Transition in electron scattering mechanism in atomic layer deposited Nb:TiO2 thin films

We characterized transport and optical properties of atomic layer deposited Nb:TiO2 thin films on glass substrates. These promising transparent conducting oxide (TCO) materials show minimum resistivity of 1.0 × 10−3 Ω cm at 300 K and high transmittance in the visible range. Low-temperature (2–300 K) Hall measurements and the Drude fitting of the Vis-NIR optical spectra indicate a transition in the scattering mechanism from grain boundary scattering to intra-grain scattering with increasing Nb content, thus underlining enhancement of the grain size in the low doping regime as the key for further improved TCO properties.Peer reviewe

形態計測のためのメタノール・硝酸セルロースによる組織包埋法

Very recently we developed a new embedding medium, "Shiojirin-E", made chiefly of cellulose nitrate (Kawakami et al. 1995)^&;t;1\u272)>. During the course of its development, we noted that cellulose nitrate would be a very suitable embedding medium for morphometric analysis, especially because of its low and constant rate of contraction. But the highviscosity of this medium resulted in a very slow rate of infiltration. Therefore we sought to develop a new, better histological embedding medium for morphometric analysis based on information on the methanol-cellulose nitrate method by Seki (1937)^. After trial and error, we succeeded in our goal : The composition of the medium is as follows : cellulose nitrate 15.0g, methanol 78.6g, and others 6.4g (total of 100.00g). When the specimens are not so big, we can easily get 3-5 micron-thick sections like paraffin sections with complete non-contractibility. We believe that this new methanol-cellulose nitrate medium will be useful especially for histological morphometrical analysis

Classification of scanning electron microscope images of pharmaceutical excipients using deep convolutional neural networks with transfer learning

Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are image analysis techniques that have been applied to image classification in various fields. In this study, we applied a CNN to classify scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of pharmaceutical raw material powders to determine if a CNN can evaluate particle morphology. We tested 10 pharmaceutical excipients with widely different particle morphologies. SEM images for each excipient were acquired and divided into training, validation, and test sets. Classification models were constructed by applying transfer learning to pretrained CNN models such as VGG16 and ResNet50. The results of a 5-fold cross-validation showed that the classification accuracy of the CNN model was sufficiently high using either pretrained model and that the type of excipient could be classified with high accuracy. The results suggest that the CNN model can detect differences in particle morphology, such as particle size, shape, and surface condition. By applying Grad-CAM to the constructed CNN model, we succeeded in finding particularly important regions in the particle image of the excipients. CNNs have been found to have the potential to be applied to the identification and characterization of raw material powders for pharmaceutical development

Churg-Strauss Syndrome with Necrosis of Toe Tips

Churg-Strauss syndrome (CSS) is a granulomatous necrotizing vasculitis of unknown etiology associated with bronchial asthma. Despite affecting small to medium-sized vessels, necrosis of the digits due to vasculitis is extremely rare. We report a case of CSS with necrosis of the toe tips. A 37-year-old woman with asthma, who had been diagnosed with CSS 2 years ago, was admitted to our hospital with an exacerbation of CSS. The patient had a high grade fever and complained of abdominal pain and numbness of the lower extremities. Blood examination revealed marked eosinophilia. The fever pattern, abdominal pain and blood eosinophilia showed improvement by combination treatment with prednisolone and cyclophosphamide. However, the color of her right toe tips changed, and necrosis finally resulted despite antithrombotic therapy. Arteriography showed narrowing of the dorsalis pedis artery and of the more peripheral arteries of her right leg. Stump plasty with negative pressure dressing therapy for the toe tips, but not amputation, was done to preserve the leg function. While numbness of the extremities remained, no recurrence of necrosis was seen. Clinicians need to be aware that rare complications of CSS, including necrosis of the digits, can occur

ホタテガイ貝殻に含まれる皮膚真皮線維芽細胞増殖因子の単離・同定

We have previously shown that scallop shells contain bioactive components. In particular, the scallop shell extract promoted the growth of human skin fibroblast cells and increased in the synthesis of collagen in the fibroblast cells. However, the bioactive substance in the scallop shell remains has been unidentified. In this study, we performed the isolation and identification of human skin fibroblast cell growth factor (SFGF) from scallop shell. The SFGF was purified by a gel filtration column (G-2000SW) and subsequently reverse-phase column chromatographies (C4 and C18). The isolated SFGF was presumed to be a glycopeptide with a molecular weight below 3000 Da. This is the first report about the isolation of a bioactive substance from scallop shell.特集 : 「資源、新エネルギー、環境、防災研究国際セミナー

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Macaque Monkeys Performing Visually Guided Saccade Tasks Comparison of Cortical Eye Fields with Humans

AbstractThe frontal and parietal eye fields serve as functional landmarks of the primate brain, although their correspondences between humans and macaque monkeys remain unclear. We conducted fMRI at 4.7 T in monkeys performing visually-guided saccade tasks and compared brain activations with those in humans using identical paradigms. Among multiple parietal activations, the dorsal lateral intraparietal area in monkeys and an area in the posterior superior parietal lobule in humans exhibited the highest selectivity to saccade directions. In the frontal cortex, the selectivity was highest at the junction of the precentral and superior frontal sulci in humans and in the frontal eye field (FEF) in monkeys. BOLD activation peaks were also found in premotor areas (BA6) in monkeys, which suggests that the apparent discrepancy in location between putative human FEF (BA6, suggested by imaging studies) and monkey FEF (BA8, identified by microstimulation studies) partly arose from methodological differences

Effects of scallop shell extract on scopolamine-induced memory impairment and MK801-induced locomotor activity

ObjectiveTo evaluate the neuroprotective effects of the organic components of scallop shells (scallop shell extract) on memory impairment and locomotor activity induced by scopolamine or 5-methyl-10,11-dihydro-5H-dibenzo (a,d) cyclohepten-5,10-imine (MK801).MethodsEffect of the scallop shell extract on memory impairment and locomotor activity was investigated using the Y-maze test, the Morris water maze test, and the open field test.ResultsScallop shell extract significantly reduced scopolamine-induced short-term memory impairment and partially reduced scopolamine-induced spatial memory impairment in the Morris water maze test. Scallop shell extract suppressed scopolamine-induced elevation of acetylcholine esterase activity in the cerebral cortex. Treatment with scallop shell extract reversed the increase in locomotor activity induced by scopolamine. Scallop shell extract also suppressed the increase in locomotor activity induced by MK801.ConclusionsOur results provide initial evidence that scallop shell extract reduces scopolamine-induced memory impairment and suppresses MK-801-induced hyperlocomotion

Effective meson masses, effective meson-nucleon couplings and neutron star radii

Using the generalized mean field theory, we have studied the relation among the effective meson masses, the effective meson-nucleon couplings and the equation of state (EOS) in asymmetric nuclear matter. If the effective omega-meson mass becomes smaller at high density, the EOS becomes stiffer. However, if we require that the omega-meson mean field is proportional to the baryon density, the effective omega-nucleon coupling automatically becomes smaller at the same time as the effective omega-meson mass becomes smaller. Consequently, the EOS becomes softer. A similar relation is found for the effective rho-meson mass and the effective rho-nucleon coupling. We have also studied the relation among the effective meson masses, the effective meson-nucleon couplings and a radius R of a neutron star. The R depends somewhat on the value of the effective omega-meson mass and the effective omega-nucleon coupling.Comment: 29pages, 24 figure