Improvement and induction property of radiation-responsive promoter through DNA shuffling of 5′-flanking regions of the human p21 gene

A promoter that augments gene expression in response to stimulation of ionizing radiation would be a desired tool for radiogenetic therapy, a combination of radiotherapy and gene therapy. Although various promoters occurring naturally or artificially have been used for researches, one showing higher reactivity to ionizing radiation is desirable. In the present study, we attempted to improve a radiation-responsive promoter of the p21 through a technique called DNA shuffling. A library of DNA fragments was constructed by re-ligation of randomly digested promoter fragments and improved promoters were chosen out of the library. We repeated this process twice to obtain a promoter showing 2.6-fold better reactivity to ionizing radiation compared with its parent, p21 promoter after 10 Gy γ-ray irradiation. Nucleotide sequence analyses revealed that the obtained promoter was densely packed with some of the cis-acting elements including binding sites for p53, NF-κB, NRF-2, AP-1 and NF-Y more than p21 promoter. In addition, it was shown that its induction by ionizing radiation was dependent upon p53 status of a cell line, suggesting that the promoter retained properties of the p21 promoter. This technique is simple and efficient to improve a promoter responsive to other stimulus of interest besides IR.     

Application of Kelvin Probe to Studies of Fusion Reactor Materials under Irradiation

Recently, the work function （WF） changes in metallic and ceramic materials to be potentially used in future fusion reactors have been examined by means of Kelvin probe （KP）, under He ion irradiation in high energy （MeV） and / or low energy （500 eV） ranges. The results of polycrystalline Ni samples indicate that the 1 MeV beam only induces decrease in the WF within the experimental fluence range; whereas the irradiation of 500 eV beam results in decrease in the WF firstly, then increase till saturation. A dual layer surface model is employed to explain the observed phenomena, together with computer simulation results by SRIM code. Charges buildup on the surface of lithium ceramics has been found to greatly influence the probe output, which can be explained qualitatively using a model concerning an induction electric field due to external field and free charges on the ceramic surface.     

Hardware‐oriented ant colony optimization and its application to dynamic route guidance problem

Ant colony optimization (ACO) is based on the behavior of food gathering of ants and it is a powerful search tool particularly when applying it to combinatorial optimization problems. However, ACO has the inherent problem of substantial processing time, because it requires a lot of repetitive calculations. In this article, we propose novel hardware‐oriented ACO (H‐ACO) to reduce processing time. H‐ACO adopts new integer arithmetic instead of conventional floating point arithmetic in the optimization process and it achieves high‐speed processing while keeping the quality of solutions. In addition, H‐ACO reduces the hardware resources, accelerates the clock frequency, and improves the latency, if it is implemented as a dedicated hardware. Furthermore, we also propose a new route guidance algorithm which combines H‐ACO with Dijkstra's algorithm and it can be applied to a dynamic route guidance problem. Experiments using actual map data demonstrate the validity of the proposed route guidance algorithm. © 2011 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Abscopal Effect of Frozen Autograft Reconstruction Combined with an Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Analyzed Using a Metastatic Bone Tumor Model

We evaluated the abscopal effect of re-implantation of liquid nitrogen-treated tumor-bearing bone grafts and the synergistic effect of anti-PD-1 (programmed death-1) therapy using a bone metastasis model, created by injecting MMT-060562 cells into the bilateral tibiae of 6–8-week-old female C3H mice. After 2 weeks, the lateral tumors were treated by excision, cryotreatment using liquid nitrogen, excision with anti-PD-1 treatment, and cryotreatment with anti-PD-1 treatment. Anti-mouse PD-1 4H2 was injected on days 1, 6, 12, and 18 post-treatment. The mice were euthanized after 3 weeks; the abscopal effect was evaluated by focusing on growth inhibition of the abscopal tumor. The re-implantation of frozen autografts significantly inhibited the growth of the remaining abscopal tumors. However, a more potent abscopal effect was observed in the anti-PD-1 antibody group. The number of CD8+ T cells infiltrating the abscopal tumor and tumor-specific interferon-γ (IFN-γ)-producing spleen cells increased in the liquid nitrogen-treated group compared with those in the excision group, with no significant difference. The number was significantly higher in the anti-PD-1 antibody-treated group than in the non-treated group. Overall, re-implantation of tumor-bearing frozen autograft has an abscopal effect on abscopal tumor growth, although re-implantation of liquid nitrogen-treated bone grafts did not induce a strong T-cell response or tumor-suppressive effect.     

Gas‐separation properties of amine‐crosslinked polyimide membranes modified by amine vapor

The modification of a polyimide (PI) membrane by aromatic amine vapor was performed in this work to increase the crosslinking of the membrane and to study the effect on gas permeability and the corresponding selectivity. The single‐gas permeability of the membranes at 35 °C was probed for H₂, O₂, N₂, CO₂, and CH₄. From the relationship between the combinations of gases and ideal permselectivities, this study showed that amine‐crosslinked PI membranes tended to increase gas permselectivities exponentially with the increasing difference in gas kinetic diameter. Moreover, this study illustrated that the permeability of the membranes was influenced by the formation rate of amine‐crosslinked networks or chemical structures after the reaction. The membranes had the highest level of permselectivities among crosslinked PI membranes for O₂/N₂, and the H₂/CH₄ permselectivity increased 26 times after vapor modification. Furthermore, the modification method that used aromatic amine vapor produced thin and strongly modified layers. These findings indicate that modification is an advantageous technique for improving gas‐separation performance, even considering thinning. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134, 44569.     

Hydrolysis of polyurea under high pressure of carbon dioxide

A chemical decomposition of polyurea (PUA) by hydrolysis under high pressure of carbon dioxide (CO₂) was proposed. The hydrolysis of PUA was carried out at 190 °C for 2 h under 7.0 MPa of CO₂ in the presence of water. The hydrolysis reaction gave white residual solid and water soluble compound. The white residual solid was characterized to be degraded PUA by FT-IR spectrum and elemental analysis. ¹H-NMR spectra of the water soluble compound revealed that the hydrolysis of PUA produced diamine only from repeating unit of PUA, which was a component of PUA. This hydrolysis gave the corresponding diamine for quantitative yields.     

A New Approach to Suppress the Effect of Machining Error for Waveguide Septum Circular Polarizer at 230 GHz Band in Radio Astronomy

A new stepped septum-type waveguide circular polarizer (SST-CP) was developed to operate in the 230 GHz band for radio astronomy, especially submillimeter-band VLBI observations. For previously reported SST-CP models, the 230 GHz band is too high to achieve the design characteristics in manufactured devices because of unexpected machining errors. To realize a functional SST-CP that can operate in the submillimeter band, a new method was developed, in which the division surface is shifted from the top step of the septum to the second step from the top, and we simulated the expected machining error. The SST-CP using this method can compensate for specified machining errors and suppress serious deterioration. To verify the proposed method, several test pieces were manufactured, and their characteristics were measured using a VNA. These results indicated that the insertion losses were approximately 0.75 dB, and the input return losses and the crosstalk of the left- and right-hand circular polarization were greater than 20 dB at 220–245 GHz on 300 K. Moreover, a 230 GHz SST-CP was developed by the proposed method and installed in a 1.85-m radio telescope receiver systems, and then had used for scientific observations during one observation season without any problems. These achievements demonstrate the successful development of a 230 GHz SST-CP for radio astronomical observations. Furthermore, the proposed method can be applicable for observations in higher frequency bands, such as 345 GHz.     

Synthesis of poly(phenylene oxide) — aromatic polyester multiblock copolymers

Summary Poly(phenylene oxide) (PPO) — aromatic polyester multiblock copolymers were synthesized by polycondensation of bisphenol-A / isophthalic acid or m- and p-hydroxybenzoic acids in the presence of PPO having a carboxylic acid at one end and a phenolic hydroxy group at the other using triphenylphosphine / hexachloroethane as coupling agent. TG analysis showed that the multiblock copolymer showed relatively high thermal stability. Received: 5 January 1998/Accepted: 4 February 1998