Endoscopic Observation of Tissue by Narrowband Illumination

We propose a new illumination method for a medical endoscope: narrow band imaging (NBI), in which the spectral bandwidth of the filtered light is narrowed. To confirm how the spectral specifications of the filtered light influence a reproduced image, an experiment was conducted observing the endoscopic images of the back mucosa of a human tongue. In addition, the effect of NBI on endoscopic images was investigated through preliminary clinical tests in colonoscopy and upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. It has been shown that NBI can enhance the capillary pattern and the crypt pattern on the mucosa. These patterns are useful features for diagnosing an early cancer.     

Dicationic ((−)-sparteine)palladium-catalyzed enantioselective aldol reaction of aldehydes with 1-phenyl-1-trimethylsilyloxyethene, proceeding via a palladium enolate

A dicationic ((−)-sparteine)palladium complex underwent a superior catalytic enantioselective aldol reaction of aldehydes with 1-phenyl-1-trimethylsilyloxyethene performing satisfactorily, starting with ((−)-sparteine)PdCl₂ and AgSbF₆ as catalyst precursors (1 mol % loading) in the presence of 3 Å molecular sieves over the reaction.     

Mesorbitolina (Cretaceous larger foraminifera) from the Yezo Group in Hokkaido,Japan and its stratigraphic and paleobiogeographic significance

In this paper, we describe an Aptian (Early Cretaceous) larger foraminiferal species Orbitolina (Mesorbitolina) parva from the limestone olistoliths in the lower part of the Yezo Group in the Yubari–Ashibetsu area, central Hokkaido and from limestone pebbles in the lowermost part of the Yezo Group in the Nakagawa area, northern Hokkaido. This is the first report of this species from the circum-North Pacific regions. Based on its occurrences, the shallow-marine carbonates, re-deposited in the lower part of the Yezo Group, are precisely assigned in age to the Late Aptian. Comparison of the lower part of the Yezo Group in central and northern Hokkaido indicates differences of the Aptian–Albian depositional history between the two areas. This study reveals that after Late Aptian, Mesogean key taxa (typical Cretaceous Tethyan biota) demised in the Northwest Pacific.     

Analysis of Spectral Reflectance Using Normalization Method from Endoscopic Spectroscopy System

Objective assessment of gastrointestinal mucosal color is extremely important in the endoscopic diagnosis of digestive tract disease. In this paper, we propose a method to clarify the spectral characteristics of gastric and colon cancer. A large number of spectral reflectance data of mucous membrane are measured by the endoscopic spectroscopy system (ESS) in the National Cancer Center Hospital East, Kashiwa, Japan and the Department of Internal Medicine, Self-Defense Force Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan. We assume that early cancer appears primarily in the spectral data of short wavelength, because it is usually present in a superficial cell where short wavelength light is scattered more strongly than long wavelength light. To identify the features in the short wavelength components, the spectral reflectance was divided by the reflectance of a long wavelength. We investigated the possibility of distinguishing early cancer from normal spectral data through statistical analysis, employing the projection axis as the mean difference between them. Early cancer and normal spectral data were projected on the projection axis, and the Student’s T-test was applied to evaluate the mean of the distribution between these data.     

A facile non-oxidative method for synthesizing 1,3-disubstituted pyrroles from pyrrolidine and aldehydes

Reactions of pyrrolidine with 2 equiv of aldehydes without any catalyst in a pressurized vessel at 140–200 °C yielded 1,3-disubstituted pyrroles. -Branched aldehydes gave fairly good yields of the corresponding products by this method, which provides a facile non-oxidative procedure for synthesizing 1,3-dialkylpyrroles from inexpensive pyrrolidine and aldehydes.     

High-performance liquid chromatographic method for determining trichothecene mycotoxins by post-column fluorescence derivatization

The method described here is based on a separation of deoxynivalenol, nivalenol and fusarenon-X on a C18 column using aqueous acetonitrile, and successive post-column fluorescence derivatization involving an alkaline decomposition to form formaldehyde and modified Hantzsch reaction with methyl acetoacetate and ammonium acetate (lambda ex = 370 nm and lambda em = 460 nm). By this method, 5-10 ng of the standard trichothecenes could be determined. By employing a clean-up procedure with a florisil column and a Sep-Pak CN cartridge, 61.4-96.9% recoveries were obtained for deoxynivalenol and nivalenol added to corn, wheat and barley at concentration levels of 0.05-1 ppm.     

Azurocidin induces elastinolytic activity of medullasin

Addition of azurocidin, a protein in granulocytes similar to serine proteases but has no protease activity because of replacement of the active serine residue by glycine, to the incubation mixture containing medullasin induced elastinolytic activity of medullasin. Both medullasin and human leukocyte elastase were already shown to have negligible elastinolytic activity (Aoki, Y. et al. J. Biochem. 114, 122, 1993). Elastinolytic activity of medullasin was induced dose-dependently by the addition of azurocidin. Medullasin activity determined by using apo-ornithine transaminase or casein as substrates or that by N-methoxy-succinyl-(Ala)₂-Pro-Val-p-nitroanilide as substrate remained unchanged when azurocidin was added to the tube containing medullasin. Therefore, azurocidin is considered to cause an appearance of elastinolytic activity of medullasin without affecting the protease activity of it.