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ABSTRACT: Here, we describe the establishment of mutant-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for detection of a c-KIT c.1430G>T mutation in feline mast cell tumours. Several mutations in feline c-KIT have been identified, with the c.1430G>T mutation accounting for a significant portion of feline mast cell tumour mutations. The c.1430G>T mutation in c-KIT exon 9 was detected in 15.7% (11 of 70) of samples by mutant-specific PCR but in only 7.1% (5 of 70) by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) in the genomic DNA isolated from 70 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded sections or cells collected by fine needle aspiration. Mutant-specific PCR showed remarkably higher detection rate than did PCR-RFLP. DNA sequence analysis did not always yield identical results to those of mutant-specific PCR, suggesting heterogeneity of tumour cells. Mutant-specific PCR is a valid and efficient screening tool for detection of the c-KIT c.1430G>T point mutation in feline mast cell tumours compared with PCR-RFLP and sequencing analysis.
Veterinary and Comparative Oncology 08/2012; · 1.56 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: After immediate teeth separation, expression of HSP27 in the mouse dental pulp was examined. Immunohistochemistry was performed to examine the incidence of HSP27 expression.
A total of 36 8-week-old ddY mice were used as experimental subjects and a wedge was inserted in between maxillary right molars. The wedge was removed 30 min or 3 h after insertion. Animals were immediately sacrificed after the removal of wedge or until 1 week later and serial sections from paraffin-embedded tissues were prepared. Immunohistochemistry was carried out to examine the expression of HSP27. The untreated side served as the control.
In the control group, the endothelial cells and some pulp fibroblasts weakly expressed HSP27 suggesting that the expression is due to mechanical stress brought about by physiological masticatory force and pressure from the tongue. In both 30 min and 3 h experimental groups, HSP27 expression was highest at 24 h after wedge removal and the expression remained the same or started to decrease thereafter. The expression decreased at the same level as that of the control group 1 week after wedge removal.
HSP27 may serve as an indicator of stimulus strong enough to show its expression.
European journal of medical research 11/2011; 16(11):495-500. · 1.13 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: We examined change of Runx2 and ALP expression in mouse tooth pulp which exposed to teeth separation experiment by immunohistochemistry as a model for conservative dentistry treatment. 8-week-old 36 male ddY mice were used and wedge was inserted between upper 1st and 2nd molars. The wedge was removed 30 minutes as well as 3 hours after the insertion and the samples were prepared extending up to 1 week of time period for regular histopathological and immunohistochemical examinations for ALP and Runx2 expression. The opposite sides without wedge insertion were taken as controls. In the control group pulp, weak expressions of Runx2 and ALP in the vessel endothelial cells as well as the pulp cells were revealed, suggesting the appearance of these genes upon mechanical stress induced by mastication and tongue pressure etc. On the other hand in the experiment group, Runx2 expression increased both in 30-minute and 3-hour teeth separation group. The expression became maximum at 24 hours. Then it gradually decreased and became similar level with the control group at 1-week after the wedge insertion. Similarly ALP expression increased after the wedge insertion and was maximum at 24 hours and then gradually decreased to the levels similar with the control group. These results suggest that when immunohistochemical expression of Runx2 as well as ALP was used as an index, no severe damage occur upon clinical application of wedge insertion.
European journal of medical research 11/2011; 16(11):507-13. · 1.13 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Stent placement is a minimally invasive procedure that has received considerable attention as a treatment option for vascular stenotic lesions associated with coronary atherosclerosis. However, the severe problem of in-stent restenosis has recently begun to occur in blood vessels in which long-term placement of stents has occurred. In-stent restenosis results from the increase in neointimal hyperplasia caused by the stimulus of the force on the vascular wall. In the present study, methods are proposed to compute the contact force and straightening force on a vascular wall. The force on the vascular wall is calculated using these methods. As an example, the force on the vascular wall created by the insertion of the stent into the carotid artery is calculated, and the concentration of the force at both ends of the stent is confirmed. Guidelines are presented to modify the stent shape based in order to remove this force concentration which may provoke the neointimal hyperplasia. The methods described in the present paper are easily applied to the shape design of stents and will be an effective tool for improving the stent shape.
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part H Journal of Engineering in Medicine 08/2011; 225(8):831-42. · 1.21 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: We aimed to evaluate the subcutaneous tissue reaction to a newly developed adhesive silicone denture relining material, SG, (Neo Dental Chemical Products Co., Ltd. Tokyo, Japan). We embedded the experimental material SG and another existing control material, Roeko Seal (RS), in the dorsal area of 22 male ddY mice. One week and 12 weeks after the embedding, the tissues surrounding the embedded materials were removed and a histopathological examination was performed. The results demonstrate that the basic histopathological aspects are the formation of granulation tissue and the change of the tissue to fibrous capsule over time. The results suggests that the newly-developed SG is safe as compared with the control RS, whose composition is similar.
European journal of medical research 07/2011; 16(7):328-30. · 1.13 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Purpose: The objective of this study was to identify the factors affecting the visualization of regenerating nodules in cirrhotic liver by MR imaging. Material and Methods: MR images from patients with liver cirrhosis and normal subjects were studied, and signal intensity within the liver was measured and correlated with histologic findings. A reference phantom was also used as a standard. Results: The signal intensity of the liver on T2-weighted (T2WI) spin-echo (SE) images was significantly increased in patients with liver cirrhosis. Multiple ring-like or reticular high-intensity areas (RHAs) were demonstrated on T2WI SE images in 44 of 125 cirrhotic livers. Histologic examination in 44 cases revealed various degrees of inflammatory changes in fibrous septa surrounding regenerative nodules in all specimens, vascular dilation in fibrous septa in 4 specimens, and no hemosiderin deposition in some specimens. The results of linear discriminant analysis showed that inflammatory changes in fibrous septa were significantly more pronounced in cases with RHAs on MR. Conclusion: RHAs seen on T2WI SE images may correspond to fibrous septa with inflammation. The signal intensity of fibrous septa surrounding regenerative nodules on T2WI SE images may be increased in liver cirrhosis due to inflammation or vascular dilation, contributing to the visualization of regenerating nodules as relatively low-intensity regions on MR.
01/2010; 37(2):198-203.
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E. R. Williams,
W. A. Lyons,
Y. Hobara,
V. C. Mushtak,
N. Asencio,
R. Boldi,
J. Bór,
S. A. Cummer,
E. Greenberg,
M. Hayakawa, [......],
J. Li,
C. Morales,
T. E. Nelson,
C. Price,
B. Russell, M. Sato,
G. Sátori,
K. Shirahata,
Y. Takahashi,
K. Yamashita
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ABSTRACT: Sprites have been detected in video camera observations from Niger over mesoscale convective systems in Nigeria during the 2006 AMMA (African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis) campaign. The parent lightning flashes have been detected by multiple Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) receiving stations worldwide. The recorded charge moments of the parent lightning flashes are often in excellent agreement between different receiving sites, and are furthermore consistent with conventional dielectric breakdown in the mesosphere as the origin of the sprites. Analysis of the polarization of the horizontal magnetic field at the distant receivers provides evidence that the departure from linear magnetic polarization at ELF is caused primarily by the day–night asymmetry of the Earth–ionosphere cavity. Copyright © 2009 Royal Meteorological Society
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 12/2009; 136(S1):257 - 271. · 2.91 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Real-time elastography is a promising dynamic tool providing viscoelastic properties of living tissue in vivo by advanced
evaluation of the spatio-temporal vector motion in tissue. This study experimentally verified the performance of our proposed
measurement system for practical evaluation of two-dimensional motion vector dynamics followed by pulsed shear wave generation
and its propagation across a phantom.
Key wordsReal-time elastography-Synthetic aperture-Array signal processing-Virtual source generation-Spherical irradiation-Local phase difference-Cross-correlation-Successive echo frames
12/2008: pages 45-50;
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ABSTRACT: A new customizable user interface for smart devices based on hyperlink associability is presented. Although mobile devices should be easy to use, many current devices have complex and widely varying interfaces. The proposed framework, Hyrax, attempts to improve the menu structure and accessibility of functions while considering user preferences. In Hyrax, the user interface is constructed and customized using hyperlinks, more precisely, the XLink in W3C and External Function Invocation in WAP Forum, for access to application functions. We focus herein on the user interface of a phone and present the customizable menu structure of the phone while the user uses the interface. This is referred to herein as dasiaon-devicepsila customization. We implement the on-device customization capabilities and evaluate the capabilities of the proposed interface.
Computer and Information Technology, 2008. CIT 2008. 8th IEEE International Conference on; 08/2008
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ABSTRACT: Temperature-dependent compositional changes of phospholipids and their fatty acids were analysed in Yersinia enterocolitica grown at 5°, 25° and 37°C. The relative amounts of the four phospholipids, phosphatidylethanolamine (75–78%), phosphatidylglycerol (10–11%), cardiolipin (<7%) and lysophosphatidylethanolamine (<5%), were essentially the same at all growth temperatures. The degree of fatty acid unsaturation of the four phospholipids increased with decrease in growth temperature, mainly due to an increase of C16:1 and C18:1 and a corresponding decrease of C16;0, C18:0 and cyclo C17:0. An electron spin resonance spectroscopic study of the membrane lipids showed that membrane lipid fluidity was enhanced by decreasing the growth temperatures. The changes in fatty acid composition of phospholipids in response to varied temperatures were consistent with the temperature-dependent changes in the membrane lipid fluidity of Y. enterocolitica, and were similar to those reported for other bacteria.
Letters in Applied Microbiology 06/2008; 5(1):15 - 18. · 1.62 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The depth profile of acid generator distribution is investigated using X-ray reflectivity measurement at Spring-8. The depth profile in tBu-PHS thin resist films is made clear.
Microprocesses and Nanotechnology, 2007 Digest of papers; 12/2007
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ABSTRACT: In this study, the effect of fluorine atoms on acid generation upon EUV exposure using an acid sensitive dye is investigated. Fluorinated polymers is used as polymers. Triphenylsulfonium-triflate (TPS-tf) is used as an acid generator. Coumarin6 (C6, Aldrich Chem.) is used as an indicator to evaluate acid yields. Tetrahydrofuran (THF, Wako) is used as a casting solvent. It is experimentally confirmed that the increase in the absorption coefficient of polymers leads to the increase in the acid yield.
Microprocesses and Nanotechnology, 2007 Digest of papers; 12/2007
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ABSTRACT: Bit-multiplicity of neutron-induced single event upsets (SEU) in CMOS SRAMs formed with 130 and 180 nm technologies was analyzed using mono-energetic, quasi-mono-energetic, and spallation neutron sources in various accelerator facilities. The energy dependence of the ratio of multi-cell upsets (MCUs) to the total number of upsets can be described by a Weibull-type function with the threshold energy of the MCU. The 130 nm SRAMs show a novel feature of multi-cell upsets (MCUs) including frequency distribution of the multiplicity of error bits. In the case of the 130 nm SRAM, the probability function of the MCU can be expressed as a sum of exponential and Lorentzian functions of the multiplicity of error bits. According to previous results of 3-dimensional device simulation, the Lorentzian component can be due to bipolar action.
IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science 09/2007; · 1.45 Impact Factor
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R. S. Hayano,
G. Beer,
H. Bhang,
M. Cargnelli,
J. Chiba,
S. Choi,
C. Curceanu,
Y. Fukuda,
T. Hanaki,
M. Iio, [......], M. Sato,
P. Schmid,
S. Suzuki,
T. Suzuki,
H. Tatsuno,
D. Tomono,
E. Widmann,
T. Yamazaki,
H. Yim,
J. Zmeskal
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ABSTRACT: The Balmer-series X-rays of kaonic helium-4 have been re-measured with a projected goal of determining the 2p-level strong-interaction shift to a precision better than a few electron volts. Preliminary results indicate that the shift
must be much smaller than the current world average of −43 ± 8 eV.
12/2006: pages 183-187;
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ABSTRACT: In this paper, the authors propose an on-chip high-Q variable inductor embedded in wafer-level chip-scale package (WL-CSP). The variable inductor has a metal plate and a spiral inductor fabricated by the WL-CSP technology. The metal plate can be moved by a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) actuator, and the inductance is varied according to the position of the metal plate. At the present time, the MEMS actuator has not been implemented yet. In this paper, the authors present a feasibility study on the proposed variable inductor. The inductor is evaluated with measurement results using a metal plate moved by a micromanipulator instead of the MEMS actuator. At 2 GHz, the measured inductance is varied from 4.80 to 2.27 nH, i.e., the variable ratio is 52.6%. The maximum value of quality factor is 50.1
IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices 10/2006; · 2.32 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: We report subband resonances related to higher energy subbands in a series of GaAs∕AlAs asymmetric double quantum well superlattice (ADQW-SL) systems under electric field. Various phenomena can be observed in these ADQW-SL systems, such as the Γ-X-Γ electron resonance and transport, hole subband resonance, phonon replica, and Γ-Γ anticrossings. These resonances greatly affect photoluminescence properties, photocurrent-voltage characteristics, and photocurrent impulse responses. We also investigated the X-Γ transfer mechanism in these systems.
Phys. Rev. B. 04/2006; 73(16).
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ABSTRACT: Cylindrical types of polymer specimens was fabricated and subjected to constant and pulse voltage with some rise time to obtain response characteristics. Quasi-steady-state stretch is almost proportional to the square of applied voltage. Strain is 2 to 3 % under the electric field of 12 V/μm. About 40 μm or 0.4 % was stretched in 0.5 sec under 6 kV or 12 V/μm. A big gap in strain between quasi-steady state and dynamic response indicates that some rheological process is involved in operation mechanism to make Hook's law invalid for polymers. New polymer materials with higher permittivity and reasonable Young's modulus are awaited for actuators in reality.
Electrical Insulating Materials, 2005. (ISEIM 2005). Proceedings of 2005 International Symposium on; 07/2005
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ABSTRACT: Metallothionein (MT) is a protein that can be induced by inflammatory mediators and participate in cytoprotection. However, its role in inflammation remains to be established. A study was undertaken to determine whether intrinsic MT protects against acute inflammatory lung injury induced by bacterial endotoxin in MT-I/II knock out (-/-) and wild type (WT) mice.
MT (-/-) and WT mice were given vehicle or lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 125 microg/kg) intratracheally and the cellular profile of the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid, pulmonary oedema, lung histology, expression of proinflammatory molecules, and nuclear localisation of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) in the lung were evaluated.
MT (-/-) mice were more susceptible than WT mice to lung inflammation, especially to lung oedema induced by intratracheal challenge with LPS. After LPS challenge, MT deficiency enhanced vacuolar degeneration of pulmonary endothelial cells and type I alveolar epithelial cells and caused focal loss of the basement membrane. LPS treatment caused no significant differences in the enhanced expression of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines nor in the activation of the NF-kappaB pathway in the lung between the two genotypes. Lipid peroxide levels in the lungs were significantly higher in LPS treated MT (-/-) mice than in LPS treated WT mice.
Endogenous MT protects against acute lung injury related to LPS. The effects are possibly mediated by the enhancement of pulmonary endothelial and epithelial integrity, not by the inhibition of the NF-kappaB pathway.
Thorax 01/2005; 59(12):1057-62. · 6.84 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Polymers such as silicone and acrylic elastomers can strain via Maxwell stress. Experiments were carried out to elucidate how the two kinds of polymers would respond to a high electric field. Several kinds of electrode materials were tested to find suitable compliant performances, i.e., Al foils, Cu sheets, conducting stick tapes, conducting rubbers, Ag conducting paste, carbon black (Ketjen black), and sputtered Pt. Carbon black was preferred among them. Stress-strain characteristics are divided into a low field region and a high field region. Strain of several % is obtained for the elastomers subjected to 5 kV/mm. The first one seems to follow a quadratic dependence of strain on electric field, while strain tends to saturate in the second region. There are differences between theoretical and experimental values of strain, which should be further explored.
Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenomena, 2004. CEIDP '04. 2004 Annual Report Conference on; 11/2004
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ABSTRACT: A 39-year old woman with antiphospholipid antibody positive systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) was admitted to our department because of high fever, liver dysfunction and high level of C-reactive protein. At hospitalization, there was no anemia or jaundice. A tumor was palpable in the epigastric region, and there was tenderness in this region, but no muscular defense. There were no findings which indicated disease activity of SLE. The result of abdominal ultrasonography showed that there was a giant tumor, which occupied the majority of the left lobule of the liver, and a nonuniform ultrasound image was observed inside the tumor. The result of dynamic computed tomography (CT) showed peripheral globular enhancement, and enhancement then extended to the tumor center with time. Consequently, the patient was diagnosed with multiple hepatic hemangiomas. After admission, anemia rapidly deteriorated, and platelet count tended to decline. Therefore, intratumor hemorrhage was suspected, and emergent angiography was performed. For hemostatic purposes, transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) and extended left hepatic lobectomy were performed. In patients with autoimmune diseases such as SLE and antiphospholipid syndromes, when thrombocytopenia is observed, care should be paid to identifying its cause, considering thrombocytopenia may be induced by hemangioma, although these cases are extremely rare.
Lupus 02/2004; 13(7):546-8. · 2.34 Impact Factor
