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Assisted hatching (AH) is a reproductive technique that artificially thins or breaches the zona pellucida to facilitate hatching. Despite its widespread use, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that AH improves pregnancy outcomes, particularly when performed selectively. Here we conducted a retrospective study using the Japan Assisted Reproductive Technology Registry from January 2010 to December 2019. AH was performed in 55.0% of 1,678,872 single embryo transfers (SETs), with higher frequency in advanced age women, frozen-thawed ET cycles, blastocyst transfer cycles, and hormonal replacement cycles. After adjusting for these covariates, the propensity-weighted clinical pregnancy rate (29.6% vs. 31.3%) and live birth rate (21.2% vs. 22.4%) were marginally but significantly lower in the AH group compared to the without-AH group. Moreover, AH increased risks of miscarriage (0.82% increase), multiple pregnancy (0.23% increase), and placenta accreta spectrum (0.12% increase). Subgroup analysis indicated that AH was effective for frozen-thawed blastocyst ET cycles in women under 35 years but worsened pregnancy outcomes in many groups, especially those with fresh or cleavage-stage embryos and women older than 40 years. These findings suggest that the impact of AH on pregnancy outcomes varies based on the characteristics of patients and ET cycles, prompting further discussion of its indications.

Recently, the US FDA approved sipuleucel-T, which is composed of autologous DCs stimulated with a recombinant fusion protein of prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), as the first immunotherapeutic agent for metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). However, sipuleucel-T demonstrated only modest efficacy in mCPRC patients. Researchers are now investigating the potential of p53 protein as a tumor-associated antigen (TAA) loaded in DC-based cancer vaccine. Approximately half of all tumors overexpress p53, and up to 20% of prostate cancer cells overexpresses p53. In this study, we evaluated the feasibility of combining p53-DC vaccine and rAd-p53 gene therapy, using the p53-overexpressing and non-expressing prostate cancer cells in vitro . We successfully generated the p53-DC vaccine by culturing autologous DCs infected with rAd-p53. This p53-DC vaccine can differentiate CTLs specifically cytotoxic to p53-overexpressing prostate cancer cells. In addition, rAd-p53 infection can induce overexpression of p53 and thus the cytotoxicity of CTLs differentiated by the p53-DC vaccine in p53 non-expressing prostate cancer cells. These findings suggest that this combination therapy using p53-DC vaccine and rAd-p53 gene therapy together may represent a new paradigm for the treatment of mCRPC.

The origin of the radiation observed in the region of the supernova remnant RX J1713.7−3946, one of the brightest TeV emitters, has been debated since its discovery. The existence of atomic and molecular clouds in this object supports the idea that part of the GeV gamma-ray emission in this region originates from proton–proton collisions. However, the observed column density of protons derived from observations of the gas cannot explain the whole emission. Yet there could be a fraction of protons contained in fainter structures that have not been detected so far. Here we search for faint objects in the line of sight of RX J1713.7−3946 using the principle of light extinction and the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission Data Release 2 astrometric and photometric data. We reveal and locate with precision a number of dust clouds and note that only one appears to be in the vicinity of RX J1713.7−3946. We estimate the embedded mass to be M dust  = (7.0 ± 0.6) × 10 3   M ⊙ , which might be big enough to contain the missing protons. Finally, using the fact that the supernova remnant is expected to be located in a dusty environment and that there appears to be only one such structure in the vicinity of RX J1713.7−3946, we set a very precise constraint on the supernova remnant distance, at 1.12 ± 0.01 kpc. A dust cloud in the line of sight towards supernova remnant RX J1713.7−3946—identified using Gaia data —contributes to the GeV gamma-ray emission of the region.

We investigate young type Ia supernova remnants (SNRs) in our Galaxy and neighbouring galaxies in order to understand their properties and early stage of their evolution. Here we present a radio continuum study based on new and archival data from the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) towards N 103B, a young (≤1000 yrs) spectroscopically confirmed type Ia SNR in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and proposed to have originated from a single degenerate (SD) progenitor. The radio morphology of this SNR is asymmetrical with two bright regions towards the north-west and south-west of the central location as defined by radio emission.N 103B identified features include: a radio spectral index of −0.75±0.01\\(-0.75\\pm 0.01\\) (consistent with other young type Ia SNRs in the Galaxy); a bulk SNR expansion rate as in X-rays; morphology and polarised electrical field vector measurements where we note radial polarisation peak towards the north-west of the remnant at both 5500 and 9000 MHz. The spectrum is concave-up and the most likely reason is the non-linear diffusive shock acceleration (NLDSA) effects or presence of two different populations of ultra-relativistic electrons.We also note unpolarised clumps near the south-west region which is in agreement with this above scenario. We derive a typical magnetic field strength for N 103B of 16.4 μG for an average rotation measurement of 200radm−2\\(200~\\mbox{rad}\\,\\mbox{m}^{-2}\\). However, we estimate the equipartition field to be of the order of ∼235 μG with an estimated minimum energy of Emin=6.3×1048erg\\(E_{\\mathrm{min}}=6.3\\times 10^{48}~\\mbox{erg}\\). The close (∼0.5∘\\(\\sim 0.5^{\\circ }\\)) proximity of N 103B to the LMC mid-plane indicates that an early encounter with dense interstellar medium may have set an important constrain on SNR evolution.Finally, we compare features of N 103B to six other young type Ia SNRs in the LMC and Galaxy, with a range of proposed degeneracy scenarios to highlight potential differences due to a different models. We suggest that the single degenerate scenario might point to morphologically asymmetric type Ia supernova explosions.

We have upgraded a 3-MeV linac at J-PARC. The ion source is same as the J-PARC linac's, and the old 30-mA RFQ is replaced by a spare 50-mA RFQ, therefore, the beam energy is 3 MeV and the nominal beam current is 50 mA. The main purpose of this system is to test the spare RFQ, but also used for testing of various components required in order to keep the stable operation of the J-PARC accelerator. The accelerator has been already commissioned, and measurement programs have been started. In this paper, present status of this 3-MeV linac is presented.

We performed laparoscopic intersphincteric resection with posterior vaginal wall excision for women with advanced anterior wall low rectal cancer to prevent positive CRM. To the best of our knowledge, this procedure has not been described in the literature. The aim of our study was to assess the outcomes of this novel procedure.

Aurones are plant flavonoids that provide yellow color to the flowers of some popular ornamental plants, such as snapdragon and cosmos. In this study, we have identified an enzyme responsible for the synthesis of aurone from chalcones in the yellow snapdragon flower. The enzyme (aureusidin synthase) is a 39-kilodalton, copper-containing glycoprotein catalyzing the hydroxylation and/or oxidative cyclization of the precursor chalcones. 2′,4′,6′,4-tetrahydroxychalcone and 2′,4′, 6′,3,4-pentahydroxychalcone. The complementary DNA encoding aureusidin synthase is expressed in the petals of aurone-containing varieties. DNA sequence analysis revealed that aureusidin synthase belongs to the plant polyphenol oxidase family, providing an unequivocal example of the function of the polyphenol oxidase homolog in plants, i.e., flower coloration.

Recently, evaluation of quality of life (QOL) has been recognized as a significant outcome measure in the treatment of several cancers. In this study, the Anti-Cancer Drugs-Breast (ACD-B) QOL score was used to assess disease-specific survival in women with breast cancer undergoing preoperative chemotherapy (POC). QOL-ACD-B scores were evaluated before and after POC. The cut-off value of QOL-ACD-B contributing to events such as relapse or death was calculated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. In 300 women with breast cancer treated with POC, QOL was significantly reduced (  < 0·001). A high QOL-ACD-B score before POC was an independent factor in the multivariable analysis of overall survival (hazard ratio 0·26, 95 per cent c.i. 0·04 to 0·96). Evaluation by QOL-ACD-B before POC may be useful to predict the prognosis of patients with breast cancer undergoing POC.

This study describes the adsorptive property of vitamins on HA and the effect of the HA adsorbed vitamin on the alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity for effective use as a bone graft substitute. The vitamins used were calciferol (D 3 ), menaquirone (K 2 ) and 25-hydroxycholecalciferol (25(OH)D 3 ). These vitamins were adsorbed on HA at 4, 10, 20, 37 and 50 °C. The adsorption amount was constant below 20 °C, and decreased as the incubation temperature increased over 20 °C. The order of the adsorption amount was: 25(OH)D 3  > K 2  > D 3 . The HA adsorbed vitamins (HA/D 3 , HA/25(OH)D 3 and HA/K 2 ) were suspended in physiological saline for 48 h for the release test. The release ratio of all vitamins increased with incubation time. The order of the release ratio was: 25(OH)D 3  > K 2  > D 3 , which was proportional to that of the adsorption amount. The ALP activity of MC3T3-E1 osteoblast-like cells on HA, HA/D 3 , HA/25(OH)D 3 and HA/K 2 was also investigated. The ALP activity was higher on HA/25(OH)D 3 than on any other samples. However, HA/K 2 and HA/D 3 showed similar ALP activity to HA.

Although postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy (PAC) with uracil–tegafur significantly improves the prognosis of patients with stage I lung adenocarcinoma, subset analysis has revealed that only 11.5% of patients with stage IB derive actual benefit from such therapy. Therefore, it is extremely important to identify patients for whom adjuvant chemotherapy will be beneficial. We performed comprehensive protein analysis of 24 surgically resected specimens of stage I adenocarcinoma using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), followed by bioinformatical investigations to identify protein molecules. Furthermore, we carried out immunohistochemical studies of 90 adenocarcinoma specimens to validate the results of LC-MS/MS. We detected two kinds of protein molecules (myosin IIA and vimentin) by LC-MS/MS. We confirmed their immunohistochemical expression and distribution, and evaluated the relationship between the expression of these proteins and prognosis after adjuvant chemotherapy. Patients with no expression of either myosin IIA or vimentin showed a significantly better outcome regardless of PAC using uracil–tegafur. However, we were unable to select responders to uracil–tegafur using these proteins. Cases of adenocarcinoma lacking expression of either myosin IIA or vimentin show a good outcome without PAC, and therefore do not require such treatment.