Due to the lack of an effective prophylactic intervention and diagnosis, human liver fluke Clonorchis sinensis continues to afflict a large human population, causing a chronic inflammatory bile duct disease. With an aim to identify target antigens for sensitive serodiagnosis, adenylate kinase 3 of C. sinensis (CsAK3) was successfully expressed in soluble form in Escherichia coli by fusion to an RNA-interacting domain derived from human Lys-tRNA synthetase and purified by Ni2+-affinity chromatography. Anti-CsAK3 serum was raised by immunization of mice, and Western blotting confirmed that CsAK3 was expressed in adult-stage C. sinensis. Histochemical analysis showed that CsAK3 was localized to the subtegumental tissue of C. sinensis and was excreted into the bile duct of the host. When tested against sera from various parasite-infected patients by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, the recombinant CsAK3 elicited a specific response to C. sinensis-infected sera. The results suggest that CsAK3, either alone or in combination with other antigens, could be used for improving the clinical diagnosis of clonorchiasis.

The effect of wet chemical treatment on the magnetic tunneling junction (MTJ) was examined. The tunneling magneto-resistance (TMR) increased and the resistance of anti-parallel state and parallel state decreased when a wet cleaning treatment was carried out after a reactive ion etching process. Furthermore, the exfoliation between the capping layer and Inter layer Dielectric (ILD) was prevented. Presumably, these were due to the elimination of the damaged layer and the residues. This investigation showed that the wet treatment after the MTJ patterning using RIE process could improve the MTJ properties without degradation of Hc, such as TMR and Rlow.

Green tea catechins are known to have hypocholesterolaemic effects in animals and human subjects. In the present study, we investigated the effects of green tea catechins on the mRNA level and promoter activity of hepatic cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase (CYP7A1), the rate-limiting enzyme in the conversion of cholesterol to bile acids, in human hepatoma cells. Real-time PCR assays showed that different catechins, ( − )-epicatechin gallate (ECG), ( − )-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), ( − )-epigallocatechin (EGC) and ( − )-epicatechin (EC), up regulated the CYP7A1 mRNA level by 5·5-, 4·2-, 2·9- and 1·9-fold, respectively, compared with the control. The − 1312/+358 bp of the CYP7A1 promoter was subcloned into the pGL3 basic vector that includes luciferase as a reporter gene. ECG or EGCG significantly increased CYP7A1 promoter activity by 6·0- or 4·0-fold, respectively, compared with the control. Also, EGCG stimulated CYP7A1 at both mRNA level and promoter activity in a dose-dependent manner. These results suggest that the expression of the CYP7A1 gene may be directly regulated by green tea catechins at the transcriptional level.

The aim of this study was to investigate the usefulness of a three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of computed tomography (CT) images in determining the anatomy and topographic relationship between various important structures. Using 40 ears from 20 patients with various otological diseases, a 3D reconstruction based on the image data from spiral high-resolution CT was performed by segmentation, volume-rendering and surface-rendering algorithms on a personal computer. The 3D display of the middle and inner ear structures was demonstrated in detail. Computer-assisted measurements, many of which could not be easily measured in vivo, of the reconstructed structures provided accurate anatomic details that improved the surgeon’s understanding of spatial relationships. A 3D reconstruction of temporal bone CT might be useful for education and increasing understanding of the anatomical structures of the temporal bone. However, it will be necessary to confirm the correlation between the 3D reconstructed images and histological sections through a validation study.

Structure and composition of the ferroelectric Pb(Zr, Ti)O3 layers in a capacitor of the ferroelectric random-access memory (FeRAM) device having a density of 64 k were investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) together with the energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) technique. The 250 nm thick PZT layer derived by the sol-gel route showed a 2–3% Pb-deficient, 3–4% Ti-deficient, and 5–7% Zr-excess composition at the top electrode interface compared to the bulk composition when they were as-fabricated. The local compositional nonuniformity became more critical as the integration process proceeded, which seriously degraded the ferroelectric hysteresis and the device yield. The major cause of the compositional variation was the outward diffusion of Pb through the capping barrier TiO2 layer during annealing at 650 °C. The AlN capping barrier layer was also not effective in suppressing the diffusion of Pb. However, the Al2O3/TiO2 double capping layer was very effective in suppressing the outward diffusion of Pb, and excellent ferroelectric characteristic was expected.

Bisethylacetoacetato Cu(II), referred to as Cu(etac)2, was synthesized and used as a novel metal-organic precursor to produce Cu films by PECVD processing. Cu(etac)2 is a nonfluoride compound that is solid at room temperature with reasonable volatility at 120–150 °C of 0.8 Torr. Effects of selected process variables on the characteristics of Cu film deposition were studied. Considered variables were plasma power, hydrogen flow rate, deposition time, substrate temperature, and precursor temperature. The process conditions to give Cu films of a high quality were determined. The electrical resistivity approached 2 μΩ · cm as the Cu film thickness became greater than 2500 Å. The conformality of the Cu film deposition by PECVD was sufficient to result in complete via-hole fillings of wafers patterned for 256 Mb DRAM.