Thermal boundary resistance at Au/Ge/Ge and Au/Si/Ge interfaces

Amorphous Ge (a-Ge), crystalline Ge (c-Ge), and amorphous Si (a-Si) thin films were deposited on a Ge substrate at different temperatures by magnetron sputtering.

Factors having effect on graft survival in cadaveric renal transplantation

BACKGROUND

One of the problems of cadaveric renal transplantation is that its graft survival rate is less than that for living renal transplantation. We aim to study relationships between the graft survival of cadaveric renal transplantation patients and various factors.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We retrospectively analyzed 350 cadaveric renal transplantation patients from our institutions from 1983 to 2011. Kaplan-Meier analysis was performed to evaluate graft survival ratios. Using a multivariable Cox regression model, we evaluated the relationship between graft survival and the factors such as age and gender of donor and recipient, body mass index of recipient, duration of hemodialysis, warm ischemic time, and acute rejection (AR), etc.

RESULTS

Among 235 males and 115 females, the overall mean age was 41 years. Median follow-up was 15 years (2 to 28 years). The graft survival ratio was 97% at 1 year, 85% at 5 years, and 71% at 10 years. Using the Cox regression model, graft survival was affected by donor age (younger than 60 years; hazard ratio [HR] 1.5; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.0-2.0; P = .027) and early acute rejection (within 3 months; HR 2.1; CI 1.6-2.8; P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS

The graft survival of cadaveric renal transplantation patients is affected by factors of donor age and early AR.

Line spectrum and ion temperature measurements from tungsten ions at low ionization stages in large helical device based on vacuum ultraviolet spectroscopy in wavelength range of 500-2200 Å

Vacuum ultraviolet spectra of emissions released from tungsten ions at lower ionization stages were measured in the Large Helical Device (LHD) in the wavelength range of 500-2200 Å using a 3 m normal incidence spectrometer. Tungsten ions were distributed in the LHD plasma by injecting a pellet consisting of a small piece of tungsten metal and polyethylene tube. Many lines having different wavelengths from intrinsic impurity ions were observed just after the tungsten pellet injection. Doppler broadening of a tungsten candidate line was successfully measured and the ion temperature was obtained.

Coaxial pellets for metallic impurity injection on the large helical device

Two coaxial pellets with tungsten inserted into graphite carbon and polyethylene (PE) tubes are compared for tungsten spectroscopic study in the Large Helical Device. The tungsten pellet with carbon tube causes plasma collapse, while that with PE tube smoothly ablates without collapse. The deposition profile of the pellets is analyzed with a help of pellet ablation spectroscopy. It is found that the tungsten pellet with carbon tube can significantly penetrate into the core plasma and leads to the plasma collapse. A tungsten spectrum with radial profile is successfully observed when the tungsten pellet with PE tube is used.

Influence of parameter settings in voxel-based morphometry 8. Using DARTEL and region-of-interest on reproducibility in gray matter volumetry

OBJECTIVES

To investigate whether reproducibility of gray matter volumetry is influenced by parameter settings for VBM 8 using Diffeomorphic Anatomical Registration Through Exponentiated Lie Algebra (DARTEL) with region-of-interest (ROI) analyses.

METHODS

We prepared three-dimensional T1-weighted magnetic resonance images (3D-T1WIs) of 21 healthy subjects. All subjects were imaged with each of five MRI systems. Voxel-based morphometry 8 (VBM 8) and WFU PickAtlas software were used for gray matter volumetry. The bilateral ROI labels used were those provided as default settings with the software: Frontal Lobe, Hippocampus, Occipital Lobe, Orbital Gyrus, Parietal Lobe, Putamen, and Temporal Lobe. All 3D-T1WIs were segmented to gray matter with six parameters of VBM 8, with each parameter having between three and eight selectable levels. Reproducibility was evaluated as the standard deviation (mm³) of measured values for the five MRI systems.

RESULTS

Reproducibility was influenced by 'Bias regularization (BiasR)', 'Bias FWHM', and 'De-noising filter' settings, but not by 'MRF weighting', 'Sampling distance', or 'Warping regularization' settings. Reproducibility in BiasR was influenced by ROI. Superior reproducibility was observed in Frontal Lobe with the BiasR1 setting, and in Hippocampus, Parietal Lobe, and Putamen with the BiasR3*, BiasR1, and BiasR5 settings, respectively.

CONCLUSION

Reproducibility of gray matter volumetry was influenced by parameter settings in VBM 8 using DARTEL and ROI. In multi-center studies, the use of appropriate settings in VBM 8 with DARTEL results in reduced scanner effect.

Assessment for revascularization of transplanted pancreatic islets at subcutaneous site in mice with a highly sensitive imaging system

BACKGROUND

The subcutaneous space is one of the ideal sites for pancreatic islet transplantation, owing to the minimal invasiveness and easy access. However, the results of pancreatic islet transplantation in subcutaneous sites remain unsatisfactory. One of the main obstacles to successful pancreatic islet transplantation in subcutaneous sites is poor revascularization. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the revascularization process at subcutaneous sites with a highly sensitive imaging system combining a dorsal skinfold chamber (DSC) technique and multiphoton laser scanning microscopy (MPLSM).

METHODS

A few pancreatic islets isolated from C57BL/6-Tg (CAG-EGFP) mice were syngeneically transplanted into nonmetallic DSCs mounted on the backs of C57BL/6J mice. Time-dependent changes in the newly formed vessels of pancreatic islets were imaged using MPLSM on days 1, 4, 7, 11, and 14 (n = 6). Texas Red was injected intravenously to visualize blood vessels. To evaluate islet graft revascularization, we measured vascular volume surrounding the islet using the Volocity system (Improvision).

RESULTS

The percentages of vascular volume at days 1 and 14 were assumed to be 0 and 100%, respectively. The vascular volume on each day was 9.4 ± 6.5% (day 4), 34.9 ± 11.2% (day 7), and 21.1 ± 4.6% (day 11).

CONCLUSIONS

The present study showed that a highly sensitive imaging system combining the DSC technique and MPLSM was a useful tool to analyze the revascularization process of pancreatic islets in a subcutaneous site.

Specific Inhibition by Cyclodextrins of Raw Starch Digestion by Fungal Glucoamylase

alpha-, beta-, and gamma-cyclodextrins (CDs) completely inhibited raw starch digestion by glucoamylase I (GA I, MW 90,000) from Aspergillus awamori var. kawachi, and inhibited by 85% the raw starch adsorption of GA I at the CD concentrations of 1-5 mM. CDs at 1-5 mM did not inhibit gelatinized starch hydrolysis by GA I, but at the concentration of 50 mM, they inhibited such hydrolysis slightly. GA I was specifically adsorbed onto CD-Sepharose 6B, but glucoamylase I' (GA I', MW 73,000), which does not adsorb onto or digest raw starch, from the same strain was not adsorbed onto that gel. The adsorption of the glucoamylases onto raw starch and CD-Sepharose 6B was correlated to their digestion of raw starch. The hydrophobic adsorption of GA I onto CDs and raw starch occurred competitively at the Cp region, which is on the C-terminal side of Gp-I in the site for raw starch affinity of GA I, and inclusion complexes were formed.

An Avicel-affinity Site in an Avicel-digesting Exocellulase from aTrichoderma virideMutant

A single form of exo-type cellulase (Exo I; MW, 65,000), purified from a Trichoderma viride protease-depressed mutant, HK-75, digested Avicel to cellobiose exowise, and hydrolyzed cellotriose, cellotetraose, and cellopentaose in the strict manner of splitting off by cellobiose units. Exo I, however, hydrolyzed cellohexaose by both cellobiose and cellotriose units. Exo I was proteolyzed by papain into two fragments; GPExo (MW, 9,000) and Exo I' (MW, 56,000). The GPExo intensively adsorbed onto Avicel but did not hydrolyze it. Exo I' had nearly identical activity to that of intact Exo I toward cellooligosaccharides but was almost inert to Avicel in digestion and adsorption. Sequence analysis of N-terminal and C-terminal amino acids showed that GPExo was between Gly435 and Leu496 and Exo I' between Glu1 and Gly434 in Exo I. Exo I therefore consists of two domains, one for adsorption to Avicel, as demonstrated by the Avicel-affinity site, GPExo and the other for the cleavage of glycosidic linkages as demonstrated in Exo I'.

Characterization of ASKP1240, a fully human antibody targeting human CD40 with potent immunosuppressive effects

Blocking the CD40-CD154 interaction is reported to be effective for transplantation management and autoimmune disease models in rodents and nonhuman primates. However, clinical trials with anti-CD154 mAbs were halted because of high incidence of thromboembolic complications. Thus, we generated and characterized a fully human anti-CD40 mAb ASKP1240, as an alternative to anti-CD154 mAb. In vitro ASKP1240 concentration-dependently inhibited human peripheral blood mononuclear cell proliferation induced by soluble CD154. In addition, ASKP1240 did not destabilize platelet thrombi under physiological high shear conditions while mouse anti-human CD154 mAb (mu5C8) did. And ASKP1240 itself did not activate platelet and endothelial cells. In vivo administration of ASKP1240 (1 or 10 mg/kg, intravenously) to cynomolgus monkeys, weekly for 3 weeks, significantly attenuated both delayed-type hypersensitivity and specific antibody formation evoked by tetanus toxoid. The immunosuppressive effect was well correlated with the CD40 receptor saturation. Thus, these results suggest that ASKP1240 is immunosuppressive but not prothromboembolic, and as such appears to be a promising therapeutic candidate for the management of solid organ transplant rejection and autoimmune diseases therapy.

Cooling dynamics of photoexcited C6(-) and C6H(-)

We report conclusive evidence of an efficient cooling mechanism via the electronic radiative transitions of hot small molecular anions isolated in vacuum. We stored C6(-) and C6H(-) in an ion storage ring and observed laser-induced electron detachment with delays up to several milliseconds. The terminal hydrogen atom caused a drastic change in the decay profiles. The decay of photoexcited C6H(-) is slow and nonexponential, which can be explained by depletion cooling, whereas that for C6(-) occurs extremely fast, on a time scale below 0.1 ms and can only be explained by electronic radiative cooling via low-lying electronic excited states.

Development of a high dynamic range spectroscopic system for observation of neutral hydrogen atom density distribution in Large Helical Device core plasma

We report development of a high dynamic range spectroscopic system comprising a spectrometer with 30% throughput and a camera with a low-noise fast-readout complementary metal-oxide semiconductor sensor. The system achieves a 10(6) dynamic range (∼20 bit resolution) and an instrumental function approximated by a Voigt profile with Gauss and Lorentz widths of 31 and 0.31 pm, respectively, for 656 nm light. The application of the system for line profile observations of the Balmer-α emissions from high temperature plasmas generated in the Large Helical Device is also presented. In the observed line profiles, emissions are detected in far wings more than 1.0 nm away from the line center, equivalent to neutral hydrogen atom kinetic energies above 1 keV. We evaluate atom density distributions in the core plasma by analyzing the line profiles.

Development of polyvinyl alcohol bioartificial pancreas with rat islets and mesenchymal stem cells

To improve the function of the polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) bioartificial pancreas, we focused on bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). We examined whether the function of PVA-encapsulated rat islets could be improved by coencapsulation with syngeneic MSCs. We macroencapsulated 1,500 rat islet equivalents (IEQ) with or without 1 × 10(6) MSCs with the use of 3% PVA solution before implantation intraperitoneally into diabetic BALB/c mice. We evaluated the function of the device in vitro (the residual rate, viability, and insulin-releasing function of the islets) and in vivo assessments (blood glucose and serum C-peptide changes after transplantation and glucose tolerance test). Although cultured islets also were destroyed, the shapes of the islets cocultured with MSCs were preserved but not different from encapsulated islets without MSCs. At 96 hours after culture the residual rates of islet recovery among those cocultured with versus without MSCs were 66% versus 39.5%, respectively, (P = .03). On the other hand, there was no significant difference between encapsulated islets with versus without MSCs. Furthermore, the stimulation index of the islets was improved by coculture with MSCs (2.6 ± 0.6 vs 1.4 ± 0.1; P = .03), but no beneficial effects were observed between islets encapsulated with versus without MSCs. The viability of islets cocultured with MSCs was significantly better than that without MSCs (84.2 ± 2.5 vs 73.3 ± 0.9; P = .037), but MSCs did not improve the viability of encapsulated islets. There were no significant differences in blood glucose or serum C-peptide between islets encapsulated with versus without MSCs. The histologic findings showed many degenerative islets and MSCs soon after transplantation. In conclusion, further studies are necessary to develop a novel PVA bioartificial pancreas that can be used with MSCs.