Increase of cloud cover due to reduced sea ice in the Arctic Ocean in MIROC6 historical simulations

The Tenth Symposium on Polar Science/Ordinary sessions: [OM] Polar Meteorology and Glaciology, Wed. 4 Dec. / Entrance Hall (1st floor) , National Institute of Polar Researc

Pan-Arctic Sea Ice Prediction System with the MIROC Climate Model

第6回極域科学シンポジウム分野横断セッション：[IA] 急変する北極気候システム及びその全球的な影響の総合的解明―GRENE北極気候変動研究事業研究成果報告2015―11月19日（木）　国立極地研究所１階交流アトリウ

Behavior of vascular resistance undergoing various pressure insufflation and perfusion on decellularized lungs

Bioengineering of functional lung tissue by using whole lung scaffolds has been proposed as a potential alternative for patients awaiting lung transplant. Previous studies have demonstrated that vascular resistance (Rv) could be altered to optimize the process of obtaining suitable lung scaffolds. Therefore, this work was aimed at determining how lung inflation (tracheal pressure) and perfusion (pulmonary arterial pressure) affect vascular resistance. This study was carried out using the lungs excised from 5 healthy male Sprague-Dawley rats. The trachea was cannulated and connected to a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device to provide a tracheal pressure ranging from 0 to 15 cmH(2)O. The pulmonary artery was cannulated and connected to a controlled perfusion system with continuous pressure (gravimetric level) ranging from 5 to 30 cmH(2)O. Effective Rv was calculated by ratio of pulmonary artery pressure (P-PA) by pulmonary artery flow (V'(PA)). Rv in the decellularized lungs scaffolds decreased at increasing V'(PA), stabilizing at a pulmonary arterial pressure greater than 20 cmH(2)O. On the other hand, CPAP had no influence on vascular resistance in the lung scaffolds after being subjected to pulmonary artery pressure of 5 cmH(2)O. In conclusion, compared to positive airway pressure, arterial lung pressure markedly influences the mechanics of vascular resistance in decellularized lungs. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Clinical Findings on Fibroblast Activation Protein in Patients with Gastric Cancer

Human fibroblast activation protein (FAP) is a 97-kDa surface glycoprotein expressed in tumor-associated fibroblasts. In this study, we immunohistochemically examined FAP levels in surgically resected gastric carcinomas and explored their association with clini-copathological findings and prognosis. Sections of paraffin-embedded specimens were obtained from 100 patients with advanced gastric cancer between 1989 and 2001 at our institution, and they were stained with an anti-FAP antibody. Expression of FAP was detected in 64 patients (64%). Lymphatic vessel invasion was observed in 90% of FAP-positive patients (P = 0.015). Blood vessel invasion was observed in 98% of FAP-positive patients (P < 0.001). The disease-specific 5-year survival rate of in the 64 patients with FAP-positive tumors (22%) was significantly lower than in the 36 patients with FAP-negative tumors (34%, P = 0.036). This indicates that vessel invasion is connected with the expression of FAP and that a positive finding of FAP confer a worse prognosis in the patients with gastric cancer

Laparoscopy-Assisted Pylorus-Preserving Gastrectomy for Treating Early Gastric Cancer

Laparoscopy-assisted pylorus-preserving gastrectomy (LAPPG) with lymphadenectomy has been used for treating early gastric cancer located in the middle-third of the stomach. However, firm evidence supporting its safety and usefulness is scant. This study examined 24 and 10 gastric adenocarcinoma patients who had undergone conventional pylorus-preserving gastrectomy (CPPG) and LAPPG, respectively, at our institution. Operation time for LAPPG (362.8 ± 49.6 min) was significantly longer than that for CPPG (221.9 ± 50.0 min; P = 0.04). Estimated blood loss with LAPPG (127.5 ± 91.2 mL) was not significantly different from that with CPPG (167.9 ± 149.9 mL; P = 0.44). Total number of resected lymph nodes was 26.3 ± 9.5 and 21.3 ± 10.8 with LAPPG and CPPG, respectively, with no statistically significant difference. C-reactive protein in serum on postoperative day 1 was significantly lower in the LAPPG than in the CPPG group (5.3 ± 1.7 mg/dL versus 7.8 ± 3.6 mg/dL; P = 0.049). The requirement for analgesia after surgery was more frequent in the CPPG than in the LAPPG group (3.7 ± 2.0 versus 2.2 ± 1.7; P = 0.04). Time to first flatus was shorter in the LAPPG than in the CPPG group (1.9 ± 0.9 days versus 3.1 ± 0.9 days; P = 0.0006). Postoperative hospital stay was significantly shorter in the LAPPG than in the CPPG group (12.0 ± 4.0 days versus 23.0 ± 10.7days; P = 0.0036). With regard to postoperative complications, stasis was observed more frequently in the CPPG (33.3%) than in the LAPPG (10%) group. In conclusion, patients treated by LAPPG showed a comparable quality of surgical operation compared with those treated by CPPG

Operative Procedure for Laparoscopy-Assisted Vagus Nerve and Pylorus-Preserving Gastrectomy (LAVNPPG) for Early Gastric Cancer

Laparosocpy-assisted pylorus-preserving gastrectomy (LAPPG) is a widely accepted surgical procedure for the treatment of early gastric cancer in the middle third of the stomach. We have been performing this operation since 2007. Compared with traditional distal gastrectomy, LAPPG has postoperative nutritional benefits for patients. However, this procedure preserves only the pyloric branch of the vagus nerve and not the celiac branch. We found that patients retain a large amount of residual food in the gastric remnant, which interferes with the detection of secondary cancer on endoscopic follow-up. To improve the pyloric function and postoperative gastrointestinal motility, we changed our procedure during 2009 to preserve both the pyloric and celiac branches of the vagus nerve, and we named this new procedure laparoscopy-assisted vagus nerve and pylorus-preserving gastrectomy (LAVNPPG). From 2009 to 2011, 11 patients underwent LAVNPPG at our hospital. Retrospective comparison of the safety of operation, postoperative complications, and condition of the gastric remnant between LAPPG (n = 13) and LAVNPPG (n = 11) found that the occurrence of postprandial stasis and food residue in the gastric remnant tended to be lower following LAVNPPG, though the differences were not significant. These findings indicate that LAVNPPG may be an operative procedure that could replace LAPPG

Effectiveness and limitations of parameter tuning in reducing biases of top-of-atmosphere radiation and clouds in MIROC version 5

This study discusses how much of the biases in top-of-atmosphere (TOA) radiation and clouds can be removed by parameter tuning in the present-day simulation of a climate model in the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) generation. We used output of a perturbed parameter ensemble (PPE) experiment conducted with an atmosphere–ocean general circulation model (AOGCM) without flux adjustment. The Model for Interdisciplinary Research on Climate version 5 (MIROC5) was used for the PPE experiment. Output of the PPE was compared with satellite observation data to evaluate the model biases and the parametric uncertainty of the biases with respect to TOA radiation and clouds. The results indicate that removing or changing the sign of the biases by parameter tuning alone is difficult. In particular, the cooling bias of the shortwave cloud radiative effect at low latitudes could not be removed, neither in the zonal mean nor at each latitude–longitude grid point. The bias was related to the overestimation of both cloud amount and cloud optical thickness, which could not be removed by the parameter tuning either. However, they could be alleviated by tuning parameters such as the maximum cumulus updraft velocity at the cloud base. On the other hand, the bias of the shortwave cloud radiative effect in the Arctic was sensitive to parameter tuning. It could be removed by tuning such parameters as albedo of ice and snow both in the zonal mean and at each grid point. The obtained results illustrate the benefit of PPE experiments which provide useful information regarding effectiveness and limitations of parameter tuning. Implementing a shallow convection parameterization is suggested as a potential measure to alleviate the biases in radiation and clouds

Scirrhous Gastric Cancer: Therapeutic Strategy

The prognosis of patients with scirrhous gastric cancer is extremely poor. The management protocol for this type of cancer has not well been documented. In this paper, recent therapeutic outcomes of this type of gastric cancer are reviewed, and we introduce a new treatment protocol for scirrhous gastric cancer