THE INFLUENCE OF BASEBALL PITCHING ON THE HARDNESS OF THE FLEXOR PRONATOR MUSCLES - USING ULTRASOUND REALTIME TISSUE ELASTGRAPHY

The purpose of this study was to examine changes of the individual hardness of the flexor - pronator muscle group after pitching. The twelve normal male volunteers who had played baseball participated in this study. One hundred pitches were performed, and the individual flexor pronator muscles hardness were analyzed using ultrasound real time tissue elastgraphy (RTE) both before and after 100 pitching. The hardness of the flexor pronator muscles were not significant different between before and after pitching. However, hardness of the most hardened muscle was significantly different between before and after pitching. Therefore RTE is useful method to manage of the pitching counts in pitchers who performed athletic rehabilitation after throwing injuries

RUNX3 Has an Oncogenic Role

Background: Runt-related transcription factor 3 (RUNX3) is a tumor suppressor of cancer and appears to be an important component of the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-ß)-induced tumor suppression pathway. Surprisingly, we found that RUNX3 expression level in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) tissues, which is one of the most common types of human cancer, was higher than that in normal tissues by a previously published microarray dataset in our preliminary study. Therefore, here we examined the oncogenic role of RUNX3 in HNSCC. Principal Findings: Frequent RUNX3 expression and its correlation with malignant behavior were observed in HNSCC. Ectopic RUNX3 overexpression promoted cell growth and inhibited serum starvation-induced apoptosis and chemotherapeutic drug induced apoptosis in HNSCC cells. These findings were confirmed by RUNX3 knockdown. Moreover, RUNX3 overexpression enhanced tumorsphere formation. RUNX3 expression level was well correlated with the methylation status in HNSCC cells. Moreover, RUNX3 expression was low due to the methylation of its promoter in normal oral epithelial cells. Conclusions/Significance: Our findings suggest that i) RUNX3 has an oncogenic role in HNSCC, ii) RUNX3 expression observed in HNSCC may be caused in part by demethylation during cancer development, and iii) RUNX3 expression can be a useful marker for predicting malignant behavior and the effect of chemotherapeutic drugs in HNSCC

RUNX3 Has an Oncogenic Role in Head and Neck Cancer

Background: Runt-related transcription factor 3 (RUNX3) is a tumor suppressor of cancer and appears to be an important component of the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-ß)-induced tumor suppression pathway. Surprisingly, we found that RUNX3 expression level in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) tissues, which is one of the most common types of human cancer, was higher than that in normal tissues by a previously published microarray dataset in our preliminary study. Therefore, here we examined the oncogenic role of RUNX3 in HNSCC. Principal Findings: Frequent RUNX3 expression and its correlation with malignant behavior were observed in HNSCC. Ectopic RUNX3 overexpression promoted cell growth and inhibited serum starvation-induced apoptosis and chemotherapeutic drug induced apoptosis in HNSCC cells. These findings were confirmed by RUNX3 knockdown. Moreover, RUNX3 overexpression enhanced tumorsphere formation. RUNX3 expression level was well correlated with the methylation status in HNSCC cells. Moreover, RUNX3 expression was low due to the methylation of its promoter in normal oral epithelial cells. Conclusions/Significance: Our findings suggest that i) RUNX3 has an oncogenic role in HNSCC, ii) RUNX3 expression observed in HNSCC may be caused in part by demethylation during cancer development, and iii) RUNX3 expression can b

Cryptanalysis of a public key cryptosystem based on Diophantine equations via weighted LLL reduction

Post-quantum cryptography now plays a central role in cryptography. Many candidates of post-quantum cryptosystems (PQC) have been already proposed but require public keys of large sizes. Constructing PQC with public keys of small sizes is strongly desired. In [Oku15], Okumura proposed a public key cryptosystem based on the difficulty of solving Diophantine equations of degree increasing type (DEC for short). DEC is proposed as an analogue of the Algebraic Surface Cryptosystem [AGM09]. DEC has been expected to avoid the analogues of all attacks against ASC (and the previous versions of ASC). Moreover, DEC has been expected to be a candidate of PQC and to achieve the high security with public keys of small sizes, e.g., about 1;200 bits with 128 bit security. In this paper, we propose a polynomial time attack against DEC. We show that the security of DEC depends on the difficulty of finding special (relatively) short vectors in some lattices obtained from a public key and a ciphertext. The most important target vector in our attack is not necessarily a shortest vector in a lattice of low rank but only some entries are relatively small. In our attack, the LLL algorithm with respect to well-known norms such as the $p$-norms ($1 \leq p \leq 1$) does not seem to work well for finding such vectors. The most technical point of our method is to heuristically find a special norm, which we call a weighted norm, such that the most important target vector becomes a (nearly) shortest vector in a lattice of low rank. We call the LLL algorithm with respect to a weighted norm the ``weighted LLL algorithm in this paper. Our experimental results by a standard PC with Magma suggest that our attack via the weighted LLL algorithm can break the one-wayness of DEC for 128 bit security proposed in [Oku15] with sufficiently high probability

Successful pregnancy in renal transplant recipients.

Three cases of successful pregnancies in renal transplant recipients who had undergone transplantation in the Okayama University Medical School Hospital are reported. Two of the women had received an organ from a living relative and one woman received a cadaveric organ graft. These patients, aged 28-37 at the time of the delivery, had received their transplants 2-5 years prior to their conception. The periods of gestation ranged between 35 and 40 weeks. The weight of the babies at birth ranged from 2,380g to 2,500g and the apgar score at 1 min was 8 or 9. None of the infants showed any congenital abnormalities. Lower-segment cesarean section was performed in all of three cases. Serum creatinine levels, an indicator of renal graft function, did not deteriorate during the pregnancy or after delivery. Although further work is needed to solve problems regarding pregnancy in renal transplant recipients, these results encouraged us to meet their hope for a baby.</p

Temperature-dependent magnetoresistance effects in FeSi/FeSi/FeSi trilayered spin valve junctions

Fe3Si/FeSi2/Fe3Si trilayered junctions were fabricated by facing targets direct-current sputtering combined with a mask method, and the spin valve signals of the junctions were studied in the temperature range from 50 to 300 K. Whereas the magnetoresistance ratio of giant magnetoresistance and tunnel magnetoresistance junctions monotonically increases with decreasing temperature, that of our samples has the maximum value around 80 K and decreases with decreasing temperature at lower than 80 K, which might be due to an increase in the electrical conductivity mismatch between the metallic Fe3Si layers and semiconducting FeSi2 interlayer in the low temperature range.Asia-Pacific Conference on Semiconducting Silicides and Related Materials — Science and Technology Towards Sustainable Electronics (APAC Silicide 2016), July 16-18, 2016, Fukuoka, Japa

Numerical and experimental studies on circulation of working fluid in liquid droplet radiator

A model of the circulation of the working fluid in a liquid droplet radiator has been developed. The model is based on Bernoulli's law and the loss of the hydraulic head. The behavior of the circulation of the working fluid calculated from the model is compared with that obtained from experiments in the case that the flow rate of the circulating working fluid is changed. In radiators, the flow rate of the circulating working fluid is changed in order to match the change of the waste heat generated in large-space structures. The flow rates of the circulating working fluid calculated from the model correspond to those obtained from the experiments well. The circulation mechanism of the working fluid in the liquid droplet radiator has been clarified. The model developed in the present work will allow us to control the flow rate of the working fluid in the liquid droplet radiator automatically.Space for Inspiration of Humankind, Selected Proceedings of the 56th International Astronautical Federation Congress, Fukuoka, Japan, 17-21 October 200

Development of CAMUI Hybrid Rocket to Create a Market for Small Rocket Experiments

By introducing various innovative ideas, the difficult-to-develop small hybrid-type rocket is successfully developed. The main purpose is to drastically reduce the cost of rocket experiments and thus attract potential users such as metrological and microgravity researchers. A key idea is a new fuel grain design to accelerate the gasification rate of solid fuel. The new fuel grain design, designated as CAMUI as an abbreviation of “Cascaded Multistage Impinging-jet”, is that the gas flow repeatedly collides with the solid fuel surface to accelerate the heat transfer to the fuel. To install a regenerative cooling system using cryogenic liquid oxygen as coolant in a small launcher, the authors devised a valveless supply system (with no valves in the liquid oxygen flow line). Four serial successful launch verification tests by 10 kg vehicle equipped with a 50 kgf thrust CAMUI motor have shown the feasibility of the motor system. The meteorological observation model of 400 kgf class motor is under development and the development of microgravity experiment class of 1.5 to 2 tonf motor will follow subsequently. The authors plan to complete the development of the 400 kgf class motor for meteorological observation model by the end of FY2005

Suppressed gap junctional intercellular communication in carcinogenesis of endometrium

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