A Rapid and Sensitive Method for Detecting Fenitrothion in Biological Fluids Using the Phosphorus-Sulfur Selective Detector: a fenitrothion intoxication case

Fenitrothion (sumithion) in biological fluids of a patient, who attempted suicide by ingesting of fenitrothion, was separated and purified by Extrelut® column extraction. A gas chromatograph equipped with a flame photometric detec1 or and a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer were used for a detection of fenitrothion. A 41-year-old female, who attempted suicide by ingesting about 30 ml of Sumithion® (40% fenitrothion), started to vomit spontaneously and recurringly, and was transported to a hospital 3 hr after the ingestion. The patient was almost fully conscious and the diameter of her pupils was 3 mm on both sides. The fenitrothion concentration in the blood sample was 260 ng/g and was less than 6 ng/g in the urine sample both of which were collected 4 hr after ingestion. Aminofenitrothion, 4-nitro-3-methyl phenol, S-methylfenitrothion, phenobarbital and lidocaine were identified in the ethyl ether extract of the urine sample. After ingestion, the serum cholinesterase activity (normal range: 175-440 IU) was 104 at hr, 38 at 1 day, 85 at 2 days, 102 at 3 days and 137 at 4 days

Simulation Data Analysis by Virtual Reality System

We introduce new software for analysis of time-varying simulation data and new approach for contribution of simulation to experiment by virtual reality (VR) technology. In the new software, the objects of time-varying field are visualized in VR space and the particle trajectories in the time-varying electromagnetic field are also traced. In the new approach, both simulation results and experimental device data are simultaneously visualized in VR space. These developments enhance the study of the phenomena in plasma physics and fusion plasmas

Reduction of total E2F/DP activity induces senescence-like cell cycle arrest in cancer cells lacking functional pRB and p53

E2F/DP complexes were originally identified as potent transcriptional activators required for cell proliferation. However, recent studies revised this notion by showing that inactivation of total E2F/DP activity by dominant-negative forms of E2F or DP does not prevent cellular proliferation, but rather abolishes tumor suppression pathways, such as cellular senescence. These observations suggest that blockage of total E2F/DP activity may increase the risk of cancer. Here, we provide evidence that depletion of DP by RNA interference, but not overexpression of dominant-negative form of E2F, efficiently reduces endogenous E2F/DP activity in human primary cells. Reduction of total E2F/DP activity results in a dramatic decrease in expression of many E2F target genes and causes a senescence-like cell cycle arrest. Importantly, similar results were observed in human cancer cells lacking functional p53 and pRB family proteins. These findings reveal that E2F/DP activity is indeed essential for cell proliferation and its reduction immediately provokes a senescence-like cell cycle arrest

Thermal Equation of State of Fe3C to 327 GPa and Carbon in the Core

The density and sound velocity structure of the Earth’s interior is modeled on seismological observations and is known as the preliminary reference Earth model (PREM). The density of the core is lower than that of pure Fe, which suggests that the Earth’s core contains light elements. Carbon is one plausible light element that may exist in the core. We determined the equation of state (EOS) of Fe3C based on in situ high-pressure and high-temperature X-ray diffraction experiments using a diamond anvil cell. We obtained the P–V data of Fe3C up to 327 GPa at 300 K and 70–180 GPa up to around 2300 K. The EOS of nonmagnetic (NM) Fe3C was expressed by two models using two different pressure scales and the third-order Birch–Murnaghan EOS at 300 K with the Mie–Grüneisen–Debye EOS under high-temperature conditions. The EOS can be expressed with parameters of V0 = 148.8(±1.0) Å3, K0 = 311.1(±17.1) GPa, K0′ = 3.40(±0.1), γ0 = 1.06(±0.42), and q = 1.92(±1.73), with a fixed value of θ0 = 314 K using the KBr pressure scale (Model 1), and V0 = 147.3(±1.0) Å3, K0 = 323.0(±16.6) GPa, K0′ = 3.43(±0.09), γ0 = 1.37(±0.33), and q = 0.98(±1.01), with a fixed value of θ0 = 314 K using the MgO pressure scale (Model 2). The density of Fe3C under inner core conditions (assuming P = 329 GPa and T = 5000 K) calculated from the EOS is compatible with the PREM inner core

MEF/ELF4 transactivation by E2F1 is inhibited by p53

Myeloid elf-1-like factor (MEF) or Elf4 is an E-twenty-six (ETS)-related transcription factor with strong transcriptional activity that influences cellular senescence by affecting tumor suppressor p53. MEF downregulates p53 expression and inhibits p53-mediated cellular senescence by transcriptionally activating MDM2. However, whether p53 reciprocally opposes MEF remains unex-plored. Here, we show that MEF is modulated by p53 in human cells and mice tissues. MEF expression and promoter activity were suppressed by p53. While we found that MEF promoter does not contain p53 response elements, intriguingly, it contains E2F consensus sites. Subsequently, we determined that E2F1 specifically binds to MEF promoter and transactivates MEF. Nevertheless, E2F1 DNA binding and transactivation of MEF promoter was inhibited by p53 through the association between p53 and E2F1. Furthermore, we showed that activation of p53 in doxorubicin-induced senescent cells increased E2F1 and p53 interaction, diminished E2F1 recruitment to MEF promoter and reduced MEF expression. These observations suggest that p53 downregulates MEF by associating with and inhibiting the binding activity of E2F1, a novel transcriptional activator of MEF. Together with previous findings, our present results indicate that a negative regulatory mechanism exists between p53 and MEF

Virtual-reality visualization of loss points of 1 MeV tritons in the Large Helical Device, LHD

Intersection points of 1 MeV tritons and the plasma facing wall are visualized in the vacuum vessel of Large Helical Device (LHD) with the divertor plates by the virtual-reality (VR) system. The trajectory of the energetic triton is evaluated by means of the collisionless Lorentz orbit code, and the strike point is calculated by the winding number algorithm. The intersection points of the tritons and the plasma facing wall are visualized as spheres with the rendered internal vacuum wall and divertor plates in the VR space, and it is possible to directly observe the strike points distributed on the wall and on the plates. It is found that many tritons intersect with the divertor plates and that some strike on the vacuum vessel. To evaluate the effectiveness of this VR visualization, we ask people to score the effect of experience and the level of understanding after finding the place where many particles attack on the plasma facing wall on the two-dimensional plane or in the VR space. This visualization helps us to determine where the material probes should be placed on the plasma facing wall in the real LHD for experimental analysis of the accumulated tritium on the plasma facing wall. This development of VR visualization will make a significant contribution to the fusion plasma research

TOKI Compression for Plasma Particle Simulations

We propose a TOKI (Time Order, Kinetic, and Irreversible) compression method for recording smooth trajectories of particles from PIC (electromagnetic particle-in-cell) simulations. In a TOKI compression, instead of storing entire time sequences of particle positions, we store particle trajectories in terms of coefficients of approximating polynomials. In the current implementation, these coefficients are determined either by the least-squares method or by the Chebyshev approximation formula to obtain quasi-minimax polynomials. In this paper, we present the technique of TOKI compression and compare it with other lossy compression schemes, such as XTC. Comparisons are made using data from a PIC simulation for 150,000 electrons and 150,000 ions. For smooth trajectories, the compression ratio by TOKI is better than that by the XTC format. However, for ballistic trajectories, the compression ratio by TOKI is not good because of the significant overhead in storing raw values of trajectories. We also found that the compression efficiency for ion trajectories is better than that for electron trajectories. This is attributed to different characteristic time scales of motions due to the difference in mass. We expect that the behavior of the compression ratio in TOKI can be used to characterize motions of plasma particles