[1] The East China Sea and adjacent seas are one of the most significant generation regions of the M 2 internal tide in the world's oceans. In the present study, we investigate the distribution and energetics of the M 2 internal tide around the continental shelf edge in the East China Sea using a three-dimensional numerical model. The numerical experiment shows that M 2 internal tides are effectively generated over prominent topographic features such as the subsurface ridges in the Bashi/Luzon and Tokara Straits, the ridges along the Ryukyu Island chain, and the continental shelf slope in the East China Sea, the former particularly so. All of these topographic features are characterized by steep slopes at the depth of the thermocline onto which the M 2 barotropic tide is almost normally incident. The M 2 internal tides propagating away from these multiple source regions interfere with each other to create a complicated wave pattern. It is found that the calculated pattern of the M 2 internal tide agrees well with TOPEX/Poseidon altimeter observations. The conversion rate from M 2 barotropic to baroclinic energy over the whole analyzed model domain is estimated to be 35 GW. Roughly 10% of the energy in the M 2 surface tide incident on the prominent topographic features is converted to the M 2 internal tide, although about half of the M 2 internal tidal energy is subject to local dissipation in close proximity to the generation sites.

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[1] The distribution of wind-induced internal wave energy in the world's oceans is investigated using a full three-dimensional primitive equation model. Special attention is directed to the global energy input to the surface near-inertial motions and the subsequent downward energy propagation into the deep ocean. We find that the model results for near-inertial energy in the oceanic mixed layer, depth-integrated horizontal energy fluxes, and vertical structures of WKB-scaled kinetic energy are all consistent with the available observations in the regions of significant wind energy input and that the annual mean of the global wind energy input becomes $0.4 TW. It is also found that most of the wind-induced energy resides in high vertical modes, 75-85% of which is dissipated in the surface 150 m. The present study therefore predicts that the total wind-induced near-inertial energy available for deep-ocean mixing is limited to, at most, 0.1 TW, which is an order of magnitude smaller than previously estimated. Adding the energy flux from tide-topography interactions of $0.9 TW, we can conclude that the total energy available for deep-ocean mixing is $1.0 TW, obviously falling short of the required power to sustain the global overturning circulation. This might suggest the existence of other important energy sources, such as the one through geostrophic adjustment processes, and/or additional mechanisms sustaining the global overturning circulation, such as effects of Ekman upwelling in the Southern Ocean. Another possibility is that previous estimates of the volume transport of the global overturning circulation might be too large.

Abstract. As a first step toward numerical modeling of global internal tides, we clarify the distribution of the M 2 internal tide in the Pacific Ocean using a three-dimensional primitive equation numerical model. The numerical simulation shows that energetic internal tides are generated over the bottom topographic features in the Indonesian Archipelago, the Solomon Archipelago, the Aleutian Archipelago, and the Tuamotu Archipelago, the continental shelf slope in the East China Sea, and the mid-oceanic ridges such as the Izu-Ogasawara Ridge, the Hawaiian Ridge, the Norfolk Ridge, the Kermadec Ridge, and the Macquarie Ridge. The calculated spatial patterns of the M 2 internal tide around the Hawaiian Ridge and the Izu-Ogasawara Ridge agree well with the TOPEX/ Poseidon altimetric observation. The conversion rate from the M 2 surface to internal tide energy integrated over the whole model domain amounts to 338 GW (1 GW = 109 W), 84% of which are found to be generated over the prominent topographic features mentioned above. Reflecting the spatial distribution of the prominent topographic features in the Pacific Ocean, the energy level of the M 2 internal tide in the western and central Pacific is 2-3 orders of magnitude higher than that in the eastern Pacific. This remarkable asymmetry shows that extensive microstructure measurements in the western and central Pacific are indispensable to determining the representative value of diapycnal mixing rates in the global ocean.

Histopathologic examination was done on 18 cases after percutaneous ethanol injection therapy (PEIT) for hepatocellular carcinoma. In eight cases, the lesion was treated by PEIT alone; in the other ten cases, PEIT was combined with transcatheter arterial embolization. The lesion was completely necrotic in 13 cases, 90% necrotic in four cases, and 70% necrotic in the rest. In addition, PEIT seemed to be effective against intercapsular, extracapsular, and vascular invasions. In the four cases of incomplete necrosis, the viable cancer tissue remained in small tumor nodules around the main tumor, in portions isolated by septa, or along the edge of the lesion. Therefore, ethanol should be injected not only into the center of the lesion, but also into sites close to its edge. Ethanol did not damage noncancerous liver parenchyma distant from injected sites. Local dissemination of the cancer cells was not found in any case. Therefore, PEIT seems to be a valuable therapy and may be an alternative to surgery in some cases.

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We attempted to detect circulating hepatocellular carcinoma by demonstrating hepatocyte-associated mRNA in the nuclear cell component of peripheral blood using nested reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction because of the extremely small number of tumor cells in the circulation. Albumin mRNA was demonstrated not only in the liver tissue (hepatocytes) and HepG2 cells but also in nuclear cells of the blood from normal healthy volunteers (neutrophils and lymphocytes) by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. In contrast, alpha-fetoprotein mRNA was demonstrated in the liver tissue, as well as in HepG2 cells, but not in peripheral blood of normal healthy volunteers, indicating the possibility of using alpha-fetoprotein mRNA for detection of benign and malignant hepatocytes among the population of neutrophils and lymphocytes. alpha-Fetoprotein mRNA in peripheral blood was detected in 17 of 33 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma (52%), 2 of 13 cases of cirrhosis (15%) and 2 of 17 cases of chronic hepatitis (12%). alpha-Fetoprotein mRNA was not demonstrated in 26 cases of normal healthy volunteers (0%). Among the patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, total volume of tumor tissue, maximum size of tumor and serum alpha-fetoprotein level were markedly increased in the patients with alpha-fetoprotein mRNA in blood. In addition, alpha-fetoprotein mRNA was detected in the blood of all 6 patients showing metastasis at extrahepatic organs (100%), in contrast to 11 of 27 cases without metastasis (41%). From these results, we conclude that the presence of alpha-fetoprotein mRNA in peripheral blood may be an indicator of circulating malignant or benign hepatocytes, which might predict hematogenous spreading metastasis of tumor cells in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

It was previously reported that human DPY19L3 is the C-mannosyltransferase of R-spondin1 at Trp-156. It is shown here that DPY19 family members have substrate specificity, providing insight into the function of C-mannosylation in cells.