Background
Recent studies have demonstrated the importance of desmoplastic reaction (DR) in predicting postoperative prognosis for patients with colorectal carcinoma. However, the impact of DR on the ...prognosis of extrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas (EHCCs) is not established. This study aimed to clarify the associations of pathologic DR categories with clinicopathologic factors and postoperative prognosis of perihilar cholangiocarcinoma (PHCC) and distal cholangiocarcinoma (DCC).
Methods
A pathologic review of 174 patients with PHCC and 109 patients with DCC who underwent surgical resection was performed. The patients were classified into three DR categories (immature, intermediate, and mature) based on the histologic features within the fibrotic stroma in the invasive front. The association between DR categories and the distribution of fibroblasts with anti-α-smooth muscle actin (SMA) expression, seeming to be tumor-promoting cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), was evaluated in 191 tissue microarray specimens of EHCCs.
Results
Intermediate/immature DR categories were significantly associated with a more invasive nature, including higher pT and pN stages and more tumor buds than the mature category in both PHCC and DCC. The DR categories could stratify overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS) in both PHCC and DCC patients. In the multivariate analysis, the DR category was an independent prognostic factor for OS and RFS in both PHCC and DCC (
p
< 0.001). The mature and immature DR categories were significantly associated respectively with the confined and pervasive distribution of fibroblasts with α-SMA expression.
Conclusion
In patients with EHCCs, DR categorization was an independent prognostic factor reflecting the distribution of tumor-promoting CAFs in the invasive front.
COMET Phase-I technical design report Abramishvili, R; Adamov, G; Allin, A ...
Progress of theoretical and experimental physics,
03/2020, Letnik:
2020, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Abstract
The Technical Design for the COMET Phase-I experiment is presented in this paper. COMET is an experiment at J-PARC, Japan, which will search for neutrinoless conversion of muons into ...electrons in the field of an aluminum nucleus ($\mu$–$e$ conversion, $\mu^{-}N \rightarrow e^{-}N$); a lepton flavor-violating process. The experimental sensitivity goal for this process in the Phase-I experiment is $3.1\times10^{-15}$, or 90% upper limit of a branching ratio of $7\times 10^{-15}$, which is a factor of 100 improvement over the existing limit. The expected number of background events is 0.032. To achieve the target sensitivity and background level, the 3.2 kW 8 GeV proton beam from J-PARC will be used. Two types of detectors, CyDet and StrECAL, will be used for detecting the $\mu$–$e$ conversion events, and for measuring the beam-related background events in view of the Phase-II experiment, respectively. Results from simulation on signal and background estimations are also described.
We performed fMRI on the human parieto-occipital cortex in order to identify the neural processing regions of stereopsis. Visual stimulation for stereopsis was performed with a random-dot stereogram ...displayed in the image guides of a new binocular visual stimulation device that we developed. Interestingly, regions from the dorsal portion of the occipital lobe to the superior parietal lobule were activated by binocular disparity, while the inferior parietal lobule was not activated. Moreover, these regions were shown as dominant in the right hemisphere. Functional brain mapping revealed that the processing regions of stereopsis were dorsally located in parieto-occipital cortex, and that the superior parietal lobule is an important region for neural processing of human stereopsis.
In the present study, we investigated antibody productions of IgA and other classes, such as IgE and IgG1, in mice as possible evidence of the protective effects of Spirulina toward food allergy and ...microbial infection. An increase of IgE antibody level in the serum was observed in the mice that were orally immunized with crude shrimp extract as an antigen (Ag group). The antibody level, however, was not further enhanced by treatment with Spirulina extract (SpHW). IgG1 antibody, on the other hand, which was increased by antigen administration, was further enhanced by Spirulina extract. It was noted that the IgA antibody level in the intestinal contents was significantly enhanced by treatment with Spirulina extract concurrently ingested with shrimp antigen, in comparison with that of the Ag group treated with shrimp antigen alone. An enhancement of IgA antibody production by Spirulina extract was also observed in culture supernatant of lymphoid cells, especially in the spleen and mesenteric lymph node from mice treated with Spirulina extract for 4 weeks before antigen stimulation. These results suggest that Spirulina may at least neither induce nor enhance allergic reaction such as food allergy dependent on an IgE antibody, and that when ingested both concurrently with antigen and before antigen stimulation, it may significantly enhance the IgA antibody level to protect against allergic reaction
Mice fed a Spirulina platensis diet showed increased numbers of splenic antibody-producing cells in the primary immune response to sheep red blood cells (SRBC). However, immunoglobulin G ...(IgG)-antibody production in the secondary immune response was hardly affect-ed. The percentage of phagocytic cells in peritoneal macrophages from the mice fed S. platensis diet, as well as the proliferation of spleen cells by either concanavalin A (Con A) or phytohemagglutinin (PHA) was significantly increased. Addition of a hot-water extract of S. platensis (SHW) to an in vitro culture of spleen cells markedly increased prolifera-tion of these cells, whereas culture of thymus cells was scarcely affected. The Spirulina extract also significantly enhanced interleukin-1 (IL-1) production from peritoneal macrophages. Addition to the in vitro spleen cell culture of SHW as well as the supernatant of macrophages stimulated with SHW resulted in enhancement of antibody production, that is, an increase of the number of PFC. These results suggest that Spirulina enhances the immune response, particularly the primary response, by stimulating macrophage functions, phagocytosis, and IL-1 production.
This paper reconsiders the design methodology of the short-channel gate-all-around (GAA) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) MOSFET and proposes an advanced concept that offers enhanced performance. The new ...ideas raised herein are based on gate-field engineering and source and drain (S/D) diffusion engineering. The validity of the proposal is demonstrated by device simulations. Covering the junction of a Si wire body with a relatively thick gate insulator raises the carrier density of low-doped S/D diffusion regions, resulting in a drastic reduction in the parasitic resistance (that has, up to now, hindered performance enhancement) as well as the suppression of short-channel effects due to the effective extension of channel length; it is also demonstrated that this merit can be expected even for narrow highly doped S/D diffusion regions with abrupt junctions. The simulation results suggest that 15-nm- and 20-nm-channel GAA SOI MOSFETs with the abrupt junction will be promising if the device has a body cross section of 10 nm × 10 nm and a thick insulator covers the junction. On the other hand, since it is demonstrated that the proposed GAA device must have long and graduated S/D diffusion regions in order to achieve the expected one-order-lower standby power consumption, a loss of drivability has to be accepted. However, it is shown that drivability can be improved by slightly expanding the cross section of S/D diffusion regions without seriously impacting the area penalty.
Units in the thalamus responsive to mechanical stimulation of the cornea (thalamic corneal units) were studied in urethane-chloralose anesthetized cats. Four different classes of corneal units were ...found in the nucleus ventralis posteromedialis (VPM) and intralaminar nuclei. They corresponded to 4 different classes of corneal units in the trigeminal subnucleus caudalis and adjacent bulbar lateral reticular formation reported by Nishida (1987). Low threshold corneal specific (LTCS) units, whose mechanical threshold was well below the pain threshold in patients with cataract, were located in the dorsolateral part of the VPM proper. High threshold corneal specific (HTCS) units and wide dynamic range (WDR) units, whose mechanical threshold was well above the pain threshold of the human cornea, were located in the shell region of caudal VPM. Each class of these three corneal units was incorporated in the somatotopic organization of low threshold mechanoreceptive, nociceptive specific, or WDR units having a cutaneous receptive field in the contralateral trigeminal nerve territory. Units having receptive fields in the head similar to those of subnucleus reticularis ventralis (SRV) units were found in the intralaminar nuclei. Their corneal mechanical thresholds were much the same as those of HTCS units and WDR units. These results supported the suggestion that both nonpainful sensation and pain can be evoked in the cornea.
The brackish water bivalve mollusk Corbicula japonica was exposed to brackish water containing approximately 9 microg/l sup(14)Cbisphenol A (BPA) for 168 h (the uptake phase), and subsequently ...transferred to clean brackish water for 144 h (the depuration phase) under semi-static conditions. Mono and disulfate conjugates of BPA were detected in the bivalves as major metabolites. At the end of the uptake phase, the visceral mass contained the highest sup(14)C-concentration, and the monosulfate conjugate of BPA was a major metabolite in the visceral mass. These data suggest that the visceral mass is the major tissue/organ to take up and metabolize BPA in these bivalves. The BPA concentration in the bivalves readily reached steady state during the uptake phase and immediately decreased in the depuration phase. The accumulation and elimination rates of the mono and disulfate conjugates of BPA were slower than those of BPA.
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