE conference proceedings vol. 5501, "High-Energy Detectors in Astronomy", Glasgow UK, 6/21-6/24 200

Immuno-chemotherapy of malignant lymphoma using OK-432, a streptococcal agent

Clinical trials of immuno-chemotherapy were conducted on malignant lymphoma patients. Patients during the period from 1972 through 1977 were allocated to two groups retrospectively according to the mode of treatment, i.e., chemotherapy alone (historical control group, 35 patients) and chemotherapy with OK-432 (treated group, 15 patients). Comparisons were made of the two groups, which were homogeneous with regard to induction chemotherapy, maintenance chemotherapy, stage and histologic type of disease. The treated group had a higher remission rate, and a longer remission duration and survival than the control groups, especially in patients with Hodgkin's disease but the difference was not statistically significant owing to the limited number of cases.</p

Cytokine expression in human dermal fibroblasts stimulated with eosinophil cationic protein measured by protein array

[Background] : Eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) was reported previously to be involved in allergic inflammation with cytotoxic activity. On the other hand, recent studies showed that ECP did not induce cell death but inhibited the growth of cancer-derived cells. Our previous study indicated that human ECP enhanced differentiation of rat neonatal cardiomyocytes and stress fiber formation in Balb/c 3T3 mouse fibroblasts, while the effects of human ECP on human fibroblasts are unknown. [Objective] : The present study was performed to determine the effects of human ECP on cytokine expression in human fibroblasts by protein array. [Methods] : The effects of recombinant human ECP (rhECP) on normal human dermal fibroblasts (NHDF) were examined by assaying cell growth. Furthermore, cytokine expression of NHDF stimulated by ECP, which could influence cell growth, was evaluated by protein array. [Results] : ECP was not cytotoxic but enhanced the growth of NHDF. The peak rhECP concentration that enhanced the cell counts by 1.56-fold was 100 ng/mL, which was significantly different from cultures without ECP stimulation (ANOVA/Scheffe’s test, P < 0.05). Array analyses indicated that ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), neutrophilactivating peptide (NAP)-2, and neurotrophin (NT)-3 were significantly upregulated in NHDF stimulated with 100 ng/mL ECP compared to those without stimulation. [Conclusion] : ECP is not cytotoxic but enhances the growth of NHDF. CNTF, NAP-2, and NT-3 were suggested to be involved in enhancing the growth of NHDF. These findings will contribute to determination of the role of ECP in allergic inflammation. (Asian Pac J Allergy Immunol 2013;31:271-6

A Hepatocellular Adenoma in a Diet-induced Obese Mouse

A hepatic nodule was noted in a C57BL/6J mouse with diet-induced obesity at 53 weeks of age. Macroscopically, a protruding yellowish white nodule was observed on the visceral surface of the left lateral lobe. Light microscopy demonstrated clear demarcation from the compressed adjacent parenchyma, with loss of the distinct lobular pattern. The proliferating cells of the lesion varied in shape and showed cellular atypia and prominent nucleoli along with vacuoles of various sizes. Some of the cells contained various-sized eosinophilic inclusion bodies in their cytoplasm, and electron microscopy revealed the presence of lipid droplets in the rough endoplasmic reticulum. Eosinophilic inclusions were observed as electron dense granular material in the rough endoplasmic reticulum, with one or a few low density central cores. A diagnosis of hepatocellular adenoma was made based on these findings

糖尿病無料検診

The Tokushima-Nishi Medical Association has so far provided ２０ diabetes screenings for free. The screenings determined blood glucose levels, HbA１c, height, weight, BMI and blood pressure etc. A total of ６４０ people were examined in the ２０ screenings. The screenings found １２３ people with impaired blood glucose levels（more than １１０ mg/dl at fasting state and １４０ mg/dl at postprandial state, respectively）, ３３６ prediabetic people with HbA１c of ５．６‐６．４％ and １０４ diabetic people with HbA１c of６．５％ or more. In addition, there were ２９６ people with hypertension（１４０／９０ mmHg or higher）and ２０６ people with BMI of ２５ or more. There were as many as １０３ prediabetic and ５７ diabetic people among the people with BMI of ２５ or higher, indicating that ７７．７％ of obese people were prediabetes or diabetes. Of the １０４ people with diabetic HbA１c, as high as ５７．７％ had complicating hypertension and ５４．８％ complicating obesity. Of the people with diabetic HbA１c ４０．４％ had normal blood glucose levels. Therefore, it is necessary to determine both blood glucose level and HbA１c at the same time for the screening of diabetes. Since obese people are often prediabetes or diabetes, it is desirable for them to have medical examinations even if they are asymptomatic. In addition, the significance of this screening lies in learning diet therapy for preventing diabetes from dietitians

Steroidogenesis in Isolated Adrenal Cells of Rat

A reliable and reproducible system for the isolation of rat adrenal cells was developed, using 0.25% trypsin for cell dispersion. The suspending cell in Krebs-Ringer bicarbonate buffer containing 0.2% glucose and 0.5% bovine serum albumin was incubated for 120 minutes at 37℃ under 95% 02 and 5% C02. Corticosterone production induced by synthetic 1-24ACTH showed a dose-related increase in decapsular cells. The precision of the inter-experiment of corticosterone production was 5.0% (average coefficients of variation)