The Current Status of SME Financing under the Financial Crisis: A summary of the Survey on the Status of Transactions between Businesses and Financial Institutions (Feb. 2008) and the Survey on the Status of Transactions between Businesses and Financial Institutions following the Financial Crisis (Feb. 2009). (Japanese)

This paper summarizes the results of two questionnaires presented to small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) by RIETI in February 2008 and February 2009. Given the limited data on SMEs, the purpose of the questionnaires is to understand the current status of financing for SMEs facing this serious economic recession, triggered by the financial crisis. The Survey on the Status of Transactions between Businesses and Financial Institutions conducted in February 2008, was sent to 17,018 companies nationwide, with SMEs being the main target, and of those recipients 6,124 companies or 36.0% responded. This survey, which was designed to explain the structural characteristics of SME financing, illustrated terms and conditions such as accounts payable and bills payable for inter-firm credit, differences in the roles of major lending financial institutions including main banks, and the impact of changes in the credit guarantee system in recent years. Regarding the Survey on the Status of Transactions between Businesses and Financial Institutions following the Financial Crisis conducted in February 2009, RIETI targeted 5,979 of the companies who responded to the 2008 survey and of those companies 4,103 or 68.6% responded. The survey was conducted to understand how the relationships between companies and financial institutions and customers and suppliers changed, and what measures SMEs took to address these changes, in light of the fact that the cash management of SMEs has been extremely difficult since last autumn, when the global credit crunch set in. Although the surveys were not identical, some of the same questions were asked in both surveys. The answers to these questions were then compared to see how conditions had changed and to understand which areas of SME financing had become more difficult.

Esophageal Cancer with Bone Marrow Hyperplasia Mimicking Bone Metastasis: Report of a Case

A 63-year-old man visited the clinic with numbness in the right hand. Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated multiple low-intensity lesions in the cervical vertebrae and sacrum, which was suspicious of cervical bone metastasis. Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography revealed areas of increased fluorodeoxyglucose uptake in the thoracic esophagus, sternum and sacrum. A flat, elevated esophageal cancer was identified by upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, and the macroscopic appearance indicated early-stage disease. From the cervical, thoracic and abdominal computed tomography images, there were no metastatic lesions except for the bone lesions. To confirm whether the bone lesions were metastatic, we performed bone biopsy. The histopathological diagnosis was bone marrow hyperplasia. It was crucial for treatment planning to establish whether the lesions were distant metastases. Here, we report a case of esophageal cancer with bone marrow hyperplasia mimicking bone metastasis

TNFα siRNA reduces brain TNF and EEG delta wave activity in rats

Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) is a pleiotropic cytokine with several CNS physiological and pathophysiological actions including sleep, memory, thermal and appetite regulation. Short interfering RNAs (siRNA) targeting TNFα were incubated with cortical cell cultures and microinjected into the primary somatosensory cortex (SSctx) of rats. The TNFα siRNA treatment specifically reduced TNFα mRNA by 45% in vitro without affecting interleukin-6 or gluR1–4 mRNA levels. In vivo the TNFα siRNAα reduced TNFα mRNA, interleukin-6 mRNA and gluR1 mRNA levels compared to treatment with a scrambled control siRNA. After in vivo microinjection, the density of TNFα-immunoreactive cells in layer V of the SSctx was also reduced. Electroencephalogram (EEG) delta wave power was decreased on days 2 and 3 on the side of the brain that received the TNFα siRNA microinjection relative to the side receiving the control siRNA. These findings support the hypothesis that TNFα siRNA attenuates TNFα mRNA and TNFα protein in the rat cortex and that those reductions reduce cortical EEG delta power. Results also are consistent with the notion that TNFα is involved in CNS physiology including sleep regulation