Quality-of-life (QOL) is important for cancer patients with poor prognosis. However, QOL survey is difficult using patients. We created cancer scenarios and investigated QOL utility values among the general public using vignette-based methods. On the other hand, some scenarios may have been difficult for the general public to image and understand. Therefore, we conducted a QOL survey among physicians. This survey was conducted by interviewing physicians adminis-tering chemotherapy to patients for recurrent/metastatic pancreatic cancer. Responses were eval-uated using Composite Time Trade-Off (cTTO) and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for 11 pancreatic cancer status scenarios to be evaluated (survey scenarios). Survey scenarios consisted of health state, type and Grade of adverse events. Health status was classified into two categories: Stable disease (SD) and Progressive disease (PD). Twenty responders answered in this survey, however two responses were excluded because of inconsistent responses. The stable disease had the highest QOL value for both assessment method. Whereas progression disease (PD) had the lowest QOL value. The physicians scored higher QOL values on VAS and cTTO than the general public in all survey scenarios. The QOL values obtained by physicians were consistent with the degree of sta-tus in any assessment scenarios.
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Abstract Treatment of the ketones (III) with Ni(0) (generated in situ) does not yield the expected fused tricyclic systems but the title compounds (IV).
Heparan sulfate (HS) is one of the components of extracellular matrix and a potent anti-growth factor in various cells. Heparin has a similar structure to HS and is demonstrated to inhibit myocardial cell hypertrophy. We examined the intracellular signal mechanisms linking to the inhibitory effects of heparin and HS on endothelin-1 (ET-1)-induced hypertrophy in cultured rat neonatal myocardial cells (MCs). Heparin inhibited ET-1-induced c-fos mRNA expression. Heparin and HS inhibited ET-1-induced activation of c-fos promoter/enhancer in MCs. Although heparin and HS inhibited ET-1-induced activation of the wild-type c-fos serum response element (SRE), the activation of a mutated c-fos SRE that contains an intact binding site for the serum response factor (SRF) but lacks the ternary complex factor (TCF) binding site, was not inhibited. In addition, heparin and HS inhibited the activation of TPA response element (TRE). However, heparin did not inhibit the activation of cyclic AMP response element (CRE). Furthermore, heparin and HS inhibited ET-1-induced activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and phosphorylation of Elk-1, which is one of the TCFs. These results indicate that heparin and HS inhibited ET-1-induced ERK activation, resulting in suppression of Elk-1 phosphorylation, and lead to inhibition of c-fos gene expression through SRF-independent manner. Moreover, heparin and HS inhibited ET-1-induced [3H] leucine incorporation. These results suggest that heparin and HS inhibit ET-1 induced myocardial cell hypertrophy through the inhibition of gene expression and protein synthesis.
High-accuracy reentry guidance has become increasingly important for reentry capsule spacecraft. For example, in an advanced concept study of the Japanese manned reentry capsule, an attempt has been made to land the capsule on the Japanese mainland. For this purpose, the targeted reentry guidance accuracy is to within 1 km at the point of parachute deployment. To meet this high requirement, we have been developing accurate real-time prediction guidance using numerical integration for reentry spacecraft. This guidance method is an explicit guidance law using real-time numerical integration to predict the accurate range during reentry flight, which already includes IMU-GPS integrated navigation, on-orbit alignment by star tracker and measured wind information utilization for range prediction. However, reentry guidance error analyses we did using those guidance methods showed that we need to made more effort to meet the targeted reentry guidance accuracy of 1 km, particularly given the considerable residual alignment error of inertial navigation and unpredictable upper-level wind variation. Accordingly we added the IMUDM (Drag Measurement) integrated navigation and improved terminal reentry guidance to the accurate real-time prediction guidance using numerical integration for reentry spacecraft. This paper outlines the real-time prediction guidance using numerical integration (REPNI Guidance), describes the methods and performances of IMU-DM integrated navigation and improved terminal reentry guidance and shows guidance accuracy using those methods by guidance error analyses and Monte Carlo simulations.
