This cohort study examined the validity of our new classification system in predicting the difficulty level of laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC). We enrolled consecutive patients who underwent cholecystectomy at the Division of Gastroenterological and General Surgery in Showa University Hospital, Japan. Severe-grade LC was classified according to cholecystitis severity according to the 2013 Tokyo Guidelines, preoperative imaging findings, cystic duct depiction, and anatomical anomalies of the bile duct. Cases were categorized according to the degree of difficulty as follows: E (easy), C (moderate), and D (difficult). Moreover, preoperative prediction accuracy was evaluated by determining the degree of inflammation and presence of anatomical variation based on operative data. Operative variables and morbidity were retrospectively evaluated. LC was performed in 534 patients, 424 of whom were assessed. The accuracy of the correlation between the classification system and intraoperative findings was as follows: E, 77%, C, 61%, and D, 76%. The average operative time was 109±44, 134±43, and 172±58 min for E, C, and D levels, respectively (P=0.0022; E/C, P<0.0001; C/D, P<0.0001; E/D, P=0.00017). The average blood loss was 17±31, 43±61, and 71±53ml for E, C, and D levels, respectively (P=0.0020; E/C, P<0.0001; C/D, P=0.0201; E/D, P<0.0001). The surgical outcomes significantly differed between the levels; however, the conversion and morbidity rates did not. In conclusion, our classification system was correlated with intraoperative findings and surgical outcomes, thereby contributing to improved LC outcomes.

Fluorescence labeling of a cytokine at a specific site is required for observing cytokine-receptor interactions in living cells at the single-molecule level. Here, we demonstrated the C-terminus-specific fluorescence labeling of histidine-tagged thrombopoietin (TPO), a ligand for Mpl, with desthiobiotin-tagged fluorescent puromycin. Fluorescent TPO, purified by tandem affinity purification, stimulated the proliferation of Mpl-expressing cells. Within 10 min of its addition, fluorescent TPO was found to be diffusely distributed on the cell membranes of Mpl-expressing cells, and gradually accumulated to form fluorescent spots. This method is applicable for studying the spatial and temporal distributions of cytokines in individual living cells.

On a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) surface, water forms a peculiar adsorption layer comprising two monolayers, and the physical properties of this adsorption layer remain unclear. We studied the changes that occurred in this water adsorption layer from room temperature down to 140K using photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy of suspended SWCNTs. The PL emission energy exhibited complex changes with temperature depending on the chirality of the SWCNTs. These changes were described quantitatively on the basis of changes in the bandgap, the dielectric constant of the adsorption layer, and the strain imposed by the adsorption layer. The results suggested that the adsorption layer might be a two-dimensional disordered solid rather than a liquid.

Micro-dynamics analysis plays an important role in decision making in a complex social system. It has been used to analyze how macro-phenomena arise from the viewpoint of individual agent behavior. However, the causes extracted during the analysis often include two types of useless causes: simple causes, which are not useful for decision making regarding new policies, and small causes, which suggest inefficient policies. In this paper, we propose a method to extract causes that include at least one feature from the "attribute," "perception," and "action" variables of model parameters and logs. We extracted the causes of the specific congestion and created a policy based on results obtained via a simulation of an airport terminal and showed that the proposed method can eliminate both simple and small causes.

A novel intermetallic compound of the Mn-Al-Ge system, Mn(Al,Ge)(5), was synthesized under high pressure and high temperature (5 GPa and 600 degrees C). The crystal structure was tetragonal with a space group of I4/mcm (no. 140), which was isostructural with PdGa5 or FeAl3Si2. The crystallographic parameters were refined by Rietveld analysis from powder X-ray diffraction data, yielding a = 0.624026 (5) nm, c = 0.981858 (10) nm, and Z = 4. The structure could be considered a defect-Cr5B3 (D8(l)) structure. The hysteresis loop and magnetization-temperature curve revealed the synthesized Mn(Al,Ge)(5) to be paramagnetic: the long Mn-Mn distance led to a structure without magnetic ordering. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Raman scattering spectroscopy is widely used for the characterization of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). Although the G-band is one of the most important peaks of SWCNTs, the phonon symmetry of the most and second strong peaks in the G-band (G+ and G− peaks) is still veiled. Here, we show the experimental evidence of their phonon symmetry by using single-suspended SWCNT samples and polarized Raman scattering spectroscopy. The G+ and G− peaks come from A symmetry phonons, and the resonance effect to the excitonic excitation and the depolarization effect are dominant in the polarization characteristics of G+ and G− peaks.

Melting point is independent of size and shape in bulk materials, but it exhibits a size dependence when the material size is extremely small. In this study, we measured the melting point of water confined in single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) with 16 different chiralities, which ranged from 0.95 to 1.26 nm in diameter, and revealed the details of the SWCNT diameter dependence on the melting points. The melting points were probed by utilizing the change of photoluminescence (PL) emission wavelength of SWCNTs, which encapsulated water, and the relation between the emission wavelength, and the water phase was confirmed by first-principles calculations. The periodicity of the melting point variation with SWCNT diameter came from the discrete change of ice-nanotube (ice-NT) diameter, and in addition, even ice-NT with an identical diameter exhibited different melting points due to the slight difference of the inner space size of the encapsulating SWCNTs. The present results agreed with those of the molecular dynamics simulation (Takaiwa, D.; et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2008, 105, 39-43). It was elucidated that the melting point of the nanomaterial changed sensitively to the atomic structure and the confinement space size.

ヒトの赤血球，各種の白血球，血小板はいずれも造血幹細胞から増殖・分化して派生する（図1A）．これらの血球前駆細胞の増殖・分化・成熟は，造血因子（サイトカイン）や，造血組織環境の細胞相互作用（ニッチ）が細胞外要因として作用する．また細胞内ではシグナル伝達系や転写因子が血球細胞の増殖・分化を調節する．さらに細胞内外でマイクロRNAなどの非翻訳RNAが調節系に干渉する．造血因子では，赤血球産生に欠かせないエリスロポエチン（erythropoietin; EPO, 図2A），白血球の一種である好中球産生を起こす顆粒球コロニー刺激因子（granulocyte colony-stimulating factor; G-CSF）が発見され，遺伝子組換え製剤がヒト臨床で処方されている．わが国では各々1990年と1991年に承認され，貧血や好中球減少症の治療薬となった．EPOやG-CSFに続いて，血小板産生を担う造血因子トロンボポエチン（Thrombopoietin; TPO, 図2B）が発見され（コラム参照），創薬と臨床開発において数々の教訓を残した．

It is expected that single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have high thermal conductivity along the tube axis and that the thermal conductivities depend on their structure, such as length, diameter, chirality (n, m), and so forth. Although many experimental measurements of the thermal conductivity have been reported, the SWCNT structure was not characterized sufficiently. In particular, the chirality was not assigned, and it was not confirmed whether SWCNT was isolated or not (bundled with multiplicate SWCNTs). Therefore, measured values widely vary (101 to 104 W/(m·K)) so far. Here, we measured the thermal conductivity of chirality-assigned SWCNTs, which were individually suspended, by using photoluminescence (PL) imaging spectroscopy. The temperature distribution along the tube axis was obtained, and the temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity was measured in a wide-temperature range (from 350 to 1000 K). For (9, 8) SWCNTs with 10–12 μm in length, the thermal conductivity was 1166 ± 243 W/(m·K) at 400 K. The proposed PL imaging spectroscopy enables to measure the thermal conductivity of SWCNTs with high precision and without any contacts, and it is an effective method in the temperature distribution measurements of nanomaterials.

Rabbit anti-serum against a myeloid-cell-specific peroxidase (Mpo) of Xenopus laevis was generated to identify myeloid cells in adult and larval animals. Smears of blood samples from adult hematopoietic organs were co-stained with Mpo and with XL-2, a mouse monoclonal antibody against a leukocyte common antigen. Lymphocytes found in the thymus and spleen were XL-2+Mpo− and granulocytes found in peripheral blood cells and the spleen were XL-2+Mpo+, indicating that double-staining with these two antibodies allowed classification of the leukocyte lineages. Immunohistochemical analysis of larval organs showed that XL-2+Mpo− cells were scattered throughout the liver, whereas XL-2+Mpo+ cells were present mainly in the cortex region. Interestingly, a cluster of XL-2+Mpo+ cells was found in the region of the larval mesonephric rudiment. The ratio of XL-2+Mpo+ cells to XL-2+ cells in the mesonephric region was approximately 80%, which was much higher than that found in other hematopoietic organs. In order to elucidate the embryonic origin of the myeloid cells in the tadpole mesonephros, grafting experiments between X. laevis and X. borealis embryos were performed to trace the X. borealis cells as donor cells. Among the embryonic tissues examined, the tailbud tissue at the early neurula stage contributed greatly to the myeloid cluster in the mesonephric region at stage 48. Therefore, at least four independent origins of the myeloid cell population can be traced in the Xenopus embryo.

単一架橋単層カーボンナノチューブの熱物性計測 Thermal Properties of an Individual Suspended Single-walled Carbon Nanotube Measured by Simultaneous Photoluminescence and Raman Spectroscopy 東理大理 ,東大工 2 吉野 数基 ,加藤 高士 ,齋藤 裕太 ,千足 昇平 ,本間 芳和 1 Tokyo Univ. of Science, The Univ. of Tokyo, Kazuki Yoshino, Takashi Kato, Yuta Saito, Shohei Chiashi, Yoshikazu Homma E-mail: 1215646@ed.tus.ac.jp 単層カーボンナノチューブ(single-walled carbon nanotube, SWCNT)は優れた熱伝導特性を有し, 室温で 3000 W/m K以上の熱伝導率を示すことが報告されている[1].またラマン分光法を用いた 測定により架橋 SWCNT 軸方向の温度分布の測定も報告されているが,カイラリティが不明であ り,単一であることを確認できていない[2].本研究ではラマン散乱光と蛍光(photoluminescence, PL )を同時測定することにより,カイラリティを特定し単一であることを確認した状態で,架橋 SWCNT 軸方向の温度分布を測定した.同時に得られた温度分布から架橋 SWCNT の熱物性を評 価・議論した. 石英ピラー間に架橋した SWCNT の SEM 像を Figure 1 に示す.このように単一に架橋した SWCNTに対して,軸方向にレーザースポットを移動しながら PL・ラマン同時分光を行うことで 温度分布を測定した.また,励起レーザーは 785 nmでスポット径 1.6 μm,パワー密度 12 kW/cm のものを使用した.Figure 2は大気中と真空中(0.05 Torr)での SWCNT軸上の温度分布を示す.PL 計測から,この架橋 SWCNTはカイラリティが(9,7),直径 1.088 nmであり,他の SWCNTとはバン ドルせずに完全に孤立していることが分かる.大気中では SWCNT 全体が等温になっているが, 真空中では中心の温度が高い山なりの分布を示し先行研究と一致した.大気中では周囲の気体分 子への熱の伝達によって温度上昇が抑えられており,真空中では熱の輸送経路が軸方向のみにな ることで架橋 SWCNTの中央部の温度が上昇している. 本研究は新学術領域 15H05869の支援を受けて実施した.

We investigated the effect of the solution flow on crystalline morphology in the off-axis 4H-SiC solution growth. In particular, we focused on the relation between the Si solution flow and step flow directions. In step parallel flow in which the solution drifted transversely to the step flow direction of the off-axis substrate, it was possible to attain a better surface morphology than in the flow in which the solution drifted toward the other direction. Furthermore, it was found that the surface morphology was found to be improved as the solution flow velocity increased. These improvements in the morphological stability are presumed to be caused by aligning the solute concentration fluctuation along the steps.

目的：胃癌に対する腹腔鏡下胃切除症例におけるドレーン留置の有無が，術後合併症，術後在院日数に影響を与えうるかを検討した．対象と方法：対象は1999年9月から2013年11月までに当科で施行した腹腔鏡下胃切除（腹腔鏡補助下幽門側胃切除，腹腔鏡補助下幽門保存胃切除，腹腔鏡下幽門側胃切除，腹腔鏡下幽門保存胃切除）266例をドレーン留置群（以下，D群と略記）102例，ドレーン非留置群（以下，ND群と略記）164例に分類し，術後合併症と術後在院日数について後方視的に検討した．結果：術後合併症の発生率はD群では13.7%であったの対し，ND群で12.2%であり両群間に有意差を認めなかった（P=0.7162）．術後在院日数は，D群で15.4日であったのに対し，ND群で13.5日でありD群で有意に長かった（P=0.014）．合併症を発生した症例では両群間で術後在院日数に有意差を認めなかったが，合併症を発生しなかった症例ではドレーン留置群で有意に術後在院日数が長かった（P=0.0036）．結語：腹腔鏡下胃切除術において，画一的なドレーン留置による術後合併症軽減への影響は依然議論の残るところではあるが，ドレーン留置は術後在院日数の延長に影響を及ぼす可能性があることが示唆された．