Performance Evaluations of PC5-based Cellular-V2X Mode 4 for Feasibility Analysis of Driver Assistance Systems with Crash Warning.

This paper presents the communication performance of PC5-based Cellular-Vehicle-to-Everything mode 4 (called mode 4) to measure the feasibility of a Crash Warning System (called CWS). The CWS requires nodes (e.g., cars or pedestrians) to update its location information ten times per second. This requirement provides us with a channel congestion problem. To investigate feasibility in terms of channel congestion, we evaluated communication performance in various crash scenarios by computer simulation. One of the serious scenarios is a crowded environment like large intersections. In the uniform node distribution, in which we evaluated average performance, mode 4 accommodated 26% fewer nodes than the expected one; in a realistic node distribution, mode 4 achieved 55% worse performance than the CWS requirements. Our results highlighted the need for performance improvements of mode 4 for CWS in practical uses.

Mutations of optineurin in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has its onset in middle age and is a progressive disorder characterized by degeneration of motor neurons of the primary motor cortex, brainstem and spinal cord. Most cases of ALS are sporadic, but about 10% are familial. Genes known to cause classic familial ALS (FALS) are superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1), ANG encoding angiogenin, TARDP encoding transactive response (TAR) DNA-binding protein TDP-43 (ref. 4) and fused in sarcoma/translated in liposarcoma (FUS, also known as TLS). However, these genetic defects occur in only about 20-30% of cases of FALS, and most genes causing FALS are unknown. Here we show that there are mutations in the gene encoding optineurin (OPTN), earlier reported to be a causative gene of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), in patients with ALS. We found three types of mutation of OPTN: a homozygous deletion of exon 5, a homozygous Q398X nonsense mutation and a heterozygous E478G missense mutation within its ubiquitin-binding domain. Analysis of cell transfection showed that the nonsense and missense mutations of OPTN abolished the inhibition of activation of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappaB), and the E478G mutation revealed a cytoplasmic distribution different from that of the wild type or a POAG mutation. A case with the E478G mutation showed OPTN-immunoreactive cytoplasmic inclusions. Furthermore, TDP-43- or SOD1-positive inclusions of sporadic and SOD1 cases of ALS were also noticeably immunolabelled by anti-OPTN antibodies. Our findings strongly suggest that OPTN is involved in the pathogenesis of ALS. They also indicate that NF-kappaB inhibitors could be used to treat ALS and that transgenic mice bearing various mutations of OPTN will be relevant in developing new drugs for this disorder.

[Perioperative Management of Elderly Patients Over 90 Years of Age with Femoral Neck/Trochanteric Fracture].

BACKGROUND: The use of anesthesia in patients older than 90 years has been increasing. We examined the perioperative management of these patients. METHODS: The perioperative complications, waiting period for surgery, method of anesthesia, and prognosis in patients older than 90 years undergoing operations for femoral neck/trochanteric fractures were retrospectively examined in our anesthesia database. RESULTS: The average age of patients was 94.0±2.8 years. All patients had preoperative complications, including hypertensive disease (91.7%), renal dysfunction, anemia, or dementia. The average waiting period for surgery was 3.7±2.1 days; 92.6% of the patients underwent surgery within 7 days and 40.7% within 2 days. The main reason for waiting was withdrawal of antiplatelet and anticoagulant drugs. Local anesthesia, including spinal and epidural anesthesia, was used in 77.8% of patients. General anesthesia was selected for those patients on hemodialysis and continuous antiplatelets/anticoagulants. Hypotension was observed in 63.0% of the patients. The postoperative course was satisfactory, with the exception of 2 patients who died within 3 months from pneumonia and heart failure, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Anesthetic management of the patients was without major complications. Anesthesia, either general or local, was performed safely. Further study of the relative advantages of anesthetic methods is required.

Room-temperature lasing from fluorene thin-film crystals densely doped with anthracene.

The potential for room-temperature lasing in densely doped organic crystals has been examined using (fluorene)0.8-(anthracene)0.2 thin crystals fabricated in a narrow gap between two quartz plates. An excitation-intensity dependence study confirms that the system shows spectral line narrowing, a super linear increase of the narrow line above threshold excitation intensity, and laser cavity modes. These results indicate that lasing has been observed in the densely doped organic crystal, which contains in-plane cavities with a length of approximately 100 µm.

Nano-scale distribution of ZnO free exciton luminescence in ZnO:Zn microcrystals and its modification under electron beam excitation.

The dependences of cathodoluminescence (CL) from ZnO:Zn phosphor powder upon local space, accelerating voltage and beam current have been investigated at room temperature. Ultraviolet (UV) luminescence, which is hard to be observed in photoluminescence (PL) at room temperature, has been clearly observed in CL as well as green luminescence. The intensity ratio of the UV luminescence to the green one varies from point to point. From the comparison with PL, the UV luminescence is attributed to the recombination of ZnO free excitons. The UV luminescence is little observed at low accelerating voltage where, similar to the excitation light for PL measurement, the electron beam penetrates into only the surface depletion layer where free excitons are unstable due to the surface electric field. However, the UV luminescence from the depletion layer becomes observable at large beam current because of the suppression of the electric field in the depletion layer caused by injected electrons.

Angiomyofibroblastoma of the vulva: a large pedunculated mass formation.

Angiomyofibroblastoma is a rare, usually small benign mesenchymal tumor that occurs in vulvar lesions of premenopausal women. A case of angiomyofibroblastoma that arose as a unique pedunculated and particularly large mass in the left vulva of a 48-year-old woman is presented herein. The patient had been aware of a gradually enlarged mass of 7 years duration without any other gynecological symptoms or signs. The maximum dimension of the tumor measured 11 cm. The resected tumor was well circumscribed with a bulging and glistening cut surface. Histological examination revealed an admixture of irregularly distributed hypercellular and hypocellular areas with spindled, plump spindled, or plasmacytoid stromal cells and abundant venular or capillary-sized vessels. Stromal cells characteristically cluster around delicate vessels within an edematous to collagenous matrix. In the present case, intralesional adipose tissue was present throughout the tumor. There was no significant nuclear atypia, and mitotic figures were very sparse. There was little stromal mucin throughout the tumor. Immunohistochemically, the stromal cells were characterized by strong reactivity for vimentin and CD34, with focal reactivity for desmin and alpha smooth muscle actin. Both estrogen and progesterone receptors were diffusely expressed in the stromal cells. These histological findings are consistent with angiomyofibroblastoma and support the hypothesis that angiomyofibroblastoma originates from perivascular stem cells with a capacity for myofibroblastic and fatty differentiation.