Development of an Evolutionary Three-Dimensional Scroll Compressor

A novel three-dimensional scroll compressor was developed. The authors have produced 3D scroll compressor since 2004. The 3D scroll is able to compress refrigerant in axial direction as well as in existing radial direction by employing steps at the bottom and the tip of the scroll which change the height of compression chamber on the middle of the compression process. For the purpose of further performance improvement, the authors developed an evolutionary three-dimensional compression mechanism, named e-3D scroll . The e-3D scroll is equipped with a sloped tip and a sloped end plate in each scroll instead of the steps in the conventional 3D scroll. The height of compression chamber decreases continuously with progression of compression by the sloped shape. The e-3D scroll achieved considerable efficiency improvement compared to the conventional 3D scroll since there is no leakage loss in the steps while keeping the advantages of high compression ratio, large capacity and small size by the sloped tip and end plate. In addition, the noise and vibration of the e-3D scroll compressor reduced significantly since the rate of change of cylinder volume throughout the compression process and the torque variation in the rotation became smaller than the conventional 3D scroll. This article describes the compression mechanism and the performance improvement technology in the e-3D scroll

Tonic B cell activation by Radioprotective105/MD-1 promotes disease progression in MRL/lpr mice

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) have a crucial role in sensing microbial products and triggering immune responses. Recent reports have indicated that TLR7 and TLR9 have an important role in activating autoreactive B cells. In addition to TLR7 and TLR9, mouse B cells express TLR2, TLR4 and structurally related Radioprotective105 (RP105). We have previously shown that RP105 works in concert with TLR2/4 in antibody response to TLR2/4 ligands. We here report that B cells are constitutively activated by TLR2/4 and RP105. Such B cell activation was revealed by the γ3 germ line transcript and serum IgG3 production, both of which were impaired by the lack of RP105 or TLR2/4. Serum IgG3 was not altered in germ-free or antibiotics-treated mice, suggesting that the microbial flora hardly contributes to the continuous activation of B cells. The lack of RP105-dependent B cell activation ameliorated disease progression in lupus-prone MRL/lpr mice. RP105−/− MRL/lpr mice showed less lymphoadenopathy/splenomegaly and longer survival than MRL/lpr mice. Whereas glomerulonephritis and auto-antibody production were not altered, improvement in blood urea nitrogen and lower incidence of renal arteritis indicated that renal function was ameliorated in the absence of RP105. Our results suggest that RP105-dependent tonic B cell activation has a pathogenic role in MRL/lpr mic

Computed Tomography Findings for Diagnosing Follicular Thyroid Neoplasms

Since no diagnostic method has been established to distinguish follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) from follicular thyroid adenoma (FTA), surgery has been the only way to reach a diagnosis of follicular neoplasm. Here we investigated the computed tomography (CT) features of follicular neoplasms, toward the goal of being able to identify specific CT features allowing the preoperative differentiation of FTC from FTA. We retrospectively analyzed the cases of 205 patients who underwent preoperative CT of the neck and were histopathologically diagnosed with FTC (n=31) or FTA (n=174) after surgery between January 2002 and June 2016 at several hospitals in Japan. In each of these 205 cases, non-enhanced and contrast-enhanced CT images were obtained, and we analyzed the CT features. On univariate analysis, inhomogeneous features of tumor lesions on contrast-enhanced CT were more frequently observed in FTC than in FTA (p=0.0032). A multivariate analysis identified inhomogeneous features of tumor lesions on contrast-enhanced CT images as an independent variable indicative of FTC (p=0.0023). CT thus offers diagnostic assistance in distinguishing FTC from FTA

‘Protected DNA Probes’ capable of strong hybridization without removal of base protecting groups

We propose a new strategy called the ‘Protected DNA Probes (PDP) method’ in which appropriately protected bases selectively bind to the complementary bases without the removal of their base protecting groups. Previously, we reported that 4-N-acetylcytosine oligonucleotides (ac4C) exhibited a higher hybridization affinity for ssDNA than the unmodified oligonucleotides. For the PDP strategy, we created a modified adenine base and synthesized an N-acylated deoxyadenosine mimic having 6-N-acetyl-8-aza-7-deazaadenine (ac6az8c7A). It was found that PDP containing ac4C and ac6az8c7A exhibited higher affinity for the complementary ssDNA than the corresponding unmodified DNA probes and showed similar base recognition ability. Moreover, it should be noted that this PDP strategy could guarantee highly efficient synthesis of DNA probes on controlled pore glass (CPG) with high purity and thereby could eliminate the time-consuming procedures for isolating DNA probes. This strategy could also avoid undesired base-mediated elimination of DNA probes from CPG under basic conditions such as concentrated ammonia solution prescribed for removal of base protecting groups in the previous standard approach. Here, several successful applications of this strategy to single nucleotide polymorphism detection are also described in detail using PDPs immobilized on glass plates and those prepared on CPG plates, suggesting its potential usefulness

A Cooking Recipe Recommendation System with Visual Recognition of Food Ingredients

In this paper, we propose a cooking recipe recommendation system which runs on a consumer smartphone as an interactive mobile application. The proposed system employs real-time visual object recognition of food ingredients, and recommends cooking recipes related to the recognized food ingredients. Because of visual recognition, by only pointing a built-in camera on a smartphone to food ingredients, a user can get to know a related cooking recipes instantly. The objective of the proposed system is to assist people who cook to decide a cooking recipe at grocery stores or at a kitchen. In the current implementation, the system can recognize 30 kinds of food ingredient in 0.15 seconds, and it has achieved the 83.93% recognition rate within the top six candidates. By the user study, we confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed system

Rac1-Dependent Lamellipodial Motility in Prostate Cancer PC-3 Cells Revealed by Optogenetic Control of Rac1 Activity

The lamellipodium, an essential structure for cell migration, plays an important role in the invasion and metastasis of cancer cells. Although Rac1 recognized as a key player in the formation of lamellipodia, the molecular mechanisms underlying lamellipodial motility are not fully understood. Optogenetic technology enabled us to spatiotemporally control the activity of photoactivatable Rac1 (PA-Rac1) in living cells. Using this system, we revealed the role of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) in Rac1-dependent lamellipodial motility in PC-3 prostate cancer cells. Through local blue laser irradiation of PA-Rac1-expressing cells, lamellipodial motility was reversibly induced. First, outward extension of a lamellipodium parallel to the substratum was observed. The extended lamellipodium then showed ruffling activity at the periphery. Notably, PI(3,4,5)P3 and WAVE2 were localized in the extending lamellipodium in a PI3K-dependent manner. We confirmed that the inhibition of PI3K activity greatly suppressed lamellipodial extension, while the ruffling activity was less affected. These results suggest that Rac1-induced lamellipodial motility consists of two distinct activities, PI3K-dependent outward extension and PI3K-independent ruffling

Rac1-Dependent Lamellipodial Motility in Prostate Cancer PC-3 Cells Revealed by Optogenetic Control of Rac1 Activity

<div><p>The lamellipodium, an essential structure for cell migration, plays an important role in the invasion and metastasis of cancer cells. Although Rac1 recognized as a key player in the formation of lamellipodia, the molecular mechanisms underlying lamellipodial motility are not fully understood. Optogenetic technology enabled us to spatiotemporally control the activity of photoactivatable Rac1 (PA-Rac1) in living cells. Using this system, we revealed the role of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) in Rac1-dependent lamellipodial motility in PC-3 prostate cancer cells. Through local blue laser irradiation of PA-Rac1-expressing cells, lamellipodial motility was reversibly induced. First, outward extension of a lamellipodium parallel to the substratum was observed. The extended lamellipodium then showed ruffling activity at the periphery. Notably, PI(3,4,5)P₃ and WAVE2 were localized in the extending lamellipodium in a PI3K-dependent manner. We confirmed that the inhibition of PI3K activity greatly suppressed lamellipodial extension, while the ruffling activity was less affected. These results suggest that Rac1-induced lamellipodial motility consists of two distinct activities, PI3K-dependent outward extension and PI3K-independent ruffling.</p></div