•The SnO2 sensor showed larger response to 5ppm NO2 especially under weak UV-light irradiation than In2O3 and WO3 sensors.•The UV-light irradiation reduced resistances of all sensors and accelerated ...their response and recovery speeds.•The appropriate amount of Pd loading enhanced the NO2 response of the SnO2 sensor under weak UV-light irradiation.•The 0.05wt% Pd loading onto the SnO2 sensor reduced the dependence of the NO2 response on humidity.
NO2-sensing properties of typical oxide (SnO2, In2O3, or WO3)-based semiconductor gas sensors were measured at 30°C with and without UV-light irradiation (main wavelength: 365nm), and effects of noble-metal (Pd or Pt) loading, UV-light intensity (0–134mWcm−2) and relative humidity in target gas (0–80%RH) on their NO2-sensing properties were investigated in this study. The UV-light irradiation effectively reduced the resistances of all sensors, enhanced their NO2 responses in some cases, and tended to accelerate their response and recovery speeds in dry air, because the UV-light irradiation promoted the adsorption and desorption of NO2-species on the surface. The SnO2 sensor showed the largest NO2 response in dry air, among all the pristine oxide sensors, especially under weak UV-light irradiation (≤35mWcm−2), together with relatively fast response and recovery speeds. The Pd or Pt loading onto SnO2 enhanced the NO2 response of the SnO2 sensor and accelerated their response and recovery speeds in dry air, while XPS analysis indicated that most of the Pd and Pt nanoparticles loaded on the surface were oxidized after heat treatment at 500°C. Among all the sensors, the 0.05wt% Pd-loaded SnO2 sensor showed the largest NO2 response under weak UV-light irradiation (≤35mWcm−2), together with relatively fast response and recovery speeds. The addition of moisture to the target gas had adverse effects on the NO2 responses and the response speeds of the SnO2 and 0.05wt% Pd-loaded SnO2 sensors, but the weak UV-light irradiation (7mWcm−2) largely reduced the dependence of the NO2 response of the 0.05Pd/SnO2 sensor on relative humidity while maintaining the large NO2 response, probably because the weak UV-light irradiation promotes the desorption of physisorbed water molecules and then the effective adsorption of NO2 on the 0.05Pd/SnO2 surface.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
Adjuvant chemotherapy after hepatectomy is controversial in liver-only metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC). We conducted a randomized controlled trial to examine if adjuvant modified infusional ...fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin (mFOLFOX6) is superior to hepatectomy alone for liver-only metastasis from CRC.
In this phase II or III trial (JCOG0603), patients age 20-75 years with confirmed CRC and an unlimited number of liver metastatic lesions were randomly assigned to hepatectomy alone or 12 courses of adjuvant mFOLFOX6 after hepatectomy. The primary end point of phase III was disease-free survival (DFS) in intention-to-treat analysis.
Between March 2007 and January 2019, 300 patients were randomly assigned to hepatectomy alone (149 patients) or hepatectomy followed by chemotherapy (151 patients). At the third interim analysis of phase III with median follow-up of 53.6 months, the trial was terminated early according to the protocol because DFS was significantly longer in patients treated with hepatectomy followed by chemotherapy. With median follow-up of 59.2 months, the updated 5-year DFS was 38.7% (95% CI, 30.4 to 46.8) for hepatectomy alone compared with 49.8% (95% CI, 41.0 to 58.0) for chemotherapy (hazard ratio, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.50 to 0.92; one-sided
= .006). However, the updated 5-year overall survival (OS) was 83.1% (95% CI, 74.9 to 88.9) with hepatectomy alone and 71.2% (95% CI, 61.7 to 78.8) with hepatectomy followed by chemotherapy. In the chemotherapy arm, the most common grade 3 or higher severe adverse event was neutropenia (50% of patients), followed by sensory neuropathy (10%) and allergic reaction (4%). One patient died of unknown cause after three courses of mFOLFOX6 administration.
DFS did not correlate with OS for liver-only metastatic CRC. Adjuvant chemotherapy with mFOLFOX6 improves DFS among patients treated with hepatectomy for CRC liver metastasis. It remains unclear whether chemotherapy improves OS.
Highly sensitive and selective detection of various volatile organic compounds (VOCs) has been most needed in a wide range of fields, such as medical diagnosis, health supervision, industry-process ...control, and environmental monitoring. Since a semiconductor-type gas sensor is a typical promising candidate among various portable VOC-sensing devices, many efforts on developing these gas sensors are introduced in this article for the first time. Through some development stages, it has been well known that the temperature-modulated operation of gas sensors is one of effective ways to improve the magnitude of VOC responses. On the other hand, catalytic combustion-type gas sensors operated with a mode of pulse-driven heating were developed in the early 2000s, and they are named as “adsorption/combustion-type gas sensors” after their gas-sensing mechanism, based on the combustion of VOC adsorbates on the sensing material. The representative VOC-sensing properties of the adsorption/combustion-type gas sensors and recent material-design approach to achieve highly sensitive and selective VOC detection are summarized in this article.
Full text
Available for:
EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
The management of intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) continues to evolve. In particular, the indications for resection of branch duct IPMN have changed from early resection to more ...deliberate observation as proposed by the international consensus guidelines of 2006 and 2012. Another guideline proposed by the American Gastroenterological Association in 2015 restricted indications for surgery more stringently and recommended physicians to stop surveillance if no significant change had occurred in a pancreatic cyst after five years of surveillance, or if a patient underwent resection and a non-malignant IPMN was found. Whether or not it is safe to do so, as well as the method and interval of surveillance, has generated substantial debate. Based on a consensus symposium held during the meeting of the International Association of Pancreatology in Sendai, Japan, in 2016, the working group has revised the guidelines regarding prediction of invasive carcinoma and high-grade dysplasia, surveillance, and postoperative follow-up of IPMN. As the working group did not recognize the need for major revisions of the guidelines, we made only minor revisions and added most recent articles where appropriate. The present guidelines include updated information and recommendations based on our current understanding, and highlight issues that remain controversial or where further research is required.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
Glypican-3 (GPC3), a 65 kD protein consisting of 580 amino acids, is a heparan sulfate proteoglycan bound to the cell membrane by glycosylphosphatidylinositol. This protein is expressed in the liver ...and the kidney of healthy fetuses but is hardly expressed in adults, except in the placenta. Contrarily, GPC3 is specifically expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), ovarian clear cell carcinoma, melanoma, squamous cell carcinoma of the lung, hepatoblastoma, nephroblastoma (Wilms tumor), yolk sac tumor, and some pediatric cancers. Although the precise function of GPC3 remains unclear, it has been strongly suggested that it is related to the malignant transformation of HCC. We identified GPC3 as a promising target for cancer immunotherapy and have been working on the development of cancer immunotherapeutic agents targeting it through clinical trials. In some trials, it was revealed that the GPC3 peptide vaccines we developed using human leukocyte antigen-A24- and A2-restricted GPC3-derived peptides could induce GPC3-specific cytotoxic T cells in most vaccinated patients and thereby improve their prognosis. To further improve the clinical efficacy of cancer immunotherapy targeting GPC3, we are also developing next-generation therapeutic strategies using T cells engineered to express antigen-specific T-cell receptor or chimeric antigen receptor. In addition, we have successfully monitored the levels of serum full-length GPC3 protein, which is somehow secreted in the blood. The utility of GPC3 as a biomarker for predicting tumor recurrence and treatment efficacy is now being considered. In this review article, we summarize the results of clinical trials carried out by our team and describe the novel agent targeting the cancer-specific shared antigen, GPC3.
•Potentiometric CO sensors using Pt-loaded SnO2 electrodes and an anion-conducting polymer electrolyte were developed in this study.•The appropriate amount of Pt loading onto the SnO2 electrode ...adequately improved the CO selectivity against H2 as well as the CO response.•Highly dispersive and oxidized Pt species on SnO2 surface effectively enhanced only the CO responses of the sensors.•The loading of a large amount of Pt onto SnO2 and the heat treatment of the Pt-loaded SnO2 in H2 at 250 °C enhanced both CO and H2 responses.
Gas-sensing properties of electrochemical CO sensors utilizing Pt-loaded SnO2 electrodes and an anion-conducting polymer electrolyte have been investigated mainly at 30 °C in wet synthetic air (57%RH), and the effects of the Pt loading onto SnO2 on the CO-sensing properties and their CO-sensing mechanism have been discussed in this paper. The amount of Pt loaded onto SnO2 (0.5–5.0 wt%) and the subsequent heat-treatment at 500 °C in air were effective in enhancing the CO responses and the CO selectivity against H2. The sensing-electrode potential was governed by mixed potential resulting from electrochemical CO (or H2) oxidation and O2 reduction, and all the results obtained indicated that the oxidation rate of CO molecules was electrochemically quite faster than that of H2 molecules on the mono-dispersive and oxidized Pt species as an active site, which were doped at the surface SnO2 lattice. On the other hand, the heat treatment at 250 °C in H2 after the Pt loading reduced the surface of Pt-loaded SnO2 and drastically enhanced both CO and H2 responses and thus decreased the CO selectivity against H2. This effect arose probably from the reduced Pt species with metallic surface, which were quite active against both CO and H2 anodic reactions.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
We suggest a natural split mechanism for sfermions based on N=2 supersymmetry (SUSY). N=2 SUSY protects a sfermion in an N=2 multiplet from gaining weight by SUSY breaking. Therefore, if partly N=2 ...SUSY is effectively obtained, a split spectrum can be realized naturally. As an example of the natural split mechanism, we build a gauge-mediated SUSY breaking-like model assuming N=2 SUSY is partly broken in an underlying theory. The model explains the Higgs boson mass and muon anomalous magnetic dipole moment within 1 σ level with a splitting sfermion spectrum. The model has seven light sparticles described by three free parameters and predicts a new chiral multiplet, sb: the N=2 partner of the N=1U(1)Y vector multiplet. The bini, the fermion component of the sb, weighs MeVs. We mention the experimental and cosmological aspects of the model.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Summary Background Although adjuvant chemotherapy with gemcitabine is standard care for resected pancreatic cancer, S-1 has shown non-inferiority to gemcitabine for advanced disease. We aimed to ...investigate the non-inferiority of S-1 to gemcitabine as adjuvant chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer in terms of overall survival. Methods We did a randomised, open-label, multicentre, non-inferiority phase 3 trial undertaken at 33 hospitals in Japan. Patients who had histologically proven invasive ductal carcinoma of the pancreas, pathologically documented stage I–III, and no local residual or microscopic residual tumour, and were aged 20 years or older were eligible. Patients with resected pancreatic cancer were randomly assigned (in a 1:1 ratio) to receive gemcitabine (1000 mg/m2 , intravenously administered on days 1, 8, and 15, every 4 weeks one cycle, for up to six cycles) or S-1 (40 mg, 50 mg, or 60 mg according to body-surface area, orally administered twice a day for 28 days followed by a 14 day rest, every 6 weeks one cycle, for up to four cycles) at the data centre by a modified minimisation method, balancing residual tumour status, nodal status, and institutions. The primary outcome was overall survival in the two treatment groups, assessed in the per-protocol population, excluding ineligible patients and those not receiving the allocated treatment. The protocol prespecified that the superiority of S-1 with respect to overall survival was also to be assessed in the per-protocol population by a log-rank test, if the non-inferiority of S-1 was verified. We estimated overall and relapse-free survival using the Kaplan-Meier methods, and assessed non-inferiority of S-1 to gemcitabine using the Cox proportional hazard model. The expected hazard ratio (HR) for mortality was 0·87 with a non-inferiority margin of 1·25 (power 80%; one-sided type I error 2·5%). This trial is registered at UMIN CTR (UMIN000000655). Findings 385 patients were randomly assigned to treatment between April 11, 2007, and June 29, 2010 (193 to the gemcitabine group and 192 to the S-1 group). Of these, three were exlcuded because of ineligibility and five did not receive chemotherapy. The per-protocol population therefore consisted of 190 patients in the gemcitabine group and 187 patients in the S-1 group. On Sept 15, 2012, following the recommendation from the independent data and safety monitoring committee, this study was discontinued because the prespecified criteria for early discontinuation were met at the interim analysis for efficacy, when all the protocol treatments had been finished. Analysis with the follow-up data on Jan 15, 2016, showed HR of mortality was 0·57 (95% CI 0·44–0·72, pnon-inferiority <0·0001, p<0·0001 for superiority), associated with 5-year overall survival of 24·4% (18·6–30·8) in the gemcitabine group and 44·1% (36·9–51·1) in the S-1 group. Grade 3 or 4 leucopenia, neutropenia, aspartate aminotransferase, and alanine aminotransferase were observed more frequently in the gemcitabine group, whereas stomatitis and diarrhoea were more frequently experienced in the S-1 group. Interpretation Adjuvant chemotherapy with S-1 can be a new standard care for resected pancreatic cancer in Japanese patients. These results should be assessed in non-Asian patients. Funding Pharma Valley Center, Shizuoka Industrial Foundation, Taiho Pharmaceutical.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
Background
Several studies have investigated the diagnostic accuracy of endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) for pancreatic lesions, but they have included only limited ...patient populations. This study aimed to clarify the diagnostic accuracy of EUS-FNA in a large number of pancreatic lesions, and to describe the factors that influence it.
Methods
From March 1997 to May 2010, 944 consecutive patients who had undergone EUS-FNA for pancreatic solid lesions were evaluated retrospectively. Factors affecting EUS-FNA accuracy were then analyzed.
Results
A total of 996 solid pancreatic lesions were sampled by EUS-FNA. The overall sampling adequacy and diagnostic accuracy of these lesions were 99.3 % (989/996) and 91.8 % (918/996), respectively. The sensitivity and specificity for differentiating malignant from benign lesions were 91.5 % (793/867) and 97.7 % (126/129), respectively. The diagnostic performance was significantly higher when both cytological and cell-block examinations were carried out than with only cytological examination. In multivariate analysis, final diagnosis, location of lesion, lesion size, availability of on-site cytopathological evaluation, and experience of EUS-FNA procedure were independent factors affecting the accuracy of EUS-FNA. On-site cytopathological evaluation and lesion size were found to be the most weighted factors affecting diagnostic accuracy.
Conclusions
EUS-FNA for pancreatic solid lesions yielded a high accuracy and low complication rate. Both cytological and cell-block preparations and on-site cytopathological evaluation contributed to improve the accuracy. The diagnostic ability of EUS-FNA was less for smaller lesions, and repeated procedures may be needed if malignancy is suspected.
Full text
Available for:
EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
PDF
