Nanocomposites α-Fe/Fe3B/Y2O3 were prepared by a melt-spun technique, and the electromagnetic wave absorption properties were measured in the 0.05–20.05 GHz range. Compared with α-Fe/Y2O3 composites, the resonance frequency (fr) of α-Fe/Fe3B/Y2O3 shifted to a higher frequency range due to the large anisotropy field (HA) of tetragonal Fe3B (∼0.4 MA/m). The relative permittivity (εr=εr′−jεr″) was constantly low over the 0.5–10 GHz region, which indicates that the composite powders have a high resistivity (ρ=∼100 Ω m). The effective electromagnetic wave absorption (reflection loss <−20 dB) was obtained in a frequency range of 2.7–6.5 GHz on resin composites of 80 wt % α-Fe/Fe3B/Y2O3 powders, with thickness of 6–3 mm, respectively. A minimum reflection loss of −33 dB was observed at 4.5 GHz with an absorber thickness of 4 mm.

Traditionally, surgical training meant on-the-job training with live patients in an operating room. However, due to advancing surgical techniques, such as minimally invasive surgery, and increasing safety demands during procedures, human cadavers have been used for surgical training. When considering the use of human cadavers for surgical training, one of the most important factors is their preservation. In this review, we summarize four preservation methods: fresh-frozen cadaver, formalin, Thiel's, and saturated salt solution methods. Fresh-frozen cadaver is currently the model that is closest to reality, but it also presents myriad problems, including the requirement of freezers for storage, limited work time because of rapid putrefaction, and risk of infection. Formalin is still used ubiquitously due to its low cost and wide availability, but it is not ideal because formaldehyde has an adverse health effect and formalin-embalmed cadavers do not exhibit many of the qualities of living organs. Thiel's method results in soft and flexible cadavers with almost natural colors, and Thiel-embalmed cadavers have been appraised widely in various medical disciplines. However, Thiel's method is relatively expensive and technically complicated. In addition, Thiel-embalmed cadavers have a limited dissection time. The saturated salt solution method is simple, carries a low risk of infection, and is relatively low cost. Although more research is needed, this method seems to be sufficiently useful for surgical training and has noteworthy features that expand the capability of clinical training. The saturated salt solution method will contribute to a wider use of cadavers for surgical training.

Fe nanowires with 70–200nm in diameter and 20–50μm in length were synthesized by a chemical vapor deposition method for electromagnetic wave absorption application. The frequency dependences of relative permittivity (εr) and permeability (μr) were strongly dependent on the diameter of Fe wires. Compared with micrometer wires or flakelike samples, nanowires exhibited a magnetic resonance (μr″) peak in the range of 1–18GHz, suggesting that nanowires have significant effect for reducing the eddy current loss, therefore, the resin compacts of 29vol% Fe nanowires with thicknesses of 1.3–4.0mm provided good electromagnetic wave absorption performances in the range of 5.6–18GHz.

T-helper 17 (Th17) cells are characterized by producing interleukin-17 (IL-17, also called IL-17A), IL-17F, IL-21, and IL-22 and potentially TNF-α and IL-6 upon certain stimulation. IL-23, which promotes Th17 cell development, as well as IL-17 and IL-22 produced by the Th17 cells plays essential roles in various inflammatory diseases, such as experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, rheumatoid arthritis, colitis, and Concanavalin A-induced hepatitis. In this review, we summarize the characteristics of the functional role of Th17 cells, with particular focus on the Th17 cell-related cytokines such as IL-17, IL-22, and IL-23, in mouse models and human inflammatory diseases.

The CRISPR/Cas system, in which the Cas9 endonuclease and a guide RNA complementary to the target are sufficient for RNA-guided cleavage of the target DNA, is a powerful new approach recently developed for targeted gene disruption in various animal models. However, there is little verification of microinjection methods for generating knockout mice using this approach. Here, we report the verification of microinjection methods of the CRISPR/Cas system. We compared three methods for injection: (1) injection of DNA into the pronucleus, (2) injection of RNA into the pronucleus, and (3) injection of RNA into the cytoplasm. We found that injection of RNA into the cytoplasm was the most efficient method in terms of the numbers of viable blastocyst stage embryos and full-term pups generated. This method also showed the best overall knockout efficiency.

The geometric and electronic structures of NaN , CuN , and AgN metal clusters are systematically studied based on the density functional theory over a wide range of cluster sizes 2 ≤ N ≤ 75. A remarkable similarity is observed between the optimized geometric structures of alkali and noble metal clusters over all of the calculated cluster sizes N . The most stable structures are the same for the three different metal clusters for approximately half the cluster sizes N considered in this study. Even if the most stable structures are different, the same types of structures are obtained when the meta-stable structures are also considered. For all of the three different metal clusters, the cluster shapes change in the order of linear, planar, opened, and closed structures with increasing N . This structural type transition leads to a deviation from the monotonic increase in the volume with N . A remarkable similarity is also observed for the N dependence of the cluster energy E(N ) for the most stable geometric structures. The amplitude of this energy difference is larger in the two noble metal clusters than in the alkali metal cluster. This is attributed to the contribution of d electrons to the bonds. The magic number is defined in the framework of total energy calculations for the first time. In the case of NaN , a semi-quantitative comparison between the experimental abundance spectra (Knight et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 52, 2141Lett. 52, (1984) and the total energy calculations is carried out. The changing aspect of the Kohn-Sham eigenvalues from N = 2 to N = 75 is presented for the three different metal clusters. The feature of the bulk density of states already appears at N = 75 for all of three clusters. With increasing N , the HOMO-LUMO gap clearly exhibits an odd-even alternation and converges to 0. Although there is a similarity in the N dependence of the HOMO-LUMO gap between the three metal clusters, it is much stronger between the two noble metal clusters. The growth aspect of the d band below the Fermi level of the noble metal clusters with increasing N is presented. A good correspondence is observed in the d characteristic of the electronic states between the cluster composed of 75 atoms and the bulk metal. The similarities observed in the N dependence of the geometric structures and E(N )s originate from the similarity in that of the electronic structures.

ABSTRACT:Human CYP2A6, which is predominantly expressed in liver, is a key enzyme responsible for the metabolism of nicotine, coumarin, and some pharmaceutical drugs. CYP2A6 is also expressed in sex steroid-responsive tissues such as breast, ovary, uterus, testis, and adrenal grand. In this study, we examined the regulation of CYP2A6 gene by estrogen. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays revealed that CYP2A6 mRNA was induced by estradiol in estrogen receptor (ER)-positive MCF-7 (2.9-fold) and HepG2 (1.3-fold) cells, but not in ER-negative MDA-MB-435 cells. Real-time RT-PCR assays revealed the CYP2A6 induction by estradiol in human hepatocytes (1.2-to 1.5-fold). Computer-assisted homology search identified a putative estrogen response element (ERE) at ؊2436 on the CYP2A6 gene. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays demonstrated specific binding of ER␣ to this element. Luciferase assays using MCF-7 cells revealed that the transcriptional activity of the CYP2A6 promoter was significantly activated by estradiol in an ER␣-dependent manner, in which ERE was responsible for the activation. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays verified the in vivo association of ER␣ with the ERE on the CYP2A6 gene. Immunohistochemical analyses using human endometrial tissues indicated that the CYP2A6 protein level in glandular cells was significantly higher in the proliferative phase than in the secretory phase, concomitant with local estrogen secretion during the menstrual cycle. These findings clearly demonstrated that CYP2A6 is directly induced by estrogen in an ER␣-dependent manner, implying a biological role of CYP2A6 in estrogen-responsive tissues. Furthermore, this mechanism can also explain clinical aspects of increased nicotine metabolism under estrogen-rich environments.

The saturation magnetization values (Ms) of α-Fe∕Ba3Co1.8Fe23.6Cr0.6O41 nanocomposites prepared by mechanically alloying α-Fe with Ba3Co1.8Fe23.6Cr0.6O41 powders increased with increasing the concentration of α-Fe. α-Fe∕Ba3Co1.8Fe23.6Cr0.6O41 nanocomposites showed higher coercivity values than α-Fe and Ba3Co1.8Fe23.6Cr0.6O41 because of the effects of shape anisotropy and exchange bias. The resin compacts with 33.5 vol % α-Fe∕Ba3Co1.8Fe23.6Cr0.6O41 (38, 70, 85 vol % α-Fe) powders provided good electromagnetic wave absorption performances in ranges of 7.5–16.0, 5.4–10.5, and 4.3–8.3 GHz over the absorber thicknesses of 1.3–2.5, 1.6–3.0, and 1.7–3.2 mm, respectively.