Satoru Takahashi

National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

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Publications (26)75.41 Total impact

  • Article: Hypomyelination phenotype caused by impaired differentiation of oligodendrocytes in Emx1-cre mediated Cdk5 conditional knockout mice.
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    ABSTRACT: Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) plays a pivotal role in neuronal migration and differentiation, and in axonal elongation. Although many studies have been conducted to analyze neuronal functions of Cdk5, its kinase activity has also been reported during oligodendrocyte differentiation, which suggests Cdk5 may play an important role in oligodendrocytes. Here, we describe a hypomyelination phenotype observed in Emx1-cre mediated Cdk5 conditional knockout (cKO) mice (Emx1-cKO), in which the Cdk5 gene was deleted in neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocyte -lineage cells. In contrast, the Cdk5 gene in CaMKII cKO mice was deleted only in neurons. Because the development of mature oligodendrocytes from oligodendrocyte precursor cells is a complex process, we performed in situ hybridization using markers for the oligodendrocyte precursor cell and for the differentiated oligodendrocyte. Our results indicate that hypomyelination in Emx1-cKO is due to the impaired differentiation of oligodendrocytes, rather than to the proliferation or migration of their precursors. The present study confirmed the in vivo role of Cdk5 in oligodendrocyte differentiation.
    Neurochemical Research 01/2011; 36(7):1293-303. · 2.24 Impact Factor
  • Article: Phosphorylation of p27Kip1 at Thr187 by cyclin-dependent kinase 5 modulates neural stem cell differentiation.
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    ABSTRACT: Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) plays a key role in the development of the mammalian nervous system; it phosphorylates a number of targeted proteins involved in neuronal migration during development to synaptic activity in the mature nervous system. Its role in the initial stages of neuronal commitment and differentiation of neural stem cells (NSCs), however, is poorly understood. In this study, we show that Cdk5 phosphorylation of p27(Kip1) at Thr187 is crucial to neural differentiation because 1) neurogenesis is specifically suppressed by transfection of p27(Kip1) siRNA into Cdk5(+/+) NSCs; 2) reduced neuronal differentiation in Cdk5(-/-) compared with Cdk5(+/+) NSCs; 3) Cdk5(+/+) NSCs, whose differentiation is inhibited by a nonphosphorylatable mutant, p27/Thr187A, are rescued by cotransfection of a phosphorylation-mimicking mutant, p27/Thr187D; and 4) transfection of mutant p27(Kip1) (p27/187A) into Cdk5(+/+) NSCs inhibits differentiation. These data suggest that Cdk5 regulates the neural differentiation of NSCs by phosphorylation of p27(Kip1) at theThr187 site. Additional experiments exploring the role of Ser10 phosphorylation by Cdk5 suggest that together with Thr187 phosphorylation, Ser10 phosphorylation by Cdk5 promotes neurite outgrowth as neurons differentiate. Cdk5 phosphorylation of p27(Kip1), a modular molecule, may regulate the progress of neuronal differentiation from cell cycle arrest through differentiation, neurite outgrowth, and migration.
    Molecular biology of the cell 10/2010; 21(20):3601-14. · 5.98 Impact Factor
  • Article: Conditional deletion of neuronal cyclin-dependent kinase 5 in developing forebrain results in microglial activation and neurodegeneration.
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    ABSTRACT: Neuronal migration disorders are often identified in patients with epilepsy refractory to medical treatment. The prolonged or repeated seizures are known to cause neuronal death; however, the mechanism underlying seizure-induced neuronal death remains to be elucidated. An essential role of cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) in brain development has been demonstrated in Cdk5(-/-) mice, which show neuronal migration defects and perinatal lethality. Here, we show the consequences of Cdk5 deficiency in the postnatal brain by generating Cdk5 conditional knockout mice, in which Cdk5is selectively eliminated from neurons in the developing forebrain. The conditional mutant mice were viable, but exhibited complex neurological deficits including seizures, tremors, and growth retardation. The forebrain not only showed disruption of layering, but also neurodegenerative changes accompanied by neuronal loss and microglial activation. The neurodegenerative changes progressed with age and were accompanied by up-regulation of the neuronal tissue-type plasminogen activator, a serine protease known to mediate microglial activation. Thus age-dependent neurodegeneration in the Cdk5 conditional knockout mouse brain invoked a massive inflammatory reaction. These findings indicate an important role of Cdk5 in inflammation, and also provide a mouse model to examine the possible involvement of inflammation in the pathogenesis of progressive cognitive decline in patients with neuronal migration disorders.
    American Journal Of Pathology 11/2009; 176(1):320-9. · 4.89 Impact Factor
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    Article: p-Dominance and perfect foresight dynamics
    Fuhito Kojima, Satoru Takahashi
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    ABSTRACT: We investigate stability of p-dominant equilibria under perfect foresight dynamics.We show that a strict p-dominant equilibrium with ∑ipi<1 is globally accessible and absorbing in perfect foresight dynamics. We also investigate robustness and extensions of this result. We apply our proof method to games with u-dominant equilibria and unanimity games.
    Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 02/2008; · 1.01 Impact Factor
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    Article: Increased activity of cyclin-dependent kinase 5 leads to attenuation of cocaine-mediated dopamine signaling.
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    ABSTRACT: Cocaine, a drug of abuse, increases synaptic dopamine levels in the striatum by blocking dopamine reuptake at axon terminals. Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) and its activator p35, proteins involved in phosphorylation of substrates in postmitotic neurons, have been found to be up-regulated after chronic exposure to cocaine. To further examine the effects of Cdk5 and p35 induction on striatal dopamine signaling, we generated two independent transgenic mouse lines in which Cdk5 or p35 was overexpressed specifically in neurons. We report here that increased Cdk5 activity, as a result of p35 but not of Cdk5 overexpression, leads to attenuation of cocaine-mediated dopamine signaling. Increased Cdk5-mediated phosphorylation of dopamine and cAMP-regulated phosphoprotein, molecular mass 32 kDa (DARPP-32) at Thr-75, was accompanied by decreased phosphorylation of DARPP-32 at Thr-34. Increased Cdk5-mediated phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase kinase 1 at Thr-286 was accompanied by decreased activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2. These effects contributed to attenuation of cocaine-induced phosphorylation of cAMP response element-binding protein as well as a lesser induction of c-fos in the striatum. These results support the idea that Cdk5 activity is involved in altered gene expression after chronic exposure to cocaine and hence impacts the long-lasting changes in neuronal function underlying cocaine addiction.
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 03/2005; 102(5):1737-42. · 9.68 Impact Factor
  • Article: Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 is a regulator of podocyte differentiation, proliferation, and morphology.
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    ABSTRACT: Podocytes are highly specialized and terminally differentiated glomerular cells that play a vital role in renal physiology, including the prevention of proteinuria. Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (CDK5) has been shown to influence several cellular processes in other terminally differentiated cells, in particular neurons. In this study, we examined the role of CDK5 in podocyte differentiation, proliferation, and morphology. In conditionally immortalized mouse podocytes in culture, CDK5 increased in association with podocyte differentiation. During mouse glomerulogenesis in vivo, CDK5 expression was predominantly detected in podocytes from the capillary loop stage to maturation and persisted in the podocytes of adult glomeruli. In contrast, CDK5 was markedly decreased in the proliferating and dedifferentiated podocytes of mice with anti-glomerular basement membrane nephritis and in human immunodeficiency virus transgenic mice. p35, the activator of CDK5, was also detected in podocytes and the p35/CDK5 complex was active. Cell fractionation studies showed that active p35/CDK5 was mainly localized to the plasma membrane. Specific inhibition of CDK5 in differentiated cultured podocytes, either pharmacologically or with siRNA, induced shape changes, with cellular elongation and loss of process formation compared to the characteristic arborized phenotype. These data suggest a role for CDK5 as a regulator of podocyte differentiation, proliferation, and morphology.
    American Journal Of Pathology 11/2004; 165(4):1175-85. · 4.89 Impact Factor
  • Article: p35/cyclin-dependent kinase 5 phosphorylation of ras guanine nucleotide releasing factor 2 (RasGRF2) mediates Rac-dependent Extracellular Signal-regulated kinase 1/2 activity, altering RasGRF2 and microtubule-associated protein 1b distribution in neurons.
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    ABSTRACT: Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) is a proline-directed kinase the activity of which is dependent on association with its neuron-specific activators, p35 and p39. Cdk5 activity is critical for the proper formation of cortical structures and lamination during development. In the adult nervous system, Cdk5 function is implicated in cellular adhesion, dopamine signaling, neurotransmitter release, and synaptic activity. In addition, Cdk5 is also involved in "cross-talk" with other signal transduction pathways. To further examine its involvement in cross-talk with other pathways, we identified proteins that interacted with p35 using the yeast two-hybrid system. We report here that p35 associates with Ras guanine nucleotide releasing factor 2 (RasGRF2) in coimmunoprecipitation and colocalization studies using transfected cell lines as well as primary cortical neurons. Additionally, Cdk5 phosphorylates RasGRF2 both in vitro and in vivo, leading to a decrease in Rac-guanidine exchange factor activity and a subsequent reduction in extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 activity. We show that p35/Cdk5 phosphorylates RasGRF2 on serine737, which leads to an accumulation of RasGRF2 in the neuronal cell bodies coinciding with an accumulation of microtubule-associated protein 1b. The membrane association of p35 and subsequent localization of Cdk5 activity toward RasGRF2 and Rac provide insights into important cellular signaling processes that occur at the membrane, resulting in downstream effects on signal transduction cascades.
    Journal of Neuroscience 06/2004; 24(18):4421-31. · 7.11 Impact Factor
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    Article: Perinatal abrogation of Cdk5 expression in brain results in neuronal migration defects.
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    ABSTRACT: Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) is essential for the proper development of the CNS, as is evident from the perinatal lethality of conventional Cdk5 knockout (Cdk5-/-) mice. Cdk5 is also implicated in numerous complex functions of the adult CNS such as synaptic transmission, synaptic plasticity, and neuronal signaling. To elucidate the molecular roles of Cdk5 in the adult CNS, we have abrogated neuronal expression of Cdk5 in perinatal mice by using a cre-loxP system. The Cdk5-loxP flanked mice were crossed with the cre-transgenic mice in which the cre expression is driven by the murine neurofilament-heavy chain promoter, resulting in generation of viable Cdk5 conditional knockout mice with the restricted deletion of the Cdk5 gene in specific neurons beginning around embryonic day 16.5. Twenty-five percent of the Cdk5 conditional knockout mice carrying the heterozygous cre allele had neuronal migration defects confined to brain areas where neuronal migration continues through the perinatal period. These results indicate that abrogation of Cdk5 expression in mature neurons results in a viable mouse model that offers further opportunities to investigate the molecular roles of Cdk5 in the adult CNS.
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 05/2004; 101(16):6249-54. · 9.68 Impact Factor
  • Article: Mutant superoxide dismutase 1 causes motor neuron degeneration independent of cyclin-dependent kinase 5 activation by p35 or p25.
    Satoru Takahashi, Ashok B Kulkarni
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    ABSTRACT: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by selective loss of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. Neurotoxicity mediated by glutamate is thought to play a role in the neuronal death through intracellular calcium-dependent signaling cascades. Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) has been proposed as one of the calcium-dependent mediators that may cause neuronal death observed in this disease. Cdk5 is activated in neurons by the association with its activators, p35 or p39. The calcium-activated protease calpain cleaves p35 to its truncated product, p25, which eventually causes the cellular mislocalization and prolonged activation of Cdk5. This deregulated Cdk5 induces cytoskeletal disruption and apoptosis. To examine whether inhibition of the calpain-mediated conversion of p35 to p25 can delay the disease progression of ALS, we generated double transgenic mice in which ALS-linked mutant copper/zinc superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1G93A) was expressed in a p35-null background. The absence of p35 neither affected the onset and progression of motor neuron disease in the mutant SOD1 mice nor ameliorated the pathological lesions in these mice. Our results provide direct evidence that the pathogenesis of motor neuron disease in the mutant SOD1 mice is independent of the Cdk5 activation by p35 or p25.
    Journal of Neurochemistry 04/2004; 88(5):1295-304. · 4.06 Impact Factor
  • Article: Cyclin-dependent kinase-5 is involved in neuregulin-dependent activation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and Akt activity mediating neuronal survival.
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    ABSTRACT: The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling pathway plays an important role in mediating survival signals in wide variety of neurons and cells. Recent studies show that Akt also regulates metabolic pathways to regulate cell survival. In this study, we reported that cyclin-dependent kinase-5 (Cdk5) regulates Akt activity and cell survival through the neuregulin-mediated PI 3-kinase signaling pathway. We found that brain extracts of Cdk5-/-mice display a lower PI 3-kinase activity and phosphorylation of Akt compared with that in wild type mice. Moreover, we demonstrated that Cdk5 phosphorylated Ser-1176 in the neuregulin receptor ErbB2 and phosphorylated Thr-871 and Ser-1120 in the ErbB3 receptor. We identified the Ser-1120 sequence RSRSPR in ErbB3 as a novel phosphorylation consensus sequence of Cdk5. Finally, we found that Cdk5 activity is involved in neuregulin-induced Akt activity and neuregulin-mediated neuronal survival. These findings suggest that Cdk5 may exert a key role in promoting neuronal survival by regulating Akt activity through the neuregulin/PI 3-kinase signaling pathway.
    Journal of Biological Chemistry 10/2003; 278(37):35702-9. · 4.77 Impact Factor
  • Article: Tau phosphorylation by cyclin-dependent kinase 5/p39 during brain development reduces its affinity for microtubules.
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    ABSTRACT: The microtubule-associated protein tau is a developmentally regulated neuronal phosphoprotein. The phosphorylation of tau reduces its ability to bind and stabilize axonal microtubules during axonal growth. Although tau is phosphorylated by cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) in vitro, its in vivo roles remain unclear. Here, we show that tau is phosphorylated by Cdk5/p39 during brain development, resulting in a reduction of its affinity for microtubules. The activity of Cdk5 is tightly regulated by association with its neuronal activators, p35 or p39. The p35 and p39 expression levels were investigated in the developing mouse brain; the p39 expression level was higher in embryonic hind brain and spinal cord and in postnatal cerebral cortex, whereas that of p35 was most prominent in cerebral cortex at earlier stages of development. The ability of Cdk5 to phosphorylate tau was higher when in association with p39 than in association with p35. Tau phosphorylation at Ser-202 and Thr-205 was decreased in Cdk5-/- mouse brain but not in p35-/- mouse brain, suggesting that Cdk5/p39 is responsible for the in vivo phosphorylation of tau at these sites. Our data suggest that tau phosphorylation by Cdk5 may provide the neuronal microtubules with dynamic properties in a region-specific and developmentally regulated manner.
    Journal of Biological Chemistry 04/2003; 278(12):10506-15. · 4.77 Impact Factor
  • Article: LAMP 2002: International Congress on Laser Advanced Materials Processing
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    ABSTRACT: Photo-stereolithography is one of the most typical rapid prototyping and manufacturing technologies which enables to fabricate 3D objects easily, quickly and automatically from CAD drawings. For these advantages, it has been expected of application to the micromachining. But the conventional method is not suitable for such usage. Because it is based on the so-called laser scanning and laminating process that can"t achieve high accuracy and rapidness together. We propose a new photo-stereolithography method using a liquid crystal display (LCD) as the live-motion mask. Simultaneous exposure using the LCD live-motion mask makes it possible to precisely fabricate each layer at high speed without scanning. A complex 3D structure is fabricated by the continuous laminating of thin layers. Ideally, this method realizes the nonlaminate fabrication. In order to verify a feasibility of proposed method, we performed the fundamental experiments. As a result, the lateral resolution reached 5 μm. We fabricated the pyramidal shape and the bevel gear shape with both lateral and vertical resolution of 5 μm. Although the size was a few mm order, it took only about 20 minutes to finish fabricating. These experimental results show that the LCD live-motion mask method corresponding to the continuous laminating satisfies the two requirements of accuracy and rapidness.© (2003) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
    02/2003;
  • Article: Cyclin-dependent kinase 5/p35 contributes synergistically with Reelin/Dab1 to the positioning of facial branchiomotor and inferior olive neurons in the developing mouse hindbrain.
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    ABSTRACT: Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5)/p35 is a serine/threonine kinase, and its activity is detected primarily in postmitotic neurons. Mice lacking Cdk5/p35 display migration defects of the cortical neurons in the cerebrum and cerebellum. In this study, we demonstrate that although most brainstem nuclei are found in their proper positions, the motor nucleus of the facial nerve is ectopically located and neurons of the inferior olive fail to position correctly, resulting in the lack of their characteristic structures in the hindbrain of Cdk5-/- mice. Despite the defective migration of these neurons, axonal exits of the facial nerve from brainstem and projections of the inferior cerebellar axons appear unchanged in Cdk5-/- mice. Defective neuronal migration in Cdk5-/- hindbrain was rescued by the neuron-specific expression of Cdk5 transgene. Because developmental defects of these structures have been reported in reeler and Dab1 mutant mice, we analyzed the double-null mutants of p35 and Dab1 and found more extensive ectopia of VII motor nuclei in these mice. These results indicate that Cdk5/p35 and Reelin signaling regulates the selective mode of neuronal migration in the developing mouse hindbrain.
    Journal of Neuroscience 06/2002; 22(10):4036-44. · 7.11 Impact Factor
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    Article: Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 prevents neuronal apoptosis by negative regulation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase 3.
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    ABSTRACT: Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (cdk5) is a serine/threonine kinase activated by associating with its neuron-specific activators p35 and p39. Analysis of cdk5(-/-) and p35(-/-) mice has demonstrated that both cdk5 and p35 are essential for neuronal migration, axon pathfinding and the laminar configuration of the cerebral cortex, suggesting that the cdk5-p35 complex may play a role in neuron survival. However, the targets of cdk5 that regulate neuron survival are unknown. Here, we show that cdk5 directly phosphorylates c-Jun N-terminal kinase 3 (JNK3) on Thr131 and inhibits its kinase activity, leading to reduced c-Jun phosphorylation. Expression of cdk5 and p35 in HEK293T cells inhibits c-Jun phosphorylation induced by UV irradiation. These effects can be restored by expression of a catalytically inactive mutant form of cdk5. Moreover, cdk5-deficient cultured cortical neurons exhibit increased sensitivity to apoptotic stimuli, as well as elevated JNK3 activity and c-Jun phosphorylation. Taken together, these findings show that cdk5 may exert its role as a key element by negatively regulating the c-Jun N-terminal kinase/stress-activated protein kinase signaling pathway during neuronal apoptosis.
    The EMBO Journal 03/2002; 21(3):324-33. · 9.20 Impact Factor
  • Article: Enhancing Effects of 2-Amino-4,5-diphenylthiazole-Induced Polycystic Kidneys on Renal Carcinogenesis in Rats Treated with Dimethylnitrosamine
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    ABSTRACT: The effects of the polycystic kidney environment on dimethylnitrosamine (DMN)-induced renal carcinogenesis were investigated in rats. In Experiment 1, male Wistar rats were given 25 or 10 ppm DMN in their drinking water and simultaneously administered 1% 2-amino-4,5-diphenylthiazole (DPT) in the diet for 30 weeks. DPT-induced polycystic kidney was associated with a significant increase in the number of renal cell tumors and incidence of mesenchymal tumors in the 25 ppm DMN + DPT group and the incidence of atypical tubules in the 10 ppm DMN + DPT group. PCNA labeling indices of cystic renal tubules in DPT-treated rats were significantly higher than for corresponding noncystic tubules. In Experiment 2, PCNA indices of renal tubules in 10 ppm + DPT rats and immunohistochemically CYP2E1-positive renal tubules in DPT-treated rats were demonstrated to be significantly increased on day 14. CYP2E1 mRNA expression in the kidneys of DPT-treated rats showed a fivefold increase over constitutive levels. The results thus indicate that DPT induction of polycystic kidneys enhances DMN-induced renal carcinogenesis in rats, with DPT-induced elevated cell proliferation and CYP2E1 expression in renal tubules as possible underlying mechanisms.
    Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology.
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    Article: Heterogeneous beliefs and local information in stochastic fictitious play
    Drew Fudenberg, Satoru Takahashi
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    ABSTRACT: Stochastic fictitious play (SFP) assumes that agents do not try to influence the future play of their current opponents, an assumption that is justified by appeal to a setting with a large population of players who are randomly matched to play the game. However, the dynamics of SFP have only been analyzed in models where all agents in a player role have the same beliefs. We analyze the dynamics of SFP in settings where there is a population of agents who observe only outcomes in their own matches and thus have heterogeneous beliefs. We provide conditions that ensure that the system converges to a state with homogeneous beliefs, and that its asymptotic behavior is the same as with a single representative agent in each player role.
    Games and Economic Behavior.
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    Article: Periodic smoothing splines
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    ABSTRACT: Periodic smoothing splines appear for example as generators of closed, planar curves, and in this paper they are constructed using a controlled two point boundary value problem in order to generate the desired spline function. The procedure is based on minimum norm problems in Hilbert spaces and a suitable Hilbert space is defined together with a corresponding linear affine variety that captures the constraints. The optimization is then reduced to the computationally stable problem of finding the point in the constraint variety closest to the data points.
    Automatica.
  • Article: Perfect public equilibrium when players are patient
    Drew Fudenberg, David K. Levine, Satoru Takahashi
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    ABSTRACT: We provide a characterization of the limit set of perfect public equilibrium payoffs of repeated games with imperfect public monitoring as the discount factor goes to one. Our result covers general stage games including those that fail a “full-dimensionality” condition that had been imposed in past work. It also provides a characterization of the limit set when the strategies are restricted in a way that endogenously makes the full-dimensionality condition fail, as in the strongly symmetric equilibrium studied by Abreu [Abreu, D., 1986. Extremal equilibria of oligopolistic supergames. J. Econ. Theory 39, 191–228] and Abreu et al. [Abreu, D., Pearce, D., Stacchetti, E., 1986. Optimal cartel equilibria with imperfect monitoring. J. Econ. Theory 39, 251–269]. Finally, we use our characterization to give a sufficient condition for the exact achievability of first-best outcomes. Equilibria of this type, for which all continuation payoffs lie on the Pareto frontier, have a strong renegotiation-proofness property: regardless of the history, players can never unanimously prefer another equilibrium.
    Games and Economic Behavior.
  • Article: Differential Expression of Estrogen Receptor β (ERβ) and Its C-Terminal Truncated Splice Variant ERβcx as Prognostic Predictors in Human Prostatic Cancer
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    ABSTRACT: Estrogens have been widely used for the treatment of advanced prostatic adenocarcinoma. However, their direct effect to prostatic cancer cells via estrogen receptors remains unclear. We investigated expression of ERα, wild-type ERβ (wtERβ), and a C-terminal truncated splice variant of ERβ (ERβcx) in 50 benign and 100 malignant human prostatic tissue samples by immunohistochemistry. While strong immunostaining of ERα was consistently identified in the stromal compartment, wtERβ was expressed in epithelial cells in both the benign and malignant foci. However, wtERβ expression was significantly lower in the cancers than in the benign epithelium and inversely correlated with Gleason tumor grade (P < 0.0001 and P = 0.0099, respectively). In contrast, ERβcx was significantly more expressed in the high-grade cancers (83%) compared with the low-grade tumors (22%) and the benign sites (11%) (P < 0.0001, both). Cancer-specific survival of patients with lower wtERβ expression was significantly worse than those with higher expression of wtERβ (P = 0.0018). Conversely, higher ERβcx expression significantly correlated with poor cancer-specific survival (P = 0.0058). These results suggest that differential expressions of wtERβ and ERβcx may be prognostic predictors for prostatic cancer.
    Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications.
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    Article: Internal Defect Detection in the Vicinity of SI Wafer Surface Using Evanescent Wave
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    ABSTRACT: In order to reduce and control yield loss in the fabrication process of next generation ULSI devices, nano-defects inspection technique for polished Silicon (Si) wafer surface becomes more essential. This paper discusses the new optical nano-defects detection method, which is applicable to the silicon wafer surface inspection technique for next-generation semiconductors. In our proposed method, the evanescent light is emerged on the wafer surface with total internal reflection (TIR) of infrared (IR) laser at the Si-air interface. And by scanning the surface where is evanescent light emerging with very shaped fibre probe, it enables to detect nanometre scale defects in the vicinity of Si wafer surface without diffraction limit to resolution. To verify the feasibility of this method, both of the computer simulations based on Maxwell's equations and the several fundamental experiments are performed. FDTD simulation shows that the proposed method is effective to detect nano-defects existing not only on Si surface but also in the subsurface with high sensitivity. And also the fundamental experiments show the validity of this method by demonstrating nano-defects detections of subsurface as well as surface.